The High Peak of Brenn [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1794.01.08]
A sudden rotation of his head startled Zeph, waking him up before he could understand what was happening. In a trained response he rolled his body to the side while trying to cover his head… and as a result, almost falling from the thick tree branch he was resting on.
But the attacks didn’t subside even after he dug his fingers into the bark desperately. The spear, tied tightly to his belt, was pulling him down as it dangled in the air.
“Finally! You lazy Mazga!” Makani exclaimed with irritation, continuously kicking him in the helmet. Even if there wasn’t much force behind his kicks, it was still a bit infuriating. “The rest time is over!”
“Fuck you!” Zeph cursed in English, scrambling over the rough bark. “You almost made me fall!”
“Humph,” Makani crossed his arms, looking down at him. “And who’s fault is that? I can wake up whenever,” he tried mimicking Zeph’s voice, turning his head from side to side. “You are late for at least half an hour!”
Finally reaching a more level part of the branch, Zeph looked at his companion, ready to deliver the worst berating he had ever done to a man he considered a friend, only to stop halfway when he saw the dark lines under his eyes.
Closing his mouth slowly, he did a quick mental check on his body. And on Gru.
“Your enchantments are deteriorating, and the predators started to hunt!” Makani continued his tirade as Zeph finally realized what was happening. “We have only a few hours le—"
“Sorry… Gru is out,” Zeph interjected, making him pause mid-word. “The last day was a little too much for him, it seems. Well, for me too.”
Makani continued with the glare but shifted into a more relaxed posture. “If he is the only thing that can make you wake up, you are in deep trouble,” he said seriously. “I was calling to you for almost five minutes.”
“My resources aren’t full,” he tried to placate the angry Mana-Specialist.
Yes, Makani informed him a day ago that the overbearing reaction from the members of the Blackwind Tower was partially caused by his ascension from the Practitioner level in the Tower’s hierarchy. At the time, he just had to attend one last formal audition directed by the faculty before attaining the official title of Specialist. The youngest Specialist in about nine decades, at that. All thanks to Zeph’s past guidance on how to modify Spell structures, but the man himself seemed to forget about that small detail.
“I don’t have any real means to be forcefully awakened if we aren’t in an enclosed space! I even got used to pings from my Self-Sustaining Life ward. For Onjis’ sake, you already knew about that!” Zeph added grumpily, deliberately butchering the saying. “Twisting my arm should be enough to wake me up.”
Makani sighed and started massaging his tired face. “Weren’t you trained? I thought you weren’t worse than Aisha in that regard…”
“My enhancements rendered this part of my training useless, though.” Mind stabilization is getting out of hand sometimes… he added mentally.
“Tch. You will have to do some training with Aisha before we venture outside next time.”
Zeph stood up and looked around. It was as dark and silent as always in the deep woods, but a thin fog was decreasing the visibility even more. It was a result of Makani’s Spells and the Fog enchantments he had forced into the bark of nearby branches beforehand. He suspected they were also in an Air Bubble of some kind.
Zeph was first to keep watch because he wasn’t as exhausted as Makani yesterday, but the few hours of constant Spell surveillance and Mana Masking successfully finished the job. Besides the Fog enchantments, the bark of the three was also decorated with a few ‘Primitive Life Detection’ enchantments for additional security; his Primitive Enchanting paying dividends once more. Those enchantments could work only because of the gradient of Mana density in the air – the result of their combined Mana generation escaping into the ether. But both constructs were barely operational if left alone. The Fog cantrip normally required much more Mana ‘pressure’ to work efficiently, and the traces nestled in the bark provided additional resistance to Mana. Life Detection was almost useless without Zeph’s input – as its functionality was heavily dependent on the presence of Space-Mana-Z produced by his contamination – but with a hard enough push of Mana, even Makani could initiate the wave of Space-Mana. It was enough to scare off anything hiding in the vicinity, even if none of them received any feedback from the Spell-made-enchantment.
This old version of his Life Detection Spells series interacted with the bodies of living organisms directly, thus informing any creature that they were found. In normal circumstances, it was a detrimental effect, but it worked well as a deterrent for ambush predators. And because the two of them were hiding somewhere in a foggy canopy, those animals would rather not risk getting closer.
Of course, the Life Ward Spell was active all night, too. However, its reach was very limited by the other Spells they were using and the canopy itself. Because of that, a few strategically located enchantments gave them an additional edge.
“Build us the communication system and let’s move out,” Makani ordered.
Zeph frowned at the strange behavior of his companion, but did as he was told.
He collected and packed up the beads and smoke bombs set around the canopy camp. It was kind of a pain to affix them to the surfaces, but with a smart application of the Heat and Condense Water Spells, he managed to ice-weld them. The temperature was in the low negative twenties of Celsius, making the already-cold water solidify almost instantly.
