//Author Note
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//End Note
Stale, bloody, sickly air clings to my folded over skin, layers upon layers of flesh and blood grasping into itself to maintain the general shape of me. A body of writhing flesh that tries to return to a proper state, covered in the blood and bile of war.
I use a cleansing stone to clear up the worst of it, and to clear my eyes. It is one of the few tools that I was willing to bring here, as it’s not much of a waste to lose it.
Another warrior charges at me, pulling my thoughts back to the moment. I control my breath to form a rhythm with my movements, dancing for my life, and for victory, as magic bursts out from my fingers and feet.
At my side, Malea struggles just the same. Her wounds are not so significant as mine, but the strings she uses to bind them aren’t as strong as the magic that seals mine. She’s slowing with every new step added to the violent music that we play with our weapons shouts.
I’ve lost count of how many we’ve defeated, but it’s only a handful compared to what’s before us. There are too many to count, too many to fight, and many are far too strong.
We’re nearing the end to this fight, but we’re far from victory.
I sidestep a flashing blade, and counter with a blast of annihilation, the only ability that hits with a lasting impact and even then it’s not enough to take the woman out. She strikes at me again and I have to throw a more powerful magical bolt into her chest to see this conflict ended.
Less than half of my mana remains, and the enemies are talented enough to keep me from draining to much mana from them or their weapons. I tend to fuel myself with the corpses of the fallen, but that’s not a choice here.
At the same time, I’m forced to use my magic much more liberally. If I slow down, if I take these people lightly, I will lose. I try to improve my movements, but now is not the time for training new Skills.
Maybe I’m moving a little faster now, maybe I’m a little more precise, but the weakness in all my new joints, and the depletion of my mana form, only leaves me slowly decaying on this endless battlefield.
Malea pulls the legs out from under the warrior and I slam a heavy dose of magic into his head, but even using more than I thought necessary, it’s not enough to finish him. His knife stabs me in the guts, as I hit him a second time, not holding anything back.
He flashes away in a burst of magic, and another takes his place.
“Finally.” The man who stands opposite me is raptorial, with no human or elvish features to be seen. His head long as a horses, but his jaws make up half of it, filled with long, sharp teeth that promise suffering to his prey. The feathers that cover him but for his feet and his snout are bright green and blue, while the claws on his feet are irregularly coloured either midnight black, or white as ivory in no pattern that I can discern.
“It has been a rather untasteful showing, has it not?” Beside him is a woman, white as snow, and she seems not quite right in her own skin. Her expressions shift oddly, with movements and motions stirring from within, her smile warps as she levels her eyes to the raptor beside her.
“Before we end this charade, I think it would be good to have proper introductions.” The raptor says. “I’m Leopold Nugare, of the republic. While the situations are not as pleasant as they could be, I hope that we can get along in future dealings.”
“I am Delevar Heilek, a Duchess of the Arch Monarchy.” The woman says, even going so far as to bow to the two of us, before looking at us with her strangely twitching eyes. “This challenge is quite the fascinating one, but it would be my pleasure to put this all to an end.”
“Kyra Baker. Empress to my people, and acquaintance of Frey and Arduelle. If you wish to have good dealings with me in the future, then I would advise that you do not make a habit out of picking fights like this one.” I say, bowing, confident in my ability to observe them through borrowed eyes. Unfortunately, many of those I tagged and infected with my Skill have been able to deny me their eyes, but there are enough others that I can still see the arena clearly with my perception Skill.
“Malea,” My ally says in simple self-introduction. “It is a pleasure to face you again Delevar. It is a shame, that I cannot face you both on an even footing, but I am honour bound to fight to the best of my abilities, so I will refrain from holding myself back.”
“Eager and young.” Delevar says with a chuckle. “We shall see how well you’ve been training, but don’t think that you can stand equal to your elders through dirty talents alone.”
Malea says nothing more, and while her poker face hasn’t slipped an inch, she radiates a cold anger. There is something here between them, something to do with this ‘dirty talent’, maybe?
I have a vague understanding of her whips and abilities, but I don’t see how any of it could be described as ‘dirty’.
“I think that’s enough for introductions. Shall we begin?” Leopold says, his words sounding more akin to a deeper version of a birds chirps and caws, all uttered in complex patterns.
