Mana crackled at the tips of my fingers, forming blinding arcs of light. Sparkles fell to the ground, scorching the damp forest bed, and the smell of ozone filled my nostrils. Sensing danger, the Stone Giant bared its glass shard teeth before roaring. The sound echoed inside my chest but it wasn't enough to scare me.
The arch of light violently crackled as it extended and flattened until it adopted the shape of a sword. Despite the intensity of my mana, my hands were ice cold because of the sudden mana spent. I wasn’t strange to [Mana Depletion] symptoms.
The Stone Giant raised a handful of gravel and stones with each of its four hands.
Elincia had to be alive. If she was dead, the System would’ve given me a stupid title. I just needed to get rid of the Stone Giant to go help her. I tightened the grip of my mana sword and [Swordsmanship] filled my brain with forgotten knowledge. There was nothing a sword could do against a barrage of stones but I ignored the alarms in my head and pushed forward.
The Stone Giant unleashed its attack.
You have obtained Mana Depletion (Mild). Temporary
I used my mana blade to protect my face. The stones felt like a hundred bee stings as they bounced against my body. The pain was almost unbearable but it wasn’t enough to stop me. I couldn’t stop. I had to destroy the Giant and help Elincia.
The mechanics behind [Mana Manipulation] were now clear to me. Since I got the skill, I had wrongly assumed that ‘manipulation’ meant ‘movement’. All my experiments so far were about moving mana in certain ways to achieve a result. However, ‘movement’ was only a small aspect of the skill. [Mana Manipulation] wasn’t just about moving mana around like I originally thought. [Mana Manipulation] was about focus and willpower. [Mana Manipulation] was magic.
I didn’t have to manually push and compress my mana to form a solid shield, just as I didn’t have to manually contract my muscle fibers to move my arms.
The second volley of stones hit me before I could find cover and, once again, I was showered by the pain of a hundred bee stings. The pain wasn’t enough to erase the picture of Elincia wounded and waiting for my help.
You have obtained Mana Depletion (Moderate). Temporary
Mana rushed out of my body to regenerate the shield. Spending a great amount of mana felt like someone had thrown a bucket of ice water over me. No amount of cold or pain could distract me from the task ahead. The Stone Giant had to be reduced to dust.
My heart pumped adrenaline through my body and [Swordsmanship] sharpened my senses. The Stone Giant launched a third attack but I was quick enough to jump behind an old tree. The projectiles drummed against the hollow tree and created a rain of wooden shrapnel. I jumped back on my feet and lunged towards my foe.
The Stone Giant was twice my size with arms wider than an adult man. A single smack would be enough to spread my guts across all the Farlands. The words of my HEMA instructor echoed in my mind. ‘This is a duel with real swords, if you let your opponent touch you, you are dead’. It sounded like a hell of a plan. Hit hard without getting hit in the process.
I reached the Giant before it could throw the fourth barrage. The creature let the stones go and swatted its arm in a wide arc. [Swordsmanship] took control of my body and I dodged with a quick backstep. Then, I hit back with my supercharged sword.
The mana blade cut the Giant’s skin, leaving a blackened dent.
I rolled over the forest bed to dodge the Giant’s backhand. The fact the creature couldn’t move its legs was my saving grace, otherwise attacking and dodging would be near impossible. I lunged forward, unleashing a flurry of swings over the monster’s arms. A roar deafened and the smell of ozone numbed my nose but I pressed on with my attack.
I wasn’t going to let the Farlands take Elincia from me.
The Giant roared and attacked with its four arms at the same time. I jumped, backstepped, rolled, and used my mana blade to block, but the Giant had infinite stamina. No matter how much I dodged, it always attacked again with the same speed.
I dodged until a blow got me off balance.
With an explosion of blue sparks from my mana shield, the smack sent me several meters into the air. A sharp pain spread through my body as if my skeleton wanted to break away from my flesh. Then I hit the ground.
You have obtained Mana Depletion (Advanced). Temporary
The prompt appeared in front of my eyes as soon as my shield got replenished. A shiver ran down my spine and I realized the mana depletion tremors were close. I had to hurry up before my mana pool ran dry. Using my sword as a cane and getting back on my feet before the Giant could unleash a barrage of stones over me.
I remained near the edge of the Giant’s reach, always dodging before attacking. But the Giant was smart enough to try to bait me into its range by pulling back its punches. Without [Swordsmanship] and [Awareness] measuring the distances with millimeter precision I would already be squashed against the ground.
[Mana Manipulation] was like a magical 3D printer and until now I had been trying to shape things with filament and a lighter. If I wanted to win, I had to push my skills to the limit. An incandescent arch of mana emerged from my back and over my head, and quickly transformed into a second sword.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
The Stone Giant alternately looked at the sword in my hand and the one floating over my shoulder. Then I went all out on the offensive. The two-pronged offensive confused the Giant, which used two of its arms to swat the flying sword while it tried to hit me with the remaining two.
My mind was in a state of flow. Part of my brain controlled my body while the other part controlled the flying mana sword. All of that under the shower of information provided by [Awareness] and [Swordsmanship]. My brain was overclocked.
I cut, stabbed, and grazed the Giant’s body, always aiming for the joints. I dodged the Giant’s blows, and deflected every attempt to catch me. Anger kept me focused. My shield and my swords drained my mana pool at terrifying speeds, but not even the cold snaps of the [Mana Depletion] were enough to stop me.
With a powerful blow, I cleanly cut through the Giant’s elbow. The rocky arm fell to the ground with a dull thump and buried a palm into the soft soil. One arm down, three to go. I was so entranced in my small victory that I didn’t notice the Giant was ignoring my flying sword.
