CHAPTER 47 (Patreon)

I tried to calm myself. I would not have to engage here. I could go back and stay huddled up in a corner, practicing magic until I was saved. I didn’t need to be foolish and I didn’t need to be heroic.

My eyes drifted back from the monstrous centipede to the vein of gemstone full of mana. It glinted beautifully and every pulse beckoned me. Who was I kidding? My greed entirely overrode my fear.

Fine. If that was how it was going to be, then I just needed to figure out how to deal with the massive beast. I could cast a water spear at it. But it was covered in black plates of carapace, and if I didn’t wound it mortally, I could be dead in an instant. This creature was way stronger than the Mamba or the evolved raptor. Even if it left me alone to charge my best Water Spear, I wasn’t confident I could damage it.

I also didn’t know how aggressive or fast it was. The smaller ones had been nimble. The ones that I didn’t manage to kill with a single shot had actually reached me. Fortunately their size had been small enough to bounce off my barrier.

I had no illusions of what would happen when this freight train of a monster would barrel at me. My barrier would pop like a soap bubble.

So what was the play? Could I distract it? Sure, and then what? Somehow hack the mana-infused gemstone from the cavern wall, and carry the massive slab out with me? A likely play.

I would certainly start with a Water Spear, but I had no way to deal with the counter attack if the beast survived it. The cavern was wide and it was a bad idea for me to engage in an open space. So could I lure it back into the tunnels? They were large enough for the monster to crawl into them. Could I use the narrow spaces to my advantage? Maybe I could trap it.

If only I had more spells in my repertoire! All I had to go with were water spells and kinetic spells. And I would need to use so much of my power to keep a barrier up.

Then I got an idea. Wait a minute. Could that work…?

I was a little bit nervous. I hadn’t tried a spell like this. Theoretically it should work, but the hell did I know. I was just a kid screwing around with magic. Usually my ideas worked out because magic just made sense to me. But this was the first time I was playing without any kind of safety net since the Silverback. And I had known I could take it on after the training with Mez.

This was a true risk. Was I really greedy enough to take it?

I didn’t know exactly what would happen if the Belator took over the archipelago. Would they kill me and my family? If not, I could always use my abilities and Danek’s to get enough money to sail to the main continent later. I assumed they would want to use me and my skills, but who knew. They were a bunch of assholes, and they had already tried to kill me.

No, what was I thinking? This was just me trying to rationalize. It was fear. If I turned back from this threat now, who would I become? 

In my last life I had been too passive and too afraid to go for the things I wanted. To the point I had even forgotten what I wanted. Now I knew exactly what I wanted. That glowing rock of mana rich enough to drown a wizard.

I would not cower. I would keep moving forward.

That was it. I took that resolve and let it permeate my mind. I would win. I had to. The plan was good.

So I started casting the largest and most complicated water spell I had conjured so far.

*

The beast had slumbered in hibernation for a long time. Something had entered its lair. Something delicious. The beast could smell it from afar. A being rich in mana. There was little to eat in these caverns. The mole things and the rat things would sometimes wander here, but they were thin meals. This thing was new. Two-leg-thing. It wanted the rock. They all came for it. But it was the beast’s. It refused to share and it would eat those that came.

The two-leg-thing did not enter the cavern. It frustrated the beast, but it stayed still, clutching the stalactite in the shadows. Maybe the two-leg-thing had noticed the beast. The beast was not certain. The beast was impatient and wanted to eat this new thing. The rock provided sustenance, but not satisfaction. The need to kill was growing and making the beast restless. But it had to be patient. Maybe the new thing would approach soon.

It didn’t though. It must have seen the beast. Should the beast attack it then? It would escape into the tunnels, but if the beast was fast, it would not get far.

The two-legged thing was a foolish and small thing. How dare it approach the lord of these tunnels and covet the stone? It was inferior and it was prey.

The beast clicked its mandibles as it thought of violent things it wanted to do. But then it noticed something strange. Mana was taking form in front of the prey. The two-legged thing was standing at the mouth of the cavern and water started to materialize in front of it. A lot of water. It soon covered the mouth of the cavern, hiding the boy behind the water mass.

What was this? How could mana take such a form? How could mana create things? Mana was for eating. Was this dangerous?

The beast was old and powerful and sensed no danger or ill will from the creature. The new creature was not a predator. It was small and it was prey. Was this some kind of protection its kind used?

No matter. Why was the beast even worried. It was the lord of this cavern. It was the strongest. 

But the more the beast looked at the strange mana in front of the two-leg-thing, the more it started to get nervous. The mana was taking a complicated shape. A layered lattice of shapes the beast could not comprehend. The water now fully covered the mouth to the cavern and it was thick. It was no longer growing in mass, but it was taking a new property. It was solidifying and hardening. Not ice, but water like stone. How could that be? 

There was now a wall of water at the cavern’s mouth.

