Looking closely Lister's body glowed slightly as he delivered what would be a fatal strike. Norris, his soul flame within his eyes steady, he remained steadfast. His skeletal frame seemed almost unfazed by the attack.
His robe, adorned with intricate, arcane embroidery, pulsed with a soft, blue light. A shimmering shield burst forth from the robe's folds, intercepting Lister's attack and deflecting it with a metallic clang.
The shield's surface rippled and groaned under the impact, its durability reduced by a third. The force of Lister's strike sent shockwaves through the air, causing nearby rocks to shatter and dust to explode from the ground.
Lister struck again, and the shield faltered further, its defensive capabilities dwindling. The second blow created a sonic boom, with a deafening crack that echoed through the desolate landscape. The ground shook violently, and a ring of cracks spread outward from Norris's position.
One more hit, and Norris's magical protections would collapse, leaving him vulnerable. The air was heavy with tension as Lister prepared to deliver the final blow.
Unfortunately Norris happened to finish creating another clone (5th-tier spell), which rushed to meet Lister. Lister knowing that this clones are part time bombs knew he had missed the chance and had to retreat.
After giving himself distances, he further used his influence over the echo to stabilise the energy by casting a spell, stabilise energy (3rd tier spell). This should reduce the impact of the explosion by making energy in the environment stable. The clone however cast a necrotic spell, Necrotic Blast (3rd-tier), augmenting it with extra mana to make it more potent. This slowed down Lister catching him of guard.
The clone then used its remaining mana to blast itself on Lister's warrior conjuration. It was supposed to hurt it but unexpectedly it vanished. Norris eyes narrowed.
"Well I think I know how it's done. Let's see.", Norris commented after seeing the way the clone vanished just like the ghoul before.
Norris' undead party 1, especially the ghoul who acted as meat shield, was on the brink of defeat. His clone healed them one last time before disintegrating due to lack of mana.
Norris took advantage of Lister's debuff to create another clone (5th-tier spell), and both he and the clone began casting a spell that creates ripples of energy in the area as soon as it was casted. But no effect was seen.
Master Lister felt uneasy. Feeling nothing means he can't see what was done which was dangerous. Lister started to chant a spell to ease is worries, summoning a lich that also looked spectral (5th-tier spell).
A whispered incantation conjured the spectral lich, its ghostly form materializing with a faint, mournful sigh. Empty, glowing eyes scanned the air, bony fingers grasping for unseen threats. Reality seemed to warp around it, as if the lich was a tear in the fabric of the world. The spectral lich was a sublimation lich.
Liches as high level undead have innate domination of lower undead creatures.
The spectral lich attempted to control its master with undead domination, but failed. Lister already impatient commanded the lich, using the lich to control Norris' undead troop and turn them against him.
Norris seeing the farce of the lich was more convinced of his guess. A lich won't try to command a mage just because it's an undead. Which mage will leave a weakness. Norris found himself surrounded by Lister who was moving closer, the lich and even his undead troops.
Then the air rippled violently. Undeads were everywhere. Initiate undead though. Useless. Norris had summoned too many undeads causing time and space to be unstable for just very, very little time before the world automatically repaired itself.
Though the aftermath remained. The magical environment was destabilised making it harder to cast spells that rely on external medium like the echo. If Norris cast an arcane spell right, it won't work as well.
That was the answer. Lister collected the records left by power beings in the echo. Using this, he summoned them with his mana. A relatively niche school of summoning and conjuration.
That was enough to cancel Lister spell with a slight disturbance from the echo. Though very little disturbance on the echo side, for Master Lister it was a terrible backlash and this was enough to stall him for a while.
Norris had almost finished his mana with that move. A brief feeling of weakness came over him. For mages at his level, mana is an essential force. He activated his backup mana.
Master Lister regained consciousness and he saw Norris. He suspected that this Norris might be a clone but there's no way to know. He summoned the lich again, this time though the lich was not as strong the backlash affecting it's echo imprint.
But it's ability was useful. It used it's undead domination to clear away the lesser undead while allowing some undead to siege Norris while he prepared scrolls.
This scrolls were all fireball spell causing a devastating damage to where Norris was. This wasted all his mana. He wobble a little from the lack of mana but he was right back up after activating his backup mana. Norris was seen with his robe and sword.
This time Lister still half skeptical believed a little that this was the real Norris. An arcane shield that came from the robe and sword used as wand was Norris signature.
But still to be sure he did a little divination. He tried using the echo to divine information. Norris of course will take advantage of the time to summon undead party 2. As for undead party 1, Norris reluctantly sent them back. Having signed a contract with them when they were non sentient, them dying because of him would hurt his conscience.
This time Norris was running on backup energy. Though twice as much as his normal reserves, it still takes a lot of time to fill it up. Using it was also not as conducive. But it was better than
Mr Lister too was the same. He summoned two adept spectral bards to give him a buff. Though they destabilised afterwards. Then he went to clash with Norris. Of course Norris wasn't just coming to clash with a death knight? He had enchanted himself with body reinforcement spell (2nd-tier).
He also augmented it to the 3rd tier by using his knowledge and sacrificed materials to briefly add their properties to his mana used to empower the body enhancement spell and add the properties to it taking in extra mana.
They clashed each showing their skillfull moves. General to general. Soldiers to soldiers.
Lister and his summon dominated the battle. Lister having trained in martial arts in his previous life and also continuing as undead while Norris was learning with an attitude of learning something in his free time.
Norris undead party 2 troop was swiftly defeated since there was no mage. Then when Lister and his summon was about to gang on Norris? Another Norris appeared. Lister, like a predator seeing prey swiftly ran with all his might to strike down.