“Phoenix?”

  She startled awake at the sound of her name and the gentle hand on her shoulder as Saiya nudged her, “Time to get up, sweet flower. The staging point needs to move again.”

  Phoenix groaned and stretched, followed by a wide yawn that had her coughing at the taste of the dry ash that had suffused the air. “How long was I out?” she managed to ask as she dragged herself out of the simple bed in their shared room of Uriel’s [Fortress of Solitude].

  “Only three hours, sorry,” Saiya said regretfully, “I know you need more, but…”

  Phoenix shook her head and conjured her clothing directly onto her body in a shimmer of silver starlight, “No, it’s fine. I know we’re lucky to have gotten that much,” she muttered, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

  It had been four days now since they arrived on the battlefield. Four days of seemingly endless fighting of monsters whose ranks seemed to be continually replenished while fewer and fewer Adventurers could be called from the city to reinforce their frontline with each shattered party.

  “How far are we moving back this time?” Phoenix asked as she quickly stumbled through brushing and braiding her hair again.

  “Ten kilometers,” Saiya said grimly.

  “That far? Are they trying to buy more time before moving again or something?”

  “I think they’re hoping it will be enough to hold the line before Lord Waynd arrives. A scout returned a bit ago saying only a single ship remained south of the ET Road.”

  Phoenix nodded in understanding, “It still boggles my mind sometimes how strong he is. Do we know how many ships are left in the northern section?” she asked as she led the way into the small shared spaces between the two bedrooms.

  “Nine, st I heard,” Dazien answered, getting up from his lotus position on the floor next to Rayna.

  “How close till you cross?” Phoenix inquired as she nodded towards the spot he had been meditating in.

  “Maybe tomorrow at this rate,” he answered, “Not sure if I should wait until we return to the city, though,” Dazien added in a rare dispy of uncertainty.

  “Wouldn’t it be better if you were Sapphire? Isn’t that why Paul went ahead? For the Caste advantage?”

  Silky purple hair like dark gems glinted in the red glow coming in through the singur window as Dazien shook his head. Whether the eerie lighting was from the blood moon or the battle she could hear getting closer, though, Phoenix wasn’t sure.

  “I don’t think the advantage is great enough in my case to risk the impaired reactions and judgment from the soul exhaustion caused by ascending,” he expined, “Paul might be able to power through it, but I’m not sure I can, and I’m a lot easier for a monster to kill than he is.”

  “Sounds like you have your answer then,” Phoenix replied as she accepted the sandwich Uriel offered to her.

  “How are you holding up?” Uriel asked her quietly.

  She yawned again, “Really wishing I had thought to make up a couple dozen to-go mugs of my coffee,” she replied with a tired smile.

  “This coffee?” he asked with a smirk and held up what looked like a metal thermos.

  Her eyes went wide in surprise before she gave an excited smile and made grabby hands towards the divine nectar, “Oh my gods! You are my new bestest friend in the whole world!”

  He chuckled as he handed over the blessed mug and joked over his shoulder towards the others, “Hear that? I’m the favorite.”

  “Bribery!” Rayna yelled in mock outrage, “King! I demand you recim your status as Uriel’s best friend and halt this corruption!”

  Dazien looked towards Phoenix consideringly before shrugging and saying simply, “I don’t mind sharing.” He then walked over towards Uriel while practically begging, “Please tell me you have another of those for me.”

  “Favoritism!” Rayna cried out as Uriel handed their leader another of the still-steaming drinks from one of the dimensional baskets they kept most of their food in.

  A knock came at the door and Saiya was the one to open it as the young messenger on the other side told them the call to move was in effect now and that the area would become an active combat zone within the hour.

  “Right,” Dazien said after taking a long sip of the warm magically-caffeinated drink, “I guess that means back into the fray with us. Stay close by and keep doing what we’ve been doing.”

  “Frantically trying not to die as we kill monsters?” Rayna asked.

  “That does seem to be what we do best,” Phoenix agreed with a cheeky grin causing Dazien to roll his eyes at the pair of them.

  Rayna gave her a ft look, “We do. You don’t. Or do you not remember almost getting eaten a few days ago?”

  “Hey, I still didn’t die!”

  “I was talking about working as a team to protect each other as we kill monsters,” their leader crified for them.

