The last of our hard bread browns over the crackling fire alongside the scraps of last night’s dinner. The porcupine/rabbit didn’t stretch far enough to make for much of a breakfast today, and we’re not wasting any time hunting for another.

Flames lick at our food, spreading the slightest scent into the air around us. Enough to remind my stomach of its greed, and my first world lifestyle. I skipped lunch yesterday, I’m not fond of skipping meals two days in a row.

This is the last of our food, though, so we’ll need to seriously start hunting from here. This feels like a survival version of getting thrown into the fighting arena for the first time.

“How does this exercise end?” I ask Adler as I gnaw on my hard toast, “We weren’t told when we’d have to return.”

“I haven’t heard any more than you, but I assume Freid is confident that you’ll all be captured in time or, if not captured, at least found and led back.” She says, chewing on her own breakfast without complaint.

“Have you seen any signs of anything following us?” I ask Vii.

“Nope, nothing. Not since those screams yesterday.” She says shaking her head, “I’ve been thinking… The more I fly, the more likely someone notices me, is that okay?”

“They’ll find us whatever we do.” Eshya says, “I want to see them coming.”

“I second that.” I reply, “So long as it isn’t asking too much of you. You still have energy to fly and cast your wind magic, like yesterday?”

“Yep, yep.” She nods happily, “I’ve practiced wind magic a bunch. I won’t get burnt out so long as I don’t cast a bunch of powerful spells.”

“How exactly does that work?” I ask.

“Well, I use mana of my own to cast a small spell and then more mana comes from the aether to build it up into something more.” She explains, “It’s just how wind magic is for me, it’s how real talents work. I still need to learn how to better control my magic to cast bigger and better spells, though.”

“How about your magic, Adler? It’s learned magic, right?” I ask, as I finish my own breakfast.

“I feed it with my own free mana.” She replies, “Master mages can imitate a fraction of what Vii can do, drawing the mana from the aether itself, but for learned mages it’s important to learn how to use mana efficiently, and use supporting tools.

“For example, my water cutter spell that you’ve seen before. I concentrate water tightly and blast it out quickly, but only in a thin stream. This means I that need to move less water, which means less water that needs to be infused with mana, and less water that needs to be accelerated to dangerous speeds.”

“Huh, I suppose that makes sense.” I say thinking over what she’s said.

“Not just that.” She says, holding up a necklace with a small blue gem inlaid within, “I pass my water magic through this when casting, and it has a similar effect of drawing more power from the aether—which is to say from nothingness—to build my spell up, though not as intuitively, nor as effectively as a talent like Vii’s.”

“Why haven’t I heard of this yet? Can’t I get something like that for my fire magic?”

“It takes considerable ability to use something like this.” She says, “That and they’re not overly common. If you had a talent for fire magic, and you worked hard at it, you would end up with something like this, but otherwise you’re expected to learn to use your own strength and mana efficiently.”

I repress a groan.

“Where do they come from? Monster parts polished up by enchanters and craftsmen?” I ask.

“Essentially, yes.” She says thoughtfully, “I advise against stealing anything like this from a hunt, at least from a hunt on proper excursions. It is not… What you hunt is for the betterment of the Unified States.”

It seems this is as close as she can get to admitting this particular rule. Apparently, our prey is considered the property of the Unified States. Though, what they don’t know can’t hurt me.

After breakfast we quickly go about packing up our camp, all the shitty knots that hold our tent up now have to be undone. Perhaps there’s a magic out there for making knots, or just undoing them would be good enough. I grit my teeth and get to it.

“Adler, your water magic; it moves water, right?” I ask, “How exactly does that work? What makes it different from… is there a kinetic magic, or a force magic that does the same thing?”

“There is,” She replies, “I am familiar with a few different magics that let you move water, amongst other things.”

“What’s with that?” I ask, “Isn’t water magic just a shitty version of kinetic magic, then?”

“Sort of?” She replies, “It’s more focused. Water magic can control the motion and flow of water more efficiently than most other magics can.

“For example, you have reinforcement magic. It can, in theory, be used for the same spells as my water magic. You could cast my water cutter spell using reinforcement magic, but you’d need to guide the water one particle at a time, and it would be very mana expensive, and take incredible focus.”

“Has it got something to do with mana attunement?” I ask, thinking of the term that still feels a little alien to me.

“Not at all, mana attunement is… the wind, it’s how mana expresses itself without a spell interfering. It’s important in crafting, but not as much in spellcraft.

“The mana might as well be the same, what matters most is what magic it is used for. Let’s see… If you wanted to move over there.” She points at a spot about ten metres away, “You could walk, with the right magic you could fly, you could use magic to pull the earth beneath you, or to push your body towards it. You could even develop and use teleportation magic.

