Malika

  “Hi, Weldin,” Malika called out as she strode fidently into the elegantly dressed Gnome’s store area, knowing she was going to make his day.

  “Malika! How are you, my dear?” he decred, greeting her with an enormous smile. The flirting was an act, obviously, but she knew he had to py the part of buttering her up because she was very likely his most lucrative sourerdise. He knew, she knew, and he knew she knew. But it was both amusing and, she had to admit, felt pretty nice.

  “I have something that might be of… oh… moderate io you,” she announced, downpying it with equally ical exaggeration. She leaned forward, pg an elbow on the tertop, automatically appraising some of the ems on dispy that caught her eye.

  “Oh?” he answered, raising the eyebrow of his good eye. He pulled out an expensive-looking pocket watch, making a show of examining it, while also making sure she got a good look too. “I guess I have a little time for you. But… only because you have such a radiant smile.”

  Malika chuckled; it was over the top even for him. Without much fuss, she simply retrieved the ks of magicite Ali had giveo sell, pg them on the ter before him with studied nonce.

  “Think you get anything for these shiny rocks?” she asked. Malika had the inteisfa of watg his jaw drop in shock before he carefully collected himself.

  “Oh, maybe a few coppers,” he managed, his voice crag a little as he reached out to examine one of the ks of raw magicite.

  “Mm?” Malika responded.

  “Seriously, I have no idea how much I get for this, but I’m sure it’s a lot,” Weldin said, dropping the act. “Would you be willing to leave it with me without upfront payment? Fifteen pert seller fee for whatever I get from the Novaspark Academy and the rest of the profit deposited in your at?”

  “Ten pert seems fairer,” Malika tered.

  “I still o pay Vivian. How about ten for me, three for the guild cut, and you get the rest?”

  “Deal,” Malika answered. As usual, she wasn’t about to tell him that Ali could make as much of it as she wanted, but lohat would probably just serve him as a steady source of ine anyway. His offer was generous – most resale merts in town would probably try to take twenty to twenty-five pert. He’s such a fantastic addition to the guild.

  After her business with Weldin was cluded, Malika strolled over to the on area and found a seat, joining the surprisingly small group of adventurers waiting for Vivian’s daily briefing. It had been a fantastic day so far, and the highlight for her had been Ali treatio aended spa session at the hot baths. It had been pure bliss, and she was certain she had fallen asleep several times. She rolled her shoulders, relishing the sensation of rexed muscles.

  “Ok, let’s get started,” Vivian announced, joining them with Mieriel following behind her with a stack of papers to tack up oiceboard. “Where is everyone?” she asked, surveying the tiny gathering.

  “ and Mato are doing family stuff, and Ali is busy. I will catch them up ter,” Malika offered. She eyed Mieriel suspiciously, but she seemed demure, busy pinning up the notices and new quests. Malika wasn’t about to admit that Ali had seemed scared of her and that was the real reason she had stayed away today.

  “Aiden’s group was killing slimes in the sewer; they should be along in a bit,” Serendipity said.

  “Ok, well, we should get started,” Vivian said, obviously unhappy with the poor showing but not enough to make a big deal out of it. “There have been some disturbis from the scouts, and enough of them to take it seriously. There is some unknown blight ing all the farmnd to the south of the town, and there have been credible reports of undead roaming at night. Expee jobs killing undead and helping with the farmers.”

  Undead? Blight? Vivian Ross’s words immediately captured her attention. A blight would expin the rising food prices, but undead implied something far more serious than she had expected.

  “Furthermore, it seems the Torian army has noticed, and begun to move a rge number of troops toward the border. ander Gerald Brand wants to beef up the security, so you will find several supply requests on the jobs board. Those of you who were here for the Goblin siege should be familiar with the drill – the garrison will be in charge of the walls, and we will back them up–”

  “Help! Healer!”

  The sh through the guild hall, blending with the crash of the door smming open, and cutting Vivian off mid-sentence.

  Malika’s head so the doorway as she stared at the intruders for a moment before she reized them. Aiden stepped across the threshold, fnked by the rest of his team. Everyone was limping or bleeding, and, cradled in his arms, was a small, limp buhat seemed more red than green.

  Havok! Malika was across the room in a shot, burning stamina to accelerate herself as she reized the little Goblin in Aiden’s arms. He’s not… dead? The tiny body was horrifyingly still, and there was so much blood that it was already pooling on the floor. She pulsed Healing Mantra, and to her intense relief, her magic surged through the Goblin’s body, repairing severe wounds as it went – but he only seemed to quiver slightly, remaining unscious. He was in bad shape.

  A moment ter, a beam of green nature magiced out across the room to the other members of the badly injured group as Teagan added her magic to help.

  “What happened?” Vivian asked, instantly at the door with both swords drawn.

