Fiona and I scoured the forest for miles around the sinkhole but only found three more of the leech creatures. That was both good and bad. Good that they hadn’t spread further but bad for leveling.

I hadn’t gained a single level from the three creatures, but Fiona had gained five levels from her participation, making her Duelist class now level six. Which was admitted low, considering she had no real AOE abilities. Her Shackle skill came in the handiest as it prevented everything within a small radius from moving. That included every single leech the creature was made up of. Then all I had to do was burn the body to a crisp and move on.

After spending the better part of a day searching in vain for more of the disgusting swarm beasts, we moved on and headed back toward the fortress. Fiona had a large number of new abilities she wanted to test out and I was more than happy to assist.

***

After resting for a bit we both stood in a small clearing a short walk from the fortress. Our duel had already begun but we circled each other looking for an opening. Fiona was cognizant enough to steer clear of using her spectral form while I was using Consuming Void as my weapon. She didn’t want to feel the sting of spiritual damage, even if it would be healed after the fight ended.

I wasn’t about to put it away in exchange for my other weapon though. I had to take away at least one of her trump cards. Eventually, I made my move, blurring in with Blink Step, enhanced with Overcharge. She deflected my staff and I barely managed to dodge a quick thrust to my jugular as I danced away. I did feel a slight trickle of blood running down my neck. I guess I hadn’t been as successful at dodging as I thought. Still, the blow would have bounced off my armor if I had been wearing it. For this duel, I decided to go armorless seeing as Fiona still sported her pre-life armor that wasn’t even enchanted.

I tried getting in close a few more times but came away bleeding each and every encounter. This was a no holds barred match but I wanted to see how my skills with a staff had improved. Her armor sported a nasty dent when she had been a tad too slow to dodge one of my strikes.

I could see her breathing heavily as I twirled my staff and kept her out of range for her deadly blades. She had held back on using the Prismatic Rapier’s ability to release an energy wave. I wasn’t quite sure why but I would take it.

I watched her ready her blades a moment before they crossed over each other. There was a blinding flash followed by a searing pain in my shoulder. I jumped back, feeling the wind of a follow-up strike barely miss my chest. I quickly blinked away the blindness just in time to see another crescent of energy fly my way. I activated Point Defense and it blasted the energy wave with one of my own.

Fiona was hot on the heels of the attack though, racing through the obscuring dust cloud to try and close the distance. I stomped my foot on the ground, releasing Seismic Strike. Off-balance, Fiona stumbled to the side. I used the opportunity to fire off an Overcharged Arcane Bolt that hit her in the side.

I heard her hiss in pain as I activated my wings and soared into the air and out of her reach. I tried peppering the area around her with spells, but she was intercepting them with her blades instead of letting them land. I had to dodge a few of the spells she threw back my way and took the opportunity to heal.

The rest of the fight turned into a stalemate as I kept out of her reach but couldn’t do significant damage to her with my spells. Eventually, the fight came down to stats. I simply had too many and a much larger pool of mana to draw abilities from.

By the time it was over, I was victorious but exhausted and sweating profusely. Fiona simply collapsed on the ground and groaned.

“That was not a very chivalrous fight,” she lamented from her prone position.

“Screw chivalry, it's all about the win. I gotta say though, had you been able to flit about in your ghost form, I think this fight would have been over far quicker and with you as the winner.”

“Probably, but I gotta get used to not needing it. Besides, this was about learning my new abilities, not relying on old ones. If I wanted to do that I would have shackled you and just gone in for the kill.”

I grunted in acknowledgment. Despite her self-imposed handicap, the fight had gone on far longer than any fight I had had to date. It’s not like I held much back. She was just a nightmare to deal with in close combat. And with her ability to nullify or absorb and reflect spells, it made her impossible to fight outside of melee range for most spell casters. Add in her ability to turn into a specter which allowed her flight and increased speed and you had a very challenging opponent. I doubt even Ska could beat her now. Then again he would certainly give a good showing of it.

I was curious how she would fare against some of the tournament champions. She couldn’t be frozen in place by Tatiana and I doubt Hegar’s blood absorption abilities could cause her any trouble if she stayed incorporeal through the fight. Mr. Blaine’s abilities – while visually impressive – would not affect her thanks to her immunity to mind-affecting spells. That only left some of the previous fighters that both Ska and I easily dealt with. No, I think if she competed to her fullest, there is no doubt who would come out on top.

