I became a legion lich

172 Athos vs Malti Malti was able to detect the incoming attack thanks to his collar’s effect, sensitive winds. The enchantment allowed Malti to feel the air around him as if it were an extension of his body.

She threw herself to the side desperately, not having any spells ready right away. The wave of fire passed inches from his body, before the blast spell mixed with the flames detonated and engulfed Malti in flames.

Her skin burned as the flames covered her, preventing Malti from seeing or breathing. She activated her armor’s defensive enchantments and rolled across the floor to douse the flames.

Black smoke billows from her body as she stands up, only to see Athos’ left fist inches from her face. Athos didn’t stay still after releasing the wave of flames and rushed to cover the distance between them.

His fist connected with the side of Malti’s face, dislodging his jaw and sending his head spinning. She lost control of the spell she was casting, wasting mana and forcing her to start from scratch. The blow also knocked her off balance to the ground, her vision blurred and exposed for a second blow.

Athos’ right fist hit her in the chest and lifted her into the air, knocking all the air out of her lungs. Her armor protected her from harm, the supple leather completely cushioning the blow, but her human body still suffered the aftereffects of the blow.

‘I can’t let him keep hitting me like this. I need to distance myself and recover.’ Malti thought, activating her storage ring and releasing alchemical items between the two. She was confident that her armor would protect her from the blast’s effects, while the same could not be said of the undead in front of her.

Even if it didn’t affect him, the shockwave would push the two of them apart and buy the seconds of respite she needed.

Athos felt the threat of the alchemical items and tried to jump back, but he was a second too late.

.....

Malti grabbed Athos’ wrist with one hand and conjured a simple wind blade with the other hand holding the bow. The blade of wind ripped the bags, releasing the contents into the air.

Athos gritted his teeth, but all he could do was activate the armor’s magic dispersion and hope for the best.

The resulting explosion hurled the two in opposite directions, but Athos was clearly worse off.

While Malti was sent flying thanks to her superior position, Athos was knocked to the ground and rolled several meters. The gap in the quality of their equipment also contributed.

Athos’ armor was made of dark iron, but it was not superior to ordinary iron in quality and despite Treevor’s work, it was still inferior equipment and its enchantments only reduced a fraction of the damage taken.

Malti on the other hand, was wearing armor made from swamp crocodile hide and mitigated most of the blast.

“That bastard really got to me on that one.” Athos cursed as he quickly got to his feet. His armor was in tatters, with several dents and broken parts. Several of his bones were broken, but had begun to mend the moment he was injured.

His body was much leaner now, his muscular body looking scrawny, even though it was still completely covered. His right arm was missing from the elbow, but his concern was elsewhere.

‘Shit, it really is destroyed.’ Athos thought, looking at his armor as he tried and failed to activate his enchantments. The armor’s enchantments had their runes scattered throughout the set and with so much damage, some parts were destroyed, rendering the whole set unusable.

“Well, I just need to kill her without her being able to fight back from now on.” He resumed running as he spoke, not wanting to waste any more time.

Malti on the other hand, was still trying to recover. His body hadn’t suffered any serious damage from the explosion, but his face was still swollen and his jaw was dislocated.

She spat out the blood pooling inside her mouth along with several teeth, before taking a superior healing potion from the storage ring and drinking the entire bottle. Malti also forced his jaw back into place to prevent it from being wrongly healed.

Taking a deep breath to calm her mind, she began to cast spells as she drew back her bowstring, charging an arrow of lightning. The longer she held the arrow in the bow, the more mana it would absorb and the faster and more powerful the arrow would be.

The undead’s reflexes were unnaturally fast, rendering even lightning arrows useless against him. She needed something stronger and faster if she was going to hit him.

She glanced briefly around to try and catch a glimpse of what was going on and immediately regretted it.

The fortress had been almost completely destroyed, while the area inside the inner wall was just rubble and corpses. Simogo had destroyed it in the few minutes that Athos and Malti fought.

The dragon was busy flying around the fortress, killing all the soldiers that tried to escape. The soldiers weren’t stupid, and they tried to spread out to get away, but few were successful.

SImogo wasted no time descending, but he cast breath of darkness nonstop as he circled the fortress, killing hundreds with each attack. He mainly focused on the two gates, going so far as to release a second roar and pile corpses on the gate.

‘I can save them if I manage to kill that son of a bitch.’ Malti thought as she bit her lip in frustration, seeing Athos run towards her.

“You really are a pushy bastard, aren’t you?” Malti screamed as she shot the arrow she had been readying, but Athos smiled grimly at her, not at all scared.

The arrow flew faster than Athos could react and traveled straight towards his chest, but his body simply exploded in all directions, letting the arrow pass harmlessly through the middle.

“What??” Malti screamed in shock as she tried and failed to understand what happened.

The truth was very simple. Athos noticed that Malti was charging a powerful attack and thought of a hilarious way to dodge it. He conjured a sphere of air into the empty space inside his body and exploded it just as Malti fired the arrow.

He undid the joints that controlled his body at the same time, scattering his bones in all directions. He used wind magic to gather himself again and rebuild his body, before running again.

Malti recovered from the shock quickly and tried to release the spell he held at the ready, but a crackling sound came from the side.

She didn’t have time to react and a black bolt hit her from the side, freezing her in place. A second bolt flowed through Athos’s remaining hand and struck her in the chest, sending her to her knees panting using her bow as a crutch.

Athos’ missing arm was currently behind Malti and was responsible for the first lightning bolt. Athos had severed the limb at the moment of the explosion, as Malti gripped his arm like a vise and refused to let go until the end.

Athos had cast the lightning connection spell and used the first part remotely, catching Malti off guard.

“It’s over!” Athos screamed and ran, cutting the distance between them in a few seconds. He conjured a corrupted mana sword and tried to decapitate her in one blow.

His sword quickly approached her neck, but she lowered her head at the last second, a playful smile spreading across her face.

“Thanks for falling for it!” Malti screamed as he kicked one of Athos’ feet, making him lose his balance before hitting his chin with the bow. The lightning connection spell hadn’t done any real damage to her, thanks to her equipment.

Swamp crocodile choir armor had a high resistance to fire and air, thanks to the material’s abundant earth and water element. Malti had pretended to be injured and waited for Athos to approach to attack him with his guard down.

She didn’t lose momentum and released the tornado of blades spell she’d been holding at the ready. A tornado made of blades of wind surrounded the two within a 2 meter radius, trapping Athos inside while Malti could move freely.

“You!” Athos screamed as he released a fiery breath at her, but Malti just conjured a wind arrow at close range and the gust of wind threw the flames back into her face.

The wind blast also pushed Athos against the tornado wall, where the wind blades ripped through his armor and back.

“See you later, undead!” Malti screamed as she exited the tornado area, leaving alchemical items behind. She reduced the tornado’s area of effect, before the alchemical items exploded in a lightning storm.

Malti was forced to look away from the intense flash, before a strong tremor knocked her off balance and black smoke billowed up. She turned again a second after the flash passed, finding a crater in the ground.

Malti took a step forward to make sure he had destroyed Athos before he remembered something.

“I won’t make that same mistake twice.” She muttered and fired several bolts of lightning at the severed arm, blasting it to pieces. Malti returned his attention to the crater, frowning deeply.