"That one there... doesn't seem to be one of the Empire's."
"No matter how you look at it, it isn't human."
At first, both Grandpa and I had thought our opponent was a human mage, but the moment I saw what was beneath the cloak that fluttered up in the swirling wind, I understood at once that this was no person.
"Is that one the
Li
ch
that you and Jeanne said you ran into in the 'Forest of the Elders'
?"
"No,
th
at
one and this one are different individuals, I think. They're both Liches, so I can't tell the finer differences, but the aura is clearly not the same."
The Lich back then had been eerie too, but the one standing before me now gave off a level of eeriness on an entirely different plane. I was certain that this one was both more frightening and more powerful.
"Grandpa, I'm going to charge in, so cover me. But since we don't know what this thing can do, keep plenty of distance—you don't have to force yourself to support me."
"Mm, understood. Tenma, do be careful. Of all the foes I've encountered, that one is the most unsettling. The nasty feeling it gives off is a lot like the Dragon Zombie's, too."
It seemed Grandpa felt the same way I did. For now there was nothing like the Dragon Zombie's intimidating presence, but given that it hadn't let us sense it at all until it blew away my 'Firestorm,' there was a high chance it was still suppressing its presence.
"And Grandpa... if the worst comes to pass, I'm counting on you to get Primera and the others to safety."
If I were to lose here, then even if that Lich had dealt heavy damage to the horde of zombies, it would likely march on the royal capital anyway—reasoning that since one of the two
cul
prits
responsible
for
that
damage
was no longer around, there was nothing to stop it. It had outmaneuvered the allied army of Margrave Haust and the others, so it surely had at least that much intelligence.
"Stop talking nonsense and go scatter them already! And then the two of us shall bring Primera and the rest good news!"
"That's right. If we're going to report anything, it had better be a victory."
Hearing his words, I resolved not to think about the worst-case scenarios. Because of the presence so like the Lich of the 'Forest of the Elders' and the Dragon Zombie, I'd apparently gone timid without even noticing.
"Exactly! Now off you go!"
Pushed forward by Grandpa, I pulled out Kogarasumaru and charged straight at the Lich.
"..........."
Whether the Lich was surprised by my charge or had anticipated it exactly, I couldn't tell, but it clacked its jaws as though speaking. And in the next instant, as if to match me, it drew a great scythe
from somewhere
. Just like the Lich of the 'Forest of the Elders,' I had assumed this would become an exchange of magic, so it caught me off guard that the Lich before me, seeing Kogarasumaru, took a stance to counter me with
brute force
instead.
"More than a Lich, it's like the 'Grim Reaper' from a story... though it hasn't a shred of the charm of the real 'God
of
Death
'."
I ended up muttering things like that to myself—not out of composure, but because if I stayed silent I felt I'd lose to the Lich's eeriness and go timid.
It was my first time fighting an opponent wielding a scythe, but since my own weapon was the shorter one, I'd slip in close the same as I always did against foes with long weapons... but,
(It blocked me! Its reactions are better than I thought!)
It parried me with the shaft of its scythe. And it wasn't merely a block—even though I'd taken its back at point-blank range and struck with even greater speed, the Lich reacted firmly to that single blow.
(And it's strong, too.)
With my attack blocked, we ended up shoving against each other in midair, and though it had a body of bone, the force the Lich pressed with was so strong I couldn't fathom where it came from—let my guard down and I'd have been overpowered outright. That state continued for several seconds, and then—
"Ugh! Damn it!"
The instant I thought the pressing force had eased for a moment, the Lich spun its body around and brought the scythe down. It was an attack method that seemed almost reckless, but the rotation was fast, and with the weight of the scythe itself added in, that single blow carried considerable heft and sharpness.
Had my reaction been even a fraction slower, the scythe's blade would have cut my body clean in two, but at the very last moment I managed to catch the blade with Kogarasumaru. Still, because I'd received the attack from a forced posture, I was knocked flying toward the ground and left momentarily defenseless.
"I won't let you!"
The Lich was about to press its attack on me in that state, but Grandpa loosed a spell between me and the Lich, so it broke off its attack and pulled back to gain distance.
