CHAPTER 16  (Patreon)

A monstrous primate loomed over the clearing. Silvery fur covered its body. It leaned against arms like tree trunks. It had red eyes and canines as long as my forearm protruded from its mouth.

It noticed us and rose to its hind legs. It towered over the jungle clearing like a god of violence. It beat its chest and let rip a howl that made every bird take flight.

“RUN!” mother said. “To the ruins!”

I didn’t understand. She was carrying me. What did she— oh.

Then she threw me, chugged down a small potion vial and started running in the other direction. 

The great monster barreled towards us. I saw it veer towards my mother, as she was the bigger prey. I stood frozen in place.

I realised what she was trying. Without a moment of hesitation she was going to sacrifice herself, so I could reach the ruins safely.

“LUKA RUN!”

The great ape leapt towards my mother. She dodged uncannily and threw a weighted net from her satchel at the ape’s face. The Silverback tore through the net like it was made of wet paper. Mother was already moving.

The beast swung an arm at her. I gasped, but mother had moved before the blow even started. The massive fist crashed into the ground, throwing mud and chunks of earth into the air.

Mother leapt over a fallen tree and fired a dart from her blowpipe. It struck the beast in the neck.

The Silverback roared and charged.

Mother ducked under its arm and ran to the side. The beast followed, uprooting a small tree as it barreled after her.

Holy shit. My mother was fast.

But the Silverback was faster.

It leapt after her, crossing the distance in a single bound. Mother somehow twisted out of the way and rolled across the muddy ground. The monster landed where she had been standing, and its enormous weight made the ground shake.

Mother jumped back to her feet and fired another dart, but the beast barely noticed. Maybe it had gained some kind of resistance ability from all the Junglers and Hunters it had outlived.

But somehow mother kept up with the great beast. It looked uncanny and I watched in astonishment. Then, I understood what was happening: Sixth Sense was allowing mother to anticipate the beast's movements. She was already dodging before it attacked. Her Skill was truly extraordinary.

But the beast was fast and powerful. Maybe it had Skills of its own, who knew. Either way to my horror it finally landed a glancing blow against mother’s shoulder.

She went flying, but somehow managed to land on her feet. She staggered and immediately started running again. I had never seen anyone move like that, but it wasn’t enough. Mother was fighting at the edge of her abilities— just one screw up, and she would be done.

I looked at the spell circle forming above my palm. Come on. Just a little more mana.

Mother was fighting fiercely and had shot half a dozen poison darts into the Silverback. It did slow down a bit, but I didn’t need Sixth Sense to know how this fight would end…

We were on a timer.

The Strength Surge Tonic made her able to fend off the Silverback by a hair. But I knew its effects well. The potion’s aftereffects would immobilize mother with pain and lethargy within minutes. 

What she wanted was clear: she would distract the beast until I was safe. I would not let her do that. But I was running out of time.

Fortunately the mana was thick here and it made a huge difference. I was already very accurate with the spell formula and could cast a Water Bullet within seconds. Since I had such abundant mana available, this time I was able to charge the kinetic components fully and launch something more devastating than I had conjured before.

I aimed at the Silverback. It was taking wild swings at mother as it roared and jumped around. 

My mother took a step back and stumbled on a root.

The Silverback noticed immediately. It rose onto its hind legs and brought both arms above its head. I felt a primal lurch in my stomach as I watched the monster’s muscles ripple.

Mother tried to jump away, but she had lost her footing.

At that moment, I launched my spell. A bucketful of water shot from my palm. I had packed more mana into the kinetic components than ever before, and the water flew with tremendous force.

It struck the Silverback right in the face. The beast's head jerked backwards. It roared in surprise and shut its eyes, but its arms were already coming down.

“MOVE!” I screamed.

Mother twisted to the side just as the blow landed. The ground exploded beneath the monster's fists. Mud and water flew everywhere, and I felt the impact even from where I stood.

My spell had struck true!

The Silverback had missed. Well… almost.

One thick arm caught mother as she jumped away. She was thrown through the air and landed in the bog with a tremendous splash.

“Mama!” I cried.

She rose from the mud, coughing and struggling to get back on her feet.

