I had never been so happy to see someone covered in bat-blood. Considering how Salvador was one of the most impressive fighters I had ever seen, I was very relieved to see him.

“I take it you are the one keeping this unfortunately rocky storm off of people’s heads? Please, keep that up if you can. I’ll keep these little friends from interrupting you.” Salvador offered as he swiped a bird away with his spear.

I nodded, not having enough attention to spare to find the correct words to thank him. I was too busy maintaining my spell and trying to identify the mana forms affecting the attacking beasts.

“You have that look again,” Salvador remarked as he deftly battled the ever increasing number of attacking avians. “That one you get before you start playing with new magic. You have an idea, do you not?”

I was startled out of my observations. I wasn’t aware that I had been making any sort of unusual expression. It was also surprising that anyone would want to look at my face long enough to recognize any unusual expressions.

“Maybe.” I admitted. “No time to try.”

“Then we had best make some time for you.” He replied with a smile before calling out to those around. “We all have a new priority; Protect Kyo here while she works.”

That someone would place so much trust in me was baffling. I was an outsider with a pariah-mark permanently burned into my face. Regardless, the nearby fighters repositioned themselves to better defend me.

With such support, using my simulation was no longer an impossibility. Returning Salvator’s trust, I activated my boon. I wasn’t expecting a message as it started working.

Activating simulation in an unsafe environment. Total immersion disabled. Some functionality may be limited.

Instead of being sent to the strange black space, I was still able to see the world around me. Oddly, I could also see the flat expanse of lines from the simulation. I was able to create targets just like before, though they were transparent and even more poorly defined than normal. I didn’t have time to play around beyond that.

I quickly focused on the mana forms in the nearby beasts. Complex though they were, I was able to find some familiar forms within the patterns. Some of them were very similar to elements in my sigils of concealment and mana perception spell.

Needing to test the new boon, I willed a model of a beast into existence. I felt that I could easily apply the surrounding magic to it, but nothing seemed to happen when I tried. The simulated creature didn’t react at all.

Concerned that the boon may not work as I hoped, I tried mimicking one of the fire spells a nearby caster was throwing into the horde. Instantly, my imagined target started to burn and move around frantically until I reset it. The boon evidently functioned as I expected.

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Knowing that I was missing something, I took a closer look at the mana forms in a huge beetle before Salvador impaled it on his spear. There were a number of differences from that of a nearby monkey clinging to someone's shield. It looked like the spell was adapted to each target. Additionally, I noticed mana traveling into the mana forms from somewhere behind the horde.

Trying the monkey’s version of the mana forms on a matching simulation, it gave me more of a reaction. It briefly reared up as though angered, but soon settled back down as though the effect was short lived. That didn’t match with what I was seeing from the hostile beasts pushing back our line of defenders.

The mana still flowing into the spell seemed to be the answer. It was a long series of relatively simple control mana forms. As they reached the affected creatures, they interacted with another set of control mana forms. These other mana forms altered the behavior of those that were similar to my sigils of concealment. Those were probably the mana forms responsible for manipulating the creatures’ behaviors.

Interestingly, another set of mana forms activated as well. These ones drew in mana from the area and converted it into a copy of the mana forms received before sending those mana forms out towards other nearby creatures. This let the controlling mana forms spread much further than they otherwise would have.

This mass control reminded me of the large monkey that had nearly killed me. It had also used a spell to control a very large number of its kin. I only survived that encounter because the spell it used spread my own mana forms to the entire group. With some modifications, I suspected I could possibly do something similar here.

A deafening roar distracted me from my work. A very large cat with horns tore through a pair of fighters before suffering a lethal blow from a cannon next to me. Other defenders moved to plug the gap, but they were struggling to hold on. Even worse, the remaining titans were almost upon us.

I was rapidly running out of time.

I couldn’t simply cast my phantom fire spell this time. Unlike with the monkeys, this spell wouldn’t spread the effects of mine. The transmitting portion of the spell looked like it could only replicate a few mana forms. If I wanted to counteract it, I needed to somehow work around that limitation.

I tested several combinations of mana forms to see what effects they would have on a collection of simulated creatures. Unfortunately, each one only drove the creatures to attack. There were likely other other patterns that could be used to give other commands to the controlled beasts, but none of those were currently being spread.

I briefly tried to figure out what patterns of control mana forms could possibly calm down the afflicted creatures. It didn’t take me long to give up on that approach. With near infinite possible variations, the odds of me finding something that would work were extremely slim. Given enough time I may have been able to figure something out by examining the transmitting mana forms, but time wasn’t something I could spare.

Already, the grune-like titan was attempting to crush defenders underhoof. The colossal beast was bleeding from several huge wounds from whatever weapon had felled the other titan, but it had proven far more resilient.

I struggled to figure out some other way to counteract the controlling spell. I desperately wished that it were as simple as casting phantom fire like before.

Perhaps it actually was that simple. My phantom fire spell was just the mana sense spell, modified to cause as much stimulation as possible. There was a chance I could do something similar here.

Defenders continued to fall as I frantically wove together a new set of mana forms. I was mostly copying the transmitting portion of the control spell. The main difference with my version was the volume of control mana forms it would produce. Instead of a few every toc, mine would produce nearly a hundred every tic.

By the time I had finished, everyone around me was locked in deadly combat with the horde. A man knocked me to the side of a huge lizard’s bladed tail. Lying in the bloody mud, I activated my spell.

The results were immediate and horrific.