“Do you think this counts as a break?” I ask, watching as Red and her warriors have a heated discussion over how to repair the ship around Bessy. The damage has been extensive, and though we could stand on deck, that whole deck could still slide off of Bessy at any moment.

“You aren’t training, eating, or sleeping. It counts.” Eshya says, sitting in the dirt beside us.

“The only reason you’re taking a break is because you’re too crippled to train.” I say, pointing at her wounded leg. My hatchet job at cauterizing it has so far held up, it was a job well-done to certain definition but any doctor, even the awful ones, back on Earth would give me a good smack over the head for it.

“The only reason I’m taking a break is because no one will spar against me.” She declares with a proud smile.

“That’s not something to be happy about, idiot.” I shake my head, but she doesn’t mind the comment.

“Do you think things are going to take much longer?” Vii asks, “Staying out here of a night seems bad. More of the enemy might come back and try and get revenge. Or wild beasts smelling the blood will come to eat us. Or something else horrible that I haven’t even thought of yet.”

“I’d actually prefer if we stay the night.” I say, “Somehow it smells less awful out here, and to be honest with you, something bad is going to happen wherever we are. If you haven’t noticed, the past few days have been such a constant stream of diarrhetic shit that I doubt anything good can happen next. Give me some dice and I’ll roll you nothing but ones.”

“It hasn’t been that bad.” Eshya says.

“Shut the fuck up, what is wrong with you?” I shake my head with a laugh as she punches my shoulder. It feels awkward, like she’s just repeating what she’s seen someone else doing. She blushes and looks away. She is a weird one.

“It’s been bad.” Nel says, leaning against me, “If things keep like this, it’s only a matter of time before one of us dies.”

“Thanks for the reminder…” I say, “I’d like to say I’ll keep you all safe, but even with my exploit for more mana… How powerful do you think Red is?”

“In raw mana? She’ll have a fully liquid mana form, definitely. I think she’d be halfway to crystallisation, maybe closer.” Eshya says watching as Red starts hammering away at the hull, trying to stick it together in the same way people board up windows in zombie movies.

“What’s that in mana density?” I ask, cataloguing this new information. Mana goes gaseous, liquid, crystal?

“30,000 units. That’s just a guess though.”

“30,000?! Shouldn’t she be way more powerful then? Her magic doesn’t seem that impressive.”

“Even with that much power most people won’t throw away 50 units in a single spell.” Eshya says, “It’s wasteful and dangerous. Fluctuating your mana that much can damage your mana form.”

“And here I thought I was clever pulling together 400 units in a day. Apparently, it’s more impressive to throw it all away in one blast.”

“It was still impressive.” She says, “It’s just not that impressive. Besides, she’ll have taken a long time building that mana up, at least two centuries is normal, but considering her character maybe only one.”

“You’re throwing around a lot of big numbers today. You aren’t just fucking with me, are you?” I ask, but none of the others speak up against it, “You’re telling me Red is a century old?”

“At least.” Eshya replies, “Don’t think they’re all monsters though. Most of her soldiers aren’t as powerful, I’d bet that most of those who died were all on the weaker side of things, less than 5000 mana density.”

“So… I’m fucked then, is what you’re saying?”

“Huh? What did I say that makes you think that?”

“I don’t know about you elves, but I’ll live only like seventy more years, and that includes the shit ones at the end.”

“Oh, mana desert.” They all nod, and I’m the only one who doesn’t get it.

“Mana increases your life span.” Nel explains, “Though I’m not sure it will do much for you right now, since your mana form is so underdeveloped.”

“So, if I stop fucking around with my mana I can live forever?”

“Not forever, but a long time, yes.” Nel says, “So please take care of your mana form.”

“You know, you keep forgetting to tell me these rather important things. We were talking about mana form only this morning!”

“We forgot that you’re uneducated.” Eshya says, “You seem so smart and put-together that its easy to forget you didn’t get proper schooling.”

“I have a proper education. Just not in magic.” I tell them, “I’m sure I know a whole lot more about maths and stuff than you three.”

“And what’s that done for you?” Eshya asks.

I poke out my tongue at her.

Something slams into my back, the slimy feeling spreading over me as I topple forwards. I try to push myself up, or roll over, but it’s too much weight.

“Kyra!” Nel’s screaming at my side, shoving at whatever it is that has knocked me down.

“Get back!” Eshya shout’s moments before I hear a ‘whooshing’ sound loud in my ears. Nel shoves the split corpse of the slug off of me, and pulls me up.

