The woke and ate quickly, there was a palpable air of anticipation amongst the group. They had a goal a target, without the factor of surprise or regret. This was a job by the numbers, a warmup for storming the vampires lair. What would make most shake in fear, they were spoiling for a fight with. What would be extraordinary months ago was more or less mundane. A lich was tougher than a regular spell caster no doubt. But they were still just brittle little bones in comparison to a vampire.

Vivian had some paperwork from the bishop, the details of the contract to eliminate the lich. The number of servants the location the best approaches already tried etc. David spoke up before they left his voice unusually thoughtful. “I have an idea about this lich hunt, we go to the cathedral we see the bishop or one of the senior clergy we get a couple of bottles of holy water. For me and Vivian that way if Martins occupied, we can still get a helping hand from the divine without having to wait”. Martin nodded his agreement, “I have a few sturdy leather cases it should keep the bottles safe”.

Twenty minutes later they were in the bishop’s garden. “My children I am glad to see that you are taking this seriously, preparing appropriately to face the undead abominations. I could bless a few vials of water now and it would remain as holy water for one day. But I suspect you want a permanent blessing as this will take more than one day. The temporary blessing on water is an easy one, the other is laborious. Traditionally a small donation to the local orphanage is made to compensate the church for the time involved, say 2 silver for the collection box”. David nodded and Vivian handed him two silver. One of the deacons gave them two vials of water that seemed to glow with a faint white light.

They stocked up on other essentials 10 flasks of oil in clay pots. Five days’ worth of food plus spare iron arrows Vivian wouldn't miss. They got a new backpack for David to carry it all. A coach driver took them and their provisions to the outskirts of the logging operation.

It was completely abandoned a few minutes of exploring and they found a trail filled with footprints left by very bony feet. A little further on and they found very old warning markers on the trail. They were faded away and heavily rotted, covered with lichen and moss. The lich must have been in this location for a very long time, there servants digging away building their fortress.

The lich's fortress looked like it was mostly underground. It was quite unique more like a mining operation, Alice pointed up there were several air defences a formidable force. At its centre a massive skeleton dragon around 30 feet long that was barely held together with ethereal wings and rotten sinew. There were two much smaller zombified wyverns each about 16 feet long endlessly patrolling the sky in a circle.

There were basic ground fortifications two trebuchets five bolt throwers. Martins monocle noted a skeleton siege engineer, a unique undead where the soul had been brought back to inhabit the body with the remnant of the spirit. The spectral outline of the man that had been was superimposed upon his animated bones. There were a few skeletons operating the siege machinery and a few squads of skeletal spearmen protecting them.

Martin looked at the dragon, “that is mine it’s enough that a solo kill would be a feat of strength and let me break the level 75 barrier. Let me focus on that you deal with the rest it’s the biggest threat anyway”. David hung his pack on a branch out of the way. He didn't need it for the fight Vivian was much the same with hers. Martin left a bundle of blankets hanging from the same tree.

They now knew what the lumber thefts were for, with the various defensive siege works being constructed around the lich's lair. It looked like a mine at the moment, but there was the foundation of a tower and several walls.

Alice cast illusionary allies and bonus vitality on David, a shield spell on herself and prepared to start throwing fire balls. Vivian took refuge behind a large tree her arrows dug into the ground ready for her to start firing. David and a dozen other illusionary versions of him started to charge forwards towards the lich's troops. Martin moved round from the other side ready to tackle the skeleton dragon.

Martin had his four barrelled pistol at the ready, it was loaded with four overload charges lots of powder, a silver ball then a mithril ball wrapped in lead in each chamber. He would have one chance to do what he wanted to do. He griped his holy symbol and started to layer on defensive blessings, “citadel of faith shield of faith, armour of faith guardian angel”. The flashes attracted the skeleton dragon whose mouth began to fill with a purple light. It had a necromantic energy attack in place of a dragon’s breath. Martin held out his holy symbol “hand of judgement”.

The power of the divine manifested as a fist of light above the skeletal dragon. It hit the beast with a reverberating shockwave of both physical and holy damage. Sending the dragon plummeting towards the ground. The dragon’s necromantic breath attack went wild, harmlessly firing off into the air, it landed into the ground with a bone shattering crunch demolishing a few small trees. Martin charged forwards with his pistol levelled, he had one chance before it got up again.

David and the host of illusions around him charged forwards. Thinking that it was an assault by three squads of mercenaries the undead manning the siege weapons levelled the majority of them at him and fired. Two of the illusions on the left of David evaporated as a boulder from a trebuchet landed with a jarring impact. A second bolder flew over his head and landed thirty feet away. The skeletal bolt thrower crews took aim and fired. David had a split second to duck down behind his shield.

