Aliandra “ you tell us what happeo you?” Ali asked, gng at Lira who somehow mao make sitting on a rough k of bone-encrusted ro the dark and dusty fotten library look effortlessly elegant, sipping oea Mato had brewed.

  She sighed, “It’s… embarrassing.”

  “It’s ok if you’d rather not.”

  “No, it’s better that you know, for I have a favor to ask of you after,” Lira answered. “You must uand, all my friends perished in the destru of Dal’mohra and the disaster that followed. I saw it, Aliandra; the army of the dead p from the city for days and ying waste to everything in its path. All fled or were crushed under his heels. Every person that his monsters slew was raised to serve the Blind Li uh, feeding his power. Even the cil of Kings was turned. Artur Dragonsworn and Bragni Doomhammer were unleashed upon the world as Death Knights – generals to and his armies – and Thaldorien Stormshaper was raised as a wraith of terrifying power.”

  “I know, I met them,” Ali whispered, shivering at the icy chill and dread of their auras as if the mere memory were enough to summon them. She had looked up to them, powerful is of honor, duty, justice, and the pursuit of knowledge. The Blind Lich had swept them aside in an instant.

  “It is perhaps a blessing that you did not have to endure what happened ,” Lira said, her eyes taking on a distant look of pain. “The Lich buried the ruins of Dal’mohra by dropping the mountain on it. His forces spread out, bing the nds, sowing blight ah to whatever they touched.”

  So that’s what happened… She had withe beginning of those terrible events from within her mother’s stasis spell – the mountain crashing down on her and burying everything she knew.

  “Are you talking about the Neancer Wars?” asked.

  “Yes,” Lira answered. “For a time, it seemed that the forces of the living would prevail. When the Elves joihe Human kings, and the Dwarves desded from their mountain holds, the undead army’s advance ground to a standstill.”

  “What happehen?” Ali asked, with the iy and fixation of a person watg an avanche r down the mountaioward her.

  “Somehow, he turhe great frost dragon, Kryostria,” Lira said.

  “What?”

  “He did not defeat her,” Lira said, her mouth twisting into a sharp line. “I know not what transpired, but she appeared above the battlefield one day, a withered shadow of her former vitality. A horror known as a Dracolich. I was not present, so I am guessing, but he must have used her to access a rift to the shattered realms beyond this one. Her appearan the battlefield heralded a horde onkin that pushed the foren, elves, and dwarves back to the northern seas.”

  “How did they stop him?” asked, breathless.

  “For the first, and only time in history, the mighty Troll kingdoms put aside their pride and baogether to aid the forces of the living,” Lira answered. “With the trolls taking the field, the tide of undead and Dragonkin was forced to a standstill again. But then, the Lich did something that ged the course of history forever. I felt the eldritch twisted magic that cimed Mi’ir Valdanis and swallowed it up. It rippled across the world like a horrific tainted nightmare, and when everyone woke, the Night Elf city was gone.”

  “It swallowed up the whole city?” Ali gasped.

  “And most of the Night Elves,” Lira said. “It was only the sacrifice of the Sun Elves that finally broke the Lich’s armies. Ohe Blind Lich cimed Mi’ir Valdanis, he freed up his forces to press Aalion, driving the living back through the Thousaial Peaks to the walls of the City of Light. Aliandra, I heard the explosion from half a ti away. Many believe it was foul magic wrought by the Lich, but I believe it ell wrought by the Sun Elf archmages, a st-ditch attempt to deny him his prize. Whichever it may have been, Aalion vanished, along with the Thousaial Peaks, and the world was forever reshaped iermath. Nevyn Eld and his armies were destroyed that day, and he was forced to resurrect via his Phyctery.”

  “Holy shit,” Mato breathed.

  “The Night Elves and Sun Elves suffered a grievous blow from which they have never recovered,” Lira added.

  “Why didn’t he return and take over the world then?” Ali asked. “If he could resurrect after everyone died…”

  “You must uand the mind of the Blind Lich, Aliandra,” Lira said, gazing at her ily. “Would a man strive to rule a kingdom of ants? Nevyn Eld does not care for rule – he cares only for personal power. Whatever he sought from Mi’ir Valdanis, he got it. And his prize in Aalion was forever deo him. Even to this day, he still presses the Wood Elves and Ciradyl with his Shadow cil minions, but I believe he has turned his gaze to other realms to fuel his hunger for artifacts of power and new magic to fuel his malign research. It is the only reasoill live; we are beh his gaze.”