“Are you okay? It doesn’t look like it hurt you.” She fusses, patting at the slime that still stains my back.

“I’m…” I try to say that I’m fine, but my body feels so weak. We’ve been through so much fighting the past few days, and I’ve been running on momentum. Reacting out of instinct, and that burning rage that I’ve let guide me. Yelling, shouting, acting like an idiot, it’s helped to keep me on my feet this long.

Now… I just want to rest. I want to know that I can fall asleep, and the world won’t be burning down around me when I wake up again.

“Kyra?” Nel rocks me, worriedly.

“I’m okay.” I reply, pressing the depressing feelings to the back of my mind.

“Ships back in service! Get your asses over here and climb on board!” Red shouts at us from over where she has ‘repaired’ the ship.

It’s looking more like Bessy is just balancing the deck on her head, and the look of concentration in her floating eyes is a little concerning. Her tentacles are spread wide to support the weight of it and to keep it from toppling.

“It’s not going to fall, is it?” Nel asks.

“With our luck? Do you even have to ask?”

We climb aboard, Vii just flutters up there without issue while the rest of us walking wounded struggle to climb the rope ladder.

“You’ll have to teach me how to fly one of these days.” I say, trying not to put weight onto my broken leg or touch anything with my burned hand.

The land below us looks different now, the soil upset where Bessy’s attacks tore apart the ground. Most of the corpses were cleaned away, I suppose Bessy could’ve eaten many of them, but I doubt she was the only one feasting.

“It’s instinctive, like a talent. I couldn’t really teach you no matter how much I might want to. Lots of people have tried before but it really doesn’t work. Talents can’t be taught.”

“Talents again, I vaguely recall someone talking about that stuff before…”

“It’s having a particular magic that you’re able to cast without having to learn it. Like flying.” She says, floating into the air again. “Often it takes less mana to cast as well.”

“It can also be something a little more vague.” Eshya says, “For instance I have a talent for fighting.”

“You do?” Nel seems aghast, “You, an elf?”

“Why do you think I don’t mind it so much here?” Eshya replies with a smile, “My parents made sure to try and train it out of me, but I could never quite get attached to anything they were teaching me.”

“But elves never end up in combat roles.” Nel reiterates, “Never.”

“That’s just because most are tested for their talents early and any with combat talents are given special training to redirect their futures.” She says, “I just couldn’t. I like fighting, the thrill of it, the competition.”

“Really?” I ask, a little concerned for her.

“Don’t misunderstand. What’s happened here has been horror after horror, but I’ve been allowed to be me through it all. I don’t have to put on a façade in case the welfare officers think me too beastly. I don’t have to pretend that I despise my talent. I can be me and not get punished for it.”

“Well, that’s just fucked up in a different way.” I reply, blinking at the outburst, “So you’d get in trouble if you were practicing fighting?”

“If they considered my practicing to be ‘beastly’, which they always would.” Eshya says, seeming downcast as she talks about it, “In any case, I don’t have to worry about that anymore. My future is not in their hands any longer.”

“Well, that being the case. What do you have planned to do with your lives? Assuming we ever get back control, and this string of bad luck ever fucking ends.”

“I just want a quiet life.” Nel replies quickly, “I’d like to have someone to love, and live with. I don’t want to have to work too hard, but I want to be busy enough that I don’t get bored. I want a life where we’re not getting hurt and almost killed a dozen times every day.”

“The basic life then,” I nod, glad that I understand her, “A good life, and a simple one.”

“I’ll want to fight,” Eshya says before her face twists up, “But I want to fight safely, where it’s not all a mindless slaughter. And, I’d like to fight for something I believe in, under a leader I can trust.”

“Not Red, then. A soldier’s life.” I nod, “Stick with me then, young soldier.”

“I’d expect nothing less from you.” Vii says with a smile.

“What of you, Vii?” I ask, and she quickly grows nervous.

“Me, oh, lots of things. Anything really. I’m not that made up about any of it, but I guess if you had to press me on the topic. If I have to say, then maybe a historian. Or like a writer that records current history for people in the future to read about.”

“Oh? That sounds interesting. I didn’t know you had that sort of interest.”

“I do.” She says, “There’s lots of interesting things going on, and it can be easily lost to history if someone doesn’t write about it and keep track of it.”

“So, you’re going to write all of our biographies?”