We decided to rest the remainder of the day before heading back into the plains to fight gorlophants again.

***

The return to the plains was uneventful and we actually managed to separate two gorlophants, off doing what amounted to gorlophant love. That’s as far as I wanna go on that topic, and wished it was all I had been privy to myself.

I refrained from using the cage at first, testing out my new strategy. I rushed in and cast Silence. The spell had to have the weirdest word-of-power of all spells in my Mantra Enchanter class. It was like a warbling noise but instead of sound, it was the absence of it.

My momentary surprise almost got me flattened as the angry male charged me. His angry bellow was contained by the spell, however, and none of the closer herd members came to assist in his plight.

While I dodged the angry male, Fiona was carving up the legs on the female to keep her within the zone of my spell. I danced around the large beast’s swinging trunk as it tried to bat me away and hit it with an energy lance from only a few feet away.

Despite Silence, I wasn’t as limited as I had been when I was using the Cage. Most of the spells I acquired in my second class didn’t require a verbal component, making them ideal in this situation.

The beast stumbled as my spell blew off one of its rear legs. That had come as a surprise to me considering how annoying tough these creatures were. Something about my silence spell must have prevented the creature from activating its protection. The only thing I could figure it being was the bellow they gave out before charging.

I smiled, this fight was going to be easier than I had thought.

I, of course, was proven wrong less than a minute later when the effects of Silence wore off. The creatures were nearly down but the female managed to get off a cry to her packmates. We had just enough time to finish them off and high tail it out of there before a group of ten nearly cut off our retreat. But it had been worth it.

The two, level twenty-six creatures had netted me another level, upping Maw of the Void to eighteen. Fiona had really made out like a bandit in the exchange, gaining six levels in her Duelist class. That put her at level twelve in her second class after only two days. If I had any hope of beating her in a heads-up fight that was now gone. I got to see her new skills in play during our next gorlophant assault and it was impressive.

I especially liked how she seemed to cause all the other gorlophants to ignore her as they focused on me. It was only a group of three in total, but still. I hadn’t been able to get Silence off before they bellowed and rushed us but this pack was quite a ways from any others. They also weren’t nearly as high of a level being only twenty-two but that was fine.

I dashed out of the way of a magically enhanced charge, tearing a thin line down the creature's tough hide with my staff. I managed to activate Festering Wound but didn’t have time to activate Corrupting Touch or Calcifying Strike before I got clipped in the shoulder by a large rock, picked up, and thrown by the other attacker.

I was thrown to the ground and had to quickly dodge trampling feet as the one I attacked was panicking as the wound grew worse. I wasn’t completely successful in my dodging as one of the hoofed paws smashed down on my hand with a crunch. I choked back a scream as I finished rolling away, putting the wounded gorlophant between me and his buddy before I started healing my injured hand.

That didn’t seem to phase the other one though as it plowed into its companion, almost pushing it over on top of me if it wasn’t for a quick cast of Wings of the Falcon to take me out of harm's way.

I whipped my staff down in an arc sending an Overcharged Shockwave at the charging brute. The creature stumbled to a stop and shook its head, trying to clear the effect of the spell. I didn’t wait to let it as I switched out my weapon for Dominion and Destruction and came crashing down with the full force of the lion’s head enchantment on the beast's skull.

There was a hollow thud as the creature's entire body rippled from the impact and it crashed to the ground. I hit both beasts with Frostwave and Corrupting Touch, followed by Calcifying Strike.

This guaranteed they would die even if we had to flee. I looked to see how Fiona was faring. She looked bloodied and I saw that the creature she was fighting had blood dripping down one of its horns. But that beast looked nearly spent as it bled from hundreds of shallow cuts. I quickly healed Fiona, glad that she could now accept healing from me again, and got back to finishing off my targets.

***

We kept at it for another few days but the gorlophants were just too annoying to fight. They were smart enough to group up and almost always came to the assistance of others in trouble. In that time Fiona had only gained two more levels as we were forced to restrict our attacks to lower-level groups.

As we were doing another sweep I saw Fiona pause. I stopped as well, waiting to see if she had located an acceptable target. She motioned me over and I quickly jogged the six hundred feet separating us. It wasn’t until I got within a few feet that I felt it.

“Is that what I think it is?” I asked.

“I believe so, want to go check it out.”

“As if I would give up a chance to clear out another horde dungeon,” I replied with a big grin.