Dense blue streaks emanated from me, swirling and condensing into the shape of a small mana beast. If I looked closely enough, it almost resembled a smaller version of Saphira.

Wild Magic created “Novice Mana Elemental”

Warning! Requires heavy concentration and costs one mana per second due to Wild Magic.

I could feel my mana slowly leak, tethering my magic to the summons, providing it energy as whisps of blue energy leaked off it as if the summons was unstable.

The eight bugs screeched and shivered as they now faced two opponents. My new friend wasted no time, launching itself at the nearest bug, slashing and biting where it could. I cast flaming daggers at the nearest clump, killing one and damaging another.

I knew I needed to get toward Saphira as quickly as I could, so I ran toward the group of bugs while giving a mental command to my summons to back away. I looked at my remaining mana and saw I had 60/260 mana remaining, with every second ticking one mana away because of my summons. I was so confused on what my stats actually were because of the level up, but I know I had four unused skill points. Without thinking much of it, I dumped all four into Mana Manipulation and saw it shoot up to 100/300 mana remaining and continued my rush in.

I used 40 mana and cast pulse again, sending the creatures flying in all directions. I commanded my mana beast to continue to kill, and to be dismissed if it killed all of the remaining bugs.

I ran toward Saphira and the Rat Queen, seeing Saphira dodge in and out while trying to do damage the best she could. She only had 20 health remaining and seemed to have slowed a step. Her movements were sluggish, and she seemed unable to keep up the pace for much longer. I still had over 120 health, so it was time for me to be the tank.

I let out a loud whistle. “Hey! Ugly rat fuck!” I shouted my ingenuous insult toward the rat while letting out the Murky Ooze spell. The spell, I think, did the trick more than the profanity did. She turned her attention away from Saphira, and came running after me.

“Go get the other bugs, I summoned a mana creature that is currently fighting them. Help finish them off.” I directed toward Saphira. She obeyed, but sent some confusing emotions toward me, knowing I had absolutely no spell that would have done what I said. “I’ll explain later.”

The slow spell gave Saphira plenty of time to run ahead, while I stood at the ready like I was Jon Snow, waiting for the army of soldiers to descend upon me. Instead of humans, unfortunately, it was a nasty rat queen the size of a bus.

I didn’t have any great plans, my mana was slowly fading, and flaming daggers was my only spell off cooldown. Once I cast that, I would essentially be on empty in terms of my mana tank. I would have to look for a weak spot…

An idea occurred to me, although, I’m not sure it would go very well. Even a bad idea can look like a good one when you don’t have any other options.

I sidestepped the rat as it lowered its head to ram me in my chest. I grabbed a fist full of fur as it flew by, trying to grab hold of it, but only ripped some of the hair off. The momentum was just too much for me to keep a hold of the beast. The good news was that it did do 1 damage, so there’s that…

It slid to a halt to change direction, and I rushed toward it. I had a different idea to get on the rat. I cast Enhance and as it lowered its head, I jumped as hard as I could. When it lowered it’s head down, I had to clear about six feet to get up and over it. I was hoping enhance would be enough to give me the boost in power I needed. It wasn’t.

I caught the top part of the head, and it whipped up, hard. I felt enhance and my new mana companion fade as my concentration broke easily since I was trying to hold two concentration spells. 10 damage taken flashed in front of my face as I was flipped over its head, tossing and turning in the air.

I tried my best to orient myself to catch the backside of the rat as I fell, but I couldn’t get my bearings and fell hard onto the ground taking another 5 damage.

“Fuckk…” I moaned as I stood up quickly from the ground. On Earth, that would have resulted in about 32 broken bones and some massive internal bleeding. However, here on Laria, I still had a majority of my health, and the weird system prevented anything major happening, besides losing my breath and some good amount of pain.

The rat squealed and made its way back toward me. A loud roar behind me caused me to jump as Saphira landed next to me, bloodied and fur missing in patches but standing.

“There weren’t many of them left, I came back as quickly as I could.” She stated to me. “However, I healed myself, and I am now completely out of mana.”

I chuckled darkly. “Same here. I have just enough mana for one more spell, and I have an idea.” I relayed my plan quickly to her. Mental communication was very helpful, as we could have a relatively long conversation in a short period of time.

“This is idiotic.” she said back to me. Her tone betrayed the rush of adernealine, knowing my plan had a chance to work.

“Yup. Ready?”

