The Runesmith

“Woof!”

A strange crystalized creature appeared before it. The Lich had seen something similar but not quite as large down in the dungeon it stepped in. Normally seeing this creature before him wouldn’t be a problem, it didn’t pose any type of threat to it. One well-placed spell would incinerate most of it on the spot. However in this case, there was something this creature had, a strange magical plate of armoring was around its body.

The monster was drawn to this as it was radiating the mana pattern of the armored one. Was it possible for there to be more beings with this unique mana pattern, the Lich didn’t think so. There were two mana patterns mixed here one belonged to the ruby wolf and the other to the magical armor it was wearing. It had seen its target use magical gadgets before thus it had to have been made by it, this was a certainty.

A few moments ago it followed the beacon of another metallic creature that looked like a spider. It was similar to the one it captured and destroyed in its original dungeon. Catching up to it wasn’t that hard but after disabling the blue spider it was introduced to this wolf creature. It gave chase due to the mana pattern but this time around it found itself not being able to catch up, the monster’s running speed was slightly above its capabilities only when activating several hastening spells was it able to start catching up.

It didn’t have much time before but it remembered this red monster, it was at the side of the one it wanted to capture and perhaps was also part of the puzzle. While chasing it down the mass of trees it pointed out with the staff and began the silent chants. Soon a mass of translucent green chains shot out to entangle the escaping beast. Regretfully, the red creature ducked behind some trees and rocks that were entangled instead. The chains were able to tear through this blockade but lost enough momentum for it to get away and so the chase continued.

This environment was working against it but it wasn’t that worried. It was able to moderately gain some ground on the wolf creature that was shining brightly. The wooden splinters, dirt, and smaller rocks were already hitting the one that it was chasing. Only thanks to the blue mana shield around its body was the beast able to remain unscathed. This shield was also the main reason the Lich was giving chase as it had the unique mana signature it was after.

With annoyance, it moved to the side as it detected a trap before it. With a wave of its staf the area was instantly destroyed and the red wolf gained some ground. This was the main problem with it not being able to catch up to the lesser-leveled thing. From time to time it would encounter strange traps. Sometimes it was pieces of paper attached to trees. On other occasions, some metallic objects were buried shallowly with the dirt still fresh over them.

Its opponent was clearly trying to blow it up but the Lich was confident in its capabilities of detecting everything. The mana sense it possessed allowed it to pinpoint the locations of all these magical traps and either disable them or evade them. It was pointless to put things like these in its way as it concluded that an explosion of a magnitude like that would not harm it sufficiently enough to kill it.

This cat-and-mouse game would come to an end, then the red thing would be in its grasp. The metallic armor it was wearing would be used for more research and afterward, it would catch the thing that created it. Everything that was related to this magical energy that gave it freedom needed to be investigated.

……

“They are here, archers get ready! … Now!”

A salve of arrows shot up into the air that produced a nice arc. When descending the wheezing sound was interrupted by something like glass shattering. This was soon followed by sizzling as if someone was cooking some stake on a pan filled with oil.

“It’s working, prepare the next one!”

An army of white skeletons with flaming skulls was upon the city. They charged with their boney swords and shields raised with no care for their safety. Their charge was interrupted by a mass of arrows that had small bottles attached to them. These when shattering emptied the blessed holy water onto the unholy monsters causing their bones to sizzle and their flames to die out.

The moment the monsters were in range the barrage started but regretfully the holy water wasn’t cutting it. The monsters halted for a slight moment but then continued on with their charge. It did produce a bit of damage and placed the monsters under a debuff but it was not enough to kill them. It was just an appetizer before the last hit that was delivered by the magical turrets.

These runic devices were able to shoot out concentrated arrows of mana at the monsters at a high rate. During the previous attack they started faltering but this time around they had multiplied. Due to the monster's inability to strategize, they continued the assault mostly from one side. The turrets that were placed at the other gates and walls were carried over and installed at the side where all the action happened.

