Running away with tears in his eyes before the gap Alia created closed up, Yuit catches up to the group.
"Ambrose is still back there! please help him" he shouted as he caught up.
Alia trudged onwards throwing balls of fire and sharp gusts of wind into the open mouths of the Um's.
Wordlessly she led the charge for twenty yards before breaking off into a sprint leaving the children to catch up or die in stomach acid.
Rumi blew his way past the head of the Um, propelling his body forward while stepping on a mana platform in midair, covering Alia from the rear.
"Please he saved my life" Yuit begged as he tried to catch up to Alia but to no avail as she ran a little bit faster, teasing him.
This continued until they found a flat clearing on top of a huge rock, Alia sends out a pulse of mana followed by another and another until she finally feels secure enough to send her mana out in full.
Once everything was secure only then did she sit cross legged allowing the children to rest.
"Please" Yuit came behind her clasping the hem of her still pristine white and blue robes prostrating himself.
If asked only two months ago if he would beg another on his hands and knees he would have spat on the floor and laughed.
Reaching out her hand she clasped at the air clutching the boy's neck with mana.
Yuit first felt like oils was being rubbed against his neck but as that substance solidified he was being choked.
"If you want to save him, get stronger and come back" Alia said as if she was talking about plans for the weekend and not plans to save another humans life, another human who thought of his safety in the direst situation.
Yuits tears began to stream from his face. "How… how could you be so cruel"? choking out those words seemed to have struck Alia as she tightened her hold.
"Put him down" Rumi came forward finally catching up to the group.
"Everyone rest up and use your mana oil, you can't win tomorrow by forgetting about today don't hold back".
He said this lightly as if they didn't see that huge fight and mages hurling mana without regard of damage.
Coming to the defeated Yuit, Rumi crouched down on one knee.
"Don't waste his good deed, be better" he said walking off and leaving the boy to stare at the ground.
The rest of the group was also dismayed because although Ambrose kept his distance his timely help at the right moments earned their approval of him. 'A shame' they all thought.
***
I fell down the sand whirlpool and my butt hit the ground hard, I begin to slide downwards in an angle.
I shine a light from my hand and I see the slide getting wider and wider and the air getting thinner.
I got a bigger surprised from what I felt in my mana sense.
I was almost a whole half mile below the sand level, going further down fast.
I use my energy freely stopping my slide downwards, also one of the reasons I tossed Yuit out of the whirlpool was that if he didn't die I would have had to kill him to keep my secrets.
The sand coming in from the whirlpool smashed down on top of me so I had to follow the path downwards or get crushed.
I keep going further down until I sense a pocket of air
I head in that direction digging through the moving sand and into what amounted to a hole in the wall presumably made by Ums.
I am intrigued by this passage because I sensed mana stones!
I send out my mana core lighting up the wide cave, it was like a wide area stretching out two miles with lines of mana stones protruding from the walls.
Slime coated parts of the walls leaving a wretched stench.
Right in the middle was a pit of Um's rolling around and devouring each other.
I notice another passage and I head towards it, the Ums ignoring me, what was a little meat compared to the size of there brethren?
I sense another pocket its about a mile deep and has a much wider area.
I head down more and more curious about the potential for this location.
'I could clear the beasts and build an underground bunker fueled with mana stones'!
I started thinking of all the applications of mana liquid, quickly calming my mind and making sure to be fully vigilant of my surroundings.
I head down again but the heat is increasing as I go and the air is thinning.
It is a struggle but It's not something I couldn't handle, I felt my body relying more on the red energy.
Rumbling came from ahead and a few rocks dropped from above as I followed the slanted passage.
In that wider second pocket of air, I sensed all the shredded skin and dead carcasses of the Um.
All over the cave where milk white mana crystals producing a dull light.
The beast compendium say they go into a feeding frenzy when it is mating season which explains the scene in front of me.
It looked like dozens of them where in a struggle for survival.
Instead of waiting for the biggest and baddest one to win the fight I jumped right in.
Little oxygen and increased pressure meant that I couldn't use fireballs down here, compressing two strands of energy I rub them together and launch them inside the mouth of the Um that was about to come down on a smaller one.
The resulting pressure created a wide gash inside it's mouth with teeth going back as far as my arm.
A tounge in the back of its wide open mouth flicked and it came after me giving the others a clear target.
I run around always taking the side of the loser so that I can tire them all out and the last one standing will be an easy kill.
It took a whole day but by the time they were done the last one standing was a smaller Um about fifteen feet long and ten feet in diameter, I jump on top of it's head and stab my sword right through the center releasing my energy through the weapon.
A white energy blade poked out of the other side where it's chin was supposed to be and with a slash it's head was cut off.
I turn back immediately and head to where I saw the other group fighting it out and I jump right in repeating the process.
I am tired when I am done but meditating next to mana crystals got rid of that fatigue within hours.
I stand up and a smile plays on my lips, as I extended my senses outwards while meditating I realized why no one has found this place.
This wasn't only a mana mine, there was gold all around me, fine grains and big chunks all inside the cave walls.
A wide grin forms, this place just became twice as valuable.
I followed the path back down to see if it leads anywhere else and wasn't surprised to find another cavern.
The further I went the hotter it became, until I reached an underground cliff.
Looking over the energy surrounding me dissipated almost immediately and my hair is nearly singed off due to the magma rolling down below.