Mid Flight View:

“This was the dumbest plan of all time!!” Navy roared.

Misty laughed like a madwoman as he grabbed onto her, desperately trying not to fall off. White-pinkish steam swirled around her body and she burned to his touch.

Wind whipped past their faces as the boulder caused dirt and debris to fly out of the ground. Their positions had swapped dramatically as she had taken the reins on the operation.

This was one of the few times the two came together and truly disagreed on a plan.

But apparently, that disagreement was only on paper.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA! Seems like we’re about to crash!!” Misty laughed like a wild lamia sea captain, which is truly a sight to behold if you have seen it, the spirit of thrill having her tight claws deep in his teammate.

She looked behind to Rhodney and yelled “Stop shouting Rhodney! We’re on course!! Problem is… we’re probably about to die!” She said it like it was simply part of the job.

“Who are you!?” Navy roared over the boulder, truly tilted by the personality change.

“Navy? How do we slow down?” Rhodney said with a level of calm that made Navy upset. What kind of freaks was he hanging out with? He didn’t understand either of them.

He looked over Smokey, whose eyes had turned purely white from rolling backwards in sheer terror, as he clung onto Rhodney and the boulder.

All of the boy’s will was taken as he truly was focused on completing the mission and staying alive.

Well, At least one of them was normal.

Navy deliberated for a bit, and then realized that they were going to be pancakes if he didn’t rely on the boy’s mana reserves once more. “...Give me your hand!!”

Rhodney looked like he didn’t want to accept the proposal. He tentatively kept his hand to himself.

Crashhhhhh!!! The group barreled through some poor blokes' drenched campfire, just narrowly avoiding putting the sapient on a Shirt.

They heard some poor horse-like creature tied to a tree whinny in fright. Rhodney, after watching that, gave Navy his hand. “Don’t take too much this time,” He said.

Rhodney had said it in a calm way, completely normal in tone, but still, Navy felt chills run down his spine as the boy used his command spell. Navy felt the restriction touch his very soul.

His body and mind grew apprehensive and for some reason, very cognizant of even the thoughts he had about using Rhodney’s mana.

It seemed he had accepted the restriction the minute he tried to use his magic.

‘I must have taken more mana than I thought…

Still, a little is all I need, little imp.’

He felt his mind speed up and felt them approach the teachers.

[50 meters, 30 meters, 10 meters—] It was too fast! Stopping here was impossible, they had to slow down! ‘Please duck!’ He thought frantically as the minotaur just stared at the boulder. What was wrong with him?? Move!!

And like a gift from the gods, he did.

Seemed someone wanted him to live. It looked like the large man had been pulled toward the ground. They needed to find somewhere else to land, they–

Shit.

Navy caught it in his space. Its silhouette. His map warned him of a giant mass composed of a tall cylinder that stretched into the sky and pierced the sky.

Even without using his map, he knew immediately what this was. Both his map and his experience warned him as they moved towards the large, thick, Evolved tree.

…

He came out of the map, shaking his head vigorously.

No, they weren’t messing with that today.

Right before they made their way to the powerful entity were two trees with a large gap, like a gate welcoming you to meet the massive guardians of the wood.

A path made by sapients, presumably ones with hands, split off and made its way through the small divide. Flowers and other beautiful fauna grouped around the large tree. It was the perfect spot for a hammock, and their only hope for a spell.

He breathed in. He thought about his life, all the things that he’d seen. The unique bio weapons of monsters, the future tech of the humans, and all else that was under the sun.

He remembered The King, and felt his blessing take him back to the battle against the lamia. remembered when they had battled them for the first time. He watched their forces slowly disspear.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Under the water.

In the trees.

Even just truly tied to the ground.

Under the Fisherman god’s flag they stood, their port on the water they controlled. They were masters of guerilla warfare and battle on their land.

Not because of any kind of earth magic, nor as one would probably expect, any of the water variety.

Not wood, Not fire, Not wind.

The lamias were excellent magicians, but that wasn’t why his mind had taken him there.

They had a genius that created their advantage and weaved something that changed the game. Along with the invention of the basket, which he had learned at one point when he had gotten caught… what he also learned about was the weapon.

The weapon of the god whose flag they served.

Nike weaved the construct. It whipped and formed around them, with flecks of blue lighting up the night sky. Thick ropes tied themselves together and moved with haste as Rhodney’s irregular energy mashed with his own.

Moving together, he created something that he didn’t think he’d ever create. Sure, it was a little mana-heavy, but… well, they did need that much magic, so he technically wasn't breaking Rhodney's command.

