The titan looms over me, and the air stirs with the slightest breeze. Any second now, a wave of mana dense air will blast from its open maw and wipe me from existence.

There is nothing I can do to stop it.

My twisted broken legs can’t run.

Without any mana, my armour weighs me down so much, that I can’t as much as crawl with my one working arm.

I meet the crimson red eyes, from this close I can see that there’s six, set up in two triangular sets. All of them focus upon me, and I can almost understand it.

It’s not angry, it’s barely even frustrated. It seems almost indifferent. Squashing me like a person might crush an ant.

Even without mana sense, I can feel the dense energy racing up its body towards me. There’s a heavy weight in the air that I can only describe as fate, as I perceive my own coming end.

The titan begins its roar, but something flashes beneath it a brief moment before the world is sundered. The stone ruins of the fort and the walls, the grass, the soil, and the corpses strewn all about. Everything is shred apart by the force of the mana-dense, high-pressure air blast.

Dust fills the air as the larger chunks of flesh and stone rain down around me.

Somehow, I’m still alive to perceive it.

“Arduelle?” I ask my pendant as the dust slowly settles. “Did you..?”

The dust is washed away as the wind howls around me, a flash of motion and I see the figure that has saved my life.

The king smashes a blood soaked fist into the titans head, which recoils back from the powerful strike. Shattered crystal flies out from the impact, spearing into the earth, the trees, and everything else. One large shard nearly hits me, but a blood shield forms before me, deflecting it safely away.

“How are you?” Asks a tall noble woman as she stands by my side, her face not turning from the king and his battle.

“Not dead… I think? I’m not dead, right?” I ask, shaking my head clear. I’m churning a new mass of mana from Shrelle’s corpse, though it’s the last of the mana that I can scrape from her.

“You’re still among the living. Do you have any means to heal?” She asks, looking down at my twisted broken limbs.

“Sort of, but it’s not going to be good enough.” I reply. The potions I have with me, at Nel’s insistence, aren’t suited to straighten out my bones. If I start bleeding out I’ll still have to use one, and I’ll have to live with twisted limbs until I find a proper healer to fix me.

“I’m afraid there is little we can do to assist you in healing.” She says, before raising a hand and sending a lightning bolt towards the titan. The bolt of energy glows deep green burning a line into my eyes before scoring the crystalline armoured shell of the titan.

The titan trembles from the shock, and while it doesn’t fall to its knees, it’s still better than anything the soldiers have been able to do. Other spells and a few arrows fly at the beast from along the line of trees as a dozen others join the fight, each marking the beast, visibly chipping away at its armour.

“You’re the back up?” I ask, shifting myself to sit higher as the mana settles inside me. It gathers into strange tightly bound shards throughout my body. If I was meant to form a core, then I screwed up and made a dozen.

Unless I shattered my core the moment I made it. If that’s a thing that can happen. I get the feeling that’s something I would do.

It doesn’t seem to overly affect how the mana flows throughout me, but twisting my mana around, it does seem easier to hold a mana vortex in these shards than elsewhere. Though, that aside, the way they freely float around my body doesn’t feel like it’s going to make my magic any more useful just yet.

“I’m not sure it’s safe for you here.” She continues, looking at the battle going on. “It wouldn’t be good for you to die, as I understand it?”

“No, that would be something of a problem for me.” I say, seeing the battle continue, “Could you throw me on one of those corpse piles?”

“...Why?” She asks, giving me a strange look.

“Just do get me there and I’ll show you.” I say, watching as another noble attacks the titan, the fireball partially melting the dark crystals.

“I just figure that I should be getting back into the fight.” I say, frustrated in watching the titan forced back, while I just watch.

“That was your magic that gave it pause?” She asks, lifting me up, careful of my broken and twisted limbs. “And you use corpses to fuel it? I see.”

“Yes, it was my magic. Now, is there any particular strategy here?” I ask watching as the king fighting against the titan is thrown aside like a small toy. I barely see the shield of blood that comes into existence around his form, unravelling as he stabilises his flight.

“We try to create openings for the king to use.” She replies, settling me onto the nearest corpse pile. The flesh still contains more than enough mana to supplement my current supply, though I’m finding it difficult to hold onto it all at once.

