“Tim!” A woman shrieked nearby. The wave shaped axe blade she carried triggered in Tim’s mind that it was Hatlee, the Krow girl from his sewer vision, who waved him to follow quickly.

“Did you get a cure?” Hatlee asked. “They’re at Heilelel’s Bank.”

They’d appeared on a sidewalk he didn’t recognize somewhere in the sewers. Hatlee sprinted ahead. Her breakaway speed and black on black left him lost in the dark in an instant. He tossed Aura Light and forced his weary body back into service.

“Yeah.” Somehow he’d manage to return from Dosek Montryl with the cure. The strings attached might tie them to a burden later, but for now Jil and Khempal needed it. It was Tim’s job to ensure Chris’s deal didn’t harm them down the line.

Hatlee led him and Chris to a stone alcove barely able to fit the two fetal posed bodies. The odor wafting from the tight confines carried the bitter foulness of waste and acrid chemicals burnt away by fever. The poison formed an essence film across their skin in glowing radioactive yellow.

On both sides of the sidewalk behind him were openings to additional tunnels. He cast protection on the most central location while also covering the alcove.

Tim knelt outside the doorway and rested a reassuring hand on Jil’s arm. The warm touch assuring she was still alive encouraged him more than he anticipated. More than the concern of touching the poison after being healed. “I negotiated a cure in a potential alliance with the COIL.”

Jil tensed.

“If that was foolish, I’m sorry.”

She shook her head. ”Foolish… but.” The poison had its meaty hands deep inside her, paining Tim to look. “We’ll talk later.”

He activated Cleanse and Magic Hunt in his hand, smoothing away a fresh patch of skin on her arm. The poison lay underneath, ready to return. I don’t think so, pal. He equipped his dagger, sending the intertwined spells into the bubbling spring of Dose eager to spill out.

A white light filled the gemstone crystal embedded in the pommel. Its strength exuded mist from the glassy surface like the kingly exhale of a newly woken dragon. Alchemy, Cleanse and Magic Hunt fought the barrage of poison sentries straining to keep their hosts. Dose erupted in a static blast bouncing off the walls. Ward. Tim’s spell trapped a large store of Ajin aura and poison in separate floating masses as large as softballs. He absorbed the aura with Spirit Memory and soaked one of the hides in the poison. His Ward spell allowed him to store that in a separate compartment in his backpack, safely quarantining it from the others.

A weak hiss wheezed from his dagger, exhaling its last breath and flicker of light. The area of effect successfully cloaked Jil and Khempal’s bodies in white smoke.

“How are you?” Tim asked Hatlee.

She had enough gashes to look like a Bengal tiger. Her dark robe had many unspent spells painted into the invisible runes.

She smiled and raised a weak hand to stave his concern. “Nothing vital. If we can get them on their feet and off to find Gregor, we can regroup and make a run at the Murphy before the rest of the enemies arrive.”

“I’ll take care of you in just a bit,” Chris said, sweat dripping from his exposed vein-stricken forehead. “This trip has worn me out. Sorry.”

“Who’s gonna take care of you?” Tim asked. Not that he felt much better. His MP was spent and the regen on slow mode. A cold rash worked its way into his back.

“I’ve been working on a skill, Phaurasynthesis, which allows me to store light in aura for use later in growing plants in the dark. A secondary benefit to taking the appropriate time to grow my vines is a restoration of stamina, leading to peak regens for my HP and MP, as well as optional redirect into my aura storage. At this level, the skill can’t hold it long. I’m kind of like a cow needing milked.”

“That’s a fun metaphor,” Tim said, picturing his brother’s face on the head of a healthy cow. “Yeah, we should probably stop there,” Chris said and focused a grunted breath into his vine generation from his sleeve covered wrists. The width matched his forearm, with a new head sprouting toward the water. “We’re close enough to the tunnels I need. Give them a few minutes. Have another spliff.”

A pod grew out of a nearby root and lifted on a petal.

Tim plucked it and held it to his lips. “And you think my classes are weird?” Tim asked.

Chris’s sorcery lit the other end into a healthy ember. Smoke tinged Tim’s eyes and already the plant had him in its peaceful sway. “Tell me you love me without telling me, you ol’ sweetie pie.”

“Are you two alright?” Hatlee asked, a bit tongue in cheek. The cure mist continued to billow its methodical whisps in and around the immobile forms of their friends. Still, Hatlee wore an expression of confusion at Chris and Tim’s banter.

“It’s for the poison,” Chris said, his kid brother grin working with the swirl of sand in his eyes to silence further questions kindly.