  “That’s… awful,” Ali murmured, her mind recoiling from the horror of Lira’s story. The Breaking of the World. A horror so great that the destru of a city like Ared did not even warrant a mention. “Ciradyl… still stands?”

  “Yes,” Lira answered. “The mythic Well of Souls still wards their city with its inscrutable magic.”

  “Also, the Elven Pathfinder Guild is based in Ciradyl, and Lyeneru Silverleaf works tirelessly to track the Lich’s Shadow cil forces,” said.

  So much has ged. Barely anything she remembered was the same. Her thoughts returning to Lira, Ali asked, “How did you survive such devastation?”

  “Muy forest domain was destroyed in the march of the dead and the subsequent Breaking, leaving me greatly weakened. My magic is not suited for battle, as you well know, and the nurturing and growing of things is antithetical to the very nature of neancy. I was not a target for the Lich, and the undead armies bypassed me, leavih no more than a small stand of trees to the south. It took turies for me to recover what you refer to as the Lirasian Forest, and afterward, I remained reclusive, choosing to live apart from the affairs of the world.”

  “I wallowed in my loneliness for thousands of years, tent to drive everyone from my forest and enforce my fragile little illusion of peace,” Lira said, but her face twisted and her eyes hardened. “Then the Neancer came. Alexander Gray.”

  “How did he prevail?” Ali asked. After all, her aunt was a three-mark being. Even without bat spells, she should have been far more powerful than anything Ali had entered so far in this age.

  “Using a devious disguise artifad honeyed words, he wooed me, and, in my loneliness, I allowed him into my heart,” Lira said. “He appeared to me as a Druid and even faked his mana affinity and the ability to cast nature magic. Then he cursed me. An evil co tainted by death and eldritch magics, inflig Mana Severand Nightmare Slumber upon me, a curse desigo block my e to my domain.”

  “How could he know how to do that?” Ali asked.

  “The neancer is but a pawn in the service of the Blind Lich. I am certain it was his master’s hand that crafted the curse.”

  “And now?” Ali gasped. A curse from the Blind Lich was dire news, but she couldn’t see any signs of the magic upon her.

  “The curse is broken now that I have regained a small domain,” Lira said.

  “Good,” Mato said, g a fist.

  Lira nodded her agreement and tinued, “When I awoke, Alexander Gray had shed his disguise and cast a blight across the nd, destroying my forest and turning all living creatures into the walking dead – skeletons, zombies, and worse. Without my domain, I am nothing – and he k.”

  “The whole forest?” gasped.

  “Undead?” Mato growled.

  Ali was horrified. Lira had said the Neancer had destroyed her forest, but the truth of the story was much more dire. The entire forest and all life within it had been ied by the blight and raised as the undead. Su unchecked tration of undead would wreak untold destru ah upoire region.

  Lira stared off into the distance for a while. mouthed the name, ‘Alexander Gray’, but Ali noticed he did not write it down. Was the man that powerful? That dangerous? She had rarely seen the half-elf look paler; she couldn’t help but shiver.

  Eventually, Ali asked, “Do you want us to help you fight him?”

  “No, dear,” she answered. “What I would ask of you is of much greater importance. My forest was the st of my dear children. If we ot recover a tree or an a, I fear they will be lost to the world forever.”

  “The Lirasian Oaks?” Mato asked. “The magical trees?”

  “Yes, that is how they’re known in the on to will be an uaking fraught with danger, but I implore you to take me back to the forest. Protect me from the undead while I search. There is no time to wait tain my mana – I fear it may already be too te, but I ot rest until I see for myself,” Lira said, anguish written in the lines of her face.

  “I will help you,” Ali answered without hesitation.

  “Are you sure, child? It is certain to be dangerous.”

