I became a legion lich

171 Athos vs Malti

As for General Malti, she was able to survive the Meteor Spear and the subsequent explosions thanks to her quick thinking.

Malti had conjured a wind barrier just as the meteor spear exploded, detonating the barrier and propelling it away. The following explosions sent her even further away, causing only minor burns that her armor protected.

Her magic bow was not only an enchanted tool, it also functioned as a magic wand, allowing her to cast her spells from it.

Malti tried to use wind magic to float while in the air, but a black flash flew straight towards her, forcing her to concentrate on her surroundings.

Athos noticed that the enemy leader had survived the explosion without damage, so he decided to deal with her on his own. He used the lightning impulse twice, accelerating absurdly and conjuring air platforms under his feet, reaching Malti in less than 5 seconds.

He conjured a corrupted mana sword and slashed at it in one sweeping motion with all his might.

Malti clicked her tongue and positioned herself in the air, conjuring platforms of air laced with mana to support her weight. She blocked the corrupted blade using the bow handle and let the blade slide harmlessly through the bow.

She too took impulse of Athos’s momentum and spun, adding his momentum to her own and kicking him in the abdomen, before slamming her bow across his face as if it were a club.

Her bow had an enchantment that increased her brute resistance, allowing her to fight melee if the enemy got too close.

.....

Athos’ speed worked against him here, making the blow twice as hard and sending him to the ground at the same speed.

His nose was splayed across his face as the face itself sunk slightly, only the timely use of the bronze body skill and his dark iron helmet saved him from having his skull crushed.

The wounds healed in seconds thanks to his body, but it still left him disoriented for a few seconds and unable to react to the fall. All he could do was maintain his bronze body ability and activate his armor’s impact dispersion enchantments.

His body hit the roof of a building and went through it, before hitting the floor of the floor and continuing to the ground floor of the first floor, where his body formed a small crater in the shape of a spider’s web.

His armor dented despite the enchantments and several of his bones were broken, but all the damage was healed, the only thing that remained bruised was his ego.

“That woman is probably below Emilia, somewhere in the fifth layer of life. Thanks to the mana body, I was always a few steps ahead of normal mages, so I had hopes that I could fight someone in the fifth layer, but it seems that I was very arrogant.”

Athos was not wrong to think of himself as superior to other wizards. The mana body allowed his core to store much more energy than an ordinary core and control much more energy, be it in the use of skills or spells.

Becoming undead only widened the gap between him and other mages. Her core grew stronger with every spark of life force absorbed, and with it her body. He could force his way through the walls of progression, rather than losing years or perhaps decades to each progress.

But it came with an unexpected price.

“I’m not used to so much power. My body and mind are out of sync. My body developed too quickly for my own good. How ironic.” Athos spoke while laughing.

“I didn’t realize until now why I only fought with weak enemies or with support from my servants, but I’m fighting like a complete amateur now.” With each self-deprecating sentence, Athos’ smile widened instead of diminishing.

“So let’s solve this problem the fun way, with pure violence and alone. No help from anyone, no alchemical items or cheap tricks, just me. This will be fun.” He stood up as he spoke, a wide smile spreading across his face.

He blew up the wall in front of him and jumped out, scanning the surroundings for Malti, but finding only fleeing soldiers.

‘Did she run away? It won’t be much fun if she runs away without a fight.’ He thought as he started to feel disappointed, but he caught the sound of something slicing through the wind and approaching him quickly.

Without even turning to look at what it was, Athos rolled to the side, an arrow of lightning hitting the ground where he was a second later.

Athos followed the direction the arrow came from, only to find wreckage with no sign of life.

Malti knew that the strange undead would not die in a single blow, so after landing, she hid and waited for the opportunity to ambush him, as if she had returned to her days as a hunter. She hoped that by killing him, she would kill the dragon as well.

“Let’s play cat and mouse before the real fight? That’s fine with me!” Athos shouted as he strengthened his voice with mana, making sure he was heard.

‘Simogo, stop wasting time with the wreckage and start hunting the fleeing soldiers. Good chase.’ Athos ordered mentally and stopped worrying about the situation in the fortress, his mind fully focused on finding and killing the damned woman.

He activated the sensory field and cold mind, throwing balls of black fire all over the place. Athos knew thanks to death vision that there was no one in the wreckage, but he pretended to fall into her plan.

Once again, he heard the sound of something slicing through the air and he turned, narrowly dodging a bolt of lightning aimed at his face. For just a second, Athos managed to catch a glimpse of Malti in an alleyway between two buildings, before she quickly escaped.

“Not so fast!” Athos screamed and dashed like lightning towards the buildings, a sword of corrupted mana appearing in his right hand. He crossed the corner in just over a second, making a huge mistake.

Malti had left bags containing explosive dust among the garbage bags in the alley, using the space between the alleys to hide the purple teleport lights. She was waiting for Athos at the end of the alley and as soon as Athos appeared she released magic arrows that detonated the alchemical items, blowing up the whole alley.

Athos didn’t have time to flee, so he just threw the corrupted sword and changed its nature to a fire spell before detonating it. His own spell couldn’t do him any damage, but the shockwave still pushed him away from the blast, saving him from any harm.

“Tch. You smart freak!” Malti screamed and shot several bolts of lightning at Athos as he tried to retreat. Despite his bow being able to be used as a club, his specialty was still ranged combat.

“It won’t be so easy to get away this time!” Athos screamed as he fed the flames generated by the explosion with his mana, taking control of them and darkening them. Controlling natural flames was a skill he rarely used since it was inefficient in terms of energy, but it came in handy now.

The flames split left and right, creating a direct path between Athos and Malti. Lightning arrows flew towards Athos, but the latter dodged the arrows with minimal movements, thanks to the sensory field and cold mind.

Athos could feel the arrows perfectly thanks to the sensorial field and the cold mind made the arrows move in slow motion.

He closed the distance between them quickly, the flames from the explosion gathering around his arms as he passed.

‘How can he run so fast and still dodge all my arrows?’ Malti asked herself in frustration, seeing the distance between her and Athos diminishing little by little as all her arrows missed their target. Her bow had an automatic lock function, so it was absurd for her that the undead would be able to dodge it.

Athos’ speed was also shocking to her. Even though she was running backwards so she could keep firing and her speed was lower than normal, it was still surprising that the undead could not only match her, but also surpass her.

‘This doesn’t lead anywhere. I need to immobilize him somehow or at least gain distance and hide to prepare another trap.’ That’s what she thought and stopped backing up for a moment, before stomping her foot to the ground. The movement released the spell she had been guarding, sending a wave of lightning crashing down on Athos.

Athos was taken aback by the sudden spell, but he reacted quickly, sending the flames building up in his left arm in a wave of fire along with a blast spell.

The wave of fire collided with wave of lightning for a second before it exploded, their powers almost equal and unable to overcome the other. The explosion also generated a flash that temporarily blinded both fighters.

“Great, with this I can-” Her voice changed to a startled scream as a second wave of fire came towards her. His eyes still hadn’t adjusted to the blinding flash, but Athos’s had and he took advantage of the gap to attack.