  “The Town Watch attacked us in the sewers,” Aiden said, his voice steadying as the healing magic began to restore his strength. “Roderik and some of his underlings did this. He was vinced Aliandra is a dungeon or something, and he insisted we tell him where she was.”

  Oh no! Ali? She didn’t know how the Watch had figured out Ali’s secret, but she was in immediate danger. Everyone else seemed shocked and surprised, but Malika didn’t miss the signifit gnce Vivian exged with Mieriel. But the question of how they knew fled from her mind as Aiden tinued.

  “Havok refused, and Roderik almost killed him. It was Aliandra that saved his life, but they all chased her. He’s really going to kill her.”

  Fuck!

  Malika didn’t wait to hear any more, Roderik was a high-level Ice Mage – and an ung monster with a pent for murder. Ali’s life was in immediate danger. She pumped stamina into her Diviep skill and shot out of the guild at top speed, literally leaping down the sewer entran the adjat alleyway. She tore through the sewer tunnels, sprinting as fast as she could until she reached the chamber leading down into the forest cavern.

  She coughed harshly, surprised to find herself surrounded by smoke and the strong smell of fire but she didn’t slow, leaping down the hole without a thought. Ali’s barrier stairway was gone, but she trolled her fall using Diviep and nded softly on the rocks below. She finally paused, staring out in shock.

  Half of the gigantic cavern was afme. The beautiful blue ke no llowed, filled now with charred tree trunks and ash. Ali’s bright stand of rch trees she had learned from the jungle was gone – ed by a t inferno of fme and bck smoke. Figures scurried about among the trees or flew overhead, shouting to one another, occasionally casting magic to set some new part of the forest on fire.

  At the far end of the cavern, a red ball of fire blossomed in the bamboo forest. She saw the explosion before she heard it as the powerful magic spell fttehe bamboo stalks and triggered an enormous rockfall that buried the northwestern er of the cavern and the passage out to the ruins.

  Ali! Malika had no idea if she would fihere, but her first thought was the invaders had caught her at their camp beside the shrine. She shot off like a bolt from a crossbow, tearing through the trees, leaping over walls of fme and burnt branches, burning stamina in her urgency to find Ali before they killed her. She coughed and hacked again, healing her lungs to keep them w effitly in the dense smoke a as she cut straight through an intense fire to save time.

  Malika burst out into the Grove, spping the fmes that had caught her shirt on fire. The trees all around the Grove were burning and their camp had been looted. Mercifully, they were in the habit of pag anything truly valuable in their ste rings.

  “Ali! Where are you!” she yelled, not seeing her anywhere.

  “Hey! She’s with the dungeon!” The voice yelled loudly from behind and above, immediately firing arrows down on her.

  Malika dodged even as the twanging bs sounded, rolling across the moss, but a sed figure appeared, alighting on the mossy ground and immediately shooting a Firebolt which hit her on the shoulder. Malika healed the damage and sprinted directly at the mage.

  Halfway there, an accelerated figure wearing assorted bure armor pieces shot out of the forest, smashing into her side, and sending her sprawling. Malika turhe collision into a graceful roll, springing to her feet in a baance. But by the time she rose, more figures had appeared, some flying in, some leaping across the trees, ahers ran with accelerated skills.

  Shit. Suddenly, Malika found herself dodging swords, daggers, and a huge mace as four melee fighters came at her in a loose skirmish line. In the distanow out of reach, several mages and archers gathered, taking potshots at her with their ons and spells. She flew through her defeances, blog the overwhelming number of empowered strikes that sought her blood while healing the spells and cuts that she was uo avoid.

  “What did you do with Ali?” Malika yelled, dodging a firebolt while blog an overhead sword strike.

  “Shut up, dungeon-lover!”

  “Just die, Torian scum!”

  She puhe tall redhead wearing the burnished breastpte in the mouth, feeling the satisfactory ch of a few brokeh and a yelp of pain. It seemed the Town Watch flunkies were not going to give her any room. Where is she? She sed the Grove for any signs of Ali, but all she got was a dagger to the ribs for her ck of attentiveness. She healed it even while the trail of her blood followed the dagger as it ulled from her body. She blocked three more strikes before an arrow struck her in the back, causio stumble into another sword strike.

  “Fuck, she’s a healer!”

  Malika recovered, leaping into the air and over the head of one of her attackers, pulling the arrow free, healing the puncture wound, and kig him in the back of the head before she nded. But the strikes kept ing, and not even her high speed was enough to handle one against ten.

  Eleven, she corrected herself, seeing the priest show up huffing and coughing in the smoky air, and begin casting his healing magi her enemies. She leapt over another warrior, kig him on the way, and sprinted for the priest. But two of the rogues were just as fast as she was, closing the gap and f her to spin around and block. As soon as she had blocked them, the warriors were charging her, and the priest had backed up again. Ugh!

