Ooh… it’s… intelligent?!
The thought froze his mind, then kicked him hard as the creature turned to the line of guards and began stalking towards them, its movement now a slithering prowl of danger. Joe breathed hard, calling for his points in more desperation, but when he noticed the rear legs of the cat gather in tension, his panic soared. It’s getting ready to pounce! It… Joe released the arrow without any other preparation, without the mana hurricane or mana point, aiming to cut off its movement and force it back. The arrow sliced down and punched into the back of the cat’s neck.
That cat yowled in anger and pain, leaping backwards in a twisting shake as it struggled to shake off whatever was on its back and then froze, staring up at Joe with intensity and concern. Joe gasped in surprise. How did the arrow? What? Even as the cat stared up at him, Joe released another arrow, and the cat barely responded, twisting aside only at the bare last instance, leaping to the side. The arrow still scratched through its haunch, digging in quite deep, but not enough to make it fatal. That cat yowled once again, shaking in fury.
Joe blinked. Well… gotta test, right? Joe sent another mana point arrow and the cat this time easily dodged it, hissing angrily while staring up at him. Joe sent a pointless arrow… heh… pointless arrow! That’s not pointless… because it’s pointless… Joe cut off his line of thought, setting aside the humor for another day, and watched as the plain arrow easily found it’s mark, striking across a haunch once again, to the hissing of an irritated shadow cat.
OK… can sense mana points… some how… How about…? Joe made a mana hurricane using his own personal mana before letting it slip from his bow. As before, the cat seemed to sense it quite a bit earlier and was able to easily dodge to the side, although this time, it seemed the cat took longer to notice it… or react to it? Joe played dodge the arrow with the shadow cat for another few minutes, changing up the arrows: some plain, some with points, and some with varying amounts of mana.
Right… stronger mana hurricane then? Joe release another bolt filled with the strongest mana hurricane he could make and watched as the cat leapt to the side even before he let the arrow go. Even as he aimed at the cat, it began leaping around the battlefield, staying out of his line of sight. Joe then aimed to the back, striking another beast that had been coming forward and actually blinked in surprise when that beast also attempted to dodge. It failed, but it certainly had noticed the strike. Huh… mana then? That… maybe?
Joe made another mana hurricane arrow, but one that was just barely enough to form the hurricane, letting it loose at the shadow cat. The cat once again attempted to twist to the side, but seemed to fare only slightly better than a plain arrow. The arrow was able to smack into the side of the cat, skittering off and into the ground. The cat yowled, curling in pain instead of hissing. OK… that hurt … a lot more… the mana? Doing something? Even from just a scratch? That…
Joe quickly sent another arrow down, with another barely there mana hurricane and this time struck true, hitting it in the side. The shadow cat began twisting upon itself, the pain obviously overwhelming even as it curled into a fetal position. Joe nodded, thoughtful, but brought up another arrow and this time made the mana hurricane strong enough to kill the average beast out in the horde. It struck true, deep into the abdomen, and the cat stiffened, the pain and destruction it was experiencing too much for it to bear. Joe watched, noticing that it wasn’t dying, and grimaced. Well… not what I wanted… don’t want it in pain!
He loosed another arrow with a mana point this time, letting it strike deep into the abdomen again, right next to the first arrow. The cat released a massive yowl, twisted, then collapsed, dead. Joe sighed deeply, grimacing. That was… quite a bit more… unpleasant than I really wanted it to be!
Joe turned his eyes away from the excited crafters and butchers below who ran forward. Even the man beside him whooped in excitement, fist in the air as he leapt upwards and Joe shrugged. The smile over the joy of his compatriots clashing with his dislike of how he’d put the shadow cat down. He kept his sigh small and returned to taking out the rank and file of the monsters below.
After awhile, his fingertips began to numb. Joe continued firing for a time before he remembered he’d brought Chulnan with him and he grinned, tossing a gaze back to see the man huddled at the bottom with the others. Joe nodded and stepped forward to the walls edge to rapidly increase his firing, clearing out the monsters for a good chunk, pushing them back a bit before he quickly ran back to Chulnan.
“A heal for my hands, please, if you could Chulnan? They are feeling a bit sore.”
Chulnan looked up at him, blinking, then quickly nodded, slipping forward. Joe jumped down the stairs so he didn’t have to go up them and Chulnan laid a hand on him, healing him. It only took a few seconds and Joe smiled at the relief rushing through him.
