For the next 10 waves, two sets of five, Eli let out Umber since it had turned night. The waves were almost too easy with her help so they spent time sparring and Bethany told her that she should be using a staff. One that helps her focus her intent into the magic or that gives her access to more magic types. Umber was having a lot of fun playing with the women, but was clearly more fond of Bethany. Stacy seemed a little upset that the magnificent magical creature didn’t want to be her friend too, but Bethany explained it away as her connection to Eli is what was making her so friendly.

  Umber returned to Eli’s body as the half-body covering tattoo when the 21st wave started and the sun was out again. Without Umber they worked together for each wave, facing off against some kind of enraged wind foxes that were almost impossible to hit. Stacy had to figure out how to give Bethany her wind buff so that they didn’t spend too much time on that wave. This time the boss was two monsters, two foxes that were five feet tall and when the wind helped them move, they went invisible. Stacy took a scratch to the chest and Bethany took one to the back before they figured out that they could feel the air hit them before the monsters did.

  They only had 30 minutes until the next wave and they were tired and hurt, their armor was beat up and both of them only had about half their magic left. While laying on the ground, Stacy removed her armor and shirt since they were torn, she rinsed the blood off them and put them away. Stacy actually had bandages so they wrapped themselves up, she felt a little bad that he hadn’t looked, but it was probably for the best since he needed to hurry up and get himself ready, they weren’t going to make it much further without his help.

  Eli stuck out an arm and conjured an avatar, it was like before, large and pale white, but it looked more alive and less like a stylized dead tree.

  “Bethany can handle the next five with my avatar, then Umber and Stacy can do five, then the four of you can do five. I should be ready by then. I’m getting stronger resistance to what I want my magic to do than I was expecting. I think the skill I made isn’t something I’m supposed to be able to do yet, and something, the system or something else is trying to force limitations on it. Just buy me another 15 hours and I should be good, then you can rest for as long as you want.” Eli said, his voice was tense, dry, and scratchy, like he was walking in a desert for days.

  Neither of the women said anything, they seem intent on resting. Bethany moved herself outside the circle so something would be out there when the monsters spawned. She would let the avatar take the lead for the first round. Stacy moved to put her back on the podium on the opposite side as Eli, She didn’t speak, just started focusing on two things, resolve and opening her soul so she could better feel what Eli was feeling. She wasn’t making any progress after the first ten minutes, she was tired and kept losing focus, almost drifting off to sleep or her mind would just wander. Eventually she fell asleep just before the next wave started. This one was water based otter’s, rabid, 4 foot long otters that could use water magic to throw ice spikes.

  Bad for them and good for Bethany, the avatar was able to handle most of them, not taking much damage from the ice spikes, if any at all. Bethany joined to help it so that it didn’t get too hurt, she wanted to be sure that it would last the five waves. Using the avatar to avoid most of the ice spikes, Bethany had no trouble making quick work of the waves and the two boss otters took time but she managed to beat them just as the avatar ran out of magic and crumbled, no longer able to heal itself. She slowly walked back to the stone ring, knelt down and slapped Stacy to wake her up.

  “Get up girl, you're up, it's just you and Umber out there, ill be asleep. Don’t die.” Bethany said.

  Stacy stood and started stretching, just as Umber came out of Eli’s tattoo and also did some stretching. They both walked out of the stone ring.

  “Alright Umber, it's just you and me out here, lets work together ok?”

  Umber gave her a side eye look, but nodded her head in agreement. The night monster waves seemed to have a night theme and this is one that they were worried about, as werewolves emerged from the trees. There were about fifty of them and they were thin, five foot tall, and fast with sharp long claws. What they had been worried about was any monster waves that include poison or curse or disease, without Eli’s light purity spell, it could mean a really bad time. Umber seemed like she was not worried at all, she tucked her wings in all the way, then Stacy saw what looked like them becoming subtle tattoos on Umber's own body.

  As many questions as that raised, it wasn’t the time, Stacy just got ready and when Umber took off, Stacy followed just to her left. The werewolves had some kind of moonbeam power that seemed to have a slow effect, the magic was a mix of light, shadow, order. The beam came from the sky and covered a small area, slowing people and things that pass through it. Umber didn’t seem affected at all by it and was ripping the monsters apart with little effort, Stacy was having trouble with it, but her own root was making their slows almost negligible. They did all five rounds without much difficulty, except Stacy’s armor and clothes were wrecked again.

  Bethany got up and was completely refreshed, her health and magic were topped off and her armor had mostly repaired itself. Eli conjured another avatar, this one was the same height and color but was a bit bulkier, probably made bigger so it would last longer.