“Each would accomplish the same thing but use drastically different mana.” Adler says, “So you could use reinforcement magic to control each individual water particle and accelerate them into a water cutter, or you could use water magic and control the flow of the water.”

“So, water magic smooths out the details?” I ask. I understand the comparisons, but when it comes to the water cutter spell, don’t both spells just move the same particles? Why is one more expensive? Does reinforcement magic just move things more wastefully?

After too long spent talking the point over with her, I give up, and just conclude that magic just works more efficiently when it’s more particular. When moving water; water magic is cheaper than kinetic, which is cheaper than reinforcement magic, even though they all just move things around.

I fold the tent with Eshya’s help and put it away in her bag, while spreading the other things out between us. There’s still some water left in our waterskins, but I’d be happy to find a clear stream or something so we can fill them up and drink our fill.

“That’s everything.” Eshya says, “What’s the plan for today?”

“Find a direction and get walking.” I say, heading over to the lookout, “Anyone see anything interesting out there?”

No different from yesterday, at least as far as I can see, the endless waving orange and red leaves shift with every slight breeze, on and on into the distant horizon. Dozens of tall hills and low mountains split the flat lands between them, building up into a distant snowless mountain range. They’re clearly of a height that snow should form, but I suppose the weather here doesn’t quite work the same as I’m used to.

“I think I see… Ah!” With a snap of her wings, Vii’s flying. The wind roars by us, inspired by her sudden movement. She dives low down the cliffside, gaining speed fast as she falls toward the orange sea. She pulls back up and flies fast over the canopy, before falling upon a small fluttering bird.

Flashes of invisible magic stir the waving branches below as a battle rages, fast and violent. A battle of wind, air, and mana.

It’s over in moments, but the canopy continues to swell with the lingering waves of wind that slowly calm as Vii flies back up to us, victoriously.

“It’s Birdy!” Vii shouts as she joins us again. The collared bird that we’ve spent the last few days fighting with is clamped tightly in her talons, unable to break free. She should still be able to cast magic, but she seems to have surrendered, probably trying to avoid getting hurt in whatever struggle that would ensue.

“You caught her?” I ask, looking down at the sad little bird.

“I was lucky, she tried to escape when she saw us. she was probably going to tell the others where we are.” Vii says, looking down at ‘Birdy’ as she called the bird, I don’t think it’s much different from what I named it.

“Was that what you were going to do?” I lean in close to Birdy so she can’t turn away.

“Yes, yes. It was, it was.” The birds use of language is as limited as ever. Chip can’t extrapolate complex ideas from simple minds. I should probably avoid reading social media posts when I get back to Earth.

“We should tie her up and keep her with us,” Eshya proposes, “It’ll save us a lot of bother, and might get us a higher score at the end.”

“I keep forgetting that competition is a thing.” I say shaking my head. “It might help us; it might also just draw Freid here sooner.”

I half suspect that that’s Eshya’s goal in the first place.

“If you don’t mind… could we let her go?” Adler asks cautiously, sounding a little uncertain of herself, “This entire exercise has been a little unusual, but I have a theory. I think that we’re meant to be a search party for that missing boy.”

“How do you mean?” I ask.

“We’re out here, getting chased around to keep us moving,” She says with growing certainty, “It gives us a good range of exploration, while we’re stirring up a lot of fuss, enough to scare away dangerous beasts, or invite them to fight us instead.”

“So, you think Freid had the idea to get us out here and searching, without actually telling any of us?” I ask thoughtfully, “And you want us to release Birdy, so that she can continue playing her role in all this?”

Adler nods.

“It’s only a theory, but…”

“But if it’s true, we might put the kid at slightly greater risk if we hold onto Birdy.” I reply, “Well, I suppose the bird goes free. We might be getting that fight with Freid sooner than I was hoping.”

“Are you sure?” Vii asks, “I probably can’t catch her again when I let her go.”

“You did well,” I smile at Vii, “The trips been rather boring so far, what does it hurt to add to the stakes a little.”

“Yeah, okay.” She says, freeing the little bird that preens and shuffles its feathers, glaring at Vii before taking flight and heading back the direction of the town.

“We should hurry that way then.” I say pointing the opposite direction and leading us away.

Eshya tenderly runs her finger down the length of her wooden sword, I’m quite sure I know what sort of thoughts are racing through her mind at the moment.

“Adler, how would the other welfare officers react if I brought my own sword for lessons after this?” She asks, licking her lips.

“Not well.” She replies, “You’re still a student. Going to the effort of getting your own weapons, or worse, making your own, would not be well regarded.”

“What about Kyra’s pipe weapon?” She asks smiling as she says ‘weapon’. I poke my tongue out at her.

“If it was actually a weapon, it would be troubling for the other welfare officers and teachers, but it’s still hardly anything compared to the rest of what I’ve seen you getting up to.”

