Now that they had finished sorting out their Stats, Skills and Abilities Kyle and Fi followed the others out of the hole in the wall of ice that had surrounded them to discover that Garvin, Foz and Temdar had already finished off the remaining spiders. Once they regrouped Gerdan and Kyle started to explain Kyle’s plan to save the person that the Abomination was holding hostage.

As it turned out the only person who liked Kyle’s plan was Temdar. The Dwarven warrior threw back his head and laughed loudly once Kyle had finished explaining it to them.

“The kid’s got balls like a dwarf!” The muscular dwarf exclaimed once he had finished laughing. “What do you think of his plan Garvin?”

“I think that it’s reckless and inadvisable,” Garvin replied as he looked upwards at the massive Abomination and then sighed. “But I understand why Kyle wants to save them and I don’t think that we have a better option.”

“I agree,” Gerdan nodded. “And that spell of his should buy him some time.”

“Are you sure that it will work?” Garvin asked. “That thing’s a lot more powerful than you are.”

“Well it should help a lot,” Fi replied. “Especially against physical attacks. Think of it like attacking a thorny plant with your bare hands. After the first hit you learn that punching something with thorns is a bad idea even if the thing that you’re hitting takes more damage than you do, right?”

“That’s a pretty good point,” Gerdan nodded.

“And we have Mana Barrier and a healing spell so it’s not like we’re putting all of our eggs in one basket,” Kyle pointed out and FI nodded in agreement.

“Alright, fine then,” Garvin sighed as Foz who had been collecting all his axes from the corpses of the spiders that he had killed scampered up his leg. “I guess that it’s worth a shot.”

As he said this an axe appeared in his hand and he cocked his arm back and prepared to throw it at the massive monster that was still suspended above them. The Abomination had been chittering at them angrily for the past couple of minutes and upon seeing Garvin’s aggressive action it let go of the branches that it had been hanging from.

The Abomination crashed through several smaller branches on the way down as the ranged fighters started to attack it showering them all with fragments of wood. The behemoth spider shrieked in irritation as the various projectiles struck it before landing between the group and what remained of the ice wall.

Temdar charged towards the hideous creature with a surprisingly happy sounding shout even as its body started glowing in several places. A few seconds later massive streamers of blue energy shot out of its body and flew towards Temdar who only stated to laugh harder as he activated his Bull Rush Skill.

Meanwhile Kyle was waiting for the right moment to make his move because he knew that he would only get one chance to get up on the Abomination’s back. Garvin and Fervah were repositioning in the hopes of finding angles that they could attack the Abomination without hitting the person currently cocooned on its back. Gerdan was preparing another powerful spell that he hoped would immobilise the Abomination completely while Laurence ran after Temdar. Carly decided to save as much of her MP as possible for the moment as she knew that they would need a lot of healing before this fight was over.

Temdar crashed shoulder first into the Abomination’s disturbingly soft flesh as the energy streamers exploded on the ground behind him. The dwarven warrior clicked his tongue angrily before following up his shoulder charge with an axe swing that bounced off the monster’s mandibles.

Seeing that its attention was completely on Temdar for the moment Kyle activated his Mana Enhancement spell and burst into motion. The combination of over 50 points of Agility combined with the boost from Mana Enhancement allowed him to pass Laurence before the young man even realised what was going on. As soon as he was close enough Kyle Leapt through the air as Temdar kept up his assault on the nightmarish giant spider allowing Kyle to land on its back before it even realised what was going on.

Before it could throw him off Kyle’s spiked chain slammed into its flesh causing it to rear back in pain. Drawing the knife that Fervah had given him Kyle ducked under one of the monster’s limbs which contorted itself in a very unnatural way as it tried to knock him off. Now that he was closer, he could see that the person that the Abomination was holding captive was wearing what used to be very nice clothes.

“Oh great,” Fi muttered as she unwrapped herself from Kyle’s shoulders. “We’re saving the moron who’s the reason that we’re here.”

“Don’t complain Fi,” Kyle said as he started sawing at the sticky threads that bound the young man to the Abomination’s back. “He may be a fool, but he still doesn’t deserve to die.”

“I know,” Fi sighed as she kept an eye out for the next attack so that Kyle could continue to cut the merchant’s son free.

Meanwhile Garvin was staring at Kyle in surprise, he hadn’t really expected that Kyle’s plan would work.

“Just what is this kid’s Class?” the grizzled dwarven axe thrower grumbled under his breath.

“Well Alistair did tell you it was important to keep him alive,” Foz chuckled in reply. “I guess that we know why now.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Garvin sighed as he hurled one of his axes at one of the monster’s legs as it raised it to attack Temdar allowing the more muscular dwarf to dodge it then slam his own axe into the leg eliciting another screech of pain from the monster.

Gerdan finally finished casting the spell that he had been preparing and the earth beneath the Abomination’s legs turned to quicksand causing it to begin sinking. Seeing this Temdar grinned as he redoubled his attacks on the monster as it tried to drag itself free of the sand. Due to his lower Level Laurence was struggling to deal any real damage to the monster even though his sword was actually a very well-made weapon. It was now that he realised how useful Kyle’s Enchantment magic had been for him. Sure, he had managed to do fairly well against the weaker spiders even after the enchantment faded but those were far, far weaker than the Abomination was. He was still able to deal damage by using his Skills, but it was pretty minor.

