Liz squinted her eyes as the bright sky slightly blinded her, she tried to order her thoughts, to try to make sense of what just happened inside her soul.
What.
Was.
That?
“Lise, are you ok, did you have a bad dream?” Dere’s hand touched her shoulder.
Liz realised she was sweating and breathing heavily and tried to regain her composure.
“Yrrow t’nod, enif m’I, sey” She said, only to be answered by a confused look from Dere. “I’m fine… do worry not.” She said, now in this world's language.
Dere stared at her for a few moments, trying to inquire if she was telling the truth. Her lips curved on a small smile as she sat down again. “I guess I was worrying for nothing.”
Liz looked down as she began to create a mana coverage to protect them from the bright sky, just as she did yesterday. Slowly, tiny threads of mana began flowing from her fingers, creating the thin blue layer over their heads.
Most of the morning was uneventful, Iso kept directing the sandworm through the vast desert with the help of a little compass-like artefact attached to the front of the sledge.
Dere continued changing her position over and over again, she was sitting on the edge of the sledge, then lied down, she even ran next to it for some time, before getting bored and began annoying Liz and Iso again.
Liz spent most of the morning training, trying to uncover the secrets of how the mana moved through her body. Feeling every single particle flow from her soul to her body, traversing her mana circuit in its journey towards her fingers.
She focused, forcing it to move forward, it was hard, harder than most things she had done since she arrived in this world. Controlling individual particles is extremely challenging… She thought.
“Liseeeee, lets play with the ball.” A bored Dere said.
Liz frowned, before raising her gaze towards her. “Later… training.” She answered, before focusing on her mana again.
“But I’m boreeeed” She replied.
“Do care not… training.”
“Uhhh. Iso! Wanna play!?” Dere asked as she jumped next to him.
“I wouldn’t mind, but I have to keep directing the sandworm.” He answered.
“Boring.”
Iso’s ears fell slightly as he heard her reply. “Sorry…”
“Whatever…” Dere said, as she laid down in the back of the sledge again.
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A few moments later, she noticed Liz’s head rapidly turning to the side.
“Care!” She screamed behind her, before she could snap away from her confusion, her dangersense activated.
“Iso, barrier!” She ordered, as she took out her dagger.
“Mana, protect us…” When Iso started to chant, the sand before them blasted away as a giant monster leaped in their direction.
Dere saw its three pairs of limbs bending forward, ready to destroy the sledge and them with it. He won't finish in time. She thought, moving towards Iso.
“Liberate.” An explosion of blue mana throwed the monster to the side, making it fall on top of the sand.
Dere stared at the monster, analysing its body in search of weaknesses. It was at least 10 metres long, and completely covered in big dark brown scales, but it was Liz’s words that scared her the most.
“Elbisopmi… That's only an infant…” Dere rapidly activated her identification skill.
Infant sandtepide —> lvl 24
A chill fell down her spine as those words echoed in her mind, but she had to ignore them, because the monster charged against them once again.
Three blue needles nailed themselves on the sandtipede’s facial plates “Liberate.” Three blasts covered her vision for a moment, before the monster left the blue smoke unscathed, still charging towards them.
“Barrier.” A light green shield appeared right in front of the sledge, protecting them from the impact.
“Lise, can you stop it?” Dere asked, praying to receive an affirmative answer.
“Try…” The silver haired girl said, before the layer of mana that covered the sledge collapsed and became four floating spheres, like the ball they used to play.
The balls flew forward and sank in the ground next to the monster, but Liz didn’t seem to care, then, more and more mana surged from her body.
Dere could see it flowing from her hands, condensing into several thick needles that continued to fly straight to the monster. She was about to question Liz’s plan, when she saw the needles melting as their shape started changing.
Slowly, the needles that collided with the monster’s body changed shape, connecting to each other and forming three thick collars made of pure mana, binding the base of the creature's limbs.
“Join.” four thick threads of mana flew from each collar, connecting themselves with the four spheres that were anchored deep into the sand. “Now…”
Liz began, but Dere had already started moving. “Dash.” She swiftly closed the distance between her and the monster, cutting all of the monster’s right arms from their first joint.
She climbed on top of the monster’s face and began to pull one of the plates apart. My plan was to stab its eyes, but… She regretfully looked at the creature’s face, where two deep cavities sank into its skull much deeper than what her dagger could reach.
Her dagger easily cutted the soft flesh beneath the thick scales, and the blue mana around her began entering the wound, infecting the monster’s body.
Fuck! Her dangersense activated two seconds before one of the creature’s left arms pierced her chest, but it was still too late for her to react. My dash is still on cooldown. She turned around and faced the sharp limb, preparing to block it with her dagger.
“Barrier.” Once again, Iso’s light green mana stood between her and the danger, stopping the creature’s limb.
“Aggg...” She groaned, as a sharp spike of pain raised from her hips. When she looked down, a blue mana collar finished forming around her waist.
“Return, Liberate.” She felt a pull from and her body flew backwards towards the sledge, just before two more sharp limbs stabbed her previous position, then, the three collars that immobilised the monster, as well as all the mana that entered its body, exploded.
----------------------------------------
Dere felt a warm relaxing sensation as Iso’s magic healed the two holes that Liz’s needles left in her hips. She turned her head to the side, staring at the little girl whose arms were relentlessly bleeding black mana residue.
“I think that's all.” Iso said, as his hands moved away from her back and pulled her jacket and shirt down. “Do you feel any pain?”
“No, I’m fine now, all thanks to you.” She said, slightly sad.
“I didn’t do much, Lise and you were the ones who killed that...” Iso replied, but Dere cutted him off.
“Your barriers saved us.” She said. “And you have just healed my wounds, how many times do I have to tell you, your magic is really helpful.”
“You are right… sorry.” He said in a sad tone, before Liz approached them.
“Sorry…” She said, looking at the two holes in Dere’s jacket.
“Hey, no sad faces ok, we won, and my wounds are already healed.” Dere ordered as she stood up. “I’m not dealing with this kind of ‘post battle depression’ in my team.”
Liz looked at them mumbling something neither understood. “Good job!” She finally said smiling.
Dere took a mental photograph of her before walking towards the sandtipede’s corpse. “Now, what do we do with this?”