The door proves more stubborn than expected. Ria works tirelessly to try and close it. It’s almost unfortunate how confident she is in her ability to do so, as now we can’t just shrug our shoulders in defeat and run away like smart people would.

I could still demand it, but this is far too good of an opportunity to turn away. From the potential battle experience to the mana that I can steal from whatever beasts come our way, there is plenty to be gained from doing this. Even just practicing taking territory in the ruins is enough to be worth the effort.

I’m hoping to borrow Ria’s Skills after this to claim our own space in these ruins. I already have a few vague plans rattling about in my head that involve these ruins, and keeping beasts outside of the purview of the welfare officers.

Listlessly I rub the mana from a large bone the size of my arm. Whatever beast it belonged to must’ve had some impressive mana, since even now there’s plenty stuck inside it. Unfortunately, it’s not so easy to draw out as with other organs, perhaps being left to harden and age, the mana has solidified in it more than it would in a still living being.

“Where do you think it all comes from?” Vii asks, looking down over the corpses, “Is there a whole ecosystem down here? Fungus, and things that eat the fungus? All we’ve seen so far are the beasts that eat the beasts that eat the fungus.”

“Maybe they’re brought here?” Eshya suggests.

“How?” I ask, “Unless they’re shipped in, I can’t see how they’d get here.”

“The crystal trees.” Ria says from where she works, “They’re used to manipulate space, perhaps there are some under the planet that are able to connect the ruins with other worlds. It’s what I’ve heard at least.”

“You’ve heard? From where?” I ask, before thinking, “The party of the fallen?”

“Yeah,” She replies, if she wasn’t made from crystal, I think she’d be sweating. “Then this here,” she mutters, carefully applying silvery paint to the mark that should close the door.

“That sounds interesting.” I say with a smile, “If we could work our way down there…”

“No.” Adler says, “No, you’re staying here on this world. I won’t let you become rebels, or beasts.”

“It’s not like that.” I say, grabbing her hand, “We’re just looking for more opportunities to learn and grow.”

“Sure you are.” Adler says, letting out a long sigh glaring over at the egg sac.

It’s something like from a horror movie, big fat balls of slime that shift with the movement of the creatures within. The snot like consistency of the fluid around them, just adds to the disgusting nature of it all.

“Remind me why we’re not killing them?” Nel says, glaring at the fleshy mass of eggs, ensuring that they don’t suddenly hatch and leave us crawling with baby horrors.

“There’s a good chance that their deaths would in some way signal their parents, whether by scent, sound, or some magic connection.” Says Adler; the most experienced of us. “What hatches is unlikely to be a real threat as well. We can dispose of them properly once we’ve locked down the area. So you know, they’re not considered living until after they’ve hatched, take that as you may.”

“Right…” Nel says, nodding her head unhappily. “I really need that cleansing magic already. I’m sure I could melt them down with a good cleansing…”

“There’s something coming.” Eshya hisses from the door that Ria’s working on closing.

We quickly get ready to fight. My mana is still low, but I can squeeze a fireball or two out now that I’ve recovered some from the bones at our feet.

“I almost have it.” Ria says, her fingers clacking as she quickens her work considerably.

“Can I just flood it with mana? Like the last time?” I ask, sweating at the approaching slurping sound.

“No. It won’t work. It’s not simply dry, it’s broken!” She shouts, as a sickening chirping echoes through the hollow room. The sound is like that of a bird crossed with a woodchipper, and it grates on the ear.

Lit up by Nel’s light wand, A moist hand slaps against the stone stairs through the doors and below us. If not for the slime covering it and sheer size of it, it’d almost look human. The obsidian black fingernails scratch the stone as the pale white hand pulls the rest of the creature’s body up into the light.

It’s body, made of rolls of pale white flesh, fills the whole width of the stairways. Bulbous blue eyes, each as big as my head twist to glare at us, watering in the bright light. The folds below peel back exposing a large orange beak, which opens on it’s horizontal to squeal at us in sharp shifting tunes that almost seem musical if not for the grating nature of the sounds it uses.

