Aliandra

  Ali had slept well and was in a particurly good mood this m – yesterday had been tiring, but productive. The m sun cast long shadows from the guild building, but the air smelled fresh and there was a light breeze blowing. Outside the guild entrahe old food cart vendor was setting up her stall and beginning to fill the street with the st of spices and fryi.

  “M, Tabitha,” Mato called, waving.

  “Oh, m, young man, care for a bite before you get started?” Tabitha asked, a hopeful grin on her weathered face.

  “Don’t mind if I do,” Mato said, rubbing his belly.

  “Mato!” Malika excimed. “We just had breakfast.”

  Ryn chuckled.

  “I’m bigger than you. I ’t help that I’m still hungry,” he said. “I’ll catch up with you guys in a bit.”

  Malika just shook her head and walked up to the guild, opening the doors.

  “Enjoy,” Ali said, grinning at Mato, and then she floated through the doorway following , Ryn, and Malika while carrying an Acolyte and a Bone Mage on two separate barrier disks. She was still getting used to the dramatically increased trol she had over her barrier magice the adva, but this too was another reason she was in a great mood – she hadn’t even begun to scratch the surface of the possibilities with her increased finesse.

  “Wele back, Aliandra,” Mieriel’s musical voice greeted her. As usual, she wore a outfit that Ali had never seen before, although she reized Lydia’s handiwork and style in all of Mieriel’s outfits. Guess that’s where her ine goes.

  “Hi, Mieriel,” Ali returned her greeting with a smile.

  “gratutions on reag gold rank,” Mieriel tinued, causing a sudden hush to fall over the entire guild hall as many heads swiveled to stare at her. “I’ll call the Guildmaster, she will want to chat with you.”

  “Aah, ok,” Ali said, a little surprised. Reag gold rank was a substantial milestone for an adventurer, but she hadn’t expected Vivian Ross to take a personal i in administration. Although, it suited her quite well – she had wao discuss Ryn’s potential guild membership with her. Ali sat for a moment while she waited.

  “gratutions, Aliandra,” Vivian said a few moments ter. “Why don’t you join me in my office?”

  “I’ll be back,” she told her friends. Leaving them to their own devices, she followed the Guildmaster into her office, ign the rising murmur of versation as she left the hall. Ali remained seated on her barrier, legs dangling over the edge as she floated into the room and gnced about. Everything was and tidy, and the entire space, while a little on the spartan side, was effitly furnished and anized. It didn’t surprise her at all, in fact, it perfectly matched what she knew of Vivian’s personality. A small gold box sat promily in the ter of the desk.

  “gratutions on reag level sixty, Aliandra,” Viviaed, taking her seat. “I imagine you’re w why the private meeting?”

  Ali was indeed w, and rather surprisingly, Vivian Ross seemed to be a little on edge, as if she were the nervous one. Her hands idly anized various items on her desk, things that were already perfectly arranged.

  “I am,” Ali answered. “I’m also w what has you so worried?”

  Vivian g her hands and immediately stopped rearrangiuff. She took a deep breath. “I guess I should be straight with you. You’re the first member of our little guild to reach gold rank.”

  “Is that a problem?” Ali had not expected that her level would be su issue, nor did she uand what the was exactly. Sixty is not that much strohan fifty-nine. Besides, there will soon be a few more.

  “I guess you don’t know, then,” Vivian said, taking a deep breath to settle herself. “As the Guildmaster, I’m required tister all members of gold rank her, meaning most guilds, Town cils, and the nobility across the ti will know who you are. Many towns do not have high-level adventurers, so the registry allows them to direct requests for jobs or help when things are too difficult to manage on their own.”

  “I see,” Ali said. It all sounded quite reasohe Adventurers Guild was a collective anization that spanned most of the known world, and it made seo help out the weaker towns when needed. Only…

  “Yes,” Vivian said, indig she had anticipated that very thought. “I took the liberty of seg permission to keep the nature of your css private, at least. On Nathaniel Sunstrider’s authority, so it won’t be questiohat doesly solve the issue because a person with sored css information will invite a lot of attention – but it should be better than advertising you across the length and breadth of the ti as a dungeon.”

