The air is thick and heavy, but still cool enough that a slight breeze feels chill. I carefully move through the tunnel of roots, that weave into each other forming the uneven floor, walls, and ceiling. Green, glowing moss grows here and there in chaotic patches, lighting this underground world.

“Stop.” Eshya calls, leaning past with her sword out. A careful tap with the side of her blade sets off a trap. A wooden spear flies out from the ground smashing into the ceiling with enough force to shatter them both, showering me in the splinters.

“There has to be some trick to it.” I groan, looking at where the trap was set, trying to figure out how it is that the gremlins avoid them. You don’t set a trap like this unless you can confidently walk past it, and if different groups come visiting this place, then there has to be something marking out these traps.

We haven’t found anything like that yet, so instead we’ve been moving slow and careful, while listening closely for any gremlins that might decide to swarm us. Unfortunately, I don’t have the mana to be shrugging off these traps with my reactive mana skin, though I can still handle the one or two we fail to spot.

Bob, my fleshy trap sensor—formerly a gremlin—has long since been destroyed from the traps that he’s saved us from. His head, the last surviving part of him, was impaled and crushed against the roots in the ceiling by a particularly powerful spear trap.

Plenty of the traps have been set magically, through enchantment or something akin to it. Eshya has been invaluable in spotting these ahead of me, but she’s not a trained scout, and some still slip by us. Unfortunately, not all of the traps leave a magical signature behind.

Sometimes it’s trip wires, sometimes it’s the pressure of standing on a root, these near fully mundane traps, with no mana marking their presence, are the most dangerous and troubling to spot.

The poison smeared on every sharp point, whether spear or spike, just makes the traps that much more insidious. We have to watch every step we take, which will not be an easy thing to do if we end up in a brawl with another pack of gremlins

“It’s a bit tight in here, huh?” I say, as I squeeze through a small gap, praying that we found every trap beforehand.

“I suppose.” Eshya replies, following after me. She’s tense, and the burning glow in her eyes suggests that she’s not taken a liking to our current situation. Maybe it would be good to find her something to kill.

The familiar screeching of gremlins arrives just in time, quieting our conversation as we look down the tunnel it’s coming from. We ready ourselves for battle, but the screeching doesn’t come closer no matter how long we wait, so unless this is some strange idea of an ambush, these gremlins don’t know we’re here.

Moving just as carefully as before—I seem to have better luck stepping on the lower roots and avoiding those that sit too high up—I sneak closer to the gremlins, hoping to catch them by surprise. Eshya’s shining eyes and deep breathing suggests that she’s more keen for the encounter than I am.

When the sound is almost upon us, our path is blocked by a veil of roots that seems to be acting as either a door or a fence. I can’t really know which without making ourselves known.

I can, however, still peak inside through the gaps. The gremlins in the room are apparently unaware of us, the older ones are lounging around gnawing on this or that, mostly roots, though there’s an occasional bone between them. One is stoking a small fire in the corner of the room, while stirring at a large cauldron sitting over it.

Besides them, there are quite a number of smaller gremlins, possibly even children, though with their ugly faces it’s difficult to tell. These little gremlins are chasing each other around the room, leaping over roots, and crawling into hiding spots. Some instead choose to fight each other, and while their expressions are as playful as you’d expect of children, their methods remain quite brutal.

Even as I watch, one of the smaller gremlins picks up a nearby rock, that it’d apparently hidden away, and clobbers another young gremlin over the head with it. When the victim falls to the ground, the rock is dropped on his head once again until it finally stops moving.

The victor of this battle cries out his evident victory while kicking the dead gremlin and holding his bloody rock overhead, smiling joyfully. An adult comes along, whacking the rock wielder over the back of the head before picking up the corpse of the victim.

The adult sniffs at the body, slapping it around a little to confirm that it’s dead. When the apparently dead gremlin fails to react, the adult throws it into the cauldron with the rest of the foodstuffs.

At least they cook their food, I suppose. That’s a sign of civilisation, no?

The smoke pouring from the fire climbs up through the gaps in the roots above. I suppose the benefit of a leaky roof is that you don’t need a chimney for ventilation.

Eshya shuffles in beside me to get a look at what’s going on inside.

There are three adult gremlins in there that we can see, but I think that there may be a few more hidden around. All have weapons of some sort, either strapped to them, or somewhere in reach.

The smaller gremlins are much more numerous, but they don’t carry any weapons apart from the odd rock or root. About a dozen of the creatures are violently rushing around hitting each other. Most aren’t as outright murderous as their peer, but not one of them seems to care that one of their own has just died, and been added to the soup.

Is it their nature?

Is it just what life is like for a beast in the wilds?

