The Unified States of Mana

“How the fuck does a bug grow that big?” I ask, as the Queen climbs up at us, using the pillars of earth that she’s summoned as footholds.

“Shouldn’t we be more concerned about how she’s just about to eat us?” Nel asks, her weapon raised hesitantly. It would be nothing more than a toothpick to the monstrosity that’s charging up us.

“Nah, we’re just the audience remember. We’re not meant to get involved in this at all!” Red doesn’t hear my shouted sarcasm, ordering her troops around as she tries to deal with the sudden appearance of a building sized monster.

“You would destroy my home! Kill my children?!” The Queen shouts, Chip helpfully translating her words of hatred.

“Your children were little shits, and you’re an awful mother!” I shout down at her from the front of the ship, big Bessy beneath me trumpets her agreement.

Everyone else looks at me in horror but for Red who’s just floating about laughing.

“How dare you!” She crawls up at us, her legs sinking into the giant pillars that she’s summoned around us.

“Bessy, send the seekers to her face. Let’s blind the bitch!” I shout over the tremendous sounds of earth shifting beneath the creature’s long legs.

The small flaming orbs of horror fly out from the sides of the ship, heading straight for the giant head racing out for us. The ship trembles beneath me as Bessy tries to free herself from the earthen pillars that imprison us.

Red and her flyers try to engage the Queen, but swarms of enemies swoop in to busy her. A few even fly in over us to drop more pods of swarmers, and engage with the remaining warriors.

I’m really not sure I can trust Red’s battle plans anymore. I’m meant to be just an audience, but here I am captain of the ship that she left behind just to get her hands wet with blood.

Though at least she is quite the talented fighter.

As Bessy slowly pulls herself higher in the air, and the Queen races blindly up at us, Red is dipping and diving through the air, cutting through the bugs and spraying more blood for every second. Her warriors support her, and even outnumbered in a dangerous melee, they don’t seem to be on the back foot at all.

“Watch out!” Eshya shouts, stepping up beside me and slicing at a slug with her wooden sword. A mirage forms over the leading edge of the wooden sword and cuts clean through the small pest. A follow up kick sends it tumbling from the ship.

“Good work,” I say, patting her shoulder, “Everyone! Gather up, and support one another, or end up like that minotaur there.”

The minotaur I wave to is pulling the teeth of a sluglike swarmer from his ass. It’s not lethal, but it’s great encouragement for everyone else to follow orders. Nel, Vii, and Eshya gather around me, as I watch the battle below while rubbing the bone in my hand.

Bessy shudders and squeals, as I clutch at the hand rails and hang out over the side to see what’s happening. The Queen, still blinded by the seekers, has finally reached us. One of the scythe arms has cut through the bottom hull of the ship, and I can see clearly the splintered shards of wood and dark blood that drips from the injury.

“Bessy, do you have anything you can throw at her? Seekers? Spells?” I yell, hoping for something.

She knocks hard twice. From her lack of any face lasers, or seekers, that would be a no.

At times like this I wish I actually knew a little more about how long it takes Bessy to get these things going.

“Keep climbing Bessy, get past these spikes!” I encourage her, glaring at the Queen below.

“Red! Stop fucking around and give us some support!” Unfortunately, either she can’t hear me or she’s too busy.

Nel pulls me aside as Vii swoops down and takes out another nearby swarmer.

“Oi, mother bitch!” I shout at the creature raging below, “Do you really not care that your children are being slaughtered over there?”

“You die first!” She shouts at us taking another swipe at Bessy and cutting through the hull yet again. Her insect clicks or pheromones translated by Chip without any trouble, even as she tries to kill us.

“Fine,” I shout over the deck, “Has anyone recently awoken to an amazing and powerful magic?”

“Nope.”

“No.”

“Nothing that would help us.” Vii replies flinging a corpse over the side.

I watch as the Queen tries to catch the corpse, stopping only as she realizes it’s dead.

“My children! Please come back, you are too young! This battle is mine!” There’re a few unintelligible squeaks that come from the slug-like swarmers who don’t seem to understand.

“Oh, fuck this.” I swallow, hesitating only a moment over the realization of what I’m about to do, “Don’t kill the swarmers! Cripple them and bring them over here!”

