“You kids really saved me back there.” Razivolt giggled before a sigh escaped him, turning to a gentle smile while looking at the night sky. “I wish to apologize for assuming you were the culprits. I would’ve lost Sparky and my home if it had not been for you. A home I can rebuild, but family is irreplaceable.”

“We’re just glad everyone’s alright,” Alice said, glancing over at the massive sleeping boar, whose breathing was so loud a man could mistake it for a dragon. “Right, Alex?”

“Right.” I yawned, placing my hands behind me and leaning on them as we sat on the ground in the middle of Razivolt’s garden. “How did you two meet anyway?”

“Sparky? Ha! You wouldn’t believe it even if I told you.”

“Try me.”

“Very well,” he said, looking back at me. “Three years ago, while I wandered the forests east of here, I found that a nasty group of gargantuan spiders had been spreading their webs everywhere and started nesting.”

“How big we talking?” I asked, knowing that Sparky was a giant.

“Well, an Arachne Queen gave birth to them, so you can only imagine. . .”

“Those are real?” I asked, knowing from the countless books I’ve read about the half-spider half-humanoid creatures, typically half-elves. “But how do they-”

“You don’t want to know that. . .” He stopped me, shaking his head in disgust. “But yeah, her offsprings could eat an ox!”

“I’ve heard stories of Queens making nests of entire cave systems while their younglings hunted in the forests. They were particularly fond of eating goblins, which was a good way to keep goblins in check,” Alice said, pulling her knees to her chest. “Hate spiders, though.”

“I wasn’t too fond of the little ones either, so I can imagine how monstrous a big one would be.”

“Oh, quite terrifying, trust me,” Razivolt chuckled, leaning against Sparky’s belly. “However, it was worth facing them as I found this little guy being preyed upon.”

“Little guy?” I smirked, furrowing my brows. “I think he’s quite grown.”

“Maybe now, but he used to be a size of a watermelon when I found him.”

“A horse-sized watermelon?” I joked.

“Ha! No, no.” He shook his head. “Just a regular-sized watermelon. I was even able to carry him back then.” He paused for a moment, looking at Sparky. “I guess you’re right. He’s all grown up now.”

Alice and I irresistibly smiled as we looked at the blissful expression Razivolt made looking at Sparky.

“Ah, there it is!” Razivolt jumped in excitement as he turned back toward us, pointing at the sprouting flower with eight petals and mana circling it.

From the looks of it, I could tell it was rich with mana, but my eyes failed to grasp the beauty that left Alice awed.

Razivolt promised to help us harvest it without wasting its potency as apparently many that come to his garden have done it wrongly.

“It’s beaut-” Alice suddenly grabbed her forehead, catching herself from falling prone.

“Alice, you okay?” I asked before noticing a strange, sweet scent filling the air.

There was no dust or signs of trouble, but the intense smell that overloaded our senses was causing us to feel sleepy. It took only seconds for Razivolt to fall to his knees before his face kissed the ground while I watched Alice with blurred vision as she reached for her dagger, trying to cut herself.

The vines underneath us started to move once more as Alice’s arm went limp, her eyes desperately looking at me for help.

I felt my whole body relaxing as the sleeping gas tried forcing me into a state of unconsciousness, leaving me with only one option that required little to no strength. “Draining Touch.”

Like a recurring nightmare, the pain that once haunted me was the only thing that managed to snap me out of the horrifying fate falling asleep would’ve led to as necrotic energy surged through my hand and straight into my body. That’s when I learned that the amount of pain inflicted by the spell dwarfed the healing it provided as I coughed up blood and felt weakened from being hit only once; however, I was still strong enough to fight.

“Alice!” I yelled, watching vines attempt to entangle our bodies. Instinctively I pulled up my shirt over the nose and mouth, trying to reduce the potency of the gas if possible. “Stride. . . Blink.”

Thanks to Mana Sense, I teleported to my bag with potions in it, and as soon as I grabbed it, I ran to the edge of the garden to analyze the situation.

Bursting out of the ground was my worst nightmare as the parasite that once strangled Sparky now sprouted into a massive plant monster, looking like a flower with large tendrils swinging aimlessly. Alice and the others were entangled within seconds, leaving me with no way of quickly saving them.

Spending most of my mana before the fight even began while also injuring myself wasn’t ideal, but at least I had two health potions and two mana potions on me that I could use. Luckily, I prepared just in case I was the one in desperate need of them, so I separated them, healing on the left while mana recovery was on the right.

Pulling out a mana potion, I drank it straight away to guarantee myself enough mana for the fight.

“Fuck me. . .” I mumbled, flourishing my blade as I watched the monster grow to be at least five meters in height. “How am I supposed to take you down?”

