I don’t have to wait long until the pounding footsteps become loud enough for me to hear. There’s a strange rhythm to it that doesn’t fit the pace of steps to any beast or animal that I’m familiar with. It brings to mind something that is tumbling about at great speed and about to fall over itself.

Eshya heaves up a tomb, looking through the pages uncertainly.

“Vii, can you make sense of these spells?” Eshya asks, “I can sort of figure them out, like this one is a fire spell, this one ice, and this pure force. I can sort of guess what they do, but I’m not so sure about aiming the spell…”

Vii shakes her head, shrugging, “Flick and point?”

“I can do that.” Eshya replies, nodding quietly.

“Let’s quickly check with Adler, yeah?” I suggest, leading us out past the doors. By now the beast has gotten close enough that I can feel the earth pounding beneath my feet with every step it takes.

Hesitantly I peak outside, gathering my mana form together for a fight. My eyes are quickly pulled to the sight of the massive creature, it’s impossible to miss.

Four tall trees, their bodies pure white, and their branches stripped of leaves, are all bound together to form the legs of the beast that tumbles towards us. The legs kick at the ground, forcing aside the rest of the forest as its spinning steps brings the monster ever nearer.

For whatever reason, the legs cannot, or do not, move as with a normal creature which might explain why it spins around in circles as it walks. It might even be funny to see if it were from a little farther back.

The roots attached to the legs of the creature show that the trees were directly pulled from the ground, rather than cut down. What hasn’t yet broken off, is now pounded into shape around the tree trunk legs, acting almost like strange little shoes.

The four trees lean into one another at the centre of the creature where the branches are carefully weaved and pruned. Each trunk shifts around the other in a cyclic movement, twisting, shifting, and pivoting around to allow the creature to move.

It’s within those branches that I can see some little of the ‘muscle’ behind this movement. Large, leafless, thorny vines wrap around the trunks and through the branches. They clump up into large groupings that look and act like muscles attached to the ‘bone’ of the four wooden legs. The thorns dig deep into the wood, as the rippling muscles swing the limbs around.

The titan slows as it nears us, and from within the thick body of vines at the centre lowers a bunch of fiery red grapes, each as large as my head. Small, black dots in the fruits enlarge as they focus upon us, turning the grapes from red to a deep black shining with a pinprick of blue light in the centre.

The vines shudder and tremble, the earth itself transmitting its rage as it glares down at the midnight fox that sits below it. I guess someone holds a grudge.

Fluffy Butt sits still, glaring up at the figure with the same royal poise that she had when facing us earlier. I can almost see her deep golden eyes, shifting with alien movement. I haven’t yet asked her what that’s all about.

As I take in the scene, feeling the mana amassing in Fluffy’s tails, Adler runs over to meet us sweating as she glares at the monster.

“I’ll distract it. You save the boy!” Fluffy cries out, a moment before she blasts at the bundle of eyes with a powerful fire magic. She summons a dirt clone beside her as she charges under the legs of the titan, still stumbling from her opening salvo.

Just by stepping back the monster nearly flattens Nuala who has to summon a barrier to redirect the leg that just about stomps on her. The way she’s using magic, she won’t have long before she falls into mana shock again.

“Ignore her,” I say, “Let’s get right to it. Is there anything in that tome to end this fight quickly?”

“Don’t!” Adler shouts, snatching the spell tome from Eshya’s hands. “Don’t use these spells lightly. You saw how the healing spell targeted everything in range? You do that with the wrong spell and we’ll all be burning in a sea of fire, or consumed by the earth, or something equally dangerous.”

“Yeah, that’s your problem then.” Eshya says, happy to leave the tome in someone else’s hands. Now she has her hands free to unsheathe her sword, which she does quite happily.

The flames from Fluffy’s attacks lick up the height of the trees, but something covering the trunks makes them more resistant to the magical heat.

For the now the battle is still far enough away from us that we can spare a moment to observe without getting stomped into the dirt.

