Pain, coupled with humiliation, racked the princess's body and her back hit the stone wall. She had a bloody cough and felt her ribs crack under the pressure.
Warning: You took huge [physical] damage! You lost half of your HP!
[Instant Death] is offset by [Amulet of Avalon]!
Before Gwen could stand up, the undead dragon had already rushed towards her. She jumped to the side, her sharp claws tearing through the stone wall like butter.
The princess attempts to transfer her divine power to the monster through her sword. Her weapon peeled off the monster's rotting scales but did no lasting damage. Her Holy [Paladin] ability is supposed to damage the undead, why?
Gwen realized it was magic as the dragon's tail hit her almost like a flail. The Necromancer had cast Protection from [Holy] before transforming. He has become a being of pure power supported by magic.
The undead dragon let out a terrifying roar as dark energy surged from his throat before releasing a plume of black smoke at her. Gwen resumed her spell and moved as fast as she could, the stone turning to dust under the evil power of her breath.
The fighting situation was getting worse everywhere. The earth elemental fell, torn to pieces by orcs far more powerful than the rest of his kind. Mrs. Salter and Annie regroup with Wulong, but there are skeletons on both sides; Morgan and Walter Tai fare no better, and they engage in a desperate battle against Hagen and his Mommy allies.
The dragon has marked the princess for death.
"Gwen!" Morgan let Tai fight off the undead alone and unleashed a fireball on the dragon. The creature didn't even flinch.
Thank God, someone else came to Gwen's rescue. The summoned [Balder's winged daughter] flew through the cave and struck the beast in the eye, desperately trying to save the Princess of Avalon. The undead let out a scream and seized her with his mouth, biting her like a dog biting a mouse.
Would Gwen herself die this way? Eaten by a monster?
"Gwen!" Morgane called her, taking a brown wand from her belongings. A magic item covered in earth runes and seventh level spellcasting symbols.
"What is that?" the princess asked for confirmation, although she already recognized the nature of the device.
"A [Seismic Wand]!" shouted Morgan as Walter Tee created as many ice walls as he could between Hagen's group and himself.
Gwen's eyes widened in horror. "No."
"That's the only way to kill this thing!"
"You idiot!" Take
u shouted, frantically blocking Hagen with arrows. "You're going to kill us all!"
Maybe not. Gwen could almost read her cousin's mind. "Annie, Mrs. Salter, how long can your current SP last?"
Anne immediately understood the princess's plan, but she was not at all confident. "I...I don't know!"
"We have no choice," Lady Searle replied as the dragon tore the Flying Girl's head from her body.
The princess realized that nothing could stop the dragon and decided to take the risk. "Everybody go to Morgan! Mrs. Soult, Anne, summon the barricades!"
The princess ran as fast as she could to her sister. Behind her, the giant dragon roared and chased after her. Walter Tye and the others managed to break their own circle and rallied around Morgan.
"Boss, calm down!" Hagen argued, but the dragon trampled his servant in his vicious rage. dullaha
The body was abandoned like a rag doll by his crazy owner.
"Now!" Gwen ordered as soon as everyone gathered. Anne and Mrs. Salter immediately erected the barrier, covering everyone with a powerful dome, while Morgan snapped his wand in half.
The effect is immediate.
The entire cave trembled, a powerful tremor spreading around Morgan, then another. The ceiling collapsed and tons of stone fell.
The orcs, timid as ever, ran through the tunnel beside a few free-willed skeletons. The others—Hagen, the mummy, and the injured zombie swordsman—were buried under the rubble, crushed by boulders. Meanwhile, the dragon struggled through the fallen ceiling, its sharp claws striking the bars again and again.
Finally, a rock the size of a house fell on its head, knocking it over. More rocks poured down from above, burying everyone.
For five full minutes, the ceiling collapsed onto the barrier, straining the caster's strength to the limit. "Where did you buy your wand?" Gwen asked Morgan as the earthquake continued. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Every girl has her secrets." She winked at her biological sister.
She must have asked Archmage Calvert for help, or convinced a teacher to give her the weapon. Gwen wasn't amused at all. "Good idea, but if we survive this, vow to never do it again."
