Marco tenses as he freefalls from the one-hundred-foot wall, expecting the Slowfall Inscription to slow his fall by now he begins to panic. Double checking his [Salt Skin] and beginning to try and pull upward on the large armor with his magic, attempting to arrest his momentum.


    The tug of the armor grows but does nothing to slow his fall, half of the distance is already past and its only been a moment. Marco takes a quick look at the others and is surprised to not find panic in their features, Shen is forming a [Rampart] from afar, preparing them a place to land. Lucia has already appeared on the ground via [Shadowstep] and is dispatching a [Air] Archer with precision strikes to joints and its spine.


    *Ping* Legion Knights Eliminated (7/59)


    Marco starts to relax, hoping that the Inscription will catch them near the ground, and begins to cast [Salt Strike] in rapid succession, targeting the outside of Shen’s [Rampart] giving them another layer of protection from the horde.


    He looks to the ground, still rapidly approaching and cups his hands together pushing as much [Salt] Mana as he can within them before wrenching his hands apart violently. The sudden movement makes his freefall wobbly but the [Salt Circle] hits the gathered minions like a solid wave. The weaker Fodder and Zombies immediately falling apart into bones or piles of rotten flesh, Marco tries to get his feet under him for landing and only half succeeds as the Slowfall finally engages.


    Marco lands gently but still stumbles, managing to kill a few minions with a few quick casts of [Salt Bolt] and [Salt Shot].


    “Gather up in the [Rampart]!” Ben hollers over the sounds of rattling undead and roaring Legion Knights. All of the party members listen and rush for the earthen structure, all of them enter the tight confines, breathing heavily from the hundred-foot fall.


    “That was crazy! We should leave the minions to [Salt Circle] and focus on the Legion Knights, getting through the Shieldbearers should be our priority I think.” Marco says, the Shieldbearers are a Knight Variant with giant tower shields that his team should be able to punch through.


    “Agreed,” The rest of the party members say. Loud booms and small shockwaves are pulsing across the battlefield from the aerial combat between Oren and Hopesfall, Marco looks up for a moment in awe at that level of combat. He snaps back into focus as a [Earth] Shieldbearer starts to charge their fortification, he launches all of his [Salt Shot] projectiles at the monster and ramps up his buffs and enhancements to stretch the seconds, allowing him to get a [Salt Strike] inside the shield of the fifteen-foot-tall monster. It falls, impaling its stone covered body further onto the wickedly sharp crystal of [Salt Strike].


    Lucia disappears into her shadow, targeting a new Archer with a [Water] Affinity, blasting Ice arrows around the battlefield. Her precision knife strikes leave burning paths of flame in the ice armor that the monster is encased in.


    The monster roars as a [Dark Slash] blows through its armor, gouging bone underneath, Marco assists and sends a number of [Salt Bolt] projectiles at the ice armored Archer, taking a glancing blow from an Ice arrow at the same time. The cold permeates from the wound, attempting to slow his movements before Ben taps his shoulder with a [Wellspring], his heal over time spell.


    Shen has entered the fray, [Hammer of Granite] already growing and sending a [Dark] Shieldbearer across the small, wooded clearing that they are fighting in. Its [Dark] Shield attempting to eat into their Tank’s hammer spell, but it reforms each time before striking again.


    Ben is firing off [Focused Beam] at charging Knights, targeting exposed jointed or attempting to disrupt spells with his burning beam. The Healer also tosses [Field of Wisps] onto the battlefield, the small wisps of Hardlight tripping and hampering their enemies.


    *Ping* Legion Knights Eliminated (12/59)


    “Let’s pick up the pace! We can all take on a Knight if the elemental match-up is good.” Marco shouts over the battlefield noises.


    All of his team members nod and split up slightly to find their preferred enemy. Marco casts [Salt Strike] on two different knights, a [Fire] and a [Earth]. The explosion of crystalline growth, destroys the earthen armor of the latter and the salt crystal stabbing into the [Fire] knight flickers with the same oranges and reds of as the [Salt] crystal begins to deform under the heat, burning the skeleton within.


    Marco smiles, happy to trap the undead creature in a trap of its own making. The [Salt] beginning to melt and glow with molten orange and red. The [Fire] Knight throws its sword at him, he evaporates the spell construct with a [Salt Bolt], but small wisps of fire make it to Marco, and he flinches at the small burns.


    The [Earth] Knight finally recovers, small pock marks still decorating its stone armor. Marco summons and launches more [Salt Shot] projectiles, slamming through the stone armor and into brittle ribs and [Curse] Mana within, dissipating it into a small puff of green dust and a horrid smell of disease.


    Stolen story; please report.


    He turns to the melting [Fire] Knight, the monster not able to keep its armor lit as its bones burn and char. He shoots a shot through its skull, turning it into shard of bone and green [Curse] dust.


    Shen is surrounded by bodies of [Dark] and [Water] Shieldbearers, the Tank’s giant hammer turning all of their shields into shard of dissipating elements.


    Lucia is dancing through enemies, leaving a burning wake of [Dark Slashes] and [Fire] debuffs, some of the monsters having glowing gashes of flame decorating their body and armor. Ben is helping to finish off the monsters that Lucia injures, firing numerous beams through eye sockets and into the [Curse] Mana orb.