“It might be the only way…” Adler says with a sigh, “I’ll find something. If I tell you to get out of the way, then I expect you to do just that.”

“Aye, aye, ma’am.” I say, turning to try and figure out the battle. A spray of dirt hits us as the giant tree titan swipes out at Fluffy, who easily leaps over the limb. If it weren’t for her mana shortage, I’d actually put my bets on her winning this fight.

Wide sweeping strike smash into the earth and plant life, clearing the small field into a wide one in only the few moments that the fight has lasted so far.

The sweeping strikes only go the one direction and is thus, completely predictable, but I still can’t see myself weaving through them the same as Nuala is right now. In fact, I’m not even sure how well I’d hold up just getting hit by a stray rock.

“Weaknesses?” I ask, watching the overwhelming battle continue.

“The vines.” Eshya says.

“No shit, anything more specific?”

“The bundle in the centre. Smash a knee hard enough and a leg won’t work anymore. Smash that, and this thing’s done.” She says.

“Not a bad idea, just need a really big hammer... Anything else?”

“Up.” Vii says, pointing with her wings, “It doesn’t look like it can handle looking up!”

“If it can unravel it’s vines, it might be able to use them as individual limbs, but with how it’s built you seem to be right.”

“Vii,” Eshya says, her eyes aglow. “Fly me up there. I’ll tear it apart from right on top of it.”

“Ugh.” I can already see her tearing apart the monster for all of a few seconds before it throws her off and crushes her. “You think that stick will do anything?”

“You think my training’s been for nothing?” She replies, “I can infuse my sword with mana now, not the sort of thing I can show in training.”

“Is it enough to damage that thing?”

“Yes.” She replies firmly, “As I understand, those are new trees, and I doubt they’re much more mana dense than what’s around here. Meaning, that this beast, likely doesn’t have a particularly dense mana form itself.

“With my attacks I can cut through the trees well enough and pushing more mana into the attacks I can do even more than that. It’ll burn through a lot of mana, but with what we’ve been getting from our meals lately—thanks to you Kyra—that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Even so,” I say, a little surprised at her sudden and astute breakdown. “We’d do well to weaken it first, but Adler seems to be taking a while with that spell.”

She’s busy swearing under her breath as she flips through the pages of the tome. I can’t help but think that she’s overlooking useful spells just because they’d insta-kill this beast. This whole subdue before a kill ordeal makes things just that much more dangerous, but I’m not sure I trust anyone else with the spells there just yet. She was genuinely worried when we were messing around with them at least.

“Guess it’s time to put this to its limits then.” I say pulling out my pipe gun.

“Seriously?” Eshya asks, laughing at me.

“It’ll work this time.” I say, withdrawing a bullet and dousing it in thick mana infused with delayed fire magic. I’ve had enough practice with mana infusion this past week that I can confidently say that it probably won’t blow up in my hand.

I keep on pushing until there’s 100 units of my mana crammed into it, it’s shifted into a liquid form and feels just about ready to burst at any moment. Let’s just hope it doesn’t blow up prematurely.

I roll the round bullet down the metal tube, and I can feel the increased force behind it as it settles into place at the back of the pipe. It almost seems ready to roll out when I tilt the pipe the wrong way.

Thankfully, I feel no hints of mana shock yet. I’m planning on spending another 150 units to fire this thing, so I’m hoping that the feeling of pressure all throughout my mana form isn’t going to kill me, but this was never without risk.

I ease as close to the beast as I can without getting hit by the debris flying around from the battle. Fluffy has moved continuously while fighting and has managed to pull the beast a little away from the cave, likely trying to give us an opening to save the kid and escape. I don’t expect that she can go on like this much longer before dying from mana shock, so we need to act quickly.

Running close as I dare to the tall beast as it dances around on spinning legs made out of full heighted fucking trees, I aim my pipe gun. Thankfully the beast is large enough that even with just a pipe I’m confident in hitting it.

I gather my mana together, readying to throw it all into the base of the gun, but my mana form resists. While maintaining my mana form and delegating mana all throughout my body, I don’t have as much to spare anymore.

