NOVEL NEXT Chapter 28
The wildfire crackled and roared, embers filling the air as it fed on the trees.
Then, as if the flames themselves had taken shape, another fire elemental manifested from the inferno, its molten body pulsating with unnatural life.
The flame version of the monster still wore the tiki-like mask, but now it was blue. And instead of golem-like ice blocks for arms and legs, it was slender with fluid flame for limbs.
One spun in a dizzying whirl and melted some of the remaining bits of frozen ground, drawing the steam into its body and launching an arc of fire at the team.
Logan ducked, and Alden gasped as Senna tugged him down before the flaming blade took his head off.
Before they could react, the other two blurs of gathering mana condensed, too. These were the frost-forms of the elementals, and they reveled in the blazing wildfire, snuffing out edges of the flame to blanket the ground in ice.
The imbalance was only getting worse.
"Should we try overloading them again?" Bromlin asked, tightening his grip on his axe.
"No," Alden said immediately, throwing Logan a sharp glance. "They'll just convert back into ice." He pushed himself away from Senna as a cone of icy breath rocketed toward where he and Senna had just huddled next to one another. "We've given them a perfect cycle to fuel one another."
Senna exhaled through her teeth. "So what you're saying is, we need a whole new plan."
The first elemental swung a flaming fist into a nearby tree, sending an explosion of sparks outward. The ice elementals reacted almost instantly, siphoning the heat from the embers to coat themselves in ice-spiked shells.
"They're adapting too fast!" Cassandra called, raising a ward just in time to deflect a projectile shard.
The battle began again, but this time, Logan felt their attacks weren't making enough impact. No matter how many strikes Bromlin landed with his axe, the ice elementals simply reformed, using the lingering heat from the fire elementals to reshape their shattered limbs. A severed arm would crumble into slush for barely a second before refreezing, jagged icicles spreading out like a growing vine. Every time Bromlin's axe found purchase, it was as if he had merely trimmed a branch instead of felling a tree.
Aetherlens!
The burning wood wasn't just generating increased fire mana. It also created a heavy presence of necrotic energy.
"Alden," Logan called, "can you rot the burning wood so it depletes faster?" Across the clearing, Alden wove his hands and the timber fueling the living flames darkened as necrotic energy sped its transformation to ash. It helped limit how much fuel the fiery versions could ignite to feed their icy counterparts, but it wasn't enough.
No matter how much they fought back, the fire and ice elementals thrived in each other's presence, cycling between frozen armor and fiery regeneration.
Logan didn't even know what Senna was doing with how she ran around, picking up half-charred sticks and snapping off the burning parts while whittling the other ends into wooden stakes. Cassandra barely had time to raise a ward to shield Senna, sparks searing through the edges of her protective dome.
Logan, still with his legendary skill active, caught something in that interaction. The ward wasn't just shielding them; it was keeping the heat back.
His mind snapped into focus.
"That's it!" he shouted. "Cassandra, if you completely seal one of the fire elementals inside a ward, it won't have oxygen to grow or ice to draw from! It'll burn itself out!"
Cassandra shot him a wary look as a red and blue blast battered at the other side of her ward. "A full enclosure? That takes focus!"
"Then we'll cover you," Logan said.
Cassandra hesitated for only a second before planting her feet and stretching out both hands. A golden light pulsed from her palms, spreading in fluid arcs before snapping into a rigid dome. Inside the shimmering translucent barrier, the fire elemental shone like a candle trapped within a lantern's frosted glass.
The monster let out a furious, garbled roar, its molten form pulsating as it slammed a blazing fist against the ward. The impact sent cracks of light rippling across the dome and it broke free.
Cassandra clenched her teeth and summoned a fresh ward around them to protect them from a fiery blast. "I can't hold it back with a ward," she said, disappointed. "Wards deflect, not contain."
Logan squinted at the ward, sensing dual layers. A soft, cushioning mana lined the outside while rigid mana shelled the inside. A pattern formed in his mind, but it didn't fully click. Not yet.
"How does a ward work?" Logan asked.
She gritted her teeth and flashed him a look that clearly meant not the time.
"You've got this," Logan pressed, keeping his voice steady. "You're used to deflecting attacks outward, but what if you flipped it? Instead of shaping the ward around it from our side, try weaving it like you're standing inside with it. Can you turn the shell inward?"
Her magic wavered, then steadied. Logan saw the shift, the understanding settle in her eyes.
Cassandra inhaled sharply. "I—"
"You're not blocking it out," Logan urged. "You're sealing it in."