“Thanks for sticking with us.” I say to her, with a pat on the back, “We do appreciate not being collared.”

She just nods slowly, unhappily.

As we hike, the sun makes occasional appearance through the thickening canopy above. The leaves crunched underfoot, are covered by the winds that Vii summons, but even then I can see some hint of the tracks that we leave behind.

“There’s a strange spot further out.” Vii says swooping down through the canopy and knocking loose a couple dozen leaves with her passing. “It looks a little burnt, and the trees are strange. Even from up high I can see that something’s been through, like the trees are all knocked around and burning a bit.”

“Oh?” I ask, looking around hoping to see a fraction of what she’s talking about.

“You can’t see it from here.” She says laughing at me, and waving her wind down to the left, “It’s over that way.”

“Well, lead the way.” I say, shifting my backpack and adjusting my glasses.

The path down the hillside is easier than the hike up and there’s yet no sign of anyone chasing us. The forest is much unchanged, and though we catch glances at a few of the smaller critters living here, they’re all the cautious sort. They’d be quite a bit of a pain to catch, though not impossible. Perhaps we’ll take that extra effort and time if we get to dinner without finding something better to eat.

We hike for the first half of the morning before arriving at the scene that Vii has been leading us towards.

The first thing I notice is the scent of ash carried on the light breeze. A few flames flicker ahead of us through the trees, sparking into bright flames when they catch a passing leaf. Sunlight cuts through a massive hole in the canopy ahead, shining down on the blackened, cratered earth.

The burnt husks of toppled trees lay abused and broken, surrounded by tens of thousands of black splinters, some still burning.

This is nothing less than a battlefield.

“What the hell happened here?” Eshya asks, kicking at an overturned tree. The brittle, splintered remains of the once tall tree, split and spark to life with new fire.

“This must’ve been a serious battle…” I say, trying to figure out what happened. Beyond the craters, the trees, the ash, and the fires, I notice that the earth has been scarred and torn up. Considering how hard the dirt is beneath my feet, these marks couldn’t have been made accidentally, not without a beast the size of a truck.

The fires are burning in mana dense wood, which just goes to show how hot the fires must’ve been and still are. Just getting a fire started with broken branches was something of a pain for me yesterday and today, I even went so far as to pull the mana out first, which earned me a few splinters. Trees are more difficult to drain of mana than I thought they’d be but I suppose every beast would be out here chewing on wood if it made for easy mana.

All that said, I could set a tree on fire with my fire magic if I really had to, but the cost would be inhibitive. That’s to say, I’d probably knock myself right into mana shock in one attack.

Whatever caused this destruction made a track that’s impossible to miss. I imagine that there’s not even any Skills that could make it any easier than this. A short-sighted astronaut could probably notice it from space.

Trees have been pushed aside and countless branches split and cracked as something massive ran away, completely unconcerned for the twigs and grass it trampled in the process. Small fires burn the loose leaves along its path, leaving a literal trail of fire in its wake.

“Um…” Vii mutters, fluttering down to my side, “Are we going to pick a fight with whatever did this?”

Eshya makes up for her lack of enthusiasm, looking just about ready to race down that fiery path towards whatever beast left.

“It must have fire magic.” I say, looking over the burned husks of trees. I’m not sure I’d like to experience what it was that these trees went through. There wouldn’t even be any ashes of me left to scatter.

“Either that, or whatever it fought did.” Eshya says, smiling happily, “So, what are we doing boss?”

“Don’t call me boss.” I reply, trying to think.

“Over here.” Adler says insistently, standing over at the edge of the clearing.

“Did you find something?” Vii is the first to her side, “Blood?”

On the tree is a small red handprint, about the size of a small kid but fuzzy at the edges and smudged badly. The blood seems dry.

“You think it was the kid?” Eshya asks, her enjoyment of the moment toned down a little as she looks around. “I can’t see a body.”

“Maybe he was eaten?” I ask.

“No, there’s signs of others escaping this way, opposite the… well that.” Adler says, waving at the fiery path made by some sort of titan. “He might still be alive.”

“I guess, I know where we’re going then.” I say, “But do you think that a young foxen kid could fight off a beast as large as that?”

“There must be another beast.” Adler says through grit teeth.

“So, he’s just in someone else’s stomach? That’s rather tragic.” Eshya says.

“We don’t know that.” Adler persists, “I’ll go, you girls should go back and find Freid.”

“We’re coming along for this.” I say, “Freid’s coming to find us anyway, let him come on his own schedule.”

“We don’t know what’s at the other end of this trail.” Adler says.

“Exactly why you shouldn’t go alone.” I reply.

“It’s weird to see you acting all heroic.” Eshya says to our nervous little welfare officer, “Rather than… you know?”

