Aliandra

  Ali stretched, rolling her neck side to side and hearing several loud pops from her tired muscles as they loosened. She pced the final book – the inal – oop of the rge tower of assorted tomes beside her, do st with the task of copying the mountain Ryn had collected. Quickly verifying that her version was accurately copied, she got up and added it to the bookshelf beside the table, ready for her friend to categorize and sort into their growing library. Her skills were being so accurate at copying them now that she had to be careful to not muddle them up, but, even with the incredible fifty pert boost to her spell haste from Are Recall’s passive mastery, it had still taketer part of an hour to plete her chore.

  But the books Ryn had selected from Ciradyl’s renowned colle were extraordinary – deep theories oure of spell stru, practical guides to leveling your skills, unique and niche entments, martial arts styles – Malika was going to love some of those – and even several fasating ats of the a history she had missed ihousands of years she had spent in magical stasis. Ryn had a sense – a deep intuition – for what mattered. Ali would be spending every free moment in the library studying these new works – taking the time to properly uand the cepts, rather than the freic cyemorization, copying, and then purging the memories to make space for the book in the pile.

  A burst of gold-and-violet mana twisted out over the atrium and suddenly Ryn materialized, seen through the eyes of Ali’s watchful Kobolds. Ali snapped her head up, immediately certain something was wrong; Ryn’s head was bowed, and she just hung suspehere with her wings vibrating, shoulders shaking.

  She’s g!

  Ali dropped her book and shot up to fort her friend, “Ryn? What’s wrong? Is everything ok?”

  “It’s nothing,” she sniffed, gng at Ali with red-rimmed eyes and then looking away.

  “But… you’re g?” Smudged ink read across her face where her hands had been.

  “I’m… ok,” Ryn said, gasping through the sobs, h in the air as if unsure what to do.

  Ali stared at her for a moment, frustrated that she didn’t want to share what was b her, but it didn’t take much to realize that Ryn wasn’t ready to open up. Whatever had caused this didn’t seem to be immediately life-threatening or dangerous, at least.

  “Would you like a cup of tea?” Ali asked, ging tack.

  Ryn nodded, sniffing, and allowed Ali to lead her down to the couches. Ali filled the kettle, preparing the tea leaves and a small-talk monologue to fill the space while she let it steep. Ryn curled up on the couch with her arms ed around her knees, just listening. Using the pretty cups Ryn had found at the market, Ali poured one for each of them and then joined Ryn on the couch. Hidden within the base of each cup was a simple runic structure that kept the heat on the inside, making the outer surface cool to her touch, but it would keep the tea warm for much longer.

  Ryn took a sip and sighed. “Thank you, Ali.”

  “You’re wele.”

  “I lost my job,” Ryn blurted out, followed by a sudden waterfall of tears.

  “Oh no! The bookstore?” Ali excimed.

  Ryn nodded.

  “I’m sorry, Ryn,” Ali said. Ryn loved The Reading er, always happily immersed in the books of the store, s them, and reading. They had both spent many happy hours discussing stories in that bookstore.

  “It’s ok,” Ryed herself, but Ali could see it was anything but.

  “I khe owner wao retire – I’ve known for a while. He finally picked out a new home down south by the o.” Ryn sniffed and then picked up her tea again for another sip. It seemed to calm her down a little because she tio share with a steadier voice. “He told me yesterday that he had sold the store and the new owner would be ing by today. The new owner is with the Hawkhurst Trading pany – they have wao buy the store fes, looking to get into the book trading business between the nearby cities. I don’t know why, but I just assumed I would be w for them too, but they told me to leave today. They want to employ their own people.”

  “I’m sorry, that’s horrible,” Ali reached over and tried to fort her friend by squeezing her hand. She had a personal grudge against the Hawkhurst Trading pany, both for how they had treated Malika, and how Jax Hawkhurst had behaved towards her at the Town cil trial, but she kept silent about her own feelings. She was just happy Ryn wouldn’t be w for such a crooked boss.

