The man then seemed to withdraw, becoming silent, and Joe felt mana begin to stir, a flow of it coming up and out of his body and forming near his chest. It stirred as an eddy in front of his lips, and Joe watched it with some interest, when he could. There really wasn’t anything that was visually identifiable about the mana that swirled at the man’s lips, but Joe got the definite impression of wind… and somehow green. Why do I sense green, but do not see it? How do I … Joe cut his thoughts off and returned to firing his arrows, maintaining the current line, and once more under a bit of pressure as Toular seemed rather focused on sending his message. The mana grew into a swirling mass at his lips that slowly took on the form of a small twelve centimeter tall humanoid figure. Toular then spoke, a simple message commanding the guards to retreat back to the wall a distance that Joe didn’t really catch nor was he able to understand. Well… that sucks… gonna have to learn local measurements as well?

The wind pixie / fairy thing suddenly took off and dove over the wall. He didn’t track it, not caring to, but soon heard a shout coming from below; an order of some kind. The guards retreated just inside the halfway mark as Joe would measure it, and soon Toular was firing green wind things that struck and wounded four or five beasts at once. Toular had to fire two or three to kill them, but it seemed that Toular's efficiency was a bit better than Joe's. Joe’s kill rate was at one kill per shot while Toular seemed to be about two kills per attack. It did vary, depending on if he was lucky to catch more or less in his wind magic attack.

In any case, the two were easily able to hold the line, with Joe keeping about three quarters under control and leaving the last quarter to Toular, although he had to step in every once and a while when he began to be overwhelmed. It seemed that it was just enough to really push Toular, and Joe kept the pressure just about there, to allow the man to push through in his fight. However, Toular began to flag, and Joe looked to the man, finding him wincing and gasping in pain.

“You OK?”

Toular quickly shook his head, “Apologies, eccentric. My mana cannot recover quickly enough… I am expending too much!”

Joe nodded, taking over the whole line once more and taking it out, but did struggle a bit, as the pressure was the same as before, “How long to recover?”

Toular nodded his head, “Maybe ten or twenty minutes.”

Joe blinked, “That might be a bit difficult.”

“How long can you hold, eccentric?”

“Maybe about ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes, that… that will be difficult”

Joe grimaced, “Yeah… we will slowly lose our mana if we continue as we will not be able to recover enough. It will be… difficult,” Joe finished lamely as he continued firing arrows out into the crowd of monsters below.

Toular seemed to firm at that, nodding as he turned back to return to the back wall. Joe didn’t really notice him leaving, but he did hear Toular’s parting comment as he left.

“Ten minutes. I may only be half returned, but I may be of use,” Toular offered.

Joe thought for a bit then quickly replied, turning after he fired an arrow to find Toular gone and he frowned. Where did he… Oh! Joe turned back to find Toular sitting on the lower wall beside the others. He was sitting cross legged with his eyes in deep thought and hands and arms in an odd posture and gesture. He stared for a bit before quickly turning himself back to the line of monsters, firing rapidly to reform his lines again until he could return to an easier pace and had his mind wandering a bit. Why is he doing that? Does it … help with… can you meditate to return mana faster? It’s a rather… obvious thing in stories and games, but…

Joe grew curious and quickly pushed back his line a bit further before quickly turning and staring at the man for a bit, his eyes focused on the man for a time. He didn’t really notice much of anything, and realized he hadn’t ‘twisted’ his sight to see mana or mana points. He frowned, thought about it for a bit, pushed at something and suddenly mana and mana points simply came into existence, almost as if they weren’t there before. Huh… that was … different… not a fading in from another dimension thing, but a simple… popping into existence… am I… normally not able to see them… this? Or… he quickly interrupted his thoughts, adding another thing to the ‘to think about later’ list and focused on Toular.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He stared for a time, really focusing, and while he was able to catch a good glimpse of everything that was going on, Joe wasn’t sure if he really noticed anything different or not. Toular, like the others, didn’t seem to have any mana points although there were an infinite number of them just floating around them. When he focused on the mana itself, the gaseous cloud of … something, Joe wasn’t sure he was really seeing anything. The mana might have been pulling towards Toular just a bit faster than normal, but it might have just been a trick of the eyesight as Joe wasn’t certain he could understand what he was seeing.

Regardless, he couldn’t afford any more time to investigate so he quickly turned back to find his line ragged once again with several monsters almost pushing to the guard line. Joe berated himself with a soft curse and a scowl and began firing his arrows again, rapidly. He took a bit of time to get the line reformed again and then sighed with some relief. That bit of work had drained him badly, and now Joe was really regretting taking the time to try to understand what Toular was doing.

