“Shadow camouflage!” The Bishop yelled. “They are still here, merely hiding in the Deathlight.”

  I did not know how this was done, but I understood what it meant. Even with the warning by the bishop, we were unprepared for the ferocity of the invisible attacks. After several rapid claw attacks and one nasty tail swipe by my creature, we had several men down. Two were wounded, and one watchman’s cognito went black, indicating he was gone unless I used a silver SUS ring on my staff to cast Lesser Heal Group.

  The spell was from a cleric, and because of its divine nature and special magic, every group member instantly received ten health points back. It also restored some of Sergeant Philip's health, who had been the one killed by the creature seconds ago. The spell brought him back from death. I learned recently that only one mage spell could accomplish that feat, and it was the most potent blood element spell ever made.

  Steven had explained how his clerical healing worked. “Our healing is not like elemental use of blood magic. Our healing is divine. Even someone who would otherwise be dead can get healed if the healing happens within moments of a mortal strike. Elemental healing will have no effect in those cases.” He explained.

  And true to Steven’s word, the watchman sergeant stirred on the ground. The spell also affected the rest of us. We had all been injured during the undead attacks. I had probably gone the longest without getting struck because of my position behind the defensive barrier, but others had several injuries that ranged from scratches to slashes and punctures.

  Despite our bump in healing and stamina, the shadow monsters were still strong. Bido’s creature decided that the thaumaturgist was its greatest threat. And it was right. I watched as a nearly invisible giant clawed foot came down and smashed my friend into the ground in a cloud of dust.

  But when I looked, Bido was simply just gone.

  He had turned invisible, and a spell duplicate of him had taken his place. I discovered this when, off to the side, he reappeared away from all three battles, throwing a packet of fine silver powder into the air that he had removed from his belt pouch. It went into the air and hovered for a second. He pointed his finger and used one of the two rings I had given him to summon a minor air elemental. Whatever his command, it zoomed into the powder and, in a whirl, sent it flying all over the open intersection.

  The silvery powder flew all around us, but had an internally silvery luminosity that did not reflect the eerie red of the death light. When it settled, three giant insectoid forms were partially outlined in a sparkling silver powder that grew more luminous as it came into contact with the shadow creatures. All three insectoid monsters howled again. It appeared that the radiant nature of the silver powder did more than just make them partially visible; it also damaged them.

  Light damaged shadow—it was so obvious. But it was a selective effect because the Holy Light did not seem to bother them, or at least not in any significant way.

  Sunlight did it based on Bido’s mirror, and whatever served as the basis for the powder’s illumination also did it.

  Perhaps it was moonlight. That would be so like Bido and his dual nature of spells.

  “Brilliantly done!” The bishop called out to Bido, who beamed with pride.

  And we were all engaged with the shadow beasts once more. The creatures were partially hidden, but enough of their bodies were now exposed that we did not have to guess where they were.

  I had planned to hit my target with a Water Blast spell, but then decided it might wash off Bido’s spell effect, which would be bad. Instead, I tried a simple priestly spell called Bind that was gifted to me as a nonlethal alternative to elemental attacks.

  Magical ropes released themselves from my outstretched hand and wrapped around the nearest shadow creature's insect-like legs. The creature became unbalanced and fell. I cheered and was about to call the inquisitors to try the same thing when it became misty, and I stepped out of the bonds.

  It looked at me with eyes like red-hot coals. It solidified, its pincers dripping with venom or saliva, and worked back and forth as if imagining snipping me in two.

  That was when Biff slugged it in the jaw with enough force that its head flew backward and cracked with a muted hollow sound on the road after flipping in midair.

  Biff must have used a special ability.

  The thing shook its head groggily, wisps of shadow stuff floating out and away.

  “Nice one, Biff!” I yelled.

  The others rushed in and struck repeatedly with slashes from their magical weapons. The creature was becoming less substantial and was weakening.

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  “Gwydion!” Bido yelled, pointing behind me.

  I turned in time to see the giant jaw of one of the other shadow monsters descend on me.

  That was when I knew without a doubt that there was something unusual about my staff and that its odd blinking at my journeyman trials was not its limit.

  My staff acted on its own.

  Master Glimmerblade was concerned that I had gone too far in its creation. Giving an object too much power opened the chance to create an artifact, giving an inanimate object a nonliving, unpredictable intelligence. It was not like creating a nature spirit, but they could behave just as unexpectedly and dangerously.

  But in my case, it saved my life. The staff activated one of the SUS rings in a flash of golden yellow light. It was a monk skill called Avoid First Strike.

  The jaw descended, and its mouth was large enough to fit around my head and body. Its head was not long enough to swallow me whole, but it could have bitten me in half.

  Instead, I performed a drop, roll, and kneeling backflip that had me kick the creature’s nose, do two improbable cartwheels, and end up more than ten feet away.

  The jaw snapped shut on empty air.

  I don’t know if it was or if I was more surprised, but I knew which of us was happier.

  We stared at each other dumbly for a couple of seconds until the bishop closed the distance and hit it with another spell that vaporized it on the spot.

