She came towards me and under the astonishment of many of her comrades extended a handout to me with the palm facing upwards.
"This is how your people greet each other am I correct"?
I greet her by grabbing her forearm and releasing it.
"Good to see you" I said turning around ready to leave.
"You aren't curious about why we are here"? Mislin asked while the seven Sylph around her glared daggers at me.
"Not my business, don't really care either way".
"Is that some way to treat someone after they spared your life" she said pouting.
"And how do you know I didn't spare yours" I respond receiving a glare cold enough to chill the atmosphere from the surrounding people.
"Insolence"! griped the man before taking a step towards me but before he could take another an iron string rose from the ground and snapped stopping in front of his eyes.
It was charged with enough mana to cut right through him and his pulsating energy only stopping because it's wielder willed it so.
Everyone's head turned at the same time to look at Isla, everyone but me.
"We'll be taking our leave now" I begin walking backwards slowly.
"I'm sure we can find a way to cooperate, we both have information that can benefit each other".
"Outa Mislin"! the Sylph closest to her shouted.
I didn't know what she meant and I didn't want to find out.
"No thanks" I said still keeping the same pace, Isla walking backwards and not letting go of the wire.
"You are getting dangerously close to the pure mana" said Mislin.
That made me stop at my tracks and look at her half tempted to break into her mind and see what she knows.
"I would be careful if I where you… mana is pure, we are not".
She said 'we' as though were the same race, turning her head she darted off with the rest of her group.
All that was left of them was the damage done to the terrain from our fight and her cryptic words.
We leave immediately and wordlessly came back to our hideout at the bottom of the lake but not before taking the long route and losing any potential intruders, it was well into the night when we got back.
"How does she know you" Isla asked me.
"I met her at the lake near our area as kids" I said going straight into meditation, she clicked her tongue before sitting down.
I knew what Mislin meant and had long since pondered a solution.
It was that insistent craving that has been haunting me, it felt as if it has always been there making it hard for me to concentrate at times.
I felt something else when I was condensing my mana core recently.
Whenever I was done, I was fatigued and at times short of breath like I ran miles without end.
I knew what this was, my body was being overworked processing energy, my heart and even my brain where being overloaded by it at times.
But I had an idea of how to deal with it.
I modify the generator, only allowing a set amount of water into the rotor at a time.
I then make an intricate cage of silver and copper designing it so that the current ran in between the gaps in the center.
It looked like a cage with metal needles pointing inwards.
I stop and meditate again, mentally preparing myself for what I am going to do.
Going over my reasoning and my plan once more.
My body cannot support the energy, and although my body is growing it had its limits.
To break past these limits, I needed to damage and repair my body repeatedly until it adapts.
But getting beaten was as long and tedious as it was painful.
In this world, tomorrow isn't promised, maybe not even today.
Sending my mana through the rod connecting the volute and generator I release the water into the rotor blades.
I covered the hole where the water was coming in at two percent of the diameter.
I see a faint electrical current passing between the copper wires all compiled in a sphere around me.
I start to breath and meditate within the golden pentagram that wasn't active at the moment.
I take on one breath before I get hit in the pelvis by a charge that burnt my skin.
I feel my muscles convulse.
This continued until I could not take it, my body being burned every other second.
Sometimes the lull in between lasts much longer as the current passes around me, which in my opinion was much worse.
I couldn't last in the field for over a minute at a time, it was too painful.
"Why are you hurting yourself" Isla's worry seeping out of her.
I explained my hypothesis and explained what is happening to me when in the electrical field.
"It's not the voltage that kills you it's the current, as long as I don't get hit multiple times in a row I should be okay" I tell her as she looks at me like I was crazy.
This continued for the next two weeks until the beast tide was over.
During that time Isla helped me out greatly by beating me black and blue.
I sparred with her and told her she could use mana to reinforce her body.
I had both legs and an arm nearly broken and severe bleeding from my head, I had been knocked so hard by a round house kick that my head hit the granite floor and I passed out.
And even though we hunted and smoked all that meat I still ate nonstop we almost ran out multiple times.
We gathered all the pelts and headed back after the beast tide was over.
I even brought some leather to sell.
We have so much that it would take five trips to move it all.
Bund was accustomed to seeing me and my cart but was surprised at the different pelts we collected.
"You hunted a water Beam"! he exclaimed as he lifted the pelt of a furry alligator, I had found wandering too close to our territory.
"Do you need more time to get the crystals"? I asked him after emptying out my cart.
"No you are here at a good time everyone is hunting the leftover beasts from the tide that didn't migrate or kill each other off" he guided me upstairs and I filled my duffle half full of mana stones.
"Can I ask you for a favor"? he suddenly asked.
"No" I said with a dead pan face pulling out a chuckle from the drunken man.
"I say favor, but I am willing to pay" he relented with an exasperated sigh.
"What is it" I asked him, stiffening at the door.
"The Livet house has been challenging other families and establishments, that wouldn't be an issue except the fact that they are winning and overwhelmingly so".
"And you want me to fight" finishing his sentence for him.
"Yes" he looked me in the eye with no qualms about asking a prepubescent child to fight to the death.
"And why me" I ask. "Because they enlisted the help of a mage".
Silence filled the room, I am half tempted to walk out the door.
"I can't kill a mage" not that I can't do it, but Mages have connections, and I can't risk the retaliation for a few mana crystals.
"Actually, you can, I know about you although I don't know if you condensed your core yet or not it doesn't matter because their representative has not".
"I can't risk the attention" I replied starting to step away.
"He failed to make it in the mage association he is one of the sons I told you about with him back the Livet House will make things difficult for everyone".
'Like a big fish landing in a pond' I thought.
"You won't face any retaliation this family will be getting taken care of soon, but we can't have them doing damage before we take the steps to mitigate the fallout".
He starts to give me the whole picture.
"If we do it at the wrong time, they could kill every single Olim in their compound , they have family members in the guards and guild".
"When you say take care of them what do you mean"?
"Banishment from the village, along with the seizure of property for all of there kin those who don't comply will be executed" he said resolutely.
"What about the mage that hasn't come back yet the other one? You said they had two".
"A risk we are willing to take."
Although I felt bad for those slaves, this wasn't my fight.
"And why don't you just kill him" my glare piercing.
"The moment I kill him is the moment they start their riot, the damage that ensues would wreak to much havoc and set us back a decade and I can't be in two places at once".
"How much"? I ask after giving it some thought.
"I can offer you one thousand mana crystals".
"Twelve thousand" I reply quickly.
"Impossible the most we have on hand from the mines is six thousand".
Without a moment's hesitation I reply "Deal".