“Just keep it up kid!” Temdar shouted when he saw the annoyed look on Laurence’s face. “I know you’re not doing a lot of damage right now but you’re still helping!”

Laurence nodded and his blade glowed once again as he activated his Crescent Slash Skill. This time the blade hit one of the Abomination’s legs right on the joint and bit much deeper than any of his previous attacks. Gritting his teeth, he leaned in and started sawing the blade back and forth several times before leaping back when the monster attempted to lash out at him with its leg.

“That’s more like it, lad!” Temdar shouted encouragingly as he buried his axe into one of the monster’s eyes then laughed as he was lifted up off the ground when it reared back in pain causing Kyle to curse loudly as the sudden movement caused him to accidentally cut the hostage.

“Sorry about that,” Kyle muttered as he kept cutting the threads. The merchant’s son had barely reacted even though the cut was actually quite deep which as far as he was concerned was proof that the young man had been poisoned by the Abomination. “Just a little bit longer. I’m almost halfway done.”

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It was at this point that the Abomination revealed its first real surprise as it fired a stream of liquid into the air. As the liquid scattered into droplets it glowed with a familiar blue light and hurtled back to earth much faster than normal.

Fi cursed as she realised that Kyle’s Counter Shield wasn’t going to be effective against an attack like this, so she cast Mana Barrier instead as the others scattered.

Small explosions rocked the clearing as the tiny blue bullets landed. Fervah yelled in pain as chunks of flesh were ripped from her right arm which she had quickly raised to protect her head. In fact, the only ones who weren’t injured by this sudden attack were Gerdan and Carly who took shelter under a dome of earth that Gerdan had summoned as soon as he’d realised what was going on.

“Shit,” Kyle groaned in pain. As soon as FI had warned him he had used his own body to protect the man that he was trying to save and he had been hit by several of the projectiles when the Mana Barrier that Fi had cast broke.

“Are you alright?’ Fi asked worriedly as she hastily cast Restore on him.

“Yeah, yeah I’ll be fine,” Kyle groaned. Even though he knew he’d taken a lot of damage he couldn’t feel a lot of pain at all now which he knew wasn’t a good sign. But even if that was the case, he wasn’t going to abandon the merchant just yet. “I’m okay.”

“Kyle, are you almost done?” Garvin shouted as Foz passed him a healing potion from his Inventory.

“About halfway!” Kyle shouted back.

“Okay but if that thing tries to use that attack again then I want you to get clear!” Garvin replied.

“You know that he won’t do that right?” Foz asked his partner quietly.

“Yeah I know but I still needed to say it,” Garvin replied as he threw another axe at the Abomination.

Kyle muttered curses under his breath. Whatever was causing the silk that was wrapped around the merchant to be sticky was dulling the blade of the knife, so he switched to one that Garvin had given him and kept working.

Finally, he managed to cut the man’s head completely free and he immediately spat something out of his mouth and started screaming

“Stop that,” Kyle growled irritably as he clapped a hand over the man’s mouth. “You’re making this harder than it needs to be.”

“What’s your name?” Kyle asked once the young man had called down as he gently removed his hand from his mouth.

“Findar,” the young man whined in reply. “Come on get me out of here. That’s why my dad hired you right?”

“Well you’re not wrong,” Kyle admitted. “But that doesn’t mean that you should be talking to someone who’s trying to save your life that way.”

“That’s right,” Fi agreed as she scowled at the spoilt fool that they were trying to save. “He’s already been injured trying to help you. How about you show some appreciation, or he might decide that saving you isn’t worth the reward that your father’s offering.”

“You can’t do that!” Findar whined.

“Then stop acting like a brat and stay still,” Kyle snapped. “I’ve almost got you free.”

Just then Findar’s eyes widened as a shadow loomed over his saviours.

“Look out!” He shouted then gaped in amazement when the oddly flexible leg of the Abomination crashed into the strange silver barrier that appeared between it and Kyle’s back as he calmly continued to cut away at the tough webbing that bound him to the monster’s back the barrier broke but Fi who cast the spell managed to angle so that the attack missed Kyle and slammed into the monster’s fleshy back. “How?”

Fi sighed in relief, after the last attack she knew that there was no way that Kyle would be able to take a hit like that, but she hadn’t been certain that the Counter Shield would hold up enough.

“It’s just a spell that we know,” Kyle shrugged. “Now hold still and I’ll have you free in a couple more minutes.

“Uh, okay,” Findar agreed as lay back so that Kyle could work. “And you’re right. Thank you.”

A small smile crossed over Kyle’s face briefly before being replaced aby the cold expression that was becoming more the norm for him. A few minutes later the last few strands of webbing gave way to the blade of Kyle’s knife and Kyle sighed in relief.

