After hearing Lisryn agree to the idea of w oeamwork, the group returo practig, sharing tips with her as they went. While they were cautious of her, she seemed to pick up things quickly, even just from hints. In the end, she was even able to share some advice of her own.

  With a flicker of mana, Lisryn pulled a blob of sto of the floor before stating, “My experieh wind magic actually helped with earth magibsp; With the wind, you make vortexes to trol the flow of the air. For earth magic, you mostly hollow it out with support structures on the inside instead, simir to the vortexes, but obviously less dynamic.”

  Followiatement, she split the stone ball in half and dropped one side to the floor to be reabsorbed by the spire, revealing that the inside had a pattern of stone projes that liogether in a plex structure.

  About an hour and a half into their practice, Lisryn stood up and stated, “I have to go bay duties now; I will be ba two days so that we get used t together. I believe the attack will happen tomorrow, so be careful not to leave the city.”

  After hearing the others aowledge her statement, Lisryn headed back dowairs, followed, as always, by her guardian.

  Deg now was a good point to rex, the others stopped their practid began chatting instead, aside from Niphru. Rather than talking, he focused more on practig his force magic, trying to make rger and more plex shapes with it. Several hours ter, the group stood up and began walking back to their rooms, so he stopped what he was doing and followed Dawn back to their home.

  Ohey arrived and closed the door, he excimed, “I think I achieve anoal soon! Watch this!”

  Following this with a, he formed an illusion of a random person, pced a plex force struct around an arm, and a simpler one for a leg. He then moved them together with the illusion to walk to the other side of the room. Along the way, he used the struct for the leg to nudge a chair to the side slightly and then the arm to pick up a book, using another force struct to open it to a random page as he had the illusion sit down in the chair.

  “Wow, that is amazing!” Dawn responded, smiling as she tinued, “You certainly have me beaten in force magiow. I ’t make a full body out of it, not even close.”

  Giving off a chuckle, Niphru replied, “her I, really. I just have an arm and leg right now. My goal is to mahe full body, like it appears. Arms are really hard, though.”

  Dawn nodded and remarked, “That is still incredible, and I assume the end goal is to be able to hide and instead i with people as a human?”

  Undoing the illusion and force structs, he agreed, “Yes, people here seem fih me, but when I’m outside the spire, I don’t want to cause arm et attacked. Especially when we go out for our training, as people won’t know about me.”

  Dawn headed to the kit as she nodded and responded, “That does make sense. I hope you reach yoal, but even what you did now should be plenty as long as you hold the illusion and hide yourself at the same time.”

  Niphru sidered for a moment and, after determining what was most needed, stated, “I suppose all I need most of the time is only an arm, or both, right? I don’t think people normally touch legs or heads. I’ll foanaging two arms.”

  “That sounds like a good idea. Would you mind helping with the food? I think we should have something to celebrate!” Dawn excimed with a smile as she opehe pantry to begin gathering things for their meal.

  With a nod, Niphru ran into the kit and jumped up to the sink. After rinsing his feet, he leapt onto the other end of the ter and began anizing tools to help out.

  After a nice meal, the two of them sat down to read for a while, passing a few hours to finish off the day. Niphru opted for a quick shower, but Dawn took a long, hot bath instead befoing to bed.

  Since he wasn’t too tired, Niphru decided to return to the main room and read while he waited for Dawn to finish up. Once again, he smiled at how much easier things were now that he had mao start using force magic, as getting papercuts on his nose had been a horrible experience.

  By the time Dawn was done, Niphru had mao read three chapters about water magic, having decided that it was what he was worst at, so he needed help with it more thaher forms.

  After followio the bedroom, the two of them settled in for the night.

  Uedly, a surge of mana woke them in the early m, pulsing upward from the base of the spire in regur intervals. After several dozen had passed, a dull thumping noise came from the ceiling. A moment ter, a voice sounded out from the same location, “To all residents, Arrival is currently fag a major threat. All mages are to tribute as much mana as possible, including drawing all possible ambient mana. This is not optional like the small incursions are. Please proceed to the levels where mana stones are stored, and simply push your filled crystals into the walls or floor.”

  Surprised by the annou, the two of them quickly got up and, after Dawn finished dressing, raced out of their room, spotting the rest of their group also exiting their rooms. As they begaing together, a shockassed through the spire, thrumming deep in their chests as the lights started to dim.

  Moments ter, Morris’ hawk, Kel, swerved out of the stairwell, rapidly heading towards them with a piece of paper hanging from their beak. Seeing that Kel was going too fast to stop, Daw forward and grabbed the bird, spinning to bleed off the momentum.

  To her shock, Kel pecked at her arm as this occurred, beginning to wave the paper in their beak. Catg the hint, she removed a hand from the bird and reached for the note. Thomas, however, was faster, grabbing it and immediately beginning to read it out loud, “e to my room. The door is open. Join me on the baly.”

  As the instrus said, the group ighe notice that was now repeating and instead ran upstairs, quickly reag Morris’ dwelling and heading for the baly where he stood, holding a hand against the wall.

  Hearing the noise as they sped towards him, Morris turned aured towards the wall with his free arm as an immense lighting bolt lit up the sky, eg one of the other spires to a dark shape in the sky. “Quickly, I trust you mao el directly into the tower; we need all the power we get. This is worse than any prior attack; we already tell that. Two barriers have already been breached!”

  Without difficulty, all of them began p as muergy into the walls or floor as they could, fling as an eg boom sounded out a moment before another shockwave was felt, followed by a discordant shriek in the distance.

  A moment ter, a massive bst of rain smmed into them, stinging as particles ier abraded their skin. With the fsh of lightning, a tight beam of water was seen desding from the clouds above into a glimmering barrier. Cracks raced through the shape before it flickered and died, another fshing ience behind it, much smaller in size.

  This time, the lightning sted for several seds, pulsing time after time, lighting up the sky, allowing them to see multiple bsts of various magic flying into the sky towards an utterly immense ball of water that was revealed by the slowly parting clouds.

  Once again, a massive b out, and a bolt of rock hurled from above them into the sphere before a shockwave bsted them once more. Another wail echoed in the distahe sphere of water shaking and a dark shape moving within.

  As the lightning died and the light faded, they could now pce the other sounds they were hearing as various spells being thrown from the spires. Judging by what had been seen so far, one spire seemed to be using wind, which split the clouds, and their own was ung roces at absurd speeds. The tral spire seemed dormant for some reason, while a spire oher side was using lightning. Occasionally fireballs hissed as they struck the water, as well.

  Suddenly, darkness fshed to light as a massive orb was unched upward from the tral spire, slowing to a stop far above. The false daylight revealed multiple barriers shifting from the side opposite the apparent threat towards it. At the same time, it made the ominous shape ier more distinct.

  With the sudden appearance of the immense creature, nervousness passed through the bond Dawn and Niphru shared. Simirly, a thought emerged without a clear source, “What in the world is that…”

  Shard