Behind me, my apprentice sobbed. I didn’t blame her for her weakness. In fact, I had even been there before, back when I had lost my paladin powers. The difference was that she could reach them and, if this didn’t work, I had gone through a lot of pain for nothing.

  Regardless, I had full faith in her. It was an odd feeling, believing so strongly in someone I had only met a month ago, but the damn kid had grown on me. We had been through a lot together in such a short time. The bond we had was forged in the cauldron of adversity, just like I had with Reliable Rhodes before her.

  It didn’t take long before my faith was vindicated.

  “NO!” Ferrisdae yelled. Her voice was full of emotion straight from her core — pain, panic, rage — but it was also determined.

  Determined not to lose a friend.

  Determined not to be the cause of my death.

  Determined to be more than helpless.

  Words of power came from her, loud and strong, and a bright, spinning star made of yellow light flew over my head. All at once, the torrent of flames stopped as Abara, now surprised, threw his arms up. His stone staff glowed, and a translucent barrier appeared in front of him.

  The Shooting Star spell collided with it, spinning loudly as it attempted to force its way through as violently as possible. While some Shield magic could cancel out Magic Missiles completely, a variant like this took much longer. Floating up and taking my weight off of my legs, I looked back at Ferrisdae.

  “Are you good?” I asked.

  “No,” she wheezed, chest heaving from the effort of casting one spell. Despite that, there was a spark of life in her eyes that hadn’t been there just seconds before. Ferrisdae pulled her leg out of the ground now that Abara was distracted and the portal disappeared. “But that doesn’t matter, does it?”

  “No, it doesn’t matter one bit,” I agreed, picking up my sword. I had made sure to keep my hand behind my shield so I could hold it properly, and although it was hot to the touch it wasn’t unbearable. I focused on Abara as the Shooting Star finally disappeared. “Let’s finish this together.”

  “Finish this? What resistance can you possibly hope to put up?” Abara spat. “The gifts my mistress has given me far outstrip y-”

  Before he could continue, Ferrisdae cast another Shooting Star. Abara took a step back and raised his hand. Another barrier appeared, this one not aided by his staff, and he started getting pushed back. He set his feet, and they dug into the ground beneath him as he steadied himself. A portal opened up underneath him, but he did not go through it.

  I flew around him, giving my legs a rest, and swung. He knew it was coming, I wasn’t being subtle about it, and he turned to block it with his staff. I thumbed the rune at the bottom of the Hilt of Holding, retracting the scimitar’s blade. His eyes went wide in surprise as I reactivated it a split second later, bypassing his defense entirely.

  This part, I watched carefully. I knew I had struck him before despite his shadow aura, and I was keen on finding out why there wasn’t any damage on him and his clothes. It was already obvious that he wasn’t a Gnome thanks to the way my blood-seeking scimitar didn’t pull towards him, but it was time to find out for sure.

  The sword slashed into Abara, cutting deep into his clothes and skin, and it left mercury in its wake instead of blood. I watched, confused, as my blade cut through his chest in what would undoubtedly have been a killing blow on anyone else. Mere inches behind the wound, the silver liquid returned to flesh and cloth as if it hadn’t been damaged at all.

  Abara attempted to slam his stone staff into my face. Due to the slash, I wasn’t in a good position to defend after the slash, so I dodged to the side before returning to a more neutral stance. Lashing out, I caught his weapon with my own and bashed my shield straight into his face. His skin rippled at the point of impact before going taut once more.

  “You’re pissing me off now!” he screamed.

  The Gnome’s form melted once Ferrisdae’s Shooting Star disappeared. Clothes and flesh altered into liquid mercury before it jumped back, getting some distance. We watched in shock as another creature emerged from the slime. This one had seafoam blue skin and was over twice as tall as Abara had been. They had long, black hair, yellow eyes, and four arms. Fins hid their ears, and they wore light, almost see through robes that accentuated their now feminine form. She stood there, and the stone staff became longer to accommodate the new body.