“Right, are you ready?” he asked and Findar nodded and Kyle carefully picked him up since he was still partially paralysed by the venom that the Abomination had injected before turning around. “Then hold on because it’s going to be a rough ride.”

Kyle activated his Leap Skill as soon as Fi finished wrapping herself around his neck and shot through the air. Seeing its prey escaping the gravely injured Abomination screamed in rage before firing a beam of mana from one of its remaining eyes. Fi shouted a warning as she cast Counter Shield in the hopes of dispersing some of the mana before it hit the already injured Kyle but there was no way that the spell was going to hold up to such a powerful attack and it shattered instantly with only a tiny portion of the attack being reflected back at the Abomination.

Hearing Fi’s warning shout Kyle cast Mana Barrier and attempted to use it to change his course but even with this last attempt to avoid being hit the beam of energy ripped a chunk from his foot and sent all three of them spiralling out of control towards the ground.

Carly quickly summoned a ball of water which they landed in and were slowly lowered to the ground as she rushed over to check on their wounds. As soon as Carly saw the state that Kyle’s foot and back where in her face turned pale. She knew that the damage was far worse than anything that she could heal but she hoped that she could stabilise him before he got any worse. From what she could tell the paralytic that the Abomination had poisoned the person that Kyle had saved would wear off in a few more minutes so after checking that she hadn’t missed any injuries she started casting as many spells as she could on the now unconscious Kyle.

As Carly started healing the mess that Kyle’s back had become and Fi was finally able to see just how bad the damage was she started shaking with rage and activated her Battle Form Ability. The serpent shaped companion glowed with a silvery light as she started to grow until she was several times the size that she normally was. When the light faded the being that was revealed looked quite different to the way that FI normally did. The once small crest of feathers was now a full-on mane and her small iridescent scales were now the size of Kyle’s palm. Fi turned her majestic head towards the Abomination and started casting as many spells as she could. Bolts of energy slammed into the Abomination like rain as she flew closer and crackling lightning appeared around Laurence’s blade and Temdar’s axe burst into flame.

The two warriors immediately made the most of this and doubled down on their attacks causing the Abomination the shriek even louder as the magical energies surrounding their weapons allowed even their weakest attacks to deal damage to the powerful monster. As soon as she got close enough for her to be able to use her special Battle Form only Ability Mana Storm on the Abomination without it also hitting Laurence or Temdar she syphoned some Mana from the unconscious Kyle and used it to activate the Ability. Thankfully due to the sheer size if the monster that they were fighting this was actually quite easy and a massive swirling blue cloud formed around its bloated abdomen which fit within the diameter of the Ability all by itself.

By the time the Ability ended the Abomination had already collapsed but Fi use the last of her MP to make sure it weas dead with one last salvo of magical projectiles before returning to Kyle’s side just as his eyes opened. The first thing that he did was try and get up, but Carly placed a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s fine Kyle,” she told him as he stared in awe at Fi who landed next to him. “The Abomination is dead. We’ve won.”

“And you saved me,” Findar said as he struggled upright. “I’ll make sure that you’re all rewarded for this.”

“I don’t really care about that reward,” Kyle groaned in reply. “Just promise me that you’ll actually listen to the people that you hire to protect you net time.”

“Yeah, I’ve definitely learned my lesson there,” Findar admitted. “I’m sorry for the way that I acted earlier.”

Kyle frowned slightly. He had expected that Findar would be much more difficult to deal with than this but maybe a lot of what had led up to him being captured was simply naivete and a significant amount of hubris. It was also possible that Findar’s father had given him an outrageous deadline as well.

“How am I doc?” Kyle asked as he turned to look at Carly.

“Well, I managed to heal you enough that there won’t be any lasting effects once we get you back to a healer in town but I don’t want you to move right now” Carly said as she stood up and brushed her robes off. “I’ll get the others to make a couple of stretchers so that we can get you both back to town.”

“Okay thanks,” Kyle nodded before turning back to Fi as the mage wandered off in the direction of the others who were all gathered around the corpse of the massive monster. “So that’s your Battle Form is it?”

“Yeah,” she replied looking down at herself. “Do you like it?”

Kyle snorted in amusement then groaned in pain when the pain in his wounds flared up before offering his worried looking companion a slightly pained smile.

“Yeah, you look great,” he replied. “Is it as powerful as you hoped?”

“Yes,” Fi replied. “I’m still nowhere near as strong as you are but I can help a lot more now.”

“That’s good,” Kyle nodded before closing his eyes and sighing slightly. Now that Carly had healed his back and foot, he could feel all the pain that had been dulled by the devastating damage to his nerves. “Now I just have to start picking fights that don’t leave me unconscious afterwards and we’ll be good.”

“Yeah that would be a good idea,” Fi chuckled s she shrank back down to her normal size. “Do you want me to use Restore on you?”

“That would be great,” Kyle replied then groaned in relief as healing light washed over him dulling the pain slightly. As the pain faded exhaustion took its place and he blinked sleepily before yawning. “I might just take a little nap now.”

“Go right ahead,” Fi told her oldest friend who nodded slowly and closed his eyes. “You’ve earned it.”