We arced around in a semi-circle as we moved back to make sure that we didn’t just walk back along the paths that we’d already picked over. Midway back, we found another small clearing.

The center of the clearing was dominated by a small chunk of soil that was floating in midair, with a large bush set into it. The bush had blue leaves, instead of green, and it was laden with so many glimmering silvery berries that it was actually causing some of the branches of the bush to bough. Gusts of wind moved through the leaves, seemingly from nowhere at all. I saw Kene’s eyes go wide.

And then a pair of people descended from the air, wind whipping around them.

The pair looked somehow both identical and completely opposite. Their faces were the same, but one was short and stocky, while the other was tall and painfully thin. One was clearly presenting more femininely, while the other was presenting more masculinely.

“Stay away from the plant and you don’t need to get hurt!” the pair said, speaking in exact unison.

For a moment, I thought that I would have to back off – a pair of flying mages meant they were both likely third gate, and even if it was a fresh ascension, I wasn’t confident in taking on two of them.

But as I swept my mana senses over them more closely, I wasn’t entirely sure. They were keeping tight veils over their spirits, ones I couldn’t peirce, since I didn’t have the ability to cast Analyze Mana-Garden.

But their shoes weren’t veiled.

Both of them wore nearly identical pairs of sandals, made of a variety of criss-crossing leather straps that looked like a pain to actually wear, and the shoes were putting off third gate mana in a very familiar pattern – a pattern that reminded me of my own broom.

I’d heard that flying shoes were more popular in other parts of the world, but I’d never personally seen them before. Still, I would have bet everything I owned on the fact that these were flying shoes.

If they were really third gate mages, I didn’t think they’d be veiling themselves.

So I took a page from the book of the mineral mage.

“Fight for the plant,” I said, “first blood, no killing blows.”

Dusk poked her head out of her pocket and whistled, saying it would be two by two – she didn’t want our healer getting caught up in this.

The two exchanged a glance, then nodded and both released a jolt spell at me. I teleported forwards, then twisted and teleported onto the floating chunk of earth. It began to sink with my weight, but the twins were caught off guard by the rapid shifting of movement.

I unleashed Briarthreads at both of them, not wanting to waste the mana on a locking spell that their shoes could just rip through. Besides, it was a first blood duel, not an actual fight.

Identical barrier winds whipped around the twins in miniature cyclones, which knocked my briarthreads away.

Dusk, however, had been waiting for this moment. She unleashed her own spell, and her shockwave smashed through the cyclones.

Whatever the defensive spell was, though, it was strong. Her shockwave dissipated them, but didn’t punch through.

The twin tempest mages both unleashed another short ranged jolt spell, and I was glad they didn’t have access to the infamous third gate spell, Lightning Bolt. Even with my aura, that would have hurt.

As was, the spells singed through the leftover briarthreads, and I took the moment to teleport away.

I shot a bone shard at each of them, and they extended their hands in unison. A powerful, buffeting gust of wind blew the shards off course, and I tapped a spell that I hadn’t used much, despite having it mastered.

Transport Item.

I teleported the bone shards behind the mages, and both of them took a Pinpoint Boneshard to the back, unstabilizing their flight and causing them to tumble forward, but their clothes had defensive enchantments woven through them, as the attacks didn’t draw blood.

But I still had other bone shards.

I drew two more from my spirit and set them spinning around me, then teleported the two attacking shards to my hand before firing them off again.

Their defensive cyclones re-appeared, and I tried to teleport the shards inside of the defensive spell, but it felt like trying to push through concrete – the mana in the area was too dense and under the will of someone else for me to just teleport through it.

Dusk sent me a couple of quick thoughts and slid down my leg, and I nodded.

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The twins shot more bolts at me, and I teleported to the side to dodge, then released two of my boneshards at each them, dropping the pretense of keeping two in a defensive position. The twins closed their eyes and intensified the cyclone protecting them, overcharging the spell.

How amateurish did you need to be with mana manipulation to need to close your eyes for that?

I teleported into the air above the twins and released an overcharged Briarthreads at them as I recalled my bone shards into my spirit.

The attack was caught up in the winds by and large, which I’d expected, but my weight thumping down on them still overloaded their flying shoes and caused them to hit the ground.

Where Dusk’s spell kicked in.

Hundreds of tiny hands, barely bigger than her own, rose out of the ground. None of them were strong on their own, but there were just so many of them. They grabbed onto the twin’s clothes, onto the twin’s skin, their hair, and slowly pulled them down, leaving me untouched to rise to my feet.

The defensive cyclones faded under the assault of hundreds of tiny hands, and I sliced one of their cheeks with a Briarthread.

“I win,” I said, then dusted my hands off and picked up Dusk. She released her spell, and the earth snapped back to normal.

The twins stood, shot me a near identical hateful look, then turned and flew off without a word.

