The Divine Wolf...or?

Seeing a dark and gloomy house in the middle of nowhere would normally not alarm them too much, but considering that this house was basically where Ark's trail had disappeared, it would be kind of weird if it didn't ring any alarm bells. The only thing that was a little confounding was the fact that they couldn't feel the presence of any living being in the house. If that was all, it wouldn't be too weird, it would just mean that the house was empty after all. The really weird part was that they could feel an immense amount of mana lying dormant in the gloomy house. 

This could only mean a few things, with the most likely one being an undead. The only problem was that the undead didn't normally have such an immense amount of mana. Whilst the rest were still a little confused, a look of realisation appeared on Thufrat's face. He recognised this wicked mana from the time that he and Ark had been dungeon diving together, this was a lich!

"Everyone on your toes! I think it's gotta be a lich." 

He didn't hesitate to share this information with the others, since liches were dangerous and sinister creatures. If they were not careful, who knew when they would end up dead. He was right to do this, as the second the words left his mouth, a large amount of mana suddenly converged underneath their feet. The ground started to rumble, as hands started emerging from the soil one after another. 

Thanks to Thufrat's timely warning, everyone was on guard when the attack happened, and no one panicked. Slowly but surely, more and more undead started to pop out of the ground, surrounding the small group of 5 people. A rough estimation from the wood-elf showed that there was more than 500 undead surrounding them, alarming the group greatly. The undead themselves were mostly zombies and skeletons, and the group could dispose of them fairly easily. The thing that alarmed them was the fact that this lich had seemingly summoned close to 500 undead just like that. Which spoke volumes of its power. 

The first to make his move was Adam. He had been hired as a mercenary, and it was time for him to do his job after all. With a casual swing of his sword, he stirred up a massive amount of wind mana that went straight into the group of undead in front of them. The wind blades tore the undead to pieces without any issue, almost instantly dealing with more than 30 of them in one go. After confirming that his attacks were actually effective, he started using his full strength to attack. 

Wind blades of all shapes and sizes flew into the crowd of enemies, whilst Adam tried to stay as close to the others as possible. He was hired as a mercenary, and his primary objective was naturally to keep his employers safe. The wood-elf called on a water elemental to help her fight, but instead of being offensive, she focused on keeping the enemies away. She used water to push the undead away, and she would occasionally use the water as a blunt force and crush the skulls of any skeletons that got a bit too close. 

Atar wanted to go on a rampage, but in a time like this, everyone needed to stick together to be on the safe side, so he could only take on enemies that were close enough. His range was the shortest, which meant that he couldn't do much to help. Thufrat had finally found an outlet for all of his rage, and he started attacking the undead crazily, even going as far as stimulating his dorman earth dragon bloodline. 

The only one who wasn't fighting the undead was Ephine, instead she was just standing in the background, accumulating as much mana as possible. 

Under the continuous onslaught of Thufrat, Adam, Atar and the wood-elf, the number of undead surrounding them quickly dwindled. The 500 undead quickly became 100, and then 50, then 10, and eventually, they were all gone. The moment Thufrat crushed the skull of the last skeleton, a dark shadow suddenly covered the ground. Looking up, they could all see a massive pitch-black magic circle blotting out the sun.

A daunting amount of mana diffused into the air from the magic circle, creating an intense amount of pressure bearing down on their small group of 5. Whilst the pressure prevented them from moving, more than a hundred lances made out of highly compressed dark mana appeared, before swiftly descending. The lances descended faster than anyone could react, that was, everyone except for Ephine. 

She had been predicting that the lich was just trying to buy time, which was why she had been preparing herself whilst everyone else was busy fighting the undead. Seeing the magic circle in the air, she used all of the mana she had accumulated to create a small dome that bȧrėly covered all 5 of them. Normally, such a small and paltry shield wouldn't be of much help, but even though it was small, it was insanely strong. 

The shield was made up of multiple thin layers of highly compressed light mana. To get through it, an attack of the dark element would have to be of incomparable power to stand a chance. The lich's attack was strong, but it wasn't to the point of despair, and luckily, the shield could hold out. The numerous explosions that were created as a result created a large dust cloud in the air. 

Adam was scared that the lich might be up to something sinister, so he immediately swung his sword and used some wind magic to get rid of all the dust. As the dust cleared, all their small group of 5 could see in front of them was pure devastation. The ordinary and peaceful-looking glade was completely destroyed, with the bodies of crushed skeletons and dead zombies covering the ground. 

While they were tentatively looking around them, an eerie voice abruptly broke the silence. 

"To think one of you would see through my little trick, I commend you for that young lass."

Standing atop the gloomy, dark house, was a dastardly looking creature. A skeleton with fabulous, long white hair was silently staring at them. His eye sockets had no eyes, instead, all you could see was a bright green fire hovering in each socket. The glow of a skeletons, or in this case a lichs soul fire was pretty indicative of their mana. The rich and bright fire pretty much confirmed that this lich was strong, very strong. 

When the lich talked, their entire group of 5 could feel a chill run down their spine. The voice of the lich was truly as eerie as its appearance was. However, Thufrat was once again the only person who felt completely dumbfounded upon seeing the lich. This was the same lich that he had and Ark had run into whilst they were dungeon diving! The only real difference between them was that this one seemed way stronger than before, but Thufrat was sure that it was the same one!

He would recognise that hellish face anywhere!