As Torrin's body flowed through his sword forms, he used mana threads from his core to create elemental attacks. His sword sliced down horizontally and a wind blade hit his imaginary target from another angle at the same time. He was more confident as the time passed and the odd feeling of doing two separate things at once slowly faded.
With this newfound confidence, he felt compelled to test more things. He tried shifting the earth below his nonexistent target as he attacked with his blade--a move that would unbalance his opponent. The more he practiced the more natural it felt to manipulate earth mana and sword energy at the same time. He was nowhere near perfect but the practice was helping immensely.
His blade flashed forward and the earth moved at his prompting. He stood breathing deeply after his latest round of training, taking a second to catch his breath before he continued. As he stood there the small smile he had at being please with himself turned down. The ground beneath him felt as if it were shaking on its own.
Curious, he crouched down and sent a few tendrils of mana deep within the earth to see what was going on. The frown on his face deepened and he leapt back, landing in a defensive stance just as the ground exploded from where he previously was.
A large, snuffling mana beast had burst from the earth directly where he'd been standing. It looked like a common mole, only blown up into massive proportions--the mole was almost the size of a carriage. The thing stood on the plain, head moving left and right continuously as its nose sniffed. Sharp claws--looking like two-foot long short-swords--dug into the soil slightly and Torrin felt the ground beneath him shudder slightly once more. As soon as the wave of earth mana reached him from the giant mole, its face turned its head in his direction. The thing looked at him as if it were a dog catching his scent and shot towards him.
Torrin was far more shocked than scared as he looked at the beast. Its legs barely touched the ground as it moved, its body wiggling backwards and forth. The ground seemed to be propelling it forward as it went, lending it a fair bit of speed. Torrin dodged the charging beast and activated his mana sight to figure out what was happening.
The first thing he noticed was the powerful mana fluctuations the beast was emitting. The second thing was the mole's fluid use of earth mana to manipulate the ground around it. The mole moved the earth in such a way that it flowed like water around it, the earth below it seemed like a wave that carried the beast forward like a ship. He also noticed the dense shield of earth mana that surrounded and suffused the beast.
As the mole moved, the ground it had already covered stayed infused with a bit of its mana. The creature's control inspired Torrin and he continued dodging the beast, wanting to learn more.
'What an interesting mana beast,' Torrin thought, 'Its control of earth mana seems so natural.'
Torrin was enjoying his time examining the creature. In his distracted state, he made a misstep. He walked into the churned soil the mole had just dug up and as he did, his foot sank into the softened soil up to his ankle. Confused, Torrin tugged his leg, trying to free his foot from the ground. The earth, however, was solid once more and he couldn't free himself before the mole was on him.
He flicked his sword forward, blocking the mole's first attack. A scraping sound rang out as his sword barely deflected the mole's sharp claws. The next attack from the mole was more fierce and without being able to move his leg, he ended up taking a hit on his arm that sliced through his mana shield like paper, gouging a long track into his flesh. He desperately sent his own mana into the ground surrounding his stuck foot as he fended off the next few attacks and felt as if it were a battle of wills as he pried control of the earth from the mole and freed himself.
As soon as he was free once more, he distanced himself from the mole and sent a few slashes of arcing sword light at it as he retreated. The sword energy splashed off the mole's skin like water, doing absolutely nothing. This made Torrin pause. Though he was still far from mastering the Way of the Sword, his sword light could easily gouge boulders and rend steel. The fact that it had no effect against the mole's defenses meant that this mana beast was far more dangerous than he had first assumed. He realized in that moment that he had been dancing with death by trying to analyze the mole instead of running as far away as possible.
Speeding up his perception, he tried thinking of a plan. As the mole approached him, he tried sending mana into the earth to disrupt the mole's control and slow its speed. It showed to be a futile effort as the mole continued its barreling charge. Torrin also tried raising earthen spikes in front of the mole so it might gouge itself as it came at him--like a boar on a spear--but they were crushed against the mole's defenses, completely useless.
