I think it goes without saying that I scrounged up just enough childlike wonder to do a superhero landing. I blame it on the fantasy setting.

The drop was at least 10 meters, and every cell in my body told me that I had made a mistake on the way down. In the end, though, it appeared that my feeling of invincibility was only mostly unfounded. My bones creaked and I felt a tendon tear, but I charged a tiny sliver of my mana into my 'internal valve' and it was as good as new.

By that point, I was already sprinting toward Rilu.

I was a bit faster by virtue of my body being a bit more effective, for lack of a better word, but it was nothing superhuman. What I did find was that my body felt like a living engine, every heartbeat pumping an invigorating warmth through my veins. I felt like a machine, like I couldn't tire, and at my level of physical performance otherwise that was probably true.

I did a slide that I hoped didn't look too clumsy and came to a stop behind Rilu. A quick glance at the beast, though with my mind's eye firmly on the Dragon, told me that it was vaguely curious. The curious, analyzing gaze it had squarely on me gave me some more evidence that my theory on it was probably right.

He spat out blood and, ignoring the monster, began to ramble out a series of rationalizations and confusions.

"I'm not sure about this, this thing's an Unknown. I- I don't know, look, congratulations on getting your Class. Do your thing with the Catalysts and try to get off the island. And I'm sorry, I shouldn't have left you, I didn't know," he cut himself off for a second and restarted, "I had a lot to go through and," and again, "I didn't - don't- know how to feel, but there's too much at stake and we should have"

I shut up his subtly apologetic ramblings - which I quite frankly didn’t expect - by force-feeding him a few gulps from the Well of Life. Olivia’s response to some admittedly petty drama came to my mind, and I trusted her to know what to say.

“How I feel about your need for space isn’t your problem. If anything, I’m just glad you’ve had it," I stated as calmly as I could, which wasn't very. Judging by his pained expression, that wasn't the right thing to say.

I could have said that better, it implied vaguely that it hurt me in some way. Looking back, his problem was probably just being comforted by a 'weakling', though.

It took a lot of willpower for me to not start apologizing then and there. Considering the situation, I’d hopefully be able to specify before Rilu had the chance to take anything to heart.

And, at the end of the day, I just hoped that it came off as genuine. Because it didn't feel that way to me.

To my relief, he continued to drink for a few seconds until the Well ran dry. I took a few frantic glances at the beast hanging over us in between, but it seemed to want to give us some time. His mana was still frighteningly low, but his fire looked less wispy as it trailed off of the scales on his forearms and back.

Once he finished, he spat out the Canteen and dropped it back over to me. He looked me right in the eye with a familiar expression of malcontentment. It was somehow warmer this time. And then he pushed me back.

Gently, of course, but it was still enough to send me stumbling back. I somehow landed standing up. My posture was somehow harder now, more powerful and grounded.

“You’d better not blame yourself either, then!” Rilu roared as be shot off in a blast of neon flames, sending winds far stronger than the storm that got us into this mess blustering around me.

I still managed to stand my ground, keeping my balance as I trickled mana into Vitality to prevent injury. Our brief 'talk' (emphasis on brief) had cleared up many of my emotional doubts.

As he re-engaged, he shifted to his wings. I only caught a glimpse of him before he accelerated too fast for my eyes to see, but there was a hole in them, the circumference bathed in different flame, illuminating the damage. I doubted he had the mana left to heal them, however powerful his Skill. He still had the mana capacity and regeneration of a first class.

Moments after his takeoff, I felt a reverberation through the ground that confirmed my fears- He could still move at speed, but he had lost flight for the time being. I turned around and vaulted over a boulder. I didn't expect much protection if push came to shove, but it would hopefully give me some time.

Another flash of purple and blue erupted on the other side of the island, sending building-sized rocks into the air to careen upon the biome below, whatever it may be. I wouldn’t rest on my laurels, he was out there risking his life for my sake. He could’ve just jumped off the island if he was fighting for his own life.

The blast sent an almost invigorating shockwave my way, rocketing me from my stupor. I skipped backward pointlessly and let every item leave the satchel, forming a 2-meter tall pile in front of me formed of various articles of paraphernalia. A significant portion of it likely magical, which pained me. Begrudgingly, I ignored the pile for the four specific articles I had set aside.

The Mana Amplifier, the Multi-Tool, and the Satchel itself were laid out in front of me, with a well-worn book to my left. It wasn’t my journal, it was a guidebook on runic language.

