A smile crept up on Glenn's face, the two runic rings surrounding his Mana Heart humming violently as they span at incredible speed. Never had he felt so much Mana gather at once, and rarely had he seen his Circles shine so strongly.
'It's almost burning my eyes...Wait, it is!' Glenn realized a second too late, a burning white color replacing his sight. He almost let go of his concentration on the Circles and felt his chest tighten. An intense pain seized his heart as if it was going to blow up like a tiny bomb.
Glenn clenched his teeth and strengthened his hold over the Circles, manipulating them back to safety. A second later, his Mana was entirely recovered, but there was a slight issue.
The Circles weren't stopping.
And with that, they kept on drawing more and more Mana.
Much more than Glenn was able to contain.
'Oh shit.'
He snapped his eyes open, just in time to witness an enormous skeletal spider come out of the forest, sweeping her long but bonny legs at the mercenaries. Glenn threw a quick look at Reed, only to notice the mercenary standing on trembling legs, his sword broken in two.
'Well, I have no idea of what happened, but I might need to go all out. And I do need someplace to get rid of all this Man–' Glenn barely thought of it when a pulse of power came out of his body, manifesting in a visible wave of blue energy. The young man felt his left hand burning up and the Mana gathering around it.
'W...What? Glenn, I don't know what you did, but if you want to use me, now is the only God damned time!' Diamanes stammered with difficulty, unable to register the sudden amount of Mana that had appeared out of nowhere. Glenn drew a deep breath and squinted, trying to concentrate on the Mana and weave it like he wanted. A Blackhole was great against waves of enemies, but against one big creature like Mommy-long-leg over there, he needed something more...precise.
An otherworldly cold transpired out of the purple hand, while the celestial energy from his Mana Heart swirled into a Blackhole, only it looked a little different from all the ones he used previously. That spell was something he had in mind for a long time, but never got the chance to try. He clenched his teeth as the cold bit into his skin, the young man trying to forcefully combine the properties of the Nitrogen with the Blackhole.
A thin layer of ice began to cover his arms as his Mana kept on pouring into the creation of the spell. Sadly for Glenn, but even sadder for the Bone Spider, it seemed like the young man's Circles weren't stopping their draw on Mana any time soon.
'Holy shit, did you find some kind of glitch to get infinite Mana or something? Are you going to implode? That would be... a little cool, I'll be honest,' Diamanes admitted with an admirative tone, Glenn's eyelids flinching as he tried to remain concentrated. The Blackhole greedily devoured the Nitrogen coming from Diamanes, forming a supercooled sphere that spun extremely slowly. The ball was inflating on itself, menacing to implode at any second.
The Bone Spider, completely unaware of the coming threat, was somehow screeching through its non-existent vocal cords, piercing and cutting mercenaries one after the other with its long bone legs. It suddenly turned its giant skull at Glenn, two green flames burning inside its eyes sockets.
If a bead of sweat could have dropped from its skull, it would have.
A second later, Glenn willed for the Mana to erupt, and a beam of concentrated power shot out at immense speed, piercing through the giant Bone Spider while freezing everything in its path, be it moving or unmoving corpses. The few zombies that were still trying to attack the convoy were pulled into the beam and reduced to dust in the Nitrogen-powered beam. Glenn finally felt the wave of Mana recede, and fell on his knees, gasping. He clenched at his chest, feeling his heart beating at an inhuman speed.
"We...We won?" Reed couldn't help but ask aloud, dropping his broken sword next to him. The clanging noise of the metal on the ground rang the end of the battle, and finally, everyone took a deep breath. Everyone but Glenn of course, since he was struggling to even breathe a wisp of air.
'Okay, that might not have been the best–Argh–!...The best time to test my theory,' He thought painfully. He looked up at the damage he caused and forgot the pain for a second. Where the Bone Spider previously stood, only a few broken bones were lying around, witnesses to the powerful creature they belonged to.
'Well, who could have guessed that?' Diamanes scoffed in his host's mind, smacking his lips together, '...Who would have thought that forcing your Circles to draw Mana at abnormal speeds could have side effects?'
The young man shook his head, grabbing the side of the cart he was kneeling in with a shaking hand. His vision was blurry, but it was gradually getting better.
'...Yeah, I should have expected that much. Shit, I'm pretty sure I was close to exploding myself, right there,' Glenn gulped and almost slapped himself.
'Why am I always risking more dangerous stuff one after the other? Do I just hate living or something?' He couldn't help but angrily ask himself, before realizing that no one would possibly answer him. He brought his trembling hand to his face, rubbing his forehead.
Reed sighed loudly as he fell on the ground and sat against the carriage, panting heavily while looking at his hands in amazement.
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"I...I survived." He paused, before sniffling emotionally, "...Shit, I survived again," He muttered, his head leaning on his chest. Glenn couldn't see his expression, but he was sure from the mercenary's tone that it was a sorrowful one.
'Anyway, all of that didn't bring me one step closer to getting my Third Circle, in the end. I just managed to almost blow myself up,' He sarcastically thought, pushing himself on his feet and jumping out of the carriage with wobbly steps. He looked at the edge of the forest silently, pressing his lips together when he looked at the destruction he caused with his combined spell.
'Do you know what time is it?' Diamanes suddenly asked mysteriously. Glenn raised an eyebrow.
'...No?'
The sound of a drumroll echoed in Glenn's mind, and Diamanes exclaimed excitedly.
