Ever the cautious one though, Aiko decided not to just take off and run for distant branches. She wanted to test it as much as possible so she jumped back and forth between these two branches that she had already bridged the gap several more times. Every time she imagined the illusory branch to be there it was right where she wanted it.
On the fourth try, she noticed a window pop up in her system. She stopped for a moment to read the message and then began giggling maniacally. The message gave her so much more than what she was expecting.
Congratulations! You have learned the new Spell Airjump. Congratulations! Due to your high proficiency with your Holy Chaos Magic and having already learned the Airjump spell you have now learned the spell Airwalk.
She stopped for a bit and checked the Airjump spell out and couldn’t stop the fit of laughter from boiling over as She read and reread the description. The caster of this Spell Can spend a point of Mana to create an illusory platform that will allow them to jump nimbly through the air. It requires the user to already have a running start and have jumped before they can create the platform. However, platforms do not have to be at the same level and can ascend or descend in the air allowing the user to scale distances, heights, and depths that should be impossible for them as long as they have a running start. This Spell also does not have to be taken in a straight line and will allow the user to Conjure as many platforms as they have points of Mana in any direction they so choose.
Aiko couldn’t contain her joy and began nimbly jumping from one platform in the air to the next. As she went higher and higher into the tree, at many points along the way, she didn’t even bother staying in the tree and just made platforms next to it. Once she reached a branch three-quarters of the way up the tree, she stopped to check her mana and make sure that she wasn’t going to suddenly fall out of the air.
To her surprise, she found that her mona pool had grown again but she decided that it was still a good stopping point. At least until she checked the other spell and read through it. The description of Airwalk left her mouth gaping.
The Caster of this spell can spend a few points of Mana to create a straight solid path through the air that the caster and any they choose can walk across. The path cannot be any longer than the height of the caster times their number of Mana points spent and will only remain for that number of heartbeats. The caster can cancel the Airwalk Spell at any time to recover the Mana points remaining in the casting of the spell.
Aiko looked at the number of mana points that she had left and winced now was not the time to try this second spell. Still, she certainly had enough points to jump between the branches a few more times. Looking around she spotted the original branch that she was running along and looked into the sky to judge her general direction.
She took off running towards a tree that was to the right of the rising sun, or in this case, away from the right of the setting sun. When she got to the end of the branch, she didn’t hesitate and jumped nimbly out onto a branch of blue fog that appeared in front of her. She bounded several steps over it before reaching the next tree. She let out a quick chuckle as she climbed quickly down the trunk of that next tree and took off again.
Aiko continued this pattern of jumping from branch to branch, tree to tree. Over the empty spaces between trees, she jumped using her spells. She only took breaks to eat lunch, and supper, and go to sleep.
After leaving the elves' wood she found it had gotten a lot colder and she remembered the time before she visited the elves. Back then, she would have to descend to the ground to rake leaves into a pile and pull them over the top of herself to stay warm. Now however, she was able to simply find a nice spot in the crook of a branch and pull out a blanket, wrap up, and go to sleep cozy every night.
Every night she was sure to say a prayer to the gods, just as Atha had taught her. And every night, she would go to sleep, secure in the blankets’ reminder and the scent of Atha.
Aiko woke up the next morning to the sound of branches snapping beneath the tree that she was in. She blearily looked around and almost fell out of the tree when she forgot that she was no longer in a wide soft bed but curled up on a branch. After carefully rubbing her clawed hands across her eyes to relieve herself of some of the blurriness, she looked about and immediately spotted the reason for her abrupt descent from dreamland.
Confidently striding through the woods, not a dozen meters away, was a tall muscular figure without a strip of clothing on. That only served to show off his bizarre features. The, He, In that being made very obvious by the feature on full display between his legs. Each of those legs looked to be almost as big around as the trunk of some of the trees around her. But the features that stood out by far the most, were his bright, blood-red skin and the six shiny black horns protruding from his forehead and working their way around the right side of his bald head.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
Aiko got busy putting her blanket away in her backpack and strapping her gear on while she observed the strange creature crashing about in the forest below. As he turned his head and began sniffing the air she got a good glance at his facial features and noticed a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth along with a pair of tusks jutting from his lips in both vertical directions. After a few moments of not finding anything to suit his sense of smell, he began walking away to Aiko’s right.
