Aliandra

  Something prickled in the back of Ali’s awareness, like airely imagi the back of her mind.

  What is that?

  She searched around for any sign of what it might be, but, although the sensation seemed remarkably persistent, it was just as elusive. Clearly, it had nothing to do with the mines or where she was sitting, so, trusting her friends to warn her of anything dangerous, she closed her eyes and focused on the prickle.

  Is that ing from Martial Insight? It seemed somehow reted to her e to her monsters, and so she rexed a her awareness off, somehow following the nebulous dire of the sensation. Ordinarily, she would just pick the minion to ect to directly, but this time her senses were giving little to no clue as to the source. It was awkward, and she had no idea what she was doing, but then suddenly, surprisingly, her senses ected, and she found herself staring at a wolf pack with the quality of vision only possible with exceptional eyes. She could smell humans – a strangely aggressive bination of treated leather, oiled steel, and unusual spices.

  Ali turned her head, studying the ndscape, reizing the den with the she had fashioned out of solid rock, and the Timber Wolves she had turned into one of her test raid bosses. She felt out the perimeter of her domain attat like she possessed ara sense of touch – the range she had been granted by the dense currents of mana that thrummed through her body and mind. Off to one side, gathered among the apple trees, safely out e, a group of adventurers huddled together.

  That’s Havok, she thought, reizing the holy shield and the greehery face with his toothy grin. Behind him, she spotted Basil and Teagan. Aiden was there too, and the beast-tamer girl, Willow, with her panion Timber Wolf – the one she had earned right here in Ali’s dungeon.

  It was a full raid group, and they were setting up to test one of her bosses. But why aren’t they trying the ke boss? The paired shamans and Brine Ooze were desigo be a lower-level challenge, hopefully giving the bronze-ranked adventurers an easier path tress before tag this one. Did they just not find it? The Timber Wolves were level twenty-six and outleveled them by a hefty margin. Not impossible, but…

  Trust them. They had been trained by the guild – even takira csses with Malika and on bat and strategy. They khe importance of information gathering, defeeamwork, and most importantly, having escape options ready. Relutly, Ali released her e to her wolf’s senses lest she jeopardize their experience.

  At least this time, she had detected the attempt before it was over. That’s progress!

  “Ining!” yelled, breaking her reverie in an instant.

  Ali snapped her eyes open and a barrier up in front of her face before preparing herself and readying all her minions. Ever since she had found they could throw the spears, she had been fighting far more defensively, making sure she always had her protective barrier up – she had no desire to be impaled by one of those vicious spears. Ali skewers are right out!

  “You guys help Mato and Malika,” Ali said, addressing her Hobgoblins, pleased to see how nimble and powerful their movement seemed as they rushed to join the group f up front.

  sprihrough the ter of their melee group with three Fmecaller warriors chasing him, his lithe form dodgi and right with uny presd his form blurred by his defensive skills. Ali had no idea how he had avoided all of their spear-charge attacks, but he appeared to be entirely uninjured. Mato stepped forward, his chest puffed up aggressively, and her Hobgoblins braced themselves behind their gleaming dark Eimuuran shields. The female Hob snarled, brandishing two matg pact handaxes.

  The Fmecallers’ serpentine bodies blurred into accelerated rushes and battle was joined in a tremendous crash. Mato roared. Ali’s Hobgoblins shouted. The g of steel spears hitting shields rang out across the battlefield.

  “Begin,” Ali told the rest of her minions, her words punctuated by the crag of lightning from the shamans she had kept back at range.

  It will all depend on how they hahe intimidation, she thought, keeping a wary eye on her Hobgoblins as she raked her barrier shards across the left fnk of the enemy formation. Her rogues and shamans had been uo recover from the devastating hisses, but they were scarcely level twenty at best. Her Hobgoblins didn’t have a lot of wisdom, which Malika had said would resist the effect, but at least they were twice the level and far more durable. She tio trol her barrier shards, harrying the Fmecallers, while slipping into the perceptions of her Hobgoblins to monitor their fight.

  The first thing she noticed was just how little they were getting hit through that armor and their shields and masteries. They’re not even burni, she thought. Mato got hit a lot, and was already on fire, even though his hide was super durable. Without a shield, her axe-wielding Hob took more hits, but even she seemed to be very resilient. Blog is very strong, she observed, taking the opportunity to study the defeyle of the Goblins. And armor proficies. I wonder if it would be possible to build a Goblin horde strong enough to snarl up monsters like these and bring them to a standstill?