'It's...Naming time! Yes, your absolute favorite time of the year, when we have a new spell to show you, my dear viewers, and we haven't given it a name yet! Can you guess what will it be? If yes, send a text to the 3333!' The entity exclaimed with its best impression of a television announcer. Glenn groaned.
'...Damn it, why must you be in that part of my memories?'
Diamanes kept on going, unperturbed and uncaring of his host's opinion.
'For the first contender, we have a way to surcharge your Mana Circles and make them go over their limits to gather Mana more efficiently and rapidly, but risking considerable damage in the process. I propose–'
'That'll be Overload,' Glenn cut him off dryly.
'...Hehhh, that's not that bad,' Diamanes admitted approvingly, before going back to his showman's voice.
'Anyway! Time to name the incredible spell that's inspired by a Kamehameha but with a chilling touch of gravity!' Diamanes hollered, his voice suddenly multiplying to create an illusion of a crowd cheering and applauding. Glenn was lost for words at the sudden spectacle. Diamanes waited a little, before chuckling loudly.
'I hear you, I hear you. So, since our dear host proposed quite a nice name previously, do y'all think he could repeat this exploit?' Diamanes roared, before extending a mental microphone at Glenn. The young man blinked at the image Diamanes was trying to show him, before trying to come up with a name on the spot.
'Huh, Cold Laser of Dea–' The mental crowd suddenly booed Glenn away, and the young man shook his head dejectedly. What was he even expecting from this kind of bullshit anyway?
'It seems like miracles only happen once,' Diamanes commented with a dispirited tone. He soon retrieved his happy voice, though, and continued his show.
'...Oh? I heard an incredible suggestion! The Nitrogen Lance is a perfectly fitting name! Thank you all for watching, and I'll see you again next time for another episode of "What kind of shitty name is Glenn going to propose this time?"'
Diamanes pulled a mental curtain, before going back to normal. Glenn's foot lightly tapped on the ground with annoyance, and the young man stared at his left hand with a lost look.
'...You're done?'
A discreet smile appeared in the mouth, showing all of its white teeth. The young man closed his hand hurriedly, groaning in discontentment.
'Yes, at least for now, I think. That was fun–no, to use your terms, it was a pleasant stress reliever,' Diamanes happily said, before going back to watch whatever show he pulled that thing from.
"...What stress do you even need to relieve...?" Glenn grumbled, but Dimaanes remained silent. The young man sighed, heading for Monsieur Maron's transport with the satisfaction of having two new concrete spells, even though Overload was more of a technic than a spell. Javier was standing on top of the carriage, watching around like a hawk. Strangely, his quiver was full, as if he hadn't shot anything. Glenn knew for a fact that the silent hunter killed his share of zombies, though.
The door of the carriage suddenly opened in a loud noise, Maron popping his head out curiously. He didn't look too afraid, just very much annoyed.
"...Is it done? Finally? Am I paying you all for that kind of matter to take the whole evening? And now we're forced to camp, I suppose?" The merchant grumbled, before complaining in his beard.
"...A bunch of incompetents, that's what you all are. Tsk!" The door slammed back shut as the merchant took shelter in his carriage. Glenn shrugged and walked around the perimeter of the carriage. One of the less injured mercenaries approached him, probably taking him for a figure of authority, Maron remaining in a state where his decisions were...questionable.
"...Sir," The mercenary respectfully said, glancing at the missing part of the forest. Glenn rubbed his face tiredly, before nodding at the man in front of him.
'I guess power does come with responsibilities. Sigh...'
"Your name?"
"...Jorin, Sir."
"Perfect. Prepare a report on the casualties of the mercenaries, and check with the workers if anyone got wounded. As soon as the report is ready, bring it to me," The mercenary opened his mouth to answer, but Glenn suddenly frowned.
"...Wait, no, give your rapport to Reed over there. I don't have the time to lead you all. If you need direct help, go find Sahro or something. I have to find whoever brought this many undead on the troupe, or it's just going to be rinse and repeat until everyone is dead," The young man suddenly decided. Jorin looked at Reed, the mercenary almost half-asleep out of exhaustion, and shrugged.
In the end, it remained above his pay grade to judge his superiors' orders. As long as he survived and got paid, that was the most important. The Dark Gold Fixer wasn't really his superior, but considering most officers had been transformed into packs of meat back in Palancar and that the employer seemed a bit out of it, the role rightfully came to the strongest around. And in his eyes, Glenn was that guy.
Not that the man was particularly pleased with that decision.
'Don't they have a mercenary leader? What's his name, Dolan, Doran, whatever...Where the hell is he?' Glenn grumbled, before answering his question by himself.
'...Of course he died, he was one of the flesh puppets. Darn it, isn't there a sub-officer or someone else? I don't want to lead those guys...'
Diamanes' sneers echoed in Glenn's mind.
'Heh, are you scared of the weight of responsibilities?' The entity taunted only met with an uncaring shrug.
'No, I'm just lazy, really.'
The honesty of the statement took Diamanes by surprise and shut him up, for Glenn's greatest pleasure. The young man looked at the edge of the forest and at the icy path he accidentally carved. There was a good chance the one who controlled the undead was at the end of this path.
'Hey, Diamanes.' Glenn suddenly called to his friend. The entity groaned, listening. The young man smiled pensively, looking at the destruction he caused.
'Imagine I killed the summoner with that attack.'
The entity sneered.
'Heh, you wish.'
Glenn put his hands in his pocket and walked next to the path of ice, following it. That was the general direction the undead came from, so it was as good as any. At least the ice trail would lead him straight back to camp.
'Yeah, no way I killed whoever bastard that was.'