Even as part of my attention is on the results of my Bounds’ attacks, the rest of me is focussed on doing what I’ve done twice before now: transforming some units of mana into fire-mana. I’m using the same channel as I used when I produced a plume of fire from my finger, pointing my index finger at the torch head like it’s a firelighter.
The stress of the situation is a hindrance, making it ten times more difficult to focus sufficiently to achieve the result I want. Meditation is a life-saver here – drawing on its calming qualities means that I succeed in transforming the few units of mana I sent down to my finger.
Focussing on directing it outwards so that it doesn’t once more chargrill my own flesh, I connect a line of mana from my Core to the tip of my index. It’s the first time I’ve tried to do that, so I’m flying by the seat of my pants a bit here, but inspiration had come while watching Bastet’s firebreaths. If I can do this….
Pulling a torch out of my Inventory, I light it and drop it on the stony ground – it’s a back-up in case this doesn’t work. Still sending a thin stream of mana to the fire pluming from my finger, I urge Hades into the fight. I trust him to take me into the middle of the fight without being hit – something I would definitely not manage by myself.
It’s taking more than half my concentration to keep the fire going from my finger without it either sucking me dry of mana, or burning my own flesh. Neither of those outcomes are desirable, but honestly, it will never not be cool to see fire pluming out of my finger like I’m a human flame-thrower!
Even while I’m taking a moment to revel in my feeling of badassery, Hades runs in closer to the danaris, his whole focus that of getting me to my destination as quickly and safely as possible.
The spider-creature is still distracted by the fireblades he and Persephone sent with Bastet’s help, so we’re able to get in close before it realises we’re there. I reach towards the closest leg but it shifts away from me before I can brush it with the fire.
Closer, I urge Hades and he complies.
A leg almost collides with us and I twist around to slam my fire-covered hand against it. The flames eagerly take hold, lighting up the spines covering the chitin with ease. Even as I pull away, I sense that I have more control over this fire than ever before – even with Fire Taming. I send the flames to chew eagerly up its leg, feeding on anything it can reach.
The danaris shrieks again as it feels the heat of fire scorching its leg. It turns its full attention to us. That’s good in one way – it gives Bastet and Persephone a chance to recover. Sirocco too, as I’m vaguely aware of her message that her stamina is getting low. It also gives River the opportunity to come in and attempt to stab at the gaps between the creature’s chitin – maybe the blunt impact of his spear will have more effect than the other attacks so far.
However, that comes at the cost of us now having to avoid legs which are as long as Hades is tall – when he’s standing fully upright – that come at us, and a sting-laden tail which flashes down whenever we are in a position that it can.
I want to move away, get some distance between us and this thing, but I can’t. Not if I want to maintain my connection with the fire. Unfortunately, I don’t have much range with this ability. And I don’t want to lose the connection because without my mana, the fire will go out quickly, the spines not really enough to sustain it for long.
The direction of the fire takes most of my focus now, very little being able to be spared for dodging. It’s fortunate, therefore, that I have such a capable mount and partner in this fight. Hades and I communicate seamlessly, the kiina already used to working with a partner and perfectly intelligent enough to understand what we’re doing here. Our mental connection makes it even easier.
We don’t even need to put thoughts into words. I send him a sense of when we’re getting to the edges of my control and he moves back in closer; he sends a sense of danger and where the threat is coming from and I shift my body to avoid it.
I honestly wouldn’t be able to do this without him. But I don’t have the brainpower to be able to think more than vaguely about that.
Under my direction and with my mana helping to fuel the growth, the fire spreads from where it latched onto the danaris’ leg. Going upwards and downwards, it wipes the whole limb free of those nasty spines.
Going upwards, it acts like a cleansing hand, the spines crumbing to ashes in its wake. It would be good if it could do more than that, but the chitin is annoyingly resistant. Even worse, the danaris seems to have realised that the fire is hot and annoying, but not actively damaging, and has decided to ignore it in favour of dealing with us first.
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It might regret that decision before we’re through, though.
My heart suddenly rises into my mouth as the danaris whirls around almost too quickly to follow, its leg slamming solidly into River. The force and direction of the blow takes us all unawares – with how much it had been focussing on Hades and me, to have it suddenly attack River is a shock.
