13 Initial Attack
Sitting on a patch of grass, Vin is seated cross-legged with beads of sweat covering his forehead.
The forest, as if expecting Vin's breakthrough, opened up a path directly to where Nathan currently is. Tree trunks, vines, and bushes seem to have come alive as they form a natural barrier around Vin.
On top of Vin's head is his last white orb dancing around as if conducting an orchestra with one goal in mind. Protect Vin.
Why?
That was the last thing that came to Vin's mind before he lost consciousness.
When Nathan finally reached Vin's location, he was surprised to see that the environment seem to have shifted. This is excellent news!
He already had this level breakthrough where his mana capacity expanded almost exponentially.
While breaking through, the process seems smooth on the outside. Internally, however, is a different story. Due to the overall upgrade, it was as if the entire body went numb. It was the body's response to turn off all pain receptors so the upgrade won't be detrimental to one's state of mind.
If one is to explain the process of breakthrough, it's as if having surgery on every single inch of your body at the same time.
Naturally, the mind won't just take it all in. The pain receptors are for survival, and not a self-destruct mechanism.
But there's more to it.
Besides losing control of the body, there's nothing else of noteworthy. Even the sludge produced can be taken care of after the process.
The mana siphoning, however, is a different story. It wasn't only the body that is vulnerable. Within the mind, space is the core; it's the source of usable mana for a person. If mana were usable, why would you need a source? That is because mana that passed through the source will be converted and marked.
Then what if the mana absorbed is already marked. Just like mixing incompatible chemicals, a reaction will occur. That much is obvious, but what kind of reaction?
Nathan doesn't know, and right now, he's not yet willing to know.
Another thing that Nathan overlooked and Vin just realized now is that his source is extremely vulnerable. It's as if he became a port as it receives the mana. What if something other than mana entered. Won't something like a possession occur?
Vin feeling extremely helpless, could only hope for Nathan's protection.
Nathan's breakthrough took around 30 minutes.
"We just have to survive for 30 minutes!" They both thought.
Without needing [Courage Boost], Nathan felt determined like never before.
Seeing as the diameter of the siphon, Nathan cast [Earth Manipulation] and created a hollow cube with an open face where Nathan is currently standing.
Compared to enclosing Vin in a whole cube, he felt like this was a safer bet as he was aware that if the siphon couldn't get enough, it'll increase the range of the siphon while weakening Vin as a whole.
Now, will there really be attackers? If there are, who will they be?
"Since I already broke through, I now understand how it works. Then won't the attackers be those who are at the same level as me or higher?"
"Shit."
Suddenly, the forest began to shift once again as the trees that made the natural barrier grew taller and covered at the top point, making a sphere.
This is the white orb's doing, then, won't this mean...
Aerial attack!
Crap!
Seeing that there's nothing there yet, Nathan began to throw [Fireball] to practice his aim.
[Fireball]
Fire Element Incantation Spell. Similar to a grenade except for having no shrapnels, mild destructive effect on the point of contact. It requires no nodes. It can be invoked.
On his third [Fireball], a half a meter rabbit dash through the open space.
Well prepared, Nathan targets the space a little ahead to where the rabbit is running towards.
[Earth Spike]!
The rabbit, prepared to block a [Fireball] with the wind, failed to anticipate the piercing attack and got stabbed in the chest.
Seeing that the rabbit got pinned, Nathan threw three [Fireballs] towards the rabbit. The rabbit unable to flow its mana failed to protect itself and got charred into ashes.
Seeing the wind spell from the rabbit, Nathan couldn't help but break into a cold sweat. These beasts are getting smarter!
If he had used [Fireball] instead, the rabbit could've dashed through!
"Now I understand what having a trump card really mean," he mumbled to himself.
After the rabbit, Nathan increased his guard even more. A single blunder immediately leads to a catastrophic result.
"Isn't this just the 11th day?! Fuck!" he thought.
Suddenly, in the corner of his vision, a small distortion appeared before disappearing.
"Stealth!" Nathan guessed correctly as he invoked [Arcane Track].
A small black cat is slowly walking towards Vin, looking proud at his abilities to blend in the shadows. It glanced towards Nathan to give him a sneer, but the glow in Nathan's eyes horrified the cat.
Squinting its eyes, the cat jumped backward just in time to avoid Nathan's [Earth Spike].
But Nathan didn't stop there, calculating where the cat would land, a [Fireball] already waited for the cunning black cat.
The cat then waved its tail as it glowed green. [Gale]!
The [Fireball] lost its momentum mid-air while the cat got propelled by the [Gale].
The cat pissed off at Nathan for blocking its attempt, decided to fuck it, and began casting a spell right below Vin.
"The audacity of this human!" The cat thought.
Nathan saw what happened while he trembled in fear. "I need to disrupt that damn cat!" he thought as he invoked [Earth Manipulation]
To Nathan's disappointment, the earth stopped an inch in front of the cat. The cat was too far from him.
After being almost shaken, the cat showed a vicious grin. Then, to its horror, the spell circle formed in the ground got siphoned while the link between the spell and the cat got forcibly cut. The mana flow in the cat's body turned chaotic.
Nathan saw what happened while he trembled in fear.
"That was close! Good thing that was a thing!" Nathan exclaimed, drenched in sweat.
The cat, suffering the chaos within its mind space, fell flat to the ground. This kind of forced dispel lead to a backlash.
Nathan, Vin, the cat, and those who are observing in the shadows caught on to this.
Taking no time at all, Nathan invoked [Earth Manipulation] diagonally just above the cat and cast [Earth Spike] downwards.
The brutality of the action dissuaded some of those who are hiding in the dark. Some remained with hints of agitation visible in their eyes.
To be honest, most of the beings here wouldn't have come if not for the eye-catching trees that shifted themselves to cover the area.
However, those who are strong won't need this sort of signal to feel the changes in the mana of the environment. Tactical wise, the cover is more helpful than it is detrimental.
Remaining on high alert, Nathan stood tall as dragged the corpse of the cat and the rabbit to the side with [Earth Manipulation] and placed his focus in front of him.
Somewhere on top of a tree.
"The canon fodders are running. That man seems to have quite a lot more mana than it is safe." a bird stated.
"It's fine, judging from this level of siphoning, it's only to the second level. We can just engage in guerilla warfare." a lizard explained.
"Do we really have to risk this? It's not like we need his siphon state to revive that guy. Not to mention, the tree cover is obviously the work of a white orb." a monkey argued.
"Still, don't you think these two looks a little familiar?" a rat pondered.
"I think they fit the description that the tiger gave, so did master's," a snake replied.
The group of animals suddenly quietened. If these are the same people that escaped from that tiger and almost killed that snake.
Slowly, the eyes of these animals turned red.
"Tire him out," the monkey commanded.
