Crimson winter in the forest

Lisa ran behind a tree. She took a small knife in her arm.There was now way though that it would even penetrate the scales of that monsters.

Given it's form of a snake, even if it was way lower level than a normal knight or veteran warrior, even an experienced fighter would have problems with it. It was fast and slimy and hard egg-to-crack not talking about its harpoon tail. The difference in endurance could be diminished by simply the fact that a humanoid is meant to solve problems with its brains, that monster solved problems with brute force and brutality only. It was what could be called "specialist", to have its experience in only one area, killing. Even a warrior would have a more peaceful way of life than what that snake had gone through. And now, someone was attacking its home.

Sofia ran to get her rucksack and clothes. For emergency, she had written some spell on small papers with her blood, though she hadn't ever tried them. They were better than nothing though, but trying them out was risky for now.

In war, it was common for magic-users to write spell on papers with their blood. This way the spell could be cast once with no delay. The paper and writing replaced the chant, but the cost would still needed to be paid. This also could have negative effects on the spell, if the writing got spoiled or was missing something. Also it had taken Sofia hours to prepare the papers, she had failed many times as the papers had gotten ruined with misspelling or unintentional stains. She had the papers carefully between the few end pages of the nature-science book of hers.

She had four papers. Four different spells. All tier 3 magic which was the highest she could learn from the books, but she had never tested any of them and now with her mana problems, she had no intention to try them soon. Though, now it seemed that she got no choice.

The snake was going for Lisa, who was frozen behind a tree. It smelled the air constantly with its tongue.

Sofia knew she had to fight it. There was no question about what kind of situation this was. It was a crisis -- fight or die crisis. So, she did as the instructions had told her so far.

She put the papers on her pocket, still keeping one in her left hand.

'Tier 3 red magic, fireball'

She had thought that it was useful spell since even though being an attack spell, it was meant to create fire. She could, if needed, possibly start a camp fire with it or fire non the less, if needed for some reason.

Sofia looked at the snake and breath in. Then she shouted while pointing her hand like an arrow at the snake's body. Hitting the head would be too hard, so she went for its middle. Hitting was the priority now.

'Open logbook. Status. Mana 100%'

"Fireball."

The air around her arm light up and in a second a ball of flames flew directly at the snake. There was no mass in the hit, thus making the flames simply go around the snakes body. The effects were minimal. The effected area was steaming as the surface of the scales had dried and it didn't glimmer anymore.

The spell fireball wasn't simply fire, it was air and fire in together, but such an attack didn't possess enough mana to be fatal by any means to the snake-monster. Fire spells were extremely effective against high armor targets, if, and only if, the heat was enough strong and the fire enough huge to actually boil the one inside the armor alive. This attack of Sofia's was similar to trying to grill a beef with a matchstick.

'Mana 65%'

'I need to regenerate a lot of mana and fast! I need to fight with all I have!'

'PIIP. NOTIFICATION! Gifted sage has been set on BATTLE MODE. Accelerating mana regeneration to fit caster's needs.

WARNING! Mana pool isn't enough.**

Status.

Level 7, 13% -- Mana 100%!!!

Total mana generated 05.00 times the average.!!! BATTLE MODE ON!***

Mana pool 3.34/1.25 times the average.** RISING!**

WARNING*** Gifted sage battle mode will activate a backlash in 08:56 minutes.'

'What...'

Sofia felt like she wanted to throw up. Her head was starting to hurt. So fast was the mana regeneration. So fast did she gather mana around her that the grass under her feet turned yellow and the tree she was leaning on a while ago started to drop its leaves. Temperature around her decreased and she could see her own breath.

The snake turned toward Sofia. In few seconds it would reach her.

She took out randomly a paper from her pocket and pointed her hands at the snake. With a glimpse she saw the name of the spell.

'I have luck... I give it everything I HAVE!'

It was green magic.

"STONEWALL!"

The soil shoot up in front of her.

This wasn't exactly the effect that the spell was suppose to have. It was suppose to create small and think wall between the caster and the opponent.

This was no small simple wall. It was at least twenty spears long wall and it reached the lake where the monster had come from. But it was also thick wall, so much so, that the snake, which was leaping towards Sofia got struck by it when the wall shoot up from the ground. It hit the snake with such a force that the whole animal was sent into the air.

