Golden-blue waters wash over me, cleaning away the blood and drowning out all sight and sound. There’s nothing here but the flow of cold water, and the warmth of where Eshya holds onto me, and I hold onto her.

Her grip is tight enough to hurt, but I don’t mind it at all. With the adrenaline is starting to fade, and my head starting clear, the anxiety and fear return to me.

I could have lost her.

It wouldn’t have even taken a moment of inattention, and she would’ve died.

My own grip around her tightens.

We don’t know what’s happened to Shen, the little face hugger was as close to dead as you can get without crossing the final divide, but then mana and magic can make for miracles. Still, we’re both too nervous to message Red to ask her how the treatment went.

We burst up out of the water before we’re washed aside over the drain, caught again by the strainer. Knowing this time what to expect, we don’t have as much difficulty pulling each other from the current. Dripping water all over the floor, we stumble over to the door where Korgan and Arn are waiting for us.

“You’re sopping wet.” The dwarf says, gesturing over at the cleansing stone. “It’s good manners to clean up first.”

Hesitating a moment, I decide not to complain and quickly walk over to the stand where the magic stone is resting. Eshya is a step faster, grabbing the stone ahead of me and pulsing a few drops of mana through it.

The magic runs down her skin, collecting the water, as well as what blood and gunk remains. The liquid waste runs down along a gutter, before spilling into the large water drain at the end of the water ride.

While it’s nice to see that she’s alright, her expression is unnaturally tense. It’s clear that she’s worried for the little creature that she’s befriended, but I think there’s also something more on her mind. Something more weighing down her heart.

She’s able to murder while wearing a smile, she even struggled through Red’s training without losing her heart, and yet now she’s reacting like this?

With the help of magic, we’re clean and dry in moments. Rushing, while pretending not to, we walk quickly down the halls hewn from stone, following our escorts. We begrudgingly squeeze to the side to let past a few locals, but besides that we make good time.

My eyes focus on Red and the bed beside her, which is clearly too large for little Shen sleeping atop it. The creature is so still that I take a moment to realize it’s alive, and only then because I know that Red wouldn’t show this much respect to a corpse.

The rest of the beds are empty, either it’s not a particularly busy season, or the healer is fast with their work.

Eshya releases the breath that she’s been holding in as she looks over at the little creature that saved her life. The black insect has all of its chitin back, and all of its limbs are returned. Even for a talented healer, I’m sure this would’ve been difficult and cost a lot of mana.

Seeing Shen again, my guts start heating up with rage.

While my attentions have been largely focused on my lover who nearly died, I do still consider the little insect to be mine. That she was injured saving Eshya’s life just reveals how much I’ve been underestimating her.

She might only be as smart as your average dog, but those dogs have fought and lived faithfully alongside mankind for long enough to be worthy of respect. Shen, too, deserves my respect.

Even if she’s a bit creepy.

“She’s resting.” Red says, walking over to us. “The healer is getting ready for you in the next room.”

I half expected Eshya to race to the little bugs side, but she doesn’t. Her gaze slowly turns from the bug over to me, her expression as severe as ever I’ve seen it.

“What is it?” I ask her, meeting her gaze.

She turns away, shaking her head and swallowing back any response she might’ve considered. Instead, she turns to Red.

“Train me.” She says, her voice monotone.

“Before I even had to say a word.” Red smiles, though there’s little joy in it. She turns to me, her eyes asking the obvious question.

“Yes, yes. I’ll train, too.” I say, begrudgingly accepting the same offer that I was given when this whole extra-terrestrial adventure began. I’ll train under Red, or I’ll end up dead.

“Are they here yet?” A gruff voice calls out to us from the next room.

“Better get moving.” Red says, pushing Eshya by the shoulder.

The elf spares the sleeping Shen a passing glance and a few whispered words that I can’t quite hear, before heading into the next room. She’s refusing to show it, but she’s hurting.

I’ll have to contact Vii and Nel about this. I think she’ll be more willing to open up if it’s with all of us, and away from everyone else.

Shen continues to sleep peacefully, or at least I think she is; bugs are not my specialty. I resist the urge to poke her awake. The little soldier has fought well and deserves her rest.

