Chapter 8

Tears slid down Mikey’s face.

Tears of Manly Maniness as he looked at the pit that was once home to his temporary store. It was time to move on so any man would get a little emotional at the sight of leaving their old home. He did not cry like a little baby and Ishtasa said otherwise then she’s a lying liar who lies.

Mikey walked away carrying his every belonging on his back in his big yellow bag. Ishtasa dressed in her Miko outfit, sat securely on his head, claiming her human.

"It's great that I was able to make so much profit, but there’s no way in heck they’re going to let me use another practicing ground," he huffed at the unfairness of it all.

He had made close to 700,000 dollars in the last two weeks, which when calculating in losses, costs, the northern pacfic date line, and Ishtasa’s carrot budget left him with somewhere between 500,000 to 600,000 dollars in profit.

According to Mikey’s calculations, a shop on the main strip in the buissness district cost 300,000 to 400,000 a year to rent. While the foot traffic would be great, Mikey had a gut feeling that the middle of the City-State would be targeted by the world’s plot and Mikey did not appreciate the idea of all his hard work being flattened by some stray attack. Shaking out the unbidden thoughts of Marcus and Stumpy’s spar, he made his decision.

No, instead he was much more interested in finding a nice piece of land on the outer edge of the City-State, preferably near the wall, where he could build up the shop and the district with his own two hands. Although the possibility of an invasion taking out the wall and his shop is troubling, he could grit his teeth until he found away to make his shop fly.

With a little research he easily found a piece of land roughly two acres in size that would be perfect. The only issue was the owners, they were a kind elderly couple who were a little uncertain about selling to a teenager. Mikey assured them he would be a First-level mage by summer and extracted a promise from them to not sell the property until then.

If I buy the land, that leaves me with 300,000 or 400,000 Dollars to construct my shop/home, pay for the different licenses, and materials needed for my products. If I can tighten my belt and cut back on a few expensive I'm sure I can probably make it, he thought as he walked to the street on the only path that wasn’t torn to pieces.

He waved at the Second-level mage manning the gate and was happy when they waved back. That meant that they already recognized him and wouldn't ask as many questions whenever he needed to leave the City-State for errands.

Walking down the main road, Mikey was surrounded by all the activity that filled Cahokia.

Kids were were flying on training brooms. Friends were greeting each other and making conversation right in the middle of the street before going to one of the many food stalls. A few couples walked hand in hand giggling to each other like a bunch of idiots. Mages of all different ranks flew throught the sky in flashy shows of light. The City-State was an everchanging evergrowing slice of happiness and Mikey loved every bit of it.

In this new world Mikey couldn’t help but be excited at even the smallest of things, it made him want to experience…. more.

After Marcus's visit, Mikey had started training even more. It wasn’t because he felt the overwhelming surge of patriotism when he met Marcus but instead a little more of the old Mikey’s motivation started to make sense. The previous version of him had dedicated his entire life to training. Just to be strong enough to walk around without fear, just for the smallest scrap of security.

Mikey just got the worlds biggest wake up call. Mages are dangerous. If Mikey wants to survive someone like Marcus being sent after him then he needed to train.

It was with this realization, that the chubby Mage School student had spent every waking moment training to be a little bit faster or just a little bit tougher than the day before. He consumed enhancement pill after pill, abusing them for all of their worth.

He put a pause on his spell research since he wasn’t getting anywhere anyway. He focused on his body through exercise and mana reinforcement. If he couldn’t run then he would fight.

Ishtasa let out a noise of hunger.

"Look Ishtasa, it's your favorite," the Chonky Lad said as they turned to a vendor that was selling roasted duck seasoned with a blend of different herbs and spices that enticed the nose, the skin looked nice and crispy with a golden hue.

The rabbit perked up as she sniffed the air, before wagging her fluffy tail in excitement. Yes, Ishtasa was an omnivore despite being a rabbit. Mikey had found out the hard way when his bacon egg and cheese sandwiches kept disappearing. While he was initially shocked that his food was at risk, he later welcomed it, since it meant that she could hunt for her own food saving Mikey a little more money.

