47 - Collateral (Patreon)

Phoenix barely paid attention to her [Guide Book] as she, Dazien, and Rayna moved into the melee while Uriel and Saiya joined the other ranged attackers which included the strange woman who had caught Phoenix’s attention earlier. Apparently, the friendly cinderen woman and the rest of her Crystal Caste party were adding to the fight with a variety of creatures to assist alongside the expedition, Snowbelle joining them in hurling acidic water at the enemies.

Rayna and Phoenix were a blur of movement as they danced around the battlefield stabbing, punching, slicing, and kicking through any of the Crystal Caste enemies they could find while Dazien focused on locking them down with taunts, cages, and punishing foes with his holy sword. She could hear his overbearing incantation right before a magical cage appeared around one of the Crystal Casters that had been heading towards the backline healers, “You have forsaken my rule and thus forfeit your freedom!”

Class Ability: To the Dungeon

Type: Spell (construct, control, elemental, metal)

Cost: Moderate mana.

Cooldown: 5 minutes.

Current Caste: Crystal 8 (95%)

Crystal Effect: Construct a reinforced metal cage around the target for a short duration; touching the cage inflicts a burst of Metal damage.

Uriel was also able to unleash a bit more freely here as he spread plague and rained fire upon the enemy’s back lines near the entrance to the ruins while Saiya sang a song of protection for them.

Class Ability: Sonorous Shield

Type: Spell (channel, magical, song)

Cost: Low mana per second.

Cooldown: None.

Current Caste: Crystal 9 (87%)

Crystal Effect: As you sing, nearby allies gain increased resistance to Magical damage.

The Healer and the Mage also showed their own form of synergy as the voxen triggered another ability and the pair incanted in tandem, “Let the wind sting. Let the ice bite. Let the snow freeze. Let the blizzard claim life.”

Class Ability: Harmonize

Type: Spell (magical, covenant, song)

Cost: High mana.

Cooldown: Varies.

Current Caste: Crystal 9 (41%)

Crystal Effect: Harmonize with an ally’s incanted spell, adding your mana to theirs to increase its effects and shorten its cooldown. This spell's cooldown becomes the same as the targeted spell’s adjusted cooldown.

Class Ability: Blizzard

Type: Spell (elemental, ice)

Cost: High mana.

Cooldown: None.

Current Caste: Crystal 8 (34%)

Crystal Effect: Create an area of violent wind, snow, and hail. Targets in the area take ongoing Ice damage and slowly gain instances of [Chilled].

- Chilled (bane, elemental, ice, stacking): Decreased Agility.

As ice joined the fire on the distant enemies she was reminded to cast her own ranged destroyer. Making her way beside the Backline teammates to buy herself time for the longer incantation, she aimed at the temple entrance itself and recited, “From the depths of the universe I summon forth the shards of annihilation. May the wrath of the cosmos descend upon all who dare to oppose me.”

At first, Phoenix was elated with the thrill of power she felt from casting [Meteor Shower] as the tear in the sky appeared and the burning sphere of plasma and rock appeared through it to crash into the ruins, causing devastation to the area and enemies who had sought shelter within. Then she realized that her actions came with consequences as the enemy Emerald Caster found those on the ground to be much more concerning suddenly.

The woman Paul had called Nietra began hurling balls of fire down upon the lower Caste combatants and their own Emerald Caste Paladin was doing his best to intercept the fatal flames but that meant he couldn’t stop the smaller and more numerous projectile the priestess was raining down upon them, striking friend and foe alike.

As the glinting metallic feathers seemingly forged from gold detached from her wings to begin slicing through the Sapphire Caste Adventurers and completely severed limbs of the even weaker Crystal Casters, Dazien turned to yell towards her despite their mental link and ordered, “Phoenix! Start portaling people back to the Rift camp! Rayna, start helping move the most injured to the portal and make sure someone tells Cleric Starlark about the enemy Emerald!”

Rayna responded to the command instantly; triggering one of the more costly abilities the bard had in order to practically fly across the battlefield and scoop up the most injured allies furthest away from them.

Ability: Beyond the Boundary

Type: Utility (movement)

Cost: Severe mana and stamina.

Cooldown: 5 minutes.

Current Caste: Crystal 10

Crystal Effect: Instantly boost your speed by a massive amount, quickly declining to normal over 5 seconds.

Phoenix complied a moment later, opening her portal nearby and was only slightly startled by Saiya grabbing her hand as the Healer asked in an unusual rush, “I need your help with a ritual! Do you know the more basic Warden’s Dome one?”

She nodded, recalling one of the Mundane Rituals she had learned that could mold the earth into what she thought of as a dirt hovel. The Healer elaborated, “I probably should have shown you some other Water ones I know earlier but we’ve been busy. Anyways, use your talent and draw it out and I’ll tell you where to change it then repeat the incantation after me.”

The Wayfarer nodded again and began to work as Saiya elaborated while throwing bolts of healing energy towards the wounded that Rayna and Dazien were dragging towards her portal, “This version is Sapphire Caste and– No, change that part to the water rune rather than earth. Good. Then next to the Warden’s rune you’ll need to add the rune for the Mender and Arcanist, you know those ones right?” another nod as she furiously scribbled, “Good, this one is much larger and attuned to Water instead but it will help our allies and protect the portal.”

“Can we even do this if it’s Sapphire? Won’t it just eat through my mana and potentially kill me?” she asked without stopping.

