The Runesmith

An explosion of what some might call evil energy burst forth. It pushed a mass of collapsed stones to the side hitting the already broken trees. From under an angry-looking monster emerged, his eye sockets were burning with emerald flames. The rubble that was covering the monster started to melt while glowing red.

The monster emerged from this magically produced hole while looking around. The annoying mechanical bugs and the stationary objects were still aiming their cannons toward this monster. The blue light show didn’t stop even when their bodies turned red and the runes started melting into the metal.

This was however not what the monster was focusing on instead, it looked at the gate before it that was in the process of being closed. It could feel that the target it was after had vanished behind it. The Lich decided to give chase but it needed to take care of this minor inconvenience that persisted.

After taking a step forward it rose its staff high up to produce a mass of greenish flames. They expanded out from the magic staff to produce a mass of snakes. These phantom vipers quickly shot forth at the golemic creations that were defending this place. Even when colliding with the blue mana beams the flame snakes were able to continue toward their destination.

The blue spider golems stood no chance, the moment the strange spell collided with it, their runic traces were disrupted and their armor bent out of shape. Due to how they were connected to mana generators by large cables they were nothing more than sitting ducks. The larger turrets lasted a bit more as the green vipers stopped at the protective mana shield first but after just a second of pushing the flimsy barrier shattered.

Due to the nature of this spell the monster needed to remain stationary. It directed it at all the stationary targets and in a matter of a few moments it had managed to destroy them all. In the places where the metallic devices were nothing but scrap metal and flames existed. The Lich finally took a step forward, it still needed to capture the armored being, and with nothing in its way it had free reign now.

It noticed something though, after taking the first step it lost a bit of its balance, when looking down it noticed that its big toe was missing. This was not all, only now did it realize that it had actually sustained some damage through the continued magical barrage. Its bones were cracked in a few places and even if it could somewhat mend itself back to health this angered it.

The monster felt rage build up in it first, it was the mana cannon that almost killed it and now this. It had been injured by the prey it was chasing and it didn’t know how to handle the feeling of anger that was building up. The Lich was a monster with high intelligence but it had practically been born a few months ago. It didn’t know how to handle something like that and the instinct was to lash out at everything that was around it.

Even though it was a being made of magic with no flesh the feeling of hate and anger was something it was capable of emulating. Thus without thinking much about the repercussions of blindly charging forward it used the few phantom vipers that were still there to collide with the wall. It was far more sturdy than the mechanical turrets or the golems but with some aid from its mana, the spells were able to melt through the protective lining and create a path for it.

“It sounds mad…”

Roland was on the other side of the wall, he scrambled behind the front gate and into the fence made from thick wires. At the end of this cage was another door made from metal that he quickly sprinted towards. Behind it Agni waited with lowered ears, clearly afraid of the predicament that they found themselves in.

This monster was a high-level undead but contrary to everyone's belief these monsters weren’t devoid of emotions. It was actually the reverse, they magnified all of the negative ones to the extreme. Roland used this knowledge to lure the monster here, the few wounds that he managed to deliver would surely madden the monster sending it into a frenzied state. It was a well-known tactic when going against such creatures and the more intelligence they possessed the higher the chance of actually affecting those negative emotions.

The monster was making a lot of noise outside, without even looking behind himself he could see a deep emerald glow emanating everywhere. The mana that this creature was capable of producing was truly tremendous, something that he could only compare to the woman from the Solarian Inquisition that fought against one of those abyssal creatures. Now, something on that level was after him and he wasn’t sure about his chances of victory.

“Agni, I told you to get back, go to the extraction point as we agreed.”

“Woooo!”

To his dismay, his ruby wolf didn’t seem to want to budge from the spot he was in. He had specifically told him to wait in the workshop where he would be safe if the Lich managed to get through the main entrapment. Perhaps it was due to Roland lacking any taming-related skills but Agni developed his own way of thinking and handling things and loyalty was one of them.

Perhaps if this was any other moment Roland would have given Agni the boot but right then, he noticed a lot of heat colliding with his reinforced gate. This gate had been produced in his own workshop and worked on by Bernir. Even now he remembered all the trouble of getting it there. Now a huge hole was burnt in the middle of it through magical means.

