Fire flared out from Maya in a rush, leaping high into the air, flowing like a wave in all directions. For a moment she was blinded by the brilliance, the rushing roar filling her ears before both adjusted and she could see clearly again. Flame roared around her in a massive pillar, reaching higher than the tops of the trees, emulating the enclosure that had given it its shape.

Driles squealed and ran at her from all directions as the damage aggro’d them. Two actually managed to reach her before the heat burned away their last health points and they collapsed in lifeless piles of fur and leather around her. Maya laughed, breathless with the exhilaration, the feeling of unlimited power standing in the heart of the inferno as it blazed on.

Then the fires died away, shrinking and fading, leaving the pile of dead driles as the only testament to its brief fury.

Maya was still laughing. She couldn’t help it. This was why she became a mage in the first place, to do awesome and exciting new things. Control the elements, crush her adversaries, and just have fun.

There was something so satisfying about coming back to an area you’d struggled through in the past and just steamrolling everything. It took her longer to loot the bodies than it had to kill them.

From her calculations, Inferno had an approximate measurement of about 3 Magestrikes in diameter, making it easily the largest area spell she’d ever seen or heard of.

"Thank you Bloodline," she murmured, surveying the clearing.

Maya did want to test Inferno among the trees at some point, just to be sure whether or not it would destruct the environment or only enemies, but didn’t want to run the risk right now. She decided test it discreetly in an area with a few trees, not in the heart of a massive forest running the entire length of the zone. Her energy would be another minute or two returning to full after expending it completely.

She finished looting the bodies and set out jogging back to Kalyx, pleased to note how much more quickly she could get around the zone now than she had back when she started. With her increased speed and higher stamina, the trip was significantly less tedious than it had been back when she first joined.

On the way, she saw someone else jogging back toward the city. She easily overtook him, surprised but not displeased to see Andy. The blue merla warrior looked to have upgraded his equipment fractionally since the last time she saw him, but he was still quite recognizable.

"Hey! Finish your tier trial?" Maya called, slowing a bit so they were moving at the same speed.

"Maya! Yes, I did. Are you busy, do you have time for me to tag along?"

"I’m working on a dungeon at the moment, but if you want to join us? So far we’ve wiped once. We could use the help."

"Yeah, I’d love to!"

"Do you have zone two unlocked?"

Andy shook his head.

"I can share the transit, then."

They stopped by the academy long enough for her to pick up Snappy and Hunter. Snappy looked irritated at being interrupted - she’d been sitting in the patch of sunlight by the window, glinting off her crystalline shell - and clicked her pincers in a clear ‘leave me alone’ gesture, but obediently followed without forcing Maya to use the pet interface to force her into it. Hunter jumped up eagerly, bounding over to put his front paws on Maya’s chest, yipping and wagging his tail like he’d been waiting years for her return.

Andy gave them a surprised look when she headed out. "New friends?"

"Yeah," Maya said distractedly, but Andy’s attempts at small talk did little to distract her. When she wasn’t worrying about the dungeon, she was wondering what in the world she ought to do about Bloodline.

If the idea of the Trickster having edit access to her digital soul wasn’t bad enough, now Bloodline had clearly demonstrated knowledge of and ability to access the game’s code in ways players never could. If World 9352 was buggy enough that a whole deity class was accidentally available to over 10% of new characters at the start of the game; if players could use broken abilities to access dev console commands… what else could Bloodline do?

That thought was easily the scariest. Fixing a broken spell was one thing. Promising a way to contact Drew regardless of where he may be? That was terrifying. If the NPCs from one world could translocate to others, her eternal digital afterlife wasn’t looking quite so perfect.

It would be easy to hide from other players if it ever became necessary - just change your name and block them as contacts, and you’re all set. Start over on a new world with a new character, and no one will ever know. But NPCs with access to the backend? If someone like The Trickster could follow her from world to world?

It was really better not to think of it. It put certain NPCs’ willingness to refer to their world as a game in a whole new, and entirely uncomfortable, light.

Maya still hadn’t reached a decision by the time they reached the dungeon. Andy had long since stopped trying to initiate a conversation, content to stroll along at Maya’s side admiring the view. She had to admit it was impressively varied for all its monochromatic nature. Hills and valleys and unnatural-looking rock formations provided natural landmarks which Maya unconsciously noted as she made her way unerringly to the dungeon entrance.

"No, put the other side up. I don’t care how ugly it is. We don’t want to slip off."

Maya froze at the faint voice echoing from ahead, then realized she recognized the voice. Ben? But he sounded… almost normal. She resumed walking, but slowly, listening. She’d never heard Ben anything but bitter or angry.

"Maybe you should have thought of that earlier," retorted Star, sounding just as grumpy as always. "You’re going first. And if the whole thing collapses and you die again, it’ll serve you right."