Duck was her favorite so far, closely followed by pork.

Checking his wallet, the plump teen gulped and spoke hesitantly, "I suppose we have enough for just one quick snack."

The bunny nodded her head in total agreement.

"We’ll have to cut expenses in the next few months, understand?" Mikey said as if he was convincing himself.

Once again Ishtasa nodded in understanding.

"Okay, since it will be our last good meal for a while," Mikey finished as he walked up to the vendor that was slowly turning the spit. "Oy Mister, how much for two ducks?"

"That will be 18 Dollars little man," the vendor said with a wide toothy grin.

"I'll take them," Mikey said as he took the money out of his purse and handed it over to the man that was packing two piping hot roasted ducks into a plastic container, along with some dipping sauce.

In another part of Cahokia where the shadows were long and the darkness everpresent a very different scene was taking place.

“The initial tests were successful my lord.” The simpering servant said in a soft tone.

“Good, if they find this kind of offering sufficient then ask for greater loans.” A shadow spoke from the corner of the room where this meeting was taking place.

The servant coiuldn’t hold his tongue any longer, “Sir, I think this course of action could have disastrous consequences-”

The servants head hit the ground separate from his body.

With a great sigh the shadow said, “Flunky number two you are now number one, clean this mess up and get me more of that dust!”

A month later, Mikey was dying.

Oh spirits, I'm dying. Please have mercy on this tortured soul and end me right now, the smaller Mage School student mentally pleaded as he collapsed on the running track.

Ishtasa, wearing her miko uniform, bounced to his side with a hand towel and a water bottle strapped to her back.

"This is proof that fluffy guys like me arent meant for this kind of stuff, what would i do without you ishtasa," Mikey said in between breaths as he scratched her chin.

Ishtasa nipped his hand hard enough to draw blood before turning away in embarrassment.

Laying on his back, Mikey couldn't help but comment, "So violent but, i suppose i deserve it for throwing up on you last time."

He had completed 500 laps around the school track field, an impossible feat for him a month ago.

Mikey may still identify hinself as fluffy but he no longer resembled a walking dumpling. Throigh harsh exercise and forced dieting his fat had melted off leaving a decent looking young man.

He was still small for his age however, standing at 5 feet and 8 inches, but that was still two inches taller than a month ago. Most teens in the city were somewhere between 6' 5" and 7' by the time they were Mikey’s age. An effect of magic on the populous perhaps.

Mikeys frame had become skinny and coiled with muscle from testing all the new strengthening pills and regenerative elixirs. Although his calves seemed to have doubled in size from one of the failed pills and never went quite back to normal. But even with his calves(calfs) looking more like cows Mikey felt well proportioned.

His once scruffy blond hair, was now a curtain of silky smooth chocolate locks that reached his shoulder blades thanks to the accidental shampoo he had created weeks ago. He tried chopping it off only for the scissors to snap on the first cut so he kept it in a low loose ponytail for now. His eyes lost their closed look along with the fat and his skin was now rough and cracked from testing a potential line of skin care products. They didn't work.

However, most of these changes went unnoticed once more because the ever increasing amount of armor the young man would wear. Now he would walk around covered head to toe in numerous layers at all times of day. He even tried bathing in them until Ishtasa got fed up with his antics.

Finished catching his breath, Mikey stood up and dumped the rest of the water over his head.

"Ho now! I needed that. Come on girl, we still have things to do if we want to eat today," the small Mage School student said as he pretended to not be infected with the mannerisms of a certain Fifth-level Mage.

Taking out a few supplies out of his newly expanded Space Ring, that could now carry several football fields of items inside of it, to prepare for a small trip to his favorite practicing ground, The Hunting Ground.

