The Church bells rang furiously in the distance. Frantic shouts and screams erupted from all over the town. Black lightning flashed in the sky. The boom of thunder was deafening. The clouds became thicker and thicker, choking off every trace of the glorious sun. A faint red light pulsated from within the clouds like a beating heart: ba-bum, ba-bum, ba-bum!

Eventually, something emerged from the clouds. It was a humanoid figure dressed in a tattered, red robe. The hands peeking out of the sleeves were bleached, white and skeletal. The right hand was holding a staff, which glowed ominously in red; it was the source of the pulsating light. The staff was made of a black metal rod with a red crystal ball and the ball was held in place by the claws of a griffon. The skeletal figure wore expensive looking, flat shoes on his feet and a fluffy cap on his skull; rings adorned his fingers. The accessories provided a deep contrast with the robe.

"An elder lich!" Van hissed in anger.

The newcomer looked around; its eyes were two red glowing balls inside the eye sockets. Despite missing lips, it seemed to be sneering at the mortals cowering on the ground before its mighty presence. Suddenly, the lich raised its staff. The red light pulsated again from the orb. Black lightning was called forth and this time, the lightning bolts struck the buildings and people below it! *CRACKLE-BOOM* Wherever the black bolts struck, black flames arose and started spreading everywhere. The lich laughed in delight at the chaos and terror it had caused.

Putting aside my growing anger, I focused my attention on the monster's caption above its head and its name read: "Mardus the Blasphemer."

However, Tregome was not defenseless from an assault. The Church immediately launched a counterattack and a beam of pure white, holy light struck the lich in return.

The light knocked the lich back a few steps in the air and disoriented him for a moment. When the lich recovered, Mardus quickly weaved another spell. Another beam of light struck at the lich. But this time the light was somehow deflected away, harmlessly soaring into the black clouds.

The lich surveyed his handiwork and decided it was time. Using the blackened corpses of the town residents, Mardus raised an undead army and commanded them to attack! Mardus noticed more rays of holy light approaching and started maneuvering in the air to avoid the deadly beams. In the meantime, his undead horde was mindlessly attacking every living creature in sight.

The survivors were immediately faced with a dilemma: fend off their former loved ones or try to put out the flames before the entire town was destroyed.

While the epic battle between the elder lich and the Church was taking place, I was more wary of the enemies approaching the dojo. I ran up to Kalistra, who stood next to the remains of her late father and was guarding the dragon's remains. I said, "That lich above our heads is a distraction. I sense more enemies approaching us. I think the real target is the dragon's carcass."

The Headmaster of the dojo nodded in agreement. "You heard our Liege! My fellow members, take arms and defend what is rightfully ours!" she yelled.

The students ran into the armory and the dojo; they took whatever swords they could get their hands. There were almost 40 of us in the dojo but not enough metal swords for everyone; thus, half of us ended up with wooden practice swords instead.

Master Gurgne came up to me. "Please remove your sword and scabbard," he requested.

When I obeyed and handed him the items, he exchanged them for a butterfly adorned scabbard. I pulled out the sword and saw that the blade was coated with silver. "May I cast Light spells to illuminate the dojo?" I asked him. While a good portion of the pupils were cat people, humans also made up a substantial part of the student population. And I was concerned that the humans wouldn't be able to see well enough in the dark to avoid hitting fellow students during the upcoming battle.

The dog man thought for a moment and finally nodded. "Please create a Light sphere on every corner of the dojo," he ordered.

I cast four Light spells in succession and directed each light sphere to a corner of the compound. I ignored the pop-up messages. I activated my Magic Sense and Spirit Sense again and saw that our enemies had reached the wall. "Here they come!" I yelled.

As expected, the enemies were undead. A horde of skeletons and zombies poured through the openings in the walls.

"Sheath your swords and swing with your scabbards," Kalistra ordered. It was the proper command to issue because skeletons receive reduced damage from slash and stab attacks. However, they were still vulnerable to blunt attacks and a scabbard could deliver such an attack.

The students obeyed and started swinging their scabbards like baseball bats. The bodies of the defeated lower-tier undead quickly piled up on the ground.

Suddenly, a horrific wail erupted.

