Aliandra
They pressed on through the dense rown jungle, and the further they went, the more oppressive the roiling chaos of wild mana became. Before experieng this jungle, Ali would have found it hard to imagine light affinity mana being oppressive, but it was certainly the best description she could e up with. It was thick, swirling in vortices around the trees, through the branches, and dense enough to cause the very air to glow softly with light.
It was slow going, every few mihey would enter some or other monster and have to stop to fight it, but entering a single wandering slime or elemental was usually fairly easy for their group to overe. Even the Radiant Brawlers were being a little easier to manage now.
But it was the Corust Rays that truly terrified her – almost always announg their preseh an attack that came from so far off that Ali seldom saw them before the beam of light struck her, passing through her barrier as if it were not even there. Her friends were quip to her aid, of course, Malika healing the burns, and shooting the monsters out of the air, but Ali hated being surprised, especially by utacks that could easily take off a leg or an arm.
“This pce is unnatural,” Mato grumbled, scratg the back of his nefortably.
“It feels better here,” observed.
Ali studied the mana as they went. It was no domain, but it was certainly being denser and denser, and even the banana was ging. Progressively less nature-affinity mana boiled up around them, leading to less chaotic flow as the light-affinity mana began to dominate – as if the two mana affinities represented antagonistic forces vying for trol, a vast strategiflict of territory and quest.
“I think that’s because of your affinity, ,” Ali said. “There’s a lot of light-affinity ambient mana around here. It’s still very chaotic though.”
Even the creatures she saw seemed to be affected, ed, or mutated by stant exposure to the excessive mana. She had seen at least three different species of spider with an abdomen that glowed with white or yellow light, like a firefly. There were slugs that emitted soft blue light patterns, butterflies that trailed golden glitter as they flew past, and even wisps – creatures of pure light affinity mana. In an ordinary juhese adaptations would have gotten these creatures a quick ticket to some predator’s stomach – but here, where even the air was glowing, it seemed that being able to glow or shine served as funal camoufge.
“Over here, Ali,” Mato said, drawing Ali’s attention to a new variety of vine growing on a tree. It adhered to the tree bark, climbing up to the highest branches with tiny green leaves. Every half a meter or so, a bud had formed, some of which were open, dispying flowers that glowed with a bright yellow-white light.
“That’s pretty!” Happily, Ali added it to her creeper imprint, along with a variety of new mosses and mushrooms, and even the occasional tree that Mato had found for her. While light-affinity pnts may not necessarily help her with her domain, most of her cavern was dark, and the opportunity to learn a few glowing pnts would certainly help with that. It seemed like a worthwhile tradeoff.
A sudden fsh of intense golden light caught her attention and as she snapped her eyes upward, she was treated to a beautiful dispy of aerobatice. Tiny golden-winged creatures were s and swooping through a swarm of glowing is, their agile movement causing their tiny golden scales to gleam and fsh in a mesmerizing, ever-ging dispy.
Luminous Drago – Dragon – level 1-3 (Light) Swarm x26.
“Look!” Ali called out, pointing out the pretty monsters s among the branches above. There must have beewo dozen of them, but the swarm of is was se that they were barely making a dent in it.
One of the tiny dragos opes mouth revealing tiny fangs and a dense, densing ball of light-affinity mana – a spell that reminded Ali of the Bone Spear breath attack of the Skeletal Wyvern – only on a vastly smaller scale. But instead of spears, a dazzling e of intense sparks of light flew out from its mouth. Dazzle, she thought, identifying the spell as one virtually identical to the primary attack of her Luminous Slime. Fortunately, it was small enough that it only left afterimages on her retinas, rather than blinding her entirely.
But for the moth caught in the dragon’s breath, it was all over. Stunned by the brilliant light, it failed to evade the hungry mouth, and with a snap and a ch, the moth was dinner.
“True dragons,” Mato breathed, staring upward at the se Ali had pointed out. She looked again, notig the detail he ointing out. The main outward differeween wyverns and the so-called ‘true’ dragons was in the number of limbs; dragons had fs and a pair of wings, while wyverns had only hind legs and wings. Now that her attention had been called to it, Ali noticed the tiny dragos had their front pair of legs tucked in alongside their bodies for more effit flight.