In the cool embrace of the exhale, Tim’s mana regen kicked back up to the average. He sent another Danger Sense ping on an Aura Light trail. Splitting the head into tendrils allowed him to search underwater with one and bouncing off walls above it. The latter split again at an intersection and landed in a hot zone. Full red. Aura monsters from the Murphy brimmed with murderous power.

Tim puffed. “Don’t they know we’re busy?”

“Agh, what now?” Chris asked.

“The Murphy wants a fight.”

Jil sucked a deep breath and sat up bolt upright.

“Easy,” Tim said, hands open. “Just its minions for now. How do you feel?”

“Like a rath’rahkin clawed its way through my insides.” She pinched the bridge of her nose and exhaled slowly. “Otherwise good. How are you?”

He rested a hand on her forehead. Dose had it protected in cool aura. A fight warred deeper down, picking off the leftovers of the troll sentries. “You’re almost there.” He cleared a strand of sweat saturated hair from her face. “Just focus on getting better.”

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A vine lifted a spliff pod into her reach. She accepted it with practiced ease and toked by Chris’s Fire. “Glad for your sorcery, Chris.”

“How does that work exactly?” Tim asked him. His regen needed more time to prepare for the Murphy minions. “Is it a Fire spell?”

“It’s a byproduct of that strand. One of the seeds you bought me. I can trigger a reaction within the spliff pod to dry, cleanse by way of transferring inherent chemicals to the front where they combust due to the friction of the accelerated growth and drying out process.”

“So, you can’t combust any other plants but that, ozdud spliff?”

“There are I’m sure innumerable subspecies within the photopyronic plant genius and the Troll are not even the host of the best strands. I tweaked this strand to serve our purposes.”

“Well, that’s pretty awesome. Also, the two groups are now one long turd of a welcome party to our Murphy smack down.” First off, he planned Aura Bow. “I have a pointed introduction to make.”

No one laughed. That’s okay, he thought. I’ll be smiling.

“Do you have any ideas around a photo-pyronic arrow? I’m trying to think where I’d what the charge. I could coat the arrow in flammable poison and your charge could send a flame into the arrowhead and then up the shaft. Oh, could we put puff balls on the feathers to explode some disabling spores in an AOE attack?”

“Unfortunately, not with these and their fire elemental cores. We can work on that after a few level ups in more than one skill for both of us. I like the idea.”

“What we have will hit them hard,” Jil said, bow equipped and arrow nocked. Locks of partially frozen hair hung over her face. Her glare spoke of a lethal business acumen locked in. “Ready when you are for that hearty intro. They’re separating.”

Tim scratched open a fold in his wrist to access Aura Bow and pulled the ring.

His aura crafted arrows cut sharp lines into his targets. The Murphy built them out of more globs of aura than flesh, resulting in a hivemind creature with many interconnected forms with the ability to transform and attack at will.

When extended in battle, the form could be as sharp as fangs or as messy as a barrel of oil spilled into the middle of a fire fight. Khempal and Hatlee were forced to throw items from the safety of the back line while Tim and Jil fought to keep their bottleneck exit clean and dead.

The memory of every human and animal the Murphy ever consumed helped fuel its strategies, and right now, it had brute overwhelming force to its advantage.

Tim aimed his scorching arrowheads toward disabling its healing in strategic cuts. These separated chunks fell free long enough to activate individual life systems that his friends shot down. Regen failed to save these stragglers and Tim’s group fought tooth and nail to hold it back.

Khempal threw a lasso around the latest victim’s wobbly aura flesh corpse. Her golden lace net streaked the excess pink paint across the sidewalk as it gobbled up the body and squeezed it into coin.

Once their numbers pushed out into the wider sidewalk, Tim had to focus for Greensight on the shifty aura monsters. His low AF tensed his eyes and blurred his outer vision, slowing his shots. Thankfully, he kept them falling. Let the bodies hit the floor… played in his mind, taking a queue from his old security guard friend, Marty and the track they played in Afghanistan when on patrol.

Tim took careful shots at the aura creatures fronting the ambush while waiting on his regen to cast Keeper on Hatlee and let her enter the fray. From her tucked position she threw metal stars spinning to explode on impact, mauling one after another of the creatures clawing onto the ceiling and walls. “How’s the uh, planting going?” Tim asked.

Chris’s vines produced a nice pile of spliffs and we’re in a budding stage for a different plant—one with frog finger bulbs. “These are poison if consumed prematurely. Once ready, they’ll give you the biggest HP/MP boost I’ve made yet.”