Without a response, she rushed sideways and toward the rat, causing it to swerve directions and head toward her. I ran toward them both, lightly running on my feet, trying to cause as little noise as possible while Saphira did her best to get the animal into position.

As she weaved through different trees, she made her way to the cave, heading toward the rocky wall that made up the outside of the shelter. As she hit the wall, she turned to change direction. Using the gradual slope of the stone cliff face, she ran up as high as she could, before pivoting and jumping off the rock and to the side. The rat queen slowed to a stop, trying her best to not slam into the wall while still tracking Saphira.

This stop of momentum was what I was waiting for, as I jumped and grabbed the side of the rat, and began to climb on top.

She didn’t pause to make this easy for me and began bucking and kicking like a pissed off bull in a china shop. I clinched the side of the rat as tight as I could while gazing for my opening. I saw one, an open wound that oozed green, just a few feet away from me.

Trees blurred past me as the rat ran side to side, doing it’s best to throw me off. I inched my way closer and closer to the injury, before finding myself within reach of my destination. I looked at my arm, scratches and cuts evident all over my arm. I knew what would happen, and it would suck, but its the best chance we had.

I slammed my fist into the open gash as hard as I could, burying my arm elbow-deep inside the beast. I knew this would create the worst bucking possible, and my stamina was fatiguing drastically. My muscles and hands burned from the exertion. Without any hesitation, I cast Flaming Daggers - inside the body of the rat.

As the daggers fired, I did my best to move my aim in different spots, like a serrated dagger trying to cause as much damage as possible.

Critical Hits! Weak spot found!

You deal 24 damage!

You deal 24 damage!

You deal 24 damage!

The Rat Queen is burning!

I was flung immediately off as my last dagger launched, the bucking finally throwing me off as I smashed into a tree, taking 8 points of damage. That was okay though, because I don’t think we needed to do much else.

I couldn’t see anything. No flames. The only thing to tell me she actually was on fire was the status screen telling me so, and the painful shrieks coming from the monster. Oh, she was on fire alright, just internally.

She shook her head side to side, rolling on the ground in agony, looking for the invisible flames that she felt inside her body, but to no avail. She only writhed in pain for a few moments, before succumbing to her injuries. Flames began to lick through the open wounds as she fell, her body beginning to smolder as the heat began to catch fire to the fur.

I laid on my back breathing heavily, gritting my teeth in pain. I was having my own issues…

You have been poisoned by the Rat Queen!

-2 health every second for one minute.

That was just enough to kill me, unfortunately. I laid on the ground, breathing heavily, hoping now we were out of combat that my health or mana regeneration would cure me in time. Saphira padded over to me, sniffing my arm that now showed my veins bulging a purpllish-green color, the poison evident.

I looked at my mana, trying to do mental calculations to see if I would make it, and saw to my surprise my mana ticked up by four every two seconds. When I had last looked, my regeneration was at one mana for every two seconds.

“I’m dumb.” I said aloud, remembering that that was when my Mana Manipulation was only at three. Of course it would be higher.

I sighed in relief, knowing Saphira’s Mend and my healing spell would be ready in plenty of time. I just had to deal with the pain for now.

Healed and cured of my poison, I made my way to the rat queen and fleas to collect our loot.

In total, we got 63 silver and a Simple Ring of Power which granted me +1 to power. Not a great item for me specifically, but maybe I could sell it.

A low cough from the treeline got my attention, and I looked to see Jessenia staring at me. Her eyebrows were raised, and her mouth was slightly open.

“What the hell was all that?” she asked aggressively.

I stood in silence, confused at first. Then I realized I had cast a summoning spell that seemingly came from mana leaking from my body, coalescing into a minature version of my companion. Oh, and I cast the same spell back to back with little cooldown time. Not very wizard-like of me.

“I… uh, well.” I began to stammer. Saphira looked up at me and shook her head.

“Convincing.” she admonished.

Jessenia walked closer to me and her spellbook flew open.

“I said, what the hell was all that.” she looked me up and down and pointed at my chest. “What the hell are you?”

I shook my head. “I can’t say… I think we should go to see Murdock.”

She nodded back to me. “Yes, and Grandmaster Talon as well. We will get to the bottom of this.” she gestured for me to follow as she made a portal appear out of nowhere.

I sincerely hope Murdock and Talon have some kind of Men in Black forget-her-memory-flashing-light sort of thing.