  One of the Fmecallers at the back reared up a out a powerful, magic-imbued hiss, and all their melee attackers flinched and cowered. Ali held her breath as the Acolyte o her fred with holy light. Malika straightened up and unleashed a precision strike of stiffened fiips to the throat of the hissing elemental. The intimidating sound cut off with a choked gurgle. A few seds ter, Mato roared and Swiped at the creatures. Terror rolled in through the link she had with her Hobgoblins, and several long seds passed while they were hit by powerful, cleaving spear attacks. Suddenly the female axe-wielder raised her head and shouted; a booming cry that filled the battlefield with a thrilling call to battle that set even Ali’s heart thumping, and the rest of the Hobgoblins suddenly raised their shields in unison.

  Ali let out the breath she had been holding. It looked like they would be effective after all.

  ***

  The expansive rocky cavern lit by the perpetual dark fires finally narrowed, and Ali found herself following ’s floating orbs of light through a rocky tuhat twisted and turned, winding ever onward into the depths of the mihe oppressive heat still crisped her skin and dried out her eyes and mouth. Every few minutes, she would feel the warmth of a holy restoration spell, and for one blissful moment, the ever-present pain would be briefly soothed as her skin healed. It felt much like getting a horrible sunburn that cracked and fked her skin – except it took barely a few mio set in. Then, the cycle of healing and burnied.

  “There’s something different in the area,” whispered, pointing out into the expanse of a new cavern. There were fewer pools of bubbling bck tar, save for a single rge ke of it almost tered within the cavern, surrounded by giant half-melted pilrs of stone. Ali couldn’t quite make out what meant, until suddenly, a small group of monsters appeared.

  Ali sed to the senses of her Hobgoblin leader, to take advantage of her superior vision. Up ahead slithered two Fmecallers. These, however, carried rge, powerful-looking recurve bows slung over their backs, made from what looked like heavily ented wood or boheir serpent-like heads swiveled tinuously, sing the terrain, while their tongues flickered out as if tasting the sulfurous, scalding air. Ranged out in a fan formation ahead of them were six monstrous two-headed wolves oozing sinister power and feral alertness. They stood nearly two meters tall at the shoulder and even at this distance Ali could see their heavy muscles rippling. Their coats were midnight bck but lit from within by a soft reddish glow, making them look like creatures of ember – still-burning coals of a dying fire. As they stalked across the rocky ground, they left footprints of pitch-bck fme that lingered behind them, and from their mouths and railed bck wisps of smoke as they breathed. Ali shivered despite the heat.

  Hunter – Fmecaller Elemental – level 64-65 (Hellfire) x2Hellfire Warg – Demonic Wolf – level 52-56 (Hellfire) x6

  “The wargs are minions,” said quietly from the cover of the shadoroceeded to list the levels and threat assessments.

  “Some kind of hellish beast tamer?” Malika asked.

  “They have a hellfire affinity, too,” Ali added, shuddering again at the memory of the hellfire rune burning her fingers. She could only describe the fme as excruciating and ravenous. When she had first ehis dungeon, she had struggled to ehe tinual burning of the fire affinity mana. Now, however, she would happily choose that over any intimate tact with the dark fmes of hellfire.

  “What is hellfire, exactly?” Malika asked.

  “I don’t know,” Ali said. “It seems to be a specialization of fire mana, but it burns a lot hotter and faster than regur fire, and it’s a lot more painful.” She made a mental o ask Ryn to do some research. If there was any good way to mitigate this fire, it would be worth knowing.

  “Remember to be careful. It’s surprisingly tenacious, difficult to heal,” Malika said – an observation Ali had plenty of experieh, having personally observed her Acolytes struggling with it.

  “How about I tank the little doggies while you all get the archer guys?” Mato suggested. His words sounded casual, but his eyes veyed a look of serious focus as he studied the demonic wolves.

  “Those wolves look like they might do a lot of fire damage,” said, presumably guessing from their sm appearance, hellfire footprints, and the wisps of smoke curling up from their mouths. Ali was suddenly grateful Mato had givehe more potent fire resistance elixirs for her Hobgoblins.

