“As I said, we need to move quickly, Andy. Can you find that string where you felt the something before? Let me know the moment you do. I’m going to try one of these new channeling powers of mine.” Ralth looked like he was planning something but, for whatever reason, wasn’t sharing at the moment. So Andy sat down and did as he was asked.
Now that he knew the feel of what he was searching for, he was able to grab back onto the thread within moments. “Got it.” He said, proud of himself for starting to figure out how this web mana worked. Once the chaos was over, he intended to spend some extra time trying to visualize this. He had an idea of how this could be used to hop worlds and had a feeling it was how Ralth had done it during his return to them.
“I’m going to channel two different mana sources through you. It will probably feel a bit odd, but it shouldn’t hurt. Once they pass through your core, try to hold onto them and guide them through to where you feel the correct destination is.” Ralth instructed.
“Okay.” Andy felt a weird tingling of mana across his channels at agreement. The mana flowed back through him into his core, and he tried his best to do as Ralth had asked. Surprising him, it wasn’t nearly as challenging as he expected. Unlike the usual fight to push and pull mana flows how he wanted, this mixture moved gently and navigated it across the tangled lines toward his goal. Once it hit the end, he felt the mixture tie itself into a knot and suddenly felt an intense tugging leading from his core to his destination.
“I think that did it. Zoz, we’ve got a new location. Can you get us there?” Andy called to the deer.
Zoz walked into the room, sniffed the air, and moved closer to Andy. “Interesting technique. Yes, this should work.” He raised his antlers yet again and released a blast of energy into the air, leaving behind a window into a world of mushrooms.
Andy once again noticed Ralth giving Zoz a side-eyed look and wondered just what that was about, but if he wasn’t sharing, he wasn’t about to ask. Instead, he leaped through the portal to their next destination, having just spotted a large, one-eyed alien running in terror.
He landed with a loud cracking sound on top of a giant beetle. It hadn’t been there when he had last looked through before jumping in, and guessed this was what had Twonger running in terror. Before he had a chance to right himself, Bill and Ralth crashed down behind him, almost missing the beetle entirely.
Andy stood up and yelled, “Hey Twonger, need a lift?”
The alien turned his head and looked back. “Where the fuck did yos all come from? Is this some stupid initiation ritual? I really hate mushroom jungles!” He screamed out as he continued his run.
Andy created a black globe around each of the beetle's legs. Finding channeling was still just as easy here as it had been against the tree monster. He then poured in mana, rapidly increasing the gravity on each of the feet, causing the giant insect to crash forward as its legs stopped moving.
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This had the added effect of throwing the three of them forward off his head into a giant mushroom stem, knocking it over. Luckily for them, the stem was soft and helped to blunt their impact.
“Ugh, no more beetle riding for me, thanks,” Bill said.
“Twonger, we didn’t didn’t do this to you. Somehow, we all ended up scattered across these weird places in the abyss. I don’t know how yet, so get your ass back here so we can get back to the relative safety of our cave.” Andy yelled after the man who still hadn’t stopped running.
“Oh yeah, be anywhere with you idiots. Great idea. YOU JUST KNOCKED DOWN A MUSHROOM!” Twonger stopped, looked at them, and then started screaming about the mushroom.
“Okay, what’s your point?” Andy said.
“My point is fucking run towards however we get back because the mantises are going to be coming now!” Twonger yelled, dashing back towards them. His yell was accompanied by a loud hissing sound somewhere in the air.
“Guys, he’s right, there’s a giant group of something flying towards over there.” Bill pointed to what was now obviously the source of the sound. A large group of black dots that was growing by the second was moving towards.
Twonger ran past them, looking more panicked than before.
“Twonger, don’t go far. We just need to get up there!” Andy called to him and pointed to the hole back to the cave floating in the air about thirty feet up. The beetle hadn’t had time to carry them very far from where they had come through.
“Quick, with yer gravity magic, I don’t want to be anywhere near here when those things land.” Twonger’s voice had finally returned to a normal level.
Andy grouped everyone up in a circle under the portal and started channeling a single sizeable black ball around them. He then carefully lowered the gravity while channeling the ball to move up with them so as not to fire anyone straight up.
“Faster!” Twonger’s terror was back in his voice. The mantis swarm was nearly there.
Andy increased the speed slightly, not willing to risk overshooting and having to try this again. He didn’t think there was time for that. Even now, he wasn’t sure they were going to make it.
He could see the mantises clearly now. They resembled giant praying mantises, and they all looked ravenous.
The portal was so close now he just had to push them through it, and they would be safe. A claw swiped out at him. He felt it rake his back just as they were going through. Ralth, Bill, and Twonger were now entirely gone.
His back screamed in pain, and he just had to get himself through now. He pushed the pain down and risked pushing himself through faster. He had no choice. The risk paid off, and he crashed to the ground back inside the safety of the cave.
There was a loud sound behind him as one of the mantis heads started to come through after them. He saw Twonger turn and sock it directly in the jaw. “God damn mantises, I fucking hate yos things!” He yelled as he hit it again.
The last punch knocked the head back through, and the portal closed with a pop.