“Malea.” I say her name and she slowly relaxes, her threads easing in her hands.
“Delevar first.” She says, “I can’t delay her with my threads without… I can’t. I’m not sure what her abilities are, but she’s a bad match for me.”
“Right.”
Without any need for a starting call, since technically the fight was never technically at a pause, we move towards one another. I trust in Malea as her threads dance around me, invisible strings that pull at our foes to unbalance them.
Leopold moves fast, ducking and diving through the mess of traps that my ally has spread throughout the arena, but Delevar simply doesn’t care. She catches the threads and tears them to shreds, some form of magic glowing in her arms.
Malea didn’t spare a moment to explain what she knew of this woman’s abilities, so I’ll have to figure it out on my own. I can’t move too quickly without my legs turning to jelly, but I can still manage a fast jogging pace while I stir my mana together into a series of annihilation bolts.
I get close to her and hit her with an annihilation bolt to the face, while punching for her chest. She catches my magic with some sort of shielding technique, like the others I’ve been fighting, but hers is much more effective.
My punch she deflects with her own arm, before countering with a hard knife cut to my opposite shoulder. I shield just in time, but my arm wobbles out of socket for a moment anyway. I have to use all my stored spells to retreat as she follows up with another series of hits.
The pure mana density of these nobles makes them too powerful for me to take down. I’ve been like a martial arts student snapping thin wooden boards with every hit for the last few weeks, but now I’m cracking my fists on thick stone walls.
I have to do something more, which is why I’ve been stealing their moves and Skills.
A quick flick through her abilities informs me of her capabilities, as I slowly back away and fend off her attacks. I can barely even notice Malea whipping about to try and keep Leopold busy.
“So have you decided how to be defeated?” Delevar asks me, steadying herself and gathering power for a heavy blow. She has much more dangerous techniques on hand, so I can’t quite fathom the reason she chooses this.
“Have you?” I ask. “If you’re concerned about your dignity, then perhaps you should give up now.”
I can win this.
Her Skills aren’t based around any particular magic, but instead precision and rapid reactions in shielding and attack. She can accurately and easily condense mana and then quickly deploy it in either attack or defence, then rotate it into a new purpose a moment after.
Her power comes not from some unique trait or talent, but through incredible perception and experience. She moves fast, hits hard, and defends relentlessly against all attacks.
Furthermore, her defence against my magic comes through the formation of magics of her own. She uses a few tools to imitate a lesser talent and concentrates magic into the path of the annihilation to force it to expend itself much faster than it should.
That said, she can only achieve this because she can accurately respond to my own magic, and form perfect counters to respond. While this is effective against my particular brand of magic, it’s not uniquely so. It’s honestly effective against, not even just magic, but everything from daggers to cannon blasts.
The only weakness is that it relies on her anticipating the attack. Which means that I need to do something that she can’t anticipate or act so fast that she cant react at all.
I don’t imagine that I’m the first to realize this, so I can’t just use cheap tricks that she’d be familiar with. No, I need to use my own unique abilities to mess with her.
Before I have a chance to consider my options fully, she launches her attack. Knowing what to expect, I summon my own defensive magic and deploy it much like she has. Delevar thrusts out her hand, and while I understand the attack in a logical way, it doesn’t ready me for the realization that comes with it.
Her hand stops from hitting my guts by the width of a finger. Long, winding, worming limbs of blue-green flesh tears itself free from the prison of her faux hand. Each tentacle ending in a sharp point packed with condensed mana and magic.
I sharpen my defensive shields and release my own dark magic to consume the energy striking at me. The sickly flesh turns to ash as it touches my skin, all energy and all mana unmade in its entirety, while only inert ash falls to the ground.
Delevar snaps back from her, nursing her wounded limbs, as she pulls them back into her body.
I take the opening and throw an attack back at her while trying to drain away her mana.
“If you’re this Skilled, why have you been holding back until now?” She asks.
“Maybe I like taking my time.” I hiss back.
She’s not exactly right in her assumptions, I haven’t been adapting to my enemies Skills until now. I didn’t think that it would be possible to predict a person’s battle style like this, and my mind power could be better used elsewhere.