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Just hang in there a little longer,” Eli said to them. Bethany kissed his cheek, Umber attempted to do the same but just ended up rubbing her cheek against his since she didn't really have lips. Stacy surprised Bethany and kissed him on the forehead like it was something she did everyday then walked out to get ready. The start of wave thirty six was bats, a crap load of bats. They were only about two feet long, but there had to be over a hundred of them and they could fly. It seemed like this would be a new level of difficulty until two things happened at once, Umber brought her wings back out and took to the air, then the avatar held its shield up like a roof. Roots and vines grew from the shield to make it larger and the rest of its entire body grew foot long thorns all over it.

  Bethany looked at Stacy who seemed to be doing her best to track their movements, “Hey! Girl! Lets get under the avatar and pick them off as they go by or try to attack.” Bethany said.

  They both moved to the avatar and were able to stand under its shield, the bats weren’t really attacking at the moment though. They seemed to be deciding on how to handle Umber with some bats flying directly at her, trying to attack, she killed those kinds quickly. Other bats were just flying around disorganized, and the third group were trying to gather together to attack Umber in a group. As soon as the group was about to attack, Umber let out her panic screech, which knocked most of the bats out of the air rather due to panic or due to the noise messing with their echo location. The few that noticed the two hiding under the vaguely man-shaped thorn bush died rather quickly to the thorns, which instantly grew back, or to their weapons.

  This is how the four waves went, then when the boss wave came, it was four people pized bats, over five feet with an eight foot wingspan. They were large but still looked just like normal bats. Umber killed one before it knew there was a flying enemy, then she moved on to another one. Bethany walked out to challenge the other two but only one came down to attack. The fourth was flying above, barely visible in the night sky lit up only by stars, it was making noises like it was communicating with the others. Stacy decided to help Bethany since she wasn’t being attacked so she stepped out from under the avatar and that triggered the final one to attack. It dove straight at her like it was going to claw and bite her, but just before it hit her, she used a bit of air magic to change its direction to faceplant into the ground while she jumped over it.

  It was an easy victory after that, just stabbing it while it was down. She looked up to see if Bethany or Umber needed help but both were walking side by side back to the ring of stones. It seems that the flying part of those waves was supposed to be the hard part, not that they were complaining. The avatar stayed as is while they rested, it hadn’t taken long so they had time to sit for a bit before Eli would finally join the fighting. Just as they sat he opened his eyes and sat up right, he didn’t stand but he sat up really straight stretching and breathing deep.

  “Finally got yourself sorted?” Bethany asked in a tired voice.

  “Yes, thank you. I owe you both a favor for holding out this long for me, I could have fought earlier but it would have been risky.”

  “What were you doing?” Stacy asked, “I mean it just seemed like it was intense.”

  “The skill I upgraded ended up being the maximum rarity called a ‘Unique’. It turns out that you can only have one Unique skill and when you make it, the system tries to diffuse its strength by having it bleed its power into other nodes and skills, ultimately weakening it. It took every ounce of my will and focus to limit this diffusion, I kept it contained to the original node, my death node, and my life node, which is why my avatar changed.”

  “That is what took all that time?” Stacy asked.

  “No, the dream from creating the skill had me messed up pretty badly. You know how when you wake-up from a vivid dream you slowly lose the memory of it? Well this was a vivid dream of thousands of years of fighting, it took a long time to wear off and for me to come back to myself enough to even notice that the system was screwing with my skills and nodes.”

  “So what does the new skill do?” Bethany asked. Eli had it displayed in front of him.

  “Death node - Bone Mace of the Pale Rider - level N/A”

  “Conjuration - Unique - Cast time varies”

  “Conjure the weapon and armor of death, a horseman of the apocalypse."

  “Increase Magic spent to increase weapons and armor effectiveness.”

  “Wearing this equipment will change you into a rider of the apocalypse.”

  “Wow, Weapon, Armor, and you transform. That's a lot for one skill.” Bethany commented.

  “You're telling me, I had to force a node upgrade in order to fit it, and it just barely fits, like a full use of the skill would almost empty my magic.” Eli explained.

  “Why doesn’t it have a level?” Stacy asked.

  “The level of a skill is more about its progress to the next rarity than anything else and unique is the highest rarity. The rarity jumps aren’t about power but more about purity of intent.”

  “Anyways,” Bethany said impatiently, “let's see it.”

  “You're going to have to wait for that, I need to save the full equip for later when it's needed.”

  “After I take a few waves off, can I join the fight again?” Stacy asked.

  “You can join whichever you choose, but only at the beginning of the wave, or you may interrupt my testing of a skill or some other plan I have going on.” Eli said. She smiled and nodded then sat down to rest. He walked over to Bethany and she was standing in front of him, not that she got up, more like it was always that way even though Stacy was sure that she was sitting down. They kissed, it was a bit intense and normally she would look away but she just blushed, then watched him walk out of the ring of stones with Umber by his side.