With my Mana Sense on, I keep tabs on the roiling Mana overhead. It really is impressive how much is packed into that spell. All of that energy just for little old me? The Ka’armodo must be more than slightly attached to the slave attendants. I’d feel bad for the Lizard Wizard if they weren’t marching a giant monster along with a giant army toward my home.
No mercy for invaders!
But for now, run to the hills!
Run for your lives!
CRACKLE!
The dark cloud begins to spark and ripple with electricity. The lightning bolts cease for a beat and I can see in my Mana Sense that the power in the spell is condensing into a central point.
Deep within the cloud, a light begins to glow. It grows brighter by the second until it becomes a near-blinding radiance that pierces my eyes. Something big is coming. I’m not a big fan of this.
DAAAAAAAAASH!
With a plop, Crinis hauls herself onto my back after reeling herself in using the tentacle she’d stuck to me, and now she’s clinging on for dear life as I sprint, my legs a blur to my eyes as I cover the ground at high speed.
[Watch out above, Tiny! Get clear of me!]
The bat-faced ape shakes his head and growls angrily, but is forced to obey my direct command and leap to the side, putting some distance between us. Overhead, the cloud shrinks in on itself as the remaining Mana within concentrates down to a single point.
Isaac has collected himself, now with a spear in hand. As a javelin thrower might, he runs forward and with a mighty roar, launches the spear into a high arc that seems to be heading right for me.
Wait a sec… It IS heading right for me. The heck?
HAH!
At the last second, I throw myself to one side, my legs tripping over each other, and I fall as several things happen at once.
The spear punches into the ground right where I’d been running with a reverberating thud, the metal-hafted weapon pushing deep into the ground as the momentum pushes the butt forward until the weapon stands vertically.
BOOOOOOOOM!
Like a lance from the heavens, the lightning falls. Intense light blossomes in an instant, and not for the first time, I wish I had eyelids. This is going to give me some serious retina burn! The impact pierces the ground and sends a shower of earth into the air. So fierce is the force, it ripples through the air and smashes into me, burning me and sending me tumbling end over end, squashing Crinis into my back.
I’ve been cooked! Also, I can’t see…
Not only that, my brains are ringing as if I were a bell that was struck. What the hell was that? Everything’s all white!
[Are you alright, Crinis?]
[I… I think so.]
[Tiny?]
[Raaaah!]
Ok, that’s good.
[Uh, Crinis?]
[Yes, Master?]
[Any chance you can let me know which way is forward?]
[I-I’ll try!]
And we’re off! Standing still is death. Using her ability to sense Mana, Crinis points us away from the horde and we disappear into the distance.
110. Dangerous Games
Blinded and frantic, I run as fast as I can away from the horde—I hope—whilst Tiny bounds alongside. As I stumble and trip over what feels like every obstacle, bump and uneven patch of ground on my path, I try to lunge left and right to avoid the fireballs and other spells that are endlessly flung my way. The odd explosion actually lands quite close, but thanks to Crinis latching onto my mandibles with a tentacle each, she is able to steer me away from the spells she detects by literally steering me.
It is undignified, but I’m more interested in survival than my pride.
I am confused as to what had occurred in that strange confluence of events, but I don’t have time to ponder over it until the very real mortal peril I’ve found myself in subsides. I persist in running as far and as fast as I can.
THWACK!
Ouch! I’m under attack! Still blinded and bewildered, my forward momentum is suddenly and forcefully brought to a halt by something blocking my path. Feel my wrath!
Shattering Bite!
Crunch!
My jaws flood with energy as the active Skill takes effect and snaps shut on whatever was barring my way. I felt whatever it was splinter and shatter beneath the force of my bite, followed by a vague tingling sensation from my antennae. What is this thing in front of me? I don’t detect any heat from it, so it shouldn’t be a monster. My antennae are telling me something is leaning over this way?
OOF!
A crunch of a different sort rings out as the tree I just felled lands squarely on my carapace, the weight and force of the impact flattening me in an instant and puting several hairline cracks in my exo-skeleton. At least those’ll heal up fast.
[Are you alright, Crinis? I think I just dropped a tree on us.]
[I’m alright, Master. A little flat, but otherwise fine.]
I feel her shift about on my back before another downward spike in pressure forces the wind out of me again.
OOF!
Crinis extends a few tentacles and succeeds in lifting the tree off of us before she threw it to one side.
We lay on the ground in a battered daze for a minute or two, neither of us sensing any danger and neither of us willing to move without a motivating force.
[Are you here, Tiny?]
[Hmm,] came his grunted reply.
Fantastic, the gang’s all here.
As I lay in a daze, waiting, the white gradually begins to fade as my normal vision returns. Blessed light! The power of eyeballs in all their glory. After spending so much time obsessing over my vision in my early days on Pangera, it’s more than a little disconcerting to have that sense removed, even temporarily. That lightning had surely been something special. I’ve never seen anything like it. The force, the power, the sheer destructive impact. I’m not sure even Tiny could have survived such a thing hitting him directly.
So how did I survive?
At that moment, I saw Isaac and his crew approaching.
My weary and still somewhat scattered minds put together the necessary Mind Mana and I reach out to the former guard captain.
[Well, if it isn’t speary mcspearface.]
He halts his step. [What the heck does that mean?] he asks.
[Nothing,] I harrumph. [I was just a little miffed when you threw that spear at my head!]
[If I hadn’t done that, the lightnin’ bolt would ’ave turned you into a crispy husk of yer former self!] Isaac protests. [I was expectin’ thanks, to be honest!]
[Er… You mean to say you threw that in order to make it act as a lightning rod to save me?]
He nods vigorously. [Of course! Why would I try an’ kill ya?]
[I’ve no idea. I just didn’t think you’d be smart enough to think of something like that.]
Isaac stares at me for a moment before he mutters something to himself. Then he laughs. [Well, perhaps I’ve a little more goin’ on upstairs than you give me credit for.]
I can only nod in agreement, still exhausted from my misadventure.
[Thanks, Isaac. You really pulled my portfolio out of the bear market.]
[You’re… welcome?]
[That was one heck of a throw, though. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone with an arm like that.]
[Where would you have seen someone throw? I don’t think you ants have quite the physiology for it.]
He isn’t wrong, but he’s not quite getting what I’m saying, either. I was speaking of my experience on Earth. Obviously, there are tons of fantastical and insane things that are possible in this world that simply aren’t on Earth. The different levels of ability between humans is the one that keeps surprising me. He must have thrown that heavy spear over a hundred metres! An unspeakable feat of strength on my old world.