They did take some additional blankets just in case, but both were comfortable enough to sleep in their outdoor clothing, so there wasn’t much more to pack up. Ready for the trip, they descended the tree easily. Climbing the bark of an oversized three was easily done if a person wasn’t neglecting their body and had even the absolute minimum of Power. Of course, Zeph was responsible for taking care of the backpacks. Makani never got to the second Power milestone of 50, so it was safer that way.
During the way down, Zeph worked to form the same tube system they had been using while traveling on the sailboards. Or rather, the windsleds, as locals called them.
The fog disappeared almost entirely when they crossed the border of Makani Spells’ reach. Without constant control over the air condition, the vapor was immediately condensing into snow powder - the ground beneath them the best proof of that fact. Thankfully, Zeph didn’t even need to explain to Makani what the dew point was. Creating a fog in negative temperatures wasn’t an easy task, but his companion already knew of this effect and had his own methods of controlling the air composition to sustain it. While Makani worked more on the relative pressure, Zeph was constantly modulating the moisture and local temperatures during his shift. It was a little trickier but allowed the fog to spread further after he got a handle on it.
Only two days into the trip, and he had already learned a dozen useful tricks. It was a shame that his Survival Skill couldn’t progress at the moment.
As they landed on the ground by the tree, a small cloud of snow powder rose into the air.
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“Test, test,” Zeph whispered, looking around.
“All clear,” Makani answered while constructing a Spell of his own between his hands.
“We should patent this Spell formation.”
“Try that with people who can actually use advanced Mana Manipulation, dork. Prepare a Mana-L pipe. Keep it up as we move… if you can?” he asked in a voice so quiet that Zeph had difficulties understanding him.
Something isn’t right, definitely, he thought. “I have enough Mana-L in reserve. Just don’t overdo it.”
Makani nodded. “Let’s move out.”
They started running in the direction of the Strigiformes nestling grounds that they had found yesterday. After a minute, Makani started whispering through their communication setup, though.
“From yesterday, we are being followed by something.” His voice was barely audible and Zeph was sure Makani didn’t even move his mouth.
Oho, a ventriloquist if I ever saw one! he thought with mirth. Probably the work of utility Sound Spell… Maybe.
He wasn’t sure. Mimicking speech should be much harder than simply producing sounds.
“So that’s why you were so stressed out?” he realized, asking loudly. His helmet prevented any visuals, and the vibrations caused by his voice were being transferred directly from the face panel to the communication Spell system he invented and expanded upon. “We should just hunt it… or them, shouldn’t we? Set a trap or something, maybe.” The creature seemed to be a cautious one, after all.
“That’s the problem. If it was an animal, I am sure it would have fallen for the trap I had set last night…” Makani paused and sent a glare at Zeph, making him bow his head down in an apology. Without drastic measures, Zeph wouldn’t wake up in time if they were attacked. The fact that Makani left him in the dark was the man’s own mistake, though. “No matter how intelligent it is, if it was hellbent on hunting us then it should have fallen for it. The opening was quite obvious. But no, I think we are dealing with an intelligent race.”
Zeph frowned and shook his head slightly. That notion is ridiculous. No one should know that we left the city, not to mention tracking us all the way to these woods. Even if someone did, we would be either attacked en masse or assassinated at night. And the local fauna shouldn’t… Hmmm, shouldn’t? he asked himself.
“Are you sure it’s not just a paranoid predator?”
“If it was, the nearby villages would be empty of people already. Or would you rather believe we came here just as something descended from the mountain itself? No, it’s implausible at best.”
“Reasonable… So that’s why you insisted on pushing further into the forest?”
“Yes. It’s also why I left the first watch to you – I wanted to see if they would attack during the night.”
Jeez, he can be really stupid sometimes… You should have informed me yesterday instead of wasting your rest time, Zeph thought irritably. “Any reason for that?” he asked coldly. “And what did you manage to gather about them?”
“At the beginning, it was to test your methods and reactions. Later… you were asleep…”
“Heh. Kind of stu—”
“The sounds I registered,” Makani interjected firmly, “indicated we are being watched from really far. I had no details… until now,” he finished with a small smirk.
Zeph raised an eyebrow at that.
“They just moved past our last camp. Not directly through it, but they were close enough. One bipedal individual. The ultrasonic scan returned nothing, though. This means they aren’t really able to muffle the sounds of their movements. It’s probably one of the reasons they keep such a large distance. Not only from us but from our old camp as well. Paranoid is what they are.”
“I am more impressed you even managed to detect them before that,” Zeph said, giving respect where it was due. “The pipe? I am going to deplete my Mana-L reserves soon.”
“Unnecessary. Plan?”
Zeph immediately closed the far end of his Mana-L pipe and just as he did, Makani started pulling on his Mana back; to return to his Veil.
That was one of the new applications they had found during their hunts. The Mana-L pipe construct could be used to direct the Magicules of another Manacaster, allowing them to cast Spells at long distances without the advanced Mana Manipulation. Only one person in the team was required to be able to form the ‘tentacles’. As the secondary Manacaster started to suck up their own Mana back, the pipe construct would start to collapse on itself because of the insufficient Mana density.
