Kyle leapt to one side as a blue projectile flew overhead and returned fire with a Mana Bolt of his own as he came back to his feet. The spell didn’t do that much overall damage to the Spellweaver that had just attacked him, but the thing still unleashed an ear-splitting screech of pain as part of its bloated body ruptured, spraying the surrounding area with blue ichor.

Kyle grimaced in irritation as the acrid smell of the monster’s ichor reached his nostrils. He wasn’t sure whether the smell was supposed to make him lightheaded or not, but it did which was only making his victory even less likely. Despite his best efforts he was struggling to kill even one of the Spellweavers and he had no idea how the other were doing right now but he suspected it wasn’t much better than how he was doing.

Fi flitted down and fired a cluster of Mana Darts at the Spellweaver that Kyle had hit just a couple of moments ago causing it to shriek once again in pain. She knew that this fight wasn’t going well but she would be damned if they were going to go down easily. A glance over towards the wall of ice that Carly had created around her and the other members of her party and grimaced.

They had killed several of the massive Daggerleg Spiders that were trapped inside of the wall with them, but she couldn’t honestly say that they were doing much better than her and Kyle were. She glanced up at the hulking mass of the massive creature that she had decided to call a Daggerleg Abomination until the System decided what it was going to label it as and shuddered as she met its many eyed gaze. If things were going this badly now, then they were completely screwed if it decided to join the fight.

Kyle dodge the bladed leg of one of the Daggerleg Spiders that hadn’t been caught inside the ice wall that Carly had created and smashed the joint of the offending limb with a powerful kick and then grimaced as he felt several of the spines that jutted out of its chitinous exoskeleton before stumbling as something sticky slammed into his foot.

Fi cried out in horror as Kyle tumbled to the ground as a massive Daggerleg Spider reared up to finish him off with its razor-sharp forelegs. Fi shot towards them preparing to cast a spell in the hope that she would be able to slow the monster down long enough for Kyle to recover then blinked in surprise when an axe split the things face in half.

Kyle gaped up at the Daggerleg Spider that had been just about to kill him before an axe had hurtled over his head. He didn’t even care that he had just been soaked by the liquid that acted as the monster’s blood. However, before he was able to recover from his surprise a blocky figure dressed in plate armour charged past him with a bloodcurdling shout as it slammed a much larger double-headed battle-axe into the face of yet another of the spiders before moving on to the next one.

“Hey, are you alright over there!?” A rough voice shouted at Kyle who slowly sat up and turned towards it with the same stunned look on his face.

“Jeez kid you look like hell,” the owner of the voice sighed. The individual in question was a magnificently bearded dwarf who was carry two axes and wearing leather armour. “I’d hate to think what would’ve happened if we hadn’t arrived when we did.”

As he said this the dwarf hurled both of his axes into the crowd of monsters that the armoured figure who turned out to be another dwarf was holding back single-handedly. A split second later another pair of axes appeared in his hands only to leave them again shortly after. This time they glowed with the familiar white light of a Skill as they tumbled head over handle towards the monsters and accelerated turning into silver discs of light that tore through the spiders like knives through wet paper.

“You should probably get up you know,” the dwarf continued as he threw yet another pair of axes into the fray. “I can’t guarantee that we can protect you from the bigger, uglier one up there if you don’t heal up as quickly as possible.”

“Sorry,” Kyle croaked as he slowly levered himself upright. “But my leg is pretty messed up.”

He had broken his ankle when the globule of webbing had caused his foot to stick to the ground and while he knew that Fi could heal most of his injuries damage like that couldn’t be healed instantly without the proper spells.

“Well shit,” the dwarf sighed as he tossed another pair of axes at the monsters that his friend was fighting and jogged over towards Kyle before pulling out a potion. “Here, drink this. It’s a Bonesetter potion. Provided it’s not a complex break that should get you back in top condition and even if it doesn’t you should still be able to move.”

Kyle nodded as Fi flitted down to hover beside him as he drank the potion and bit back a scream as the bones in his ankle twisted briefly before fusing back together. Fi quickly cast her Restoration spell on him as Kyle carefully got to his feet under the watchful eye of the dwarf who turned out to be younger than Kyle had originally thought.

“Alright kid looks like your leg is fine now,” the dwarf said. “We’ve got things under control here so go and help your friends.”

“Alright,” Kyle nodded before turning to Fi who nodded in agreement. “Thanks.”