Torrin finally came to a conclusion and ran. He took off in a diagonal path away from the beast, flooding his legs with Saen. The mole did not seem to mind his attempted escape, however, as it burrowed itself beneath the earth and sped after him. Torrin kept running for all he was worth, not taking a moment to check if the thing was gaining on him.
His will was spread out over his surroundings, but wasn't able to penetrate the ground, so it was a distinct lack of help. After a few miles of running, Torrin risked a glance behind him and noticed the earth no longer shook along his trail. Breathing a sigh of relief, he sat on the ground. He couldn't remember a time since coming to this world when he'd felt so useless against a mana beast.
He activated his core to absorb mana from his surroundings. With the density of the mana surrounding him, it only took a minute to top it off as he regained his composure. He couldn't help letting out a wry chuckle as he thought over the fight.
The beast's mana shield had been far tougher than his own. He wasn't sure if that was due to him using the pure mana from his core as a shield, whereas the beast had used earth mana, but it made him wonder about the effectiveness of his own mana shield and how he might improve it.
The shaking of earth around him brought him back to full alert. He promptly stood up and readied himself once more. The mole broke the surface and was much quicker this time in charging him. Torrin's only thought at the scene was how grateful he was that the mole didn't seem to have any sort of long range attack spells. The mole's range of control seemed to be only what it physically touched.
The battle began once more and Torrin tried distracting the creature with wind blades as he empowered his sword with as much sword energy as he could control. The wind blades may as well have not existed as they had no effect against the mole's defense.
As the mole swung at him once more, he knocked away the incoming claws with his Saen enhanced strength. As soon as his path forward was clear, he jumped onto the mole's back and reversed his grip on his sword, driving it down with both hands using all of his strength. He felt a slight resistance as his blade broke through the earth mana surrounding the beast, but shock colored his face as the blade was stopped by the mole's thick skin.
The mole had hardened its own skin and his blade was only able to sink about two inches into it. The beast was unable to reach him with its claws as he stood on its back, but a pillar of earth smacked into his side, causing him to fly a good twenty feet in the air. Torrin stored his blade away as he soared. He sent mana tendrils into his surroundings as he quickly approached the ground, using his empty hands to gather a soft cloud of water and wind mana to cushion his fall.
With the cloud and his mana shield, the fall's impact was almost fully absorbed. His side still hurt from the beast's attack, though. 'I guess it is able to attack with mana as well...' he thought, trying to figure out a way to stop the beast.
Since his use of earth mana was far outstripped by the beast and both his sword and air magic didn't seem to be of any real help, he realized he didn't have a proper way to fight the beast directly. A thought came to him then and he decided to risk everything on his next move, if it didn't work he'd have to run again.
As the beast caught his trail once more, he slowed everything down and spun out a hundred mana threads from his core. The force and breadth of this made his pathways stretch slightly, causing a sharp pain along his arms.
He gathered the ambient water mana in the air, gathering the water vapor and condensing the small droplets into water that he circulated around himself. In front of him, he softened the earth with a few more mana threads and as the beast neared him. He sent his water down on the mole's path, mixing it with the earth to create mud.
His plan was to flood the earth with water mana so that he'd have better control over it and from the mole's stuttered steps, it seemed to be working. Torrin wrapped the mud around the beast and added his intent for the mud to harden. Once he had a layer of mud around it, he nearly emptied his core as he stretched tendrils far and wide to gather more water from the air. He wrapped the beast in water and strained himself as he lifted it from the ground, using the last of his mana to summon a chill wind, mixing it with the water to cause it to freeze.
The mole was completely frozen into a block of ice suspended half a foot above the earth and Torrin imprinted it with his will, a Harden rune appearing on its side. His plan only worked because he'd noticed the mole's short range of effect; it was unable to control earth that wasn't directly touching it, or infused with trace amounts of its mana beforehand.
Since he'd taken control of the earth before the mole infused it with its own mana, he was able to cut off the beast's supply of usable earth and turn it into mud so that Torrin had a stronger control over it.