A shadow briefly darkehe aerial feeding dispy followed by a roar and a powerful jet of toxic green that drenched everything in its path as a rge Poison Wyvern swooped in, fangs bared. One unlucky drago ended up in the wyvern’s maw, its screech abruptly cut off by a brutal d a spray of blood. Ali barely got her barrier up in time to protect herself from the jet of poison.
“Get it!” Mato excimed, his voice ed by the process of his body transformation.
’s arrow was already flying toward the wyvern, his telltale glowing of light trailing behind. The wyvern screeched and thrashed as suddenly the hunter became the hunted, and ’s magit it crashing to the ground in a furious thrashing of poison, fangs, and cws.
But Mato was already there, r and sshing with his powerful forepaws.
Ali checked on her healers quickly. Most of her minions had been caught in the initial bst of poison, and so her Acolytes were w hard, but they seemed to have the sudden glut of poison damage under trol.
A loud thump startled her as something sptted against her still-raised barrier, and slowly slid off. Something small with golden scales, leaving a trail of blood. Her stomach twisted as she reized what it was. Ahump sounded behind her, and then more as it started raining dead dragos – those caught in the poison were simply too low-level to survive for long.
“Attack.” Ali’s minions obeyed her angry and instantly. She k was irrational to be angry. Especially sidering that the monsters down here mixed just about as well as the mana affinities – which could be equally characterized as aggressive reje. But she had been enjoying watg the bright dragos before the dispy had been so gruesomely interrupted. That she reized the irony of enjoying watg the golden dragos feeding on the is, while simultaneously despising the Poison Wyvern for essentially doing the same thing was not lost on her. She grimaced. That observation didn’t help o.
She struggled with how she felt, and how she should feel, all the while shootiriple stream of Are Bolts at the downed wyvern.
When the wyvern finally colpsed, she finally admitted it to herself.
It’s because they were cute. And pretty.
She twisted her mouth in an expression of wry distent. She hadn’t thought of herself as shallow, but what else could it mean? Now everything was dead, and she just felt sad for the little creatures.
“What’s the matter?” Malika asked, ing up behind her as she stared at the corpses of the dragos on the ground.
“Just sad. They were so pretty.”
“Maybe you learn them and then make some? I think they might like the forest you made.”
“Oh. Hmm…” She hadn’t sidered learning them, much too focused on colleg things that might have practical value in her Grimoire. These little dragos had mostly been below level three, something that would have little value in bat. But they were dragons, and she already had a dragon as an imprint – the Poison Wyvern. There was at least a det ce she wouldn’t o spend a neter to learn this. She pursed her lips in thought. ’t hurt to try.
Reag out, she began to destruct the fresh corpses, biting her lip as she trated and hoped.
Imprint: Poison Wyvern updated to Imprint: Dragon.
Variant: Luminous Drago added to Imprint: Dragon.
“Got it!” Her heart leapt with excitement as soon as she saw her Grimoire react, and she immediately tried summoning oo her surprise, as soon as her Grimoire’s magiished, nine of the tiny dragos appeared fanning out in a riot of darting and swooping golden scales above her head. The little creatures cocked their tiny dragon heads to the side as she told them to follow, and they took to the air in a graceful formation.
“Wow, you have a whole flight of them!” Malika excimed, grinning.
“Looks like another swarm monster,” Ali said. She had a couple of them now, she just wished there was a manual on summoners and their skills so she could uand it better. They were delightful though, cav through the air like a school of golden flying fish.
A certain rascal however, batted her eyeshes and cooed, “And it helps that they’re so pretty, right Ali?”
“Malika!”
That was how she discovered that Bear Form Mato had a bear-worthy belly-ugh that threateo shake the leaves off the trees around her.
***
“Please be more careful, Ali,” Malika said.
Ali sat on the ground, crushing the hem of her shirt in her fists and grittieeth against the pain while Malika healed her. Fortunately, Malika’s magic was near instant, and it bahe pain just as quickly as her injuries. It had been a wandering Corust Ray again, and the surprise beam of light had nearly taken her arm off, burning down to the bone.