I know well that she doesn’t need to build up to attack me as she’s been doing. She’s the one withholding her true Skills, even now, she strikes again with the same predictable build up, and I block with my own magic.
Every counter that I throw back at her, she blocks with a natural ease that only gives away her own restraint in the offensive part of this fight. She’s not eager to show her true power with such an audience watching.
I understand it. I’m holding back some of the more precious tools and items that I own for similar reasons, but I’m less concerned about my Skills and magics. I’ve already shown them plenty enough, and I can come up with new tricks faster than my enemies, so it’s more important to me to show them that I’m capable enough to be trouble.
As I block another attack, and she receives mine without taking damage, I’ve had enough. In a battle of attrition, I’m sure to suffer worse. I need this to be over, but I don’t think brute forcing it will earn me a victory.
I wait for her next attack and ready to move, while burning mana in my mind to slow my perception of time to it’s limits. She launches her attack, the same predictable move that she’s done before, and I step into it.
Running myself up her arm, I wrap myself around her and heave at her mana. While the magic that she starts to cast is incredibly difficult to consume, the rest of it starts to fray.
She lets her magic blast away at my insides before it’s fully built up. A concussion blast as I expected.
My organs and my heart tremble from the bruising force, but I can’t stop here. I pull even more of her mana away, as I summon threads of annihilation here and there to cut into her flesh and separate chunks of her body for easy consumption. She struggles, not knowing how to react for a few moments as I consume her, but even so she defends against my insistent magic attacks with the same continuous efficiency as before.
Her face contorts in frustration, and her skin tears open. The thin elvish veneer tears itself apart, thousands of small tentacles breaking out of her, stabbing into my body from all over.
The thousands of small limbs intrude into my body, but their attempts to tear me apart fail as my flesh wraps itself back up into working order in their passing. All the while I eat at her flesh, pulling the mana out with ease while the flesh is deep in my domain. I haven’t paid as much mind towards testing the limits of this ability, but it’s not that I haven’t been practicing every day.
I draw out her power with everything that I have, disrupting the magics that she tries to cast.
Everything within me, is me.
This knotted sack of worms dares to touch me? infest me?! Then I’ll tear it apart and use it for chum to feed my giant fish back home.
Stolen energy flowing through me, filling my soul with rending pain. Even so, I don’t hurt near as much as Delevar. After a few more seconds, with her tentacles intruding on the space where my heart is trying to beat, she finally gets teleported out.
The ground is more than eager to meet with me again, and abusive as ever it hits me on the way down. My flesh and bones work hard to return to their proper shape, but there’s too much to fix. A splash of blood still splatters all around me as my body reshapes itself, taking in a smaller shape as too much of my body is trying to cling to the rest of me to hold myself together.
In minutes I’ll be reduced to half my size as my flesh folds over itself to try and hold me together. Already I’m covered in lumps and odd shapes from the malformed muscles doing everything they can to maintain my shape.
Even in suffering, I can’t find rest.
“Malea.” I call to my ally, trying to stand on wobbling legs. Even with my adaption, I can’t keep going like this forever.
Malea is struggling against the raptor, I see that she’s tying together a dozen new wounds with her thin thread, while half her legs are weak and trembling, or hanging crippled by her side.
Leopold, even wrapped up in thread, pulls on them to lash out at her one more time, his claw nearly reaching her face as she smiles. All but one of her threads snaps, and she hangs the raptor from the last thread, shaped as a noose.
Blood colours her dark clothes, and at least two dozen wounds are stitched together across her body, but she smiles and holds herself as if at a party while watching our opponent struggle in vain.
“Malea?” I call to her, forcing my new mana to convert as fast as I can.
“I think that I’ll have to bow out once we’re finished with this one.” She says, “I’m at my limits, and next round will simply see us tormented in an effort to strip us of dignity.”
“No.” I reply. “I have one last trick. The one that you’re all already aware of, I’m sure. Do you want to miss the best part of all this?”
She chuckles cruelly, her eyes still focused on the reptile as he is teleported out of sight.
“If that’s the case, then why have you restrained yourself until now?” Malea asks, but I’m sure she already has a few ideas.