“Thank you, Chulnan! I feel so much better.”
The man smiled up at him and Joe grinned, “See. Not hard.”
The man’s smile turned sour and Joe chuckled, “I’m joking with you, Chulnan. Thank you so much for the heal. Don’t think anything about it.”
Joe quickly slipped back around and jogged back to the front, grabbing an arrow as he came up, mana flowing into the tip with ease even as he rapidly chose a target and let it erupt outwards. He would continue to let monsters through at random as the previous ones were cleared out and every once and awhile his helper slash valuable-monster-pointer-outer would shout out a monster and highlight it allowing Joe to focus on what monster to let through before killing right before the frontlines. Things continued and Joe was able to stabilize his front line easily as well as a portion of each section on each side of him as well. As time went on, he grew bored again, especially when he was able to use his mana points again. He also noticed that when the monsters he let through made it to the guard line below, almost all of them began infusing their claws and whatever methods they used to attack, which made sense to Joe. The most valuable creatures to take would be the rarest and hardest.
Joe found himself studying the monster’s infusion, if it was that, for a while now that it was closer to him and while he found the variety of shapes and forms that the infusion took to be quite interesting and something he began making a mental list of, he soon grew bored of it simply because he wasn’t close enough to really notice much more than that. So he turned his thoughts to the second thing he’d found quite interesting today: how the shadow cat ‘preacted’ to his strikes.
He did begin to notice, once the shadow cat had shown it, how his mana points and mana hurricanes did elicit a response from the monsters he shot at. The creatures tried to dodge or jump aside, but none of them were able to react quickly enough. What he did find odd, however, was that only the monsters he actually shot at reacted. Not one monster that he didn’t actually aim at even noticed or were bothered by the mana point arrows he shot.
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Huh… so… If they sense the mana point… are they sensing the mana point? If it is the mana point, how come the others around aren’t shying away or reacting… why is only…
Joe picked a monster in the middle of the field of monsters and loosed a mana point arrow at it. None of the monsters around it reacted at all, although the one the arrow was shot at did struggle to dodge but was too late just like all the other’s he’d shot at except for the shadow cat. Joe spent the rest of the afternoon practicing and testing how the animals reacted to his mana point strikes. Monster after monster he hit, and every single one that he aimed at seemed to react in some way. Then, one of the monsters he was aiming at was able to dodge, the beast dropping to the ground in a crouch that had its belly digging into the turf. His arrow flew over the head of the monster and struck into the beast behind it. Joe frowned, frustrated. Gotta get that one if he can dodge so easily… at least got the one behind easily enough… didn’t even move at… wait! It didn’t move at all!
Joe froze with that thought, his mind whirring with the discrepancy before he shook himself from the rapidly whirling ideas and quickly brought his aim back on the beast that had been able to dodge him. His arrow, this time only infused with a mana hurricane, focused on the one that got away and he loosed it. This time, the arrow found its mark almost immediately, burying into the abdomen and dropping it. It curled up in pain, its screech climbed over the clamor of battle as it shuddered in a fetal position before it died.
Joe then turned back to striking the other monsters, keeping his sector clear while still trying to figure out what was going on with his mana point arrows. This time, he tried to duplicate what he’d done before, deliberately aiming just slightly high over a monster but every time he did so, the monster he was aiming at didn’t respond at all, and the one behind it seemed to react, attempting to dodge. Joe did it again and again until he finally began to despair. I’m missing the one in front… and aiming for the one… Joe blinked… I’m deliberately missing and aiming!
Joe’s thoughts whirled, ramifications hitting him hard. If it’s my intentions… then… how? Somehow… they’re reading my mind?! That’s not… Joe’s thoughts kept stuttering with that impossibility. But he couldn’t discount it, his mind slamming into what he’d always thought was impossible. What he’d always thought was inviolate: his own mind. His breathing picked up a bit with that consideration, and his body fell into autopilot, arrow automatically armed with mana points and loosed into the beasts, making sure he kept his section’s line cleared. He continued like this until he was able to recover, his concern now held steady under the iron grip of his will, Joe recovered his thoughts and focused back on the moment. Right… so… assuming Occam’s Razor… simplest explanation and all that… the thing is somehow reading my intent to kill it. So…
Joe stilled, bringing his thoughts to his plan. So… that one! His arrow was brought to bear, his aim certain, and his intention clear. Going to get that one… He did aim high, but made sure his intent was to hit the one he was aiming at… even if it was a bit high. It was still aimed low enough to hit it, so he was certain it could hit, but the beast would likely be able to dodg… NO! No… I’ve got this one… going to hit THIS monster right here… that’s my intent.