Joe’s thoughts were interrupted only a few moments later when Toular came back to his side, firing out his magical strikes as he’d done before.

“I have only recovered about half, eccentric. I will do as I can.”

Joe nodded, “Thanks. Let’s see how we do.”

They fell silent for a time before Joe suddenly thought of something, glancing over at Toular, “Hey… I have an idea. How about you fight until you are a little under half then just tell me you need to rest and we return to how we were fighting before. I hold the line and you catch the missing beasts. If you fire only a few times, you will quickly regain your MP. When full again, simply tell me and I will return to my line and you will be free with yours.”

Toular bowed at that, “That seems wise, eccentric. Although, I will recover slower.”

“Are you able to begin killing the random stragglers now?”

Toular quickly nodded, “If it is still rare, I believe so.”

Joe nodded, relieved, “Good… it’s a bit tough and I don’t want to push myself too hard. Here, I’ll allow a few through now.”

Toular smiled at that, bowing again but said nothing, although he did quickly swap to taking stragglers that were slipping past. Joe continued on, firing arrow after arrow to hold the wave at bay, maintaining his line before speaking once again.

“So… recover slower?”

“Yes, eccentric. I can recover quicker with some mediation.”

“Remember, my name is Joe,” Joe laughed.

Toular’s smile grew at that, and he bobbed his head in a bow before chuckling softly, “Yes, eccen… Joe.”

Joe nodded, “Good.”

They fell silent again, but Joe continued the conversation, curious about the meditation, “Then… slightly faster.”

Toular bowed at that, “Yes. My skill at meditation is… weak.”

“You’ve noticed a difference in time?”

Toular smiled softly as he fired off another magical bolt at another sneaky monster that made it past Joe, “My … meditation is stronger in solitude and silence, recovering my mana quite quickly at that. But, in the middle of battle, I find my discipline… lacking.”

Joe grinned at that, “I think that quite normal. Not many can close their eyes and attempt to ignore death bearing down upon them.”

Toular smiled back at that, “As you say, Joe.”

The two fell silent at that then, Joe maintained the line while Toular gamely took out a beast or two ever minute. It really wasn’t much of a difference in the great scheme of things, given that Joe was killing over a couple dozen every minute. But, with the freedom to skip a beast every once and a while, Joe was able to better maintain his rhythm, his bow sweeping from beast to beast with efficiency instead of urgency. This allowed him to flow a bit better and not have to rapidly jerk his bow back and forth to take out the next urgent animal.

Things continued like this for almost thirty minutes before Toular nodded, “I am able to begin defending once again, ecc…”

“Uh uh uh,” Joe interrupted, “You can just say my name!” Joe said, while smiling at Toular encouragingly.

Toular looked up at Joe and bowed, “Thank you for allowing me your name, Joe. I am ready again.”

Joe nodded, already back to focusing on the wave of animals and firing regularly, “No problem. You ready? Start taking over your corner again whenever you want. I’ll leave it to you.”

Toular took Joe’s statement for truth, and took another minute to prepare himself before his destructive magical wind attacks began crashing into the beasts again. Joe stopped firing arrows into the other’s area of attack and relaxed quite a bit, grateful that he had some relief. The two fought like this for some time, mostly in silent camaraderie, although Joe would sometimes point out an unusual beast every once in a while, asking questions or just plain making jokes with the man. The monster guide was still there, attempting to point out beasts in the much greater mayhem, and Joe was able to let some of the more valuable monsters through again, now that he had some help from Toular, letting beasts through to kill right before the line of guards.

Toular actually seemed to notice this, but said nothing. Joe didn’t react to it, and the three soon fell into a silent teamwork broken only by the cries of the monster guide and Toular’s notification when he soon found his mana too low to continue. They cycled this way for almost an hour, the pressure never abating, but thankfully never increasing. As the time went on, Toular grew more comfortable with Joe, and the two began chatting quietly, although it was very much small talk of no consequence. Joe answered as best he could, but grew bored quickly, never having liked small talk that much.

Just before Toular was ready to begin attacking again, a shift in the tide of monsters had Joe freeze up a bit, rapidly searching across the field of beasts. That moment was enough to almost invite disaster. A buck of massive proportion bounded almost into the guards before Joe was able to kill it. He quickly recovered the line, having had to help take down the buck as Toular missed his first shot.

“Sorry! My bad! Something’s happening, but I can’t take my eyes off the line. Can you look over the field real quick?”