Pest Control

Crimson red eyes glow bright on the horizon, getting nearer every second, but I haven’t a moment to spare in looking up.

I sidestep a beast the size of a mammoth, as it awkwardly crawls up the tall wall and stampedes right past me, leaping from the wall behind me without even hint of hesitation. Other beasts, some larger, some smaller, climb and leap the same way, barely taking a moment to even notice me and the others soldiers fighting to keep them from the walls.

Beasts of all sorts and natures throw themselves at the wall, climbing over each other and unintentionally forming a staircase from the corpses of those trampled underneath. The beasts that died, leaping from the wall behind us give the rest a softer landing.

An endless tide of flesh flows past us, and we can do nothing to stop it.

We’re here to stop them, and it’s what these soldiers are trained to do. However, at this point, the only beasts I’m bothering to kill are those that I’m too slow to dodge. Those that would trample me in their mad rush to escape the titan still approaching.

I watch my surroundings with my mana senses, and I see a worrisome shift in the air as the titan’s inwards breath pulls the mana away. The atmospheric mana and the air retreats like the tide pulling away before a tsunami.

As I prepare to defend against the blast, another beast leaps up on the wall before me. Standing high above me, it barely even notices me as it stumbles towards me.

“Down, damnit!” I shout throwing a powerful annihilation spell at the beast’s skull. The mana hits right in the centre and sends the beast toppling to the ground, as my spell minces its brains.

I crouch low behind the corpse and ready my reactive defences as the titan’s blast ripples along the treetops of the wild forests between us and the titan.

It hits moments later, slamming into the beast corpse, then through its body right into my own. My reactive defences resist the force of the blast better than the beast corpse that I’m taking cover behind.

The massive, scaly corpse slides right over my foot, and nearly crushes my leg before I slide myself free, trip over and roll back away from the corpse, barely stopping in time to avoid falling from the walls.

A few of the soldiers near to me are struggling much the same, but there aren’t any that seem to need my help. I refocus on the beasts rushing by me as I draw the mana from the corpse that nearly crushed me. The tide continues to overflow this dam wall.

We fight, and struggle, only surviving because the beasts don’t bother to fight us. Raptorial beasts, some as large as a T-rex, four legged beasts like elephants or mammoths, birds as large as trucks, and snakes as long as trains.

All are terrified of the titan behind them.

I duck low as another of the titan’s blasts washes past us, the tide of flesh now sputtering out, as the wildland forest runs out of beasts.

The forests residents have run themselves to death to get here, and now the only ones that remain are those still crawling away on broken legs, or the ones whimpering the rest of their short lives away.

Surprisingly, most of the soldiers remain standing. Some in tight groups, others surviving on their own, but I don’t see a single corpse. Though perhaps those who died are simply buried amidst the countless dead beasts.

The titan’s attacks have slowed as it’s gotten closer, but the deep, crimson red of its eyes show no less hunger than before.

Archers and mages that are gathered on the wall, and behind it, start shooting for the distant titan. I somehow doubt that they’ll achieve much. I watch as blood red ice forms into a spear and launches at the distant figure, accompanied by countless other magics and arrows.

The titan’s eyes flash bright right about when the attacks should land, letting us know that we’ve successfully pissed it off.

The mana gathers toward the distant titan and stirs in its body. I see it glow so brightly, like the sun rising over the distant horizon, that and I prepare for another attack.

The titan however does something a little different, it lowers its head slightly, and as I watch, the mana flow towards us, not as a wide wave, but as one large glowing ball.

It moves faster than I can track with my eyes, hitting the wall further along to my left blasting the archers and mages gathered there. Not even a stain remains of the young warriors who dared to attack the titan.

Leaning against the corpse of some dinosaur-like beast, I glare up at the distant figure as it stands at full height, near enough to see a little more clearly. It’s taller than any living being has right to be, its skin is covered in some form of dark, sharply angled crystal, acting as armour plating. Movements within the crystal hint at either the existence of internal organs, or some sort of cursed, evil spirits inhabiting the crystalline form.

Between the two, I’d bet on the latter.

The mana and air stir around the beast as it breathes in. Mana gathers inside the monster, as it prepares another of its shouts.

The mages and archers are throwing their everything at the beast, but nothing seems to scratch its crystalline skin.

The flow stops and for a brief moment, there’s quiet as it weaves powerful magic into the air compressing inside of it. I wouldn’t survive a direct hit from one of its concentrated attacks, but I don’t have the speed to dodge either.

I prepare to leap anyway, because I’m not dying because I was too lazy to try for the impossible.

