“Just fucking die!” Eshya shouts, slicing the life out of the offending gremlin as I sit motionless on the ground behind her. The fight ends with a bloody screech cut short, but it’s hardly the first battle and it won’t be the last.

For the last few minutes, the gremlins have been swarming us, coming at us from every direction in small groups of three or four. They’ve been cut down by Eshya’s sword, or my magic, each and every time, but each fight is a risk, as we stumble through traps that we can’t predict.

Another screech and another group of attackers come for us, no mages, not since the one we killed near the water, but warriors in their liquid stage of development. Every one of them equipped with poisoned knives, short swords, or axes.

I prepare myself to cast another spell as I watch a gremlin get speared through by a trap. A misstep, perhaps? Or maybe, these ones don’t know where the traps have been laid.

The others don’t give it a second glance, rushing towards us, as Eshya tries to dance around the same traps.

She doesn’t hesitate, or waste a moments time, slicing the head off of the first gremlin to reach her. Her sword glows only for a moment as it parts the flesh of the next in line, the glow fades again as soon as the blade is through the flesh of her foe.

The more I see of her battle style the more convinced I am that she’s special. These gremlins might not be the smartest creatures around, but they are all at parity with her in mana density, some are even stronger. The fights shouldn’t be nearly as overwhelmingly in her favour as they are, especially considering how new she is to her power.

With the last of them dead, she swipes the blood from her sword and carefully returns to my side.

“Are you still hanging in?” She asks, wiping the sweat from my brow before running her hands all over me, looking for injuries that aren’t there.

“No new stab wounds at least.” I say, “And I can still move my arms.”

I lift my arm up to try and show off my incredible abilities, but my hand refuses to rise any higher than a few inches off the ground.

“Maybe not so good.” I admit.

I’ve been trying to concentrate my mana on my liver and kidneys, I’m certain that one of them deals with poisons, and while I’ve found some success, it’s not been enough to ward off the poison entirely.

I hate to imagine what it’d have done to me if I didn’t melt the mana in it as quickly as I did.

“I’ll carry you.” Eshya says as she tries to lift me up with one arm, she manages to pull me off the ground about as well as I can lift my own hands.

She sweats, struggling to make it happen.

“I’ll stumble along, just give me a little help.” I say, leaning on her shoulder. She begrudgingly accepts her failure.

“Are you feeling more alive now, at least?” I ask her as I let out a dry laugh, somewhat amused at our awful situation.

“Somewhat.” She replies with a grunt.

We continue our stroll through the underground tunnels, stumbling past the same traps we set off before. Unable to cross the water traps safely, we’re instead returning to the room we found before, hoping to hold out long enough for help to arrive.

“Did we warn them about the root mages?” I ask, my mind a fuzzy mess as I try to keep my feet moving right where I need them. A misstep would be rather regrettable right now, as not all the traps are broken.

“We did, yes.” Eshya replies, her breathing fast. “Did you forget?”

“Root mages. It’s a funny specialisation. I mean who would want a magic that you can only use around trees. It’s stupid.”

“It’s probably something like wood mage, not root mage. Can’t really laugh either, they still managed to get you pretty bad.” Eshya replies.

“They’re still dead, though. So… yeah.” I reply, hissing in frustration as my numbing leg almost lands right on a trap that I was trying to avoid. I press as much mental focus as I can on the limb while pushing my mana through it to return some limited feeling.

Like this, we stumble along until the next group of gremlins find us. This time they’re coming from ahead and behind, which brings an added layer of sweat to my brow.

I can’t reliably move my pistol around anymore, so I’ve been relying on my cast magic. Fireball has been unfortunately useless with how mana dense and moist the air is down here, so I’ve become a bit of a one trick pony.

An interesting thing I’ve found out about my annihilation magic, is that it practically doesn’t care about anything in its way. Higher density targets are still going to take more energy to destroy, of course, but they can’t defend against my magic at all. A dense enough mana can usually reduce the effects of an attack, but my annihilation magic will take effect the same way regardless. It’s likely because it targets the mana too.

Manic laughter escapes my lips, as my head burns in pain.

“Fade away, worthless pests.” I say, feeling the rage bubbling up inside me, “Else I’ll tear your very souls from the fabric of reality!”

Also, apparently, losing control over my flesh has made my egotistical, crazy empress side show her face a little more openly. It’s a little strange to be able to admit it to myself, but this is just that kind of situation.

One bolt of annihilation after another hits the gremlins before me, turning them to Swiss cheese. My new approach of using many smaller spells seems to work nicely, as I watch the pests collapse to the ground bleeding from a dozen wounds each.

I suck the last of my spare mana from my mana crystal, and work on converting it.

Another thing that I’ve noticed with unusual clarity is that my crystal is definitely easier to draw mana from than it was before. It’s not acting as part of my mana pool like my armour, but it is converting back into my mana much more quickly. It’s now also far easier to draw the mana out of the sparkly stone than any of the other non-living things I’ve tried to eat.