“Don’t thank me kid,” the dwarf chuckled. “We’re just doing our jobs.”

As Kyle ran off in the direction of the wall of ice the dwarf snorted in amusement. When he had seen the way, the boy could move he had assumed that he was at least Level 12 so it had surprised him when his companion which had the shape of a small mouse-like creature had told him that he was only Level 6 lower in between pulling axes out of his Inventory.

“He’s going to be impressive once he’s Levelled Up a bit isn’t he, Kerson?” the companion chuckled from his spot in a small pocket on the dwarf’s collar.

“Indeed, he is Foz,” Garvin chuckled before glancing up warily at the massive monstrosity that pulsed overhead like some sort of many legged balloon. “That is if any of us get out of this.”

“Oh please,” Foz snorted. “You, Temdar and Gerdan are all a higher Level than that thing and it’s not even a Boss yet. Even if it is a new type of monster there’s no way it can stand against the three of you. Especially with the kids helping out.”

“You want them to fight that thing,” Garvin asked as he tossed another pair of axes into the crowd of spiders besetting Temdar- his somewhat crazy friend who loved getting into the thick of combat whenever he could and usually ended up getting more badly injured than he really needed to despite the plate armour that he wore literally all of the time. Even when they were just wandering around whatever town they happened to be in at the time.

“Of course,” the mouse shaped companion replied in a strangely amused tone of voice. “Alistair specifically asked us to make sure that all four of them got as much experience from this Emergency Quest as possible.”

“But he also told us to make sure that they all got back to town alive,” Garvin growled as he watched Temdar start spinning like a top as he activated his Cyclone Chop Skill which shredded several spiders in a matter of a few seconds with such ease that it was hard to believe that Kyle had been struggling to deal damage to them without using his magic or his spiked chain thanks to their armoured carapaces. However not only did Temdar have a considerably Higher Level than Kyle as well as the Stats to go with it he was also using a weapon that was much more suited to defeating opponents with higher physical defence than Kyle’s chains were.

If Kyle were at the same Level as Temdar then he would probably be able to defeat them even more easily since the battle-axe wielding dwarf was because of the sheer number of Stats that his Class gave him every time he Levelled Up. Garvin grinned as he glanced over towards the ice wall just in time to see Kyle leap into the air.

As soon as he was close enough Kyle hooked his spiked chain over the wall of us as he activated his Leap Skill and used the chain which was now embedded in the other side of the wall like a grappling hook to climb the rest of the way up. It wasn’t easy but he got over the wall in the end and dropped down on the other side. He’d known that Fervah and the others were probably struggling with the number of Daggerleg Spiders that were trapped inside the wall of ice with them, so he was surprised by the sheer number of spider corpses that he found there. There wasn’t a lot of space inside the wall of ice because Carly had only just learned the spell and just didn’t have enough MP to make it as large as they would’ve liked.

“Holy shit,” he muttered as he looked around at the destruction that was strewn around them before turning towards the fighting and whistled when he saw that there was yet another dwarf fighting alongside the other Adventurers and seemed to be some sort of mage that used earth magic much like Amy did. However, from the looks of things the dwarf focussed more on damage dealing spells instead of control spells.

Just then a spider flew towards them and they prepared for combat once more only to freeze in surprise when they saw the massive spike of rock sticking out of its body. The spider slammed into the ice wall and stayed there.

“Holy shit,” Kyle repeated as he stared at the corpse of the spider. These dwarves were far stronger than he or any of Fervah’s party were and Kyle was now at a bit of a loss as to why they had been sent at all.

“Yeah that was quite impressive,” Fi agreed. “Now let’s go and help them.”

Kyle nodded and the pair started making their way over towards the fighting. Once they were close enough that they were certain that they wouldn’t hit their allies they started firing magical projectiles at the spiders.

Laurence glanced over towards them with a look of surprise on his face before slashing one of the spiders that Kyle had hit with his Mana Darts spell with his curved blade. Fervah smiled as they approached but didn’t stop shooting arrows at the spiders. Carly looked far more exhausted than any of the others. In fact, she didn’t seem to be doing much to help out in this fight at all which Kyle guessed was because she was completely out of MP which Kyle knew from experience meant she was probably suffering from the mother of all headaches.

