Oath of the Survivor

Kyle frowned as he focused on the mana flowing through his body.  When he used RESONANCE to attack, he forcefully took control of his opponent’s mana pathways and attacked.  He expected to feel something similar from the moths.  Instead, he felt… nothing.  There was no battle of Willpower, no wrestling against the creatures for control.  His mana was simply moving slower.  The reports of the expedition members indicated that the effect was temporary.  Kyle was confident in his ability to get out and recover, except for one sticking point.  He didn’t want to run away.

Stubbornly, he took another deep breath of the mist.  ADAPTIVE REGENERATION was still more than enough to keep his body healthy, even with the minor headwind of the attack on his mana pathways. 

“C.H.A.D.D., what are your scans showing with my mana pathways?”

[THERE IS NO CLEAR INDICATION OF OBSTRUCTION, HOWEVER IT APPEARS THAT THE CIRCULATION OF MANA HAS REDUCED TO ROUGHLY NINETY-FOUR PERCENT OF STANDARD.  I WOULD CAUTION THAT THERE MAY BE A CUMULATIVE IMPACT, DR. MAYHEW.]

“Thank you, C.H.A.D.D.  Can you keep tabs on it and let me know when it drops below thirty-five percent?”

[CERTAINLY, DR. MAYHEW.]

If there’s no obstruction, and no attack, how are they doing this?  Unable to come up with an easy answer, Kyle decided to go back to some of the basic mana practice he’d started so long ago.  Closing his eyes and crossing his legs as he sat, he began to push his mana in a series of exercises.  Concentrating it into his arms, his legs, his eyes.  Forcing the mana to flow more quickly, more slowly, moving in pulses and restraining it altogether. 

His ascension to D Grade made these exercises much easier than before, and as he worked through the familiar movements, he began to form a better idea of what was going on.  C.H.A.D.D. noticed it too.

[YOUR MANA FLOW HAS RECOVERED TO STANDARD, DR. MAYHEW.]

Kyle nodded and stopped working through the exercises.  “How about now, C.H.A.D.D.?”

[MANA EFFICIENCY HAS BEGUN TO DETERIORATE, ALBEIT SLOWLY.  I AM CURIOUS, HOW DID YOU ELIMINATE THE TOXIN?  WERE YOU ABLE TO ISOLATE IT?]

“I don’t think it was a toxin at all.  We still have a lot more to learn, and I don’t want to get ahead of myself and skew the results.  For now, let’s keep gathering information.”

The next couple hours were spent with Kyle inhaling toxic mist, allowing ADAPTIVE REGENERATION to build his resilience, and running through his mana exercises to ward off the negative effects on his pathways.  By this point, the hemotoxin and neurotoxin were almost entirely ineffective against him, no matter how much of the mist he inhaled.  With a sigh, Kyle stood up and stretched.  He’d hoped to gather a little more information, but he’d already hit diminishing returns.  The mystery of the mana impaction had been largely solved, and he was ready to get moving.

“Do you have what you need, C.H.A.D.D.?”

[YES, DR. MAYHEW.  THE MANA CARRIED A SPECIFIC INTENT, DIDN’T IT?]

“I think so.  I don’t know exactly what it was, necessarily, but it felt like it was actively trying to infect the mana in my body and make it sluggish.  When I took more active control, it acted like a reset button.  The skills on their own didn’t seem to change it, which is something we don’t really have time to figure out.”

[YOU ARE RUNNING BEHIND SCHEDULE, DR. MAYHEW.]

As if on cue, a message came through his nav bracelet.

“Did you decide to take a nap?  What’s going on, Mayhew?”

Rochelle’s voice sounded more exasperated than surprised; she’d likely suspected that Kyle would do something foolish like this. 

“Just getting back up and running.  This should save us time in the long run.”

“You D Grades are a real pain; do you know that?”

“You’ve mentioned it once or twice.  We’ll let you know when we’re done placing the explosive.”

“Don’t do anything else reckless, Mayhew.  Just follow the plan.”  Kyle could picture her rubbing her forehead. 

“You’ve got it, boss.”

Activating HASTE, Kyle took off.  He cleared the expanding cloud of mist in mere seconds, and the moths were simply too slow to catch up.  Making his way to the foot of the tree, he saw hundreds upon hundreds of holes in the bark.  His nav bracelet told him that there should be a hollow on one side of the tree, and as he approached, he spotted it.  Hundreds of dog-sized larvae were milling about the entrance to the hollow.  They had large spikes across their backs, and what looked to be a singular, powerful horn on their heads.  He watched as they dug at the bark of the tree, almost seeming to melt through it as the horn secreted some type of acid.