  Ali schooled her features the instant Viviaiohe Archmage. Everyone seemed to believe his footsteps were made of arite and he exuded an aura of pristine mana wherever he went, but she could never shake that dark image of whatever it was that ied his image whenever she saw him under her Are Recall spell.

  Is that even real?

  She shook it off without revealing her worries and asked, “How exactly will I be listed?” She hadn’t expected this level of attention, and she was certaiails mattered. Probably a lot.

  “You will be listed generically as an are- and nature-affinity summoner with your ame, but all further detail will be restricted. Mieriel spent a substantial amount of time corresponding with Nathaniel Sunstrider, w out the best strategy. They decided it would be prudent to list you the same way you signed up with the guild before anyone knew. No information would be cause for arm – instead, if we include the Advanced Identification of your affinities along with listing your css as a ‘summoner’ people won’t immediately clude you’re a dungeon or a neancer.”

  “I guess that’s true,” Ali allowed. If a nature affinity was listed, then the summoner css type would immediately be associated with something druidi nature, rather than any of the more problematic summoner css archetypes. It seemed plex, but she was grateful for the effort and forethought to forestall the knee-jerk rea that might have resulted from identifying herself as a duo the whole world. Enough people know already. Including the Advanced Identify results seemed smart – some factual information was certainly better than a plete fabrication or no information at all. I just hope it works.

  “Is that ok with you?” Vivian asked, that ued nervous energy making a surprising reappearance.

  “Could you perhaps dey listing me for a week or two?” Ali asked. Until her friends hit sixty, she would stand out like a sore thumb as the only gold-ranked adventurer in Myrin’s Keep. If her listing was merely one of four, it would hopefully not be quite as noticeable.

  “Yes, that’s a good idea,” Vivian answered, but it seemed this was not the only thing b the Guildmaster. Ali simply remained silent, allowio tinue.

  “The sed problem is more personal,” Vivian finally expined. “Many new guilds die when they begin produg gold-ranked adventurers. Picked over by the vultures. Achieving gold is hard, and quite valuable outside of pces like Myrin’s Keep. The guilds from prosperous cities, with their cushy enviros don’t produce many, but they afford to devote quite substantial resources to poag talent from frontier guilds like ours. You will most likely be offered a lot to move, and I’m worried that we’ll lose you.”

  Ali sidered the Guildmaster’s position. Trying to establish a guild from nothing seemed like an enormously challenging uaking. Oher hand, Vivian Ross had always go of her way to help, and even if it was all for building her guild.

  The Guildmaster bit her lip, frowning, and Ali sehere was more.

  “It’s not like I’ve treated you all that well,” Vivian said quietly.

  Aah. There it is. “I have certainly not fotten,” Ali said, and Vivian swallowed, breaking eye tact to look down at her hands.

  As her strength had grown, particurly her wisdom attribute, all those memories had e back clearer and clearer, a well of anguish she chose not often to plumb – but, she realized in this moment, that somehow she saw her mother’s death as a kind of betrayal, too. This was raw. Betrayal uporayal. How could a person – a dungeon – ever fet?

  “Aliandra… I’m… sorry,” Vivian whispered at st.

  “An apology?” Ali heard herself rasp. “Now, when you have something to lose?”

  Vivian’s lips pressed together, but it was not anger. “I don’t expect fiveness. I uand if you prefer to go somewhere else and be doh it all, but I do hope you choose to look past it and stay with us. You have done so much for this guild and the people of the town.”

  Ali sighed. It was true that she wasn’t about tive Vivian. However, she khe dangers of blindly ging to vengeance, ign everything else. She had beed greatly from the guild and Vivian’s advice. Carefully, she said, “Without your help, I wouldn’t have survived the Town cil trial, and I’m well aware of what you did with Alexander Gray. You and I may have our differences, but I like my guild mates, and I feel I have a positive impa people’s lives if I stay. I’d like to keep people new csses and helping them grow stronger.”

