2

"Too slow," I mumbled as my bootheel met with the back of his head.

The force of the hit knocked him into the wall. Splintering the wood on impact. The surprise on his face made me smirk as I blocked another hit from behind. The blades ground together as the elf tried to force his blade down. I laughed at his attempt to force his blade down.

Making him pale as I threw his blade off of me. Knocking him on his ass before slicing his head off. My muscles tensed as I looked back to my fathers student. The shadows around me wavered as his power invaded them. He was already preparing an attack from where he lay on the ground.

"I know you're awake," I lashed out with my own mana.

Striking the weak points in the shadows with ease. Causing them to fall still again.

"I'm not nearly as stupid as you think I am," I allowed my mana to pour into the shadows he was manipulating.

Bringing them into my control before copying the spell he'd used to create solid shadows. Spikes shot out of the shadows to where he was laying. He jumped to the side. Barely avoiding the attack. He was clearly surprised that I'd been able to copy him.

"I've fought you before," He wrestled control of the shadows from me by force, "Where is this strength coming from?"

"As if you will live long enough to hear the answer," I lashed out with black flames.

These black flames didn't burn like normal flames. I'd infused fire into my darkness element. I'd noticed I could infuse fire into all my mana with ease now. No. These flames corroded people more like acid.

The flames spread around me, and forced all the enemies that gathered around me to back away. I was one of the more dangerous people on our side even though I didn't have much mana. That made me a primary target. I tossed my hair over my shoulder. I had it up before, but my hair band had been a victim of the fight.

I would have put my hair back up, but I didn't have another hair band. I frowned when I realized that I was running low on mana despite the fact that I was able to replenish my mana constantly. I wouldn't be able to keep up this fight for much longer. I struck out at a few more portals before they could form properly. Causing another explosion that threw me backward.

Luckily it threw most of my enemies away as well. I didn't think I would have survived if I had a bunch of enemies on me as soon as I landed. The portal that had tried to form in front of me was quite large so the explosion was also large. It wasn't the first explosion to leave behind a crater, but it did leave behind the largest crater. Most of our allies had managed to move out of the area of effect.

The few who hadn't managed to flee were lightly wounded. My mana had repaired my armor weeks ago so thankfully I was wearing full armor. My face was a little scratched up, but I was fine for the most part. I scanned the surroundings to make sure that no one in particular needed help. My heart dropped to my feet when I saw what looked like an arm sticking out of the bottom of the crater.

I jumped up in a rush, and slid down to the bottom of the crater. Grabbing the arm, and yanking only to find on closer inspection that this was mummy, and not a fresh corpse. I almost dropped it when I saw its teeth. They were unnaturally clean. Even buried in the ground his teeth were completely white.

His canines were unusually long. The rest appeared human. His hair was clinging to his dried out body. I remembered what Wyatt had said about the corpse. Feed the corpse your blood.

That was what he said. It would help us if we fed it our blood. An arrow flew past my face. Drawing blood. I shoved my hesitation down.

We didn't have much time. We were losing the fight. We needed help. I slammed my wrist into his mouth, and clamped his jaws into my flesh. Pain flitted through me before a calm euphoria washed through me almost unnaturally.

I had teeth in my arm. It wasn't supposed to feel good. I sat there for nearly twenty seconds without anything happening as my blood poured out of the corpse's mouth. I had a moment where I couldn't believe I was so stupid. What if this thing had diseases?

I went to let it drop only to find its dried jerky like hands clamped on my arm. His eyes snapped open. They were shockingly red. Blood red. His pupils focused on me as his body started filling in.

He looked more like a wrinkled old man when his lips parted with my arm.

"You seem busy," He pulled me down easily to whisper in my ear, "I'll help you end this fight as payment. We can discuss further payment when this is over."

Suddenly he fell into his own shadow. Vanishing from beneath me, and reappearing at the top of the crater. Clothed in thick darkness so he wasn't a naked old man. Even as wrinkled as he was he still appeared to be exotic in some way. I was a bit light headed so I looked down at my wrist to bandage it only to find no wound at all.

He'd healed me. When? I didn't even feel it. What was he? He definitely wasn't human even though he looked human.

Now that he'd been fed his presence was massive. He was practically exploding with mana. Many of the elves paled when his eyes brushed over then. I'd only felt three or four beings with mana like this before in my life. Wyatt, and the wyvern alpha were two of them.

*****

Authors note

*****

I don't know why, but the app blurred out my P A T R E O N. You can sponsor me or my animals. The Tame membership will include downloadable versions of anything I'm working on once I figure out how to put it on there. I edit all my own work, and know that my writing still needs work. The reason its called the Tame membership is because of a new book I will be writing that will feature multiple of my animals as characters.

Everything I make on P A T R E O N will go toward keeping their pasture, and nothing else. I myself will be trying to put $200 out of each of my paychecks away for that specific goal. You can sponsor my animals themselves. I'm sure they would love that. I'll make sure to put up updated photos weekly so you can see them, and their babies when they come if you want.

I'll try getting together some T-shirts, and stuff with good photos. Which is harder then you think. Especially since I am not a photographer. I set them up so it's 1$ per permanent herd member if you want to sponsor them. You can't sponsor steak or chunky since they are not permanent herd members.

I appreciate any help you can give. I know it's a big ask, but I really don't want to lose them since they've helped keep me together for so long. You can ask me questions through my email I'm happy to tell you more about my life as the oldest of twelve. I know a lot about caring for various types of animals although sheep are among my favorite animal to care for. I never intended to profit from them, but they bring me so much joy with all their unusual personalities, and their adorable little lambs each year.

My email is bennettangelina76@gmail.com if you'd like to ask me anything.

If you can't help then I understand. I wouldn't wish this kind of struggle on anyone. Take care of yourself first. Don't ever forget that. I know how deep, and dark depression can be.

I know how hard it is for people to understand just how dark it can be without experiencing it firsthand. When you try to tell them that you aren't doing well without actually showing them just how weak you are at that moment. The way it feels when they look at you as if there's something wrong with you or the disbelief in their eyes when you smile just to make that look go away. Sometimes a stranger is the only person you can be honest with because they can't look at you that way if they're halfway across the globe.