The wall was two spears high.

Sofia had never been in a battle situation like this. Her ears were buzzing.

She had seen the mouth of the snake open and now the thing wasn't there anymore.

'Huhuhhuuhuh.'

"LISA! YOU ALRIGHT THERE? WHERE IS THE MONSTER?"

"M-MISS! IT FLEW SOMEWHERE! I AM COMING TO THAT SIDE!"

'Coming to this side?'

Sofia turned her head towards the other end of the wall. It was about ten spears away also. Lisa would come from there as she would go around the wall.

THUMPS*

"HUUH!"

The maid had jumped over the wall.

"Lisa how did you..."

"I am quite good with athletics miss, but that is all. You in one piece miss?" Lisa was scanning Sofia.

"Y-yes. So... So, the snake?"

'That... that was way too high jump for a normal being...'

"It was thrown away by the force of the wall spawning!"

"Dead?"

"No, I don't think so."

Hissing and crackle could be heard from the other-side of the wall.

"Lisa, run. It's coming. I still have two spells."

Sofia had her cloak on her, but most of her clothes were scattered across the woods now as they were also where the wall had spawned.

'Status. Mana 100%!

Mana pool 1.34/1.25 times the average. RISING!'

'So it took about two times of my whole mana pool!'

The yellow grass around Sofia was spreading.

"M-miss... what..."

"Lisa, get back! Run!"

The snake could be heard climbing the wall on the other side. It slid down from it once, but that didn't stop it.

'Too stupid to go around I see.'

The women ran further away, then the snake got on the top of the wall.

Sofia stopped and checked her spells. Her vision had few small black dots in it.

"Miss, what...."

"Just run already!"

The snake dropped on the ground. It had gotten through the obstacle and now was extremely pissed. It started to move sideways pointing its harpoon at Sofia. It looked like a reverse cobra -- a snake scorpion.

Sofia could see its jaws bleeding. Thick, almost black blood was dripping on the yellow and dead grass. It had taken damage.

Sofia's breath was stable and created chilly clouds in now cold summer air.

'It has concussion?'

Lisa hid behind a tree. There was no way she could just abandon this woman, who she now saw more of a part of her family than anything else. She didn't have other friends... she was clumsy and got yelled at often. No one wanted to really get to know her. During the maid training she had gotten bad reputation and was put to take care of this unknown, possibly crazy woman. Turned out, this woman was now her only friend. If the Duke would let her go, she had intentions to follow miss. Unless they disagree with her and didn't want Lisa to serve miss Sofia.

'Master!'

Sofia took a breath.

'I won't die. Sofia. I won't die here! You brother will get through and fix everything!'

The snake didn't wait long. It attacked with its tail.

Sofia couldn't see it coming, so fast it was, so huge was the level difference.

The harpoon pierced Sofia's stomach.

"MISS!!!"

But Grim Reapers don't die from needle strikes like that. Her stomach was turned into porridge and her spine was snapped, but her heart was bounding, her head was working and her brain was alive!

'Blessed by death -- BATTLE MODE ON! **

WARNING** Blessed by death battle mode will activate a backlash together with gifted sage in 07:12 minutes.'

Sofia could feel her lower body, but her stomach had already started to reconstruct itself, but the harpoon was in the way.

She hugged the snaked's body.

'FUCK YOU!'

Her lungs were still there. There was still air.

It was yellow magic. If she ever would have needed to remove a obstacle...

"FORCE PUSH!"

BO-TOOOOOM!*

The snake's body was pushed with such a force where Sofia was hugging it, that its body ripped in half. Shit, mushed organs, blood and gallbladder liquid were spilled across the forest. The near trees were painted in dark red and the head part of the snake started to dance on the ground jumping up to a spear high in a shock. It couldn't understand what just happened. A fourth of its body weight was missing and it couldn't move its main weapon anymore.

It was not dead though. But now it knew that this creature that had thrown rocks at it, was indeed a monster of monsters. It had to be killed or it would eat its eggs.

The harpoon was forced through Sofia thanks to the spell. There was now a hole in her body and one could wave to another person through it.

The grass and trees around Sofia turned dark brown and dry. All the leaves fell from the trees in seconds as her stomach was reconstructing itself. Such was the hunger of mana inside her.

