Toren Daen

I knew how the runic magic of Alacrya worked, at least in theory. Runes could be bestowed upon mages in ranks: first were marks, then crests, emblems, and finally regalias. A rune gave its owner a basic understanding of its function, and through understanding and mastery could be upgraded to greater tiers.

Mine was a telekinesis rune that could push or pull on objects.

And so, as I slowly walked north, keeping my eyes nervously peeled for mana beasts, I tested the limits of my crest. Picking up a small rock, I concentrated my mana flow into the runic marking on my back. I felt the warmth suffuse my body, and with an effort of will, targeted the small stone in my hand.

A small burst of white mana behind the rock preluded it shooting off with considerable force, as if I had thrown it with my hands. I heard a dull thump in the distance, causing my shoulders to tense in nervous apprehension. I paused in my slow walk, glancing around once more. If some mana beast had heard that…

Seconds ticked by with only the chirping of birds to greet my ears. I relaxed slightly and continued my testing.

Further experiments revealed the range of the effect. I could push or pull things in a radius of about fifteen feet around me, but the further out my ‘reach’ extended, the less force I could muster. The force I could use seemed to decrease exponentially as my will tried to affect things farther away.

I was now holding a sizable rock in my hands, weighing a little under ten pounds if I guessed right. My next experiment would be important.

I pushed with as much force as I could muster quickly, a noticeable drain on my mana reserves. The rock shot upwards so fast I stumbled back. The burst of white mana underneath it had also been far more pronounced. I tilted my head up, watching the stone careen into the sky and off beyond my sight.

“Probably faster than any baseball player I know,” I said with awe. This was only a crest as well, and from what I could feel, Toren hadn’t had much practice with the spellform before he decided to waltz into mana beast territory in a suicidal gamble.

For my next test, I walked over to a nearby tree, raising my hand towards the bark. With a light press of mana that was getting easier and easier each time, I pressed lightly against the bark. The bark began to slowly indent as mana funneled through my rune, a small glob of white mana pushing against the tree. As this happened, I felt a slight pushback against my hand. It seemed that my rune operated on familiar Newtonian physics, at least. Every action had an equal and opposite reaction. Every time I pushed something, that something pushed back.

A dozen different ideas coursed through my head at the implications, but a quick glance into the sky revealed that it was darkening quickly. I would have to pick up my pace if I wanted out by nightfall.

As I made my way through the forest, now at a considerably brisker pace bordering on a jog, branches and fallen leaves crunched under my feet. Each step made me want to pick up my pace even more. For all I knew, with each crinkle of leaves, I drew a predator closer to my location. I picked up as many sizable rocks as I could as I ran, stashing them into my pouch as ammunition. The thought of fighting something made my pulse jump, but I couldn’t avoid the possibility.

I weaved through the autumn trees as the sun finally set. I wasn’t in danger yet as far as I could tell. Light still seeped over the trees, and if this world operated anything like my own, it would be another half hour or so before it was truly dark. It seemed I wouldn’t have to face any mana beasts that day.

My mind began to wander slightly as I jogged, a habit of mine whenever I did monotonous work. The implications of being in another world started to build in my mind like a festering wound. Existential questions began to bubble upwards, pressing into my skull with a building migraine. If this world was real, what did that mean about other worlds that I thought were fiction? Did that mean Multiverse Theory was a concrete truth; that with infinite universes there were infinite possibilities? And with all the horrid things that occurred in this world, could I even survive?

Scratch that, was my knowledge of the future even worth anything? If Multiverse Theory was true, then I could be in a timeline different from the one I purportedly knew of. I had felt a measure of security once I somewhat settled into the idea I was in another world because I knew the world well. But did I truly know this world?

After all, Lady Dawn shouldn’t be alive.

She was an asura; a phoenix from Epheotus. In the novel, Agrona had captured her innumerable years ago, then allowed Cecilia–the Legacy–to drain her of her mana, killing the phoenix and leaving her a husk.

