Chapter 37

After their dismissal by Aurion, Jason and the others moved away to make room for others who were seeking the man’s attention.

Kera peered at the massive, twenty-foot diameter well cap as they passed by, running her hand idly along Echo’s back as she did so. “Why is this well so big, anyway?” she asked. “Aren't they, you know, usually person-sized?"

"No, not always," Jason replied as they made way for a quickly-moving woman dressed in loose robes. "There's one in Kansas that's probably half again wider than this, some kind of tourist thing, and there's other ones in the world that are even bigger. The biggest is somewhere in Italy, I think?"

"Still, it seems excessive," Kera commented. She paused. "Also, why do you even know things like that?"

"Because I am a font of useless trivia, thanks to videogames and the internet," Jason replied blithely. A man dressed in full armor passed them, and Jason glanced around the square, looking for his destination. Jason spotted a group of heavily-armored men and women standing a handful of feet away from the well, opposite from where they were.

"I think that's the front-line group over there," he said, pointing.

“And mine as well,” Aldin said, with a nod to the cluster of additional people standing just behind them. “See you after, I guess,” he said with a wave, splitting off and heading for the group of healers.

Kera threw her arms around Jason in a brief hug, startling him. “Be careful,” she said into his shoulder before turning away. She called Ceri to her and began walking towards her assigned group.

Jason blinked. “What brought that on?” he asked Lumi, turning to her slightly.

“Just stress, I think,” Lumi replied, watching as the other girl strode away. “She doesn’t let on much, but it leaks through when she doesn’t think anyone’s looking. I think she’s grown a bit concerned about how… comfortable she is with just… rewriting herself, you know? She isn’t used to being able to be whoever she wants, on her own terms. She’s thrown her entire life out the window, and I think it scares her that she likes that.”

Lumi blew out a sigh. “I can’t say I blame her. Doesn’t it bother you how we’ve just, well, slipped into outright acceptance of a life where violence is the norm? We've killed people, and I don’t even feel bad about it. That scares me, more than a little.”

Jason echoed Lumi’s sigh with one of his own.

“Does it bother me?” he asked rhetorically after a moment, followed by a shrug. “Sure. Is there anything I can do about it? Doubtful.”

He shook his head lightly. “I’m trying not to think about it, honestly. This world… it plays by a different set of rules, you know? Maybe it’s the influence of The Voice, maybe its just how everyone here accepts violence as a given… I don’t know. I’m sure philosophers and psychologists both could have a field day with it all. I just know that the people here don’t think twice about putting down ‘monsters’, because whether those monsters are people or not is immaterial to the fact that it’s usually a ‘you or them’ situation. When it’s that black and white… not a hard choice to make, really.”

They both fell silent for a few moments. Then Lumi shook herself all over. “Ugh. Maybe you have the right of it, trying to not think about it. It just makes me upset.”

She gave him a quick hug of her own. “Kera’s right. Take care of yourself. See you afterwards.”

“Same to you.”

As Lumi moved to join Kera with the rest of the frontliners, Jason glanced around the square again, searching for his own group.

It was more difficult than he’d expected, as it seemed that quite a number of spellcasters were involved in setting up fortifications. The town square had numerous buildings encircling it, which left plenty of gaps and alleyways that Aurion was ordering plugged. Whatever creature or creatures arrived, the man wanted them to have only one way out: through the ranks of the adventurers.

To that end there were numerous workers and spellcasters moving about, boarding up doors and windows, setting up barricades, and the like. Jason caught sight a green-skinned woman who could only be Flora conjuring up a massive wall of thorny growths, weaving an impassible barrier between the walls of two buildings. In another alleyway, a robed man held some sort of tome out before him, from which manifested a series of wooden planks and carved stones from nowhere that flew through the air and snapped into position, forming a wooden wall in a manner similar to Jason’s own [Arcane Reconstruction] ability.

Near to where Aurion stood, a steady stream of townsfolk approached a set of heavily-laden carts, from which various weapons and armor were being handed out. After receiving their gear, said individuals were given orders and then took off for their own positions, no doubt at the front gates. Jason also spotted what looked to be the occasional vial being handed over as well; after all, his own work was among the militia supplies.