The Hunting Ground was a large forest big enough to cover a tenth of Cahokia’s wall on side it was connected to. Stocked with large game on the outskirts and weird mutations from the last disaster in the center, the Hunting Ground was the most likely option if Cahokia were to get into a war right now. Just like the kangaroo wars in austrailia but Cahokia would actually win despite the losses.

The boy equipped a simple wooden short-bow and a quiver full of a arrows. Having made a revelation after meatibg marcus mikey started tying the mana veins he’d fill together with additive ones creating more consistent abilities based on design for slightly less strength in exchange.

"Let's go Ishtasa! We worked so hard to get that hunter's license, we might as well use it," the boy called out as he began to head toward the Hunting ground.

After a short walk Mikey had found his prey. Drawing his bow to the fullest, Mikey breathed deep and loosed.

"Alright!" the sadly smaller teen said as he jumped off the tree branch thirty feet above the ground and landed softly on the forest floor. "Oh boy, looks like we'll be having pork tonight Ishtasa!"

With excited grins, the duo crossed the distance in a few bound steps.

He stood beside the large boar that was easily twice his height and at least 15 times his weight. It had a thick black hide with powerful muscles all over its body, and two upward curving tusks that where at least the length of Mikey's forearm. However despite its impressive appearance, it had only taken a single arrow to bring it down.

Mikey could still see the end of the arrow's feathers peaking out of the newly made hole right in the middle of its head. Mikey called out the medical diagnostic spell that he had learned from Ana.

His hands gained a green light, and he checked the monster boar, "Oh, how lucky. It looks like the arrow managed to burrow deep enough that it completely severed its spinal cord. As expected of this bow."

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While it wasn't his most powerful bow, it was definitely the best one for hunting game. Being afirst branch MMM with an increase in accuracy as long as you could see what you were shooting at, it made meal time easy.

Taking out an strengthened knife from his space ring, he started dismantling his soon-to-be dinner.

Ishtasa didn't bother waiting as she started chewing on the boars ear.

Stringing up the boar quickly got moved to the backburner as Mikey heard the rapind approach of another large animal.

Looks like we'll be having more than just boar, Mikey thought as he readied his bow and signaled Ishtasa to get on his head.

Like the mouse from from a certain movie about cooking Ishtasa began yanking on Mikeys strengthened hair to let him know what she saw. Tugging on his hair twice for two enimes then, pulling in the northeast direction to indicate where they would approach from, and finally scratching at his scalp just because she felt like it.

Trusting his partner, Mikey notched an arrow and prepared a second one. In one fluid movement he released the first arrow while his fingers reached out to his quiver and grabbed the second one, placing it on the string and releasing it a second after.

The two arrows flew side by side punching through trees to reach their unseen target.

Mikey heard two twin roars of anger indicating that the arrows hadn't been enough to kill them in one shot.

He didn't have time to worry however because he realised trees do make a sound when they fall in the forrest and it siunded like two big balls of rage running through ssid trees to get a taste of the Mikey special.

Running toward a particularly tall tree that had a thick trunk, he began to try to take himself off the menu by hopping up to a high branch and hiding himself.

From his new position he could see two burly animals run in his directions, reducing thick trees into splinters whenever they came into contact.

They reached his position in seconds, before they both stood up on two legs and Mikey momentarily had to curse himself and Ishtasa.

Below him were two maddened two story tall bears that looked like they had been warped through Mad Science causing large growths and a raging addiction to the powder on their noses. A powder very similar to the one in Mikeys clothes.

He was about to make a hasty retreat when the bears suddenly looked in his direction. Mikey could see the two arrows stuck in their fur, the same arrows that had taken down that boar had barely pierced the bears coats.

"Aw poopy," Mikey spoke out loud.

To make matters worse he just remembered a terribke fact from a nature documentary he’d watched. Bears could climb. And climb they did.

One of the bears swiped downward with its sharp dagger like claws, aiming at his head, while the other aimed at his feet.

Mikey could immediately tell that those attacks were mana enhanced from the noxious green tinged shadow that covered them, getting hit with even one of those could prove fatal.

