“What took you so long!?” Kedryn gasped, channeling a lower powered version of his gust spell. It had just enough strength to keep the advancing beetles at bay while the others desperately tried to apply enough fuel to completely encircle the devourers with fire. It wasn’t going as well as they had expected.

“Had to run down the stragglers,” Glade explained with that all too serious expression of his as he approached.

“Did the ratkin give you any trouble?” he got out, focusing on maintaining the air gust in one steady flow. It was much harder than he had originally thought. Thanks to Bragden’s incessant training and Glade’s continual attempts at interfering with his magic earlier in the day he had gained the Mana Control skill, which allowed him to manipulate his air magic like he could with his fire spell. Another bonus was the skill let him skip his required cooldown time entirely, so long as the spell was within his mana channel’s capacity.

The downside was that it was a mana hog. Kedryn had already spent more than half of his mana on this one spell and the remainder was draining faster than Gent could guzzle a pint of ale. He had already consumed one of their precious mana potions and would have to consume another if Helmund and his team didn’t close the gap soon.

“No, not much trouble,” Glade said, looking around like he was internally critiquing the entire operation. “Cirea shouted something that made them all freeze up right before Lun’Svet and the other horses ran them over. It was the best kind of fight - fast, efficient, and minimal risk.”

Kedryn almost dropped his spell. From the sound of it, Cirea had used a stunning shout ability. Was that typical of body mages or was that something else? He had overheard that Helmund’s Rallying Cry was from a magic item. Could the bailiff have something similar? He had so many questions!

Instead of giving into his desire to interrogate the Captain, Kedryn grunted his acknowledgement before shifting his air gust to blast one of the larger sized beetles into the spreading flames.

“Anything we can do to help?” Glade asked after watching Kerdryn for a few moments.

“Not unless you’ve learned air magic in the last few minutes,” he panted, watching his dwindling mana bar with trepidation.

“There might be somethin he could try,” Bragden said, inscribing a glowing blue rune along the side of a fist sized stone before tossing into the swarm. “You know how you used yer mana manipulation to keep Ked from casting his spell earlier?”

Kedryn grimaced at the use of his shortened name. He knew it was important to hide his actual name from the others, but that didn’t mean he liked it. The fact that Bragden had also referenced the infuriating experience where he had felt his magic literally melt away time and time again throughout the day didn’t help his growing headache. Sure, he had learned mana control, but that didn’t mean he had enjoyed said experience.

Glade must have responded without him hearing, because Bragden kept right on talking.

“Well, how ‘bout ye try empowering the Kid’s magic instead? It should be based on similar principles and all. Instead o’ taking the mana away, see if ye can channel more into his existing spell. With any luck, we might actually keep the slagging bugs at bay long enough to finish lighting the rest of this bloody grass on fire.”

This time, Kedryn heard Glade grunt his assent. He didn’t understand the details of their conversation, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out they were going to attempt strengthening his air spell. Normally, he wouldn’t object. Experimenting with magic was one of his favorite pastimes after all. But he couldn’t help but feel this wasn’t the best time to experiment.

Just as he was about to open his mouth to object, the output of air he was channeling faltered for the barest of moments. Then it doubled in power.

The increased output surprised Kedryn so much that he stumbled, flailing his spell briefly into the surrounding flames which sent up showers of sparks that flew haphazardly in every direction.

It only took him all of a few moments to get the magic back under his control.

“A little bit more of a warning would be appreciated!” he called.

“Surprising that ye got in yer first go,” Bragden said, giving Glade a knowing look before he tossed two of his exploding stones into the seething morass of devourers. “How long can ye hold that?”

Glade shook his head. “I’ve tapped into a large stream of air mana, “ he explained. “I’m siphoning off as much as I can manage, but it looks like it will continue to feed Kedryn’s magic so long as I don’t let go.”

“Well, it looks like it worked,” Bragden said, turning to Kedryn. “Now Ked, tone down yer mana output so ye can last longer. Let Glade here carry the load fer as long as he can.”

Both he and Glade nodded their understanding and adjusted their respective mana flows accordingly. The relief was immediate.

“That’s much better,” he sighed when they had found a balance. He knew Glade had cheated with his will power, but he didn’t care. He would have cheated his way with that OP ability far more if he had access to it. Instead he asked a question to Bragden.

“How did you know the Captain could use his magic to do that?”

“Just a hunch,” Bragden said, pulling more rocks from his pack. “Figured we might as well try out here seeing as all we’re accomplishing is delaying the inevitable. Not sure you two have noticed, but Helmund and his team aren’t exactly instilling me with confidence.”

Kedryn took a moment to look around. What he saw indeed made his heart sink.

Helmund and his men were sprinting down the line, adding fuel to dwindling fires as the swarm continued their single minded attempts to smother the flames with their own bodies. What was worse, the piles of wood and casks of oil that had seemed like plenty beforehand were now almost gone.

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The only good news was that he and Riya were covering the larger gaps, keeping the devourers at bay. He still didn’t understand how Riya’s celestial magic worked against the bugs, but for some reason they shied away from her projected aura.

“Doesn’t look like they’ll be able to last much longer,” Glade said, his voice tight with concentration. “It might be time to think about falling back.”

“I’d have to agree with ye on that one,” Gent piped up before spitting to the side. “I’ll go check with Helmund. They’ve got to see this is a lost cause.”