“Why is it always me?” she pined. She hadn’t been keeping track, but it certainly felt like she was drawing a disproportionate number of their attacks. “I’m the smallest in this group. Shouldn’t they shoot Mato some of the time? He’s a much bigger target.”
“Oi,” Mato said.
“Maybe they see yic?” suggested, stowing his bow as the notification chime sighe death of the flying menace.
“I didn’t think of that,” she said. It was an angle she hadn’t sidered. She had taken to walking through the juh her barrier out and ready for any attack. It had e in handy a few times, but against the flying Corust Rays and their light beam attack, it was useless. Maybe worse than useless? Her only defense was Lydia’s work, which provided a substantial and wele resistao magical damage. It was entirely pusible that the elementals ‘saw’ magic directly – they seemed to have no eyes, much like every ht-affinity mohey had entered, other than the dragos. The slimes had alternative senses – talking with Naia had made that very clear, even if the ck of actual eyes didn’t give it away. She didn’t know how exactly they perceived the world, but it was unusual. her the Glimmer Shards nor the Corust Rays had any ans that could remotely be sidered simir to eyes. Nor, for that matter, did the Radiant Brawlers.
“That might be it,” Malika mused.
“If I see magic. I guess it’s probably quite a on perception skill, especially among magical monsters,” Ali admitted. If that was the case, she had probably been painting a rge target on herself visible from the skies.
“Maybe you test it by putting your barrier teo the side and see if they shoot that instead of you?” suggested. “It’s not like your barrier is helping yht now.”
“True,” Ali grumbled. “And I think I’m going to start hiding behind trees when we fight.”
Ali got back to her feet, thanking Malika for healing her, ao examine some strange moss Mato had found, while vanished into the trees presumably to scout.
sidering the problem of the Corust Rays, Ali decided to spend the retively steep mana cost to summon a pair of Poison Wyverns. Not because the wyverns were particurly suited to killing the rays, but because they were her only creature eveely capable of reag them. None of her ground-based monsters had enough rao hit them, and the wyvern was her only flying monster. At least the only one capable of doing any real damage – her geous new Luminous Dragos didn’t t.
She sewo sleek, powerful wyverns up into the sky above the opy to keep a for flying threats.
“There’s a fight up ahead,” said, appearing out of nowhere as he let his stealth skill drop. “Some slimes are attag a Forest Guardian. They look about evenly matched.”
“Let’s go check it out,” Mato suggested, his face immediately lighting up at the prospect of bat.
“I’d like to see it too,” Ali said. Of course, Mato would be the one suggesting they iigate a fight, but Ali found she was also curious – though for a different reason. If there was a ce to destruct her sed Forest Guardian, that would be one closer to being able to make them herself.
The first thing Ali noticed as they approached the clearing had found was a small flight of Corust Rays h well beyond reach. Their potent beam attacks drew a tinuous stream of sizzling bright lines between them and something unseehe ridge. Even from this distahe stench of burnt forest assailed her hey crept carefully up the ridge, all the more vulnerable because she had decided to her protective barrier in case ’s thought about magic perception was true.
Cresting the rise, Ali gazed down upon a se of violent g magibridled mana-fueled pnt growth, and terrifyingly powerful smashing attacks that shook the ground and nearby trees.
The Forest Guardian might have been a little bigger than the first one, and it tugged at her emotions still, in plex ways. But instead of letting the feelings run rampant, she studied the bat, trying to learn as much as she could, even activating her Sage of Learning to try and gain a better uanding of the magic at py.
Clustered about the Forest Guardian was a group of Luminous Slimes, firing their painfully bright dazzle attaearly tinuously. At this dista was merely unfortable, and not debilitating to watch. The guardian seemed to be blinded, shing out wildly, occasionally eg to send one of the slimes flying. The aggressive roots and vines filling the area around the guardian twisted and grasped, but against the infinitely malleable slime anatomy, they proved to be pletely iive.
Along the crest of a far ridge, several Sparkling Oozes lurked, occasionally lobbing their blobs of indesto the ter of the fray. The brilliant balls of light exploded on impact, far brighter and with less burning than their fire-affinity cousins. But it was the flight of Corust Rays that were dealing the bulk of the damage. Eatense beam cut swathes of destru across the roots and vines, burning smoking holes through the guardian’s tough wood and bark armor.