“Shit.” Eshya shouts, lifting a bone that she’s taken up as a pseudo sword, readying for the fight.

“Should we run?” I ask, ready to cast a fireball at the thing. Unfortunately, I don’t think my fire will be much good. The overwhelming ooze covering it is likely mana dense enough to block out any flames that I send its way.

“Just… I’ve almost got it. I’ve almost…” Ria says, swearing quietly under her breath before crying out in joy. “Done!”

The doors slowly slide closed as the creature charges at the closing gap. We lose sight of it as the stone sets in place, closed. There’s a dull thump as the creature slams into the stone with frightening force, followed by a desperate squeal.

“That was close.” Ria says, running her hands through the markings she just made, “There, now it’s locked for good. Well, unless another enchanter works on it.”

“Good. Now can we deal with the… oh… um… shit?” Nel says.

We all turn around towards Nel and the egg clutch.

But it’s not an egg clutch.

It opens its fat, blue eyes glaring at us as it slowly wakens, the layers of eggs and flesh peel back to reveal a big orange beak that snaps experimentally a few times.

It squeals. The grating sound, that of a desperate song which echoes around the room in reply to the muted music of it’s mate, now locked behind a closed stone door.

A wet hand unravels from the curled-up body and reaches out for Nel, who’s barely fast enough to backstep away. The second swipe reaches further but Eshya steps in with her explosive speed, cutting deep into the arm with her makeshift bone sword.

Unaffected by the pain, the beast twists its wounded arm to lodge the bone sword in place even as Eshya tries to pull it out. It lifts it’s other arm, obsidian nails shining in the light, as it tries to grab at her while she’s distracted.

Vii’s wind magic blasts frantically all over the beasts body, popping eggs and dropping half formed bodies, but it’s not enough to slow the beast.

Eshya drops her sword and jumps high, clearing the beast’s arm by a tiny margin before landing on her back atop a bed of half rotten flesh.

The mass of folded, pale flesh reaches out for her, and this time she has no chance to dodge it.

“Eshya!” I shout her name as I charge between her and the approaching hand. I shove a massive bone up in defence, and Nel stands by my side with another bone to defend in the same way.

The flesh impacts the bone first, but mucous coated fingers wrap around us, squishing us together in a firm grip. Even with mana enough to burn my skin, the flesh is somehow soft. I instinctively get to draining the mana from it, careful not to do the same to Nel at my back.

“Put them down.” Adler says, calm and focused. The water around her gathers from the air, from the wet flesh at her feet, and from the mucous near her, collecting in her open hand. She lifts her hand up, and before the beast has a chance to respond a thin blade of pressurised water carves through the arm that holds us.

Still wrapped it its fingers, I can do nothing to prepare for the fall, but those same sticky fingers soften the landing. It feels like falling on a waterbed, but this one doesn’t burst underneath me like that one time…

I shove Nel up and out, and as soon as she’s got her feet under her she pulls me out in return.

“Can we call it subdued?” Vii asks, her own blasts of air ineffective.

“No, I’ll cut off its limbs.” Adler replies, calmly severing another arm with a blade of water as Nel and I run back to gain some distance.

I try and think of something I can do to add to the fight, but my training has focused on wrestling and grapples. I can’t grapple something that big and wrestling it would end with me dead in seconds.

Nel grinds her teeth beside me equally frustrated, but not without a plan. She hands me the light wand and draws a few long knives, the sort used in a kitchen. Closing her eyes to focus for a second, she throws them out towards the beast with impressive speed and velocity. They don’t glow like Red’s, but I’ve seen few attacks of that power level since the first time.

The knives sink into the beast’s flesh one by one, most hitting the folds worthlessly, but one lucky throw lands squarely in the beast’s eye. It squawks in pain but doesn’t flinch or stop its swinging, slashing arms.

“When the hell did you become a battle-maid?” I ask.

“Did you think I was wasting my spare time? I might not have the best opportunities to learn, but custom knives for my work in the kitchens were a barely excusable concession. Though, my Skill for throwing them is yet weak…”

“Better than what I can do right now…” I crush a nearby egg, but the beast is too busy to even be distracted by that, if this one even cares at all about its young.

