58 Witch vs Lich

The creature was just bones and was wearing a wizard's garb. In his right hand was a wooden staff with a fist sized bluish stone. 

But even though it is already a corpse, the creature can move about and can even cast spells. 

Just then, the undead raised his staff and a bluish pentagram formed. Suddenly the temperature dropped. 

"Absolute zero." Atropa gasped out a misty breath as she shivered. 

She then moved a few paces back to avoid the ice that was beginning to cover the area where she had been standing. 

"Wait up… isn't this supposed to be a sacred sanctuary? How come this dwelling got affected by such a spell?" Atropa mused as she materialized a miniature version of her besom. 

 At first her besom was as small as a quill pen. But when she held it out and channeled her mana into it, the besom grew. 

Side saddling her broom, she allowed it to hover a few meters above the already icy ground.

"Something is definitely amiss here." She muttered. 

"I think this place is just an illusion. It would be impossible that a sacred ground will get tainted with a swarm of undead." The lady's maid mused. 

Just then the undead cast produced another pentagram and out from it, several icicle daggers had formed near the ceiling.

Atropa's eyes widened when the daggers suddenly started raining down towards her. 

"Hey! Isn't this place a dwelling of fada de luz? Aren't you a fae of light?" Atropa shouted as she maneuvered her broom to avoid the rain of icicle daggers. 

She dodged a few of the icy shards that came her way while trying to distance herself from the undead.

"What in the heaven's name were you thinking playing with a lich!" she addressed the fae. 

"Oh… this creature was not made by us. This was left behind by the same person who might have sent you here." The voice reverberated as it replied. 

Then the fae added in a matter of fact tone. "Since, we were not able to get rid of it. You can simply clean that filth up for encroaching our turf." 

Atropa's temples throb at the fae's statement. Since she had gotten inside this dome, this fae had been getting on her nerves. 

Right now Atropa wanted nothing in this world but to get a hold of this child and give her a taste of her spells. 

"She is more annoying than my familiar!" the maid seethed as she fired a pure mana ball to the lich. 

Since she couldn't see the fae, the girl turned her attention towards the lich to ease her growing anger. 

"To think, I will have to deal with a stupid lich!" she screeched as she dodged another barraged of icy shards. As she did so, few of the precious gems she was carrying fell from her pocket. 

Instead of retrieving the gems, she commanded her broom to hide behind a boulder. Atropa stopped to take a breather and tried to observe her opponent. 

From the tomes that she had read, it was said that liches could retain their intelligence, skills, and magic when they were still alive. 

But this one seemed to only retained a little bit of its power and knowledge. 

It could think and fight but for some reasons, Atropa never heard it say any words. The spells that came from it were gibberish. 

The spells that the lich had cast were only low to medium level ones. "This must only be a mid-level caster." She made a guess. 

Although her opponent was mid-level, Atropa was having a hard time since the lich can cast in rapid succession. 

"Being dead, it doesn't feel fatigue." She noted while trying to hold on her broom. She had been casting spells since earlier and she was considerably tired. 

"This battle will be endless if I won't be able to destroy that lich's phylactery. I have to find it."

 Unfortunately, she couldn't simply get near the undead. Though she tried to approach the lich, she would be forced to retreat once it would cast spells. 

"We are both casters. And it seems that we both specialized in long range attacks. This fight is mismatched."

She cussed as she hid behind another boulder to avoid getting stab by an icicle lance. "I have to get near him."

Concentrating her mana on her palms, she made a reddish pentagram. Out from it a palm sized doll like version of Atropa materialized. 

"Go and find the phylactery for me." She ordered her mini version. The palm sized Atropa winked before dropping down to the ground. 

After making sure that her doll-like copy was safe on the ground, the witch channeled her mana to her broom and ordered it to go out of their hiding place. 

She flew fast as she launched several fireballs to the lich. That offense attracted the lich's attention.

While the enemy's attention was focused on Atropa, the doll like mini version successfully ran. It made its way towards the crevice where undead opponent had emerged from and disappeared in the darkness.

The lich had cast multiple attacks towards the witch. Fortunately, since the chamber was dome shaped, Atropa could fly freely and avoid her opponent's assault. 

Seeing that she was able to avoid the attacks, the lich manipulated the icicles and made them start to chase the girl. 

"So annoying!" she muttered as she flew faster to avoid getting hit by the homing ice shards. 

In order to get rid of the icicles, she made her broom fly through a small chasm. The witch squeezed herself through and in turn some of the shards struck the walls and broke. 

Without the homing icicles, Atropa launched her own counterattacks which destroyed the remaining icicles. 

The witch then shortened the distance between her and her enemy. But as she approached, the lich had produced a couple of icicle lances and launched them towards her. 

To avoid the icicle lances, Atropa let go of her broom and let herself free fall. The lich saw the opportunity and launch several icy daggers to skewer the girl. 

But just in time, Atropa managed to get hold of her broomstick. As she dangled on her broomstick, she ordered her broom to swerve to the right to avoid the daggers coming her way. 

She allowed her broom to hover just a few meters away from the enemy. Hosting herself up, she side saddled her broom and willed it to go a bit higher. 

"I think it is about time…" she whispered as she raised her hand and activated her trap spell.

From the precious stones that fell from her pocket earlier, light emitted and small pentagrams appeared. 

Out from the magic circles, a series of sigils and incantations had formed and wrapped themselves around the lich. 

The lich screeched while trying to free himself from the binds. But the trap had already been activated and successfully immobilized the undead. 

Taking the opportunity, Atropa fired a mana bullet and hit its right wrist. 

The lich's bony wrist was severed. Thus, he let go of his staff. 

"I doubt that phylactery is in that staff of yours." She murmured. "but just to be sure…" 

Then with a wave of her hand, several pentagrams formed. Out of those, multiple combinations of fireballs and mana bullets had rained down towards both the staff and the lich. 

Atropa's assault did not stop until the staff was shattered and the lich's body was reduced to nothing but fragments of bones and cloth.