It wasn’t as if anyone was going to tell me, but I needed to figure out a way to save Alice and if possible, the others.

Sniffing the air, I tried to smell for the gas while being ready to cut myself if needed to make sure I didn’t accidentally fall asleep; however, I quickly noticed the smell was gone.

If I had something flammable, I would’ve set everything on fire, but my options were limited to only my spells and my sword.

While it wasn’t moving and just stayed in the center of the garden, it forced me into action as I saw it pulling Alice and the rest closer to its body. Running toward it, I never took my eyes off the monster, trusting my Mana Sense to detect any sudden changes around me.

Vines burst from the ground, but they were easy to dodge compared to Alice’s sword, allowing me to keep going. Blinking was faster and easier, but I had to preserve what little mana I had by reaching them on foot.

Having to cut a few of them down as they were blocking my path, I noticed they were less durable than the ones covering Sparky’s body earlier, giving me hope that I could free up Alice with enough strength put behind my blade. However, that was when it finally made a move, sending its long tendrils at me like a whip.

Swiping at my legs, I leaped over it and rolled across the ground to not stop my momentum, but to my surprise, a bunch of smaller wines that were like spears sprouted from the tendril, aiming straight at me.

“Shield!” I yelled in response, conjuring a shimmering barrier that repelled its attack.

Unfortunately, one of the vines underneath me managed to grab hold of my leg, lifting me in the air, and while slicing through it was easy, it caused me to fall on my back as I watched another giant tendril slamming down at me. I quickly rolled to the side, avoiding the loud impact that raised dust around me, making me cough as I gasped for air. Luckily, it wasn’t the gas or I would’ve been in trouble.

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Doing a kip-up, I got back on my feet and looked around for Alice, watching as she was nearing the main body. If she got entangled in its core, I would have had no way of breaking through as I didn’t know how to cast Sword Burst, a spell that just didn’t click with me.

“Alice, wake up!” I yelled out of desperation, cutting down the vines darting toward me. “Shield!”

The closer I got, the harder it was to dodge, making me rethink my strategy.

“Blink!” I teleported next to her, leaving me with enough mana for one more spell.

Swinging my sword, I failed to cut through the vines that restrained her as they were thicker than the rest.

“Alice!” I yelled again, thrusting my sword toward her exposed skin, hoping it would wake her up. However, the living armor again prevented my blade from reaching her, leaving me no other choice. “Draining Touch!”

I forced necrotic energy into its body, wilting away the living armor that entangled Alice. Truly believing I had succeeded, reality hit me hard when countless tendrils wrapped around my limbs, pulling me away from her.

Shifting my focus immediately to my right pocket with every ounce of strength that I had, trying to reach for a mana potion, sharp pain swept through me as spikes grew out of the tendrils that restrained me, piercing my skin. I wanted to scream, but I had to endure the grueling task, which required me to disperse Stride as I needed to regain enough mana to boost my strength.

Despite the pain, I reached the mana potion, forcing the cap off with my thumb even as the thorns shredded me. Leaning down, I bit the vial, letting go of it and tilting my head back to force the drink down my throat.

Sensing mana pouring back into me, I spat the bottle to the side and looked for a safe place.

“Blink!” I teleported to safety, dropping to my knee as my arms trembled from the pain.

Chugging a healing potion next, I felt my wounds slowly close but knowing I had only one left made the situation dire.

“Three spells left,” I mumbled, watching as Alice slowly became wrapped up again.

Thorny vines sprouted behind me, and unfortunately I didn’t possess Alice’s reaction time to avoid being hit while thinking of a plan at the same time, causing me to suffer damage as they tore through the backpack and left gaping wounds across my back.

“Agh!” I wailed, reaching for the final potion that fell to the ground, downing it immediately while rolling to the side.

Heavily gasping for air, I thought about how things would’ve been different if only the roles were reversed. The thought of failing haunted me as I gripped my sword.

Stride, Blink, Draining Touch, and run. That was the only thing I could do in the current situation other than escape with my life. Biting my lower lip, I could taste the blood in my mouth as I looked around for Alice. It was disorienting to teleport around and roll across the ground every few seconds.

“Just a bit out of range,” I mumbled after spotting her as it helped me stay focused. “Stride.”

Mana rallied around me as I charged one last time with everything I had on the line. There was only going forward, and no matter what happened, I couldn’t afford to stop.

The monster didn’t wait for me to get within range of Blink before sending out more of its vines toward me, and while I dodged most, some still managed to scratch me, but none stopped me.

“Blink!” I screamed from the top of my lungs, vanishing into thin air before reappearing next to Alice. My hand immediately reached for her as I went to cast Draining Touch, but my Mana Sense warned me of an attack that would change everything as one of the large tendrils dragged across the ground, heading straight for me. “Shield!”