I look around for something I can contribute to the fight, the fireballs I squeeze out washing over its mucous coated skin without effect. My mana drain is far too intimate, pretty much demanding a suicide dive at the thing.

The room is filled with nothing but scattered bones of long dead beasts, a few eggs that have fallen from the mother beast, and the closed door where the mate is pounding to get in.

Ria is still standing by the door nervously, her crystal body reflecting the light in shifting shades of red. She doesn’t belong here.

“Ria,” I shout, stepping over to her as Eshya and Adler work on the beast, barely keeping it in check even with its injuries. A cornered and desperate beast is incredibly dangerous, especially when you’re obsessed with forcing it to submit rather than simply killing it.

“Stay back here.” I guide her back to the corridor that we’ve already cleared, it’ll take us back to the safe parts of the ruins in the worst case, and it keeps her clear of the fighting. Regrettably, it’s the same for delicate little me.

With a mighty scream, Eshya cleaves an arm from the beast, her bone sword cutting through the remaining limb of the fleshy beast. The limb flops against the ground with a wet slap, and the rattling of bones. The few eggs that line the outside writhe and hatch, but the squealing baby beasts are all too unformed to add anything to battle.

“Back,” Alder demands of the beast as she cuts at it with her spell, forcing it into a corner she lets her spell fade, “It’s submitting.

“We kill you now, not in anger and not in fear, but because this place must be purged of the threat you pose. Your children also.”

As she says this, she quietly lowers her head to the writhing mass of pale flesh. The beak again opens up, but the sorrowful song that it tries to sing in its grating voice is too unpleasant for me to feel any sympathy for this unfortunate beast.

“Kyra.” Eshya waves me to come forwards. “This kill should be yours.”

“Thanks for the meal” I reply, with a depressed sigh.

“You’re the only one of us that can learn something and grow from the act of killing this beast,” says Vii, patting me on the shoulder sympathetically. “You really need to train that mana drain ability and chances like this aren’t common. Or, I hope it’s not too common. Alder, is this sort of fight common in the combat course?”

“Not this, no.” She replies, “But then this academy has been filled with undesirable surprises.”

I hesitantly approach the large beast, skirting around the edges to do away with any risk of being bitten by its large beak.

“You weren’t taught here?” Nel asks.

“I was taught in an academy situated in the core realms.” She explains, “Most of the beasts around were imported, brought in for training and fresh materials.”

“The core realms?” Nel asks, thankfully as confused as I am.

“Realms that are like this world,” Vii explains, “They’ve been fully controlled and curated such that the only beasts that exist are those allowed to exist, and where the formations of new planets from vast mana vortexes are watched closely.”

“Is that so…?” Even Adler seems to be learning a little something, “I was mostly only aware of the point that we’re protected from beasts and their influence better than most realms.”

I reach the beasts side and lose interest in their conversation, focusing on using my mana drain ability I run my hands along it’s slimy, sticky body. The mana in it is resistant to my touch, but not nearly so much as Freid was. Already I can feel the foreign mana filling up my chest and slowly crunching inside me, converting into my own energy.

The beast trembles in response, shifting uncomfortably beneath my touch.

It takes me a moment to realize when everything goes from just fine, into horribly and irreparably, not fine. Just like that moment when you drop a plate and you watch as it sails to the ground, too slow to catch it, and only able to flail around violently, kicking it into the ground harder.

My hands sink into the beast’s flesh as if pulled by something within. In response I kick out with my legs, even going so far as to use a mana surge kick. When my leg too is gripped, I panic and kick against the folds pale cold flesh with my other leg.

As easy as that, I shove all my limbs into the trap.

“Help. Help!” I call out in a voice that is disproportionately calm. Perhaps I’ve simply forgotten how to react properly to these situations. As I’m pulled up from the ground and deeper into the beasts flesh, I feel strangely calm and quickly start thinking of escapes.

