Chapter 122: Atypical Phylactery

"Boom!"

Flames erupted behind him; even having lost his reason, the lich instinctively used his twin-eye heat rays to perform a sweeping burn attack.

As a member of the Red Dragon lineage, Li En should have maximum fire resistance.

But he did not want to test exactly how hot high-tier fire spells were, or whether they could burn through dragon hide.

"Sssk!"

The beam of fire swept past Li En's front; his perception of danger made him duck in time.

But watching the heat ray, so close at hand, turn the steel wall into "ice cream" made Li En's scalp go numb.

"I absolutely cannot be hit by it!" He abandoned all hope of luck and moved his feet even faster.

His earlier guess must have been correct; the level of this lich before death was definitely not low.

This was still the lich in a very poor state; casting precise spells was unrealistic, so he had been using only instant-cast spells along the way, and their power was probably less than one-tenth of normal casting.

But fortunately, it was not fast, and its reaction as a caster was also (slow).

This thing had lost half its limbs and floated only by magic; its movement relied on instinct, so naturally its speed could not be high.

Li En, however, accelerated under the boost of a speed spell, sprinting wildly all the way.

The lich had already been left behind.

"Crack crack crack!" The skull behind gnashed its teeth with a cracking sound, seeming frustrated and furious because it could never catch up.

But then, it stopped, seeming to intend to turn back.

"SOL (Holy Sun)." Li En saw all of this.

Orange-red firelight seeped out; Li En gained improvements in all aspects, and even his physical muscles swelled suddenly.

And that seeping holy radiance pierced through this darkness, landing directly on the lich!

"Aaaaaah!" It too began to burn.

"Boom!"

In the next instant, the entire corridor was covered by suddenly erupting flames.

This was not because Li En was strong enough to ignite the lich, but because the pain-stricken lich instinctively unleashed a surge of magic, turning the surroundings into a sea of fire.

The tactical consideration earlier was correct; if they had fought on the spot, once the lich went mad, the machine clan on the ground would definitely have been dragged in.

"Never underestimate the burst power and trump cards of a high-tier mage."

"Even the weakest high-tier mage will use 'Contingency (effects trigger automatically when conditions are met)' to set up automatic chain-trigger spells for themselves. The standard tactic is: once Suffered heavy injury, initiate random teleportation, then casually summon a meteor shower from the sky."

Lord Lord Kuku's teaching was correct; although his combat record was zero wins and five losses, being able to survive until that time meant his life-saving experience was at least sufficiently rich and useful.

Li En maintained a safe enough distance before using the SOL Dragon Mark, avoiding being caught in the explosion.

"Voom!"

The next moment, that skull head appeared eerily before Li En.

"Snap!" The lich, having completed its precise teleportation, revealed a smile before Li En.

The black teeth on the blue skull constantly clamped up and down, about to bite Li En.

This was clearly a malicious contact spell.

The lich, having "reduced weight" again, discarded more limbs, preparing to deliver a deadly curse with its own teeth.

"Bang!"

But Li En reacted incredibly fast, directly unleashing his explosive claws.

The suddenly swollen dragon claws fiercely knocked the skull head, which was right at hand, flying away!

"Fighting a melee battle with a Dragon Vein Holy Knight? Is your lich brain fried?" This was probably not mockery, but a genuine truth.

Although he said this, Li En did not even look at his own result and continued to turn and run.

"Really hard." A lich with even a slight level could resist ordinary physical damage and low-level magic weapons; Lord Lord Kuku told Li En directly that he would most likely be unable to kill the opponent.

Even if the skull head were split in half, this thing seemed able to cast spells anyway.

Now that Li En had the chance to strike, it felt as if he had not broken its defense at all.

This made him even more certain of his own positioning.

During the subsequent escape, he made no attempt to achieve any combat result.

He simply maintained the radiance of the Holy Sun, keeping the aggro firmly on himself.

For a mindless powerful madman, fighting head-on was simply too costly; Lord Lord Kuku and Purple Rose had repeatedly warned Li En not to underestimate high-tier casters, for even when mad, the more insane a high-tier caster was, the more deadly they could be.

They could go so far as to chant an enhanced meteor storm while hugging you, or directly drag you into another dimension.

It was said that some top-tier abjuration (space-type) mages, once on the verge of death, would broadcast their location across all planes; who knows how many despicable deeds summoners who deal with these professionals and otherworldly big shots had committed, how many otherworldly big shots they had tricked, how much power they had stolen; dozens of spatial gates appearing simultaneously, or even a sudden divine punishment descending from the sky, were all possible.

"Arrived." The agreed-upon room was right here.

Li En suddenly crouched low and slid quickly, dodging another beam once more.

At the same time, he waved out a mass of flames, neutralizing the sudden indoor blizzard that fell from the sky.

It seemed this monster was recovering its spellcasting ability?

But now, the large amount of steam caused by the collision of ice and snow made this battlefield even more chaotic, and also facilitated Li En in completing his strategic objective.

"Begin!"

When Li En passed by here, he also noticed Lord Lord Kuku still scribbling on the ground!

But that mad lich skull head only wanted to quickly "turn off the lights," hurriedly floating over, paying no attention at all to the "scrap metal" beneath its feet.

"Voom!" Lord Lord Kuku happily added the final stroke.

The array on the ground suddenly activated, shimmering with abjuration runes as well; for a high-tier caster, this was clearly a spatial abjuration carrying a teleportation function.

