“Clear!” Glade called, scanning the area for any additional threats. All he saw were the dwarves glancing their way from behind outcroppings of rock.
“Clear!” Kedryn responded in a loud, clear voice.
Glade was more than impressed. Not only had Kedryn been up to the challenge but had shown a significant amount of adaptability and creativity as well by casting his spell from around the corner.
“Well done,” Glade said. “Your surprise fire attack was impressive. When did you learn to cast from a distance?”
“Well, I’ve always known how,” Kedryn said, coaxing the slime back onto his catcher. “My Manipulate Flame spell is the very definition of versatile. As long as I keep the costs under 10 MP I can do pretty much whatever I can imagine. The spell’s only downside is that it can’t create its own flame. I need a source to manipulate.”
“Then how could you create fire up to this point?” Glade asked.
“My Spark spell,” Kedryn shrugged. “Every time I needed to create fire, I simply cast Spark, followed by Manipulate Flame.”
“Doesn’t that get mana intensive?”
“Not as much as you’d think,” Kedryn replied, standing up with Slick secure on the catcher. “Spark only costs 1 MP, same with manipulate flame. Making the fire bigger or shaping it is the most mana intensive, and even then it’s not bad. The downside is the spell only lets me use a max of 10 mana.”
“Good to know. Last question, did you really mean to use the slime as a weapon?”
“I was testing a theory,” Kedryn shrugged. “The worst-case scenario was the Gnoll was stunned long enough for me to light him up with fire.”
Glade simply shook his head, letting the Kid search the Gnolls as he went to talk with the dwarves. Kedryn may have a more growing to do until he was up to the team’s standards, but he had more than proven his reliability.
A couple dozen dwarves stood at his approach. They were chained together in small groups, each with picks or shovels. There was no rhyme or reason why the groups were spread throughout the cavern the way they were. If they were mining it looked to be the most illogical of set ups.
The one thing they had in common though was the all looked as malnourished as Krazzik.
“A human and an elf?” barked a bald dwarf who pushed his bronze goggles up to his bare brow. “Where’n the seven hells did ye both come from?”
“Krazzik sends his regards,” was all Glade said, studying the group with a critical eye. Not a single dwarf backed down from his stare. “Also, I appreciate the warning. Without your signal that something was wrong, I don’t know if I would have realized the Gnoll’s had set an ambush.”
“Bah,” the bald dwarf scowled, folding his arms of knotted muscle while sizing Glade up. “Wasn’t too hard. These Gnoll’s here be denser than me wife’s mam, and just as hardheaded. Ye say Krazzik sent ye? Where is the young dolt?”
“He’ll be by shortly. He had a run in with a slime and is now working his way here with my healer.”
The dwarves all grimaced, darting glances at one another.
As he spoke, Glade finally felt Riya’s and Krazzik’s mental signatures.
“Before they get here, what can you tell about the overall situation? Are there more Gnolls or other threats in the immediate area?” Glade asked.
“Mind lettin us loose first?” the bald dwarf asked, flashing a smile that revealed teeth far bigger than they had any right to be.
Turning around, he called out to Kedryn.
“Any luck finding a key?”
“Not yet,” the Kid called back. “I bet it’s the same key that Riya used on Krazzik’s chains, which means we’ll have to wait. I’ll keep looking though.”
Turning back to the dwarf, Glade forced himself not to sigh, or yawn. He couldn’t remember the last time he had slept.
“We’ll get you out as soon as we can. Until then, you might want to try cutting through the chains with the tools you have.”
“Yer not that sharp, are ye,” the dwarf said bluntly, eyeing Glade critically.
“Excuse me?” Glade said, certain he had misunderstood.
“We’re slaves, rocks for brains. Ye think we like workin for some snot nosed dogs that sniff each other’s back sides when they say hello?” the dwarf said. “We been collared an everythin. Can’t so much as think ‘bout escape, let alone try to cut ourselves free.”
Glade opened his mouth to respond when a flash of white erupted from the center of the room.
Spinning around, Glade’s mind ground to a halt as he witnessed something that should have been impossible. The largest of the Gnoll’s he had killed minutes before materialized out of nowhere, wearing a set of white linen pants and shirt.
“Watch out!” Glade yelled.
Kedryn glanced up from searching the dead, his eyes widening in alarm as the massive Gnoll lunged.
“Gredka kill you!” the Gnoll howled, its arms outstretched.
The fire hovering over the Kid’s shoulder surged, rocketing forward to intercept the Gnoll in an instant, knocking it off course.
The Gnoll recovered quickly, brushing away the fire that still clung to its new clothes. Except, the flames hadn’t gone out. They had spread.
Howling in rage and pain, the Gnoll charged again, the fire wrapping around his chest like a coat.
Glade appeared out of nowhere, imposing himself between the flaming Gnoll and Kedryn. As the Gnoll lunged, Glade easily knocked the wild strikes away, redirecting the momentum of the attack while tripping the creature.