Thinking fast he used his go to escape move, Molotov Coctails. Throwing down the bottles from his space ring while jumping away, Mikey quickly moved away from the inferno he’d caused.

Reappearing on a different tree a fair distance away, he observed as the two mana beasts were ingulfed in a large fiery explosion that turned the surrounding trees into cinders.

Without getting enough time to catch his breath the two shadows moved through the flames toward him. Walking out like they were experincing a cool summer breeze. Mikey quickly took note of the spiraling mana surriunding their mouthes.

There mana moved with pure manipulation somehow being aspected without a spell from almost as if they possessed a Nibillian bloodline. The extinct Bylilly bloodline to be exact.

"I'm blaming you for this Ishtasa," Mikey stated even as he strapped his bow on his back and took out a short sword from his ring and handed her an strengthened dagger that looked like two elongated knife fused together by their handles and wrapped in leather. She placed it in her mouth even as she gave an annoyed huff.

The second branch too wasl made just for Ishtasa allowing her to channel raw mana through the blades to enhance them at will.

While the blade of his short sword was completely red having been snapped in half and resharpened, with the cross guard and handle being gold plated. It was another second branch item that inflicted unhealable wounds through necrosis and bloodletting on any cut. Mikey seriously did not want to meet the blades previous owner.

"Get ready," he said to the rabbit.

The bears gave one final roar before mana exploded from them. The brown bear's eyes were ingulfed in flames and smoke was raising from it's nose and mouth, looking as if it had turned into a furnace. The black bear on the other hand gained an aura of sharp wind around it's paws.

They pulled back their heads in unison and spat out a fire ball and wind sphere respectively in his direction.

Dropping from his position, he took out five talismans of sheilding from his pouch and used the mana control exercise to have them orbit his head. Five was his limit while in battle.

The impact of the attack caused an explosion, flooding the area in smoke.

With out wasting time Mikey summoned three Self Statues using 30 percent of his mana.

He gave them each an strengthened knife pack as they gave each other nods and split up, "Go! Try to split them up. Aim for their vitals!"

Statue A and B rushed at their opponents, while statue C and Mikey sank into the ground using his newest spell that would make the earth move like water surrounding them.

The bears proved to be smarter than one would think as they stood back to back, smelling the air and looking at the ground.

Statue A was the first to reach his target.

The brown bear swiped at him with those dangerous looking claws, the statue used his smaller size to duck and get into its guard. Crouching down underneath it, he filled mana into his legs and jumped upward aiming his knife into the beast's neck.

At the same time, statue B ran towards the black bear and slid between the large animal's legs, aiming his knife at one of the tendons located in the legs.

Neither attack would reach their target as the bears lashed out in either direction chasing their respective statue. The brown bear being faster than its compatriot knicked the passing statue with it’s wicked claws.

Out of the ground emerged a barrage of arrows.

The black bear burned them into ash with a fire attack from its mouth that closely resembled a flamethrower.

The statue took this opportunity to swipe at its neck now that it was distracted despite its previous injury hindering it

The slash connected but, it once more bounced off the bears diseased hide, doing more to enrage the bear than injure it

It roared in indignation and with blinding speed turned around and grabbed the statue with one hand bit its head clean off. The head immediately turned back to soil, but it was at that instant that the sticky foam ball located in its head exploded. The brown bear's mouth was shut tight. It tried to burn the substance away, but the mana in the fire only made the foam expand even more, until it sealed its airway, with a small amount leaking from its nose.

Unable to breath, the brown bear suffocated and dropped to the ground in a boneless heap.

Mikey, still underground, swam through the loosened dirt surrounding him and placed himself under the fallen bear and thrust his sword upward before twisting.

There. That should do it. I made sure to aim where the spinal cord would be located. Mikey thought.

The red blade burst out of the bear's back before sinking back down again. The Black roared in rage as it saw his partner be killed.