Eshya continues to slaughter hers with the same alacrity as ever before.

The gremlins that come never stand a chance against us, largely because they attack us in a small group. Once they decide to swarm us all at once, we’ll be done for.

I have to wonder what the mastermind behind this strategy is thinking. Are they trying to wear us down? Are they using us to kill off the other gremlins that they don’t like? Are they just dumb?

Neither us, nor the gremlins, are in the mood for conversation so we don’t stop to ask. I do occasionally try to listen in on their screeching, to try and find a meaning, but it’s only ever simple things like ‘Die!’, ‘Run!’, and ‘I’m dying, save me!”.

I hear that last one again as Eshya stabs the last of her victims through the back of the neck. It stops moving and she returns to my side, more bloody than before.

She stands over me with that same sword still drawn, her cold eyes staring into mine as she twitches.

“I can’t let you die.” She whispers. “Kyra can’t die. Kyra can’t die.”

“I assure you, I am quite capable of dying.” I reply, sitting up and trying to get my numb limbs to move properly.

“I’ll regret it sorely if you do.” She replies. “Tomorrow at least. Today… today I think I’d just feel frustrated and angry while slaughtering as many gremlins as I can find.”

“As I’d expect of you.” I say, “You are my most loyal soldier for a reason.”

“You’re actually fine with it?” She asks. “That on days like this I simply can’t find it in me to care? That I can’t even feel love or compassion, right now?”

“You don’t feel any love at the moment?” I ask, shifting around and flinching as I see another scrape that I can’t feel. I check but no more poison got into me.

“None. Just frustration.” She replies. “I could kill you right now and feel nothing. Until tomorrow at least, when I would feel… everything.”

“It’s not so bad, then.” I say, accepting her shoulder. “Your heart is taking a well-deserved break, but by the way you’re not murdering me, I can tell it left behind a few rules.”

“That’s… a strange way of seeing it.” She replies, smiling a little.

“Is it weird that your cold smile is actually a little attractive right now?” I ask.

“I wouldn’t really know if it’s weird or not.” She replies. “I’m the weird one among us, apparently.”

“Ah, we’re all weird, my lovely.” I say my head feeling rather fluffy at the moment. “Does that bother you?”

“Right now, I couldn’t care less.” She replies, spinning to kiss me. It doesn’t feel particularly passionate, but rather playful and silly, especially considering the life-or-death situation that we’re treating so lightly at the moment.

She’s having a mood swing of some sort, and I’m poisoned and possibly dying, so I think that excuses our strange behaviour.

“Onwards we go.” I say, stepping ahead while giggling.

“Be careful!” She hisses, shifting me on her shoulder, “There are still traps arou- ah, shit!”

She tries to move back, but the trap is too fast. A spear launches from low down in the wall, hitting Eshya firmly in the thigh.

I clumsily reach down and pull the mana from the poison in her blood stream, drawing it out the same way as I do with support devices. It wasn’t enough to save me from my current fate, however.

Eshya grunts in frustration as she pulls the spear out of her thigh and starts shuffling around in my pockets, looking for my healing potion.

“Left side, pants pocket.” I say, and she quickly finds it. She pops the top and downs it all.

“Eshya?” I ask after her, but she shrugs off my concerns.

“Let’s get back to that place without the traps.” She says.

“Where we slaughtered all the younglings?”

“Yeah, there.” She replies, looking back at me a moment. “You aren’t regretting killing them, are you? They’re a violent species that are intruding in our territory, it’s only natural that we deal with them. You’ve dealt with other creatures the same.”

“I just don’t want to become a heartless killing machine, even if terminators are cool, who falls in love with the metal man? Huh? I mean, wait, did that happen in the new films… I never watched them.”

“What are you on about?” Eshya asks, as she struggles along.

“Just trying to find something silly to say so that I can pretend that we’re not poisoned and slowly dying horrible deaths.” I say.

I turn to look at her when I don’t get an immediate reply.

Her face is yellower than usual. A symptom that I don’t have, but there’s no reason to think that these dirty bastards would use the same poison on every trap. No, rather, they’re probably mixing and matching as they like. I should be glad that bacterial infections aren’t dangerous, otherwise we’d be dealing with literal shit-sticks, too.

Breathing heavier with each stumbling step, time moves at something of a crawl as I wait for the gremlins to come again. The longer I wait, the more I start to hope that they’ll leave us be, but then I hear their screeching in the distance, coming closer.

We rush onwards, seeing the door ahead of us, hoping to reach it before the gremlins reach us. I can’t even raise a hand to push the door open, as we crash right through, stumbling inside.

The only creatures here are dead, and all that’s changed since our last visit is that now the soup in the cauldron smells like it’s burning.

“I… aiegrrr.” Eshya growls strange sounds, her limbs tremble around me, and I can’t keep us both balanced.