Torrin's mana pathways spanning from his core to his hands felt sore. He had strained them in order to summon so many mana threads and he sat on the ground panting. He didn't know how long it would take for the beast to suffocate in the ice, but he wasn't going to chance it by freeing it too early.
He took a while to think over everything that had happened as he slowly absorbed mana to refill his core. As he did, his core shuttered slightly, causing him to pause in panic. Torrin wasn't sure if he could even damage his crystalline mana core, but he wasn't going to take a chance on it. He left his core around one-third of the way full and lay back on the ground.
Although he probably could have killed the beast by using a few mana bombs, that wasn't why he was in this pocket dimension. His goal here wasn't to kill as many beasts as he could; he needed a firmer control over the elements and he felt that he was making quick progress. A smile shone on his face as he basked in the warm glow of success.
A cracking sound interrupted his celebration. He sat up quickly and stared in shock as small cracks began to show in the block of ice. With his mana sight he saw the giant mole was wreathed in squirming tendrils of mana that were drilling through the case of hardened mud and ice.
Thinking on his feet, he summoned his sword once more and allowed a few tendrils of mana to slip into the block of ice, thawing it around the beast's head. As soon as its head was free, the beast let out a terrifying mix of sounds, both guttural and squeaking at the same time--its mouth chomping at Torrin, wishing to tear him apart. Torrin infused his blade with sword energy once more and stabbed through the roof of the mole's mouth, hitting its hardened skull and stopping.
Torrin stared at his blade in disbelief. The defense of this creature was far above anything Torrin could have imagined. Blood gushed as the sounds continued from the beast and the cracking intensified. Torrin decided he didn't know what else to do, so he began releasing a torrent of sword aura within the beast's mouth.
Blood and viscera sprayed from the beast's mouth, coating Torrin in a bloody mess of gore, but he didn't let up on his sword aura--if anything he increased it, to the point that it was out of control. The writhing of the beast soon stopped as it seemed to be running out of blood and energy. Soon enough, the beast stilled and Torrin saw its mana fluctuations slowly fading. Torrin moved away from the beast and stared with wide eyes as the weight of its body finished the job on the block of ice and thudded against the ground.
Not wanting to face any more of these creatures, Torrin grabbed the entire body into his storage ring and took off in a sprint towards the group of elves. If one of these creatures attacked them it would make short work of the entire group. He only paused to clean his face of the gore with a bit of water manipulation.
The sun tiredly fell towards the horizon to rest as Torrin traveled and soon it was dark out. A few stars twinkled in the sky, making him wonder exactly where this dimension was or how it operated. He felt a bit embarrassed as he went, because he was completely lost. His only guide was the general direction the sun was at when he'd first begun traveling away from the group.
Torrin soon decided running aimlessly wouldn't help him find the group, so he stood atop the highest hill he could find. He wanted to use his mana to create a pillar of earth to rise a bit higher, but he was scared to make any big adjustments to the ground as he didn't want to attract any more moles.
His plan worked, as he soon saw a few glimmering lights in the distance and he shot off in their direction. As he approached the lights he realized they were campfires and the sound of joyous laughter and chatting soon filled his ears. He shook his head at the sight and noise.
'These people really don't understand just how dangerous this place is, do they?' Torrin wondered, his thoughts sour.
When he arrived at the makeshift camp he nearly left once more. The elves were not only being loud and making themselves an easy target with huge fires lit in the open plain, but he noticed they were also drinking some sort of alcohol. The elves were throwing a party!
Dawn noticed his arrival and must have seen his expression, because she walked towards him with a nervous smile, "Hey, Rin... The others wanted to relax a bit... They felt stressed out from the mana beast attacks earlier..." She tried explaining in a halting voice.
Torrin just shook his head. Words couldn't even be formed as he stared at the idiots with wide eyes, his mouth opening multiple times to generate sounds but snapping shut in disbelief each time. Torrin's gaze slid over the group and finally saw Tillien. The elf's nose and cheeks were tinged pink from drinking. Torrin focused his gaze back on the elven princess who took a step back and stood as if she were scared he would explode at any moment.
