The battle with the wolves, if dramatic, was over quickly. It turns out that burning almost half of your mana into an attack that harnesses five affinities is pretty strong, no matter how small your mana pool is. Cole was probably up to the level of an average person now, but that was after a Rank advancement and a whole hell of a lot of practice with the incredibly expensive conjuration. It was a strange sensation, knowing how much below or above average his mana pool was. Like looking at a drawing of some creature you've never seen before but knowing the proportions are off. A sense of unbalance, almost. His regeneration was too high, his capacity too low.
But that limited capacity had been more than enough, taking forcefire into account. Whatever that three-layered blast had been, it was strong. The small burst marble that had been created had fallen to the forest floor, but Cole picked it up to take with him. He had a pocket dimension lying around, there was no excuse to not take the souvenir of his first combat spell. Mary had also done something to the wolf she killed, some sort of mental stun. Mind affinity seemed strong.
Mary insisted on bringing one of the corpses into the pocket forge so that she could sell it when her Credit limit reset. It was shoved up against the wall next to the enchanting table. The forge was getting a bit more cluttered now, with the smith's old display weapons hung on the wall and any empty space on the bookshelves filled with various random clutter. He added the forcefire marble to the collection, in between one of his weapon photos and a pamphlet about armor pricing.
Mary had also decided on what she wanted her share of the remaining deep iron to go towards.
"I've been looking through the weapon sections of the Galactic Market. Something a bit interesting is that it's all shit. Don't get me wrong, they have good materials and better runes on the expensive stuff, but the technique itself is lacking. From the descriptions I'm reading and some information I bought with the dregs of my Credit limit earlier, I think I know why. Everything is Class-based, and almost all Smiths are just using some form of a Smithing Proficiency Signature Ability. New worlds are only integrated so often, so people who had to actually learn to forge instead of learn how to control their Ability are rare.
There is some good stuff, but almost all of it is just made with the guidance of an Ability. Honestly, I saw a greatsword with visible cracks in the blade. Its only selling point was that it was made of something called grand steel. Visible cracks in the blade, and there was a bidding war going on. The latest bid was forty-seven thousand Credits. Once I get a better Credit limit, you are helping me shatter the weapon economy.
Anyway, back to the point. What I want is a mana catalyst. From what I've seen it's a piece of mana metal or other mana material with the runic phrase 'amplify 'whatever affinity you have''. Just makes it directly stronger when you channel mana through it, and I want one attached to the other end of my spear with 'amplify mind'. I know it'll probably take a bit before you can do a two-rune enchantment, but that's what I want when you can."
He would have to do some work to make sure that was balanced properly, but the main problem would be the runes. Cole was confident he could learn how in a week, maybe two. He just needed to spend a longer time comprehending the impossible shapes and making sure he could keep his hands perfectly steady. And he wouldn't complain about an opportunity to work with deep iron either, he still needed more proficiency to be able to conjure it.
But for now, they just wandered around until it was time to get back into the pocket forge. They traveled through the woods for about another half hour, before reaching what looked like an ideal spot.
It was a lake, crystal clear and surrounded by verdant growth. Fish lazily swam in the shallows and birds fluttered over the water as they flew from tree to tree. The transition from land to water was slow and gradual, allowing for a coastline that would be perfect for a beach day. Bushes and plants were clustered all around the lake, laden with berries and fruits galore. The canopy broke above them, revealing a picturesque sky shaded orange by the approaching sunset.
The only other notable part of the scenery was a single wolf running through the shallows, occasionally catching a fish and swallowing it whole. It was different from the other wolves, though not by too much. It was slightly smaller than the ones they had killed so far, but its flesh was rotting in fewer places and the fur that was still on the bone was a pristine white. A horn several inches long jutted out of its forehead, and the pupils of its eyes were red.
Cole had regenerated about three-fourths of his mana by now and felt confident that a forcefire blast could take down the beast. But he didn't wasn't to risk it because of what he saw next. The wolf noticed them, and in just half a second the red energy in the center of its eyes shot down to its legs. It howled in glee as it dashed towards them at the speed of a train. The smith hadn't even finished unsheathing his claymore before it was upon them.
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The only thing that saved the dou was that the wolf couldn't control its speed. Its dash actually missed them by a few feet, overshooting and almost running into a tree at the edge of the lake. It was fast, exorbitantly so, but it couldn't think fast enough to keep up. The wolf recovered and turned around just as the smith's sword settled into his hands and the Merchant brandished her spear. The wolf's eyes gleamed with fury and bloodlust, ready to slaughter the two humans.
