I drove until the sun came up and then switched back with Malady and Vylet. I have to admit they were better than me at driving this thing. The ride was alot smoother with them in the front. I took this time to continue meditating and practicing my mana control. Mixing some more black and white mana as well, feeding it to the small pebble in my chest. I could feel it absorbing the mixed mana hungrily and grow slightly in size.

After mixing mana a couple times and feeding it to that 'core', I felt the exhaustion from last night and decided to rest.

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Malady was changing. She could feel it herself. Her body was growing faster and her powers were growing terrifyingly fast. Yet something inside her made her feel that it was a good thing. Even new knowledge kept popping up in her head every now and then. She kept talking with Vylet like she always did however, Vylet was also noticing this change. How could she not, they spent most of their time since they met together. At first it was because she didnt trust Finch and thought that them together could escape should he try something. The man seemed a bit odd and naive despite the fact he was an elf, a race known for its racism and severe distrust of anything non-elven. Malady also found him a bit odd but decided to trust him. He could have just left her in that cave to die or for more of those men to find her but he didnt. Vylets distrust of Finch made her get closer to Malady and in time they became freinds. Malady enjoyed her company very much, she couldnt remember much from before she was summoned. But she knew she felt lonely, having Vylet next to her made her happy. But Malady knew this wouldnt last long. Something is coming and Malady didnt know if she or Finch would be strong enough to survive it. She had confidence in Vylet surviving, as the young beast girl was not going to be travelling with them for too much longer.

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Vylet was happily talking with malady, although malady doesnt remember much about her past she was still very smart and had plenty of knowledge of many things from herbs to languages. They would talk about what Vylet used to do at her fathers manor and what she did with her family. Sometimes they would play a game where Vylet would point at a plant and see if Malady could identify it. She almost always knew what it was though and Vylet gave up but secretly kept looking to find some new plants. Vylet was excited to be able to talk with malady, most of the people her age that she was allowed to talk to were just the children of other nobles. They mostly were forced to talk to her to try and get closer to her, some of their parents were even trying to marry off one of their sons to her. They were all liars and were just after his power. Most of them actually hated the beast-men but they were still there trying to butter him up and take his wealth and power one way or another. But there was none of that with Malady, she was interested in her as a person and not her backing. Vylet was driving the carriage at the time and she was rather good at it. She was taught many things after she turned 10, driving was one of them. Malady took over sometimes but mostly she let Vylet drive as she enjoyed it. The carriage was going pretty fast and the creatures she found to pull the carriage were smarter than she thought. They almost drove themselves and never left the road, Finch said he drifted for a bit last night but that was a little hard to beleive as they were staying on the road by themselves. Maybe they cant see very well at night. They were speeding through the country and at this pace they could make it to the next city in less than a day. They had made it to a dense forest with a huge cliff in the middle, no one lived here or nearby because this forest was said the be the home of a fierce god that hated humans and forbid them to settle here. However that didnt stop people from going through it, there was even a road. It wasnt paved but worn down by carriages and carts going through over time. It was relitively straight and only curved to go around hills or a particularly dense area of trees.

Vylet was pretty skilled at navigating these turns, even at the speed they were going. She went into one such turn now, it went to the left for a bit then shot back to the right and continued back towards the other side of the forest. She didnt even slow down at all and that made her almost crash when a fat pink thing had ran into the road and she swerved to avoid it. There was also a downed tree in the road but she was going too fast and already swerved to avoid the pink thing so she braced herself to hit it. But the creatures pulling the cart just ran right through the tree. Breaking it in half with enough space for the carriage to fit through. She was suprised at this but still slowed and stopped the carriage to see what she almost hit.

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I was having an amazing dream until I was woken by a weird scream and the sound of a tree breaking with a loud crunch. I hopped up grabbed my sword and jumped out of the carriage. Malady and Vylet were already out of the carriage and were walking back towards the tree. I ran to catch up with them.