There it was, just walking through the molten metal like it was nothing. The drops of red blistering hot liquid just dribbled down on the monster as it was stepping through. The mana mantle it was clad with was still there but to Roland’s keen eye he could see a difference.

‘It’s not as thick and the mana is becoming unstable…’

This monster was clearly in a state of engagement, this would momentarily boost some of its stats but also lessen others. Something like this was just what he wanted, for creatures that required intelligence for their attacks like this one going into a maddened state wasn’t favorable. Its casting times would be reduced and it would probably have trouble reacting with the correct spells. Instead, it would probably attempt to use its sheer superior mana to get ahead in this fight.

There it was at his entrance gate. The cage made from wire was already heating up with the monster standing in it. The path it needed to travel through wasn’t far, around ten meters until it would reach Roland whom it was after. Thus without much thought to it, the Lich charged forward as if it had become a monster that fought at close range. This however was just the thing he was waiting for.

Right as the monster was around the middle of this cage he sprung the trap that he had been building up for almost a whole week. Everything was building up to this very moment and he needed to make sure that the monster didn’t see through it. It was very important to enrage the monster before this process as he wasn’t sure if it wouldn’t be able to detect the ruse it was standing on.

With his connection to the entire company through his recently gained Basic Runic Region skill, everything around here could be activated remotely. Soon a large runic mana pattern started shining through the ground and quickly changing color from the usual pale blue to a deeper yellowish coloring. This elemental mana was the main weakness of all undead and evil creatures, the holy element.

The glow encompassed the entire cage and turned the thick wires into something that looked golden. Everything became illuminated in a divine glow that instantly caused the monster a massive amount of pain. Its movements became sluggish and the trajectory it was on had been broken. Instead of colliding with the door on the other end it stumped forward and onto its own knees.

“It’s working better than I expected.”

Roland gave out a sigh of relief as he saw the monster drop down to its knees around a meter before reaching the end of the cage. A lot of smoke had been kicked up and the creature was kicking up a fuss. The green flames that it was usually producing started subsiding as it tried to gather mana around itself for protection.

The Mana Mantle spell that it was using had been degenerating even before being hit by the holy trap and was quickly fading away. The moment the monster’s bones were exposed to this divine energy it wouldn’t take that long for it to suffer critical damage.

He was surprised at just how well his hastily constructed plan had worked. First, he placed the dummy traps around the forest to make the monster drop its defenses. If it convinced itself that it could detect any tricks then it would have been easy to make it walk into one. This he achieved by creating this new buried invention that had been hidden from sight.

The glow and runic symbols started slowly burning through the hidden soil. Under the monster's feet was a large plate of metal. It had been magically welded together from many other plates and connected to his underground generator along with empyrean crystals that were the power source of this improved Undead Ward spell.

Usually, this spell was used to ward undead creatures away by creating a shield that they wouldn’t be able to transverse. However, with a few alterations and an undead being stuck inside it would be like tossing a person into an active furnace. Before his eyes he could see the tier 3 Lich burning up, his bones were starting to crack and all movement was impossible.

The biggest problem was actually figuring out the wavelength of the divine spells and maximizing the output to this extent. The divine crystals were finite and he couldn’t ask for many more from Arthur as they needed them for the city defenses. If the undead made it inside the city there were holy weapons waiting for them and some of them did require those rare gems to work.

Following that he also needed to safeguard the trap from being found out. Usually, magical traps were easily detectable by a person with a high enough mana sense. With how the monster Lich had one that overshadowed his own, he needed to find a reasonable countermeasure. This was actually a lot easier than he initially expected as he just used the area the trap was in.

A magical workshop like this had all sorts of magical devices lying and working around. It wasn’t that hard to mask the large cage among the vast quantity of magical patterns everywhere. The monster would not be able to pinpoint anything when everything was giving out a strong mana signature. Even less considering he had purposely given the other traps a unique wavelength to throw everything off. Then with the help of the enraged status, the whole thing came together nicely.