  “I mean, I should have expected it. They have no obligation to keep me on,” Ryn said. “But I still feel so discarded, like I wasn’t even worth sidering.”

  They sat in sileogether for a few moments.

  “Is there anything I do to help?”

  “ I have a little more tea?” Ryn asked, holding up her empty cup.

  “Certainly,” Ali said, springing to her feet and p some more from the teapot which was still steaming oea stand. “Here you go.”

  “Do you mind if I just hang out here for a while and mope while reading some books?” Ryn asked. “I think I’ll feel better after a little quiet time.”

  “Of course,” Ali said, “this is your library too, you’re always wele here.”

  Ryn gave her a wan smile, “Thank you for listening, Ali.”

  As soon as Ali saw Ryn was fortable on the couch with fresh tea and a book to read, she got herself a book, and the two of them passed the time reading.

  ***

  Ryn shut her book and lowered it to her p. The tears were gone, and she even had a small smile on her face. The book Ali had suggested was a delightful story – she had read it herself a few days ago. She put her book down and smiled back at her friend.

  “I finished copying all those books yht yesterday,” Ali said. “There are some really good ones in there!”

  “I know, I was really happy with that set,” Ryn answered.

  “Oh, and gratutions on level twenty.” Ali had noticed Ryn’s level as soon as she teleported into the library, but it hadn’t seemed the right time to mention it while she was g.

  A look of momentary fusion passed across Ryn’s face, and then she excimed, “Oh! I missed it!”

  “Did you get anything nice for your skill unlock?” Ali guessed Ryn had been in the middle of being fired when Ali was duplig the books, and that robably the reason she had missed the notification of her level-up. At least hitting level twenty was a good milestone for most csses – Ryn could certainly use something to cheer her up.

  “Let me see…” she looked off into the distance for a sed or two and then answered, “Summarize, Runic Script, and Teag – those are my choices. I summarize books that I touch, uand and write magical script, or help people learn from books with teag. What do you think?”

  “Is that Runic Script the same as my skill?” Ali asked, her curiosity instantly piqued by the familiar skill was a highly sought-after skill for are and magic schors, and Ryn’s css was based at least in part on are magic too.

  Ryn shared the description, which read almost identical to her skill when hers had been level one. “I really like Runic Script…but I’m biased,” Ali said. “It’s the same skill I have. Although, I guess you will be able to use divination runes instead of nature.”

  “This is the skill you use to read the spells inscribed in the magic books, right?” Ryn asked, her eyes alight with a fresh excitement.

  “Yes! And it lets me write them with my mana when I copy the books,” Ali answered, “I read any magid teically write it, but I only use nature and are mana, so the spells only work when I’m writing my own mana affinities. It doesn’t matter for books though, because the spells are just the formations, not actually activated.”

  “I think I want it, too; it will help me uand more of the books we are colleg. It’s almost like knowing a new nguage, right?”

  “Yes, that’s a good way to think of it,” Ali answered. “The written nguage of magic.”

  “Ok! I took that one,” Ryn said, after a brief pause. “Are there any runes you teach me?”

  “Sure!” Ali smiled. It was good to see her friend back to her normal curious self. Losing her job at the bookstore must have been a hard knock, but Ryn was resilient and bounced back quickly. She was sure it would still be a sore point for her for a while but learning something new was a great idea – and a good way to take her mind off her troubles for a bit.

  “I have a spell called se – an are runic circle for removing dirt and grime,” Ali said. “It’s the easiest one I know, so let’s start with that first. Ready?”

  Ryn leaned forward, eager to learn and Ali poured her mana into Sage of Learning to enhance her ability to teach her knowledge.

  ***

  Ali sat ba her chair a her gaze roam around the room. They were nowhere near filling even this level of the a library, but several of the shelves beside the area with couches and tables were now full of books. Perhaps it would take years to finish, but the sight of her colleade her feel warm and happy inside.