I let a tenth of my mana flow into three unhealthily thin strings, and a tenth more to congregate at the ends of each. I infused the mana into each Catalyst, feeling the Imprints. I closed my eyes and I felt them begin to float according to my will.

Pouring mana into the outward-facing valve of my pool seemed to cause it to manifest as strings of mana. It carried parts of my Imprint, with the density of the mana determining the 'signal strength'. I spent a disappointingly little amount of, though still altogether too much, time relishing in my limited telekinetic abilities.

I brushed away my thoughts and let inspiration wash through me. I analyzed each Imprint through the mana connection effortlessly, as if they were a part of me. I didn’t even need to change my mental state.

It wasn't an overwhelming amount of information, but the vague image in my head became a perfect sculpting stone.

I was only disturbed for an instant when I felt the air pressure from a humanoid- very likely Rilu- pass over me. Considering his lack of flight capability, which I doubted had been rectified, that left me with one likely conclusion;

He had been hit. Hard.

I only worked faster. I ignored the growing frequency of crashes around me as best I could. I needed to do something, the island would be destroyed before he won. If he won. I could feel it crumbling away beneath my feet. If I were to look over the boulder, I didn't doubt that I would be faced with the horizon from every direction rather than a treeline.

The thing seemed to sense mana, based on how it left and attacked Rilu. It was a stretch, of course, but it was the conclusion I came to after thinking over the feelings that I shared with the beast as I woke it up. There was no way that Rilu had much left, and I was mostly full. The mana I currently had going through Gradient gave me a nice surprise as well, I wouldn’t consume it. I was controlling it.

I just wondered how long it would take for Rilu's mana to end up below mine.

'I need to fucking focus, if I lose concentration here, I won't finish it.'

I wouldn’t be able to maintain my thoughts if I lost concentration past this point. I kept my goal in mind as my only thought, saving the rest of my mental capacity for the mental blueprint constructing based off of it and the Imprints of the objects.

-

Moments later, it was done. A beautiful, glorious, floating silver blob of some strange liquid metal.

I let its Awakening state settle, it wouldn't be useful here. I tapped into the Akashic after attuning with it almost immediately, getting a grasp on its information.

[Potentia]

[Attuned to Leaf, The Ranger]

[An amorphous Catalyst outfitted with an Origin rune from the Common Runic Language. Focused around the concepts of Fluidity, Control, and Space. Capable of immediately assimilating three additional runes. It can move, expand, shrink, and shape according to the Attuned's will.]

I shifted my mana to the book, flaring some at the edge to read the book efficiently. I wouldn't memorize it that way, but I didn't need to. I knew the runes in the book, but there was one I was holding in my mind, trying to understand. It took a bit of testing to figure out what they did, and I only barely figured out the Amplify rune I had seen on the Amplifier in time.

It took mana from the surroundings, the messy sort expelled from abilities and the such, and used it as fuel for the type of mana that could be input. My design would be weaker, as I had to make it non-elemental, but even if it was a hackjob I was pretty sure that the rune would prefer it function that way.

It wasn't anything complicated like circuitry, you just needed to believe hard enough and it would work. Making it a system just made it easier to believe in it.

I was also probably the only person on the Nexus that could forcefully quell my belief that it would end up in catastrophic failure.

I settled on a design for what I would put it on. And then, the hardest part, I trusted myself to remember it.

'This better work...'

I slapped my cheeks to hype myself up, my masterpiece floating placidly behind my shoulder.

"I'm talking to you, God!" I yelled at the sky, feeling no sillier than before.

-

The land behind me was nearly triangle-shaped, the sides cleanly shaved off on either side and the back retaining the curve of the island.. I think Leaf had a word for it. The shockwaves that our bout had sent ringing the sky like a bell were decidedly going against me. The beast not directly hunting Leaf only made being on the defensive marginally easier.

I didn't know why it would destroy its own territory, not that I would have been fighting under that assumption anyway. That was one of the many ways that you found yourself in an early grave.

I raised my sword, which still hadn't received a name, in both hands and charged flames into my feet, mana-charged licks intertwined with ones formed from my raw Imprint, diluting them but expanding their effect. I felt energy burst from within every fiber of my muscle alongside the creeping of my envy for those with Speed trees.

I waved my torn wings and stepped forward. I took in the intoxicating feeling of the world falling apart and away from me as I moved. I arrived in an instant, coming face to face with my opponent's claw, descending with the power and stability of the judgment of the Old Gods.

The world slowed, as it had begun to do often in the past few minutes, as I read the attack. I couldn't stop my momentum, nor could I quite 'react'. The shadow of the motion was all that entered my mind, along with the images that it conjured.