Three of the illusionary allies disappeared as ballista bolts carved through them, one smacked into David's shield glancing off the curvature of the heavy enchanted Damascus going up and over. He felt the impact he was glad of the vitality spell Alice had cast. He could survive a few hits like that. Vivian had to duck as the last bolt thrower took a chunk out of the massive tree stump, she was hiding behind. They were obviously smart enough to focus on more than one target between them.

Martin aimed his four barrelled pistol at the skeletal dragon’s right wing joint, all or nothing. He hit the secondary fire on his weapon and all four barrels fired as one silver and mithril shredded the wing joint. The dragon would be remaining on the ground. It responded back with a blast of purple necromantic energy that blasted away some of Martins defensive blessings. He could take another two hits before his holy defences evaporated.

Two dozen skeletons with shields and spears were deployed to protect the siege engines. They formed up in a line in front of the advance of David and his remaining illusionary allies. David pushed right past them the last illusions a distraction for long enough to close on the first bolt thrower crew. He smashed the weapon with his sword, cutting through the bow string and getting the two skeletons manning it with one swipe.

The skeletons with shields and spears turned to deal with him. They were a bit slow as he was already charging at the first trebuchet crew. Vivian let of two broad head arrows and the two skeleton crew of the next bolt thrower shattered. Alice lobbed a precise fire ball hitting the closest bolt thrower and its crew destroying both. Though the bolt thrower might have been repairable. The zombified wyverns joined the fray vomiting some sort of caustic bile over Alice's shield spell drawing her attention away from David.

Martin had his pistol holstered and a large thermite grenade in his hand, it sailed through the air and hit the dragon square in the chest. The molten metal burnt away bone and spell unravelling a bit more of the enchantment that powered the dragon. Martin was met with a second blast of necromantic energy he had to get some distance while he still had his defensive blessings in place.

Alice cast her shield spell again and cast a second one over Vivian. She targeted one zombified wyvern and hit it with a fire ball spell aiming for the wing. Vivian targeted the same creature putting three octium tipped arrows into the wyvern’s head. They did some damage but not enough. The fist trebuchet was manned by a crew of four skeletons and four zombies. He cut through the ropes that held it together releasing the counterweight to swing before it was fully loaded. He carved through half of the crew as they attempted to affect some sort of repair. Then David ducked behind the bulk of the siege engine as the two bolt throwers fired. He then charged for the second trebuchet like a mad man.

Martin held out his holy symbol “pillar of fire” a vortex of fire engulfed the skeletal dragon, slowly burning away at the necromantic energy that held it together. The dragon didn't flinch and hit Martin with a blast of energy. It burned through his last defensive blessing and sent him flying, purple flames clinging to his coat and armour as he grimaced in pain.

Alice with a great deal of mental focus was able to cast an icy tomb spell on the injured wyvern. Its limbs locked up and it plummeted to the ground, a satisfying shattering noise accompanied the impact as the wyvern broke apart, there was still some of it moving. Vivian put two mithril arrows into its centre using power shots. They shredded what was left of the zombie the spell animating it was spent and the mangled wyvern collapsed they had one down and one to go.

David charged towards the trebuchet he noted the arm moving forwards. The lich's minions were stupid enough to aim for someone so close in their own camp. David panicked and dived for cover, the boulder ripped past him sending dirt and rock everywhere as he was thrown to one side. The remains of the bonus vitality spell faded he was on his own now. As a bit of luck, the bolder flattened the next nearest bolt thrower and crew. He got to his feet and ran forwards. He had to disable the last trebuchet before they could reload and fire again.

Martin activated his blessing “martyrs sacrifice” giving him greater physical abilities. He ran as fast as he could to avoid more of the dragon’s breath attacks. “Divine favour, divine favour” he set about healing his body to offset the damage. He used the blessing “thy will be done” to locate the focus inside the dragon. It was inscribed inside the dragon’s skull with the thickest lump of bone that would be a problem to deal with.

He had faith, “word of judgement” the skeletal dragon was hit by a thunderclap sonic damage shaking it apart. Holy damage burning its bones away stunning it for five seconds. Allowing Martin to throw a few “smite and pillar of salt” blessings at the creature. Turning the surface of its bones to salt and hitting it with a few bolts of lightning, digging craters out of its great bones.

Alice and Vivian focused on the last zombie wyvern; Vivian hit it in the wing joint with two mithril arrows. Slowing it to the point where Alice could hit it with her icy tomb spell. Down it went into the mud. Alice followed up with an electric strike spell while Vivian reached for her last few octium arrows. David cut some of the ropes holding the trebuchet together cut down two of the zombies manning it and ran for the last bolt thrower. He needed to keep going there were over 30 skeletons and zombies behind him.