Against her better judgment, Aiko decided that she was going to follow this strange creature for a bit but was very careful to always make sure that she stayed downwind from him. She isn’t exactly sure what he might have done if she had been upwind of him at the time he was sniffing around but with a mouthful of blades like the ones he displayed, she decided she really didn’t want to find out.
After running about for a bit he stopped and began sniffing more until he found what he was after. There in a small pile on the forest floor were the droppings of some creature or another. At first, Aiko didn’t think too terribly much of this until the creature reached down and cupped the air above them pushing it toward his face.
At that point, she was more disgusted than anything, that is, until he suddenly jumped up startling the life out of her. Then all at once the creature took several bounding leaps in an odd direction away from her. She was left in such a daze that she had to hurry to catch up, spending mana several times on her Airjump ability just to catch branches that would let her keep up with him.
After running for several moments, the creature came to a skidding halt and then began sniffing the air again. With a sudden sense of panic, Aiko wet her finger and stuck it up to feel the direction the air was blowing in. With an immense sense of relief she could tell that the wind was blowing her scent away from the creature but then what was he sniffing for?
She didn’t have to wait long to get her answer. A few moments later the creature suddenly thrust his hand up to the elbow into a Bush and it looked like his hand disappeared into the ground. an instant later he drew his hand back with a small squealing creature held in his grip. without a moment’s hesitation, he brought it directly to his mouth and took a big bite out of its neck silencing the poor creature permanently.
Aiko was almost violently ill from the site but managed to hold herself together. As the creature slowly walked away, she began thinking to herself that perhaps she should go back and warn the elves that such a dangerous creature was so very near to their village. However, something told her that she should continue watching it a little longer. Following whatever instinct was guiding her, she bounded through the trees after the hulking brute and quickly caught up with it.
Once again, she was very careful to make sure that she always stayed downwind of the creature. Which, at this point, meant being constantly bathed in the nauseating scent of blood. Aiko reminded herself that at least it was not her blood and she intended to keep it that way.
She was rewarded for her efforts when, shortly after she had begun following the creature, he made his way into a clearing and joined a larger group of the same Redskinned brutes. somehow she knew that these were called ogres even though she had never seen one before or even heard of one before. She had to chalk this up to system shenanigans again. She settled herself on the branch to observe the creatures for a bit.
The creature, ogre she corrected herself, began mingling with several of the other ogres in the clearing. To her surprise, he handed the largest portion of the carcass that he had been carrying to a pair of smaller, probably juvenile, ogres. The pair seemed to shrink from him until the moment that he handed them food. Then, they grabbed the food and ran away before nauseatingly devouring the carcass raw. They even began clawing at each other to get more of the animal.
At that point, Aiko couldn’t hold it back anymore and barfed all over the branch that she was standing on. If she wasn’t sure before, there was no doubt left in her mind, that this was something that she should definitely tell the elves about.
Wiping the vomit from the corners of her mouth, Aiko began looking around only to discover that her path of travel was actually on the side of the clearing that she was on. The elves were on the other side of the clearing. Thinking about it again, Aiko realized that the elves should be fine since she had been mostly running through the trees without many breaks for five whole days.
She was still debating trying to skirt the ogres and go back to warn the elves when the decision was made for her. The large red-skinned ogre that she had been following turned to regard one of the smaller females. when she commented that he seemed to be acting strange, he replied to her that he was not sure what, but something seemed to be following him.
At that point, he looked almost directly at Aiko and she decided that it was far too dangerous to stick around. If she’d been noticed already, the last thing that she needed to do was lead them directly to the elves. With any luck, she might just lead them away from the elves if she continued on her journey as she had planned. Also, she wasn’t exactly sure what but something seemed to reassure her that this was the right decision.
Aiko never saw the Redskin ogres make any attempt to follow her. She also didn’t stop long enough to take that chance. She just continued along her predetermined path, heading to the middle right of the rising sun.