And then the Lich, now turning its body toward Grandpa—
"It dodged that?!"
—dodged every 'Air Bullet' I fired in rapid succession, and turned its body back toward me again.
"It moves fast, too!"
Perhaps intending to settle things in close combat rather than with magic, the Lich came swooping down on me all at once from above. With the speed of the fall added in, had I reacted even a moment later I might have taken a fatal blow. Perhaps, even in its normal state, it was close to my top speed.
(It still hasn't used magic... but I'd better assume its physical abilities are equal to mine, or better.)
I dodged the Lich's attack and threw in a counterblow, but it was blocked, and the exchange continued from there—neither of us landing anything decisive.
Why the Lich wasn't using magic was a mystery, but since I didn't know its true strength, I was grateful if it kept refraining. Well, it was more than plausible it would use magic at the most effective moment, and because the close combat kept dragging on, Grandpa—relegated to support duty this whole time—was unable to cast and just kept circling, keeping his distance with me and the Lich at the center.
(Its expression never changes, so I can't read its attacks...)
It was a monster in the shape of a skeleton, so it had no such thing as an expression, and because of that I couldn't read any shift in its emotions. That said, it occasionally clacked its jaws, so it didn't seem that emotion was entirely absent. But even if emotion wasn't absent, it meant nothing if I couldn't read it, and though we were fighting evenly now, at this rate I'd eventually start being pushed back.
"(What do I do? Pull back for now, or press all at once...) Damn it!"
That momentary hesitation must have been my mistake. The Lich seized on that instant's lapse in my attack and grabbed the arm holding Kogarasumaru.
(
It sneered
?!)
Whether it was sneering at me for letting my guard down mid-battle, or laughing in certainty of its victory, I couldn't tell—but here, for the first time, the Lich laid its emotions bare.
"You bastard!"
Seeing that eerie grin up close, I felt a foreboding worse than being cut by the scythe, and on a desperate gamble I threw my whole body into a tackle. The Lich hadn't anticipated this attack either. It stopped its eerie sneer and tried to bring the scythe down, but faster than that, I threw my weight forward, gained momentum, and kept driving the Lich back. As a result,
"Gwah!"
carried away by the momentum, I plowed the Lich and myself straight into the horde of zombies. Because I'd just kept shoving without thinking, our altitude had dropped before I noticed, and we'd caught up to the horde of zombies that had fallen quite a ways back.
From the impact of plowing into the horde, the Lich rolled across the ground scattering zombies aside, while I was flung up into the air. Luckily, the impact of the collision had been greatly cushioned by the zombies, and though my whole body ached, I seemed to have gotten off with nothing worse than bruises and a light fracture. And then—
"Tenma, pull back!"
As if he'd been waiting for this, Grandpa began loosing spells at the Lich buried in the horde of zombies.
"Use recovery magic while you can! Between your attack and this magic, I honestly don't think that Lich is going to drop dead!"
Grandpa said this even as he kept unleashing spells without pause. An ordinary monster, slammed into the ground and then pelted with dozens of Grandpa's spells, couldn't possibly stay alive, let alone keep its shape—but if that Lich was a being beyond the one that appeared in the 'Forest of the Elders'... something close to a Dragon Zombie, even... then I couldn't imagine an assault like that would finish it.
"Grandpa, I can't see through the smoke anymore, so back off a little more!"
Having healed my wounds with recovery magic, I hurried over to Grandpa's side and pulled back, staying wary of our surroundings.
"So then, what's become of that Lich?"
"My magic still won't catch it like always, so I can't tell where it is or what state it's in... but I don't get the feeling it's dead."
If it were an opponent I could defeat with something like that, the Lich of the 'Forest of the Elders' could have been beaten with 'Tempest' alone, and while the spell Grandpa had just loosed was powerful too, if asked whether it exceeded the might of 'Tempest,' the answer was no.
"Tenma, can't you use 'Tempest' or 'Takemikazuchi'?"