Noticing her expression, he realized his face had begun contorting in anger as he prepared to shout at the group of elves, to tell them just how stupid they were to be so careless in this dangerous pocket dimension. He rubbed his face tiredly. After taking a moment to let himself calm down, he finally just walked away, ignoring her calls after him.
If these elves wanted to die so badly, he couldn't stop them, or at least he was done trying to. Hearing her shouts, the drunken elves started to worry. The laughter and talking died down as they noticed Torrin and saw him walking away, with Dawn chasing after him.
Torrin felt stupid for thinking that he could help the elves survive in this place. He wanted to shout at Dawn for manipulating him into wanting to help Tillien in the first place. Overall, he just wanted to be alone and work on his training. If the elves all died, he'd feel terrible, but at the same time he knew he couldn't save them from themselves. If they didn't want to take this place seriously, maybe it was better that they took a few losses. Maybe it would make them realize that this wasn't a game and that lives were at stake. Dawn's hand on his shoulder made him pause.
"What do you want, princess?" Torrin spat.
"Rin, come back to the camp. Let them have this one night!" Dawn pleaded.
Torrin turned and almost blew up at the young princess, but when he saw her worried look his rage faded like smoke in the wind. He sighed wearily, shaking his head.
"Dawn... I don't know what you all are thinking. Do you think this place won't kill you? Do you all think that I can protect you here, maybe?" Torrin asked, his voice faltering slightly.
"Rin," She held her hands cupped together at her chest, looking to all the world like a frightened child, "We've never faced anything like today. Everyone is terrified and trying to cope the best they can. You have to remember that all of the elves here have never left Cellinia. You have to understand." Her pleading words made Torrin pause.
"I can't do it, Dawn. I can't protect them." Torrin shook his head, mind going back to all the people he'd let down from being too weak. Pictures of the orphans flashed through his mind. Perria. He didn't want any more failures weighing on his conscience.
"We don't expect you to, Rin! But having you with us would definitely help if anything happened." She said, pitch rising as tears welled in her eyes.
Torrin sighed wearily and plopped to the ground. Dawn looked at him and seemed to notice his torn sleeve and the dry blood covering most of his clothes for the first time. She bent down and placed a hand on his arm, asking, "What happened, Rin? Were you hurt?"
Torrin looked to her hand and nodded, "Yeah, Dawn. I nearly wasn't able to defeat the mana beast that attacked me. Even with all my strength, I could barely scratch it."
Dawn's eyes widened and she looked back to the light of the camp in the distance. His words seemed to finally get across just how dangerous this place was.
"I'll have them stop and put out the fires. We can move someplace else and set up a light camp. Please, Rin. If you could barely stop one of the beasts here, how do you think the rest of us will fare if they attack?" She said, trying to convince him.
Her words soured his mood. He didn't understand why he was supposed to be in charge of defending these people nor why she was guilt tripping him again. 'What had they expected coming to this place? Ollivel repeatedly warned them how dangerous this zone was and yet they all still came,' he thought.
After a long moment of silence, Torrin heaved a weary sigh once more, "Listen, Dawn. This is non-negotiable. Take it or leave it. Do you understand?"
Her eyes brightened, "What is?"
"I will stay with all of you for two weeks. During this time, I will help protect you all. I will try to capture a few yellow core beasts or even a green core if I can find a suitable one, and I will let you all fight them in a controlled manner. After these two weeks, I'm going to find a temple and train." Torrin stated his terms, his eyes piercing into Dawn's.
Her face contorted for a moment in thought, before she finally nodded, "Okay. That would really help, Rin."
"And one more thing. No more of this partying bullshit. This isn't the time nor place." Torrin said.
She nodded, holding a hand out to help him up. Torrin took it and shook his head. He didn't have time to waste training a bunch of careless elves, but he also didn't want to be held responsible for their deaths. It would also look really bad if he were the only one to return from the pocket dimension in two years.
