An impulse took over before Alex could even think, but he made no effort to deny the voice in his head. They were completely in sync, after all. He turned and began racing over to Becca and Anthony, taking in the situation as he rapidly approached.
Becca had fallen to the ground but didn’t seem to be injured beyond her pained expression. Anthony was moving to assist her but Alex had reacted so quickly that he hadn’t gotten into position yet.
The boar had passed Becca but it hadn’t been going full speed, so it turned to take advantage of her stumble fairly quickly. Alex’s claymore went directly through its ribcage and out its neck like the reinforced bones weren’t even there.
Without missing a beat, he unsheathed his longsword and turned back to his original target. He’d moved so quickly that it hadn’t had time to react, but he had to make sure that it didn’t move to overwhelm Jess. He was surprised to see an arrow plant itself deep in the boar’s neck before he reached it. Muhammad had beaten him to the punch.
The wound was undoubtedly lethal, but Alex moved forward to finish the beast off before checking on Becca. The strength that had flooded his limbs faded as the fight ended, leaving him with some weariness from buff exhaustion, though it wasn’t nearly as acute as his experience earlier in the day.
He sat down next to Becca, who was still on the ground. She was rubbing at her ankle with a grimace.
“Are you alright?” He asked.
“I’m fine,” She frowned, “The boar didn’t even get me. I tripped instead of dodging.”
“Better than getting hit by a tusk,” Alex reasoned, “Not too bad.”
“Don’t patronize me,” She snapped, “It was an easily avoidable mistake and I tripped over my own feet.”
Anthony interrupted, “No one is patronizing you, Becca. The boar was coming at you pretty fast. Stumbling like that got you out of the way, which is the important thing.”
At this point, Jess and Muhammad had reached them, and Jess chimed in, “How’s your ankle feeling? Can you walk on it?”
“I think it’s sprained,” Becca replied. That explained why she was upset. Alex had been initially taken aback by her hostility, but he wasn’t too surprised after learning about the injury. He didn’t think that they had any healing potions meant for an injury like that, so she was probably out for the trial. Anthony had brought along a few potions that would help with triage so that a major injury might become survivable until the end of the trial, but any true healing required more power than a Tier 0 potion could hold.
“Let me look,” Anthony said, “It might just be a bruise.” He started putting her through a few tests to see if her ankle could hold her weight, and the other two made their way next to Alex while Anthony worked.
“I think we figured out your aura,” Jess noted, “When you charged the boar that was attacking Becca, we were both flooded with strength. I assume Anthony and Becca were as well.”
“I was,” Becca agreed. Anthony just nodded before going back to lightly pressuring Becca’s ankle. Alex almost made a joke about playing with his girlfriend’s feet, but the aura was more pressing.
“The arrow you put in the boar’s neck?” Alex asked Muhammad.
“This bow is great,” Muhammad smiled, “It’s heavy enough that my normal limits are only around a half draw, but it still fires just fine. With the aura’s boost, I was able to get a lot more power.”
“Anything in particular you did to trigger the aura?” Jess asked, “If it’s repeatable, we can roll over the trial easily enough.”
Alex paused, thinking it over. It hadn’t felt like an impulse, not really. He’d been fully in concert with his mana type at that moment. Unlike the jump.
The thought brought him back to the jump. The feeling of a rising impulse that he hadn’t wanted to go through with. The terror as he had jumped anyway.
He felt the weight on his soul keenly, at that moment. The terror of his body acting without his conscious assent was horrifying, without the immediate danger to distract him he was forced to live through it again. He had been Inspired, suddenly acting well beyond what should’ve been his physical limits. The mana type’s control over him was reminiscent of his experience with the man who had produced the mana.
Emotions that he had been throttling and pushing down were suddenly fighting their way back to the surface. David had assaulted his soul and altered his body. Wasn’t that enough? Was even his mind not sacred?
It was a stupid, emotional thought. His soul had been breached, why would his mind not feel the side effects?
Alex took a few deep breaths. He tried to fight down the panic that fought its way to the surface again. His friends noticed his state, and Jess was at his side immediately. She started to lower him to the ground, but his mind wasn’t fully present anymore.
Alex’s thoughts turned to the moment when he had come out of the visions. He’d tried to turn around and see his friends. He’d been desperate for some form of reassurance.
He’d been denied.