“Got it, so hold tight with what we got, then kick a whole lot of butt after that.”

Tim drew an arrow and aimed for the pantherlike monstrosity pouncing for him. “…bodies hit the floor—"

C-mana rocketed a heavy cocktail of Draw and Magic Hunt inside the arrow. The tip cut through its makeshift forehead and rode a line into its chest. A bright light sucked an implosion of the form into a floating ball of goo the size of a mini basketball.

Cleanse and absorb? Discard or store?

Until Chris got his frog plant ready, Tim needed the aura replenishment to fuel his regens. Cleanse and absorb, and where’s Dryfu? He thought back to the prompt appearing over the goo.

Your guide is not found.

What does that mean? He cast Cleanse on the mass, injecting it with a bolt of light. It spun into a blinding fast spin rate. Beams shot out of the ball, pelting a heavy monster with a surge strong enough to bowl it over.

It means your guide is not available, either by death or otherwise.

The white cleanse light died inside the goo ball, leaving its aura glowing pink fluid. It floated and absorbed into Tim with the kiss of deep nourishment. He took that into his next shot. It cut through the large beast while its belly was exposed. His arrow imploded the monster into another ball getting ready to charge with Cleanse. Before setting it off, Tim tried aiming the bolts. His shot landed four out of six with thick light beams into the front line.

Hatlee spun with an empty hand, signaling that she was out of her stars. Her gaze tracked A prowler clawing up the far wall to flank them.

“Be careful not to get their aura on you,” he said, and cast Keeper. Tim drew an arrow and loosed it into the back of another while she took off.

Magic Hunt shot his arrow for the core and imploded it before the creature could land. Tim set it off as a Cleanse bomb to push back that side then tracked the opposite side’s best target to spray the next one.

The heavy beast aura core absorbed with a kick worthy of its former form, refueling Tim with so much aura his MP and HP climbed past three quarters full.

Releasing his Aura Bow, he equipped his gotr sword. a head formed in the enemy front. These beasts rose up with less interference from Tim’s last Cleanse spray. They needed something stronger, and Tim felt he had it. He sliced a gotr dagger Peel and darted at their foremost creature.

His blade cut with the ease of tearing paper. The reach struck deep into their numbers, his Peel sending him through them in a blink. Aura cleansed instantly in his gotr blade as Peel carried momentum into the next burst. Tim looked the enemy in its manifold wall of eyes and reached back to give it a wide backhand slice. He leaned in and ripped off the Peel.

Another gliding, single-strike mob kill. By the landing on the other side, a warm power shook inside him. The aura recycled energy through the cleansing, he guessed, based on his Cleanse XP storage billowing with new grains…he felt surprisingly stronger. His MP and HP regen increased his totals faster than potions and kept going.

I think I’d like to do it again.

A mass cut into three forms, slimmed and hardened around big muscles and sharp spikes.

You have just won, a brand new car! Tim launched to deliver their prize.

His gotr blade sliced through the aura flesh with Peel and Cleanse reversing its splash attack into a refueling on the go. his Peel after Peel ricocheting was making him dizzy. His friends cleaned up the gaps as they beat the tide back through multiple tunnels, cornering the final form and ending it with the swing of Hatlee’s glistening axe.

An obtrusive static hummed in Tim’s ears. His numb hands somehow held his own aura drenched blade. In the end, the aura enabled strokes allowed him to double up with his dagger. Its gem glowed with vibrant white and Smokey green tendrils.

A tiny figure flew in the dark, small as a throwing star and buzzing with self-driven power. Yet not a threat in its haste. The essence was of a friend.

Dryfu arched up and slowed before Tim. Full armor getup and demeanor as sharp as the mini spear he carried. “‘Bout time you made an appearance,” the guide said, tongue in cheek.

“Good to see you too.”

“As much as I’d love to say how ugly you look right now,” Dryfu said, swaying left and right to get a better look of Tim’s body. “I think we have something bigger to consider.”

“What’s that?”

“Underneath the slop, I think you’re glowing.”

Aura remnant caked him like motor oil. The texture was so thick, he sluiced it off to store in a jar for later and cast Ward to keep it fresh. He ran his hand over the back of his shirt and pulled it to his face.

White light permeated his aura smeared skin.

This wasn’t his power at work, but an unseen force living within. Its presence demanded respect to the highest degree.

Tim, broke through his shocked disbelief to ask, “Is this for the jewel?”

Dryfu flew into view. “Aye, t’is. We’re close.”