"Whats going on? What happened?"

I asked only slightly out of breath.

"Some thing jumped out in front of me in the road but when I tried to avoid it I hit the tree."

Quite the understatement, as the tree was litterally smashed into tiny bits in the middle.

"What was the thing you almost hit?"

"I dont know, it looked like a little fat, pink child."

She kept walking, while looking around and sniffing the air trying to catch its scent. Not far past the tree she found something, turns out the thing passed out on the side of the road when she almost hit it. We had to get a bit closer before I recognized it.

"Its a Pigmet!"

I declared. I was kind of excited as these little guys were thought of as extinct. Mostly because they were delicious and there was a noble that almost hunted them to extinction because he was addicted to their meat. Funny thing is no one was actually able to stop him and he only stopped when he died of a heart attack because he only ate Pigmet meat. No one say any after that so it was assumed that he ate them all. They were pretty freindly creatures, although they werent very smart, they werent dumb either.

I used some green mana to check for injuries. I didnt find any so I think it just passed out from fear.

"Can you two watch the carraige? Im going to take this guy back to his people. It should be too long."

Both malady and vylet looked at each other and then back at me.

"Why do you care? arent they just monsters? we could just leave him here. His people will probably find him soon anyway."

Vylet was eager to get back on the road as she didnt really like being in the middle of a forest like this. Passing through was no problem but staying there made her nervous.

"I like pigmets, they are weird and funny little creatures. I used to have one as a pet till a noble ate him. Just let me do this, it wont take long."

That was obviously not the answer they were expecting as they looked at me weird. But they turned and headed back to the carriage anyway. I picked him up and carried him into the trees. The pigmets werent stupid enough to go far from their villages so I assumed it wasnt far and just walked in the direction it came from. Didnt take long till I found some tracks and signs of a pigmet village nearby. They have this weird habit of making these talismans and they hang them in the trees nearby. I think its sort of a protection charm, I do feel a slight energy coming from them. I think it might be enough to keep certain dangerous animals away but thats about it.

I kept walking till I heard screaming and could smell fire. I ducked down and walked slowly, I reached a steep hill, put the pigmet down gently and peeked over it. Their village was under attack by those weird monstrocities we found near that mana explosion. I saw a squirrell with three arms and another arm for a tail, It shot fire out its mouth and set some of their buildings on fire. There was also a wolf-thing that looked like it had been cut in half but started healing again and stopped halfway. It had four more heads coming out of the wound and it appeared to be launching them at the pigmets.

I felt like I could take them on now that Ive started training again. I made sure the little pigmet next to me was hidden and prepared myself. I was kinda high up so I can use some small mana wings to glide down and suprise them. Catching them off guard and then using my sword and magic to finish them off. I dont really use spells since I was terrible at remembering the incantations and I can directly manipulate mana anyway so I just use that. I used blue mana on my back and shaped them into wings just like I did with the carriage, only this time they were smaller so it was less taxing on my mind. Also I released some blue mana into my hand and ignited it using red mana to make it stronger.

I made sure I was ready and then launched myself off of the hill. I dived towards the village while aiming my fireball. I aimed for the wolf thing since I thought the squirrel had some immunity to fire since it was attacking with it. I waited till I was closer then I threw it with all I had at the wolf. The fireball sped through the air colliding with the wolfs main head. It gave out a weird shriek and rolled itself on the ground, trying to put the fire out but only suceeding in filling some of its mouths with dirt. I was close to the ground now so I angled my wings to glide and pulled out my sword. I pointed myself at the flaming wolf and held my sword ready. As soon as I was in range I swung my sword upwards towards the main head and severed it clean off its body.

Now for the squirrel.

