Hoves thundered over the flat planes. Riders whipped their horses into a frenzy in an attempt to catch up to their prey. A small figure could be seen just several hundred meters in front of the swarm of the horseman, riding a paint horse with seemingly endless amount of stamina.

The better riders managed to notch arrows at a full gallop and take aim, but whenever an arrow fell close, nature itself would intervene as if to mock their efforts. At first, they believed it to be a coincidence that the wind changed once the arrows drew near. Then horses along with their riders began crashing down taking the riders nearby and behind with them.

Those who were lucky only broke bones and lost their mount, the unlucky ones were trampled to paste beneath the hoves of the riders that followed. A man wearing a direwolf fur with a scar running across his face bellowed "it's a mage watch your footing and spread out. In a moment the group forty or so were spread thin to combat the unknown attacks and now only a single rider would be added to the dozen fallen whenever they were attacked.

The lone rider lays low in the saddle with an arm ending in a stump wrapped around their mounts neck in the attempt to stay mounted, while the other hand waved in the air accompanied with a soft green glow. Unseen spirits danced to the pure mana radiated from the rider with the rhythm of an unheard song as they molded nature to their will, roots grew from the ground from angles too difficult for the animals chasing to avoid, winds gently guided arrows away from their charge creating an invisible barrier of safety for the lone rider.

However, the spirits are masters of manipulating mana, but everything has a price, The riders mana was the lowest it had ever been and the unfamiliar dizzyness effected her more than it would have with someone familiar with the sensation. Concentration became difficult as the already fuzzy picture her eyes showed her became even more blurred. This forced the rider to limit the mana to the spirits of air and cut off any means of attack.

She slowed the mana output to a fraction of what it was and returned her flailing hand back to the mounts mane. The added stability eased the dizzyness slightly. Her mount breathed heavily under the strain of the forced march against those of its kind that were bred for such marathons.

Once again power entered its body when the horse felt that it could not go on and it noticed its rider slacken its hold on it, but it did not have the intelligence to understand why so witch renewed vigor it galloped at full strength once again.

The lone rider felt the world spinning and blood dripped from already scarred lips as she bit down in an effort to stay conscious, her foot slipped from the stirrup and she fell from the saddle before she caught the animal with mana enhanced thighs. The horse gave a whimper as the rider pulled herself back into the saddle.

Behind the lone rider the group now only had a few riders left to chase after their target. Their horses had long since been exhausted and only the fittest still remained under the overenthusiastic persues whips to give chase. The lone riders slip up had not gone unnoticed and the leader called for a halt under the questioning gazes of his subordinates.

He ordered the men to regroup and take care of their mounts because they would be riding early the next day. While dismounting and giving his mount some much-needed rest he thought 'the woman is on her last legs but we can't catch her, I still don't believe that paint horse was able to outrun our warhorses and it even seemed to gain energy once it tired,... perhaps that person has found out how to feed a potion to a horse while it is running without dying which would be difficult to deal with, however, that stunt after falling off would have likely broken a rib or two on such a frail-looking horse'.

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Meanwhile, Selenia kept going until she was sure that the pursuers were left far behind and taking several random turns to throw off any trackers for a little while. she tried to dismount and fell onto her back causing her to gasp for breath momentarily, she could hear the horses breathing starting to turn into a wet rasp but could do nothing for the animal at the moment.

Selenia forced herself into a sitting position and thought back to lessons more than 20 years ago. Memories of her master flooded her mind once she tore down the wall in her heart preventing her from remembering things she would rather avoid, however, right now she needed help, and if she would get that help from dredging up old memories she was prepared to do that.

At first, she gave a soft smile at the image of her master 'she still looks the same in my memory after so long' then remembered that she would look the same even now, she had spent too much time amongst humans and was starting to find the unchanging elves to be the strange ones. Then she remembered the breathing techniques from a lesson amongst the flowers of the grove, that was her favorite place and her master liked to give lessons there when she was good.

