Dave stayed in the pocket letting the knight swing, he only dodged with small movements to be able to retaliate with devastating close lightning or spear strikes. Because of his Soul Weapon Mastery Skill, he felt confident against his slower opponent. His instinct while fighting with the spear made him the much superior combatant.

He dodged a heavy fall of the blade to his left, and thrust his spear tip deep in above the knee. Then he danced away on light feet, barely avoiding the knight's backswing. It had gone like this for a few hectic back and forths and Dave was soaked in sweat by now.

He had no eye for the other battles by now, focusing solely on his struggle as exhaustion slowly started to seep into his legs. His arms were still moving fluidly but his legs felt like they were filling with lead inch by inch.

His opponent was showing signs of wear as well though. Dave’s strategy of targeting the legs was starting to pay dividends. The knight was limping a bit now, moving even slower. The whole lower half of it looked like a mess, scratches and saps covered them everywhere.

It took a step forward towards Dave again and its recently attacked knee buckled for a second forcing the knight to use his sword to support itself upright momentarily. It still wasn’t enough to make it fall but it gave Dave an opening to exploit.

While the knight slowly pushed himself standing again, Dave raised his left hand, rotating the spear in his right behind his back. He took a deep breath and the world seemed to slow for a second.

He felt the energy flowing into his palm. Mana collecting in familiar patterns and working magic from will into reality. A quick scan showed the completely exposed leg. Dave took aim. He breathed out and released the concentrated lightning. A flash ripped through the air, the two feet between them burning bright as the sun for half a blink.

The next thing Dave saw was the knight jolting and going down. It tried to slowly righten itself into a seating position but Dave was there immediately. Hacking and piercing at whatever was available.

Soon the defenseless knight lay on the ground again. It still seemed to be alive, or whatever form of alive it had, as it still struggled. But it was clear it couldn’t stand up again.

A quick rush of joy went through Dave, being immediately replaced by worry for the other. He scored a goal but the game was still going. Adrenaline rushing through him, mixing with serotonin from his victory.

He saw Max and Bixby still fighting switch tactics to keep their opponent on its heels. But they weren’t doing enough damage to it. Max's bat had broken and he now only held a foot of wood in his hand. Bixby was breathing heavily and they both seemed to tire. The knight on the other hand was better off, not much though. It was covered in scratches and dents and was moving even more sluggish than in the beginning.

Yet it was clear to see who had the upperhand.

Without waiting another second Dave was off. He was still checking for the other battles when he noticed his feet were already moving. He focused his gaze forward. Hunching down he aimed his spear ahead and charged straight into the back of the knight.

With a crash he thundered into it like a battering ram. Dave felt like he had run into a wall. He hit his head somewhere and was thrown to the floor. But he had actually managed to pierce completely through the knight, his spear sticking out on the other end covered in brownish liquid.

The knight only managed to turn towards Dave before it sacked to its knees. Max jumped at it, batting on its head. After a few hearty swings and the rest of the small bat splintering the knight slumped to its side.

“Thanks Dave, I don’t know how long we could’ve held him anymore.” Bixby said.

“Yeah that was great man, nice charge.” Max praised him. Only now did Dave notice some bleeding on Max’s head. It didn’t look too serious, probably just a scratch from falling, since the knight's blade would’ve left a wound from a different caliber. But it gave Max a blood trenched grizzle look.

Dave took Max's hand to get up. His head hurt and he shook it as if to shake the headache away. But it held firm.

“Thanks, you should probably get that face of yours checked” he said. Dave looked over the battlefield. Sarah stood in front of a crawling smoldering mess that moved in her direction. What was a knight before now resembled a half burned tree stump. It looked like Sarah had chosen a similar tactic to Dave, targeting her opponent's mobility.

The upper half of the knight had some scorch marks as well, but the lower half was halfway burned off and parts were still smoking. Still it crawled forward towards Sarah.

She just stood there, sending off a Mana Projectile or two before taking a few steps away into safety again.

She seemed calm and in control. Not just that but even a little bored. Dave was impressed not just by the potency of her Skill, but also by her capability as a fighter.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Ryland was still running around throwing rocks at his opponent, both of them still seemed fresh. A testament not only to the knight's toughness but to Rylands endurance. Dave wondered if that was part of his strength skill. Sam was collecting a few stones but he looked tired and moved groggily. Cara cowered on the ground a few feet to the side of Ryland. Was she taking a rest this close?

He made his way over to help Ryland. This time he wasn’t recklessly charging since it looked like Rylands situation wasn’t close to getting critical. It rather looked like a stalemate.

Before he was in a range where he was confident to do some serious amount of damage with his Minor Spark, a few little vines shot out of the ground around the knight's feet. They stopped his lifted foot mid motion.