“I’ve dedicated my life to trying to save people.” She says, “I might not be perfect, but I’m trying, alright. This isn’t exactly my job as a welfare officer, but…”

“But you want to save the kid?” I ask, “Does anyone want to go running back to Freid?”

Vii shakes her head quickly.

“I’m not missing this fight,” Eshya says eagerly patting Adler’s shoulder, “Besides, we wouldn’t want all our effort on you to go to waste.”

“Fine,” Adler says, “Just make sure that you follow the rules of combat. Even if we’re fighting something truly powerful, please never try and skirt the rules. Subdue before you kill. It’s important.”

“We know.” I tell her, “It’s one of the big rules for your sort, isn’t it?”

She glares at me quietly.

“I know, I know, you can’t tell me. It’s true though.”

Adler sighs and returns to her tracking.

“Over there.” She treads lightly, sweeping her eyes over the ground making sure she doesn’t miss a thing.

Following her lead, we’re soon enclosed again in the wide forest with leaves crunching underfoot. Adler moves quickly, and whatever hints she sees, I miss.

“More blood.” Adler says, as she touches at a mark left behind on one of the trees. It looks almost like it was smeared on when someone leaned against it to rest a moment.

“It’s mostly dried,” Eshya says, looking more closely at it, “It’s been a while.”

Adler doesn’t say anything more, but we increase our pace regardless. Of course, even now is a good chance to work on Skills and mana form. I’m scanning the ground for traces of the kids passing, while forcing the mana to gather in my mind in hope of finding some magical trace left behind.

I’m not yet comfortable enough with the mana in my head for my mana sense to develop into its own Skill like mana skin, but it shouldn’t be much longer.

The trail lasts for longer than I would have thought, this injured kid must’ve been soldiering on for quite the long while to go this far, especially while wounded. That, or the beast dragged him along for a while.

It’s strange, there’s been practically no sign of the beast that must’ve been with him, the crunched leaves and occasional bloody marks only seem to indicate the presence of the kid. I can’t believe that a kid managed to fight off whatever hellish titan made that mess behind us.

“Up ahead,” Adler hisses, gathering her mana into a spell that radiates light in my mana senses. I ready my pipe gun, and a fireball in case we get jumped the moment we poke our heads out.

“Do not waste my time.” Someone growls our way, with a sharp and dignified voice. “For what reason have you come here?”

“The boy, what have you done with him?” Adler asks, just as I get a good look at the ‘beast’ we’re talking to.

A fox, midnight black and sitting as tall as I stand is glaring our way. She sits with the dignity and poise of a queen, without any need for a crown or throne. There’s a pressure in the air around us, as if perhaps we should bow to this creature, an expectation accepted by the world itself.

I don’t bow, of course. I’m not some peasant knight shocked at the sight of royalty. Rather, I try to dig out the truth behind her poise and royal air. Is this some magic? Whatever it is I need it, damn it!

Her bright golden eyes glance between us. The touch of her gaze lingers, sending shivers down my spine. There’s dangerous, frightening depths to them, an endless pit of molten gold. Indistinct figures move, alive within the shifting golden flows.

Framing her back are four large fluffy tails, each one has slightly different colours threaded through them, almost like highlights. I can see mana glowing bright within, it has to be some sort of magic that she’s ready to cast.

As I look closer at her, I see a weeping wound on her back right leg. The blood from it stains the ground where she sits, while the flesh itself is terribly torn apart. It was not a clean, sharp blade that did that damage.

“The boy? The boy is mine. You, I presume are from the Unified States? Their slavers, come to take us away for some perceived sin?” Through all the spite, she still sounds like a queen on her throne and holds the same weight in her gaze as she looks over us.

“Ah, slavers? Not really?” I reply uncertainly, “We’re students with the Unified states. Here for class, just saw the trouble and thought we’d come over to help.”

“Don’t bother.” Adler says, “She’s a beast. Old style support devices with translators are far from rare, but just because she can communicate, it doesn’t make her a person.”

“Exactly what I’d expect from a mindless hound. You will all leave now, else I will make you leave.” She says, slowly standing as her tails rise high, glowing with magic.

“You sit your fluffy butt back down, and Adler, you calm your shit, too.” I say, “Let’s talk this out.”

The midnight fox freezes, snarling quietly as she glares at me. I cycle my mana through all the parts of my body that can accept the mana as I get ready for her to turn this into a fight.

“What is it, Fluffy Butt? You have complaints?”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 539 units

~Mana distribution:

Catagory Current Max. Skin 24% 24% Muscle 12% 12% Mind 21% 21% Cardiovascular 11% 11% Misc. 10% 10% Efficiency 78% 78%

~Skills:

-Mana drain touch

-Mana skin

-Mana shield.

-Mana surge strike

-Mana surge kick

-Grapple

-Flame burst

-Fireball

-Infused delayed casting

-Harsh petting

-Chaos dance

~Multi-mind messenger