Shard

  The day, Dawn and Niphru both awoke earlier than usual in order to meet up with the others before they headed out to the entry point. After exiting the spire, they had a quick walk towards one of the guarded tunnels along the inside of the wall.

  Miana expined, “The easiest way to get there is through the access tunnel here, then a branch tuo reach their se; that way, we skip all the crowds along the way above.”

  Nodding, Dawn reached down to pick up Niphru, setting him across her shoulders so he wouldn’t have to walk along the dirty pathways.

  As they entered, Miana lit up a small fme a it flitting ahead of them, occasional pockets of gas igniting as it reached them. Seeing a spot where he could be useful, Niphru sent one of his fmes ahead of them, fog on it burning everything before remarking, “I take over that. I don’t use mana to keep my fme lit, so you save yours.”

  Miana nodded in thanks ainguished her fme, instead simply pointing out the path for them to take. As it began to get darker, Niphru mentioned he wouldn’t be able to talk but would cover the light as well, and if anything happened, he would extinguish the fme ahead to be able to speak again. Following his statement, he sed his illusioo another fme a it floating above the group.

  It was, admittedly, difficult to keep focus on two opposite cepts so that one fme burned while the other did not, but without having to pay attention to walking, thanks to Dawn, he was able to ma.

  For a while, everything seemed retively , aside from scorch marks on the walls every now and then. After about half an hour, however, they turned a er only to find slime-covered walls. Almost immediately, there was an explosion of fme ahead of them, fire rag along the sides of the tunnel, leaving nothing but scorched brick behind.

  “Well, that was a rather dramatitrao the tunnels we are to clear,” Viera remarked.

  Shortly after the explosion, there was chittering from dowunnel in both dires, setting everyone o.

  With practiced movements, Richard unched a wave of air down one side as Miana hurled a fireball the same dire. The fme accelerated in the wind before impag the wall a fair distance down the corridor, exploding into a wave of fire propelled further by the bst of air. In the light of the fire, several rats that reached their knees were seen, as well as a few rge spiders that promptly fell off the ceiling. Several more bsts of fme were sent in that dire, and Thomas repeated the a the other dire.

  As targets were illuminated, Viera fired off intense beams of light, burning the eyes of the enemies.

  Catg the way things were going, Dawn begaing her steltion of fmes, hurling them oer another. As she intended, each rocketing bst caught a different creature, both knog them bad igniting them.

  Moments ter, the spiders had been squashed by the rats, and they, in turn, were buro ders by the mages.

  Viera remarked, “I haven’t seen fire knock things back before; how did you mahat?”

  Hearing this, both Richard and Thomas began paying attention as Dawn spoke up, “I don’t just throw the fire, I try to hold it into a ball shape, press the fire as much as I , then put a tiny hole in the sphere, causing it to keep accelerating over the dista travels, causing more of an impact.”

  Following this, both of them created balls of fire and tried it out, with Richard managing it easily while Thomas seemed uo get the trick down.

  After a few moments, they moved on, heading towards the entry point of the other spire, clearing the creatures and slime along the way. A while ter, they emerged bato the sunlight again, verified nothing had escaped, and turned around again.

  Heading back through the passages, they moved into a new se of the sewers, taking turns clearing the way ahead to avoid anyone running pletely out of mana.

  Along the way, Richard brought up the idea of splitting up so they could make sure nothing slipped by while clearing out the side passages, which was agreed upon by everyone. In the end, Richard, Miana, and Thomas moved into one group, while Dawn, Niphru, and Viera formed the roup.

  With this arra, they took turns holding the main passage or clearing side passages, giving each group time to rest, as the creatures didn’t head towards them very often.

  Deeper in the sewers, however, they began entering much rger vermin that took multiple hits t down. Twice, however, something mao surprise them and cause scratches and cuts, though fortunately, both Dawn and Niphru were able to heal, so it was only a few moments before their wounds were ed and sealed again.

  After they were aware of the bats, however, it was much easier to avoid injury, as a si of fire would send them tumbling to the floor.

  Eventually, a few hours ter, they fihe st corridor, finding a huge blob of sludge. Just in case, Richard kept a stream of fresh air around them a air to feed the fire to the side instead of allowing the air to mix naturally. O was finished burning, they began to return to the spire, double-cheg they had not missed anything along the way.

  Fortunately, it appeared they had done a good enough job on the first pass, and they did not run into anything on their way back, aside from a single normal-sized rat that was turo charcoal in a si of fme.

  Upon reag the spire, they tinued upward more than Dawn and Niphru expected, stopping on a floor well above the ohey had moved to. Here, the spire lit off inte rooms, taking up all but a hallway along the inside edge, and they headed towards a room marked with Morris’ name.

  Ohey reached the door, Richard stepped forward, activated the arm fun, and stepped babsp; Just a momehe door opened, and Richard reported their success at clearing the other spire’s mismanaged sewer.

  Nodding, Morris made a note on a board beside the door before remarking, “Good job, everyohat is quite helpful as otherwise we would have o send many more people, as well as someoo make sure nothi wrong. It is always a relief to have people we trust do the difficult tasks. Just to remind you, we will be having a session for the apprentices in two days, and one for the elites like yourselves in three, if you wish to attend. Do you have any questions?”

  After they stated they did not, Morris said farewell and closed the door, leaving them to return to their own floor.

  While they had mostly stayed , everyone agreed they o take a break to up fully, and headed to their individual rooms.

  Hearing about the shower, Daw a few moments looking and found a swit the room with the bath, finding that it ged the water to e from the ceiling instead of the faucet on the side. She was in the mood for a bath, however, and switched it back, with Niphru joining her.

  Shard