While Yarila and Eric spoke to everyone he kept an eye on the compound and the army that stood waiting. They didn’t approach, they just waited. He figured that they were told that their only job was to protect the compound and seeing as he wasn’t attacking them or coming closer that they would instigate the fight.
It took longer than he would have liked before he got an update on whether the group would agree to his plan. Yarila was the first to come back to him with a half dozen other elves, all of who looked ta him with respect and no small amount of curiosity.
“It has been agreed that your plan is worth the risk. Every elf will open themselves up to you and trust that you are making the right choice.” He let out a breath of relief at hearing those words. The elves had put a lot of trust in him, not just with the event but also with allowing them to live in his settlement.
“Thank you. I will do everything I can to make sure we succeed where we should fail.” He gave each elf a nod of respect to ensure that they knew he appreciated everything they were doing.
“What do you need of us now?”
He had already though of how he wanted to do this so he could answer immediately. “Sort into 6 groups by mana capacity. Those with the most mana should be in group 1 and be closest to me with the next 2 groups slightly behind them and then the final 3 groups in the back. I don’t know how many people I will be able to connect to so I want to make sure that I have as much mana as I can get in case I cant connect to everyone.”
All of the elves that Yarila brought went rushing to do as he had asked and in minutes the groups were formed and ready. Eric still hadn’t come back and there was a lot of heated discussions occurring which didn’t look promising.
“They are wasting time.” Yarila was watching them just as he was.
“I know, but I can force them to do something they don’t want to do. I am not that kind of person.”
“We know, that is why we trust you so much. With your power you could rule over everyone with an iron fist yet you do not. You help those in need and think of the young and those who are different. You have given us much when you could have given us nothing. You are a good human yet we consider you one of us.”
They both stood waiting for a few more minutes until he couldn’t put it off any longer. “Eric.” He called out so everyone could hear him. “It is time to get this started. Everyone who has agreed should split into groups, those with the most mana come forward and those with the least should be at the back. Anyone hat doesn’t want to be apart of this should stand far away.”
Eric looked like he wanted to argue for more time but thought better of doing so. He gave the same order to the humans and he was disappointed to see that nearly half of them decided to move back away from the rest, clearly not having agreed to join them.
It took a few more minutes for everyone to get into position and then it all fell on him to get started.
“What do we do now?” Eric looked disappointed with how many had decided to not join, especially considering that every elf had stayed to fight with them.
“Everyone needs to just open themselves and not fight me when I try to form a link with them. When I give the order they should push their mana towards me, but only when I do. The groups are numbers 1 through 9 and I will call on them when I need their mana.”
It took a moment for that to be communicated to everyone and when he got confirmation from both Yarila and Eric it was time to start. Turning around to face everyone he looked at Yarila first then Eric.
“I am going to start with you two, let me know if you feel anything go wrong.”
He had thought about how he was going to do this but he wasn’t certain that it would even work. Ensuring his mana sight was on and working he first looked to Eric and found where all of his mana channels passed through his body. Just like he did when he was bonding an affinity he reached out to him with his own mana and when he was hovering just above Eric’s heart he gave a small nod and pushed his own mana tendril inside of his body.
Eric flinched the moment Shaun’s foreign mana entered his body, he looked like he wanted throw up or pass out but he pushed through it. He used the tendril to leave a tether into Eric’s mana channel and when he felt like he could suck the mana straight out of his body he stopped.
“Try pushing some mana to me, only a little bit though.” Eric gave a nod and as he had been instructed he pushed just a tiny bit of mana along the tendril connecting them until he felt that mana in his own body. The moment there was a full connection between Shaun’s mana and Eric’s he moved on to Yarila.
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“Your turn.” She just nodded in return.
He repeated the same process again, however he found that when Yarila’s mana entered his body it had a completely different feel than Eric’s. Where Eric’s screamed of stability and strength, Yarila’s had a more wispy and calm feel.
“It’s done, you can both stop pushing mana into me for now. How does it feel?” He watched as they both stopped pushing mana and they relaxed slightly.
“Weird. Its like there is something in me that doesn’t belong. Like it could tear me to pieces with a though.” Eric said it with his eyes closed.
“Power. That is what it feels like, absolute power.” Confused at her statement he accessed the tether between them and found that his mana was now drawing into her own body, but not just any type of mana, it was attuned to his nature affinity.