Hitting the ground, the Gnoll tried to recover, only to receive a savage boot to the head.
Glade watched in silence as fire quickly encircled the Gnoll in a cocoon of heat and light.
“Remind me never to piss you off,” Glade muttered in Kedryn’s direction. “I’m assuming we just witnessed our first rebirth?”
When the Kid didn’t answer immediately, Glade turned around.
Kedryn was lying on the floor, face white and gasping for breath.
“Talk to me Kid!” he demanded, moving to the Corporal’s side. “What’s wrong?”
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“Check… status,” Kedryn hissed through gritted teeth, gripping his head like it was about to explode.
Not seeing any visible signs of injury or harm. Glade opened his status page and selected their bond. Kedryn’s page appeared, as well as all the Kid’s notifications.
Congratulations and a warning! You have rapidly depleted your mana and have continued along your path of training your magical capacity. However, your actions in pushing your maximum threshold through your mana channels multiple times in such a short period of time has caused them to strain. The eternal journey of advancement passes through joy and pain in equal measure, but it also requires a healthy dose of wisdom. As a result, you will be rewarded with both pain and joy. The wisdom is up to you to figure out.
Due to your actions, you will suffer twice the amount of pain for depleting your mana. You have gained a skill level in fire and will have a +20% success rate should you attempt to expand your mana channels to level 2.
Congratulations! Your skill level in Fire magic has advanced to level 7!
Glade double checked the kid’s mana levels. Sure enough, they were empty.
“You pushed your magic too hard, didn’t you,” Glade stated.
“Yeah,” Kedryn whispered. “Had to… Couldn’t burn it… fast enough.”
They sat there for a few moments, watching the Gnoll burn.
“Why… didn’t you… shoot it?” Kedryn asked.
“Why waste the ammo? We all know that once you light something on fire it’s dead to rights. Besides, aren’t you the one always telling me to stop using the pistol so we can get the XP?”
Kedryn barked a laugh, cradling his head in his hands.
“Don’t… make me… laugh,” the Kid gasped. “Hurts… too much.”
“I’ll do my best,” Glade said with a smirk.
Soon after, a notification appeared in both their feeds.
You have defeated a level 7 Gnoll Slaver and have been awarded 340 experience points (640 XP /2)
Moments later, Riya and Krazzik stumbled into the room, carrying all their gear plus the Gnoll’s weapons that Glade and Kedryn had left behind.
“Need your help getting these dwarves loose,” he called out. “Kedryn’s fine, but we need to let him rest a bit before continue on.”
Riya nodded and went about freeing the dwarves using the same key she had used on Krazzik. Words like Pyro and Treeless were interspersed amongst the crowd of dwarves, but they quieted as soon as Krazzik came within earshot.
“Stop yer complainin!” The dwarven chief shouted. “She be blessed by the Eight themselves! And the boy be a royal elf, ye damned deaf and blind idiots. Any o’ you raise one hand against ‘em, and you’ll answer to me! Now, where be Bragden?”
A chorus of ‘Krazzik,’ and ‘me chief’ met the one-armed dwarf, quickly followed by the bald dwarf stepping forward.
“Chief! How in the slagging pit of the abyss are you even alive? We thought you were dead and back at the Crag for sure!” Bragden yelled.
“They almost had me, they did,” Krazzik said. “It took em the better part of a day to draw a damned slime, and when they did it took me arm all the way to me elbow!”
He extended his stump for the group to see.
“These three done saved me hairy backside, killed the slime, and the rest o’ the guards in this part o’ the caves. Now, where be me boy, Bragden?”
The dwarves, who had cheered and growled in equal measure at their chief’s story went silent.
“Bragden,” Krazzik growled, “Where be Dabbin?”
“Black Robe took him,” Bragden said visibly deflating. “As soon as the Gnoll’s took ye and the body mage left, Black Robe came a callin. I’m sorry Kraz, we did our best, but they took him straight out of our hands, they did.”
“WHAT!?!” Krazzik roared, reaching out with the stump of his arm to grab Bragden by his shirt. After a bare moment of confusion, Krazzi’s anger doubled. Instead, he lashed out with a boot, sending the bald dwarf to the ground. “YOU LET THAT DEMENTED, ABYSSAL GRUB LOVING MONSTER, NEAR MY BOY!?”
“Yer as much a dolt as the human is,” Bragden growled, sitting up. “Ye know there was nothin I could do! And the more ye wait, the harder this is goin to get!”
“Done,” Riya called, dropping the last of the locks.
Krazzik glared at her.
“What, you want me to put them back on?” She challenged.
Krazzik took an exaggerated breath.
“Yer right lass. Me apologies.” He then looked directly at Bragdin. “If’n ye were any other man, you’d be layin on yer back missin some of those gargantuan teeth. But yer right. We need to get movin.”
