[Hanna ???]

The ‘trouble’ that Illivere detected was one of the hunters dying horribly to some kind of monster. This wasn’t something she informed everyone with words, but instead… Well, it was kind of like using words.

If you got really good with mind mana, you could infuse a single word with multiple contexts as part of the mental link. It was somewhat similar to how your understanding of what someone said changed based on their tone of voice. The way Illivere projected the word ‘trouble’ made it immediately apparent that it was directly relevant to what everyone was doing, which was keeping an eye out for monsters. On top of that, it also included a note of regret, close to grief, that this monster was found by one of the searchers getting killed. But at the same time, that grief was more perfunctory and not heart-felt, so it wasn’t Peter or Faron that got killed. It did not, however, include any panic, so there was not an immediate danger to anyone else, so it was someone who did not have anyone else nearby.

When all of those contexts were layered onto the same word, the intent was clear: one of the refugee hunters just died to a monster. As Illivere was very skilled in telepathy, these contexts did not need to be deciphered, but were instead immediately understood. Peter said of it once, when he was attempting to be poetic, called it ‘a breath of meaning in a single word’. He then ruined the poetry by explaining that he meant she could fit in so many words in that one word that you’d need to take a breath after saying it all. If you ignored him doing that, it wasn’t bad.

Of course, the reason Illivere was so skilled was because her father deliberately involved a spirit in her conception so as to give her that attunement. Hanna, on the other hand… was the opposite. Her attunement was a side-effect; an imperfection, but a manageable one.

Once they had rallied and started running in the direction of the monster, Hanna privately thanked Professor Toomes for his lessons on how to run properly with enhanced strength. She would likely be tripping all over the place without that.

The monster was not one that Hanna recognized. It was a tauric monster, with a humanoid torso atop a quadrupedal base. The base resembled a boar, vaguely, with the tusks jutting out from the front without bothering with a jaw. The torso was thickly muscled and stocky, making Hanna think of a dwarf. The head, on the other hand, was pig-like, beardless and with a snout and general expression that was almost artfully ugly. As if someone took pains to create the ugliest possible visage. It was also twenty feet tall.

“It’s a Garnoar!” Called out Faron. Hanna felt a trickle of panic as she had no idea what she was supposed to know about them. “No magic, just meat!” He added. Oh. That made things easy.

…Well, it made things simple anyway. That was an awful lot of muscle the monster was using to charge at them, after all. Illivere sent a battle plan via telepathy, and with her role decided, Hanna started converting force mana as fast as she could, filling her spellweave to go off at precisely the correct time.

Faron had already shaped a force mace, and Peter strengthened himself and activated the enchantments on his axes. The beast started to wind up his meaty fists and, on cue, both boys went forward, going into the monster’s reach and slamming their weapons on the front legs of the garnoar. At the same time, Illivere charged with her spear, planting it in the ground directly in front of the beast. With the setup complete, Hanna unleashed her Gravity’s Hammer spell.

While the beast buckled a little bit from the impacts to his legs, his weight suddenly multiplying ruined any chance he had of recovering from that impact. His torso plummeted to the ground, its momentum completely absorbed by the dirt embankment it created from sinking into the ground and driving Illivere’s spear through the “throat” of the boar-ish body and into the torso… where the enchantments on the spear tip promptly exploded in the guts of the monster.

The monster, not yet dead, roared again and swung its arms around to attempt to squash Illivere as it started to stand up. Illivere was able to brace herself for her weight multiplying, and as a result she was unharmed from the Gravity Hammer… but she still was immobilized for a moment.

Illivere was struck with a fist large enough to fit her inside, launched away from the force at a great speed. Hanna ran after her, hoping that she was still alive. As long as she was alive, she could be fixed.

“Good luck.” She whispered, knowing that her other teammates couldn’t hear her. Hopefully, Peter and Faron could manage to win.

Illivere flew over a hill, which gave Hanna some hope. Her trajectory seemed unnaturally fast given the power of the hit, so there was a good chance Illivere managed to use Bounce, one of the emergency spells Professor Toomes taught them to reduce the damage.

Over the hill, Illivere was laying down on a patch of grass, fortunately there weren’t any trees nearby that spot so she sank into the soft dirt beneath the greenery. As a wizard with a life attunement, Hanna was much more capable of discerning someone’s health at a glance than someone without that advantage. The pattern of life mana that underlaid Illivere’s body was cracked and shifted, bones broken by the impact of the fist and delicate lines that connected the disparate parts burst from the collision with the ground.