"Hey, hey guys, guess what?" Runescale’s voice echoed, as bright and unflappable as ever.

"You figured out how to kill the knives from outside the room?"

"Well, no, but—"

"Then we don’t want to hear it."

"But look at this!"

There was a pregnant pause, then the sizzle-BOOM of lightning.

"Why did we bring him along?"

Then Maya came around the corner into the last room and saw what they’d been talking about.

They’d collected fallen weapons, dungeon architectural elements, and supplemented them with building supplies from various construction quests to create what Maya could only describe as some kind of crane/scaffold. Its purpose became immediately clear - the boss room beyond was still full of a solid carpet of spinning, deadly light blades, bouncing and rebounding and replaced as fast as they ran out of momentum. The giant lizardish boss stood beside his destroyed throne, blasting out attacks in a random sequence around himself faster than Maya could track, such that he looked like a spinning sunburst of overpowered light beams, more spinning blades joining the swarm in a constant stream. But, like before, all the rebounding blades remained at a fixed height, leaving space to safely crawl beneath or remain above.

Runescale stood paralyzed by whatever he’d done with his Runestrike spell this time, while Ben and Star each held one end of a curved piece of molding which they were maneuvering into place atop the rickety-looking construction.

Maya’s mind immediately leapt into action, highlighting weak points and scanning their pile of miscellaneous materials to see how she could correct them.

"Stop," Maya said, and the two turned to face her.

Ben, shocked by her unexpected appearance, dropped the molding; Star didn’t. She grunted in irritation and staggered under the weight, then fell to the ground.

Maya pointed to where one of their sword-joints hadn’t affixed properly. "It would have collapsed with the extra weight."

"Think you can fix architecture just like you can fix spells?"

Maya smiled, though she wanted to snap back, and feigned sweetness. "Yes, I think so. I’m just good at fixing things."

She had already wasted most of an hour with all the travel, and she desperately needed to finish this quest as soon as possible so she could settle down to magic research for the remainder of her rare high-luck day.

First, she eyed the distance between the door and the boss. It would be too far for even Inferno to reach, and the way the spinning glowing daggers stayed perfectly contained despite the open door made her think you couldn’t stand outside and lob spells in. They’d need to physically enter the room, and once they did the boss would start targeting them with his too-fast flashes of light. That meant they needed the platform to provide enough mobility to dodge and keep dodging, and attacks that could be charged while moving. So the current crane platform, while it would keep them above the deadly blade layer, would leave them easy targets for the light beam attacks. And since the boss’s enrage timer had hit max, he would be hitting _very_ hard and _very_ fast.

The depleted crystal stalagmites provided evenly-spaced supports, that could be used to their advantage. Whatever they made would have to be sturdy, though, since the boss’s light attacks had been proven capable of destroying the environment as well as damaging players.

"What material best resists Light damage?" Maya asked, as she took stock of their available construction options.

"Lightning!" Runescale declared, while the others shrugged.

"Lightning isn’t even a damage type," Ben sniped. "It’s a visual representation of magical energy that hasn’t been shaped to another element. Real lightning doesn’t spark around nearly as dramatically."

Runescale held his hand to his chest in mock horror. "Don’t mock my hopes and dreams, lightning heretic!"

"Probably something like steel would be best, but we don’t have any of that available," Star said to Maya, while the boys continued to argue the merits of lightning. "Nor any way to craft it if we did—" she started as Maya lit up, then broke off and frowned in confusion as Maya grinned wider.

"I have ceiling struts! Curved ceiling struts for a cathedral. Hehe!" She pulled them out, shaking her head at the unconventional use she’d be putting them to, but since she hadn’t technically given them to the Oracle yet, they were still hers to use regardless of their intended future use.

They wouldn’t line up precisely with the stalagmites without work, but they had enough binding material and miscellaneous items available that they could make a decent runaround. Maya’s mind raced, running through possible layouts, trying to find an optimal one for surviving long enough to finish the boss’s last chunk of health.

"Alright, I think I can make a runaround platform on top of the stalagmites. We’ll have to be fast, alert, and cast while moving. At the rate those attacks are going off, he can target each of us once in less than two seconds, so we won’t have time for anything big. And we’ll be at a distance, so something like Sparkburst or Runestrike aren’t going to be any help. What’s your best long-distance spell that you can cast while moving?"

"Frost Bolt," Star said.

"Sparkburst," said Ben, defiantly.

"I have a bow," Andy answered, startling Maya. She’d forgotten he was along, standing out of the way and quiet.

She smiled and nodded. "That’ll help. And… Runescale?"

"Runestrike!"

"That will absolutely not work."

"It will! Besides, the only other spell I have is Spark."

"I think Spark will work better. The boss is way too far away for Runestrike to be of any help."

Runescale grinned at her. "See, you might think that because you helped with the spell a little that you know what it’s good for, but I’ve been working on it for months."