“The king is pretty strong, huh?” I say, watching as the distant form flickers about, flying through the air and as he lashes out with blades of blood , and smashes the figure with his bare hands.

He trades blows with the titan, even while only a fraction of its size he stands as an equal.

A powerful strike to the chest of the titan sends it stumbling back, the difference in mass overcome by the difference in mana density. Either that or some expensive magic is being used to bridge the gap.

As the titan steps forwards, trying to retake the offensive, another spell hits, landing right around its knee and causing only the slightest pause. Yet still enough for the king to use.

“Is this level of power normal?” I ask, as I gather together as much mana as I can. A significant measure more than I was able to before today, but I’m not sure it’s anything compared to what the king and the titan wield openly before me.

I’ve achieved liquid mana form, an imperfect form of it, but I can probably fix that later. For now I compress as much mana as I can into one spell, already around double what my limit was before. I spare a few hundred for my emergency defences, but otherwise prepare for as large of a blast as I can manage.

“Where should I aim?” I ask, staring at the titan over the crumbled remains of the defensive wall.

“The head, neck, or knees should do well.” She replies, sending out another attack of her own. The titan has been too busy lashing out at the king to bother much with us.

“The neck then.” I say, looking at the part of the shell that was damaged from my last attempt at taking its life.

I stir both annihilation and fire within me, pressing the spell down into a vortex and charging it up. Only the annihilation mana is built up as I have no special talent for fire magic, but that’s more than enough to stress me to my limits.

Slowly I fill up with more mana than I should be capable of holding, the spell building quickly until it’s at the point where I can’t manage to keep it constrained inside me anymore. I point at the titan’s neck, right where I wounded it the last time.

I release the spell and feel a wonderful release fill throughout my body as my mana is reduced back to around 200 units. Not low enough for mana shock to kick in, but low enough that I’ve been reduced out of liquid mana form. I’m rather glad to notice that the core shards have disappeared as my mana has changed back.

“We should probably start running.” I say, as I watch my magic race away. I have plenty enough mana left inside of me to keep my mana sense running, but I’m ready to trade it for defences at a moments notice.

“It should be fine.” She replies. “It’s the king’s role to ensure it stays distracted as well.”

“Could we at least be ready to run, I’m not fast on my feet at the best of times.” I say, pointing at my broken legs again. She begrudgingly lifts me up from the corpses right as my spell lands.

The annihilation consumes flesh, stone, and everything else that’s part of the beast. A deep red glow emanates from within the impact point before the fire has its way, burning through even which shouldn’t burn.

An explosion rocks through the titan as a chunk of its neck is shattered. Nothing so much as I’d been wanting, but still enough to know that I’m not just throwing rocks at a stone fort.

The crimson red eyes turn away from the king, glaring instead at me. The loose shards of crystal falling from its wound fill with magical purpose moments before they fly right for us.

“Run!” I shout, but she’s already moving before I get the word out.

Bright red, blood shields come into existence around us as she dodges, blocks, and deflects the shards shooting at us.

“Hmm. It’s not actually all that strong.” She remarks, slowing down from her sprint and coming to a stop in order to focus more on her magical defences.

“By what measure…?” I ask.

“These aren’t that powerful.” She says, reshaping the flowing blood shield to most effectively defend against the projectiles. Deflecting those that she can, rather than bringing them to a full stop.

“I’d guess that the beast is at a late liquid stage of development, perhaps with a crystalised core.” She says, “It takes time and effort to collect itself for the larger attacks, which are likely talent driven, smaller attacks like these are all it can manage for faster attacks.

“I would say that, it’s something like you.” She continues, waving back towards the corpse pile, “It’s only able to attack with such vigour because it draws the mana from the air to utilise for its magic, while you use a ritualistic pile of corpses.”

“That’s… it doesn’t have to be corpses… But, I mean, it does work better.” It kind of makes me seem evil or weird when I hear it said that way.

A fast wind builds up in the air around us, as the titan once more builds itself up for another roar.

“So that means this is bad, right?” I ask.

“It does.” She replies, shifting her bloody shield around to defend our front as she prepares for the coming blast. A small gap is intentionally left open to allow us clear sight of the titan and the king, still battling.

The king doesn’t let up in his assault, focusing on the wound that I made in the titan’s neck, tearing flesh and crystal apart with terrifying ease, but the scale difference between the two is still so significant that it doesn’t make enough of a difference. At least not quickly enough.