  Mato and had not returned from tow, and so she found herself with a surprisingly free afternoon. Lira sat quietly nearby, tent to rex with her tea and a book Ryn had reended. Ryn was deep into her book on are runes, her favorite Kings and Emperors board set up oable beside her – one of the few possessions she had retrieved from the bookstore. Malika sat cross-legged on the floor reading one of the martial arts manuals Ryn had found in Ciradyl with the hs of Ahacked up beside her, presumably so she could study those .

  Ali’s roaming gaze soared out past the walls of the library, alighting in the senses of her minions as she rippled out across her domain. Everything seemed quiet. Everything, except…

  Irregur thumps of footsteps echoed in her mind, followed by the steady beat of several hearts. ected with the senses of her oxic Slime boss in the middle of the sewer, she knew someone roag, but with its strange senses, it was hard to tell who.

  She sat with it for several moments, examining what she felt. Is this how Naia sees the world? Each heart felt different, some quicker, some louder. There were definitely five unique heartbeats. She could evehe shape and guess the type of boots that pressed into her moss or struck the crumbling brick. But try as she might, she could not guess who was sneaking toward the chamber – learning to use this boss as an early warniinel for her dungeon was harder than she had anticipated. Flickering across the tunnels, she split her awareness into a nearby Kobold and peered around the er.

  Oh, that’s Belmar. Relief washed through her as she reized the gruff Dwarf from her shrine ceremony, and his white priestly robes easily gave away his css – only slightly stained with mud and moss. She spent a few moments studying them, familiarizing herself with the newly formed novice group, trying to memorize the vibrations of their heartbeats and attach that sensation to their faces and names in her mind. Surprisingly, Sage of Learning helped more than she expected.

  As they set up for an attempt on her boss, she left them alorusting that Vivian had ehey would be properly prepared. If she learnize all the adventurers, it would be far easier to tell the differeween them and intruders.

  Ali’s awareness settled bato her own body, rexing a bit now that she knew she wasn’t under immediate attack. My biggest problem is mana. She had some fantastic, well-crafted fire resistance gear now, both for herself and her minions, and she was eager to try her pieces. The two new bosses she had made with domain-enhanced perception signifitly improved the surveilnce of her domain, at least in the sewers, taking one of the most urgent items off her list. Clearly, she o familiarize herself with their abilities more, but it rogress. However, she still struggled to develop her domain and defenses properly, primarily due to a critical ana. It was unfair just how many high-level mohe Emberfe Mine could afford, and she couldn’t even make a Fme Spinner boss as a soure Web because it would be too expeo reserve. Not even a boss, she thought. Just a few of the high-level spiders would bankrupt her.

  Traps are free, she thought, pulling out a notebook. While not as versatile as monsters, her domain would fully support any traps she made, pletely c the maintenance reservation. There were limits of course. She couldn’t just stack up thousands of traps in the same pce without overloading her domain in the area, but she could certainly make more traps and learn more powerful spells to use with them. And I have a lot of magic books now…

  A flicker of movement drew her attention and her eyes alighted on the heavy, scratched Eldrite taining her mother’s life’s work, somehow ily resting oable right beside her pile of pleted books. It had most certainly not been there whearted. Stras like this were precisely why she had been avoiding it.

  The book had scared her while she was in the grips of her Are Recall spell, but somehow it seemed to want to protect her. Ever since, she had found it in random pces within the library, almost always within arm’s reach. It’s silly to be afraid of a book, she chided herself, deliberately trying to ighe fact it was actually a mohat she was uo eveify. It was still her mother’s book, and her mom had been one of the most accimed researchers oure of magi an age when many historians believed the uanding of magic had reached its pinnacle.

  Ali recalled her struggles when trying to inscribe ’s light magic with her mana and runes. I wonder if there’s something ihat help me? While she had memorized the book oo copy it, memorization did not require uanding – and she had long since purged the mental images of the pages. She reached out a hand to pull the heavy tome over to her. It bounced excitedly. Ali snatched her hand back with a startled yelp. But the book’s cover popped open, and the pages flipped furiously past until it fell open at a chapter on Tithe Entments.