Zeph not only prevented the tube from collapsing width-wise but even forced it to expand slightly. The only loose part not influenced by his Willpower was the enclosed tip. The resulting suction force was more than just Makani’s effort. Even the air inside was being sucked back by Makani’s overcomplicated version of the Air Beam Spell. The enclosed tip started to travel back along the pipeline with increasing speed while amassing more and more Mana-L along the way. Powered by those forces, the pipe folded on itself in less than 15 seconds.
They managed to retrieve their Mana while leaving no trace behind.
“Possibly…” he answered after the Mana-L tendril collapsed into a ball at his side. “But why didn’t they attack during the night, then? Only one of us was ‘awake’ at the time.”
Makani rolled his eyes. “Why are you assuming from the start that they want to kill us? Maybe they are here to just spy?”
“Yeaaa…. Just like last time something like that happened… or one before that…”
“Well…” His face scrunched. “So be it – worst case scenario. Taking into account how loud they are, I believe they don’t have an easy way to move between the nests, burrows, and hiding spots of the local animals. And I am not even taking into account the smell. Additionally, we have set ‘traps’ and obfuscation effects in our camp. I can see why they decided to only observe us.”
“I would just use ranged weaponry, poison, or something,” Zeph shrugged.
“Did you forget I am here with you?” Makani asked in a fake indignation. “What ranged weaponry? I can detect and disable most projectiles before they travel halfway to their destination. If I am not already in combat, at least. And I think you don’t really understand how risky it is to get close to a Manacaster without depleted Veil. For most melee fighters, it’s the quickest way to receive heavy injuries as a welcome gift.”
“Okay, I understand that they could be wary of detection and retaliation, but Aisha would definitely argue with you.”
“An enemy like her would be waaay beyond the worst-case scenario,” Makani pointed out. “Anyway, any ideas?”
“Do you think you can keep my coolant in one place for a prolonged time?”
Makani immediately understood his idea and have gone quiet for a minute. They tested it somewhat in their burrow on the first day. It wasn’t pretty, but Makani’s mastery over the air was indeed working on the freely floating Magicules to some degree.
“Only if you can decrease its tendency to flow down.” Was the verdict. “The spill is what throws me off. If we want to be inconspicuous, you need to set additional barriers yourself, though. I am more concerned what would happen if one of us gets knocked down. If our Spells fail, we will be in the center of the freeze zone.”
“As much as it is a valid point, you can just prepare a few condensed air bombs in case everything fails. The moment you lose consciousness they would explode and disperse my Magicules, damage to us be damned. It won’t be lethal. Gru will keep an eye out for the things coming from above, so we can just create ‘walls’ of the coolant around us. That should be enough of a trap. I can create a Telekinetic barrier from the inside that will not only allow us to fire Beam Spells through the ‘coolant wall’, but keep us safe from both the enemy and the coolant… to some degree. As for the downward movement tendency… it’s not something I can deal with… A lot depends on the temperatures outside, and the hot air likes to go up, so… Can’t you just push with the air from outside at an angle? It has the potential to look like a typical Spell, won’t you agree?”
“Hmmm… theoretically…” Makani answered hesitantly. “If we have a window to shoot our Spells out, it would look like an advanced Air Masking… I think.”
“As long as we don’t look like a walking trap~”
“Yes, yes, I can imitate something similar. They will probably attack when we are mentally spent, either way, so let’s test the idea first. And please use some acting!”
“I don’t have to! I have a helmet! Ho ho ho!”
A slap into said helmet was the only answer, making him stumble over the roots. He had to run a little faster to catch up with his partner in crime.
“You better fire Heat Spells constantly, too. We will have to deal with this temperature-equalizing effect either way.”
“Yes, yes, mother…” Zeph rolled his eyes. “Are we doing live testing from the beginning?”
“Definitely. A circulating loop of air currents isn’t hard to make, but is very difficult in application. It’s a good training and we need to look just like we are doing just that.”
“Heh, best lies are mostly truths, after all.”
Makani shook his head. “You and your strange sayings…”
========Theron Nalani PoV=========
He felt as if the frown had become his default facial expression by this point.
I’ve finally found them, but…
If the fog and some kind of Mana interference weren’t enough of a headache, he seemed to be a preferred snack for the local wildlife.
I really hate cats… he thought, leaving a small pile of bodies behind as he started to chase his quarry. I was worried for a moment. Setting such perfect defensive measurements against my Light-Mana-based Skills…
He managed to catch up to them not a day prior, so he decided to be patient and observe from a distance. A direct assault could end badly if he wasn’t prepared. Even with his level advantage.
Besides, he was seriously tired at this point.
Their hunting methods are kind of basic. I don’t think they will show anything interesting without real pressure. The question is, should I try to test them and take down Einar when they are exhausted, or should I try to ambush him during their return trip…
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