Circling around to the opposite side of the town well, back near where the road entered the square, Jason located the cluster of ranged combatants who weren’t currently involved in the fortifications. A slight thrill of fear and anticipation of the battle to come ran through him as he joined the dozen other men and women Aurion had referred to as ‘the mage line’.

It was a loose designation of course. Most of the group were clearly wizards of some stripe or another, judging by their attire, but there were a few clear outliers like Jason himself. Off to the right, a man with arms like steel cables tested the draw of a massive, rune-covered greatbow that was taller than Jason. From the look of the thing, Jason suspected he’d break an arm if he tried to draw it without some kind of magical assistance.

Nearby, a tall, thin woman with large rabbit ears that poked up from her wide-brim feathered hat stood fidgeting impatiently. She was dressed in an ornate, musketeer-like red outfit with white trim, sporting an open coat, knee-high boots, and a silver rapier. She watched as one of the wizards, this one dressed in simple brown robes, walked in a long half circle in front of the group, scraping the bottom of his staff along the ground and leaving a trail of glowing runes behind him in his wake.

Jason couldn’t make out the runes from where he was standing, so he activated his [Arcane Sight] and stepped forward to get a better look. Before he could analyze the runes properly, the bunny-woman crossed to his side and took him by the arm.

“Hold up, there,” she said in a surprisingly deep voice. “Might want to keep back.” The woman pulled him across the runes and over to the group of casters.

“You’re the new guy, yeah?” she asked as she released his arm. “Ravs’ new party member?”

“Uh, I guess so,” Jason said. “One of them, anyway. I wasn’t aware Aurion had told anyone yet.”

“Thought so,” She confirmed, then nodded towards the line of runes. “Don’t stand too close. Watch.”

Jason did so.

The man completed his half-circle, and with a final gesture there was a loud crack and the pavement shattered upwards in a spray of dirt. A waist-high wall of mixed dirt and stone burst upwards, forming a rough barricade. Moments later, stone spikes thrust outwards from the side facing the well.

“Well that’s handy,” Jason commented.

“Hebran’s a [Stonecaller],” The woman told him. “An earth-magic specialist. His spells are powerful but they tend to throw around a lot of shrapnel. It’s useful against critters that come in large numbers, like Murklings, but you don’t want to stand too close.”

“Thanks for the warning. I’m Jason, by the way. And you are….?”

The woman grinned and doffed her hat, tossing her hat into the air. In quick succession she drew her rapier, performed a quick flourish, bowed with her hand and blade to either side, and then straightened and caught her hat with one hand as it came down, placing it on her head and sliding her rapier back into place smoothly.

Somehow, she’d even managed to get her ears back through the holes in the hat. Jason felt that that in itself was more impressive than the whole.

“Sylvia Arrowgale, [Arcane Duelist], at your service,” the woman said with a dazzling smile. “Today, I’m in charge of making sure those pesky Murklings keep their grubby claws off you flimsy mage types.”

She eyed Jason’s partially-completed armor, which was covering a portion of his torso and his right arm. “Well… perhaps some of you are less flimsy than others.”

“Isn’t that the tanks’ job?” Jason asked.

“Tanks?” Sylvia asked. “Ah. You mean the front line. No, their job is keeping whatever big guy comes busting out from turning his attention on you ranged types, so that you can do your job, namely kill it. Rarely though do such…" She paused. "Hmm... what’s a good word to call something that’s like a dungeon boss but isn’t actually?”

“Where I come from, we sometimes call them ‘mid-bosses’,” Jason replied.

Sylvia laughed. “Ha! I like it. Well, such… mid-bosses rarely come unaccompanied. Whether or not they will come as part of a full raiding party or not remains to be seen. If it’s only a handful, my job is to keep the attention of any little guys while you lot deal with the… mid-boss. If there’s more than just a handful and it’s a full raiding group, part of the front line will break off to engage whatever they can, and some of us will switch our focus to thinning out the numbers while the rest pound away at the big one.”

“Ah, so that’s what Aurion meant about sending Kera with the skirmishers…”

“That’s right,” Sylvia nodded.

Jason thought for a moment. “I’m probably best suited for mid range and crowd control with what I’ve got on me currently, so I guess I should be one of the ones to switch if needed? Is there anyone I should inform….?”

