Kali felt her anger boiling inside of her, a hare even if magical it was still just a hare and it was making her crawl on the ground like an insect. Who does it think it is??!

She fuelled her anger into a Fireball which greedily ate 20% of her mana and shot off in the same zig-zag pattern she used with the Water Blade, she had to add another Launch at the end too as she was so far away but those Runes barely cost anything so it was fine.

She heard a few of the beams split off from the rest trying to melt through the rock providing her shelter, they each closed in on the fireball mid-flight and much to her astonishment when the two collided at around 40 meters from the hare the spell exploded prematurely.

The spell thunderously exploded and carbonized a tree and scorched the ground beneath it but the hare would at most have a bleeding ear from the loud sound. Kali bit her lips in frustration, she was down to 65% and her most powerful spell achieved nothing.

She somewhat hoped that her foe would end like its predecessor, the frost wolf and get one-shotted by this Spell but reality didn't want to play along today. Whatever, it's not like you win just because of this!

Just to test it she covered the rock with a Shadow Cloak to see what would happen and it was both better and worse than what she expected. The rock turned from its rough grey color to an utter black, absorbing all light touching it but not 10 seconds later she already felt the spell matrix still held in her palm strain.

It held for another five seconds before it dissipated and the rock returned to its original color, the scorching hiss she associated with the beams melting through it resumed right after.

This means I can shield myself but not for long, Kinetic Spells are the only ones it can't see but I don't think those will be enough to kill it, I'll need to get closer to make sure my spell hits before it can intercept it with a beam.

She peeked out from behind the rock before retreating quickly from a diverging beam, combined with the glances she got and her spatial hearing she started noting every rock, mound and tree that could serve as a cover while she closed in on the hare.

It was dangerous though, she sat on the ground with her back against the rock. In front of her lay an easy route of escape, all she had to do was give up on killing the hare, on getting its Core, and give up on fighting and getting stronger.

Her gaze hardened at the thought, no, NO!

She didn't give up her peaceful life to hide under a tree, shivering in fright at the thought of a random rabbit turning up and killing her with a thought. She gave safety up once, running away now would be spitting in the face of her resolve.

I will kill it!

She could cast Shadow Cloak quickly and effortlessly because it wasn't complicated, just mana intensive. The only thing that it strained was her Core, but that was alright. She didn't need to hold it in place for long just until she got from one cover to the next.

Maybe she assume wrong and countering offensive Light Spells was the purpose of the Shadow Cloak and not helping her sneak around at night. Thoughts for later.

She couldn't hold two spell matrixes under her hold so she wouldn't be able to cast anything else while she held onto the Cloak. It was a spell rather different from her other ones as it had a Mana Gathering Rune in it which would siphon any mana she let out of her Core while she held the matrix.

It was a slight strain on her mind to keep it up but it was inconsequential, she could visualize Runes only using her mind which was much harder than mentally holding a bundle of active mana.

She breathed in deeply, let it out and covered herself in shadows. She dashed out from behind the rock and heard the beams starting to follow after her, light should be precise and fast but while it reached its destination in no time, moving it seemed to tax the animal.

She reached the first of her planned covers but she continued onwards, only a single beam managed to touch her cloak and the matrix was still stable, no need to stop and recast the spell in that case.

Her hair whipped around in the wind as she rushed for the next cover, it was only 20 meters away from her when three beams caught up with her one after the other and started burning through her cloak. She felt the matrix strain but it could hold on for 15 seconds under the combined assault of dozens of the same beams.

It'll hold.

She had to zig-zag through the maze of thinner trees that wouldn't give much resistance to the beams. They held them off only for brief moments before they crashed over, kicking up a cloud of snow which quickly evaporated around the superheater beam.

She jumped over a larger, thorny bush, lamenting the fate of the tasty-looking berries hiding behind its leaves. She landed with a graceful roll, jumping back into a spring once enough of her momentum died off. She just managed to slip behind the thick trunk of a dead tree as the berry bush went up in flames.

It looked like lightning struck it maybe a week ago as it still had some greenish leaves among the bundles of dead, yellowish ones.

This one looks very flammable, I need to hurry!

She dissipated her previous cloak and re-casted the spell, she felt the new cloak coat her body with a thin film of mana, even covering her eyes and leaving her blind to the world around her but Kali was an elf, her spatial hearing guided her better than a bat's echolocation could ever guide it.

This Spell was either made for higher level mages who had much larger range on their mana sense or purely for species like elves who weren't overly reliant on their eyesight.

Kali didn't waste any time and sprung back into action, feeling a few of the beams that were burning through the dead tree prick at her cloak before she left them behind her.

She strained her legs and focus to dash as fast as she could on the slippery ground, she jumped, rolled and slid between covers, closing in on her prey. 130 meters from the hare went down to 90 then 50.

