Joe shrugged, “Well, the harm comes from here,” Joe paused to press his hand to his chest, “but the mana I’m using now is from my points.”
Gwenvair frowned, “That is common for mana injuries. The pain is felt in the heart. The heart is the mana organ, so… but to still use mana?”
Joe chuckled, “The heart is the mana organ?”
Gwenvair quickly nodded, “Of course.”
Joe frowned, then thought again. There aren’t really any other meaningful organs in the specific location… got the top of the stomach… spleen a bit lower than that… central part of both lungs… so I guess it would make sense if people thought it was the heart…but… really? It… moves blood, right? That’s the only thing that it does do, or is there some kind of double duty going on? Something else? Why hasn’t Earth noticed… but then again… is it on Earth? Did something change for me?
“The heart… Uh… then what moves the blood in the body?”
Gwenvair quirked her head at that, “Uh… the blood naturally flows throughout the body.”
OK. Right… not well versed in the physical body… but guess that makes sense when healing is just a touch and ‘mana flow?’ But then… Joe paused, held his breath, then tensed his body a bit to express some mana from his personal mana organ. He didn’t push hard, only slowly allowing out a small stream of mana. It took a bit of time, then a small squirt of mana came out. Enough for Joe to know he’d let some out, but not so much as to overdo it. The twinge he felt let him know that it was centered pretty much on his heart. It was a very small pain. Getting better? Joe breathed deeply, relaxing as much as possible, and then expressed mana once again. This time, something clicked. A sense of tension released, a cramp relaxed, a muscle knot suddenly freed, spread throughout Joe’s entire body and his mana trickled out of him like a flowing stream instead of the squirting river of before. The relaxation of the organ, whatever it was, was so profound that Joe felt immediate relief, and his mana pooled out of him to flow through his body, down into his legs, and through his torso and arms. It was a natural flow that was relaxing while simultaneously still painful; a stretched muscle having been forced too tightly shut and forced open from pressure.
The mana flowed through his entire being leaving him feeling relieved and relaxed in a way that was unique but familiar. A warm bath? Shower? But… not quite the same… really … nice though… what’s going on? It’s… His mana emptied from him and Joe blinked as he realized his mana was dropping. While the tension was incredibly relaxing, the soreness he’d felt before returned with a vengeance... Although… feels normal? Like a… well used muscles relaxing? But… my mana? He focused back attempting to slow and stop his mana flow, and suddenly the twinge returned, the muscle once again tightening to stop the flow. It clenched shut and the mana stopped flowing. The pain ached once more, but it slid shut with less strength and tension, the pain spiking a bit before suddenly coming back to normal levels. He breathed, his whole body at peace and rest.
He went back to opening and closing his mana muscle, the mana flowing and stopping again and again, each opening and closing that much more easy, and the pain lessening as he learned its function. Still, the ache of abused muscles remained, this stretching he’d done somehow a form of therapy that eased his pain, but proved even more how much damage he’d done to it. Going to need to rest a long time! But… maybe just let it open and shut for a bit… nothing special, no efforts, just learning to open and shut the gate… maybe?
He returned to that for some time, allowing the mana to pool in his body to flow. When his organ was shut, the mana would grow stagnant and begin seeping from his body like a form of vapor and liquid, a strange dual nature that had Joe scratching his head. It was while he was doing this, that he felt a wave of pressure wash over the ramparts. Everyone on the wall staggered back and while the wash was interesting, Joe felt no real strength to it; simply a washing of something… Joe felt his head wrench towards the direction of the pressure wave. Another wave came and Joe stared out over the field, his mana organ naturally closing and his mana seeping from him. After a few moments, all mana in him was gone, but the waves kept coming as he could see the people on the walls reacting, although he felt nothing that would merit a reaction like the others. It was also somehow more muted. Huh… is that how the others… feel it? But why is… ooh!
He released a small wash of mana into his system again and once again was able to sense and feel the pressure wave much more clearly. A mana wave? Mana pressure wave? Am I feeling it because … huh… the mana works like… what… hairs? My mana moves to it, and in moving I can feel it, but I have no direct sense of it myself? Just a knowledge its there? Or is my mana sense now more sensitive? Hm… That’s… interesting, if weird? Hmm… gonna need to run this more often then? Another sense? After I recover…
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Joe closed off the mana gate and let the mana exude from him, evaporating or leaking away, however it did it, and Joe stood and stretched. So… how’s the mana points? He brought them to attention in front of his face, eye’s sliding across the many points before nodding. He didn’t need to physically see them, their measure of fullness somehow reported directly to him, measured much how his bladder or stomach was if they were full, although not as unpleasant. But being able to see it and combine it with the feeling… good feed back…
His mana points were over half full and Joe dismissed them to whatever they did and he turned back to explore his mana organ. He didn’t use it anymore, not wishing to exacerbate it. He began poking at it with his mental senses, however, and was now able to feel it a bit more easily than before. What he was feeling, however, appeared to be more similar to feeling the effects of the organ than the organ itself. A bit like being able to feel the rhythmic heart beat and not the heart itself. It was a strange feeling, regardless. A soft clearing of a throat brought him from his thoughts.