I heard dice rolling inside my head and I knew that it was a saving throw against the effects of the sound attack. I mentally crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. When the dice stopped rolling, I discovered that I was not affected. I had involuntarily dropped to the ground and immediately pushed myself back to my feet.

I ignored the ensuing pop-up notification and quickly surveyed my surroundings. Approximately half the students were rendered unconscious by the sonic attack. And they were now in danger of being killed! I activated the Sprint skill and reappeared in front of the fallen students. Seeing more undead entering through the gaps in the wall, I cast several Fireball spells in rapid succession and aimed them at the holes. Then I drank a mana potion to recharge my mana pool.

The low-tier undead was immediately engulfed in flames. A further bonus was that the undead behind them was mindlessly pushing forward. The flames greedily licked their dry bodies and spread to the other undead standing beyond the walls. The undead horde was slowly marching to its demise.

Again, I ignored the pop-up messages as my spells killed off the undead monsters. Instead, my focus was on the banshee and its current location. I found it standing in front of the heavy iron doors, which offered protection from the flames. Instead of activating the Sprint skill, I decided to conserve my stamina and started to jog over to the banshee.

However, Van had beaten me to it and started attacking the undead monster with his holy sword.

The banshee tried to yell again but the paladin quickly sliced through its neck, cutting the banshee's vocal cord and disrupting its special attack.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of hooves and I saw a group of skeletal knights on horseback charging through the flames, trampling all over the skeletons and zombies standing at the walls. To my dismay, there were a dozen skeletal knights! Even worse, sitting on horseback behind the last knight was another elder lich. Unlike the one in the sky above, this elder lich wore a clean, gold-colored robe. I looked at its caption and its name read, "Taen the Cultist."

Taen hopped off the skeletal horse and hovered above the ground. It slowly approached us, ignoring the fallen undead minions and the unconscious students lying on the ground. "Greetings, Headmaster Kalistra," he bowed his head slightly. "I am here to take possession of the mighty Hleandros. I wish to turn him into my pet. If you permit my knights to take it away, I will graciously spare the lives of your pupils."

Before Kalistra could respond, she was interrupted. "Permission denied."

The voice came from above and we leaned our heads back to look up. We saw a humanoid figure with two massive wings protruding from its back.

The flyer quickly landed on top of the dragon's carcass. It was a woman with long black hair and whose skin was covered with red dragon scales. She wore a red dress with a gold colored belt around her waist and black leather boots. She held a staff in her hand. "I am here, father," she said gently.

"Who are you?" Kalistra asked.

"I am Hleara Vitusen, daughter of Hleandros," she announced haughtily.

Taen started laughing. "You are a draco, a half-breed," he sneered. "If you interfere with my business, then you shall be eliminated!" The lich pointed his staff at her and chanted a magic word of power. A beam of black light flew at her.

Fortunately, Hleara ducked in time and the beam missed her. "Two can play this game," she hissed and cast the same spell at the lich.

Taen was struck in the heart by the black beam but it had no noticeable effect. "Silly child. Why do you think a Ray of Death would hurt me when I'm already dead?" He chuckled and unleashed the spell again.

The draco summoned a fire elemental, which shielded her body and took the death ray in her stead.

The flames of the elemental were immediately extinguished and its body turned to ashes.

Hleara's reptilian eyes narrowed. Abruptly, she flapped her wings and took off into the air!

"Oh, NOW you're fleeing? I don't think so!" Taen taunted her. The lich activated his magic ring and started flying. He began chasing her while shooting more death rays at her.

However, we didn't have the luxury of watching the chase between the two because we had our hands full with the skeletal knights and the other minions.

I really wanted to cast another Fireball at the knights, but there were too many defenders within the vicinity and I couldn't risk hitting them. Instead, I started casting Fire Bolts and lured three of them toward me.

Suddenly, Bila appeared behind the knights. *Whack-whack-whack* She jumped onto each horse and knocked the rider's head off!

I had to admit that the cat girl's strategy was effective if a little crude. She took advantage of her superior agility to jump on the rear of the horse. Then she aimed for the head and performed a critical attack on the rider. It took skill to pull this off.

The still-conscious students who saw Bila's attack were awed and mesmerized. They paused and stared at her.