    A tree falls nearby and reveals a much larger Knight than normal, wrapped in a swirling gale of [Air] armor. A huge halberd of solidified wind held off to his side, Marco announces its presence as the System tells him what he is looking at.


    *Ping* Legion Knight, Commander Variant, [Air]


    “Commander! Group up!” Shen and Marco’s voices overlap as they have the same thought. Marco renews [Salt Circle] moving his hands quickly and covering the area with [Salt] Mana, the Commander roars and charges them.


    [Salt Strike] [Dark Slash] [Focused Beam] [Caltrops] [Infuse Heat]


    Spells flash out of the Adventurers; huge crystalline explosions, night black crescents of dangerous energy, and sun bright beams of burning [Light] lance toward their giant foe. Shen casts [Caltrops] and Lucia infuses them with [Fire] Mana, making the tips of the nasty little [Earth] spikes glow a brilliant orange.


    The Commander is pummeled with spells as it approaches the party, slowing slightly but still making it within striking range of them. Ben casts his [Shield of Hardlight] on all of his team members again, the quick cast of his shield saving Shen from a massive hit of the nasty halberd.


    Marco fires [Salt Bolt] and [Salt Shot] projectiles in his best approximation of a machine gun, large chunks and spikes of [Salt] streaking through the air to strike the swirling armor of the giant monster, punching through before the armor repairs itself near instantly.


    Marco tries to focus on his next cast of [Salt Bolt], trying to strengthen the projectile and make it deadlier to the massive monster. The Commander roars, the halberd swirling faster along its edge and headed straight for the focusing Marco, who is unable to move as he channels his [Salt Bolt].


    Ben yells, attempting to push Marco out of the path of the dangerous weapon but fails, Marco being sent through a tree on the far side of the clearing, his [Salt Skin] protecting him enough to prevent the loss of a limb or worse. Marco coughs from the forest floor, trying to get air back into his lungs, the huge hit having knocked all of the air from his lungs.


    Marco looks to his team, the huge monster still uninjured, and sends his overcharged [Salt Bolt] into the Commander’s chest. A javelin sized spike of pure [Salt] flashes across the distance, burying itself in the chest of the monster and shattering. Marco with the last of his available magic grasps those shards and pulls with all of his magical might, shredding the armor and ripping brittle bone into shards and chunks.


    [Lightspeed]


    Ben is suddenly beside Marco, hand glowing with [Renew] and helping the battered man to his feet. “Are you okay? That was a nasty hit.”


    Marco attempts to speak but a round of coughing interrupts him. “I am fine, the [Renew] is doing its job, and my [Salt Skin] protected me from serious harm.”


    Their section of the battlefield is temporarily empty, all of the other Legion Knights and Variants having fled the battle between mages and the Commander.


    *Ping* Legion Knights Eliminated (30/59)


    “That is good to hear, excellent spell by the way. It ripped through the monster with ease.” Shen comments, patting Marco on the shoulder.


    “Thank you, it took all of my Mana to make the projectile and then a little more to rip the shards out.” Marco says, “I am out of Mana for the time being.”


    “We can retreat to the wall and take a rest to recover some Mana.” Ben says, scanning the woods around them for enemies but only finding minions dissolving under Marco’s [Salt Circle].


    The party makes a fighting retreat, bashing in Zombie skulls and kicking apart Fodder, until they reach the root covered wall. Marco leans again the wall and slides down to his butt, taking deep breaths and focusing on Mana regeneration.


    “That javelin was awesome. I need to figure out how to make it more Mana efficient before I use it in regular combat though.” He thinks, folding his legs into a lotus position and feeling Ben sit down next to him.


    *Ping* Legion Knights Eliminated (48/59)


    “The other Adventurer groups are doing well out there, I am almost jealous that they have a higher kill count than us.” Shen says, joining them on the ground.


    “Don’t be silly, that Commander was a right bastard. I don’t know how many parties with similar experience to us could have taken that thing down.” Lucia says, lowering herself onto the gray ground.


    Around thirty minutes later, they all stand and begin to stretch and warm up their muscles once again, recovered from the previous fights. Their break was punctuated with the booms and shockwaves of Oren dismantling the Hopesfall Lich over and over again, screams of panic and pain echoing over the battlefield.


    *Ping* Legion Knights Eliminated (59/59)


    “Do Liches have phylacteries here?” Marco asks, the group looking at him with confused looks before shaking their heads.


    “Considering that word didn’t translate into any word that I know, I can confidently say no.” Ben says.


    “Liches are formerly people with an Exceptional Affinity score for [Curse], right? They die and return as a Lich?” Marco asks to nods. “So, they are just beings of [Curse] energy in a husk? On Earth we have stories of Liches, but they store their soul in something call a phylactery, an object that is usually hidden and trapped”


    “That isn’t the case here, Liches are beings of magic wrapped in corpses. They are basically a spirit of Mana. They are just extraordinarily hard to kill because of this.” Ben explains, “[Salt] is the easiest way as it disrupts [Curse] so thoroughly.”


    “Oh okay, that makes sense.” Marco says and the group begins to move back into the forest, ready to hunt their first Abomination.


    They sprint through the gray world of the Deadwoods, trees broke and thrown around the dry forest by battles. In the far distance a lone Abomination is fighting huge tentacles of root and flower, the Forestsong’s plants attempting to rescue a team of downed Adventurers, the party speeds up and begins to pelt the monster with varied magic.