The knight stood frozen, looking like it was about to fall. The vines kept bulging against the kinetic energy of the knight's muscles. The fight between wood and vines seemed to take forever but in reality was over after a heartbeat when the knight's leg tore the plants apart.

Still it slowed the wooden warrior down long enough for Ryland to land a clean throw at his head. Its head snapped back, sending chips of wood flying. Another crater into the before finely carved features of its helm. But the knight kept coming.

With Dave added to the mix the tide turned quickly. After an assault of lightning and stones followed by vicious spear attack whenever it was snared the last knight went down as well. When Dave wanted to finish off his first foe he found that Sarah had already taken to the job. Its face looked like a giant lump of coal now.

After he saw that every knight was truly down he slumped to the ground. Exhaustion swept over him. His legs refused to walk another step and his arms were more exhausted then back when he was 13 and started discovering the whole extent of the internet..

So he decided to just rest there on the floor. Looking up into the sky, with his pounding headache as a companion.

Max tasted blood. Even though Sam healed him immediately after all the knights were down, rivers of this stuff still ran down his face. It was an intense battle and his heart was still beating fast. Max looked at the knight down to his feet, a gaping whole in its gut. It was hard to believe they had really just fought wooden knights come to life. Crazy strong ones at that. He looked at the craters that decorated the floor where the huge broadsword had missed them. These things were literally monsters. It was almost a miracle they had survived, even more that they did so relatively unscaped.

The only close moment in their fight had been when Max was too slow to dodge a blow and Bixby half tackled him out of the way. The little man was packing more power than one would guess as he knocked Max flat to the ground. That was how he opened the cut above his eye, he scratched his face on a stone pretty badly. Still better than dying though and Max was aware that Bixby had probably saved his life. Aware and grateful.

He saw Dave slumbed on the ground and almost wanted to join him. But he could see the Mana Node pulsing between the 4 trees. The blue energy danced through the air to an invisible rhythm. A rhythm that drew Max to it nonetheless.

The pull of the Node was even stronger now. Maybe because he was so close or maybe because its guardians were slain and it was waiting to be claimed.

Max found himself unconsciously taking a few steps towards the Node. It was a deep urge that moved him. One last check told him his friends were okay and he allowed himself to get lost in the pull. Every step he got closer the rhythm felt stronger, Max felt the Node reaching for him.

As he stepped through the circle of trees he found himself only a few inches away from the mass of Mana. The Node was bigger than it looked from a distance. In its blue dancing waves he could see patterns now. Sometimes it looked like humans or animals moving. Scenes from long ago maybe. Sometimes it was just shapes and forms. He almost got lost staring into the depths of Mana before he pulled himself together again.

Max slowly reached out with his hand. He suddenly felt very nervous. There was a warmness to the Mana, a pleasant warmness the closer he reached. An inch before he reached the Node a jolt went through his whole body.

As if he had just touched into an electricity socket, but without the pain. Energy went through every pore of his body. He felt suddenly connected to everything and at the same time hyper aware of his body. The movement of Mana in his body was almost like an extension of his senses. Then a prompt popped up in front of him. “Do you want to claim Node SG545?”

That was all it read. Just like back on the bus. It was odd to look at, it was only a few days ago but it felt like a lifetime he had last seen those texts. Somehow he could now feel the box connected to a deeper layer of the world. He felt the Mana running through it and it went deep. This thing was way more complicated than it looked like. Was this a manifestation from the voice of Mana?

He was fascinated by the design, following the small intrinsic line of Mana around the box with his eyes. However he soon remembered where he was and curiosity took over.

“Yes.”

“Congratulations, you are now master of this Node. You, people of your party and selected people in radius will benefit your Mana benefits. The ambient Mana is now stabilized.”

“Unfinished Mana Attunement signals detected, Do you want to interact with the ambient Mana and the surrounding materium? Doing so will balance out inner Mana levels.”

Strange wording but Max was intrigued. “Yes.” he said again and a new window opened up in front of him.

“As this is your first Node, you’ve been awarded 250 Mana Shards. You can use Mana Shards for different Node functions. Use them wisely.”

Max needed a second to process all the sensory input presented to him. He saw multiple menus, or at least they looked like menus, about all kinds of different things. There was one for buildings, clicking on it Max could see different kinds of buildings he could buy. Most of them were greyed out though.

He also saw some sort of currency at the top. Showing him to have 250.

It reminded him a lot of certain video games. But those couldn’t be real buildings, could they? He almost wanted to buy something to test it out, but he knew better than that and wanted to talk it over with Bixby first.

Still he kept clicking through the menus with joy. As a connoisseur of strategy games, he felt like a child on Christmas morning.

Until something caught his eyes.