Its eyes were filled with bloodlust as it charged at statue B. The sharp wind mana around its paws expanded until its entire body was covered in razor sharp winds.

Mikey blinked and the bear had moved. In a blur of motion the beast had charged through the statue, turning it to dust.

Another barrage of arrows burst out of the ground, only to be knocked aside by the powerful winds.

The black bear swiped its paw in the direction of the arrows, sending flying slashes of wind to rend the ground forcing statue c to the surface.

The construct holding the bow burst from his hiding spot just in time to dodge to the side. Mikey began to take drastic measures by quickly preparing a spell while his statue distracted the walking ball of rage and destruction.

Placing his bow away, Mikey took out his sword and the talismans appeared around his head once more. Grabbing a peice iron from a prisons gate mikey forced his mana to adapt to the inprisonment concept and released it through the earth saying, "Earth Piller Prison!"

Tall stone pillars emerged from the ground, scattered around the bear to hinder its movements.

It was still covered in wind so together the construct and the original nodded and climbed on top of two opposite pillars and took out a lighter

"Malevolent Fire," they shouted before throwing more molotov cocktails at the beast, enhancing them with mana to encourage tge aspect of destruction.

The razor wind mana surrounding the beast proved to be its undoing. Upon impact the overly oxgenated wind blades caught dry grass on a hot summers day.

The bear was soon covered in flames, its resistive pelt being unable to handle the increased tempatures. Smoke choked its breath, robbing the bear of oxygen. With no choice, the bear dismissed its wind armor.

In that instant, Ishtasa struck.

Immerging from her hiding place, she activated her weapon's special ability, and two mana blades wrapped around their metal contemporary, a foot long emerged from each side of her mouth. She leaped towards its legs, the mana blades slicing with immaterial sharpness as they bit deep into the muscle before she jumped away.

Bouncing from pillar to pillar in a crazy feat of 3D movement.

Ishtasa became a white blur as she used mana enhanced hops to rocket from pillar to pillar, every time she passed the black bear another rip would appear on its flesh, coating the ground in blood.

The bear roared in anger as it tried to take a swipe at her, but Ishtasa used her superior speed to bounce off the paw and remove its sight with a spray of blood.

Blinded by the latest slash, the beast roared in pain flailing wildly. It attacked the stone pillars instead of trying to defend itself, crushing them with its powerful claws, forcing Ishtasa to stop her barrage and Mikey and his statue to drop down to the floor.

The bear recognized the smell of his partner's blood coming from the sword and leaped toward Mikey who was still falling

"Fudge," Mikey said only he didn't say fudge as he cursed, unable to react to the surprise attack.

The bear bit down on his leg, tearing it off completely. He slashed at the bear's head with his sword managing to make a long cut along its snout.

Using what little mana control remained he sent the slips of paper orbiting his head toward the beast

The talismans around his head flipped to show that they weren't shielding talismans but explosive ones instead. They detonated at the same time around the pair, engulfing them in a fiery explosion.

The statue watched with bated breath as the smoke cleared. The beast fell backwards, its entire head was burned to a crisp. The Mikey that was also caught in the center of the blast dropped to ground as an illusion surrounded him dropped to reveal he was a statue instead and the remaining statue was revealed to be tge real Mikey.

"It's a good thing I switched places when we were still underground, huh Ishtasa?" the real Mikey commented as he took out an strengthened knife and threw it at the bear's head. There was no response. "Looks like it's dead. Why don't you go check Ishtasa? You know, just to make sure?"

The rabbit gave him a pitying look as if to say, how many tines were you dropped as a baby.

She was a really expressive rabbit.

Seeing he wouldn’t get his way, Mikey decided to take one for the team, but not before slipping a talisman in his palm.

Carefully he walked close to the downed beast and stretching his Mighty stick of Pokin, he poked.

With all the force of a nervous child he poked again.

"Looks like it really is dead. Ishtasa it's safe! Now I’m going to turn my back to the massive mutated bear creature that is definitely dead." Mikey shouted as he turned around.

