The first thing to hit us was the wind. A strong and loud wind that threatened to take us to the skies if I lost control of my protective Mana shield. Roaring through the nearby branches whipping them around, ripping some off only to break on my shield. Our camp was completely wiped away at this point. As if the world itself wiped it off with a cloth, like one would a bit of food on their cheek. Even animals were not spared as they thrashed in the wind trying to ground themselves and get away. A couple unlucky animals flew into my shield and burst, spreading viscera and chunks of bone everywhere. A couple minutes after the wind had started, a wall of mana smashed into us. Malady cried out and crumpled on the ground convulsing. Vylet was chanting simple protection spells and using as much of the surrounding Mana she could. Purifying and channeling some into my shield and casting random spells to try and lessen the burden on malady. Malady may have been smart, but technically she was still a monster. Minotaurs had a sensitivity to Mana usage near them, so you never take an inexperienced mage to hunt them. The newbie mage would undoubtedly leak mana unconsciously and alert the minotaur to their presence long before they reach it. Being surrounded by it was overwhelming to a young minotaur. To Vylet and I it was more of a nuisance, causing mild hallucinations and tingling. My focus was centered on channelling mana into the shield and using the mana that Vylet sent to me to strengthen the shield. However in the passing moments the hallucinations started affecting me, I started to see fish swimming outside my shield. The light glistening on their scales, fish of all sizes swam around us. I almost felt the sand beneath my feet, soft and filled with shells.

The sea of mana surrounding us ended as suddenly as it began. Leaving behind a slight blue tinge in the air and an empty plain where the forest used to be. The mana had caused a weird reaction in the surrounding land. The long road through the forest was gone, as was the forest itself. In it's place was a large area filled with grass, some remains of trees and scattered groups of confused looking animals. The mana seemed to have accelerated the growth of the grass and create some new types. There were random patches of blue and orange grasses with some small plants of the same color in them. From the direction of the explosion stood a crystal, taller than the tallest tree in the forest that used to stand here. I cancelled my shield and sat down to absorb some mana back into my body. Vylet had sat malady up and was trying to help her deal with the mana sickness by absorbing some of the excess mana nearby to lessen the load on her senses. The crystal was black, seemingly absorbing all light and slowly pushing out a weird energy. I couldn't recognize it but it didn't give me a good feeling. After I feel like I have replenished enough mana, I got up and looked for any gear that survived the wind. The tents were gone, as well as the blankets and extra clothes. Thankfully malady had one of the bags near her, so it was protected by my shield and we still had some supplies. I looked in the bag and was happy to find we still had some food and a large blanket. The bag with the book in it was gone but I didn't care all that much, that book gave me the creeps anyway.

Since the forest is gone we should be able to get to a town alot faster. Hopefully the town will still be there when we arrive. The sun had set a while ago but we could still see, the grass in the area was glowing with a blue-greenish light. I start to set up camp again and vylet noticing my actions calls to me

"A huge Mana explosion nearly kills us and you just set up camp again? What if there is another explosion?!"

"I doubt it, the amount of mana that was released was the equivalent of a hundred thousand magicians exhausting all of their magic at the same time. Even if that is what happened they would need a long time to do it again."

She frowned at my answer and looked around.

"It's not just that, the animals are acting weird. Have you noticed that they have been moving oddly and gathering in groups?"

I look in the direction of her gaze and see a small group of animals. A couple rabbits and deer, a skunk, and a handful of squirrels. The rabbits are what I noticed first, their legs being way to long and their seemed to be something sharp along the length of their ears. After the rabbits I saw the deer had lost their antlers and grew a long thin bone coming out of their forehead. Their legs were bursting with muscle to the point where it looked like the skin would tear if it tried to run. The skunks fur was flat against it's body, its tail had shortened and seemed to be on fire. The flames didn't seem to bother it or the other animals at all. The squirrels we're the weirdest of all. They stood upright, their faces had changed to that of goblins. Their arms were thin and ended in sharp clawed hands. Their bodies were brown and their fur was all gone except for their tails.

The exposure to that massive amount of mana must have altered them. I didn't want to even think about what it would've done to us. I picked up the only surviving bag and started to slowly move away from the animals and I motioned for the girls to do the same. Malady seemed to have recovered enough to walk and vylet was next to her to help out if she needed it. The wall of mana that hit us was blue which meant it was mana that puts out force but has a short range. So the wind went farther than the mana did. There are 5 different types of mana. Red mana can increase power so it is used in body enhancement magic or to enhance other spells. Blue mana controls force and can be used inmany ways from wind magic to force fields. Depending on how talented you are at manipulating mana it can even be used to cause enough friction to start a fire or to crush rocks. Green mana governs over life and can be used in healing magic or controlling plants. All living things have green mana within them and that mana is one of the most difficult to manipulate. Then there is black mana which governs over death, used in necromancy and curses. Black mana is rarely used and is even banned in some kingdoms, plus it was never really popular as the curses had a large possibility of backfiring if you don't know what you are doing. Lastly there is white mana which is the least used because the only use anyone has ever found for it was that it can be used to erase black mana based spells and curses. It takes years to be able to use any type of mana with any accuracy for most races, but elves have an innate abiliy to use green and red mana easily as soon as they are born. Making elven babies very dangerous. Elves are also one of the only races that can clearly see mana.

Luckily we seemed to be near the edge of the area effected by the mana. The animals simply stared at us, none of them moving a muscle. It really creeped me out how they didn't even blink, following every movement with their empty eyes. We were nearing the edge, the animals haven't moved at all. I looked at the group I saw first and something was off. I wasnt sure what it was.

Then it hit me, the deer was gone.

I drew my sword as fast as I could, I heard Vylet ready a spell after she saw me. Blue mana flowing around her hands. Malady pulled out a small blade from somewhere and held it ready. All of us scanning the surroundings looking for danger. Then it struck, the deer came out of nowhere. Running at a speed that seemed impossible it almost impaled me on it's horn. I dodged out of it's way at the last second, only suffering a scratch on my right arm. I spun around to attack it but it was already gone. I told the girls to run when I signal, I will try to injure the deer and slow it down.

I stood, waiting with my sword held ready to strike. Straining my ears to try and hear it approach. My eyes scanning for any sign of the beast. How it could hide in a field such as this bewildered me. A minute passes with nothing happening. Strong wind passes to my side and I hear a scream. Behind me I see the deer, with its horn buried in malady's stomach.