Excerpt From The Mad Scholar's Wall—

More than half of our over-strength legion — numbering 9350 before the hoard came — lay within the hundred thousand bodies of the beasts and our broken fort. 5000 brave men and women.

There should be no way to view that as anything other than the greatest of victories. When else had so few killed so many? Had held out so long?

Yet it was common to hear the whispers — among those who had the energy to talk at least — 'have we done anything to the hoard?' or 'Will we stop the hoard?'

I knew the answer. All those on the battlements and towers did. The fires burning in our fortress revealed the edges of the hoard. Seeing those shadowy figures in the night beyond and within the walls was bad enough.

When the lightning fell, lighting up the world, anyone who whispered the question would have known the answers if they were on the walls. I could not see its edge.

And yet I was not surprised. I had yet to see the edges of the hoard once in all the days and nights we had fought.

But at that moment, we unleashed an attack that was the culmination of days of preparation and weeks of planning, bought with our legion's blood and death. An attack that might have been the single most devastating attack we humans had ever unleashed was utterly insignificant and worthless in its face.

All it did was buy us time to watch our deaths approach. A slower death.

**********

My head throbbed.

I didn't move my eyes, I knew better, but the darkness within my eyelids still felt like it spun around me. Slowly the world regained its balance, and I was left with just the caltrops lodged behind my eyes.

They two would eventually fade away as my mental energy returned, but a minor ache in the back of my head will remain for a day or two. I was not looking forward to it.

“Heergg…" I groaned as I tried to roll over.

"Stay still." Said an exasperated voice, “Just… Hmm, wait a min— There we go."

I felt a hand press against my head, covering my eyes and pushing me firmly back to the ground. For a few seconds, I was left to wonder what she was talking about, then I felt something prob at my head.

At first, I wasn't sure what was happening. Thought it was my imagination, but then energy poured into me.

Shock stopped me from acting for a moment, as the energy seemed unhindered by the natural defenses a person should have, but I got past my surprise and acted.

Gathering up my scraps of mental energy despite the jabs of pain as I over-exerted myself, I threw them at the energy flooding into me.

As the two energies connected, the invading energy latched onto mine and… shifted.

That was the only way I can describe it.

The invading energy entered my body, connected to my mental energy, and became my mental energy.

It wasn't much energy, about a sixteenth of my total reserves, but it was enough that my head stopped throbbing. And the ache that comes after slowly regenerating one's mental energy over a day was nowhere to be felt.

Well, it might be there, but the line of pain on my forearm, my neck, and other spots across my back and legs drowned out the pain in my head to nothing.

The hand pulled away, and I waited a second before opening my eyes and blinking a few times to clear them.

I was on my back, looking up at the forest that was an hour from sunset. The limbs and leaves of the trees groaned in the soft breeze caressing my face.

Closing my eyes for a second, I enjoyed the wind as it brought the rich scents of grass, trees, and earth.

The creek and groan of leather moving next to me told me it was time to face the beastkin.

Opening my eyes, I turned my head and flashed my best smile at the woman. "Glad to see that you decided not to kill me."

Her ears perked up for a moment, and I might have seen concern on her face as I turned to face her. Then she scowled at me and looked annoyed.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

She was seated three feet to my left with her back to a large tree, the roots of the massive old tree poking out of the ground in a half-ring. Combined with a natural divot, we were at the bottom of a bowl. As I turned to look to my right, I saw a boulder making up the last wall of our little shelter.

With a few grunts and me throwing more charming smiles as Miss Grumpy-glare to try and lessen her annoyance, I repositioned myself, putting my back to the rock, facing her.

"We should talk." said the beastwoman in a normal tone of voice.

I gave a look of concern before looking at the sky and trees over the edge of our hiding place.

She only snorted, "Hump, no one will hear us. So long as you don't brake my spell and know me out… again."

I smiled sheepishly at her and rubbed the back of my head, “Yeah… Umm, sorry about that. I was just trying to talk to you." I didn't add that her smug attitude might have caused me to try and open a mental link between us in a way that some… might consider… rude. Ok, a borderline attack, but I didn't mean for it to be that way!

She gave me a flat stair that made me squirm. "And that is the only reason that you are still alive." She finally said.

My smile froze on my face at her words, as I could tell that she meant them.

Taking a moment, I closed my eyes and then took a long deep breath.