  “I’m sure,” Ali answered. If they found a few intact trees, she could add the imprint trimoire and then summon them when they returned. She ighe fact that she would have to vihe distraught Dryad to let her destroy perfectly good trees to make that pn work. A problem for ter. “I have a few good friends I ask for help, and it might be good for us to get away from the city for a while, right?”

  “You’re right, Ali,” Mato said instantly. “I’m in.”

  “Same,” added.

  “Me too,” said Malika.

  ***

  Ali held Lira’s hand tight as she followed her friends through the winding tunnel and out to the mountain pass above the town. She blinked against the sudden brightness of the early m sunlight and took a deep breath of fresh air. Lira’s hand trembled a little in hers as if she were nervous for what was to e, and Ali k had nothing to do with the flight.

  She checked to make certain her Kobold mage and Acolyte were both within range of her Empowered Summoner. She wasn’t certain she could carry much more weight, so she was restrig herself to just one healer, and the mage to boost her intelligehe only other minions she was bringihree Poison Wyverns for extra firepower that she wouldn’t o carry, and a flight of Luminous Dragos in case she needed additional small portable eyes.

  She eled her mana, summoning the rgest barrier disk she could manage, immediately surprised by the sheer volume of magic she could now wield – and how much easier the trol came to her. Even though she was simply making a disk, her sense of trol over the shape of her creation was unparalleled. The rapid levels she had gained made a surprising difference.

  “Ok, everyone on,” she said, stepping onto the barrier and sitting in the middle while the others cmbered onto her h disk. She could sehe weight of it, but with her empowered trol, it would be manageable.

  “You good, Ali?” Malika asked. When Ali had expressed some about being able to carry everyone, Malika had suggested she could reduce the load by running in the air, but it would e her stamina quickly.

  “Yes, this is ok,” Ali said, somewhat surprised to find that it was true. “Are Recall has really improved my Barrier spell.”

  “By how much?” asked, his curiosity written clearly on his face.

  “A twenty-five pert improvement to power and trol,” Ali answered, sharing her current skill description with them, getting a low, impressed whistle from the half-elf.

  Are Recall – level 5You are profit with Are magic. You gain +25% [skill x 5] to spell power, spell haste, mana trol, aal rea speed with Are magia: Ighe recharge for any Magibsp;skill, spell, ered ability. Yic is cast instantly. Recharge: 24 hours.Are, Metamagic, Mastery, Intelligence

  “I remember that ohat’s a good skill,” he said. “What did you have to give up for it?”

  “Are Bolt,” Ali answered. It was a steep cost, and she was still not quite sure how she would ma during future fights, but the skill she had gained in its pce was impressive. For her instant Barrier magic, spell haste made no difference, but the spell power improved the amount of barrier magic she could wield, and the trol increased her ability to move or shape it – whicluded the amount of weight she could lift. In bination with her intelligence boost from Empowered Summoner and her Kobold mage, she was lifting all five of them and two Kobold minions on a five-meter diameter disk.

  And I’m not even using my domain mana to boost it.

  “You still have mages, archers, and shamans to fight with,” said, nodding as he arrived at the same clusion Ali had.

  “Maybe you get an offeion ter?” Malika mused.

  “Yep, we’re going to miss your buzzing are mosquitos,” Mato chuckled. Ali made a face at him, but he was uerred. “Wasn’t that what it was called, right, ? Minor Mosquite. Plus five to enemies getting no sleep. Bzzt.”

  “Don’t drag me into this,” said, shaking his head.

  She levitated them all into the air and then flew off in a southerly dire, carefully skirting the town in case there was ah le defenses on the lookout. She sped up gradually until she found a fortable cruising speed, taking joy in the experience of flying in the m sunshirag the Myrin River as they headed south. Malika and occasionally ventured off on their own using their movement skills, returning when they o recover their mana.

  Ali’s upbeat mood vanished after several hours of flight. As they began to reach the outlying farmnd, the very nd itself began to look sick. Everywhere the eye fell, pnts were bed or wilted, and occasionally low-lying areas were filled with a mist that glowed ominously with death-affinity mana. The miasma rapidly worsened as they flew on.

  By the time they approached the tree line, everyone was staring at the unbelievable scope of the disaster unfolding below. Everything they flew over y dead or dying.

