My senses seem to coalesce. The disjointed picture I was manually painting in my mind, from the commentaries around me, mana sense, and my own normal senses continue streaming in, but the unified results are different somehow. I can almost see with my eyes closed. The brief but impactful experience is strange, and I give my all to make it last as long as possible.

Senses, awareness, connection, each of these concepts pass through my mind as I try and make sense, and while they may be aspects, they were not the whole picture.

I think next of a home, a place to call your own, and something faintly responds. A shifting that resembles the state I reached moments ago. I’m not satisfied, but time is running out, and this is the mental image I settle on for now. With my Aether spinning even faster and in greater quantities than ever something akin to a third eye opens up.

Faint and hazy impressions of people all around me come into view. From all directions at the same time, I take in the information. Try as I might, anyone over 10 meters becomes nearly indistinguishable, and only a couple paces after that, I sense absolutely nothing. But I don’t mind, this is plenty for now.

I fell a deep thump against the wall as a bigger enemy comes into my perception range. With two steps, the goblin lord translates his horizontal momentum into a vertical one. AS if he just jumped over a knee height obstacle, he stands atop the wall. And after only a moment to take in the surroundings, he starts to swing his spear.

Greg, our best hope to meet strength for strength goes full bore, and for a moment matches the goblin in power and ferocity, but after only two exchanges, it’s clear who would win if they continued to fight alone.

Greg needs to go all out, while the goblin is holding a lot back.

I get up, still with my eyes closed, and open portals all around the goblin trying to snare it. I fail every single attempt, but the diminished options from the goblin now being pressed by 5 people all around it, along with my magic are enough to hold him back.

Ten seconds slowly tick by, then twenty and thirty. We are at an impasse, and the Goblin Lord seen no other option starts to move his mana. This scares me, as he suddenly gets about 20 percent faster, and pushes back everyone.

Every one of his blows would be devastating if they hit full-on. And in only a second, I’m proven correct as Greg is hit on the chest. Even the strongest part of his armor can’t stand a blow, and dents badly.

Slightly injured, but far from out of the fight, he continues. Meanwhile, all around the ground, another grow another runic formation. My attention on the last one of its kind, which was already waning fades becomes a moot point as it collapses. Without compunction, I trust that Merlin has things handled, and start to pour all of my mana into the new formation. Just three seconds later, with about 120 mana pooled, I activate it.

The goblin Lord suddenly slows a lot, not quite to base level, but the drag is making the spell he is using a lot less effective. He notices me and starts running at full speed in my direction, so I get ready.

With a mana shield up and 50 mana in my hands to infuse myself, I wait in position as the last obstacle in his way is passed, the guy wielding the first +4 weapon I helped to make.

Greg is running in my direction as well, only slightly behind the goblin lord. Infusing more mana than ever I move at unheard-of speeds. My staff is instantly taken out of my inventory, and it meets his spear. Deflecting it from anything important. At the same time, my charging stance and move are shifted, and I pass the gobbling to his right. As he makes use of his own momentum to turn in the opposite direction, already turning the spear to trust it at me, Greg puts himself between us.

With a full-strength trust, now even more powerful from his charge, Greg tries to skewer the goblin. With deft moments that tell a story of an experienced spear wielder, the goblin changes his moves to parry the thrust, and at the same time unbalancing his opponent.

Before the goblin can capitalize on his advantage, the other four are in position around him and hold enough of his attention to preclude too much focus on any single person.

Everyone is moving faster than even the fastest fencers back on earth, though they wield much heavier weapons with the massive damage potential that implies.

Seconds go by as I think of what I could do. Mana is continuing to accumulate on the formation, and I even form a make-shift battery and a control circuit, so even if my attention slips it will be able to keep running itself.

Thinking of Pando’s seed, two ideas come to mind. Armor and Runic formations. I form portals on the back of each of the five main people fighting the goblin Lord, though everyone around helps whenever they have a chance.

I send the roots from my inner world and grow them a little to cover everyone's body, under their plate armor. The supple and flexible nature of the roots I send makes them barely notice the difference, and I even reroute the roots so all the joints are as free as possible. And sometimes they even help with some movements. Where there is room, they grow more substantially and help provide support, making any deformation of the metal sheets harder.

Now, even attacks through the gaps in the plates would get tangled in the roots, which may even be able to ensnare the spear, disarming the goblin lord. AS he notices my actions his anger becomes even more apparent, and though he doesn’t try to disengage, his occasional glance sends shivers down my spine.

So you are smart. We may not share a language, but apparently, your emotions are close enough to a human’s that we understand each other.

My second idea takes more than a single form. The roots in my ally's bodies shift a little and runes start to form. The runes for a mana shield form and a few mana points are stored in preparation.

Given the limitations of my approach, I don’t turn on the shield. Doing it now would just be a mana drain and I already have far too little mana that I can directly wield. What I do next is however addresses exactly this concern.

I connect myself to the few roots growing in the village, and find several of the outputs for the battery. With intimate knowledge of the runes, I tap into them and ask Pando to send mana to the formation around the shamans.

The rate of mana transfer still has its limitations, but with each second Pando’s seed takes the initiative of growing with the mana slowly increasing from about 20 mana a second. In another second, I stop paying attention, trusting that he has things handled on his end, and tap into a smaller but still significant battery. The one in my inner world.

