20

I landed lightly on a corner of a building that had managed to stay standing. My legs bent before I launched myself upward again as the two darkness blobs attacked me at once from two different sides. One now resembling some sort of snake, and the other now resembling one of those scaled wolves. Their movements were much more coordinated now that they had more solid forms. That was the problem.

I may be fast, and strong, but I'd never been able to dodge the wild attacks of beasts entirely. Not even in my human form. They didn't move in a manner that I could predict. My lack of ability to dodge all their attacks was landing me with some nasty wounds. My skin burned as the darkness ate at the flesh that had been exposed to it.

I growled to myself behind the mask. The runes were doing their best to repel the harmful mana, but their effect had shrunk when my body shrunk. That wasn't all that surprising. I'd been surprised that there was any positive effect from the runes at all. My arm, and one of my legs had both received a glancing blow, and as a result they were both slowly being taken out of commission by the darkness that was eating into them.

I tried burning the darkness off with fire. There was some effect, but not much. Lightning coursed through my limbs next. That had even less of an effect. Earth, and water had never been affective against darkness so there was one other element I could use that might work.

Although I was hesitant to use it in a manner that was considered attacking simply because that element did not like being used for anything, but healing. I'd gotten a feel for the elements general disposition since becoming dominant over them, and I knew what uses they would fight against. Light magic preferred to be used to nurture life in one way or another. I slammed my fist down when I hit the ground. Infusing the light element into the earth as I passed.

The two large spell beasts chased me. They divided one more time now that they were taking damage again. Now I was facing four darkness beasts. They were devouring all the mana nearby, and growing without restraint. The light element had simple been devoured like all the mana in the surrounding area.

The earth, and all my enemies had been devoured as well. I didn't know where Sekka was but I really hoped that he was smart enough to take shelter because my situation was becoming worse, and worse as time passed. Returning to my dragon form was out of the question since I was already struggling as a tiny little human. Adding less coordinated bulk would just end with more trouble. The snake spell beast lunged at me in a moment where when I was cornered by the other beasts.

I snarled again as my leg was scalded. This nasty beast wasn't just drawing the mana from the spells I threw at it. It was also taking mana from my core. The bandit leader started laughing hysterically.

"I knew this relic was something special," I didn't know it was this powerful.

The mana in the area had already been dangerously thin before he added more mana into the wand or whatever it was that was controlling the spell beasts. The spell beasts roared as they started devouring even the minuet amount of mana left in the air. They started devouring the ground they stood on as they divided again. Now I was facing eight spell beasts composed of toxic darkness. Something changed in the quality of the darkness that composed the spell beasts when the mana ran out.

Their efforts to come after me suddenly became desperate. The mana that was being drawn out of my core by the darkness attached to my limbs increased the burden on my core. I could feel it. I was on the verge of something. Some sort of breakthrough, but I wouldn't be able to make that breakthrough if I ran out of mana.

If these limbs were the problem then I would get rid of them. My good arm lashed out. The ice blade I'd made to kill the elves wasn't strong enough to sever more then one of my limbs at a time. I was a little irritated that I needed to make more then one blade to slice through my mangled limbs. The arm I'd sliced off had started regrowing the moment I'd cut it off.

The elf was terrified I sliced off one of my limbs. His stunned silence was marked by a sudden increase in violence from the spell beasts. That surprise only increased when I severed both of my mangled legs as well. Launching myself upward with a simple wind spell. Holding myself in the air with a combination of wind magic, and gravity magic.

The spell beasts suddenly turned to the only nearby source of mana. Their own master. I watched as he scrambled to hold his useless little trinket out in front of him like a shield. As if that would have ever worked. What a moron.

He'd unleashed something he didn't understand, and now it would seek out any mana it could find. Devouring it all until they could find no more. That gave me an idea, but I needed my limbs back to remain mobile without using my dwindling source of mana. My core shook as pain was sent shocking through me all at once. My core was getting closer to being completely purified.

It announced that violently to the rest of my body. At that moment I started falling. That shock sent a shiver through my spines. Reminding me of a spell that restored my mana as well as my body, but that wasn't fast enough. It took nearly five seconds for the regeneration spell to take full effect.

I didn't have five seconds. I had three at most. What could I do to speed the spell up? My regeneration spell was faster, but used too much mana. At that moment as I was falling to my death with only one limb left.