"--Shit!"
As far as final words go, it's pretty cliche and tired. But there's no real time to think of anything better before we crash into the floor.
Even with the lich breaking my impact, the wooden shield shatters into an explosion of splinters on impact, which rocks through my entire body in an equally explosive shockwave. My vision briefly goes black. The world around me spins in the dark. And then my breath - and vision - comes back to me in a labored gasp that sounds more painful than it actually is.
I'm on my back. On the cold stone.
Shattered pieces of the flimsy shield are spread all over the ground around me. The lich is in a crumpled pile of bones and robes a short distance from me, likely having skidded due to its skeletal nature. My deep gasp triggers a brief coughing fit, and I wince as I roll over onto my knees and struggle to my feet.
That was. Unpleasant. Truthfully, less unpleasant than I expected when I started the fall, but....
I crane my neck to look up at the platform we fell from.
I'm not good at distance. Is that twenty feet? Thirty....?
"Answer: fourty-five feet, Master!"
"Ryo!" Elara screams, scattering my thoughts with the shrillness of her shriek.
I manage, for once, to duck one of the lich's fireballs this time. "...Getting better."
The lich looks as uninjured as I am from that fall, which is a little disappointing, but not too surprising. If I survived, then a magical construct like him probably would, too. But that's now two attacks I've tried that haven'd done anything visible to him.
Between us on the floor is that damn dull sword of mine. About midway. It hasn't been useful so far, so I'm not too concerned about it. But I can still at least try to use it as a blunt instrument. If I need to.
"You...! Insolent child!" The lich hisses at me. It doesn't need facial features to portray its fury.
Uninjured it may be, but it's certainly been rattled by the impact. So at least there's that.
Well. I have no range weapons yet, so I do the only thing that I reasonably can in this situation: charge toward it. It's only a few steps, but the suspense makes it feel like longer. I pull off a smooth slide on my knee, grabbing up my sword and lifting it up in the way before the other man can attack me. When he does attack, it's just another one of those fireballs, though. It'd be more inconvenience than anything else if it contacted me. That doesn't mean I want to be thrown like a ragdoll all over this damn room for the rest of the day, though.
I close the distance between us - what little remains - and slam the hilt of the sword into the lich's jaw. Its head whips away from me, but unlike its troops, it doesn't immediately shatter into dust. Which is good. I think I'd just. Turn around and walk out of this dungeon without another moment's hesitation if he collapsed that easily. But then again, there's almost always a second phase, even for weak looking bosses.
One of Elara's gouts of flame splashes across its face while its head is turned away from me. Given that even his troops are immune to her flame, though, he's probably about as intimidated by her fire as I am by his.
I jump backward just in time to avoid a crescent strike from back of his hand.
His head snaps around once more, facing me. It's somewhat surreal, watching him move without any muscles or tendons. His skull tilts forward on his neck as if his ligature were still intact.
"Your struggle is worthless." The creature laughs and lifts its hand, shooting a blast of blue light straight at me.
It impacts with my sword before I can dodge it. It still doesn't hurt, but there's definitely a lot more force than even the fireball, and I find myself flying off of my feet backward through the air. Not exactly the most graceful flight, either. I tumble in the air, smashing into the ground, the sword clattering from my hands again, and rolling across the rough stone.
Damn it, that is starting to piss me off.
I'm going to be scraped and bruised from this if not outright bloody, but I guess the adrenaline is pumping hard, because I don't feel any pain right now. Which is good. It means I can still focus on fighting this guy. He might not be doing damage to me, but he's putting up more of a fight than his skeleton army, I guess. That's worth something.
Kael holds out a hand to me when I finally stop rolling, but his gaze is on the lich. "You alright? That looked like it hit you pretty hard."
"I'm fine. What is it?"
I push myself up and dust off my pants - still clinging to life as they are - picking the sword up off the floor. The blade is nicked in a few places but not otherwise damaged. That's good at least.
"Don't bother with trying to burn him." I say, glancing to Elara. "If his foot soldiers are immune to fire, he probably is, too."
"Of course I'm immune to flame, you imbecile!" The voice sounds downright condescending. "Did you really think I was that weak?"
He's easy to provoke. That, or annoyingly talkative. Probably both, when I consider his long introduction speech.
"Have you considered not using a bladed weapon on a skeleton?" Kael asks, voice dry. As if this man hasn't been using blades on the other skeletons just as much as I've been.
I squint at him. "Got anything blunt instead?"
Kael simply shrugs. Unhelpful.
The lich laughs. "You entertain me. Perhaps I will make you a part of the great Fayn El-Tine's army!"
Oh, he's definitely the annoying talker type.
"That's right, Master! It will be easy to take advantage of his boasting!"
Yeah. Seems like I'm surrounded in annoying talkers.
"Less talking. More fighting." Kael shakes his head and charges at the lich, blades drawn. As if he didn't just mock me for using a sword.
The dark-robed lich just stands there, arms open. Which isn't a particularly good sign. Still, Kael is undeterred, and one of his daggers strikes into the proto-lich's eye-socket. The only reaction he gets from the undead creature is a cold laugh as the knife lodges into his skull for a moment, and simply falls to the ground. It slams its open palm into Kael's stomach, sending the man flying back, skidding across the ground and into a nearby pillar. So. That didn't work.
The rogue coughs, and a concerning amount of blood splatters onto the floor.
"What did you think you would accomplish?" It chitters. "Fool. You are but bugs compared to my power. In the end, you can do nothing to me."
It gives a hollow chuckle.
The chuckle is cut off when Arin, who somehow got way closer than either Fayn or myself realized, clubs him in the side with an impressively large chunk of wood. The lich lurches to the side for a moment, stumbling a step or two, before backhanding the fourth member of our party and sending the healer flying.
Which is not what I want to see. Healers are not the ones that should be getting bodyslammed into a far wall. It makes it rather difficult to heal anyone when our healer is the one unconscious.
"ARIN!" Elara shouts, running toward his crumpled form.
Well. He'll probably be fine, considering I've been slammed into the wall and floor by this guy a few times now. I charge for the stick that Arin dropped, disregarding for the moment the two collapsed men. It's not as if I can provide any medical support myself, so it's far more effective that I deal with the lich.
Besides, I do my best work solo anyway.