However, the one thing that really surprised him was that the dwarven mage was right in the middle of combat. His stout figure moved with surprising grace striking the spiders with powerful punches and kicks. As they got closer Kyle noticed that the dwarf’s fists were coated in stone which seemed to increase the amount of damage that the dwarf was dealing to the spiders.

As Kyle engaged the first spider in close combat Fi flew on ahead to check on Carly and Fervah. Sure, enough Carly was suffering from Mana Exhaustion which is the term used for when you completely deplete your MP pool multiple times without letting it completely refill. Still other than Carly having the raging headache that accompanied the condition both of the girls were fine if somewhat worried about Laurence who had taken a rather nasty gash to his leg a few minutes ago which Carly had cast a healing spell on with the absolute last of her mana but still seemed to be bothering him a little judging from the limp that had gradually been getting more noticeable since.

Hearing this Fi took to the air once more and as soon as she was close enough she cast Restore on Laurence who immediately started moving better and shouted his thanks at her as she then switched to bombarding the spiders with magic.

Now that Kyle and FI were there they were able to start pushing the remaining spiders back and allowed Carly to finally get some rest instead of casting a spell whenever she regenerated enough MP to do so. Having an extra person to take some of the pressure off Laurence and the dwarf. Seeing that he could take a few seconds to cast a more powerful spell the dwarf made eye contact with Kyle and then Laurence before stepping back and starting to cast a spell.

Several mounds of earth started growing as Kyle and Laurence moved to make sure that none of the spiders could attack the dwarf while he worked. Fi watched from above with wide eyes as the mounds of earth slowly developed more definition until they resembled dwarven warriors. It was at this moment that Fi realised that the dwarf didn’t just have normal earth magic but Divine magic like Kyle.

The earthen warriors suddenly jerked into motion raising their stone battle-axes and charging into battle with surprising speed. Kyle stumbled back as one of the moving statues knocked him aside and turned to glare at the dwarf briefly before turning his attention back to the spiders just in time to see all of the tone warriors raise their axes and bring them down with a loud crunching sound as they absolutely destroyed the monsters that he had been struggling with.

Every single blow from the stone warriors severely wounded the spiders and a few seconds later Kyle felt the familiar sensation of Levelling Up restore the strength to his limbs and he turned to check on Laurence and the others who were looking quite relieved that it looked like they could take a break for a bit.

Kyle glanced warily up at the massive monster that was still hanging over their heads. He was really starting to get nervous about it not taking part in the fighting and he was worried that it was using its weaker brethren to wear them down so that it could kill them itself. In fact, if Kyle were a betting person, he would bet that was what was going on.

“Hey, thanks for the help there,” the dwarven mage rumbled as he slapped Kyle on the shoulder making him jump slightly in surprise as he hadn’t heard him move. “I take it that you’re Kyle then?”

“That’s correct,” Kyle nodded as Fi floated down and wrapped around his shoulders. “And this is FI.”

“Well it’s a pleasure to meet both of you,” the dwarf chuckled. “I’m Gerdan by the way.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you too,” FI piped up. “But we should probably assign the Stat Points that we just got from Levelling Up before that Abomination decides to drop in.”

“That would be a good idea,” Gerdan agreed with a tight smile before turning to look at the others who had gathered up around them. “My Stone Guardians spell isn’t going to last much longer so take any potions or perform whatever other preparations that you can, and we’ll go and join my friends.”

The other three nodded and started assigning their own Stat or Skill Points or drinking potions to restore their HP, MP or SP. Kyle glanced up at the monster over his head and frowned as he once again fixed his gaze on the bundle of webbing that was stuck to its abdomen.

“Say Gerdan,” he said. “How are we going to help the person trapped in that cocoon on the Abominations back?”

“I’m not sure that we can kid,” Gerdan sighed as he shook his head sadly. “You’d have to be insane to try and cut them free while that thing is still alive, and the chances are pretty good that it’ll try to kill them if it thinks that we’re winning.”

“No,” Fi said as Kyle frowned angrily at the dwarven mage’s words. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Your companion is right kid,” Gerdan told Kyle whose frown only deepened. “You don’t need to risk your life anymore than you already are.”

“Even if I had almost 50 Agility?” Kyle asked causing the Dwarf to gape at him in amazement.

“But you’re only Level 7!” Gerdan spluttered. “How can one of your Stats be that high!?”

“Let’s just say that my Class is a bit special,” Kyle hedged as FI hissed irritably at him.

