A Tale of One Deviant (Book One)

Chapter 35: To The Death, Surprisingly

"[Particle Restructure]!" I yelled out, changing the composition of the icicle from solid water into liquid. Instead of being hit and pinned to the ground in a matter of seconds, bloody and probably dead, I was hit by many liters of water and left soaking wet. The cobblestones shared my fate and got the first cleaning they had had in a very long time as the water splashed around. My clothes, made of mana, were undisturbed.

     Is Kitri trying to kill me? Did he really hate me and loath having me around or something? He just didn't want to say it?

     No, he looked so happy earlier. How could he hate me when this is only the second time we've ever met each other?

     Actually...I've hated a lot of people on only the first minute of meeting, so I can understand.

     More icicles came flying down in a row from one direction, moving from in front of me to my back and attracted to my body while defying gravity as my assailant flew by, completely hidden in the black clouds that had formed overhead. They each tried their hardest to impale me, but I applied [Body Enhancement] at just the right moment and took off at the speed of sound towards where Kitri had backed away before. He no longer occupied that part of the forest so I sought for refuge in it.

     The branches seemed to become thicker since we had first come flying through in search of the arena, everything about the forest tense and on edge with the start of the battle. My features became hard as I cast more spells, trying to conserve my mana since it seemed as if I would be in for the long run.

     In my head I said all of their names, not aloud. I only said them at all because I wanted to use them with a clear image before I started casting them without any thoughts; here, I knew I couldn't afford to mess up or my happy spriggan friend would have a death on his hands, on this day. I could tell, he was not kidding when he said he wouldn't hold back.

     When he had the job of a coroner for monsters, it made one wonder how strong you had to be to take care of the strongest ones left over that decided not to die.

     Since I couldn't use Vampire or what I thought to be Dragon senses, I decided to replace those traits with spells as substitutes.

     [Camouflage]...minus 15 MPs.

     My body and my clothes blended into the background of the tree I stood in, brown and green in the perfect shades as I made myself hard to spot. I was little, so it wasn't too hard.

     [Invisibility]...minus 23 MPs since I didn't want my body to seem like an unnatural protrusion on the already twisted trees. It could never hurt.

     [Skin Harden]...minus 35 MPs.

     If any attacks did get through, I would let them glance off my skin rather than having to block it entirely. I didn't like the idea of barriers too much, since it would seem like I rely on them.

     What I liked to think of as the advanced version of [Presence Erase], [Existence Negation]...minus 20 MPs.

     [Mind Sharpen]...minus 40 MPs.

     [Clear Sight]...minus 10 MPs.

     [Hearing Enhance]...minus 10 MPs.

     [Apathy]...minus 5 MPs. My heartbeat needed to shut up and calm down.

     I doled out a fair amount of points to each spell to make sure they worked effectively, yet didn't consume too much even after the amount of mana I used to even activate it.

     And so, to wait.

     Kitri was around here somewhere, I knew it with the way the trees rustled unnaturally without wind or outside elements affecting this place. There was no blood-thirst, only an intense feeling of searching for prey.