I’m wrapped up by one of Bessy’s long limbs and tossed under the thick wooden deck of the ship alongside Eshya and Vii. Shen crawls down on her own, slipping around on the many dangerous noodly limbs that spread out around through the internal parts of the hull.

Red crawls in after us, her sharp daggers held at the ready as she closes the hatch behind her. The little red birds will be on us in moments.

“What do we do?” I ask, gazing about the small space in Bessy’s hull. The ship is about fifteen metres long, and four metres deep, which is somehow both cosy and too large to easily defend.

“You just focus on surviving. The rest of us are going to make sure you get out of here.”

“Don’t you die either. Any of you.” I say in a low growl pressuring the mana in my chest, demanding that it convert faster.

“I don’t plan to.” Red replies. “The gaps are big enough for them to slip through, and the armour isn’t strong enough to hold up against them anyway. We need to get underground as fast as we can.”

“That underwater tunnel?” I ask.

“That’s where we’re going.” Red says. “I expect more trouble waiting for us there.”

Bessy trills as the first impact smacks into the wooden hull, soon followed by an unending tide of crashes. Faster than machinegun fire they smash into the hull, some slipping into the gaps, others piercing right through.

Red leaps at those that make it through near to her, slashing down a pair with her glowing daggers, by cutting from their underside.

The third flies directly at her and deflects off of her blade bouncing off and getting stuck in the wood of the hull opposite her. Bessy takes the chance to wrap the bird up in a tentacle, squeezing it to death while it tries to recover.

These birds tend to concentrate their mana into their beaks and heads, making them weak to attacks coming from any other direction. Most of the time they’re fast enough for it not to matter.

As our little armoured haven is invaded by a dozen and then more, I see just how dangerous these creatures are. Their sharpened beaks easily pierce through Bessy’s flesh, and Shen’s long serpentine body is cut through one more time for every second that passes.

Vii shouts as one flies at her, dodging just enough that it hits her side and not her heart. Her wind barrier is pierced without the bird even slowing, carving clean through from front to back. Blood and flesh still scatter from the wound, as she screams in pain, drooping in Bessy’s grip.

I grit my teeth, growling low at the offense.

She is mine, but so long as my mana isn’t mine, then I can do nothing to protect her.

Eshya holds her blade out as she pulls her way before me, standing between me and the living projectiles. Right on time, one of the little red birds flies straight for us, crashing into Eshya’s raised sword.

It’s the metal that gives way, shattering under the stresses of impact as the bird continues its flight, stabbing through Eshya’s shoulder and getting stuck when it’s nearly the whole way through.

The bloody bird peeks out at me, still writhing inside of her shoulder. I open my mouth, screaming, raging, as I grab the bird by its head, tearing it out of her and draining its mana.

It dares touch her?!

It dares wound her?!

I squeeze it of mana as it struggles in my grasp, its strength leaving it fast enough that even in my current state it can’t escape me. My heart pounds painfully as I hear a dull ringing in my ears.

I lift the heretical little beast up to my mouth and sink my teeth into its neck. The feathers that stop my teeth soon bend when their mana is taken away, the flesh separating under the pressure as it’s stripped of power. My mana drain ability clears a path and my teeth saw at the flesh until the bird’s head is severed.

On instinct, I swallow. It doesn’t go down easy, but I don’t care, pulling the mana from both parts of its corpse at once. It’s too much mana for me, and I can’t hold it all, but what does that matter. Let it leak out if it must. So long as this bird doesn’t have it.

I pour a potion over Eshya’s wound as she clutches the remains of her sword, ignoring her bleeding injury to try and catch the next beast. To try and protect me.

I pull Vii close to me but she’s already treated her own wound. Another bird flies in at me and this time Vii floats between me and it to protect me, blasting at it with all the wind she can summon.

A glowing red dagger catches the bird mid-flight, sending it tumbling safely away, but there are dozens more taking its place, and Red suffers her first injury. While drawing another dagger the bird stabs through her leg, with enough force to stagger my most trusted warrior.

Red’s glowing dagger catches the another bird with her blades, sending it tumbling away, but it’s not enough.

