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Chapter 15 Page 23 - http://bit.ly/1MAwby3

Bram's spell here will hopefully be one of those things that people look back on with greater understanding much later down the line.

Lightning magic is a highly advanced mixture of fire and air magic, known for its volatility and tendency to blow up the wizard trying to cast it. It's considered totally off limits for lower ranked wizards due to its danger, and masters of lightning are hailed as geniuses of magic (such as White Flash Heath who appeared several chapters ago with the AA rankers). Bram's fear, anger, and desperation allowed him to put everything he had into this lightning bolt, which no doubt would have decimated a more normal opponent. The Killer is on a different level entirely, unfortunately for our party.

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Chapter 15 Page 22 - http://bit.ly/1QTXDda

Briar's determination shows through here, as she throws herself at this terrifying new enemy in an attempt to save her friends. What a shame that her knife bounced right off, and was blasted out of her hand. I'm sure she'll be alright!

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Chapter 15 Page 21 - http://bit.ly/1kFAHCu 

A quick reminder about Barriers and Force magic in general: force manifests mainly as one of two different types of energy. The first is an invisible "push" used to move or manipulate something through magic, and the second is molding the force into a more visible form to create objects. This is achieved through compressing the force, and molding it through willpower into a sheet of force, somewhat like glass.

As with glass itself, force constructs gain strength through adding layers and compressing the force to gain more density. A barrier is only as strong as the caster makes it, in other words. Bram's barriers have worked well so far... but when facing an attack from the dungeon killer the wall of force literally shattered, and the shockwave blasted them back unabated. Scary!

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Chapter 15 Page 19 - http://bit.ly/1RUneB1 Page 20 - http://bit.ly/1LfKlQS

And here we are, after such a long time of talking about him, the killer has arrived! There were some who thought he was going to show up in the first dungeon... and truth be told my initial script had him appearing even later. These things sometimes change in progress, and I decided I liked it to happen here instead.

In essence, this is the first major plot point of the story. The first big "Crisis" that will push the characters forward and establish many more story elements to come. If they don't all get murdered, that is.

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Chapter 15 Page 18 - http://bit.ly/1QiKU4k

Switching to a black/white art style has been a good choice so far, it just took me a few weeks to figure out how I want to draw effects. I'm pleased with how they ended up like in panel 5 here, with the explosion. It's a fun challenge to attack these kinds of panels in this way, since it felt like before I was drawing in a "lazy" manner. Slap on a glow layer, a few gradients, and there you go. I already feel that my art has begun to improve again, like I've moved past a plateau. It'll be exciting to see where things go from here.

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Chapter 15 Page 17 - http://bit.ly/1ldNKL9

And so the comic comes full circle! Well, maybe not. But it has been about three years since the Hall of Scryers has appeared in the comic. Comparing this version to the prologue, I feel a sense of accomplishment at how I've improved. Falconus looks about the same though, funny enough. 

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Chapter 15 Page 16 - http://bit.ly/1PtmwLN

With pages like these I feel for my update-to-update readers, since it ends mid transition. I hope you're not too upset with me! What a strange shape floating up in the air, though... it looks like a scrap of cloth. You can see the scratchy lines behind Caldwell here again, I chose to use them to relay that "feeling of unease" to the reader. If only I could take many more pages for this transition... but alas, we need to keep moving forward.

A crystal ball... the last panel has the party seen inside a crystal ball. Have we seen a crystal ball used elsewhere in the comic?

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Chapter 15 Page 15 - http://bit.ly/1KZWhq0

The title of this chapter is "Crisis" and there didn't seem to be any crises involving the Ogre... so, readers, the crisis must be coming up soon! Caldwell is the first to realize something isn't quite right, but Bram voices his concern moments later. Caldwell's sharp mind can pick up on danger and strange circumstances, but he has trouble putting it immediately into words. For this reason Bram makes a better leader while Caldwell is more of a tactician in a sense.

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Chapter 15 Page 13-14 - http://bit.ly/20gsSTU

Once again a conflict central to Spellcross rears its head. Caldwell really pulled out all the stops to battle in the dungeon and defeat the boss, even going so far as to risk his life in a daring stoneskin defense ploy in order to draw the monster's attention. Even with all of that, though, Nell is immediately more impressed with Bram's spell. Is it enough to work hard and reach your goals, even if you receive no recognition? Or, worse yet, if someone else takes the glory?