We moved around carefully, ensuring we didn’t create a lot of distance between the Tlaca and not to get too close.

Our best shot is to fight it in its lair where its movements should be limited. I can teleport but the target location is too far and I have to be careful to not teleport into the mountain and get stuck forever and for that, I need to get close enough so that I can see where I teleport to.

Another situation where I wished I had learned different types of teleports. Spatiotemporal teleports don’t check whether my destination is viable or not, lightning-based teleports do but I don’t know how to use it. Something about teleport pings. Not my field of expertise.

“Muqu, any chance that you can teleport?”

“If it’s between sub-dimensions it’s limited but within one I can’t.”

“Unfortunate.”

I couldn’t formulate a plan. Sudden movements would get punished, fleeing would get punished. A direct confrontation would get punished. The best we can do is to assume it won’t notice us but is that a good idea?

The Tlaca flew over our heads as a swarm of fairies had targeted us and approached us at high speeds.

It did help us out by eliminating them but we would share the same fate the moment we draw its attention.

There is only 1 solution; chain teleports to locations I can see until we arrive at the lair and hoping I can teleport faster than the Tlaca can catch up.

A risky plan but our options are thin.

“Muqu, I’m going to grab you in a bit and chain teleport to the lair. It will eat a considerable amount of my mana so you might have to take the lead in delaying that bird and the fight that will follow once we reach, is that fine by you?”

“We don’t seem to have many options. Is teleporting that mana intensive?”

“Spatiotemporal magic as a branch is just mana expensive. It ignores most defences or limitations that other elements have so I consider it a payoff. It will never disappoint, it will just overdeliver when used carelessly...”

“Like cutting a burrow down instead of just a scorpion?”

“Yes...I’m worried about it overdelivering and teleporting into the mountain so I need time for some calculations and to find out the exact amount of mana I need to use.”

“Ooh, I'm interested now! It doesn’t require a set amount like water or wind magic?”

I got excited as this is my field of expertise but I have to make it concise. I don’t think that Muqu would appreciate it if I dumped 27 years of research onto her.

“Well, most elements have a minimum mana requirement. They’re like guidelines so with normal magic you have an idea how much mana you need. Spatiotemporal magic doesn’t...which is why it’s so risky and inconsistent. It also likes to fail for no reason as one time a certain amount is enough and another time it isn’t so overfeeding spatiotemporal magic is the norm which...makes it difficult to use with allies nearby...”

“So you have to choose between your skill failing or using too much mana and teleport into the mountain?”

“There is a reason why spatiotemporal affinity is rare as most users end up killing themselves with it, often taking others down with them...I try to avoid using it if I can.”

There are of course skills that are relatively safe like my dimensional pocket. [Dimensional Sword] is relatively safe. As is this teleport but tits safe by spatiotemporal magic standards. It doesn’t have fail safes like any other magic. It’s something I might want to research at some point.

Magic on a baseline seems consistent but when delving deeper it acts more as if every element type of magic uses its own sets of rules. If magic was similar to the concept of ‘language’ then fire magic would be a language completely different from wind magic or any other type.

Mana rune clusters could be changed to change the element and create an equivalent in a different element. Like turning a [Fireball] into a [Windball] but it will never be the most optimal it’s as if...translating a language that has words and concepts that don’t exist in another language. Not impossible, just inaccurate.

My calculations and estimates were inconclusive. The range of mana needed for safe teleports had an enormous standard deviation which suggested that I either made a mistake or spatiotemporal magic is feeling fickle today.

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Better to fail the teleport than to get stuck in a mountain!

“Let’s go Muqu! Some teleports might fail and I will apologize in advance.”

I carefully got on my floating fan and Muqu joined me. It would burn more mana to carry both of us but we need backup for when the teleport fails, which means that we will have to fly while the next teleport readies.

“Let’s go.”

The first teleport went off and was a success. I instantly felt something lock on us as the nest teleport got readied and went off successfully.

The distance between the Tlaca and us closed rapidly and it didn’t help that the 11th teleport failed.

Muqu started flinging ice to slow the Tlaca down.

I spotted a cave and it was tempting to hide there but I was unsure if another nasty surprise was waiting within.

The chain teleporting continued and we were at a point where we had to evade sharp talons as it had caught up to us.

These are 1000-meter teleports you know?! This stupid bird treats it as if we’re taking a stroll and catching up in no time!

A swarm of fairies distracted the Tlaca giving us breathing room as another teleport failed. About 1 in every 12th teleport failed which is normally no big deal and considered reliable for spatiotemporal magic but I had complaints to whoever invented spatiotemporal magic.

