Mana Overdose

"What do you mean by 'four of us'? Surely you don't suffer the same affliction as them! After all, you're standing right here, and we aren't being poisoned." One of the Beastmen in the crowd pondered as Soul sighed. "I suffer from an overexertion of mana myself, but probably to a greater extent than your leader," Soul responded, flashing a small amount of his mana. The power level on this burst was ten thousand, coincidentally the amount that knocked Erald, the human King, into a wall.

The sheer concentration of the mana shocked everyone there, causing them to almost fall over. However, the Beastpeople somehow remained standing as Soul decreased his mana amount back down to an almost unnoticeably small number. "Holy hell. It's more concentrated than our leaders'." One of the Beastpeople complained before the sound of throwing up hit the air. "Are you the only guys affected by this or something? After all, I used the same power in front of the humans." Soul asked, somewhat curious as to why this was their reaction.

"Us Beastpeople are much more sensitive to mana. Your power level is around ten times as strong when we sense it as it usually is. If we think we have a power level of one million, it's only a hundred thousand to other people. Think of it like that." The Beastman explained, holding his stomach. Obviously, the Beastman was feeling somewhat queasy. This was due to the high amount of mana Soul created in a short space of time. "Ah, I see. Well, I apologise for not knowing this fact beforehand. I don't know much about Beastpeople, as you can probably tell." Soul responded, giving a quick bow as a sign of apology.

"Now, show me where your leader is. I need to see if they have achieved what I think they have. If it is what I think it is, your leader will never be the same again." Soul commanded the Beastman, scaring him. He ran off towards the area where they were containing the leader. After about a minute of running, they reached the opposite city wall, finding a door. It was made of metal and was almost uncharacteristic for the city. "This is the place we've called the bunker. It's where we planned to go in case of any city-destroyer or population-killing event, but now we're using it to store our leader. The door will open for a second before we close it again. We don't want to get mana poisoning." The Beastman explained as Soul nodded in understanding.

"Hey, Oki. Do you want to come in here and see what's going on? If you're able to be around me, then you can surely handle some weaker mana, right?" Soul asked Oki, who had been on his back since they started moving. He had just picked up the child, swung him around, and walked over there. "Honestly, I'm not sure if I should be in this state. After all, I've been exposed to your mana for a while, but not theirs. I don't know what that'll do to me." Oki responded level-headedly. "Honestly, that's a reasonable explanation. Well, I'm going in. After all, if I'm the only one here who can do this job, I'll be the one to get this job done." Soul explained as the Beastman opened up the door. Soul wasn't planning on breaking into this thing any time soon, so he didn't see how it was opened, but once it was enterable, he stepped through. The door slammed shut behind him as an airwave of mana hit him in the face.

It wasn't a lot of mana, at least compared to what he's sensed before, but it was just so sudden. "I can see why they'd get mana poisoning from this. I thought they were overexaggerating, but I honestly didn't think it'd be this bad. Thank god Oki decided to stay down here." Soul said to himself.

[Yeah, I've just been watching this. I can feel the mana from inside of your mind. Hell, even Aaron can sense it. Neither of us is feeling all too good about this.] Memica told Soul, scaring him. "Holy hell! I forgot you existed! Yeah, this is a strange thing. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a Blood Warden in here, trying its best to kill me." Soul said as he walked further through the bunker. "I wonder how they even got them down here in the first place. After all, were they sentient? Did they go willingly, or did it involve force and a lot of mana poisoning?" Soul responded, posing some questions of his own. However, he stopped moving when the faint smell of copper rose through his nose. "Blood. Copper is the smell of blood." Soul remembered, walking through the long, maze-like bunker.

The way that this bunker was crafted was so you could lure any attackers into the maze if they somehow got inside the bunker in the first place and make them lost. Then you could flank and subdue them. It could go both ways, however. That's why Soul was using the scent of blood as a guider. He had no idea where he was going, but Soul knew that he'd get out eventually. However, his suspicions were raised when he saw a trail of blood splattered along the floor. It was all dried up, meaning that it wasn't recent, but it still smelled. The line led the way to the maze's, and Soul walked out, curious.

He walked out into a somewhat open area, splatters of blood lining the walls. He wasn't shocked, just more so impressed. "Wow. Where in the hell did all of this blood come from?" Soul asked, looking around the room. After a bit of searching, he saw a woman with black hair sitting in the corner, facing the wall. Blood dripped from her face, and the sound of faint sobbing rang through the air.

"Please...stay away...it's not safe..." The woman told Soul between sobs, the sounds of bones cracking as he walked towards her. "Now, there's no need to be afraid. Everything's going to be just fine. I'll fix your mana problem, and then you can go back out and meet your people." Soul responded, putting his hand on the woman's shoulder. The woman turned around to face him, and Soul was somewhat shocked. The only features on her face were the scars from her hands, which had turned into claws.

"I told you to stay away!" She yelled out in a fit of anger, clawing at Soul's hand. Blood began to drip down from her face even more than before, congealing the second it hit the ground. "Wow. Aren't you a feisty one?" Soul responded. 'Memica, check her status. I need to see if she's Boundless!' Soul commanded Memica, who allowed Soul to see her Boundless Percentage.

{The Boundless Warden Of Blood}

{Boundless Percentage: 1%}

"Just as I thought," Soul said, cracking his knuckles.

"I guess this means I won't have to hold back as much."