“Ahem.”
Joe came aware and glanced over to see Gwenvair staring at him, “Yes?”
Gwenvair flickered a glance behind him then returned her focus to Joe, “The defenders are… growing quite exhausted.”
“Huh? Really?”
Joe glanced behind him quickly and saw the five people flagging, one even leaned over and gasping with hands on her knees. Joe frowned then pulled his mana points back up before him, feeling for their fullness while also looking at them with his eyes. He found that he struggled to find any difference visually as they looked like they were full for his perspective at this point. Is it some kind of … compression now? It looks full… now… like it’s… completely full, but … it doesn’t feel full… more like… still shy of it. Close, but still shy of it. So, what’s…
“Joe!” Kilniara leaned forward and pressed a hand to his shoulder, shaking him softly.
Joe glanced towards Kilniara, “What?”
Kilniara seemed a bit frantic, if still controlled, “Your backup.”
Joe glanced back and then leapt up quickly, “I’m sorry. Thank you, Kilniara! Sorry… both of you!”
Joe headed to the line and immediately began firing arrows into the monsters. The monsters had pushed almost to the wall and Joe had to struggle hard to reform the line and push it back to a comfortable distance. Once they were pushed back, he turned to look at the other five.
“Thank you. I’m very grateful for the help and the rest. I can take over once again and you may leave.”
Three of the five collapsed to the ground while two managed to bow before collapsing down to hands on their knees. Joe offered his goodbyes and began maintaining his line once again. After several minutes, Joe looked back to find all of them still sprawled all over the wall, prone on their back. They were gasping while resting and Joe smiled before turning back to his fight, arrows flying over monsters and killing them easily, keeping them at range rather easily.
This continued until around lunch when Joe’s points were starting to empty once again and Joe was relieved to have lunch arrive. He settled on the steps next to the others and ate the meal, enjoying the rest and the conversation. He was able to take a much longer rest this time and was able to refill his mana points entirely. He took the time to stare at them when they were full and while he was able to tell that there was a difference, he wasn’t able to really understand what the difference was. Going to need to check it a bit more often? Or… something? What is the difference? The thing seems … how is it… Joe found himself enthralled with trying to understand what that difference was, visually, and spent some time emptying mana points by a bit and trying to keep comparing full and not quite as full.
Once his mana points were full, he didn’t waste too much of his time trying to keep figuring it out and returned to the defense quickly before his replacement grew too exhausted. The afternoon went quickly and he emptied his points just as quickly as he’d done in the morning. Feels like about three… four hours to empty the points? So…
The midafternoon came just as quickly as well as his midafternoon mana point emptying out. Just as he sat on the steps and relaxed into his break, a cry rose along the walls and Joe found dozens of people suddenly rushing to the wall. All hands on deck kind of thing? What’s going on?
Joe remained resting, wishing to recover his mana points as fast as possible, but he did look to Kilniara and Gwenvair. Kilniara seemed to know what was happening, but Gwenvair was the one that seemed to be struggling.
“What’s wrong?” Joe asked Gwenvair carefully.
Kilniara quickly interjected, excited, “The tide is finished!”
“It’s done?” Joe asked, looking behind him. The walls were absolutely littered with defenders, all firing off attacks as quickly as possible. How can there be more monsters? They were all as densely packed as possible. What’s going on? Gwenvair’s response pulled his attention back.
“The tide is finished, but… the master is coming… and Joe is manaless!”
Kilniara clenched at that and quickly grasped Joe’s hand, “You… you can’t!”
Joe frowned, “Can’t what?”
Gwenvair replied in her stead, “You are manaless. How will you fight the master.”
“OK. I’m missing a lot here. Master?”
“The master of the monster tide. It arrives after the city’s defenses have been defeated or after its forces are exhausted. They are… deadly.”
“Worse than a city killer?”
That question actually gave Kilniara and Gwenvair pause, with Kilniara actually giggling a bit later.
“He’s right! He killed a city killer!”
Gwenvair’s deep concern quickly washed from her face, although she still seemed worried, “But not manaless!”
Joe shrugged, “I wasn’t manaless against the giant but I didn’t really use any mana on the giant, either. It wasn’t useful.”