"SINKHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLE" Jeff screamed, shoving as much mana as he could muster into the spell. A few of the folks around looked at him with with a healthy dose of curiosity — a now quite familiar experience for him.

  Screaming the spell's name was never necessary, of course. But Jeff was convinced it made his spells more powerful. It had never been measured, and it never would be. Because no measuring device had been created powerful enough to measure an incantation enhanced spell.

  Not because deep inside, he knew it did nothing. Regardless of what anybody else — or any damned system for that matter — wanted to say, this was Jeff's favourite spell. And it deserved the name of sinkhole, and that name deserved to be shouted from the rooftops. Even if everybody else still believed it was something so simple as 'earth manipulation.' This was sinkhole magic, and it was the pinnacle of all magic.

  "Why do you do this, Jeff?" Tom shook his head at the fire elemental in front of them, the last remnants of its flame sputtering out as it was pierced through by a twisting spire of earth. "It's not even a sinkhole, you understand that, right?"

  Jeff waved his hand dismissively. "It's a sinkhole, Tom."

  "It's a spike, Jeff. A spike. It couldn't be further from a sinkhole."

  Jeff shook his head and walked up to the spire of earth, placing his hand against the side of it. A part of the spire crumbled away, falling deep into a pit — sinkhole, beneath the spire. "Sinkhole." He nodded, feeling wise.

  Tom rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Lets just get back to Foizo, I'm tired and I'm hungry and I would very much like to be somewhere you can't use your skills."

  "Spells," Jeff scolded. "They're spells."

  Tom rubbed his eyes and stepped past the boundary of Flester's Might "Why'd you even kill that one anyway? We're literally right here, we could've just left."

  "And lose an opportunity to spread the good name of sinkhole magic?" Jeff shuddered at the thought. "That's blaspheme, dude."

  "You like the attention, don't you?" Tom asked as they walked through the small town just outside the dungeon.

  According to some stories, the town had a thriving economy of its own some hundreds of years in the past. Merchants and smiths, enchanters and alchemists setting up just outside of Flester's Might to peddle their wares.

  All of that had changed when the gate was created. The town shrunk, lost its name — why would it need to be a separate thing when it took less time to walk to than it took to walk to the outskirts of Foizo?

  "Maybe." Jeff didn't disagree. If he were being honest, half the fun of screaming his spell names was embarrassing his childhood friend.

  The gate was beautiful, as it always was. A shimmer window into the portal room in the centre of Foizo. Even where Jeff was, he could see the entrance to the city hall like it were just a short walk away — and it was. Not to mention the surrounding gates nearby, each peering into something of their own. Other nearby dungeons, even the moon.

  It was a staggering sight the first time he'd seen it, an impressive feat by the enchanters of Foizo. Not to mention a testament to why they were able to secede from the Injellar kingdom on such friendly terms in the first place. Foizo almost rivalled the kingdom's capital when it came to the resources available to its people.

  But where it excelled, was enchanting. Nobody could come close to the prowess shown by the Foizo people. Gates used like they cost nothing. The incredible stone fixtures surrounding them, pulsing with more mana than Jeff could ever quantity anchoring the portals in place seen as little more than cheap decoration at times, it seemed.

  They were so confident in their enchanting, they didn't even have walls around the city. Or at least none that were raised, even Jeff with his mediocre ability to understand mana could feel the powerful magic swirling below the city. He had no doubt that the very instant a danger presented itself, the city would be surrounded by at least some kind of force more powerful than any mundane wall could manage.

  But the one thing that stood out to Jeff more than anything else as he wandered through the streets of Foizo was the children. He had been to many cities, but none had children that looked so free and full of wonder as Foizo.

  That wasn't to say that every other city Jeff had been to was crude to their children — they were anything but. They loved them, protected them from the dangers that the outside world had, the disasters that could strike at a moments notice. He looked at a group of children playing together in a park just off to the side of the street, only a single guardian watching over them.