With another quick formation, 30 mana per second is added to the formation hindering the goblin lord. My attention moments ago frayed from so many different streams of thought and action, calms down, and I have the time to consider things more carefully.

I still keep paying attention. Regardless of how mana gets to where it’s supposed to be, for now, I’m controlling it. The last piece of the puzzle comes into place. Setting up a controlling circuit for any of the continuous actions I wish to undertake.

As it comes online an enormous weight is lifted from my mind, even as I struggle mentally to form the complex and intricate design, it’s just another step for guaranteeing our victory. Unless the goblin lord has another few surprises for us, he stands no chance.

The frantic pace of battle continues, even as the desperate struggle around us diminishes. There is still about half of the other enemies alive. But a few of the shamans are caput, which only added momentum to our side, and we still had all of our fighters, they were just beginning to tire.

Occasionally, I feel the gauntlets making their appearance. But our advantages were even more staked in our favor this time, and the fight was not quite as chaotic. At least when it comes to our side, the goblins were just as they always were, a messy jumble of rage machines.

As my next creation comes into full effect. Now free to concentrate only, on the roots, and mana shields of the main fighters, I free up my attention. Attention that is directed at the goblins underneath.

But just as soon as I can take a breath, I witness the next shoe drop in full glory.

The Goblin Lord's frustration is more evident than ever, and as he yells, and sends a massive pulse of mana, everything changes.

I feel the chaotic and hostile mana trying to take hold of me, but it’s useless. Anyone with even minimal mana skills could shrug it off, let alone me. The Goblins, however, without exception enter a berserker state. And that includes the one right in front of me. Now even faster than when at full power being empowered by mana. Probably around 30% stronger and faster, he ignores Greg, the other fighters, and even me, and sprints away. His goal is soon clear, the far more vulnerable people.

Before, we could still restrain him enough that each moment of distraction to injure someone else would cost him a lot, but his sudden increase in speed is tremendous. Without us right at his heels, he manages to injure a few people.

Even with their admittedly lower combat prowess, there are no slouches on the walls, and with us behind it, there is enough pressure, he can’t concentrate long on any single person.

His actions are still quite disruptive. And the mass of empowered goblins around manages to climb on the wall. Fifteen seconds in, we see the one thing we were trying to avoid above all else since the first day of the tutorial.

A wrong move, a moment of inattention, and a powerful blow all coincide in space and time. And suddenly, that person at the center of it is no longer among us. Someone I have a vague recollection of seeing around the village. A beautiful woman. She is fairly petite and wields a lighter but very agile and flexible spear with dexterity. Clad in thin leather armor with scales on strategic places, her defenses are negligible. A single blow to the neck leaves her with no chance.

That is when I see red. Only for a moment, and I gain control of myself, but it’s also freeing in a way.

I grow a few places to step to the side of the wall, and a couple of poles ahead of us. As the goblin Lord makes his way out of the tangle ahead of him, defending himself from Greg and the others on his back, and causing as much damage a possible to anyone on his path.

With a couple of mana points in each of my steps, I sprint to the side, and with no one standing in front of me, easily pass him. Ten meters ahead, what had been only two tall root poles, becomes a thickening root net that will stop him from getting through at least without pausing for a moment. Seeing he has no choice, he turns in my direction, instead of trying to make his way around me, and attacks full force.

Dexterously wilding my staff, I deflect each of his attacks as he is forced to contend with someone approaching him in speed, and another five strong fighters behind him. I grow another net behind him, about ten meters back without raising it just yet. Keeping hidden to be sprung if he tries to get past Greg and the others.

Putting so much mana on my body is a big strain, and I feel my stamina taking a significant hit, but the berserker effect, now in play for almost a minute, should be starting to take its toll on him. From the few goblins dropping from exhaustion around us, it's clear this is a short-term, last-ditch strategy. Maybe even a suicide strategy, after all, no matter how strong they were, they couldn’t defeat us in a minute or two. The main reason to resort to this measure would be as a last-ditch effort or just to cause damage.

And with an unwillingness on his face, I see him giving up trying to kill me and I’m grateful. I don’t know how long I would have lasted against him. Pumping around 15 mana a second on the body is no joke.

His next actions, send a few people around me panicking at the implication, but as he jumps in the village, in the direction of the main hospital, relief hits me, and my whole demeanor exudes it.

With a flourish of my hand, I start to work on the roots around me. To my side, flying in the air, the gobbling lord is hit by a massive, 2000 mana points fireball fired from the closest tower. Moments later the remnants of the fireball hits the houses under it. But they were all evacuated exactly for cases like this.

He doomed himself by his own actions.

With a grim smile, considering that threat eliminated, I make my way along the wall, helping where I can with my roots. I had hoped to more easily communicate with the enemies that the system sends our way, but each time, the threat just increased, and it seemed, I would have to just outpace it. To grow into such a powerful multiplier that we could afford to take our time.

The Aether flowing and spinning all around me, added to this sense. At my previous spot, I sit, undisturbed by the people around me, and close my eyes again. The danger after all was not over. But we would get through whatever came our way.