“It’s an all or nothing sort of deal.” I admit. “Not the only trick up my sleeve, and not my most dangerous.” My extended sight, my ability to steal Skills, to pull out Chips, and my throne packed with mana that I can cast even now, are part of the longer list.
The next pair of challengers appear, and though it burns at me that I can’t steal their abilities, not without getting close enough that I’m nearly touching them, I can still show them who I am and what I can do.
I don’t hold back, swirling all my mana into a small handful of annihilation spells, letting the mana inside convert as I’m relying on that for later rounds.
The new nobles opposing us stare at me with wide eyes, taking only a moment to try and raise defences against the massive spells that I’m preparing, but this time I’m not holding anything back. I cast a pair of overcooked spells at the pair, preparing to split them into nets the moment the enemy tries to dodge them.
The pair are pulled out in a moment, and as the two new contenders are teleported in, I cast the next spells, and ready more from the mana that’s become mine. No one even gets a chance to do anything before they’re cast out of the arena.
The next pair go the same as Malea chuckles cruelly at my side. It’s the first time I’ve heard her actually sound like she’s having fun, and her eyes are sparkling with genuine mirth.
She really is a sadist.
My last two spells are ready to cast, leaving me only enough mana to survive on, as Arduelle moves in the final pair that we can overcome. I cast before I can even see them through the glow of teleportation magic.
“I think that’s quite enough.” The noble woman standing tall opposite us, raises a bejewelled hand and casts a quick spell to catch my annihilation blast. The dense mana in the shield is so overwhelming that it barely even cracks in the face of my concentrated power.
The man beside her stomps his foot into the ground and holds out a small buckler. The shield catches the annihilation, and though my magic should carve right through it, instead it gets caught and spreads over the surface before dissipating.
“I would agree. This farce has gone far enough.” The hairy bear-like man says lifting his head to face us. He was among the more respected of the republic faction if I remember him right.
The two charge right at us, I can barely keep up with them by burning mana through my mind. I take a step forwards, standing between them and Malea, and taking a low stance to intercept. A smile creeps on my lips, no matter how I try to hold it in, Arduelle has given me a gift.
The two monsters hold abreast of one another, before finally reaching us. The bear tries to cut me down, and I’m sure that he’ll succeed, but that’s fine. The arachne woman tries to bypass me and reach directly for Malea, but I refuse to let her.
I leave behind half my body as I grab the queenly spider around her legs. I can’t even trip her up before she crushes me underfoot.
Light overwhelms me, and not only am I drawn out of the arena, but all my tattered pieces are put back together again, this time with a better brand of glue.
I can’t suppress the smile on my lips as I look over the gathered information that I stole from the two leaders. Now this is a bargaining chip and a half. It might be time for me to start playing politics properly now that I have some blackmail material.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Stats and Skills
~Mana Form:
Current mana density: 381 / 60,892 units
Current mana volume: 189 / 30,266 shards
Mana volume at crystallisation density (Max. mana volume):
Kyra: 30,266 shards
Kyra’s armour: 20,777 shards
Kyra’s throne: 1,109,298 shards
~Forms
Mana Canon
-Annihilation Heart (Adapted)
-Blood Fuel (20,000 mana shards)
-Bone Magic Storage (40,000 mana shards)
-Nail Shifters (50,000 mana shards)
Dancer
-Flash Nerves (8,000 mana shards)
-Quick Perception Mind (Adapted)
-Burst Reflex Muscles (35,000 mana shards)
-Layered space Muscles (80,000 mana shards)
Turtle
-Rebinding Tissue (Adapted)
-Catalyst Sweat Glands (140,000 mana shards)
-Repulsive Skin (80,000 mana shards)
-Prehensile hair (10,000 mana shards)
-Fatty Tissue Blood Storage (100,000 mana shards)
Investigator
-Wide eyes (5,000 mana shards)
-Wide ears (5,000 mana shards)
-Sharp nose (5,000 mana shards)
Misc.
-Clean bowels (Adapted)
~Favourited Skills:
-Tag and Film
-Trapping
-Stealth
-Mana surge movement
-Annihilation defence
-Annihilation flame burst
-Annihilation net
-Eyes of an Empire
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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//Author Note
Check out my 2 new books, they're really good and I need your support!
