Chapter 7-189: Swift Spell Recall (1/2)

Everyone was up and ready in plenty of time. I burned a III Slot and two Ki to power up the Teleport that whisked everyone away, a III Slot for the Mass Reduce so I could fit them all, and there was a swirl of motion along my Lived-Line, sweeping us across the landscape and dumping us atop the Rim of the Caldera out there, just before Dusk Renewal.

I stood there and murmured the Salute to Aethra, everyone waiting respectfully as I did so... and naturally preening to see just what had changed while they’d been snoring away.

The Dome wasn’t looking so hot, literally. The thick streams of Fire Qi about it seemed to have thinned out a bunch, and were occasionally poofing into icy whiteness when they touched the Wall of Icefire burning undeterred around the Dome. The give and take of the Dome getting eaten through and regenerating was also happening over a larger area.

The inside of the caldera just had whole bunches of dead stuff scattered around.

Some of it was from earlier, some was in new locations that indicated that master lightfooters had been hopping around, using and abusing the terrain to their own advantage, or ignoring it when chasing the bloody now-carcasses scattered all over the place.

I finished the Salute as I was running before and after comparisons. I was betting pretty much all those carcasses had Cores to be dug out...

DING!... Ding, ding...

That first one had sounded like the ominous first note of a very big bell. It was like the things making me gain Levels were winding up for the big reveal.

I looked at my Assay as everyone looked at me.

Poo, it gave me Magus/4 first. Class ability, Spell Recall: use a swift action, spend Arcana points equal to its Valences to regain a spell you’ve cast.

This immediately dovetailed with Spirit Captures Mana, which did much the same thing, but as a standard action... and for a lower Ki cost, half the spell’s Valence, minimum 1.

The two abilities promptly conflated in the Assay, turning into Spiritual Spell Recall:use Ki or Arcana as a swift action to recall a Cast spell, spending Mystic Arcana equal to half its Valence, rounded up.

Mystic Arcana was what it was calling my intermixed Pool now. I went into the results and subbed ‘Pool Points’ for ‘Mystic Arcana’ with a silent roll of my eyes. While it looked like the combined Pool was required for this to happen, I didn’t need the flowery language beating me over the head, especially since the Spell Pool from my Valence VI bonuses were dumped into the whole kibosh.

Purchased Feat, Improved Threat (Weapon Spells). Okay, going to a 19-20 or 17-20 was just fine by me.

Purchased Mastery was... Intellect Mastery/4.

It was starting on the final round of Stat Masteries, it looked like.

Taking Magus/4 gave me two skill points, another point of Arcana as a FC bonus, and +1 to Intellect, Sustained Effort over to include Dex. Intellect now at 36. +13 bonus, another I+V Spell Slot and Valence Slot on each side of my Matrix.

Moar Ubah Powah.

I refocused outside the image in the middle of my forehead. “Nothing dramatic today.” They all sort of sighed at me, although they’d had their own improvements overnight. “What do our do merry marauders say?”

The two of them were actually on almost the opposite side of the caldera, at seven o’clock to our twelve, with lots of fiery-hued creatures in the general area trying to rip at them and each other.

“Come on down and join the fun!” Shooter One grinned, and all six of them racked at the same moment.

The Mass Disks went up for everyone, and they got onto them with the familiarity of lots of practice. “Lord Sleipner, if you would carry us forth into battle?” I inquired, and the unicorn bike nickered merrily in response.

I was going to leave a bunch of Mass Phantom Servants behind to begin some harvesting again, and directed Sleipner to fly over the cave we’d used before, as it still had all the knives I’d made for them and left behind...

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The area was Stillflighted by the man and woman engaged in constant slaughter, so we couldn’t bombard the area from above, but that was fine. The fusillade we unleashed as we came in on the flank was pretty potent all by itself, and I had a whole bunch of Chained Shardrays I could be using in support.

Behind us, a horde of shadowy phantoms with gleaming sharp knives went to work on the dead things that weren’t there when we’d left, butchering away and recovering stuff usable for cash... at which point I’d vivisize the corpse, and add to the woes of the local Fire Qi.

Maddened and enraged Spirit Beasts aligned to Fire roared and screamed... and died nonetheless. Sama and Briggs were showing them no mercy, and if their Vajras hadn’t kept them constantly clean, would no doubt have been showered in gore. They were ripping into all the creatures, taking hits that should have pulped or shredded them, giving it back twice as good, and obviously having a great time as they bounded around, Weapons moving in eye-flickers of appalling violence that sent mighty beasts flying or falling apart.

It was quite a spectacle, and when all the frozen Baned gunfire opened up from behind, it didn’t help the staying power of the creatures at all.

The influxes of creatures had obviously tailed off immensely, and they’d obviously also been making their way here for hours from the landscape all around, if the mounds of dead were any indication.

I used several Shard spells to take out bigger and more dangerous creatures, like a pride of elephant-sized lions with flaming manes and jaws dripping golden acid or something, or that pack of killer claw-birds racing around the place like raptors, hooked beaks poised to rip and rend.