It was the first time that I rooted for fairies. They were putting up a good fight and buying us precious time.

“Why do they think that they can take that Tlaca down...” Muqu asked with a disappointing tone.

“You sound disappointed.”

“Yes, I want to see the good in others, believe that not all of my kin are obnoxious stupid and proud but they keep proving that they are just that...”

I didn’t say anything back as I was profiting from the fact that fairies are stupid. A consolation would be insincere.

We were halfway up the mountain when the Tlaca focused us down. It shrieked as it used it’s ridiculous speed to catch up.

“Ugh! How big is this mountain?!”

Another teleport failed which didn’t help. The fan had to drop us else we would lose our heads to the Tlaca swooping down and tearing its talons trough us.

“Ugh, I’ve had it with you, Muqu, back off!”

The Tlaca had ascended to prepare for another dive.

I stopped controlling my spatiotemporal mana and prepared for a [Dimensional Sword]. Time and space are irrelevant against this branch of magic. I should have realised sooner as speed has significant ties to distance and time.

The slash went out and blood exploded out of the Tlaca as one of its wings had been cut off. It somehow managed to evade it for some ridiculous reason.

“You made it even more angry!”

I grabbed Muqu and continued teleporting. The Tlaca had lost its speed advantage. It was missing a wing but more importantly, its body was out of balance.

Every failed teleport got used to send a [Dimensional Sword] toward the Tlaca.

It was in the air so I didn’t need to hold back as nothing would get caught in the crossfire.

Well, that was incorrect as fairies would but who cares about them.

But all things come to an end and the Tlaca adapted. It flew low, close to the canopy so firing a [Dimensional Sword] at it would cause me to cut some mountains in the distance.

Giving strong creatures like this intelligence is so unfair... it even had orientated itself so it would lose a wing on the other side of its body, restoring it’s balance.

That slightly improved its speed and manoeuvrability.

We made it to the lair but I was frustrated. Will we win against this Tlaca? We will but did he make it easy for us? Not at all. He must think he is the protagonist or something!

A loud shriek announced his arrival and he was pissed. So was I.

I was ready to take out the top of this mountain with him as I had enough of this asshole.

“Muqu! Don’t hold me back! I’m turning this oversized chicken into atoms!”

“Uhh, go ahead, I’m not holding you back.”

“heh, what now stupid chicken?! Can’t abuse your speed in here eh?”

The Tlaca entered and walked alongside the wall. Muqu and I walked alongside the opposite wall to keep a set distance from it. My fan was ready for another [Dimensional Sword].

“Come on then? You had no problems clawing at our heads before! How about you give it another try?!”

“Azu, you said that the language the inhabitants on this continent use was called Ayala right?”

“Nayala, yes.”

“But the rabbits called their language Hourai.”

“Oh...”

The rabbits spoke old Kaledonian which they call Hourai, it’s the same language I was using to communicate with Muqu. The point she must have been making was that this creature might not understand me.

I doubt that it could understand Nayala either though...

I tried taunting it in Nayala but no results.

“Fine! Give me the silent treatment then!”

I swung my fan for a [Dimensional Sword]. The Tlaca tried to take off as a reflex but it crashed into the ceiling.

“Stupid Chicken.”

The Tlaca got bifurcated and a gash revealed the surrounding mountainous area. Wind blew into the lair through the vertical gash which made me regret feeding this much spatiotemporal mana into my [Dimensional Sword].

A bit overkill but this chicken had pissed me off so my regret washed away instantly.

“Did you even need my help?”

“Uhh, you were emotional support, thank you Muqu. Do you know how to fix this?” I asked s I pointed at the gash.

Muqu looked around. And her eyes fell on various boulders spread through the lair.

“What if we crush those rocks, mix it with water, use it to close the gaps and use some magic to harden it?”

What she described sounded like how humans built structures in primitive times. It was a great idea however as neither of us seemed to be adept at using earth magic.

I took care of cleaning the lair of skeletons, chicken poop and it’s waste. I also dragged the corpse to the side as it would end up as our food.

Muqu gathered boulders, crushed them, turned it into some sort of mud and slowly closed the gash while using a strange type of magic to harden it.

A rough 3 hours but our new place was clean and didn’t have wind blowing through it a the end.

We sat down exhausted in the feather beds I had made.

“What a day. Never thought that inhabitants of this dimension had such exciting lives!”

“Don’t use my life as an example. I might be considered crazy or eccentric by normal standards.”

We admired our new place and started cooking chicken meat. The rest of the corpse got shoved into a corner with mountains of ice.

None of us wants to hunt for a while after this so it will be chicken meat until we get sick of it.