The cone of a forcefire blast was relatively narrow, only a few feet across. Even with how clumsily this thing dashed around, there was no way Cole could hit it unless he was at point-blank range. A wisp of white energy sprinted toward the Monster, Mary's mana lunging forward to eviscerate its mind. The red glow empowered its legs again, and the wolf didn't miss this time. Cole only had time to brace his claymore for impact before the body of the beast slammed into him, shoving him back several inches and making a horrible grinding noise as the blade scraped against a patch of exposed bone.
A small tendril of forcefire, reminiscent of the very first time he had used his magic, shot out from a hastily brandished fist and wrapped around its front left leg. A blast would risk too much mana even at this range. He needed to either pin the beast down or disable it. The whip of silver flame started burning into the Monster's limb, and Cole tugged it forward to close the distance between them. The red light in the beast's legs traveled through its body again, this time ending in its jaws.
It bit down on the rope of mana, with mixed results. Its skin and gums didn't even make a depression in the construct, they just began burning right away. However, its teeth, enhanced by the red light, cut through the magic like nothing was there. Cole quickly withdrew the remaining mana back into his channels. Some of the mana in the tendrils was lost just by being outside of his body, and a massive chunk was gone from the loss of the rope's end. At least a fourth of his remaining mana was gone.
Maru used the opportunity to stab the beast in the side. It could activate the red light very quickly, but the transfer from one part of its body to the next seemed to take at least a second. The runed blade bit deep into the beast, almost severing its back left leg. It howled in pain at a volume higher than gunshots and transferred the red light to its three undamaged legs before clumsily dashing away.
It had retreated to where it had originally seen them, the lake's shallows about forty feet away. Even as a blast of mind mana raced towards the beast it was already recovering. The red light gathered around the wound, solidifying into some sort of hard-light flesh. Not conjuration, it was temporary, but about as close as you could get. The red light dimmed considerably, so the healing wasn't without cost, but the wolf was still very dangerous.
Luckily, Mary's mental attack hit it while the red light was still occupied by healing its leg, and the beast's eyes rolled back into its head. It was still unsteady, as the red light-flesh wasn't quite done yet, so the blast of mana made it tumble into the water, lying on its side.
Cole had been changing forward this entire time, and the reinforcement rune was ready as well. He splashed into the shallows as the beast began to recover. It started to get up as the smith was still a few feet away, and with the water slowing him down Cole wasn't likely to get close enough before it was back up. A forcefire cone would be too hard to aim while running and too far away from his current position if he stopped.
Luckily, another kind of mana swirled into being above the wolf. Spatial mana collapsed into itself in a vibrant display of impossible pulsing violet. From that collapse, a hole in space was torn. A portal, the classic and in some cases most useful form of space magic. It was small, only as wide across as a dinner plate, but that was enough for its creator. A vicious sucker punch hit the wolf right o its snout, drawing a pained yelp from the beast. It fell back down into the water as the hand withdrew and the portal violently closed, sending a sharp crack over the lake as the air rushed to fill the vacuum.
The distraction was just enough for a reinforced claymore to descend with the wrath of a man who just realized that this fight got his only pair of socks wet. The remaining red light rallied to block, the blow and did manage to let the wolf survive. But the force shoved it back down into the water and stunned it enough to let the smith raise his sword again.
The second strike hit the hard-light covering over its back leg, shattering it into shards of energy that were whisked away by the water. A stream of bubbles left the wolf's snout in an enraged howl as it lost the majority of its mana drifted away in the currents. The beast didn't let itself get stunned again and began to rise to start the fight anew.
Unfortunately for it, a certain Merchant chose that time to test the effects of directly enhancing her weapon with mind mana. A rune-sharpened spear descended, covered in a cloak of white mist. The spear carved a deep furrow across the wolf's flank, and the whisps crawled into the wound like worms through the earth. Anywhere they passed the beast's body twitched or went completely lax, as if it lost all conscious control over the limbs.
The enraged Monster finally broke the surface of the water with a deep, furious howl. It had eyes only for the two humans that had caused it to, for the first time in the new world, lose a fight. Sadly, the wolf's frustrations would forever remain unsatisfied. A claymore struck it right at the tip of its horn with the strength and durability of a warhammer. The protrusion and the skull it was attached to shattered.
Standing above the corpse of the Monster, a smith had a smile on his face.
"A good fight."