Bloody Æther | Scribble Hub
Rotten Æther | Scribble Hub
If you enjoy this story, like it, rate it, leave a comment, and share it around!
//End Note
Stale, bloody, sickly air clings to my folded over skin, layers upon layers of flesh and blood grasping into itself to maintain the general shape of me. A body of writhing flesh that tries to return to a proper state, covered in the blood and bile of war.
I use a cleansing stone to clear up the worst of it, and to clear my eyes. It is one of the few tools that I was willing to bring here, as it’s not much of a waste to lose it.
Another warrior charges at me, pulling my thoughts back to the moment. I control my breath to form a rhythm with my movements, dancing for my life, and for victory, as magic bursts out from my fingers and feet.
At my side, Malea struggles just the same. Her wounds are not so significant as mine, but the strings she uses to bind them aren’t as strong as the magic that seals mine. She’s slowing with every new step added to the violent music that we play with our weapons shouts.
I’ve lost count of how many we’ve defeated, but it’s only a handful compared to what’s before us. There are too many to count, too many to fight, and many are far too strong.
We’re nearing the end to this fight, but we’re far from victory.
I sidestep a flashing blade, and counter with a blast of annihilation, the only ability that hits with a lasting impact and even then it’s not enough to take the woman out. She strikes at me again and I have to throw a more powerful magical bolt into her chest to see this conflict ended.
Less than half of my mana remains, and the enemies are talented enough to keep me from draining to much mana from them or their weapons. I tend to fuel myself with the corpses of the fallen, but that’s not a choice here.
At the same time, I’m forced to use my magic much more liberally. If I slow down, if I take these people lightly, I will lose. I try to improve my movements, but now is not the time for training new Skills.
Maybe I’m moving a little faster now, maybe I’m a little more precise, but the weakness in all my new joints, and the depletion of my mana form, only leaves me slowly decaying on this endless battlefield.
Malea pulls the legs out from under the warrior and I slam a heavy dose of magic into his head, but even using more than I thought necessary, it’s not enough to finish him. His knife stabs me in the guts, as I hit him a second time, not holding anything back.
He flashes away in a burst of magic, and another takes his place.
“Finally.” The man who stands opposite me is raptorial, with no human or elvish features to be seen. His head long as a horses, but his jaws make up half of it, filled with long, sharp teeth that promise suffering to his prey. The feathers that cover him but for his feet and his snout are bright green and blue, while the claws on his feet are irregularly coloured either midnight black, or white as ivory in no pattern that I can discern.
“It has been a rather untasteful showing, has it not?” Beside him is a woman, white as snow, and she seems not quite right in her own skin. Her expressions shift oddly, with movements and motions stirring from within, her smile warps as she levels her eyes to the raptor beside her.
“Before we end this charade, I think it would be good to have proper introductions.” The raptor says. “I’m Leopold Nugare, of the republic. While the situations are not as pleasant as they could be, I hope that we can get along in future dealings.”
“I am Delevar Heilek, a Duchess of the Arch Monarchy.” The woman says, even going so far as to bow to the two of us, before looking at us with her strangely twitching eyes. “This challenge is quite the fascinating one, but it would be my pleasure to put this all to an end.”
“Kyra Baker. Empress to my people, and acquaintance of Frey and Arduelle. If you wish to have good dealings with me in the future, then I would advise that you do not make a habit out of picking fights like this one.” I say, bowing, confident in my ability to observe them through borrowed eyes. Unfortunately, many of those I tagged and infected with my Skill have been able to deny me their eyes, but there are enough others that I can still see the arena clearly with my perception Skill.
“Malea,” My ally says in simple self-introduction. “It is a pleasure to face you again Delevar. It is a shame, that I cannot face you both on an even footing, but I am honour bound to fight to the best of my abilities, so I will refrain from holding myself back.”
“Eager and young.” Delevar says with a chuckle. “We shall see how well you’ve been training, but don’t think that you can stand equal to your elders through dirty talents alone.”
Malea says nothing more, and while her poker face hasn’t slipped an inch, she radiates a cold anger. There is something here between them, something to do with this ‘dirty talent’, maybe?
I have a vague understanding of her whips and abilities, but I don’t see how any of it could be described as ‘dirty’.