  Gingerly, now, she reached out once again. This time, the book made no sudden movements, but still, it seemed to quiver under her fiips. Screwing up her ce, she flipped the pages back to the table of tents, still not sure how she felt about the prospect of reading a monster, but she found a chapter on mana transtion that seemed rather promising and began to read.

  But after several hundred mana bure of Learning, she felt she was not even beginning to uand. It was a cept built upon a foundation of learning and uanding for which she had not begun to fathom the basics.

  What the heck is ‘Authority’? As best as she could gather, her mother’s core premise was that all power derived from a single source. Something she referred to as Authority. Every affinity of mana, and even stamina or life arose from it. The endless riess of traits and experience seemed to derive from iioween Authority and the fabric of the realm itself. Whatever that means. What she couldn’t fathom was whose authority it referred to. Or what – it seemed unclear. Even what it was an authority over. Perhaps all of reality? The only thing that made sense was that apparently, this was the reason affinity transtion might be possible at all.

  Ali sighed and closed her eyes, massaging the back of her neck with her fingers, hoping to avert the beginnings of a headache. Her eyes snapped open at the rustling of pages and she found the book once agaio the chapter on Tithe Entments.

  “Hey, you lost my pce,” she grumbled, venting her annoyance aloud at the book. To her dismay it shuffled backward a little, drooping its pages as if remorseful, and slowly turned back to where she had been reading.

  “Um… thank you?” she said, feeling uedly guilty, like she had been overly harsh with a misbehaving puppy. And now I’m talking to a book…

  While the book had returned her to the pce she had left off, she decided that mana transtion was beyond her ability for now and spent a little time browsing the other chapters before pausing when something caught her attention.

  It seemed she had found a chapter devoted to the efficy of various runiations, but the spell being used as an example was ohat seemed well within her grasp; a spell called Are Bst. Maybe… a rap? Given that it was an area damage spell, and in one of her affinities, she saw no reason she shouldn’t learn it at once.

  First, she read the spell itself using her Sage of Learning, mastering the basiiation. Once she was certain she had it, she read through the discussion on rune efficy. Again, the cepts were challenging to uand without her mother’s years of mastery, but with the spell freshly memorized, she found herself being more and more absorbed in the runiiputions which aligned something referred to as ‘mana currents’ within the struct, yielding a more potent transfer of mana to energy. Acc to this, the proximity of certain runes could cause the mana currents to bleed over into unwanted parts of the runic structure, creating resonance or echoes in poor pces. If the analysis was to be believed, such effects could also be exploited to amplify the spell, if arranged correctly.

  After nearly an hour of further study, Ali finally gave it a try.

  Are Bst – Linked Magic – level 51 (Are)Releases a spherical bst of are magi the circle.Detect: Humanoid (exclude Minions)Runic Circle

  Runic Script has reached level 27.

  She pushed the heavy tome away, examining her creation. She had applied all the runic transformations she had been able to grasp from the dense and obtuse text – far from all that was suggested – and now that she saw the final struct, she uood their purpose in a much more practical way. She could literally see the flow of mana through the runic circle and the unintuitive runic choices and pts definitely made an enormous difference.

  This should make a great trap, she thought to herself. She needed some better defenses in the forest cavern at the entrance below the sewers where all the zombies were entering. As they had delved deeper into the Emberfe Mines, she had been ibalizing from her defeo afford better minions. A few of these traps, well pced, would go a long way to improving her defenses.

  Perhaps a lower level though, she decided. It would be heartbreaking for a newly bronze-ranked adveo walk over an unseen level fifty-orap and die. A trap closer to level twenty-five would be just as effective against the typical undead but not quite as deadly to the adventurers. I keep the high-level ones for the jungle and to protect the library. There were two spawning pools down there, and a higher-level dungeon, after all.

