NOVEL WEB Chapter 84: The stream of mana
I glanced about at the panicking humans, the guards' formations had long since collapsed with the defeat of their commander. They hastily ran away in fear. A few of the mages hovering in the air attempted to salvage the situation, yet It was no use. The guards had completely lost their will to fight.
Seeing that, even the Mages began to retreat. A few of the surprisingly didn't, and instead closed in on me. 'Hoh? Looks like there were still a few with backbone amongst them,' I grinned and flapped my wings jumping into the sky. Surrounding me were three mages, a young female, a middle-aged man, and an extremely old man with mummy like skin.
"Hold him in place Egna!" Ordered the old man, the young female mage nodded, my gaze turned to her hand as she brought out a brown glowing stone. 'Oh? What's that?' I wondered, and as If to answer my question, the female mage channeled the surrounding mana with no regard to its element into the brown glowing stone.
'What the—?!' My eyes widened in shock, 'That's ridiculous!' I never cared to look much into it before, I simply knew that the way humans were using magic was harmful to the mana stream. Now with the young female mage in front of me, I was able to get the basic gist of the situation.
In that second, the mage had certainly willed the mana against the stream itself, she did not use a single element, but instead brought all of them into the brown glowing stone in her hands. I watched in surprise as the various elements changed into earth-based mana once inside the stone.
'This! What is the meaning of this?!' I was shocked by what I was seeing. 'Is this the reason why their use of magic is harmful to the stream?' I wondered as the brown glowing stone in that second began to shine even brighter. 'Hmm?' A frown made its way onto my face as I sensed a disturbance in the flow of mana below me.
I effortlessly dodged out of the way as countless large thick tree roots broke through the ground of the city and shot towards me. The female mage seemed surprised that her attack had failed, as I could see her eyes widening in shock.
Yet before I could do anything, the middle-aged man mage made his move, he similarly brought out a big red glowing stone and forcefully infused a large amount of mana into it. My frown deepened, the me of now was no longer the same as I was five years ago, the naming ceremony had enhanced my body and my connection to the stream of mana, It was incompatible with what It was before.
And that was exactly why I could see It clearly now, what they were doing was wrong, no, it was bad! I somewhat understood after seeing It up close. The humans seem to have a completely wrong idea when it came to how the mana worked!
The act of gathering countless mana strands from various elements and forcefully changing them into another one using those strange stones, that was the problem! 'Can they not sense the different elements?' I quickly shook my head to rid myself of such distracting thoughts, 'Now is not the time to be thinking about that,'
Just then, the big red glowing stone shattered in the hands of the middle-aged mage turning into dust, Immediately following that, my scales tingled as I felt a great disturbance above me. The sky suddenly brightened as a large pillar of fire descended upon me.
Boom!
A large explosion swiftly followed as the area surrounding us was instantly flattened, the various buildings disappeared, I frowned as I watched the old bald guard commander get engulfed in flames before he as well disappeared, a large dust cloud followed hindering everyone's sight.
"Did we get him?" Asked the female mage, the mummy-like old man remained quiet as they rose high in the air to scan the dust cloud. "T-That was my strongest attack master, I'm already spent," Added the middle-aged mage while gasping for air.
None of them could see me, but I could see them. How could I not with all the disturbance they were causing to their surrounding mana? That previous attack did not do any damage to me, 'Heh, It doesn't come close to grandfather's fire,' I thought as a shiver run down my spine while I remembered his first trial.
With a mighty flap of my wings, I instantly lunged forward breaking through the dust cloud and aimed at the old mummy-like old man. He was the only one left that hasn't attacked yet, and If my intuition was right, he was also the strongest out of them, hence why I aimed to take him out first.
The old man reacted late by a mere millisecond, as another large brown glowing stone broke in his hands, giant tree roots bigger than what the female mage managed to summon appeared to stop me, I brandished my claws and easily cut through them instantly appearing before the old man.
His eyes were wide open in shock as he panicked, "Master!" Sensing the immediate danger he was in, the two apprentices cried out in despair as I cut the old man in half, his dead body falling into the ground below.
"Run away Egna! We have already bought enough time for everyone!" Yelled the middle-aged mage as he turned tail to flee. That, however, was his mistake, with his back turned to me a water bullet rapidly pierced his heart. He lowered his head and glanced at his open chest with unwillingness before he also fell helplessly to the ground below.
'That's two, now then where's the other one?' I turned around just in time as Egna lunged towards me with eyes full of rage, a glowing sword in her hands. "How dare you! You monster!" She screamed while clumsily swinging her sword down, she must have picked it up from one of the dead guards.
It was obvious that she had never used a blade before as her strike was awkward, I merely flicked my claw sending the blade flying from her hand, and then swiftly grabbed her with my other one as I brought her closer to my face. To my surprise, she didn't show any signs of fear whatsoever and instead stared at me with defiance and hatred.
This caused me to frown before I sent a water bullet between her eyes, instantly ending her life. 'Tsk ruined my mood,' I grumbled as I turned to glance at the scene of destruction I have left behind.
The city was already done for, the guards were dead, the mages were dead, the people were dead. It was a massacre. Seeing that scene, was as if a veil had been lifted from my eyes as my mood quickly soured. For some reason, Egna's hateful glare reminded me of little brown back in my naming ceremony.
'Is that how I look like to the humans?' I wondered, a sigh escaping my mouth.