I can’t really know for sure why they are, as they are, but I am glad that they’re already so well adapted to facing death. While it may not make murdering them any more ethical, it certainly makes it more palatable knowing that no one is going to mourn them when we’re done.

“We should attack now.” Eshya sends to me. “If we wait until the gremlins come from behind, we’ll get caught from both sides.”

I quietly nod in agreement with her assessment, looking down at the young gremlins.

According to the doctrine of the Unified States, we should be much more respectful of the lives of these creatures. We should protect them, try to raise them into decent people, while ensuring that they do no harm to others.

They use collars and threats to make that happen, and I don’t want to be another part of that society. With my current strength, and with my current tools, I can see no way to save these gremlins from their own natures, but at least they will die themselves.

Eshya flashes a smile at me, before pushing the roots aside. They’ve been woven together with something akin to a hinge, which is only evident now that the door is opening.

The first gremlin to see us gets a bullet to the belly. The rest of them take notice of us rather quickly, as the superheated guts of their peer rains down on them like confetti at a festival. The desperate screams of the not-yet-dead, violently disembowelled gremlin gives the rest a bit of an extra pep in their steps.

The adult gremlins charge at us, as the smaller ones look over at us in confusion, a few even shoving chunks of macabre confetti into their mouths. Kid’s do put anything they can find in their mouths, don’t they?

Eshya’s sword work is impeccable as always, and the first gremlin in line is disarmed at the shoulders, before she thrusts the sword through its neck when it can no longer block.

As if smelling the blood in the air, the little gremlins come charging at us too, bravely carrying their little rocks and roots with them.

Eshya, while busy battling another full-grown gremlin, doesn’t even break from her fighting trance as she kicks aside the littler gremlins. Moving with a continuous and fluid pace, she truly sets herself apart from even the more Skilled fighters that I’ve watched.

A few more of the larger gremlins come charging at us from the other end of the room, and I draw my mana out into a spell. The mana cuts through the air as if moving on a singular dimensional plane, managing to achieve an impossible density the moment it’s escaped from my body.

I can see the mana building on top of itself, becoming more and more powerful before it finally makes impact.

The bolt of magic hits the gremlin in the shoulder and quickly unfolds as it eats away at the energy between atoms that make the creature what it is. Its arm drops to the ground along with the knife it was holding, as the gremlin looks over at its missing shoulder while screeching in pain.

It’s something that I’ve dubbed my annihilation bolt, and while it’s not yet developed into a Skill, I’m rather confident in its power.

Though, to get it this powerful, I had to invest a few hundred units of my mana into the spell, making it all in all, less effective than my pistol. Worse, it destroys the mana that it encounters, leaving me with less mana to draw out of the corpse when the fighting is done.

I turn my attention back to the slaughter at my feet and watch as Eshya’s glowing sword cuts through the horde of younglings that are either too stupid, or too brave to run from us.

The last of the young gremlins comes running at us with his rock, as he climbs over the bodies of his peers, somehow thinking that he’ll be the one to kill us, even after watching everyone else fail.

Perhaps they grow wiser as they get older? I think, sadly flicking his little forehead.

The mana runs through my finger into his head before unravelling, I can’t see exactly what’s happened, but a good amount of his brain should’ve been annihilated. I shift his body into a slightly more dignified position before looking around.

The room is now a right mess, covered in blood, corpses, and some other spillage that has leaked from the bodies.

“That was… boring.” Eshya says, looking down over the bodies of our foes. She quickly finishes those who are not yet dead.

“What did you expect?” I ask, shifting aside the bodies of the young gremlins.

“We should keep moving.” Eshya says as she reinforces the door we came in through. There is some furniture about, though it’s not particularly impressive. She’s more than willing to break a few things to get the barricade set into place.

“Yeah…” I say, hesitantly, shaking my head as I look around the vacant room. The corpses catch my eye, but rather than horrified, I’m wondering whether it’s worth taking the extra time to drain their mana.

Staring down at the little corpses of the young gremlins, it does bother me how little it actually bothers me. This is something terrible, even if I can justify it, even if there’s meaning to it.

It’s still something terrible. That’s what Freid was trying to teach all of his students, me included. It’s also something that Adler has addressed more than once. I’ve been killing more and more, and thinking about it less and less.

This was necessary.

Something Adler once said to me returns to my mind. That this will become a habit. I’ll rely on my sword, on violence and killing, to solve all of my problems, where mercy and conversation might, one day, better suit.

Not today though.

Today is still a day for violence.

After taking in the bloody scene and accepting the results, I turn away and follow Eshya as she peers through another door, opposite the one we came in through. It seems she hasn’t found any new enemies for us, if I’m to judge by her frustrated expression.

“Anything?” I ask, peering over her shoulder.

“Traps, but nothing we haven’t seen before.” She replies. “You’re going first again?”

