Spell weaver a litrpg ad.., p.47
Spell Weaver: A LitRPG Adventure, page 47
Holding out his hand, Alex focused on his mana control as the mana thread snaked up from the pile of dust on the ground and wrapped several times around the base of the feather. Within moments, it was traveling among the grass and under the attacker’s feet. When it was in position, he activated the ritual through the thread and watched as nearly twenty enemy warriors were temporarily forced to their knees under the increased gravity.
Several dead Shadow Sect members littered the ground in front of his four companions, who faced south, stalling for the eventual ambush. Sam lay on the ground, still wincing in pain, with Valtherion wrapped around his shoulder and upper arm. Alex looked at Sam.
Where the hell are they?
He scanned the back lines of the fighters and could see the Firstborn raise its head, tongue flicking. Alex’s mind went back to his flight through the dark side of the Rift and how the shadow serpents seemed to be able to sense his leaking mana. Fearing that could happen again, he quickly restricted his leaking mana, hoping to throw off the Firstborn’s ability to sense where he was within the melee.
Alex knew he was probably clear where he was, since there was only a small group of defenders, but any confusion he could cause for the giant serpent was welcome.
For the first time, Alex activated his Heavenly Eye and analyzed the Firstborn.
Naraka - Level 58
Primary Stat: Agility
Fuck me.
I need to figure out how to get Sam and me out of here. This isn’t our fight, and as soon as the ambushers get here, we need to make a break for it.
He looked at the open cross of land between their position and the Rift exit. While it was a relatively straight shot to the exit, it was a long distance to run while supporting the now exhausted and injured Sam.
She’ll definitely see us breaking away from the group. I’m sure she’d catch us before we get there.
Through his left eye, Alex saw a bright ball of golden-yellow mana fly into the air. As his eyes traced it through the morning light, he realized what it was. A heartbeat later, he heard a war cry as several warriors in white-and-yellow robes attacked the enemy’s flank.
Only a few moments passed before a huge pulse and surge of mana exploded out from the direction of Tianluo.
Eura has released Rakshasi. We need to get out of here. Now.
52
HOME STRETCH
Alex’s mind raced, and a plan began to form. He stepped away from the sect warriors, knowing that they would be able to hold for the moment with their increasing power, and the immediate attention turned to the ambushers. He jogged the short distance to kneel next to Sam.
Sprawled out on the ground and with his upper robes torn, there was blood around him from the gashes in his back. With a quick look, Alex turned the teenager on his side and moved the flaps of his top aside to see that the wounds on his back were already closed.
Sam was crying, and his hands were shaking. Alex couldn’t tell if he was shaking from mana exhaustion or fear and pain. But as he approached, through his heavenly eye, Alex could see him activate the [Rejuvenation] skill on himself, even though there were already leaves falling around him.
Shit, did he already use the mana Val gave him, too? He’s overhealing himself because he’s scared.
“Sam, how much mana do you have left?”
The young blonde flinched and looked up at Alex with watery eyes.
Alex reached out with a thread of mana to speak into his mind. As soon as the connection was made, he tried to send Sam feelings of calming comfort and confidence.
It didn’t work.
Alex was surprised, as he’d always been able to send feelings over to the teenager. As Sam connected back to Alex, though, he realized what the issue was. As soon as the two-way connection was made, Alex almost threw up.
The feelings of self-disgust, panic, and helplessness came through the communication in a tidal wave.
Sam, listen, buddy. We’re going to get out of here, okay? The exit is right there, and we are going to make it.
Alex looked away from Sam and Val to survey his surroundings. His plan continued to form, his mind working at its maximum speed to connect the dots of his available tools.
All right, look at me, Sam. How much mana do you have?
Alex reached up to his chest and undid the clasp of his new Jian’s shoulder sheath. He set the sword itself on the ground to free up his hands. When it was off, he reached into his pouch and removed one of his last five D Rank Mana Stones. He crushed it on the ground and began to weave mana threads in a tight wrap around either end of the empty sheath.
“I want to go home. Please. I don’t want to die.”
Alex froze as he heard the words spoken aloud, and his head rose to look at Sam.
Sam looked at him with wide eyes and tears streaming down his dirty cheeks. The teenager looked so young at that moment as his lower lip wobbled. Even though Sam had spent two years in the Rift, bringing his general mental age and time lived to eighteen years, his body was still that of a sixteen year old. And in that moment, he looked at Alex like he could solve all the world’s problems.
“I’m going to get you home, Sam. You understand? We are getting out of here.” He emphasized each word in the last sentence, holding eye contact with the boy. Water stung his own eyes as he heard the chaos around them and knew that they still had an enormous hurdle to overcome. Alex desperately hoped that he looked confident to the boy and that his plan would work. He returned to wrapping physical mana threads around each end of the sheath.
He glanced over his shoulder to see the fight. The Firstborn was surveying everything from the back lines, occasionally striking out at one of the ambushers who fought their way too close. The attacking pattern was ruthless and similar to how it had attacked Sam. The Firstborn would bite down on the attacker’s body with its large fangs to hold it in place just long enough for its tail to come crashing down for a finishing blow.
