I became a legion lich

114 Patriarch

The soldiers had already been reduced to less than 10 and Athos decided he didn’t need to play around. He dodged an aura fist aimed at his head and ran towards the mine entrance.

The ogre roared in annoyance, Athos was simply too fast to keep up. He thought for a moment about undoing his transformation to regain his speed, but chose not to. His energy has already dropped to 70% and he still hasn’t landed a single hit, so reducing his destructive power wasn’t an option right now.

Athos managed to get into the metal mine, almost immediately bumping into a mining cart being pushed around by a minotaur, but it slashed his chest and kept running.

The ogre outside thought about what to do and undid the gigantification, before continuing to pursue Athos. The few soldiers left behind started running for their lives the moment Athos was out of sight.

They didn’t dare turn their backs on him because they knew they would die instantly if they did, but now that he’s gone, nothing can stop them. The soldiers still watched out for the two hawk skeletons in the hives, so they spread out to increase their chances of survival. The hive hawk would have the advantage of flight, but it could hardly kill them all.

That’s what they believed and that’s why they despaired of the next action. A black mist spread from the hive hawk onto the mutilated corpses and turned them into black skeletons. The corpses were in bad shape, but there were dozens of them.

Athos had ordered the hive hawks to get rid of the remaining soldiers while he dealt with the ogre in the mines and that was what they were doing. The broken skeletons clung to the fleeing soldiers and knocked them to the ground, before stabbing them with their weapons.

The soldiers tried to escape, but after one skeleton clung to them, five more would jump on them and that would be the end. Three soldiers managed to escape with minimal injuries, but the skeletons pursued them.

No matter how much the soldiers ran, they could not overcome the undead’s infinite endurance. Skeletons were also faster than when they were alive, so the soldiers didn’t get very far.

.....

After making sure all the soldiers were dead, the hive hawks focused on the half-dead ogre on the ground and paralyzed orcs near the chariot. The orcs tried to fight the moment the fight started, but their orders were only to load the chariot.

The hive hawks informed Athos that they had already finished the soldiers and Athos sent incomplete spells for them to finish the enemies. fireballs and blades of wind rained down on the demihumans.

*******

Athos did not run long after entering the mines. Once he confirmed that the ogre had reduced his size, he turned and ran at the ogre, aiming for his knee with his sword. There was no other choice, as he could barely reach the ogre’s waist.

The ogre let the attack hit, relying on the bronze body skill and tried to crush the skeleton’s head with a point-blank fist aura.

Athos conjured a fireball in front of hisbody and detonated, propelling himself backward and avoiding the blow by a hair. The cold air still chilled her bones, making her take two steps back to gain distance.

The ogres possessed an ability derived from gigantification, called the elemental ability. They could draw the elements abundant in the world’s energy into their abilities, creating the inferior version of hybrid abilities with magic.

On the one hand, his attacks would receive special effects, but on the other, the effects would depend on the environment and the ogre would not have control, so it was an unreliable ability.

Athos looked at the wound in the ogro leg and frowned dissatisfied. The cut wasn’t serious and it was barely bleeding.

‘Tch. The sword manages to cut him, but if I get too close, he’ll crush me. His range is much greater than mine, so it’s better to distract him with melee attacks and deal damage with magic.’ Athos assessed the enemy and decided.

‘Weak but fast skeleton. It’s like a light rat. I need to make him stand still.’ The ogre also sized him up. But in a slightly more simplistic way.

The ogre roared again and ran towards Athos, using his knife-like hands to fire blades of aura this time. He didn’t try to hit Athos directly, but tried to cut off his escape routes while trying to crush him with his body.

Athos retreated at the same speed as the ogre advanced, blocking the aura’s blades with his own sword. He cast spells and waited for the right moment to cast, sending some when the hawks in the hive asked.

The ogre felt his own mana dry up quickly and began to sweat, feeling threatened. He stopped wasting precious mana in vain and slammed both his fists against the ground, using the heavy strike skill.

Cracks spread across the floor as the entire mine shook, dust and debris falling from the ceiling. The earth element in the skill caused a small earthquake that threatened to bury them both alive.

“You crazy motherfucker!” Athos yelled angrily, hurling his sword at the ogre’s forehead, but the latter just turned his head to the side and dodged. The sword plunged into the ceiling and seemed firmly stuck.

The ogre laughed at what he thought was panic on Athos’ face, but could only bow his head in confusion as the skeleton began to laugh. Athos pointed his right arm at the ogre’s head, and only then did the latter realize that his hand was nowhere to be seen.

Black lightning flashed from his severed wrist and made the ogre go on alert, but a whirring noise came from behind and a bolt of lightning struck him in the back of the head.

Athos had thrown his own hand along with his sword, so he could use his lightning connection spell. The second bolt struck the ogre in the middle of the forehead a second later, frying what was left of its brain and killing it instantly.

‘Ufa. That was a good workout for when we travel to the demihuman empire. It’s not often you get the chance to face an ogre face to face. Athos thought with satisfaction, before turning to the tunnels and yelling. “How about you guys stop sneaking around and revealing yourself altogether? Or would you rather I force you to reveal yourself?”

For a few seconds there was only silence in the tunnels, but then the sound of footsteps was heard. Dozens of shadows emerged from the tunnels and revealed themselves to him. Athos had only entered the surface of the mines, but it seems that there were several tunnels that split like a labyrinth.

Orcs, goblins, minotaurs, and kobolds appeared, carrying pickaxes and wearing rags for clothing. They were weak and thin, but their faces were resolute. The slave collar was gone, only the mark on their necks was still visible.

Athos conjured lightning and was about to kill them, when all the demihumans fell to the ground. Athos froze not knowing what to do, the lightning fading from his hands.

“What are you doing?” he asked after some time had passed and the demihumans had given no signs of getting up. One of the female minotaurs raised her head just enough to look into Athos’ eye sockets, but refused to get up.

“We are the only ones alive in these mines. All our clans have been destroyed and we are all that remains. We were captured by humans and forced to work like cattle, just waiting to die while we were forced to watch our peers die uselessly at the hands of humans, only for more of us to be brought here to suffer the same fate.” The female minotaur spoke the human language perfectly, making Athos’ jaw nearly drop to the floor.

She was actually the matriarch of a minotaur clan, but most of her people were wiped out. She was sent to the mines over 5 years ago and saw all the minotaurs she considered family die of starvation, exhaustion or just because one of the humans was bored and wanted to torture one of them for fun.

“But you freed us. You killed all the humans who held us and released the leash that held us captive. I owe you my life and I intend to join you and follow you in your every step.” The female minotaur spoke and bowed once more, banging her forehead on the ground until the tips of her horns were buried, a minotaur’s greatest form of submission.

“Err... I think you’re confusing some things. I didn’t come here to save you, I came here to kill you all. It’s weird to kill you all while bowing to me, so mind trying to fight back or at least try to run away?” Athos asked uncomfortably.

“We have already decided to serve you, patriarch. Nothing can change our decision.” The female minotaur spoke resolutely, not even blinking when Athos mentioned killing them all.

“Listen, I’ll make you serve me, but only after I kill you. I’m an undead, I can’t let the living serve me, but you’ll still serve me after I kill you.” Athos tried to convince her, but the female minotaur seemed to have come to a strange conclusion.

“I see, the patriarch is an undead, so we need to die in order to join you, don’t we?” The female minotaur came to a conclusion and before Athos could say anything, she turned around and started yelling something in a language Athos didn’t understand.

A light of understanding spread through all the demihumans and they took any sharp tools or stones they could find before committing suicide.