You are directly responsible for claiming the lives of 37 Bugbears! You are partially responsible for the deaths of an additional 32 Bugbears! Experience Earned!

Wind Gust is now Journeyman Rank 1 (Perk Deferred.)

Greater Water Spout is now Apprentice Rank 4.

Wind Ward is now Journeyman Rank 3.

Acid Spray is now Apprentice Rank 4.

Dissolution Orb is now Journeyman Rank 5!

And how sweet it was to see one of his deadliest spells ascend not just one but three ranks with the potency of all his kills.

Or it would have been, if it was doing any good at all against their remaining opponents.

Jack ground his teeth, glaring at the flashing sparkling ward now so clearly to his Mage Sight, his dissolution orbs washed right off it like rain splashing on a windshield.

He turned toward his companions, puzzled by their gazes. "Barlton. Any dwarven techniques for getting through that magic field? How about your shouts, Jake?" He then turned to their academy mage, who for some reason flinched under his regard.

"How about you, Veti? Can your banes pierce it? My dissolution orb is flowing right off, and my elemental attack spells are too short range."

He then scowled at everyone staring so intently at him.

"What the hell, guys? What are we waiting for? We have three more of these fuckers to take down!"

Aroust and Barlton exchanged grins.

"This boy definitely likes his work," the dwarf said, the duelist chuckling dryly and nodding.

Veti, however, was looking at Jack with something close to horror. "You were laughing, Jack." She swallowed, for some reason unable to meet his confused gaze. "I know they're monsters and would do anything to kill us, but—"

Jack smirked. "Really? There's a 'but' after that?"

She gave a frustrated shake of her head. "But they were screaming and dying. And your face was lit up like, I don't know what..."

"An unholy Jack-o-lantern?" A grinning Jake opined.

"Ha Ha, very funny." Jack smirked.

"Well, yes?" said Veti, clearly not getting the joke. "Anyway, you were flooding the air with those dissolution orbs. And the more those creatures fell, the more orbs you slammed down upon them until, well, look at them!"

Jack looked where she was pointing, noting the pitted ground, cratered with holes from the viscous green fluid even now eating into the stone floor, along with a half dozen not completely dissolved bodies and plenty of loose bones floating in a sea of goop.

In addition to the shimmering ward which now had several inches worth of fluid gently splashing against it, effectively plugging the corridor between their bulwark and the domed mages from vast cavern beyond, and Jack could just barely make out the images of the three figures shrieking from within.

"I know. It worked great. We hit those bastards so hard they had no chance to regroup, and the mages were intimidated into pure defense." Jack then flashed a fierce grin he didn't bother hiding. "And don't tell me you guys didn't feel that sweet jolt of potency we got with all of those kills! But we still have three to go, and we're all sitting on our asses. So, what gives?"

Veti just sighed and shook her head in defeat while Jake laughed.

"He is a bit of a savage, isn't he?" Drake said to his academy friend with a smile. "But he saved my life, Veti, when I thought I was a goner, for no other reason than that he took pity on a dying boy he didn't even know. And when he did get to know me, he didn't hesitate to do it again, not giving a crap who we ended up butting heads with."

Jack grinned. "What can I say? With your taste in enemies, I knew we'd become good friends."

Drake laughed at that, wrapping a companionable arm around a bemused Jack's shoulders. "Trust me, Veti. No better savage to have on your side."

The dwarf's smile widened. "Like I said, the boy loves his work!"

Jack glared at the shimmering half-dome filling up the corridor, forced to wonder just how impervious it was. He then glanced up at the overhanging ledges, lips curving into a dark smile as he considered his options.

"Guys? I think I just might have an idea," he said.

Right before a trio of fireballs filled the air.

"Duck!" An alarmed Veti cried, everyone doing just that.

Except for Jack. Carefully eyeing their tragectories and ignoring the flood of terror shivering down his spine as he looked hot death in the metaphoric eye, right hand ready ready as he whispered the start of a spell.

"Jack, get down!" said a panicked Drake.

"Aqua Effusorium!" Jack roared, noting that the fireballs didn't swerve to hit him, but rather continued their straight line, slowly falling trajectory, a pair aimed right for him.