  As she was studying her rap, she heard the rustling of paper and gnced up to find the book frozen, a page halfway turned. Nothing happened as she stared at it. Slowly, she preteo look away. The page turned, and the one began to flip. As soon as she looked, it stopped again.

  What is it doing?

  She looked away, and there was a frantic rifling of paper and by the time she looked back, the book had stopped, once again on the same chapter on Tithe Entments. With little scooting motions, the book shuffled itself toward her and then stopped. Like I didn’t just see that!

  “Why do you wao read this chapter so badly?” she asked.

  But it was a book. She wasn’t sure what kind of response she expected. It just bobbed up and down a little.

  May as well, she decided, eyeing the chapter. The first two pages were mostly background information that she already knew, expnations of the various kinds of tithes, and how they worked. There were a few she hadn’t entered yet, like the ander and the soldier variations, or the fealty one, but she supposed that made sense.

  I still don’t know what it wants. As she reached over to turn the page, an almost imperceptible formation of mana flickered outward through the spine and suffused the pages before vanishing. Ali snatched her hand bastantly, fearing the return of the magical barrier teeth, but nothing moved. The brief glimpse she had caught looked a bit like her ring’s ste magic, but vastly more plex. Almost as if impatient, the book began turning the page for her.

  The first thing she noticed as the page peeled back was the page number.

  Page 4????????5??????????????????8????????????????????7??????2??????????2??????????????????1?????????

  But her attention was instantly caught by the vast plexity of the mana formation that sprang forth as the book fell open. Leaping out from the page was the single most intricate magical structure she had ever seen – more plex even than the biggest imprint she had recorded. It hovered there, stilting, sparkling, and pulsating with beautifully delicate mana tracery that rotated in and out of existence as if traversing through paths in higher dimensions. Ali couldn’t even make out any of the runes, such was the densely interected nature of its stru – all she received from her skills was a sense of overwhelmiy and an exquisite progressive refi of infinitely recursive detail that exceeded any ability of hers to eve.

  “What is that!” Ali gasped. The only thing she could think of was that it reminded her of the sight of Thuli imbuing his mana signature upon Kavé when he offered her his mana for mentorship. She leaned forward to study it, ign the sensation of her Sage of Learning burning through her mana.

  Suddenly her notification chime sounded.

  The Nature of Magic, “ce”, Eldrite offers its patronage.Mentor Patronage – ceTraits: Magiowledge, Are, Intelligence, Wisdom, Perception, Domain, Runic Magic, Tithe, Language, Reading.Experience gain is increased for as aligned with your mentor, or uheir supervision. Gain additional skill unlocks and advances aligned with your mentor’s traits and experience.A portion of your increased experience is awarded to your mentor, increasing their reputation.Entment – TitheAccept this patronage?

  “Your… your name is ce?” Ali asked, tg onto the most mundane of details she could, to prevent herself from bursting into tears over this silly book for the sed time. It bobbed eagerly, shuffling a little closer to her.

  “What’s wrong Ali?” Ryn asked. Ali looked up at her and saw Lira, Ryn, and even Malika h beside her, clearly etched on their expressions.

  “The book,” she pointed, blinking to hold back the welling of emotions in her eyes. “It – it is called ce – offered me a mentorship.”

  “I… I think you should accept, dear,” Lira murmured, and for the first time in her memory, Ali heard astonishment, awe, and sho the a dryad’s voice as she too stared at the magic projected from the page. “That is your mother’s magic, what little of it even I prehend.”

  “Mom?” Several drops fell to her cheeks, but she spared no thoughts for them, staring instead at the book and the shimmering magi the page.

  “Only Elowynn’s genius could divine a way to mentor you from three thousand years in the past. This magic was onother’s mana signature, given the ability to grow with her unique brilliant insight. It has somehow bee the core of this book.”