She didn't immediately spring back into action once she reached her latest cover which was another protruding rock, she could get close to the rabbit but what use would that be if she couldn't cast spells? She could stab it with her knife but that was too risky, she'd rather stay with shooting it with spells.

For now, she was curious what'd happen if she managed to move the stationary hare around a bit so with a smirk she launched a Kinetic Hammer Spell at the animal. She aimed it so it'd hit it from behind so it didn't collide with any of the beams it now concentrated on the rock.

She didn't know what to expect but the pain-filled animalistic shriek that she heard stunned her a bit, she'd just given the animal some upward momentum so it shouldn't be feeling any pain.

She peeked out from behind her cover and saw the hare reach the apex of its flight around a hundred meters above ground and it started to descend but it was twitching and shrieking like it'd just been struck by lightning.

She noted that it wasn't shooting beams anymore. She narrowed her eyes to focus on the fast animal turned projectile and her eyes widened soon after. Backlash!

She realized what it was from the clues in a moment based on the many much too descriptive tales of her teacher, she thought he was enjoying watching her squirm in discomfort as he went on and on about what kind of effects backlashes could have based on many different circumstances.

The horned monster was now quickly approaching the ground but it wasn't shrieking anymore and was visibly trying to make its landing smoother as it descended. We can't have that!

Another Kinetic Hammer was formed, activated and sent at the animal, making its attempts at landing gracefully futile as its velocity multiplied. She didn't see the end effect but the landing was more of a thump than the splat she expected.

It's a magical beast, it ought to be tougher than a normal hare.

She stalked through the snow, making sure to have something in between herself and where her spatial hearing was picking up the movements from the hare, it seemed like it survived its crash landing though its footsteps were uneven while its breathing was heavy and pained.

She sent a bit of her mana sense into her Core and noted that it was a bit more than halfway full, seeing as she still had that much she decided to see how the hare was doing with a Twin Kinetic Strike. She twitched her ears and felt more than heard through her spatial hearing as the animal twitched its body at the last moments to dampen the impact of the Spells.

That was around half a percent worth of mana and it did much better than any of my stronger spells, oh well you can have some more then!

Since it was working and the spell was so cheap she sent them one after the other, always making it so the two strikes would assault the beast from different directions just to make dodging that much harder. All the while she was sneaking closer to it as the animal was becoming more and more frantic.

She soon reached the closest hiding place to the animal she could get to without alerting it, she laid down on her stomach and peeked out from under the low-hanging branches of a Spruce touching the ground. The top half has been cut off but the bottom was proving to be a great hiding place.

Now that her assault halted for a bit the animal was looking around, its nose twitching and its ears raised in an alert but it failed to find her. Kali didn't know why a herbivore like a hare wouldn't just escape from dangerous combat like this but having a Core must have changed its behavior in some way.

At the end of the day, it was still just an animal, a strong one that could shoot beams of light that could kill her but still just a beast.

She started thinking about her options, first was waiting which she already decided she wouldn't do, it seemed like a cheap tactic that wouldn't help her much in the long run aside from the essence, the experience of fighting to the death was an important thing in all of her adventure novels.

Plus that tactic also risked the hare running away as it realized it was going to die, a beast had to have some sort of survival instinct.

She'd have to kill it, the question was just how she was going to do it. Attrition with Kinetic Strikes was one and she was willing to resort to that but she wanted to try a cleaner method first, she'd still have enough mana remaining afterward.

With that decision her gaze hardened as she stared at the hare, she stuck one of her palms out from under the tree and held it close to the ground, soon she formed a modified Water Blade Spell and let it collapse into the spell matrix which she let go of.

Unlike before, after the spell formed the familiar crescent shape out of the mana-enhanced water it just floated in the air but Kali started a countdown in her head. The Delay Rune she incorporated before the Overcharged Launch one would let it go exactly 10 seconds later with how much mana she filled it with.

At five she started forming another Spell, a Kinetic Hammer this time and released it right as she counted 2 in her head. The Spell struck the animal and gave it enough velocity to send it flying for a hundred meters but the direction of that momentum was the ground this time.

The hare was forced onto the ground by the force of her spell, it must have felt like it had just landed from jumping out of a tower but then she counted zero in her head and the Water Blade shot off from next to her hiding spot and slashed into the prone beast.

Kali grimaced at the pitiful whimper the hare let out but the sound of flesh and bones being rent apart by her Spell took its place and she could no longer hear any noise from the hare after that.

She crawled out from her hiding place and carefully made her way over to the fallen beast, all of her senses told her that the animal was motionless but it didn't hurt to be careful, just a minute ago it was busy melting through a rock after all.

She soon saw the remains of the animal which was bisected rather cleanly by her spell which continued to cut into the frozen ground for a few centimetres before it turned back into normal water.

As she stared down at the second magical beast she managed to best she thought back on the fight, 'revision is the greatest teacher after me' Zadkiel used to say and Kali took his words to heart. She liked to revise her knowledge and test herself so all the things she learned wouldn't fade from her mind so quickly.

