The hairs on Luke’s back stiffened as he was called a Lich. The being started walking forward again, but Luke could barely move. Now he had an idea of what exactly was before him. It was a real Lich or a former one at the very least. He didn’t know what to do and his first thought was to run away. To grab his key and flee, but he couldn’t bring himself to run. To be a coward against a being that he was predestined to meet. He had no doubts that he would fight a Lich one day, and he didn’t like the idea of running away now. It would be something he knew that he would regret, so he found himself resolved to the battle.

He braced his feet on the ground, choosing to remain silent. He didn’t want to answer the being before him and instead chose to let his buffs wrap around his body. The stat boost would be needed. The Lich noticed and he started laughing. It started soft but quickly turned into one of complete instability. It echoed weirdly considering where he was, the sound seemed to make his bones vibrate.

“You think you can fight me! Foolish child, come and accept your death. I will grant you a place within my legion.”

Finishing his dialogue, the Lich raised one hand toward Luke. While the Lich was preparing its attack, Luke let his soul manifestation cover his body again. Golden light showed from him as his body was reinforced by the skill. He wanted to defend himself since he assumed that the creature would target his soul. The golden body surrounded him. The Lich’s skill was something that Luke should’ve expected, but he was caught off guard as skeletons rose from the ground. These didn’t resemble humans but were closer to the creatures he had killed earlier. He could see the folly in his previous actions immediately. The dungeon was connected, and the monsters he had killed were coming back to bite him. He bet that if he had burned or destroyed the bodies then he wouldn’t be dealing with so many corpses.

The Lich’s summons was slow compared to their original forms. However, he had the feeling that he wouldn’t be able to beat them in the same way he had before These creations wouldn’t have a soul for him to target, essentially nullifying most of his skills. His best bet was to deal with the Lich himself. Luke charged forward, his soul manifestation left large tracks on the ground, as he ran like a charging beast. The Lich’s skeletons couldn’t withstand Luke’s charge, but they did slow it down. The Lich reached toward Luke with both its hands.

Luke turned his head downwards and thrust his shoulder towards the Lich. It was a simple tackle, but he put all his weight behind it. Shock spread across Luke’s face as he collided with the Lich. The Lich was strong, unusually so, and it actually managed to stop him in his tracks. The second thing that surprised him was how large the Lich was. It was hard to tell earlier, but now he noticed that the man had been over a foot taller than Luke. The Lich wore thick black robes, and Luke watched as they had wrapped around the skeleton’s legs. They bent in a way to replicate muscle, and Luke realized that it felt like skin too. Did the man turn his body into a cloak? Was that something a person could even do?

The very thought of it made him want to vomit. He kept it inside though and swung his fist at the man’s rib cage. The Lich caught Luke’s blow in one of its hands and then its whole body glowed with a dusky black shade. A moment later, Luke felt his soul being pulled. It was the same thing he had done to other creatures, and he was shocked by the pain that run through his body. It felt like there were strings being tugged on, and each pull dragged his insides out. Luke resisted and noticed that he could pull back. Fear and instinct drove him to do exactly that, and he pulled on the Lich’s soul in retaliation.

He remembered having a similar fight before. The monster in that orphanage had done something similar, though it hadn’t been trying to take his soul, so much as destroy it. Luke realized that he could mix the two techniques and started twisting the Lich’s soul as he pulled. The Lich had looked amused by Luke’s initial attempt, but that quickly warped as it let out a scream. The skeleton’s mouth didn’t move, but its eyes were extremely expressive. The sound seemed to come from all around Luke.

It was something he needed to resist. The Lich’s voice felt like it was bleeding into him. The Lich tried to pull away now, but Luke didn’t let go. Even with his buffs and stats, Luke was physically weaker than the Lich. The monster raised his hand into the air, lifting Luke’s body from the ground easily. It brought its hands down roughly, slamming Luke back first into the ground. Before the impact even happened, Luke started healing his body. The blow came, and the air was pushed out of his chest. He felt his back strain against the impact, but he kept his hands clutched around the Lich’s forearms.

The months he had spent fighting monsters revealed to him what kind of a fighter he really was. A prolonged fight wasn’t actually to his advantage, even if he could heal. His skills were better suited to taking a hit in order to end the fight in a single attack. He would stick it out, and work through the pain. The Lich was probably in even more pain than him, at least, he thought that it was able to feel pain. However, it might just be putting up an act. Luke ignored the trick; he was focused on winning the fight and nothing else.