There are too many.

I swallow a mouthful of bile, pulling at the mana inside me, trying to get it moving even in its current unconverted state. It refuses me.

Shen screams in frustration, her body cut through in so many places, bleeding from a hundred wounds.

Eshya holds firmly to the shattered remains of her sword, ready to take another attack for me, knowing that she can’t survive another attack like the last.

Vii trembles, sweat gathering on her brow as looks about for the next bird to come for us.

More and more of the screeching birds break into the hull through the widening gaps. We can’t survive this.

I need to do something.

I need to save them.

“Die, die, die. Just fucking die!” I shout pulling at my mana, and pulling barely even a drop out of it. If I can make a drop of mana, I can make more. Squeezing with my soul, my body feels freezing cold, distant and alien, as I compress my focus down into that one point, where mana converts inside me.

Something beyond space, beyond time.

The part of me which is more than human, more than flesh, more than mana

My soul.

I can barely feel the thundering forces crashing through me as the ship lands in the water. The hull finally shattering entirely as water floods in all around us. The birds panic, my people shudder and struggle.

My soul finally bursts out with the pure refined energy of mana.

I invest some of that mana into my mind, slowing my perception of time as I take in the wrongness of everything around me.

Deep, dense mana stirs in my heart, forming a vortex of annihilation magic a little unlike the others. It’s not new, but it’s not quite the same as the old either.

I cannot hit targets so small and so fast with what I’ve used before.

No, I need something more guided. Something under my control.

Bessy pulls us down, into the water rushing for the tunnel in the roots, but the birds are fast to recover. We’re not going to make it.

Eshya screams rebelliously, raising the remains of her sword against a little bird flying at her. Vii shudders, not seeing the two that are coming for her. Shen, Red, Bessy, all are suffering because I am not enough.

“Nothing stands against me.” The words thrum throughout my mind as the mana forms magic in my heart, reaching out into the world to make my words true. “Thus, you are nothing.”

Threads of annihilation fold into themselves over and over becoming that singular dimensional bolt, but instead of racing away from me it extends out, splitting and splitting again. It moves outwards from my chest in an ever-expanding web, forming a net in front of Esha’s bird, then another two for the pair coming for Vii.

~Skill developed

~Annihilation net

More and more nets of unrealised annihilation flood out from the webs around me, ready to catch the enemies that fly through the water as easily as they do the air.

The birds do not stop, they cannot stop. Nor can they make a sharp turn to escape.

Blood, feathers, and fresh chum blasts out from where each of the fleshy, little darts impact my magic. Eshya grunts, thrown back into me as the mana dense clumps hit her.

Vii rolls up as she’s bruised and pierced by the bones that still move with the momentum of the bird, but without near as much concentrated mana density.

Bessy pulls us all away with her remaining tentacles, snatching up the limbs cut off by the birds and eating them whole before the mana becomes stagnant. Red swims quickly ahead of us, leading the way into the dark tunnels as more of the little birds dart down after us.

Shen is last, her new body bleeding from far too many holes, Bessy catches her before she can be left behind.

My mana is near to nothing again, but it was worth the cost.

A combination of mana shock, the mana friction from both the water and the tentacles gripping me, and the twisting g-forces from the many fast turns, threaten to steal away my consciousness. Gritting my teeth, I resist the temptation to let myself sleep.

Hearing only a dull buzzing in my ears, we burst out into a familiar, well-lit room. I almost take a breath, but even with my unclear senses I can tell that there’s no air here.

By pulling the last mana from the bird corpse in my hands I quickly recover my mana from nothing—my only means of measuring time while racing through the tunnels, and it seems like it took at least a minute of swimming if not more.

My heart burns with indignation, the ball of rage inside burning cold as I take in the vandalism. New tunnels have been opened here and there in the walls, but rather than a gremlin assault force, it’s water and beasts that fill our base.

I seethe at the sight of one of my warriors, one of my people, floating lifeless in the water. He was a beast I broke from his collar, a soldier who grew stronger every day, fighting to live a better life. The man greeted me so fondly every day he was on guard…

A black tentacled beast wraps its many limbs around his body, but it’s impaled on Red’s dagger before I can reach out with my own magic.

