While the farmers didn’t immediately notice that something was off, the same was not true of Leafa. The instant that the skill advanced to Monarch Rank, before the Naga Warriors had even finished growing, she had realized what had happened.
What she couldn’t understand was how.
None of the biological group members were close to the boundary for Monarch Rank, much less past it. But the skill was very obviously advanced by a Rank, just as the Void Badger’s [Disintegration] was.
The obvious answer was that Karl had done something, but she hadn’t sensed him doing anything. If he had a skill that could bump up a skill’s power by a rank for the duration of a battle, the Haint Overlord wanted to know it.
If she could make her [Soul Steal] advance to the Totem Rank even for a short duration, she would become one of the peak powers on the continent.
Karl nodded a greeting as she came over to speak to him, then shook his head in rejection of her pending question.
“I can’t make your skill advance like that. I know that’s what you’re after. Even if I was stronger, it wouldn’t work.” He explained.
“You’re certain? What are the limitations?”
Karl smirked. “Only two things. A comprehensive and thorough understanding of how the skill should operate at the next Rank. Then, the restrictive part. It has to be a beast that is bonded to me and capable of retreating to a separate space I control.”
Leafa sighed. “So, it’s a trick just for your team members? Well, even if it’s one skill at a time, it’s still a huge advantage when you have summoned beasts on top of your bonded ones.”
Karl turned to face her, but stopped when he saw a very strange heat signature.
Remi had transformed back into her small snake form, and Cara was flying around with her, so they could both attack from the sky. Cara looked like she had gotten bigger again, but Karl wasn’t sure with the distance. The next time they came back around, he would have to stand beside her and measure.
Leafa stared into the distance. “Morning is going to be chaos, are you ready for a whole army unit to show up here? They’re going to expect you to be able to help them, but they will have a lot of questions if they see your beasts.”
Karl nodded. “When they arrive, I will call everyone back to their spaces, other than the two Naga Warrior Bodyguards that travel with us. If I push myself, I can do enough damage that most people won’t have questions. That’s how I did it in the past when I first met Orthos. It works well enough, but it burns stamina fast, and this is going to be a long night.”
The Haint Overlord laughed and seemed to turn to mist for a split second before reappearing in the distance to bisect a group of boars with smooth swings of her blade.
Pale blue energy poured from their wounds to her body as she walked back to Karl, and she shrugged.
“These boars aren’t all that tough. I might not be a soldier, but I am an Overlord.”
She had a point. Even if she only had a basic attack skill, as an Overlord, it shouldn’t be hard to one hit kill any of the Commander Rank beasts, and any of the Royal Rank invaders without defensive measures.
[There is a whole swarm of bacon food coming our way.] Hawk warned.
[Use Hellstorm all around the farm. We can create enough cyclones with the three of us that they won’t want to approach.] Karl insisted.
Remi giggled as Hawk sighed. That was going to take a lot of energy, and he was the one doing the flying in his team, where Remi was just transformed into a petite Spirit Snake form and wrapped around Cara like a necklace.
So, Hawk landed on Rae and began spreading flaming vortexes around the farm, so they would cover a third of the circle.
Karl took up his section, and Remi did the rest, as Leafa stared at the thirty pillars of fire surrounding their position.
“That’s the spell that they were referring to. The terrifying fire vortex. It doesn’t look that bad to me. It’s just a Royal Rank flaming tornado with some extra damage.” She noted.
“Just wait. They get spicy when someone stands too close.”
The boars naturally assumed that if they just didn’t run into the fire, they would be fine. But that notion was proven false the moment that one of them got within twenty metres of the initial vortex and a smaller flame storm spawned at his position.
The unfortunate boar was immediately tossed from its feet by the force of the wind and the [Rend] attacks embedded in the vortex. That was a good sign. If the spell could stop them trying to stampede past the main vortexes, they would be trapped on the other side of the line.
A smaller creature would have been caught inside and buffeted to death, but the boars were too large for that, and instead the vortex was aggressively attacking it, and spawning more vortexes every time something got too close.
Leafa whistled a happy tune. “Oh, I like it. Spicy Tornado is an excellent spell.”
[I vote that we rename the spell.] Hawk demanded.
[Spicy Tornado is a great name for a spell.] Remi agreed.
[Make it upgrade with Skill Master to one Rank or Tier higher than it currently is, and you can pick the new name for it.]
[Two skills in one day? Well, maybe I’m on a roll. Let’s do this. Upgrade incoming.]
If it were that easy, it would have happened to someone before this.
But on the other side of the battle, Hawk was having more luck. His affinity with fire was growing quickly as he practised adapting his [Flaming Body] skill to allow him to more easily create [Hellstorm] vortexes.
Hawk was definitely going to be the first of them to improve a fire skill. But he was combining the two skills in a way that Karl wasn’t capable of mimicking.
“Your beasts are strange. What species is that bird, anyhow?” Leafa asked.
“That’s a mighty fine question. I’m not even certain anymore. In fact, the way he’s going, even if I give you an answer now, it might have changed by morning. His aptitude for fire magic is increasing by the day, and his body is changing as it adapts.”
The Haint Overlord stared at Hawk, who was only paying cursory attention to his vortexes as he adapted the casting method to minimize the amount of mana that they used.
Karl could hear his thoughts, and Hawk had a grand plan. If he cut the mana cost in half, he could make twice as many as Remi did, and then he would have uncontested mastery of the Fire Element.
Being a Shaman was a cheat. She got to use evil magic and fire at the same time. But soon, he would be so much better with fire that she would never catch up.
After a few minutes of silently staring at the battle while Karl adjusted the position of his vortexes to ensure that nothing was making it into the farm, Overlord Leafa took out a small blue stone from inside her arm.
“I have a proposition for you. I have an item that will help your friend Hawk advance his power beyond anything he could manage on his own. I will trade you for it.” She offered.
“And what would you like in exchange for such a stone?” Karl asked, suspicious of such altruism.
“Your sword. You have a blade that drinks souls to improve its own power. I want it.”
It also shared the power that it drank to improve the power and growth rate of the wielder. The extra energy that it gave him was a massive part of Karl’s combat stamina.
“If I trade you the blade, will you teach Hawk how to use the stone to improve his power?” Karl asked.
A chance to help Hawk master a new level of flame skills was too good to pass up, and even Karl wasn’t greedy enough to think that he could have it without any sacrifice.
“All he has to do is eat it, and he will gain a new level of fire mastery.” Leafa agreed.
“The sword is bonded to me, would it even be possible to transfer it?” The Haint nodded. “Just hand it to me and will the bond to transfer. You can’t unbind such a weapon, but you should be able to transfer it without issue.”
“Give the stone to Hawk and you will have the sword.”
Leafa smirked and smoke poured from her mouth. “So untrusting. I told you once already that I keep my word.”