She was alive and I sighed with relief. But then the Silverback turned towards me. And it looked pretty damn mad.

“NO!” mother screamed. 

The beast rushed at me. 

I was already preparing another Water Bullet. I felt my throat constrict as the massive beast barreled at me. I felt terrible fear, but it had no grip on me. My short life flashed in front of my eyes, when I looked at the bloodshot eyes of the murderous ape.

I had no regrets; I had already died once, and I didn’t fear it. That gave me calm and instinctively I fell into a meditative state. 

What I figured could be my final thought was strange:

If I was going to die, I wanted to cast one last spell. Something magnificent and beautiful. In this trance of magic and focus that aimed for wonder, even my fear was overridden. The moment stretched, and I knew I was experiencing a moment of eureka.

Magical Insight activated.

Wait. Why did the spell have to end after one shot?

The outer runes controlled how much mana entered the spell. Normally, I closed them before the whole thing became unstable. But what if I changed the spell to release water as fast as it made it?

Mana in. Water out. Keep both going at the same rate.

I adjusted the runes and added more to handle the flow. A continuous spell. That was it!

The globe of water trembled as it teetered at the bounds of my control. When the monster was a mere few steps away from me, I activated the newly designed spell and it struck the Silverback point blank.

A jet of water blasted from my open palm into its face. Not just a splash, but like a firehose. The spell had enough initial force to throw the Silverback off its feet. It hit the ground and I just kept adjusting the spell. More mana input from the atmosphere, translating into more water gushing out through the kinetic components. I kept frantically adding to the spell formula in a state of absolute flow that only deadly peril could spur on.

[Spellcrafting level 10!]

[+1 Mana Flow]

[+2 Magic Power]

[New Perk Unlocked: Continuous Casting!] 

Description: You may apply a sustaining function to compatible spell formations without constructing its formula. Once established, these spells can be maintained and adjusted with reduced concentration and casting effort, without rebuilding the entire formation. Sustained effects still require mana. Stability and output depend on Spellcrafting, Focus, Mana Flow, and available mana. 

The System notification in this mortal danger somehow amused me. It felt so absurd to get a game-like notification while a nightmare barreled at me in full fury.

To my absolute delight, the spell was working. The Silverback roared and sputtered as it struggled to get up. However, despite the stupendous amount of mana I was pouring into the spell, the monster was stronger and it rushed at me through the Water Jet spell.

But at that moment I was caught by my mother who was sprinting towards the temple. She clutched me against her chest and started leaping up the stairs.

The Silverback roared and gave chase.

I kept my Water Jet aimed at its face. The beast turned its head away, but it didn't stop. It bounded onto the stairs and the enormous stone steps shook beneath its weight.

Mother jumped up the steps three at a time. She was moving incredibly fast, but I could feel her breathing getting ragged. The tonic was wearing off.

The Silverback made another great leap and landed only a few steps below us. It swiped at us, and I could feel the wind of the blow in my hair.

I adjusted the kinetic components of the spell and aimed at its feet. Water splashed across the smooth black stone, and the beast slipped as it tried to launch itself at us.

It crashed onto its side. Hell yeah.

But the thing was ridiculously strong. It grabbed the edge of a step with one enormous hand and pulled itself upright again.

I opened the mana input further. The spell immediately started wobbling. I had never tried to keep such an enormous formation working for so long. The formula felt like it was teetering on the edge, like a rickety bicycle going too fast downhill.

But then I felt it. The new intuition from Continuous Casting combined with Spellcrafting. I could sense where the formation was losing stability. I corrected the outer runes, and the Water Jet steadied.

And when it clicked into place, the mental strain was reduced massively. The structure of my spell now held easily, and I could focus on using Mana Manipulation to pour particles into my spell as fast as I could.

I sighed with relief. The Water Jet now had enough power to keep the beast at bay.

But then mother stumbled. I looked up at her. She was gritting her teeth, and I knew she was on her last legs. The aftereffects of the tonic were already taking hold.

“Almost there, mama!”

“I know, little gem!”

The Silverback roared behind us.

