The decision to attack the mass of spiraling Cannibal Pixies started to cause Ruth to perspire as he waited for the result. The cloud cover cast a shadow over the area and made visibility decrease; initially at least. The purple light the pixies gave off actually started to fight against this darkness and before long it was brighter than it had been when there hadn’t been any clouds.

It would have been actually quite lovely if the little lights weren’t small murder pixies that were currently pulling animals out of the trees and off the ground and eating them. Of course, eating each other when there wasn’t enough of that horror going on.

Where there had been several hundred pixies now fluttered upward of thousands. They blotted out the sky and moved through the area excitedly. The cacophony of their wings beating together and the noise their teeth made as they periodically ate anything they could find was deafening.

Influx Mana Luring Cannibal Pixies To Location.

Ruth honestly didn’t know if this was better or worse. More pixies coming in to be smacked by his giant and devastating forest kill spell sounded good to him? A drop of sweat dripped off his nose and hit the ground under him soundlessly. His arm really hurt even propped as it was. His shoulder was starting to protest the trembling finger pointed out toward the pixies through the small opening.

Nothing was ever easy.

A small violet light approached the wall crevice forest detritus that was all that separated Ruth from the pixie piranha. He was seconds away from activating the spell. The mana circulating through him about to wash out into the world with deadly purpose. The small dark light seemed to notice the small break in the brush near the wall and approached. She fit herself through the small hole and fluttered for a brief moment while staring at the end of Ruth’s finger.

Ruth stared back, wondering with horrified fascination if the spell would activate on that pixie that was breathing on his finger or on the clearing past the pixie to which he was actually pointing.

The pixie straightened as it finally realized what it was looking at. It made a happy trill and the small creature’s head parted horizontally in the middle revealing a row of teeth. The Cannibal Pixie started to take a bite toward his finger when the lightning finally washed down.

Everything went white and the last thought Ruth had before the wave washed out all the color of the world was; serves you right for trying to bite me.

↢↦

Rush awakens once more as the space trembles and writhes with golden tendrils blanketing the membrane that separates the mana lush interior of the space with the nothingness outside. The pressure pushes down on the space but the bubble holds, pushing back against the pressure a moment later. The space expands just the tiniest bit outward. The space begins to brighten imperceptibly as if it had been waiting for another baptism like this.

What now?

The window appears again at the thought and his eyes narrow. He remembers that a similar circumstance led to a great victory the last time this window appeared. The window is a vassal and is to be protected.

He stretches lightly, the bumps where his wings were protruding just earlier in the day now long gone. His back is smoother, though now slightly ridged in places. There is a predatory grace in his movements as he pads through the air and paces around the box with the faintest hint of curiosity.

His talons and claws begin clicking rhythmically in the air as he moves. Small embers of light flash between those claws.

↢↦

Ruth hadn’t expected to feel good.

Blackened and scorched fingernails pulled him slowly forward and out of the depression. The smell of burned hair stung his nostrils. Was it his nostril hair that had singed and burned? His previously shoulder-length black hair that now hung close to his head? He would have to say, yes.

Ruth smelled bad but he felt good. His body felt more natural, like the shocking mana that washed over him had simply redirected itself through him for a moment and passed through him like an old friend who had merely decided to drop by for a while and then left again.

The rock covering had shielded him from most of the direct impact, which was probably the only reason his clothing wasn’t completely destroyed. It hung off him tiredly, but intact; as if it had just given up the fight. He hoped it wasn’t dead or something.

The woods were strangely quiet for the moment. He looked up, blood-tinged black sclera straining to push away the fuzziness. Ruth stood up and then looked down again in confusion as a noise alerted him to the fact that the bow he had been carrying was reduced to mostly ash. The string or tendon long since burned. The quiver was smoldering and had fallen off of him while he was crawling out.

Given the condition of those pieces of equipment, it was possible his clothing was just next level stuff and he should be grateful that it still clung to him at all.

The woods were devastated for meters around him. Rancid and acrid smoke danced through the air as he straightened up and tried to see further. The forest was burning again but with less intensity than before. A light mist was fighting it on the breeze keeping the flames and the fumes down to a manageable level.

Ruth was just getting ready to crawl back into his hole when he heard them. The purple death pixies were in the open area immediately. It had been too much of a hope that he had killed enough of them.

Caught frozen as the first few arrived on the scene while he was indecisively turning toward his hidey-hole, he straightened again and smiled as they started to flutter closer. Shadows danced in the trees as the weird lights started to arrive from all over, lured in by the excess mana or just the smell of burned flesh and death.

Horns and sassy tail were a go. His shoulders still hurt a lot but some of the pain had drifted away in the aftermath of the lightning strike. In fact, if he could have cleared the smell of his own burning hair out of his nose he would have inhaled deeply and let out a pleased sigh.

“Come then,” Ruth raised his hand toward the largest mass and waited. Given how shock worked and that he could only cast it eight more times at the moment, it seemed prudent to get as many as he could in one shot.