“So, you’ve managed to clear my schedule for the day.” Red says, glaring down at me.

“Well, if that’s the case, I could use your help for something.” I say. “Have we shown you Barry? The training robot? We’re bringing him down here so that you can take a day off from teaching now and then.”

“You’re avoiding the topic.” She accuses.

“No, I’m trying to avoid having a potentially loud conversation.” I reply, looking over at the sleeping warrior. “Eshya took quite a liking to her for some reason…”

“And you didn’t?”

“She is mine, as with the rest.” I reply. “She saved Eshya, thus she saved me, too. I appreciate what she’s done, but I really can’t find anything about her to be cute.”

“Not everything has to be cute.” Red says dryly.

“She’s not easy to communicate with,” I continue, “And she frustrates me a little. Even so, she’s a heroic little warrior.”

Shen’s legs twitch as she sleeps, but she doesn’t awaken.

“I think I’ll go check on Eshya. Are you going to stay and help us collect Barry?” I ask.

“Someone has to keep you from getting yourselves killed.” She says, her arms crossed.

“Who do you think taught us to act this recklessly?” I ask, shaking my head as I reach for the door. “We’ve been risking our lives, one way or another, ever since you blasted our ship from the sky. We take these risks because we have to get stronger. This is our normal, Red. This is how we live, now.”

“You weren’t important back then.” Red replies, stopping me as I have my hand on the door.

“What?”

“You weren’t important. I pushed you hard because it didn’t matter if any one of you died.” She said, “I only had the chance to try and save some of you. So, I did what I had to, I trimmed the fat.”

“Is it different now? Am I important now?” I ask.

“To your people you are.” She says.

“Right.” I reply, not believing her, but unwilling to voice that worry. Not knowing what else to say, I head into the clinic.

“I’ll have to break it.” The healer, a tall brute of a creature, says as he looks down at Esha’s leg. “If you could focus your mana on either side of the bone and pull your mana away from right here, I’ll get started.”

Eshya retains a determined expression and nods to the healer as she sets her jaw and closes her eyes. I quietly sneak closer, so as not to interfere. The moment I’m in reach, without even looking at me, she snatches my hand in her own, squeezing painfully tightly.

The healer takes but a moment to break her leg, and a moment more to have it healed. A flash of magic and it’s done.

Eshya’s face tightens, and her breathing pauses for a moment, but that’s the only expression of pain that she allows herself.

“That’s all. You’re healthy now.” The healer says, before turning to me. “You need my services too?”

“I think so, yes.” I reply. “It’ll save me from having to explain the scars.”

“Very well, stand still and let me inspect your injuries. If there’s anything under-” He pauses as he looks at my clothes, which are torn to shreds, “Under the remains of your clothes, then please do show me so that I can fix it.”

“Right…” I say, carefully pulling the rags off. The tall alien doctor clearly doesn’t care about modesty, and I already have dungeons watching me in the baths so it’s not as if it even matters that much. It still feels a bit uncomfortable to stand here naked under his gaze, but Eshya’s presence does calm me a little as the magical doctor looks me over from top to toes pausing to analyse each injury.

“Alright, stand still and drink this.” He says, handing me a small potion after a little while. It’s not so much a healing potion as a ‘parts’ potion, which gives his healing magic the materials that it needs. I’ve studied enough healing magic to know this much at least.

I drink the foul concoction as quickly as I can, and he gets to casting. A flash of magic, too complex for me to understand, but relatively mana efficient, and I’m healthy again.

“Feeling better?” Eshya asks, walking over to me and testing out her fixed leg.

“A bit.” I reply, with a sigh. “Most of my problems aren’t the sort a healer can fix.”

“Then we should get moving. I want to get back to training as soon as we can.” She replies, heading right for the door.

“Just a second.” I pull her back, as I see that the healer is busying himself with some paperwork to the side of the room. “Are you feeling alright. You seem tense after that last battle, is there something you want to talk about?”

She doesn’t reply, staring down at the ground.

“Is it about Shen? She’s still alive, and you fought well. There’s nothing to regret about that battle.”