Selenia's breathing started to steady and follow a set pattern and she thought 'I never expected to have to meditate like a mage, usually I just wait for my mana to regenerate because I've never run out before'. Mana began to flow towards her, slowly at first and then like a flood moments later as her mana pool acted like a black hole for mana. The more mana someone has the easier it is for them to attract more, usually this effect is small, however, Selenia's mana capacity was larger than most which amplified the effect several times over.

The dizziness started to fade once her body was not mana deprived and her memories became clearer. Times where she played with the animals of the grove others where she weaved flowers together into a wreath for her master... then a time when she snuck into the elder's house by asking the spirits to make the tree open a hole in its trunk. Her scarred features turned into a scowl and she wondered what if she just ignored it and what would have come of her, life would have been so much simpler.

Unknowingly Selenia had started to gather the spirits, they felt her mix of emotions and started to frenzy, they started to draw in mana and the area around her became extremely saturated with mana. her mind was still stuck in the past so she failed to notice the amount of mana she had absorbed or the odd behavior of the spirits.

Suddenly she opened her eyes startled at the bright light coming from her chest, ancient runes crawled all over her body covering her skin completely, she could vaguely identify some of them to be elven in origin, but had no idea what they were for.

The mana she had absorbed had completely filled her mana pool and the spirits were still gathering mana, some of which was absorbed into several of the runes that ran across her body. abruptly, several runes cracked then unraveled into oblivion in front of Selenia's eyes. Once one rune destroyed itself several others attached to it were affected, some unraveled like the others seemingly exploded taking other runes along with it while a few simply shimmered out of existence.

The small explosions startled her but they were simply projections of the real spell and caused her no harm.

By the time the chain reaction finished almost half of her arm was free of runes starting from her stump. The damaged spell let its effect slip for a moment and Selenia's mana pool became unrestricted. She felt her mana pool that was like a lake suddenly connect to what felt like a previously undiscovered underground aquifer that was several times the volume of the lake she was used to.

Her control of her mana started to slip as it became affected by the frenzied spirits around her. Selenia could not control such a large amount of power and the chance of it simply exploding was increasing by the second. The runes on her body began to reknit themselves and the 'aquifer' was once again sealed away, however, the mana that had leaked into her body from it was still outside.

Now that the amount of mana was more manageable she struggled to force the energy into stabilizing but was unsuccessful. she realized the problem and cut her connection with the spirits and once she did they started to calm down.

Her mana pool was full so she could not re-absorb the mana so she had to use it, she drew her sword and slashed while enhancing the swing with the wind element. The horizontal slash howled as she swung then the sound of the wave of power leaving the sword drowned out her sword, the wave formed a crescent wave as it left the blade and flew off into the distance. Once it hit a hill an explosion shook the surroundings then dust covered the entire area cutting off vision in an entire direction.

She cursed at having made such a spectacle after having to flee for her life because of the last one. However, the mana was still rampaging inside her body, the last slash had only used a small portion of it cutting her future worries short.

The explosion had woken up the horse that was lying nearby and it started to weakly wheeze again. Selenia heard the noise and turned around. The horse gave her an idea, This time she purposely activated the connection to the spirits and gave them a specific goal before drowning them in mana. They happily jumped around the horse while they directed their energies towards its wounds, the wheezing started to soften and its breathing steadied.

After several minutes the horse was completely healed but there was still mana trying to burst out of her body. With no options left she redirected the spirits and had them indiscriminately grow the surrounding plants.

The soil became several times more fertile and the plants started to grow out of control with the help of the spirits.

After half an hour the mana was depleted enough that it would not cause any danger to Selenia anymore and she sighed in relief. However, once she looked around she found that the previously flat ground had completely overgrown and a forest now took its place.

She once again sighed before mounting the horse and mumbling "the entire continent is going to become a forest before I get home at this rate". Then she began her frantic journey once again, and this time hopefully there would be fewer people who noticed the forest that suddenly appeared.

The horse began to gallop and neighed in excitement at its newfound strength as it pushed itself to go faster than it had ever gone before 'at least someone is happy' thought Selenia.