  Vivian’s face registered immediate relief. “I guess that’s the best I could hope for.”

  “Besides, my css makes it a little tricky to go somewhere else,” Ali said. It was hard to believe that such a powerful person could be rattled by something like this, especially when she was normally so fident. Vivian had been no slouch, ejeg weaker talent and poorer attitudes from the guild. But seeing her so nervous finally ripped the curtains away and allowed Ali to see her clearly.

  She’s insecure. Something, some past experience perhaps, had broken Vivian’s fide didn’t matter that she was a sed-tier evolved bat css with tons of experience if she didn’t believe in herself. She hid it well, p everything into the guild, like someone obsessed, a, when it came down to it, a guild membership could not be coerced, forced, or trolled. She sat there oher side of the desk, uo influence whether her highest-level adventurer chose to stay ardless of how much it might damage the guild.

  Ali squirmed inwardly, not knowing what to make of this sudden insight, but the specter of Vivian seemed to shrink before her. A horrid slurry of emotions boiled inside her chest – self-loathing for this sudden pang of sympathy, the knowledge that her choices here and now would shift something fual inside her… all she wanted was to bury herself in a good book, but she also knew she o live in the real world, a world where dungeons were hated and power both prized and despised. Ohing was certain, Vivian would not be the st person to try to use her for their own purposes, nor Roderik the st to try and end her. She would o be stronger and smarter than all of them. She would o take every advantage she could, and fe her own path.

  “This is yold-rank ring,” Vivian said, breaking the silend reag for the golden box on the desk between them. Inside, Ali found a gleaming golden ring. “It will unlock the pnning room at the end of the hall, and you are io join in the guild’s policy deaking, quest creation, and such things. Not that there’s a lot of that yet, but we are growing quickly.”

  “Thank you.”

  Ali picked up the ring and g it. She hadn’t realized the guild Vivian was building would allow her to participate in a leadership capacity. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of that, or whether it was something she even wanted. Perhaps she could help pn the css acquisition process – watg novices unlock their csses was ohing that gave her great joy.

  Ali eled a small amount of mana into her new ring, binding it to her mana, and then slipped it on her finger, repg the existing one. Like st time, the ring slowly shrunk to fit snugly and fortably on her finger, and she quickly transferred all her stored items and quests from the to the new one and hahe back to the Guildmaster.

  Vivian nodded, her eyes shadowed. “Thank you.”

  Gold Guild Ring – level 6 signifying gold-rank membership with the Adventurers Guild. It serves as a key granting access to private areas in the guild hall.Owner: Aliandra Amariel+41 Intelligence+33 Wisdom+104% to mana regeionRequirements: Intelligence 210QuestsEliminate undead in and around Myrin’s Keep – 134Eliminate hostile Kobolds in and around Myrin’s Keep – 0 Mana: Store or retrieve an item. Capacity: 30 / 800kgCreated by Giddy Clicksprocket.Ring

  “This is impressive,” Ali said, staring at the ring in amazement – having missed the entments when she first picked it up. It had three attribute entments in addition to the ste entment, putting the ring squarely in the most-expehing-she-owned category. She looked up to find Vivian smiling happily.

  “You and your friends have made the guild quite a reputation with the crafters, and our store is now one of the most heavily traded locations iown. We had enough money, so I decided to have the gold-rank rings personally crafted for each person who reached that level. I hope those ents work for you?”

  “This is perfect, thank you,” she said. She might just have to go pay a visit to this Giddy Clicksprocket in person and see what else she could make.

  “There is oter of business I wao ask you about,” Vivian said, sitting ba her chair.

  “You have enough people for another shrine run?” Ali guessed.

  “Yes, we have five bat css recruits who want to be adventurers and three non-bat didates. I believe you already know Lydia’s apprentice, Elton Moss. Weldin Thriftpenny asked if he could try to unlock a mana affinity if that’s ok with you. It’s not as big a group as st time, so we could wait for more people if you prefer.”

