“Maybe you should carry biscuits around,” Phoebe suggested, nodding at Jason feeding the puppy another one.

“Biscuits for who?” Gabrielle asked. “Humphrey or Stash?”

Phoebe laughed.

“I actually did try that,” Gabrielle confessed. “I think Jason has better biscuits than me. He makes them himself.”

“I didn’t think you knew Jason that well,” Phoebe said.

“The goddess told me.”

“The goddess told you he makes his own biscuits?”

“She seems strangely interested in him.”

“Oh?”

“I saw them together, briefly. It was a weird atmosphere.”

“You don’t suppose she’s, you know, interested interested?”

“Dear gods, no,” Gabrielle laughed. “I think it’s because he’s an outworlder. He doesn’t act the way other people do. She said he’s dangerous.”

“How can that guy be dangerous to a goddess?”

“Not to her,” Gabrielle said. “To me. She thinks he's a threat to impressionable young minds.”

“She'd know, I guess,” Phoebe said.

Suddenly, the adventurer with the tremor-sense called out in alarm.

“Everyone stop!”

“What is it?” Phoebe asked.

“There’s something around us. All around us.”

Everyone went on alert, scanning the empty desert terrain.

“Is it in the sand?” Humphrey asked.

“I think it is the sand.”

79. Sand Everywhere

79

Sand Everywhere

Chaos erupted as the sand came to life all around them, surging like waves. From the empty desert, they were suddenly surrounded, the sand rising up to take a variety of crude forms. None were any larger than a person, but there were dozens of them, from misshapen torsos like half-melted snowmen to sharks swimming through the sand like it was water. The shapes were all poorly formed, without delicate features.

New Quest: [Elemental Ambush]

You have been surrounded by sand elementals. Defeat them before your team is overwhelmed.

Objective: Defeat [Lesser Sand Elemental] attack.

Reward: Quintessence.

“Sand elementals!” Jason heard Phoebe shout over the sudden chaos. “Use powerful attacks to completely break up their forms or they’ll just recover!”

Jason released his aura as he felt others wash over him.

You are in the area of an ally’s [Dragon Might] aura. Your [Power] and [Spirit] attributes are increased.

You are in the area of an ally’s [Presence of the Master] aura. The effect of your essence abilities is increased.

He could easily sense Humphrey and Phoebe through their auras. Gabrielle and one of the other adventurers also projected auras, but they didn’t seem to affect him. Unfortunately, Jason’s own aura was unlikely to have a large impact on the fight.

Ability: [Hegemony] (Sin)

Aura (holy, unholy)

Cost: None.

Cooldown: None.

Current rank: Iron 3 (14%)

Effect (iron): Allies within the aura have increased resistance to afflictions, while enemies within the aura have their resistance to afflictions reduced. Enemy resistances are further reduced for each instance of [Sin] they are afflicted with.