CHAPTER 215: BOSS BATTLE

Everyone stood in formation in front of the giant doors. The camp was packed up, burning a hole in Cass’ bag, Vespertine was behind him, Lady Ava in front of him, and the three front liners were ready. There was a heavy sense of anticipation that filled the air, beating in Cass’ chest.

Fiona looked around, checking in with everyone before she nodded and Lord Ridgewood pushed open the door.

As soon as everyone had stepped into the space, several sconces began to illuminate the room. It happened in stages, each one lighting up in pairs on either side of the room. It felt like stepping into a set as each set of lights on either side of the room lit up in sync. All they needed was the harsh sound of a giant light turning on, a big bang to truly imitate it. They didn’t have that, which made the lights even more eerie.

The main structure of the room was so similar to the two other rooms that they had encountered with mini bosses and the chest, that it took Cass a moment to realise what was different about this room.

At the back edge, the spot that took the longest to illuminate, was a throne. It wasn’t on the ground either. It was elevated, raised up by several stone steps, sitting on a stone brick platform that matched the rest of the dungeon’s build. It would have been completely normal if looking in that direction had Cass’ blood going cold.

He shivered. It was what was sitting on the throne that made him feel this way. Staring at the decaying corpse that was sitting there, Cass felt an overwhelming wave of the energy that filled this dungeon. It had a crown on its head, and unlike the previous bodies that they had seen, the clothes it wore looked...fresh? That was the best Cass could explain it.

The crown looked crusty, deteriorating. Like there were several stains and a lot of time that had passed. The clothes? Fresh. A brand new cape trimmed in white fur with a deep, intoxicating purple fabric. It was almost comical, if Cass didn’t feel like his teeth were going to chatter out of his mouth from the sudden cold that filled him.

"That’s the boss." Cass muttered quietly and watched as everyone else tensed. Cass knew what this was. It was probably a Lich. That hadn’t been listed in the book, but then again, they only saw zombies as undead. They had a lot to learn.

"Why isn’t it moving?" Lady Ava asked and Cass hesitated.

"It’s...going to activate when we get closer." Cass whispered and Fiona whipped her head to him, as did everyone else.

"You know what that is?" She asked, her tone unaccusing but that didn’t make Cass feel any better. That didn’t mean everyone was unaccusing. Lord Ridgewood’s gaze burned into him.

"Uh, maybe? It might be something completely different." Cass said quietly and Fiona stared at him.

"Okay. What do you think it is?" She asked and Cass hesitated before he sighed.

"It’s a Lich. A type of undead. Usually a powerful mage in their past life that wanted to surpass gods and so...turned themselves into undead. Usually able to summon an undead army and use magic." Cass said and Fiona stared at him, her jaw slightly ajar before she slammed it closed.

"We’re keeping the same plan. Lucian is the best at dealing with magic up close and personal. Do you know their weakness, Cass?" Fiona asked and Cass flinched.

"I’m sorry. I don’t remember." Cass mumbled. He really couldn’t remember. He would have told her since that would get him out of this damn hellhole, but he was drawing a blank. "Maybe their skull? They usually have...something that ties them to the mortal plane. Some used...ugh, I can’t remember. I’m sorry." Cass apologised and Fiona looked at him, before she smiled.

"No need to apologise. You gave us a lot more information then what we had before. Alright. Is everyone ready?" Fiona asked and the others nodded.

They began to move forward.

They got about halfway before the lich woke up.

A loud, piercing scream filled the air that had everyone going down, especially Cass, Vespertine and Lucian. With their heightened hearing, it was even more awful. Vespertine waved his hand, casting some kind of dampening spell that Cass couldn’t even think of through the pain radiating through his head.

Lord Ridgewood helped him and Vespertine to the side, while Lady Ava and Fiona helped Lucian. It was just in time too, since the spot where they had been standing was flooded with undead that crawled out of the ground.

"Holy shit. Good call there, Cass." Fiona muttered, her eyes wide before they narrowed. "Lucian, are you good to continue?" Lucian looked pissed as he shook himself off.

