"Formo!"

"Cleaving Strike!"

"Hewing Blow!"

"Ignis Ventus!"

And no one was more anxious than Jack when it was time to baiting hideous foes far more powerful than they yet again, Jack using the last dregs of his remaining potency to form a second foot thick barrier 20 feet beyond the slitted one to their rear even as he sealed all the slits save a single once again almost too-big murderhole, and it was still almost a disaster.

The horrifically fast beasts tearing through the carefully expanding hole in a flurry of snapping serpentine jaws, ursine roars and monstrous scything claws just before she could fully reinforce it with a final surge of potency and a mentally shouted resilience rune, the blood he had poured forth earlier thankfully more than enough of that connection, yet somehow... it was almost as if those mindless grizzly sized obsidian scaled engines of destruction had sensed the metaphoric pause between arcane breaths, surging forward as one.

A hideously terrifying crack forming on the wall as it began to bulge inward in ways Jack hadn't thought a risk in his worst nightmares as obsidian-sharp scything claws nearly tore through a wide-eyed Elof as the howling stampeded of Death Bears tried to burst through.

Yet in an act of near superhuman grace and quickness, Drake had lurched back even as his weapon sliced through the air with its coldly shimmering blade, blasting through the upper two thirds of the scything claw nearly as large as he was, Jack was horrified to see, his young friend, who had been little more than a clumsy desperate to make something of himself recruit a handful of months ago, now moved with the speed and poise of an olympian even as Aroust, moving at speeds that were faster still, roared and shouted 'Hewing Blow!' as much mentally as physically, channeling the terror and fury of the moment as his own hideously sharp glaive head that shimmered as it cut through the thick dark fog of dream they dared to call air, cleaved completely through the massively thick scaly neck of the hideous abomination whose glittering eyes of yellow and red bulged with the first true signs of alarm only when it's head tore free in a powerful geyser of blood.

Sticky blood that would have pushed them back as readily as Jack's lesser Water Sprays had Jack not taken Aroust and Barlton's advice and not only saved the icy wet water for the back half of their shelter thanks to minute shifts in elevation, but had also formed hundreds of minute, crisscrossing grooves and ridges on the stone floor adjoining their kill spot that meant that Jack's boots had perfect traction, even as he stumbled forward on hot sticky blood.

Finesse check made!

Though thankfully not falling on his face and sliding right into the still snapping jaw of the abomination as he jutted forward with his fist, and just before the howling abominations could wrench the massive beast free of the too wide and not nearly reinforced enough murder hole, before the Death Bears beyond the second two-feet thick wall of stone could completely tear through that barrier he had no way to reinforce with blood runes at the moment he forged them, Jack had managed to scream out the abbreviated trigger word to his spell, now as easily cast as Bloodflame itself.

And far hotter than anything had a right to be, Jack thought, as Adept ranks not only bought an incredible surge of control, but an additional 20% damage above baseline, or 270% x 3.25 x 18 = very close to what an absolutely absurd 158 fold more damage than a baseline 0 rank flamestrike cast by the humblest of mages, thanks to the multiplicative effects of Potent flame, Bloodflame, and his single rank in Fire affinity, further magnified by the 9 fold multiplier of a tier 3 spell, and all of that doubled yet again due to the deadly synergism of pure Oxygen, or the elements of Air, Fire, and Blood synergizing so well together, and all of that multiplied by his 270% damage bonus over baseline at Elite Rank 1.

Truly, he was now blasting forth with a fiery torrent of heat and death like a superheated blast of the corona of the sun.

Even just the tiniest flicker of that power, howling forth from the depths of Jack's fiery soul, was enough to both blast back the pair of deadly scrabbling claws from a Death Bear that had acted even faster than Jack had fathomed, quickly positioning itself to tear right through Jack who had dared move too close in order to prevent more than a sliver of the heat spilling back into their room, assuming he had dared the 4 second cast of his soul, before Jack's jet of liquid flame, perhaps worthy of a dragon's own, completely immolated the pair of Death Bears struggling to be the one to squeeze through and near instantly raising the temperature of the cut off 20 foot section of the corridor beyond to the temperature of a blast furnace.

