Lances of fire, shards of ice, and a burst of lightning shot past the twins from the other group to impact on the little yellow monstrosities that were charging for us. Unfortunately there was a lack of coordination and the damage was spread out among the gremlins in the pack. I didn’t see any damage notifications, and doubted I would, but could see scorched yellow skin on one of the beasts as the leading gremlins crashed into the shields that blocked the tunnel. Marcus’s arm whipped over his shield like a scorpion’s tail and drove his blade into the gremlin that had struck it.

I could only watch in awe at the two shield bearers. It wasn’t hard to believe that this wasn’t the first rush they had met with shield and sword. Reenactors, people who made a hobby out of studying and recreating historical periods, were not uncommon in the United Earth Federation; but I hadn’t met any until now. My gaze was drawn to the tall swordsman as he danced to the left of Helena to stab out at the beast on her shield as she covered Marcus. Maybe it wasn’t just the twins who had immersed themselves in that hobby.

I stood holding my spear and watching as the others efficiently carved apart the attacking gremlins. The first injury happened when one gremlin ran up Marcus’s shield and bit down on his sword arm, only to be transfixed by a crossbow bolt before it could continue the assault. I stepped forward resting my hand on his bleeding sword arm and activated my Heal spell. He kept moving his shield around to support his sister, not even breaking stride as the injury knitted closed.

In less than five minutes the first wave was cut down, with the only injury being the one I had closed. Rhiogail’s voice spoke up from behind us with a mixture of awe and satisfaction, “That was well done. I didn’t realize you all would be this capable. We may just make it out of this.”

Lily’s voice spoke up, “The other swarms may be more difficult. This is the group that your team already weakened.”

Rhiogail only grunted in response.

Marcus turned to me and said, “Thanks for the healing. That was an interesting sensation.”

“What did it feel like?” I asked.

Marcus cocked his head, considering my question, and said, “The injury felt like one would expect when something with sharp teeth takes a chunk out of you. The healing, well the healing felt like the area was numbed and then itched fiercely as it closed. I’m not sure how else to describe it.”

Davis’s voice spoke up, “It’s like that with open wounds. Generally a healing spell feels like a warm breeze or a refreshing drink when it affects your whole being. For wounds like that you have to use a more focused healing. I was about to point it out to him, but he figured it out on his own.”

I considered Davis’s statement as I noticed a new countdown timer appear in my periphery: two minutes and counting. For most games a healing spell restored hit points based on the level of the healer, an appropriate stat, and the level of the spell. While I could believe it restored general hit points, with this system we couldn’t see it. Kathryn had said that different body parts had individual hit points, so it appeared that if I focused on a specific limb the healing would affect it to the exclusion of the others.

I asked, “How effective is the healing in general?”

Davis considered for a moment then answered, “For the average new healer a general heal will remove bruises gained from a hard workout. A focused healing like you did would close a small injury like that one but not fully heal a more serious one. You would have to ask a dedicated healer to see how your abilities measured. I know most of them spend more time on more serious wounds”

Translation, don’t rely on the healing spell to cure a mortal wound in an instant. I saw the soldier with the crossbow and our group’s dark haired archer conferring while I spoke to Davis. A moment later she came back over while shaking her head and said, “Those overeager little shits blew their load on the first round.”

Davis chuckled and I clarified, “They used up all their Aether Pool on the first wave didn’t they?”

Lily replied, “Yeah, apparently those offensive spells are able to be charged for more power at a larger cost in Aether.”

Davis nodded, “Most spells work that way, the longer you hold it the more effective it is. For healing that means that you are continuously casting the spell on injuries. For offensive magic, you either have to cast and release or you will constantly push Aether into the spell.”

Helena spoke up, “Could it have been an accident? Maybe they didn’t realize that was how it worked.”

Lily shook her head, “I doubt it. They were like eager little kids just wanting to be big and bad with lots of boom.”

I grinned and replied, “I guess that means it’s our turn. How about the healers, did they add to the offense?”

“Oh the only one who did anything was the one with the bow. He added a few arrows to the mix but mostly was watching how everything was going. The girl with the knife had offensive spells mixed in with her healing spells, she held off doing anything and is being given hell for it,” she responded.

“Well if we can get one of them over here to help keep an eye on the tanks, I have an offensive spell I can use as well,” I said.

“Yeah Jared, that’s the guy with the crossbow, asked the girl to come over. Our ranged arsenal is down to four, five if you include her,” Lily said.

