Marco and team, all having summoned their armor spells and refreshed buffs on their trip to the area with Abominations, charges the monster.


    [Hammer of Granite] slams into the Abomination’s limb reaching for a downed Adventurer is cloth armor, blowing the bone and flesh apart.


    Marco begins his normal opening salvo, [Salt Circle] followed by a mass summoning of [Salt Bolt] and [Salt Shot] projectiles, which he immediately sends toward tentacles reaching for defenseless Adventurers.


    Lucia is suddenly behind the monster, leaving burning gashes and tears in the rotten flesh. She swings her blade at the air and a [Dark Crescent] follows the cut and bites into the monster, she is forced to dodge as the monster targets her with a trio of tentacles. Ben fires beams into the burning gashes, opening the wounds more and burning the monster more.


    The monster, enraged by their opening attacks, slams all of its tentacles on the ground. Cracking the earth and coating the tentacles in stone armor. “Ah shit.” Marco thinks and switches to summoning more [Salt Shot] projectiles.


    “[Earth] Abomination! Watch for quakes and those tentacles are going to be extra dangerous.” Ben calls out.


    The root tentacles controlled by the matriarch of House Ivory quickly dart into the fight and carefully retrieve the downed Adventurers. Marco casts a series of [Salt Strikes] at the monster, the large crystals breaking against the stone armor of the Abomination but still managing to push the monster away from the party.


    A wet squelchy roar bubbles from the monster, Marco continues to fire a mixture of projectiles, searching for a soft spot or something that will help them win this fight. Shen continues to wail on the monster with his giant hammer, breaking the armor for a moment before it reforms near instantly.


    “Lucia! We need to stack your debuffs on this thing or it will just tire us out!” Ben calls, still flashing with beams and renewing shields as necessary.


    “Shen, I need you to break the armor on the main body so I can reach the flesh!” Lucia calls and Shen launches himself into the air, coming back down with a massive hammer blow to the main body. Marco had timed the jump with a couple casts of [Salt Strike] to temporarily pin the Abomination’s limbs.


    Lucia uses her shadow to [Shadowstep] onto the monster, a blur of strikes as she lands, piercing between the cracks in its stone armor to set the flesh below alight with [Fire]. She casts a [Fireball] under herself as he teleports away, the massive explosion stunning the monster for a couple of seconds.


    Plates of Hardlight snap into being around the [Fire] damaged areas, filling in the cracks between the stone armor and preventing it from repairing. Ben is panting and sweating heavily after that use of magic and Marco continues to attack limbs with varied bolts and shots and the occasional [Salt Strike].


    [Salt Circle] is doing its own work as well, slowly weakening the pile of flesh and bone encased in armor, strikes more likely to break bone or shred flesh. Shen continues to hit the giant monster with massive blows from his ever-growing hammer, now a four by two-foot rectangle of bedrock, cracking armor with every blow. One of the root tentacles returns and slams into the monster, pinning it to the forest floor.


    The party goes all out, shredding flesh and breaking bone with varied spells, dropping defenses in favor of all-out attack. Marco attempts to form his javelin construct again but is unable to spare the focus. He switches to launching [Salt Strike] with abandon, slowly pulping the monster, Ben is channeling [Focused Beam], working on removing one of the tentacles.


    The monster finally goes limp, punctuated with a huge shockwave from the aerial battle and a scream cut short. They all look up to see Oren standing in the air, unruffled and untouched as the green glowing Lich falls from the sky and many of the minions fall limp and return to death.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    “That is amazing! Standing the air looking like you''re out for a stroll and didn’t just fight a angry spirit for two hours.” Marco thinks, checking on his party members and making sure everyone is doing alright.


    *Ping* Abomination Slain (38/38)


    A booming voice echos through the battlefield “WE HAVE WON THIS BATTLE, PLEASE RETURN THE WALL FOR REPORT AT ONCE.”


    Marco recognizes Violet’s voice and does as instructed, the party turning away from the pile of pulped monster and returning to the wall at speed.