Before one was extinguished in a roaring hiss of steam, that almost but didn't quite wash over the other as well.

That slammed right into Jack... or at least, his braced shield.

Skill check successful! Blood Shield intercepts Lesser Fire Ball! Lesser fireball 40 Damage + Medium Burn mitigated to zero! 5 points of peripheral splash damage mitigated by Crimson Armor and Fire Affinity!

Finesse & Skill check made! You have kept your balance. Blood Shield & 12 Strength absorb concussive force of Lesser Fireball. You have been pushed back 3 inches. You have taken 5 points of temporary damage. (Tinnitus).

Jack flashed a fierce smile, biting back a howl of exultation.

It was just as he had hoped.

Even his Tier 1 Adept Ranked Water Spout was more than enough to extinguish these Lesser Fire Balls, and his shield could counter them almost perfectly.

Of course he had almost been shoved off balance, his ears were now ringing a bit from the concussive force of the flame blast that had exploded against his shield.

"Is that the best you can do?" Jack roared. "You idiots are pathetic!"

"Jack, what the hell are you doing?" Queried a surprised Drake when Jack continued to stand in place, doing his best to bait his foes.

Jack smirked, risking a quick glance down at his exasperated looking friend before snapping his eyes back to a fresh stream of fireballs, now all three aimed right for him.

"What does it look like? I'm training up my skills!" Jack shouted with something close to glee, though refusing to play the fool, dodging to his right, embracing the advantage of countering attacks hurtling far slower than an arrow, though he couldn't help but feel a sudden wince of apprehension when two began to slowly arc toward him, the third still shooting forward in a straight line.

So it seemed you could skill up enough to control their direction. Interesting, he thought to himself, quieting his mind even as his ears rang with the pounding of his heart as he braced for impact once more.

Struck by sudden inspiration, visualizing so clearly what it would be like to chill that ball of fire, visualizing his water as being ice cold.

"Glacio Effusorium!" He cried, eyes widening in surprise and wonder, and then pain, as blazing heat tore into his hand and he was thrown back when the second fire ball slammed into his shield.

Congratulations! You have forged a new spell. Icy Blast! (Water Spout Adept Perk: Arcane Insights in effect) This Tier 2 spell shoots forth a spray of razor sharp ice javelins fit to pierce all your foes! This spell might be a game changer, but it didn't do anything to parry the fireball that nearly took off your hand!

Present skill level: Novice Rank 1.

You have suffered 40 damage and 1 crippling wound. Mitigated by Crimson Armor to 20 Damage and 1 Light Wound! Stunning blow inflicted. Your hand is temporarily crippled.

You have been caught flat-footed! You have failed to brace yourself properly and have been sent flying from rampart! You have suffered 15 damage after armor. 14 in Finesse means you have successfully saved versus breaking your own neck!

You are temporarily dazed.

"Jack! Are you alright? Jack!"

Jack groaned at the sound of Drake's anxious cry, too dazed to wince in shame at the cold look Aroust was giving him.

"What the hell is wrong with you, boy? That bit of idiocy almost cost you your life!" Aroust roared.

Barlton's massive hand rested gently on the duelist's shoulder. "Now, now. Let's let him catch his breath first, and thank the heavens he didn't break his silly neck." Jack had to suppress a flinch as a massive face suddenly peered into his own. "Can you hear me, boy? Ya gots fire in yer veins and lots o heart! Right proper hero, you are. And a bit o madness is useful down here, but as me uncle used ta say before delvin,' if yer gonna play the maveric and try somethin' new, best do it against a foe you'll always beat! Not against, say, the trio o' wizards now hurtling fireballs like madmen at yer wall o usefulness."

Jack winced when he felt Drake's hands gently massaging his scorched looking crimson gauntlet, and thank all the saints he had thought to summon that bit of armor, a still dizzy Jack thought to himself, his head definitely throbbing in time with the roar of fireballs exploding against their parapet.

"Jack, come on man, drink this. We need you." Jack shut his eyes and shut his head at the red vial his friend was trying to trickle down his throat.

"Don't waste it," Jack whispered. "I got this."