If my knowledge of the future held any weight, why was she with me?

I noticed my spiraling thoughts and clamped down on them, hard. If there was anything I knew, it was that I needed to maintain control. Control of myself. These questions could be answered later when I wasn’t in a monstrous forest that would maybe–probably–try and eat me alive once darkness set in.

I had to slow down as shadow encroached on the world, the night stretching her grasp over the sky. I took more measured steps now, trying to avoid making too much noise. I wasn’t as successful as I hoped.

It was by a stroke of luck that I noticed the mana beast first. I heard a light rustling, and I froze in my tracks like a deer in the headlights. Rescanning my surroundings revealed a nearby clearing where a few of the rat-lizards snuffed about. They were a strange mix of brownish-green, with smatterings of scales across their bodies. They were each about as big as a medium-sized dog, with claws that I knew to be razor sharp on each of their limbs.

They hadn’t noticed me yet.

Slowly, carefully, I began to try and tiptoe my way around. Sweat beaded on my brow as I forcefully calmed my breathing. I didn’t want to fight these things. They had already killed this body once: they could do it again.

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I was almost past the clearing when one of the rat-lizards began to sniff the air. My blood pressure spiked as it began to turn towards me slowly, following its nose. I took a hasty step backward, and with my horrid luck, snapped a twig.

The rat-lizards turned their beady eyes to me with a predatory gleam.

I ran, bolting as fast as my legs could carry me. I could hear the creatures following me, a strange mix of squeak and snarl emitting from their misshapen snouts. I didn’t feel confident fighting these things, not as I was.

They were gaining on me, however. My legs weren’t as long as I was used to, and while this body certainly had better cardio than my old one considering I was still moving, my two legs struggled to outrun the four legs of the beasts behind me.

I heard a break in the snarling, and I just barely managed to weave out of the way of a tree as one of the rat-lizards leaped at me. The creature slammed facefirst into the trunk with a satisfying crunch, but the edges of its claws had managed to trail across my left bicep. The cut burned, leaking a stream of blood as I continued to book it across the forest.

Clenching my teeth against the pain, I grabbed a handful of rocks from my pouch. Twisting lightly to look behind me, I chucked a few small pebbles back, adding a push from my telekinesis just as they left my hand. It created the loose equivalent of a shotgun shell, accelerating the rocks from my throw with a wave of force.

The pebbles battered two of the rat-lizards, opening small wounds and scrapes across their bodies as the stones impacted. My monstrous pursuers stumbled, allowing me to gain more distance. My breathing grew more haggard, but a bead of hope sprouted in my chest. If I could damage these things enough to ward them off, I’d make it out alive.

A break in the treeline in the distance caused that sprout to blossom. Was that the edge of the forest? Had I finally gotten out?

I picked up speed, ignoring the burning in my legs with the energy only adrenaline could provide. I was almost free!

I burst past the treeline, heaving for breath, then skidded to a halt.

Instead of exiting the forest, what greeted my eyes was a sheer rock wall stretching four stories into the air. It blocked my advance from either direction as far as I could see in the encroaching darkness.

I shut my eyes tight, grit my teeth, and turned around. The ratlike bastards had slowed their approach, stalking forward in a wide line to box me in. I realized then that these creatures acted with a packlike coordination. They had chased me here into this dead end, and now they were savoring the fear I felt. My legs felt like jelly from the sprinting I’d done, and my hair was matted to my scalp with sweat. My arm burned particularly badly where I had been cut, streaks of blood running off my clenched fist and into the dirt in a steady drip-drip-drip that seemed to ring in my ears. But I wouldn’t go down without a fight.

I dug into my pouch, withdrawing another handful of rocks. I didn’t have many more after this, so I needed to make them count.

The attack started rather predictably. One of the rat-lizards leapt at me, its jaws open wide. Instead of the buckteeth commonly associated with rodents, this mana beast had rows of serrated incisors that looked fit for shredding my flesh. From the slightly misshapen jaws, I recognized this as the one that had leaped at me and eaten a tree instead.