"Off you go." Lord Lord Kuku smiled very happily.

The random teleportation currently activating should be able to fling it very far away.

Confronting an undead lich to the death? Too stupid.

Winning would only yield some broken bones, and grant a resurrecting enemy; better to just discard it.

But the next moment, something eerie happened.

The floating skull paused; countless characters flashed across its soul-fire.

It stared at the spell array on the ground, seemingly decoding and countering it.

And the runes on the ground actually began to extinguish!

"This... is spell counter?!"

Even if it was merely instinct, even without nimble hands, the lich attempted to counter this random teleportation array.

Li En was dumbfounded; weren't there a huge list of restrictions on counterspells?

It not only requires you to know the same spell, but also at least a tier higher casting ability to interrupt the opponent's concentration; you don't even have hands, how can you interfere?

"Snap."

But the sudden magical interference produced a slight explosion in the void.

At the critical moment, Lord Lord Kuku stood up.

Those rapidly dancing metal little hands easily countered the lich's counter!

"This works too?!"

Don't say it; it actually works.

During the first descent, Lord Lord Kuku borrowed Li En's body to display astonishing spell counter abilities.

In a sense, spell counter is actually a clash of "concentration" and "mana maintenance"; if it's about computing power, probably not many casters can beat Lord Lord Kuku.

The spell took effect; while the skull was still bewildered, it directly vanished into the void.

The radiance dispersed, the lich vanished without a trace, unknown where it was thrown.

And Li En sat directly on the ground, panting heavily.

Don't look at it as only running for a few minutes; he actually took heavy hits several times. Next time, leave opponents like this to equals.

"Quick, quick, quick! Go loot the lich's treasure!" Lord Lord Kuku was urgent, very urgent.

"Uh, I thought you'd go find the lich's phylactery." Don't cut the weeds without removing the roots?

The secret to the lich's immortality is that they often imbue their soul into a "Special item"; physical loss is not the end, that phylactery is the lifeline.

"Is there a difference?" In Lord Lord Kuku's view, isn't the phylactery the lich's most important treasure? It must be kept together.

"Seems like you really don't know where you threw him?"

"Short time! Didn't travel far, should still be in the Underworld! He definitely won't return in the short term."

This is clearly quite irresponsible; what kind of hellish joke is a lich dropping from the sky onto the road?

But thinking about what monsters and demons exist in the Underworld, Li En felt he should be able to laugh at this joke.

"Ha, let's go, go loot."

In a sense, Li En was truly quite un-paladin-like.

Paladins excellent in all aspects are often unpopular among teammates during adventures, usually due to their moral squeamishness.

Certain paladins' "no-looting" oaths directly affect teammates' acquisition of spoils.

Now Li En clearly had quite a flexible moral bottom line.

But Lord Lord Kuku and Li En's goal of getting rich was not realized; on one hand, this lich was suspected to be an involuntary transformation, truly having no treasure.

On the other hand, there is currently an urgent matter involving life that must be handled as soon as possible.

"Can it be repaired?"

The unlucky Machine Clan candidate was still discharging electricity on the ground; no one knew how long she could hold on.

"... Needs some time, but it should be possible."

If it were elsewhere, Lord Lord Kuku couldn't guarantee it, but here there should be the parts and blueprints needed; finding more should make repair possible.

Thus, the focus of the search became this machine's parts, blueprints, and that lich's phylactery.

Considering the lich might return, the squad moved quickly and soon found the targets.

However, how to proceed next was quite subtle.

"The phylactery and parts are both found, but..." Both targets were found simultaneously.

The targets were placed on the table, leaving the onlookers with complex feelings.

This was a Special item where merely witnessing it made one feel the entangled grievances within.

"... The lich's phylactery is actually that machine's arm, uh, should we install it back on her? Or directly dismantle this phylactery?"

Lying on the table was a metal arm with a blade, still connected to part of the shoulder and chest "metal organs"; judging by the specs, it clearly belonged to this machine.

But our own caster sensed the lich's soul within it!

This mechanical arm had become the lich's phylactery!

This was quite entangling.

"Save the person first, or eliminate the threat first?!" When the parts to save a person and the enemy's weakness are the same object, how to decide is quite subtle.

While Li En worried about the disposal of the spoils, another group of travelers was also traveling rapidly.

The forced departure of the Horned Disciples from Morzodilka naturally couldn't be just one batch.

Just as the Beast Prince protected by the Beast Cult wouldn't be just one.

A temporary Horned Disciple squad, covered in wounds, was resting under a cliff.

The leading Great Horn Priest was directly feeding his own flesh and blood to the Prince.

Actually, if the Prince hadn't forcibly intervened, our group might have perished in that city.

"Untrustworthy Dark Elves! Liars!" Just like countless predecessors, he unleashed impotent rage, cursing and swearing at the Dark Elves.

Cursing the street may be meaningless, but at least it makes him feel a little better.

And having fled here, they should now be safe.

The dark elves can no longer follow them here.

Next, perhaps they should consider returning directly to the surface through the passage.

"Orcs!" A sudden scream rang out above them.

The cultists snapped their heads up, but saw only a skull blazing with blue fire!

It radiated terrible magic and flames.

It seemed to be doing something.

"Die, filthy thieves!" Accompanied by the lich's roar came a massive meteor shower descending upon them!

(End of Chapter)