The humming noise grew in intensity again.

King Rush Descends. All hail! All hail!

The immortal and deadly text had been inordinately ‘quiet’ for the last minute. It hadn’t tried to interrupt him or show him his status by pushing in front of him, though a quick glance revealed it was still displaying his information with updated information.

“What the hell is a King Rush?”

Shake Shake Shake

A small midnight blue scaled creature popped out near Ruth, gave him a quick sidelong glance full of pity, and then immediately strode into the air like it was swimming through it. It approached the first pixie, startled by his appearance, and snapped trap-like jaws down on it.

King Rush!

The immortal and deadly text bobbed up and down lightly.

Ruth was slightly concerned that either he or the immortal and deadly text had gone completely insane.

↢↦

Rush had briefly given a look to Ruth. He was here now. All would be well. Rush knew on an intrinsic level that the space and food provider was Ruth. He would help out his minion this one time.

Stay back dumb.

Rush figured that should cover it. Rush would fight for the moment and claim glorious victory while the stupid vassal did nothing. That would be best, Rush thought, considering what he’d seen Ruth doing.

Besides. Floating lights were delicious! They crunched in his teeth with a solidness that was novel. They had different flavors!

A few of the pixies turned toward the new danger swimming through the air between them and Rush decided that was bad. He immediately returned to the safety of soul space, disappearing from the world with a slight pop as the air rushed in to occupy the space he had just vacated.

Oh, this was good. This was a good thing.

Rush looked at the window for a moment and popped out of the soul space and back into the clearing, appearing behind the two or three pixies that had been moving toward him while he was eating their brethren. He fell on the first one with a claw, the second one with his other claw, and then sandwiched the two claws onto the last pixie. He opened his mouth and bit down violently on the pixie sandwich.

Lightning erupted nearby and burned through the forest to his left. Rush looked up and rolled his eyes. The vassal could not accomplish simple commands. Rush would take care of the sky full of pixies. Why did it bother? It was so dumb.

Rush popped back into the soul space and then re-appeared in the midst of pixies once again.

↢↦

Ruth didn’t know what the creature was but there was something about it that made him think he should smack it.

That would have to wait though.

He cast shock and burned an entire row of pixies at about eye-level far back into the trees, starting to back up as the new creature popped in and out of sight. Between the wounded pixies and the small creature eating them, the pixies were now being slightly disorganized as they varied between flying toward him and the creature and turning on each other.

King Rush! King Rush!

Ruth was concerned for the immortal and deadly text now. It had gone completely insane.

Ruth turned and ran, noting that the creature that was popping into and out of existence seemed to be fully capable of keeping up with him no matter how fast he ran. He turned once and cast another shock, lightning briefly fighting the purple light in the area with gold.

As he ran he became aware that the entire world seemed to be at war.

Dozens of pixies swarmed around a spider that was desperately spitting webbing at them. The entangled pixies spun and crawled taking bites at others entangled and also eating the webbing outright. They started to eat their way up the strings toward the spider.

He heard the tell-tale sounds of the monster cow bleating in panic and the humming that spread through the trees seemed to be everywhere.

Ten Year Wood was fighting.

↢↦

Wilkeena had stopped smiling some time ago. The strange mana disturbance and the loss of several thousand pixies all at once were inconsequential things in the long run. What was not inconsequential was the sheer amount of resistance that the wood had been producing.

Seeing through the small and unintelligent eyes of her swarm was believing though.

Perhaps, it was too soon. With no chance to hide everything is choosing to fight.

No matter. The mana that dispersed from the dead was pooling into the ground with an intensity. The Arachne closed her eyes and cast aside her senses as she focused on circulating it. She was so close to being a demi-god. Then none of this would matter anymore.

↢↦

Arathan flapped her wings and disappeared from the place where she had been keeping an eye on Rush. It was pointless now, at least for the moment, because he was entering and exiting the space. There was no stopping his exploration at this point. All she could do was report to Tamara… though she suspected there was no need.

↢↦

It isn’t devouring aura, Tamara thought. Her expression eased slightly as a slow smile came to her lips. “Interesting. Not many soul shapes can leave that early. It’s quite aggressive.”

Heath shook his head with a pained smile, “I’m going to lose all my hair at this rate.”

↢↦

King Rush! King Rush!

Immortal and Deadly Text

Planar Tiefling: Ruth (Level 5?? Calculating) (Frail/Awake) (Lightning Specialized)

★★★★ Limited Electrical Immunity.

Intelligence Favored

★★ Shock: Jolts targets within line of sight with a moderate to heavy shock, killing or incapacitating small to medium creatures. (Mana Consumption 2)

★★Thunder Struck: Channeled spell, discharging localized lightning under user direction after sufficient channel time. Due to the volatile nature of spell, effects on targets largely uncertain. (Mana Consumption 10)

★Generic Magnetic Field 50% Repel or attract metal to a certain degree using the caster as a base. Lasts until spell slot is restored or canceled.

Mana: 12/20

3 of 5 spell slots