"I can cast them, sure, but against that Lich I think there's a high chance it'll dodge. Missing wouldn't be so bad, but I think it's likely to exploit the opening that forms before and after the spell."
The power of 'Takemikazuchi' might work on that Lich, but high-powered spells required a fair amount of preparation and left large openings afterward, and if that were exploited, there'd be nothing to be done. What's more, it was only that there was a
possib
il
ity
of defeating it—and since I couldn't call it certain, taking the gamble at this point was far too dangerous.
"Then it's no good. A finishing blow only has meaning if it lands for certain... Tenma, it survived after all."
"Its cloak got blown off, and from the look of it it's taken some damage... but it doesn't seem to be a fatal wound."
Sure enough, the surviving Lich emerged from the smoke, now stripped of the cloak that had concealed its body. If even one of its arms or legs had been blown off, we might have won by continuing to fire off spells with Grandpa, but from the look of it its bones had suffered no major damage. At most, part of it was probably chipped.
"With it like that, it seems the collision and the magic both had little effect... and I'd had a fair bit of confidence in my magic, you know."
"The collision with the ground should have carried quite an impact, too... enough that if I'd made one wrong move, I'd have been the one flattened."
While we were putting up such a brave front, the Lich moved its limbs, checking the condition of its body. Clearly, we hadn't even dealt half the damage we'd hoped for.
Whether it was deliberately showing us an opening, or making a display that it was perfectly fine, I couldn't tell, but the Lich's behavior was unnatural. Because of that, neither Grandpa nor I could move carelessly.
However, in the midst of checking its body's condition, the Lich for some reason suddenly stopped moving—in a way that felt even more unnatural than anything before it.
"Grandpa... doesn't that Lich look sort of flustered to you?"
"It does. Perhaps something unforeseen has happened to it... a remarkably
hum
an
-lik
e
movement."
As if its poker face until now had been a lie, a wavering of emotion could be read off the Lich. It had been eerie when it grabbed my arm and sneered, but a flustered Lich like this was eerie too.
"Could it be, because the horde of zombies has thinned out too much?"
Thinking it over, the Lich had appeared at the very moment I'd tried to wipe out even more zombies with a second 'Firestorm,' and if the reason it clung so stubbornly to close combat was that it disliked the zombies' numbers dropping in an exchange of magic—then, while some things still nagged at me, it made a certain amount of sense.
"I can't say whether that's the answer, but it may be worth a try... Tenma! From here on it's a magic battle!"
"Got it! I'll keep the Lich occupied just like before, so Grandpa, you support me while aiming for the zombies!"
It was only a slight change to how we'd been fighting, so it wasn't especially burdensome, nor did it raise the danger. If anything, it might prove a help in cracking the Lich, and here at last, I felt our morale—Grandpa's and mine—rise for the first time since the battle with the Lich had begun.
"Well then, let's have at it... take that!"
When Grandpa loosed a spell toward the horde of zombies, the Lich tried to loose a spell at Grandpa to stop him, but—
"Too rattled to remember I'm here?"
—before it could, I slammed a halberd into the flank of the Lich that had looked away.
"You looked fine, but it turns out you were just bluffing!"
It seemed the damage from the collision and the magic had actually been accumulating, and with a single blow of the halberd I managed to shatter several of the Lich's ribs. That it had been a surprise attack surely helped, but seeing clearly visible damage for the first time lifted my spirits. That said, the Lich seemed to have no sense of pain, and to my disappointment it showed no sign of writhing in agony even with its ribs pulverized.
"Keep fixating on Grandpa, and your own body's going to break!"
Even when attacked, the Lich seemed more concerned with Grandpa, and though it avoided fatal wounds, it was left open to attack at will.
"Nuo-ryaaaa—! Burn hotter, won't you—!"
As for Grandpa, while staying wary of the Lich, he kept loosing spells at the horde of zombies. Thanks to that, the horde of zombies dwindled before our eyes, shrinking in no time from half to about a third of its size. If this were a human army, it wouldn't be strange for it to be judged annihilated... but our opponent was zombies, so ideally we wanted to bury them all rather than settle for a judgment.