“I think that’s enough for introductions. Shall we begin?” Leopold says, his words sounding more akin to a deeper version of a birds chirps and caws, all uttered in complex patterns.
“Malea.” I say her name and she slowly relaxes, her threads easing in her hands.
“Delevar first.” She says, “I can’t delay her with my threads without… I can’t. I’m not sure what her abilities are, but she’s a bad match for me.”
“Right.”
Without any need for a starting call, since technically the fight was never technically at a pause, we move towards one another. I trust in Malea as her threads dance around me, invisible strings that pull at our foes to unbalance them.
Leopold moves fast, ducking and diving through the mess of traps that my ally has spread throughout the arena, but Delevar simply doesn’t care. She catches the threads and tears them to shreds, some form of magic glowing in her arms.
Malea didn’t spare a moment to explain what she knew of this woman’s abilities, so I’ll have to figure it out on my own. I can’t move too quickly without my legs turning to jelly, but I can still manage a fast jogging pace while I stir my mana together into a series of annihilation bolts.
I get close to her and hit her with an annihilation bolt to the face, while punching for her chest. She catches my magic with some sort of shielding technique, like the others I’ve been fighting, but hers is much more effective.
My punch she deflects with her own arm, before countering with a hard knife cut to my opposite shoulder. I shield just in time, but my arm wobbles out of socket for a moment anyway. I have to use all my stored spells to retreat as she follows up with another series of hits.
The pure mana density of these nobles makes them too powerful for me to take down. I’ve been like a martial arts student snapping thin wooden boards with every hit for the last few weeks, but now I’m cracking my fists on thick stone walls.
I have to do something more, which is why I’ve been stealing their moves and Skills.
A quick flick through her abilities informs me of her capabilities, as I slowly back away and fend off her attacks. I can barely even notice Malea whipping about to try and keep Leopold busy.
“So have you decided how to be defeated?” Delevar asks me, steadying herself and gathering power for a heavy blow. She has much more dangerous techniques on hand, so I can’t quite fathom the reason she chooses this.
“Have you?” I ask. “If you’re concerned about your dignity, then perhaps you should give up now.”
I can win this.
Her Skills aren’t based around any particular magic, but instead precision and rapid reactions in shielding and attack. She can accurately and easily condense mana and then quickly deploy it in either attack or defence, then rotate it into a new purpose a moment after.
Her power comes not from some unique trait or talent, but through incredible perception and experience. She moves fast, hits hard, and defends relentlessly against all attacks.
Furthermore, her defence against my magic comes through the formation of magics of her own. She uses a few tools to imitate a lesser talent and concentrates magic into the path of the annihilation to force it to expend itself much faster than it should.
That said, she can only achieve this because she can accurately respond to my own magic, and form perfect counters to respond. While this is effective against my particular brand of magic, it’s not uniquely so. It’s honestly effective against, not even just magic, but everything from daggers to cannon blasts.
The only weakness is that it relies on her anticipating the attack. Which means that I need to do something that she can’t anticipate or act so fast that she cant react at all.
I don’t imagine that I’m the first to realize this, so I can’t just use cheap tricks that she’d be familiar with. No, I need to use my own unique abilities to mess with her.
Before I have a chance to consider my options fully, she launches her attack. Knowing what to expect, I summon my own defensive magic and deploy it much like she has. Delevar thrusts out her hand, and while I understand the attack in a logical way, it doesn’t ready me for the realization that comes with it.
Her hand stops from hitting my guts by the width of a finger. Long, winding, worming limbs of blue-green flesh tears itself free from the prison of her faux hand. Each tentacle ending in a sharp point packed with condensed mana and magic.
I sharpen my defensive shields and release my own dark magic to consume the energy striking at me. The sickly flesh turns to ash as it touches my skin, all energy and all mana unmade in its entirety, while only inert ash falls to the ground.
Delevar snaps back from her, nursing her wounded limbs, as she pulls them back into her body.
I take the opening and throw an attack back at her while trying to drain away her mana.
“If you’re this Skilled, why have you been holding back until now?” She asks.
“Maybe I like taking my time.” I hiss back.
She’s not exactly right in her assumptions, I haven’t been adapting to my enemies Skills until now. I didn’t think that it would be possible to predict a person’s battle style like this, and my mind power could be better used elsewhere.