Okay, Sam. Can you cast [Rejuvenation] on us both?
Sam shook his head, and a notification appeared in Alex’s vision, but he quickly dismissed it.
“Just one.”
Fuck. Okay, do you trust me, Sam?
There was no pause as he nodded his head, complete confidence in Alex.
Good. Stay right here and conserve your mana. Don’t cast anything else for right now. Your back is completely healed, even if it still hurts some, okay?
Sam nodded again and leaned against the rock beside him, clearly avoiding pressure on his freshly healed back.
Alex took a few steps away and told one of the sect warriors that he needed the shield from his spatial pouch.
It’s a bit small. But I guess so is he.
Shields were not widely used in Tianluo, but all guards kept several sets of different weapons or tools in their pouches.
I should really start doing the same. If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t even be able to attempt this insane plan.
Alex carried the shield back to Sam and knelt on the ground. Thanking Eura for the endless mana shaping exercises, he was able to lay down a Weight-Reducing ritual on the inside of the shield in record time. Then, he put a feather and some ash into the nodes that required them and inserted one of his D Rank Mana Stones into the peak of the ritual.
Sam, lay on this.
Sam moved over and looked at it awkwardly. He lay down, and the shield was enough to cover from his shoulders to his rear end, but his legs and head hung off the sides.
It’ll have to do.
As soon as Sam was settled, Alex crushed up another Mana Stone and began to use as many threads as he could produce to wrap the boy’s chest to the shield in a tight cocoon. He saw some confusion and fear in the boy’s eyes, but Alex just told him to trust him again and that getting Sam out was his highest priority.
Val! Come here.
All right, buddy, this is it. You’ve got the most important job. You’re going to get us home.
“Home?”
Yep. I need you to do this.
Alex sent feelings of hunger and need, which Valtherion seemed to naturally understand.
“Mana?” Val sent back feelings of confusion.
Alex finished connecting all the mana threads and attempted to push Sam side to side. He was satisfied that the threads would hold in their strengthened physical state. He connected the threads to the scabbard and held it up to Val.
Bite onto this and pull Sam to the exit. If you do, I’ll give you all the mana you want when we get out of here.
Alex pointed to the Rift, and he felt a sense of understanding come through their bond. Valtherion looked at Sam before looking back at Alex. There was a brief pause before the wyrm was biting down on the dark leather sheath to be used as a bit, similar to how horses used it.
“Friend, home.”
Sam, now’s the time for that [Rejuvenation]. Can you cast it on me? You’re going to take some bumps and bruises, but it won’t be anything too serious.
“What are you doing?” Sam said aloud, panic taking over his normally quiet demeanor.
Trust me, Sam. I’ll be right behind you. We’ve got to do this now, though.
Sam looked at Alex for a moment, face serious, but his eyes were dry. He nodded and cast the healing over time spell on Alex.
Alex activated the Weight-Reducing Ritual.
Val flew off at speed, barely hindered by the weight of the teenager. Blue light streamed into him, and Alex had a hard time distinguishing the blue motes in his right eye from a potential magical attack that his left eye might see.
Shit, I wonder if there’s a System way to turn that off.
Turning, Alex saw that the Firstborn had already noticed the pair moving toward the exit. It ducked its head and began to weave its way after them.
Alex let his mana begin to leak and did his best to push additional mana outward. While it was hard to do, he focused on the feeling he’d had when Eura blanketed the area of Tianluo. There was a small wall of resistance, but out of necessity, Alex pushed through it and felt his mana explode out of his body. It wasn’t a feeling he’d ever experienced before, but it worked.
The Firstborn stopped in its path after Sam and turned directly to Alex.
Yeah, bring it on, you giant ugly noodle. You’ve tried a few times already.
As the snake drew closer, Alex bent to scoop up his Jian and used the last of the Mana Stone dust on the ground to wrap threads around his hand and the sword. He looked behind him to make sure that Sam was directly behind him, and the Firstborn was in a straight line on the opposite side of him. With a final breath, he took up the position for Lotus Roots and tried to still his thrumming heart.
Stay patient. This is gonna hurt like hell.
As the serpent drew closer, Alex assumed an offensive stance. He felt a sense of déjà vu as the black-scaled snake pulled back and struck at blinding speed. Alex struck forward at the same time and felt the giant fangs in his body. One entered his shoulder and pierced out of the back of his arm, while the other pierced high on the right side of his chest. He held in a scream.
The attempted slash at the snake was a feint to ensure his sword arm wasn’t caught in the monster’s mouth. In his peripheral vision, he saw the snake’s tail begin to raise up high, which is what he’d been counting on. When the snake tensed its jaws, it turned Alex’s body, and he saw Sam and Val vanish through the portal some distance away.
Alex set his destination point as he felt hot poison flow into his body.
He hadn’t anticipated any amount of poison.
Idiot, it’s a goddamned snake from another world that even the people curse as a sort of hellscape. Of course, it’s going to have poison.