‘This output isn’t as strong as that of the mana cannon but it’s doing a lot more damage to this monster.’

It was actually a little anticlimactic to see the monster crawling on the ground. It turned from something on the level of an abyssal monster to nothing in the spawn of a few seconds. The weakness of divine energies like this was truly tremendous. A human being or most monsters would not really feel anything besides a warm glow when going inside this cage. The Lich on the other hand was quickly evaporating.

With this revelation, Roland glanced and examined the magical device that was somewhat holding together. Even though this would probably end the monster he needed to make sure that it didn’t crumble on itself. It was still an experimental trial product that was hastily put together by someone that wasn’t even a tier 3 craftsman. Only thanks to the monster's susceptibility to an elemental type was all of this possible.

‘I expected it to put up a fight at least, I didn’t even need to reinforce all these wires…’

It did seem a bit too easy, Roland had expected the monster to at least trash around the cage like a maddened beast. He was ready to inject more mana into the magical runes or even be forced to attack it with regular spells but none of this would be needed. It was clearly unable to handle all of this divine energy.

The only explanation he could come up with was that either the divine crystals that Arthur gave him were of exceptional quality or he made some strides with his emulation technology. At this point, he didn’t know that much but with the help of his runic eyes, he was somewhat able to alter the mana composition to gain something similar.

This emulated divine energy was mixed into the system to give it more juice and perhaps it was this new technology step that sealed the deal. After this was all over he needed to perfect the system and perhaps he would be able to integrate healing runes into his armor. Of course, he would need to hide this fact from the church or at least mask this deed by inserting an empyrean crystal into the suit. If they got weary he could just point to it being the source of the spells instead.

“Awoooo!”

However, his dreams of a glorious future were interrupted by a loud howl from his trusted companion. There was one thing that he forgot to monitor during this whole predicament. Before the Lich tossed itself toward the forest to follow after the first spider drone and then Agni it made some orders. It didn’t truly come alone as there was one monster following behind it.

Roland couldn’t really help it as his monitoring system wasn’t perfect. He had to relay all of his workshop power toward the forward cannons and focus on the monster that was before him. His technology was still in its infancy and there was a limitation to how it operated.

This was due to the signals these devices sent out which could be interrupted by an abundance of mana in the surroundings. Considering his workshop had become a battlefield with magical effects it wasn’t strange that his mapping device could update in time. Even now he couldn’t see the red dot in the correct place which was right in front of the gate.

It emerged to save its creator, rushing through the melted gate and creating an even larger opening than before. The monster was the same type that he had blown up before down in the dungeon that looked like a skeleton belonging to a gorilla. Its frame was a lot larger than its masters but it still wasn’t as strong as the Lich. While it wouldn’t last in the cage covered in holy energy this wasn’t what it was planning or in this case what its master had ordered it to do.

The monster rushed inside and its body began to instantly be affected by the enhanced holy spell. Roland wasn’t sure why it decided to send its creature inside the trap instead of ordering it to attack it from outside. Perhaps the Lich’s mind was at its end or it didn’t know if that was a possibility. Instead, it went for a direct approach of yanking the Lich out of the cage through the hole in the gate.

“Shit!”

Roland shouted while grasping the glowing cables with both his hands. The divine mana of the trap would affect the other monster and be also able to kill it. The problem was that it already jumped from the other side and the momentum could not be stopped. The only way he could stop this was by increasing the output of this cage as there was not enough time to send another spell to keep the other monster away.

He had been caught off guard as he was patting himself on the back. The victory was so close but he had perhaps squandered it all. The radiance of all the mana here had caused him to be unable to see the incoming monster. If he was just able to keep it from entering the cage for a few more seconds the Lich would be done for and along with it all of its minions.

Instead, he could see a blurry image of the black skeleton approaching the kneeling Lich that had lost parts of its body. The obsidian skeleton was disintegrating right before him but it wasn’t fast enough and overloading the cage wasn’t enough. The last thing he saw before the light exploded everywhere was a large skeletal hand reaching towards the Lich, grabbing it, and promptly hurling it towards the only existing exit…