I know well that she doesn’t need to build up to attack me as she’s been doing. She’s the one withholding her true Skills, even now, she strikes again with the same predictable build up, and I block with my own magic.
Every counter that I throw back at her, she blocks with a natural ease that only gives away her own restraint in the offensive part of this fight. She’s not eager to show her true power with such an audience watching.
I understand it. I’m holding back some of the more precious tools and items that I own for similar reasons, but I’m less concerned about my Skills and magics. I’ve already shown them plenty enough, and I can come up with new tricks faster than my enemies, so it’s more important to me to show them that I’m capable enough to be trouble.
As I block another attack, and she receives mine without taking damage, I’ve had enough. In a battle of attrition, I’m sure to suffer worse. I need this to be over, but I don’t think brute forcing it will earn me a victory.
I wait for her next attack and ready to move, while burning mana in my mind to slow my perception of time to it’s limits. She launches her attack, the same predictable move that she’s done before, and I step into it.
Running myself up her arm, I wrap myself around her and heave at her mana. While the magic that she starts to cast is incredibly difficult to consume, the rest of it starts to fray.
She lets her magic blast away at my insides before it’s fully built up. A concussion blast as I expected.
My organs and my heart tremble from the bruising force, but I can’t stop here. I pull even more of her mana away, as I summon threads of annihilation here and there to cut into her flesh and separate chunks of her body for easy consumption. She struggles, not knowing how to react for a few moments as I consume her, but even so she defends against my insistent magic attacks with the same continuous efficiency as before.
Her face contorts in frustration, and her skin tears open. The thin elvish veneer tears itself apart, thousands of small tentacles breaking out of her, stabbing into my body from all over.
The thousands of small limbs intrude into my body, but their attempts to tear me apart fail as my flesh wraps itself back up into working order in their passing. All the while I eat at her flesh, pulling the mana out with ease while the flesh is deep in my domain. I haven’t paid as much mind towards testing the limits of this ability, but it’s not that I haven’t been practicing every day.
I draw out her power with everything that I have, disrupting the magics that she tries to cast.
Everything within me, is me.
This knotted sack of worms dares to touch me? infest me?! Then I’ll tear it apart and use it for chum to feed my giant fish back home.
Stolen energy flowing through me, filling my soul with rending pain. Even so, I don’t hurt near as much as Delevar. After a few more seconds, with her tentacles intruding on the space where my heart is trying to beat, she finally gets teleported out.
The ground is more than eager to meet with me again, and abusive as ever it hits me on the way down. My flesh and bones work hard to return to their proper shape, but there’s too much to fix. A splash of blood still splatters all around me as my body reshapes itself, taking in a smaller shape as too much of my body is trying to cling to the rest of me to hold myself together.
In minutes I’ll be reduced to half my size as my flesh folds over itself to try and hold me together. Already I’m covered in lumps and odd shapes from the malformed muscles doing everything they can to maintain my shape.
Even in suffering, I can’t find rest.
“Malea.” I call to my ally, trying to stand on wobbling legs. Even with my adaption, I can’t keep going like this forever.
Malea is struggling against the raptor, I see that she’s tying together a dozen new wounds with her thin thread, while half her legs are weak and trembling, or hanging crippled by her side.
Leopold, even wrapped up in thread, pulls on them to lash out at her one more time, his claw nearly reaching her face as she smiles. All but one of her threads snaps, and she hangs the raptor from the last thread, shaped as a noose.
Blood colours her dark clothes, and at least two dozen wounds are stitched together across her body, but she smiles and holds herself as if at a party while watching our opponent struggle in vain.
“Malea?” I call to her, forcing my new mana to convert as fast as I can.
“I think that I’ll have to bow out once we’re finished with this one.” She says, “I’m at my limits, and next round will simply see us tormented in an effort to strip us of dignity.”
“No.” I reply. “I have one last trick. The one that you’re all already aware of, I’m sure. Do you want to miss the best part of all this?”
She chuckles cruelly, her eyes still focused on the reptile as he is teleported out of sight.
“If that’s the case, then why have you restrained yourself until now?” Malea asks, but I’m sure she already has a few ideas.
