361 Elder Lich

"Who will stand with me?" General Gar'na-dras called.

"HO!" Instantly, the shouts of every soldier in the hall resounded as one.

"All of them?" Mindy blinked. "But if everybody goes, the weaker ones are going to get killed!"

Suddenly she found herself at the center of attention with glares staring daggers at her from every side.

Gar'na-dras barked a laugh. "She does have a point, at that. The battle will go easier if I need not worry over unnecessary casualties. It may take longer with less troops, but I would rather extend the fight than lose good people."

"Qualifiers." Darian said suddenly. Gar'na-dras turned his gaze to him. Darian explained. "Impose criteria."

"Body Qi stage for support crews. As for the main battle group… Earth Qi stage, minimum." Gar'na-dras said firmly. "No less."

"When do we deploy?" Darian asked next.

One of the nearby officers scoffed. "You don't need to know. You're just a boy. You just need to stay out of our way."

"Actually, I was thinking of calling in support from my friends in the Church of Light. Since we have access to mana, some priests skilled with Life Magic could be helpful." Darian mused out loud.

The officer instantly shut up.

"Three days." Gar'na-dras answered after a bit more consideration. "I want the full strength of the Crown Century. I want to crush this older Lich utterly, and with minimal cost. Three days should be enough for your friends to reach us."

"It should also be enough to weed out the weaklings from the volunteers. Everybody needs to pass the qualifiers for combat ability. EVERYBODY." The nosy officer said, eyes narrowed as he glared at Darian.

"I'll make a point to tell my friends you said that." Darian said politely.

The officer's face fell, turning a bit pale. A priest highly skilled in life magic could be so highly valued, even if he couldn't fight a rabbit to save his life, Gar'na-dras would still want to bring him along for his healing powers. That single point alone was enough to make a joke of everything the officer just said.

***

Over the next two days, the First Draconian Legion prepared.

The First Legion's Crown Century gathered in a hurry. Rather than just one day, the Second Century took over their duties of escorting the Crown Prince for the entire week. This gave even the farthest warrior of the First Century time not only to reach the Portal Fortress, but to get a good night's sleep and some familiarization training with the rest of the group.

Qualifiers were held on all three days. The first layer of testing was for sheer physical strength.

"This is a magic force indicator." The nosy officer introduced a giant sand-bag covered with runes. "The standard you need to meet is that of an early Body Qi stage martial practitioner! Think you can make it?" he snorted at Darian.

BOOM!

For a moment, nobody could see anything. There was sand flying everywhere. People were coughing as the dust slowly cleared and they could see again.

"Oops." Darian said, but his tone was not at all apologetic. "Does that count?"

The officer gulped.

The entire sandbag had burst. Darian's single palm had completely destroyed the magic force indicator.

Gar'na-dras chuckled. "Pass. Next!"

"Someone get another magicked sandbag!" A logistics officer called into a comms crystal.

When it arrived, Darian told Mindy, "Try not to hit too hard. Let's not destroy everything."

The officer stared in disbelief.

POW! Mindy left a gaping hole in the sandbag, whose measurement runes basically whirled about in a confused spiral, unable to give an accurate count.

"Uh… whoops." Mindy said sheepishly. "Sorry."

"T-this…" the nosy officer almost dropped his clipboard.

"I TOLD you!" Ling Yun said, confidentially. "She's actually a dragon!"

"I'm not a dragon!!" Mindy yelled.

In any case…

"Pass." Gar'na-dras said, completely unperturbed. "Next!"

"Guys! We need ANOTHER sandbag!!" The logistics officer called. "Actually, forget sandbags. Bring the iron-sand pillar!"

***

Corporal Ling Yun, Lieutenant Su Jing, and roughly 900 other officers of the First Draconian Legion qualified for long-range support work.

Captain Yang Feng, Darian, Mindy, and about 200 others qualified for the main battle group. Most of them were Crown Century warriors, members of the Crown Prince's Honor Guard. The rest, other than Darian and Mindy, were officers from other Centuries and Cohorts of the First Legion.

They held a briefing in the Portal Hall before going through.

"Our target is the Undead commander that we nicknamed the 'Elder Lich'." Gar'na-dras began. "This is the strongest Undead we have encountered so far, stronger even than Death Knights, and the fact that Death Knights follow its orders should be proof enough of that. We think that this is their leader of leaders, the ruling chief in the region of our base camp site."

There was a murmur of discussion that rippled through the hall, but most of the tones sounded in agreement with that assessment.

"The Elder Lich was last seen accompanied by the equivalent of an elite Cohort of Undead. There were a few hundred of the regular skeletons, ghouls and zombies. There were blood hounds on the prowl, presumably on recon. The important part are three specific creatures."

Images were projected in mid-air, two of them being armored skeleton, and the third…

"This ghost-woman is another Undead we've never seen before. We call her the 'Banshee'. All reports indicate that she is semi-corporeal. Arrows go right through her, and only seem to affect her mildly. The most effective attack that has reached her so far was a firebolt. We believe other elemental and magical attacks may also be effective, but if in doubt, use fire. Also, bring earplugs. Once we engage, put those earplugs in and use hand signals for battle coordination until we take the Banshee down."

"We're fighting ghosts, now…" Yang Feng muttered.

"Been there. At least this one isn't so big." Mindy whispered.

"These other two are Death Knights. Compared to those we've fought before, they actually seem to be stronger." Gar'na-dras continued. "In other words, these are elites among Death Knights. Speed, strength, armor… they have it all, and they have it in greater measure than any other Death Knight we've previously encountered. If at all possible, take them down at long-range. Do not approach! Everyone other than Crown Century warriors should steer clear of close combat! These Death Knights are deadly at close range!"

"Except maybe us." Mindy whispered to Darian.

"I think maybe he meant us, too." Darian whispered back.

"What? Why?" Mindy didn't understand.

"I hope you'll never have to find out." Darian left it at that.

Gar'na-dras continued before Mindy could probe further. "Other than his forces, the Elder Lich has displayed several powers we should especially take note of. For the most part, they are variants and manipulations of water magic. This includes acid rain, ice chains and thick fog. He also has some sort of pressure field around his immediate vicinity that will slow down all corporeal forms approaching him, including blades and arrows. For this reason, the long-range support team will be fielding magic beam cannons. We will be bringing six of those, and the support teams will be divided into six teams accordingly."

"The main assault group will be divided into three teams. The Crown Century will take the center. The rest will be divided into two flanking teams…"