At the edge of the cliff, the Kobold tilted his head, then suddenly sprang up and landed directly on the Flaming Centipede pacing back and forth.
Of course, calling it a Flaming Centipede was still something of a stretch. This was a fully learned, fully constructed spell prototype. That sounded contradictory, but it was precisely what made the spell distinctive. Only a short while had passed since he had cast Fendim's Flaming Centipede, yet he had already observed many unexpected behaviors.
Ruger jumped down again and gently patted it with his hand.
There was one detail he might have overlooked-or simply disregarded-that Ruger only noticed after the thing had made several circuits, and even then, he had not noticed it directly.
Once it had reached eight legs, they moved in coordination as a whole. As it paced back and forth, circuit after circuit, subtle changes appeared in its shape. That was what first drew Ruger's attention. The Flaming Legs began developing more details, resembling actual giant insect legs. Each was longer than Ruger's arm, and they looked increasingly lifelike as they moved. Their tips were like blades, and as they bent and stretched, their outer surfaces bulged like hard shells, while their inner surfaces resembled serrated bristles.
Then, through his examination of those details, he made his current discovery.
Ruger touched it with his hand. To his surprise, it was not hot.
It had been wandering around in front of him all this time, yet he had overlooked that detail. This, too, was one of the spell's changes.
When there had been only one Flaming Leg at the beginning, his casting had left nothing but a simple mark on the ground. Back then, the entire leg had been blazing hot and unable to walk. Now, not only could the legs