"Stop gawking!" Kalistra yelled. She was fuming at them for losing their concentration during combat. While she could have attacked the knights personally and ended the fight against the low-level minions, Kalistra wanted to evaluate the combat capabilities of her students. And this was a perfect opportunity to do so.

Of course, the two fliers were trading fireballs and death rays up in the air. That was the true danger at the moment, and the Headmaster concentrated on deflecting those errant attacks with her stamina-enhanced parries. Her primary focus was on protecting the students who were knocked unconscious by the banshee's wail. Fortunately, none of her students were hit. So far.

While performing flashy aerodynamic maneuvers ducking and weaving in the air, Hleara was also paying attention to the ground. She was concerned that Taen will command his minions to take her father's remains while the daughter was preoccupied with the lich. To her surprise, the students were able to repel the skeletal knights, primarily by knocking their heads off. This tactic convinced Hleara to try a similar, physical attack against Taen.

The draco abruptly launched her body straight up in the air. While her body was relatively steady, she cast a spell to increase her magic resistance and doubled it from 25% to 50% resistance. When her body started descending, Hleara closed her wings and dropped like a meteor!

Taen was delighted by her steady trajectory. "I got you now!" he said and cast the Ray of Death spell again. This time, the black beam hit her squarely in the chest. However, she did not disintegrate as the lich expected. Instead, the beam dissipated.

While the spell was being cast, Hleara aimed her trajectory directly at the lich.

Realizing the danger now, Taen tried to move. But he was too late; his Fly spell did not permit him to accelerate his speed. Before he could cast another spell, the diving draco slammed into him!

The two tangled into a mess of arms, legs, and wings. The lich tried to untangle himself but he was held in a body lock. He was unable to maintain flight because Fly was not meant to carry more than one person. "We're both gonna die!" he hissed at Hleara.

The draco stared at him maliciously. "At least one of us will."

The two fell back to earth and the ground shook. *BOOM*

I looked at the crash site and saw a crater in the courtyard. The lich's body, made only of a skeleton, was completely pulverized! His opponent, somehow, survived the crash. But her wings were broken.

I looked around and saw that the students were simply moping up the remaining undead horde. All the skeletal knights were dead, along with the banshee. The zombies and skeletons were no threat to the pupils and I decided to disengage from combat. Instead, I jogged over to Kalistra and pointed at Hleara. "She's still alive. Should we kill her or heal her?" I asked.

The Headmaster stared at the crater, which had formed next to the indoor pool holding Mof. She was thankful to Kallimon that her precious pet was safe. "Has Hleara attacked anyone besides the lich?" she asked me.

"No," I answered.

"What does your Spirit Sense show?" she asked pointedly.

Ah! Kalistra wanted to know if the draco was evil. I activated Spirit Sense to read Hleara's aura. I saw a golden aura wrapped around a pink aura. It was the first time I've seen a twin spiritual aura. "Her aura is complicated," I began to explain. "She is half-human-half-dragon. It appears that the human portion is lawful and noble. There is a taint of evil from her dragon half but it is kept under wraps by her humanity." I ignored the ensuing pop-up message. "Does this make any sense?" I asked.

"Hmm," the cat girl pondered. "Since Hleara has not raised her hand against the dojo, and arguably helped us by defeating the lich, it would be Dishonorable for us to put her to death." Kalistra pulled out a potion from her small pouch. It had a golden hue. "Please feed her this vial," she ordered.

"Yes, Headmaster." I bowed and took the potion from her. I recognized it as an Elixir of Health. It will completely heal the person who drinks this potion. I jogged over to the crater and knelt before the severely injured draco.

Hleara's reptilian eyes stared at me. "Please make it quick and slit my throat," she requested calmly.

I shook my head at her misunderstanding. "We're not going to kill you." I showed her the potion and opened the stopper.

Her eyes widened in surprise; the draco recognized the potion. She opened her mouth and slowly drank it. Hleara exhaled a deep breath and closed her eyes as her body began to heal and rejuvenate. "Why?"

"Ask the Headmaster," I replied.

Suddenly, the dark clouds were vanquished and the sun reappeared in the sky. The second elder lich was nowhere to be found.

The students who were still conscious started cheering, clapping and shouting, "WE WON!"