Heat that near scorched the lungs of Jack's friends once more, even with his Air familiar sending Jack an emotive surge of reassurance as the frigid pool of icy water in the middle of their chamber was immediately sent whirling through the air as an instant cyclone sending half their party on their assess, still, it was all he could do to use the sudden surge of potency absolutely flooding his soul to seal up the wall before him, first with two thick feet of mundane stone to block off the heat, before being made supernaturally strong with a surge of his now ballooning potency and the shouted words "Resilience! Pertinax!"

Right before the now frantically howling Death Bears could shatter the murder hole, or the wall in back of them, which would have allowed a storm of deadly superheated and now pressurized air back in their faces, Jack happily using an extra surge of his potency and splashing the wall in front of him with a too enthusiastically sliced spray of his blood, holding back a hiss of pain as he gutturally whispered those runic words again in order to prevent that nightmare catastrophe from happening, feeling a fierce surge of satisfaction as well when he sensed two expired horrors becoming six as their final desperate struggles did no more than scratch the stone even as Jack's palms blistered with the heat, pressed as it was against the now white hot stone.

For long moments the entire party took deep ragged breaths, as Jack healed his too deeply sliced palm with a few breathless words, their hearts racing in terror and exhilaration, all of them knowing just how close those horrors had come to breaking through that time... their gazes revealing so clear it was almost like Jack heard them say it allowed... that they had too little control over their own lives in those perilous moments, having to count on Jack to execute so many parts of the plan, perfectly, every time. And one stupid mistake might be all it took before their daring madness came to a hideously abrupt end.

Yet all Jack heard were roars and hollers of triumph, faces worn with exhaustion, grit, and desperate struggle now lit up with the beauteous exhilaration of triumph as Elof cried out. "Saint's Mercy, I leveled up again, Aroust!"

"Myself as well, boy!" Cheered the dwarf, each and every one of them exchanging fiercely satisfied nods, and where Jack had feared hard, critical walls regarding his wall almost failing, all he received were cheers and congratulatory hugs.

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"Well done, Jack!" Aroust shouted, pumping his massive arm in triumph, sentiment echoed by almost everyone even as a throatily chuckling Chu Hua gave him a fierce hug, earning a few whistles and chuckles at the display of affection before she broke it off, cheeks flushing prettily, her exquisitely beautiful features, twinkling eyes and hungry smile promising Jack almost everything... before her cheeks flushed as she sensed the naked vulnerability and hope in her own gaze and she rapidly turned away.

As did Jack, heart swelling with a maelstrom of emotions. Shame, triumph, hope, exultation, and raw primal desire. Desire to take Chu Hua in his arms and wash away the horror of death with the fiercest vindication of life he could, flush with triumph, happiness, and yes, the knowledge that though he had yet to earn a single level, he had grown in his own way as well.

Congratulations! Windfire is now Adept Rank 2!

Artrisanal Manipulation is now Elite Rank 1! (Perk deferred)

And he sensed how close two other skills were to leveling up as well, Jack flashing Chu Hua a gentle smile, feeling his cheeks flush at her too intent regard, eyes alight with an oddly intense hope and hunger as Jack held her strikingly beautiful amber gaze for too many seconds before finally whispering the words.

"Chu Hua?"

She bit her own lip, and never had she looked so vulnerable, so adorable, squeezing his hand with her own as they sat in their own discrete corner, water only moments before drained away assuring dry comfortable walls to lean on even as Jack's familiar kept a cooling gust of air on the stone walls to assure the too hot surfaces wouldn't slowly cook those vulnerable like an oven.

And best of all, they were all enjoying for the first time in what felt like forever, blessed quiet. As the farmost and now fully reinforced two foot thick slabs of stone cutting off the corridors on each side meant that they now had two 2-foot thick blood rune reinforced walls on each side of them, with 20 foot gaps of air between them as well.

They had claimed 70 feet of this dread dungeon over a period of countless days, and paltry a feat as it might seem to some, they had earned the greatest prize of all. A measure of quiet. A measure of piece. A measure of safety.

Of course, Jack being no fool, had immediately placed runes of Obscuring and easily triggered alarms, on the off chance a horror did break through the farmost walls at their front and back, so they would have some warning before said nightmare could burst through the final barrier, if nothing else.