  “An Undine?” I asked, surprised.

  Undines were Nymphs that lived in the ocean. Unlike some of their kind, they weren’t solitary creatures. They liked to live in moderately sized settlements and come onto land. Sometimes their lack of cultural awareness, which seemed to affect the entirety of their kind, got them in trouble, but they were generally regarded as good folk by those living on the coast.

  They had the ability to control water, but not the ability to shapeshift, so I wasn’t sure what this was. Either way, the fight was still on.

  I thumbed the rune on the Hilt of Holding to return my scimitar and turned the dial as I flew back into battle. Shining, glittering sand erupted all around Abara as Ferrisdae cast her Stardust spell. They backed up as it covered them, getting into their eyes and mouth. The Elf had explained that this variant of the Glitterdust spell was also a skin irritant in addition to potentially blinding, which was terrible for a combatant.

  Abara’s body turned mercurial again, sucking in the Stardust before expelling it in a glob. Their body turned back to normal in time for me to thumb the rune and summon the blade for one of my two longswords.

  “Freeze,” I commanded.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  The two foot blade became drenched in a cold, blue aura as the magic activated. I flew over Abara’s strike with their stone staff and aimed my strike at their neck. One of their free hands rose to meet my weapon while the other made a weird gesture.

  My sword went halfway into the appendage before stopping. Like before, the wound had turned silver, but it didn’t freeze. Abara grabbed onto the blade while it was stuck inside, but I retracted it again. Landing on the other side, I turned the dial and thumbed the rune as I slashed back.

  “Ignite!” I yelled, and flames sprung forth from my other longsword.

  This time, Abara backed away instead of attempting to intercept it. I thought that might have proved fire was worse than ice, but a geyser of water had erupted from the river. It angled unnaturally towards me, and I was forced to pull my blade back so I could plant my aching feet and block this new trick.

  I was sent flying back despite my efforts. From behind my shield, I saw Ferrisdae fire off another Shooting Star, but this one was being blocked by another spell cast from the stone staff. Her body also took on a shimmering, incorporeal quality to it. Like an aurora was protecting her. We met eyes, and she pointed her wand at me.

  My body glowed with more enhancements, and the pain I was doing my best to ignore lessened. That didn’t mean I was healed, Ferrisdae wasn’t capable of that. I dug my feet back into the ground and managed to stop before I was slammed into the building. Spinning, I got out of the way of the water and began running, using it as cover so that Abara couldn’t see me.

  The enemy was dancing now in the same way the Undine did when they controlled the water. It was graceful and mesmerizing, a perfect mockery of what the Water Nymphs were capable of. What they weren’t doing, though, was casting spells that weren’t in the staff.

  A chill passed over me as the dungeon finally saw fit to provide me with information. Abara wasn’t a Gnome or a Nymph, which was abundantly clear at this point.

  It was a Mimic.

  A Formthief Mimic that could perfectly capture the abilities of any creature it consumed. Another creature from outside of the continent, as it was hunted to extinction here. The Gnome must have been a powerful spellcaster already, and I was guessing this new form wasn’t some run of the mill Undine. They needed us to be in a weakened state to fully assimilate, but it was a very real danger in this fight.

  A chill ran through my spine as I realized it might not have been CC’s orders to keep us alive…

  It might have been Abara’s, wanting to consume us.

  “Abara’s a Formthief Mimic!” I yelled. “Don’t let it try to eat you!”

  The Undine’s graceful dance slipped as they looked my way, surprise in their eyes as I correctly named them. This caused the geyser to stop, leaving the ground wet and slippery. Then, their anger became apparent.

  When Abara spoke, it was with a beautiful voice comparable to that of a Siren though twisted with hatred. “No one has named me in four hundred years,” they accused. “How did you figure me out, you whelp?”