“Yarila, you need to stop pulling power from me. Quickly!” He gave her a few seconds to get herself under control but when she did she felt different, his affinity had done something to her that he could quite see.
“So many secrets.” She whispered at him, a knowing look in here eyes. “Incredible.”
“Oh…..I…” Shit!
“Eric stop it now! You need to keep control of yourself. Do not take from me, that is the opposite of what we want to do!” Eric had started pulling mana with his earth attunement from his mana channels and just like Yarila his mana had changed. “Shit! Shit! Shit!”
He had done something wrong, he had connected to them fine but he had done it with a two way channel where his power flowed into them as their went into his. He had done something to them and he didn’t know what the impacts were going to be. At least they were still alive.
Before he even moved to others he needed to figure out what he had done wrong. Some part of him connected to some part of them on an elemental level and he couldn’t take that back. At least with others he had a chance to not make that mistake. He needed to keep more control over his own power when he tethered to others or he would end up really fucking up on a scale that there was no hope of fixing.
He came to the conclusion that everyone he connected to would constantly need to push a small amount of mana into him or he would end up giving them something they shouldn’t have. He might have to be more forceful about it too, which he hoped he wouldn’t have to do, but that should be all he needed to do to stop the two way flow.
“When I connect with you, all of you, you have to continue to push a small amount of mana across the connection. If you don’t I will have to force it and it will be unpleasant. This is non-negotiable. If you want do that step away now!” He made sure everyone could hear him and the urgency in his voice.
More people from the human side stepped away, but not one elf did. He didn’t fault them for it but he did lose some respect for humans when compared to the loyalty the elves showed.
“Group 1 you are up.” One by one he repeated the process with the first group of elves, there was just under 150 of them and after doing the process for the 20th time he was confident in being able to do multiple at once.
He would have been draining mana if it wasn’t for the fact he was getting a slow stream of mana from everyone he was linking too. Even then though it was not the easiest process. He had to make sure that no one started pulling from him at the same time as connecting to others. By the time he finished with the first group he was feeling like he was over stuffed, too many connections and not enough output.
“Group 2 and 3 are up at the same time!” He need to expend more mana and quickly lest he overdose on it and die.
He sent out as many tethers as he could in a rush to expend some mana. He was feeling drunk on the amount of mana that he was getting and he just wanted more. It took only minutes for him to finish with the 2 groups and he was only a third of the way through.
“4, 5 and 6 get ready!” He barely finished speaking before he went in and started linking to them, hungry for more of what they had to offer. Some part of him wasn’t in complete control of what he was doing but he had just enough awareness to know that what he was doing had gone from being stupid to outright insane.
“7, 8 and 9!” He couldn’t hold back on forming the last of the connection, he was thankful that he had made everyone that didn’t want to be part of this go far enough away that he wouldn’t risk pulling them into his frenzied state.
By the time he was done he was glowing, and not in a good way. He was so overstuffed with mana that it was leaking from his body. If it wasn’t for his mana body and mana mind he would be dead, he was sure of it. As it was he could barely concentrate on anything outside of the feeling of the amount of power surging through his body.
Notification were coming and going at a rate he couldn’t even see and he just ignored them all. The feeling was beyond anything he could imagine in his wildest dreams. Mana was empowering his entire body, just like he wanted his stone skin skill to do. Smiling like a drunk he dived into his stone skin skill like he had planned and started tearing it to shreds until nothing was left but a mess of ruined threads. He used the mana in his body to start reforming all of it, using the mana flowing into him as the base of the skill and reinforced it with all of the power that people were giving him until the old skill stretched out to every inch of his body.
It was nothing like he had planned, he couldn’t even remember the outline of the design he made, this was the work of a drunk man playing around with power he shouldn’t have. It was messy and required too much power to ever sustain. He started laughing like a lunatic, causing everyone to look at him with worry and panic. “I am a god!” The moment he yelled it out he solidified the skill, not even realising what he was doing.
“Shaun, control yourself, we are relying on you! We are at war Shaun! If you fuck this up you fuck it up for everyone!” Eric yelled at him but couldn’t get any closer to where he stood. “Everyone stop feeding him mana now! Stop!”
He had blocked out Eric’s yelling and continued to push mana into his new skill. In the back of his mind he felt the mana start to drain out of his body quickly and from one second to the next his mind snapped back, instantly sobering up.
“Fuck! Fuck! What just happened!” He looked at Eric and Yarila in a panic but both of them looked at him with fear. “Shit!”