As the strange green substance grows up my arm I feel a strange numbing sensation spread with it. A strange almost painfull feeling comes from my chest, as if something is about to break through.
I gasped as I fall to one knee, not noticing a strange green mark appearing on the back of my hand. My plight was not noticed as all eyes were on golden boy and his blinding light.
John felt a feeling of unimaginable power coursing through him as he held Alice in his arms. He seemed to suddenly feel complete in a way. As if he had an extra appendage that he only just discovered, and with it he felt powerful.
He stared at the Alpha and did not feel the same fear that he once felt for the monster, now he felt only anger at the creature for harming his friends.
Placing Alice down he walked toward the beast, feeling an unknown confidence welling from within, that this beast could easily be taken down. Raising his hand the light that was surrounding him seemed to glow brighter before heading to his outstretched hand.
The power seemed to condense and before the Alpha could react, a beam of pure energy shot through the wolf, completely ignoring the wind defense that was surrounding it only a moment ago.
The entire forest seemed to go silent before all at once the pack of wolves howled toward the sky. John preparing for an attack, prepared another ball of energy, but it was not needed as a pack of wolves all retreated.
Seeing the wave of fur leaving the area, John made a sigh of relief before lowering his hand and reabsorbing the ball of energy, not at all questioning how he knew how to do it. However, if he knew that it takes many novice mages weeks before they would be able to do what he just did he would be shocked as it seemed natural to him.
Hearing a groan of pain he turned his attention back to his two companions. Finding Alice smiling widely at him most likely in thanks for saving her life, and if Alex would have heard his thoughts then he would call him a dense idiot.
Finding the origin of the groan, he found a kneeling Alex on the ground holding his right arm in a death grip. worried for his friend he ran to his side and called upon a different power hidden inside of himself.
Instead of the searing light from before, a gentle glow emerged from his hand, falling onto Alex's body. He knew instinctively that this could help heal injuries, and it was this power that healed Alice's body when he caught her.
As the light feel on him, Alex could not help but take a deep breath as the pain of his arm seemed to disappear. it felt as if thousands of ants were crawling around in his arm, and looking down he could see the wound close up.
He could even see his broken arm realigning itself, and by the time John closed his hand there was only a small scar in its place, It was as if it never happened.
However, John still looked worried as even though the wound had closed, the green substance was still spreading to the rest of Alex's body.
"Alice I need you expertise" John calls her over, breaking her out of her reverie.
"What is it?" Alice heads over to John, only now noticing the situation.
"Do you know what this is?" He asks her.
"Its mana poisoning" she answers "it usually happens when non mages get a major dose of mana inside their body. The dire wolf must have been a young Alpha, and when he bit your friend, some air mana must have got in."
"But I though we are surrounded by the stuff, why is he only know reacting." John asks as he helps lower a shivering and pale Alex to the ground.
"Yes it is all around us but in small percentages, mana poisoning is very rare as even the most common of people have some immunity to it, but Alex has never touched the stuff until now."
"Is there any cure for it?" he asks
She shakes her head, "I am sorry John but there is none, only the gods could help him at this point."
She sighs and walks away, but not before squeezing his shoulder in a comforting way. John does not even notice her presence as he is over wracked with guilt, blaming himself for the situation.
While the two were worrying, Alex was in a strange world as his consciousness left him after John healed him. on both sides of him was a world of white. It seemed endless as Alex just walked on and on, never questioning why. He was in a trance for what felt like years before sigh broke the silence.
"It is about time, now let the game begin" a heavenly voice said before the once blank space lit up.
A swirl of green appeared in front of him, seeming to stretch itself into the sky, wiping against his body. The swirling green tornado seemed to smash into a barrier, causing it to spread out, turning the blank sky green. With the now green sky came a massive shadow that seemed to swallow the area. A ball of fire tore itself into existence in the green sky while a land of earth and water appeared below Alex's feet.
As he watched all this a massive storm cloud came roaring in the distance. With himself at the center of all this, the once blank canvas was now awash with colors, and seeing this a smile graced his lips as he had a feeling of comfort from this place.
As he was about to explore this wonderful place a tug seemed to come from his body, shocking him out from his revere and without any warning he woke up.
While John was still dealing with an internal struggle and Alice was in the back giving him time alone, a sudden breeze came startling John to shout, not because of the breeze but the fact that it cut him.
Alice hearing her hero shout rushed to him, and together they watched with mouths agape as Alex's once prone body floated from the ground and seemed to be the center of a wind storm. Just as sudden, Alex's eyes flew open and with a shout he fell to the ground in a heap.
While John went to help his friend up, Alice was in a state of shock as although she told Alex he could become a mage, she lied. The truth was that no one from earth is able to weald mana, and yet here was this hitchhiker who managed to do just that.
Alex once again woke up feeling different, though looking down he noticed that he had not physically changed, but had a feeling of a strange power deep inside, was this the mana that Alice was talking about?
He shook that thought out of his head has they had to keep moving, and picking up the staff he noticed that it felt much more comfortable in his hands then before.
Once Alice managed to close her mouth, we managed to get our gear back together and checked for anymore injuries. Finding None our group once again setout, but it was not long before we came upon more trouble.
In front of us the tall grass was rustling, and all at once we got our weapons out. Instead of another monster, it was a tall man in full armor who when he saw us fell to one knee.
"Milady we have found you!" the knight sounded on the verge of tears
"Sir Edward, is that you" Alice asked in disbelief
The knight removed his helmet, showing us a handsome young man who looked like he was in his twenties with his wavy brown hair and peircing gray eyes. He looked at Alice and John with tears and hope in his eyes.
"We feared the worst when you did not appear, but now we can return in triumph and shout to the heavens that the hero is here!"
I expected many things, more wolves, giants, vampires, trolls, hell even a dragon, but what I did not expect was to see a grown man cry.