  “That’s fine, I do that today if everyone’s ready,” she said. She had already pnned on taking the time to do it, and today was as good a time as any. Besides, getting the new people started was important – and, to be frank, one of her favorite activities. “I just hope nobody tries to interfere again.”

  “Mieriel says the bounty on your head has increased, but after Nathaniel Sunstrider and Rezan Jin were seen at the guild, and seeing that stories about how easily the st assassin group was crushed may have gotten out –” her eyes twinkled briefly “– you are developing a reputation as being a bit of a suicide mission among some of the criminal underground. She thinks we won’t be interrupted this time, but I’ll e along just in case.” Vivian, it seemed, was also worried about what had happe time. She made as if to stand up.

  “I also have a request,” Ali said. “And I think it might help you with high-level adventurer retention in the long run.”

  “Oh?” Vivian said, arg an eyebrow and sitting back down.

  “My friend, Ryn, is sitting out in the guild hall. She’s looking for a new job and I was w if we could have her join the guild as a librarian?” Ali asked.

  “You want a librarian to join… an Adventurers Guild?” Vivian asked, fusion pying across her features.

  “I am rebuilding the Grand Library Ara, which currently has almost a thousand books that I have copied from various libraries around the ti – including Ciradyl,” Ali said. It sounded a little pompous when she said it, but she didn’t care, she roud of it. When she had asked Ryn, the t had shocked her, but almost a thousand books in that enormous space did not look like a whole lot. “Ryn has a unique skill that allows her to teleport to any library she has ever visited, and she bring three people along with her. I was going to offer access to the Grand Library Ara for free to any guild member. Ryn would be able to provide transport, research, and book-hunting services to the guild as its official librarian.”

  It was clear the precise moment when Vivian uood her proposal just judging by the astonishment that flooded her face.

  “When those uilds e looking to poach from us, do you think they will be able to offer membership at a library dedicated to finding advehe perfeformation frowing their csses?” Ali finished her pitch. But she khe offer was way too good to turn down, and Ryn would be happy here, helping all the guild members with their questions.

  ***

  Ali knocked on the open door to the spartan office that the aide had showo. There was a small bookshelf with a few selees, all of which glowed with the effects of various runiscriptions. Across the surface of the table were two bottles of glowing ink and a stack of part aligned perfectly with the edges of the desk. One book y open, and the Gting behind the desk looked up at the sound of her knock.

  “Hi, Aliandra, e on in,” Donel Novaspark said, showing a polite smile. “What I do for you?” She id the pen down in a holder that was made for it beside the ink bottles.

  “This might be a bit of a long shot, but I haven’t been able to advance my Runic Script skill in a while, and I was w if you had someone who could teach me some of the other uses for mana-inscribed rune magic? I make runic circles and read runic magic, but I’ve been reading that there are many other paths and I’m a little stuy own.”

  “Aah, I see,” Donel said, straightening up in her seat. “Why don’t you have a seat?”

  Ali took a vely sized seat on the chair opposite Donel.

  “My first question would be, are you sure you want to learn this?” Donel asked, a surprising question to be sure. But then she expined, “Most of the uses for runic magic fall squarely into the realm of crafting. Pursuing something like item entment, scroll inscription, and the like may affect the growth of your css, guiding it towards a crafter path rather than a bat one.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Ali answered. “But my css is a schor-bat hybrid already, so I’m reasonably certain it won’t break.” She gazed at the materials oable, noting the subject matter dispyed on the open book, and deduced that Donel had been in the middle of inscribing a scroll. “Isn’t it the same for you?” she asked, curious as to why the lightning mage would reend against the very thing she was doing. “I’ve seen ynature on items before, and you’re crafting scrolls, wouldn’t that influence yrowth too?”

  “Of course,” Donel said, her smile a little mehis time. “Do you know what makes an archmage so devastating?”

  “They’re very strong?” Ali suggested. “And past at least one css evolution.”

  “Both true,” Donel answered, “but there’s more to it than that. Almost all archmages have hybrid csses – crafters and bat mages, or crafters and schors. For their crafting, they specialize in making wands and scrolls – vastly enhang the versatility of their magiathaniel Sunstrider carries a heavy tome of prepared inscriptions – a spell for every occasion. It’s an exorbitant path, but extremely effective.”

