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2.0
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Aspen wasn’t a hero.
She’d long since given up on those particular aspirations. The path had been closed the moment she left her family, when she’d turned her back on the road they carefully laid out before her to travel beyond the Capital, through the expansive forest of the Greenhold, only to eventually settle down on Pineskeep as Head of Security.
A meager village guard.
She was sure her ancestors would be rolling in their graves if they were actually dead.
To see their scion waste away in the middle of nowhere, trying to run a group of soldiers who had nobody to fight, and no enemy to conquer. They would have certainly branded her a coward for the insult.
‘Come to think of it, some of them did.’
That didn’t mean she wasn’t good at what she did.
Although she didn’t stand out when it came to Spellcraft or armed combat, lacking the overwhelming talent that her peers had, she was equally proficient in both. Adding those skills to her innate ability as a tracker, and she had all the tools needed to become a Hunter.
Not quite hero material, it was a consolation prize at best.
One she tossed aside for her own ambitions.
Pineskeep was a small village.
It didn’t have a strong core of defenders, and many argued it didn’t need one. She’d certainly butted heads with the previous governor over how much freedom she could have in devising the protocols and bylaws through which the village guard would function.
How they would grow.
Because the world didn’t care how prepared you were before disaster struck.
You could prepare for the earth to crack open and swallow you whole. You could prepare for the sky itself to fall on your head. Plagues. Wildfire. Invasion. When Aspen moved to Pineskeep it was her intent to create a group which would be ready to face any and all adversity, coming out on top and saving lives.
But it was difficult.
Her brethren were whimsical and unfocused.
The time and manpower she needed was beyond a single village’s ability to provide, and very few chose to follow her path, preffering to treat the very serious work she was doing as a flight of fancy from an eccentric, spoiled lady from the Capital. Too weak or perhaps too cowardly to put herself through the trials to become a genuine hero.
She’d heard it all before.
The scorn.
The mockery.
The patronizing look from her kin, who pitied her for trying to build something for herself rather than follow the beaten path and turn into another glorified guard at the Capital, or a butcher at the Frontier.
Aspen wanted more.
To be more.
But that didn’t mean she hadn’t learnt a thing or two.
‘They are holding it in place. The number of guards is twenty three. Two thirds holding the line, another third helping evacuation.’ Taking a deep breath, the Captain focused on discerning the many varied scents on the air as she swung from branch to branch, her own domain holding against the Beast’s for the time being.
Doubtlessly it would be hard to breath once she got closer.
She could see it already.
A shape through the haze, illuminated by a mane of flame. The ground shook beneath it as arrows of light exploded and pierced through its hide, the mana in the air growing hotter as the wounds closed. All around it, the trees and buildings burnt, and in front of it she could sense the presence of the Guard.
‘Good job.’ She mentally praised them.
It was hard, holding back from jumping in.
But approaching carelessly wouldn’t be of any help. Instead, Aspen focused on her breathing, drawing in deep breaths as the mana around her, slightly thin, responded to her will. Far enough from the fight that the Beast’s domain wasn’t as overwhelming, but close enough for her spells to reach it.
Gather.
Form.
Douse.
Harden.
She held out her hand, mana seeping out of her fingers, mingling with the mana in the air as it coalesced into a liquid shape, immediately hardening into a blueish see-through crystal, shaped like an arrow. The amount of mana she’d pooled into it was inordinately large, to make sure it wouldn’t dissipate before hitting the target.
It was the reason why she had all guards carry bows, and taught them all the Mana Arrow spell as the first thing they did when they joined her.
It was a simple spell.
It could be easily pushed into higher grades with the right time and practice. And more importantly, it could be shot using a bow, meaning you didn't have to worry about wasting one of the steps on making the spell move on its own.
All you needed was practice and…
Stolen novel; please report.
‘Accuracy.’
She released the arrow, seeing the glint of blue as it shot out of the treeline and into the village, just in time to hit the side of the boar as it took off on another charge.
‘Burst.’
Before erupting on a cloud of steam and drizzle, the impact alone tossed the monster on its back. A feat that could only have been accomplished by someone with both skill, practice and power…
“Call me captain!”
Her trail of thought was interrupted by the cheeky secretary.
‘Damn that girl. Thinking only she gets to play hero and mouth off to her superiors.’ She’d show her what it took to be the disappointment of a family of heroes.
She pulled the string again, the same spell forming once more as she took aim. The boar thrashed about as it dragged itself back to its feet. From as far as she was, it looked like little more than a bonfire in the distance, though she could feel the heat emanating from it all the way from her perch, she couldn’t imagine how unbearable it must have been to block its path.
Aspen took the shot.
A second column of steam rising over the treetops as the creature raged in the distance.
‘Two more.’
