Novaris: Adventure in the Shattered Fang Continent

Tesilim led the search for the bunnies with assistance from Alyx. The bunnies had moved further away from the city, and the further they went, the more powerful the magic residue they left behind them was. Tesilim had questioned if the bunnies had kept fighting since they were clearly leaving a trail, which was when he learned something quite interesting about the Realms.

Apparently, the Realms didn’t have basic ambient mana like a planet does. Instead, each Realm has its own type of mana that the inhabitants use for their magic. This meant that Realm creatures needed access to a supply of their Realms mana to maintain their levels of strength. This was because, like how a humanoid needed to recharge their ambient mana, a Realm creature needed to recharge their Realm mana.

“Wait, so why not just let them run out of their fey mana and eventually die to some random monster?” Tesilim had asked upon hearing the mana dilemma.

Of course, like always, the answer was magic. Since all that non-elemental Realm entities needed to create more of themselves were souls, it was natural that Monarchs would create monsters with the ability to sustain themselves at the cost of power. That way, these monsters could be used as cannon fodder without worrying about them weakening further. This meant that the bunnies could transform ambient mana into their fey mana. However, in exchange, they were weaker than usual.

Other than weaker monsters, the only good thing that came from such a change was that the bunnies didn’t care about using their magic and left a nice magical trailer wherever they went.

It was well past noon when the magical residue left behind by the bunnies stopped getting fresher and flat-lined in quality. This allowed the team to know they were almost upon the bunnies and that they needed to be ready for some drawn-out combat. It would be a tough battle, and considering similar concepts were often good at canceling each other out, it meant that Jasmine’s light-damaging abilities might not be as effective against the moon bunnies. Luckily, it also meant they couldn’t damage her too easily either, and she could focus on healing and buffing. The main worry, however, was the enemy numbers. Thirty D Rank bunnies would push everyone to the edge, even Lili, and the party was on edge because of it.

Even so, they had a job to do and would not back out now. However, it didn’t mean they were going to be stupid. Lili went into stealth, heading ahead of the party in order to scout. The last thing they wanted was to run head-first into the pile of bunnies. The forest around them had gotten a bit thicker as they headed further away from the city and closer to the ocean. They were still a few hours away from the city, and since much of the adventuring happened deeper inland, this area of the forest didn’t receive the same care.

In a way, it was good for the team since it meant more spots to get in between the bunnies and them when a fight broke out.

A fight came to a head when Lili returned from scouting to inform them she had found a small group of bunnies a few minutes ahead of them. The information had confused Alyx and Tesilim since they expected thirty. However, they quickly realized their mistake. They assumed they were going to fight thirty bunnies at once, but in actuality, there were probably multiple groups of bunnies, which came to a total of 30. In hindsight, it made sense since 30 D Rank monsters would have definitely wiped out a group of guards.

With less worry about the upcoming fight, they headed towards the bunnies, deciding to allow Tesilim to use his spell die. Naturally, he had to explain the item to Rose and Jasmine. Rose was incredibly jealous while Jasmine was just happy for him and was looking forward to the resulting destruction.

Tesilim assigned the spells as follows.

1 - Flame Magic Missile.

2 - Ice Magic Missile.

3 - Force Magic Missile.

4 - Chain Lightning.

5 - Water Slash.

6 - Summon Water.

With the spells assigned and some help from Lili to stay stealthy, the party got a bit closer to the bunnies before Tesilim and Lili walked the last couple dozen feet. There, he threw the die toward the slightly larger bunnies who were gracing on some herbs.

The team felt the blast of cold air all the way from where they were. Nearly thirty ice missiles exploded from the die as it spent all of its mana on the spell. Needless to say, the seven bunnies were quickly blasted into oblivion as the missiles targeted them. After the destruction, Tesilim calmly walked into the now-frozen and newly made-clearing along with the rest of the party. He smiled as they admired the destruction, and he picked up his die, which was extremely cold to the touch, the ground underneath it having turned to ice.

After that, the party continued searching for their next group of bunnies, which unsurprisingly actually found them only a few dozen feet from where the last group had just exploded. After all, the blast of ice had been rather powerful, and there was no way a few monsters wouldn’t notice.

“Watch out, we got bunnies!” Lili said a few seconds before three blasts of silver and white crescent-shaped slashes struck against Alyx’s shield. This was then followed by four more. Two of which blasted against Jasmine’s shield with the remaining two striking trees instead.

