Evolution: A Warlock's Rise To Power

The party of five continued to battle their way into the broken-down palace. They encountered many more flaming skulls and also fought with skeletons of various shapes and sizes.

With no clear direction to go, they wandered through the halls searching for the boss who controlled this place. Entering into the throne room they encountered a large group of skeleton warriors accompanied by wolf-like skeletons, but no boss.

Heading underground to the palaces dungeon they found flaming skulls and in the cells of the dungeons they found wraiths and ghosts in the cells but still no boss.

After searching most of the palace they encountered a large tower in the back of the building.

"If the boss isn't in this tower, I have no clue where else to look." Lucan said.

"The guards of the tower look a little more geared out than the skeletons we fought earlier. This must be the right way." Silent said.

"Agreed. Let's get to it." Furry said while once again turning into a bear.

He charged at the guards who were blocking the entrance to the tower and bowled them over while the others followed up to finish them off.

Once they had been destroyed, Furry opened the door and peaked inside before quickly shutting it and turning to the others.

"We are defiantly on the right track." He said.

"What did you see?" Resilient asked.

"A death knight with four skeleton guards."

"He, he, let's mess 'em up." Frosty added.

Lucan nodded while reading himself.

Furry ran in and let out a roar. The druid took the attention of the death knight.

The group finished off the skeletons as fast as possible before giving the level 115 Elite their full attention.

A tall figure covered in full plate armor held a large two handed greatsword while chopping at the bear. Under its helmet, two burning green lights could be seen where its eyes were located.

Magic and arrows crashed into its armor but hardly made any noticeable damage to its health bar.

Lucan transformed his scepter into a black sword and tried to plunge it into the slit in the death knight's helmet.

Its metal gauntlet caught the sword in a firm grip, not letting him pull it away. The piercing green eyes looked to Lucan. The warlock's eyes flashed with a deep purple light. His intimidation spell didn't work too well on undead, but it allowed him to throw off the death knight for a moment and retrieve his weapon.

As Lucan tried to back off, the undead knight let out a grunt and two skeletal hands reached out of the stone floor and grabbed his ankles.

As their grips tightened, he felt his stamina deplete and he was cursed with a weakened body. The greatsword came slashing down as he transformed into a shadow to escape his skeletal confinement.

*Clang*

He suddenly reappeared, the death knight's blade had caused unholy magical damage and reverted Lucan to his normal form while taking a third of his health with a single blow.

Furry was trying to reattract it's attention but the death knight was content with destroying the pesky warlock. Another slash came at Lucan, with the curse of weakness still affecting him he couldn't get out of range fast enough.

As the blade drew closer, he activated Evasion and bent over backwards as the horizontal slash cut the air above him.

Furry caught the knight's arm in his jaw and used the full strength a bear could muster to shake and drag the knight to the corner where he boxed it in as Frosty finished casting her spell.

A serpent made of ice appeared in the room and slithered through the air. It rammed into the knight, leaving a patch of frost that did continuous damage where it impacted. After it rammed into the arms of the knight several times, it was having difficulty moving its upper limbs.

Lucan took the chance to move in with his sword again while Silent followed with her dagger. They struck and slashed at the joints in its armor to overcome its defense. They were able to keep the assault up for several minutes until the ice serpent spent the last of its power and melted into a puddle.

The pair pulled back as Resilient held his holy symbol towards the undead and finished his chant.

A gold light warped around the knight as it stopped moving. A weak voice could be heard from within the armor.

"Please… Finish me… Enslaved… Centuries…. I want to rest."

An arrow found its way into the eye slit of the helmet while Lucan triggered the combined corruption. A burst of black magic erupted from underneath the armor. The death knight slumped to the ground and didn't move again.

The group caught their breath. The Elite dropped its magical greatsword, but nobody could make use of it. Lucan would store it in his vault later. For now, they looked towards the stairs and wandered what would be waiting at the top of the tower.

'Only one way to find out.'

Instead of a room above this floor, they only found a staircase that kept spiraling higher and higher.

"Stay sharp." Lucan said as the stairs ended before a door. Furry peaked in before entering the top floor of the tower.

"It's been so long since I last had visitors." Croaked a voice on the far side of the room.