  Ali stared in amazement at the magic her mother had wrought, and the Eldrite that was baring its heart to her. She had no doubts.

  “Thank you, ce,” she said, and gratefully accepted its offer of patronage.

  Your Patrons have been updated.

  The book snapped shut in an instant and then took off, flying around her ied swoops and rolls before it alighted ba the table and bounced a little, while Ryn cpped her hands in delight. “Clever book!”

  The tome rose to make a droll dip in the air as if bowing to her, before shaking with what looked suspiciously like unseen ughter aurning to its preferred position oabletop.

  Lirasia cpped her hands softly. “Well, I do believe this calls for a brag cup of tea, what do you say, dears?”

  Mato

  Mato carefully dled the stew into bowls for everyone and passed it out, keeping his expressioirely ral. Stew for breakfast was a little strange, but he passed it off with a taciturn, “Leftovers.”

  He hadn’t mentioned his excursion to the slums yesterday a down and begaing, keeping a surreptitious eye ohers.

  You have bee Well-fed.+4 to Vitality.Duration: 6 hours.

  sat bolt-upright, beginning to yell, “What?” before he choked on his mouthful.

  Mato swatted his friend’s back. “Alright?”

  His creation had worked, and while it wasn’t a particurly rge boost, it was vitality, which was arguably the most important attribute. And it sted a whopping six hours – more than enough time for their delve into the mioday.

  “What did he just – uh, Mato?” Malika spluttered.

  “Oh!” Ali’s excmation followed moments ter.

  opted to finish his mouthful in silence, but the look of surprise on his face was more than enough.

  “What’s the matter?” Mato rumbled, and then chuckled. After the appropriate e at his feigned ignorance, he shared his story, with maybe a few embellishments, particurly with how awful Tabitha’s first stew had tasted.

  ***

  Time for a rematch! The thrill of excitement rushing through him made his ears prickle as he gazed once again into the Landing – the giant chamber stretched out before him filled with elementals. Shards of Fme drifted bad forth, weaving their way around the much rger Living Fmes.

  “Did anyone else notice their mana regeing in the Living Fme aura st time?” Ali asked, suddenly.

  “It regees stamina too,” Malika answered. “Not much, but it’s nice.”

  Now that’s useful, he thought. He had not noticed the effect himself, but this time he would pay more attentiorieved a red elixir from his ste, studying the expensive co.

  Elixir of Fire Resistance – level 41e: +20% to resistance against fire damage. Duration: 1 hour.Created by Morwynne Fizzlebang – “A little less burn.”Potion

  “A little less burn,” he chuckled, imagining the words in the voiorwynne before he dowhe elixir. As soon as he stored the empty vial, he shifted to Bear Form, pulsing his mana through his armor to make it shift with him, enjoying the feel of its reassuringly solid weight resting on his shoulders and back. In the mines, lit only by va and elementals, the dark, bae armleamed reddish, taking on the ambient color of fme. The elixir, and its one-hour duration, was a godsend for him – uo drink regur potions, it gave him solid prote for the duration of most fights.

  Clearing the dungeon all the way down to here had taken just a little over an hour, including the Fme Broodmother, which insisted they couldn’t sneak past. But he didn’t mind that; they were getting much better, and he liked pitting his strength against the heavy-hitting spider.

  “How about here, Mato?” asked him, pig out a spot quite a way back from the entrance. “If you tank it here with your back to the wall, we should be safe from getting blown bato that cavern again.”

  Mato dipped his head with a huffy grumpy-bear growl, setting himself up a couple of feet further to the left of the location had picked – a little more distance from the open and inviting archway.

  “That works. Getting the first one,” said, vanishing into the shadows.

  Bring it. These monsters had sent them pag, and now they would turables on them.

  Out in the Landing, brightly lit by the many fme elementals beyond the a stone archway, one of the Living Fmes whirled and surged forward as a fsh of light smmed into its core. appeared from nowhere, already sprinting toward the doorway, his leather armor steaming.

