Reincarnated as a mana core

Argul slowly stood up. Her movement woke Alyra who looked at her annoyed, at least until another howl tore through the night.

Argul walked to Arthur and shaked him carefully trying not to hurt him. He immediately woke up and looked at her with bleary eyes. “What?”

The thing howled again and Argul winced. “I fear we are too late.”

He stared at her for a second not comprehending and then his eyes widened. Arthur immediately tried to stand up and walk, but it still hurt like hell. Alyra walked over to them and lowered herself so Arthur could climb on her more easily. Argul meanwhile collected the bag and Aina.

They didn’t speak a single word and continued their run in the direction of the howl, maybe they wouldn’t be completely too late.

An explosion ripped through the silence of the forest, only it was a lot stronger than Arthurs or they wouldn’t have heard it. Argul increased their pace and constantly scanned their surroundings with her mana sense. Better safe than sorry.

After the explosion it was silent for a bit, but that didn’t alleviate any of Argul’s worries. They continued on in silence and on high alert for nearly an hour. Argul was a bit exhausted and she couldn’t continue this pace for much longer. Not that she needed to as they could see the last smolders this explosion had left behind.

And Argul could not only see that. A few hundred meters in front of them was something weird in the tree. Its mana signature had the form of a squirrel, but oh boy it was much too big for that.

Argul stopped together with the other two and looked at the thing. It moved a bit and another howl sounded out. It started to move into their direction through the trees at a fast pace and it wasn’t alone.

Argul hastily took the rifle. “Fuck.”

She aimed for a few seconds, this time using the scope and holding the weapon mostly correct. She pulled the trigger and a white line appeared in the night. Her shot was followed by a pained screech and the sound of something impacting the ground.

Argul was thankful for her stats, they made it possible for her to be that fast. She aimed calmly again. “Three to the left, one in front and five to our right. Maybe 200 meters.”

Her mana sense made it even more easier as she could see through the trees somewhat and she could also shoot through the trees. 

Argul pulled again and the one in the middle fell to the ground screeching. She had only hit its leg, but that had to be enough for now. “Front injured.” Argul thought the other two might want to know what was going on.

She aimed again, this time at one of the corrupted on their right side. Argul shot and missed. She shot again, this time through a tree and hit somewhere near the head. The thing fell from the tree, but was not that. “Right, one injured but still able to walk.”

Another 150 meters maybe and they would have to fight melee. Argul still had no idea what they looked like, but wasn’t sure if she even wanted to know.

She moved her rifle a bit and aimed at another one. She pulled and another white line shot through the dark. It impacted the head of the corrupted, not even giving it a chance to screech. “Right, second dead, number one moving again.”

Argul had no idea why she was so damn calm, but thought her life not being on the line here helped a lot. She aimed again, pulled the trigger and missed. With the second shot she hit something, but it continued on. “Right, third slightly injured. about 100 meter left.”

Argul shot again, the white line tearing through two trees and then the corrupted that she had just injured. It was flung back and fell to the ground unmoving. The mana signature started to mix with the surrounding mana. “Right, third dead, maybe 90 meters left.”

She aimed at the fourth corrupted on the right side shot and hit its leg, immobilizing it. “Right fourth immobilized, still alive. Changing to the left.”

Argul aimed again, but this time the corrupted actively evaded her shot. She lowered her rifle, now being able to aim at them without it. “They started evading my shots. About 50 meters left”

Arthur visibly tensed up. Argul concentrated on the moving mana signatures and started to shoot normal magic missiles at them. With her 7th shot she hit, ripping a fist sized hole through one of them.  “Two on both sides left and 2 immobilized.”

She breathed in and out heavily. Argul would have to create a method to hide her mana or she would be as easy a pick as the corrupted right now.

She put the rifle back on her back while shooting another 2 missiles. These things were fast and she could now visibly see their shapes moving in the dark, not only their mana signatures. 

The one she was shooting at had to evade her third missile, which opened it up for Argul. She immediately shot it. The corrupted screeched in pain and anger. It jumped again and missed the branch. After that it didn’t move anymore. “One left for you Aly.”

Alyra grinned, baring all her teeth. “A pleasure.”

Argul had to focus on something else. The fifth corrupted of the right side jumped at her from its tree. She jumped back and shot two missiles at the place she had been, killing the corrupted instantly. “Fucker.”

Alyra growled and the last one from the left side jumped at her. She evaded in a smooth leftwards motion and bit its neck. She shook her head wildly until something cracked audibly. Arthur had a really bad time trying to stay on her back.

Argul shot the injured one on the right side until it dropped. She looked at the corpse before her.

It looked like a large squirrel, a major difference being overly much muscle mass. The fur had a weird pattern, but she couldn’t quite see the color. She guessed mainly purple. The most grotesque feature was the head though. They had a large mouth that was so full of teeth it looked like a shredder. Some of the teeth were so large they grew out of the mouth.

Argul wondered why they were so different compared to those of before. Maybe it had something to do with the intent in the surrounding mana?

She didn’t know and looked at Alyra whose fur was bloody again. “Let’s move before even more of them come snowing in.”