  “This is horrible…” Malika said quietly.

  “It’s a crime against nature,” Mato answered.

  “Look over there,” pointed. “A vilge. Or what’s left of it.”

  Ali spied a few small buildings far below. Quickly she switched to her closest dragon, taking advantage of its acute eyesight, but she immediately wished she hadn’t. What was left of the crude town was mired in patches of ominous mist, but not all was still. The town crawled with skeletons.

  “We should find the trees we save, quickly,” Lira urged, leaning forward on the barrier to get a better look.

  What trees? Ali chose not to voice the thought, but it was clear the others felt simirly. As far as she could see, the entire forest was blighted. None of the trees were green, and many of them were fallen. The ohat still stood had lost most of their leaves, thrusting bed, bare braoward the sky like headstones of rusted swords ad a long-fotten battlefield. This Alexander Gray was a monster. If he could destroy a forest on this scale…

  But the forest was enormous, and Lira seemed so hopeful. Ali skimmed further south, pushing her barrier to fly as fast as was fortable, while her friends sed the ground for anything redeemable. Kilometers of forest rolled quickly by with no break in the uing blight arees.

  Even from their height, Ali could clearly make out the Lirasian Oaks, or what remained of them, their bed trunks rising high above the other trees and their bare branches spread wide. They looked just like the dead trunks in her forest cavern, reag upward for millennia to support the tons of rod stohat had fallen from the mountain.

  “Over there!” called out, pointing down and to their left. “I see green.”

  At once, Ali bao the side and flew off to where had spied life. It was a single enormous oak that stood in splendid, solid majesty atop a hill, spared most of the blight ah. Proudly tall, its boughs spread wide, still filled with green.

  “It looks alive,” Mato said, stepping off the barrier as Ali lowered it to the hillside.

  “No!” Lira gasped, running toward the tree.

  Then Ali suddenly saw it. From the deep roots, the tree drew the binous mana into it, iing the core of the trunk. Already, the blight and dark neancy sent shooting tendrils up through the viridian green of the tree’s mana, ing it from the i. Helplessly, she watched as leaves began to wilt and b, some falling from the tree in the gusty breeze, floating away with the strong odor of rot and decay.

  A vast surge of potent nature mana surged from Lira’s hands, p into the tree as she struggled to save it. She has this much, even without her forest? Ali thought, staring on in amazement, but through Are Insight, she could tell it was an effort in vain – Lira’s mana, much weaker than in her domain, slowed the spread of the hungry bck tendrils, but she owerless to stop it.

  “Aunt Lira, please…” Ali begged.

  But Lira fought with a desperation that arrested her void forced her to watch as Lira spent herself against the releide of the unholy neantic blight.

  “Mato, stop her. Please,” Ali said, finally finding her voice wheree had lost most of its leaves. Only faint traces of the green nature mana remained, and Lira was in serious danger of being ied with the blight again.

  “No! No, no, please, no…” Lira wailed as Mato tore her away from the dead tree, his hands gentle and his face so, so sad.

  Ali’s heart hung heavy in her breast as she took to the air again, listening quietly trieve the tree. Her tree. While Ali could not appreciate the e between a Dryad – a tree spirit – arees, she most certainly resonated with the grief in Lira’s defeated posture, her sobbing, and the hand that clutched desperately at her own for what st fort she could provide.

  “Let’s go further south, around the perimeter,” suggested quietly. “I’ll keep scouting.” With that, he hopped off the barrier held aloft by his bright ephemeral wings, flying higher for a few mio get a broader view.

  They flew on in silence for almost an hour before pointed in a new dire.

  “Maybe try over that way?” he suggested cautiously.

  Lira immediately perked up with hope on her face, and Ali was grateful had not acted overly excited. She struggled to see anything alive in the sea of death below. But a few mier, she found it. A small stand of several trees around the base of a massive Lirasian Oak, seemingly a tiny outpost of life amid the blight all around.

  She lowered their trajectory, swooping down to the tiny oasis of life, alighting on the mossy, unspoiled ground. Lira’s face lit with joy at the sight of the tree, and she was about to leap to the ground when ’s bow fired an intensely glowing arrow through the trees.