“I can take at least one hit from these traps.” I say, picking up one of the larger gremlin corpses. “I don’t see why I should have to, though.”

“What a splendid idea.” She replies, a smirk rising on her lips. “Let’s just hope this one holds up a little better than the last.”

“You’re smiling.” I say, matching her expression. “Is this all you have to do to get out of your funky mood? Go out and kill a few things?”

“Give me something to fight, and we’ll see.” She replies. “I’m certainly not entirely apathetic anymore, the battle rush clears my head a little, though I’m still not entirely myself. I still don’t feel everything that I usually do, and if I’m not careful I’m going to do something stupid.

“The battle rush is fading now, though. So yeah, let’s go find something to kill.” She says, her smile already fading as she stares down the trap filled hall.

“Well, I’d personally like to avoid any more fights, but I doubt I’ll get the choice.” I reply heading back out into the tunnels, Bob v2 getting thrown ahead of me every step. The first trap puts a hole in him, the second tears off an arm, and the process goes on.

I’m careful and hesitant in every step, even following after Bob, and I keep my mana focused on my defence. The reactive mana skin is certainly a useful Skill, but I’m going to be out of mana if I rely on it too much.

Taking far too long with each step we take, we eventually stumble our way down a slope into a tunnel flooded over with golden-blue water. It’s not entirely unexpected for there to be underground flooding down here, but what I don’t understand, is why the gremlins thought it was a good idea to let their tunnels flood like this.

The path seems to go on through the waist deep water for a few dozen metres, and while I’m quite confident that I could wade through that water easily enough, it’s not at all that simple.

There will be traps in there, and Bob, living up to his name, floats.

Worse still, while I could somewhat anticipate the traps that we’ve come across so far, trip wires, pressure pads, and spells that leave considerable traces, the water makes it difficult to see any of these below the surface.

I hate to admit it, but the enemy may have been smarter than I gave them credit for.

“We can’t risk going this way.” I say turning to Eshya, “Unless you can think of a way for us to get past all this?”

“I don’t know, swim over the traps maybe?” She asks, sounding doubtful.

As I try to figure out how the gremlins get past these traps, I hear a horrible screeching filling the hallway from up ahead. Apparently, the screeching is mostly just to tell the others where they are, so there’s rather little Chip can do to translate it.

Eshya pulls me back to the little safe ground that we’ve confirmed is free from traps, as she takes the forward position.

I ready my pistol and wait behind her. She is far better than I am when it comes to combat, and I haven’t seen the gremlins use any ranged weapons thus far. I doubt we’re going to discover the first gremlin archer in this tight tunnel.

We wait impatiently for them to come to us, using the trapped water as a buffer to keep them away, it should be easy to slaughter them from afar with my pistol. So long as they don’t surprise us with anything, we should be safe.

The first gremlin shows his face and I take a moment to line up the shot before blasting it in the chest. A hole the size of a tennis ball pops open around the right side of its ribcage.

It’s not as flashy as usual, but with the current battlefield, my access to fresh mana is somewhat more limited and I have to be careful with my spending.

A second gremlin peers at us from around the corner, hiding himself again before I have a chance to shoot him.

From the sounds that I can hear whispered on the other side, I can infer that they’re having some sort of argument.

“Go out there-!”

“No! Scary! I don’t want to die!”

At the very least these ones actually seem to have some sort of instinct to protect their lives, which is nice, I suppose. None of them seem to care about the one that I shot, which is currently spluttering blood all over the ground, while trying to drag itself away.

The argument dies down, and they seem to come to some nature of an agreement.

A wall of gremlin flesh plods around the corner before standing still at the edges of the water, staring at us with fright bright in their eyes. They’re smart enough to know that they’re being used as a shield, but not smart enough to find a way to avoid the role.

I try to figure out what they’re hiding behind them for a few moments before I sense the mana stirring.

“Shit!” I shout, raising my gun and loading it with half of my mana. “They’ve got a mage. If it fucks with the roots too…”

I fire my pistol the same moment the mages spell is let loose. The bullet I fire, dense with mana, explodes into the ranks of gremlins, scattering limbs and flesh, but it’s not enough to stop the magic flowing through the roots, heading right for our feet.

Animated by the magic running through them, the roots begin to twist beneath us, but not alone. The wooden spears, used as traps, come alive under the same magical influence.

The roots shift around, trying to tangle up our feet, while the poisoned spears stab from every direction.

I twist my ankle trying to move away from one spear, only to take another on the shoulder, my reactive mana skin absorbing the force of the blow at a high cost. Eshya is just barely managing to keep her feet on the moving dance floor, dodging spears and spikes, or blocking them with mana shields, causing the wood to shatter around us.

