Despite all their jokes, everyone gave Jill a large amount of space to test her magic. It was probably a needless precaution, but nobody wanted to risk anything. Even Jill was as far away from the location as possible. And unlike Mash, she could use her skills remotely. She was actually the only of the group, whose magic didn’t need to originate from her body. Theoretically Red and Mash should be able to do the same, but their magic came more naturally from their bodies. Red could control other people’s blood, but she said it was hard if they were alive. Mash himself was in a slightly more unique situation. His magic started from his body. It was like a monster in that sense. Nearly all monsters had abilities that came from their bodies. They didn’t call lightning from the sky. It just wasn’t done.

Jill floated beside him; her hand outstretched toward the snow. Mash had used his feet to carve a circle into the snow. The circle was slightly larger than the tunnel itself. He wasn’t really sure how Jill planned on removing the snow, but he thought it would help a little. Now he just watched her, trying to use his domain to understand anything. Not that he really expected to learn anything. It wasn’t like he would figure out space magic by observing someone, but Priscilla might at least get a feel for it. Just recognizing it could be useful.

Jill’s hand closed into what seemed like a fist. Then she opened it and closed it again. It seemed kind of like she was flexing her fingers. Then he saw it for it really was. She was making a grabbing motion.

“What are you doing?”

Mash was hovering in the air beside her. Since they weren’t moving, it was quiet enough that he could speak without using the mental messages. Jill’s eyebrows drifted together as she concentrated on the snow. She snapped at him for interrupting her focus.

“I’m trying to move the snow. What does it look like!”

“Like you’re grabbing at nothing.”

Her eyes shifted toward him a little, but she lowered her hand.

“Yeah, I’m trying to picture a hand grabbing the space.”

Mash thought about that for a second and shook his head slowly.

“Why? Can’t you just teleport all of the snow?”

“No, it doesn’t work like that. I can’t teleport parts of things. The snow there is connected to the rest. So, I was just trying to move it, or separate it at least.”

She explained it simply, but other questions popped into Mash’s mind. Like why couldn’t she teleport a part of something? Did it have to do with mana or was there some other reason behind it? Although, he didn’t ask any of those questions. Priscilla had an idea, and he felt like it was good enough to work.

“Can’t you trap the snow in a barrier? Then just teleport the barrier.”

Jill hadn’t really been looking at him during the conversation. To be fair he wasn’t either. Their eyes were toward the snow on the ground, and he could see her face with his domain. His suggestion now got her to turn her head at him. Her eyebrows were raised as she stared incredulously at him. Mash went on.

“Yeah, Priscilla said that your barriers should work anywhere. I think she’s right considering it’s not like it’s made of air.”

Jill nodded slowly and looked down at the snow. She teleported down to it. Mash was tempted to go down there too but decided he didn’t risk any backlash. She bent and laid a hand against the snow. A second later she stood and held up her thumb. He guessed that meant it worked. He looked at where the snow was, but it didn’t really look any different. Her barriers weren’t visible to the naked eye. He could only see it with his domain. Otherwise, it completely blended into the space. Still holding her hand out, she teleported again. This time a tunnel of snow teleported with her. It wasn’t just snow either. Dirt and even stone went with her.

She hadn’t moved much, but she stood on a tower of dirt and snow that was right beside the hole she had just made. The snow and dirt fell beneath her collapsing suddenly. Jill stumbled and fell along with the rest of the tower. She landed into a pile of snow as the rest of the tower deteriorated. Her hand jutted out from the snow and she pulled herself up. Mash, Red, and Luke all descended to help her out, but it was mostly unneeded. Jill climbed out of the snow and stood proudly at the top of the mound of snow. The snow at the top was pristine, but large sections of dirt could be seen just beneath it.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Jill was smiling, her teeth visible as she began to laugh. Her hair clung to her head, and her clothes were dark with water. She was visibly shivering, but that didn’t stop her smile. She shouted up at them as they landed.

“It worked! It was so easy, but that was a lot of mana.”

She was bouncing at her feet, but her eyes were locked onto Mash. He didn’t match her excitement, but there was a smile on his face too. They landed and Jill tried to dry herself off with a towel. It wasn’t working, and she sighed. Her smile broke.

“Give me a few minutes, I need to change.”

