One of the dragons, the larger purple one with leathery wings, appeared from the sky. Sophia wasted a moment wishing she could speak to it mentally or direct it the way Dav could direct his summons. As it exhaled glowing magical light at the monster, Sophia shouted, “Pull it this way! Get it over the fire flower!”
She couldn’t even hear her own shout and had no idea if the dragon could hear her. If it could, she didn’t know how. It disappeared back into the sky, but a moment later it was struck by lightning that descended from above. It glowed for a long moment, then dissipated into the magic that formed it. Most of the magic seemed to be glowing purple or black, but there were a number of blue and silver bits as well.
Sophia was still swearing to herself when a bird flashed down from above and swept through the edge of the lightning, then somehow flipped and flew right through the Hungering Spark’s chest. The bird flared her wings and revealed herself as Sophia’s other dragon. She spat multicolored fire at the monster as she slowed and seemed to halt in place just over the Eldritch Fire Bud.
The feathered dragon was slow to gain height; she looked almost like she was hovering in place.
The Hungering Spark flickered as it shifted forward, almost directly under the dragon, then raised its arm. Nothing seemed to happen until its lightning-covered hand touched the dragon. When it did, another bolt of lightning connected the sky to the ground straight through the dragon. The feathered dragon disappeared the same way as the other dragon, though the sparks that were left behind were a rainbow of paler colors.
Sophia had the impression that the disappearing motes of colored magic were almost smug. She had no idea why she felt that until she heard Dav’s mental shout, “Got him!”
Maybe the dragon was right to be smug. It cost her existence, but the Hungering Spark was almost directly over the blooming Eldritch Fire Bud, anchored in place by Dav’s Eldritch Anchor. Sophia could summon the dragon again later.
Sophia rose to her feet and attacked the Hungering Spark’s legs. Where she bled it of its lightning probably wasn’t important; bleeding it as much as possible was. It didn’t walk, it teleported, but that didn’t mean its legs weren’t useful somehow.
The Hungering Spark never managed to free itself from the Anchor. It threw lightning after each of Sophia’s True Death Bolts, which seemed to drain it even faster. Amy ran out of arrows before Sophia ran out of mana, even though she started with her normal full amount and had a set of arrows summoned by Dav as well. Dav ended up summoning her more.
When Sophia ran out of mana, all she could do was watch with Dav. He had to hold his Eldritch Anchor and keep the Thorn Emitter focused on the Hungering Spark’s tongue. Amy continued to plink Dav’s Eldritch Arrows off its shield, as well, but mostly they were waiting for the monster to bleed out.
There was no last minute surprise. In the end, they knew the Hungering Spark was gone because the Guide told them. Sophia expected the storm to dissipate, but it didn’t.
Message [https://i.imgur.com/GeaM3ZH.png]
Feat Completed!
For your Feat of defeating a monster with an Upgrade advantage, you have been granted a reward!
This Feat is awarded to all participants, but as the Feat was completed together, the reward is also shared.
Reward: Assisted Domain Condensation
The Domain of the Hungering Spark will be condensed into an item appropriate to the Domain and its creator. The item may or may not be immediately useful.
(Feather Image)
Your Patron greets you!
I see one more creature like this one following you. It is more powerful than the Hungering Spark, though I suspect it is also less straightforward in a fight. I don't know if that will make it easier for you to defeat or not. Unfortunately, all I can suggest is to keep trying to grow stronger; as long as you aren't caught by surprise, your trio is quite capable.
Your build is not one I would have chosen, but it has some interesting possibilities. I wish I could take the time to discuss it with you, but that isn't allowed. I can give you what information I can fit here but I cannot spend the hours with you that I would like to. My top recommendation for you is to look at your Summon Echo Technique; it is more flexible than you think. It is rare, so gaining a better version will be difficult, but the original version has a minimum Level far higher than you are. I hope you are as capable as I think you are.
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I do not wish to talk to you about the Maze, but I think it is necessary. I do not know how much you have learned, but the Maze is the greatest artifact that remains of the time when the Guide was new, a prize we won in the Tower of Kestii. I believe it is more myth than knowledge, now, but I can tell you a little of the past. The Broken Lands was not always broken; that should be obvious. When the Guide came, Kestii was a continent-spanning empire ruled from a city that bore the same name as the Empire. It was a time of upheaval and I cannot even begin to fit everything that happened here, but there was a Challenge from the Guide and we won it. We won the chance to choose our destiny. All of the world won, not simply Kestii.