Bessy is struggling, I can feel her laboured movements growing slower and more pained. She’s no longer able to climb and is trying to instead pull herself out from the forest of earthen pillars.

No one takes the time to question my plan, and quickly I have my first bit of living munition.

Nel awkwardly holds the squirming creature, its head is partially caved in but it’s still quite clearly alive.

“Oi, Queen. Let’s play catch!” I shout, taking the slug and throwing it down at the monstrous insect as she’s taking another swing at our ship.

The squealing little creature sails through the air towards its dear, sweet mother. The Queen stumbles losing her grip on the pillars as she tries to catch the swarmer with her awkward limbs.

An awkward shift of her scythe-like arms and she almost catches the slug, but instead bisects it. The two parts continue the fall as it’s guts spill and rain down.

“Oh, shit.” I can see a cold rage burning in the Queens eyes, “Bessy, hit her with everything as soon as you can! Everyone else, throw the slugs at the Queen bitch, now!”

The Queen lets out a high-pitched squeal that makes Bessy quake beneath us. She starts to charge back up at us but the waves of her own children that we toss at her give her pause. Many bounce off of her hard exoskeleton, splattering her with blood and guts, she keeps trying to catch them, but her body isn’t made for the task.

I think I see one falling into her open maw.

It’s not funny, but I still laugh.

These creatures are fully sentient, and I just…

Does this make me an evil person?

Probably, yes.

“Keep throwing!” I shout as I feel Bessy building up mana beneath us, her face laser is almost ready. The Queen is waving her arms around trying in vain to catch the children raining around her, then she freezes again. In shock? Grief? Rage?

Whatever it is, I’m not keen to ask.

“Blast her face!” I shout as the power beneath my feet builds to its final crescendo. The mana in my body shifts and spins a little beyond my control as the massive blast of energy carves a path down at the grieving Queen.

A river of white energy flows down from Bessy towards the unmoving Queen. It weaves slowly down while roaring like river rapids, and in the face of such power the Queen starts moving again just barely able to avoid some of the attack.

Half of her legs are sheered clean off, her neck and head are nicked by the pale white river that curves to try and finish her. The Queen is barely still holding on, her earthen magic summoning supports from the stone and dirt around her to keep her from sliding to the ground.

“That didn’t get her…” Nel mumbles by my side.

A splinter of earth splits the air as its flung right at me, I’m only saved by Bessy shifting back away from it.

“You girls doing alright?” Red asks as she flies our way.

“Just a fucking audience, right?” I ask her, falling to the ground as the deck slips to the side. “Can you do something about the Queen bitch?”

“It looked like you had it in hand.” She says, “But to be honest she’s a little more than we were expecting.”

“I hadn’t guessed…” I hiss, “We just need to get her to fall.”

“We’ll disable her other scythe.” Red declares, “Then Bessy can come in close.”

“Sounds like an awful plan.” Being the flea on the back of a monster as it gets into a brawl, isn’t going to end well.

“Not like you get a choice.” She laughs, punching my shoulder, “Unless you want to jump off again?”

“Fuck that, fuck you, fuck this whole thing.” I swear, gripping the handrail as another earthen spear strikes the lower hull.

“That’s the spirit!” Red says, leaping down to the Queen.

“Bessy, you know what you’re doing?” I ask and get a gentle thump as response.

“Are you feeling alright?” I ask, watching more blood drip out from the guts of my ship. Another gentle thump, either a yes, or she’s feeling too weak to say no.

It doesn’t really matter we’re doing this the same either way.

Eshya cuts down another swarmer as it throws itself at her, limping to the side of the ship and throwing the corpse down at the Queen.

“Focus on us now, Your Majesty.” Red calls out to her, hovering over her shoulder.

“I believe she may be too large for effective mating.” The insect man says, still as courageous as ever.

“Ma’am, I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to settle down.”

The Queen doesn’t respond to them at all until Red dives down to start cutting at the shoulder joint of her last remaining scythe arm.

Finally, the giant insect starts to fight again, striking out with magic and her limbs, trying hard to rid herself of the warriors that swarm her like bugs. The irony isn’t lost on me.

As the arm scythe arm goes limp, Bessy starts her charge.

“Don’t fall!” I shout, gripping the handrail tight and watching as we dive at the Queen.