Kedryn shuddered at the thought. While they knew this wasn’t going to be easy, everyone had seemed confident that they could handle a breakout this small. What had happened?

It didn’t take long for Gent to return.

“They’re seeing the same problems we are,” he explained. “We’re going to give it a few more minutes to see if the swarms start to die down, but if not, we’ll pull back.”

“Do you know what the problem is?” Kedryn asked.

“I can’t see for meself see’in as yer all slagging giants,” Gent said, “but Helmund was explainin that the bloody queens are pumping out more beetles than they should be able to for a nest this size. Says he can see where the queens are just by looking for the swell o’ bugs coming from the ground.”

“Can you hit them with your exploding rocks?” Kedryn asked Bragden.

“I can try, but I’d have to see ‘em first,” he replied with a skeptical tone.

“You could always sit on Glade’s shoulders,” he laughed, channeling his stream of air to redirect a bunch of smaller beetles back.

“No,” Glade said in his gruff, emotionless tone. “I’d throw my back out. Though, if you’re brave enough you could always ask Cirea.”

There was a moment where nobody spoke, eying Glade speculatively.

“Was that supposed to be a joke?” Kedryn finally asked.

“Yes…?” Glade replied in a questioning tone, looking at the others like he was wondering why they weren’t laughing.

“And I thought I had a terrible sense o’ humor,” Bragden snorted.

“All in favor o’ banning Glade from telling any more jokes unless he’s blitzed out o’his slagging mind say aye!” Gent called.

“Aye!” sang a chorus of people around them.

“I thought it was funny,” some stranger next to them said.

“See?” Glade said, pointing to the odd man he hadn’t seen before. “Someone thought it was funny! Whats your name friend?”

“Yelenzi,” the man called back with a lazy smile.

“There’s an idiot in every crowd,” Kedryn heard Gent muter.

A few minutes passed as Brgaden lobbed stones and the rest fought to stoke the flames. From his limited perspective, Kedryn could see there wasn’t much left they could do. There were simply too many beetles. Not for the first time, he lamented the fact that his fire magic was unavailable. These conditions would have been a perfect cover for his flame manipulation spell. It was really too bad Glade couldn’t cast fire magic yet.

As he shifted his air gust again, Kerdryn watched the sparks fly through the air, randomly floating onto the continued hoard of beetles moving forward.

The slow-moving embers sparked a memory. A memory where they had faced another swarm of deadly bugs and lived because of the unknown power of one magically altered egg.

“That just might work…” he mumbled aloud, working out a semblance of a plan in his head.

Knowing it was a long shot, Kedryn reached out his mind to that small knot of burgeoning emotion that was Ember and was immediately welcomed like a long-lost friend.

Kedryn didn’t lose any time, projecting his idea. If he could convince Ember to use his unique magic against the devourers it might just be enough to push them back far enough for the fires to do their job.

He didn’t even get half-way in explaining his idea before Ember erupted in a surge of excitement.

In moments, he felt Glade’s mind lock onto his.

“What are you doing?” Glade projected. “You’ve got Ember riled up and now he wants to blast this area with fire magic!”

“Just hear me out!” Kedryn said. “We can mask Ember channeling Ember Stream! All I have to do is point my air gust into the flames. We’ll just say that you magnified the breeze to feed the fire and the sparks were the result!”

“I don’t think that's such a good idea. Someone will most definitely be suspicious,” Glade retorted. “I’d rather we just fall back. Less suspicion that way.”

“And what does Ember think?” Kedryn asked, already knowing the answer. The tangle of emotions that represented his link with Ember was going crazy with excitement.

There was a momentary pause before Glade answered.

“You two are going to be the death of me,” he sighed. Kedryn didn’t know how you could sigh with your thoughts, but Glade somehow made it happen. “Ember says he’s going to do it with or without me. So, I guess we’re going to try it. Here’s what I propose…”

As Glade explained, Kedryn sent his assent with a smile.

This was going to be awesome.

“Everybody!” Kedryn called. “I’m going to try something!”

“What are you going to…” Bragden began, but before he could finish, Kedryn shifted his gust into the nearest flames.

At the same time, Ember triggered his spell.

A burst of sparks filled the air, shooting every which way like little tracer rounds lancing into the surrounding swarm. Wherever they struck, beetles blackened to a crisp.

Kedryn moved his hands up and down the line of fire, the storm of embers blasting from the fires like a river leaving a swath of destruction in its wake. He didn’t know how long Glade or Ember could hold out, but he waited for the signal.

“That's it!” he heard Helmund cry, “Everyone, if you have anything left, throw it now!”

There was a surge of activity up and down the line as men ran back and forth with wood, empty casks, anything that could burn. He even glimpsed that Yelenzi fellow running up and down the line throwing large clumps of dry grass onto the flames.

“I’m almost out of mana!” Glade cried out in his mind.

“Just a bit more!” Kedryn called out, pushing his own air gust to its limits in order to fan more of the flames.

There were several more explosions as Bragden began lobbing rock after rock.

“I’m done,” Glade finally cried, the embers dwindling away. But no one noticed. Before them was a vast swath of fire, a burning pitch so thick that Kedryn had to stumble away or risk getting burned just from being too close.

“I think… I’m going… to lie down,” he said, eyeing his nearly empty mana bar.

“I’m with you,” Glade replied, already staggering away.

As they watched the fire ravage the land and swarm, Ember crooned with delight.