Tbate-The Reincarnates

Battlefield: Part 1

From the point of view of Sam Ayres

Disoriented and furious is how I could describe the mana beasts, they huddled together as everyone tried to get their claws, fangs or paws on me. I constantly used wind magic to create space to swing my sword.

For a while, I limited my mana, using my battle prowess accumulated over several fights to whittle down the never-ending enemies. Killing a beast meant that two or three would replace it, but we had prepared for that. After all, it wasn't a battle I was supposed to win; this was a battle of attrition.

In the chaos of battle, where dozens of sharp teeth and sharp claws attacked you from all directions, there was no time to communicate.

Did time drag or was it that time was flying by? It was impossible to tell, as the wreckage of the battle had long since covered the sky.

Swallowing my impatience, I limited the use of mana to strengthening the body and increasing weapons, while the blade of my sword drew silver arcs in the rubble-strewn lands.

A pack of wolves, each the size of an adult, carefully circled around me. Other mana beasts led the way, obviously afraid of the lightning-clad creatures.

'These look like they have brains,' I thought.

It was obvious from the grim black fur that the wolves had been corrupted, but unlike the other beasts that marched without thinking, these ones remained alert and held their formation.

The leader of the pack, a larger wolf with a more spiky mane and horn, let out a bark, and instantly the other twelve charged me with crackling thunder flashing all around.

Instead of wasting energy dodging and killing them one by one, I launched twelve compressed air spikes. The thunder wolves were skewered mid-leap, giving me time to go after the leader who had managed to dodge my spell.

Baring his teeth as tendrils of electricity gathered around him, the leader charged. I dodged his attack in the air, but the bolts around his claws hit me in the shoulder.

More angry than in pain, I shrugged off the wound that had been blocked by my aura and stabbed at the wolf.

However, the tip of my sword was unable to pierce the wolf's thick, mana-imbued fur.

Drawing mana into my weapon and condensing it into a sharp point, I dashed forward and attacked again. This time, blood was spilled and the thunder wolf struggled to its feet again, but there was no time to celebrate my small victory.

Almost immediately, a flock of bat-winged birds swooped down with their sharp metal beaks aimed at me.

Placing my sword back in my dimensional ring, I sprayed spikes of compressed air into the air. The metal spikes dropped like flies, their wings still twitching from the shock of the impact as I quickly moved on to my next list of endless targets in sight.

Giving my limbs heavy from cutting through the hides and tough exoskeletons of the mana beasts some relief, I started casting more spells.

Clearing the animals around me with a gust of wind, that's when I saw him, a human.

The mage who was most likely an Alacryan or a sympathizer with his ideals, walked between two of the spikes on the beast's back, he was desperately holding on to her life. From this distance, it was easy to tell that this wasn't part of the plan.

A plan began to blossom in my head as I watched the Alacryan mage struggle with what looked like a black stone in his hand. I launched a ball of air at the imposing beast, hitting it in the face. The nearly invisible sphere splashed across his metallic skin leaving no marks, but it did its job.