  Good, he got only oheir pn, should ’s arrow draw two or more elementals, was to flee. Ali had even splurged on a teleportation circle a little way back dowunnel, marked by a of rocks, just in case. It was not a glorious pn, but it was certainly the smartest one – was being remarkably profit at timing his shots to split monster packs, giving them the best ce of defeating everything safely.

  The archway flickered with the bright red light of the elemental monster’s fme and a wave of heat billowed out in front of it, searing Mato’s eyes and his lungs as he breathed. passed his position at a dead sprint, and Mato patiently waited for the perfeent. As soon as the Living Fme was in range, he charged, smashing into the elemental with the power of all his momentum and strength. Fmes surged around him, burning his flesh aing his fur afme, but his eyes survived the fire, and he could still see.

  He roared and smashed his paw crosswise into the elemental using his Battle Master retaliation powered by Brutal Restoration aial bat. Roots sprang from the rocky ground, instantly ignited by the heat. Mato backed up slowly, drawing the elemental to his spot as his restoration magic began to pulse within him. He attacked again, dug a little at the st moment to avoid the sweeping strike of a burning arm. The Living Fme didn’t quite have a stable physical form, most of its body except the core seemed to ripple and flicker like fme. But it attacked with extensions of fme that resembled thick arms that certainly were dense enough to knock him back from the sheer physical impact. He had learhat well enough – getting hit meant taking an enormous amount of both physical and fire damage.

  His body filled with his eion magic, along with the softer, warmer feel of Ali’s Acolyte using her holy magic. He smiled inwardly, the Kobold had only used her slower, but more effit, heal-over-time magic which meant he had kept the damage down to a reasonable non-panidug amount. He pced the elemental perfectly and then focused on attag and blog with everything he had. At the same time, the rest of the team deployed around his spot, taking their positions and attag. He only really paid attention to Malika, who would be healing him in emergencies, and the melee minions Ali had brought: the rogues who were already causing their dark daggers to flicker and shimmer with rapid attacks iense heat, the Hobgoblin sp its new fire resistae armor, and the shamans with their lightning arg and crawling along their shields and ons, casting harshly brilliant terillumination to the softer red of fire and va.

  His Survival Instinct suddenly went crazy, and he braced himself against the wall.

  “Explosion!” Ali yelled in the background.

  Mato’s eardrums burst and his world filled with fire as the force of the detonation smmed into his fad chest, flinging him up and into the rock wall right behind him. He tumbled down, gasping for breath and falling to the ground still at his tanking spot, just like had hoped. The rogues, shamans, and even the Hobgoblin were airborne, unched away on the shockwave of fme. But Malika must have dodged the explosion with her ridiculous evasion because she was right beside him, smming her healing magito him. Oi, do you have to sp me so hard? Off behind the Living Fme, a lone Kobold Acolyte stood in a glittering golden sphere of magic, p holy magito him from maximum range. See, Malika? The Kobold could teach you a thing or two about beile!

  He sed the cavern. Good. Nobody had nded in the va and, more importantly, nobody had been tossed into the Landing with the rest of the elementals. Instead, everyone scrambled, ran, or flew back to the fight as soon as they nded.

  He checked his health, but with the fire resistance elixir and his armor, he hadn’t even gone below half, and Malika and the acolyte had already topped him off.

  Perfebsp;He roared his taunt and attacked again, burning his health for more damage rather than wasting the stant pulse of the restoration magics healing him.

  Every time the Living Fme struck, Survival Instinct warned him of heavy damage. He blocked furiously, defleg blows into the rock wall behind him, but not all. Each time he was hit, his health took a dive as he was smashed, ribs cracked, and flesh burnt. Each time he attacked, the elemental’s fme retaliated, burning him some more.

  But Malika’s reas were lightning quick, and the holy Acolyte a stant source of healing.

  A sed explosion bsted him, and again Malika mao dodge it as the two of them weathered the storm together until the group recovered.