I watched as the timer ticked down to zero as the girl, an average sized woman with short cut red hair who introduced herself as Marie, came over to the group. Screeches once again filled the tunnel as another swarm of gremlins, at least doubled in number, rushed toward us.

Focusing on my fire spell I held up my right hand and focused on not releasing it yet. Three glyphs circled my hand, remaining in a triangular pattern around a small ball of fire in my hand. I watched the bar that represented my Aether Pool drop every three seconds, and the ball of fire grow when it did. After the third reduction of my aether I released the spell and watched as the fireball shot from my hand and impact a gremlin leaping through the air at Helena. The creature didn’t even have time to scream as burned and faded in a burst of light.

I smiled and nodded while saying, “That was a three charge. I’m going to try a single charge now.”

Lily knocked and loosed an arrow from her bow, and the asked in an exasperated tone, “Is there a reason you’re announcing it?”

“Because my class isn’t a mage type, if I can take them down in one hit the magic focused classes should be able to as well,” I responded as I let fly with a quickly readied fire spell.

This time the spell didn’t vaporize the gremlin, but it still fell and exploded in a burst of light. I guessed that the light show was how mobs in this game died. Lily spoke before I could, “I guess it is enough.”

The gremlins were falling quickly, usually within one or two solid strikes from any of us, so I limited myself on throwing more fire spells. I knew thanks to the quest notification that there was still another wave coming, and my ability to cast spells was not infinite. By the time the fight was over my aether pool was down to about a third, and Marie’s was down to half due to the twins taking more hits this round.

The countdown timer for the final wave reset to five minutes and Lily moved back to consult with the crossbowman who led the other group. I noticed that my mouth was dry as Andre slapped a canteen into my hand with a command to drink. I took a few mouthfuls and passed the canteen on as I took stock of the room.

The room was more or less circular, with a large quartz-like crystal, that glowed with a soft but bright green light, taking up about a quarter of it. A few stalactites hung from the ceiling which was about ten feet above my head, but there was little light to see up there. The crystal was broken where Andre had been harvesting from it, and the gaps where we had been incased. There were no other exits that I could see except for the tunnel the gremlins were coming down. I could see a stack of supplies that Rhiogail’s team had brought with them, and it appeared they were using this cavern as their base camp. Davis was with the group of mages, and it sounded like he was instructing them on meditation so that they could restore their lost aether faster. The twins had lowered their shields and stood leaning against them as they caught their breath. Richard had taken a knee, resting his sword across one shoulder, and seemed to be staring hungrily at the tunnel as if he were eager for another fight.

Rhiogail was tending to her troops, and I saw the same glyphs appear around her hand as she worked to heal the injuries they had sustained during their previous fight. That was probably for the best as I suspected the last wave was going to be much more difficult. An increase in heat and a small chirp from my shoulder brought my attention to the little phoenix on my shoulder. As I lifted my arm it hopped down until it was perched on my wrist staring at me. It chirped and a notification appeared in my vision.

Evolving Summons require a name to grow. Please name your Evolving Summon: Phoenix.

“Well, what should I call you then,” I mused while thinking on the stories of Phoenix’s in Earth’s folklore. The most famous phoenix was China’s Feng Hua, the lord of birds who wasn’t actually a firebird like the other legends. I focused on the bird hoping to bring up information regarding the bird’s gender, and was surprised when it worked.

Unamed (Phoenix)

This phoenix rose in infancy at the call of a summoner blessed by powers of fire and life. She has decided to remain at the summoner’s side for now to assist in his adventures. Abilities: Magic: Cleansing Flame, Action: Wind Dance, Magic: Wind Shield,

“Well you are a beautiful lady; do you mind the name Chola?” I asked, offering the name based on the old phoenix of legend Chol.

Chola chirped and the name on the notification changed as she lifted in the air and circled around my head. I noticed as she circled me that she seemed to grow in size a little. Not much, but she was now about the size of a small crow. I wished that I could see her stats, but no matter how much I focused on her they would not show. I pulled out my Aethercrest and focused on it, willing my character sheet to show.

Name: Michael Wolfe Class: Freelancer Cores: Unknown Hybrid, Strength 6 Offense 6 Agility 7 Defense 6 Vitality 6 Spirit 6 Willpower 6 Aether Pool 120 Luck 5 Advancement Pool 17 Skills None Abilities Evolving Summon: Phoenix, Evolving Magic: Fire, Magic Wind Shield, Magic: Heal Traits Lucky Break; Spirit Caller

I looked up and found Andre nearby so I asked, “Andre, what’s an advancement pool. My Aethercrest shows it now.”

