If there is one great advantage to being nearly entirely numb, it’s that I can’t really feel all of the roots digging into my back and side. Even the corpses that I’m drawing my mana from, aren’t nearly so disgusting when I can’t actually feel them.

“Shen. Poison? Cure?” I ask, knowing that the little bug doesn’t have any pockets to hide secret antidotes in.

“Cure?” Shen shouts, before skittering around in confusion searching the room for this ‘cure’ that I’m asking for.

“No? Well, that’s fine, I guess.” I say, “Pull a few bodies over to me? Bodies. Here.”

She bobs happily in understanding before pulling one of the smaller gremlins over to me. The little mana sack makes for a decent enough meal, but it’s the next one that fills me up. The excess mana I feed into my storage crystal for later, while I continue pulling mana from corpses.

“Still living?” I send to Eshya, who leans against the wall of the room, still as a corpse.

“Still living.” She sends back, having another small fit before relaxing. “Still unable to move.”

“Rest, then. Shen and I will take care of everything.” I tell her.

Thankfully, for one reason or another, the gremlins have given us a small break to prepare. I’ve been using that time to gather as much mana as I can. Who knows how much longer we’ll have to hold out, it could be days before anyone comes for us.

“Red, Shen has managed to reach us, but Eshya and I have been poisoned. We can hold out for a little longer. How are things going up there? Is the weather nice? Everyone getting along well?” I giggle to myself, as I start writing nonsense.

“We’re still working on it. Be careful of the mages.” Red sends back rather simply.

“Already killed a few. Might kill a few more, let’s see how the day goes.” I reply.

“We’re coming for you. Survive.” Nel sends. I’m sure there’s more that she wants to say, but there isn’t much time for conversation at the moment.

“You’ll both make it out fine.” Vii says with ridiculous amounts of confidence. “Just fight your way through it. We’ll get to you soon.”

“Everyone’s working hard to save us.” I say to Eshya, a warm smile finding it’s way to my lips as I feel a little calmer. Distant screeching steals that calm away.

It sounds somehow calmer, and more commanding than the voices I’ve heard so far. Chip even translates a burst of laughter from the distant gremlin, slowly closing in.

“Ready. Shen.” I say, getting her attention. “Hide above the door.”

She shifts side to side in confusion, but rushes up to the roots above the door. If she can catch them by surprise, while I cast my annihilation magic, we’ll make it through this next wave just fine.

That’s the plan right up until I feel the magic stirring in the tunnel outside. I don’t know exactly what the mage is doing, but a loud thumping sound announces that something larger than a regular gremlin is coming our way.

“Frey, Arduelle, if you want to keep playing with your toys, you keep them in good condition, no? A little help please?” I ask, trying to swallow back my worry, but my numb, dry throat refuses to oblige.

“We won’t intervene here.” Arduelle says, “Do your best. We’re cheering you on.”

“Damn voyeur dungeons.” I mutter as the beast finally reaches the door. For some reason it stops, waiting for something.

“Are you done fighting?” The gremlin asks, in the most polite screech that I’ve ever heard from their species. I try to repress my shock, I know that they can talk, but to think one would approach for a conversation right now?

“Ah, depends on a few things, I guess?” I reply.

The faceless gremlin chuckles.

“Smart one. Valuable. Let’s talk, then. These conditions?” I’m not sure whether he’s talking with simple phrases out of habit or condescension, I’m quite sure he’s smarter than he sounds.

“First, no killing us.” I say starting with the most obvious demand.

“Of course.” The creatures hisses in amused reply. “Dead things are useless things.”

“If you have a treatment for the poisons, that’d be nice.” I say, looking over to Eshya while trying to figure out what exactly is going on.

“I have antidotes, yes. Some minions who know treatment, too.” He says.

“Ah, okay, nice.” I mutter, “So what are you after?”

“I want minions. Strong minions. Smart minions.” He says. If it weren’t for the implied threat of death as an incentive, this would have to be the worst employment offer I’ve ever heard. I do hope that I don’t sound like this when I’m recruiting people.

“What a coincidence, that’s what I’m looking for too.” I reply. “Did you come to give me your resume?”

The gremlin laughs again, understanding my words and intent clearly enough to find amusement in it.

“No, you are my minion.” He replies in calm conversational screeching. Or at least, Chip is convinced that it’s calm and conversational.

“Well, that’s just not going to work…” I mutter, stirring up my mana and readying for a fight.

“I have many more fodder minions to throw at you. How many more until you give in?”

“Fodder minions?” I ask, looking at the gremlin corpses around me. “They aren’t your own siblings, or family, or whatever?”

This too amuses the gremlin, honestly if we’re taking his reaction into account, you’d think that I was trying a comedy routine.