Again, the shell formed around it. This time, when the illuminated silhouette tried to smash through, its hands rebounded. Cracks still appeared, but they were hairline fractures this time, and Cassandra reinforced with another wave of radiant energy.
Inside, the elemental flickered, its flames licking hungrily at the edges of its containment. But there was nothing left to burn. No frost to draw from. Its movements grew sluggish, its ember-like core dimming as its own energy burned away with nowhere to replenish. Without an ice elemental to cycle its energy, its entire body wavered, shrinking inward like a dying star.
Cassandra roared as she pushed her palms forward. The ward imploded on itself. The sheer force blew Logan's hair back, and Bromlin leaped in from nowhere and drove his axe into the being's spine, right where Logan had located the combustion chamber on the iced equivalent.
Senna whistled. "Cass-aaa-ndra. Now that's a new trick."
Logan thrust a fist in the air, claws silhouetted against the wildfire. "One down!"
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The problem wasn't over yet. The two remaining ice elementals still had access to the fire, thriving as they absorbed its energy.
Cassandra called the others over and raised a barrier to protect them long enough to gather their thoughts.
"We need to get the ice monsters away from the fire," Logan said. He turned to Cassandra. "Think you can tackle the other flame one if we manage that?"
She nodded and brushed damp hair from her face before setting into an aggressive stance, her forehead vein bulging.
"The fire is too strong," Alden said, watching Logan with no expression. "You won't lead them far enough away that they can't draw from it.
"Any suggestions?" Logan asked.
The mage bored holes into Logan's soul with that unreadable stare, and finally gave Logan a small smile and nod. "It will take some time, but I can begin containing it."
"Good! Bromlin, can you help me keep them occupied?"
"Aye, lad!" He readied his axe but hesitated. "Just, how exactly do we lead them away from the raging inferno?"
Logan smirked. "I have a plan."
After a quick explanation, they all agreed.
Alden shifted his stance, draining the residual life from already-doomed trees at the wildfire's edges to create a break and keep it from causing even more devastation. Where embers licked the ground, soil lurched upward, snuffing out several burning logs.
Meanwhile, Logan and Senna, the two fastest, ran intersecting paths around the two demonic snowmen, dodging frozen javelins with occasional cover from Cassandra. The hardest part was the start, but the more the two monsters pulled from the forest fire, the easier it became for Alden to quell it, and eventually Cassandra could focus her full efforts on the last flame elemental with Bromlin to back her up.
Before the monsters could freeze so much they overloaded, Logan and Senna grabbed the pile of still-burning embers she had discarded from her whittled stakes. Between the heat and their taunting, they lured the two frigid foes away from the dwindling inferno.
With a loud hyargh, Bromlin finished off the other flame boy and charged their way, pile of stakes in hand per Senna's request.
"You got it from here, dwarf?" Senna asked.
"Aye, lass!" He offloaded the sharpened wood. "Now get yourself to safety."
"Ha! Good one. But I've got some deliveries to make."
She picked up the stakes and immediately ran straight toward the ice monsters.
Logan still wasn't sure what she had planned until the moment she wedged the stakes into the monster's equivalent of armpits, which severely hampered their spear-throwing range.
After that, it was relatively simple work, with Logan's claws and Bromlin's axe chipping away at the monsters without them having heat to draw from or enough ice to overload with.
The last ice elemental collapsed, dissolving into a swirl of mist that shimmered between blue and red before vanishing completely.
A flood of notifications had accumulated, blinking furiously for Logan's attention.
Aetherlens is level… 19!
Cold Resistance is level… 13!
Heat Resistance is level… 17!
Gauntlet Mastery is level… 12!
You have helped kill (2) level 36 Frostfire Elementals! Shared experience gained!
You have helped kill a level 37 Frostfire Elemental! Shared experience gained!
You have helped kill a level 41 Frostfire Elemental! Shared experience gained!
You are now level 10!
+2 END, +4 DEX, +6 INT, +8 PER, +4 WIL
Monster Slayer I is now Monster Slayer III!
Additional +2 END, DEX, INT
Logan smirked and flicked his claws at the empty space, a taunting feint like he was daring the elemental to reform and try again. He crouched to retrieve the core, but the sound of a deliberate throat-clearing froze him mid-motion.
Senna had her hands on her hips, grinning, and Bromlin looked downright pleased with himself, but Cassandra stood with her arms crossed, her lips pursed in thought. Alden, however, was unreadable.
"I think," Alden said slowly, tilting his head, "you have some explaining to do." His eyes flickered to the charred remnants of the extinguished woods before settling back on Logan. "You didn't just guess how to counter those elementals. You saw something."