Grandpa seemed to understand that too, mounting his attacks without letting up. At that rate, it might be that Grandpa's stamina or magic would run out before the zombies did.
"You've weakened quite a bit yourself, so I'll just take this win!"
For my part, I pressed the Lich without easing up in the slightest, and at last succeeded in breaking one of its arms. But in the next instant—
"You think I'll let you get away?!"
—the Lich suddenly turned its back and began to flee. Distracted by having broken the Lich's arm, I was a moment too slow to react. Perhaps the Lich had deliberately sacrificed its own arm in order to flee this place.
"Grandpa, the Lich is running! Be careful!"
When I called out while chasing the Lich, Grandpa broke off his attack for the moment and moved to keep his distance from the Lich's path.
"It stopped?"
"For something that fled to suddenly stop like that, it may be plotting something... In any case, there's no mistaking it's weakened. If we're going to strike, now's the time."
It was eerie that the Lich, having fled at the cost of its own arm, had stopped at a half-hearted position, but what Grandpa said was reasonable too—even if it was plotting something, rather than carelessly giving it time to recover, crushing the Lich, scheme and all, was a viable way to fight. If anything, if we didn't finish it now while it was weakened, there was a dread in not knowing what that Lich might pull off. And if we let it escape here and it fully recovered, next time it would surely come at me with all its strength from the very start, out to kill me.
"Understood. Then let's go all at once... huh?"
Just as I was about to loose a spell together with Grandpa, a black
haze
-like thing appeared from behind the Lich. The haze seemed to be coming out of the zombies, and the zombies that had stopped emitting the haze crumbled where they stood.
The haze, which looked almost like the souls of the zombies, did not simply vanish into the air but was drawn one after another into the Lich.
"Tenma... its arm and wounds are healing..."
The Lich that had absorbed the haze had its previously shattered arm regenerate, and the wounds all over its body closed up, giving off an ominousness that was back to its original... no, greater even than at the very start.
"I don't understand the logic, but there's no doubt it's healing with that haze! Its magic seems to be rising too, and at this rate it'll become unmanageable!"
"Grandpa, buy me just a little time! I'm going to use 'Tempest'!"
"Understood!"
To delay the time it took the Lich to absorb the haze even a little, Grandpa began pounding spells not only into the Lich but into the haze as well. But whether the spells had little effect on the Lich, he couldn't budge it from the spot, and while the haze was scattered somewhat by the magic, it didn't seem to be vanishing completely.
"Tenma, it's coming!"
"Grandpa, shield yourself beneath me! ...'Tempest'!"
Once the Lich had finished absorbing all the haze, it slowly turned its gaze toward me. From the fact that there wasn't a single wound on its body, either Grandpa's magic hadn't worked, or its recovery speed had outpaced the damage the magic dealt—one or the other.
The Lich, now presumably stronger than at the start, came at me raising its scythe almost the moment Grandpa moved beneath me.
"Looks like it made it just in time."
However, before the Lich could pounce on me, 'Tempest' activated, and the Lich slammed into the 'Tempest' that had suddenly appeared before it.
"It intends to break through?!"
Far from being repelled by hitting the 'Tempest,' the Lich didn't stop advancing, trying to force its way through. At this rate, it had enough momentum that it really might break through.
"Grandpa! I'm raising the power, so if it looks like you can't hold on, grab my leg or something!"
When I said that, Grandpa reacted at once and grabbed my leg.
"'Tempest F2'... 'F3.'"
The Lich I'd encountered in the 'Forest of the Elders' had been unable to withstand 'Tempest F3' and was swept up, but for this monster, worse than that one, I'd surely need to raise it another level.
"'Tempest F4.'"
In peak condition I could raise the power further, but in my current state, anything beyond this and my magic wouldn't hold.
"You're still hanging on..."
The Lich was enduring even the further-strengthened 'Tempest's' raging wind. Still, its momentum to break through had, as expected, been halted, and it looked to be desperately holding out on the spot.
I even considered raising it another level at the risk of self-destruction, but keeping it up as it was already taxed me, and there was a chance that raising it further would make 'Tempest' vanish the instant I did.