“No, no, no.” He says, correcting me. “They are waste. Garbage. Worthless. They cannot become strong. Except when eaten by someone strong.”

“That’s a bit fucked.” I reply, without a second thought.

“It is truth.” He says cheerfully.

In theory, if I could figure out where he’s standing, I could probably use an annihilation bolt to blast him out of existence. The penetrative ability of the magic is just insane, but without any good means of aiming, it would be risky. Especially when I consider that he’s probably got others with him.

“You seem different from the others of your kind that I’ve met.” I say, hoping further conversation might give our rescuers enough time to come charging to our rescue.

“Am different.” He says, “You meet fodder minions. They are weak. Pitiful. Think they are strong. Think they are important, but that’s because they are stupid.”

“Even the mages?” I ask.

“Mages? Not pitiful, but not strong.” He replies. “I will give you time. When you are ready, Tkarn will bring you to me.”

“Who are you? You have a name, no?” I ask, trying to work away the numbness in my limbs.

“Loekan. King of stone towers. Ruler of cavern.” He replies. “You will obey, in time.”

The glowing magic fades into the distance as Loekan leaves us, the amount of mana he’s investing into that spell makes it clear that he’s beyond our ability to fight right now. In fact, he might be on par with Red, though I’d still bet on her victory in a fight.

I quickly send a message to Red, informing her of the Loekan, while preparing for the next wave of enemies. It’s most likely going to be more gremlins, but he did drop the name ‘Tkarn’, which suggests that we might have ourselves a mini-boss fight.

“Get ready.” I whisper, as much to myself as to Shen. Eshya is going to have to sit out of this coming fight, her poisoning too serious to be able to ignore.

When the screaming starts, I’m about as ready as can be expected.

Wait.

Screaming? Not screeching?

“Bone spur bunnies?” I whisper the name, recalling the screams from when last I saw them. “But why would…? doesn’t matter.”

I lay low on the ground and swirl my mana into small vortexes, ready for rapid fire casting. As the screams get close to the door, I slide the glowing crystal into my mouth, ready to draw on it the moment the battle starts.

The first muscled bunny to bound through the door gets peppered with annihilation magic, gaining a half dozen tennis ball sized holes added to him. Those following don’t slow, even when faced with such power.

~ Skill developed

~ Rapid fire casting

As I keep casting, I notice it’s a little easier to control the power and directions of the spells, but I don’t have the time for any in depth analysis. The magic flows straight out of my torso with much less accuracy compared to my normal point casting through my fingers but, as my hand refuses to rise above the ground, I don’t have many other options.

The skinless rabbits bound through the door with bulging red muscles, dagger like bone spurs, and massive forward-facing horns. My spells cut them down as fast as they enter, but as my mana dips to below half, and the tide of flesh keeps pouring in, I have to hold myself back.

Shen, noticing that I’ve stopped casting, leaps onto the back of the next beast to leap through the door. With the benefit of surprise it’s not difficult for her to wrap around the beasts face and jam her tail into the back of its neck.

I continue casting my magic, but with larger better aimed spells. Taking the time to aim, I disintegrate heads and legs, disabling them as cheaply as I can.

The door is shattered as they force their way in all at once, too many to deal with. I hit the leg of the cooking cauldron with an annihilation spell, toppling it and spilling the contents all over the screaming bunnies which scatter around the room.

When the first of them reaches me, I still barely have enough mana for my reactive mana skin to prevent it from killing me. Draining the rabbit’s mana, I direct an annihilation spell into it’s brain and get back into the fight.

Shen’s bunny is bouncing from wall to wall with its powerful legs, either trying to shake the insect from its face while accidentally ramming its own siblings, or intentionally doing it all under Shen’s control. Either way works fine for me.

Hugging my brain-dead, skinless, muscled bunny as tight as my weakened limbs will allow, I drain its mana away until brain dead turns to functionally dead. The rest of the rabbits, riled up and angry, start to move with the same aggravated power as Shen’s does.

One leaps towards me, overshooting and slamming its horns into the far wall behind me, getting stuck in the vines while it tries to claw its way out.

Another tries to ram into Eshya, but I’m fast enough to melt its face off, sending it sprawling on the ground instead. Seeing the danger that my elvish companion is in; I force my limbs into motion while continuing to cast at the beasts that attack us.

Shen finally breaks her puppet, shattering its back legs by kicking another of the bunnies until its skull breaks open. She’s fast to hop onto the next that passes by, jamming her tail into its neck. I can imagine she’d be fun at a rodeo, until she kills all the bulls.

My mana is almost gone as I wait for the energy from the crystal to convert inside me. Sitting on Eshya’s lap, to defend her against any unwanted advances, I look around for the last of the beastly rabbits.

