The words changed again and Lotus frowned.
“It says Rewards granted, basic testing passed.” She explained.
“That sounds a lot like we should be let out, doesn’t it?” Karl asked.
“It does, and I’m wondering why we’re still here.” Lotus agreed.
Then the symbols changed again.
[Beginning Advanced testing.]
“Advanced.” Was all that Lotus said, as Karl and Tessa sighed.
[Oh, they want some of this, do they? Yeah, I’ll give them some, stupid cold water magic people.] Hawk cheered.
Rae laughed at his enthusiasm. Of course, he was ready for the fight, he was way up there above it, where he had plenty of time to dodge the attacks.
Again a Clan of Yeti Warriors appeared in front of them, but this time it was only one Clan, but nine warriors and a leader. By Karl’s estimation, they were all low Commander Rank, including the leader, though he might qualify as mid-Commander.
“Oh, this is going to suck.” Tessa sighed as she realized what they were up against.
It was basically a poorly version of the same force that chased them into the cave yesterday, but only ten of them instead of three dozen or more.
“Alright, we can do this. Stay close, so we’re all in the Circle of Protection, with Lotus in the middle as our primary healer. Tessa, I’m not sure if you still want to be on Thor, since these ones are a bit taller, but that’s your call. Everyone else, you know what to do.” Karl insisted.
The warriors began to spread out to surround the group, and Karl launched himself forward the moment they reached the edge of Thor’s Circle of Protection. His sudden strike shattered the crude blade of his opponent, and the combination of Shred and Flaming Body let the blade cut deep into the Commander Rank hide of the beast, leaving it gushing blood from the wound in its chest.
The beast collapsed backward, holding its chest and trying to plug the wound, while Karl turned on another.
Thor charged forward to assist, bringing the rest of the group running after him, while Rae’s Golems went after the one behind the Yeti that Karl was fighting.
They traded one round of attacks with it, then went for their true targets. One leapt on the furry monster, blocking its sight, while the other went for the back of Karl’s opponent, tearing it open with [Lacerate].
These monsters regenerated slowly, and they would likely bleed to death if the group could hold out long enough. They just needed to inflict the necessary wounds first.
The spiders broke off to defend Rae, who was now under attack from the monsters who had come around the back of the fight, and Karl noticed that one had doubled back to cast Ice Magic on the chest of the downed fighter, freezing the wound and stopping the blood flow.
That might work to stop the damage from Lacerate, but that particular target had its organs punctured and burned. Sealing the leak wouldn’t help for long.
Still, with the damage patched, the beast carefully got up and retreated from the battle.
He didn’t get far.
Once he was away from the others, still too injured to defend himself, Hawk was raining fireballs at him from above, while taunting the monsters with his agility.
Unfortunately, his arrogance cost him dearly, and Hawk took a direct blast with an icicle that sent him directly into his beast space, frozen stiff. He was still alive, but he had taken heavy damage, and Karl worked to increase the temperature of the space and thaw him as quickly as possible.
“What happened to Hawk?” Lotus called.
“Icicle blast.” Karl called back, without enough time to explain.
He was facing three of the Yeti Warriors now, each more powerful than he was, at least on the basic skills level. He still had the advantage in brute strength, and Karl was using that to keep them from being able to dictate the pace of the fight.
Karl couldn’t go far, or he would leave Lotus open, but he could move a few metres in a flash, out of the range of their attacks, and then back in to hack at any openings they left.
A lucky strike took the leg off one of the Yetis at the knee, and though it was quickly frozen over by his companions, the warrior was out of the fight and dragging himself away.
Two on one, Karl stood a much better chance, and he spared a glance to see how the others were doing.
Lotus still looked reasonably fresh, she wasn’t sweating or panting with exertion, and she had the whole area encompassed in a green glowing healing circle. Tessa was still riding Thor, as it was the best way to get at the vitals of the larger opponents, but they hadn’t managed to take any down yet that he could see.
