Chapter 287 – Tactical Withdrawal.

“What’s that, it came from the direction of the forest… wait isn’t Wayland’s workshop in that direction?”

“It is my lord… but we should focus, the monsters are acting strange, why did they all stop moving?”

A strange phenomenon was taking place outside of the city gates. The monsters that were moments before clamoring at the gate had stopped in their tracks. No one at first knew what could have garnered this response from them but soon enough the mushroom cloud in the distance told a tale. Each and every one of these skeletal beings looked at that explosion and soon enough started abandoning their posts.

“Something must have happened to the Lich… could it have died?”

“Close but that’s not it.”

“Master Aurdhan?”

Arthur, who moved closer to the edge of the guard tower noticed the Guild Master’s voice coming from behind him. The man didn’t look that tired but the large black skull that he was holding in his hand indicated a lot.

“If it was dead then the magic that is holding the monsters together would dissolve… but for a Lich to call its forces back like this…”

While Arduhan monologues about what transpired, Arthur’s eyes landed on the big black skull he was holding. It was clear that the man had finished off that one obsidian skeleton and didn’t look that injured. His body was covered in some faint scratch marks but they didn’t seem to have drawn out blood.

The man was built like a tank and wore light armor that didn’t really protect him from outside attacks. This didn’t mean that his skin couldn’t act like armor, Arthur knew that some classes offered passive buffs to defenses when certain conditions were met. For instance, barbarian-like classes would boost a person’s natural protection if they didn’t cover up their body too much or wore light armor.

“Nice one isn’t it? But you can’t have it, it’ll look good on my wall.”

Aurdhan laughed while arriving next to Arthur, both of them looked out into the distance where the skeletons started retreating to. Their forces had dwindled a bit but the black mage and the beast-type obsidian skeleton were still out there. In the beginning, there were five obsidian types and one of them was killed by the guild master.

Another one vanished from the map before the siege started and one went with the Lich toward the Runesmith’s home. The map wasn’t showing what was happening there as even before the explosion the signal died down for some reason. There was a high probability that something happened to the creator of this map and Arthur wasn’t sure what he should do.

“Isn’t that where our little Runesmith lives? Did that kid actually stay there? I thought he was the intelligent type.”

The guild master smirked while shaking his head before moving away. His work seemed to be done and he wasn’t here just to show off the evil skeletal skull to the lord. As he was going away a group of five people appeared, these people were unknown to Arthur but by a platinum emblem that their leader was wearing their identity was exposed.

“Well then, I did my part and these guys will take over.”

While walking away the large man passed next to the group of adventurers while waving his hand without turning around. It seemed that the backup that they were waiting for had arrived but even though the city was safe one of its citizens wasn’t…

…

“This is the extent of what this creature was capable of?”

A beautiful woman with beastly eyes stood in an empty corridor covered in monster remains. It was well illuminated by blue flames that were even now sticking to the obsidian bones that were still moving. These belonged to a monster skeleton that had the appearance of a large monkey with horns. What was left of it was just its upper torso with one hand and even now it was trying to crawl away from the person that gave it the critical injury.

“Would it have been this easy if it didn’t turn away for that moment? Were undead minions ever scared of dying?”

The person that defeated it was slowly fixing her black leathery clothes that covered her entire body. Within a moment the fox ears that were previously uncovered started vanishing as she activated her body-transforming skill. Without anyone else being here she could finally let loose to quickly take care of the problem inside the thieves guild tunnels.

However, even though she expected to easily win over the monsters here they acted rather strangely. The black skeleton wasn’t the only one that was in this narrow corridor, the white ones were also there. Thanks to the cramped spot they were in she decided to use one of her wide-range abilities. The white skeletons were instantly incinerated by her special flames but the obsidian one survived with only a slither of its HP left.

“It wouldn’t have been this easy if they didn’t stop… oh well, my job is done.”

The guild master of the thieves guild gave out a sigh while strutting forward. Her leather boot landed on the enlarged black head of the skeleton and after applying some force it was crushed. Within she could see a tiny flame that looked similar to a will-o’-the-wisp that quickly evaporated.

With this, her task of defending the guild was finished. She could already feel some of the hidden assassins approaching. They were quick on the uptake and probably eager to see their guild master in action from a safe location. Regretfully they would not be able to gain any information about her true appearance which she could not easily reveal.

“The directions they were looking… wasn’t it that troublemaker’s home?”

She gave out a little smirk before slowly walking back toward her people. After giving them a piece of her mind it would be time to relax, it seemed that the fighting outside was coming to a close and a party of capable people did arrive. It would be best to leave this up to them now that they were here but this didn’t mean that her faction would stand by idle.

“Those bones should be enough to reimburse me for these destroyed tunnels, not like the adventurers can carry them all.”

….