The pair walked back to the makeshift camp and Torrin called out, "Party's over. Everyone put out the fires and get ready to move. We need to find a new place to camp."
The elves didn't take his words kindly and many of them scoffed, downing another drink as they looked at him. Yawnel was a big proponent of discord as he laughed, calling out, "The human thinks he can boss us around! Just leave already! We were all having such a nice time without you here."
Torrin glanced sidelong at Dawn who just sighed. Seeing that she wouldn't be any help in the situation, Torrin flopped the giant mole's corpse on the ground.
"I'm still unsure why you all seem to think this place isn't dangerous," he pointed to the corpse, "This thing attacked me while I was training. Do you think you could kill something like this, Yawnel?"
His eyes bore into the elf who looked at the corpse with a stricken expression. The other elves all began to whisper and murmur to each other at the sight of the mana beast. Yawnel wasn't sated for long and he called back, "What? A big mole? How strong could a damn mole be?" he laughed with contempt. His group of sycophants joined in and soon all the elves were laughing along.
Torrin smiled slightly, holding back the urge to punch the elf in the face, "Please. Retrieve its core for me, Yawnel. I'm not sure if I'm strong enough to get it out."
The words caused a pause in the laughter, the elves' expressions turning curious or confused by the words. Yawnel didn't miss a beat, he unsheathed his sword and approached the corpse. He slashed his sword easily near the place Torrin had told them cores were housed.
His sword skittered off the skin with a screech of metal on stone. A confused expression popped up on his face and he tried again, gripping his sword with both hands this time. His sword was unable to leave even a mark on the skin.
His confused expression morphed into embarrassment as a few elves snickered. Embarrassment bled away into rage as he pointed at Torrin, "What kind of trick is this, human?" he accused, venom lacing the word human as if it were a derogatory term.
Torrin shrugged, shaking his head as he replied, "No trick, elf."
"Then what is the meaning of this? Why can't I cut it open? You're obviously playing at something here." Yawnel's voice was getting more tense as he continued, his cronies echoing his complaints.
"I guess you're just too weak," Torrin said simply. Rage contorted Yawnel's features and he stepped towards Torrin as if he were going to attack.
"Stop," Dawn spoke with a simple tone, her eyes examining the corpse of the beast, "There's no trick, Yawnel, so calm down. This beast attacked Torrin earlier and he said he barely killed it. If he was nearly taken out by such a beast, what would have happened to all of us if it had attacked while we were being so careless?"
Her words were softly spoken, but the elves flinched as if they were slapped. Realization dawned on each of their faces.
"W-w-what level is that thing?" a beautiful elf asked, physically shaking.
Torrin shrugged once more and approached the corpse, causing all of the elves to step back, "Let's see." Torrin wanted to roll his eyes at their reaction, but let it go and summoned his sword.
He stood on the body and it sank in slightly, blood and noxious fumes seeping from its mouth. There was a chorus of retching as many of the elves lost their stomachs. Torrin ignored the sounds and growing stench, reinforcing his blade with sword energy.
Saen rushed into his limbs as he braced himself and cut deeply into the skin, slowly parting it. The beast core splashed out along with a tide of shredded flesh, organs, and blood cascading down the side of the body. The core was a cerulean hue, with a pale yellow light shining from within.
"Eh? Guess it was a blue core mana beast." Torrin said. He reached down and plucked the core up without hesitation, examining it closely. A smile lit up his face at realizing he had taken out such a high level beast.
The sounds of retching finally came to a stop at his words. The crackling of the fire was the only sound to be heard as everyone stared at Torrin in shock and awe. Torrin made the corpse return to his ring, leaving only a puddle of blood and shredded viscera behind.
"So," Torrin allowed his gaze to wash over the crowd of shocked elves, "Let's pack up camp and put out these fires. We need to find somewhere else to stay for the night." Torrin stated, and all the elves moved as one to get the job done.