The mana releases and flashes, and I dive to the ground.

I’m still alive, so it couldn’t have been aiming for me. Cautiously, I stand up and take a look back at the mages and archers.

There’s another hole in the wall, and a few less ranged specialists than the last time I looked.

I’m sure they just deserted.

It’s a nicer thought than the truth.

“Fuck…” The beast turns its glare towards the rest of us.

“Any chance you guys know of a secret weakness?” I ask the soldiers around me. “I mean the death star has an exhaust port, maybe if we shove a missile or two up its arse?”

“If you think you can do something, then go ahead and try!” Kyle shouts from somewhere near to me. A section of wall has fallen away from between us, torn asunder by another of the titans screams.

“What’s going on?” John asks, stumbling up the stairs with his stolen staff, the other would-be rebels following at his heels. I suppose the disaster has brought them crawling out of whatever room they were hiding in. It makes sense, they wouldn’t have come out to the edge of the world with me if they weren’t the sort to get involved in something like this.

I just point at the titan and let them figure out the rest, with the corpses and the mess it’s really not that difficult of a situation to figure out.

“What the…?” John gapes at the sights around us.

“What should we do?” Hawk asks, gazing at the battlefield around us.

“I’m not sure there’s anything for you to… actually there might be something.” I admit, rubbing my temple as a bad idea starts building in the back of my mind.

No one has come to save us, and there’s no superman on the horizon.

The titan is only getting closer, the longer we struggle.

We’re going to die here, and I’m too slow to escape. Maybe I should’ve just grabbed onto one of the beasts and ridden it out of here. I get the feeling I’d have had better odds of surviving.

“That thing is too big, should be easy enough to hit, so maybe… maybe it’s time to learn something new…” I mutter as I look over the gathered rebels, too weak to fight the titan off.

“We need to get to the safe side of the wall, Shrelle can you manage that for us?”

“We can take the lift.” She says, brushing herself off as she holds her bloody spear high as she leads us away.

“Don’t die!” I shout to Kyle as I race after her, followed by a nervous group of flightless rebels.

“So, the plan.” I say, as they gather closer to me. “I’m going to cast some powerful annihilation magic through the wall and hopefully hit the titan. It won’t kill it the first shot, but maybe twenty or thirty will do.”

“What do we do?” John asks, looking back over at the distant titan.

“Gather corpse piles for me to raid. I need the mana, and I can’t risk standing in one spot, so make piles everywhere you can under the shadow of the wall.” I say, as we arrive at the lift. It’s thankfully still intact, hidden behind the fort as it is.

On the ride down I can see many different beasts crawling on the ground with broken limbs, struggling to escape even now. They’ll make for good mana, so I won’t complain about it. Others didn’t survive the fall quite so well.

The ride down has given me enough time to finish converting my mana and keeping it as full up as it can get. Even so, it’s not going to be enough. I pressure my mana into a tighter and tighter vortex in the centre of my chest, but I can’t feel the change that should come with liquid development.

“Are you sure about this?” Shrelle asks. “Everyone who attacks the titan gets targeted, and you’re not fast enough to dodge the attacks.”

“Which is why I’m hoping to hide myself.” I say. “Do you think that it can see through these walls?”

“How should I know?” She replies, glaring back at the wall.

“Then we’re taking a gamble and hoping it works out.” I reply, standing behind the wall of the fort. There should be two walls and perhaps some corpses and soldiers between me and the titan. The best cover I can expect to get on short notice, now I’ve just got to figure out how the hell I’m meant to aim.

I’d been hoping that I could just guess, or maybe wait it out until the titan is closer, but I’m not sure I can really risk either. By the time the titan is that close, I don’t think this fort will still be standing.

“You’re trying to cast through the walls?” Shrelle asks.

“It should work, I just can’t see the damn thing…” I grunt, glaring at the stone, while feeling like an idiot.

“Try your mana senses.” Shrelle advises, and I look up at her in confusion.

“Your mana senses.” She repeats. “It’s powerful enough to radiate through the wall… you have developed your mana senses, haven’t you?”

“Damn it.” I swear, redistributing all of my mana to my mind and glaring at the wall once more. The wall itself is thick with mana and its difficult to see anything past it, but there is a dense patch that feels somehow different from the rest.

“Is that it?” I ask, pointing at the spot on the wall.

“Yes.” She replies.

“Okay, good. Let’s try this…” I say, then think again. “As soon as I’m done casting, I’m going to be mana-less. Drag me over to one of the corpse piles for me to drain their mana, would you? A distant one so we don’t get caught in the retaliatory blast.”