  She pressed their line again and again, but each time she was ered, intercepted, or cut off, forced to fight the heavily armored warriors or the dexterues. She was easily able to resist their shouts and taunts with her high wisdom, but their positioning and teamwork still forced her into accepting unfavorable oppos.

  I ’t get to him, she thought, eyeing the priest behind their lines.

  And she was losing. Her stamina may be relentless, but it wasn’t infinite. Malika was taking a lot of strikes, forced to heal stantly against so many enemies. She had been so ed about Ali dying that she hadn’t thought to wait for support and had run straight into the enemy where they were stro.

  “Buff now!” one of the warriors anded, and in response, an archer cast some magistantly, every one of the melee fighters and the archers accelerated as their haste buff took effect.

  Malika’s mind was calm, but she khis was it. She switched to pure defense, saving all her energy and effort for blog and dodging, but the strikes kept nding, a dagger to her knee, a sword ssh to her ribs, an arrow in the chest. And she still hadn’t learned anything of Ali’s fate.

  A loud crack split the air, and a Lightning Bolt struck from the sky. Malika gritted her teeth and dove sideways, healing the heavy damage that left her muscles trembling and weakened. Only to meet a heavy mace to her ribs. Bones cracked as she was flung to the ground. She winced, healing herself and rolling out of the way of the follow-up attack.

  A massive fged furred form shot past her, cws tearing up great clods of dirt and moss. A roar reverberated through the Grove, but the beast tore past the warriors and rogues and tinued on toward the group of mages and archers instead.

  Mato, you missed! She was, of course, relieved that he had e, but he had left her on the ground fag all the warriors and rogues. But to her surprise, they all turned as one and charged after the bear.

  Huh? Oh, Taunt. She rarely worried about taunt abilities herself because her wisdom was high enough that her mind was uo be affected by the challehese warriors and rogues she was fag obviously didn’t have nearly enough because they were all tearing after Mato as he crashed into the ranged fighters.

  All of them scattered, desperate to flee from the huge bear, but in a flurry of power too fast for even Malika’s own accelerated perceptions to grasp, Mato retaliated, striking all of them with a devastating bloinning them to the ground in range of his strikes with his Grasping Roots.

  Holy shit! With a single Charge, a well-timed Challenging Roar, and some virtuoso positioning with his retaliatory strike, Mato had mao take trol of the etlefield in an instant, turning every single fighter to himself. The mages, archers, and the priest trapped in the grip of his roots were definitely struggling.

  Malika sprang to her feet at ond charged to his aid, leaping over a rogue with the help of a foot pnted against his upturned nose, delivering a passing taste of Soul Strike to his face. She alighted on Mato’s back, pulsing her Healing Mantra into him through her feet before springing off and nding a ki the side of the dazed priest’s head. To her left, one of the mages vanished, clearly using a potent escape skill. Mato swiped, striking everything ih of his cws, filling the air with a chorus of screams and sprays of blood. Malika remairained on their priest, unleashing every attack at him.

  Somewhere far above Malika, radiant light sho over the Grove like a noon sun. ’s precision glowing arrows rained down from the sky, most of them agreeing with her choiost important target. The priest colpsed to an almost unheard chime and Malika pumped more of her healing into Mato before unleashing a flurry of attacks.

  We must find Ali. How did the damown Watch find her? We’ve been so stupid! That thought drove her to a recklessness in battle that she seldom indulged. She pummeled the Fire Mage before her, ign the fme shield he rojeg, allowing it to simply burn her hands a as she smmed more and more punches into him, sapping his mana with Soul Strike. He squealed, trying desperately to back away, earning another devastatialiatory Swipe from Mato for his efforts.

  I don’t see her. The possibility that they had arrived too te g her gut. Malika grabbed the stunned mage by the back of his neck, spinning him around to give a clear shot, and then she released him, exeg a single powerful follow-up kick that rammed the arrht through the man’s back, till it emerged from his chest. She dropped him into the path of Mato’s devastating Swipe, ign both the gruesome ch of the man’s ribcage shattering and the iable chime as she looked around.

  Where is she? She searched the battlefield, but there was no sign of Ali – dead or alive. Only Mato, ihick of battle tearing through the Town Watch casters like they were paper, ign the warriors and rogues, tent to rely on his thick hide. Malika pulsed more healing magito him, making sure he could keep up with the enormously unfavorable numbers. Every time someoried to flee, Mato’s retaliation puhem brutally.