In his mind, he returned to that moment. Experiencing David’s absolute control once again. Watching threads of mana weave runes that didn’t suit him. He knew it wasn’t happening again, he wasn’t there.
But it had only been a few hours, and he had already received his first reminder of just how powerful the man’s control was. There had been no conscious direction. David hadn’t commanded him to jump.
Just the remnant will in his mana was enough to make the demand. Alex had been unable to resist.
The increased power he’d received at that moment almost made it worse. Like the mana was rewarding him for being a good dutiful thrall. He could feel the lie in it, the opportunity to become something more.
For David, the lie was invulnerability. Alex remembered the insight, the realization that he could never show fault. The burden of needing to convince everyone that he truly was perfect.
Alex felt like the lie wasn’t quite the same, as it pressed against his soul. The invulnerability didn’t feel like a facade, it felt like a promise. An offer of power, instead of a burden. It wasn’t behaving like the mana type he’d seen in the visions. It was adapting itself to him.
Inspire was a mana type of David’s creation, and Alex’s problems with it came from differences between them. If the mana was altering itself to suit Alex, wouldn’t things all eventually work out?
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Could he trust the mana type to fix itself, when it was his very soul on the line?
Even as he tried to convince himself that it would be fine, the panic came roaring back. He came to a new realization. If Inspire’s control over him allowed the impulses to overrule his decision-making and control his body, why couldn’t it be altering his thoughts as well? How could he know that the synchronization with the mana he’d felt was natural?
Then the panic abruptly faded.
“It’s okay, Alex,” Anthony said, and Alex recognized the forced calm in his voice, “We’re all here. You’re going to be okay.”
Anthony was kneeling in front of Alex, making eye contact even as he attempted to soothe him. Alex felt Becca’s hands rubbing his back, trying to reassure him of her presence. A spike of embarrassment shot through him and Anthony noticed his blush, “It’s fine, Alex. I can’t even imagine what you went through earlier, but it was clearly terrible. Your emotions are completely reasonable.”
His other friends voiced their agreement, which made Alex feel a bit better. The embarrassment didn’t fade, but he at least had good friends. His mind felt… oddly rational. The panic had left very suddenly, and he came to the realization that it must be suppressed.
His thoughts were no longer his own, it seemed. He knew that the panic should’ve returned in full force at that realization, but instead, all he felt was anger. The mana type allowed him that much, and he quietly seethed for a second before Anthony spoke again.
“Can you explain to me what happened?” Anthony asked, “Or do you want to move on for now?” He was surprisingly good at this, Alex decided. He was pretty sure that line would’ve been quite soothing if he was still panicking.
“The leap was entirely impulse,” Alex explained, “I had no control over my body for it.” His friends winced upon hearing that, but none of them interrupted him thanks to Anthony signaling for him to continue, “Thinking about it reminded me of when I came out of the visions.”
“You don’t need to describe it,” Anthony interrupted, “Unless you want to. Whatever feels best for now.”
Alex didn’t want to do that at all.
“The second time I used the mana type was when my aura activated.” Alex stated, “That wasn’t anywhere near as bad. The mana wanted the same thing I did, so everything was completely fine. If we can replicate that, we should be able to clear the trial easily.”
His friends didn’t look convinced but Jess spoke before anyone could object, “Are you sure?”
“I was underestimating how powerful a Rare mana type is,” Alex explained, “I need to commit to the impulses and get past them. They’re not so much things that I don’t want to do, they’re things that I shouldn’t be able to do. The mana empowers me enough that ideas work.”
“We should wait out the trial,” Becca stated, “We need to see if the Stirlings can do anything to help before we try again.”
“I’m on a timer, Becca,” Alex sighed, “I don’t have time to waste.”
Jess spoke up at this point, “We’ll try it out against a small group, first, and we’ll be nearby to help if things go wrong. If there are problems, we’ll wait the twenty-four hours. Muhammad, are there any duos?” A trial wasn’t considered failed after twenty-four hours, that was just the point where you were allowed to leave.
Muhammad led them past another trio, which was interesting with Becca’s injury leaving her limping. They all knew that she would not be fighting for the rest of the trial.
Alex faced down the duo of boars, and they began to charge him. Almost immediately, an impulse arose. He grimaced at the sheer ridiculousness of the idea, but couldn’t deny that it sounded awesome.