Right behind the slashes came the bunnies, their white fur glowing even brighter as they zoomed toward the party, clearly enhanced by their fey magic. Thankfully, there was enough distance between them, and Rose was quick to act.

“Shield Wall!”

The redhead yelled as the golden wall appeared, lighting up the forest even further. Two bunnies unable to stop slammed into the thing, with the renaming five hopping around or over it. Rose headed straight towards the halted bunnies, letting the team handle the rest.

“Jasmine, give us a speed boost!” Alyx said via telepathy, and Jasmine was quick to answer as she began to throw orbs of silver light at the party, starting with Tesilim and Lili.

Lili, having already enhanced her body, boosted it even further and rushed at one bunny kicking with all she had, causing it to slam against a nearby tree before she rushed at another with even more speed as Jasmine boosted her further. Tesilim, having used the time Rose had bought to enhance his body, poured some more mana into it to boost it even further. The bunnies were fast, and he thought he might take a bit of a beating, so he changed his boots into water mode and muttered, “I am speed,” before rushing forward to meet an incoming bunny whose glow grew with every passing second. Then he heard Alyx begin to chant, and his speed was further boosted by what he imagined was Jasmine’s power.

Alyx, having seen how fast the bunnies were, knew he had to slow them down a bit and began a chant just for that.

"By fleeting winds and stolen pace;

Drain their speed, leave no trace;

Meanwhile, Jasmine had hit Tesilim and Lili with her speed buff, with a third one flying towards Rose, whose shield wall had been dismissed while her golden aura increased as she boosted her body enhancement further. Rose was going for the two bunnies her wall had halted. The bunnies, who were all about speed, took off, clearly wanting to build up even more speed. Annoyingly, Rose couldn’t chase both, so she did what she had to.

“Solar Beam!”

A beam of sunlight struck one of the bunnies as she tried to make it falter on its run. Then she began chasing the other one.

Tesilim, who understood some of the words the gnome was saying, realized what he was going to do. Still, a bright bunny was coming straight at him, and two others were ignoring him completely and heading straight for the two casters at the back. He couldn’t move out of the way of the super glowing bunny charge in case it went for Alyx or Jasmine, but he also couldn’t take the hit. So, he did what he had to do and stood still, waiting for the glowing bunny to get closer. Meanwhile, he unleashed a couple of water slashes at one of the other two bunnies, pissing it off and causing it to change direction, charging at him instead.

Swift to slow, their power cease;

Seep their speed, oh flowing breeze."

Alyx finished right on time, and a wind blew through the area. The spell caused the bunnies to slow down just a bit, giving Tesilim the chance he needed. He waited until the very last second and teleported out of the way of the super glowing bunny, hearing and seeing the explosion of dirt as the bunny slammed into the dirt.

Tesilim had teleported behind the bunny he had pissed off and caught it by surprise, stabbing his two basic magical daggers into its body.

“I don’t have a shield. Jasmine, please keep me alive.” Alyx spoke once more. He was keeping track of the bunny that had gotten past Tesilim and was rushing straight at him. The gnome wasn’t scared and instead had his staff at the ready.

Lili arrived next to her next target and stabbed the large bunny, causing it to squeak in pain as red blood poured from its side. Then it glowed brightly, and she was blasted with a force of invisible cold that moved her back a bit, allowing for the bunny to rip off her dagger. Unfortunately, just then, Alyx’s spell hit, and she was back on it. This time, her blade glowed with dark power, and as she stabbed it into the bunny, she unleashed her consuming slash inside of its body, making its body go limp. With that one dead, she looked at the one she had slammed against the tree and was coming straight at her, its body glowing extremely bright.

The sunny beam of light hadn’t done much damage to bunny since it simply hopped out of it. Still, a distraction was a distraction, and Rose hoped it would halt it a bit. Focusing back on the one she was chasing, her chance came with the blowing breeze that stole some of the bunny's speed. Seeing it slow, she pumped more pure mana into her body, gaining a boost as she got closer.

“Shield Bash!” Rose screamed as her shield’s glow strengthened, and she was pulled forward a few feet, covering the final distance to the bunny and slamming into it. The bunny, now daze, couldn’t do much as her sword stabbed deep into it.