As the sun began to shine on the battlefield, the terrain illustrated the struggle.
Staring into the eyes of the dying serpent I felt a kinship with it.
It was better to say I felt a connection with the jungle itself.
This place that was full of life, every individual piece was part of a larger body.
Life and death in this place wasn't something holy, it wasn't something glorified or venerated.
Life and death is a decision one makes every moment of the day, it is the only religion these beasts will ever need.
The serpent was at peace with itself and the world around it, a budding feeling of envy came from my old and rotten soul.
To rest in peace, to never have to remember the lives I have lived and the eternal pain in between.
It was as if two tired soldiers made eye contact in the street and moved on, the serpent fell forward its eyes remaining wide open.
A few waves of my hand and a sticks are collected making a large fire.
They are majestic creatures, rulers of their respective kingdoms.
They will make an excellent meal.
Only an hour later and I cringed as I took a bite out of the dinosaur tail.
Due to the way it died the blood was still pumping through the system making it extremely gamey.
I bit into the tough meat as a large part of the tail was roasting over the fire.
I heated a huge rock and used it to cook the meat further, the clearing around me began to smell of burnt offerings.
Oddly Ava found it satisfying even though I thought it was tough and smelly.
'What's the difference'? I asked her.
'I don't know, you tell me' sending me the sensations she interpreted I was assaulted by a smell of smoky spice.
'I can't be sure this is what you are sensing or what I am interpreting… it's a paradox' I chuckled thinking how absurd it was that I was conversating with a jelly about reading minds.
I ate my fill from one slab of the tail and stretched my arms back letting the bright sun hit my face with oil from the fat on it.
The clearing is about forty yards in diameter, so when figures began to run out heading right for me I spotted them instantly.
Under the light of the sun I was able to get a clear view of the incoming enemy, a group of creatures that are either beasts or the ugliest humans I have ever seen.
Yellow skin and black pupils are a common trait, they run slower then a grown man but faster than any woman or child.
The tallest of them was five foot six inches which wasn't far from my height and they are all bald.
With wide eyes that took up half of the face and protruding teeth with to rows from what I can observe.
I ran away while watching them, it didn't stop with the initial wave others began to come out of the tree line some of them stopping at the dead carcass of the beasts others coming after me.
They are armed with large sticks, along with stones attached to sticks, wearing tree bark and dead animal fur with no shoes.
'What do they need me for with all that meat sitting in front of them'?
'Maybe they just want to talk'.
I almost snorted out loud at the naivety.
I used the momentum from my charge to pivot both feet on a tree and shoot back in the opposite direction.
My mana was suffocating the assailants before I passed by taking two out of seven heads with me and leaving a few grenades behind.
I left the explosive right next to the two groups insuring maximum damage, before they could turn around I had already swung my blade twice and the orbs of white mana exploded.
Heading for the larger group I prepare a few more grenades, I was a little shocked to feel them moving towards me.
I didn't know how they sensed me but I wasn't going to take any chances.
The four orbs sped up and disappeared from my sight.
If one was using mana vision they would see a thin tendril connecting me to the orbs filled with compressed air.
The sound of explosions filled the jungle for the second time
When I broke the vegetation line I could see the damage I had done by sending the explosions ahead of me.
Many are laying on the ground but a lucky few are a distance from the blast radius.
I spring into the air and make my way to a tree top.
Sending mana orbs down when they all ran towards me and blasting the area.
Another two went off in the center of the rear formation that wasn't effected by the previous assault.
The thin blood circle above my head helped to portion out the mana I was sending out making molding small grenades much more efficient.
I sent my energy flow the opposite direction in the array and created two platforms while the tree was falling.
I bounded upwards and took off into the air looking for more of the unknown humanoids.
They all died, either in the initial explosion or due to blood loss from the wounds.
A few died to the pressure of the explosion with no remains left but from what I could see the anatomy of these things didn't make sense.
Even the blood was a weird orange sludge.
After closer inspection of the body I noticed the legs are uneven and the brain is in the center of the body where the belly button was supposed to be.
I didn't get a chance to inspect further as sensed a small army converging around me.
With a wave of my hand pulses of mana are sent into the circle of blood and I create two mana platforms launching into the air and heading high into the sky.
Thick clouds covered me but the thought of predator's made me descend quickly.
'What are those things'? Ava sounded ready to explore and find more of them.
I landed on a branch and did a full swing before perching.
I was hyper sensitive and ready to kill anything that moved.
'I don't know, but this array is very useful' I inspected the thin blood circle as the aura faded away and it drooped to the ground.
To keep it active I needed a steady flow of mana and flying disrupts that flow, not too much and not too little.
At least it was better then two weeks ago where I couldn't even fly a few yards with it.
'This whole situation just seems impossible.. I mean the distance between us and that mountain looks like it hasn't changed'.
Ava complained as I waved my arms and built another array, each one would last as long as I kept it active but it constantly drained mana.
At the moment though I needed the sense of security.
Darting in between bushes Ava kept sending her worries, 'What if we get trapped in this jungle forever'?
'It's not so bad but we will never find chocolate, I'm sure we can find sugar if you put your mind to it but we would definitely have to abandon the 'going over the mountain' idea'.
Gripping the bridge of my nose I found it more difficult to get rid of Ava's voice now a days.
She found a sort of equilibrium due to the dense mana in the environment.
She was sleeping less but her size was diminished to that of a small marble.
It made me wonder how so much life can exist within a few drops of jelly.
The concept was so far fetched I suspected she held the answer to my blender problem.
'Help me to get over the mountain and I'll find some chocolate' I promised her.
I am helpless over forty thousand feet but Ava isn't, I was betting on her to get me across.
'Yes, Yes, did you hear me? Yes!' she proceeded to echo in my mind and the little droplet was wiggling something fierce.
A lesser man would have been driven crazy after the tenth hour, as we got deeper into the jungle her internal voice became clearer and clearer.
At times it sounded as if multiple people are talking to me, making it hard to differentiate my thoughts from hers.
Pulses of my energy pushed her away but she connected only minutes later with another thought or observation usually about something sweet.
When she wasn't with me she went over all the things she experienced with me, at times she would spend hours telling me how amazing the sensation of me eating a fruit was.
It was exhausting to say the least but it all served to hone my mana and thought manipulation.
It was so mentally taxing I almost missed the projectile headed right for my head.
Almost.
I shot straight down from mid air the spear missing me by a wide margin.
Running towards the direction the wooden spear came from, I weaved in between trees dodging another two spears and feeling a couple of figures in my mana sense before seeing them.
It was the yellow men from earlier.