The options for granting spells to Elman appeared, and Saul glanced through them as he dashed forward, slicing the legs out from under a giant spider and stabbing another one through its maddened pile of monstrous eyes. Flames blazed from his blade as he cut them down, and Zorea was at his side, dealing death to the spiders with the Soulstone sword.

Squad Member: Elman Tell

Spells: 0 of 1

Spells available to add:

Select: Firetrap (Area of Effect)

Select: Cloak of Flame (Melee)

Select: Firebreath (Ranged)

“Which one would you like, Elman?” Saul asked, grinning as Elman rushed up beside him.

“Let’s go for the Cloak of Flame,” Elman said without hesitation. “That’s a melee spell, and I feel like melee is where I’m at tonight!”

Saul granted Elman the spell. The magic flowed along the connection between him and Saul. Elman proved to be a natural at using his Squad System interaction, immediately activating his new magic.

The spell did what it said it would do. Fire cloaked the old warrior from head to foot, and any enemy within a few feet of him took damage. The Cloak of Fire spell reminded Saul of his own Burning Hand magic, though it was less powerful.

The damage that the enemies took wasn’t instantly fatal, at least not for the larger spiders, though Saul saw the smaller ones flaring up, crackling for a moment, and then dying as Elman leaped into their midst.

One more thing to do, Saul thought.

Splitting his focus to simultaneously manage the System options while fighting took a bit of doing, but he managed it. Holding off the spiders, he ran through the System options and called up the Weapon Crafter spells.

Weapon Crafter

Spells Available: Level 1

Improve Weapon (Melee)

Improve Weapon (Ranged)

Enchant Weapon (Any)

Weapon Crafter was a new spell he’d unlocked back at Level 20. He’d not used it much yet, except to grant fire enchantments to Brand and Zorea’s blades.

Now, he selected Enchant Weapon and shouted to Elman, “Hold up your sword for a moment!”

The armsmaster had just dispatched a massive male spider with legs as thick as small tree branches and red stripes all over its scarred body. At Saul’s words, Elman leaped back and held his sword up. Black spider blood ran from his blade. Saul chose the School of Fire enchantment and cast the spell at Elman’s sword.

The enchantment manifested as a compact globe of flame that crackled as it flew through the air. The magic hit Elman’s Xornian officer sword and was absorbed into the metal.

The armsmaster was covered in a cloak of magic flame, and his sword now blazed with fire, too. Brand and Zorea were both armed with their flaming swords, and Saul’s Gladesword ran with flickering fire.

The Fire Squad was in full flow of battle.

Casting the enchantment on Elman’s blade had been his fifth spell in this casting cycle, and the cooldown timer kicked in as the magic took effect, but Saul wasn’t worried. He was feeling more confident now, and he fell back, ready to rely on his blade and on the magic he had granted to his companions.

The Fire Squad fought as a unit, driving the spider brood back. Their Squad magic surged powerfully between them, allowing them to anticipate each other’s movements and come to each other’s aid if needed.

Poison webs flew through the air and the largest of the spiders regrouped and charged forward. Spider reinforcements thundered up from the rear, a dark mass of furious eyes and hairy, waving limbs, but the Squad held fast, holding their line with their backs to the portal pillars and slicing or incinerating any who came within range.

The spiders wavered for a moment. Even the reinforcements were not enough to convince them that victory was possible here. The spiders’ morale wavered.

“Forward!” Saul cried. “Forward, Fire Squad!”

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Brand’s Firebrand spell sent jets of flame into the midst of the packed crowd of enemies as Elman sallied forth, his Cloak of Flame driving the monsters back even his officer’s blade knocked back their strikes and felled those bold enough to get close.

Saul blazed into the enemies on Elman’s right, and Brand to his left. Zorea supported the attack by darting from side to side and striking wherever the enemy gathered thickest, or dropping back to send a Healing Flame if any of her companions took a hit.

The front line of spiders suddenly turned and fled into the trees, but the fresh reinforcements pushed forward. Saul swung his blade to left and right, cutting his way into the press. Battle fever drove him forward, and he laughed and shouted wordlessly as he spun and cut his way through the enemy.

He was surrounded, momentarily cut off from his friends. A spider managed to catch him with a stinging blow on his right arm with a black-clawed foot. Stinging pain flowed from the wound, and Saul checked himself. He’d allowed himself to become intoxicated with the joy of battle, and now he changed tack, ducking away, taking down a smaller enemy, and retreating through the gap.

Blood flowed from his wound, and the sting of the spider’s poison sent a sick feeling through him, but a swift application of Zorea’s Healing Flame spell neutralized the wound before the swift-acting poison could slow him down.

Zorea passed him, covering him so he could catch his breath.

He took a step back, breathing hard and feeling the power of her healing spell flowing through his body and renewing him. At that moment, his cooldown timer finished.