“You insignificant boy! You dare to steal the soul of a Lich. Know your place, unhand me!”

The Lich’s words seemed to invoke a command in Luke, but he resisted the desire to follow the command. It was a charm skill or something similar, and Luke had a skill designed to prevent something like that from working. His Hero’s Mentality was able to stop the Lich’s attempts at controlling him, and Luke redoubled his effort to twist the creature’s soul. The Lich slammed Luke against the ground again. For an instant, Luke’s vision winked out as his head was slammed into the dirt. The crass couldn’t soften the blow at all, and Luke was sure that his brain had been shaken. Thankfully, his vision returned though as his healing countered the damage. The pain alone was testing his will, but Luke kept his grip firm. The Lich’s grip seemed to reach deeper, and he felt its boney hands around his soul.

It continued to slam him into the ground. The grass and dirt were ground into sand from the force of the repeated blows. The Lich didn’t only attack his body though and tried to tear his soul apart in the same motion. Luke resisted it, and golden fires started spreading from his body. The Lich seemed to genuinely wince when the flames started crawling up his arm. That reaction told him that he was doing something right. Mixing his techniques was working, Luke kept twisting the monster’s soul. Any other creature would have died by now, but the Lich was somehow resisting him.

Luke was able to see how similar their skills were. The Lich’s body was obviously strengthened, and it had attacks that target the soul directly. Not to mention the way the robes seemed to reinforce its body was like an alternate form of his soul manifestation. Luke wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this monster before him was once a beastman.

One of the raised skeletons had recovered, and Luke felt a stinging pain, as something dug into his back. He could feel it boring through his ribs, and he cried out in panic. He didn’t let go through; the pain only made him struggle more. Growing more desperate, he tried even harder to kill the Lich. More of the skeletons would arrive, and he knew that he needed to end the fight. He could hear the rattling of bones behind him.

A cold wind spread across the area, it crashed into Luke’s face shilling his body quickly. It was colder than a winter storm, and Luke could feel the skin on his face harden. He countered the technique, his healing managing to counter the frostbite. It seemed like the Lich was emitting cold air from its body. It wouldn’t have been a bother if his eyes weren’t freezing just as rapidly as his skin. He had never known how painful it would be to have his eyes freeze. It was a mix of irritation and pain as his eyelids were cut when he blinked.

Then something happened, and Luke felt a snapping motion. There wasn’t a physical sound associated with it, but he knew that something had broken. Something deep within himself had been destroyed. In that same instant he was sent flying, tumbling away from the Lich. The skeleton behind him had exploded from the force of the throw, and Luke wondered what had happened. As soon as the tumble stopped, Luke raised his head from the ground to look at the Lich. The arm he had been grabbing was dissolving, breaking apart into ashes. Luke watched as one of his own hands faded their color seemed to have been drained from them.

Then understanding dawned on him, he had torn off a piece of the Lich’s soul, but at the same time lost part of his own. What he had taken was more though, while all the Lich got was a single hand. Luke could see the Lich’s soul. It was destabilized like it couldn’t maintain its form any longer. Luke tried to push himself off the ground, but his left hand was in excruciating pain. The limb had lost its color and had become hard like a stone. It also felt like something was driven into each of his fingers, and a stinging pain radiated up his arm. Luke tried to heal it, but he could do nothing. There wasn’t anything there for him to heal. His soul was simply missing.

The pain was affecting his movements, but he struggled to his feet. His soul manifestation was still working, and he managed to rise to a sitting position. He watched as the Lich fled, running while his body was breaking. It had first been the arm but now a section of the skeleton’s side had dissolved too. Luke could feel the part of the Lich’s soul within his body. It was far larger than what he had lost. He considered it and then tried to mold it to alter it to fill the space where his hand had once been. Vaguely he remembered how the creature in the orphanage had combined souls to turn those people into monsters.

The pain in his hand was growing worse, and he could feel it spreading up his arm. It was spreading, causing the rest of his soul to deteriorate. He needed to do something otherwise, he was sure that his soul would break down like the Lich’s was. A soul was a single whole entity, it wasn’t meant to be torn apart or warped like he was. Everything he had learned told him that the soul was the very basis for the body. It wasn’t something that should be altered or messed with. He knew why people considered the soul a holy object.

However, those thoughts didn’t stop him. He knew that he needed to fill the gap that the Lich had made, to restore his soul even if it was with another. It was possibly the most taboo thing he would ever do, but he barely hesitated. He would not die alone in this place. His friends needed him, and he planned on being there for them.