Sylvia shook her head. “No need. Just pitch in wherever you can be the most effective, barring being given specific orders.”

“I heard about what you did with that fire construct a few days ago, by the way,” she commented, giving Jason a sideways glance as she turned to look back out at the square. “Good work there, by the way. Will we be seeing a repeat of that performance?”

“Afraid not,” Jason replied. “It’s, uh, not a particularly efficient use of my mana as it turns out. That one stunt drained more than a good three-quarters of my mana. Only reason I tried it was because I didn’t have so much as a single wand on me when the call came in.”

“Conjuring it drained that much?” she asked with surprised.

Jason shook his head. “It wasn’t conjured, it was crafted. I’m an [Artificer], among other things. I can temporarily enchant things on the go without needing to engrave them, but unless it’s a simple enchantment it takes a lot out of me.”

“Hmm.” Sylvia tapped her lips with a finger, thinking. “I’m not sure if that’s useful sounding or not.”

“Well for one thing,” Jason replied, “even when suddenly teleported into an imminent confrontation with dungeon monsters, you’re never unarmed.”

“Point,” she conceded with a slight nod.

Jason paused for a moment, considering. “Though that does give me a thought… think uh… what was his name? …Hebran? Think he could make me a small ledge of stone to prop up a weapon? We should have enough time.”

“Couldn’t hurt to ask.”

Curious, Sylvia flagged the other mage down, and in short order Hebran had extended a section of the barricade in Jason’s direction and flattened out the top.

Jason began fishing around in his bag, and whether through some application of his new Machinist skills or simply force of habit when it came to dumping everything he could into the [Handy Haversack], Jason found what he needed. Several bits of scrap metal metal and wire allowed him to attach the auto-crossbow to the tripod, and some judicious application of his crafting skills let him whip together a second magazine for when the crossbow ran out. After that, it was a few minutes work for Jason to scribe the runes that would turn the thing into an automatic turret.

He hoped the machine’s own aim would be better than his had been when he’d tried firing the thing, though Jason doubted it. Still, the automatic weapon principle applied there: you didn’t care much about accuracy if you were going to be firing into a horde of oncoming monsters, after all. You cared about firing rate and penetration power.

“Designated Foe: Murklings,” Jason commanded. “Designated Range: Five Yards.”

A bit short on the range, he felt, but Jason didn’t want the thing accidentally firing into his allies, after all.

With a twitch and a shudder, the crossbow rotated about on it swivel, then snapped up into a forward-facing position, away from the barricade and towards the central well.

“Fancy,” commented Sylvia. “You’re just full of surprises.”

“Just you watch,” he said with a grin, just before downing one of his least mana potions to replenish what he’d used.

Then all there was to do was wait.

A deep, resounding boom shook the ground beneath Jason’s feet, bringing everyone to instant alertness. All across the square, eyes snapped towards the iron well cap as it bent outwards under some tremendous impact.

Aurion’s voice thundered as if he was standing right next to Jason, shouting in his ear. “All remaining civilians withdraw immediately! Combatants, brace for immediate contact! Buffs out!”

Despite having been forewarned about raid-wide [Message] spells, Jason still jumped as Aurion’s voice boomed behind his ear. All around him, commands rang out as mages and healers alike began layering defensive spells on themselves and their allies.

Jason was no exception, quickly downing a potion that enhanced both fortitude and calm. He found himself energized, his mind sharpening as the day’s fatigue washed away and the potion’s effect spread through him. Nearby, one of the mages cast something across the entire group, and a quick check of Jason’s status showed he’d received a beneficial effect labeled ‘Clarity’, which provided a small amount of mana regeneration.

A second thunderous impact struct the well cap as Jason drew his storm wand, checked that his crossbow turret was still active, and readied himself. This was followed by a third, and then a fourth, with each strike deforming the metal further and further and sending cracks through the stone spikes anchoring it into the ground.

On the fifth impact, the well cap gave out, coming free in a shower of stone and earth as the entire structure shattered and the iron frame was flung thirty feet into the air. Jason flinched as a bellowing roar filled the air and a great, sinuous form rose up from the shattered remains.