"If by ‘working on’ you mean ‘drawing pictures of’…" Maya mumbled. She didn’t need to be praised constantly for her contribution, but she’d spent her entire research period making Runestrike, without any input from Runescale at all. Sure, it had been mostly intended as a joke, but if he was going to use it in combat she at least deserved some credit! Saying she ‘helped a little’ made it sound like Runescale had been involved in the process, when it had been all her own effort.

"I’ve been planning every possible way I can use lightning," Runescale continued to ramble. "Just wait and watch. You’ll see. I’ll prove how much Storm needs me."

Star and Ben exchanged a look, and Maya felt simultaneously irritated and vindicated by the way they seemed to hold Runescale in low esteem. So she wasn’t the only one who found his attitude offputting. But at the same time… he was also one of their fellow mages, even if he was young and self-centered and maybe a bit stupid at times. She may be feeling a little bitter and resentful toward him at the moment, though mostly frustrated, but she definitely didn’t want everyone to act like he was useless.

Maya forced down a snippy reply and kept her voice friendly and light. "Alright, if you’re sure, then we’ll give it a try. But if it doesn’t work, I want you to switch to Spark when I give the signal, okay?"

"Yeah, don’t worry. You’ll see!"

Maya turned her attention back to planning and grimaced at what she had to work with. Ben was going to be useless, Runescale would be of dubious use, and Andy had only just passed his tier trial. Star’s Frost Bolts and whatever Maya herself ended up using would be their best bet for actual progress. No matter how she calculated it, without the ability to use any heavy slow attacks, and without the added magic from the stalagmites, they were probably all going to die at least twice more before they finished off the rest of the boss’s health.

Perhaps something on her own spell list could make up the deficit. And she definitely needed to rearrange which abilities were on her quick bar. The window opened at her summons and she scrolled down the list.

Wind Whisper and its derivatives: the frost and flame versions she’d made, the more powerful versions, and the knife-boost version. The basic single-target spells: Spark and Frost Bolt.

She wanted to make an earth bolt or earth spear to counter the boss’s light affinity, and she was pretty sure she could do it if only she had any raw magic to craft it with. It would be a complete waste of time to run back to Nirsym to collect some at this point, but she made a mental note to respawn there and grab a bit if she died. Then she made another mental note to restock on Dust of Recall. Otherwise, one of these days she’d need a quick way back to town and deeply regret not having it on hand.

Defensive spells: Flame Hand, which provided flame resistance, and Stone Ward which increased physical resistance. Advanced spells: Magestrike with its AoE, Heart of Magma for high single-target damage, Storm Grasp which paralyzed both caster and target… and Chill of the Depths, which did no direct damage but slowed the target and increased their vulnerability to cold damage.

Maya had never used either of those last two spells in an actual fight, tucked away in her ‘other abilities’, but at first glance they sounded like exactly what she needed right now. If she could make the boss vulnerable to ice, then paralyze him? That would help a lot. The only problem was the casting requirements. Chill of the Depths was touch-based, and if she were close enough to touch the boss she was close enough for him to kill her very quickly. She doubted she’d be able to survive close proximity to the enraged boss long enough for the 4-second cast time.

Storm Grasp cost 120 energy to cast and 20 more per second to sustain. She could maintain it a decent duration, but the fact that it paralyzed the caster as well as the target meant she’d be useless for the duration. What she really needed was Tahpa or someone to paralyze the boss for her while she cast Heart of Magma. But Tahpa wasn’t here, and no one in their group had Storm Grasp or Heart of Magma apart from Maya herself.

Still, Storm Grasp did deal some damage, so it might be the best option. Of course, that assumed that they could build the scaffold around the room, but she felt confident with her prior construction experience and current high luck she could construct something sturdy enough for them to run and fight on it.

Before she could make a move, Rominian ran into the room. He ignored everyone, lightly sprinted up and across the half-constructed scaffold, leapt into the air, and flew across the boss room. As they stared, he landed nimbly atop the boss’s shoulder and handed down a small object which Maya couldn’t make out from this distance. His interruption only halted the boss’s progress for a moment. The two goons from before entered, ignoring the carpet of bouncing projectiles they waded through, then collected the box from the boss and turned to leave. Rominian took the opportunity to leap from the boss’s shoulder to that of one of the goons, who didn’t react to his unexpected passenger as the pair of them trudged out the back exit.

She’d forgotten Rominian’s presence in the dungeon. Was that going to be a problem? Why did things always end up complicating themselves when Maya was around?

Nope. She’d deal with Rominian another time. Whatever he was doing didn’t matter at the moment. Priority was getting this boss down so she could do some serious magic research.

"Rune, Star, I’m going to need help assembling this," she called, beginning to pull the ceiling struts from her inventory. "Here’s what I was thinking…"