He had fucked up on a huge scale and he was so scattered after coming down from a high that he couldn’t possibly describe that he wasn’t able to even think straight.
“Shaun what the fuck just happened?” Eric still looked freaked out but also seemed to be fighting against his own high.
Shit! He checked all of the tethers and found that just like it had with Eric and Yarila his mana was now flowing into everyone else which was not a good sign. His affinities were being drained quickly and almost everyone present seemed to be enjoying the power they were getting.
“Everyone needs to start pushing mana into me again! They have to do it now!” Everything was going wrong. He had gotten so drunk of the amount of mana that had infused his body that he hadn’t even noticed that when he came down from his high that the worst possible thing that could have happened was now happening.
“You can’t control it! You literally just yelled out that you were a god Shaun! A damn god!”
“I know what to expect now, I can do this! Everyone just needs to start pushing like last time and now!” Seconds passed while neither Eric or Yarila did anything, they just stared at him, considering whether it was the right choice to do what he was asking.
Yarila was again the first to agree and she gave the silent order and then shouted to the elves. When Eric heard he looked furious but did the same. Rather than wait he started channelling all of the mana into Deaths Kiss using a lightning strike, wanting to use a skill so he would have more control of the attack.
He checked each and every tether while he kept pushing mana into the skill, even with the order only about 70% of the people in the group had started pushing mana back to him while all the rest were still sucking mana from him. He could blame them, he knew what it was like to feel that high. Rather than yell at them he gave a pull on each of those links until the mana was flowing to him again.
He checked on a few of those people who he had to be forceful with but outside of being dazed and maybe a little sore they seemed to be fine and back on to the task they were meant to be doing. Some looked ashamed that they hadn’t listened to orders, mostly this was from the elves, the humans for their part looked like they were annoyed and angry at what he had done.
This time with all the mana being sent to him he felt slightly more in control but not completely. He pushed as much of the mana flowing to him into his lightning strike but it wasn’t an immediate process, he needed to control how much he was pushing into the skill at once.
He was getting tens of thousands of mana every second and it was too much to put into the skill all at once so it was building in his body. Adjusting his stance he started up a fire strike on his other blade and started pushing mana into that skill too.
The skills for their part, even with all the mana he was pushing into them, stayed stable for now and splitting the mana he was getting into the two skills was enough to use the mana that had built in his body, bringing it down to normalish levels. The two strikes though were building at an incredible rate and he felt the absurd amount of mana that was accumulating in the skills.
“I am good, I have it under control.” He spoke out loud wanting both Yarila and Eric to hear him.
At the rate that mana was flowing to him it would take hours before the lightning strike was powerful enough to blow apart the barrier, but even if he got it to the point where it could destroy it he now had a fire strike that he could use to kill off the army, or so he hoped.
10 minutes passed with a slow and steady feed of mana to him. He did some quick math and estimated that if every person here drained their mana into him and he pushed all of it into his skills than these two attacks would have over a million mana combined. That mixed with the affinity aspects should be enough to do what was needed.
It wasn’t until they had been going at it for just over 30 minutes that things changed for the worst. At this point there was so much mana accumulated into his skills that it could be felt by not just his own group but everyone at the compound should feel the building power, potentially those even further out would be able to feel the mass amount of power accumulating around him.
He kept an eye on the compound as he worked as the gathered army had grown restless and were moving around. It wasn’t until they parted ways that he got a look as to why. Walking through the army he saw two people that he hadn’t thought would be here, that shouldn’t have been able to be here. Percy and Persephone Charlo had both appeared from within the compound and were now at the head of the army.
Neither of the two strikes were ready to do the damage they needed but time was now not on his side. He no longer had hours to slowly build the skills, instead he had minutes if they decided to come meet them in battle. He had already fucked up massively at this point so waying up his options for a split second he decided to go all in.
“Everyone start pushing more mana! At least 5 times what you already are! We have minutes before they start coming at us and we need to be done before they get here!”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
At 5 times the rate he could cut down the time he needed and hopefully it would be enough, he didn’t know if he could handle any more than that. He probably wouldn’t be able to handle that amount but he didn’t care anymore. He was going all in.
As soon as his team started pushing more mana it was like a tidal wave of mana slammed into his body and for a moment he was overwhelmed by the feeling. He was feeling his mind fall back into that drunken haze of absolute power again, but now that he had already established the two strikes he found it much easier to push the mana out of his body, but just not enough of it.
He pushed himself, utilising his mind skill to the absolute limit, and kept forcing mana into his two blades, hoping that neither the skill or the blade would break under the pressure. With the increase in mana he was using the pressure in the air around them increased nearly 10 fold, he knew that the army and the Charlo at the compound would have felt this massive increase, their reaction to it was almost comical.