  Whatever he had hit squealed loudly, but like no animal Ali had ever heard.

  “Ali, help!” called out. “Nobody get close to it!”

  His urgent cry halted Mato mid-shift. Ali forced her bile back down as she caught sight of the abomination. A grotesque, flesh-spider monstrosity scrabbled and crawled across the turf, dragging itself along with three spastically twitg mismatched arms and two legs sewn to a fleshy patchwork body. Several mouths wailed incessantly, belg clouds of bck miasma that seemed to g to the ground and the pnts as it passed.

  Blighted Patchwork Horror – Undead Abomination – level 36 (Death)

  Wherever the miasma struck, death followed. Pnts shriveled, wilted, and died in moments. Grass bed, and the mana of death magied in a horrifying parody of growth.

  At once, Ali targeted it and fired Are Bolt – only to find her skill was missing and she had nothing to feed her mana to.

  ht, she thought. It would take a while to get used to not having her most trusty bat skill. Instead, she turned her attention to her minions and other skills. “Fire,” Ali anded, and without aation, she verted all her remaining barrier magito shards. Shards that were much sharper now with her new enhanced trol – and she sent them flying toward the nightmare monster.

  “Yes, A Mistress.” For once, her Kobold Fire Mage did not grin with pleasure at her and. With narrowed eyes and ched teeth, her minioed fire as her shards shot out to pin the moo the ground.

  Ali gritted her teeth, ign Lira’s cries of pain as the Fireballs detonated among the trees, grateful that Mato was holding her from running in to try and save everything. Whatever that monster was, it o be burnt. Impaling it on her barriers had seemed to only accelerate the billowing clouds of miasma.

  ’s arrows didn’t stop for a few moments after the chime, and Ali didn’t bme him o, but the Blighted Patchwork Horror had worked its evil. As the miasma soaked into the ground, thick ropy tendrils of bck death mana shot up through the roots and into the trunks of the trees, as the blight cimed them.

  “We should go,” Ali said, ref her barrier for them.

  “No, I save them,” Lira moaned, beside herself at the sight of the rapidly spreading blight.

  “I know you see the iion,” Ali answered, trying to put as much kindness into her voice as she could. “You will just i yourself if you touch the miasma.” Ali was certain Lira would not be able to save the trees – she was so much weaker out here than ba her domain. Just the thought of seeing Lira withered and dying to the blight a sed time was more than she could bear.

  They flew further south, and Ali had to endure Lira’s heart-wreng sobbing again. It was hard to hear her grief for the trees, but Ali finally uood the reason Lira had asked for their help. She could not be rational in the face of this horror – the destru of her forest – and Ali was here to stop her from doing something she couldn’t help that would get her killed or worse.

  They flew for hours. Every time found something, Lira’s face would light up with renewed hope, only to be crushed by the cruel reality when they iably discovered they were way too te to save anything. The day faded to evening and their stops became fewer until they could find no more and even Lira’s hope slumped to despair.

  “I think we should go home,” Malika announced, finally putting words to the obvious truth – they had failed to find anything alive in what had once been the rgest magical forest on the ti.

  The Lirasian Oak is gohe extin of the amazing trees, sacrificed on the whim of an evil Neancer, weighed heavily on Ali’s heart. It was an unfathomable loss to the world, but it was a loss to her personally also. Many of the trees in her father’s Grove had bee Lirasian Oaks and she remembered them fondly. Their dead trunks in her old cavern, still standing thousands of years ter, were a testament to how much magic they had tained.

  With a heavy heart, she turned her barrier toward the north and began flying back toward Myrin’s Keep.

  “Aliandra, stop!” Lira’s voice cut through her sadness. “There iown.” She seemed to be gestig animatedly toward the ruiown oskirts of the northernmost border of the forest. The town they had passed on the way down – barely visible now in the dimmer evening light.

  “I remember. The boy – he had something. He tried to hide it. I have to find it. Please stop?”

  Lira seemed to be babbling, but she urgently gripped Ali’s hand as she spoke, so she turned and desded toward the town. Ali wasn’t certain what exactly Lira was talking about, but the day had beeremely traumatic for her, and she was loath to cause more pain by trying to vince her that there was nothing alive down there.