But still, the sense of relief, even jubilation they had felt, had been nothing short of profound. And thanks to Barlton's cooking skills, they had savored a surprisingly tasty feast of fresh Shadow Bear meat, enriching their souls with potent life-force filled sustenance that had, along with the sudden release of awful tension and the sweet heedy rush of victory, filled more than a few of their number with a desperate hunger that could only be quenched between the tents they had silently made sharing glances and secret smiles.

And it said something, Jack supposed, that opposed to sleeping with her sisters, Chu Hua's tent was for her and Jack alone.

Neither had said a word.

Both pretending it was the most natural thing in the world.

But the look they had shared, both of them now seeing perfectly in the dark, had scorched almost as hotly as Jack's flame.

"Yes, Jack?" she said, her soft husky voice sending shivers down his spine as her soft, full lips drew ever closer to his own, and a flushing Jack realized how everyone was very deliberately not looking his way in the darkness, extending the same courtesy they did all the couples forming, and Jack realized he and Veti weren't the only ones wrapped in blankets to sit on that were now serving as inprovised tents, all of them filled with the sheer rapture of survival, embracing the most primal dance of all those who lived so close to the perilous edge of life and death.

Jack swallowed, forcing his racing heart to focus, knowing that at this moment, so fresh after their last sweet triumph, excess potency bubbling and frothing with potential in his soul... he needed to strike while the iron was hot.

"Can I take a look at your Naginata?"

And the wide-eyed look of hope she gave him, eros instantly quenched in the fierce desire for growing strength and power, was both a relief and oddly flattering, presenting her naginata for his perusal with trembling hands.

"Jack, if you would... so I might do my part against these horrors... I would forever be in your debt."

And Jack did his absolute best to focus the whirlwind of emotions into the most discipline of forgings as Barlton showed himself to be an eternally good sport, pulling himself free of his own de-facto tent with a blushing Veti by his side as he pulled out his masterwork forging station from storage and, together with Jack's help and masterful use of mithril, gave her weapon an impossibly sharp edge that Jack transformed into a near indestructible and impossibly sharp instrument of death, well capable of slicing through almost anything in the realms of mundus or dream.

Congratulations! You have forged: Dread Naginata!

Monofilament edge now resonates between multiple dimensional states!

Warning! Soul Bound artifacts constructed in this fashion can only exist in realms of Shadow and Nightmare!

Arcane Manipulation is now Elite Rank 1! (Perk Deferred)

Jack swallowed under the intensity of her gaze. "I um... hope you like it. Just be careful. It's very, very sharp."

He opened his mouth to say something else before his words and train of thought was abruptly broken off, an unexpectedly fierce kiss turning to something soft and warm that sent his heart pounding in his chest as she moaned softly in his arms, opening her mouth as her warm tongue darted forward to tease and caress his own. And Jack's surprised growl was met with the softest of chuckles as all Jack's reservations fled his mind, replaced by a desperate primal hunger to taste, touch, and caress the strikingly beautiful girl now somehow in his arms, mithril reinforced lamellar somehow replaced by a soft naked flesh, radiating warmth, desire, and a fearsome strength, as her arms wrapped about his neck and their kiss deepened, Jack's careful discipline lost once more in a crimson tide of hunger and desire, coming to with a dreamy bemusement seconds later when he now felt her against him, both of them now somehow naked between the soft woolen blankets that both sheltered and covered them, and Jack looked up in the darkness to see brilliant eyes the shade of dusky rubies in a strikingly beautiful face now gazing so hungrily in his own.

She bit her lip in an odd mixture of shyness and hunger as her warm dextrous fingertips touched him in places that made him shudder and gasp, the hunger in her eyes tearing away the last of Jack's resolve as warm hands gently, knowingly, led him to a place of sweetest rapture, the angel in his arms crying out softly when Jack at last embraced the dance he had hungered for desperately for countless days.

"Take me!" She cried softly in his arms, biting his lobe, sucking his neck.

And with a hungry growl to do the Death Bears proud, Jack did just that.

Savoring the soft gasps and cries of the beautiful girl in his arms whose fierce strength, determination, and gentle heart had set a spark in his soul when first they had met.

A spark that now roared into a glorious flame as Jack tore free bittersweet regrets as two became one.