A fight was no different, revision was even more important. She went through what she could have done differently or what she could have used to her advantage.

She didn't have to think much as her fight was less than efficient or pragmatic but she wasn't willing to choose attrition if she could end the fight quickly and more importantly with cooler spells. Yeah, Kinetic spells are cool and all but until I can see their effect Water Blade and Fireball remain superior in my mind.

The one part she was confused about was the backlash, she didn't understand why exactly the animal had a backlash from her throwing it. From what she learned it could only occur when the mage is activating the Spell, if the Runes were formed wrong or if their order was wrong, or if the mana was too much, too little or one of the hundreds of other mistakes one could make when casting the spell won't result in an easy to control spell matrix but in a chaotic bundle of mana that wreaks havoc inside the body of the mage.

Because of that the more mana a Spell uses and the more complex it is the more dangerous casting it gets for a mage. Many use chanting because of this, you can tell much more easily if you misspoke a word than whether a single Rune out of a thousand is off by a few degrees or something small and seemingly inconsequential like that.

Her Spells were all rather low in both mana cost and complexity with two as the outliers but the rest were spells any aspiring Apprentice level Elementalist should know according to 'How to Become a Mage for morons', a book she also got from Zadkiel.

She knew that her Shadow Cloak spell wasn't apprentice level but that was just recorded in handwritten notes at the back of it along with the improved Fireball spell she still used but the rest of her spells along with most of her knowledge rudimentary, meant to be given only to those starting out as mages.

Time to get my prize.

She crouched down in the middle of the gore, her face twitching in disgust so she focused her attention on her mana sense, it only reached one meter away from her skin but it'd help her find the Core without searching through entrails even if it had not much use outside of that.

She closed her eyes and sank into her senses, she tried to cut off her regular senses to let her focus on her underdeveloped mana sense but it was proving to be harder than she thought. The soft feelings and sensations she got through this sense were hardly comparable to the strong and precise information she got from her hearing for example.

She's had mana sense before but it barely reached a centimetre away from her skin, she tried to recall how she used that but she never had much use of that either. She just used it to check how much mana was in her core and how to control how much mana she was channeling into Runes.

Although it was annoying, the challenge was something she welcomed. If she couldn't numb her senses she'd have to do it some other way, she pulled on a bit of her mana and started guiding it through her body. The bundle of energy swam around according to her will unobstructed, flowing into her arms then her chest and then down into her stomach and expanding into her legs.

She pulled it back into her stomach and formed it into a ball of energy, she started spinning the energy around itself, and she focused on it, only this ball of mana was important at that moment. Her eyes closed and her breathing stopped, her hearing remained but she pushed it into the back of her mind as she focused solely on the feeling of the mana swirling under her control.

Slowly she extracted a small stream of mana from it and guided it toward her skin, her hold on it strained a bit as she approached the former border of her control but she stubbornly forced ahead. The small stream of mana held her entire focus as it passed through her skin and started to rapidly dissipate while she desperately tried to keep a hold of it.

It felt like she was trying to hold onto a bucketful of water with only one of her hands, the small stream of mana fractured and slipped through her control, rejoining the ambient mana outside of her body.

Why is it so much easier to hold onto Spell matrixes?

Ah, Whatever!

Another entry into 'The endless list of Kali's unanswered questions~'.

She banished her annoyance to the back of her mind, there was a task at hand and her focus was straying. Her goal was to sense the mana more precisely in her expanded mana sense. A mana sense, which she barely managed to maintain before.

She focused, pulling herself into the depths of her mind and wanting — willing — her mana sense to expand. She pushed her mind outwards and slowly; it did. The body was the sanctum of a mage. Inside their own bodies, they could control mana however, they wished with no strain and they could sense it with a great deal of clearness, but it only went as far as their skin and never further.

Mana Sense was a weaker version of that inner sense. It was pushing it beyond the body and sensing the surroundings.

Inch by inch, centimeter by centimeter, her range crawled outwards, but with each she felt herself somehow strain. Like she was being expanded, blown up like a balloon, stretched like rubber.

She held on. Mana Sense was important, much more important than her discomfort. If it ever turned into pain, she'd stop, but she wanted to push herself to that point first.

She could get glimpses at the ambient mana and she could kind of make out the fleeting wisps that were not so long ago held within her grasp. Right now she saw on the macroscale, she saw waves in the ambient mana and smaller currents as they came close to her and gently brushed against her body before twisting away again.

But what she wanted wasn't on the macroscale. She wanted individual bundles of mana and not what hundreds of those made up together. So she focused and guided a trickle of her mana through her skin and out into the world and with each try she managed to keep track of the fleeting whisps for longer.

Her control of mana also got better if not by much as she managed to hold her mana under her control for longer even once it was outside of her body.

She got lost in the influx of dopamine hitting her with each small accomplishment.

This is what I love about magic!