The tree trunk of a club splintered into person-sized logs as it was stuck between the absolute end to all its momentum caused by Dave’s spell and the mighty arms that had been driving it down. The effect resulted in his new opponent losing its balance and falling to the ground atop his already injured comrade.

  That resulted in the lightning arcing back and forth between both of the creatures, but neither seemed to take much damage. Dave quick-cast Magic Missiles and Frost Wave, but neither seemed to have any impact. The rocklike skin must have been absorbing a tremendous amount of damage.

  He sighed in resignation, but a tool unused had no value, so Dave didn’t see any choice but to cast Spatial Bite. He cast it first on the forehead of the giant that was on its knees and trying to rise again. An extra 240 mana pushed the cost up to 440 but opened a three-foot hole in the mountain giant’s broad forehead.

  Even on its knees, the creature’s head was still over twenty feet in the air, but Dave was pretty sure he could see gray matter on the inside of the opening he had created. At least until its hand covered the hole, and it joined the first giant with a bellowing moan of agony at the impromptu brain surgery.

  That reaction, though, bought Dave enough time to do the exact same thing to the giant still on the ground. He then shouted, “Aim for the hole. Lobotomize it.”

  The two elven storm mages must have had the exact same idea that he had, because no sooner were the words out of his mouth than twin bolts of lightning leapt from the conjured clouds overhead, and the giant’s eyes glowed from the inside as its brain was cooked.

  The now standing giant stepped towards him, and Dave had to knock the storm mages out of the way so they wouldn’t be crushed. His Ablative Armor absorbed the worst of the impact from a giant kick, and even with that he took a couple of hundred damage. This thing was just too powerful to mess around with, and he was already down 20% of max health just from his Spatial Bite spells.

  Dave jumped back to give himself the necessary seconds and began casting Fire Bolts. Just as he was finishing the spell, the creature bent forward, hands extended, and prepared to crush Dave. That worked just fine, though, because it brought that opening in its skull right in front of Dave, and he was able to send all four bolts of fire right into its brain.

  In an instant the mountain giant got the worst fever in the history of Eloria as its brain literally ignited inside its head. The smell of burnt flesh was gruesome, but at least Dave was able to roll to the side as the body collapsed forward. He was under half his normal health now and at 25% mana, but he had to see how the others were faring.

  A quick glance told him that the mountain giant chieftain was out of reach, as it had started sprinting forward like a man possessed when the others were engaged in battle. The only way he was going to be able to intercept it was by gating back to Eris’ Rise. For now though the rest of his team wasn’t faring so well.

  Several of the forest wardens lay on the ground, their limbs and bodies in general bent at awkward angles. The giant with the open gut wound was lying still on the ground. It was a pincushion of arrows and had bleeding wounds all over its body. The giant with a single arm was also cut up but seemed to be wreaking havoc on the others of his team. One of the harvesters was held in its good hand and was screaming as he was slowly crushed.

  No time to spare, Dave quick cast Minor Enlarge and Lesser Gazelle’s Grace. He went running as he pulled his sword and spent the twenty mana to activate its phasing ability. Then as he leapt high into the air, he activated Offense Stance. When he reached the peak of his leap some forty feet into the air, he cast Sure Strike.

  Dave felt the synergy of all his magic and skills coming together. Nothing could stand against him. The voice spoke into his head again, but Dave subverted it. If he was strong, he was strong for the benefit of others. Those on top took care of those beneath. It was the way life should be even if it wasn’t the way they were accustomed to. He would glory in his might but as a way of winning for the team. The thought that crossed his mind as his magical blade delivered a devastating critical—combining might, skills, and magic for 4274 damage right across the throat of the giant—was a silly one. There is no I in team.

  Dave’s impact with the ground was cushioned by his spells, and he turned to survey his handiwork. They had managed to defeat four mountain giants. They were colossal elite monsters, and despite wanting to celebrate, he had to be a true leader and check on the condition of his people.

