“Yeah,” Farrah confirmed.
“I thought you felt close to ranking-up from your aura. There’s a pair of category threes up in Darwin who’ve got fire bolt and it’s apparently something to see. It’s not often we get them all gathered up like this for big chains. You should start, because my spears do more damage if the targets are already burning. Normally, I get the fire essence users in the ranks to spray things down first, then move in to sweep up. This should be much more convenient.”
“That works out nicely,” Farrah said.
The two women made an odd pair, both with the refined good looks of multiple rank-ups. Farrah was dressed casually, wearing jeans and an open check shirt over a white tee, hair cinched back at the neck. Melinda had short-cropped hair and was covered neck down in what Jason continued to think of as death squad apparel. The black tactical armour worn by the Network’s silver-rankers was magical, although only bronze-rank gear.
“Time to try something new,” Farrah said as Jason moved forward to join them.
“Mind if I take a look?” Jason asked.
“Go ahead,” Farrah said.
Jason pulled up her ability description through his party interface.
Ability: [Ghost Fire Mystic]
Transfigured from [Outworlder] ability [Spiritual Flame].
Create threads of ghostly flame. Flames are incorporeal and non-harmful to ordinary individuals but are highly effective against incorporeal entities. Threads can be used as a whip, rope, web, or other cord-based objects.
This ability gains an alternate function to draw magic diagrams, including ones that float in the air. Power-amplifying diagrams for fire abilities have increased effect when created with this ability.
Farrah drew a magic diagram in the air with her finger, reminding Jason of the many times he had seen Clive do the same. Instead of Clive’s golden light, though, Farrah drew in threads of red and yellow flame that glistened like liquid.
When she was done, she used an ability from her potent essence, Boost, which caused an amber light to shine from within her body. Boost was similar to the Bolster power that Neil possessed, in that it enhanced the next ability used. The key difference was that Boost only worked on the user.
Only after drawing out the ritual diagram and using her support ability did she hold up her hand and chant a quick spell.
“Fire Bolt.”
Fire Bolt was from a family of ultra-quick attack spells commonly possessed by spell casters and used as a basic attack. It could be fired as far as the eye could see and was very quick to use, but traditionally lacking in power. Stacking enhancement effects the way Farrah had done was common practice.
The ball of flame that shot out of Farrah’s hand was larger than what Jason had seen from other fire essence users, due to the Boost ability. Once it hit the ritual circle, the circle was consumed as the ball grew larger still, trailing flames like a comet as it shot low over the ground in the direction of the monster horde. It also changed colour, moving from orange through yellow to a bright yellow-white.
“That’s a strong one,” Mel said.
In the distance, they heard the roar of monsters as the higher-ranked enemies sensed the approaching magical attack.
“My Fire Bolt ability has already gotten to silver,” Farrah said. “Even so, it should only kill the lowest-rank stuff outright. You want to follow on so you can chain off the weak ones while they’re still burning, Mel?”
Mel grinned, not bothering to respond. She raised her hand and chanted a spell.
“Blazing Spear.”
A spear that looked to be made of molten metal appeared in front of her and shot off after the fire bolt. It didn’t seem to have any concerns about gravity, flying in a perfectly flat trajectory.
The fire bolt reached the monsters first, landing on a spider-legged horse that let out an alien shriek as flames engulfed it, as if it had been covered in accelerant. New bolts of fire shot out from the burning monster at other nearby monsters, who suffered the same fate. Fire bolts then emerged from them, continuing to chain from creature to hideous creature as flames overtook the horde like a rising tide.
The blazing spear propagated in much the same way, striking a burning monster, around which more spears were conjured to spread out and out, chasing after the wave of fire bolts. The collaboration of the two basic attack spells, chaining over and over, was devastating to the weaker members of the horde.
“Uh…” Jason said, watching the carnage.
The iron-rankers amongst the horde were falling like raindrops, with the bronze-rankers mostly surviving but in such a wrecked state that the Network team with their firearms should have little trouble mopping up. The larger monsters were burning, but they seemed largely unfazed. The fires on them soon went out, revealing some discoloured skin and scorched hair, but little more than superficial damage.
“Now for the finishing touch,” Farrah said. She held her hands out to her sides, palms up, slowly raising them as she chanted a spell.
“Let the fires rise and claim their ashen due.”
In the distance, the horde was a sea of flame emitting horrifying shrieks of agony, heard even from so far away. With Farrah’s spell, the fire burned brighter, the screams growing louder before starting to fall silent. Jason took another peek at her abilities.
“What spell was that?” Jason asked.
“Look for yourself,” Farrah said.
Ability: [Rising Flames] (Potent)
Spell
Cost: High mana.
Cooldown: 3 minutes.
Current rank: Silver 0 (00%).
Effect (iron): Damage dealt by all instances of [Burning] inflicted by you slowly increases.
Effect (bronze): Shortly after an instance of [Burning] reaches maximum damage potential, it detonates, consuming the instance of [Burning] and dealing all potential damage immediately.
Effect (silver): When instances of [Burning] detonate, they inflict damage in a small area around the victim.
“Strewth,” Cotsworth said, walking up to Jason as he looked into the distance, scratching his head. “Looks like the rest of us can knock off. Good luck with the big ones.”
Aside from a few bronze-rank monsters barely clinging to life, only the silver-rankers were left.
“You know,” Jason said to Farrah, “I have a power that, when you stab someone, makes the bleeding slightly worse. How is that fair?”
“Always with the complaining,” Farrah said. “The circumstances just happened to suit my abilities.”
“The circumstances being an army of monsters.”
“Exactly,” Farrah said. “You have your own ideal situations. Put three people in the dark and you’ll probably kill them. Eventually.”
“Oh, that’s hilarious,” Jason said as he was shrouded in dark mist. “At least my ideal circumstances include having mana left four minutes into the fight.”