“The slimes seem immuo the beams,” observed.
“They’re also immuo the pnts,” Ali offered. “But the guardian is the only eih.” While it looked like the light monsters had the upper hand in the damage department – and also being immuo the roots and some of them flying when the guardian was stu the ground, Ali knew firsthand just how potent the guardian’s regeion was. “I think the guardian will outst them.”
“You might be right,” admitted, squinting his eyes as he studied the flight of aerial rays.
“Let’s take them out,” Mato said, his eyes sparkling with excitement.
“How do we do it?” Malika asked. “We are far away from the library, so we ’t avoid the roots.”
“I make some more Scalding Slimes and use firebolts to attack the guardian,” Ali suggested. Her slimes were just as good at avoiding the entangling roots, and the st time they had fought the guardian, her fire had been the cher.
“How about Mato tanks the guardian, me and Ali’s wyverns on the rays, and Malika, you tank the Sparkling Oozes on the ridge? Kill order is rays, slimes, and then the guardian,” said, quickly proposing a strategy.
“Sounds good to me,” Ali answered. It made sense, given their strengths and weaknesses. Keeping Malika away from the roots for as long as possible would allow her to retain her mobility and wiping out the slimes and rays first seemed smart.
Malika and Mato both nodded in agreement, and she added, “Best warm up your minions, Ali.”
As quickly as her Grimoire allowed, Ali summoned several Scalding Slimes and another Fire Mage, using the ridge as cover to not give away their position.
“Ready,” she told them, waiting for Mato’s familiar transformation before she moved over the ridge to follow.
“Kill the rays,” she sent to her wyverns cirg above, while visualizing the distant cluster of Corust Rays and their unceasing le assault on the Forest Guardian. The buzzing hum of their beam attacks uttieeth on edge. While not strictly necessary, she found that thinking in draic helped her to vey the more subtle aspects of her ands. She sehe immediate uanding of even the nuances behind her i as the two wyverns shot off, excited for their hunt.
With her uny speed, Malika was already among the Sparkling Oozes, pung and kig up a storm. “Go,” Ali anded, sendiorm Shamans chasing after Malika, and then, deg they had the monsters properly trolled, Ali began her assault, splitting her Are Bolt streams among three of the Sparkling Oozes while her Fire Mages responded with a volley of firebolts. While she had specifically made the Scalding Slimes to kill the Forest Guardian, there was no point in sending them to attack it until the full force of their firepower could be brought to bear – it would just regee.
That was her pn, at least. She summoned a barrier because it would at least work as a defense against the explosions and directed her Are Bolts around it as her shamans closed the distance. Without her say-so, the shamans dropped their Lightning Nova totems at the Forest Guardian’s feet, catg both it and the Luminous Slimes in the pulsing rings of sparks. The loud crack of their Lightning Bolts cut through even the din of a full-on battle, ripping through the Sparkling Oozes with ease. They reacted by lobbing a volley of indest balls in all dires, and Ali had to hunker down behind her barrier, even blog a few of the explosive attacks from nding on her mages and Acolytes. The detonatio her blinking and slightly off bance, but she maintained her focus, keeping her tinuous stream of are magic flying across the grassy clearing.
She checked in with her wyverns, but they seemed to be able to outmahe Corust Rays in the air and didn’t require her direct attention. One by ohe Sparkling Oozes fell to the onsught of her minions. As she focused her Are Bolts on the si remaining Sparkling Ooze, ’s arrows joined her attacks and within a few moments, it colpsed in a wet puddle.
“Let me pull some of the Luminous Slimes out of the roots,” said.
The slimes looked quite a bit worse for wear, caught in the lightning novas and the colteral damage resulting from Mato and the Forest Guardian trading ground-shivering blows.
Ali let Malika intercept the slimes as pulled them out of the growth, assessing the ged battlefield. All the ranged monsters were down, so she redirected her wyverns and Scalding Slimes to join Mato in the assault on the Forest Guardian, keeping her shamans out e of the roots to help Malika. Their ons and shields sparked and crackled, and in respohe slimes filled the battlefield with their dazzling sparkles of light.