His teammates shielded their eyes, sure they would crash into the tree. Their boulder zoomed forward, just about to, but…

*Buzzzzzz!*

Glowing blue energy caught their runaway boulder in its palm. His companions' eyes slowly opened in tentative movements - scratch that, they all did that except for Misty, the maniac who had kept her eyes wide open in exhilaration as they had headed to their doom - and they were all wowed as they realized what had happened.

The net stretched taut as the boulder's force was slowly sucked away.

Navy was concerned as to whether his construct would hold up to the weight. This spell was a little too improvised for his tastes. A little too rushed.

He saw where the ropes and net were thin and incomplete, saw ropes of hard light begin to snap and pop from the weight.

Was it going to hold—

NOPE!

All hopes ended in a resounding Snap!

The boulder busted through the construct after only two seconds in the air. Particles of light flew scattered into the air. At the very least, a ton of the kinetic energy had been pacified.

He’d take heaps of bodies over heaps of paste any day of the week.

This was going to hurt.

The boulder finally gave in, as Navy’s attention was on another construct for far too long. As they flew at the tree, the boulder crumbled like a graham cracker and the children took nasty fall after nasty fall.

Navy and Misty took the worst of it. Navy created a second Cradle, as he was naming it, to catch himself. And Misty, lacking any kind of spells, smacked into the tree back first with little to no protection.

And yet, her bodt still glowed with a brute’s steam, taking the hit like it was nothing. It only left her a little dizzy and sore.

No. What really did the damage was after, when the other three smashed into them. Rhodney’s leg hit Misty square in the face as he flew at her. If only he was able to hit others with that much force on his own two feet.

Navy attempted to create another Cradle in front of him to catch Smokey, but failed to calculate how the spell truly worked.

Mana was a generalist’s magic and not only that, in its free-floating form, it truly only allowed itself to create the imitation of things.

Along with enhancing what you already had and feeling what was truly happening around you, you needed to know through well-trained instinct how to add certain properties to your constructs.

If there was some kind of magic school, it would probably be required to be a good mage, but it wasn’t something that could hold up on its own. And he had, for obvious reasons, never gone to said hypothetical school.

In his panic, Navy had truly forgotten the fundamentals. So, as he put up the Cradle to shield himself, his friend just barreled through loose rope that lacked any kind of support.

Slam!

Torrent slid across the ground, and despite being in the relatively safe position, as the litteral thruster, she simply added to the pile instead of coming out unscathed. Blood streaked from her body as she laid down on the ground, motionless.

Besides Torrent, the rest of the lesser imps groaned and rolled around on the ground in pain.

“Never…Doing your plans…Again…” Navy mumbled as a mix of mana and motion sickness took his body. Misty mumbled, “Again…Again…Again…” and looked exhausted with a smile on her face. Rhodney laid there on the ground, and Navy’s ears perked up as he heard the boy start to collect mana.

God damnit…

Navy’s head was pulsing with pain, but he got up. His heartbeat was loud in his head. He looked down at the glowing boy smack-dab in the center of the dark forest, a beacon to all predators.

And smacked him.

“Ow! Dude!”

“Shhhh!”

He pointed at the kid’s glowing body, and to his disbelief, Rhodney gave him a look like, ‘what are you on about?’

You weren’t supposed to collect mana at night. Your body's glow wasn’t just aesthetic or a fun little feature, it was seen by literally everyone. The idiot!

Rhodney hadn’t been told this and like most monsters, collected mana with his eyes closed, but he could have guessed!

They were about half a klick away from their teachers, and that was assuming the worst-case scenario of them not looking for them. They couldn’t assume freebies, They had to move. He heard the growling and sounds of movement of the monsters in the woods.

The plan had been to land in front of the teachers and coast by with their superiors help, but that part was ruined by Rhodney and Torrent’s overshot,

He looked down at Torrent’s body.

Unlike the rest she wasn’t groaning, or clutching at herself or… anything.

She was completely motionless.

“...Torrent?”

Blood rushed to his head in a moment of dizzying panic. Concern pulsed inside his head.

He ran over to her body and found her unconsciously twitching. Her body convulsed and her mouth started to foam. She clenched her hands over and over, and he watched her eyes roll around under her eyelids.

And to his horror, blood was coming out of her mouth.

Navy tried to hold onto her, frantically trying to shake her awake, to do anything. And it did absolutely nothing. All he could do was feel her heart slowly beat out of time as he held her.

Navy started to panic.

There was nothing he could do. She needed help. No. She… what… Rhodney can help. Right? Right?!

“Rhodney! Rhodn—”

“Father…”