Chapter 3: ManaTech

A desolate wasteland spread as far as Lyra's eyes could see, and this was so even as her vision and visibility were enhanced even further by the interactive visor that covered her face. The neon-blue screen of her visor displayed a wealth of information, its characters, and readings weaving a tapestry of data detailing the conditions within a five-meter radius of her position.

"Steadfast!" The man ahead of the group warned. A massive creature of an absurd size spread its ghastly maws for his head. The man raised his arm, his gauntlets whirled with an electric blue charge up to his balled fist.

His fist flashed forward quickly into the spread-open mouth of an Elder God. The speed was incredible, the impact even more powerful. The charged power burst into a powerful concentrated shockwave upon connecting with the creature. The Elder God had no room to even utter a sound as its body exploded into dirty fireworks from inside, a subdued shockwave permeating the surroundings of impact.

'That's the power of Knight...' Lyra gulped in awe, completely off guard from a smaller Elder God that jumped her. The systematic screen in her visor blared alarms of dangerous proximity, forcing the distracted girl from her stupor.

Lyra jerked her head and then ducked sharply. The Elder God flew across, barely missing the target. It landed on its six exoskeleton feet, sharply turned, and lashed forward a massive stinger from the back of its body. The limb stretched like rubbery flesh, cutting through the poisoned air, making a sharp path for the crouched girl.

Lyra's alarms blared in her visor once more. Her hands raced past her side, and a sub-transparent blue-bladed dagger appeared in her grasp. She pivoted on her left heel, side-stepping at the final second, and raised her blue dagger as a final defense to the approaching stinger.

The point of the stinger connected with Lyra's raised blade, the trajectory forced to shift and deflect from her actions. Lyra successfully avoided a fatal blow, the force of impact however threw her into momentum and she fell off her feet backwards.

She rolled, tumbled, and forcefully regained her footing. Then Lyra charged forward like a pistol.

Like a whip, the stinger smacked the air and forcefully retracted. Lyra's body suit shimmered with ethereal light, her speed accelerated and animated with an impulse.

She kicked the ground before the retracting stinger could reach her position, covering the distance between her target and her. An influx of readings and characters presented themselves on the screen of her interactive visor, which Lyra quickly dismissed. 

Her dagger positioned, get body speared forward, Lyra ran her blade into the Elder God's throat. Her gauntlets shimmered, her arms pushed forward with power, forcing her dagger deeper, then she dragged the blade downwards, her dagger charged, widened the cut into a barbaric wound.

Pale indigo blood spluttered from the ghastly wound, painting the young lady in morbid colors. The Elder God fell forward, breathing its last, in a crash. The stinger from earlier fell lifelessly to the ground behind her.

She won.

Lyra panted stiffly. Her visor represents the readings judged by her increased heart rate, adrenaline, and light muscle spasm. Once again Lyra ignored all this and leaned forward on one knee.

She repositioned the dagger in her hand and stabbed it into the hard scale-rubber flesh of the corpse and carved its meat out. She did all this sharply, the party was in the middle of an attack after all.

Calming her breathing, Lyra cursed the stuffiness caused by her visor and thrust her gloved hands deep Into the hole she carved. She could feel the uncomfortable warmth of the insides and grimaced. She never liked this part.

She shoved past swollen organs and soon reached a particular one. The Elder God's core. Her stiffened face behind the visor slowly blossomed into half a smile.

"Regroup!" The leader of the group announced. By then the rest of the party members were all done with each of their battles.

The man observed the area, then his members. Corpses of Elder God's scattered around them.

'No casualties.' he sighed internally. He was the only one without a visor helmet, his face remained bare and uncovered in the environment.

After a short moment of observation, he took small steps forward and announced his first order:

"Dress the corpses and retrieve their cores and other valuables then burn the rest. Elder Gods release a certain amount of "Mana" radiation into the air at death only their kinds can perceive; if we aren't quick enough we'll be in for another ambush."

The members nodded, proving they understood. The Magic Knight whose name was John couldn't see the faces of his group through the visor helmets that covered their entire heads, but he could very well feel the apprehension at his words.

"We're still a couple of days more from the Den. Get it done in five minutes."

.

.

.

.

A Den, as the name referred, was a 'habitat', more accurately a territory of a concentrated group of Elder Gods. Elder Gods were sub-mindless beings of hunger and pure malevolent carnage; all they desired was to wreak destruction and feast mindlessly, even cannibalism wasn't an untouchable aspect to these creatures. If anything, it was a primary way of feeding for the race.

Since the first invasion and for years, humanity...what was left of it... had acquired valuable and substantial knowledge about this extraterrestrial species. They fed on a certain kind of radiation, toxic to man, which was later discovered to be "Mana".

"Mana" was a prime source of energy capable of fueling long-time civilizations, but mankind, however, no matter how much they tried and experimented, could never directly interact with this mystical energy. They could only find ways of harnessing the power through technological advancement.

And this was especially useful, and lethal, in warfare. As mundane weapons, even humanity's most priced nukes, couldn't force a dent against the tough hides of Elder God. They had to research and discover other methods of fighting back.

Then gears and weapons of "Mana" were created to fight back. 

As the saying goes; fight fire...with fire.

Mankind didn't stop there.

"Mana" Radiation was severely toxic to humans, and an abundance of that energy was spread throughout the Earth from the spatial rifts that tore the skies and reality. With each Dimensional Rift or Gates, Earth's Mana radiation only became more concentrated, rendering a vast amount of the planet uninhabitable. 

This also means "Mana" was now atmospheric, hence one of the reasons why the Hunting party wore interactive helmets and visors and full body suits to shield their skin and faces.

With an abundance of this energy, technological advancement took a step further. No, multiple steps. Solar energy was news of a long-forgotten past now... literally. And a new technological age and Era began.

"ManaTech." Lyra thought wistfully as she stared at a certain meter reading on her system interface reflecting against the visor.

...

[ ⟨ Strength: +20 ⟩

 ⟨ Speed: +20 ⟩

 ⟨Defense: +20 ⟩

 ⟨Gear Durability: 75/100⟩

 ⟨Mana Capacity: 60/100⟩ 

 ⟨....⟩ ]

...

Her gaze lingered on the 'Mana Capacity' meter.

She sighed.

'It'll hold for the rest of the hunt.... probably. Fuck, I'm going to be dead weight.'

It had been three days since their first ambush, the party had finally arrived at the Den.

***

5 chapters till MC's introduction.

Add to collections to see what happens next.

Ps. This is not a system novel. Kind of