  “Is that the path you took?” Ali asked, growing even more curious now that Donel seemed to be opening up a little.

  “Taking,” Donel said. “I haven’t reached my evolutio, but I’m hoping to gain the archmage path. The only problem is I haven’t been able to secure a shrio process my evolution, and I’m not about to risk breaking my css with a natural-path adva, so I’m at a bit of an impasse.”

  “I see,” Ali said. Being the owner of a shrine herself, she found this topic extremely iing, but there seemed to be nobody who could tell her how to get her own shrio do what Donel needed. As usual, she felt the acute loss of the wealth of knowledge that would have been at her fiips three thousand years ago.

  “If you’re sure you want to study this, there are a few teachers avaible downstairs for the usual private lesson fee,” Donel said, but then she paused briefly and tinued, “I have the hour free, I could give you a beginner lesson on how to imbue your mana into the ink a you experiment with making scrolls.”

  “That would be fantastic,” Ali said, leaning in closer in anticipation of learning something fasating. She had, of course, done her researd already khat the Novaspark Academy of Magic charged a fee for lessons, but in her opinion, they had very reasoes, and a small iment of gold to gain expert tuition seemed quite appropriate.

  “Ok,” Donel said, pig up the pen and the ink and eling a little mana into both. “This will be handy for writing magical books, too. You see my mana, right?”

  Ali nodded and watched and listened as Donel began to expin the basiana-imbued ink, how to instill one’s own mana into it and create perma runes on paper.

  “When you tackle suffitly advanced projects, you will want to get your ink made by a professional ink crafter,” Donel said, making her mana do some very intricate loops and whorls. “But every runic scribe should be able to make the basic level inks.”

  Ali nodded, i on not missing a siail.

  Donel tio wield her mana while expining how to vert rune formations from a book into scroll format, how inscriptions worked, and all the little expert tips and insights that would have taken Ali absolutely ages to discover on her own.

  While Ali wasn’t successful at actually creating a funal scroll by the time the lesson ended, she was extremely happy with the time spent. Donel was an exceptional tutor, adjusting rapidly to the specifics of Ali’s skills. She mao get the hang of imbuing the ink with her mana to Donel’s satisfa, and even successfully created a rune oest part, but to actually create a scroll would likely require a skill adva. And, acc to Donel, it would help greatly if she learhe Calligraphy general skill.

  ***

  “Ali, where are you taking me? I thought we were going to the café for lunch?” Ryn asked.

  “I thought we’d take a little detour first,” Ali said, trying, but failing to be mysterious as they arrived at the door to Lydia’s Allure.

  “This is a clothing store, Ali. An expensive one!”

  “Yes. It’s run by ’s mother, and she helped roup out a lot whe started. She makes all my robes, and Mieriel’s dresses.”

  “I know who she is. Why are we here?” Ryn asked, fixing her with a look of suspi as Ali opehe door and invited her in.

  “Because I thought I’d treat you to a celebration gift for being the guild librarian,” Ali said and turo introduce her to Lydia, who was already smiling at them from behind the anized chaos of cloth, fabrid thread spread out across her worktable.

  “Ali, you ’t!” Ryn excimed.

  But she could tell that her friend was already excited, staring wide-eyed at the geous gowns and robes on dispy.

  Rubbing her hands together, she decred, “Oh, my dear Ryn, I and I will!”

  Clearly pig up on the moiggled, “Tyrant.”

  “In training.”

  ***

  “Ok, opening it,” Malika said, retrieving the strangely animate queng potion.

  Ali stood quietly waiting in the Landing while Malika deted a single drop onto the Rune of Inferno.

  The smaller css adva had gone remarkably well, and thankfully, no unwanted guests showed up to crash the party. The small group of bat applits had been overwhelmed by the whole experience, and she was almost certain most of them had been expeg it all to be revealed as an eborate hoax. Judging by the appearance of their clothes, they had all e from the slums, and likely none of them was used to being offered a real opportunity without strings attached. Certainly, their reas to her handing them armor and ons before their trial proved it. But the expressions of joy and amazement when they finally unlocked real csses had been toug to see.