Turning to Glade, he said, “Are ye still willing to help?”
“How many other Gnoll’s are with him?” Glade asked.
“Ye done killed the main traunch o’ the dogs,” Bragdin said, climbing to his feet, clapping a hand on Krazzik’s shoulder, as if getting kicked in the chest was no big deal. “The Alpha took his Beta and some others with him. That leaves…”
There was a pause as Bragdin screwed up his face, using his fingers to count.
“Don’t be strainin that noggin o’ yers, Bragdin!” one of the dwarves laughed.
“Quit yer belly achin! I be fine with numbers,” Bragdin yelled, daring anyone to challenge him otherwise.
“Right,” the dwarf grumbled. “That’s what I thought. There be between three and eight left with Black Robe. And at least two dozen more chain gangs of our kin along the way.”
Snickers could be heard amongst the dwarves as Glade’s eye twitched.
“Thank you for the intel,” Glade grumbled. “I take it that none of you can fight?”
“Yer none to sharp…” Bragden began, but Riya interrupted him.
“They are magically compelled to obey their assigned masters. Slavery is prevalent in these parts. The collars keep slaves, especially hostile ones, in check. While they wear the collar they can only operate within the bounds of their commands.”
“Aye, the treeless has the right of it,” another dwarf growled, lifting his beard away to reveal a rusted collar digging into his neck. “We canna do nothin against the dog’s while these are on us. We lift one finger against ‘em, and ZAP!” He smacked his hands together for emphasis, “We’re gonners.”
“Fine. We’ll just have to find the key…” Glade stopped speaking when he saw Krazzik’s head shaking.
“Sorry lad, but no. None o’ the thrice damned slavers here have the resonance key to release the collars. We’re on loan from the slaver’s guild. The Black Robe has a slave rod, which gives him command o’ us. But we’d have to go back to the guild fer the key.”
“Then what do you suggest?” Glade asked.
“If’n ye can kill the Black Robe, we can make our escape back to the Crag. They can hide us there.”
“We’d be clanless,” one of the other dwarfs interjected. “Slaves to the King!”
“Better’n slave’s to anyone else,” Krazzik growled back. “At least until we can perform the Grak’nor.”
Each dwarf quieted down at that pronouncement, making Glade wonder what this Grak’nor business was all about.
“So these collars, they’re magical?” Kedryn piped in, his voice strained.
“Aye,” Krazzik said, giving Kedryn an odd look.
“Captain Glade?” Kedryn asked. “Can you look at the collars with your magic?”
Never needing much encouragement to cast his favorite spell, Glade triggered Manipulate Mana.
Mana of varying shades and hues lit up all around as pain tore through his channels, reminding him of his current mana poisoned state.
Warning! You have torn your mana channels further. Your body is now 5% saturated. At this level of saturation, you will experience +5% heightened awareness, +5% gain in stamina regeneration, -5% in mana regeneration, -5% in concentration, and -5 HPs every hour.
Note: Your skill, Telepathy remains in a passive state until used or dismissed. After which you will be unable to cast another astral spell until your channels have been repaired.
Glade had forgotten about that minor problem.
“Sir?” Kedryn asked, his voice filled with concern.
“Focus on recovering your mana, Corporal,” he replied, already concentrating on Krazzik’s collar. “We’re leaving soon, and something tells me we’re going to need your fire.”
Pushing everything out of his mind, Glade took in the details of the device around the Chief’s neck. It was a simple band of iron that was alight with complex runes he couldn’t even begin to understand. Nuances of shadow, earth, and astral magics interwoven so tightly that he couldn’t make heads or tails of it.
But like with most devices, you didn’t need to focus so much on the inner workings, just what you wanted done to it. In this case, he simply looked for the locking mechanism.
A thin strand of Astral magic hung in the air like a thread, one end tethered to a rune within the collar’s seam, the other end leading off into the darkness of the cave.
Glancing around, he confirmed that all the collars had this same thread attached to it.
“I can try something,” Glade said, eyeing the thin strands of magic. “But I don’t know if it will work. Would you like me to try?”
“Yes,” Krazzik said, stepping forward. was quickly interrupted by Bradgen.
“Try it on me first,” Bragden growled, stepping in front of Krazzik.
“What are ye goin on ‘bout,” Krazzik growled.
“Yer the Chief,” Bragden said, staring the other down. “Ye need to lead, not be a thrice damned kobold brained idiot volunteering for something that might get ye killed!”
Krazzik glared at the other dwarf, but relented.
“Right then,” Bragden growled. “Just warn me afore…”
“Done,” Glade said.
The collar fell off the stunned dwarf’s neck.
“What… how…,” Bragden said, eyes wide with shock.
“I removed the lock, if that’s what you’re asking,” Glade said, letting the puff of astral magic fade into the air. “Who’s next?”