“Something is ing,” shouted suddenly, his voice urgent and his eyes raised to the skies.
“What?” Ali raised her eyes, blinking against the afterimages from all the intense bright magic. But it was her ears that warned her of danger first; a low hissing sound that slowly built in volume and strength, as if something were drawing inexorably closer. , her mana sight made out a waterfall of brilliant droplets falling from the sky in a rain of intense light mana – a magical stormfront on a scale she could scarcely believe.
Then, her eyes recovered, and she started to make out the details. Above the sheeting rain was a cloud-like formation that moved like no cloud she had ever seen, billowing and ing almost as if it was breathing – in fact, she realized betedly, it might be. Her eyes dropped rapidly, assessing the damage below the phenomenon. The trees were hissing and smoking, leaves and small braorn from their boughs, vines and moss stripped as they burned aed away.
That looks nasty. Ag on instinct, she Identified the glowing cloud.
Lux Drifter – Ooze – level 12-25 (Light) Swarm x36Lux Drifter – Ooze – level 11-26 (Light) Swarm x43…Lux Drifter – Ooze – level 13-20 (Light) Swarm x19
Oh! Swarm creatures! There were thousands of them, a swarm beyond ting, each monster a small glowing disk that floated through the sky. So mahey, that the swarm seemed to mimic the clouds she had first mistaken them for. Whatever was raining down on the forest was either toxic or acidic, for it left a broad swathe of sizzling, bed, and buration in its wake.
“Barrier! Take cover – uh, underh!” Ali yelled, stumbling over her words as she summohe rgest barrier she could make to shield them from above. dodged uhe magical umbrel quickly, and Malika sprio make up the distance. She had barely reached the barrier when the leading stormfront of acid rai across the clearing, bing and shriveling the grass, leaving only a smoking ruin behind. An acrid stench filled Ali’s nostrils, causio cough and gasp for breath.
“Mato!” Ali yelled, but he was trapped, struggling to shed the guardian’s roots and vihat bound him to the battle. As the rai over them, the growth began to sizzle and smoke, along with the two ferocious batants still locked in mortal bat.
“He ’t move,” gasped in sudden realization. “He’s pinned down.”
“Heal Mato,” Ali yelled, suddenly realizing the extreme danger her friend was in, exposed uhe destructive rain while simultaneously battling the Forest Guardian. Several of Ali’s minions colpsed, uo reach the safety of her barrier in time. She lost all her Scalding Slimes, and only two of her Fire Mages and a single shaman made it to safety.
I’m lucky I kept the Acolytes nearby. She gnced up nervously at her barrier, but it seemed to be holding up, brilliant yellow viscous fluid draining from it in rivulets and small waterfalls, searing the ground as it nded.
“It’s damaging the guardian,” said. “Don’t stop shooting.”
Indeed, Ali suddenly saw the smoking holes burhrough the bark armor and wooden ptes proteg the monster. It was still regeing furiously, but the onsught of luminous yellow acid rain was relentless. “Firebolts,” she called out, demonstrating her i with her triple stream of Are Bolts. Her mages eagerly plied, firing bolt after bolt out into the storm, eae leaving bed burns that tore into the monster of gnarled and animated wood.
“Mato, e!” Ali yelled, seeing that the rain had destroyed the roots and vines binding him.
“He ’t,” Malika answered. “If he brings it over here, we will die to the monster’s root magic.”
“Oh…” Mato must have realized that he was freed from the entangling roots long before she had. But that meant he had chosen to stay out in the searing rain. To keep us safe. Ali redoubled her efforts, trying to kill the guardian as quickly as possible so that Mato would be able to flee from the agony of having his flesh melted aored tinuously.
Her notification chime sounded and the Forest Guardian dropped, its body reduced to a smoking heap. Mato instantly turned and charged for their little huddle, joining them uhe cover of her broad barrier. But there seemed to be o the swarm of jellyfish-like Lux Drifters passing slowly overhead.