  The only downside was that none of them had unlocked a healer css, s a group to level up would be challenging, but Vivian reassured them that she had a pn and Ali left it to her to figure out.

  Lydia’s apprentice, Elton, unlocked an ued affinity for shadow magid Weldin had an even more unusual space affinity. She just hoped their mana wouldn’t interfere with their chosen csses too badly, but she had seen some rather surprising binations work well, so she wasn’t particurly worried. She had rather ehe sight of Elting through the dungeon in a tailored suit, but he seemed a lot more mellow when he wasn’t manning the desk iore.

  It makes sense, Ali thought as she sidered the usual kind of er that frequented Lydia’s Allure. Besides, he looks quite dapper. He would have loved the city I grew up in…

  Over by the doorway, the densely mana-infused liquid of the potion sizzled as it dropped into the fmes and the rune froze in pce. Ali gathered the Sparkling Oozes she had deployed against the Fme Broodmother in preparation for the spider-filled tuhey were just so effective at ign the web and unleashing explosions. She would summon repts that would be better for the tar-filled caverns and the Fmecaller spears up ahead when she reached that part.

  “Ok, this should be quick,” said, rolling his shoulders and raising his bow. And suddenly they were bsting their way down through the spiderweb-filled tunnel and out to the other side.

  “How do you want to do this?” Ali asked, studying the two patrolling Fmecaller hunters slithering their way across the scalding rocks using the superb vision of her Hobgoblins. There were only five wargs this time, but their average level was a bit higher.

  “How were you seeing through the illusions st time, Malika?” asked. “Soul Sight?”

  “Yes. They have a long-duration skill that charges up right after they disappear. Their stamina rises like a massive wave behind a wall,” Malika said, gesturing expressively with her hands.

  “Sounds sistent with the Power Shot theory, then,” said thoughtfully. “Or something just like it. It gains power the lo’s eled – a great skill to bih Ambush. It’s annoying that they get to pull it off multiple times in a fight.”

  No wo was destroying my barriers so easily, Ali thought. A long-duration power skill multiplied by the bonus from Ambush striking out from uhe cover of stealth or invisibility would easily kill most of her minions in a single shot.

  Or me, she thought. She had always had an unfortable retionship with Ambush, and now they were fag mohat could unleash it fre.

  “Keep some Sparkling Oozes,” suggested. “We should be able to suppress the illusions with multishot and area damage – just bst them fre. Malika, pull a warg out of the pad we’ll have the melee attackers focus on that.”

  “You don’t want me on the hunters?” Malika asked, gng at him in surprise.

  “I think you’re better used to off-tank the wargs. You call out the positions of the hunters if you’re close enough, right?” said. “We’ll use area damage to break their illusions faster.”

  “Ok, do,” Malika nodded.

  “I’ll make a few shamans, too,” Ali said. They had been quite effective st time with their novas and curse of lightning vulnerability.

  “Yes, I think those are good for this fight,” agreed. “Mato? Anything you want to add?”

  “Mmm?” Mato grunted. “No. As long as I keep a wall at my back, I’m good.”

  “Right,” said. “And Ali will keep a closer eye on your health, this time.”

  “Yes,” Ali agreed, nodding vigorously. She had been forced to clude that, impressive as they were, bringing a Hellfire Warg to this fight would not be particurly smart, and none of her other beast summons were high enough level to be useful. All that remained was Healer’s Sight, and she had resolved to be more vigint about watg Mato’s life this time. I ’t let him get so close again.

  Ali backed up into the tuo ceal the brightness of her Grimoire’s magid began summoning the monsters she needed. Wait, don’t I have that? As she worked her magic, a thought popped into her brain. She paged through her Kobold imprint quickly, searg for it. Aah, there it is.