A cloak figure was hunched over a table, pouring a glowing orange liquid into a glass vial. With the vial full, the figure stood tall to reveal a skeletal figure.

It shook the vial before pouring its contents over a staff. The wooden magical casting device quickly absorbed the liquid.

"Since you have come, there is no point in leaving… ever."

The door behind them slammed shut and the handle melted into the wood.

"You have killed so many of my puppets, it's only right for you to replace them, now DIE!"

The lich said while pointing its staff at the group. A bolt of green energy launched from its staff and hit Furry. The green energy formed a connection between the staff and druid while it did continual damage.

Furry's speed was cut in half and he grunted in pain as the green energy kept invading his body.

Lucan used a telekinetic slash to try and break the lich's concentration and disable the spell. But his invisible slash clanked off a transparent set of purple armor that appeared when he took damage before vanishing again.

It was the same when Silent fired an arrow. The armor made from pure magic appeared, blocked the arrow and disappeared again all in a quick flash.

"You disgusting Lich, I will end your unholy existence." Resilient said while a beam of holy light flashed and flew towards the caster like a javelin of light.

"How young and foolish." The lich muttered and with a wave of its hand, three flaming skulls appeared to block the beam of light.

"I will take care of them." Frosty said. "Ice maiden form activate."

Her eyes turned white as snow. Her hair began to rise and turn translucent like ice. He robes began to flutter as she started to hover above the ground while a miniature blizzard swirled around her. Over twenty icicles floated in the blizzard as she dove towards the flaming skulls.

Resilient was doing his best to keep Furry alive while the green energy beam kept pouring into the druid who had taken his bear form.

Lucan unloaded as many shadow bolts as he could toward the lich. Its armor still kept appearing, but its color was slowly fading. Since spellcasters were generally known for their low health he decided not to hold anything back and begun to chant.

Hearing the ancient words that Lucan was spiting as fast as he could, the Lich turned his attention to the warlock.

Silent didn't waste the chance and ran forward with her dagger and cut towards the undead. Each swipe clanked off the armor and it had no time to deal with Lucan. Canceling the spell that was doing continuous damage to Furry it pointed its staff towards the rogue.

With a flash of green magic, the lich sent out a point-blank explosion. Silent was sent flying backwards through the cloud of smoke that remained from the blast. The lich smirked until it heard a clank as a dagger struck its back. The Silent that had flown backwards was her shadow double, she had stepped into the ethereal realm to avoid the explosion and used the resulting smoke as cover to move behind it.

After a few quick strikes she retreated as a large amount of green magic was being gathered in the lich's staff.

He swung it out in an arc as a blade of green mana cut through the air, burning everything in its path. The nimble rogue was ready and able to roll under the burning blade of magic that soared outward.

Lucan finished his chant as shadows spread to fill the room.

A black shadow skull rose from the domain beside a pitch-black skeleton holding a shadow spear. Not wanting to waist his spell Lucan activated his scepter and summoned a shadow creature. The warlocks own shadow rose and disconnected from his feet and turned solid. A being stood the same height as Lucan but had sharp claws for hands and blazing purple eyes.

The shadow creature let out a roar and charged with the two other shadows to besiege the lich.

Silent slipped next to Lucan and pulled out her bow. She held the arrow drawn all the way back as 10 arrows made of shadows started to solidify above her head.

"Let's see if your armor can block this." She said with a smirk before firing.

Her arrow launched and the 10 shadow arrows moved with it. They came together and converged at a single point on the lich's chest.

*Shatter*

The magical armor shattered.

Furry didn't miss his chance. He was still enraged from earlier. The bear started to shake and smash the skeleton caster like a rag doll before holding it down while the three shadows helped to pummel it while the three ranged attackers fought from afar.

With the Lich on its last leg, Resilient didn't want to be left out. He raised his mace as golden light swirled around it. "Begone, you foul undead." He said before bringing his mace down and shattering the lich's skull.

[Dungeon complete.]

[Every enemy vanquished; Hell mode unlocked.]

[You are barred from retrying the dungeon for 11 hours and 59 minutes.]

The group cheered and began to look at the loot that was dropped.

"Hell yeah." Lucan said as he checked his bag.

"What's up?"

"The lich dropped a spell book."