“Who will it be that dies?” Eshya asks me in a whisper. “We’ve been through so many dangerous battles and yet no one has died. No one important, anyway. So, who is it going to be that dies first? And am I going to be too weak to do anything to stop it?

“Is it going to be you, Kyra? Is it going to be Vii? Nel? Adler? We can’t be this lucky forever. We need to be strong enough that we no longer have to rely on luck to save us.”

“I agree.” I say. “We’ve already agreed to train with Red. We’re already doing all that we can, so worrying about things like that is a waste of time.”

“Let’s just get to training. We’re wasting time talking here.” She says, pulling herself from my grasp.

“Eshya.” I call to her, stopping her for a moment. She looks annoyed as she meets my gaze. “I think we should do a little clothes shopping first.”

I point from her clothes to mine, with a smile, hoping to encourage a smile in return.

Our clothes are in such a state, that I honestly wouldn’t even use the cloth for rags at this point. The tears are rather egregious and it’s all I can manage to maintain some small measure of dignity. Taking them off a moment ago just pulled the tears further, and now I’m not confident that I could maintain my modesty in a dance, let alone a fight.

“A quick trip.” She replies, sighing in frustration.

I turn to the healer as Eshya quickly walks from the room.

“I’ll have someone come by to deal with the costs.” I say, and he waves me off, seeming disinterested. Perhaps he has someone else managing the money of his shop, or maybe Nel has already spoken with him about issues like this.

Shen is still sleeping on the soft white sheets, but Eshya keeps a distance from the bedridden bug.

“We should perhaps take her with us.” I suggest, “If she wakes up in a strange place, surrounded by strangers, who knows how she’ll respond.”

Eshya nods stiffly, approaching and touching the body of the little creature before freezing up. She shakes her head a few times, her hardened expression twisting up a little.

“I’ll take her then.” I say, stepping up and picking up the creature. Eshya nods to me before stepping ahead of us.

I soon discover that clothes shopping isn’t nearly as fun of a hobby when there’s nothing that actually fits you. With this being a small colony and species diversity being quite large, it’s not so easy to find premade clothes that fit our sizes.

After a little struggling I manage to find something to wear. Loose trousers, and a purple trimmed top, closer to a sports bra than an actual shirt. The material is clearly made to be hydrophobic, so perhaps it’s more akin to swimwear?

Eshya meanwhile finds herself an oversized coat, which she ties up rather vigilantly at the front, and a skirt which she’s had to fold over and pin into place. We aren’t the height of fashion, but we are wearing something at least.

“If we’re done playing dress up, can we get moving?” Red prods at us, shifting Shen around in her arms. I take the bug back off of her now that I’m finished dressing.

“Is there anything else around here that we need to do?” I ask, checking with the pair of them. They shake their heads seeming rather impatient.

“It was worth checking.” I say with a sigh.

As we walk out of the market district, I catch sight of someone unexpected, and freeze in my step.

Tera, the teacher that we kidnapped, is currently lecturing the local meat merchant, the praying mantis, on how to properly carve up a body. She is considerably shorter in height than the creature, but she speaks with such authority that it bows low to listen to her.

“Is that alright?” I ask Red, pointing it out.

“They’ve already agreed to take responsibility for her if she tries escaping to the surface.” Red says, “She wasn’t helping us much, and her complaining was getting to be a little much. Nel agreed to have her transferred over here, and I heard that she messaged you about it?”

“I think I remember something about that.” I say, thinking back. “I just didn’t realize she was talking about the teacher.

“Whatever. I’ll trust her judgement on this.” I say. “Now let’s go do a fetch quest.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The trip up and back was remarkably simple, any beasts that encountered us were easily dealt with without Red even needing to step in. She said something about judging our performance, and left it all to us.

Honestly, the only reason I’m trusting my training to Red over Barry, is that Red can help us gather more mana to develop ourselves. She’s really not much of a teacher otherwise.

“This is your training space.” I say to Barry as we lead him into the room. A few people watch us questioningly, but only Red’s soldiers dare to come close, as the others are far too frightened of the horned demon that walks with us.

“It is… barely adequate for children’s classes.” Barry says, walking into the room, one of his legs still not moving right.