“That’s why I’m going to boost you and both Uriel and I will help feed it,” the voxen responded, glancing over at the cinderen who was near enough to hear them but focused on casting his own spells to waylay the enemies.

“Do I need to stop and reserve my mana then?” the Mage asked through the telepathic link they shared.

“Probably, yes,” Saiya replied with a bit of concern that both she and Uriel noticed. Then the Healer added as though reassuring herself as well as them, “I’m almost Sapphire Caste myself so we should have enough to power it.”

Phoenix continued working with Saiya’s guidance, however, only pausing to recast her portal when needed and another moment when a stray bolt of ice struck her in the side as the collateral damage kept piling up for both sides. The immediate healing and the sight of another Crystal Caste ally getting immolated from a direct hit of an Emerald Caste fireball brought her focus back to completing the ritual circle.

Once it was complete, she took Saiya’s paw-like hand in one of hers and Uriel’s volcanic one in her other with all three of them reciting the words Saiya had instructed, “From the healing waters of the Mender to the shielding earth of the Warden, may the Arcanist weave the two to bring refuge to the allies seeking safety from the onslaught beyond.”

A ripple of power spread out from the trio and she felt the draining of her mana as a semi-transparent dome of water grew out from her circle to encompass a large portion of the area, including the portal people had begun retreating through. Even some of the less zealous enemies had begun willingly surrendering if it meant escaping with their lives.

Saiya, Uriel, and Phoenix all stumbled slightly as the above-Caste ritual took its toll on their mana but she was pleased that they hadn’t seemed completely drained and both she and Uriel triggered their mana-restoring tattoos. The Healer downed one of the mana potions from the dimensional pouch at her hip–which was more efficient at holding potions specifically–before resuming her healing of the injured allies that managed to cross the watery barrier.

Then Saiya cast her largest area heal as the voxen incanted, “Let the waters of life rain their blessings from the watchful sky above us.”

Class Ability: Rain of Life

Type: Spell (elemental, magical, life, water)

Cost: High mana.

Cooldown: 1 hour.

Current Caste: Crystal 9 (54%)

Crystal Effect: Create an area of healing rain that greatly increases the regeneration rate of allies within it.

As the battle on the ground seemed to wane with many retreating through the portal, she spared a glance skyward, where her mentor continued to struggle to protect them all while attempting to land blows on the aerial enemy. Phoenix found herself giving a silent prayer to any of the gods’ marks she bore to keep the man she trusted above all others alive long enough to actually become her family.

Cleric Everin Starlark realized something had gone wrong as soon as the portal appeared in their midst and the younger voxen he recognized as Lady Rayna Dewsong came through dragging four other Crystal Casters, one in each of her hands along with another wrapped in each of her armored tails.

He was beside her in an instant, using one of his few direct healing abilities and asking what had happened. The battle bard answered short and simply, which he appreciated in the moment though wasn’t his usual preference in a conversational partner, “They had an Emerald Caster. Some flying priestess that likes to shoot fire and feathers like throwing knives.”

The paler voxen nodded and responded, “I’ll take these ones from here, you go get more. I can’t go through Phoenix’s portal till she levels it to Sapphire 5 I believe, if it’s like most.”

Rayna nodded and quickly ducked back through the portal as another injured ally walked through and Everin began barking out orders on his side to the other healers and Adventurers to begin receiving their retreating forces, ending with a final command of, “And somebody get a Sapphire Portalist over there!”

The Emerald Caster scooped up the allies the bard had dropped off to get them out of the way, using only four of his five soft white tails to take them toward the clinic area he already had set up in the event something like this occurred.

Everin glanced toward the direction he could sense the Favored one in, being able to feel her even from this distance. He contemplated joining her and the intriguing Paladin in the battle but a voice that was both a comfort and an exhilaration whispered into his mind, “You won’t make it in time. Stay and cover them from here.”

The Cleric was only slightly surprised by the presence of his goddess remaining in the back of his mind as he mentally prayed back, “So the Soul Mark worked then? This reality is now one of yours?”

“So it is. Is that doubt you had in my words?” the feminine voice asked, sounding both amused and slightly miffed.

“Not in your words, Rebel. Only in my own mortal understanding,” he replied, not keeping the slight grin from his face which seemed to garner some dirty looks from those around him who were working hard to respond to the influx of injured.

“Keep an eye on our little revolutionist but do not interfere. We need her to grow without crutches for every challenge. Luckily, death won’t be a concern in her case.”

Everin’s smile did vanish at that, replaced with a grimace as he responded, “Some things are worse than death. I’m not sure refusing to interfere is always the best course of action. We don’t want her breaking so much that death would be the better alternative.”

“Perhaps. I’ll leave it to your judgment, though heed my guidance, Cleric.”

He absently nodded and his gaze fell upon another healer of Sapphire Caste who was watching him carefully, as though trying to confirm something. The voxen was about to ask the runeforged if he needed assistance but the man turned to look towards the direction he could feel Phoenix in and then pointedly stared back at his slitted pupils in icy blue irises. That was when he noticed the priestly adornments on the darker man’s green battle robes, which didn’t contrast well with the magenta metallic markings on the runeforged skin. The symbols marked the Healer as a servant of the Cultivator and he suddenly understood what the young man was trying to confirm.

“She’ll be fine,” Everin said to him, looking away to tend to more of the wounded that were making their way in, “Trust that our deities chose wisely and help now by supporting from afar.”

The young priest nodded and began assisting where available and Everin found himself hoping that he wouldn’t be proven wrong.

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