He gazed down at his own hand as Drake cursed himself for an idiot. "You're right." He turned to an anxious looking Elof.

"Is Jack going to be alright?"

"He might be, if you give him back his healing armband."

The young warrior visibly winced, chuckling softly as he did just that. "I... you're right. I didn't think about it," he said, as Drake quickly slipped it on Jack's arm.

"Don't feel bad, neither did anyone else," Drake said. "Now quit fighting me, Jack, and dispel your pretty gauntlet and low up that... wow that is a well-made gambeson. Anyway, time to take a bit of your own medicine, buddy."

Jack's eyes lit up, surprised and soothed by the flood of gentle healing washing over him, repairing several hit point's worth of damage every second, all without costing him anything.

He couldn't help but flash an appreciative grin before taking off the brace, thinking it the best investment of a thousand experience points he had ever made.

"Thank you, Drake," he said to his friend's questioning gaze, now looking down at his own scorched hand, noting at least two dislocated fingers, before flashing his friend a pained smile.

"But if I'm such an idiot as to dare honing the blade of my soul against foes who want to kill me, the best way of leveling up spells for a Jack-of-all-Trades, it seems, ha ha, then I can damn well pay the price in pain of healing myself, and leveling up another spell."

"Sana Injurium," he then whispered, ignoring his companion's bemused murmurs as he closed his eyes and focused on repairing the multiple subtle injuries to his flesh, before crying out in sudden pain when first one, then another, one of his fingers popped back into place.

"Fuck, that hurt!"

"Then maybe you shouldn't be an idiot courting death when our only goal here is survival!" Aroust snapped, glaring at Jack once more.

Jack winced internally, feeling a hot flush crawl up his cheeks. "Alright, maybe that wasn't the smartest of moves."

"You think?" Aroust shook his head and sighed. "In some ways, Jack, you're a wonder. In others?" he furrowed his brow. "You remind me a bit too much of a fool whose recklessness cost way too many lives."

Jack's eyes flashed with sudden heat. "I'm not your damn bard. I would never risk anyone but myself."

Aroust's eyes blazed with sudden heat. "You're risking all of us right now!"

Jack froze at those words, the duelist's dark eyes pinning his own. "What do you think happens to us if you die to your own stupidity, Jack?" He glared at the rest of their party, before pointedly staring at the ramparts currently protecting them from a flaming barrage of death. "Do you honestly think we would have survived even this long if it weren't for your ability to hurtle massive globs of slippery solvent that besides allowing you to best a Rank 6 duelist..." he flashed a bitter smile at that. "Also broke the ranks and moral of 3 score enemy soldiers? Soldiers bottled in a killzone, only because of this bulwark we now pretty much owe our lives to?"

Aroust gave an angry shake of his head. "I've Delved in Green before. I thought it was madness for us even to start here. But after following the nose of a certain miner..." Now he glared at a suddenly sheepish looking Barlton. "We're being attacked by enemies in swarms you won't normally see anywhere on Green tier, save perhaps the final chamber of a major artery of the deeps. An area you wouldn't even try to tackle, lest you had chosen to lock in our delve, which we didn't, with all the previous rooms cleared, which they weren't, assuring mastery of the opponent types, knowledge of their preferred attacks, and a clear exit point we can always retreat through. And we have none of that. None of that!"

He pinned an increasingly flustered Jack with his gaze for long moments, only the timber of his voice giving away just how dire their situation was. "We're lost in the deeps, Jack, in an area of the Green we have absolutely no business being in. And were it not for your bizarre ability to form reinforced ramparts complete with moats, and shoot off those giant balls of whatever the hell that is, like a Velheim general's artillery fire, I wouldn't give us even 1 in ten odds of getting out of here alive."

And the entire group grew silent with Aroust's dire pronouncement, the tension only heightened by the sporadic explosions still peppering their fortification.

"Velheim no longer dares artillery," Veti whispered completely unnecessarily, now glancing nervously at the fortification guarding their lives. "And just how long will the parapet hold before those casters burst through, and we're buried in rubble and fried alive?"

Bartlon, for his part, had actually bowed his head, cheeks reddened by something besides his beard.