I threw a larger rock this time, accelerating it with more precision than my last throw. The rock impacted the mana beast hard on the forehead, causing it to screech in pain midair. But the creature still sailed towards me.

I tried to dodge to the side and avoid the body, but my exhausted legs failed me. I stumbled sideways, but the body clipped my side and threw me to the ground. I wheezed as the air was knocked from my lungs on impact. The other rocks in my hands scattered across the ground.

I heard the screeches of the other two beasts as they ran for me, sensing weakness. Panicking, I used telekinesis to push as hard as I could against the ground. The force, predictably, pushed me back as well, flinging my body a few yards away haphazardly. I impacted my shoulder painfully, causing stars to race across my vision. My hasty reaction probably saved my life, as the two remaining rat-lizards kicked up a furrow of dirt after landing where I had once been.

I scrambled to my feet, grasping at the now close wall of rock for support. My right shoulder hurt like hell, and sparing it a quick glance, I could clearly tell it was dislocated. I was lucky, however. These rat-lizards were rather predictable. Every time they attacked, it was with a catlike pounce. I could exploit that.

The two mana beasts turned to me again, a murderous glare in the beady rodent eyes. The third rat-lizard was kicking its legs limply on the ground nearby in its death throes, the stone impacting its head enough to cause fatal brain damage. Its pack members didn’t seem to care, spreading out and trying to flank me again.

I clutched my limp arm, tracking both creatures as they moved forward. I could see the scrapes and small wounds I had caused them before with my spray of pebbles, small rivulets of blood mirroring my own. The rat-lizards continued their chitter-snarls, sending shivers up my spine.

One of the beasts pounced at me predictably. With a press of mana into my spellform, instead of pushing, I pulled on the creature. I felt resistance against my mana for the briefest of moments from the monster’s innate mana before my own spell broke through. The beast rocketed forward far faster than before under a flash of my white mana, and I twisted out of the way just in time for it to collide with the rock wall headfirst. The creature’s head burst like an overripe melon on impact, splattering me with blood, bone, and brain matter.

I didn’t have time to collect myself before I was tackled to the dusty ground by the last mana beast. My dislocated shoulder was jostled painfully as my back hit the dirt. Sharp teeth bit into my left forearm as I desperately fended off the creature that was trying to rip out my throat. I screamed in pain, tears and sticky reddish wetness blurring my vision as my own blood splashed onto my face from my arm. The mana beast’s gangly form pressed me into the dirt, inching toward an inevitable victory against a weakened foe.

I flared my crest in desperation, pushing against the monster on my chest for all I was worth. It was shoved off of me, but its teeth tore a deeper furrow into my arm as it was ripped away. The beast sailed into the air a good ten feet before coming right back down into the dirt. A pained screech echoed from its snarl, guiding me onward in my bloody mission.

With a rabid cry, I pulled myself to my feet. I wavered slightly, blood loss and pain making my consciousness hazy. I staggered over the stunned beast where it lay on the ground, raised my boot, and brought it down as hard as I could across the monster’s throat.

Once. Twice. Three times. Once bone finally crunched under my feet, I observed my work with wild, crazed eyes. The three mana beasts were all dead. One finally stilled with a large dent in its forehead. Another lacked a skull entirely, a smattering of viscera painting the stone wall. The third was crushed beneath my feet.

With the last of my adrenaline, I locked my right arm between my legs and pushed. It popped back into place with a painful click, making me gasp sharply. The pain began to ramp up as the adrenaline coursing through my veins ran its course. My forearm was ripped to shreds, my shoulder ached, and the rest of my body was sore from the abuse I had put it through. Slight scrapes on my legs began to burn as I finally noticed them.

I dry heaved, nausea rolling in my stomach. But I had already expelled everything in my stomach earlier that day, and all I did was aggravate my wounds as my body convulsed. Tears leaked from my eyes from the pain.

Then I tipped over from exhaustion, and everything went black.