It slammed against the barrier, shattering it before sending me tumbling across the ground a few meters backward. It was only when I finally got back on my knees that I realized what had happened as I lost my weapon, got injured, and was left to helplessly watch Alice getting pulled closer to the monster’s body that sprouted more tendrils to merge with her.

“No,” I mumbled weakly as my whole body ached in pain. It was so bad that I could hardly lift my hands that fell limp to the side. “No. . .”

Sprouting vines surrounded me as all hope seemed to disappear.

Was this it? Was this really how we’d die?

Curling my fingers to form a fist, I closed my eyes and exhaled slowly. Despite sensing the incoming attack as the monster lashed out again, I needed to stay focused. I needed to control my emotions if I had any hope of executing one last idea that came to mind.

“Come forth,” I commanded, focusing on my upper core as if I had access to it.

While sealed, there wasn’t a reason for me to treat it differently from my frozen core. I knew there mana was there. I just needed to draw it out.

Gritting my teeth, I begged for a miracle. A prayer I soon found answered as I felt a spark flicker within me, a second away from death.

“Blink!”

A thunderous boom echoed behind me as everything the monster threw crashed into the ground where I once kneeled.

Realizing I was still alive, a chuckle escaped me. Where once I felt a void similar to my frozen core after Sylphena used her gift, I now felt an enormous amount of mana being unleashed from its imprisonment. It flowed through me like a stream that had been choked for decades, filled to the brim.

“It worked. . .” I whispered, still finding it hard to believe. “It really worked.”

Had I not been so close to reconnecting with my core, it probably wouldn’t have worked, so in the end, it all came to dumb luck. However, my celebration got cut short as I coughed up blood, feeling how toxic the mana I had was. My eyes began to burn, nose started to bleed, and my lungs contracted, making it hard to breathe, but it was nothing compared to the fear of dying as I was on the verge of losing the fight.

“Blink.” I teleported again as one of the large tendrils lashed out toward me, making me cough up more blood as soon as I used the tainted mana. “Blink!”

With my body aching in pain, I had no choice but to keep teleporting until I finally reached its main body.

Placing my hand on the monster, I allowed my toxic mana to crumble into raw particles, channeling the necrotic energy into it.

“Draining Touch.”

Unleashing a screeching roar, it flailed in agony while I felt rejuvenated.

“So you can scream?” I asked with a devilish grin, drunk on power.

Attempting to retaliate, it sent all of its tendrils toward me.

“Blink,” I chanted again, and as long as I had mana and Mana Sense was active, I was able to teleport freely, easily avoiding all of its predictable attacks.

“Draining Touch!” Necrotic energy surged through it again as I reappeared to its flank. Each time I cast the spell, it ripped my body apart with toxic mana while healing me at the same time. “I bet you curse yourself for being such an easy target.” Smaller vines sprouted from its body as it attempted to grapple me, but a coy smirk that I couldn’t wipe off appeared as I embraced its hug before whispering, “Draining Touch.”

Wailing in pain like I once did, the creature suddenly tried shoving me away, but I made sure to grab hold of its withering tendrils, unwilling to stop.

“No you don’t.” I gritted my teeth, channeling mana through both my hands, pouring every ounce I had left into my next spell. “Draining Touch!”

Coughing blood that would likely kill me from blood loss had I not been healing, I sent enough necrotic energy into its body to make all the tendrils wither away while its main body twisted on itself, struggling to survive. Stubborn to push to the bitter end, I finally hit a wall and ran dry before I fell back from sheer exhaustion.

Laying on my back while gazing at it, a chuckle escaped me after noticing the monster slowly recovering despite my best effort.

“Guess this is it,” I mumbled with a smile, unable to move a muscle.

It was depressing watching it regrow a tendril with the sole purpose of crushing me to death, the source of all its pain. There was no way I could blame it since I tried to do the same.

Believing it would be less painful, I closed my eyes and awaited my fate; however, while waiting for the darkness to devour me, the monster screeched again.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Something surged within it as it tore its body apart, causing massive raptures wherever it passed. At first, I couldn’t tell what it was, but the sickening feeling within me reminded me of how much toxic mana I poured into it, which now ravaged its body further.

Flailing in agony again as if I repeatedly recast Draining Touch within it, I watched the unbelievable sight of its massive body spasming before suddenly coming to a halt. Deafening silence surrounded me as everything remained still as if time froze, but then the monster’s body slowly started crumbling to dust.

There was a part of me wishing to cheerfully scream I did it, but without any strength left in me, I closed my eyes and let myself sink into the void.

Chapter End.

Thank you for reading.