A rain of blue magic started raining down on the monsters when they got in range. With the drop in speed due to the holy water, they were easy targets for the automated weaponry, and the ones that made it through were picked off by archers from the adventurer guild. A joint defense was established with a mix of adventurers and guards.

“My lord, the skeletons have been successfully stalled but…”

“But?”

“We have spotted three large black skeletal monsters approaching, they seem to be led by a skeletal mage…”

Arthur was there with everyone, in his hand he had a magical spyglass that he extended to take a look at the situation. Just as the guard captain said he could see three ugly-looking large black skeletons. One of them looked like it belonged on a primate, one was smaller and was holding a staff while the third was more beastlike and walked on four legs. These were the main problem that the city would be facing, tier 3 monsters.

“Continue with the ranged combat, don’t let them enter the city…”

Arthur gave out the command and glanced towards the side. There he saw a map filled with blue and red lights. His gaze traveled elsewhere, to where a large green dot was along with a smaller red dot behind it. The pair were going in a different direction than this army, where Wayland the Runesmith had his workshop.

“Weren’t there supposed to be five of them, where did the fifth one go?”

……

“Agni is managing… luckily those agility buffs are enough to keep a safe distance from that thing.”

Roland was looking at the two dots on his helmet's inner screen. A blue one represented Agni who was running away and a large green one the Lich that was following behind him. After the monster caught up to the spider drone his tamed beast arrived at the scene. Thanks to the armor that Roland made he was giving off his mana pattern. This was enough to pique the monster’s interest and follow after the runaway wolf.

To make sure that the Lich didn’t use some kind of catching spell he set up some traps. With people forced away into the city, he had no trouble with placing various mines and bombs everywhere. This did the trick as the Lich’s speed was a bit higher than he expected. Even with Agni using the buffing spells the two were very close. Luckily the monster was a caster so even with the tier 3 multiplier its speed was comparable to a tier 2 monster.

However, the traps weren’t only to slow down the monster they had a different use. All of them were placed mostly out in the open with a few being harder to spot. Roland wanted the monster to actually discover all of them before getting near them, it was part of his plan that could misfire if the monster was too guarded. The Lich needed to feel superior and be convinced that it could discover any hidden magic that could hurt it.

‘It took a while to get here, how is the state of the city?’

Roland with the help of Arthur who allowed the placement of his mapping devices closer to the city could now watch what was happening there. It seemed that while he distracted the Lich here the offensive against Albrook was in full swing. This is not really something he had planned for as his intention was to lure the Lich here and make him forget about that large army that it created. His opponent wasn’t in as much of a berserk state as he had hoped for but at least the army wasn’t going after him.

‘This wasn’t quite as I’d hoped it would go…’

Informing Arthur about the way the Lich acted went around his mind but he decided against asking the noble for help. First of all, he wasn’t sure if there was any aid that he could get from that side. Perhaps if someone like the guild master made a move it would be different but it seemed that baldy didn’t want to commit. That would leave him with some low-tier 2 soldiers and perhaps Mary that could be useful. With all the bombs around these people would be more of a hindrance than helpful.

‘I also didn’t expect those monsters to charge straight for the city instantly.’

Roland expected the Lich to go towards the mana signature in a frenzied state as before. While this happened he also expected his army to mostly follow behind him. After the detour through the forest, the slower skeletons would naturally fall behind to give him some time to tackle their big boss. If the Lich was destroyed the whole army would instantly cease to exist, taking out a Lich was always the fastest way of tackling such a matter.

‘They should be able to last out for a while, right? I don’t like what those two obsidian ones are doing… but I should probably start worrying about myself, if I can lure it there then this whole shitshow will be over.’

While he did keep his eyes plastered to the green dot on the screen he didn’t like where one of the red dots ended up. It ventured off the screen in a different direction than the main army. The last thing Roland could see was a smaller battalion of blue dots following it. Arthur should have been able to see what was happening there so it was up to his decision-making skills to do something about it.

When going back to his map he could see the green dot approaching at a steady pace. In less than a minute his foe would be here. Previously he was able to defeat monsters or people above his level. However, what was different all those times was that his enemies were not proficient spell casters. Each time he could somewhat close the gap with his runic spells which were a game changer.