The magic doesn’t fade as it often does when a mage dies, instead it’s growing larger as more mana is fed into the spell.

I didn’t kill the mage.

We can’t stay like this for long.

Throwing caution to the wind, I strip my focus away from the spears and the roots around me, glaring over towards the mage that’s casting his spell.

It dares.

This is my territory.

They may have been here first. They may not want to leave. Yet, it is still my land, and Eshya is one of my people.

My heart beats painfully loud in my ears, throbbing with a burning pain in my chest, as I gather all of my remaining mana into a spell. My burning rage colours the mana and rushes to do my bidding.

To erase these pests.

The magic flows past my outstretched finger, running through the air along a perfect line, taking up no space at all. The mana grows upon itself two-fold, then more.

A brave little gremlin steps in the way of the spell, daring to stand between me and my target.

Yet, for all its bravery, it fails. My spell passes through, leaving not even a pinhole sized wound in its wake as it moves on to the mage that twists my world around unfavourably.

The magic makes contact with the mage’s chest, before realizing the intent behind its creation. The mana seeks and destroys all energy binding, and making real, the matter that constructs the mage, turning his flesh and clothes to something less than even ash.

Mana-less matter, removed from all its energy.

Something impacts my side as I watch the enemy die, a hole the size of a basketball forming where its once was. The light fades from its eyes, and its magic.

I look down to see what it is that struck me.

A spear.

A spear, slathered in greenish gunk.

I look at it in confusion, pulling it out before I even have a chance to think clearly.

That shouldn’t have happened.

It wasn’t what was meant to happen.

Already developing a cold sweat from my lack of mana form, I can feel the poison spreading through me. On instinct alone, I drain the mana from it, hoping that it’ll be enough to neutralise the poison as I suck the mana from the crystal that I’ve been carrying with me.

The remaining gremlins, rather than running away as I’d hoped, rush towards us, and I finally learn how it is that they cross the water laden tunnels. They climb.

Grabbing roots along the roof, they cross the trap filled water like they’re swinging along the monkey bars in a playground. They move quick to try and challenge us while the last remnants of their mages spell keeps the ground at our feet unstable.

They did not anticipate Eshya, however. Her blade impales the first quite easily, while two others swing out and around to try and catch her unprepared.

She steps to the side of the tunnel, slashing one across the chest and sending it tumbling down into the glowing waters, where a trap springs, stabbing the gremlin with multiple spears.

The other charges her alongside a fourth that has joined the battle, but she easily parries the attack, stepping in close and slamming her sword hilt into the gremlins face before moving around to keep it between her and the new gremlins.

She stabs and cuts, dicing up the grey-skinned creatures, who have nowhere to flee when they realize it was a mistake to approach us. She throws the last one into the water before turning on her heel to face me, her face flushed with excitement.

“I’m feeling rather better now.” She says, the bloody smile looking rather fair upon her lips. She rushes at me, placing a kiss on my lips before I even know what she’s doing. “I should do this more often. It’s far better treatment than hiding in my bed.”

Her eyes glow in the golden light, as her hands start to wonder.

“Wait.” I squeeze out, as a fever builds up in me. My brow already covered in sweat.

“But I’m hungry.” She whispers, shoving her hand up my shirt, clearly having fun.

“Eshya…” I say, trying to get her attention.

She grabs my side and I flinch away, my breathing getting rather heavy.

She looks down at her bloody hand, confused.

She lifts her gaze up at me, clearing away the blood and finally noticing the wound in my side.

“I got hit. The poison. I thought I might’ve neutralized it, but…” I try to swallow but my throat feels too dry.

Eshya sharply looks me over, from top to bottom, before she grabs her healing potion and forces it to my lips. The liquid tastes like warm, sour puss as it goes down, but it’s gone before I have a chance to spit it out.

My body warms as the magic runs its course, my scratches disappearing and the stab wound in my side closing up. The thickening scar tissue looks a little like a whirlpool. I run my hand along it, and shiver in disgust.

I don’t like this.

“Eshya…” I call out to her.

The fever isn’t gone, and I can feel a terrible pressure on the front of my brain. The mana I sucked from my storage crystal is converting far too slowly. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me, what the poison will do to me…

Eshya’s eyes flick back and forth, no doubt lost in thought. She sheathes her sword and tries to lift me, but she’s too weak, instead she pulls my arm over her shoulder and drags me along.

“You’ll be fine.” She says, her voice sounding terribly cold.

Taking one look at the golden waters behind us, she walks me back the direction we came from.

“Everything will be fine.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 0 units

~Mana distribution:

Catagory Current Max. Defence 0% 32% Offense 0% 57% Mana Sense 0% 72% Recovery 0% 30% Gluttony 0% 26% Misc. 0% 30% Efficiency 0% 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

-Mana form flow fixer