After a moment’s hesitation, I stop feeding mana through everything but my skin and mind. I feed that free mana straight into the base of the gun, where the enchantment eats it up, before overflowing and cracking.

It fires.

The pipe crumples in my hand as the bullet flies out faster than I can see. The metal ball impacts into the mass of vines connecting the four trees, splattering dark-green liquids from the point it hits.

“2, 1, boom.” I say, waiting for the explosion, “Come on, boom!”

Did I mess up? What where did the mana go if it’s not going to explode? What do I do now?

A few more seconds pass before I hear the sound that I’ve been anticipating. A dull, hallow boom fills the air, as the bullet explodes with the force of a simple, overfed fire burst spell.

The flesh of the vines blasts outwards, the insides suddenly burning with roaring red flames. The beast topples, the musculature of one of its legs torn completely asunder from my spell. The remaining vines that make up the muscles snap as they try to regain control over the long limb.

The pipe gun is crumpled up in my hand like a tin can squeezed much too tight.

Air pressure. The force of the bullet flying out creates a vacuum behind it that causes the pipe to crumple inwards. An interesting design flaw, but now’s not the time to be complaining about a shitty prototype.

“Drop me right on top!” Eshya shouts, at the top of her lungs as Vii flies her above the fallen creature.

“Ah, shit.” I say, rushing over to one of the slit lengths of vine, while hoping that Eshya doesn’t get herself hurt. Thankfully the mana in the vine is easy enough to digest, but even so, it’ll take a minute or two for the mana to be fully converted. A lifetime on a battlefield.

Eshya roars as she slips from Vii’s grasp and falls on top of the recovering vines, her sword faintly glowing with blue light at its cutting edge. The blade severs the vine that’s lifted to defend against her, then goes on to cut through the many more that follow.

Dark green blood splatters all over as she sweeps it left and right, while laughing joyously. The bundle of vines is still trying to reattach itself to its legs, but Eshya’s assault has certainly slowed it. If it turns it’s focus to her, things could turn around in a moment.

“Where is Adler’s magic?” I grumble dragging the amputated alien limb after me as I head over to Fluffy, who doesn’t look to be doing too well.

Fluffy is standing to the side, swaying slightly with unfocused eyes. I don’t recall seeing her hit even once, so it has to be mana shock. Considering how quickly it can kill, she’s been doing rather well standing up through the process.

I race over to her while dragging my snack after me.

“Over here.” I shout at her, pulling out a chunk of flesh from the vine and flushing it full of my own mana until I feel a phantom chill start forming over my skin. A bad sign, but I’ve already got the replacement mana churning, so not that much of a risk.

“You were meant to run…” She says, her voice trembling.

“I’ve already told you once, I’m just not that fond of running.” I say, forcing the heavy chunk of mana into her mouth. She nearly spits it out but forces herself to choke it down.

“That’s… nasty. But, thank you.” She says, closing her eyes and wincing as she tries to consume the mana.

“How are you feeling?” I ask.

“I… I’ll stay close. Ready to step in if things go wrong.” She says, still wincing at the pain of the foreign mana being converted inside her.

It’s strange how much it hurts others. I suppose that it does hurt me too, I just don’t tend to care as much.

“I’ll go see if I can’t draw some mana out of this thing.” I say reluctantly, walking over to where the beast is still struggling.

“Eshya!” Vii shouts, swooping in and snatching her up. She flies away incredibly quickly, barely avoiding the thousand vines that snap around the spot where Eshya was standing a second ago.

The beast has given up on its legs, and the freed vines are now whipping about violently. The thorns along each length flashing dangerously with some form of gathered mana, a spell or something like it.

“Adler, got that spell yet?!” I shout, trying to get the mana inside me converted a little quicker.

Adler responds with some grumbled swear words, flipping through the pages faster and faster, before reluctantly settling on one.

“Now! Get clear!” She shouts, flicking along the page and pointing towards the beast that’s now trying to recollect it’s fallen legs again now that the pests are gone.

