71 Bleeding Mana

After dinner, Nova had slipped into his room before he used Area to go to the forest of brownlings.

『Reischneid.』[Nova]

A blue inferno appeared in front of Nova, before Reischneid had appeared in front of him in the form of the hilt.

『Woah! Going hunting, huh?』[Reischneid]

『Yeah! Let's try and get enough for your seal!』[Nova]

『Hmm… are you sure? Right now, you would need 800 or so rank 4 crystals to break the first seal. On top of that, you'd have to beat a rank 5 creature for their crystal too.』[Reischneid]

The huge numbers intimidated Nova.

『Uh.. Let's take our time, then.』[Nova]

Nova began to walk into the forest.

He had teleported to the last place he had remembered, so he was already a good chunk into the forest.

『Is it really a good idea to be here, Nova?』[Reischneid]

『Hmm… I don't remember why no-』[Nova]

As he was saying that, he remembered what had happened the previous occasion of him being there.

『I change my mind. Last time, I saw something super fast and dangerous.』[Nova]

『...Right. I'm almost certain that the thing you saw was a rank 5 magical beast, at the very least.』[Reischneid]

Nova began to turn around to where he used to be, but Reischneid suddenly shouted.

『DUCK!』[Reischneid]

Nova immediately threw himself on the floor, before the entire area of trees suddenly disappeared and flew around.

『WHAT THE HELL?!』[Nova]

Far above his head, he could see trees that weighed more than a car flying tens of feet in the sky.

『It's an ambush! You're in the middle of their territory!』[Reischneid]

『What are they?!』[Nova]

『Rank 5 magical beasts! But they're incredibly organized! What's going on?!』[Reischneid]

The barrage of shadows above Nova stopped a few seconds later.

Nova then got up and prepared to use Area.

『Are-』[Nova]

In an instant, a shadow flashed in front of Nova.

Right before it hit him, Nova managed to pull out a basic mana shield.

It crashed into Nova's shield, causing his shield to shatter onto the floor and biting into Reischneid.

Now that it was still, Nova had a good look at the beast.

It looked very similar to a brownling and a dog crossed together.

It was way smaller than the rank 4 brownling and it had 4 legs and two heads.

The one on the back then lurched forward and bit into Nova's left arm.

『DAMN!』[Reischneid]

Nova grit his teeth as blood began to flow down his arm.

He poured mana into his sword, causing it to wrap around the dog-brownling and caused spikes to impale the brownling, making it explode into a cloud of black dust.

『Alright, great! Form a fortress-shield!』[Reischneid]

Nova formed a layered shield in front of him and tried to form an Area before the beasts began another barrage, hitting his shield over and over.

『What are you doing?! Teleport away!』[Reischneid]

Each time they slammed into his shield, he lost his concentration- the image of the dorms kept flickering.

His mind kept going toward his legs, telling him to run away- even if they could just catch up in an instant.

An incredible pain went through his head.

『Nova!』[???]

A burst of black and white flames exploded in front of him.

『Those flames..?!』[Nova]

A blur of brown and white flashed around, occasionally leaving some black clouds of dust.

『Arf!』[Sir Fluffles]

Sir Fluffles came out of the mental space and began to protect Nova's cracking shell.

『Sir Fluffles!』[Nova]

『The 5th circle brownlings have terrible durability! Use your Inferno Purgatory!』[Reischneid]

『Don't worry about me, Nova! Just hurry it up!』[Sir Fluffles]

『He's right! Your contract protects you from each other! Send them all to hell!』[Reischneid]

『Ggh.. Birthed from the stars, Burnt to ashes, burn my enemies into nothingness. From ashes to ashes, to stardust and nothing, incinerate the enemy into eternal night!

』[Nova]

Sir Fluffles dashed through the crimson flames, unaffected- still destroying the beasts.

『...How many left?!』[Nova]

『You scared the rest of them off… but...』[Reischneid]

『Blessed Flame Rebirth!』[Nova]

He began to heal himself with the blue flame before a bright red beam flashed past a few feet away..

『What?!』[Nova]

『Rank 6! You can't kill it, not even if you land a True Gale!』[Reischneid]

Moments later, Sir Fluffles was sent flying into Nova.

『AAAGH!』[Nova]

『Arf! Grrrrr….』[Sir Fluffles]

He started whimpering in Nova's left arm.

『Huh?! Sir Fluffles!』[Nova]

『I'm alright! That one is too strong! We have to run!』[Sir Fluffles]

『Okay! Let me get the crystals!』[Nova]

His eyes flashed toward the ground, where he saw hyper-bright gems that radiated a type of purity he hadn't seen from the other ones.

『Area!』[Nova]

A handful of gems appeared on Nova's hand and he prepared for another teleport.

『Area!』[Nova]

The portal that was supposed to appear failed, however.

『Huh?!』[Nova]

Nova's vision began to blur.

『Get a grip!』[Reischneid]

His voice called Nova back to consciousness.

『I can't teleport!』[Nova]

『What?!』[Reischneid]

Reischneid began to get agitated.

『Don't you have any more mana?! You should have a lot!』[Reischneid]

『I should, but my mana seems to be tapped out!』[Nova]

『That's impossible!』[Reischneid]

Nova began to repeatedly attempt to cast Area.

『Area! Area! Area!』[Nova]

The image in his mind was perfect, yet all that came out whenever he casted it were purple sparks that flickered into nothingness.

The footsteps of the rank 6 magical beast seemed to sound out louder and louder.

『Ah! Mana heart! You're bleeding out mana! Quickly heal yourself! Your mana control isn't good enough to withstand the constant flux of your mana draining yet! Burn some of you-』[Reischneid]

Reischneid's words began to fade out of existence- Nova's vision went dark.

The last thing Nova heard was a loud explosion and splintering wood.