7 Chapter 6 - Half-time

Robert stood there in an imposing manner, with his silver sword in his hand, he moved his other hand in a strange pattern as mana continued to flow into his body. 'My body is at its limits now... so much mana inside my body, I guess I can release it at will too' an evil grin spread out on Robert's face. Robert and the squirrel charged at each other, the former roared while that latter neighed.

Robert vertically slashed and dodged the squirrel's punch, a clear line of blood appeared on its chest. The squirrel felt angry and scared at the same time, the pain made it neigh and this moment of spacing out cost it its arm.

Robert smirked as he served the squirrel's arm, blood flew into the air and dyed Robert's hair red, a few drops of blood trickled down his forehead drawing red lines on his glowing face.

The horse head squirrel neighed as it rolled about in pain. Robert approached the squirrel as it struggled to get up and run. Robert flung his sword, it spun and impaled the squirrel's leg, almost cutting it off. The squirrel helplessly fell down as its eyes grew dim and its voice grew weaker. Robert walked up and looked into the eyes of the creature which were begging for a plea.

"Die", Robert released all his mana in his arm and willed it to release in his fist's direction, a powerful force cased the squirrel's ribs to cave in and its heart to be crushed, it died with one last neigh.

(O: see it lived niegh more. R: Wtf)

***

"Oww, my arm still feels a bit numb," groaned Robert as he massaged his arm while sitting under the shade of a tree.

"Haha Bobby, who knew there would be a backlash?", laughed Damien as he got up from his meditating position, Damien was now very close to where Robert was before the battle with the Giant horse squirrel.

"Yeah, but I am a herald now!", Robert got up with his chest puffed out.

"I am quite surprised too," said Damien, "Now brother what should we do of the meat we salvaged?"

"I am not really fond of squirrel meat especially the one with a horse's head but I suggest that we eat it", Damien nodded at his brother's decision.

"So who is gonna cook?" asked Damien.

"I am too tired to do it, so you are the cook now"

"Lazy bastard", murmured Damien.

"I heard that", said Robert as he curled up and closed his eyes.

***

"Hmm it tastes like beef, only the meat is firmer, you sure you cooked it properly ?", asked Robert as he bit into the fried meat.

"Yeah, I forgot that there was a kitchen in the middle of a forest," sneered Damien as he took a bite, suddenly an intense wave of mana went down Damien's throat as he gulped down the meat.

"W-What is this?"

"Oh yeah, since it is the meat of a herald ranked creature it will, of course, be imbued with mana," said Robert nonchalantly as he took another bite.

"Whew, that scared me", Damien continued to eat, "What happened you look a bit troubled"

"Well... it was a herald ranked creature so it should have had the same abilities as me, such as that mana punch," Robert furrowed his brows, "But it did not happen, not even when I gravely injured it."

"Then there can be only one possibility- it didn't know how to use these abilities"

"Yes, in that case, it can be assumed that it was a newly advanced Herald creature,"

"So what's troubling you is-", Damien widened his eyes.

"It was an infant! Thus, its parents must be-"

"Here?", Damien bitterly smiled as he pointed in a certain direction. Robert felt a giant mass of mana heading towards them.

(O: mommy squirrel! R: ....Horse head?)

"Ah, I still don't know how to deal with the backlash now another trouble," Robert got up and unsheathed his sword.

"Don't worry, Danny here will protect you!" Damien brandished his sword.

"Meh, you probably won't last a minute"

"Cant we ambush it or something ?"

"Can we hide the mana radiating from us?"

"So we face it head-on?"

"Seems like the only choice", humped Robert.

The trees swayed and the ground rumbled as a five-metre long monster made its way through the forest. It had brown fur which matched with the wood of deciduous trees in the background. Two eyes brimming with bloodlust were embedded in its horse-like head which constantly neighed. Its two strong arms pulled apart the shrubs and bushes while its powerful hind legs sent dirt flying as it made its way towards a clearing. Other animals avoided this beast, as for who was unable to, they were torn to shreds or crushed by its hands. An adult Giant horse Squirrel was indeed a killing machine!

Soon enough it arrived where the duo was. Seeing its kin's bones littered around it neighed in angry, its eyes flashed with fury and it pounced at Robert who was still holding a bone. A great amount of mana was sucked in by the squirrel as it opened its mouth and a terrifying amount of force burst out wanting to crush Robert.

"See what I meant Danny?", Robert narrowly dodged the blow, a tree behind him were blown to smithereens.

"So can I leave?", Damien laughed weakly, Robert glared at him and said, "After we kill this Squirrel", Robert charged at the squirrel as he thrust his sword.

The squirrel was a step faster and countered Roberts attack with two powerful punches, its tail swept the ground. Robert avoided being blown away by its tail by jumping about 5 meters high. While he was airborne the squirrel turned and launched another punch.

'A combo attack?!', Robert was alarmed by squirrels actions 'the only way to avoid a critical injury is to block it but that would send me flying away that way the squirrel may follow up with an attack'.

At that moment a sword came flying towards Robert, he understood the signal and used the flying sword as a platform to jump even higher, on the other hand, the sword was shot forth with Robert's legs, with an impressive force it banged into squirrel's arms and broke its defence. Robert took this chance and released the mana in his forefinger, a powerful ray was shot forth and pierced the squirrel's shoulder. Robert quickly seized Damien's sword and threw it back to him.

Damien dodged the flying sword and complained, "Are you trying kill me ?!"