Andre nodded and answered, “Aye, I thought one of you might have that question. Monsters like the gremlins are corruptions in the Aether released by the crystals. When you defeat a monster your crest absorbs and purifies some of the Aether that formed them. You can then focus that aether into your crest to make it stronger, or you can focus it into the cores to attune abilities to the crest. Since most crests have a limited number of core sockets it is recommended that you do a bit of both so that you can remove a core and replace it with a new one.”

Richard, still kneeling where he was, asked, “What are the limits?”

Andre grinned and answered, “Smart lad. The advancement pool only works on the crest you’re bound to when you gained the points. If you bind a new crest you have to start over. Also if you are attuning a core’s ability to the crest you have to completely attune it before you change cores, or you lose your progress. Most crests have a limit to the abilities that can be attuned to them.”

“What do you mean by attuning a core’s ability?” I asked.

Andre pointed at me and said, “Take your healing spell. It came from the core Davis gave you. If you attuned the ability to your crest, than even if you replaced the class core with something else, you will still have access to that ability.”

So that was how abilities worked, I had been curious ever since I summoned Chola as I didn’t want to give up the evolving summon. It did raise the question though, “What about Evolving magic? According to Davis the spell changes depending on other cores.”

Andre shook his head and answered, “I’m not sure. You’ll have to ask Davis when we get out of here. I do know that not all of the abilities on a core can be attuned though.”

I focused on my crest again, this time with the intent of advancing the crest or the core. The lines of the sigil on it grew in my vision and I saw that each was labeled with a different statistic. There were five lines that formed the pattern, though it looked like there should be more, and I saw that I could increase my Strength, Agility, Vitality, Spirit, or Aether Pool stat for ten advancement points. When I focused on the class core I was prompted to input a name for the core. I chose to call it a Hybrid Summon core. With the name selected I saw that I could attune the Evolving Magic: Fire and the Evolving Summon: Phoenix to the Aethercrest. The fire spell would cost me 100 advancement points, but the summon was going to cost me two thousand points.

I winced and said, “Looks like the summoning costs a couple thousand points.”

Andre winced and said, “Ouch, I didn’t know it would be that much. I’ve heard of some of the stronger abilities costing that much, but not a low level summoning spell.”

“Well Chola is listed as an evolving summons, I don’t know how that rates as far as strength goes,” I said.

Andre’s eyes widened and he said, “That would explain it. Evolving Summon magic is uncommon. There are others out there with that type of magic, and the creatures called can become fairly powerful. I would ask Davis, but I’m pretty sure that you should be attuning that ability to your crest.”

I couldn’t argue the point, having a summoned creature that could support me and grow with me would make my long term goal of claiming land much easier. I thanked Andre as he moved off to bring water to the rest of the people resting in between waves.

As the timer reached the last fifteen seconds we began to hear the screeching of the gremlins down the tunnel. We all stood ready as the first of the gremlins appeared. A quick headcount showed ten of them and they stood back down the tunnel not advancing toward us.

Other than their screeching it was quiet and I heard Lily mutter, “Why aren’t they rushing us like last time?”

I wondered that too. The previous two waves had been mindless charges, with the intent to bring us down by sheer numbers. A flare of light appeared in the tunnel as one of the mages threw a fireball down it. It guttered out a few feet in front of the gremlins as if it had run out of fuel. Another larger ball of fire followed, growing smaller as it passed where the first had dispersed, to strike one of the gremlins burning it into a burst of light.

I heard the crossbowman call out, “Save your aether, we don’t know how many there are this time.”

Richard growled softly, “They are up to something, I can feel it.”

I nodded my agreement and focused on trying to think of what options the gremlins had. With the twins holding the door they hadn’t managed to gain a foothold in the room. Rhiogail’s men were recovered, and standing by ready to reinforce the opening. Between the mages and the archers the swarm was a sitting duck if they came in a pack like they had before. An intelligent opponent would try for a flanking maneuver, but there weren’t any other entrances to the room.

A suspicion crept into my mind, and I launched a fireball upwards as I called out, “From above!”

In brief instant the fireball lit the ceiling I saw holes near the stalactites, and red eyes peering down at me before screeching once again filled the air and gremlins fell down into the middle of the groups.