  Death’s Acolyte. It was a Kobold variant she rarely had occasion to use, but for this job, it might just be ideal. She typically disted the dull, onyx-scaled Kobolds with their purple eyes as inferior death-affinity versions of her fireball-slinging pyromaniacs. The Death Rupture explosions they wielded were not quite as big or as impressive as Fireball, and they could badly hurt their allies. But they were her highest-level Kobold variant, meaning they had more health, attributes, and resilience. Down here where everything was immuo fire, the death-affinity magic was suddenly looking mighty attractive. As long as I don’t hit Mato and Malika.

  Smiling, she summowo of them and repced their robes with fire-resistance versions.

  Death’s Acolyte – Kobold – level 33-34 (Death) x2.

  “Ready?” asked as she emerged from her tunnel with her new monsters in tow.

  “Yup.”

  “Ok, pulling,” he said, raising his bow and aiming out into the caverhe hunters roamed.

  Just like st time, as soon as fired his arrow, the Hellfire Wargs charged, and the air filled with a hail of fming arrows. Mato roared, drawing all the howling wargs to himself, but all simirities to their previous fight ended right there.

  Ali erected barriers to protect the healers she’d already positioned well baear the rocky walls of the cavern, and Mato immediately charged back toward the secured location. Five howling two-headed demonic wolves chased him, each using their Fme Dash skill while snapping at his heels and painting the ground with trails of bck hellfire. Fortunately, that was empty terrain, with Malika and Ali’s Hobs already in pce, waiting for them while remaining well out e of the hunters’ powerful fme-wreathed arrows.

  Ali stood a little behind her ranged minions – archers and mages – in the middle, right between the howling, cw-raking, biting melee erupting over by the wall and the Fmecaller hunters ranging wide out in the open. She threw up the stro barrier she could maintain for prote against the ridiculous fire arrows and Ambush attacks that were certain to e her way. High above her head, a sie of Light began to pulse softly, and she knew was ready. Perfect, she thought, gng at the sed bea pulsing above Mato and Malika.

  “Attack!”

  Ali’s mental and caused a ripple of activity to burst from her minions. Brilliantly indest balls of explosive light magic lofted up over the barriers to fall down on top of the two Fmecallers with their buzzing ignited bows. Standing beside Ali, the pair of Death’s Acolytes unleashed their scary-looking roiling bck balls of death magic. Three steel totems impaled the distant stohe hunters, jutting out like lightning rods. The Storm Shamans cast their curses.

  She quickly sed through her minions to make sure she hadn’t missed anything – a process that was slowly being a habit. Mato was on fire as he tahe multiple hellfire breath attacks, but he wasn’t in dangerous territory.

  The two hunters both fired and vanished, leaving behind six animated illusions that drew aheir bows.

  “On the left ridge!” Malika shouted.

  Balls of starkly trasting light and dark magic fell like rain among the images while filled the air with volleys of shining arrows. All the jured illusory Fmecallers evaporated in a shower of sparks and a r cresdo of explosions and lightning.

  “Brace!” yelled.

  Ali crouched, reinf her barriers with additional mana and a sed yer. Powerful arrows of pure fme shot forth from the angry bows of the suddenly exposed hunters. Power Shot, but without Ambush, she realized. Their area suppression strategy had disrupted the Ambush by dispelling the illusions, but even partially charged, the Power Shot volleys were still extremely dangerous. Two screaming arrows hammered into her barriers, causing a crack to run down the middle of the ht in front of her face. A powerful surge of mana flowed into her mana pool as her barrier magiverted a portion of the powerful magical strike to usable mana. Immediately, she spent it all and rebuilt her barrier as the volleys struck.

  “That worked well,” Ali observed, cautiously standing up and surveying the scorched roder the two Fmecallers.

  “Mhm,” said, his actual words slurred away to incoherence around the mana potiohrew down his throat. Ali squi the sudden brightness as he ignited his mana with Righteous Fury. It was a crazy spell, making his entire body appear like he was burning with fmes of white as his mana became supercharged. He had told her it ainful and actually damaged his health a little, but with a restoration already tig on him, that would not be an issue.