Opening them, I gave her a friendly smile, "How bout we start over a little, I'm Green." I said, leaning forward and sticking out my arm.

She looked at me for a few long seconds, and I stayed in place before she gave a slight nod. "Kaneita," She said, sticking out her own hand and clasping my forearm with it.

We held onto each other for a second, looking the other in the eye before letting go and leaning back.

As I settled back down, I could feel the lightening of the atmosphere in our little shelter after the simple act of exchanging our names. It wasn't entirely friendly, but it was better than our constant tension and weariness since our first meeting.

There was something to be said for building the foundation of a relationship when both parties had the opportunity to kill the other and chose not to.

"So," I said, "Care to explain how you refilled my energy reserves? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm thankful and all, but it's a well-accepted fact that what you just did was impossible," I looked around for someone in the little bowl, "Oh, and what we're supposed to be doing out here. I guess that's kind of important."

A smile twitched at her lips. "You would rather ask about how I gave you my mana rather than what we are going in the forest that will save the lives of tens of thousands?"

“…Yes?" I asked more than said. I mean, really, I was more interested in the answer at this moment. It might change soon, but curiosity ruled me for now.

Her smile filled her entire face, and she threw back her head as she laughed. Eventually, she regained control, wiping away some tears from her eyes, then looked at me.

"Ok, I'll sate your curiosity." She said, "Mana, what we call our energy, is very adaptable. If we inject it straight from our bodies into yours, it will convert to your psy and refill your reserves, or overflow if it is already full, leaking out of you."

"Mental energy," I offhandedly corrected before asking her to clarify her caveat, "What happens if it's not direct."

A look of discomfort and unease passed over her face for a moment, "Searing agony and eventually death. Usually, at least. Sometimes people survive. Physically at least, their minds aren't whole afterward."

Her face twisted with a look like she was looking back into her memory at something unpleasant. "Some find pleasure in threatening prisoners with that fate…" Then she blinked as a thought occurred to her. "Wait, isn't psy the accepted term for your people? I thought mental energy was outdated."

My back stiffened at the remark, "Psy is the world the human scholars have been peddling the last few hundred years. Mental energy is the traditional usage of us elves. So you are saying that you can completely refill my pool once I run dry?"

"Ohhh, I see," She said, a teasing smirk appearing on her face, "And no. Through my people's testing through mana and psy energies, psy users have significantly larger pools of internal energy. For example, how much of your psy pool did I fill?"

I squinted my eyes at Kaneita, who was giving me a look like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. She was the picture of innocence as she blinked at me with an expectant look on her face. Finally, I said, "My mental energy pool was refilled to about a sixteenth of its maximum."

"Ohh," she said, holding a hand up to her face and tails lifting over her head with a look of shock and pity, "I'm so sorry. I guess that you're smaller than average. Most get even less psy than that."

My jaw was clenched in annoyance at her, and I really thought of using the tiny bit of mental energy I had and picking up a rock and smacking her with it.

"Anyway," she said cheerily, in her sweet dripping voice, "We have found that while we have less mana, we can regenerate our mana far faster. See—

She abruptly leaned forward, poking me in the leg with a finger through a hole in my pants I don't remember getting, releasing another burst of energy into my body.

"I have already fully recharged my mana," She continued as she sat back. My annoyance with her was vanishing as she shared her knowledge. "So we can last longer. Also, whenever we cast a spell — that's what we call our usage of mana — the world itself reinforces our spells adding to its power. So we aren't at as much of a disadvantage as you would think. Also, mana can do more with less training compared to… psy."

I let the information sink in. It was… fascinating. The world itself helping reinforce and power a casting… it would be amazing! But one thing was bothering me.

"Do you know why my people are affected in such ways while you don't directly inject energy?"

She shook her head, "Nope, never been able to figure that out."

Our conversation continued as we talked about more complex mana usage and mental energy and if there was any relation.

As we talked, she would lean forward and push her energy into me, speeding up my recovery.

"Ahh, there we go," Kaneita said when she injected me with her mana, and I started overflowing with mental energy as she filled me up. "I guess we can get going now that you're full."

"Hmm? Oh, yeah!" I said, starting to get up, following her lead, "Guess I am full of mental energy… Wait! You never said where we are going!"

Throwing a look back at me when she was already mostly over the root, she said, "Guess not, huh?" Then she finished her vault and started running into the night forest.