The magic escapes from the page in Adler’s grip and moves to surround the shifting vines in a glowing sphere of mana. The mana itself fades from my mana senses as it converges inwards. It takes a moment, but when the trees and branches start to snap, pushed inwards, I see the effects of the tremendous mana gathered here. More and more of the trees snap inwards, the limbs of the vines folding inwards by the same magical forces.

I don’t let my guard down. Adler wouldn’t have killed the beast like this, no this is to force it into submission.

Adler flips through the pages of the tome before bowing to the beast still trapped by some invisible magical forces.

“Your violence is unwelcome here. I respect your right to life, and I regret that I must bring it to an end.” She says sadly touching at another spell.

The invisible cage around the beast snaps as the last of the mana drains away, just as another flood of mana is produced by the tome. The vines try to escape in this brief moment between spells, shoving away broken legs and abandoning everything to try and get some distance from the coming magic.

Mana warps and shifts, some of it becoming less clear in my mana sense ability as the air itself freezes. It isn’t ice that forms, rather it’s as if reality itself freezes over. The energy shifts in linear paths, turning at sharp angles as it chases after the fleeing monster. Thousands of these frost spells carve through the space between Adler and the beast.

The powerful ice magic converges around the beast, freezing the air above and, I think, the ground below as well. Where the magic strikes the plant flesh, it freezes, cracks, and shatters. A thousand blasts of magic strike after the first.

The vine beast tries to defend itself by catching the blasts on the ends of its limbs, but it’s not nearly enough. There’s simply not enough time to keep up with the incoming magic.

“That hit hard!” Eshya cries out with a bright smile bursting to light on her face.

“Is it dead?” I ask, “Actually, let’s just assume that it’s not dead.”

“Huh?” Vii says, hovering down nearby, “Do you think it survived that? That was powerful. Really, really powerful. You think it lived?”

“It is best to assume so.” I reply, sitting back and chugging down the last of the mana from the stray vine that I’ve been dragging around. It’ll fill me up until my mana overflows, but that’s exactly what I need if this fight starts getting heated again.

“I hope you’re right.” Eshya says stepping up towards the frozen mass of vines with her wooden sword at the ready.

All that I can see of the beast is a mess of shattered green plant flesh, but it was large enough that a living being could still be hiding underneath all the mess.

“Stay away for a moment longer.” I say, pulling her back before she can get caught in whatever trap this creature has set.

“It looks dead.” Eshya says looking doubtfully at the shattered flesh.

“Let’s just be careful,” I say, finally feeling the mana inside me converting into my own. The feeling of razor blades turning into a pleasant warmth that fills my hungry flesh with the sweet, sweet taste of mana.

I ready to throw a fireball, keeping the mana dedicated to the purpose running loops through my arm. Rapidly heating something that’s frozen tends to cause explosive expansion, or at least I’m hoping as much.

Eshya has her sword up and ready, a faint blue light glowing ahead of the dull cutting edge. At least she’s being properly cautious, but though she likes fighting, she’s not an idiot.

Glass like shards of frozen flesh clack against one another as we push through them. The dense cold makes them painful to the touch, but I don’t think it’s bad enough to do real damage too quickly.

Movement beneath the frozen shards ahead, causes rattling from the frozen chunks. I throw a fireball right at it before I even see the green limb pulling itself out.

The fireball is enough to shatter the small chunks of ice that it hits and charr the green flesh that’s exposed underneath. It continues to shift weakly, barely even alive anymore.

A large bulbous shape pushes out from the ice, but before anything can come from it, Nuala arrives blasting it with a powerful fire spell and reducing it halfway to ash in but a moment.

“Now it is dead.” She declares, shifting away the frozen chunks with her tails and paws to uncover the few green vines that are now writhing with the last of their dissipating life.

Eshya steps up to them, impaling one of them on her empowered sword. It continues to jerk about even then, but slowly turns still.