Lisa moved further away with haste as she felt dizziness. Something inside her told her that it wasn't good to be near miss now. She felt like the death itself was manifesting in Sofia as when Sofia took steps forward the snake, only sand was left behind the once fertile soil.

The snake had gathered itself through the shock. Both participants were in same mental state.

'If this doesn't work... I still have...'

Sofia hold her hands towards the snake.

'It looks... somewhat sad... even for a monster.'

It was, after all, just a brutal mother.

This was another red magic. Sofia had fire, protection and kinetic magic for certain purpose in mind when she wrote them down from the books. But this magic. She didn't have a clear intention behind it. Not a clear clever reason to have it. It was, what red magic is suppose to be in its purest form, a spell to make something to not be, a destruction spell. Though now, even for a little while, she did regret writing it, but she knew...

It was not in books. Simply one evening... she had thought about the basics of magic creation from the basics book. How high level magic users smith mana and thoughts into one and with many tries, search for the best chants for certain effects.

This was just a spell, or more of a meaningless poem of the feelings she had. The bottomless pit inside her. She wanted to see the real Sofia again. She wanted the amnesia away. This whole thing she found herself now, was ridiculous bullshit and should just...

'Status.

Level 7, 13% -- Mana 100%!!!

Mana pool 5.25/1.25 times the average.** MAXIMUM!'

The snake attacked. It was expecting something to happen, but the woman was just holding her hands at it.

Then it hit and got both hands of the woman in its mouth.

"BECOME..."

As she was a weak sorceress and qualified to use only tier 3 spells, she just had this thought in her.

It was more a bad poem than a spell. She had written her anger down on paper in hopes to get it out of her head. There was no blood in this one. No catalyst. Nothing like that.

Just lines of words like in a poem.

It simply said:

'I feel alone.

I feel so frustrated.

No one is telling me anything at all that could help me to remember.

Just like swimming against a tide.

It just sweeps me away, further away into confusion.

I am just a marionette with no strings.

I am no puppeteer of myself nor I don't feel human anymore.

But, for me to get through to you, it has to be enough.

I am nothing and nothing is enough.'

"... NOTHING!"

'Mana 0.001%'

The snake couldn't understand what was happening. Its body... it was not there. It didn't respond to its will. Its jaws didn't send it a message that it was biting something. Its mouth was dry as desert. And then it lost consciousness. Its eyes turned white. And the snake's body fell on the soil.

Sofia fell on her knees. She couldn't breath. Her body was in shock, such was the demand of this spell she had committed.

A dawn of a new tier nine red spell was here.

To those who would see it, it would become a spell that was called one of the mysticism arts more than a tier spell, but who knows. It would be known as an anomaly among the tier spells.

'M.. mana ... air...'

'PIIP PIIP!

BACKLASH ACTIVATED IN ADVANCE IN 0:06 MINUTES!'

The wind came and the snake was taken with it. Not even bones remained as it turned to dust. Just a glimmering ball of light was left in the air were it had been.

'BACKLASH ACTIVATED IN 0:04 MINUTES!'

'S-soul!'

Sofia reached into the air. To Lisa who could anymore tell what was happening, it looked like miss Rivermore was trying to handshake the air itself. She was now standing twenty spears away. And still, she felt cold.

The light came to Sofia and she closed her hand around it. There was something hard inside her hand. A small crystal had appeared.

'BACKLASH ACTIVATED!'

From Sofia's perspective, the backlash felt like she was thrown into ice cold water and at the same time her whole body was burned alive from the inside.

Lisa hold her ears as miss was screaming. She had never heard such a horrible sound, not even soldiers who got their limbs amputated during the last war were screaming like this. The miss was acting as she was burning on a pyre.

The cold air made Lisa run away until she couldn't anymore see miss. Even then. It was cold. Even then, she felt that death was all around her.

Sofia lost her consciousness and the screaming had ended.

It was winter around Lisa, but there was no snow.

Grey snow was falling from the trees.

Some landed on Lisa's palm.

It was ash.

The forest close to Sofia and Lisa was crying ash.

'Level up!

Level up!

Level up!

Level up!

WARNING! BACKLASH GATHERING MANA!'

The system was smacking Sofia with new information.

But Sofia was already gone to her castle of dreams.