The explosion was much bigger than I anticipated. It pushes me back and almost throws me off the headless grey creature, but I hold on firmly to the handle of my khopesh. The spell failed, but worked better than I expected, the creature's head had completely vanished. It looks like an even bigger monster had bitten its head off. Three quarters of its neck is also gone. Black blood sprays far and wide, coating the dry earth with blood. As I look at my hand, I notice that is not the only thing that is gone. My left arm is also gone from the explosion, this is what happens when you are not careful when weaving. In spite of my failure, the spell succeeded in killing the troll like creature.

My reverse repair spell had been reinforced with too much mana, which made the threads longer. The spell seemed to have affected me just as much. Luckily, I did not have the crazy idea of using a headbutt instead of a slap. The spell became unstable after the skin I was holding onto got erased. That meant the remaining amount of mana in the weaving had nothing to unrepair, since I was no longer physically attached to the cheek. Since the spell had nothing to unrepair, it became volatile and exploded. At least I know the spell works, but it needs some tweaking to avoid that from happening again.

Using too much mana in my spell was a bad idea. It was mistake a novice would make, then again, novices do not try to make new spells.

The headless corpse starts to fall, I hold firmly onto my khopesh as the corpse hits the dried and cracked ground with a heavy thud. My body feels weak and drowsy from casting the spell. Now that it is finally dead, I slide my khopesh out of the corpse.

I snatch the soul out of the air, squeezing it in my hand until there is nothing left. The anger from dying and the fear of what came next, are the two feelings I sense from the soul. My body and mind reawakens as my soul is filled with mana. Ahhh, sweet, sweet souls for the skeleton.

All of these things, whatever they are called, are stupid. If they were only a bit smarter, then this fight would have been completely different. The last of the troll sibling attempts to pick himself up. He is still shaken from the impact to the tree. I can hear Mother shout again, this time with added fury in my voice.

“GET UP! GET UP FOOL! KILL IT NOW!” Why has Mother not attacked me yet? She seems to have little care for her sons, or she is just smart enough to see the risk in attacking me. My mind feels clear and my thoughts flow like a rushing river. The souls of these creatures are potent enough that their mana fortifies my mind. I sense for probably the first time The Skeleton within me. The urge to run rampant and fight is tightly kept away by the pull of the part of me that still has not accepted The Skeleton. The evil that is The Skeleton whispers its thoughts to me. It wants me to conquer and rule over these creatures. Again it wants me to ignore Isaac, to taste his soul, but again I ignore it and win control of my thoughts.

I genuinely have to come up with how a plan to deal with the last grey giant. I cannot leave it up to luck alone to safe my life. Plus, I am one handed, and fully regenerating an arm would take time. I can speed up the process of healing my arm, but would most likely it will have a high chance of making the spell unstable. I watch as the giant, twice my height, finally got up off the ground.

I can wait till it gets close at hand, maybe it will avoid hitting me because I am on top of this corpse. Would the monster even care about injuring its brother’s corpse? Probably not, I cannot depend on morality from the creatures. I can also just try to dodge the blow entirely. I am unsure how the outcome of that would be. My memories with the blade are mostly focused on defence and attack forms against other swordsman. I have little training with dodging, and using my khopesh to block a tree trunk is out of the question.

I like the idea of killing things easy. Mind over matter, magic over strength. If I am ever going to survive in this world, a world filled with creatures like this, then I need my magic. I could jump and touch him, just like with his brother. I would have to maintain some sort of contact with the skin of the monster long enough. It should take about a second or two for the spell to register. Though I will need to kill it instantly, a good spot in its upper body would do.

I can try to run, but running now would only get Isaac, or myself killed, so I had no choice but to fight. However, I want to avoid the tree trunk, the power it can be swing with is enough warning.

I suddenly had the craziest idea. It may just be possible for me to touch the creature without actually having to touch it. They key to victory will always lie in the unexpected. I watch the khopesh in my hands, then I began to weave. I would have to do this quick, the giant would soon be out of his daze.

I first start with sub-threads created entirely of mana, until it eventually formed a thread. Then I form a stitch thread so that I can attach the mana to the metal of the sword. It only takes a simple adjustment; it is actually more difficult to make a stitch thread for flesh than it is for metal. The mana thread is important because It keeps the entire weaving from deteriorating mid-air.

This version of the stitch thread could have been better. Despite my enhanced mental capacity, I could not do much within such period of time. Only the required changes to the stitch thread were made. A couple new ideas came to my mind after finishing the thread, I would have to test them out when I get a chance.

