Sandy tried to stand. A wave of dizziness kept her sprawled on the ground. She could turn her head enough to see a furious mage gesturing and gathering a ball of violet light in his hand. He drew it back to hurl in her direction. At that moment, Mel sent an arrow into his arm from his perch up in the tree, causing the mage to drop the ball at his feet. There was an explosion which took the mage off his feet and bounced him off one of the dead trees behind him. He did not get up, but Mel did not take any chance. He put three more arrows into the mage’s body before they all felt safe. Sandy pulled another mana potion from her inventory. After drinking it, the dizziness receded, and she could finally get to her feet. Zack and Bal started checking each of the bodies while Mel stayed up on the tree, keeping a look out.

She noticed movement on the ship. The ship pulled their anchor up and unfurled their sails, getting ready to make way. Unfortunately, even if her mana pool was full she would not be able to damage the ship enough to sink it. She hoped one of the patrols would catch them before they managed to get away. Bal stopped by her to make sure she was ok. Other than a mana headache she was fine. She kept an eye out for more goblins, while Bal went back to check the bodies of the trolls. Suddenly the small chest of crystals emitted a sharp crack. A cloud of white mist poured out and swiftly flew into the body of the dead mage. The mage’s body jerked. He began to get up when Mel put another arrow in his head. The arrow hit him in the temple. It just glanced off, leaving a small furrow in the skin on his forehead, which didn’t bleed. She inspected him and got information that greatly alarmed her.

Name: Martin Talis, Lich (10% progress)

If she was reading this correctly, he was in the process of becoming a lich. While she was inspecting him, he finished standing up. There was something wrong with his spine. There were several crackling sounds followed by his body jerking fully upright. It looked like he healed his spine. Bal uttered a spell and shot a flaming arrow. Martin swatted it from the air. Zack fired an arrow, which Martin ignored. The arrow struck his chest and bounced off. Martin gestured and spoke a word, causing everyone to drop bonelessly to the ground. Sandy could see Mel fall from the tree and hit the ground with a bone crushing blow. Mel was still alive in the party view, but only had 17% health left. Sandy’s limbs felt numb and she could not control them at all.

Martin addressed them arrogantly. “Who would have thought a few elves could kill me and cause me to start the transformation early. I was hoping to spend years growing more powerful before I transformed into a lich. Ah well, I should thank you. I feel so much power, I now know I should have done this earlier. It feels incredible.”

Martin walked over to Zack who was the closest to him. “However, I can’t forgive you for killing me. Before you die, you will learn the meaning of pain.”

A red light formed around Martin’s hand. Sandy tried to mentally pull a shell from her inventory when the mage was knocked sideways. Reinforcements had arrived. Bal’s Nature’s Call hit the jackpot. He had not tried it since he leveled up, but still to get a Dire Bear was incredibly lucky. The bear smashed Martin into the sand, disrupting the spell he was casting and the one keeping us paralyzed. She immediately pulled another mana potion from her inventory and downed it in one gulp. She was starting to feel nauseous from drinking so many potions so quickly, but this pushed her mana over the half way mark. Hopefully that would be enough. She grabbed the spiral shell from her belt and pushed her mana into it with a shaky hand. In her left hand she drew her dagger, cutting the side of the hand holding the shell. Her blood ran onto the shell, which drank it in quickly. Now her health, stamina, and mana were plummeting, but she needed everything she could get for this spell. The bear was continuing to violently maul Martin, but it wasn’t doing much damage. Sandy tried to stay conscious to pick the best time to unleash the spell. It came just a moment later when there was a surge of force from Martin and he hurled the bear through one of the dead trees.

As Martin picked himself up, he didn’t spare a glance for her, thinking there was nothing she could do to hurt him now. Sandy saw his progress was now 18% and climbing. She leveled the shell at his chest and released the spell. The shell shattered and a bolt of red lightning shot through the air like something alive and in away it was. Much of her life force was tied up in this spell. It hit Martin high in his chest entering his body. His skin then began to blacken and smoke as he looked at Sandy. “What have you done, elf?” He yelled.

Sandy could barely keep her eyes open. He obviously tried to cast a spell and failed. Whatever was happening to his body was blocking the spell from forming. Her spell was called Red Hunger. It was designed to consume all the mana and stamina in a target’s body. Assuming she was correct, a lich’s body was animated by his mana. As she watched, his skin began to flake off. He collapsed to one knee while staring in horror at his hands, which were turning to ash and dust. Even the bones of his hands melted away in front of her eyes. His voice became a gasping whisper when his throat began to dissolve. Sandy made herself stay awake until she was sure he was truly dead this time, before collapsing into unconsciousness.

When she woke up next, she saw Bal’s face standing above her. They were in a camp under the trees again.

“Hi there.” Bal said with a worried frown. “How are you feeling?”

Sandy held her head, which was pounding fiercely with an intense mana headache. Her entire body felt exhausted. She looked at her mana and stamina pools. Both were full, but it looked like draining her whole body with the spell she cast would take more than just filling her pools back up to recover. She gave a weary grin and said. “I have been better, but I should be fine. How are the others?”

“Mel was the only one seriously hurt. Some healing potions fixed him up, but he is still complaining that his bones are hurting. He broke both legs and one arm in the fall. While you were resting, three goblin patrols returned, but we easily killed them from the trees. Zack dragged the bodies into the trees and offered them to the forest. The trees woke angry and took the bodies quicker than I have ever seen. It only took minutes to pull them into the ground.”

Sandy wishes she could have seen that. Typically, when a dead monster was offered to the forest, the ground would slowly soften under the body and roots would slowly take the body into the ground. This process would normally take hours, or if the body was large, even a full day.

“We made camp after taking care of the goblins. Mel is using wood crafting to destroy the smaller boats on the shore, while Zack takes care of the bodies. I have been watching the camp. I don’t want you to even think of getting up. We have everything in hand and I used the communication crystal to let the guardians know about the ship.”

The communication crystal he mentioned was a one-shot use device that connected to the nearest master crystal and allowed the user one minute of communication. It was intended for emergencies, which this certainly counted as such. She worried what would happen when her father found out. Hopefully, they would get back before that happened. She knew he was busy in the capital, working with the council, discussing a trade deal with the Tassan Empire.

“Thank you all.” She said as sleep beckoned.

“No, thank you. We would not have survived without you.” Bal said, laying a hand on her shoulder before getting up to take watch over the camp again.

Sandy felt herself quickly falling asleep despite the aches and pains of her body.