    The arrive with a large group of other Adventurer, approaching the portcullis and slowing to a walk, all of them filing into the wall and beginning the trek up the stairs.


    All of the Adventurers eventually make it to the top floor of the wall, reemerging into the muted sunlight of the Deadwoods. Chatter about the battle and individual fights dies down as Oren steps on to the wall from a shadow and Violet suddenly appears in a burst of leaves.


    “Well done! That was a fantastic showing from all of you.” Violet says, pausing for the round of cheering and celebration. “We managed to avoid any outright causalities but some of our House members will be recovering in the days to come. Thank you to the teams who assisted my plants in any rescues.”


    Oren steps forward and takes over the speech. “Hopesfall is no more, well the Lich that bears the same name, the city still stands and we will be mounting a rescue party for the people trapped there.” A thunderous cheer breaks out from his words, a Lich is dead and that is something to celebrate!


    “We have an opportunity usually reserved for The Ebony Family, a chance to strike at a Lichdom’s city and rescue the captives there.” Violet continues, “This will be a dangerous mission followed by grueling work to restore this section of the Deadwoods to life.”


    All of the gathered Adventurers nod, accepting the future hard work and danger with little hesitation.


    “Congratulations. Every single once of your answered the call and came out stronger for it.” Violet says, dismissing the gathered crowd and summoning a System notification.


    *Ping* Congratulations! You have helped defeat a Horde of Undead.


    Rewards for the Defeat of Twenty Legion Knights:


    -One Loot Box Per Party Member


    -One Gold per Knight per Party Member


    Rewards for the Defeat of One Abomination


    -Ten Gold per Party Member


    Rewards for the Rescue of a Fellow Adventurer Team


    -One Loot Box per Party Member


    -Mana Replenishment


    As teams of Adventurers check their notifications and leave the marshalling area, Marco and his party are quickly left behind, one of just a few teams left behind.


    “Marco, Ben, Lucia, and Shen." Oren’s voice carries from the edge of the wall. “Please come join us over here.”


    The group moves toward Oren and Violet, the other groups still on the wall looking at them with jealousy.


    “Thank you for sparing some time for us, I am sure you are all tired and worn out from this fight.” Violet says with a small bow. “First of all, great job out in the field. Thank you for assisting with that rescue, I didn’t have any other plants in the area to assist.”


    The gathered team all nod in acknowledgment of the thanks. “Of course, it is the right thing to do.” Marco says.


    “Yes, it is but it is still worth mentioning.” Oren says, “Other parties used this time to settle their differences in a violent manner.”


    The old elf flicks his hand toward one of the remaining parties on the roof with them, shadows restricting their bodies completely in a blink of an eye.


    The party of four elves attempts to squirm and free themselves but they are unable to move a muscle.


    “You are all member of House Ivory and are expected to behave as such.” Oren spits out the words with venom, “You attacked a fellow Adventurer team from behind while they were engaged with a [Earth] Abomination. Why.”


    The last word rings with power and malice, all of the trapped elves go paper white, and their eyes are suddenly bloodshot.


    “W we. They took our job earlier this week, it was just a small tripping spell, no real harm done.” One of the elves babbles.


    “No harm done?!” Violet is suddenly directly in front of the elf. “If another team hadn’t helped my plants rescue that team, they would have died! Your ‘small tripping spell’ knocked them out of formation and the Abomination gained a shot at their backline.” The head of House Ivory yells in their faces.


    “We didn’t know that!” Another one of the elves speaks.


    “The penalty for attacking a fellow Adventuring team in combat is expulsion from the guild at minimum.” Oren says, “As you are also members of our House, it is entirely within our jurisdiction to decide the rest of your punishments.”


    “With the Sunlit Pillar still active, we can let the System judge.” Violet says, the shadow wrapped elves following her to the pillar topped with a nine-pointed star. “Place your hand on the star and be JUDGED.”


    The last word echoes with power, and the trapped elves are freed and allowed to touch the pillar.