“Mana-less?” She asks, her eyes widening in shock, quite understandably. “Ah, yes, ma’am.”

“Good, please be gentle with me.”

Just in case it sends more wide-ranging blasts, I’ll reserve 50 points of mana to use in reactive defences.

Pointing at the wall and stirring the largest mass of mana that I can. I begin to push it out towards the beast when I stop myself.

This doesn’t feel right.

The tactics and attack are fine, if not perfect. The soldiers around me, the rebels moving corpses, even the titan feels like it belongs to this chaotic world, but something isn’t right.

It’s me. I don’t quite feel myself right now.

I’m surrounded by strangers on an alien world, I don’t have any right to this land or these people. I’m not fighting for my own cause. I have no reason to be here but for Arduelle’s request.

I’m not the empress, and my talent refuses to respond to my call.

A situation like this happening at my own home would leave me seething, but here…?

“Shrelle.” I ask the young warrior. “Could you go gather those rebels for me. That girl that was wanting to run off into the wildlands and the others with her.”

“Huh?”

“Actually, nevermind.” They don’t have to be here, though I’m sure this would be more effective if they were able to play along with me for this.

They don’t like how things are going here and they want to escape, which is understandable. They’re valuable, talented people, and our goals align well enough that we should be able to get along. I’m sure they’d be happy to join my tiny empire.

To be my people.

“Hey, John, Hawk.” I shout to the rebels, waving them closer.

“What is it, is something wrong with the plan?” Hawk asks, nervously brushing down the feathers on her head.

“Kind of.” I reply. “I need you to acknowledge me as your leader.”

“You what?” John asks, leering at me. “Right now?”

“Yes.” I reply, meeting his gaze. “I need to see you as my people, as people that I’m responsible for, and people that I need to defend.”

“What…?” He asks, clearly hesitant. “This isn’t the moment for it.”

“It’s precisely the moment for it.” I reply. “Now, do you accept me as your leader?”

“Yes.” Hawk cries out, and John looks at her in confusion. “Does it really matter if we’re all dead?”

“Fine. Yes, you’re our leader. Now are we done?”

I smile as I feel the weight of responsibility settle onto my shoulders and nod, letting him return to his task of gathering corpses.

“What was that?” Shrelle asks.

“My talent. I’m still figuring it out, but it feels stronger when I’m protecting people that I consider my responsibility.” I reply, gathering my mana into as tight a ball as I can manage and aiming at the point in the wall where the titan should be.

“The moment I let this spell go, drag me away to a corpse pile and get us low to the ground.” I tell her, as I think of the various rebel groups that I’m claiming as my own. People that will, when given chance, join my cause and live in my empire.

Those people, my people, are dying right now. Torn to shreds by this titan that looks down upon us as if we’re nothing but ants on the sidewalk.

Unacceptable.

My mana is tainted by emotions, gliding out of my hand easily and forming a sharp line of destruction. Even without my mana senses, I can feel the mana gathering in the spell as it cuts through the wall before me, racing towards its target.

Mana shock starts to settle in, as I slump down against the wall.

“Now.” I say as my mana dips to below dangerous levels.

Handled about as nicely as a sack of potatoes, I’m pulled away from the wall. With bruising acceleration I’m pulled a few hundred metres in a matter of moments before I’m thrown onto a pile of dead beasts. I don’t question it for a moment, consuming that sweet, painful razorblade storm of foreign mana.

A terrific roar takes over the world behind me, but I don’t bother looking back at it.

I’m still alive, and I need more mana.

Shoving as much as I can into my soul, I squeeze it together tightly, binding it closer and closer and converting it faster and faster. The pain fills my flesh and soul, but it doesn’t matter right now.

All that matters is that I convert this mana and throw it at the coming titan.

Another roar fills the air near me, more of the wall is toppled.

“Move me somewhere else.” I say, grabbing onto Shrelle and letting her pull me along to the next segment of wall from where I’ll attack the beast.

There’s still a long time before it arrives, and I’ll be damned before I roll over and let it kill me.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 920 units

~Mana distribution:

Defence: 0/33%

Offense: 0/57%

Mana sense: 73/73%

Recovery: 0/30%

Gluttony: 0/26%

Misc.: 0/42%

Efficiency: 73/92%

~Favourited Skills:

-Chip Shredder

-Multi-mind

-Tag

-Mana surge movement

-Reactive defence

-Fire burst punch

-Annihilation magic

-Mana form flow fixer

-Branching magic