  Not one child was over level six, not that them being level eight would have even made a difference if something happened. And the so called guardian seemed to just be an older brother, early to mid teens. A green level forty eight. Not enough to protect eight children if something were to happen.

  Yet everybody was so confident nothing would. There would be no beasts getting past the threshold of the city, no stray magic on a collision course for tragedy, none of the enchanted playground about to cause some unexpected problem.

  "It's hard to get used to," Jeff said, watching the kids. It was pleasant, of course, he just couldn't get over that twinge of fear that if something did happen, nobody would be able to do anything about it. They needed at least a few more people around to keep an eye on them, or a dedicated babysitter to watch them. Not just some older brother with what Jeff was sure were unrelated classes.

  "Bah," Tom said. "The Verdant Watcher will keep them safe. You've heard the stories."

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  He had, of course. Everybody had. The Verdant Watcher was a legend in Foizo, but one the people seemed to trust their lives with. He was almost worshipped at times, though according to more than just one story, he really hated when that happened.

  The first tale Jeff knew of was a few hundred years back, a group of people calling themselves The Eyes painted themselves green and tried to build a church to worship in. Well, they did build a church to worship in but the problem was that the church didn't stay for very long. Just a day after it was built, the entire thing had vanished. In its place were two very large and — somehow according to the story, very angry looking letters spelling out 'NO'.

  The Eyes didn't seem to be dissuaded and instead chose to just worship the letters themselves, prostrating themselves and begging for the watcher's love. Jeff wasn't sure if it ever came, and a not so small part of him hoped it didn't.

  For Jeff's money, he wasn't sure the Verdant Watcher existed at all. It made far more sense to Jeff that Foizo being the world's leading expert on enchanting just had some powerful enchantments defending their town. But people loved to latch on to legends and myths far more than the mundane explanations sometimes.

  An alarm in the distance interrupted their discussion. Three quick blasts of sound followed by a long one. Jeff looked to Tom — Foizo had a whole system of alarms for different situations and Tom had chosen to learn them all when they first showed up.

  "It's not an emergency for us at least," Tom rubbed his chin in thought. "It's too far for it to affect us right now anyway, and the emergency ones are a constant sound, not a pattern. I think this one means there's an opportunity for growth with mild danger?"

  "Excuse me," Tom walked across the street to an older couple sitting on a bench together. "This alarm, uh, I think it means growth with mild danger?"

  The older man nodded. "They're rare young man, the last one I remember was over seventy years ago. If you want it, I would get moving if I were you."

  "Do we want it?" Jeff looked to Tom.

  The woman giggled, leaning into the man — her husband, Jeff assumed. "They don't sound the alarm for the smaller things. There's something big happening over there, if you're thinking about it then just go take a look. You're young, what's a few minutes to you?"

  Tom shrugged. "I say we go. The paper seemed to suggest it would be significant, too. Plus, you might get an opportunity to spread your sinkhole magic."

  "Say less." Jeff took off, racing down the street. "SINKHOOOOOOOOOOOOOLE" he shouted, though this time it was only to embarrass his friend since he wouldn't do something so silly as cast sinkhole magic in the middle of Foizo.

  It took several minutes of running before they got to the outskirts of Foizo — even running at full sprint which was quite fast for them. Jeff wondered why Foizo didn't have gates leading to other parts within the city for a moment, but any thoughts he had were stripped away by what he saw on the horizon.

  "You're sure," Jeff emphasized the word, "sure. Absolutely positive that this alarm means mild danger. MILD?"

  Tom nodded with the confidence of an ant facing down a sinkhole wizard — which is to say none, if the ant knew what was good for it. "That's what it says."

  "Then what the hell is that?" Jeff pointed to the forces of nature whipping through the forest on the horizon. It was still too far for any of the force it created to be felt by the two of them, but the depths of despair he felt looking at it didn't feel any lessened for it.

