I became a legion lich

83 Cutting the good in the bud

Athos gave an evil smile when he finally realized. “You can’t use all your power, can you? There’s something wrong with your body preventing you from fighting at all.”

His voice was amplified by wind magic and spread across the battlefield, making Treevor frown, even though his wooden face should have been unable to do so.

This reaction was all Athos needed to know, before ordering the skeletons to resume their advance. Now that the real fight would begin.

Treevor tried to refute him, but his body was out of energy and he needed to save as much as possible for the fight. He hesitated whether to use the amber gem or not, but chose not to. The willow was already recovering, draining the light element from the environment to recover.

‘I just need a few seconds to recover!’ Treevor thought, feeling his wooden body weakened by the lack of energy starting to return to normal. He turned the cannon into a whip again, determined to keep the undead at bay long enough to recover.

Unfortunately for him. the undead were already closer than he thought.

A 20-foot stone spike grew out of the ground near the stem, hitting Treevor’s unprotected right side where his ribs should have been. The light element in his body was in short supply, so the whip’s regeneration was slow.

The thorn pierced his side, causing white sap to spurt in place of blood and showing how weakened Treevor was currently. Treevor frowned as he wrapped the broken whip around the thorn before twisting, breaking in half.

He was about to throw the broken thorn into the skeleton army, when a skeleton jumped out of the thorn. Caio had conjured the stone thorn and purposely made it hollow, so he could surprise Treevor.

.....

Caio drew a sword and stabbed Treevor to steady his fall, before throwing a glass bottle and a half-open leather bag into the hole made by the thorn, before using the impulse ability to kick Treevor’s body and back away, the whip of Treevor hitting at the spot where he was a second later.

Treevor’s whip shattered the glass bottle and leather bag, causing an explosion in the wound itself and worsening the damage. The bottle’s slime acid was vaporized in the explosion, creating a corrosive fog inside his body.

“You bastard!” Treevor screamed in panic, trying to crush Caio with his whip, but the latter used the acceleration skill and retreated away. The hole in his side was smoking white smoke and refusing to heal. Treevor transformed the broken whip into a bark shield and covered the hole as a makeshift shield to prevent further damage.

Treevor easily crushed the approaching undead with his remaining whip, but remained vigilant, keeping one eye on Athos and the other on Caio. That was why he was slow to react to the attack from above.

A dozen arrow imbued weapon break rained down on his body from above, before exploding against his body, blasting several holes at once. Treevor looked back, seeing a unit of skeleton archers in the distance led by Halt.

Athos had gathered all the experienced mana users into two archer units and placed them at opposite ends of the hole. The unit led by the captain of the guard had been obliterated by the light cannon, but Halt’s unit had not suffered any damage.

To make Treevor’s situation worse, the skill’s corrupted mana seeped into his body, rotting his wounds. Normally the light flowing through the willow would have purified the darkness, but it had taken so much damage that what little light element in the willow couldn’t keep up.

Treevor was now so slow that even the slowest of skeletons could keep up with his movements. In desperation, Treevor decided to release the amber energy, even at the risk of the gem cracking. He decided it was better to cut the damage before it was too late.

The amber eye of Treevor’s real body began to glow before sending half of its energy into the center of the wooden body. The amber energy quickly solidified into a gem, before sending pulses of energy throughout the willow tree. The various wounds caused by the arrows healed in an instant, the darkness being purified without resistance.

Treevor conjured a light layer of ice into the hole in its side, preventing the acid from corroding the willow and allowing the amber energy to repair it. His broken whip remained the same, but only because Treevor prioritized healing more important areas.

His body was filled with power, translucent runes appearing through his body, sending out a shock wave that pushed all nearby undead away.

He immediately looked for Athos, wanting to end the fight as quickly as possible, which wasn’t too difficult. A skeleton with gray skin among black skeletons stood out like a sore thumb.

“Die!” Treevor used amber energy to cast his Sky Impact spell, causing three 5 meter rings of light to appear above his head, releasing pillars of light towards Athos.

Athos used the thunder impulse and began to run, the pillars of light burning the place where he had been a second ago. He jumped and rolled, running as fast as he could as the pillars of light drew closer and closer. One of the pillars of light was too fast for Athos to dodge and hit his left arm, vaporizing him from the shoulder down.

‘I can’t let this get to me or I’ll be killed.’ Athos thought, conjuring a barrier of corrupted mana around his body to avoid being destroyed. The pillar of light hit the barrier and broke it a second later, but that second gain was more than enough for Athos to escape.

They continued the game of cat and mouse, Treevor growing impatient. He lashed out with the whip nonstop, sending shockwave after shockwave against the attacking undead while blocking the arrows from a distance, but Athos continued to flee and circle the pillars of light, as if mocking him.

The rings controlled the direction of the pillars and they were difficult to move, allowing Athos to always run away at the last second. Treevor was growing impatient, feeling the amber energy leak out. He was expending 4 times more energy than would be needed with each attack, apart from the energy that leaked even if he didn’t do anything.

‘His attention is all on me. How long will it take to get ready?’ Athos asked mentally, jumping away from the pillar after he broke the barrier.

‘7 seconds and counting.’ Caio replied. After Emilia made him a leader of 1000 skeletons, the chains crushed his mind and made him loyal to Athos.

‘Great, let’s get this over with.’ Athos said, counting the seconds in his head. He stopped escape, instead running towards Treevor. As the distance between them decreased, the accuracy of the pillars of light increased and Athos was forced to spend more and more mana to maintain the barrier.

When Athos came within reach of the whip, Treevor swept the whip in a horizontal swipe, forcing him to either jump or be crushed. Athos jumped hastily, making Treevor smile inwardly. The three rings above his head focused on a single pillar and hit him in midair, where it would be nearly impossible for him to dodge. Seeing the pillar of light coming towards him, Athos gave up the defense and kicked the right side of his own barrier and broke the left side, throwing himself away from the attack.

Both of his legs were hit by the pillar of light and obliterated, but he was still alive. Athos created a gale with his remaining arm and propelled himself away from Treevor, a crooked smile on his face despite his precarious situation.

‘I won.’ That’s what Athos thought, looking at a point behind Treevor.

Treevor also felt the mana coming from behind and turned around, only to see the skeleton wearing an overcoat flying towards him, almost reaching his head. Athos had ordered the mage skeleton to use wind magic to hurl Finn at Treevor’s head, where they knew his main body was.

Athos had purposely caught his attention, sacrificing both legs just to keep Treevor’s attention on himself.

Of course now that Treevor was back in his prime, he’d have no problem facing a mere skeleton. He didn’t attack with the whip because of the distance, so he concentrated the light element in his amber eye to shoot out like a beam of light and finish off the skeleton in one fell swoop.

Seeing this, Finn grabbed a leather bag and opened it behind him, causing an explosion that propelled him forward, slamming into Treevor’s helmet. The beam of light was fired from the amber eye, evaporating Finn’s skull and neck bones, but his body still remained clinging to Treevor’s helmet, just as ordered. His overcoat fell off, revealing a cloth tied between his ribs glowing with a purplish black glow.

The teleport crystal was originally purple, but it was dyed black when it was injected with Finn’s corrupted mana. Surprisingly, he didn’t reject the unbalanced energy and greedily devoured Finn’s mana until he was completely dyed black.