At the sound of Big Man Desolate’s voice, the feline monster turned to look at him. It was now lying on its side, succumbing to the cold touch of death and it snarled angrily at the sight of what he held in his hand.

Big Man Desolate hushed it.

“Shush, I’m giving a speech over here,” he said, unbothered. “I’ll come finish you off in a minute.”

Festus cocked his head to the side in worry. As much as the crystal in Big Man Desolate’s hands held his attention, his true focus was on the mage.

While he couldn’t really sense him, there was something eerie about him, something with a physical presence that even the mana around him refused to touch.

A frown creased Festus’ brows as he realized what it was he was looking at.

“I cannot let you leave this place,” Festus said, drawing a life to the front of his mind. Life runes weren’t easy runes to craft or cast, at least the ones he knew weren’t. They were also harder to use.

So if he was going to use this rune, it was going to be the only one he’d be casting. There’d be no dual casting with it.

Big Man Desolate turned to him with a frown. “What?” he mocked. “You can’t let me leave this place alive? I don’t see how you can stop me.”

“That’s a disgusting joke for a death mage to be telling,” Festus replied, the life rune complete in his mind and his fingers weaving it behind his back.

His words finally pierced Big Man Desolate’s façade. The mage’s face tightened in a scowl and Festus smiled.

“How did you know?” Big Man Desolate asked him, his tone serious.

Around them, everyone struggled to put themselves back into a sense of alertness. The Olympians, at least two of them, were the only ones who succeeded in looking menacing. As for the massive one, his armor was sporting a gash in the chest that left him still lying on the ground.

“Well,” Festus said, “you’re too malnourished and pathetic for a mage. You already look like something dead. I would’ve noticed if I’d been paying attention from the start but people rarely pay attention to something without a noticeable mana signature. But now that I’m looking, really looking, I can see it. I can see you, death mage.”

Big Man Desolate tsked.

“You know,” he said, sparing Madam Shaggy a brief glance before looking back at Festus. “The others never even figured it out. Back in town I often healed the dying so the best they could come up with was that I was a life mage, which didn’t make sense to them considering how I look. What they didn’t understand was that I didn’t heal the dying. I just slowed down their deaths by absorbing the death aura dying generated from them.”

“And do you think I care?” Festus asked, his life rune almost complete.

“No. But I do have to make one correction, sir Knight. I’m not dead. I’m just sort of dying. Stuck in the realm between dying and dead, if that makes sense. Would you like to know how that happened?”

“No.”

“A pity. I guess your life rune must be complete now.”

Festus’ expression twitched in shock and Big Man Desolate laughed. “What? Did you think I wasn’t aware of it? It’s a life rune which makes it close to the scale of a very powerful rune. Runes like that don’t get drawn without letting off a bit of their own mana in the process. And as you’ve so accurately deduced, I’m a death mage. My awareness of life magic of any kind is as strong as a life mage’s awareness of death magic of any kind. So what do you say? Want to try and see if it’s strong enough to kill me? Ironic, considering it’s a life rune.”

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Festus was tempted by the offer, but he wanted to know one thing before he went to battle with a death mage, a specialization so deadly they were feared by even mages a rank higher than them.

“I just have one question for you,” he said.

“And what’s that?”

“How are you able to hold a mana surge crystal? Everyone knows it’s supposed to eat away at your life force if you touch one of those. Even a monolith would kill a Bishop rank mage if they touched it for too long. Is it because you’re a death mage?”

“Nope. It’s because I’m not chuck full of the same kind of mana you guys have.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

Big Man Desolate held up the mana surge crystal and Festus felt a portion of it dim. What just happened stood beyond his comprehension. Mages could only absorb mana types tied to their specialization. It was the reason a mage couldn’t cycle their core until Beta rank, because not only did they not have cores at the time, they also had no set specialization. They couldn’t take in mana of any kind from the world outside.

But a mana surge crystal had no attunement. It wasn’t wind mana or ice mana or force mana. It was just mana at its rawest stage and no one had raw mana. It was considered impossible. Thus, a mana surge crystal drained mana from everything that touched it. It was a concentration of mana beaten together so strongly at the earth’s core that it was mana at its purest stage.

If the ambient mana was petrol, it was the fossil fuel from which it was manufactured.

At Knight rank, Festus didn’t want to admit it, but what he had just seen terrified him.

“Well, I can see your mind trying to work out what I just did and fail,” Big Man Desolate said. “So I’ll explain it to you. Will someone please shut that damned cat up! It’s interrupting my lecture. As I was saying. Yes, you just watched me absorb a mana surge crystal. No, it is not because I’m a death mage. If all death mages could do this, I wouldn’t be the only death mage here.”

“Then how?”

“That’s simple. My magic specialization is death mana but you and I don’t have the same mana. What rests at my core is raw mana. And as a death mage, its unadulterated, raw, death mana.” Big Man Desolate smiled. “Which means even if you’re a Knight, I could kill you with a touch. Want to test it?”

Festus frowned. “No.”

He raised his hand and activated the life rune. It took a bite out of his mana core and a wave of life mana flooded from it.

Despite all his blustering, Big Man Desolate dipped behind the dying Bishop rank monster. The wave of life mana hit the beast like a massive tide with enough force to shake it but it did nothing to help its state. The grass and plants around it, however, bloomed to life.

That was the thing about life magic as well as life runes. They needed a specific design to give life to animals. For things as simple as plants, any blast of life mana would give them life. However, there were also uses for it, uses that Festus had hoped would help against a death mage. Mainly, it helped to dispel death mana.

The wave of mana struck the dying monster and the death mana seeping out of it was cleansed.

Behind the beast, Big Man Desolate frowned. He’d intended to kill the beast and feast on the death aura it was releasing. With it he would have had enough mana to flee. Now, with most of it wiped away by Festus’ rune, he needed an alternative.

That just might work, he thought, as an idea came to mind.

He leaned into the monster’s body. Its fur was anything but soft to the touch, like millions of wires. He felt it vibrate against his touch.

“Alright, kitty,” he said. “Listen up. I know I said I was going to kill you but I’ve changed my mind. You’re going to help me. You’ll be the distraction and I’ll be the getaway car.”

He placed his hand against the creature’s fur and cycled his core. He felt his core, a bright black orb that filled him with so much sickening strength, turn. As his core moved, rumbling within him, he drew on the death mana clinging to the creature. Its wounds did not heal but they bled less now. The monster was not healed, it continued to die. Only slower now.

With the death aura far lesser, Big Man Desolate felt the creature rumble in anger as it pushed itself to its feet.

“Good,” Big Man Desolate said.

Then he turned and ran for it as the beast charged Festus.

He heard the sound of gunshot as he moved and a blast of mana struck him in the back of the head. the shot was precise and couldn’t have been any better.

The world tumbled around him and he hit the ground.

………………………………………

Ronda watched Big Man Desolate try to escape as the giant feline rushed after Festus, taking with him the very thing Ven had sacrificed his life for. She moved on instinct. The mana stone powering her rune blaster was empty so she snatched Kid’s own. Her arms came up and she sighted down the distance. Her suit warned her as she did.

[Power levels low,] it said. [Auto-aim assistant disabled].

“Yea,” she muttered, adjusting her aim herself. “Never use the thing anyway.”

She pulled the trigger and a massive boom filled the air as Festus shattered one of the monster’s legs with a well-placed force spell.

Ronda’s shot hit Big Man Desolate in the head and he fell.

Then he got back up, left his hat behind, and kept running. In a moment he ran into another section of the hedge.

Ronda winced as he disappeared into the hedge. There had been no pathway there.