Losing focus completely on what’s around me, I send my now-free attention down the Bond to River, checking his state. He’s injured, but not too badly. At least, not as badly as might happen from a solid leg of chitin slamming into a body at high speed.
His scales have spread some of the force of the blow, cracking a few of them. The skin itself has only torn in a couple of places, but that minor surface damage belies the real injury: deep tissue damage, bruised organs, and cracked ribs.
Feeling like I have two dogs pulling on their leash in different directions, I mentally strain myself to keep the fire fed, even if I’m not able to direct it much. At the same time, I redirect as much of my focus as I can into healing River’s body.
Closer, I tell Hades again, this time sending a sense of where I need to be in relation to River. Within moments, the connection I have with my lizard-kin Bound stabilises and improves, I grab at the mana already floating around in his body, directing it to the most serious injuries. The rest will have to be done later, but I don’t want him to be running around with internal bleeding if we can avoid it.
It takes more time than I’d like, but a lot less than if I hadn’t had all the practice Flesh-Shaping during our spars. By the time I’ve fixed the worst of the damage, I’ve depleted more than half of the mana I’d managed to feed into him.
Still, I’m glad that I had the time to empty my mana pool into my Bound a few times while travelling here – it would have become impossible to manage keeping the fire going, however little mana that’s actually taking per second otherwise. As it is, it’s a real struggle to manipulate both streams of mana, coming from two different sources at the same time.
Frankly, I doubt I’d even manage if my Energy Manipulation Skill hadn’t so recently ranked up to Master, even if multitasking with multiple streams of mana wasn’t something which had explicitly improved.
Resurfacing to awareness, I duck at the last moment as a sting passes through the space where my head was a split-second ago. I wouldn’t have actually been hit by it even if I hadn’t moved, though – Hades has also taken evasive manoeuvres and jinked to the side with a flap of his wings.
He sends me a wordless sense of becoming fatigued, and I sense that the last few minutes have been hard on him. As I see what’s going on, I realise why.
The danaris is enraged, its speed having picked up to a pace previously unseen. It’s clearly taking all of Hades' agility to dodge the constant attacks. As it is, we are the sole focus of its attention, half of our group currently lying low and recovering. River is only just getting back on his feet from the last blow, and Lathani is nowhere to be seen.
She hasn’t vanished, though – I sense where she is even if I can’t see her. But given the last unsuccessful attack, I don’t blame her for waiting until a better moment appears. As it is, we appear to have had little impact on the creature so far – it’s still moving perfectly well and though one eye is weeping a blackish ichor, the other three are perfectly able to see.
However, the spines are now pretty much gone, opening the creature’s legs and body up to the teeth and claws of my group. The fire is still there, though starting to gutter now that its fuel has vanished. Without fuel, I know from past experience that its draw on my mana will start to become more hefty than really worth it. However, before I let it die, I want to at least give it a final hurrah.
Before I do that, though, I check in with all my Bound. Bastet and Persephone are still pretty low on mana, but they’ve recovered enough not to be hit by the exhaustion and ill-feelings that accompany an empty mana pool. Sirocco is apparently still a bit low on stamina, but among my Bound, she’s the quickest to recover it so that shouldn’t be the case for long.
River is still pained by his remaining injuries, but sends me a quick feeling of grim readiness – he will do his best to do what I ask of him. He’s also taken one of his own healing potions – a non-envenomed one – so that should help his healing a little. I tell him to use as many as he needs.
As for Hades, I pull at the mana within him, doing my best to heal the effects of muscle overuse, even if I can’t – yet – replenish his stamina directly. If the faint sense of gratitude is anything to judge by, it does something at least.
Just hold on a little longer, I tell him, sending my own sense of gratitude down the Bond even as we jerk from one side to another to avoid a double blow of legs that crash down where we were.
The rest of you, attack when it’s distracted, I tell them all. Hades, create some distance when they do.
Feeling nothing but grim assent, I focus on the fire. Feeding it mana piecemeal, I direct it to crawl up the body of the danaris towards its head.
The spider-creature ignores the fire, having learned that it poses little threat to its defences. At least, it’s posed little threat up until now.
As I feel my Bound poised to move, and Hades dodging below me, my own legs locked around the bases of his wings to keep myself in place, I pour mana suddenly into the fire.
Time for it to go out with a bang.