While her sister is duplicitous by nature and her quick thinking may have saved them all, the princess doesn't like surprises. Morgan was doing whatever he wanted behind Gwen's back, and (Paladin) felt that one day, her tricks would backfire. She will accept help from the wrong people or push her luck too far.
Finally, when the shaking ended and the group was buried beneath the collapsed cavern, the casters lowered part of the barrier above their heads. Walter Tai used a spell to melt the stone and open a passage.
After several minutes of tireless work, the group emerges from the rubble to welcome the sun.
The entire vault collapsed, along with the cavern above. The earthquake opened a path to the outside of the dungeon, leaving a huge hole in a ton of rubble.
Gwen walked out first, only to find a humanoid thing emerging from the ruins. Although it was in a mess, it was still "alive".
The Necromancer regained his human form and rose from his tomb.
The wizard and the princess looked at each other in surprised silence. Before she could react, his hands grabbed her neck.
Gwen coughed, and those inhumanly strong fingers tightened around her trachea, strangling her to death. The Necromancer's eyes radiate hatred and rage behind his mask, and his resentment makes him come alive like a malevolent ghost. Even now, with his SP exhausted, he chose to use his last strength to exact a pitiful revenge rather than run away.
The princess tried to raise her sword to stab him, but the point of her sword felt slippery in her fingers. A chill spread throughout her body and her life slowly drained away.
Medium (frost) damage! Vitality check failed! You remain [paralyzed] by [Ghoul Stone- - - - - -
reduce!
Annie's windblade spell pierced the undead's heart, and his hand loosened. Gwen regained control of her body, pushed the necromancer aside, and regained her breath. This will leave a mark.
Take
u shot an arrow at the corpse to make sure, and Madame Yseult cast a purifying spell to rid him of his evil spirit. When they were absolutely certain that the wizard was dead, the group gathered around his body.
Gwen took off his mask.
She expected to see a familiar face. A city guard, a shopkeeper, a wanted criminal, Walter Ty himself.
Instead, she was faced with a rotting, bald corpse.
"Well, that's disappointing," Morgan said, as time passed and the monster turned to dust.
"What do you want?" Big shrugged. "Just another undead."
Gwen couldn't tell what it was, but something felt wrong. Is she paranoid and refusing to accept simple facts? Or is this another trick? "Dig out the others," she told the group, as the necromancer turned to dust. "We need to be sure."
They spent a full hour digging through the bodies, finding Hagen's broken, nearly unrecognizable body, broken zombie limbs, and other remains. Even powerful creatures cannot survive with tons of rocks thrown at them.
Fortunately, the earthquake opened a hole to the outside, as all tunnels leading to this room were buried. The passage to the lower levels is barred, and any surviving monsters are trapped in the darkness below. Orcs would starve to death, while it would take months or even years for the undead to dig their way out.
Gwen simply sent soldiers to protect the area, but other than that, Lyonesse's days as a dungeon were over.
"You're going to have to find a new job, my friend," Mrs. Searle said to Walter Tye, albeit with great enthusiasm.
"Fewer risk takers will affect my business, but I can turn to remedies," the shop owner shrugged.
"Or you could join the Academy," Gwen said. She thanked the gods that she was mistaken for him. "You have extraordinary skills. The kingdom may need them."
"I'm sorry, Your Highness," Walter Tye replied. "But unless it's a direct order, I'm relieved."
"Ty wasn't made for this life," Anne said happily.
Gwen couldn't help but laugh. With their unlikely victory, the tension completely disappeared.
Congratulations! After working with [Li
o
m Demilich] and you gain three levels in [Paladin of Tyr]! You gain [Aesi
Blessings] Career privileges!
+60 hp, +10 sp, +3 st
, +2 vit, +2 ski, +2 i
t, +3 cha, +3 lack.
[Blessing of Ethil]: Your loyalty to the Order of Ethil is rewarded with divine grace. You gain immunity to [Petrified], [Fire], [Light], and [Frost]. Finally, you can speak and understand any language in front of you, except the Five Catastrophes [Code Language].
Walter Tye was right to be relieved.
Gwen was happy too. Glad the nightmare is finally over. Glad everyone made it out alive, the Necromancer died along with all of his main followers. Glad this ended well.
…
Very good.