  “Yup, I think I ha,” Mato said, his voily betraying a little uainty.

  “Sounds good,” said. “If everyone’s ready, I’ll go get them.”

  Ali nodded, readying her barriers. Mato shifted, and unleashed a volley of jured arrows.

  With a bloodcurdling howl, the wolves’ muscur dark bodies blurred across the rocky ground, leaving burning trails of bck hellfire in the wake of their accelerated Rushes. Mato roared his challenge, crashing into all six of them simultaneously.

  The two Fmecaller hunters grabbed their bows, which were immediately lit with intense wreaths of their bck fmes. Burning arrows filled the air in volleys of five at a time, flying in all dires. The acrid smoke of hellfire filled the air, making Ali’s eyes water. She sprang into a, golden barrier magic flickering into pce to protect her vulnerable healers and herself, but in the mad scramble to take defeion, two of her Kobold archers had already perished, skewered by several arrows that tinued burning even as they colpsed. Following the pn, she directed her Hobgoblins after Malika to chase down the first huhe goal was to focus owo hunters while Mato kept the wolves busy on the side, but it was a little tricky to focus from withieral storm of fming arrows that spewed forth from the two hunters.

  Ali’s focus was almost fully ed by the task of proteg her minions, but she didn’t miss the moment when her Hobgoblins crashed into the first hunter. It reacted immediately, firing a powerful arrow into the air, and vanished. She blinked in surprise at the unusual twist on teleportation magigering in her mana sight, and the tell-tale draw of mana from her Sage of Learning skill. In the wake of the shot, three images of the hunter appeared, all of which seemed to draw a single arrow bad hold it while the fme grew progressively more intense.

  Illusion? Something about the three copies seemed not quite substantial, but she couldn’t immediately tell what it was, nor whie was real.

  Malika punched one of the Fmecallers and it exploded into a cloud of sparks which drifted toward the top of the cavern, while her Hobgoblins scrambled to run dowhers.

  Whie is it? Ali’s eyes darted betweewo remaining monsters.

  Suddenly the arrow fired, shooting from the two remaining bows, but as it flew across the rocky battlefield, it seemed to twist strangely in her mind. Out of nowhere, and from a dire she had not expected, the arrow cracked against one of her barriers with immense force, shattering it instantly and pung through the head of a Kobold Acolyte. Her reservation snapped and the Kobold colpsed. Both images of the Fmecaller simultaneously vanished, revealing the real monster off to the side, already nog another set of five magically jured arrows.

  “What was that?” Malika yelled as she charged the hunter’s new location.

  “Illusion and Teleport,” Ali yelled back, still stunned by the sheer forleashed. Her barrier had shattered like a dropped teacup. What was remarkable about the monster’s teleportation magic was that it fully cloaked its destination, both from her mundane and her magical vision senses. She could see the mana when it fired the arrow, but its magic was ed and indistinct as soon as the mirages appeared.

  And the subsequent attack must be a stamina skill, she realized, as she had been uo see it.

  “And an Ambush, Powershot bo,” said, supplying the missing puzzle piece. “Nasty.”

  Ali’s Hobgoblins sprinted after Malika, bearing down on the hunter again. Her shamans, and remaining ratackers redirected, shooting at the neeared mohe air filled once again with rapid volleys of bck fme-wreathed arrows and her healers began w overtime. A shaman struck simultaneously by three fming arrows fell back to the ground, still burning as it died.

  As soon as the Hobgoblins reached the hunter, it fired its magic arrow and vahis time leaving four images in its wake.

  “Shoot them quickly, !” Malika yelled.

  “On it!” But the images dodged, only one succumbing to his volley and shattering into motes. “The real one is… somewhere to the left!”

  Ali aying attention this time, but even fog on its mana as the spell unfolded, she still couldn’t tell where the real monster was. She slipped her senses into the Sparkling Ooze she kept for just this purpose, but even from the ooze she could only sense silence as if the elemental archer had stopped its heart and stopped breathing. If it even has a heart.

  That’s an incredible stealth skill, she thought. She didn’t have any bats or wolves to use to find it, but it had defeated three of the perception skills avaible to her.

  Malika stood still in the middle of the battlefield, eyes closed. Malika? What are you doing?