Cooldown Expired:

Spellcasting Available:

Overcast (3 of 3 remaining)

Regular Cast (5 of 5 remaining)

Time to finish this, Saul thought. The spider reinforcements were holding their line and, from his vantage point, he could see more were coming up from behind. Streams of angry chittering sounds came from their dripping, fanged mouths, and their eyes blazed red and blue in the darkness as they suddenly surged forward, encouraged by fresh numbers.

It was time to test out something new.

First, he brought up the School of Metal options and cast Steelskin. Immediately, he felt a cool rippling across the surface of his skin, and he was aware of a sense of toughness and power that he hadn’t felt a moment before. A gleam of metal shone from him; not as clear as if he’d been wearing actual metal armor, but clear enough to show that, while the spell was active, he could rely on more protection than his normal leather armor afforded.

The little hourglass appeared, the sand trickling slowly. So, Steelskin was a time limited spell but with a generous time limit.

He pushed his way into the press of spiders, the monsters falling back as he entered their midst, slicing at any within reach. In a moment, he was surrounded by hideous, yammering spider faces and blazing eyes. A claw hit him in the back, but there was a clang of metal, and the blow ricocheted off.

The Steelskin spell was as good as its name.

Saul breathed deep, and selected Overcast. He then grabbed the Molten Death spell from the new School of Metal and added a School of Fire combination. He didn’t know what the new magic would do, but he thought it would be effective.

He cast the spell from his left hand.

A whirling cloud of boiling, liquid metal suddenly manifested around his hand. Instinct took over. Understanding of the spell flowed through him, coming as he felt from inside the System. Molten Death was a melee spell, but not in the same way as Burning Hand or Steal Breath. This was a spell to be cast in the midst of melee to change the tide of a battle rather than a melee weapon to be used throughout a fight.

He raised the whirling ball of metal up and brought it down as hard as he could onto the ground at his feet.

The effect was immediate.

With a noise like a hundred knives falling on a stone floor, chunks of molten metal blasted out from the ground at Saul’s feet in an expanding circle. They were not randomly aimed; each one found a target in a nearby spider, peppering the enemies with a thousand little projectiles of red hot metal, each traveling as fast as arrows fired from a bow.

The metal projectiles were devastating, and the spiders nearby screamed and fell back as the metal tore through them and flames burst up around the spots where the spiders had been hit. The effect was so good that Saul immediately did it a second time.

This second hit was too much for the spiders. As Saul blasted Overcast Molten Death, the resulting whirl of magic ripped the nearest spiders to flaming pieces. Brand leaped up beside him and followed up his attack with a dual cast attack from his Firebrand spell.

Elman roared out a battle cry and leaped in beside them, then past them at the retreating spiders, his Cloak of Flame making him look like a burning demon.

That was the final straw. The remaining spiders, unable to stand this level of flame and magic, suddenly broke, turned, and fled screaming into the trees.

One moment, all was monstrous faces, flame, and the scream of spiders. The next moment, silence descended on the clearing.

Satisfaction filled Saul’s heart as he saw a generous flow of rewards appearing in front of him for a moment before being absorbed into the System. There was a solid amount of Gold XP, plus Squad XP, and gleaming silver coins of Metal XP as well.

The Gold XP he’d gathered from this fight, in addition to the XP coins he’d earned for opening up the portal, might even be enough to hit another level, if not two. He’d have to make time to go to the Workshop and check the exact position but, for the moment, he was happy to wait. They’d had a stiff fight, and though they’d come through in one piece, Saul was keen to get himself and his friends to safer ground for a bit. He wanted to take stock and check for available upgrades before they took on anything else.

“Spiders infesting the Northwood,” Zorea said, wiping her sword and replacing it neatly in the sheath. “That’s not good.”

“It’s unprecedented!” Brand said hotly. “I grew up in Harkin’s Holdfast, right on the edge of these woods, and I never heard of such a thing. If this is how things stand, we’re visiting not a moment too soon. I’d have thought Captain Jerryl and his guards would have been able to keep such things in check.”

“It’s an unintended consequence of our actions,” Saul said. “When we cleared the warlocks out of the Northwood, we unintentionally removed the force that kept the monsters from the Sawtooth mountains restrained.”

“That’s right,” Zorea added. “When Saul and I first came to this spot, we encountered a crypt ghoul, a monster that normally keeps to the underground depths of the old tombs under the mountains northeast of here. The warlocks threatened Xorn, and it’s a good thing we dealt with them, but it also opened the way for other creatures to find their way into the Northwood unchallenged.”

“Come on,” Saul said. “Let’s get to the Holdfast. I’m keen to see Captain Jerryl. I have a favor to ask him, but if this fight with the spiders is anything to go by, we might have some more work to do up here than I had anticipated. The sooner we find out what the situation is, the better.”