  I cheered and turned to see the bishop collapse. Whatever spell he had just used to aid me had caused him to stumble to the ground. He moved feebly and seemed to struggle to sit back up before collapsing a second time. One of the young watchmen had reached his side first and stood over him, swinging his blade back and forth between the two giant beasts as if ready to take them both on simultaneously.

  “To the bishop!” I yelled and ran to him. The inquisitors had already reacted and were moving toward the bishop, and the others soon followed. The magical sword beside the elderly priest flickered but did not disappear. However, it did float nearer and hovered next to the elderly cleric as if to offer additional protection.

  The creature that had snuck up on me was the one the bishop’s group was fighting. Based on the bishop's words, I had my back to them and figured they would try to find ways to attack him, not leave him to attack one of us.

  We were all mistaken. The good news was that one was gone, and the remaining two were wounded.

  The bad news was that the bishop was out of commission for a while.

  The creature my group had been fighting was struggling to its feet after Biff’s roundhouse smackdown. The other beast moved to assist it, giving us time to gather around the bishop.

  “New strategy,” I offered, “We guard the bishop and fight them off together.”

  They all nodded. Several were injured, but even the watch sergeant was on his feet. He had no time to take a healing potion, but had already proven that he would go down fighting. Maybe twice if we weren’t lucky.

  I used a copper ring on the staff to cast one of Steven’s Heal Other single-use spells on the sergeant, as I suspected he was one of our most veteran warriors. I also had healing spells in one of the magical rings I wore on my hands, but given the staff’s effort to save my life, I leaned in its direction and chose a ring from around it.

  I felt a warm pulse as I thought those trusting words about it.

  We need to talk later. I thought to the staff. There was no response.

  The sergeant jumped up to half his health. He looked around and walked over. “They told me you saved my life. And now you heal me. “I owe you.”

  “The day is still young,” I said sarcastically.

  “Gwydion!” Bido interrupted and pointed in the air back toward the Round.”

  A giant alternately flashing pale red and dark red arrow appeared in the center of the town, pointing downward.

  Biff looked at the signal and gasped. “That’s Wilma’s signal. She is in danger!”

  Bido nodded. “It was supposed to be black and white, but in this light, it is light and dark red.”

  Wilma had jokingly said that if we got separated when we were under the sea and she got into trouble, she would send up a huge glowing arrow that blinked black and white and pointed to where she was so some brave hero could find her. She had been staring at Biff with a smile when she said it.

  The beasts were both up and began to circle us.

  “Biff, we can’t leave.”

  “I know he said,” his voice pained.

  “We can’t leave the bishop,” I added gently.

  He turned on me, his face livid, but then he calmed. He nodded once but said nothing else. He kept glancing over his shoulder at the arrow until it suddenly vanished from the sky.

  The watch sergeant was still standing nearby but had ignored the discussion about our friends.

  He had been watching the creatures closely and said out loud to all of us, “The one to my right is more injured than the other. Defend against the other but focus attacks on the wounded one if possible.”

  “Look at how they move. They are used to fighting in packs. Watch for one to fake an attack and the other to lunge in when we are distracted.” A watchman soldier added, whose name I had not learned yet.

  “Eyes on the one closest to you; trust your companions to guard your back. That way, you won’t fall for feints or tricks.” One of the inquisitors offered.

  And so they circled us.

  Bido said, “I’m not sure what they are waiting on, but those with magic should take some potshots while those with blades defend and attack when the creatures come into range.”

  “Agreed. “I said. And around the same time, Bido, I, and the inquisitors all let loose with damaging spells.

  Bido’s did the most damage again. He still used his sunlight beam attacks, but I was nearly as successful with a lightning bolt spell from one of my elemental rings. I thought about Blinky and was happy I was on the giving end of that spell for a change. It did solid damage.

  We all hit the wounded one ,including the inquisitors who summoned magical maces much like the bishop’s floating sword. When the combined damage of all our strikes hit the wounded shadow creature, it began to fade.

  In desperation, the relatively unharmed creature lunged into our circle and drove its jaws at the Bishop. Its actions were slower than they had been, with an unnatural and jerky motion that looked less predatory and more compulsory.

  But as it neared, and before anyone could respond, a spectacular sound of shattering glass made us each flinch. The Deathlight faded from view but did not dissipate or disperse as much as it simply broke and collapsed into shards of crystalline fragments and powder. When the fragments touched the ground, they seemed to dissolve and penetrate directly into the earth.

  The last creature, made from the bodies of the undead, froze in its tracks, and it dissolved without sound. In moments, it was as if the creature had never been there.

  As the last of the Deathlight and shadow creatures vanished, a sense of ease washed over us. The tension of the Deathlight had been a constant pressure on our consciousness, impacting us more than we realized.

  The bishop finally managed to sit up with the assistance of one of the inquisitors, who offered him a sip of water.

  “It is done. He did it.” The bishop managed to say.

  Biff looked at me, and I shrugged my shoulders. Was it over, just like that?