I shot out 4 spears of flame. One directly up, the rest at different angles away from me, but none directly behind. I assume it hesitated at that, judging by the fact that the gamble didn't kill me.

My momentum halted with minimum motion sickness as I disappeared and reappeared at the one that went the furthest, the one I shot out to my left and slightly forward-facing. I formed a small construct under my foot and enchanted my sword, sending lines in the color of my fire through it.

I hopped off of the construct and made a small wisp of flame beside me. My fire seemed to agitate it, and the corrosive effect was the only thing that worked. It was easier to step to the side as it attacked, again with a downward claw, between us. I couldn't compare to its aerial mobility, but it still seemed to be playing with me. I didn't know how much longer it would remain so calm.

I turned my sword and infused flame into my arm, pulling from the image of speed and my much more potent vision of power. My reverse slash only grazed it, but the wound was festering. Slowly, but I had gotten a hit off on it.

I let myself fall and pointed my weapon back, channeling the remaining fire within it toward the island in what would normally be a blast but was now more akin to a haze.

It was still enough to teleport through. I landed with precision on the tip of the quasi-triangle. I avoided its yellow eyes at first, as that had agitated it, but I quickly realized that it was distracted.

It was staring at the island, taking its eyes off of me by its own will for the first time since we began. I couldn't look back, I couldn't use Dragon Eyes, I could only hope that was the sign of an Awakening. I didn't heal my wings, in case I needed the mana for a barrier.

Assuming my skill would evolve again, I hoped that the next one would let me Shift multiple parts at the same time. My father had the ability to shift into a Dragon entirely, but he followed the path of fire in the purest way possible.

However anxiety-inducing, the break was welcome. I expended my mana at the rate it regenerated. I put 3 of every 4 upgrades into regeneration, and the rate of improvement per point only grew, but I was still expending mana much faster than I could regenerate. That was still a lot, as my pool could be full within 10 minutes, but it was nowhere close to enough. I had to work on pacing myself.

I began to flow some of my mana through my mental connection with the fire burning at the Beast's side. The weakening effects I tried to make it carry did little, but every little bit counted, and growing the wound I had made was my best method-

The moment I began doing that, its focus was back on me, and I knew it had decided to stop playing. It could have been a predator's pride or that my attack was truly threatening to it, but the hope that it was the latter kept me at it.

'If it weren't for Leaf, I would be dead,' I admitted. It was simple, but it was obvious. I didn't even consider that I wouldn't have needed to do this in the first place. Even then, I couldn't truly grasp how things would have happened without him.

Just as I finished setting up my fire in a dense aura around me in preparation for the next volley, it focused away again. The distinct sense of wrongness made me turn back, too, despite myself.

Leaf, covered in sweat, was holding a glowing metal rod toward the heavens. A vortex of strangeness was channeling into it, culminating into a shifting, mirage-like river of light connecting to the heavens.

He let loose a scream with far more intensity and volume than I had ever heard from him before as he waved around his strange-looking mana lens.

"Come and get some!"

-

Truthfully, I didn't know what a distraction would do, but it was everything that I could do. It could fly, so sending it off the island wasn't an option, and I could feel that what it cared about was its own territory.

This was my only option if I wanted to do anything at all. I thought that if I gave Rilu time to attack he could bring it back. It was all fueled by the logic that things probably couldn't be worse.

So I don't think I need to explain how shocked and terrified I was when he charged toward me instead, trailed by a wall of flame that blotted out a significant portion of the sky. By the time the noise of the blast reached me, he was already halfway toward me.

While I was shielding my eyes from the dust kicked up by the shockwave I felt something that could only be described as an out-of-body experience localized directly within my stomach.

"Turn it off!"

Rilu's yell made me open my eyes, and my eyes were facing up. I was looking up toward the glorious night sky in a moment that seemed to hang. And then I realized that there was no ground below me, and I was being carried by the Dragon.

I glanced down at the pizza-slice of what was once a glorious floating island below me.

'Shit!'

I turned off the Lamppost, the particular configuration of Potentia I used, and scanned the sky for the thing that got us into this mess.

"Rilu! It's preparing a beam!" I frantically yelled, not knowing what else to call the inevitable golden energy gathering in its mouth.

We were barreling through the air, and I could feel the blonde flailing around me, Gradient alerting me to a flow of mana that found no purchase.

"It's going to hit u-" I couldn't quite finish before everything went white.

Through Gradient I could tell Rilu managed to put up a shield, but his back was injured and his body was ravaged from the inside out from overexerting his mana.

We began to fall.