I tilted the wings and tried to get a little lift and find the squirrel when a fireball the size of my fist smashed into my wings. Completely destroying one, which made me lose control and run into a pigmets hut. Smashing into the hut hurt, but my left shoulder where the fireball hit me, was also on fire. Quickly putting it out and using green mana to deal with the pain, I readied my sword and looked out the hole I made in the hut. The squirrel was running towards me drooling fire and for the first time I realized that its eye sockets were empty.

how can it see me?

Whatever now is not the time to worry about such things. I jumped throught the hole, while pumping red mana into my legs. As soon as I landed I launched myself at the squirrel, it wasnt expecting that and tried to shoot a fireball at me but I was too close. I was about to shove my sword down its throat, but I was hit from the side. Something ran into me and was biting me. I couldnt see what it was as it was stuck on my lower back. I made a blue mana bubble there and made it expand rapidly. Forcing the jaws of whatever was biting me to open and let go. I hear it hit the ground with a thud and I could finally see it.

It was a wolf's head!

That damn thing isnt dead?!?

I looked around and the squirrel was running at me again this time it was just going to shoot fireballs at me before it got close. I sheilded myself with a wall of blue mana when I noticed the wolf throwing more heads at me. Apparently I have to kill all the heads.

There were four more along its back and each of them were spitting more heads at me. I guess they wont run out of ammo anytime soon because they just create more.

The pigmets were hiding in their huts but some of them started throwing rocks at the enemies. Their aim was terrible but they managed to distract them both for a little bit. I didnt want to miss this chance and launched myself at the squirrel trying to stab it again with my sword. I reached it in a second, ramming my sword down its tiny throat practiacally cutting it in half horizantally. I rolled to deal with my momentum and started heading towards the wolf.

Which recovered from its suprise and resumed spitting heads at me. I cut down all the heads before they could bite me. Which only angered the wolf which spat more and more heads. Making them bigger and more evil looking. The distance between us was shrinking fast, but the heads it was spitting kept getting bigger and more ferocious looking.

I had to stop my charge and focus on defending.

I cant get close enough to kill it. How do I get closer?

The wolf was only getting more angry as it couldnt injure me with its attack. It had stopped running at me and focused solely on attacking me.

My arms were getting tired, so I tried using red mana to boost my arms so I can last a little longer. This wasnt getting anywhere, I need to gain the upper hand somehow.

Suddenly the wolf stopped attacking, It seems to have gotten tired of this and wanted to end it. It spat out a head but didnt shoot it at me. It kept strenghtening it and making it bigger. It was already bigger than one of the pigments huts.

Shit, if it shoots that off it will destroy the village.

Then I got an idea, if I kill it now the attack will most likely just explode and kill us all. So I condensed some red mana untill it was a small marble. Then wrapped it in blue mana and condensed that as well. The wolf was getting ready to unleash its attack. The giant head it was creating was huge now. Almost as big as the village itself. I couldnt wait any longer so I threw the ball under the wolf and activated it. It expanded at an ridiculous rate, and shot the wolf straight up. It wasnt expecting something like this but it still wanted to kill, so it spat the giant head straight down at the village. I wasnt going to wait and get blown up so I quickly conjured a fireball, wrapped it in blue mana to increase its effect.

I hope this works

I Strengthened my arms with red mana and threw it as hard as i possibly could. Aiming straight at the giant head. Some of the pigmets had come out during the fight and were staring in awe.

"GET BACK! HIDE! ITS GOING TO EXPLODE!!"

They heard me and ran in all directions scrambling to get indoors and hide. I also ran for the forest to protect the pigmet child. He was hidden but he wouldnt survive the blast. I ran as fast as I could but I knew I wasnt going to make it. I was angry but there was nothing I could do, the child was too far away. I was angry, but I put a barrier between the village and the exposion. I tried to put another barrier near where the child was but Im not sure if that will protect him.

I looked up and the fireball had already collided with the giant head. The fireball went straight into it without any resistance. But the head started twisting and expanding and morphing. I could tell it was about to explode and strengthened the sheilds as much as possible.

Here it is...