"Quit blabbering we need to kill it quickly", Robert readied his stance, while Damien hid behind a tree. The squirrel neighed as it felt the sharp pain from its bone-deep wound, it marked Damien as a threat and rushed to him.

"Bobby get it away from me!", Damien screamed as a fist tore apart the tree's trunk, wood splinter flew in the air and the tree swayed and fell down. Damien ran away from the squirrel, but he sensed a fluctuation in mana.

The squirrel opened its mouth and another translucent beam was released from its mouth, Damien trusted his instincts and ducked. The tree in front of him was blown apart, cold sweat appeared on Damien's forehead, he heard a neigh. He turned back to see that Robert had stabbed one of the squirrel's arms. The squirrel neighed, fury was evident in its eyes. Robert back flipped and dodged the squirrel's tail.

'I have got much more agile after infusion of mana... but how was this squirrel able to release mana twice and not suffer a backlash?' Robert pondered over it.

"Careful!", shouted Damien. Robert gracefully landed and blocked the squirrel's uppercut, at that moment a terrifying force was felt by Robert. The squirrel had released the mana in its arm!

'Damn it' Robert countered this by doing the same. Boom! The ground below the point where the forces collided was blown away, revealing a 2-foot crater. A strong gale pushed Robert back.

"No wonder Heralds are a league above normal beings... If this is the power of a false-mage, I wonder what a real one can do!", Damien said to himself.

'I need to breakthrough! Or else I will never be able to catch up with Robert', a fire of determination burned in Damien's eyes.

'He is gonna do something stupid again', Robert shook his head as he saw the expression on Damien's face.

Crash! Robert fended off the squirrel's arms. Robert paled when he felt his right arm go numb.

"The backlash!", he cursed under his breath. Robert was left-handed so his strength didn't drop down too much but the inability to use an arm could yield nasty results.

The squirrel didn't seem have suffered any backlash and continued to use both its arms. Robert was being pushed back. The Squirrel neighed. A huge wave of mana was sucked into its body and once again it prepared to launch a mana attack, Robert widened his eyes.

At this moment Damien ran towards the squirrel with his eyes closed, he waved his arms in a certain pattern and some mana was absorbed into his body.

'What is he doing? Don't tell me-', Robert gasped. The squirrel turned and saw Damien dancing his way to it. Damien, on the other hand, was trying to ease his mind and follow the particles. 'Why are there so many...', Damien furrowed his brows as he saw a billion mana particles flying about.

'Let's see,' Damien saw a large mana particle, "I choose you!"

(R: you guys feel the pokemon reference? O: weeb)

Damien followed its complex trajectory with his right hand and an enormous amount of mana followed his body, it absorbed by him. "Arrgh" Damien moaned as he felt his body fill up with energy. It was as if he broke through a container. Damien's body continued to absorb mana as it moved.

The squirrel neighed and tried to crush Damien with its attack, a powerful beam was released from its mouth, heading towards Damien. However, Damien's body was done absorbing mana, and he gracefully twirled and dodged that attack. Damien's hair had strangely got darker and his face glowed, he slowly opened his eyes, "It is my turn!"

With his arms in front of him and palms facing the squirrel, Damien released all the mana stored up in them.

Boom! The wind howled as the Squirrel was sent flying. With blood and fur in the air, the squirrel neighed as it landed. Damien followed the squirrel, whose arms were twisted and its torso had turned into a bloody mess.

However, it was still alive and tried to use mana to fire one last blow. Damien, on the other hand, moved like the wind accumulating mana on the way. Damien once again released the stored mana and the two palms fired translucent beams. The beams merged into one and smashed the squirrel. The Squirrel was squashed flat.

"Haha Danny, you finally became a herald!", Robert limped as he walked towards Damien, "But you didn't reach the bottleneck then how?"

"Ah! Was all thanks to that squirrel", Damien moved once again ad absorbed some mana, "You see unlike you, I wasn't able to slow down mana particles around me and thus, follow the flow and absorb them", Damien scratched his nose as he laughed, "After witnessing that whenever a herald absorbs mana, the particles follow a general direction so when the third time the Giant Horse Squirrel tried to attack with mana, I ran towards it and managed to absorb mana and break through!"

"You damn cheater!", Robert humped and then asked, "But how were you able to use that mana attack twice?"

"You didn't notice? Whenever you use a mana attack, the part which releases mana is emptied of it. The contrast between that part and the other parts creates a pressure on the junction. Hence, that part feels numb. So all you need to do to equalize both parts by absorbing more mana, by exhausting both or by making the stored mana flow into that part."

"..." Robert frowned.

Damien smirked, "Hehe I told you that Danny would protect yo- oww, what was that for?" Damien massaged his head which had been punched by Robert.

"COULDN'T YOU HAVE TOLD ME BEFORE!", Robert bellowed.

"That way I would have not got the spotlight," Damien pouted.

(R: +f Robert O: if you guys don't know it, pressing 'f' key is a way of paying respect in gaming culture)

Robert's shoulders drooped down as he said, "Fine! You are better than me"

"Yay!", Damien rejoiced.

"So what should we do now? We still have 2 days at hand"

"Hmm, I guess we should hunt more. So we can get used to the powers of a herald"

"Fine with me", Robert nodded his head.

The Duo went ahead to salvage the squirrel's meat, however, they failed to notice a woman in a green luxurious gown hiding behind a tree, her golden hair was tied into a bun and her eyes were hidden by a circular hat. She smiled and whispered, "Guess they didn't need my help after all" with that Lady Katherine twirled and disappeared into thin air.