Martin used up the rest of his defensive blessings and attacked the dragon again form a safer distance. He hit it in the front right leg with two pistols loaded with silver. He empowered the attacks with his divine retribution blessings doing a little more to unravel the spell. The dragon kept coming. He drew and fired his blessed pistol the lion hearts hammer the dragon’s knee joint cracked but didn't break. Martin ran for it in the other direction the dragon turned. The knee twisted and broke, the dragon collapsed but kept limping forwards. Trying to bring its skeletal maw forwards to fire necromantic energy at Martin again.

David changed direction at the last minute forcing the mindless undead to follow him, actually screening him from their own artillery. A giant bolt demolished several of the undead. David switched round running for the bolt thrower crew. He had to get to them before they reloaded. Two swipes of his sword and the crew and contraption were in pieces. Between Alice's acid strike spells and Vivian's mithril arrows the damaged zombie wyvern collapsed into pieces and dropped into decaying smouldering mush, no longer held together by a spell.

Martin lost more layers of defensive blessings one peeled away by every attack from the dragon. He gave as good as he got, finally hitting it with wrath of the almighty. A second large thermite grenade and his chain smite blessing from his holy symbol. A seemingly endless stream of lightning bolts struck the skeletal dragon as Martin continued to dance around its necromantic attacks. He focused the bolts on its head. The skull cracked the lower jaw fell away. The beast dropped staggering it twitched then the glow from the spell failed and the bones collapsed their profane bonds broken.

Vivian and Alice rained spells and arrows down on the remaining skeleton soldiers and engine crews. David began to cut into them as they fell one by one beneath his mithril blade. All through this the skeleton siege engineer had found a nice thick wall to hide behind. He was an engineer not a battlefield commander, it was his job to build fortifications and siege engines. Not to fight whatever the fuck it was that had just killed the giant fucking skeleton dragon and demolished the rest of his forces.

The engineer decided it would be best to comeback a lot later. He got up only to be met with Martin. The engineer had a large pickaxe in his hands. Martin caught it and pressed his holy symbol to the engineer’s skull. “purge soul” the sentient undead exploded in a shower of bones and necromantic energy, his soul sent packing back to the beyond. The lich didn't have any other troops above ground they had demolished them all.

Martin felt very good, he had a creepy merry grin on his face, he had just soloed a dragon. An undead one that was weak to his holy blessings. But he had just killed a fucking dragon that had to be worth some bragging rights. He had sent whatever was leading the undead forces back to the beyond, not bad work and today was hardly over.

He knew what to expect as everything around him slowed, not a sense from his body or mind deeper his spirit reached out knowledge from the universal from god was revealed. “A special action has been performed, feat of marshal strength has been achieved, you have defeated a worthy opponent your level limit has been increased to level 100”.

The level up occurred as they were safe. Change and power flowed through their veins, Alice was now one level form seventy she mastered the bonus vitality spell it had certainly helped David along with the illusionary allies. David hit level 65 gaining the same improvident Vivian had recently gotten to her comprehensive training ability. Vivian reached level 67 and gained level 6 of her strike through target ability. Martin stepped over the threshold of a grand master and gained rank 14 in his pistol proficiency gaining a little more accuracy. Martin held his holy symbol up in triumph, “I broke through past 75 on I march”.

They began to clear the battlefield as quickly as they could. Recovering arrows and reloading pistols. Alice healed up Martin. They set fire to the siege engines then began to throw the skeletons remains onto the pyres. The two wyverns corpses were burnt then the dragon’s bones were dragged or rolled into a pile soaked with oil with a couple of shrubs uprooted for kindling. They set that mass on fire as well. A necromancer or lich would not get the opportunity to put any of their creations back together.

The counterattack came moments later as more skeletons marched out of the entrance to the lich's lair. There were 30 skeleton hounds, 50 skeleton warriors armed with simple clubs. They looked to be a buffer to take any prepared attack. While the more valuable troops assembled behind them. There was a group of 30 skeleton spear men with conjured armour and weapons they looked very solid very hard to damage.

Behind them were six skeleton duellists enlarged four armed skeletons in conjured purple armour iron and steel blades in each hand. In the centre of the formation was a skeleton marshal a sentient undead with a large amount of tactical acumen. He rode atop a skeletal steed conjured armour encased him and the horse. He held a wicked enchanted halberd in his hand. Behind them were twenty skeleton archers the lich had responded to the intrusion in force.