The blow left me breathless. Blue sparkles flew in a spectacular fireworks show as the massive hand impacted the mana shield. I rolled on the ground until I hit a boulder. The world spun around me as stars and sparkles filled my field of vision.
You have obtained Mana Depletion (Critical). Temporary
My body and my mana pool shut down at the same time. Both my shield and my swords faded in a veil of blue mist. My arms and legs trembled to the point I could barely get on all fours. [Mana Depletion] felt as if someone had suddenly stolen all the heat inside my body.
The Stone Giant clawed at the earth for a handful of rocks. The surface of the creature was completely covered in darkened dents. Its forearms had received the worst punishment. One of its arms remained attached to its body by a couple centimeters of rock.
Desperately, I reached for my mana pool but it felt like a frozen knife shredding my chest. I was at the end of the line. I only hoped the Stone Giant was stupid enough to have forgotten about Elincia. If it was over for me, I prayed for another opportunity for Elincia. I already had mine.
A great explosion knocked down the Stone Giant followed by a barrage of smaller detonations.
“Elincia!” I called her name, but the volley of spells drowned out my voice.
[Awareness] made me know the attacks came from four different directions.
The Stone Giant raised its remaining arms to protect its face but the attack was relentless. Mana boiled inside the rocky surface of the Giant’s body and escaped through the holes I had left like steam from a kettle. As suddenly as the attack started, the explosions stopped, leaving a ringing sensation in my ears.
Stone Giant slain.
As any respectable RPG-lover would, my brain was suddenly filled with dopamine.
The sun was about to set behind the mountains and I didn’t see the cloaked figures until they were almost upon me. I tried to reach for my boot knife, but before I could grab the grip, someone behind me put their own knife against my neck.
Half a dozen cloaked figures entered the clearing. My mind raced. The ragged clothes and the lack of coat of arms suggested they weren’t city guards. Bandit’s maybe? A tall figure broke from the group and, sitting on their heels just in front of me, pulled back his cloak. An old rustic man with an ungroomed gray beard, and a deep scar crossing his face greeted me. He was the spitting image of a bandit leader. And smelled like one.
“I’m not familiar with this one. Maybe a mimic?” The old man said with a raspy voice. “Who are you?”
Totally a bandit leader.
“Who’s asking?” I replied, gathering up the last traces of defiance of my body.
The knife pressed to my neck even more.
“Someone please remind me why do I even bother with these soft-hands?” The bandit leader sighed.
“Because you are too kind, boss.” The knife-bandit replied with a feminine voice.
It was good to see bandits didn’t discriminate based on gender at least.
Suddenly, a foreign presence invaded my mind. Someone was reading my most hidden thoughts and I wasn’t going to allow it. The invasive sensation made me want to punch whoever was in front of me, however, the knife on my neck made me change my mind.
“Robert Clarke. Level 12. Scholar.” The leader said with a thoughtful expression.
Was that how it felt to be identified? Now I understood why people disliked it. I made a mental note to apologize to Firana for identifying her during our first duel. If we made it out alive.
“Scholar? I swear I saw him casting Mana Blade, two of them at the same time even.” A man out of my field of vision said.
“Stupid name by the way, must be a smooth-hands raised by elves.” The woman with the knife on my neck pointed out.
I didn’t dare to speak back. I needed to find the right moment to escape. As long as I couldn’t see her directly in the eye I wouldn’t be able to cast [Stun Gaze]. And even if I managed to stun one of the bandits, there was the bandit leader and all the others who probably outleveled me. And I wasn’t sure I even had enough mana to try.
“Are you going to tell me who you are now?” The bandit leader asked again.
I saw no other way forward than telling him the truth.
“I’m a teacher, I work at a poor orphanage in Farcrest.” I replied, hoping that adding ‘poor’ would appeal to any empathetic feelings they might still have. Hopefully they weren’t after a ransom.
The bandit leader’s smile sent a shiver down my spine.
“This is your lucky day, Scholar. Marquis’ law prevents us from charging soft-hands for our transportation services.” The man put his cloak back on. “You are coming back to Farcrest in one piece, kid.”
As suddenly as it appeared, the knife was pulled away from my neck and the woman yanked me on my feet. To say she was brusque was an understatement.
“He still used two mana blades.” The second man said.
With the green cloaks, I couldn’t tell from one or another.
“He might’ve used a magical trebuchet for all I care.” The leader replied. “This one time I saw…”
My consciousness faded away and I fell to my knees. Suddenly, a tree moved and stopped in front of me, covering the last rays of the sun.
“He’s wounded.” A man with a deep voice said.
When I managed to focus my eyes, I saw a half-orc of big tusks shaking a bright light in front of my face. The next thing I noticed was the man thoroughly checking my body.
“He’s not bleeding but… damn. You are going to be a walking bruise for a week or more.” The half-orc said as he opened my shirt. “Nothing broken either but I want to know how you managed to fight a Stone Giant at close range with only minor wounds.”
I tried to answer but I was unable to speak. My teeth chattered due to the effects [Mana Depletion] and my jaw tensed up to the point it was painful.
“He’s mana depleted. Open your trap.” The half-orc healer said with a professional voice as he retrieved a small vial from his pouch.
“Mana depleted? More like opossum-scared.” The knife woman joked.
The potion had a sweet alcoholic taste. A warm sensation spread from my chest to the tips of my hands and feet. If it was a Mana Potion or a Warmth Potion I didn’t know. However, I could speak again.
“Elincia, please.” I said, pointing towards the place I had seen her struck by the Giant.