I forget about the burning in my lungs. I forget about the freezing cold running through my skin. I forget everything but my rage, and my indignity as I’m pulled up into the further tunnels.

Through the cold waters, more filthy than the golden waters of the lake, we burst around a corner, up towards the roiling waters surface. Ink black limbs and bodies push over each other as spears thrust into the mess.

The mana in my heart bursts out into the world, the annihilation web spreading out through the mass of monster flesh before me. My wishes made true, the limbs separate as only loose ash holds them together, and while the flesh still writhes, life is stolen away.

Red rushes out ahead of us, holding the soldiers spears back as we follow her out into the open air of our invaded home.

The soldiers’ eyes are wide open, some are wounded, popping potions now that they have a moment’s reprieve, others tend to the dead behind them.

There are only a few of ours dead, but a few is still too many.

I pull the mana from the black flesh around me, looking for the next enemy, but I’m surrounded by death.

“Vii, Eshya?” I call their names, almost losing control of myself as I see them struggling beside one another. Their injuries worse than I thought.

I help pluck the bird bones and feathers out, but their eyes are still dulled and distant. I force more potions onto them, and as the magic courses through them, they slowly recover.

“Kyra?” Eshya says, clutching the remains of her sword as she grasps at my shoulder. “Did we…?”

“We made it.” I say.

Vii looks about, startled by our surroundings. I grab her shoulder and pull her close, stealing her attention and focus.

“We’re fine.” I growl, still seething. “Breath in. Out. We have to move, are you okay?”

“Go-good. I’m good.” Vii mutters.

“Eshya, can you guide her?” I ask, pushing them away from the water as I look over to Red and Bessy. Shen is already out of the water getting covered in potions by the adoring soldiers, the snake body slowly recovering but it’s still covered in countless scars.

“The twins?” I croak, my voice nearly failing me.

“They’re on the offensive.” Red says. “I’m going to lead a group of reinforcements to support them, while Lakesh manages our defences.

“Apparently Loekan himself is responsible for the tunnels, but he’s retreated since. You must stay here, and keep your mana topped up, you’re our insurance policy in case he decides to show up again.”

I growl quietly, but Red grabs my shoulder firmly, squeezing painfully hard.

“Welcome to war. You’re our leader, if you want you can follow me. I won’t stop you, but…”

“A good leader, respects the opinions of their experts.” I say, my tone still promising death to every enemy. “I want everyone back alive.”

“We don’t always get everything we want.” Red replies, pulling Bessy along behind her.

The soldiers around me form up and Rare reappears at my side trying to lead me away from the rising water.

Vii and Eshya have arrived ahead of me, meeting with Adler who’s been here reinforcing our defences.

“Are you okay?” Adler asks, moving her attention from Vii and Eshya over to me.

“I’m fine. Not even wounded.” I say, grabbing her hand and pulling her along, reaching out for my other lovers.

“Kyra?” She asks, letting herself be pulled.

I grab Eshya and Vii, too.

“I need you three, plus Rare, to hold me down.” I say. “Right now, I rather desperately want to go out there and slaughter every enemy I see. My better senses are losing the battle.”

“Why do we need to stay?” Eshya asks, her words a little discombobulated, proving the question in the act of asking.

“They need me to be ready to face Loekan if he shows up.” I say.

“I guess that makes sense.” Vii says. “The others can’t fight him without dying. Even Red isn’t strong enough. Your magic is the only thing that can kill him…”

“Then let’s get comfortable…” I say, my own words grating on me as I hear my soldiers screaming and fighting.

Loekan will die, if not today, tomorrow, if not tomorrow…

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 3902 units

~Mana distribution:

Category Current Max. Defence 0% 98% Offense 0% 84% Mana Sense 20% 100% Recovery 0% 65% Gluttony 0% 61% Misc. 80% 81% Efficiency 100% 100%

~Favourited Skills:

-Tag and Film

-Mana surge movement

-Annihilation defence

-Annihilation flame burst

-Annihilation net