  “You seem basic enough to me,” I replied. Their eyes narrowed as the stone staff glowed black. This wasn’t the same as the spells before, and I called it out. “Martial art!”

  Abara slid across the damp ground and began thrusting the stone staff at me as if it were a spear. I raised my shield, taking the first blow. It was surprisingly light, little more than a tap, and I found out why immediately after. A spearhead of water formed between me and my shield. I twisted, trying to get out of the way, but it still managed to slice through my shoulder.

  I suppressed a cry of pain as it cut deep. The martial art wasn’t over yet, and I had to fly and twist myself into strange shapes to avoid the spearheads that pierced my defenses. Ferrisdae caught my eye in the distance. She was chanting something long and, hopefully, powerful.

  Furrowing my brow, I attempted to strike back against the ongoing martial art. Abara was using two hands on the stone staff, but the other two were beginning to move in tandem in another dance. I scowled at that, my eyes flicking towards the already rising river.

  I spun in the air, knocking the staff away as I extended my sword arm. The arc of my swing was wide and easily read, but it stopped their dancing. Halfway through, I flipped the hilt in my grip, turning the attack from a slash to a stab.

  Caught off guard, Abara couldn’t move their arm where it needed to be. The flaming sword bypassed the Mimic’s defenses and plunged into its core. For the first time, the enemy screamed in pain as the mercury making up its real body began to bubble. Then, its body burst into a wave.

  It covered me, avoiding my flaming sword, and I felt my skin start to fester as the Formthief Mimic attempted to devour me. I flew into the air, striking at my body with reckless abandon. It didn’t matter if I cut myself so long as I stopped this terrible thing from happening.

  Then, a harsh blue light consumed us both. Abara oozed off of me, screeching. It took me a moment to get my bearings. I turned, seeing the puddle of silver liquid pounce into the river. Ferrisdae had collapsed onto her knees, but there was a look of victory in her eyes. I could see why; I recognized the fire.

  This was the same spell she had cast against the land pirates that had taken up the entire arena, but now under control. Instead of a wide area, it affected only the enemy, even though I had been inside of it at the time. The blue flames continued even as Abara submerged themselves. We watched the light move back and forth as the Mimic swam, trying to leave the fire behind.

  “How long is that going to last?” I asked, coughing afterwards.

  “Long enough, I hope,” she answered.

  “I’m glad to see it didn’t take everything you have,” I said. “Thanks for not lighting me on fire.”

  Ferrisdae only gave a nervous laugh as a reply. That wasn’t a good sign, but I’d take it.

  Abara rose out of the river and I was immediately back on guard. Its body shifted and enlarged, becoming a hulking behemoth of a creature somewhere between lion, bull, and lizard but the size of a house. The fire didn’t abate at all, but continued to cover the Mimic. Screaming in pain, it charged straight for me.

  I flew upwards diagonally, trying to get out of the way of its massive horns, but it wasn’t going after me. Instead, it blew through the Green Union building as if it were made out of paper. The magic crystal tilted and fell, landing in the trees behind it. The behemoth’s back end, which was the only thing we could see as the building collapsed around it, disappeared as it turned back into its original form.

  “Badger, what’s it doing?” Ferrisdae asked, concerned.

  My eyes widened as the pale blue flames started covering the magic crystal. Not just the flames, though, but the silver form of Abara.

  It was trying to eat the crystal.

  Lightning strikes came down from the sky, forming runes at an alarming rate. The Mimic was accelerating the process in a last ditch effort to return to CC, taking us with it. That was probably its only chance of survival.

  I looked up towards the sky. Ferrisdae yelled something, but I couldn’t hear it. My thoughts were elsewhere, guided by my wife’s one request.

  “Yeah, I think this is as far as we can go,” I said before taking a deep breath. Pain spread through my body, grounding me. This was the right choice. “Cheroske, Goddess of Community, please-”

  I got even less of the sentence out than I did last time, and a gorgeous warmth wrapped itself around me.