“Ramming Speed!” I scream.

The Queen screams in rage and in pain, I feel a magic building up from her much like Bessy’s face laser. I buckle down and hold tight.

The earth pillars around us shatter into hundreds of smaller spikes cutting through flesh and wood without care. I feel one skimming my back. The armour plating on the sides of the ship are barely enough to protect us.

“Vii! Nel! Eshya!” I shout, looking for them as the impact hits with a terrible pair of monstrous screams. Our eldritch ship shakes with a tremendous shock before continuing it’s descent, and I watch as students slip about, trying not to fall from her back.

Thankfully, everyone is still here, but Nel has caught a spike to the shoulder.

“Eshya, Vii! Watch our backs!” I shout getting a look at the wound.

“I’m fine.” Nel says, struggling to keep her feet from sliding underneath her.

“You’re not. Hold onto me.” I grab her hand and pull her close moments before Bessy hits the ground.

The screeching Queen is crushed beneath us, I see pitch black limbs burning with ethereal flames pulling at the last of the Queen’s legs.

As the deck shifts side to side with excited movements I look at Nel’s shoulder. The injury isn’t as bad as it looks, the stone splinter is only about an inch into her flesh. Though it’s so long that if it stays in, it’s only going to cause more damage.

In one quick motion I pull it out, and press down on the wound, to control the bleeding.

“Kyra!” Vii shouts as the deck rolls over to one side.

“This is fucking bullshit!” I shout, holding onto Nel as we fall. We pass between entangled chitinous legs and monstrous tentacles, as they struggle against one another.

We land on surprisingly soft earth, with enough force that it hurts anyway.

The air is pushed from my lungs, and everything aches. I try to push myself to my feet, but the loose dirt slips from under my weight.

“Kyra!” Nel cries out, as she too starts to slip on the loose soil. I try to grab a hold of her to steady her to steady ourselves but instead we both slide down the dirt incline. Thus begins the second round of tumbling in less than a minute.

Through the fall, I cling to Nel. My weight presses on her, then she weighs upon me, as the sandy dirt grates at us. We roll and tumble down deeper and deeper, during the whole while my ‘mana skin’ is the only thing keeping me whole.

The ground levels out and we tumble along the ground until our momentum is spent. Our slide comes to an end. A rather soft end. Squishy, and slimy.

The tunnel is the same one as what the Queen crawled her way out of, which means…

Swarmers.

I look around, and in the dull light I can make out dozens of slugs all around, and the squirming forms of hundreds more.

“Nel. Nel!” I nudge at her trying to keep from panicking.

“I’m fine. I’m fine.” She repeats, but the words don’t roll off of her tongue quite right.

“We’re not fine.” I tell her, trying to get to my feet. I stumble. My left leg gives out beneath me, and I catch myself with my burned hand, popping blisters.

“Kyra.”

Of course, the slugs aren’t so dumb as to ignore us forever.

“Kyra!” Nel shouts, grabbing me under the shoulder and hauling me between slugs and towards the light. Her own breathing is ragged, but she doesn’t slow.

We stumble up the dirt incline as we get to the tunnel. The slimy creatures that follow us don’t seem to have the same problem, jumping and squirming their way ever nearer to our heels.

I fall to my hands and knees, and Nel falls by my side as she tries to save me. I turn around and face the hundreds of little alien toddlers that will happily eat us both alive.

I don’t hesitate. I’ve already done worse.

Though, saying that as I’m about to throw the equivalent of an incendiary grenade into a kindergarten is a little…

I’m the bad guy here…

“Fire in the fucking hole!” I shout, charging the little bone with as much mana as I dare to, and setting it with a fire charge.

I push with my good leg and crawl alongside Nel as we turn our backs to the blast of flames.

What I charged into the bone is about as much as I spent making that first ‘flame burst’ against the beast in town, but this time the flames aren’t contained within a shell and I’ve summoned them with the intent to spread the flames as far as possible rather than burning hot.

Thus, it’s no surprise when a gust of fire washes over our backs and coats the swarm behind us in flames. It won’t be enough to kill them, but it should distract them for now.

We crawl through the dirt and muck, watching our backs for any slugs that dare to follow. Thankfully, the few that do are easily dispatched with small fireballs.