Martin had most of his area effect blessing they were going to be useful against the massed ranks of the undead still ready to use. Vivian had her arrows ready Alice was already bulking herself up with defensive spells. David had a couple of bottles of oil at the ready to throw into the conflict. He had recovered them from his pack to speed up the burning of the dead, he would add them to the undead.

The skeletal marshal considered his predicament and dispatched his troops as effectively as he could. The hounds to the flanks split in two. The archers split in two defended by a third of the spears and shields each. The warriors began to advance to screen his main forces with two duellists at the front and two on each flank. Encircle engage swarm was the order of the day, with a few spears held as a reserve to protect his bony ass.

Martin drew his mallet and his holy symbol and charged forwards, he reached the front line and started to use his holy blessings, “hallowed earth, sphere of concentration circle of consecration, field of wrath”. Smoke began to rise from the reanimated bones as Martin advanced. The purple glow in the eye sockets of the mass of warriors slowly faded, as the spells proving them with locomotion stuttered and faded.

Vivian started to snipe at the two skeleton duellists on the left flank. While Alice obliterated the first group of bone hounds with two fire balls. David threw both bottles of oil and a torch lighting a number of them on fire. Then he drew his sword and charged into the mass of the skeleton warriors, cutting through to reach the left flank where Vivian was focusing.

Arrows bounced down on the shield spells around Alice. Vivian's armour repelled the basic rusty hunting arrows that the skeleton archers had. David powered through the lesser skeletons ready to engage their archers, Martin received a few wounds but parried most blows. His inhuman constitution barely registered most strikes from the poorly armed skeleton warriors. He continued to use his blessings the holy light caused the skeletons to crumble before him, “sphere of consecration, circle of consecration field of wrath”. Caught in the range of overlapping blessings the warriors shattered to splinters of bone.

Vivian took out the first skeleton duellist, it crumbled and fell the second received a nasty wound losing two arms. Alice destroyed the second group of skeletal hounds with a quick series of fire balls and an electrical strike spell. Under the marshal's orders they had spread out further, but they were still obliterated taking three rather than two spells this time. David cut past some of the skeleton spearmen and began to demolish the archers on the left flank.

Martin charged into the middle of the formation attempting to reach the two skeleton duellists before he ran out of blessings. “Sphere of consecration, circle of consecration” he was out apart from some healing and purify blessings. The two duellists looked hesitant the skeleton marshal ordered his reserve of spears in, they could do a bit of damage to the vampire hunter. The archers not able to penetrate Alice's shield switched target to Martin.

Vivian finished off the second skeleton duellist and started to aim at the right flank. The two duellists there had the presence to move out of the way behind the skeleton spears and their large shields offering them some protection. David finished off the archers and started to take apart the spearmen charging in and knocking them out of the way with his tower shield. Alice started to take the spear men on with acid strike spells melting away their defences.

The marshal charged forwards, his troops divided letting him through. He was able to strike Martin centre in the chest using his halberd like a lance knocking him down and trampling him. His horse kicked Martin in the face on the way down. The two skeleton duellists closed over him to finish him off. The marshal charged forwards towards Alice. He needed the mage out of the fight as soon as possible.

David finished the rest of the spears on the left flank off and was confronted with the remains of the skeleton warriors. Vivian targeted the skeletons around Martin two of the skeleton spear men were caught by arrows which shattered them. Alice hit the charging marshal with a fire ball spell, but it only served to burn a layer of conjured armour away from the marshal. He kept going spurring his mount on.

Martin sat up the lion hearts hammer in one hand his four barrelled pistol in the other. Both pistols shots rang out striking the duellists badly damaging them. One was looking for its skull the second had a shredded leg. Martin jumped up threw his two Tesla grenades into the skeletons and jumped back. A couple of the spears collapsed but there were still plenty of them advancing on him.

The skeleton marshal delivered a blow to Alice's shield spell that caused it to crack. He whirled round for a second attack. The marshal’s horse was struck by one of Vivian's octium arrows and collapsed. The marshal rolled off the horse spun and threw his halberd. It collided with Alice's mid-section she was knocked to the ground. The layers of padding ring-mail and enchanted clothing combined with the vitality spell saved her life. David polished off the warriors and ran to help Martin.

Alice hit the marshal with her icy tomb spell it slowed him down to a crawl, as he drew his axe his back up weapon. Vivian picked up the discarded halberd and swung it down in an overhead motion the skeleton marshal shattered into pieces.

