Reborn with a Necromancer System - Chapter 51

Chapter 51: Lesser Liches Chapter 51: Lesser Liches The two floating figures came into view.

Kai’s heart quickened.

Robed in tattered black, their skeletal faces were barely visible beneath deep hoods.

Their presence radiated an oppressive aura that made the gravity feel heavier.

Death, magic, and malevolence.

Kai recognised them immediately from Orlin’s books.

‘Lesser Liches…’ His body screamed at him to flee.

The sheer amount of mana that swirled around those two entities made Orlin’s dinner from last night curdle in his stomach.

Even in his best condition, fighting one would be a gamble.

But before he could even take a step backwards, a gurgling roar tore through the air.

The sound of metal on stone reverberated through the street.

Kai barely had time to twist his body before a colossal, armoured corpse swung a massive axe at him from behind.

Pain flared throughout his ribs as he barely dodged the blow.

His attempt to roll out of the way had him skittering across the cracked pavement.

His attention had been on the liches.

The weight of the mana over-saturated the area, and he overlooked his flank, paying the price for his foolishness.

‘Stupid, stupid, stupid.’ The giant corpse stood like a fortress of rotting flesh and steel, its shield nearly three times taller than Kai.

Its armour, covering it from head to toe, with its helmet open-faced, absorbed all light with its midnight black tiny.

Its eyes, empty sockets glowing with eerie green light, locked onto him with unyielding focus.

The liches, drawn by the noise, halted in midair, their half-rotten eyeballs shifting between Kai and the armoured undead.

A moment of tension stretched between them.

And chaos erupted.

The zombie warrior charged, bringing its axe down in a brutal overhead swing.

Kai rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding being split in two.

The pavement below wasn’t so lucky, as the zombie cleaved a paver in half, sending dust and debris everywhere.

Before he could counterattack, the liches unleashed a volley of magic.

One hurling jagged shards of ice, the other launching a surge of shadow tendrils toward him.

‘My own magic, hey?’ Kai raised a desperate barrier of shadows, but the combined assault shattered it instantly.

Ice sliced across his arm and shadow magic constricted his movement.

He grit his teeth, pushing through the pain.

He couldn’t fight both threats at once-not in his condition, not without help.

For the first time since swearing to fight alone, he broke his word.

“Tecton!” With a surge of power, Kai’s shadow opened up and his most powerful undead servant burst from the darkness, his massive skeletal form adorned with shadow fortifications.  Without hesitation, Tecton barreled into the armoured corpse, grappling with it in a contest of brute strength.

The sound of undead roaring and metal crashing against stone echoed through the ruins.

At the same time, Kai raised a hand.

A pulse of magic rippled outward, and four arcane wolves materialised around him.

Nameless for now, but deadly.

Kai pointed at the liches.

Each of the wolves launched forward, two at each lich.

The Lesser Liches hissed as the wolves snapped at them, disrupting their spell-casting.

Both of them floated backwards while trying to destroy their new enemies.

One lich summoned a wall of fire to ward off the beasts, while the other conjured shadow barriers to block their relentless attacks.

It gave Kai the opening he needed.

His hands glowed with gathering magic, the numbers in his mind flashing red.

He was running lower on life essence than he’d like, but he couldn’t hesitate.

‘Shade!’ While Shade used the shadows of the ruins to travel quickly to the liches, Kai raised a hand and a wall of fire engulfed both of the liches in an explosion of flame.

Shade danced around, poking through the holes in the shadow barriers or the pillars of ice.

It only chipped away at their bones, but the liches became less stable.

One lich screeched as the fire melted its tattered robes and scorched its skeletal form, but it retaliated immediately, hurling a bolt of necrotic energy.

Kai barely deflected it by envisioning his Wither spell and expanding it to cover his hands.

He staggered.  Every spell he cast sent him closer to failure.

He could feel his reserves slipping.

If he overstepped, he would drop into the negatives, and there would be no Vepice to save him.

Tecton, meanwhile, held the armoured corpse at bay, grappling its shield and axe in a titanic struggle.

The undead warrior snarled, breaking free for a moment and slamming Tecton with its shield, sending the construct skidding across the ground.

But before it could press the advantage, Kai sent a concentrated spear of ice straight into its exposed ribs, momentarily halting its movements.

The wolves kept the liches occupied, but Kai knew he needed to end this quickly.

His vision blurred slightly and his body was nearing its limit.

He clenched his fists, forcing his will into one final gambit.

With a flick of his wrist, he channeled the last of his strength into a multi-layered spell.

A field of shadow magic erupted beneath the liches, locking them in place.

Simultaneously, a powerful blast of compressed flame erupted above them.

Fire met shadow, creating an explosion that ripped through the street, sending shards of burning stone flying.

When the smoke cleared, one lich was reduced to ash, its soul vanishing into the abyss.

The second, heavily damaged, attempted to retreat, but Kai wasn’t about to let it go.

Drawing on every last reserve, he pushed forward, channeling his will into his voice.

“Enslavement.” The Lesser Lich shrieked as Kai’s necromantic power wrapped around its very essence, forcing it to submit.

It writhed in agony, fighting the pull, but Kai had grown stronger.

The lich’s resistance wavered, and then, with a final, shuddering breath, it fell silent.

It was his.

Kai staggered, barely able to stay on his feet.

His body felt like it had been through hell and was covered in cuts, bruises, and burns.

All of it layered atop a bone-deep exhaustion that made every movement agonising.

Tecton, victorious, loomed over the shattered remnants of the armoured corpse.

The four wolves, sensing the battle’s end, flickered before vanishing back into Kai’s shadow.

Kai checked his reserves.

[Life Essence: 501/5,500] ‘Should be enough.

Undead Enslavement!’ Kai, from a distance this time, captured the control of the three enemies.

He let out a ragged breath, staring at the aftermath.

He had barely survived.

Barely.

“Orlin is going to be insufferable about this if I tell him.” “Tell me about what, disciple?” Kai gulped.

He’d boasted about leaving his army in the reserves up until this point.

All of that bravado.

All of that bragging.

Down the drain.

Absolutely worthless.

Kai hung his head in shame as he listened to Orlin’s lecture about making boasts and making sure those boasts don’t end up empty.

Together, they walked back to the mansion.

CREATORS’ THOUGHTS Jhaydun Two lesser liches and some sort of huge zombie variant.

Any idea from those in the audience what the giant zombie might be called?