Chapter 5:

“Petor,” Valter’s voice drew him out of sleep, his eyes opening completely as he held his knife at his side.

“Your on watch.”

“Thanks,” Petor exhaled, awake as if he had been for hours. A suddenness that he’d never lost ever since training.

Valter nodded and headed up the stairs to finish up his watch.

Petor pulled on clothes and his breastplate, only hitting his head once on the beams before he hurried up the ladder to the upper deck.

Desari dropped down onto the upper deck, the sky with three moons hanging above, stars pricking the darkness above.

“Night,” Petor nodded to her.

She returned it, distracted as she moved down the stairs.

He headed for the rear of the ship.

Mya strode out of her room and onto the deck. “How things looking Valter?”

“Nothing on our watch,” Valter said. “Haven’t needed to adjust our heading. Desari kept us straight.”

“Alright, well get some sleep, see you in the morning,” Mya said.

“Night,” Valter passed Petor with a nod and for the stairs.

“Where you want me?” Petor asked Mya.

“I’ll stay at the helm and keep an eye on things back here. You can head for the bow and watch from there. We aren’t showing any light so finding us will be tricky. In this form Mesurial just looks like any other ship.”

“Massive and well armed ship. Just what kind of ships were you using back home?”

“The kind that could kill the beats of the deep sea and fend of the pirates that followed the dark gods,” Mya looked off the side of the ship, the waves lapping gently against the ship’s sides.

“So about the right size then,” Petor held his chin sagely.

Mya let out a chuckle.

“How you feeling?”

“Tired, used up a lot healing all them wounds. Though we aren’t normal by any stretch. Another day off of fighting and I should be alright. You?”

“Well going to take a lot more to mess up these looks,” She leaned forward giving an eyeful of cleavage as she winked at him.

Petor laughed and shook his head. “No wonder the bars light up when you walk in.”

“Just something about my charm,” She straightened. “Gotta use every advantage you can in a negotiation!”

Petor snorted and shook his head. “I’m going to head off to the bow.”

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“Enjoy, and Petor, thanks for the help back there.” Mya asked.

The fury of the last couple of days, the fighting through the dungeons came back to him in a flash.

“What are friends for if not to help out one another.” Petor shrugged and raised his hand in goodbye as he moved down the deck. Nearly tripping on some corner.

“Fucking floating obstacle course!”

Mya snickered, her footsteps carrying her away and then up the stairs to the poop deck.

Petor smiled to himself weaving between the ropes hatches, gear and guns.

The damage from the battle had healed itself, the decking and side of the ship in perfect condition. The ropes and sails tight and back in position.

He ran a hand on the polished wooden railing at the front of the ship. Loops of rope, and thick beams that secured the foremast jutting out of the bow. He leaned over it, the water below as the ship rode up and down the soft waves, a thousand sounds of creaking wood, lanterns and metal hoops, the sound of wind pulling sails tight.

Nothing out there, now.

He tapped the wood against any curse he might draw upon himself.

A check of his surroundings he drew out his book.

‘The most famous Leech Demon of all was called Vamprax. It is believed he was a high mage, he sought to control flows of mana across his planet and created an instability that converted a third of the world. He fell into the abyss and was converted into a demon.

Through his knowledge of mana he was able to consume the mana around him. From the very world, from others.

He gathered a host to him, bolstered with his seeming endless mana. Mages rose against him, but he was their very bane, draining the battlefield of ambient mana and then their bodies, feeding it to his own forces.

Eventually he was killed, but it gave birth to a new kind of demon. The Leech demon. Diminutive in size, they are found in regions normally called ‘the consumed plains’ places that have limited or no mana. They kill and consume others as people might consume food.

One might know they are dealing with a Leech demon if their eyes alight with a emerald green flame.’

“Well… fuck.”

Guess it always was demons in the stories that were trying to kill the gods. He shrugged and got back to reading.

“Draw out mana, highly effective on mana based creatures. Drain the mana from an area, making the caster rely on their internal stores instead of that around them. Arcane Eruption? Release a burst of the accumulated mana in an explosive manner.”

That seems rather interesting. Just vent it all into the area around you. Though he could basically do that with his Arcane Nova spell and that was plenty destructive. If he could get a bit faster with that and make it directional? Pretty great way to vent off the extra mana.

“Mana bonding.” Petor slowed as he picked through the section, one of the densest within the thin book.

He clicked his tongue, returning to the world and checking around the ship. Still waves, still darkness save for the moon and stars.

“There’s blunt force putting your hand on people and injecting it, or just pouring out the stored mana in an area, effectively increasing the density of mana and thus the regeneration. For more targeted I can do a sigil in my blood, use that to create a resonance and give them power. Or,” Petor frowned. “Or I can use a soul bond and direct the mana through that.”

He tapped the book with his fingers, creating dull thumps.

When he stabbed someone he created a blood sigil and resonance, if he stabbed them in their core, then he could drain them completely and rapidly.

“Well in a way I’m connected to the others through that oath. Right?”

Petor searched within himself, studying his yellow flecked green core. When studied closely there were ‘patches’ on his core. Near the outside thes patches stretched like dripping honey, connecting to his soul bound gear. Deeper and further in was a much more complicated patch.

A swirling of rainbow, veining of magma, a spark of soulfire wrapping it all in smoke and a lack of his own core.

The binding site of the contract.

If I could pick out the different parts, could I direct the mana through my core and into them?

“Probably a good idea to try it out in the morning, with them around, incase anything happens.” Yeah, messing with his own soul did not sound like the best way to spend the rest of his watch.

He opened up the book again and read through the accounts on Vamprax the first leech demon as well as the common leech demon believed to come after him.

Dude knew some serious magic.

Petor checked the darkness as he read through the book and started again.