Slithering up and out of the ruined well and shrieking its rage to the sky, the monstrous creature dwarfed anything Jason had seen yet: a twenty-foot tall, muscular humanoid figure, lacking legs but with a coiling, finned tail twice its own height in length. Claws as long as Jason’s arm clutched at an enormous harpoon, and squid-like tentacles writhed below a fang-filled, carnivorous maw.

Just for a moment, as the creature heaved its bulk out of the well in a spray of stone, water, and mud, Jason stood there in fear, both terrified and awed by the creature’s size. Nothing he’d ever seen on Earth could compare to the mixture of pure physical might and feeling of sheer hate that the creature gave off as it leveled its gaze across the assembled adventurers.

Soon the cries of his allies galvanized him. Around him he could hear cries of “Merrow!” and the commands of spells being activated. The ruined iron cap of the well came crashing down towards the group of frontliners, who had been positioned slightly to one side. Jason saw a sloped, rippling curtain of darkness flicker into existence, and it was deflected to one side.

As the spells began to fly, water surged upwards out the well, pouring out into the square. A veritable horde of murklings spewed forth, as the water carried them rapidly upwards from the reservoir below. These were not the semi-organized spearmen Jason had seen before, however: they were mad-eyed, scampering on all fours, swarming almost like locusts.

“Defenders, split ranks!” Aurion called. “Casters, suppressing fire on the horde only until the merrow can be drawn aside!”

Jason obliged.

As the first wave of murklings began to charge, Jason triggered the alchemical effect of his wand and hurled a ball of lightning from his wand into the oncoming fishmen. With a clap of thunder Jason barely heard over the noise of everyone else’s spells and shouts, the orb expanded into a swirling, spinning cloud of energy, catching several murklings inside and striking them repeatedly with electrical discharges. They fell, only for others to push their way in behind them and meet a similar fate.

One orb after another, Jason began scattering his miniature lightning storms into the fray, always aiming as far back as he could, trying to catch the fishmen as they boiled up from below. He and the other mages had killed dozens of the creatures by the time he’d gone through only six of his wand’s alchemical charges, but the creatures must have numbered at least a hundred, because dozens more quickly reached the second line of defense, where Kera had moved into position with the other skirmishers.

She’d elected to go with the gorthek form again, Jason saw, this time with a greatly enlarged Ceri and Echo fighting at her side. All three of them tore into the oncoming murklings, biting and clawing and rending with a frenzy that made Jason somewhat ill to see. Kera herself bellowed a command and her massive frost beetle materialized besides her, releasing a blast of freezing cold into the ranks of the murklings, briefly trapping many of them in place.

A quick glance in the direction of the tank line sent a spike of alarm through Jason. He had no trouble picking out Lumi from the crowd, shining like a beacon from all the defensive spells emplaced upon her. As Jason turned his eyes in her direction, the merrow stabbed downwards with a mighty blow that struck her layered shields and sent sparks flying in all directions. The impact itself drove her to one knee and cracked the pavement all around her, but her defenses held, and she surged back to her feat, seemingly unharmed. With her free hand, she hurled a blast of dark energy up into merrow’s face, causing it to rear back, scraping at its face with one claw. The warriors with her surged forwards, hacking away at beast’s flanks, taking advantage of its momentary blindness.

Jason snapped his attention back to his own side as a pack of murklings broke free of what was now a general melee happening only a dozen feet from his location. His crossbow turret began unloading into them as they closed the distance, and Jason added his own electric bolts to the mix, killing several before they came anywhere close to the barrier.

Four more died to spells hurled by Sylvia, who simply pointed with her rapier, causing the murklings to burst into flames. Just as had happened with his first encounter, the fish-creatures attempted to put out the fire by rolling in the steadily-rising water, but to no avail.

Others simply hurled themselves mindlessly onto the spikes of the barricade, heedless of their own safety. One managed to climb atop its dead brethren and leapt to the top of the barricade besides Jason. He extended his right arm, hand curled downwards, and shotgunned it in the chest, which flung the creature’s corpse away from him in a burst of icy shards.

It wasn’t enough; Kera, her pets, and the others beyond the barricade were getting overwhelmed through sheer weight of numbers, and the adventurers nearby seemed to know it.