  In the end, it turned out that the trolls had given up without much of a fight and had run away. Eisuke led them back just in time for the druids to begin casting whatever healing they could. The human healer was already overwhelmed just trying to decide who to save first. Dave saw that some were beyond hope and said as much while encouraging the healers to save who they could.

  All told, they lost one of the fel harvesters. No, Dave had to remind himself of the man’s name, Sieg, and four of the forest wardens, Eichi, Suna, Dikue, and Femii. Many of the others had injuries, including Kuleen, who was cut up from her run trying to keep away from the trolls. Sadly, Raiku, the beast master, had given his life keeping her safe. The trolls had plucked him apart, and the human illusionist seemed likely to be plagued by nightmares of the scene for the rest of her life.

  As bad as the six losses were, they were a force of thirty elites who had just decimated an army of over forty thousand. Only in Eloria would such a thing be possible. Certainly there had been luck. And they had played upon the greedy hunger of the goblins, but the truth was it was a mighty accomplishment.

  “Casters, take your potions, rest for five minutes, and then we are gating back. Eisuke, lead the rest back at the fastest pace they can maintain. Right now I am worried that there are fiends attacking Eris’ Rise, and even if that fear is misplaced, that giant chieftain will be there in a few hours.”

  Everyone groaned, but no one complained, as they all knew that their friends and family might be even now fighting for their lives. The dead would be mourned soon, but for now they had to fight to save the living. After all, Eloria is conflict.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “A darkness, a sickness, a hole in the world, a wound in life.”—Line from a prophecy by the last Chosen of Karbanot, Jacinda Malcor.

  Eris’ Rise- Lady Emiri/Emily Nelson

  Emiri had not been sleeping very well since Dave left for his mission. She knew he could handle it if anyone could. She knew it would have been unfair to try to hold him back after he had let her go on the scouting mission when she needed to.

  Yet knowing something and feeling it in your heart were not the same. He had messaged her multiple times to keep her updated. That was something at least that hadn’t changed, a trait she appreciated about her husband.

  The last message had concerned her a bit. His voice had that same edge he had had when he went to attack the goblins at the gate all by himself. It spoke of that arrogant edge of Dave that she was not accustomed to. She knew that in many ways he was smarter than she was. He certainly had more IQ, and she wasn’t just talking about Intelligence points. It had been the same on Earth. She also knew that sometimes he hid a bit of disdain for others who didn’t catch on to something as quickly as he did.

  Yet she also knew her husband’s limitations. He might understand a legal or financial issue that confounded others, but other simple things evaded him. He probably couldn’t dance to save his life, as he seemed to have been born with two left feet. Even before, he hadn’t always been able to read a room. Dave was good with people so long as he was the leader, but not very good at working collaboratively.

  The arrogance that had risen in him concerned her, but she chalked it up to wanting to be strong to protect her and the children. Now she wasn’t so sure. He acted as though his group was going to single-handedly end the goblin threat.

  That message had woken her so that she wasn’t able to sleep again. Fortunately, her Kirun Sisuta was willing to get up for early morning training. The first sun had not risen, but she needed to be active, needed to keep her mind off whatever foolishness Dave was engaging in now.

  This turned out to be a blessing of significant proportion, as while they were training, Deoca’s keen eyes saw a strange black disc appear in the air. Immediately a sense of dread emanated from the portal. Then a second one appeared, and another, followed by a fourth.

  Out of each portal, ghouls started to spill out, loping along the ground like the vile twisted creatures they were. They were soon followed by shadow fliers and then by a pair of winged terrors, who walked through flanking the stalk fiend.

  No warning was given as they began attacking. Emiri shouted, “Hannah, perimeter. Deoca, sound the alarm. Balayria, stall them if you can.”