I glimpse a hint of motion as something flies at me, without hesitation I blast at it with half of my remaining mana, while investing the rest into my reactive mana skin. The annihilation spell hits the beasts face, melting its jaws, eyes, and most of its head leaving only a pair of horns atop its skull.

I focus on blocking the sharp horns using mana shields ready to burn my mana away to resist the attack as the remains of the bone spur bunny slam into my guts. My mana burns away trying to force it to a stop, ultimately failing.

The twin bones spear into my belly with enough momentum to stab right through until the skull itself punches into my guts.

I spit out a breath, my vision blacks out, and a terrible pain burns inside me. Looking down, I can’t tell how much of the blood is mine, and how much is from the rabbit.

“Kyra!” Eshya messages me. “Stay awake. You’ll be fine. Just don’t pull it out, we’ll bleed to death without healing.”

It hurts to laugh, but I can’t stop it. The bunny’s horns have stabbed right through me, and into Eshya behind me.

“Sorry.” I say as the laughter settles down, “I’m a good leader, am I?”

“You are a great leader. Shut up and hang on, we can still make it out of this.” Eshya insists, her breathing getting faster, as she convulses, her head pushing against my back.

“I’m barely a leader at all. The first real team exercise we’re part of, and not only am I not leading it, I’m the one to fall into a trap. Then I drag you down with me.” I say. “That creature, Loekan is more of a leader than I am.”

“Kyra?” Eshya messages, I think she feels that something’s up.

“If that’s the case…” The door slowly opens, and an unfamiliar creature walks in. “Then you should acknowledge him as your superior.”

“Stay hidden!” I order Shen.

The beast, though I’m not sure I should use the term, is nearly as wide as the passage she enters from, and she’s clearly not suited to the environment down here.

She’s the size of a large bull, and roughly has the silhouette of one, though her body is covered in thick armoured plates. I can see the hammer marks from where the metal has been smacked into shape, and a few nails where it’s been smacking into place.

Though, it’s her face that really steals the horror show. Her head hangs low as she looks down at me, her twin tusks, black as midnight, shine in the dull light of the moss around us. Between the tusks are a half dozen, grey trunks, twisting around one another.

It’s like an elephant, a bull, and Cthulhu and a fun night at the club, and nine months later one of them managed to birth this monstrosity. I hope I don’t look this ugly to all the other species out there.

“Aaaand, there’s the mana rush.” I say as my mana finishes its conversion. “I have a counteroffer. You join my side, we kill your boss, and you live a happy life doing sewing or some other inane shit. Or fight in my army if you’d rather, but that’s up to you.

“So, which is it?” I ask, “Do you want to be my soldier, or is there some other career that you had to set aside because of circumstances? Perhaps you could become an actor, or a florist?”

She stiffens at my offer, tilting her head to the side as she inspects me in thought.

“What is an ‘actor’? And a ‘Florist’?” She asks.

“An actor is a person who pretends to be someone else to tell others a story.” I say, breathing slowly, feeling the bones digging into my flesh with every twitch.

“A florist is someone who raises pretty flowers, and sells them to people.”

“To potion makers?” She asks, stepping closer to me, without much worry.

“No, well I guess them too. Just to people who like flowers. To smell them, or have them around the house to liven the place up a little, you know?”

“I don’t know.” She replies, sitting on the ground at my feet, her legs folding underneath her. “I’d be interested in hearing more when you come back with us.”

“You’ve got it backwards.” I say, “You are coming with me, silly bum.”

“You are dying.”

“Smart observation.” I say, “But I still have plenty of life left in me.”

“Eshya? Keep messaging me to say you’re alive, would you?” I send.

“I’m alive, for now.” She sends at me, making me chuckle.

“I can get you to a healer.”

“Goddamn it, even the gremlins have a healer!” I say, hissing out a few more laughs, “I really need to get me one of those. Think we can steal one?”

“I don’t think you can do much at all.” Tkarn says, her trunk touching at my leg. I get that it’s meant to be reassuring, but I am not into that!

I repress the shiver and keep the conversation going.

“Surely it hurts having that metal plated into your body.” I say, waving over her flesh. “You wouldn’t need that if you joined my team.”

“It hurts less than having no armour.” She replies, “Like you.”

“Did you just sass me?” I ask, holding in a laugh. I’m lucky the skull didn’t hit me higher else I’d be choking on blood and I’d have far less time for this fucking about.

C’mon, someone come save me already.

“How about a deal.” I suggest. “You really do seem well-mannered, so a competition. We fight to subdue each other, if I win, you swap to my team. If I lose, I’ll promote you to whatever role you want.”