As the skeleton marshal was destroyed the troops cohesion started to unravel. One of the remaining duellists headed for Vivian one headed for David. The archers became unfocussed and the spears started to falter in their defensive wall. Martin threw his four octium blades as the duellists the magical metal screwed with the spells animating them and they collapsed. Martin drew his pistols and took down two more spearmen blowing their skeletal heads off in showers of bone.

Martin started to use his “divine favour” blessing to heal his wounds, his nose straightened out a bit after the second use. David smashed two of the spearmen and started to trade blows with the skeleton duellist.

The last duellist was blasted apart with a bombardment of spells and high-end arrows. Martin was hit with a couple of weak arrows and responded by lobbing a small thermite grenade over the skeletons shield wall damaging the lot of them. David demolished the remaining duellist. The combination of Alice's spells Vivian's arrows and Martins flintlock pistols cleared up the remains of the lich's forces. Martin was beginning to guess that they had just scratched the surface of the local problem.

The level up hit even though they had killed so many monsters they were only low level, so it was only a single advance. Alice hit level 70 an important one a class level her magical resistance rose from 100 spell points to 150 spell points. Attacking spells from the lich or a necromancer or some other form of spell using undead were now far less likely to affect her. David reached level 66 he gained a skill protect allies. It would make it far easier for him to intercept attacks against the rest of the group. Vivian hit level 68 raising her strike through target skill to level 7. Martin gained another rank with pistols as he hit level 77.

They prepared themselves for a second wave of attacks, Alice healed them, they reloaded reclaiming arrows and the like. After a few minutes of nothing they started to clear the battlefield once again throwing bones onto the still burning remains of the bolt throwers and trebuchets. After an hour or so it became clear that the lich was not going to send anyone else out to play. Most of the skeleton’s equipment was held together with necromantic energy, without the spells to preserve them they crumbled as the old bones did.

Vivian looked about the scene of desolation, “do we continue”? Martin looked about the group his zealotry curbed somewhat though temporarily. “That dragon took most of my blessings, the skeletons took the rest. But I have thermite and plenty of shot and powder so I can keep fighting for quite a while”. Alice looked at her she was tired. “I had to do a lot of defensive casting so I am down to less than a quarter of my reserves including my staff, I could use a mana potion but that would only fill up a bit of my reserves”.

David shrugged “I can keep swing for a bit, but I am getting tired”. Vivian nodded, “same for me I have all my arrows, but I don't have limitless stamina like Martin. We retreat a bit make camp if they attack us, we can fight back we sleep in two shifts, two up two down. Alice and David, you get first rest then me and Martin any objections”?

There were no alternative ideas they retreated back a few miles. They found a small cave and set up for the night. They had a brief meal mostly smoked fish and hard dry bread a bit of drink to wash it down, then they made the best of it. Alice made herself as comfortable as possible with her insomnia it took her a while to gets off to sleep. She wished that she had a book to read then finally sleep claimed her. David flipped a coin a few times sighed and went to bed. Martin had a flask out of his jacket he took a swig and handed it to Vivian, it was the usual turnip brew tip.

Vivian looked outside, “I am just going to scan the area with my eye see if anything followed us”, Vivian did scan the area with the golem eye. But she did take a small measure of blue powder and swallow it, it felt a lot better than Martins tip for sure, she finished and went back in. “So, Martin what's it like going beyond level 75”? “You are not too far away yourself, another week if we keep going at this rate may be less. It felt like I shook god by the hand. As if I touched the universe and saw it for a moment, Alice described her first combat level up like that, the knowledge the possibility's it was something profound”.

Martin had a degree of apprehension, “we are gaining power quickly, what's going to happen in the future … do you think, what do we do with it”? “very soon the four masters will be grand masters I don't think I have ever heard about so many masters working together. I suppose we would be a big target. But then we would also have a good chance to succeeded against adversity working together against anything targeting them, I mean us”.

“A fair point Vivian, I don't think we will know peace for a long time, we have made enemies the vampire Bismark Lexicon when he heals up. The blades of red Saul the hidden hand, that archanist the professor”. “We are not strong enough to hunt down Bismark or know enough about the blades of red Saul or the hidden hand. But the other two no chance, we could deal with them”. “Fair enough the others something to think about later. We keep being a moving target, we keep getting stronger would they want to pick a fight with four exulted masters”.

Vivian thought about it, “remember when we swore that oath to change the world for the better, we are doing it one monster, one crook at a time. We need to concentrate power, get a powerful sponsor church crown merchants whatever. We get a few allies we trust; get the best equipment we can buy or commission we take the fight forward we can start dictating the rules”. Martin nodded “I wonder what supreme skills we will get; will they be a game changer as the phrase goes”. They talked on into the night then turned in waking David and Alice up for their shift.