  Each of her teammates went into action, and she hurled a pair of shurikens at the nearest ghoul. Emir felt as ready for this as she could. She had leveled up three more times in recent months. Her twelve stat points had been divided between Agility, Constitution, Intelligence, and Wisdom. Her character points had gone into maxing out her new skills.

  Throwing the shurikens had been reflexive action, meant only to buy her a second to plan a strategy. For once she was grateful that both Daichi and Jaselm insisted that nighttime was the most dangerous time, and more than that, they had increased her normal guard while Dave was gone. So instead of two guards like she had been accustomed to at night, there were eight guards. Two monks, two elven warriors, a paladin of Shanelle, and three soldiers. Any other time it would have seemed like overkill.

  She shouted at one of the guards, “Go get Jaselm and Daichi.” Against any other foe she would have called for the monk first, but against fiends, no one was as well equipped as paladins, well, other than her.

  To the other guards she said, “Keep them off me, but try to gather them in. If we can get them close enough, I have a nasty surprise in mind.”

  She smiled and understood a bit of Dave’s mindset, perhaps. This was a rush. These were creatures of nightmare, and they were inside the walls. They wanted nothing more than to kill and destroy, but for all of that she felt like she was in control.

  The portals winked out of existence after depositing over a hundred ghouls and a like number of shadow fliers. In all the chaos, Emiri lost sight of the stalk fiend and the two winged guards that had been with it. She did, however, notice a lone hobgoblin working some sort of magic on the ground. It was alright. They would get to him soon enough.

  Hannah had hastily conjured an earthen wall around them. It slowed the attacks of the ghouls but did nothing to keep the flying fiends from them. Still, it was accomplishing her intention. Soon all the enemies were gathered around, and she sprang the trap. Using her Judgment skill for a measly four faith points, she was able to debuff all the fiends within eighty feet of her position.

  Chaos ensued as some were blinded, others were chilled, still more were slowed or pained, with the rest being either stunned, dazed or confused. The confused ones were almost funny to watch as they began to randomly tear into the other fiends around them.

  “This will last for about one minute. We need to take them down,” Emiri ordered even as she gathered shadows around herself and moved like a whirlwind amongst the creatures. As her preferred foes, she knew far more about these evil beings than she ever wanted to. This helped her avoid the few that were able to still attack while lashing out with sneak attacks against the helpless ones, each time knowing just the right spot to strike.

  The predawn hour of the attack might have been catastrophic even with her ability to cut down so many of the fiends were it not for the fact that the citizens were early risers. Because of their leveling policies, those craftsmen who left their homes early to open their shops were not helpless.

  Instead, fiends that stumbled down the streets or sought to swoop down on an unsuspecting citizen just as often got a magic missile launched into their face. Some citizens still ran screaming back inside, but this only served to alert more. Soon the streets were filled with militia members in various states of dress. Armor half on or shirtless, but either way with weapons at the ready.

  One of those citizens who took a stand in the street was Kraden, the chief miner. He bolted out of his house when he heard the first cries and began chopping away at the enemies. His weapon of choice was a specially crafted pickaxe that he made from his own flesh.

  When Emiri had restored his lost hand, she had done so by fusing an enchanted hand crafted from the heartwood of the sacred ash in their village. Almost all the craftsmen in town had had a hand in making it. Hiroto and Mira, of course, handling the enchanting, another craftsman carved runes into it, and a smith poured liquid mithril into those runes to strengthen them.

  Emiri would have been lying if she said she knew the difference between enchanting and rune crafting but took the word of others that they were different arts. In the same way the jewel crafters had set a series of small gems into the hand and foot, each of which had been infused with mana and spells by Mira and Dave. It was truly a community project.

  Since that time, the man had changed. His body had become an amalgamation of the sacred ash wood, which was spreading, and his flesh. The one thing that had not changed was his devotion to her. So it wasn’t surprising that when she found herself overwhelmed by fiends that kept appearing no matter how fast she killed them, there he was.