She looked at Arthur with a serious expression. “You might not like it, but we are going to sneak inside the village and look for any survivors.”

He did not complain. They could just leave him back and Arthur had no chance to defend himself against any of the corrupted. He was also in no condition to run so it would likely be his end.

They moved as silent as possible as they distanced themselves from their previous position taking a slight detour to the right. Argul did not want to run into any more of them. She stopped and gestured to Alyra to do the same. 

On their left side another corrupted was moving past them about a hundred meters away. Once she determined it was safe Argul continued.

They continued like this for about a kilometer until the forest stopped.

In front of them was the village. There were about 100 one family houses and a random street in between. On the streets the remains of a SUV could be seen. It was completely burned out and likely the reason for the explosion. A few other cars were standing in front of another house untouched.

A few of the squirrel corrupted were inside the village, but not nearly enough to account for the population of the space. Argul looked around and discovered them in the forest around the village. There were also a few smaller ones.

She looked over the village again and noticed an oddity. In a house on the other side of the village was a humanoid mana signature around as tall as a 7 year old. It looked completely different to that of the other corrupted, yet similar.

Maybe the child was still sane?

Argul would find out. She turned to the other two and made sure not to be too loud. “It doesn’t look too good for us. The only thing I spotted is the mana signature of a child that is possibly still sane on the other side of the village.”

She breathed out. “The corrupted are mostly inside the forest. There are 8 inside the village right now. I say we go and investigate the child.”

Alyra just nodded and Arthur closed his eyes, resigned. He had been a drug dealer and definitely wasn’t someone with the urge to be a hero.

The three slowly and as silently as possible crept inside the village. Argul took the lead and Alyra followed. They reached the first house and Argul crouched at the hedgerow around the garden. She looked around and made sure nothing had seen them.

Argul sneaked along the hedge and paid attention to have something at her back as often as possible.

The doors of all of the houses were open and there were a few destroyed windows.

The three continued like that and Argul only stopped once to stare at the half eaten corpse of a woman. She was strangely composed at the sight, but blamed it on her mental fortitude.

After 15 minutes of very careful movement they reached the middle of the village. Argul felt something was off and looked around them on edge. The corrupted had assembled all around the village at the edge of the forest. She didn’t like that and it was not a good sign.

As one they howled and then moved. Sweat was flowing down Argul’s neck and her tail was standing straight. “Fuck! Run!”

And they ran, they ran for their dear lives. There was no way that they could fight against nearly 200 corrupted people at once.

In less than a minute they reached the house and ran inside. Argul wasted no time on being silent. “I don’t care if you don’t have any hands or are bruised beyond possible, but if you want to open your eyes tomorrow you better start blocking every single entrance into this house.”

There was a cupboard in the corridor behind the door and Argul wasted no time moving it in front of the door, not caring if something broke in the process. She threw the bag and Aina somewhere. Sorry girl! Arthur got from Alyra’s back and the two got to work themselves.

There was a living room, kitchen and a bathroom on the first floor. They moved cupboards,tables and chairs, making sure that nothing could come in. It didn’t look all that used lately, which made Argul wonder or would have if she had had the time for it.

She moved up the stairs to the second floor. There was a guest room, a bathroom and two bedrooms on this floor. In the smaller one Argul knew the child was in so she moved there and left the other room for her companions.

She carefully made her way over to the door not wanting to bump anything in the dark and knocked. “Anyone home?”

Argul didn’t get an answer, but saw the mana of the child move. She opened the door slowly, surprised to see that it wasn’t barricaded. In front of her was a relatively tidy room. There was a bed in the right corner of the room. Next to the bed stood a wardrobe. Opposite to the bed was a desk. Argul would reach it if she walked straight in the room. The walls of the room were adorned with posters of various pop-stars or someone else. Argul had no idea of such things.

The child was hiding behind the bed. She went into the direction of the kid and made sure that it heard her. When she reached the corner of the bed a little girl came into her view. Argul guessed she was maybe 7 years old.

The girl had long open hair and a large squirrel-like tail. She was in a fetal position and hid her face behind her hands. Argul couldn’t see anymore in the darkness, but was a bit relieved that she still seemed to be herself.

Argul walked to the wardrobe and moved it in front of the window that was next to the desk. Then she walked back to the girl again and tried to be as friendly as possible. “Hey, everything is okay and going to be alright.”

The girl didn’t respond, but Argul had heard her breath. She smiled a sad smile and slowly picked the bundle of terrified child up. The girl did not offer any resistance and only tensed up more.

Argul went downstairs to the living room again carrying the girl in something similar to a princess carry. She sat down on the couch and laid the girl on her lap. Then she started to caress the child's hair.

You could hear the corrupted moving outside of the house and sometimes knock against a window or the wall. It was creepy so Argul started to hum a lullaby. Alyra and Arthur came downstairs and took their own places. Nobody except Argul was making a sound.

The girl in Argul’s lap started to ease up with time, but still hid herself and didn’t say anything. At some point the girl fell asleep which put a small smile on Argul’s face.

Arthur had found candles somewhere in the kitchen and was using the light of one to search for food and water. Argul approved, they were going to be here for a while.