With my mana drain still running at full power, I use my combined fire burst and delayed casting to sink some fire mana into the beast’s resistant flesh. I sink a dizzying amount of fire mana into the spell, and when it goes off, the flesh around my hand’s pop open.

Not overly violently, in fact there’s not much fire noticeable from it at all, rather it pops like a pimple, splattering me with sickly yellow puss—or perhaps it’s blood?—as my hands are freed.

“Kyra!” It’s been but a couple of moments since my cry for help, but Vii is already flying above me. She grabs me by the shoulders with her feet in a vice like grip, as she tries to lift me out of my predicament.

Unfortunately, she’s not the only one pulling. The flesh around my legs grabs and pulls me deeper, my legs sink and sink even as Vii struggles to lift me. The beasts weight and mana pressure are too great for her to win in this tug of war, where I’m nothing more than the rope.

While Eshya and Adler have renewed their assault, the beast has grown new arms to slap them about with. I can’t much rely upon them to save me, now.

My own attempts to drain the beast of its mana has been only too fruitful. Fruitful in such a way that I feel like a woman trying to bankrupt a mango farmer by eating all their produce. I may have the stomach for it, but I can only cram so much in my mouth at a time.

“Not here. Not now. Not today.” I declare, pushing what mana I steal from the beast into more fire bursts to pop the flesh around me. It’s barely enough to keep me from sinking further. Unless this thing is like the slime, I won’t have to drain it entirely, just enough to kill it with mana shock.

“Krya, I can’t keep this up!” Vii shouts from above me. Her desperate struggle to keep me alive looks almost amusing from below, the mad flapping like something from a cartoon. Her wings are moving so fast that I can see little tornadoes forming around the room just by the wind she’s stirring up.

“Let me go!” I shout, “I’ll devour this flesh-bag from the inside if I have to!”

Vii doesn’t let go, grunting with effort as she renews her efforts instead.

The fight goes on, no one makes any new moves. In fact, I think we’re all out of new moves by now. Nel is picking up little bones and throwing them with her Skill to little effect. Eshya and Adler are adding to their dismembered hand collection, and I’m still devouring as much mana as I’m able.

In this war of attrition, the room is filled with the sounds of forceful grunts and the sickening squishing of moist flesh…

Not the ideal battlefield soundtrack.

Cutting through this battlefield, rises a voice so loud as to drown out all else. Ria stands to the side of the room watching over us, her voice is not a shout, but it is louder than a scream.

She sings.

Of course, we don’t end the battle. Eshya and Adler don’t seem to give the song a moments attention, and Vii is clearly too tired to hear anything at all, focused as she is on saving my life.

Unexpectedly, it is the beast that turns from the battle.

It lowers its arms, using them to turn itself around and face Ria, who continues her passionate acapella, which is only growing deeper as she faces off against the giant beast.

Violent squawks erupt beneath me, vibrating the flesh that still weakly clings to my legs. It follows as Ria leads, like a child trying to imitate a parent, it’s voice can never match, and I’d not even notice the attempted imitation if it weren’t for hearing it overlapped.

Adler and Eshya are hesitant to attack as they notice what’s happening, and my momentary safety. They’re likely worried that they’ll stir it to violence again if they interrupt.

After a while longer of this strange duet, joined distantly by the third squawking beast through the stone door, Vii drops away. Falling against the wall, too exhausted to continue. The beast has since weakened its hold on me, and I now sit atop it’s back without sinking any deeper into it. I continue to devour its mana, but either it doesn’t notice or it doesn’t care.

Ria’s voice soars, and the beast follows for but a final shuddering moment, before finally something inside it gives out, and it collapses beneath me, dead.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~Mana Form:

Current goal: Develop your mana form.

Current mana density: 568 units

~Mana distribution:

Skin: 21%

Muscle: 8%

Mind: 14%

Cardiovascular: 8%

Misc.: 3%

Efficiency: 54%

~Skills:

-Mana drain touch

-Mana skin

-Mana shield.

-Mana surge strike

-Mana surge kick

-Flame burst

-Fireball

-Infused delayed casting

-Harsh petting

-Chaos dance

~Multi-mind messenger