The man with the massive bow began firing arrow after arrow into a group of murklings that were besieging a pair of leather-wearing rogue types, while Sylvia blew out a dramatic sigh, ceased throwing spells, and bounded up and over the barrier to come to their aid, spearing a murkling with her rapier on the way down.

Kera herself had a half-dozen of the fish-creatures clinging to her hide, slashing away at her with their claws while Ceri and Echo tried to pull them off. That Jason could do something about, but he’d have to get close enough to make himself heard - not an easy feat surrounded by the sound of battle.

And here I keep trying to cut back on the recklessness, but nooooo....

With an inward sigh, Jason snapped a new magazine into his turret, cranked his gauntlet into barrier mode, and then vaulted over the barricade. He twisted his body to avoid coming into contact with the spikes on the opposite side, and as his feet touched the ground, he reflected that his crossbow had proven to be a far, far more accurate shot once animated. Just as he’d hoped. After all, many a game featured characters who could lay down turrets that would fire into the midst of a grand melee and yet miraculously avoided friendly fire of any kind.

A murkling a few feet away slipped past Sylvia, who was rushing to the assistance of the two leather-armored fighters, and came at Jason just as he was drawing a wand with his free hand. He quickly brought up his right arm and clenched his fist, activating the barrier enchantment. His arm sprouted a shimmering shield of cracking electricity, and he slammed it directly into the oncoming murkling’s face. The shield's energy arced into the creature with an almost musical buzz, like the discharge of a tesla coil, and the monster flopped bonelessly onto the ground. Jason immediately followed up with a bolt of shadow from the wand in his left hand.

Jason then belted out a series of new commands to his autocrossbow, ordering it to provide covering fire around him, before he charged into the group of creatures swarming around Kera. All further thoughts were forced out of Jason’s head as his world became a whirlwind of sheer violence. The savage, red-eyed murklings might have only been waist-high, but they were agile, and possessed a flagrant disregard for their own safety. Claws and teeth came at him from all sides.

Jason spun, firing off a shotgun blast into a pair of the monsters before pulling his arm in tight and ramming his barrier into a third, electrocuting it. To his left, another murkling went down with a crossbow bolt through its leg. Jason fired off his wand at the prone creature, finishing it with a shadowbolt just as one of the creatures leapt at him.

He got his shield up just in time, and sparks flew as the fish-man’s claws and teeth impacted the shimmering barrier. Jason was nearly knocked from his feet and the shield flickered and spat sparks as the murkling was flung away from him, but both he and his shield held. Fortunately for Jason, the murklings seemed to possess little in the way of weight or physical strength: As a shield, Jason’s current enchantment was a paltry, weak thing; nothing compared to the high-end bracer that Lumi possessed. Any kind of serious impact, be it from a creature with enhanced strength or anything worse than a low-end spell, would probably shatter the barrier and maybe even burn out the shard powering it.

Not that Jason had any time to consider that fact. Immediately after repelling the leaper, Jason fired off two addition shotgun blasts into oncoming fish-men, leaving a ruined mess of icy shards behind. Past him to either side flew a series of crossbow bolts from his turret, clearing his flanks, and Jason used the opportunity to sprint forwards to Kera’s side, splashing his way through the now inch-deep water that was slowly rising all across the square.

Echo and Ceri stood beside their mistress, tearing and biting at the swarm as it piled on. A roar from the gorthek-girl washed over him as she bellowed a command, and a green light flowed out from her, bathing herself and her pets in a healing glow. She opened her mouth and a jet of flame incinerated a nearby murkling that was about to leap onto Echo’s back.

Jason jammed his shadow wand back into its holster and drew forth a glass sphere that glowed an eerie orange. Small bits of crushed fire shard floated inside: an experimental firebomb. He blasted another murkling away from him, and then waved the sphere over his head furiously as the noise drew Kera’s attention.

Kera saw him waving, and immediately understood. As if responding to some silent command, Ceri and Echo tore themselves from her side. Echo bolted past Jason while Ceri took to the air, both headed for the barricade.

“Fireproofing!” Kera bellowed as Jason threw the sphere directly at Kera.