Keeping her distance had been key to actually putting together a spell that could hurt the Beast; the issue was that regardless of how much mana she had available, spells of grave three and higher just took a lot more than average, and her own reserves would soon run try if she kept taking the same shot.
She would tire herself out without actually wounding the Beast.
For now, all she could do was provide cover fire, and disrupt the beast’s control over mana by dispersing her own over the area from afar while distracting it at the same time.
It didn’t help that its control was slowly encroaching on her area.
‘It doesn’t make any sense.’
Dashing between two pines, the Head of Security tried to understand how not one, but two mature Mana Beasts managed to get so close to her home without anyone noticing. They should have been able to see the signs weeks in advance. Never mind the fact that they weren’t supposed to grow as fast as these ones did.
Or how they hadn’t tried to attack and feed off of each other like they were meant to, long before they even considered raiding their village. It just went completely against everything she learnt about them.
The behavior was wrong.
The build up to these attacks was wrong.
‘Focus, Aspen. Stop the attack first.”
She had larger problems than the boar. The flames it was spreading by themselves were spreading faster than its control over the mana of the area, smoke rising from the roots and grass underneath, the acrid smell mixing with various other scents, tainting the wind and causing her eyes to water.
Notching another arrow, the Captain took aim.
This would be the third.
She’d have to make sure not to-
“ACHOO!”
Miss.
Not quite, her arrow merely hit the ground next to the beast rather than the original target, spraying the area with another shower of liquid mana which doused the flames and blinded the beast with steam. It didn’t hurt it, and wasted one of her last two arrows.
She sneezed again.
And then a third time.
“Pinecones.”
Why was she getting allergies now of all-
“For the BACON!”
A familiar voice shouted out as a figure dressed in full armor charged out of the burning treeline, even as far away as she was, his… peculiar scent caused Aspen to sneeze yet again as he charged fearlessly towards the massive boar, on his hands, rather than the sword she’d seen him carry around, the man instead lifted what looked like a massive tree trunk, charred black from the flames.
Before he jumped over the shield line and slammed it on top of the monster’s head.
Aspen rubbed her nose, putting her bow away.
‘Well, I did conscript him.’
It would be the height of hypocrisy to say this wasn’t exactly what she wanted him to do. But at the same time, did he really have to go around shouting about food?
Aspen sneezed again.
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“Come and get me, you overfed piglet!”
So, the good news is that his armor was still intact and so Ghoti didn’t have to worry about breathing in enough mana to kill a horse. The bad news was that holy shit, the monster he was fighting probably wouldn’t so much as blink if he stuck his sword on it.
Anyone who made jokes about his blade could go bite him in the ass.
Thus, he was being forced to improvise.
Vita thrummed through his body, the life energy rippling through every muscle as he swung one of the fallen trees around as if it was a massive club, the side of it breaking into a thousand shards as he beat the monster back, tossing it a few feet back with force or a hundred skipped breakfasts.
Yes, he was hungry.
Who was asking.
Obviously, he wouldn’t be able to eat the damn thing as soon as it was killed. Not immediately at least. You needed to butcher it. Carefully smoke it until every trace of mana was gone.
But once it was…
‘Gods, I’m drooling.’
Swallowing thickly, the human looked over his shoulder, and to the elf soldier’s who’d been holding out up until now. Luckily, they were only mildly charred rather than downright charcoal. At least those who were conscious. Many were slumped over against the ground or nearby trees.
Whoever put out the fire saved their lives.
He’d just have to keep them that way.
“W-What are you?”
One of the elves coughed out, a blonde on some sort of clerk get up asked. Surprisingly, she hadn’t fallen unconscious yet. The way she looked at him, well… It wasn't bad but she seemed just as perplexed as every elf was when seeing him for the first time.
Ghoti really couldn’t get used to it.
“You all need to retreat. The rest of the Guard will be here soon!”
He yelled out, hoping they’d believe him.
Hefting up the log of wood over his shoulder, he could see the giant boar pull itself back, bellowing out a column of smoke as the fire on its mane lit up once more, the feeling of overwhelming heat radiating from it distressingly familiar as it pawed at the ground and its tusks lit up with an unfamiliar light.
More importantly, he could feel its Vita.
Barely, but it was there. Smothered underneath the heap of mana that’d transformed it.
And through it he could notice the glint of recognition as the boar’s eyes settled on him. And the flash of all encompassing rage, and dare he say… vindictiveness that emanated from the Mana Beast as it charged.
“You grew up, huh?”
It was crazy to think about.
But it was the only reasonable answer.
This was the board he’d wrestled a day or so back. Twice its size, and its body was partially engulfed in flame. But Ghoti could tell it was the same.
“Good, I was looking for payback too.”
Ghoti’s stomach growled.
The giant boar growled
Time for Round 2.