One of my three fronts of fighting had collapsed with the death of the fat elf. He wasn’t even an elf-like Santa sometimes was. No, this guy had been tall but still fat and not even happy fat. He had the appearance of the arrogant bully of a boss. Just snide and hateful to everyone. He had been a fat evil dictator right up until his boss had someone put a knife through their neck.

However, when the assassin killed him, it allowed me to use him as a zombie to hopefully slow down the advance of the Merchant Guild. Every time I sent anything at them, they killed it quickly. However, I had managed to slow them down some because they were now watching both their front and rear. They had to be on the lookout as I would jump back to their progress and send another shade to attack the rear guard.

Since their rear guard was being attacked, their healers had to slow down. As such, both parties slowed. Which was something that made me happy. It was even better when I dropped another one of their guards.

If I had a way to raise the dead through my shades, I would have brought the couple guards I had killed back to life, just mess with them more. As it was, however, I sent my two newest zombies to walk down to them. I wanted to see if I could get them to slow down just a bit more so that I could finish off the lich.

Before they walked away, however, I passed a present to them. I had one of the skeletal guards pull a cloth over the bee hive and then made the fat elf carry it in front of him. My hope was the guild group would think he was carrying the phylactery. Then, if I could get them close enough, I would have the bees attack. Of course, the attack might not stop them, but my current goal was to keep them occupied so that I could finish off Eric the boy lich.

It wouldn’t be a victory, but if I could even get my people and escape, I would be happy right now. Renfry was alive, but I doubted he would be if we fought the two priestesses of death. The guild seemed to have a powerful way to end my minions, which was my only concern with sending the mummy bees. I wouldn't have tried if it had been all of my bees, but the hive only held about a thousand of them.

As I sent another shade to watch the guild, I had my throne lifted again. I was sure they would all die, but I was okay with that. I needed to get my friends and get them healed before I fought directly with a team sent to finish this place off.

I looked around at the people with me and saw that I only had ten of the couple dozen I had started with. Of those were the cook who had been talking with me and the woman who hadn’t been chained. I wasn’t sure who any of the others were, but they didn’t run when I killed the assassin and didn’t seem to want anything to do with the guild, so I was happy about that.

I slid my mind into one of the front-line skeletons who was trying to make headway against the lich. The lich had us fighting through a bottleneck of doors meant to keep people from escaping the dungeon. There would be a short hall, then a door and a small guard room.

The lich had undead stacked up in each guard room. So when we would open the bars to go into the next room, they would be stacked up there, hitting mine from three angles. We outclassed them, which was why we were pushing forward, but we were slow, which wasn’t what I wanted.

I needed us to move faster, but I had most of my heavy hitters on the other side of the compound setting up the throne room to slow down the merchants. Which meant that I needed to be the heavy hitter over there and start cheating like my life depended on it. Which it kind of did.

The living stayed with me as we moved deeper into the dungeon. I asked them, “You sure you want to keep following me? I am moving against the lich right now, so it will be dangerous.”

The cook, who seemed to have taken on the role of spokesperson, answered. “We are safest with you.”

The others nodded quickly and kept following. They weren’t nearly as close as the two from the kitchen were. A couple of them kept looking behind and around, which made me think that they might not stick close once I got into the fight.

I caught up to the shifting front pretty quickly once I knew where to move my throne. I had to get in the line of sight, but I figured it was time to start claiming his minions. I didn’t know if what I told the elf was true. I didn’t know if I could claim the lich, but if I could, I would.

I shifted back to see how my newest minions were doing. They ran forward and down the hall. As they approached the last bend, the assassin’s body was ahead of the elf by a few feet. The tanks saw them and hesitated, which was perfect.

Neither of my recently raised zombies was anything other than a level 1. It turned out that if you didn’t prepare the undead before raising it, you wouldn’t get a high level. That said, the bees were all level 53.