The gathered mana builds up inside the titan’s chest, before blasting out in the same pressure waves that I’ve survived before, but never from so near. The blood shield steals my sight, but even so I can see the wave of mana flooding towards us.

I press my mana into my reactive defences, preparing to lose it all again.

The mana in the shield fights valiantly against the pressure wave flooding towards us, but inevitably it falls splattering us in the now mundane blood. To my great relief, I have enough mana to neutralize the attack, if only barely.

The noble carrying me stumbles back a few steps, shaken but not fallen.

“Next corpse pile.” I say, eager to be away. If I’d known it would be a broad ranging blast, I could’ve stayed with my last corpse pile, though it’s now scattered a little bit.

The noble quickly rushes me over to the next nearest pile of corpses where I catch sight of John and Hawk, struggling to pull themselves free from the corpses that have rained down on them when they cowered behind the pile. It’s good to see that they’re still well.

The other soldiers have pulled back from the wall, only the most powerful nobles still standing to continue the fight. The titan’s attacks were enough to cause them to stumble, but not the king. He keeps fighting even now, and given enough time, I’m sure he could defeat the beast all on his own.

With help from the rest of us who can still fight, this battle shouldn’t last much longer.

The king tears through the flesh of the titan’s neck, releasing a thick current of dark blood, which he binds with his own magic. The titan directs its air pressure cannon towards the flowing rivers of its own blood, but while it can disrupt the flow a little, it cannot stop the king’s magic.

The blood winds itself around the wounded neck of the titan, tightening around it before flowing faster and faster around its neck. The massive beast roars, not as an attack as every time before, but in pain.

Until, the shout is cut off, and its neck fully severed by the bloody saw blade, made of its own blood.

The titan’s head falls, slamming into the earth, with a loud crash.

“Just to be sure, this thing isn’t a hydra, is it?” I ask, peering at the gapping wound of its neck without trust that this is already over.

“What’s a hydra?” My noble stead asks, “We haven’t fought anything of that name before, as far as I know.”

“You cut off its head, and it grows two more to replace it.” I say, glaring over at the corpse.

“That sounds interesting but rather pointless.” She says, tilting her head in thought. “It would have less and less mana each time it loses a head, and not by a small measure, unless… Does a hydra have a powerful magical talent?”

“I guess so.” I shrug, freezing as I feel the physical pain coming from my legs. Looking down at my twisted flesh, I can’t help but feel a rising disgust at the sight, but I suppress the feeling. “You think the king would let me have a cut of that thing? I’d like to bring back some souvenirs.”

“I make no promises, but you may ask the king.”

“Oh, good. Also, Arduelle, I need to ask you a few things if you can come by.” I say, “It’s not just begging for your healing, though I would also be overjoyed if you could help with that too.”

“You entreat a goddess so impolitely?” The noble whispers in amazement as she carries me over towards the king and the fallen titan.

“Impolitely?” I ask. I was trying to be a little nicer to the dungeon, what does she expect me to do, beg and bow?

“She is yet to learn proper etiquette.” Arduelle says, flashing into existence. “I personally find it amusing, but she hasn’t much of a future if she doesn’t learn how to properly bow.”

“Good afternoon, goddess.” I say, with as bright a smile as I can manage. “I hope your day has been pleasant so far, and you haven’t had to bother yourself too greatly for my sake.”

“Don’t do that.” Arduelle says, glaring down at me. “It sounds like an insult coming from your lips.”

“Why thank you.” I reply, as the noble carrying me awkwardly folds me up in her arms as she bows low to Arduelle.

“Don’t bother with the pleasantries.” The dungeon says with a small smile rising on the side of her lips. “Let’s get to topic. How have you enjoyed your vacation?”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 1982 units

~Mana distribution:

Catagory Current Max. Defence 0% 33% Offense 0% 57% Mana Sense 0% 73% Recovery 30% 30% Gluttony 0% 26% Misc. 0% 42% Efficiency 30% 100%

~Favourited Skills:

-Chip Shredder

-Multi-mind

-Tag

-Mana surge movement

-Reactive defence

-Fire burst punch

-Annihilation magic

-Charged casting (Annihilation)

-Mana form flow fixer

-Branching magic