The tip of my staff jammed into the ribs of an oversized wolf. Its jaws snapped at me in return, but they barely scraped me as my blow staggered it back. The force of my blow could only be so strong, but I couldn’t use even the cheaper spells like Shocking Grasp forever.

Rain continued to pour down as we fought to defend our fort. The local animals seemed quite keen to sink their teeth into some rainbow lotus, and I couldn’t fault them. Even in their current state, they were quite enticing, sparkling in the shallow water and pulsing with mana. I wondered if it felt different to a druid. But our druid was currently busy Entangling groups of attacking creatures.

Roots and underbrush choked the area outside our proper entrances to our fort, courtesy of Ceira. It seemed she was able to focus what Entangle affected to some extent, and though it took continuous effort she had little more to contribute to combat so it was the best use of her time. It was somewhat of a risk for her to be with us, but it was her choice to join. I could only hope she would grow stronger quickly. While we would hopefully return home soon, knowing how to handle herself in combat would still be useful in New Bay. Even if she stayed away from hero and mercenary work, civilians were often dragged into danger. It was something people took as part of life, and if they couldn’t expect to have powers and get stronger I understood that. Even if it was weird to not have classes.

At the other entrance, Izzy darted around, striking at vulnerable locations of anything approaching. It hardly mattered how they tried to defend themselves, as she was able to move quickly enough to step inside anything’s reach. A somewhat risky fighting style, but the benefits were clear. Her blades were coated with the blood of beasts who didn’t learn from those before them.

Midnight contributed his own efforts when necessary, but there was little he could do without mana. His small body didn’t allow him to injure anything larger than a human, and these wild beasts had thick hides that would completely stop his claws. But he was still able to be a distraction, drawing attention and occasionally throwing out a well placed spell.

Senan and Ailen focused on deterring enemies before they got close. Arrows and spikes of ice could go quite a long distance, and many animals chose to retreat after receiving even small injuries. That was good, because we were already at our limits for what we could handle.

The beasts weren’t working together, but were instead also each other’s competitors. Panthers fought wolves, deer, and even plant creatures. Overall, there was a near constant flow of danger.

Sounds surprisingly like a whining dog came from Ceira. She was standing at our little fortifications, looking over the wall so I presumed she was trying to talk to some of the animals. A wolf, maybe? Though I expected more growls and snarls. Then again, it wasn’t exactly language so I couldn’t really say.

“The moose says he’ll help us for one Rainbow Lotus!” Ceira said. “I think it’s a good idea.”

Taking stock of my remaining mana… and looking up at the continuous rain and lurking creatures, I had to agree.

“Have him watch the lake!” Senan called. “Some sort of fish or something are damaging my walls!”

I could see the moose splashing around now, an arrow still dangling out of its neck. It didn’t seem particularly worried about that, though. Nor did it seem particularly concerned about its skull, even after taking a Sonic Lance straight to the head. On the other hand, it was willing to negotiate so it at least understood our power.

It traipsed off into the waters, and I saw various fish and a few turtles launched into the air, the moose catching them with its wide horns and flipping them up. Some onto the shore, others simply away from our waterside wall. That let Senan focus on other parts of our defenses, which some creatures were clearly trying to break through. I couldn’t tell if they stupid- not noticing the entrances- or clever, avoiding our choke points and the other creatures.

Most of them didn’t do much, thudding into the ice and causing it to tremble a bit. Senan had made it thick enough to be extremely durable. Ice was only fragile when thin. Anyone who’d tried to smash even as much as ice cubes knew how little effect you would have on something larger.

Of course, that was considering humanoids. As it turned out, everything was relative. For example, you could have a ten foot tall flaming boar that didn’t seem to care about pesky little things being in his way. The crashing sound drew my attention to one, steam rising from its body as the rain continued.

Was this… okay? Were boars supposed to be on fire? Probably not. That might be why it seemed to angry, but it certainly couldn’t have been any of us that made it like that. And the fact that it stayed on fire indicated that it was at the very least something supernatural.

The boar’s head swiveled, looking through the opening it had smashed on the landed side of the wall. It took in the people on the walls and at the missing gates, and then looked straight ahead to the developing Rainbow Lotus. It snorted.

“Someone stop it!” Ceira called out.

I had a pretty good idea what it was going to do, and I wasn’t going to let anything grab our Rainbow Lotus. Especially not before they were done! It would just be a waste to eat them now, and I highly doubted a boar would stop at just one.

There was no way I was going to stand in front of a boar, especially not a giant flaming one. But I could mitigate one of those factors quite easily. It was just a few points of mana to cast Enlarge on myself. It didn’t last very long, or I would have used it throughout the battle. The most important part of it was that it didn’t just make me bigger. It also made my stuff bigger. All temporarily, of course.

But importantly, I didn’t have to step in front of the boar. Instead I took a wide swing at it with my staff. Did I think that would kill a boar? Absolutely not. It might only barely slow it. But I didn’t want to bet on Stoneskin preventing me from being disemboweled.