“That’s good, because most of the people you’re going to be training belong in the children’s class.” I say, waving forwards some of the soldiers, who are still walking about with their spears. “Come on kids, say hello to your new teacher’s assistant.”

“Kids? We’re not kids.” Says the first man to enter, a lizard man of some sort, though he has some elvish features.

“It’s good to see a few shortscales here are willing to learn how to fight.” Barry says, whether programmed to, or of his own will I’m not sure I’ll ever know.

“Now, I understand that your blood makes you innately slow, lazy, and prone to napping, but I’m sure with some effort you can become a satisfactory warrior.”

“Slow? Lazy?” The lizardman soldier hisses, glaring at the metal man.

“Please practice your attacks on me.” Barry says. “I will judge what class you belong to.”

The lizard hardly waits before leaping at the machine, thrusting his spear, and lashing out with his tail. I’m a little worried that he’ll end up breaking Barry, but the machine doesn’t seem to care.

The violent struggle quickly takes on a familiar pattern as the machine easily deflects the incoming attacks, or simply takes them with his armoured plates.

After a minute of this, the machine nods to itself.

“That’s enough.” He says, and the soldier pulls back, huffing and puffing like he’s just finished a race.

“You fight rather well, and it’s clear you put effort into your training, but your fundamentals are weak.” Barry says. “You will start by taking children’s beginner classes. Do you wish to start now?”

“Damn it.” The soldier hisses.

“Play gently kids.” I say. “He may be a bit rude, but Barry is one of the most useful things I’ve found on this world. Take care you don’t break him.”

“Yes ma’am.” One of the soldiers cries rather excitedly. The others give quiet nods, lining up to listen to the machine and its lessons.

“Our own lessons?” Eshya asks, her expression still stiff.

“Yes, yes.” Red says with a sigh. “Follow me, we’re training in the forest.”

Shen is still sleeping in my arms, shuddering on occasion. From the feel of it’s carapace against my skin, I anticipate that it’s likely in its low liquid mana stage, so while it itches a bit from the mana friction, it’s not unbearable.

When we arrive in the forest, Red is quick to lead us through a few mangrove roots and lead us to an empty little field. Though that’s a somewhat disingenuous term considering the strange nature of this entire place, field doesn’t fairly describe it. Regardless, it’s an open space where we can practice, while waiting for nearby beasts to take an interest and give us something real to fight.

A few tall logs have been set up to take attacks, and they’re already covered in scorch marks and cuts. Unfortunately, most of the attacks have left only small scratches, speaking of the low strength of our small militia.

“First thing I want to talk about is your reckless behaviour.” Red begins. “You can’t keep risking your lives like you did earlier today. One of the most important abilities that you must develop as a warrior is learning when to fight, and when to run.”

“You never taught us this before.” Eshya says, seeming confused.

“She was trying to get us killed before.” I say. “There were too many of us and we weren’t ready to become warriors. It wasn’t even training; it was a test to see which of us she could save.”

“And as a result of that test you’ve become suicidal maniacs who don’t know how to take measured risks.” Red says. “That mistake is on me.”

“We need to take those risks.” I complain, “We never would’ve gotten this far without risking our lives as we have. You’d still have a collar on if it wasn’t for us taking risks.”

“The fight earlier today.” She says, refusing to rise to the bait. “Was it a necessary risk? You could’ve had someone escort you, ready to step in when things turned to shit. You didn’t.

“You’re not the first person who has tried to start their own tribe, or community, or kingdom. The only thing special about you is that you’ve been lucky enough not to die yet.

“I could’ve chosen to kill you rather than save you after the ship crash. You could’ve been collared and disposed of when the welfare officers captured you. The dungeons could’ve killed you whenever they pleased. The reason you live is because you’ve been lucky.

“You need to learn how to bow your head when you have to. You have to learn to run when you have to. You need to learn that you can’t risk your life like you’re some disposable soldier. You need to act like you’re a leader, not a minion.”

“Perhaps some of my decisions have been less than perfect.” I admit begrudgingly. “I am still learning.”

“An understatement.” She replies. “Now do I have to explain to you how to run?”