“That would mean I swap to your team regardless.” She says.

“Exactly.” I say, my head feeling a bit dizzy again. It’s getting difficult to stay conscious, and this time it’s not mana shock doing the damage. The poison is getting to me.

Eshya is still sending her messages. She’s sending lots of them, in fact, so many it’s a little distracting.

“If I win, you will come with me and accept Loekan as your King.” She says, “If you win, which isn’t going to happen, I will submit to you and be loyal to you so long as you remain strong enough to be worthy of such respect.”

“I was going to have you sell your immortal soul to me for eternity, but hey, this is good enough I suppose.” I say.

“So, we are going to fight?”

“Now good?” I ask, and she chuckles.

I take that as a yes.

Her trunk touching at my leg gives me easy access to her support device, though our connection is not the greatest. As I start pulling at the strings of the device, she stiffens up and throws herself back, less by intention and more from muscular spasms if I’m to hazard a guess.

“Shen, now!” I send to my hidden side kick. I’d planned this thinking that she’d leap down from the roof onto the temporarily disabled Tkarn and mind-control her to our victory.

For some reason, she instead rides her bunny into battle, slamming the critters hard horns into the metal plating on Tkarns side.

The large mini-boss quickly pulls herself back to her feet, the bunny hanging from the side of her, with Shen stuck between a skull and a hard place.

It’s clear my one strike victory has slipped from my fingers, so I ready myself for plan B and throw half of my mana into an annihilation bolt aimed at her face.

Seeing it coming, she lifts up her trunks to try and catch the spell, likely using mana shields or some other defensive technique to try and void the damage of the spell.

My magic hits and unravels reality, melting her flesh down to inert ash. Only a single one of her trunks remains whole, the rest are cut down to about half their length.

That’s it.

That’s all that half of my mana can do.

She’s more mana dense, so of course it’s going to cost more to melt her down.

Fuck.

She sets her feet to charge at me and I gather the rest of my mana into a single vortex, praying it’ll be enough to take her down.

She pushes off the ground, Shen hanging from her side charging at me for the first few steps before she loses the strength in her legs and falls, sliding the rest of the way right up to my feet.

“What…?” I ask, keeping my mana close, ready to cast the moment she moves.

“Mana’s low, something is in my head.” She says, her voice sounding desperate. “Your spell… it somehow ate my mana? Is it you controlling me?”

Looking closely, I can see Shen’s tail stretching out and around, barely reaching up to Tkarn’s neck. Thankfully she’s still allowed to speak, else she wouldn’t be able to concede to me.

“Ahhahaha~!” I laugh out in victory. “Shen you beautiful bug. Tkarn, do you submit?” I ask, shaking my head and scrunching my face, fighting the tiredness threatening to force me to sleep.

“I… I submit.” She says.

“You will follow me, do as I tell you to, and play nice with the rest of my people?”

“Until the day you submit to Loekan.” She says.

“If we release you, can you carry us out of here?” I ask her.

“I will do as you command, so long as you don’t demand I attack Loekan.” She says, and I have to hope that she’s not lying.

“Shen, let her go, but be ready to take over again if she starts attacking us.” I say, but Shen just looks at me in confusion.

“Let her go.” I say, and Shen pulls her tail back out from Tkarn’s neck.

“Can you move now?” I ask.

“Ah… no.” She replies, shifting her trunk a little as she talks, but nothing more than that.

“Shen. Tkarn, no move?” I ask simplifying the concept as much as I can.

“No move!” Shen cheers happily.

“So, apparently, you’re a quadriplegic until we get some healing.” I say, repressing the desperate laughter that’s bubbling up inside my chest.

Shen, the only one of us who can move, is dancing happily atop Tkarn as we try to think our way out of this situation.

“Shit. Another fucking trap?” I hear some swearing from out in the passage.

“Have you maybe tried not stepping on them?” Another voice replies to him. “Seems like they should be just ahead. Kyra? Eshya? Are you there?”

“Hello?” I call, my voice coming out strange as it doesn’t quite feel right escaping my numb throat. As a side thought, I start cycling mana through my liver again, hoping it’ll do something for me.

“Darrell and team, at your service!” Cries the short axe-man as he pushes past the remnants of the door. “What the hell happened here?”

“Two poisonings, one brain-jacking, and a… dancing bug who saved the day. The dead people are the bad guys.”

“I’m glad that you’re all alive, but who is this?” Charé says, her head nearly touching the low ceiling as she waves at Tkarn.

“A new recruit. If she doesn’t behave herself, kill her.”

“The same thing all over again…” Tkarn mumbles, her head laying motionless on the ground at my feet, looking rather pitiful.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 410 units

~Mana distribution:

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

-Rapid fire casting