Mato and Malika stood there staring open-mouthed at the sky, helpless in the face of the aerial swarm. Even had lowered his bow, not willing to waste arrows on an endeavor as useful as shooting a thuorm. But Ali was far from helpless.
“Fireballs,” she called, and her mages grinned wickedly, summoning their magic.
The explosioonated repeatedly in the skies, and burning monsters fell to the ground in a disgusting rain of spttering jellyfish corpses. But the swarm kept ing, oblivious to all her efforts. None of her minions could make the slightest impact as the swarm floated inexorably by; not the wyverns flying above, not the bolts of lightning, nor even the powerful fireballs that destroyed them by the dozens.
“There’s too much of it…” Even in her mind, she had switched to thinking of the swarm as a quantity, not a host of individuals. It behaved like a natural disaster, and when it finally passed, taking the acid rain with it, all that remained was a broad, bed path through the jungle, and a tiny spot of glowing golden barrier magi the ter, under which they had taken refuge. As the hissing and smoke faded into the distance, all that remained was the screeg of terrified monsters fleeing from the flyiation, and the screams of pain of those unlucky ones caught in its path.
“I’ve never seen a flying ooze before,” observed, as all four of them stared at the reg swarm.
“I felt so helpless fag those,” Malika said as the cloud vanished in the distance. She sat on the loch of grass in the sea of destru that Ali’s barrier umbrel had protected to begin her meditation.
“They were like a force of nature, nothing I did made the slightest bit of differenot even fireballs.” Ali had felt the same helplessness Malika described.
It’s a little like Naia’s Stinging Jellies, Ali thought, recalling the swarm creatures she had fought in the uer caverns of Naia’s dungeon. Only there were a whole lot more of these ones, and the damage was inparable.
Ali pushed her barrier off to the side before dismissing it, and the acidic goop still pooled on it spttered safely to the ground some distance away. She walked over to a spttered, half-burnt jellyfish and exami. It was a circur disk of jelly-like substance, mostly translut and yellowish, almost the size of a human head. She gnced over at her friends for reference. Closer to Malika than Mato’s head, she decided. Mato had a big head. The light-affinity mana imbued into the rim of the creature and surrounding the tral circur ‘mouth’ was beginning to fade as the creature dimmed. On the underside of the monster were six sets of small gills that still leaked the yellowish mana-imbued acid.
Careful not to spsh acid on her fingers, Ali reached down to destruct it. Naia is going to love these! She was excited to see how Naia reacted when she shared this new ooze, so she scoured the battlefield for more of them – not that they were particurly difficult to find after her barrage of fireballs. Naia clearly loved her slimes and oozes, and even sharing just two new ones with her had very obviously boosted her intelligence.
Variant: Lux Drifter added to Imprint: Ooze.
Should I be sharing this with Naia? The thought suddenly stopped her cold. Was she happily pting giving a dungeon a mohat had just devastated an enormous se of aire jungle? But her mind jured Naia’s happy boung form and her pure and simple excitement at learning the new slimes Ali had offered. Maybe I vince her to keep them restricted to the cave we found? I should che her again.
Trying to sort through her flig feelings about her new friend, and what she should or shouldn’t do, Ali systematically destructed everything she found otlefield.
Variant: Sparkling Ooze added to Imprint: Ooze.
By parison, the Sparkling Ooze seemed rather tame, and Ali felt less flict as she sidered sharing this oh the little blue Mimic Slime she had befriended.
And that was my sed Forest Guardian. The huge monster of bark and dense wood – at least what was left of it – evaporated into mana before her. She had worried that she wouldn’t enter another – that the ohey had fought by the library might be the only o. But had mentioned seeing one on his way to the shrine of the Wanderer – and this one had been a different level. Which means I learn it. The thought filled her with a powerful urge to set out and find it.
“I need one or two more Forest Guardians,” she said. She supposed that the extreme acid damage that this guardian had suffered might force her Grimoire to require more samples, but she wasn’t certain.
“Ok, I’ll go look for tracks,” offered.
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https:///DungeonOfKnowledgehttps:///series/1135403/dungeon-of-knowledgehttps:///fi/80744/dungeon-of-knowledge-raid-bat-litrpg
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