  “There!” Malika suddenly yelled, juking to the left and charging down ay space of rock. Her fist shed out and improbably struething solid where Ali could see only air. A fming bolt of magic streaked from the suddenly appearing bow as the hunter was forced to release its shot prematurely.

  her sight pierce the illusion? Ali wondered how exactly Malika had achieved that feat.

  All the remaining illusion images exploded into sparks, but the powerful arrow of fme still flew true, striking the golden barrier right in front of her eyes, with a shogly loud bang and a spiderweb of cracks. She yelped and fell backward in surprise, but hastily repced her barrier with a new one. No real harm done.

  Right at that moment, her Acolyte fred with the holy light of its devotion skill, startling her into cheg its perception. What she saw made her blood run cold.

  “Mato is struggling!” she yelled. In the Healer’s Sight of her Acolyte, she wasn’t focused on the spectacur storm of fming arrows – which admittedly were doing a phenomenal job of suppressing her and her minions. Instead, Mato was the recipient of most of the healing. His body was on fire, burning with pitch-bck fme, and he was surrounded by six wolves that were tearing him apart. She had not been paying attention to him at all, fully absorbed with the arrows and the hunters, but now that she was, she could see the wolves fnking him, taking turns to charge in and bite him from behind. Every now and then, one of the wolves would let out a chilling howl, or one of the heads would breathe a dense e of bck hellfire that lingered on Mato’s already smoking flesh.

  “Ali, send the Hobs to help Mato. Malika, spot the hunters. Everyone; back up so Mato use the wall!” called out strategy adjustments rapidly.

  “Yes. On it!” Ali shouted, recalling her Hobgoblins while his strategy ges percoted through her mind. The powerful crimsoe Goblins hadn’t been able to hit anything so far; every time they reached the hunters, they teleported away. So that part made sense. Bag Mato up into a wall would hamper the wolves’ ability to surround and fnk him.

  Suddenly, she realized that the reason Mato had not been able to do that before was that he was forced to remain within the range of her Acolytes’ healing spells. Quickly, she directed her Kobolds back towards the wall and Mato responded with a limpireat, his movement clearly impeded by his injuries.

  With all the shifting, and readjustment, Ali still had to keep her barriers up, and now moving with her minions to protect them from the arrows that filled the air – both hunters were not letting up with their unerringly accurate five-way fme bolts. She bunched her Acolytes up behiwo remaining mages and summoned a rger barrier to cover all of them, leaving the rest of her minions to their own devices – hopefully they were robust enough to survive for a while on their own.

  Well, more robust than the healers at least. She had already lost several Kobolds and a shaman. Ohe harried battlefield readjustment was pleted, things improved dramatically. Mato was still in critical shape with his health still h dangerously low, but it began to slowly creep upward. Up against the wall, it was harder for the wolves to fnk and hamstring him from behind, and with the addition of the Hobgoblins, the fight seemed to stabilize somewhat. Oher side of the cavern, Malika charged towards empty spad pu nothing, causing a shower of sparks to erupt from the various images of Fmecallers.

  “Totems on the hunters,” she told her remaining shamans. While Malika was somehow able to detect the real location of the hunters after they teleported, and mostly disrupt their powerful ambush, she decided that filling the space with lightning novas would further limit their use of their dramatic teleport illusions. Disrupting the illusions themselves seemed to require only minimal damage, and if they spawned ihe range of one of the totems they would be dispelled almost immediately.

  Hopefully, Malika will be able to speime running, and more time pung.

  Ali re-engaged, shing out with barrier shards with what little remaining capacity she had after her defensive shields were created. Her ratackers all unleashed their magi the Fmecaller Huhe archers and mages were not doing a lot of damage, but the lightning bolts from her shamans seemed to be w well enough. bined with ’s arrows, they were finally making some real progress.

  Ali saw the teleport magic fre again, and the furthest Fmecaller Hunter vanished, leaving behind three images, two of whistantly burst into sparks, having been summoned inside a lightning nova.

  Yes! She allowed herself a small celebration at seeing her idea work. As soon as hit the remaining image, the hunter’s real location was revealed, and they resumed.

  “Much better!” said, filling the air with a smaller ter-storm of glowing arrows. “Now, let’s take them down!”

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