Without magical intervention, survival was impossible. With the curses woven soul deep, she’d starve before she could recover her mobility, given the presumed state of her mana heart after using it to mitigate damage. With proper healing magic? Several minutes that they didn’t have. As such, Hanna gave her a dose of life mana to start things before examining the area around them.

Professor Toomes was too far away to sense what she was doing… and the only one here was Illivere, who was very unconscious. So… it should be safe. Hanna took a deep breath and took out her special ritual knife, the one brought with her from home, focusing her mana before plunging it into her own navel.

“I have to work fast.” Hanna said to herself, gasping as she wrenched the knife back out. The wound did not bleed, instead wisps of life mana escaped and Hanna guided the fragment of her soul she just stabbed loose into the cloud of mana, coalescing the cloud into the fragment.

“There.” Hanna said. The fragment had turned into a wooden doll, long limbs like a willow tree coming out of a round knot of wood. “Your name is Willow Knot.” The new wood spirit chirped in recognition of their name. “Keep Illivere hidden until I return.” She ordered, pointing to her friend. The spirit transformed into a tree, lifting and concealing Illivere within the trunk and feeding her curses a steady drip of life mana from their own supply to keep her alive and healing.

That should hold for at least an hour. Now, to help Faron and Peter. Hanna turned and ran towards the battle. She could do this!

----------------

[Faron Wavecleaver]

After launching Illivere far away with a meaty impact of its fist, the monster roared and attempted to do the same to Faron and Peter. Peter jumped clear, but Faron’s stance was too grounded for such a quick dodge, so instead he swung his force mace to intercept the attack, discharging the shape to provide enough power to parry the heavy fist. An explosion of force launched Faron back, clear of the monster’s reach.

Faron was beginning to suspect that this monster was out of their weight class. Garnoars were normally rated as Veteran-minimums, but with teamwork, their magical gear, and the physical training Professor Toomes put everyone through, Faron was reasonably certain they could handle it.

Indeed, the gaping wound that it now had crippled the beast’s mobility, so it couldn’t charge like they normally could. But if the monster wasn’t killed, it would eventually recover. Further, it still could manage a stumbling gait, and those massive fists were a serious threat even with the wicked tusks effectively disabled.

Against this kind of foe, large, brutish, with no natural armor but dense muscle and mana cultivation, the best weapons are metal or force. The best defenses against a heavy but not particularly fast attack are stone and water. Given the compromised mobility and that the attacks are assumed to be frequent with little wind up… metal and water.

Converting mana was a matter of finding a point of commonality between the two mana types you’re converting between. The harvested force of striking and moving from the Evoker’s Dance mana binding ritual was reasonably versatile for this. Water was constantly in motion, and even the greatest forces couldn’t get it to do quite what you wanted. Through that understanding, Faron converted large amounts of mana and surged it forth on his body, wrapping it around himself in a stable protective vortex.

Metal, on the other hand, was like clay, but molded with fire instead of water. Even then, it was force that bent the stubborn mana into the desired shape, and with that understanding, the force mana crystallized into existence. Faron shaped the ephemeral pure mana into a greatsword, and actualized it into reality as fine steel, sharpened beyond any whetstone could manage without an enchantment of its own.

Properly armed and armored, Faron charged the monster, who had lurched towards Peter to attack. Peter was the only person who didn’t already have some kind of previous combat training of the group, so he copied Professor Toomes more closely than anyone else did. Tiny bursts of active magic to allow for otherwise impossible dodges, using his axes to score small cuts on the fists as he avoided each hit. He couldn’t do both that and cast curses on the monster, so Peter leapt backwards right as Faron’s shaped greatsword cut deeply into the rear left leg of the monster. Pivoting on his heel, Faron dodged the kick that the garnoar lashed out with in retaliation, flexed the mana in his sword to re-sharpen it, and readied a stance to receive the monster’s next lurch.

Peter, on the other hand, took the opportunity to run away, shouting “Illivere!” As if Hanna didn’t already tend to that… that horny bastard!