  His pick, a tool that he was so comfortable with from years as a miner, swung smoothly in his hand or as his hand. Each stroke impaled a ghoul and sent it flying. One of the ghouls leapt at him and latched onto his arm. A moment of pain crossed his face, but then the ghoul fell away on the ground, its mouth spewing forth black bile. Something about his arm had been wholly unpalatable to the fiend.

  There must have been other portals outside the walls because the wall guards were busy fighting off monsters, and still the shadow fliers were pouring into town. Individually, killing them was almost laughably easy for her with all of her abilities now. Her Kirun Sisuta was in full action around her. Their teamwork continued to reach new levels, and Kraden fell right in with them.

  Chapter Thirty

  “Free the sky, strong the wing, born of flame and wind, spirit so wild.”—Quote from an unknown source in the tome Dragons and the Fools Who Ride Them by Sage Pencius of the Imperial Academy.

  Eris’ Rise- Sara Nelson

  Sara woke up with a jolt. One of the guards was in her room. That couldn’t be right. Krinnk was shaking her too. “Wakes up, Sara. Sara must get up. Monsters coming.”

  Out in the living room, Sara heard Mira shouting at someone. There was the sound of crashing furniture and breaking dishes. She heard Mira casting a spell. Sara didn’t know anything about magic, but at least she could recognize when people were casting. A second later, an explosion compressed the air badly enough to knock her off her feet and send her flying onto the bed again.

  A moment later, a clawed hand grabbed the wall at the doorway and ripped away an entire section. The creature standing there was a monster, and not the kind of nice monster she liked to make friends with. Its twisted, wolflike face shrieked in hatred at her. She felt a moment of terror. Tears filled her eyes, and she was scared in a way she hadn’t been since that wicked goblin had stabbed Jackson.

  Then she heard a roar. It filled her ears and made the house rattle. This roar didn’t make her afraid, though. This roar might sound like thunder to everyone else, but to Sara, she recognized her friend calling her name.

  Overhead, the roof was ripped off the top of the house. Altracia looked down and spit a stream of acid at the winged terror fiend. It screeched as it rolled on the ground, trying to remove the acid from its skin. The drake hissed, “Leap onto my back.”

  Sara didn’t hesitate, but using her ability gained from Snowball, she leapt the twenty feet onto the drake’s back and yelled back at Krinnk, “Run.”

  Once she was on Altracia’s back, the drake launched into the air again. As she did, a second winged terror jumped into the air after her. Being stronger didn’t make the drake faster, and the terror jumped onto its back. Sara turned back and used her own acid breath, and the terror fell away screaming.

  “Good job, little one. We will make a drake of you yet,” Altracia said.

  Soon they were soaring high in the sky. Sara looked down and took in the scene. The people of town were running around. Some were being chased by monsters; others were chasing the monsters. Sara got angry then. She liked this place. She liked that Mom and Dad, even Mira, were spending more time with her.

  They were still busy, but when they were there, they were really there. No TVs or cell phones distracting them, just one-on-one time. Twice Sara had seen the town attacked. Twice she hadn’t been able to do anything. This time was different. Maybe it was her connection to Altracia, or maybe it was just simply her becoming a bit more like her parents.

  “There, dive,” Sara shouted while pointing down at a small cluster of citizens. “We need to save those people.”

  Altracia hesitated for a moment but saw where she was pointing and then went into action. Time and again they would swoop down and crush a shadow flier or pull a ghoul from the sky before dropping it to its death. Whenever they came across a cluster of fiends together, the drake would burn them down in the liquid fire of her breath.

  Sara yelled in joy each time they were able to save someone. It felt right to be helping people. Then a ball of fire splashed against Altracia’s neck. Sara looked from one side and then to the other. She saw one of the winged terrors on each side. They were hurling balls of fire against her.

  She banked and extended her talons at the first terror. The second dove in, trying to attack from behind, but Altracia’s tail struck her. From there the battle went back and forth very quickly. Sara clung on tightly.