  He fired volley after volley in a rapid stream at the two hunters, burning through mana without a care, but she kly what he was doing. His ret Righteous Fury adva had removed the penalty of splitting damage among his multishot arrows, and with his new mote-beas, he would be getting ara helping of damage per arrow that hit.

  But Ali’s attention so the mote-bea floating above her head as it too ignited in respoo his skill.

  “All out!” she anded, realizing in that instant that all of ’s mana was empowered by his skill, including the new damage-enha aura from his Motes of Light. Which meant her minions also gaihirty seds of power. Her Kobolds and Goblins yelled and yipped furiously, responding with magid redoubled efforts. Axes and swleamed and fshed with light magic, light ah bombs detonated in a tinuous roar of rolling thunder, almost exceeding the brilliance of the Lightning Bolts. As the light of ’s ridiculous spell faded, she heard the sound of a double chime and the dull thuds of the Fmecaller hunters’ bodies hitting the ground.

  “Ali!” Malika shouted. “Warg!”

  Ali snapped her head around and saw Malika standing over the body of a dormant colpsed warg, her fists still afme with hellfire.

  Instantly, she switched pces with the Hobgoblin using Minion Teleport, threw up a small barrier to protect herself from any stray hellfire, and began destrug the downed warg. With both the hunters already eliminated, she let her rger barrier drop as the rest of her minioargeted to the Hellfire Wargs. It didn’t take long for the moo turn into tiny streamers of glowing mana. When Ali looked up, Malika was dang toward her, luring a sed warg out of the pack.

  Ali slipped her awareness bato one of her holy Acolytes and anded her slimes ah’s Acolytes to aim their devastating area damage attacks behind the tws Mato was tanking, keeping a close eye on his health while the rest of her minions fired at the isoted one Malika had brought. It didn’t take long before the erished, and she destructed it too, blog a billowing stream of hellfire breath from resurreg it. As soon as she finished destrug it, both remaining wargs colpsed uhe onsught of her Sparkling Oozes, Death’s Acolytes, lightning totems, and ’s powerful multishot.

  “Do I o destruct those now that everything is dead?” Ali wondered aloud.

  “If you don’t hem for yrimoire anymore, let’s have skin them,” Malika suggested. “That demonic hide fetches a nice price.”

  “Ok. , do you want the huoo?” Ali asked. “Maybe their scales are good?”

  “I’ll wait for you to learn them first,” said, retrieving his sturdy skinning knife aing to work.

  “I already learhe hunters,” Ali said, instrug her Hobgoblins to go retrieve the corpses for him to skin. Hopefully, they would be worth some money because they were rather useless taking up spa her Grimoire. Not that it was a big deal, she could just repce the imprint when she found something more useful.

  Ali looked up at the sound of heavy breathing and scraping of scales over the rock to find her Hobgoblins dumping the corpses by her feet. “Do you want this stuff, Malika?” Ali asked, eyeing the bows and bracers they wore.

  “You have a bow imprint, right?” Malika asked.

  “Um, yep,” she said.

  “Why don’t you learhen?” Malika asked, produg a third bow and it. “It’s a pretty great bow.”

  “Oh, cool!” Ali proceeded to destruct all of them. “I could make a few for you to sell. I’m not sure the guild store has a lot of bows yet.”

  “Maybe when the novices get a few more levels uheir belts,” Malika smiled.

  “Aah, yes,” Ali agreed. It was not just the novices that were too low for the bows. “I should find some higher-level archers too.” It was just a shame she couldn’t use these Fmecallers.

  Variant: Fmecaller Bow added to Imprint: Bow.

  All in all, she had to admit, the enter with the Fmecaller hunters had been vastly easier with a little experiend better strategy.

  “What’s , snack time?” Mato asked hopefully.

  “Even budding little tyrants need a snack,” added.

  It took Ali a long moment to process the e. Then her head snapped up. “! Have you been talking to Ryn?”

  “Would I?”

  ----------

  https:///DungeonOfKnowledge

  https:///series/1135403/dungeon-of-knowledge

  https:///fi/80744/dungeon-of-knowledge-raid-bat-litrpg

  timewalk