Flames erupted all around her, clinging to Kera’s sides and even flowing along the surface of the water that was slowly rising all around. Screams came from the surrounding murklings, who fell in droves, writhing around desperately in the water but only succeeding in spreading the flames further.

Jason himself beat a hasty retreat as Kera began savaging the remaining murklings, electing to simply plow bodily into them. Some were tampled underfoot, others were gored by her horns and crushed in her jaws, while yet more were caught up in whatever fiery substance Jason’s alchemy had created, spreading havoc among their ranks.

I hope she remembers we aren’t fireproof and doesn’t spread that around too much, Jason thought. While a short experiment had proven that elemental water would put out the magical flames, and he had some countermeasures prepared, he didn't have an endless supply of what amounted to magic water balloons, and Lumi could only produce so much at once.

Hopefully some of the other mages have water spells…

Now that much of the horde surrounding his friend had been slain, and Kera was dealing with the rest, Jason turned his attention to surveying he remaining combatants as he sprinted his way back to the barricade.

The other mages, seeing the vast majority of the swarm dealt with, had mostly turned their spells on the heaving bulk of the merrow on the far side of the square, where the tanks were still fighting. A few here and there were still taking down isolated murklings, and Sylvia was plowing into the group of murklings that still surrounded the two rogue-types.

Jason reached the barricade, where Echo and Ceri paced back and forth anxiously. Jason decided to give them something to do: aid Sylvia. Kera had, more or less, trained them to understand basic commands, and their nature as pseudo-familiars mostly handled the rest.

Jason drew one of his alchemical healing wands, and then drew Echo and Ceri's attention with a piercing whistle. They turned and followed.

Flanked by Kera's pets, Jason joined Sylvia in plowing into the remaining murklings. He leveled the healing wand, tagging both of the beleaguered rogues with a burst of healing for good measure. Then he re-holstered it, switched his gauntlet into projectile mode, and began unleashing a series of electrified bolts while Kera’s pets entered the fray.

Ceri simply elected to bowl his way into the group fish-men, his [Static Charge] ability sparking wildly and sending many of them to the ground. In contrast, Echo hung back slightly, both howling her sonic beam at any stragglers and finishing off any fishmen downed by Ceri with a volley of tail spikes. Jason wasn’t sure if this maneuver was something Kera had taught them or not during training sessions, though he recalled that the Rockhounds had definitely shown an natural inclination towards group tactics.

Meanwhile, Sylvia forged her way to the side of their allies. Jason covered her advance with a combination of projectiles both magical and alchemical, while the bunny woman’s pinpoint strikes with her rapier and small blasts of fire from her free hand cleared the way.

Pinned between the adventurers on one side, and Jason, Ceri and Echo on the other, the murklings didn’t stand a chance. Their assault broke apart, and Jason and the others pelted their way back to the barricade while a few of the mages behind the barricade began striking down the fleeing murklings.

Apparently Hebron was watching as well, because a gap in the barrier opened up to allow them passage through, before closing up again behind them. Once everyone was back behind it, the shorter of the two rogues simply collapsed to his knees, heaving deep breaths.

Alarmed, Jason stepped towards him, but he waved Jason off. Instead, he pulled a green vial from his belt while unfastening his helmet and letting it drop to the ground, revealing the snow-white hair and light blue skin of the elf boy Jason had encountered a week ago. The boy downed the vial swiftly.

Before Jason could think to say or do anything else, Aurion’s voice thundered across the field.

“The horde is dispersed. All ranged combatants, bring down that merrow, now!”

Jason’s mana was beginning to run low, so he quickly consumed another least potion, and turned his attention to the fight going on in the distance.

The monstrosity’s scales were covered with dozens of shallow cuts that were bleeding a foul, black substance that smoked when it mixed with the water pooling about the square. The defenders had seen their fair share of heavy damage as well: more than half their number were missing. A spike of panic ran through Jason as he realized that Lumi wasn’t among those few still fighting.

Scanning the battlefield, he spotted her slumped against a doorway some distance away, her armor battered and rent down one side, with Aldin kneeling over her. He couldn’t tell how badly hurt she might be, but her aura, [Warmth] was still visibly active and Aldin was channeling streamers of green energy into her.