I turned and focused on blasting the damned thing’s face again. I made a small adjustment to the formula and concentrated the torrent of water as tightly as I could, aiming directly at its eyes. The jet of water thinned into a hard stream.

The monster shut them and swung blindly at us. One enormous fist struck stairs, cracking a block of stone.

Mother used that moment to make another leap, stumbled, and almost dropped me.

I had to release the hard stream into a wider push, because the thin stream was too hard to manage at my current skill level. Fortunately the massive force of water was keeping the beast at bay. But mother was getting tired and my focus was wobbling as I was conjuring at the edge of my abilities. 

This would be a close shave…

The doorway was only a few steps away. But the Silverback was right behind us.

I poured everything I could into the spell. The air was so thick with mana that I could barely keep up with gathering it. Water gushed from my palm, and the beast staggered backwards. My vision was getting blurry, and I felt something warm trickle down my nose. I tasted iron in my mouth, but I kept going. I had to.

With a final scream of effort, mother jumped through the doorway. We tumbled across the stone floor and slid across the room to land in a heap on the opposite wall.

Behind us came an enormous crash.

The Silverback had struck the pyramid. It raged and roared but it was too large and only its giant arm could reach inside, and not deep enough to catch us, as we huddled against the wall. 

We clutched each other and I could feel our hearts racing as we just stared at the monster trying to break in as I sprayed water in its face. But despite its frustration, the math didn’t work for the Silverback. So it snorted and decided to glare at us. Very menacingly.

I threw a nasty glare back at it. Screw that oversized monkey. 

I sighed with relief. We were safe. I let go of the spell.

Both me and my mother took a few deep breaths. Then we broke into crying and laughing and hugged each other. After we calmed down, I clutched onto my mother, and let unconsciousness take me.

*

Ramona held her child as she leaned against the cold wall of the strange ruins. Her lungs were burning and a heavy weight was setting into her muscles. The aftereffects of a Strength Surge Tonic. She had never ingested such a strong one. She had needed to use a few of these during her adventures in the jungle, but no ordinary potion could have let her go toe-to-toe against the Silverback.

Except the potion made by him.

She looked at her sleeping child. How was he possible? How was any of this possible? What had she just witnessed?

No, the tonic wasn’t the most amazing thing today. It had not even been that powerful water spell. She had seen magic of course. Elder Piraka could perform healing and blessings and even some transmutation, like creating glass from sand. 

But this had been something on another level. She had just witnessed Luka cast attack magic of a tremendous scale. Like an arcanist from the fables. Without a wand, without refined mana. Purely impossible.

What had been the most amazing thing sent shivers down her spine. She had been ready to lay down her life for her firstborn. It was scary, but she had not hesitated for a moment. An overwhelming motherly instinct had demanded she protect her child.

And he had denied her.

Somehow, her two-year-old boy had saved her and himself from a monster nobody on this island could contend with. 

He had stood his ground and surpassed himself to protect her. She cried with relief.

She watched the beast circle impatiently around the doorway. It sometimes threw a baleful look at them, but it could not reach them. It would go away soon, she knew. But it would not let them leave.

She glared back at the monster for she was no longer afraid of it. Because a new kind of sensation had awakened in her as a result of this evening. She had long believed Luka was special and extraordinary. Oh, how he filled her with pride. So intelligent, so fierce, and yet so playful and full of joy and curiosity. She couldn’t ask for more. Sure, Luka was strange and too mature for his age. But a mother couldn’t ask for a better son.

But her motherly love and faith in her own son aside, what she had witnessed had shaken her world profoundly. 

She knew that whatever they had come to search here, Luka would find. And then Luka would defeat this beast. He would do the impossible and defeat the Silverback.

She was sure of it.

She now believed.

She had joked about it before. But now she believed it. Her child truly was one of the legends in the fables.

Ramona looked into the darkness behind her.

Somewhere in this pyramid was the spellbook Luka had been so desperate to find. And beyond that were secrets of the ancestors that even Elder Piraka couldn’t understand.

And now her little gem was here.

She looked down at him, sleeping peacefully in her arms.

Her Sixth Sense was telling her something strange. Something she also knew on an instinctual level as a mother. She couldn’t explain it in any way, but she knew.

Her son would change here.