The Lich on the other hand was a capable magician that was able to shield itself from harm. A battle between mages mostly ended in the favor of the one that could last out the longest in an exchange. Roland prided himself in a deep mana pool and a lot of resourcefulness but he wasn’t fooling himself into believing that he would be able to win a spell-slinging contest against a tier 3 monster like this.

Perhaps his prestige class gave him something to tighten that gap but there was another problem. The monster was capable of producing tier 3 spells but he had no true greater runes to contend with those. His best attempt was the massive mana cannon that would break down after just a few shots. To contend with something like this he would need to be able to implement such spells into smaller weapons like his armor or hammer, otherwise he stood no chance.

“AWooo!”

“Here they come.”

Finally, in the distance, the figure of a panicking ruby wolf was seen by him. Behind him following an explosion was an angry-looking skeleton surrounded by green flames and holding a staff. It was wearing a loose-fitting black robe and clearly meant business.

…..

“Did you hear something?”

“It’s probably those skeleton bastards running around. What are you scared of? Just let those noble fucks do their job, if we’re lucky we can get some of those bones for ourselves, I heard they go for a lot these days.”

“Why would I be scared? Fuck off.”

“Haha, you are, aren’t you? Just don’t piss your pantaloons, it already stinks in here.”

Two men with yellowish teeth were arguing with each other. One of them was mostly making fun of the other while sitting around in an empty tunnel. The only source of light here were the two torches on each side. Both men looked to be bored with nothing much to do than look at some tree roots and bugs crawling on them.

“Why are we even here? No one is going to use this passage with those damn skeletons up there?”

“That’s true, we could be getting drunk at the pub instead.”

“Yeah, some of those new girls there are worth every silver piece.”

“Hehe, did you see the size of those… wait, did you hear that?”

“Huh? Stop trying to scare me, you idiot.”

“Shut up, be quiet…”

The man shouted out while placing his hand on the wall. This tunnel hadn’t been here for long but no one that didn’t belong to their faction had been able to discover this entrance yet. The man activated one of his detection skills to feel the vibrations of the earth through which he could determine if a foe was close by.

“Something is there…”

In a hushed tone, he whispered to his ally that knew that it was no time to ask stupid questions. Both of them held their breath and were quick to go towards their weapons. Normally nothing should be able to detect their presence even if they were loud, sound should be not something that escaped this tight cavern they were in. However, to their dismay, a strange rumbling sound entered their ears and was followed by the movement of tree roots.

“Shit, how is this possible… this isn’t even a real entrance…”

Both of the men jumped back in horror as they saw a whole tree being ripped out of the ground. This was a hidden entrance to the guild that was mostly used by their guildmates. There was a secret opening that would let one person slip in through the tree down here. If a person didn’t know how to contort their body right they would normally get stuck there. It was mostly used for dumping letters and secret orders for the thieves instead but now the whole entrance was becoming wider.

Soon the two men felt a draft take over this place. The tree that connected to this tunnel was just pulled out by what looked to be a black skeleton. This monster’s eyes were on fire and it didn’t come alone. Behind it, a large number of white skeletal creatures were making clattering sounds with their jaws.

“Fuck!”

The thieves screamed in shock while backing away. In one of the man’s hands, an oval-shaped item appeared that was quickly infused with mana. On the surface, a rune started to shine in a blue color before quickly going orange. Quickly the magical item was thrown at the monster still holding on to the tree to generate a large explosion.

“Run! We have to inform the guild…s..shit…”

The man that threw the bomb jumped back to save himself from the explosion. When he was about to turn towards his companion that was also bolting away he felt a sharp pain fill his entire chest area. There he saw a large black hand filled with claws going through it.

“I… t-this wasn't suppose...”

In a last attempt of defiance, the man activated all the magical bombs that he had on himself to produce a cave-in. The explosion instantly filled the whole place with rubble and allowed the other man to quickly escape. Now it was up to him to inform the others of the skeletal infestation coming their way…