“Yep, yep.” Vii chirps happily.

“And what about you?” Nel asks, prodding me in the side.

“Me? A leader.” I reply. Vii quietly nods, while Eshya revaluates me. Nel stays happily by my side.

“My older brother was always into politics. Growing up I’d hear all sorts of things about all sorts of great leaders, but there was this one point he liked going on about. They were all still just humans.”

“Your civilisation is only humans, isn’t it?” Nel asks.

“Yes, but when looking at the history of a person, the myths and legends that build up about them, it can be difficult to see them as an equal. Even more to think that you can one day become like them.”

“So, you want to be a grand leader, that stands above the best?” Eshya asks jokingly.

“Why not?” I shrug, “I don’t like the world the way it is and the only way to change it is to become like the grand leaders that I’ve learned about. Even if I fail, it’s something worth striving for.

“Though at the moment, I just want the power to control my own fate so that I don’t get pushed around anymore. Whether it’s Red, the Unified States, or mother nature herself fucking with us, I want to power to refuse them.”

Eshya quiets as she evaluates me again, the second time in as many minutes.

Vii is quietly nodding, scrawling something out in a little red book that she must’ve hidden away somewhere. It’s a miracle she hasn’t managed to lose it through all of the shit we’ve been through. The pen moves smoothly even in her awkward grasp. It’s curled under a thumb on her wing around where there would be hand, had she been human.

“Talking about your futures? I remember when I was so young.” Red says, joining us.

“Yeah, and what did you dream of becoming?” I ask her, as the others quiet.

“Guess.” She says, smiling down at me.

“Definitely not a teacher.” I say lifting a finger, “I’m going to guess not a soldier, nothing to do with cleaning, so… something to do with flying.”

“Not a bad guess.” She nods, “Flight sports. I wanted to be the best. Didn’t matter if it was races, team sports, or whatever. I still play when I get the chance.”

“So, there’s a person in there after all.” I joke, shaking my head. She laughs, looking into the distance.

“Of course there is, and I’m getting tired of all this, too.” She says, knocking my shoulder, “Things don’t usually get as messy as this. Hell, I still haven’t heard back from the rest of my team from when we took your ship.”

“They’re dead?”

“Dead, captured, or just can’t find their way back.” She shrugs, “It happens sometimes.”

“So not everywhere is as hellish as here?”

“Of course not. This is... something like the wild frontier I suppose. The Unified States have pulled out, but they’ll come in and kick us around if we make too much of a fuss.”

“And the bugs? Why are we fighting with them? They get into your cereal?” I ask, tracing the lines on the palm of my hand. My fingers are trembling, and I have to take a few deep breaths to find myself again.

“They attacked our allies, and our base.” She shrugs, “I don’t know why, and I don’t have the time to be finding out. Could be they wanted the land, the resources, could be a grudge from generations ago. Doesn’t much matter now.”

“I guess not.” I reply.

“With how well you four have done here, I can get you into a proper academy. It’ll be a bit less busy, but I think you’d prefer that.”

“If you’re suggesting it, I have my doubts about the quality of the education offered there.” I say.

“Oh, don’t be like that. It’s a good place, as good as anything you’re going to get in the Unified States academies. Trust me on this one, it’ll be good for you.”

“What are our other options?”

She awkwardly scratches at her cheek, and I know that there are none.

I sigh.

“Thanks for keeping us alive.” I say, trying to sound sincere.

“Thanks for staying alive.” She replies with a laugh.

The world flashes bright for a moment and I can feel the deck slipping out from under me.

“I fucking knew it!” I shout as Red throws her knives at someone I can’t see. I black out before I even hit the ground.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Class & Skills

~Mana Form: Grade 1

Current goal: Develop your mana form.

Current mana density: 145 units

~Mana distribution:

Skin: 20%

Muscle: 6%

Mind: 1%

Cardiovascular: 6%

Misc.: 1%

Efficiency: 34%

~Fire Magic: Grade 1

Current goal: Develop a Skill for fire manipulation.

-Skill: Flame burst

-Skill: Fireball

~Defensive Techniques: Grade 1

Current goal: Develop a Skill for reactive mana skin.

-Skills: Mana skin

~Combat Techniques: Grade 1

Current goal: Develop a Skill for mana infusion strikes.

-Skills: Mana shield.

~Infusion Techniques: Grade 1

Current goal: Develop a Skill for lasting infused delayed casting.

-Skills: Infused delayed casting