The arrow loosed, and as soon as the arrow left his bow, the animal he was aiming at reacted immediately, even before the arrow had slipped the string. The animal slammed to the ground and scrabbled away from the arrow. His arrow sliced through the air and slammed into the other animal without it reacting at all. It curled up in a fetal position and immediately died. OK! That wasn’t… that’s two different things… proof of the first but now another question… why did the first react so…
Joe blinked again, his mind shuddering once again even as his thoughts quickly leapt to an answer that once again was not something he was comfortable with. His worry spiked and fear jittered uncontrollably. I was much more… clear on my intent… His breath came in jittery spasmatic gasps as the data seemed to prove ever more and more that somehow, in some way, his mind was open and easily understood by animals some hundreds of meters away. Right… reacted more… when I was much more clear… so…
Joe’s thoughts slithered in a skittering mess then vanished, gone behind his will and need. Target, aim, mana point, release. Target, aim, mana point, release. Target, aim, mana point, release. Joe followed through for another few times before finally pulling himself back into the moment, his memories and thoughts of what happened coming back to him, and what he found was not comforting in the least. They almost didn’t react at all… almost not even seeing the arrow. Almost every single one of his strikes landed without any reaction to any of the beasts. Some few seemed to twitch right before the arrow struck, but it appeared his hypothesis was pretty much confirmed. He tried one last time, absolutely fearful of the proof yet just as certain of the final result.
This one… this is the one I’m going to kill. I’m going to destroy this one. Joe kept up his inner monologue and focused intent even as his mana point traveled to the arrow point, settled in it, then was loosed with that arrow. Even as the potential of the arrow was actualized, the beast he was aiming at reacted as if the very flames of the sun licked at its feet. The animal scrambled in wild terror as it struggled to, and easily did, rapidly escape the arrow. Its yowl was loud enough to easily be heard screaming across the battlefield and ended immediately as the arrow thudded into the ground and its energy expended.
So… the points are somehow … carrying and revealing my intent… wait… is it… His fear grasped on a possible escape from mind reading animals and once again sent out some arrows but this time only used the mana hurricanes. Once again, the animals seemed to react just as quickly, if only slightly more slowly and Joe clung to that possible explanation like a drowning man. However, with his next attempt, his assurance evaporated as the creatures still reacted to his simple arrows if he put forth significant intent towards striking a specific beast. The animals didn’t have enough time to really do much, but they still struggled to react, beginning their reaction around the time the arrow reached about three quarters of the distance to the monster. It seemed that the … intent… was still noticeable somehow once it came close enough. But… I can … hide it? Or am I simply not using it?
There wasn’t much more he could do, and his thoughts still struggled with the incredible and recent revelation that, somehow, his thoughts were somehow escaping his mind and becoming known by others. He maintained his defenses, even if they were not becoming a bit sloppy, the neat cut across the battlefield separating beasts from the no man’s land now a ragged tear skittering back and forth across the field and Joe struggled to calm himself; to return to the fight. But his thoughts refused to be calmed, skittering everywhere like beads of water on a boiling skillet.
Suddenly, a cry of worry subtly flavored with fear rose up like a cry all along the wall, fingers raised and pointing. Directly across from him, Joe noticed the trees trembling and crashing way out in the deep forest. Some trees swayed; a few fell; and the last seemed to simply collapse in on themselves, falling straight down and disappearing. Glimpses of swirling tan and muddy brown could be seen flitting, visible just beneath the crowns of the trees, low enough to still be hidden, but high enough that flashes of it could be seen between the tree tops and leaves.
The line of the trees simply evaporating showed an obvious line of some great beast making its way towards the city and soon it came to the tree line. It did not, however, step out of the trees. Instead, a great sphere of swirling tan and muddy brown simply engulfed the trees at the tree line. Those at the edges swayed, pushed to the side, one actually toppling over and into the cleared field. The trees in the center of the massive slime were simply engulfed by it and rapidly dissolved, disappearing as it struggled to push its way clear into the field, the trees simply collapsing into the slime like they were sucked in. A slime about half as tall as the Coushar city wall rolled out into the field, it’s massive bulk still mostly in the trees even as it began shoving its way out towards the city.
“Oh… crap!”