  One would have been disaster enough, but two elementals raging against each other, this close to a major city? The magic was blinding, even to Jeff's mediocre mana sight. Wind and earth smashing into each other, neither yielding against the other's immense power. Visible shockwaves smashed across the forest, toppling over trees and ripping rocks from the ground.

  "WOOOHOOOO!" Shouts erupted from behind Jeff and Tom as a group of adventurers in their early twenties — if even that, ran past them without a moment of hesitation. Jeff Identified them as they ran and the highest was only level ninety six. Rushing into a fight between two elementals? Were they insane?

  "Mild danger?" Tom suggested, his anxiety palpable. "Everybody else seems okay with it and that is what the alarm says... I'm sure the leaders of Foizo are aware of this, and they decided the danger is mild."

  "Tom. It's two elementals. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I don't think even sinkhole magic could handle that." Jeff felt a twinge of pain as he spoke the blasphemy.

  Tom took a moment, nodding in rhythm to the alarm's noise. "Still three short and one long. They're still saying it's mild danger."

  Jeff shuddered. It didn't matter whether it was mild danger or not, if he were being honest. Either way, the right thing to do would be join the fight. It was either safe, and he would gain a significant amount from the fight. Or it wasn't safe, and he could at least try to delay the devastation a little longer so the weaker citizens could have time to flee.

  "Dammit," Jeff shook his head and ran off into the forest.

  "We're doing this?" Tom asked. "We're really doing this?"

  "What choice do we have." Jeff scowled. They'd made more than their fair share of friends in their time in Foizo. Friends with families. People who didn't make a living throwing themselves into danger but cooking food, managing offices or hunting lower levelled wildlife nearby.

  It didn't take long before Jeff and Tom both realized just why everybody was so confident this was only 'mild' danger.

  *Ding* You have been affected by Life's Respite. Increased physical stats.

  *Ding* You have been affected by Life's Embrace. Increased regeneration.

  The world around Jeff seemed to slow to a snail's pace, though not before he'd already committed to launching himself forward with his right leg at maximum power. He shot off, smashing through a tree and tumbling along the ground ripping up dirt and roots as he slid.

  He looked behind him at what happened and watched as the hole he carved through the tree stitched itself back together, the torn roots on the forest floor were pulled back to where they belonged. Even the grass he'd ripped up seemed to regrow, stronger and healthier than it was before. Tom hadn't quite been as unlucky with the timing and managed to just trip over himself, landing face first in a puddle of mud.

  A deafening shockwave powered through them, toppling over the nearby trees and Jeff looked in awe towards the now much closer elementals, at the power they wielded. And at the even greater power denying them as the trees rose back up, leaves sprouting from their branches like nothing had happened.

  Tom got up from the mud, a quick blast of blue light washing over him removing all the mud his brief tumble covered him with. "Holy hell."

  The two ran through the forest, faster than they'd ever before and made it to ground zero in what felt like just a few brief seconds. And the sight was awe inspiring.

  Hundreds of people swarmed around the elementals, arrows and spells launching through the sky at them — nothing causing either of the elementals any concern as their power smashed into each other. Some folk were even punching the earthen elemental, the wind too high to reach for them. Bits of rock fell from the elemental, but any that might have hit somebody vanished with a powerful surge of magic.

  Tom raced in, his crystalline bow forming in his hand. An arrow stretched from the string as he pulled it back, screaming with power that on any other day Jeff would have been impressed with. The arrow loosed, flying through the air with a shrill whistle, and then was lost in the mass of magical effects surrounding the elementals.

  Jeff stared at the scene and could think of only one reasonable course of action to take.

  "SINKHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLE!" He shouted.

  Kindle! So if you have a kindle subscription please go read it, or buy the ebook! A nice review would be very apreciated, I'd love to get the amazon algorithm started. Paperback is not available right now because it's a bit more of a hassle, I've gotta get some book proofs made and whatnot. But I'm working on it and I will let you know when a paperback copy is available if that's something you're interested in.

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