And then the Broken Lord threw it away for his lands. He did not know that was what he was doing, but that doesn't change the consequences. The only vestige of the victory here now is the Patrons, and the Broken try to keep us out as much as they can. You must still be careful.
The other advice I have for you is to ask Amy about the Tower of Kestii and the Broken Temple. I do not know which side she has chosen, but both are common in the Realm of the Shattered Sky. You should listen carefully and see how much you trust her. A child of the Tower could be very helpful to you and your friend but a follower of the Broken Lord would simply kill you if she found out you were Hallowed of another.
--The Wanderer
As with so many of the Guide’s messages, there was a lot to unpack. First, despite the fact that the Hungering Spark could easily have killed them, the Guide gave a far less impressive Feat award than for the corpsevine crown. Sophia hoped the item it promised would be good, but the real reward wasn’t anything the Guide could give.
The real reward was the fact that they survived. She ached, Dav still looked hurt, and both of their outfits were completely trashed, but that could all be fixed. Sophia suspected they’d probably have to buy new cold weather gear when they reached Izel.
Second, the way the Feat talked about splitting the reward implied that it could be completed by groups large enough that it would be difficult to determine who a reward should go to. That could happen even in small groups, but Sophia was certain it was more common in larger groups, at least up until the “group” was large enough to have an actual command structure and procedures for allocating loot or more likely pay. The key bit of information there was that unless the Guide specifically gave you something that couldn’t be taken away, others could try. That wasn’t really a surprise but it was still good to know.
The message from the Wanderer was even more interesting, even as it was concerning at the same time. Sophia could count; she knew there were three bandits originally, which meant that the “one more” the Wanderer talked about was probably the third bandit. Given Taika’s testimony, it was a blob with tentacles that liked water, probably something like a jellyfish. That sounded like something that might be physically formidable while the Hungering Spark was all about its lightning.
Sophia didn’t know if there were any more monsters from Cliff’s dungeon likely to come after her, but she suspected not. Neither Taika nor the Wanderer had mentioned them, and the Wanderer seemed to have noticed the others, even if he hadn’t always warned Sophia adequately.
Sophia was pleased with how well Summon Echo worked out for the fight; while they could probably have won without it, the dragons both gave Sophia a clue that led her to using more effective magic and lured the Hungering Spark over Dav’s Eldritch Fire Bud at the end of the fight. They could and would follow verbal directions and could hear them when Sophia couldn’t.
Well, either that or they were somehow getting ongoing limited direction from her. Sophia wasn’t entirely certain.
No matter why they could follow directions, however, it made them even more useful. Even before the Wanderer mentioned the Martial Technique, Sophia was kind of worried about what would happen when she leveled. She couldn’t improve the Martial Technique without fighting another monster with the same technique, which meant she’d need to find something similar if she wanted the same utility. The fact that the Wanderer called it rare only made that worse.
The only other option was figuring out how to upgrade Techniques and that was something no one could help her with. There might be a way if she could find someone who knew how to make or modify Techniques, but she wasn’t sure where to start on that and she was certain most people learned them from their Sphere. Other people didn’t copy techniques any more than they copied spells.
Maybe the Wanderer could have helped if he could sit down with her and have that multi-hour conversation he wanted. Sophia suspected he’d have some ideas, at least. That was apparently not possible, so she’d just have to do the best she could and try to improve it herself.
Sophia didn’t know what to think about the rest of the message. It was definitely nice to know why the Wanderer originally told them not to reveal that they were Hallowed, but Sophia didn’t have any idea how that helped her. It was amusing that the Wanderer started off by mentioning the Maze, but apparently didn’t want to talk about it in any detail and decided to talk about ancient history instead.
Sophia really didn’t want to get involved in anything that affected the fate of the Broken Lands. She’d heard the stories and while they were exciting to hear about, they sounded pretty awful to have to deal with. Unfortunately, she did want to go home eventually and the Maze was the only clue she’d heard about a possible way to travel to another world. It was something she’d need to keep in mind for when she was ready to start working towards leaving. For now, she was far more interested in seeing more of the Broken Lands. She hadn’t seen anything yet.
She had to find out more about the past, and asking Amy the Wanderer’s question seemed like a good place to start once she was ready to find out. First, though, she needed to deal with the rest of the aftermath of the fight.
Starting with the continual lightning strikes coming from the spot where the Hungering Spark died. If that was what the Guide meant by Domain Condensation, it was a violent process.