The beast did not like this. It was the lord! How dare this prey make the beast feel like this! The beast was outraged and its impatience and hunger got the better of it. This water mass was nothing. The beast would break it. Another layer of mana was taking shape around the water mass, and the beast decided to act. Not out of fear and worry. It refused to believe it felt fear. Out of anger. It charged.

Then horror took it. It realized that the two-leg-creature was not prey. It was danger. Big danger. 

A primal fear made it recoil. The beast knew it was bad to attack this small thing. But it had to, in self defense. It now realized that it should have attacked the creature instantly and not let it create this structure of mana.

It screeched and opened its mandibles in hopes of cutting through the water mass. It surged through the air with desperate speed, but the moment it moved, the two-leg-creature did something with the mana structure.

But then a lance of water was released from the water mass at high speed. The beast had no time to dodge it mid-charge. It struck the beast and it felt pain for the first time in many years.

*

My plan had worked. First I had made a giant water mass that was half inside the tunnel. Then I reinforced it with kinetic energy. Then I managed to cast another spell on top of that, to use the water to create a Water Spear. The attack hadn’t been enough to kill the awakened centipede. Fortunately it was enough to wound it and clearly cause damage. I hadn’t been able to finish the attack spell before the monster attacked, but I had been close enough. The Awakened beast surged across the cavern towards me, and I felt a lurch in my stomach.

This time I had no massive spell to unleash so I just prayed my Water-Kinetic-Barrier-Mass-Wall™ would hold. Patent pending.

The monstrous creature crashed into it like a comet. I felt the impact in the soles of my feet as the whole cavern shook. I felt the spell give and for a brief moment I felt horror, before I collected myself and immediately reinforced the spell.

Then the fight became a tug of war.

I kept reinforcing the water barrier and pouring mana into it as fast as I could. The monster tried to snap through it with its terrible mandibles. Back and forth we went. The centipede tried different angles and would sometimes push a bit into the water mass, and I would harden it in the right places, using the dynamic function I had learned from the sabre enchantment.

The centipede slammed its head into the water wall again and again. Each time, I strengthened the spot it struck.

Then it reared back for another hit. It was time to switch up.

The monster crashed into my water barrier. This time I let the wall give. Its massive head plunged into the water, and I closed the spell around it.

“Water Trap!”

I shaped the water wall into a globe around the creature’s head and tightened the kinetic barrier holding it together. The water could move inside. The monster’s head couldn’t pull free.

I backed farther into the tunnel and held on.

The centipede thrashed furiously. Its tail struck the cavern walls hard enough to shake the ground beneath me. Every wrench of its head strained the spell, and I poured more mana into keeping the globe closed.

This required the absolutely focus of my Meditation. I was in a deep, pained state. The monster was brutishly strong, and every time it tried to whip itself free, I pulled mana into the spell structure to reinforce it. I fell on my knees and my nose bled violently, but I held. I held on to dear life, because I would become a snack the moment I let go.

Slowly the creature’s mad whipping around started to slow down. It screeched in pure rage, but there was just a garble and bubbles inside the water globe.

I was sweating and my mind was screaming at me as the spell teetered on the edge of breaking from the last death rattles of the beast. I felt blood trickle down my nose as my vision started to blur. I was on my last legs, and could only hold on to the spell structure, like it was a lifeline.  But finally, in one last push that I managed to contain, the beast went limp.

I had suffocated it.

I immediately collapsed on the floor of the cavern. I wanted to just let myself pass out, but I fell into meditation to prevent that. I wasn’t safe here and couldn’t rest. 

I let myself breathe and still my hammering heart. My whole body shivered with adrenaline. I could only be grateful that the plan had worked. The last moments of the fight had been a knife’s edge. If I had let my concentration slip, the monster would have snapped me in half in an instant.

But it hadn’t. The risk I had taken paid off. I started laughing. It was the mad joy of being alive when you had no business being. The heady rush of survival. I had conquered my fear and bravely faced this terrible monster. And I had beat it. It had been an honest to God fight to the death. The triumph of such a victory swelled in my chest and I kept laughing.

“Ah…” I finally muttered after my fit started to recede. 

I got up and forced myself to move. It must have been night already and I was exhausted. But I needed to find a safe hole to crawl into before I slept.

I carefully walked past the corpse of the massive monster I had just defeated.

“Thank you,” I said to it. “You were amazing. You were so close to getting me. I learned a lot.”

I could sense the extremely rich monster core inside the beast’s neck joints, but I was in no mood to retrieve it. I used kinetic magic to painstakingly push its head aside and entered the cavern. 

Despite my exhaustion I took a look at the beautiful mana gemstone at the back of the cave and grinned to myself.

It was all mine.

Well, as soon as I could get enough strength back to figure out how to use it.

I found a little alcove to curl into and covered it with rocks using kinetic magic. After I felt safe enough I immediately passed out.

My last thoughts were of victory. I went to sleep smiling and dreamed of treasure chests full of rich mana.