I hit the ground hard, hard enough that for a single blissful moment, I was suspended in milky whiteness. I thought I might have died, and joined with Magyk and Etherius.

  Then the pain hit.

  I blinked rapidly, working to clear my vision, until I shoved myself up into a sitting position, only to feel something explode through my spine. I reached out, grabbing into my locker, and downed my last healing potion, and sighed. It swirled through me, fixing something in my spine, but the power gave out then. My legs were still in awful shape, but I was able to sit up and look around.

  The dog-clone thing that I’d been fighting had died, as had the one that Jackson had been doing battle with. He was now floating in the air some distance away, spinning up arrows of flame and launching them at the two remaining dog creatures, while Yushin and Salem did their best to hold back their respective monsters. But Salem wasn’t as much of a combat mage as the rest of us, Yushin had burnt nearly everything she had in the initial mass attack, and Jackson’s divine powers were clearly hit their limits. Even the silvery soulfire that was nearly omnipresent in his attacks was gone.

  I glanced down at my legs and winced. Neither of them were in good shape, and between the fact that they seemed to be coming from different angles and the sheer pain flowing from them every time I shifted, I didn’t think I’d be walking. But that didn’t mean that I couldn’t do anything to help. I was just about empty on fire, having burnt what I had in order to escape that final attack, but there were a few dregs left – probably enough for one good spell. My ether pool wasn’t quite as low. It was drained, certainly, but the ether was thick enough here that my Xander’s massage had stopped me from simply draining it all.

  I drew my staff from my locker, even as Jackson thrust his hand into the sky and called down another pillar of fire on top of one of the remaining dogs. Using my staff while sitting on the ground was awkward, but I needed power more than speed right now. I began my low, slow chant, spinning the staff and pointing at the more injured of the two dogs, the one that Yushin was fighting. She flew in and out, drawing the power of the dog’s poisons in to replenish her own bloodline, even as the dog’s ether-eating powers tore apart the defensive spells she used around her. The tip of my staff began to glow with a faint greenish-blue light as I leveled it at the dog’s head, then I drew my wand into my other hand and began a second spell. Holding the pattern of two fourth circle spells within my ether at the same time was hard, even more so when one of them was being modified through the application of my affinity. If not for the power of my tools combined with the fact that I had the time to take it slow and steady, I knew that I’d absolutely fail. Even as it was, I nearly lost my focus several times.

  The two spells completed, and I teleported, appearing in the air mere inches from the eyeball of the giant dog monster. I lowered my staff, and poured the last of my fire into a dehydration curse amplified dessicate spell, even as I started to fall again. This time, at least, I wasn’t entirely reliant on my physical toughness. With more presence of mind, and with my spells discharged, I had the time to mutter a quick slowfall spell, even as shadows rushed up from the ground, encircling the injured head of the dog monster, and tearing its throat out. A second later, a lash of fire stuck another head, and the dog collapsed into a surge of poison, flowing back to where my few remaining summoned creatures were helping Salem fight his beast. Yushin and Jackson turned their attention to the final dog creature, while I gathered what little ether I had left, and began to summon.

  A lytemoth flew up into the air and began to pepper the last remaining dog with bolts of burning light, followed by a second, and a third. That left me completely dry, though, so I raised my staff, then threw it. In mid-air, the staff began to change, wood transforming into a leathery substance, that then shifted further into scales. A feather pattern emerged from the scales, and then the entire staff exploded, transforming into a huge flying serpent.

  Well, I supposed that huge was relative. The wadjetktt was huge to me, but it was still absolutely overshadowed by the remaining dog-like creature. Still, the blasts of sunvenom that the artificial wadjetktt released were far stronger than Amos’ own, and I leaned back, watching as the monster was slowly overwhelmed by the remaining dregs of our strength. The final strike wasn’t even an especially powerful one. Salem had been wearing away at the monster’s minds since the beginning of the battle, and so he was able to slowly force openings that Yushin, Jackson, and my summoned allies were able to take advantage of. Since three quarters of its power was already gone, and with flight magic making it hard for the dog to attack everyone, it was only a matter of time before the great beast fell. When it finally died, it collapsed and slammed into the ground, sprawling out as Yushin’s process body spell set to work, cutting it apart for useful parts based on her understanding. As she limped over to examine the body, Jackson looked around. When he spotted me, he and Salem began making their way over to me, exhaustion clear in their eyes. Worse, I could see injuries all over them. Jackson’s arms were covered in strange, swirling marks that reminded me of healed burn scars. One of Salem’s arms was in nearly as bad shape as my legs, where one of the tails must have struck him. The stinger had missed, but the sheer impact of the tail’s edge had been enough to seriously hurt him.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “How are you all?” I asked.