I knew targeting a boar’s head was the worst place to swing- they ran straight towards enemies with that out in front. So instead I swung low aiming for a leg. A loud crack told me I hit it dead on, and while I had hoped to snap it and stop the boar’s charge, I didn’t do much but cause it to stagger to the side slightly, causing it to carreen into the lake away from the central mass of the Rainbow Lotus. It might have trampled through one, though.

The boar’s momentum still carried it into the far wall, and through it. But there it stopped for a moment, the perfect target. Arrows and ice spikes began to rain down on it, and Midnight and I blasted the thing with Sonic Lances at the same moment, sending it even further into the lake. Water bubbled around it as its flames rose even higher. It stomped and huffed as it turned around… but our moose friend walked into its path. The moose was certainly massive, but while it was taller the boar packed its size into a dense cluster. It lowered its snout to charge and the moose lowered its own head. Both were injured.

But I could tilt the odds more in our favor. Reaching out with the tip of my staff, I barely had to step into the water to enchant our moose with the same spell I used on myself. I had to say, it was extremely satisfying to augment something that was already significant. Seeing Great Girl grow to half the size of a ten story building or Shockwave move beyond all comprehensible limits… I always enjoyed it.

The moose didn’t quite understand what was happening… but he did thrash his head about, which was good enough. He did kind of topple the rest of the wall in the lake, but when the boar charged forward our buddy flipped the thing all the way into the middle of the lake. I wondered if the boar could swim. If it floated, at least, it might end up in the village downriver.

The moose let out a great howl, sort of like a bullhorn. And just like that, the clouds cleared away. The moose turned around, and I slightly regretted making it so big. On the other hand, it did a very good job of scaring off everything else.

The moose looked at us. Then Ceira.

The lotus flowers sparkled ever more brightly as the sun shone on them. I felt something change in them. And the moose lowered his head to snatch one up, swallowing it whole. Then he began to waddle away.

“Hey, Ceira,” I called to her. “He’s be a very useful Animal Companion.”

“I- what? Where would I even put a moose? I live in an apartment! Heck, I live in a city and I’m pretty sure all of New Bay has a no-moose allowed policy.”

Fair enough. But it was a shame to miss out on such a cool guy. With the rain clearing up, we plucked the remaining flowers- then threw them in Storage so they wouldn’t attract unnecessary attention on our way back to the village. Though somehow, I thought I felt some of their aura lingering around Midnight and I.

“No doubt the wild animals will consume many of the fallen here,” Ailen said. “But we should at least take something back to the village.”

Ceira looked uneasy at the bodies of the animals- even if there were only a dozen or so, the rest slinking off as they got injured. I didn’t think it was appropriate to kill animals for no reason, but we had a goal, and I imagined a similar number might have perished without our presence. And looking at the big picture, I really doubted a few deaths was going to cause anything in this place to go extinct. Unless that thing was elves or orcs, because as far as I could tell they were massively outpopulated by everything else.

-----

“So what are these even for?” I asked Comhghall as I wiped blood off my lip. “They’re certainly very magical, but…”

The old orc nodded seriously, “Well, the first reason was for the experience of battle. Training must involve a balance of safety and true danger. But the other reason is the effects they have when consumed. For people of our size, it must be prepared properly.”

“And then?” I asked. “What do they do?”

“In their basic form, I would say… they are like liquid experience.”

I frowned. “What?”

“It’s not quite correct, but it’s the easiest explanation,” the scarred orc said. “If humanoids like us simply consume these Rainbow Lotus and do nothing else, at most we’ll have an oddly full stomach and heightened mana regeneration. But if you follow your consumption with a method to gain experience, the results are quite astounding.”

“So… I take some of this, then fight and attempt to get to level 35?” I grimaced, “I’d need… 637. More than 20% of my total.”

Comhghall shook his head, “That would be a waste. For you, the purpose is to train towards a specific goal. Because not only is it experience in the numerical sense, but it also lets you develop other abilities. You,” he pointed at me, and also Midnight, “You will be developing your bond.”

“Begging your pardon sir,” Midnight flicked his tail nervously. “I don’t know if improving my own casting efficiency is… much value here.”

“Not like that,” the orc shook his head. “But instead, what you can do together. Your sake is a bit unusual in that you are intelligent to begin with, but you haven’t been shown to be lacking any capabilities. Thus, I imagine it should be even more effective for you to provide mana for a spell.”

“But-” I began to protest.

“Yes, yes. Only one person can control mana, and things like that. And while that’s broadly true,” the man shrugged, “It’s not universal. Have you never used your mana together

towards the same purposes, even a little?”

I frowned. There could have been a few times, but they were rather vague. “The closest I know for sure is… when we had to get Jerome. Midnight used Alter Portal while I used Gate to try to re-open the portal.”

“Perfect,” Comhghall grinned. “That’s exactly what we need.”

“But it only works on portals that exist, or existed…” I frowned. I actually didn’t know that. “Or, uh, it wouldn’t be altering it really.”

“Is an incomplete portal a portal?” the old man asked.

“Well… I don’t actually know.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “The point is, you have experience working together towards the same task. You just need to develop that.”

That did make sense, and he was the shaman afterall. So I supposed I just had to listen.