As much as Jason wanted to rush to his friend’s side, she was alive and being seen to. Jason knew that Aldin was better equipped as a healer than he himself was, so he tried to force his fear and worry aside.

He was only marginally successful.

Reminding himself that he’d nearly lost his hand not too long ago and had come out fine, Jason shook his head, pulled a piece of candy out of one pocket and popped it in his mouth, earning an odd look from Sylvia. A feeling of peace and calm washed over him as the alchemy did its work.

“Alright, let’s finish this bastard,” he muttered to himself.

With the murkling horde defeated, the whole raid turned their attention on the merrow. Despite it’s awesome size and strength, on its own it was no match for a band of forty adventurers of mixed experience. As someone put it later to Jason, as terrifying as it was, the merrow was just a massive brute, not even a boss-tier creature.

Dozens of spells assaulted it from all sides as the spellcasters spread out across the square. Most of those who could only attack in melee withdrew out of the creatures reach as the creature was bombarded. Flying fists of stone beat away at the creature’s head while ice froze over its coiling body, trapping it in place. Others, like Jason, pelted the beast with a dizzying array of elemental projectiles.

At last, with a great crash, it fell. A loud cheer arose, which prompted Aurion to call out to everyone again. “We’re not done yet. Take a moment to top up if you need, then fall back to Ravs’ position.”

Jason downed a least mana potion and then ran to Lumi’s side. Kera arrived roughly at the same time he did, shifting back down into her changeling form. Ceri and Echo ran to her side, immediately pushing against her for reassurance.

Lumi though, had released her aura, and Aldin was still kneeling beside her, breathing heavily and showing the telltale sweat and strain of low mana levels.

“How is she?” Jason asked Aldin with concern.

“Not dead yet.” Lumi managed to croak out weakly. She tried to sit up, whimpered, then slumped back and clutched at her side. “Holy shit that hurts.”

Aldin gently pulled her hands away from her side, placing them in her lap. “Don’t move just yet, the spell’s still in effect. Your ribs are probably broken, and maybe other things too. It took everything I had just to clear out the internal bleeding and fix the worst of the damage.”

“I’ve got more—” Jason began.

Aldin shook his head. “Any more and she’ll end up with mana poisoning. Same goes for me too. I already drank all three of the ones you gave me, and that was pushing it.”

“What happened?” Jason asked quietly.

“Fucker stabbed me is what happened.” Lumi croaked out. “Double-handed piledriver with that damned harpoon, right through my shields and….”

She trailed off, out of breath, and coughed weakly. Then she muttered something about itching, and Jason recalled how uncomfortable his own healing had been.

Kera reached out and placed a hand on Lumi’s shoulder, lightly. “Just take it easy, we can get the story later. We need to get going.”

“She’ll be OK though, right?” Kera asked, turning to Aldin.

He nodded wearily. “Just needs a day, maybe two. She was hurt pretty bad but as I gather you’ve seen firsthand, if you get to it right away and they haven’t lost limbs or something, most stuff is fixable by a good healer.”

Lumi waved weakly with one hand. “Go, go…”

Jason turned away, heading for the building Ravs had been setting up her circle in. After a moment, Kera caught up to him.

He turned to her slightly. “What about you, you need anything?” Jason asked. “I’ve still got some candies left, and more normal potions.”

“Mouthwash?” Kera suggested. “Those things taste disgusting.”

Jason eyed Kera warily from the side. “I’m kinda surprised you’re so… I don’t know… ‘OK’ with the whole beast fighting thing. It’s stressful enough slugging it out with a wand. I would have thought you’d go for something… a little cleaner?”

Kera wrapped her arms around herself and heaved a large, heavy breath.

“Me too, to be honest.” She shook her head. “Don’t worry, I’m not going feral or anything like that. It’s just… any shape I take, it comes with it’s own instincts, you know? These are wild beasts that live in a constant struggle for survival, and some of that… bleeds over, I guess. It makes me not mind certain things as much when I’m in that form.”

“I’m not sure if that’s concerning to hear, or if it means the Voice is making sure we don’t all end up with PTSD,” Jason said.

Kera dropped her hands to her sides. “Tell me about it,” she commented with a laugh.