  As they exited the ice fort, Uriel dismissed it behind them and asked her, “Did you manage to get any more Mana Potions? Or even some health ones I could use with my [Siphoned Vigor]? These fights have been great for progressing my area abilities, but I’m going through too many consumables to try and keep up.”

  She nodded, conjuring a dozen bottles one at a time to hand over to him, as she expined for the others to hear as well, “Yeah. I kept some for us after my delivery mission from the city before crashing into bed. Managed to get a few more crates from the Alchemy Association building along with more ammo and weapons that had been delivered to the AOA.”

  Phoenix handed some more potions over to the others as she continued walking while talking, “Pati even stopped by to ask how we were doing. She was sorry she couldn’t be there for Paul’s ascension, but it sounded like they’ve been keeping her locked in the Cultivator’s Citadel to keep churning out potion ingredients.”

  “Yup. Mum was compining even before all this began that there weren’t enough growers or space to keep up with the demand during this prolonged blood moon,” a familiar masculine voice said from nearby, and Phoenix turned to see Patric and Padma walking towards them with four other people following behind.

  She smiled brightly at them before saying, “I’m not sure if I’m happy or worried to see you both here. I half-wish I knew you were back home safe and sound with the others.”

  The older runeforged pyfully cpped her on the back as he said, “I was about to say the same about you. Both of us are more experienced than most of your party, you know.”

  “Sure, but I can drop meteors from the sky,” she pointed out with a grin.

  “Speaking of that,” her new cousin continued, “We saw a lovely target nearby that could use one of those. Is it off cooldown yet?”

  “No, but Saiya can Refresh me, I think, if it’s important,” she informed. Saiya’s ability had been on cooldown almost as often as her own during the st few days of needing massive attacks to clear out monsters. She was extra grateful for the effect it unlocked with the Refund Spirit Gem.

  Css Ability: Refreshed

  Type: Spell (magical, life)

  Cost: Moderate mana.

  Cooldown: Variable.

  Current Caste: Sapphire 1 (78%)

  Crystal Effect: This spell can only affect an ally and not yourself. Reset the cooldown of an ability currently on a cooldown of the targeted ally. The cooldown of this ability is equal to the time remaining on the cooldown of the target ability.

  Sapphire Effect: Additionally refresh resource pools of the target with the amount recovered proportional to the costs of the ability refreshed.

  Saiya nodded in confirmation, and her party changed direction with Patric putting an arm around her shoulder to lead her toward said target. Dazien spoke up, but he seemed id back as he said, “We can help, but we can’t take too long. Cleric Starrk wants us to meet him at the new command tent.”

  “Shouldn’t take that long,” Patric replied.

  “It was just past the northern edge of the camp,” Padma added, “The hard part is getting in range.”

  Phoenix quickly learned why that was the hard part when she saw the horde of monsters between the edge of the quickly disassembled camp and the Crystalline Elemental that was glowing an eerie blue with veins of bck creeping throughout its semi-opaque body of rock.

  She slightly panicked at the sight and feel of the monster’s aura from her vastly increased aura range, quickly turning on Dazien, Uriel, and Rayna as she ordered them with a stern finger pointing from one to the other, “Don’t any one of you even think about going near that thing!”

  They exchanged confused looks before Patric crified for her ck of context, “It’s Corrupted. Anyone with Earth or Gem attunements has been ordered not to engage. Luckily, it’s still pretty slow moving even if it’s been enhanced beyond its Crystal Caste.”

  Crity and a brief flicker of fear crossed over all three faces, and she finally rexed at their nods as she turned back to Patric, “I think I can hit it from here, but I don’t know if it’ll be enough to take it out.”

  “I can [Harmonize] with you to increase the chances,” Saiya interjected, “Seems like a good opportunity.”

  Css Ability: Harmonize

  Type: Spell (magical, covenant, song)

  Cost: High mana.

  Cooldown: Varies.

  Current Caste: Sapphire 1 (49%)

  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.

  Sapphire Effect: Decreases the incanted spell’s cost for both Casters and each gains an instance of [Interlude].

  Interlude (boon, magical, song): Moderately increased mana regeneration for a short duration.

  Phoenix loved the new effect the Efficiency Spirit Gem had unlocked, making her able to cast the devastating spell more often during confrontations like this that needed every trump card it could get.

  “That would be nice,” Patric agreed, moving his sword suddenly to deflect a random projectile that almost struck her from the crowd of encroaching monsters currently fighting a couple of other groups of fighters. “If we can take it out in one shot that would be great, if not then we already have a backup pn.”