We fall as she convulses in my arms, the roots on the ground slamming into my side as I try to protect her from the fall.

“Eshya?” I call her name and roll her onto her back, using my numb limbs as best as I can. Her eyes are flicking all over and her mouth is filled with yellow foam.

A deep blend of emotions swirl inside me as I fumble about, trying to keep her still.

This shouldn’t be happening.

This can’t be happening.

She’s mine…

But no magic of mine will save her.

My decisions brought us here. Was I wrong? Did I make this happen?

The screeching behind me threatens to steal my attention away, but I barely give the gremlins a glance before throwing bolts of annihilation their way. Abandoning all caution, I throw all that I have at them, carving out chunks of flesh and bone until none are left standing.

My dizzy eyes turn to Eshya.

She’s regained some lucidity and is wiping her mouth with her sleeve as she drags herself over to the wall to recover.

“Are you better?” I ask, crawling over to her. My own limbs are betraying me worse for every second that passes, and I don’t know what I can do about it.

In theory I could annihilate the poison, or even use my unpractised refinement magic to refine it out of us both.

I have no idea how I’d achieve either, but I know that it’s possible.

No matter how long my foggy mind thinks on the topic, I can’t find an answer that’ll save us. I can’t magic my problems away.

Except for the gremlins, I’m going to magic them the fuck away.

“I’m… I might be dying.” Eshya messages me through her support device. Her eyes are filled with such violent light, that I’m sure that if I point her the right direction she’ll kill the next wave of gremlins with her glare alone.

She starts convulsing again, but stops a moment later.

“I can’t move. I can’t move.” She sends, and I crawl closer, holding her head up to mine as I stare into her eyes.

She could die here.

There’s nothing I can do to stop that.

No cure, no magic.

Behind me, the gremlins start pouring into the room again and I wave them away with a flash of my hand, using up everything I have.

I rush my crystal into hand, but there is no shine to it.

I’m out.

I hear laughter, but gremlins don’t laugh. My own dry throat burns as I try to suppress the fear running through me.

She’s mine.

I can’t lose her.

I force my numb limbs to move underneath me as I crawl to the corpse parts that litter the ground. Many parts are still pouring blood from the arteries cut short, some of the dying creatures are still breathing, though not for much longer.

As I grab the first corpse in reach, a young gremlin. The one which killed it’s sibling with a rock, I think. I hear a familiar screech and look up at the door, at the gremlins flowing in.

I pull the mana from the corpse in my hand, even knowing that it’s too late.

I struggle to push myself away, moving closer to Eshya, but the gremlin reaches me first. Pain flares in my ankle as it grabs me and pulls me closer.

Its knife is covered in poisonous gunk as the creature smiles down at me with bloody intent.

It lifts its knife.

I can’t stop it.

Eshya rolls towards me, convulsing violently.

I struggle to squeeze out a drop of mana. The mana inside, however, just can’t convert fast enough, no matter how I far I stretch my soul.

The gremlin screeches, the meaning censored by Chip, and my apparent disinterest.

The knife starts it’s decent, but something distracts the gremlin.

A flash of black chitin races through the roots around me.

In a flash of movement, Shen leaps at the monster, sinking her legs into its flesh as she crawls up its leg, it’s torso, all the way up to its head. The gremlin tries to pull her free, but can’t quite overpower her.

She wraps her tail around its neck, sinking it into its spine, as she wraps herself around its face.

The other gremlins turn to see what’s going on, looking at the back of their companion worriedly.

Shen’s gremlin takes a few drunken steps, before turning to the others. Before they can react, Shen’s gremlin starts wildly slashing at them with his poisoned knife, igniting a frantic melee.

The gremlins thrust and cut wildly, not even taking a moment to ask why they’re fighting each other. The one that Shen is riding gets stabbed a few times in the belly and gets sliced badly along the arms but fights on without regards to its own health.

My own head feels light as I wait for my mana to return, watching the battle unfold.

Swinging wildly, Shen is able to guide her gremlin to victory. Poisoned wounds cover the necks and faces of those gremlins that she beat. They collapse and start trembling, dying from either the wounds or the poison, it doesn’t really matter which.

Shen’s gremlin then turns the knife on itself, thrusting up into its chest before keeling over, shuddering with the last of its life.

“Good girl, Shen!” I say, as the new mana starts flowing through my body, relieving me of about 10% of my current concerns.

She walks over to Eshya and me with a bounce in her step as she sprays the blood off of her tail and all over the roots around us. I catch a brief glimpse of her tail closing away as a thousand little tendrils wind themselves into a tight rope and retreat back into her body.

Our heroic, little, mind-controlling, face enthusiast, has come to our rescue.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 120 units

~Mana distribution:

Catagory Current Max. Defence 0% 32% Offense 0% 57% Mana Sense 0% 72% Recovery 0% 30% Gluttony 0% 26% Misc. 31% 31% Efficiency 31% 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