Cassandra's gaze sharpened. "And you understood the structure of my ward like you were looking at its blueprint."
Logan rolled his shoulders, buying himself a moment.
The battle had ended. They had survived. But the lingering tension was no longer about the monsters.
It was about him.
Mishki moved like a shadow, creeping along the worn stone halls of the dark castle. A large rat he often fed followed him, even though tonight he had tried to shoo it away. His time was limited, though, so he had given up.
The torches had burned low for the night, their dim light flickering against the damp walls. He clutched the small, dented cup in both hands, careful not to let the water slosh over the rim. It was barely more than a mouthful, but it was all he dared to steal.
At this hour, the path to the furnace room was treacherous. The night guards were sluggish but watchful, their eyes trained more on each other than the corridors. None of them trusted their own kin. The warlock saw to that.
Mishki kept close to the wall, his ears twitching at every distant sound. As he rounded the corner toward the lower stairwell, a metal basin clattered as his rat friend clambered over it. Mishki's heart leaped into his throat as the noise echoed down the passage, and the small rodent squeaked in what sounded like an apology.
Footsteps approached, and Mishki darted into a recessed alcove, pressing himself against the damp stone. The rat almost followed, but Mishki shook his head. Ever since feeding the small rodent, he had gained the unexpected Critter Taming skill, and had steadily leveled it each day.
A goble guard appeared, torch in hand, grumbling under his breath. When he saw the rat, he growled and drew a dagger, rushing toward it.
Mishki mouthed Run!, and the little beast did. That also directed the guard's line of sight away from Mishki.
"Blighted rats… getting bigger every week." He hocked a wad of spit onto the floor and shook his head. "One of these days, I swear, they'll be walking on two legs."
Mishki's ears flattened against his skull. He held his breath.
The guard lingered for a moment longer, then, losing interest, turned back the way he came. Mishki waited until the footsteps faded before slipping down the stairwell.
The beam of light filled the space through the transparent central floor, with three additional rays slanting in through the evenly spaced slag chutes. Within the domed housing structure, the aerudine remained bound in chains to the convergence orb. The metal links rattled slightly as she lifted her head at his approach.
Mishki hurried inside and set the cup down in her chained reach. "Here."
Her golden eyes softened with gratitude, but he found it hard to hold her gaze. He wished to be away from here before anybody noticed his absence upstairs.
She took the cup delicately, tilting it back, drinking every last drop. But Mishki saw how she hesitated before handing it back. The water had done almost nothing. She needed more.
How could he be so selfish with how little he brought her? "I should have brought more," he whispered.
She shook her head and smiled. "You risked enough, and I am grateful." Her wing shifted as if in introduction, but the chains restricted her and she let out a sad laugh. "I am called Avalyn."
Before Mishki could respond, the scrape of boots echoed from the upper stairwell.
Panic flared through him.
Avalyn acted fast. "Behind me," she said, lifting her wings up just enough for him to huddle beneath before she folded them around him. Her feathers were stiff with soot and the chains limited her ability to shield him completely. He curled in on himself, trying to make himself smaller, praying the dark would be enough to keep him hidden.
Through the slits between her feathers, he saw them enter.
The warlock's dark robes swept the steps as he descended, his staff tapping against the stone. His free hand hauled a whimpering goble by the nape, and a hook-nosed secretary bustled close behind.
"Please, master, I meant to bring you honor with the reavers!"
The warlock marched to the slag chute and hurled the goble into the emptiness below. A pearlescent beam shot from his staff, ending the goble's fading cry prematurely.
"What," said the secretary, as if nothing had happened, "would you have me tell the reavers, master?"
"That we were mistaken!" The warlock took a settling breath and rubbed his temple with his staff's crystal. "Tell them it was a false alarm and the ripple we detected from a Boundary passing was just from one of our own." He thrust a finger to the secretary's chest. "If I hear any other goble so much as thinking about contacting the reavers directly, chain them to the convergence orb with that filth and drain them dry."
"Of course, master."
"We are so close," the warlock said, pacing to the central glass overlook. "I know there is an object out there with the power to overcome even their strength."
"What if they ask to check in on our progress with the…" the secretary trailed off and pointed into the cavern's depths.
"Tell them the region is too low-leveled to provide enough energy to waken it. I do not want them nearby until I have that item in my hand." His voice lowered. "Whatever it is."
After an uncomfortable span of pensive silence, the warlock's face twisted with sinister pleasure. "Perhaps we can entice it. I have felt its pull grow stronger as the entity stirs." The harsh light painted his cruel resolve.
"I want to accelerate the process."