Adler rushes down to us, rather satisfied to see that we’re all still healthy. Thankfully she’s not bothered by how we finished things. I suppose a mostly frozen beast counts as subdued?

“That was an impressive spell.” I say, looking down at the tome which still glows brightly in my mana sense.

“It was, but it was large enough that others will have noticed it too,” She says, looking over towards Nuala, “You may need to hide yourself.”

“Yes, I think that would be appropriate. Hopefully they don’t destroy my shrine.” She says with a long sigh, “I’ll hide elsewhere for a few days. No one should find me.”

“Make sure you fill up on some of this mana when you go.” I say, gesturing to riches surrounding us.

“I will.” She replies, as the young boy comes charging out towards us, wearing one of the long white robes that were buried in a chest. It’s oversized, and not by a little, but he doesn’t seem to care as he races over to us.

“What happened?” he asks, “Is it all over?”

Oh, we did sort of just rush out here and leave him alone inside the cave. I guess that probably wasn’t the smartest idea. Seeing the large magical tome clutched under an arm, I see just how bad things could have gone if he started throwing powerful spells all over the place.

“I have to leave and hide from some dangerous people.” Nuala tells the boy, “Do you wish to stay with me. It means fighting monsters and beasts, but you… no, there is nothing good that comes from staying with me is there…? Perhaps you are better off back home…”

“I’m staying with divine Nuala.” He insists rather predictably, leaping towards the fluffy figure and clutching to her soft side.

The midnight fox doesn’t seem to know how to respond but I can tell that she’s happy about it.

Adler isn’t. I mean we’re just about to leave a young child to be raised by someone who lives in the wild killing beasts and who’s lifestyle can barely be considered civilised. Most anyone would think it a bad choice, but I’m not of a mind to step in anymore than we have. It’s up to them to make their own choices.

“Today you’ve proven that the Unified States isn’t completely worthless.” Fluffy says, sitting tall again as she gazes over us with those strangely intense golden eyes.

“No,” I insist, “I’m assisting you as Kyra, and Adler here is assisting you in spite of the Unified States. I’d rather that none of the glory goes to the US.”

She huffs in quiet laughter.

“Very well. Your assistance will be remembered. Kyra, Vii, Eshya, Adler.”

“I hope so. If I come by this way in a stolen ship, it’s nice to know I’ll have someone around that owes me a favour.” I say, “I could always do with more friends. Especially fluffy friends.”

She looks at me quite seriously but remains quiet as she nods.

“I’ll put this back then, and we can get to work making something of all of this.” Adler says, looking out over the shattered corpse.

“Oh, you reminded me. Can I steal that non-magic tome in there? It’s something of a guide to make more tomes.”

“Are you really so interested in this wasteful magic ?” Adler complains.

“Do you know how much mana I’ve wasted and regained so far today?” I ask, “I think that’s my superpower. I just keep ending up with more mana before spending it all again.”

“That’s because you don’t properly share the results of your hunts.” Adler grumbles. Looking over the shattered remains of the vines beast.

“Hey I share well enough.” I say, pointing toward Nuala and the boy who are taking some of the larger vines from the ground and wrapping them up.

“You may take the book,” Nuala responds to my earlier question, cutting through our argument. “I do owe you all at least as much.”

“Thank you.” I reply with a short bow.

“I hope that we’ll see one another again one day.” Nuala says.

“We will.” I assure her as she turns to leave. My fingers itch as I recall just how soft and fluffy her fur was, it’ll be even softer when my mana form is stronger than hers.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 712 units

~Mana distribution:

Catagory Current Max. Skin 24% 24% Muscle 12% 12% Mind 22% 22% Cardiovascular 11% 11% Misc. 10% 10% Efficiency 79% 79%

~Skills:

~Mana sense

-Mana drain touch

-Mana skin

-Mana shield.

-Mana surge strike

-Mana surge kick

-Grapple

-Flame burst

-Fireball

-Infused delayed casting

-Harsh petting

-Chaos dance

~Multi-mind messenger