  “Tired,” Jackson said, shaking his head. “How are your legs? Salem, how’s the arm?”

  “Could be better,” Salem muttered. “If I had the ether pool for it, I’d want to use siphon vitality on some of the lesser dogs, but I’m dry.”

  “I have a bit of healing left, but not much,” Jackson said. “I’ll keep it slow to let me recover while we can.”

  He knelt next to me, light spiraling from his hands, and I let out a sigh of relief as the magic sunk into me, relieving the pain. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

  “I am out of everything,” Yushin called as she limped over, holding up a lumpy black sphere in her hand. “But I think I found how it cloned itself. This was embedded within its skin.”

  I took a sniff of the air around the black stone and grunted. She was definitely right about it being the source of the cloning ability, and possibly even about why it had mutated. I couldn’t make real sense of it, but it definitely operated on some sort of demonic deity’s magic.

  “Soulsplitter stone,” Jackson said, his face souring. “Pern’s work. Even on another plane, he just can’t help but ruin things, can he?”

  “Who?” I asked. Jackson got a strange, almost contemplative look on his face, before he slowly shook his head.

  “One of a demonic cabal of Pain, Pernicious, and Poverty. We should burn it. If we don’t, the children’s souls used to create them won’t be able to pass on.”

  Yushin had opened her mouth to protest, probably about to say that something that could give her four bodies could be incredibly useful. I’d been thinking something along the same lines, if I was being honest. But when he explained about the children’s souls used to create the stone, Yushin simply nodded and moved onto the next topic.

  “We will burn it, then. I have acquired a pair of sublime focusing components from the hearts of the dog, as well as exceptionally potent core materials from the four poison glands. I have taken the liberty of selecting the three most suited to me, but that leaves an extra core component that I will be unable to use.”

  “Give it to Salem,” I said, tilting my head at him. “Ignoring the metal and wood that all of us might get, the only material Salem’s likely to abscond with is the flute. Jackson and I have the liquidflame obsidian. I also have a slight lead on something with the grindylows.”

  “I can’t exactly use poison,” Salem protested. “Better ta’ sell it and split the money between us.”

  “Sure, but you can trade it for another material. You might have to pay some fees for the trade, but it’s better than nothing at all. We’ll make enough from the other components we’ve gathered.”

  Jackson pulled his hands back and nodded to me.

  “It’s not perfect, but it should be enough to let us get back to the moles and then to our temporary home.”

  “Thank you,” I said, standing. I could feel twinges of pain as I walked, confirming what he’d said about his healing being incomplete, but I could move, and that was enough. We made a sling for Salem out of the spare clothes in our lockers, and then began heading back to the molehill slowly. Once we had recovered enough ether to fly, we all elected to take the weight off ourselves and float.

  To my surprise, when we arrived back at the opening, Surface-Scouring-Watcher was standing there, with a group of three additional moles, their tiny eyes focusing on us, while their noses twitched in the air.

  “Say-of-Lem, You-See-In, Jack-Is-Son, Em-Me-Rust,” Surface-Scouring-Watcher greeted us, nose twitching. “That was remarkable! I have never seen someone use magic so flexibly before. Truly, we hope that you can use our gifts well.”

  “S’nothing,” Salem said, sighing.

  “No,” said one of the moles next to Surface-Scouring-Watcher, his voice shockingly deep through the translation spell, despite his squeaks still being rather high-pitched and mole-like.

  “Like Surface-Blocking-Warden says, no. It is not nothing,” Surface-Scouring-Watcher said, pushing the metals and jars of ether crystal dust toward us on a shifting platform of crystal flecked with metal. “The Conclave has agreed on a price, but you are all clearly hurt. From the Joint-Surface-Syndicate, we would give you this, as hazard pay.”

  The words ‘hazard pay’ translated incredibly crisply and cleanly, as if there was almost no linguistic ambiguity in the translation. I snorted in mild amusement at the fact that moles had a business syndicate that dealt in hazard pay, but kept my eyes on them as a thin spire of crystal rose into the air, smelling of their bloodline power. Atop the crystal spire was another jar of crystal, large enough to hold about a gallon, that seemed to be filled with water. The water had a faintly mineral smell to it, as if it had come from beneath the volcano.

  “Restoring waters, retrieved by Far-Runner-Spring” one of the other Surface-moles said. “It will not heal your wounds instantly, but it is the best we can do. You should take care to only drink a small amount. This is what would be used for the four of us.”

  “We graciously accept your hazard pay,” I said, picking the jar up and sliding it into my locker. We didn’t speak with the moles for much longer, as they didn’t seem to be fond of idle conversation, but they brought us back to the molehill near our setup house contentedly. The moment we made it back, we all drank a small sip of the healing water, then collapsed into bed.

  Patreon Here!

  Discord Here!