The monster turned around and attempted to backhand Faron across the field like he did Illivere. Faron ducked low, curling his body to avoid it, and then came back up like a spring, lashing out at the monster’s armpit to cripple the limb. A massive meaty hand attempted to enclose around Faron, the other hand trying to hold him in place for the next attack. The churning waters that Faron had shaped around himself couldn’t quite fend off the sheer strength of the monster, but Faron reversed the flow of the inner half of his armor, violently expelling the outer half. This maneuver gave Faron enough space to slip down back to the ground, and with a mote of will Faron’s weapon returned to his hand in time for a strike at the tendons of the wrist before the monster could retract the limb.

Leaping back to gain some space, Faron re-assessed the situation. He was now alone against the monster, who disabled if not killed Illivere in a single punch. Both of his teammates had gone to support her. Initial assessment: He’s in the soup.

But it was not all hopeless. The monster had most of his limbs damaged, and could only move short distances with a lurching gait. It was unarmed, and completely focused on Faron’s destruction. A one on one duel… Other advantages include the fact that Faron had already primed his spells to best counter his enemy’s strengths and exploit their weaknesses. He had no significant injury, and he only had to reshape one and a half spells.

Faron took another fighting stance as the monster turned its entire body to face him, glaring and snorting its rage. Faron focused his mana, transforming it into the most ephemeral of mana aspects. Life was growth, the eternal crucible that turns base materials into matter and motion. With that understanding, force becomes life. Life was not blind, it saw the world and adapted, gaining understanding through observation. Through that understanding, life becomes mind.

With that mana, Faron focused his mind on his opponent. His awareness of every motion of the monster as it started to stumble forward was enhanced, and the rest of the world began to fall away.

Faron couldn’t properly tell you how long he spent locked in battle with the garnoar. Each offensive maneuver was met with a cut, each attempt to cede ground was countered with an offensive maneuver of his own. Every motion provoked a precise response, as water splashed away any grazing blow.

What he did know was that after twenty-six exchanges, the monster had one of Hanna’s enchanted arrows fly into one of the many cuts in its hide that Faron had made and penetrated deeply enough that the resulting explosion seemed to have finally defeated the great beast.

After the focusing curse wore off, it was time to assess. “Where’s Illivere?” Faron asked Hanna, glancing at Peter behind her.

“She’s safe.” Hanna responded. “There was a spirit I persuaded to watch over her.”

Really? Convenient. “Well, where’s the core in something like this? Near the head? The heart? Which heart?”

Peter goes to the slumped body, still wary that it may be faking its death, but he squinted at it, presumably focusing his mana senses, which were the second keenest in the group. Illivere had the keenest, of course. “I think… here.” He took out his axes and hacked at the boar half’s ribcage, coating his arm with mana and plunging it in after opening a section. He focused more, and slowly, the body of the garnoar rotted, eventually becoming a black sludge that sublimated into nothingness.

Hanna, having had left for Illivere when Peter was busy, returned at that point with Illivere and a small life spirit. “Thank you for your assistance.” Faron said to the spirit, clasping his hands together in the mudra of praise. It was an old custom, but spirits tended to like that sort of thing.

“Aw shucks.” The spirit said bashfully. “It was nothing.” It seemed… young.

Illivere looked at the rotting monster corpse and… well, Illivere didn’t emote much, but the way she set her eyebrows as she closed her eyes was equivalent to someone rubbing the bridge of their nose in frustration. “We could have saved the tusks. Peter.”

Having finished condensing the core, he turned to Illivere happily, which was quickly killed when he registered what she said. “...Oh. Sorry.”

“It’s alright.” Illivere said, waving it off. “They aren’t that valuable anyway.” Seeing Peter’s mood bounce right back, she continued. “Good work. It could have gone more smoothly, but this is the durability of a veteran-ranked monster. We will need to minimize our exposure to counter attacks when facing beasts that we have not properly measured. “

Faron nodded in agreement. “Yeah, but this has got to be the strongest monster we’ve ever faced.”

Peter’s good mood spiked at the reminder. “Yeah! On top of that, there’s no way Teach softened it up. This was all on us, as a team.” Pretty words for someone who left Faron to fend for himself.

Ah, he’s just being a little bitter. Faron wanted to go and check on Illivere too, and the mental focus spell wouldn’t have worked nearly as well if Peter kept battling. It worked out.

He wonders how Professor Toomes will react when they tell him?