“This is… not what I thought today would be like.” I grumble, kicking at the dirt with my injured leg, and pulling with my blistered hand.

“What… were you expecting?” Nel asks between, “More parties?”

“A visit to the beach maybe?” I choke out, “We could all do with a break, that and I haven’t had the chance for any real flirting. Surrounded by cute girls but too tired to do anything… it’s torture!”

Nel quietly laughs by my side as the both of us continue our crawl towards the light.

“Well, why not now?” She asks between breathes.

“I… you’re… damn it, nothing’s coming to my head!” I gasp for breath, more from laughter than exhaustion. Even the small amount of mana boosting my cardiovascular system seems to be doing wonders.

“Then I’ll start,” Nel says, “I really love your long red hair.”

“That doesn’t sound like flirting!” I say, “It’s got to be a bit more blatant. A bit more, like, ‘Hwe, Hwe, hwe, what nice birthing hips you have.’”

“What… in the hell? If that’s how you flirt then please, don’t try again.” She struggles on beside me.

“You know…” I struggle to swallow back the building guilt inside me, “The Queen didn’t know.”

“What?”

“The Queen didn’t lead the attacks. The way she was talking to the baby slugs, she wasn’t responsible for any of this. Well other than birthing them.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Nel says, “They attacked the town. Are you saying that Red and her people stagged all this?”

“You think Red could pull something like that off? No. I mean that the Queen wasn’t the leader here. One of the others was. Probably that other big one Red killed before we got here, if I’m to guess.”

“So…?”

“So, from the Queens perspective. We showed up to her home, and started slaughtering her children, even the stupid little toddlers.”

“You regret it?” Nel asks.

“I regret that the world is in such a way that we were pressed into these choices. The Queen. Me. You. Red. All of us, should have had better choices. But we’re too damned weak.”

As I grumble a small gust of wind washes over us, we look up to see Vii flying overhead.

“Found you!” She cries, wind beating down on us.

“Yeah, could you watch our backs for a while? How’s Eshya?”

“She’s still stumbling around looking for you two. I tried to get her to stop, but she’s determined. Red and the others are all busy, so it’s just me and her looking for you. Should I go get her?”

“No, she’ll just end up struggling beside us. If no one else is coming, it’s better we just get crawling.” I say, pulling at Nel’s arm to get her going too.

Crawling is the simplest thing in the world, even toddlers can manage it. That doesn’t make it any easier or less painful when the dirt grinds into your wounds.

I don’t know how long it takes to get to the surface, but it has to be more than half an hour of long suffering. The light is a welcome sight.

“Are you two okay?” Vii asks.

“We’re okay. Go round up Eshya before she hurts herself,” I say, watching the final steps of the massive monster wrestling match.

“Bessy’s kind of cute for an eldritch abomination.” I say, “She looks fluffy.”

The tentacles come out of a fluffy space that makes up the main body, and rather than a ball of tentacles, she looks like a ball of dark purple fluff with a pair of great big eyes floating in the midst of it. The Queen is bit by bit shoved into that fluffy space and disappears.

“I fucked my mana again.” I say, feeling strangely comfortable as I watch the fluff ball eat. Nel leans against my good side, slowly clenching and unclenching her twitching hands.

“I know.”

“I’m thinking about cheating to get it back up again.”

“I know.” She tightly clutches my hand, “Just don’t die.”

“I won’t.”

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

~Mana Form: Grade 1

Current goal: Develop your mana form.

Current mana density: 144 units

~Mana distribution:

Skin: 20%

Muscle: 5%

Mind: 1%

Cardiovascular: 5%

Misc.: 1%

Efficiency: 32%

 

~Fire Magic: Grade 1

Current goal: Develop a Skill for fire manipulation.

-Skill: Flame burst

-Skill: Fireball

 

~Defensive Techniques: Grade 1

Current goal: Develop a Skill for reactive mana skin.

-Skills: Mana skin

 

~Combat Techniques: Grade 1

Current goal: Develop a Skill for mana infusion strikes.

-Skills: Mana shield.

 

~Infusion Techniques: Grade 1

Current goal: Develop a Skill for lasting infused delayed casting.

-Skills: Infused Delayed Casting

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

//Author Note

More chapters available

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