The real winner in this fight was Rae with her Golems.
Not only had she crippled one near Karl, and blinded another, she had killed two of them outright since the battle began.
There was a copious amount of black blood on the ground that could only have come from her, but the Bloodbath Spider was still fighting with all her might and relying on Lotus to keep her healed.
Unexpectedly, blue light flashed over everyone, including Rae’s Golems, as Thor’s [Refreshing Lightning] spread from himself to the whole group.
[I did it! I am the healer now!] The Lightning Cerro screamed mentally while bugling in victory.
While it wasn’t technically a healing spell, it did increase your regeneration speed, so Karl was going to give him this victory.
With the extra barrier, Rae no longer had to hold back as much, she could take some extra risks to land blows on the attackers, and one of her Spider Golems came to assist Karl, going for the back of his opponents after quickly using [Lacerate] across the throat of the blinded Yeti who had retreated a dozen metres from the battle.
Karl searched for the leader of the group, but couldn’t see where he had gone, they all looked the same when you were fighting them, but Thor was having problems with his opponent, the only one he had left after everyone else had gone to support the fight against Rae.
With a shout, the opponent on Karl’s left cast a spell, and an ice spike launched up from the ground, slamming into Lotus and throwing her into the air, which caused her healing circle to fall as the Priestess was knocked unconscious.
Thor got the barrier back up before she hit the ground, but she would need time to recover, and Karl quickly realized that everyone had been relying on her to keep casting refreshing spells, and they were quickly running out of Stamina due to the Ice Magic trying to freeze them.
Karl could feel his body getting sluggish as another of the Yeti Warriors fell to the Spider Golems, leaving him and a Golem against only one opponent. But Tessa had been knocked from Thor’s back, and was now fighting on foot while casting buffs that would hopefully counteract the freezing effect and heal Lotus enough to bring her back to consciousness.
Karl tackled his opponent, leaving its neck open to the Spider Golem as its blade shattered both layers of his shield and cut into his armour. That was the end of another Yeti, and he turned to face the last few monsters just in time to see Thor gouged down his side, shattering his remaining Lightning, and sending him frozen into his Beast Space.
“Rae, guard the clerics. It will just be me and the Golems on offence.” Karl instructed.
He was still fast enough, faster than any average human, but no longer faster than their opponents. It shouldn’t matter, though, the Golems were freshly summoned and not suffering from any ill effects, and both remaining targets were wounded.
Lotus was conscious again, but barely, while Tessa had retreated to stand over her so the area that she needed to cover with her magic was reduced.
Karl led the two Golems forward as the Yeti Leader roared, and suddenly, they were all standing in an empty battlefield.
[Task successfully failed. Partial Reward Granted.] appeared in the snow in front of them.
“It says that we … failed successfully?” Lotus commented, not quite sure that she had translated the ancient language properly.
“Well, nobody is dead. At least, I don’t think they are.” Karl replied as he checked on Thor and Hawk.
Both were in bad shape, but the magic of the Beast Space had called them home on the verge of death, and they were slowly recovering. The ice was gone with the end of the trial, and the healing waters of his pond were rapidly bringing some life back to Thor as the hundreds of small wounds that had either cut through or slipped under his scales were closed.
His personal lightning was active again, so he should be fine, but Hawk was looking pretty listless, and Karl couldn’t call him out of the space for Lotus to heal.
“Hawk needs time to recover before I can ask him to come out again, but he is better than when he went in. Thor has his lightning barrier active again, so he will be fine soon enough.” Karl explained.
Rae was exhausted, but still functional, when Karl both felt and heard something snap inside her body, before the rear half of her outer carapace fell away, moulted like some insects do, and replaced with an identical looking body from underneath.
Rae worked to pull the old layer off her legs and upper body, then shook the goop from her fur as Tessa cast a healing spell on her to help the new carapace recover and harden.
[And that’s how a Bloodbath Spider reaches Commander Rank.] She announced.