The black bear hearing it’s chance gathered the last of its mana into a violent wind ball before launching it at Mikeys unprotected back.

Just as it looked like it would hit, Mikey turned around and stuck out a hand to intercept the attack. The wind ball detonated with the power of a hurricane, ripping the ground around Mikey like it was nothing, and throwing dust in the air.

When the dust cleared, it showed Mikey completely unharmed, not even his clothes were ruffled. The ground behind him was also left untouched. The shield talisman on his palm turned to dust.

"You gotta get on the animated bear level, no way i'm falling for that old trick," Mikey said as he disappeared from his spot and appeared behind the bear.

The bear didn't even have time to look shocked as its head flew off its shoulders.

In a shonen world like this one you gotta remove the head and even then I gotta watch out for Sure Determination to make sure they don’t suddenly come back. What kind of terrible fiction is this that even wild animals get a last hit in. If I ever meet the author I'm gonna kick him in the nuts, Mikey thought with exasperation.

"What the?" Mikey said with stupefied tone when he started breaking down the bears body. Taking his sharpest knife from his inventory, he made an incision along its chest. Rolling his sleeves up, he stuck his hand all the way to the shoulder as he rummaged inside, completely ignoring the obviously manufactored organs and stapled together surgical scars. until his fingers clutched one of the three giant hearts. With a mighty tug, he pulled his hand out of the bear, still holding the heart.

"Ishtasa! Get your fluffy butt over here!" Mikey called out.

Ishtasa crossed the distance in a single leap.

“This isn’t right," Mikey shakily ssid, before taking the knife and cutting the heart in half.

Right there, impeded into the flesh was purple sphere like gem, the size of a pearl. It was giving off an immense amount of mana, "This is the wrong kind of story for this, this is a mana crystal. This is supposed to be an overpowered main character story in a world of magic, not an apocalypse story. Ishtasa let's check the other bear!"

The brown bear also had a crystal inside of its heart.

This way out of setting, I could understand a mutated animal from an evil mage but this is the start of an apocalypse. This isn't my fault right? This isn't because i ooured my dust down the drain, Mikey though.

"Ishtasa come here, we need to check something?" the now surprisingly fit teen said as he stood up from his spot. He placed the two crystals in his ring's inventory and strapped the bow and the sword to his back. "Leave the bears, they aren't going anywhere, we'll pick them up on the way back!"

The two disappeared into the forest in the direction of where the bears had come from.

A Totem wearing a buffalo mask and a Totem wearing a groundhog mask emerged from their hiding spot.

The buffalo Totem took out a rune plate and walked toward the two bear carcass and sealed them inside the vortex the runes opened. "Groundhog, take this to the Chieftain immediately. Warn him of another potential demon outbreak. I'll follow the target."

The groundhog Totem disappeared as it faded through space. The Buffalo Totem took out a recording crystal from her uniform and copied the scene in front of her so she could show the holographic replica later as evidence.

Meanwhile Mikey cried once more.

"Ishtasa we’re in some deep fudge ripple chocoholic disaster with no sprinkles," Mikey laughed humorlessly as he stared at the large sewer pipe that drained into a river. He shook with terror as he saw the river flow into the worst place imaginable, the hunting ground.

"What do you think the chances are that those two bears were the only mana beasts around?" he said to his partner with a hopeful smile.

Ishtasa gave him a deadpan look that crushed all of that hope into dust.

"Well, at least they can't link this to me, … right? I'm sure this will fix itself sooner or later, … but we should probably make plans to leave Cahokia as soon as possible just in case," the teen said with a smile as he turned away from the giant bomb he had set up and lit the fuse.

"Ah! It looks like I accidentally lost my memory of the last 40 minutes Ishtasa. We really should get back to the City-State and finish selling this boar to the butcher" he declared outload, causing the Buffalo Totem in the tree to sweat drop at his pitiful attempt to ignore reality.