Jack winced, somehow knowing it was against the natural order of things for a dwarf to ever so visibly show their shame.

The giant of a dwarf inhaled, bracing himself to speak, and Jack could just imagine what he would say.

So instead he clapped his hand on the dwarf's shoulder, meeting the duelist's gaze.

"Well then, I guess I'll just have to do my best to stay alive. Because Barlton's promised us an absolute fucking fortune in buried riches, and I, for one, aim to collect!"

"That I will, laddy!" Barlton said, Jack pretending not to hear the tremble in the dwarf's voice. "That I will!" His eyes blazed with renewed connection. "Me nose knows! And I knows the trail is tinglin' me nostril hairs in the chamber just beyond these three pipsqueek casters! Now let's take care of these bastards right quick, and get on with the treasure-findin'!"

Aroust just sighed and shook his head, but Drake flashed a hopeful smile. "I have an idea, Jack. But we might need you to keep them preoccupied."

Jack grinned, now looking up at the sloping ledge overhangs once more.

"So do I," he said, both of them ignoring Aroust's soft cursing as they put their plan into effect, Jack wondering just how well he could target his spells if he truly tried.

"I'm right here, assholes! Let's try that again, shall we?" he said, flipping the figures in the shimmering dome the bird and not at all surprised to see three fireballs heading his way.

This time he didn't hesitate to crouch down behind the parapet a heartbeat before impact, but not before his Water Spout had extinguished another ball of flame, a single one then arcing right over and darting down, showing a surprising amount of caster finesse, only to smack harmlessly against Jack's Blood Shield.

"Be careful, guys! They're starting to learn how to curve their fire balls over the lip of the parapet."

"That's bad, Jack!" An alarmed Drake shouted as Veti whimpered. "Very bad!"

"I fucking know that!" Jack snapped, before shooting off a stream of Acid Arrows, surprised by how effortless it was to control their flight after spending so many hours managing their much more massive Tier 2 cousins, his Elite rank showing itself in other ways as well.

He whistled, shaking his head in surprise at how well the acid arrows ate through the rock, and at the headache he suddenly felt when they had hit their mark, immediately clenching his will and doing his best to hold the globs in place, so they would keep eating the stone, not fall back to the ground.

You are attempting an unorthodox use of your spell. Skillcheck successful! Mana expenditure is now 2 mana per second, modified by skill rank.

Your Arcane Alteration skill is now Apprentice Rank 2!

Acid Arrow is now Elite Rank 2!

Jack blinked, surprised by the notification. When the hell had he learned Arcane Alteration? Not that it didn't make sense, having progressed several spells to the point he could intuitively make variants, like with Water Spout, or for the higher tier version to instantly snap into focus, like what happened with Acid Arrow and Dissolution Orb.

Maybe he just needed to expand his arcane usage a bit beyond normal parameters for the knack to finally be recognized as a skill. Or maybe he didn't really know what the hell he was doing, and was embracing magic he had no business casting by the seat of his pants with almost no formal training, which was exactly the case. So maybe he shouldn't be surprised by the unexpected popup.

Especially when he should be focusing on the fiery death hurtling towards him at that very moment.

"Aqua Effusorium Majoris!" Jack screamed, not even bothering to hold back as his open palm flooded the air with a deluge of water, knocking out two fireballs as the third tried to twist at the last moment and hit Jack from the side. But it had only managed a few degrees, and Jack's shield was already braced, suffering nothing more than an explosive roar and an even louder ringing in his ears.

You have successfully extinguished 2 Lesser fireballs. You have successfully blocked 1 Lesser fireball. 12 Temporary sensory damage penetrates.

"You okay, Jack?" asked a worried Drake, though Jack sensed him more via their party link than actually heard the words, his sensitive ears now ringing painfully. "We almost got it that time, just keep doing what you're doing, but duck if you need to!"