“It’s an all or nothing sort of deal.” I admit. “Not the only trick up my sleeve, and not my most dangerous.” My extended sight, my ability to steal Skills, to pull out Chips, and my throne packed with mana that I can cast even now, are part of the longer list.
The next pair of challengers appear, and though it burns at me that I can’t steal their abilities, not without getting close enough that I’m nearly touching them, I can still show them who I am and what I can do.
I don’t hold back, swirling all my mana into a small handful of annihilation spells, letting the mana inside convert as I’m relying on that for later rounds.
The new nobles opposing us stare at me with wide eyes, taking only a moment to try and raise defences against the massive spells that I’m preparing, but this time I’m not holding anything back. I cast a pair of overcooked spells at the pair, preparing to split them into nets the moment the enemy tries to dodge them.
The pair are pulled out in a moment, and as the two new contenders are teleported in, I cast the next spells, and ready more from the mana that’s become mine. No one even gets a chance to do anything before they’re cast out of the arena.
The next pair go the same as Malea chuckles cruelly at my side. It’s the first time I’ve heard her actually sound like she’s having fun, and her eyes are sparkling with genuine mirth.
She really is a sadist.
My last two spells are ready to cast, leaving me only enough mana to survive on, as Arduelle moves in the final pair that we can overcome. I cast before I can even see them through the glow of teleportation magic.
“I think that’s quite enough.” The noble woman standing tall opposite us, raises a bejewelled hand and casts a quick spell to catch my annihilation blast. The dense mana in the shield is so overwhelming that it barely even cracks in the face of my concentrated power.
The man beside her stomps his foot into the ground and holds out a small buckler. The shield catches the annihilation, and though my magic should carve right through it, instead it gets caught and spreads over the surface before dissipating.
“I would agree. This farce has gone far enough.” The hairy bear-like man says lifting his head to face us. He was among the more respected of the republic faction if I remember him right.
The two charge right at us, I can barely keep up with them by burning mana through my mind. I take a step forwards, standing between them and Malea, and taking a low stance to intercept. A smile creeps on my lips, no matter how I try to hold it in, Arduelle has given me a gift.
The two monsters hold abreast of one another, before finally reaching us. The bear tries to cut me down, and I’m sure that he’ll succeed, but that’s fine. The arachne woman tries to bypass me and reach directly for Malea, but I refuse to let her.
I leave behind half my body as I grab the queenly spider around her legs. I can’t even trip her up before she crushes me underfoot.
Light overwhelms me, and not only am I drawn out of the arena, but all my tattered pieces are put back together again, this time with a better brand of glue.
I can’t suppress the smile on my lips as I look over the gathered information that I stole from the two leaders. Now this is a bargaining chip and a half. It might be time for me to start playing politics properly now that I have some blackmail material.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Stats and Skills
~Mana Form:
Current mana density: 381 / 60,892 units
Current mana volume: 189 / 30,266 shards
Mana volume at crystallisation density (Max. mana volume):
Kyra: 30,266 shards
Kyra’s armour: 20,777 shards
Kyra’s throne: 1,109,298 shards
~Forms
Mana Canon
-Annihilation Heart (Adapted)
-Blood Fuel (20,000 mana shards)
-Bone Magic Storage (40,000 mana shards)
-Nail Shifters (50,000 mana shards)
Dancer
-Flash Nerves (8,000 mana shards)
-Quick Perception Mind (Adapted)
-Burst Reflex Muscles (35,000 mana shards)
-Layered space Muscles (80,000 mana shards)
Turtle
-Rebinding Tissue (Adapted)
-Catalyst Sweat Glands (140,000 mana shards)
-Repulsive Skin (80,000 mana shards)
-Prehensile hair (10,000 mana shards)
-Fatty Tissue Blood Storage (100,000 mana shards)
Investigator
-Wide eyes (5,000 mana shards)
-Wide ears (5,000 mana shards)
-Sharp nose (5,000 mana shards)
Misc.
-Clean bowels (Adapted)
~Favourited Skills:
-Tag and Film
-Trapping
-Stealth
-Mana surge movement
-Annihilation defence
-Annihilation flame burst
-Annihilation net
-Eyes of an Empire
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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