  In fact, the eown seemed to be crawling with undead.

  “Are we going to go down into that?” Mato asked with a grima his face. It had to be the first time she had heard Mato ued about a potential fight, but she felt the same se.

  “Please, I beg of you,” Lira pleaded, and Ali’s heart broke to hear her reduced to begging again.

  “ we? Just once more?” Ali asked her friends. It likely would be a fight, but she knew instinctively that she wouldn’t be able to vince Lira that it was another dead end unless she saw it for herself.

  “Ok,” Malika said.

  Mato grunted unhappily but did not object.

  “Over there, Ali,” said, seleg a retively clear spot in the ter to nd, and she flew down to let them off.

  “Get ready,” Mato said, holding off on his transformation until she had them on the ground, so she didn’t have to carry the extra weight of his Bear Form.

  As soon as they nded, a low, creepy moan rose from the dusk-lit ruined vilge, apanied by the g of bone as zombies and skeletons turo face them and broke into a shambling rush. Mato charged forward, crashing into the undead with a loud roar, attrag the attention of most of them, while Malika sprang into a colleg the stragglers.

  Without a full plement of minions, Ali felt vulnerable, popping her barrier around herself and Lira while she instructed her wyverns and her mage to attack. But Lira was not there.

  “Lira!” she cried, but the Dryad was halfway across the dirt street sprinting toward a stone building and couldn’t hear her. She did not even notice the zombies that crept out of the dead bushes to reach her.

  An indest arrow flew right past her fleeing form, striking one of the undead, and drawing it away from her, and Ali breathed a sigh of relief.

  “I got it, Ali,” said. “trate on killing the pack around Mato.”

  “Ok.” She directed her mage to open fire on the pack of skeletons and zombies and then darted off, lining up the monsters so that the ones chasing him would have to pass within range of Mato’s cws.

  Why are they not dying?

  In the ter of the ruined vilge’s main dirt road, a brutal melee of skeletons and zombies had formed surrounding the furious bear. More and more undead emerged from the buildings and the nearby dead forest, drawn to the crashing collisions and r of bat. Malika and tinued drawing them into the ter, hoping that Mato would be able to secure them, but Ali was struggling. With only one Fire Mage and three Poison Wyverns, she should have been able to kill them, but for some reason only a few skeletons had colpsed – and mainly due to her Fire Mage or Mato’s powerful cws.

  She g her wyverns, swooping in and sprayis of high-pressure poison onto the group of undead monsters – a green liquid that spshed through their bones and dripped to the ground. Unless…

  “, are undead immuo poison?”

  “Yes. Fuck,” he shouted, dodging to the side and drawing several skeletons away from her.

  “Cws ah.” Ali redirected her io the three swooping Wyverns and suddenly began to see results. Their talons tore ks of dead flesh from the zombies, and their powerful jaws crushed skeleton bones with a gruesome g noise, but without the area damage of their poison, it was going to be a very long fight.

  “Pick it up,” Ali instructed, and the powerful Wyvern jaws closed on the shoulder of a skeleton. With a sweep of its wings, it hauled the twitg monster high into the air and dropped it crashing to the ground.

  “Ali! Help!” shouted, and she snapped her head around just in time to see Lira emerging from the crude stone-walled lumber mill, something clutched tightly to her breast. Something that shoh several intense sparks of the most brilliant green mana she had ever seen, visible even through her hands.

  A huge, tusked monster loomed behind the ecstatic, oblivious Dryad, t head and shoulders above the lumber mill. Putrid fluid seeped from open wounds in its immensely broad chest and arms thicker tharunks. A k of its face had withered away, leaving the bone of its eye socket exposed to the flies buzzing around its rotting flesh.

  “Aliandra! I found them!” Lira shouted.

  “Watch out!” Ali screamed. It was clear that Lira had not seen or heard the monster charging toward her, three-fingered hands as rge as barrels reag for her. As if she saw it all in slow motion, the giant zombie troll smmed its enormous frame into the lumber mill, and the poorly structed building exploded, not even slowing the monster down in the slightest.