He was going to kick a charging boar.
The voices in his head didn’t demand that he hold the unwieldy sword while jumping into a kick, so he planted it in the ground. The move wasted some time, but cutting off his hand would’ve been even more wasteful. He charged to meet the boar on the left, hearing Jess and Muhammad follow to provide assistance. Anthony was a bit further back.
The boar lowered its head to meet his approach, and he imagined how this would go. He might need to twist away from a tusk, but he got the sense that he would somehow be able to do that if it became necessary.
And then he jumped, his right leg leading. He heard Jess yell out a curse as she saw what he was doing but chased the thought out of his mind. At that moment, he knew that this was the right decision.
The boar bucked its head to meet him, ready to bash his leg with its tusk. Alex had planned to twist out of the way but didn’t bother. He saw what would happen before it occurred.
The heel of his foot met the boar’s tusk, and the tusk lost. Alex’s momentum carried him on, and he met the boar’s skull with his foot. The empowerment wasn’t enough to smash through it, but he easily bounced off and rolled to its feet. He felt fine, but the boar was obviously dazed from the contact.
He leaped forward, attacking the now tuskless side of its body. His sword penetrated its neck and he ripped it out to further the damage he dealt.
Then the burst of strength faded. He breathed heavily as he faced the dying boar. To his side, Jess finished off its companion with her own thrust. Having managed to pull her spear out of the boar after meeting its charge.
That was intense. His right leg felt uninjured, somehow. The boost had been holistic, granting him Toughness well beyond what he should have. Quickly recovering from a roll was something he practiced, but the smoothness of the action and how quickly he’d unsheathed his longsword was still impressive. That had gone amazingly.
Jess had met the other boar’s charge spear in hand and managed to blunt its momentum by bracing the weapon. She now stared at him with a confused expression.
“That was easy,” Alex nodded at her.
“Well,” Muhammad stated as he came over, carrying Alex’s claymore, “We figured out how your aura works.”
“I assume you listened to the impulse?” Jess asked. She seemed to have settled on displeasure and was frowning at him as she spoke.
“Yeah,” Alex replied, “That gave you both extra attributes?”
“Yes,” Jess’s frown lightened, but only slightly, “And it wasn’t a small bonus.” Of course, it wasn’t. Seventy-Four Connection worth of mana was enough to power almost any Attuned Ability. His aura’s imperfections probably made it closer to a peak Neophyte Ability that didn’t work most of the time, but when it did work it had to be something special.
“Nearly tripled attributes,” Jess answered the question Alex was about to ask, “The boar never stood a chance.”
That was even better than he’d expected. Most buffs multiplied what was present, instead of giving a flat bonus. Tripling attributes was ridiculous, so his aura probably provided a flat boost. Either that or going foot to tusk with a boar maxed out the aura’s hidden Inspiration gauge.
“Do we adjust the plan for this?” Alex asked.
Jess sighed, “That’s up to you. It’s clear that you don’t like the feeling of the mana taking over, and I’m not going to make you do that.”
Unsaid was that they stood a much better chance at clearing the trial without any more injuries if Alex was boosting their attributes to such a strong degree.
“The problem is that it's not reliable,” He said, “There’s no way for me to control when I’m able to make something out of the aura.”
“That’s a problem,” Jess said, “But I’m more concerned about whether or not using the mana type like this will make it easier for it to affect you in the future.”
Alex was stumped by that for a second. The mana was still repressing his ability to panic, but he was more grateful for that than anything now that he was used to it. At the end of the day, he was willing to accept the temporary lost control if it meant he was better able to protect his friends.
Was it affecting him in other ways? Was he being influenced to want to use the mana type until it took over completely? There was so much about this that he didn’t understand.
Would you like to use a Grand Mana Guidance to better understand the mental influences of a high-quality mana type?
Yes/No
Alex was a bit surprised by the prompt. It seemed that the Trialbringer was only too happy to adjust its rewards to better suit him. If adventurers in New Chicago heard about an Aspirant using Grand Mana Guidance on knowledge instead of insight, they’d probably curse the waste. Alex’s situation was definitely exceptional.
Still, he declined the option. He would do that later. Hopefully, the Trialbringer would be able to provide the answers he needed.
For now, he had a trial to clear.
“We use the aura to its fullest,” Alex declared, “I’ll try to figure things out with the Stirlings after.”