Such happy endings only happen in children's fairy tales, not in real life. They lived happily ever after, the cynical part of her whispered mockingly to her. Their victory was too easy and unearned.
Something just doesn't fit the situation.
She couldn't explain what happened, but Gwen knew deep down that she had been lied to.
Deep within his sanctum, a necromancer sees a group of heroes celebrating their hard-won victory through a Ghost Mirror.
"He will tell," said Hagen of Wandermar, watching the scene like a play. "Listen to me and he'll say, 'We gotta catch the treasure.'"
"We must seize the treasure," Zhulong insisted. "I'm sure they have hidden chests."
"See? dullaha
chuckled. "They never change."
"The acting award goes to Laufey though," Gustling said, looking at the fake Walter Tye who was discussing with Anne. This scene made the Necromancer a little uncomfortable. "As grumpy as the Sheriff when he's in a bad mood"
Their leader watched the scene coldly until they crawled out of the cave and left his home. Wulong complained all the way, but before looking for gold, he saw a reason to get treatment.
"Gentlemen," the real Walter Tye said, facing his elite in his sanctuary, "it appears that I am officially dead."
"He's too young!" Gui Chuan, the ghost yelled. "too young!"
"We must avenge our master's death!" Hagen said. "revenge!"
"Can someone reattach my spine?" asked Duke, the only one who didn't share the joke. Morgan's fire blast tore him in half, though as an elite zombie, only the destruction of his head would bring him down for good. "I have no feeling in my legs."
"Soon," Tai promised, taking a moment to review the script. "First of all, I hope this day reminds me why I never believed in diplomacy. I asked them to withdraw twice and they still try to destroy us."
"It's their culture," Hagen replied. "They think if they die standing up, they will get a good afterlife. For them, fighting is a win-win situation."
This made Tai even more determined to destroy the system.
In the end, things could have been better, or they could have been worse. This mess cost him many workers, magic items, bait, and all the first layers; even orchestrating the entire show was a logistical nightmare.
Ty could easily slaughter the group, especially after he identified the magical item the princess was carrying. But this would focus all of Avalon's attention on the Necromancer, who would then spend his life on the run.
So Tay set up multiple redundancies. While he never expected the group to be reasonable, he would negotiate in good faith if they agreed to let him go. After diplomacy failed, he attempted to turn the princess into a possessed vampire like her sister, but Pendragon's amulet protected her.
If the cover-up doesn't work, or the group decides the body is a decoy, Morgan may launch a doomed assassination attempt on her sister out of "jealousy" before escaping. This might draw the princess's attention away from the dungeon, but it will only delay the problem rather than solve it.
If nothing works, the Necromancer will pull the bottom of the barrel and figure out a solution. Hagen even suggested cloning the princess, or replacing her with Laufey, despite being censored.
It would be easier if I could kill them with magic, Tai thought. He is first and foremost a magical scientist, not a tactician. He has no talent for intrigue.
However, they learned a lot from this confrontation. His [Li
o
m Demilich], created from the remains of a dragon skull gifted by Mockingbird, has proven itself to be a formidable defense against invasion; while Tai's custom [Transformation Teleportation] spell can be disguised as transformation. The Alchemical Vampire Plague can be countered, and the Academy's students lack the levels needed to truly threaten the Dungeon Elite. They witnessed Mrs. Searle's actions and everything the priests in the city could arrange.
the most important is……
Walter Tye looked at the small amount of blood that had gathered in the glass on the table. The precious fluid that flows from the princess when his undead dragon attacks her.
If his suspicions about Nastrang were correct, the gods themselves had sealed it away from mortal sight. Because the royal family of Avalon has been granted many privileges by Odin, the father of the gods, including protecting Midgard from disaster...
The Necromancer may have found the key to the hidden city.
"They'll come back for the stolen goods," Hagen predicted. "To claim the spoils of victory."
"We're going to build a fake stash out of trinkets," Tye said. "And some of my dated notes to make it believable."
"What happened next?" Duke asked as Spock held him in his arms. “Everything below level one is buried underground.”
“We’re keeping a low profile,” Tai said. "Because we now have the most powerful shield: anonymity."
Because as far as the world is concerned, they no longer exist.