He saw thousands more as he looked up at the trunk and the branches beyond.  Glad I don’t have to go up there.  The creatures didn’t seem to care much for him, moving about and eating.  That all changed as he took his first step into the hollow.  Instantly, he was staring down hundreds of acidic red horns as the moth larvae began to shuffle towards him.  Kyle drew out his baton, twirling it with a flourish. 

While he wouldn’t need to kill all of the little caterpillars, he did want to clear a path to secure his escape.  When the oversized garden pests got within range, Kyle got to work.  Even though he could only use one hand, his attacks were more than powerful enough to deal with his army of opponents.

For the first time in a while, he almost felt bad for the little bugs.  While their acid and horns could be dangerous to him if he took too many hits, the reality was that he simply wasn’t getting hit.  HASTE active and being focused on his right arm, he landed nearly a dozen heavy strikes each second.  Each blow either crushed or sent a caterpillar flying, and in no time at all he’d thinned their numbers by nearly half. 

Not bothering with the rest, Kyle continued deeper into the hollow, which scans indicated had been carved out by the creatures.  At first he thought the instructions were wrong, until he looked up.  Deep scars ran up the interior of the tree, only letting in pinpricks of light that came through the holes in the bark.  It was like looking at the night sky, and he thought about his grandfather.  How would you have handled this? 

Kyle still had a hard time with the idea that he was probably better at tasks like this than his grandfather had been.  That’s not to say he was necessarily stronger, but after a lifetime of looking at the D Grade with awe it just felt foreign. 

[DO YOU NEED ME TO HIGHLIGHT A PATH TO THE POSITION INDICATED, DR. MAYHEW?]

The drone’s words snapped Kyle out of his reflection. 

“That would be wonderful, C.H.A.D.D.”

Handholds were easy enough to find, though climbing one-handed still had its challenges.  Soon they found themselves where they’d need to place the explosive.  Kyle’s eyes widened as he took in the sight.  Thousands upon thousands of cocoons lined the inner wall of the tree, each with an opalescent beauty as they reflected the light of the false stars.  It was beautiful.  It was alien. It reinforced exactly why Kyle needed to do this.  Even with his resilience, the presence of this many moths would be too much.  Just by passively flying, the entire area would become far too toxic for people to come near.  Not that it will matter in a few years. 

The bitter thought surprised him.  He did his best to shove it down.  For now, he nestled the explosive in roughly the area indicated by the nav bracelet.  He lifted a thick metal panel on the outer casing, and rested his palm against the detonator as he’d been instructed.  The explosive drew energy from him, far more than any of the other technologies he’d interacted with. 

Nearly ten percent of his total mana reserves were drawn in, until he heard an almost satisfied beep from the equipment.  He looked at his nav bracelet, which now flashed a warning that he had only fifteen minutes until detonation.  Plenty of time.  Kyle exited the chamber with all the pupae, and navigated his way down towards the ground.  About halfway, he froze as Auric Perception began to feel something, a familiar tingle playing across his skin.

[DR. MAYHEW, SCANS ARE PICKING UP AN ANOMALY.  I’D VERY MUCH LIKE TO SEE IT.] 

Kyle swore.  Of course we find a damn natural treasure after we arm the explosive.

“Are you sure, C.H.A.D.D.?”

[QUITE, DR. MAYHEW.]

“Where is it?”

[LIKELY CONDENSING NEAR THE TOP OF THE TREE, DR. MAYHEW.]

“This is incredibly dangerous.  We should leave it.”

[THAT WOULD BE THE SMART DECISION, DR. MAYHEW.  BUT HAVE YOU CONSIDERED THAT IT COULD BE HELPFUL FOR ME?]

“That’s why I’m even talking about it. How beneficial do you think it could be?”

[I’M UNSURE.  HOWEVER, THE POTENCY OF THE MANA IS INCREASING.  SOMETHING TRIGGERED IT TO BEGIN CONDENSING, AND ITS ALREADY NEAR THE LEVEL OF THE OTHER TREASURE WE ABSORBED.]

There wasn’t time to debate anymore.  “Show me.  And if you get us blown up, I’m going to file a report with Central Health.”

[YOU WOULDN’T DARE.]

~~~

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