Jack would have asked what the hell they were doing but knew he didn't have a second to waste, still feeling the pressure of the globes he was somehow pressing against the rock overhang as he launched off another four to spin through the air before splattering against the hissing, smoking stone right next to wear the others had tunneled through the limestone rock, Jack flashing a hard smile at what was now beginning to look like a set of teeth sinking into the stone, hoping that it would be enough, as he raised his shield to intercept another cluster of fireballs, and hoping as well that his mana would hold out as he did his best to lose himself in the moment, such that his warding shield, watery spray, and balls of caustic death became automatic, timed to the sporadic castings of his foes as Jack's mana wound perilously down to zero.

"Sagitta Acidum!"

"Aqua Effusorium!"

"Shit!" Jack hissed, raising his shield just in time to counter a pair of fiery orbs slamming into him before ducking down behind the parapet as the final ball streaked over his head, the near blinding headache making it clear he could only hold four Acid Arrow spells in place, 16 orbs sputtering and devouring stone, before split concentration and mana fatigue made casting anyting else all but impossible.

"Now!" Drake snapped, and Jack heard the snapping twang of multiple crossbow bolts as oddly clumsy hands struggled for one of his blue potions, taking a grateful, careful sip and a deep sigh as his mana bubbled back from less than ten to 60 in a handful of seconds.

He took a deep, shuddering breath, only now taking in his multiple bruises and contusions, and painfully ringing ears as he glared up at the rock wall overhang, sensing his dissolution gloop leaking out the channels as his concentration faltered, knowing he'd have to cast them all over again.

"Sorry," Jack murmured, rubbing his head, allowing the natural mana saturated air of this realm restore his mana pool the normal way, even if that would take a full minute. "Just give me a sec to catch my breath, and..."

But his mumbled, exhausted apology was cut off by the hoots and cheers of his friends.

He furrowed his brow in consternation before thinking to scoot back on the rampart and look out the gaps in the parapet, his eyes catching sight of what his interface was already telling him.

You have assisted in the deaths of 3 Bugbear Shaman! (Taunting / Tank role recognized). Experience earned!

Jack frowned at this, even as he caught the final of the three shaman falling into the caustic soup now no longer bottled up by their field with a splat, his corpse hissing and sputtering, though Jack could just make out the silvery quarrel sticking out of it's forehead.

For long seconds he just stared in silence as Drake wrapped his arm about Jack's shoulder.

"We did it, Shieldbrother! We finally took out those bastards!"

"By filling them with quarrels... Silver quarrels?"

"Of course. Every academy student knows that silver's the more likely to pierce defensive wards than anything else, especially when blessed with a runic enchantment like mine are."

Jack blinked, mind racing with the implications. "Wait, you're saying... I thought we needed some diabolically clever way of getting through but we really just needed Silver crossbow bolts?"

Drake rolled his eyes. "It's not that simple. First off, they were enchanted. Second, we had to wait for the moment when the wards were weakest. And that tended to be right after they threw a volley of fireballs. Since those suckers are deadly for anyone not wearing magically summoned shields and armor, like yourself, hint, hint, we were in no position to get a good bead, even with the help of the crenelations."

"At least we weren't before you were willing to play decoy," Barlton said with a grin, his own back-pat nearly sending Jack stumbling over. "Good on ya! Ya got heart, that's fer damn sure!"

Aroust chuckled dryly. "Heart and foolhardiness in equal measure, I'd say, but it worked out all right in the end. At least this time."

Jack nodded, taking the message to heart.

Erost nodded enthusiastically. "At least I can shoot a crossbow, and now we finally have some monsters to loot for cores, and whatever else you guys loot of monsters... right?"

Barlton beamed before furrowing his brow. "What's that sound?"

Jack winced, now definitely hearing it, and knowing exactly what was causing it.

Drake's eyes widened with alarm at the sudden sharp crack. "Okay, now I heard that. Anyone... Jack?"

Jack winced in apology. "I think probably everyone might want to back up."

This earned more than a few alarmed looks as the cracking sound turned to a low rumble, Aroust all but frozen in wide-eyed disbelief when a massive ton of the cliff face slowly tumbled down the ravine walls in a massive avalanche of stone and dust.

"What the hell did you—"

"No time for talk! Run!" Barlton roared. "Run!" And all of them did just that, racing back around the sloping ravine as the stone slammed to the earth.