The fangs were pulled out of his body with a sickening sound, and he knew that the time had come. It was his only chance at escape, and despite the pain, Alex found the strength to raise his sword arm and step off the ground.
He activated [Feather Step] just as he brought the sword up and braced it against the shoulder where he anticipated impact. A fraction of a second later, an impossibly strong blow struck him. In his relatively weightless state, Alex assumed the same speed as the blow he absorbed and was sent flying through the air.
There was an odd moment of peaceful clarity as he soared through the air. He realized that his plan had worked, and the insanity of it all made him want to break out into maniacal laughter. If it had just been a few weeks ago, he would have thought that only in a movie or anime could someone be literally knocked through the air close to the length of a football field.
He slammed into the ground and rolled more than once. When he saw how close he was to the Rift, he chuckled and coughed up blood. His wounds from the fangs were already closing thanks to Sam’s [Rejuvenation], but the poison was fighting against the friendly mana in his body.
Struggling to his feet, Alex looked down the hill at the two worlds that lay before him. Off to the right, and on the other side of the ravine, was the dark side of the Rift, where he’d spent nearly a month running for his life and way out of his depth.
To his left was the light side of the Rift, where he’d learned a lot and made some true allies. From this distance, he couldn’t see Tianluo, as it was nestled in the forest of cherry trees, but his breath caught in his throat as he watched two figures rise up over the crest of the horizon, larger than life.
A six-armed, golden humanoid roared into the sky as all six arms were brought down onto a form that grew more slowly.
Rakshasi.
The Night’s serpent grew larger than Eura’s form and began to wrap its tail around the golden man. Several stars of golden light formed in the air around the two, several times larger than the ones he’d seen in Tianluo. Eura fought against the Godzilla-sized snake, doing his best to fight with his multiple limbs and magic.
Several notifications had appeared in Alex’s vision during the fight, but he’d dismissed them without giving them attention. As the most recent one appeared, he took a moment to look at the updated Rift Quest.
He shuddered and limped through the Rift exit.
Nope. Just—hell no.
Adjusting Rift Quest…
Rift Quest: Security
The Rift’s balance of power grows uneven. Choose a side and help to establish security and safety for the surviving inhabitants.
New Rift Quest:
Rift Quest: The Clash of Titans
The strength of each Sect will continue to grow as the Prophecy that has been laid dormant where worlds collide has come to pass in a way that no one expected. Both of the Rift’s Titans have been released from their prison. Choose a side and help to establish security and safety for the surviving inhabitants.
53
REUNION
Alex stumbled out of the Rift and into the small opening in the woods. There was snow on the ground, and even though the Rift had been chilly, it wasn’t nearly close to freezing.
Sam sat a few steps away. Blood from his clothes had smeared onto the undisturbed snowfall. Despite the horrific scene, he sat halfway up. His waist was still strapped down to the shield while he wrestled off the weakened threads around his upper body.
The two of them made eye contact and there was a tense moment as they both tried to come to grips with the fact that they were finally out of the Rift. The tension was broken by an exuberant call from Val.
“Mana!” the little wyrm yelled happily.
Alex looked to Sam’s side to note that the two had a tendril of mana connecting them for communication, but at the same time, Val glowed. Through Alex’s mana sight, he could see the funneling mana from his threads to his companion, a telltale sign that he was using [Mana Siphon] to eat the threads.
Both humans burst into laughter. All the tension from the last month that had built up to their assault on the Firstborn spilled out of them. In a rare moment of joy, Sam called out with a victory yell.
“Woo!” he called into the forest.
Alex paused, unused to seeing the quiet boy make any noises. He laughed harder and then yelled his own excitement. He stumbled toward the teenager and ruffled his hair.
Wow, that snow looks comfy.
Sam nodded into Alex’s hand with a smile. Alex tried to get his rapid breathing under control. He’d gone from combat to laughter in the span of a few seconds, and he needed to catch his breath. He put a steadying hand on Sam and then let himself fall down to the snow.
He winced as the poison pulsed through his body. Once again, the healing spell seemed to do its best to combat it.
Sam, can you use [Cure] on me?
The boy shook his head.
Alex groaned and pulled one of his last two Mana Stones from his spatial pouch and tossed it to Val.
Eat this. You deserve it, buddy. Can you give Sam any more of your mana?
After Sam got more of Val’s mana and used his [Cure] skill on Alex, he fell back into the snow and let the cold environment cool him down. Several minutes passed as the two laughed and felt victorious, especially as Alex had a blue box appear telling him that he’d completed his Hidden Personal Quest. He didn’t accept the reward immediately, instead dismissing the window and deciding to look at it once he got to his apartment. Alex knew they needed to keep moving. He felt exhaustion creeping in, and his muscles could begin to lock up if he didn’t keep moving.
The two got up after Val finished eating away at the threads and consuming the Mana Stone. Val rode on Alex’s shoulder, and the two limped through the forest in their torn robes. Alex returned his Jian to the sheath and put the bite-marked leather strap back over his shoulders. He used Sam’s staff as a walking stick and supported them both as they made their way through the forest.