  Warrior – Zombie, Giant Troll – level 53

  Ali smmed a barrier into pce between Lira and the sprinting mountain of rotting flesh, and Lira finally tur the loud cracks of stone shattering against the golden wall. The troll drew back a giant arm as it sprihrough the flying remnants of the exploding mill and unleashed all its furious momentum into a punch that shattered Ali’s barrier, sending Lira tumbling head over heels, her precious bundle flying to the ground.

  As. Ali’s miered the trivial detail as she struggled to form a coherent strategy to deal with several tons of undead aggression tearing through a stone building as if it were made of paper.

  Outcssed and woefully unprepared for an enter of this magnitude, Ali triggered Are Recall – her a the hole. The entire vilge, all the undead, her friends, everything faded to gray, frozen in the midst of the fight. Even the lumber mill froze. Flying rocks hung stationary and silent mid-cascade on their way to the ground. Even the shards of her barrier were gray and dull.

  I need a minion that ter that monster. Her choice was obvious – with only her will, she summoned her Grimoire and began to create a Forest Guardian. Her elemental, at least, was heavier than that thing bearing down on Lira where she y sprawled awkwardly in the dirt. Her mana flowed in this strange pce; the stillness interrupted only occasionally wheire terrain would flicker back to a different image for a moment before returning to the present.

  Suddenly, something she did not expect happened. A harsh hiss disrupted the endless silence. Uo even turn her head, or look around, Ali could only see it out of the er of her eye. Something that glowed an intense blue turned and looked her way. Other than her Grimoire, it was the only color in this world. Ali’s heart was not beating, but if it could, it would be pounding as the thing shifted and she caught sight of many legs, and glowing eyes. Another hiss broke the silence, and against all she had learned of this pce, it moved. Skittering bad forth the thing scurried across the road, easily stepping over Mato and the horde of undead frozen mid-fight as it bore down on her.

  Hurry! Ali urged her magic, panig now as the monster approached. She had no idea what it could do to her and, frozen as she was by her spell, she was helpless to flee ht. She tried pushing her mana intrimoire faster, but it seemed to do nothing. She tried to turn her eyes, but she could not get a good look at proached. She tried to cel her Are Recall spell, but she could not.

  It reached the edge of the road, barely a few meters from her when suddenly her summoning magipleted, and the world snapped back to color and a riot of bat noise. She had an enormous Forest Guardian standing over Lira, and she stumbled, heart rag, suddenly drenched with sweat.

  She turned her head, but the blue, many-legged monster – whatever it was – was o be found.

  “Attack the troll”, she managed, but she wouldn’t have he and. Her Guardian had seeroll and immediately used Rush to charge it, smming into the zombie with a titanic collision of mass that fttehe remnants of the mill, halting the zombie mid-stride. Roots and vines burst from the ground, twining around the zombie’s legs, withering and dying from the blight, but regrowing just as fast.

  “Holy shit, Ali!” excimed. “Good idea.”

  Ali threw up another barrier to protect Lira from the flying debris of the battle of giants while she scrambled desperately through the dirt, colleg the as with their bright kernels of nature magic.

  Still shaking from her close call irange gray world of her Are Recall, she reanized her forces. The Wyverns she sent to rake and bite the head and shoulders of the giant troll, tearing bloodless rents and gashes in its rotting flesh.

  “Fireball,” she said. She could not afford to let the skeletons sit around. As soon as the word left her mouth, her Kobold reacted with fme, and Malika sprinted away from the melee, joining the fight against the giant zombie instead.

  “Make sure you heal Mato after each Fireball,” Ali instructed.

  “Yes, A Mistress,” her Kobold Acolyte replied, her voice respectful, but not interrupting her magic.

  The detonation of fire was met with a surge of holy magiato’s position in the ter of the fgration, along with several flying skeletons and burning fragments of bone.

  “Again,” Ali anded, rec her barrier as Lira sprinted across the dirt street to stand beside her. Keeping a close eye on her, in case she ran off again, Ali fashioned her barrier magito several long slender shards, sharpened with the keenness only possible with her new trol skill, and fired at the zombie troll.

