Tentacles of darkness and thorns wrapped around each other, a mighty battle of many appendages all grappling with one another. Sharp thorns ripped through Eodum's tendrils, acid leaking from the spines of the vines into and onto Eodum.
The rat was struggling. Even with its mind hastened by [Accelerated Thoughts], the sheer amount of vines and monsters was too much. How many of them were even here? The battles roared out over the trees, stretching beyond what Eodum could see. Right now, it needs some sort of boost. Some sort of power to help it out. It needed support.
Lessening the tendril count to take some of the strain off of the rat's mind, it activated its magic skills. [Arcane Perception] showed it the mana in the air, and to Eodum's surprise, the density of mana was considerably thicker than before. Eodum could only guess that the increase was due to the evolution of the ape, the number and strength of all the monsters here, and all the skills and magic being shot off.
Pushing those thoughts away and clearing its mind, Eodum gripped the mana with [Magic Shaping]. Wrapping the remaining tentacles around itself to be protected while it worked, the rat placed all of its focus into weaving and shaping the mana.
Before, when Eodum had practiced in the burrow, the magic, while uncontrollable and painful, was extremely effective. Its strength skyrocketed with the superior skills power, and if it could harness that in combat, Eodum would be unstoppable.
Putting the remaining two points of Sp into accelerated thoughts, like it had done with Ksilisab, the world seemed to slow. The impact of attacks on its fleshy shell reduced, even when coming in at the same speed and even increasing.
Surprisingly even breaths came from Eodum as its mind was placed into the one task of shaping mana. Same as last time, the intricately made mana resemble an ovoid, with a slight indent in the middle this time. With a push from Eodum, its mana left to fill the shape, flooding it until it was brimming with mystical energy, wanting to burst and pop under the internal pressure. While strong, unbelievably so, Eodum wanted even more strength.
Trying to force the mana closer together, it managed to condense the essence of magic. It seemed to practically glow, shining brighter than Eodum could have imagined from simple mana. While there was no actual light, the vision granted by [Arcane Perception] let Eodum see the beautiful light imperceptible to normal eyes.
Finally, while admiring its handiwork, Eodum filled the creation with condensed mana. Eodum was being forced to patch up its creation as the pressure from the mana was ripping through the shape. Eodum let the magic activate, not wanting for the magic to disassemble before it could be activated.
At that moment, a viny, thorny spearhead lubed in acid punctured Eodum's shell, barely missing Eodum by a hair;s width. Acid fell off the spearhead when it shot through the air, droplets of the liquid splattering on Eodum's face. An eye was touched, the squishy membrane being destroyed instantly by the biting fluid.
Eodum's focus was broken. The spell fell apart. In an explosion and massive wave, a blast of mana shot Eodum away. The spear was broken, fibers being destroyed by the destructive magic. Eodum's own tentacles were damaged, not nearly to the extent of the spear or Eodum main body, but they were still quite hurt.
Eodum ripped through the crowds of monsters, plowing right through some of them. Landing into a group of goblins, Eodum stumbled onto steady feet. It leveled up a few times in that, restoring its stats, but with that recent explosion, it got rid of nearly half of its Mp and reduced its Hp once more.
Looking back at the battle, the rat could spot the bodies of monsters being flung away by vines, the source of them, the ape, getting progressively closer. Now, Eodum had another chance to work on its magic, but the question was whether to do a normal spell or a condensed one.
On the one hand, if Eodum went with the condensed one, it might take too long to finish it up. On the other, the normal one might not have enough oomph to it. Right now, Eodum needed a trump card. Something to take the battle and bring it into its favor.
Eodum chose the condensed spell.
Once again, Eodum wrapped itself in tentacles, wrapping it even tighter with stronger tentacles. Any possible advantage was welcome to Eodum.
The rat, borrowing on the power of its intelligence and [Accelerated Thoughts], built the construct. While hard, it was more familiar now. Eodum still wasn't proficient, but it was slowly building up some mental form of muscle memory.
Eventually, through the screams of all sorts of monsters, Eodum finished the shape and started pouring in condensed mana. As if sensing the density in magic, the rate of roars and shrieks from the beasts rose, the ape-thing closing in on the rat as fast as it could.
Ignoring the change from its adversary, Eodum kept pouring mana into the shape. Physical and mental exhaustion built up from the attempt, and it could feel its consciousness barely keeping up with the mentally demanding process.
More.
More.
More.
More!
With a final push, Eodum filled the construct and activated it. Like before, the ends of the ovoid came close to each other, passing through one another and turning inside out before covering Eodum. While the rat's everything was still tired, it felt strong; unbelievably so. In addition, unlike the last time Eodum had activated