“I still don’t like it kid,” Gerdan said eventually. “Even if you could get close enough to cut whoever it is free there’s too much that we don’t know about that monsters’ abilities.”

“We were sent here to save lives,” Kyle pointed out stubbornly causing FI to sigh as she realised that nothing was going to change his mind.

“We do have some spells that can block a couple of attacks,” she said as she shook her head in defeat. “So, it might be worth giving it a try.”

“A couple of attacks?” Gerdan asked as he fired a large rock at the wall of ice that surrounded them just in time for the stone warriors that he had conjured to slowly crumble to the ground their job done. Kyle and FI nodded in conformation.

“Then once you’ve blocked two attacks, I want you to get out of there,” the dwarf said with a note of finality in his rough voice. “Whether you’ve freed the captive or not. Now assign your Stat Points and we’ll all go and join the other two.”

“Okay,” Kyle said as the familiar blue screen appeared in front of him and he placed all 7 of his Unassigned Stat Points into Agility. He knew that he was probably going to regret doing that later, but he wasn’t going to just leave the person that the Abomination had captured to die if there was even the slightest chance that they could save them. Once he had done that he quickly glanced over his Stats once more.

Statistics

Name: Kyle Fergusson

Race: Aethereal Human

Level: 7

Class: Chain Manipulator

HP: 202/202

HP regen: 3.2 p/s

MP: 205/205

MP regen: 12.8 p/s

SP: 200/200

SP regen: 10.5 p/s

Str: 18(8)

Dex: 32(10)

Agi: 48(12)

Con: 20(10)

End: 21(11)

Int: 18(12)

Wis: 21(11)

Will: 24(11)

Exp to next Level: 8%

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

It was honestly hard to believe that he had Levelled Up again so quickly. But that was what happened when you fought in pitched battles like this at low Levels.

Kyle blinked as the blue panel in front of him disappeared and was replaced by Fi’s Status.

“If we are going to do this then we need to make sure that both of us are in the best state as possible,” Fi told Kyle. She still wasn’t particularly happy about the situation but if she couldn’t stop him then she was going to do her absolute best to keep him safe. “I’m planning on putting my two Stat Points into Agility and Intelligence. I know that you want me to keep increasing my HP, but the fact of the matter is that I can be resurrected if I die. You can’t and those Stats will help me keep you alive longer.”

“Okay Fi,’ Kyle sighed as he realised that she wasn’t going to back down from this. “I take it that you’re also going to unlock your Battle From?”

“That’s right,” Fi agreed as she placed the Points into her Agility and Intelligence Stats and turned to look at Kyle as he read her Status.

Statistics

Name: Fi Fergusson

Race: Quetzalcoatl (Divine Beast)

Level: 7

Companion Type: Support Caster

HP: 60/60

HP regen: 0.6 p/s

MP: 160/160

MP regen: 9.5 p/s

SP: 40/40

SP regen: 4 p/s

Str: 4

Dex: 5

Agi: 15

Con: 6

End: 4

Int: 18

Wis: 19

Will: 8

Exp to next Level: 8%

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

“Are you really sure that you want to do this?” she asked him one last time as she brought up one last screen and unlocked her Battle Form Ability.

“Yeah,” Kyle sighed. “I know that you’re not happy about it Fi. But I can’t just leave someone to die if there’s even the slightest chance that I can save them.”

“I know,” Fi nodded as they read over the description of her new Ability one last time.

Ability Unlocked!

Battle Form (Lvl 1)- This Ability unlocks the true potential of a Companion increasing their Stats allowing them to use special Abilities that you can’t use in your normal form. As you are a Support Caster-type Companion your Battle Form increases your MP pool and your MP regen by 100%.

Duration 5 mins.

Can be used once per day at the Ability’s current Level.

Battle Form specific Abilities

· Mana Transfer- Allows you to transfer some your own Mana to your partner.

· Mana Storm- Deals 8 damage per second to enemies in a 2-meter area for 2 min. Cost: 100 MP Cooldown 5 min.

“It’s too bad it doesn’t increase any of your other Stats,” Kyle said. “But that is one hell of a powerful Ability.”

“Companions aren’t like their partners,” Fi replied easily. “We exist to help you. Which means that we’re much more limited in what we can do as you well know.”

“Yeah I know,” he sighed. “Well then let’s get going.”