“You’ve gotten a lot better at this from the time we fought the troll,” Kene observed, giving me a smirk. “And since you’ve got your first full-gate spell up, I guess that really does make you a bodymage battleguard.”

I tried to give them an annoyed look, but I couldn’t manage it – I was actually quite pleased with the compliment.

“So, what is this bush?” I asked. “Obviously some kind of tempest bush, probably focused on wind.”

The sense the plant gave off was third gate, which was too strong for me to work with in my current cauldron, but once I hit third gate would be useful.

“It’s a gibbous wind bush,” Kene said. “The berries bloom during the gibbous moon, and they’re infused with a mix of creation and tempest mana, tempered with lunar, life, death, and telluric. The berries can be used kind of like a weak version of mana-apples, but they’re able to work on just about any type of mana, with varying degrees of effect.”

“Primes,” I swore. “That’s pretty good. How about the leaves?”

I studied them with my mana sense, and even powered Analyze Life.

“I’m guessing the leaves can be used for flight potions?” I asked.

“Flight, weight reduction, jumping… Paired with some stonesprout, it can be great for levitation. It’s also got some use in making elixirs to bolster wind spells, and even haste potions – though it can’t do that on its own, using it to spread tempest mana through the body can be a good supplemental material.”

I whistled, and glanced at Kene and Dusk.

“Mind if we store it in her demiplane for now, then split the berries?”

“Go for it,” Kene said.

Dusk jumped onto the floating chunk of earth and slowly absorbed it. Once she was done, she opened a portal. I drew a spatial tripwire around it, just sketching the spell, rather than setting up a full ward.

Once we were inside, I shut the portal, and we split the berries three ways. I popped the first one into my mouth and crunched down.

Instantly there was a crackling of power that spun through my spirit and settled gently in my mana in an uneven distribution that leaned towards pushing away mists first, and building walls second.

The power faded much faster than the mana apple had, and the effect was nowhere near as extreme, but there was one noticeably good effect.

“Hey, the very last bit of mists from my second gate death mana have gone!” I said, popping another berry into my mouth.

Dusk whistled out her congratulations, and Kene grinned, his sharp teeth on full display.

“Nice,” they said, popping another berry into their mouth. I did the same.

None of the berries were especially powerful on their own, and things like berries and apples tended to have less mana toxin than a full potion, but we each still had a third of a fifteen-year stockpile to work through, if Kene’s estimation of the plant’s size and age was right. We wound up having to stop part way through our piles, and left Dusk’s realm shortly after.

The berries we’d worked through had done quite a number on my mana, blowing back much of the mists in the space and time portions of my second gates as well, and though neither were complete, both were now near the three quarters mark.

It had done less for my first gate’s walls, but it had done a little, which was nice.

As we made our way back towards the entrance, all of our mana senses – and even our ears – caught the sounds of a skirmish.

There was a creaking sound, and then a tree started to move. My spatial sense caught the movement before my eyes did, and I yanked Kene out of the way and ran to the side.

Once the tree had fallen, knocking over a few other, smaller trees, I was able to get a look at the battle.

There was a clear spring that was bubbling up around the center of the battle, and it radiated third gate lunar mana, but that wasn’t the real prize, at least not to my mind.

Growing in the wet ground around the spring were four of the broad-leafed purple and gold plants that could be used to gather a drop of destiny.

Of course, there were people fighting over it already, and to my dread, I recognized both of the parties that were fighting.

A familiar shadow claw spell met the fiery blade of a mineral mage, and a white haired vampire slid up behind them to release a blood spell I didn’t recognize.

But the mineral mage had a partner now, a medium height man with a smoothly polished bald head, who radiated third gate mana. He clapped, and the space around them… twisted.

More than space, I could feel physical mana gushing out, and everything in the small space began to twist, jerking and spinning in a circular motion – the bald man and mineral mage included. Mallory’s attack went askew, and Riley’s blood spell missed entirely as they were rotated around to one side. The mineral mage’s sword went wide, and with a grin, the bald man lashed out with a force empowered punch that threw Riley back.

Then space reverted and everything was normal, the third gate mage bounding out of the way of a lightning marble.

I was wrong, then. There weren’t two parties fighting, this was more of a free-for-all over the resources in the glade, and as far as I could tell, the twisty third gate mage was winning. He didn’t even seem to be disoriented as things in the glade spun around wildly again.

When it stopped, Mallory spotted me.

“Help us!” she said. “We’ll split it!”

The mineral mage glanced over and wiped some blood off, where it had glued their hair to their cheek.

“Assist me, even split.”

The twisty mage turned to look at us and waved pleasantly.

“Hey! Feel free to join in the scrap, on your own, together, heck, sit it out if you want. This had been great practice, and let me tell you, I’m pretty sure that the werewolf’s gave me an idea for a burnt chicken, pepper honey, and chocolate mustard sandwich!”

Mallory clutched at her stomach.