  “Thirty seds again,” said, his voice carrying over the sizzle and crackle of magic.

  The explosion redicted a few seds in advance, and Malika hunkered down beside him, taking the bst and boung off the wall with him.

  But when the fourth detonation ripped through the room, the giant elemental suddenly froze in pce. A wave of heat burst forth from its body as a torrent of fme swirled around it like a red, bzing tornado. A dense glowing shield snapped into pce, enveloping the monster in a transparent barrier. Mato’s paw smacked into the shield, boung off painfully.

  “It’s regeing!” Ali yelled.

  “Break the shield!” called out.

  Magic rained down from the back line while Mato Swiped furiously at the barrier, trying to make any kind of impa the dense magiot even his Bestial bat could su. Visible oher side of the barrier, Malika’s fists were a blur of high-speed punches as the eeam went all out against the shield.

  Are we even doing anything? For many long moments, he couldn’t tell if they were having any effe the shield at all. Still, he loaded his Swipe with Bestial bat, burnih with every strike, until suddenly the impervious shield cracked a little beh his cws. ’s sharp eyes caught it, and his arrow struck the crack dead on. The weakness spread the sound of ice crag across a frozen ke. Malika’s shin hit the crad suddenly the barrier exploded into gss-like shards, crashing to the ground and casg off the rocky walls. Several whizzing pieces sliced through his fur and into his hide, but Mato ighe minor cuts, reag through to attack the Living Fme within, finally able to reach his oppo once again.

  “It’s back to half,” Ali called, and then immediately she yelled, “Explosion!”

  The Living Fme struck him with a well-timed blow on the shoulder causing his froo buckle at the same instant the fme detonation struck, smashing him into the wall. All the melee, even Malika this time, went flying dowunnel. As he hit the floor, he realized he was on his own. Even the ever-present Acolyte in Ali’s bubble was missing, just leaving a cloud of dissipating golden shards.

  The Living Fme struck, and he missed his block, stumbling ohat still felt sluggish. He gru the searing impact, painful even with his enormous endurance.

  Not good. He was down to below fifteen pert health and falling. His regeion magic was rapidly falling behind against the onsught of fme. Another powerful elemental arm flew toward him, and Survival Instinct screamed.

  Without scious thought, he used Last Stand. His body surged with prowing rger as his health doubled and his hide thied, growing denser and augmenting his armor.

  Thirty seds. That was what his skill had bought him. The attack seared deep into his wounded flesh, but his armor was tougher, and he had a temporary new lease on life, so he struck back with everything he had.

  Malika was the first one back, her feet blurring as they ate up the dista an incredible rate, half the time not even b to step oual ground. She ran up the wall at his back, spping him on the shoulder with her hand and he felt the burning surge of her heal tearing through his body, causing his breath to hitch. She never used that much before… His health skyrocketed. He roared, blog atack as she flipped down off the wall above him with a blindingly fast kibination. A few moments ter the rest of the team appeared, and they hunkered back down for the fight.

  Three more explosions ripped through the rocky mine before the Living Fme once agais shield-and-tornado bination. This time he didn’t o be told, everyone unleashed their magid attacked the shield trying to shatter it as quickly as possible.

  “Back to twenty-five pert,” Ali called out, again followed immediately by, “Explosion!”

  This time Malika dodged it, so the transition was much safer. He had already burned his Last Stand, so any dangerous situations ing up would o be survived the hard way. As soon as the others returned, ’s magic fred, filling the eunnel with a brilliant white light. Arrows shot across the way in a glowing storm, smming into the creature’s core.

  “Explosion!”

  Mato’s Swipe nded in a sudden puff of dissipating fme, and his chime sounded. Instead of the detonation smashing him into the wall, the creature flickered and died and the core fell to the ground with a heavy crash that sent tremors through the rock.

  Yroup has defeated Living Fme – Elemental – level 62.

  Take that, you rofire!

  ----------

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