With that, she blinked away. The three of them landed, and awkwardly stood around for a couple of seconds. Mash walked over to the hole that had been made. Snow was already beginning to fill the pit, but he was staring at the walls. The stones were cut impossibly smoothly, although the dirt and snow weren’t holding as much. They crumbled and fell into the hole. Mash wondered if she could do that with a monster. Her skills were horrifying. It was just too abrupt. One instant he was alive, and the next he was dead. Completely gone. Erased from the world without leaving a trace. In a sense, her skills were the most frightening. Lost in his thoughts, Mash barely noticed as Jill reappeared.

“I’m going to need some time to recover. Apparently teleporting something like that takes a lot of mana.”

Her words eased the tension in his shoulders. He still stared at what she had done, but at least it wasn’t something she could do all the time. It was probably a petty, jealous thought, but he couldn’t shake it. He often thought about his friends’ skills and classes. Gushed over things that they had, and he lacked. They probably did the same. Everyone felt like that at times.

Mash was looking down the whole, so he was the first to spot the monsters. The first thing he had seen was a long limb. The limb was jointed in three different places and had strange spines along an otherwise straight limb. The end was pointed. It dug into the dirt, and another limb quickly followed it. As two identical limbs joined the first, Mash remembered what he was looking for. Monsters, specifically insectoid monsters. More legs came from an opening in the side. The sharp ends dug into the dirt and snow as it pulled itself out.

The monster was not what he had expected. He was expecting something spider-like. Especially after seeing the many legs. However, it had more than just eight legs. Almost a dozen legs were visible as the creature’s head peaked into the tunnel.

Mash knew bugs. Everyone did. People encountered all matter of them in the course of a single day, but he was still surprised by what he saw. The leg's shape and number made him expect something like a spider, but the monster was not like that. The creature’s head was oddly triangular with large oval eyes at the ends of it. The snow and dirt crumbled as it pulled its entire body out. And the body was long but not segmented. The creature wasn’t segmented like a centipede. Only once he got a good look at the entire thing did he recognize it. And that was only because he saw where the legs were connected. They stuck to the long abdomen of the insect but the joints and way they moved reminded him of a mantis. However, it had far too many arms and legs for normal.

His back went straight as he recoiled from disgust. He saw Luke shudder as the creature began scaling the walls. The monster didn’t have an even number of limbs and it had legs and arms everywhere. Each one just seemed to grab and pull at whatever it could. It was a blessing to see that it only had one head. The creature had a greenish carapace, but it was hard to see with so many moving legs. Some of the legs couldn’t reach the dirt or snow, and just flailed about in the air. They collided together making a clicking noise that was random and terrifying. It wasn’t disturbing with just one, but an echo of clicks rumbled out from behind the one monster. The noise alone told Mash that there would be hundreds of things.

The hole was small, and the first creature only barely managed to drag itself through. Mash some legs break off and stick to the tunnel. But it didn’t even slow as it ran along the wall. The path was too tempting for the monsters. Mash didn’t think he could understand such a monster, but he felt like it was hungry. Starving even. And now it had found something it could eat. That hunger was something Mash understood. He had seen it in many monsters, but that wasn’t what made it obvious. No. It was the fact that he felt it too. Whether it was a product of his skills or choices, he felt that same hunger as he stared at the insect.

It was a repulsive thing, and the rumbling of his own stomach disgusted him. His body was reacting despite the protest his eyes and mind were making. The insect looked unappetizing, or he thought it should, but his body reacted. He wasn’t human, and this was just another reminder of that. His hunger was that of a monster. That of a creature that wanted nothing more than to survive. To grow. His skills wanted him to eat the insect and steal what he could from it. The feeling surged in him alongside his excitement. Like a thrill, it moved him to action. The insectoid monster had made it over halfway up the hole, but he didn’t wait any longer.

He jumped into the hole. None of his friends had received any notice, but they didn’t seem surprised. Although they didn’t support him either. Mash could feel them watching. His role was this to some extent. Jill was probably the best at baiting out attacks and learning about new monsters, but she wasn’t durable. Luke and Red were durable although to lesser degrees than Mash. On top of being able to fight long, his straightforward style let the others get an idea of how strong a monster was. If it could hurt seriously hurt Mash, it would likely be deadly to the others. A smile crept onto his face, as scales began to grow along his body. He was finally back where he belonged.