They seemed to yell for the attack yet their army for the most part hesitated, some even moving back into the boundary of the compound to safety, others made a run for it. Those who started to run forward stopped when they realised that nearly no one was following them to their death. The Charlo, Percy specifically looked like he was threatening and yelling at his people but it wasn’t helping, they were scared of what he was doing.
While he watched all of this happening he could feel excess mana building in his body, he couldn’t push it all into the skill quick enough and he was losing control. Needing another outlet he started activating other skills at random to get rid of the excess.
He summoned giant Zapian Eagles one after the other using every ounce of excess mana that he had. When summoned they eclipsed the sun in the sky with their size, he couldn’t get an accurate picture of just how big they were but with all the mana he was pushing into the skill they had to be huge.
It only helped for seconds before the mana built again and he was forced to summon more until the sky around them was full the full 13 eagles that looked terrifying. When he need to continue to drain the mana he started summoning mirror blades of lightning until 13 swords joined his 13 eagles in the sky.
He didn’t send any of them out to attack, he wouldn’t do it until the very end. Having run out of ideas of what to do with the excess mana he started shifting his own body using his elemental shift skill, he stayed where he was but his body was engulfed in lightning, turning him into a weird mix of human and elemental. His size grew and shrunk as the shifting skill tried to use all the mana, he himself could feel his body changing to the point that a tail made of lightning appeared and then disappeared. Horns grew on his head and then dissolved back into sparks of lightning.
All the while his two strikes grew in power to the point that if he guessed not even a C grade would be able to survive the attacks unscathed. Still he pushed more, and more, and more until he had no choice but to close his eyes and focus on nothing but using the mana.
“Shaun, they are coming for us. The army is coming right for us. Do it! Do it now!” Eric started shouting at him with urgency in his voice.
“Give me everything you have left!”
Everyone listened, after hearing Eric yell and then his order they pushed everything they had left at him and not caring about the outcome any more, just wanting the mana, he pushed as much as he could in to his skills and yelled into the air as his body started to break from the mana that slammed into his body.
He continued to push as much of it as he could into his skills and only when he couldn’t push any more did he lift the first blade. “Now!” He yelled it with his mind and out towards his summons.
He sent every eagle and every blade at the compound and army, at the same time he pushed the lightning strike out from his blade. The backlash from releasing the strike nearly sent him and everybody behind him flying. The only thing that kept them in place was the tethers that couldn’t be broken so easily.
He waited all of a second before he released the fire strike, causing another backlash to him and everyone connected to him. It didn’t kill them but he noticed many fall to the ground, he was close to collapsing himself. Releasing all that mana nearly tore his body into particles but he held on, just to see the outcome of his attacks.
His mirror blades hit first, 13 giant explosions of lightning that severely weakened the barrier but didn’t take it down fully. His eagles sacrificed themselves with 13 more massive explosions of lightning that were aimed in one spot to cause a gap in the barriers defences.
When his lightning strike hit he had to shield his eyes. The blast of so much mana and lightning was too much to take in. Even at peak E grade, watching the explosion would have destroyed his eyes, but he felt the result. He felt his attack pass right through the hole in the barrier and detonate inside the compound.
He could feel with his echo that nearly half of the enemies army was killed in an instant, the barrier was completely ruined and the compound was mostly destroyed. He opened his eyes at the last moment to see his fire strike go off just so he could take in the result.
The moment his fire strike hit white flames were sent rolling from the compound. He couldn’t see what was left in their wake but he did feel it through his echo. Ash. That was all that was left. Not one building survived where the blast rolled through. Everything was incinerated in seconds.
The blast didn’t stop though, it continued to spread until the entire compound was gone and still it continued. The army was running for them, not to attack though, but to get to safety. He saw the Charlo in the lead, but they weren’t going to be quick enough to escape. He didn’t know how they came back here but it was the biggest mistake they could have made.
The blast engulfed the army and the Charlo, the last thing he saw on their faces was pure fear. The blast still didn’t stop though and was coming right for him and his own team, which he couldn’t let happen.
He still had so much mana in his body and more was till coming. His group hadn’t stopped pushing it into him, even after he sent the attacks they couldn’t stop sending him his mana. He didn’t know if it was because they had started a process they couldn’t stop or if it was just because they didn’t know they could.
Using the mana inside of him he parted the wall of flames around him and his team, letting it flow to either side of his group, saving them all, at least for now. But still he had too much mana inside of him. He needed an output if he was going to live through it but he didn’t have the willpower left to do any more. Instead he just let the mana build in his body as he fell to his knees and waited for the flames to clear so he could get one last look at what he accomplished.
Thump.