Ch.7 Abilities

‘It already happened?’

‘Did you not notice that you lost consciousness?’

‘No I didn't, that’s kind of scary. To think that I can just be put asleep without even noticing.’

‘Kind of, but anyway what is that “Fire Manipulation Skill” that you got from this, it feels weird to me.’

‘I can take a look.’

Skill: Lesser Fire Manipulation

Tier: 1; Lv.: 1

Allows you to expend Mana to create and manipulate flames.

‘That’s just me but worse.’

‘Maybe. What did you say about it feeling weird?’

‘I’m not sure, but I feel like I could just do this…’

“Skill: Lesser Fire Manipulation has been changed to Lesser Cursed Fire Manipulation.”

‘What did you do?’

‘I just reached out to the skill and then it changed somehow.’

“Lesser Cursed Fire Manipulation”

Tier: 1; Lv.: 1

Allows you to expend Mana to create and manipulate cursed flames that sap away at your enemies strength.

‘This feels a bit weird to have, but it seems to be stronger than the fire manipulation.’

‘It is, I can feel it, there’s some of me in there.’

‘Some of you? Doesn’t that mean that it made you weaker?’

‘No, it’s more like a part of my essence, part of what my Skill is, not directly off of me.’

‘That’s good.’

There was silence between Cinis and Aiden before Aiden Interrupted.

‘It’s already getting dark again, shouldn’t we go back?’

‘I feel strangely revitalized after the evolution. I think we can still wait.’

‘Is it safe?’

‘I think so.’

‘Fine, if you’re sure then we can go around a bit. Maybe we can look for new hunting grounds.’

‘That’s a great Idea.’

‘But where do we go’

‘We could search on the other side of the hole, not in the direction of the goblin cave, but the other direction.’

‘That sounds good.’

Cinis went on the way. First going back to he hole and then branching off from the path to the goblins cave. Cinis had never been in that direction before and both they and Aiden wondered what lied there.

After a while of navigating the forest, beating through the underwoods and hiding under it as well, Cinis arrived at the edge of the forest. After emerging from the woods a large wall in the medium distance became visible to Cinis. Behind the wall lay a city. Although Cinis didn’t know what a city was at this point they were awed by the sheer size of it, in comparison to the only other community they had ever seen, the goblins.

Even at this distance Cinis was able to see that the city was populated by the same tall, two legged creatures that had slain the goblins.

The City was surrounded by plains, with grass that swung in the wind. In the distance, somewhere to the left of the city there was a lake, barely visible against the horizon.

Cinis was at a loss for words.

‘This, what is this?’

‘It’s so large.’

‘Do we go closer?’

‘I don’t think that that would be a good Idea, you saw how they decimated the goblins.’

‘Right, but it seems like there is no one outside, so can we at least take a look at the field in front?’

‘Alright, we can.

Cinis carefully moved closer to the city walls, stopping about halfway on top of a large area without any grass. They thought this was weird and investigated. On the sandy floor were still a lot of footprints, Cinis guessed of the city’s inhabitants, that were likely recent. The grass was likely trampled away long ago.

Looking around further there were only a few shrubs, the next plants growing on the fields in the distance. For some reasons the fields were also walled off.

Sneaking around the field for some more time, their body pressed even closer to the ground than it usually was, Cinis noticed something odd.

‘What is that thing poking out of the ground over there?’

‘I don’t know, a shrub?’

‘No, it’s pointy.’

Cinis moved closer to the thing, poked it with their claws and rapidly shot back when something buried out of the ground at an unbelievable speed. This beast was a rabbit with a large horn on its forehead. Immediately after coming out of the ground the rabbit oriented itself and, locating Cinis, charging at them.

‘What in the world is that?’

screamed Cinis, clearly shocked. They were barely able to dodge out of the way but were not able to move sideways quick enough to completely avoid injury. The rabbit’s horn pierced their side, causing them to lose 21 HP. However, due to the force of the attack their body whirled around and gave Cinis a perfect opportunity for biting their foe.

The rabbit struggled in Cinis’s mouth and quickly managed to break free. However, by this time Cinis had already summoned Aiden.

‘Quick, infuse mana into me!’

‘I’m on it.’

Without the time to figure anything out Cinis simply followed their instincts and pushed mana towards a mental image of the skill that represented Aiden. This seemed to work and Aiden’s flaming form flared up, almost causing damage to Cinis simply by proximity. Yet still the darkness that surrounded them was only disrupted by the lights of the city as Aiden was not a flame of light.

Dancing around the rabbit Aiden singed patches of its fur, inflicting pain and superficial damage. Cinis, encouraged by their success, attempted to use the cursed flames. Again sending mana into the skill and then gathering its essence into the place it felt most natural: the mouth.

Although Cinis was able to complete this step, they could not have known that this instinctual use needed time. What Cinis did realize was that if they were to disrupt the process the attack would turn out weak.

‘Can you keep distracting it?’

‘I will try.’

Aiden started to fly around faster than before, blocking ways the rabbit could have fled. The rabbit cried out in pain, jumping out of the way of one of Aidens attacks to solidify its stance for another dash. It charged towards Cinis, yet Cinis was completely unable to dodge since the attack was still charging up. Due to that Cinis was hit directly in the side, the horn digging deep into their flesh.

“Hp lost - 47 - remaining - 41”

Now Cinis was the one screeching with pain. This luckily didn’t interrupt the attack they were charging up, which was now finished. In response to the rabbits' charge Cinis now attacked. A stream of dark flames came out of Cinis’ mouth and scorched the rabbit. It screamed with its dying breath when Aiden arrived to finish burning it and to absorb its body. Yet the two of them didn’t expect what would happen next.

Most of what they had previously assumed to be dead bushes and shrubbery now turned out to be others of the rabbits’ kind. Agitated by the screams the dying rabbit had given off they burrowed out of the floor, immediately focusing in on Cinis. Some of them were hit by the remaining embers of Cinis’ attack, visibly slowing down yet still dangerously fast in their charge.

Cinis of course had long since begun to run.