  The shards impaled its great arms and chest, but it seemed to not bother the undead monster much. Punches tio fly, rog her Forest Guardian with ground-shaking impacts. The Guardian, for its part, stood its ground, r and tearing ks of flesh from the zombie while it grappled with its roots to hold it in pce. One of her Wyverwitg on the ground, having gotten too close and drawing a powerful fist, but the other two still tore into the zombie troll with fast swooping sshes of their powerful talons or tails.

  To her side, the fireball detonated, and she sidestepped a burning skull that flew from the explosion, nding on the ground beside her. Her Acolyte seemed to be taking care of Mato, so Ali called for another fireball and resumed trying to impale the giant troll with fresh barrier shards.

  burst into brilliance as he used his Righteous Fury, but the troll seemed no worse for wear after the full duration of his skill had run its course. “Fuck, this thing is nuts,” he said. Dozens of arrows sprouted from its shoulders and chest, but the monster brushed them off like they were nothing.

  “Its resilience is unreal,” Ali said, wielding several barrier shards stantly. Even under Malika’s onsught, it still unloaded punches and sms onto the Guardian. It’s a good thing it regee, she thought, but it was beginning to show signs of rot and bing along its legs and fnks – a sure sign that the blight was outpag eveorrent of its regeion.

  “How do we kill it?” asked, still unleashing arrow after arrow, many of which bounced off the tough troll hide, but at that moment, Mato charged into the fray.

  Ali gnced back, finding only a smoking pile of shattered bone fragments and burning mounds of zombie flesh where Mato had fought. Her Fire Mage grinned in satisfa.

  The tide of battle shifted quickly as Mato unleashed his Living Rend, dramatically redug the giant troll’s tough natural armor, while her Fire Mage began peppering the monster with burning bolts of magic that left smoking holes iting flesh. directed his volleys of arrows toward the rips and wounds, and they stopped boung off iively.

  They battled on tinuously for several minutes, and Ali sorely missed her trusty Are Bolt skill, but eventually, Mato’s armor redu and the fire magic of her mage prevailed, and the enormous troll zombie toppled face-forward, making the scattered stone from the mill bounce as the impact shook the ground.

  Yroup has defeated Warrior – Skeleton – level 12-24 x32Yroup has defeated Warrior – Zombie – level 13-19 x16Yroup has defeated Warrior – Zombie, Giant Troll – level 53

  “Everyone ok?” asked.

  Am I ok? So much had happened. Ali stared at the enormous body of the giant troll, still taller than her even lying face down in the rubble. She wrinkled her the stench of decayed flesh. Giant trolls were most often chosen as the shock troops of the proud troll tribes, and she could holy say she never wao fa intelligent one in battle. She could not tell what tribe it had been from because the ceremonial aint was faded and torn from bat and rot, and the braids on its tusks had rotted away.

  “I think so,” Ali murmured, answering ’s question after a long moment. She still felt traumatized by whatever it was that tried to eat her when she was trying to summon her Forest Guardian. She did not even know what it looked like – only that it glowed blue and had far too many legs.

  “Don’t touch me, I have the undead blight,” Mato said, as Malika tried to heal him.

  “I have it too,” she answered, healing him anyway.

  “Oh no, we o get you guys some potions,” Ali excimed, torn from her refles by the horrifying news. Somehow, their fight had put her friends in tact with the miasma or the blight directly, and both had caught the debilitating disease.

  “I’m so sorry,” Lira said quietly, shifting unfortably, head downcast. “This would not have happened if I hadn’t dragged you out here on my selfish quest. I’ve put you all in mortal danger.”

  “Nonsense, we agreed to help, it’s not your fault,” Mato answered, putting on a brave face. Ali knew how much he despised the undead, and to be ied with the blight must be excruciating for him on many levels.

  “Here, Lira,” Ali said, her the as she had scooped up from the ground in the middle of the fight.

  She clutched them to her chest like a mother cradling a lost infant. “Thank you.”

  I o get them to Eliyen, Ali thought, eyeing Mato and Malika. She couldn’t see any visible signs of the blight yet, but the telltale swirls of dark mana were unmistakable. She summoned her barrier at once, quickly climbing aboard after destrug her blighted Guardian and the zombie troll.

  But how to get them into town without being spotted and tossed into the garrison’s deepest, darkest jail?

  timewalk