  Then Padma snagged Uriel’s arm in a hug and happily said, “That’s where you come in!”

  “Me?” he asked in obvious confusion.

  Patric nodded and said with a grin, “You bring the storm on the little ones while my party finishes taking out the big one. None of us have those attunements so we offered to take it out.”

  “We just figured a little help from our new favorite cousins and their amazing teammates would make the job a bit easier,” Padma added, smiling up at Uriel again who still looked extremely confused by the runeforged holding onto his arm as Rayna snickered behind them.

  “Let’s put your pn in motion then,” Dazien suggested.

  Patric smiled at him and gave a nod as he said, “I’ll leave them to you then and hopefully see you all back at the new staging point soon. Come on, Padma, let us leave our cousins to their own mission. We’ll see them plenty back home if not before then.”

  The younger runeforged gave a small pout but made sure to hug both Phoenix and Dazien before following after her brother and teammates. Everyone gnced at Dazien, who looked back at Phoenix as she grinned and said, “Well, it looks like they already decided for you, brother.”

  “Wait, Paul is the one who offered to adopt you?” Rayna asked incredulously then turned toward Uriel, “I thought you were joking about Daze calling him ‘daddy’!”

  “Please, nobody call him that,” Uriel half-begged.

  “I think I heard Everin call him that earlier,” Saiya added with a soft smile.

  “Does that man have a death wish?” Rayna asked, her eyes practically bulging from their sockets.

  Dazien interjected, “Talking ter. Phoenix, Uriel, rain down the pain.”

  The pair nodded almost in unison, understanding the serious tone their leader spoke with, and began incanting.

  Saiya started them off by refreshing the cooldown on Phoenix’s [Meteor Shower], “May your soul feel refreshed from life’s demands,” which was quickly followed by the pair incanting in harmony, “From the depths of the universe, I summon forth the shards of annihition. May the wrath of the cosmos descend upon all who dare to oppose me.”

  While they were doing that, Uriel had already begun his chain of area spells, incanting, “Let fire rain upon my enemies that they may burn before my will,” to trigger his [Rain of Fire], then instantly followed it up with his icy equivalent, [Blizzard], “Wind stings. Ice bites. Snow freezes. The blizzard cims life.”

  Before switching to his single target Spells, he followed those two up with his Storm Aspect ability, “Succumb to the might of the tyrannical winds.”

  Ability: Microburst

  Type: Spell (elemental, wind)

  Cost: Moderate mana.

  Cooldown: 1 minute.

  Current Caste: Crystal 8 (78%)

  Crystal Effect: Causes a burst of downward winds in an area that inflicts Wind damage and attempts to push down everything within it.

  Fire and ice bnketed the swathes of monsters that had been knocked down between the loose line of Adventurers and the elemental that was smmed into the ground by twin meteors crashing into it, one immediately after the other. The ability appeared more like its namesake than it normally did at Crystal Caste this time. A shockwave of rock dust, snow, and monster ash eventually made its way back to them as fmes rose into the matching red-tinted night.

  When they saw Patric’s party reach the newly formed crater, Dazien commanded them to leave, despite their desire to help their comrades. They moved as quickly as they could, following the others who were making their way to the new staging point for rest or supplies.

  The few fallen Casters they passed along the way, with companions mourning their loss, were a sobering reminder of the st few days and the days they knew still y ahead of them.

  Despite the grim reality around her, Phoenix was gd for the moments of humor and camaraderie they stole between, and even during, their fights. It helped keep her from completely shutting down as the grief and despair all around them threatened to crush what little hope they held onto. It made her even more grateful that she managed to find such a great team for her, one that she could rely on, and a family she could look forward to returning home to.

  As they reached the newly erected command tent, they were quickly let in without Dazien even needing to say who they were. Her gaze immediately found Everin talking with the AOA Director as the pair looked down on a map of the area.

  The snow-white Moonsong voxen blended in on the icy tundra, even with those five bushy tails spread out behind him, but here, in the tent filled with cinderen and runeforged, he stood out in stark contrast. He looked up at her almost as soon as she entered and fshed her his usual mischievous grin that always made her smile in return.

  Director Trayvious was the one to greet them, however, as she waved them over, “Gd you made it. I have a new mission that involves Cleric Starrk and Noble Waynd here.”