“Pop the cap on my deterrent and put one foot ahead of the other.” I say, with a long sigh.

“When do you run?” She asks.

“When we can’t win a fight.” I say, getting frustrated, but burying the emotion. Frustration won’t help me here.

“Good enough.” She replies. “Now why is it that you couldn’t take your own advice earlier today?”

“We were caught unaware.” Eshya says. “They came from above and didn’t give us a chance to run. Besides, we could still beat them. Turning our backs would’ve been more dangerous than fighting.”

“Then you made the right choice to stay and fight.” Red says. “It’s just that you made a stupid choice that got you into that fight to begin with.”

“We shouldn’t have been alone in a place that’s clearly too dangerous for us.” I say, “We get it already.”

“Then I’d better not see you repeating the mistake.” Red replies, glaring at me.

I resist the urge to glare back. I was the one to make this mistake, I’ll bear with her well-deserved bitchiness.

“Can we get to the actual training?” Eshya asks, bouncing from foot to foot.

“Fine. Don’t let it be said that I leave my work unfinished. What do you need to learn?”

“Annihilation magic. Apparently I have a talent for it. How do you think I should use it?” I ask, hoping for an interesting answer. She was once working with the rebels, so she might know something more about the magic.

“That’s an interesting talent… how powerful?” She asks.

“Don’t know.” I reply. “I’ve only used it once before.”

“Hit this with a spell.” Red suggests tapping at the wood of the makeshift training dummy.

“I’m not sure that would really be safe…” I say, feeling for the mana stirring in me and pulling at the Skill that developed along with the magic. I push only about 10 units of mana into the spell and tap at the wood.

The mana escapes from my finger and starts drawing more mana from nothingness, similar to before, but not nearly to the same degree. Where the last time it was a single drip multiplied into a raging river, this time it’s a faucet that’s been given another quarter turn.

The spell impacts the wood and unravels, cutting a hole into the wood around the size of a large marble. The wood inside that space turns to ash and falls, quickly scattering on the slight breeze.

“Not quite what I expected.” Red says, inspecting it.

“Why does it turn to ash?” I ask, “It’s annihilation, shouldn’t it, you know, annihilate?”

“Only if you want it to be less effective.” Red replies, “It’s remarkable that you found a workable technique on your first try. If it were to truly annihilate everything it’d probably leave such a small mark you wouldn’t even notice it.

“At a guess, rather than destroying all matter, the mana has destroyed most of the energy in the target. This ash is incredibly fine, and completely mana-less. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that even the energy binding the matter together has been destroyed.”

Her words get me thinking.

“If it can be targeted like that, shouldn’t it be possible to focus on my enemy’s mana? It should be a more cost effective way of killing them, shouldn’t it?”

“It would, but do you have that much control?”

“Right, right.” I grumble. “Small steps, can’t be an empress by lunch and a goddess by evening. Small steps.”

“Well, play around with it. Maybe you can figure something out.” Red says, “If you don’t have a teacher, and you don’t have any books, that’s all you can do. Eshya, over here, your techniques aren’t the most mana efficient, you’re burning your mana like it’s free. Don’t waste so much.”

As they spar beside me, I struggle to get my magic to react the same way as it did before, or even to have it act slightly differently. For some reason, beyond the Skill I developed for it, the magic itself has completely slipped from my grasp. I don’t even know what it’s meant to feel like anymore.

When Shen starts to wriggle in my arms, it’s about all I can do to keep from yeeting the creepy-ass bug into the forest.

“Together?” She asks, crawling up to my shoulder, its legs making my skin crawl.

“Yes, yes. Together.” I mumble, getting back to training my magic as I try to ignore the heroic bug riding my shoulder.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 784 units

~Mana distribution:

Catagory Current Max. Skin 0% 49% Muscle 56% 56% Mind 0% 72% Cardiovascular 0% 34% Misc. 0% 29% Efficiency 56% 82%

~Favourited Skills:

-Chip Shredder

-Multi-mind

-Tag

-Mana surge movement

-Mana surge punch

-Reactive mana skin

-Infused delayed Casting

-Fire burst punch

-Annihilation magic