"Oh hell yeah. How dare that skeleton hurt me like that?" Lucian growled, not even human at this point, as smoke began to billow out of his nostrils. Lord Ridgewood didn’t even glance at him as the two men made their way towards the throne. Fiona turned towards the undead that were beginning to stumble towards them and Cass was finally able to get his bearings as Lady Ava raised her hand, her eyes glowing with her powers as she began to assist.

Cass waved his hand and before Fiona could move, a giant ball of fire descended onto the undead, their screams muffled rather quickly as they burnt to a crisp.

Cass sniffed.

"It would have been great if I could have done that this whole time." Cass muttered bitterly as Fiona and Lady Ava stared at him. "What?" He asked and Fiona snorted, before she started laughing.

"You aren’t supposed to be able to do that, Cass. Only Lady Ava is supposed to be able to get rid of the undead." Cass knew that. He was sure that she would have to make sure that they were really dead. Fiona could tell from Cass’ expression that he wasn’t getting it and she shook her head, snorting. "You’ll understand in a minute. Edgar, you use fire magic next wave, alright? I think our little demon doesn’t understand how powerful he is." She teased and Cass felt his face warm.

He hadn’t expected her to use his secret so affectionately, and it was clear that it surprised the others as well. They seemed surprised, before both of their expressions softened. The two who were from the Vespertine family. The temple by proxy. Honestly, they should be treating him the same way that Lord Ridgewood was, but when he looked at Lady Ava, she didn’t seem upset at all.

In fact, it looked like she was viewing this as a challenge.

"How about we scratch that, and see how many I can get and how many Cass can get?" She proposed and Fiona glanced back at her. She furrowed her brows.

"Are you sure? What if-"

"I can do it, Fiona!" Lady Ava said firmly. "I’ve been training. This would be good practise." She told her and Fiona glanced at her, before glancing at Cass.

"You do understand that you two are the weakest in our party, right?" She said carefully, cautiously. "It doesn’t leave a good taste in my mouth if you two compete and then both collapse after." She wasn’t even paying attention to the fact that Lord Ridgewood was engaging in a fight with a screaming, undead hurling lich behind her.

Instead she was arguing with her former? Lover. It was almost funny. Would have been truly funny if Cass wasn’t aware that they were in a Boss battle and he had to participate in it.

"Lady Ava, we don’t need to get into a competition right now. We need to be focusing on what’s coming at us right now. Like a wave of undead." Cass said and Fiona and Lady Ava turned. Vespertine chuckled.

"Who’d ever think we’d see the day where Cass was lecturing you two on Boss room practises?" He teased and Fiona flushed.

"Shut up Edgar." Her tone had a bit too much of a bite to it, and Vespertine just shrugged, going back to what he was doing.

~

It was a long, grueling process.

Cass should have realised that this was going to take a while. He had no idea why he thought it was only going to take like, half an hour, max. Nope. Hours.

That was why the front liners had to tag out who was antagonising the lich. Fiona and Lord Ridgewood tagged out, but Lucian kept dealing damage. Mainly because he was able to counter the spells that the lich threw his way.

He was pissed. Still pissed from when it had screeched when they had first come in. It was no surprise, after the ground was littered with holes from undead popping out of it, corpses, burnt and otherwise everywhere, the Lucian was the one who dealt the final blow.

It was the cape. The cape was the weak point of the damn lich. Cass should have known. It was too pretty, too well kept for it to be anything else, and once Lucian had set it afire, the death screams of the lich filled the room.

The room fell silent, the sounds of heavy breathing filling the air before an unholy, or holy light descended from the ceiling and a chest plopped down next to the Boss. Cass was surprised to find out that was how it worked.

It was certainly...eccentric that was for sure. Whoever had designed it to happen that way was...a character.

Fiona let out a relieved sigh, Lady Ava looked...okay, actually. She seemed to be holding up a lot better than before, and even Vespertine and Lord Ridgewood looked okay. Lucian looked tired, but victorious.

He spun, turning towards Fiona.

"Let’s get this chest open and out of here. I can hear Cassian’s teeth chattering from here."