For now it was still a stalemate, but since my magic looked likely to run out before the Lich's stamina, a considerably disadvantageous situation was dragging on.
In the midst of that,
"Take this too!"
Grandpa hurled several knives at the Lich. Well, those knives got caught up in the 'Tempest' and most of them flew off somewhere... but just one of them passed right by the Lich.
"Grandpa! I'll hand you weapons I'm not using, so throw them however you like!"
"Understood... nuoh! Too heavy! I nearly got swept in!"
When I dropped straight down the barrel packed with all sorts of broken weapons—the one I'd put in my bag meaning to give to Kelly or Foreman Gantz—Grandpa lost his balance the instant he caught the barrel and nearly plunged into the 'Tempest.' Come to think of it, an armful-sized barrel stuffed full of weapons—that Grandpa could catch it at all was, in various ways, perhaps rather absurd.
"All right, take this!"
Grandpa threw himself into flinging the weapons, but after about ten throws—
"Bah, what a bother! Tenma, next one!"
—he said, and hurled the whole barrel, then demanded a refill.
I threw that refill, and again a refill, and threw again—repeating it—and when he was about to throw the fourth barrel, the weapons from around the third barrel struck the Lich. Since he was throwing the whole barrel, when they hit, dozens of weapons landed one after another.
The Lich's bones had a durability such that only a halberd swung with full force could just barely destroy them, but even broken-down weapons, when the might of 'Tempest' was added, seemed to put out destructive force close to a halberd's, and the spots where the weapons struck were left in tatters.
"This finishes it!"
Grandpa threw the barrel he was holding at roughly the same spot as the third, trying to deal the finishing blow to the Lich, but...
"It exploded?!"
Just before the weapons could hit, the Lich suddenly exploded and vanished from sight. I didn't know why it had exploded, but since the reason for the explosion was unclear, I decided to keep watching for the time being.
By the time more than ten minutes had passed since the Lich disappeared from view, maintaining 'Tempest' any longer had become painful, so I resolved to boldly release it.
If I released it, there was a chance the Lich, which had hidden itself, would come attacking, and moreover at the instant of release I'd be left with a rather large opening. So I decided to ask Grandpa to cover me at the moment of release.
"Grandpa, I'm going to release 'Tempest.' Three, two, one... release."
"Hm! ...Where did it go?"
The instant I released it, Grandpa moved in front of me and, keeping me at the center, circled around on watch for the Lich, but the Lich was nowhere to be seen.
I took a breath and searched for the Lich too, but it didn't seem to be anywhere within view. Still, that Lich could erase its presence, so the frightening part was that even if I couldn't find it with 'Search,' I couldn't declare it wasn't there.
"I can't sense even a zombie, let alone the Lich—how is it with your magic, Tenma?"
"Hold on a sec... it's true the Lich can't be found with magic from the start, but the zombies' presences have vanished too... at least, there don't seem to be any zombies within 'Search's' range."
"Could it be that the Lich collected the zombies and fled?"
"That's... no, it might be possible. That Lich started disliking having its zombies killed partway through, so there's a chance it fled while it was out of sight, away from the 'Tempest.'"
"Hmm... in that case, that explosion was set off both to force its way clear of the 'Tempest' and to escape the weapons I threw?"
"I think so. Rather than being hit by several weapons of that power, the damage from an explosion it set off itself would be less, and it could escape the 'Tempest' at the same time—so maybe that's why it did it. Besides, any damage it took from the explosion could be healed by absorbing the haze that came out of the zombies."
Various questions remained, but for now I thought it fair to assume the Lich had fled somewhere. Well, we still couldn't let our guard down, though.
"In any case, even if the Lich is in hiding, there's nothing to be done unless we recover at least some stamina and magic now. Tenma, let's pull way back for once. We'll land somewhere with a good view and rest."
Following Grandpa's suggestion, we landed on a low hill in the very middle of a grassland more than ten kilometers away from where we'd encountered the Lich, and took our rest... but even as the sun set, the night deepened, and morning came, not a single zombie showed itself, let alone the Lich.