The man in black didn’t hesitate when he saw his former team member running at them. He flashed forward just far enough to lop the head right off the assassin’s body. The enforcer then pivoted, tripped the elf, and sliced him in two. The front half of the elf kept right on going and stopped at the feet of the two unaware tanks.

The enforcer yelled. “We’re fighting a lich! Krout was already dead! When was the last time you saw him?”

The two tanks nodded and stepped forward. Another two steps, and the bees came out of the hive. I designated the priestesses and the battle mages as the targets for the swarm. It was a glorious thirty seconds. The swarm came out of the hive just beside the priestesses and killed the injured one. The battle mage that didn’t do the shield was also taken out.

However, the battle mage that had cast the shield when they first came through also seemed to have a personal one. That shield prevented the mummy bees from injecting their poison. The other priestess was stung, but then one of the tanks used a taunt skill, and all of the bees headed right at him.

They weren’t that great against the mage, and because of the taunt, I couldn’t even control them how I wanted. I tried to dive a shade into the last priestess, but she got her spell off first, and all of the remaining mummies fell to the ground. It didn’t truly behave like Lay-To-Rest, so I was hopeful that if we won, I could get them back.

My focus was forced back into my body with the death of the shade. I might have wanted to kill the lich a few dozen times, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t use him where and how I needed to. He was just an extremely intelligent undead, even if he was a low level. I just needed to catch him somehow and see if I could claim him. Then I could use him and his minions to tie up the guild as I figured out how to take them out.

When my new little group got to the front, I reached out with my power through the bars and started the work of claiming undead. I started with the one as far back as possible and then the one next to it. I had six of them before the lich turned his forces against my new ones.

This caused the line he was trying to hold at the door to collapse, and my forces pushed through. Then we did it again at the next one. I had twenty of his minions that I sent in a full sprint back to the throne room.

As I sent them, I shifted my mind in that direction. My ranged units were now engaging the merchant guild as the kill team tried to come into the throne room. I had given them just enough room that the junk we shifted around wouldn’t be giving them cover. But the stuff would slow them down and make their movement hard.

The tanks had joined their shields again as my archers and mages were firing at them. I had my warriors ready to block their advance and a few shield mages ready to defend against magic. I was hoping that I would have them locked down for a while. If it had been anything but a team built to take out a lich, I would have figured it was in the bag.

My new minions would be charging right at the guild team. Not so much as a way to take them out but rather as a way to keep them distracted. If the team broke through, I had two more choke points between me and them in hopes of slowing them down.

I also had a surprise if they broke through the first location, that might mess them up. I almost laughed, thinking of what I had set up. Of course, I hoped they wouldn’t make it through my ranged fighters, but I also found it unlikely. However, if they did, it would be fun to watch.

There was a scream as one of the lich’s undead shot some spines at me. Most of them were caught by my shroud; however, a few missed me and found some people nearby. I claimed the spine shooter and started to look for others. Unfortunately, over a dozen of them were moving up, which meant they were about to turn the hallway into a shooting gallery.

I yelled out. “More ranged ones coming up. You might want to move behind me.”

Everyone but the two kitchen staff moved back. They each reached up and placed a hand on the throne. I just shrugged and claimed the next spine shooter. They weren’t entirely orcs. They were some monster thing that the lich had made. Each one was an orc base, but then attached to the front were dozens of what appeared to be porcupines.

As I started to claim them, I smiled. If I could take this force and have them attack at range, it would be a bonus. I didn’t know how fast they would recharge their quills, but I was hopeful.

One thing I hadn’t counted on that seemed to be helping was the throne actively rebuilding my army. My minions that had been torn apart were slowly being put back together even as we pushed on.

I wasn’t sure if intimidation would work on the undead, but I figured I would give it a try. “Boy Lich! Eric! I am the Deathwalker! I am coming to claim you! YOU WILL SERVE ME! Part your minions and COME HERE!”

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