  A mage vanished from her root prison in a shower of sparks, appearing above the battlefield, and immediately beginning to cast something that caused arg electricity to spray from her arms and shoulders. Malika leaped into the air, stepping off Mato’s back, and then twice stepping off the air itself using Diviep before she executed a forward flip ending with her heel striking the back of the lightning mage’s neck. With an enormous detonation and blinding fsh, her spell went off prematurely, enveloping both of them in an giant ball of lightning. Malika healed herself twice, warding off the damage while her body twitched and jerked untrolbly ihroes of the offensive lightning magic.

  She took a deep, ragged breath and kicked low and round, knog the still-stunned lightning mage back down into Mate. With her ill jangling from the lightning, Malika followed, diving bato the fray with a whirlwind of punches and kicks as she unleashed her magic, flickering and fshing at cle, pausing only when Mato needed her healing.

  ***

  “Did you guys find any sign of Ali?” Malika asked, breathless and frantic. Most of the intruders y dead on the moss, soon to be ed by fire, or had fled the cavern. She had seen nothing of their friend, and if the Town Watch was anything to go by, Ali would not be able to stand up against them alone.

  “She’s alive, and over that way,” said, pointing off to the side, and at a steep angle downward.

  “How do you…” Oh. In her haste, she had fotten that had unlocked an advarag skill. The fact that he could sehe dire to Ali, probably meant she had to be alive… against all odds. While relieved, Malika also felt stupid. She could have been a lot more effit if she had waited for them before charging off on her own. probably had to track her down and help save her before they hunted for Ali.

  “She’s in the library, and she hasn’t moved in a while,” he said. Mercifully, did not criticize her for her mistake. “Probably wounded.”

  “We ’t gh the frorance,” Malika said, pointing to the rockfall caused by the massive explosion earlier.

  “Ventition shaft, then,” suggested, and the three of them took off in the dire of the small cave where they had faced the four-armed skeleton boss for the first time, and she and had been captured by Kieran Mori.

  It didn’t take long, but what they fou fresh worry c through her mind. A dead Forest Guardian y among the ripped and torn corpses of several Town Watch, most of which were still bound by roots and vines. One of them, Malika even reized as a fuildmate who had abahe guild for the lucrative Town Watch paychecks. Behind the Guardian there was a circle of frozen forest about thirty yards in diameter, slowly defrosting, along with an armingly fresh pool of frozen blood – both amber and red.

  “She was here,” firmed, quickly following a trail that was visible only to him into the dark cave. He summoned his mote of light for their be as soon as they joined him.

  “Where’s the hole?” she asked, her eyes refusing to believe what they saw. There was no sign of the ventition shaft. The only thing Malika could see was a smooth, shiny bck surface made from a dense hard stone where the shaft had once been.

  “That’s Ali’s work,” said.

  “But now we ’t get down to help her,” Malika added, letting her frustration fill her voice.

  “The Kobolds had other ways out of the ruins. It may take a while to find, but I think that’s our best option.”

  “Ok, let’s do that,” Mato said. His throat worked. “They… know, don’t they?”

  “Yes, they do,” said softly.

  “She’s going to know – we knew. Right?”

  Shutting out their soft, pained versation, Malika exited the cave and gnced around. The giant forest cavern was quiet now, none of the shouts and explosions could be heard. Only the fires raged on, filling the air with acrid smoke and ash as everything burned.

  We killed them. She was looking at the mangled corpses surrounding the Forest Guardian, but she was thinking of the Town Watch they had wiped out at the Grove. While they were the Town Watch, and dealing them such a heavy blow would be a great win for Myrin’s Keep, Malika still felt sick to the stomach for having had to kill strangers. And now we’re probably outws in town, she thought grimly. Some of the Town Watch members had most definitely escaped using their magic to flee. They would most certainly not remain silent. Friends with a fug dungeon. If we’ll ever be friends after she realizes…

  “Here,” Malika said, stooping to pick up a bow and tossing it to . “You o upgrade that junk you’re using.” She proceeded to busy herself colleg all the usable gear. Not sure when we’ll be able to visit a store, she thought, worried that they would no longer be wele ba town.

  “Thanks,” said. “Spend your points, and the’s get to trag.”

  “What… oh,” Malika said, realizing that the fight with the Town Watch had been enough to kick her up a level.

  Soul Monk has reached level 36.+10 attribute points.

  She immediately spent five points oerity and three on wisdom, droppi two into enduranore stamina.

  Martial Artist has reached level 19.Soul Strike has reached level 22.Healing Mantra has reached level 22.Enlightened Evasion has reached level 21.Diviep has reached level 22 (+2).Sed Wind has reached level 10.Crity has reached level 7.

  Dang has reached level 6.Appraise has reached level 13.

  “Ok, let’s go,” she said. Ali, hold on, we’re ing. I’ll find you… somehow. I didn’t earn Street Rat by giving up when shit gh.

  timewalk