Then I made the reverse repair thread. The thread is much the same however, this time a few of its sub-threads have been change. It will have to be able to draw power from the mana thread. I also use less mana to create this thread compared to the previous one. I have to come up with better names for these threads and spells.

Lastly, I made the stop thread. The stop thread would decide when the reverse repair thread would activate. It is also dependant on the mana thread. If the stop thread fails, then the other threads fail and the spell will explode.

I wrap it the stop thread around the other threads, connecting them together. When I am finished it looks like an actual piece of cloth weave. I used about seventy percent of the previous soul, which is almost equal to two human souls. The rest of the mana was used to form the mana thread.

I move the entire weaving above to the tip of the sword, then I cast the spell

The giant roars as it looks at me. The giant rubs its forehead to ease the still hurting pain. He looks angry, maybe this one did have some sympathy for this dead brother. It can also be because I am here to take his food. Whatever the reason, it will be dead soon. He did not charge towards me, which is something I was expecting. Instead he is casually walking towards me, his branch in tow.

“Not gonna fall for your trick, I going to smash you from all the way over here! Then I be only son and great son!” The giant shouts in his anger. I admit, it is a good idea. I know now that they can learn, I was beginning to wonder how they have survived for so long. However, the entire spell is dependent on me not touching the giant, so his plan is flawed. As he came closer to me, his steps become more careful, he lifts the tree trunk above his head. It looks as if he is about to swat a fly. I actually feel a bit honoured that he would see me as such a threat.

I throw my khopesh, and shift to my mana vision to watch the spell. The sword glows blue as it spins rapidly in the air towards the giant. The light from the khopesh pulses as if the sword is alive. I can see the mana thread give energy to the entire weaving, it keeps the stop thread from going unstable. The stop thread held off the reverse thread and the stitch thread from activating too soon, which would cause it to explode. It's sickle shape of the khopesh is the great for stabbing into flesh. The blade dug into the right shoulder of the monster.

The creature looks at the khopesh that is stuck in its shoulder. The giant then looks at me then back at the sword and laughs. What happened? Did I mess up the spell? I remember doing everything correctly, the grey piece of shit should be dead by now. Shit, I shouldn’t have thrown my sword away. The spell was obviously too complex for me, I most likely did something wrong.

A loud bone cracking sound explodes from the clearing. I look at the monster in amazement. One instant it had a shoulder and head, the next moment half its body is gone. It did not even get a chance to scream. The remaining corpse just fell, spraying black blood all over the place. The spell must have worked, despite something causing it to go unstable.

I feel drained and weak. I could barely stand as I jump off the body of the giant I was on.

I looked up in shock horror. Mother was already charging at me, wet branch in hand, and ready to swing it. Damn I won't reach in time. I moved to grab my other sword, every knight of Almeria has two. Wait, why did I think I have another sword?

I can dodge and make a run for the soul of the giant I just killed. It would be risky, but I can try to form a quick reverse repair spell. I will have to avoid the hit from the branch.

When mother reaches her dead son, she raises her tree club to swing at me. Just as the thick branch was above her dead, Mother screams then goes rigid. Her body hits the ground and slides on the earth. At this point the ground is so wet with black blood that she slides all the way towards me, and stops right before my feet.

It is only when the corpse stops did I notice the red hair girl I left behind the tree. She is crouched atop Mother's body, with her twin long daggers plunged into the back of Mother. I walk up closer to the corpse of Mother and reach for her soul. I grab the soul with my gauntlet hand and absorb it.

I'm not sure why I did not notice this before but her eyes are cloudy, and she looks at me. She looks at my hand specifically, watching and staring in long lost wonder. I wonder what she saw. Did she see the soul, or just he mana that I am absorbing. Either one made me feel exposed. I finish the absorning te soul and enjoying the mana refilling my well.

“Sorry, I know you said to stay there, but it looked like she was about to hit you.” She said as she bows her head to me. I did not need the help, I could have taken her. The red hair girl, moves her fingers to close her nose, the other hand she uses to brush the air in front of her. Her head turns towards the pot still boiling under the fire as she says, “What in all the blazes smells like that. “

I am glad I cannot smell. The way her face twist as she walks off the body of Mother, made the smell look deadly. She shows the smell more disgust than she did me. Who is this girl anyway? And why is she not afraid of a walking skeleton?

“Ogre’s stew. And you're lucky, it was only halfway finished. Thankfully, they choose to add in the special ingredients last. “I turn my skull towards the direction of the rough and aged voice. I see the man who was tied to the boy, he holds Isaac who is unconscious in his arms.