Chapter 184: Biting Cold
The cold hits me first. My breath mists in the air. The cloying ice sticks to my skin, digging into the raw parts where I pulled it off. With a small sigh, I cast a healing spell, making my skin knit over again. It takes barely a fraction of the mana I now have in my vessel. I even overfeed it mana, just to make sure it doesn’t have to draw from my body as much.
Bit by bit, my efficiency is getting better. It costs more mana, sure, but I don’t feel as hungry. It becomes less invasive. Which is good, since I put about half my mana into regrowing my arm, trying yet again to make it work. My skin shifts slightly, and I feel my bone stretch out a bit further, but it’s not yet enough. Not yet.
To deal with the hunger, I snack on another one of Richard’s cereal bars as the others come through, one by one. Richard is hit the hardest by the cold, instantly shivering and curling up. I can see her consume mana to fuel some kind of internal reaction, though, and soon, a faint shimmer of heat bubbles form her, faintly melting the snow around her feet. Hm.
Opal, for their part, quickly squints their eyes, drawing their cloak tighter. Inu dismisses the metal armor she so often wears; it’d get too cold to be comfortable. Only when Thatch comes through do his eyes widen.
I tilt my head, watching as he moves. A ghostly form envelops his own, his form kind of similar to a wulven. With a single step he sends a cascade of snow into the air, stepping right to me, and stabbing his claws downwards.
Hm.
Watching, I see the snow slowly turn a faint shade of red. Thatch grunts, drawing his hand back up, and skewered on his ethereal claws, there is a faintly twitching, white… thing. It’s somewhere between a shark and a lynx, and, frankly, quite cute. Sadly, it also was about to bite my leg off, its mouth full of multiple rows of sharp teeth.
[Deconstruction] comes alive, and I fling it into the corpse. Instantly, it bursts apart as my skill half disintegrates the thing, looking for its vessel. Two heartbeats pass until I find it, and in that time, Thatch spears yet another one of them out of the ground.
Warily, I focus. Time seems to slow down, just a little as I take its body apart. Its vessel cracks, already being consumed by the environmental mana, thicker here than before. The mana leaks from it - and then I pull it apart. Slowly, I lick my lips, tasting the remnant of its abilities on that shadow I absorbed.
And then, I scan for them.
[Observation 22 > 23]
“Sylves,” I say. “Air spears. Here, there and there,” I say, pointing at the snow.
The faerie smiles happily, instantly manifesting lances of compressed air, and firing them off with soft sounds of wind. This time, the shark-lynxes scream. Thin holes in the snow slowly turn red, and Thatch pounces on another one, as Trey begins to hover into the air, his eyes wide.
One of the sharks dodges.
A set of jaws closes around Jean’s ankle, and the boy screams. Instantly, I deploy [Suppression] - on the thing’s jaw, letting him shake it loose, and on the boy’s pain. Then, I stitch him back up. Investing more mana, I spread my field wide, slowing down all the snowsharks, as I decide to call them for now.
They’re adorable, and I truly do feel bad for them. Well, “feel bad” is somewhat generous. I think that by all reasonable standards, it’s a shame that they have to die when I could pet their heads. But while I heal Jean, Opal begins to zip around, striking them down. There’s two more bites, one on Isabelle, and one on Richard.
Our little hiy’ht very quickly takes revenge, though. Bite for bite, I suppose. Once we dispatch a dozen of the biters, Thatch takes another look around, then gives us the all clear. I take another deep breath, feeling the icy air. It smells fresh, faintly of pine and nothing else. Very pleasant, altogether.
There is the fact that I can already feel ice crystals in my hair. But I don’t truly mind it. I do see Trey, especially, shiver, though. Very softly, I tilt my head, then walk over. “Are you cold?” I ask.
He nods shakily, already shivering. With a small gesture, I shrug off my own cloak, Kuro. Usually, it’d be easier to give him one of the ones I enchanted, with warming features, but this one should work, too. He stares at me with big eyes, as I drape it around him, even as the shadow-critter tries to cling to me.
“Kuro,” I ask politely, and their wriggling stops for a moment. “Trey here is cold. I cannot protect him from that. It would help me a lot if you did, okay?”
[The Creeping Darkness cheers on its avatar in this pivotal role!]
For a moment more, Kuro pauses, then quietly purrs for a second, as if pleased to play a pivotal role. I smile just a little, patting the hood to show Kuro some affection. Trey ends up leaning into it, seemingly happy. What a strange little guy.
Then, I get up again, now a lot colder. The frigid air bites at my skin. “Let’s go,” I say out loud, and begin walking, snow crunching underneath my boots.
“Y’know, this isn’t how I thought I’d step on Snow,” Opal says with a grin.
“What were you expecting?” I ask them, innocently.
At that, they choke on the words, blushing. “I- uh. I mean… I-” they pause, then scratch the back of their head with a loud laugh. “I’m gonna go scout ahead, Snow.”
With a soft noise, they [Blink] away, leaving Sylves to snicker at their misery. Thatch joins me at the front of the group, and Inu rounds out the back - to see if she notices our pursuers enter the floor. Sylves floats above us, jumping and floating between branches on the enormous pines.
And as we walk, Richard joins me. “You seem cold,” she says.
“I am,” I reply. Then I look at my skin and wonder. If Biochanter is one of my job offerings, then that means I know they exist. I’ve even been toying with them, doing mini-engravings of healing things. Drawing them on Sylves, all the way back on the first floor. In my own blood even. A small smile spreads on my lips. “But I’m working on it.”
Richard smiles. “Oh? I was going to ask if you required some of my fire, but if you don’t…”
Softly, I shake my head. “See if Isabelle, Anna or Bofoy do. I’ll be okay.”
“Your heart stat is probably lower than theirs,” she notes.
I laugh a little at that, and nod. “It probably is. All the more important that I look out for myself.” She seems satisfied at that, giving me a small nod and hanging back a bit again.
Then, as we walk, I begin to solidify some mana, crystallizing it in my body. Last time, I gave my brain a laceration when I tried this. I have also learned that mana can somewhat explode. And I have so much of it that it’s really hard to control.
But I’m only using it on my hand! So, really, what’s the worst that can happen? Surely nothing will go wrong.
Surely.
Chapter 185: Blizzard
So, one of us may have lost a finger.
And maybe, the blood from that lost digit, might, perhaps, have attracted some snowsharks.
Of course, it would be rude to point fingers. So I will not name the culprit who is at fault for this. My participation in the fight amounted to mostly pointing at things for Sylves to shoot at. Which I could do!
After all, I lost my pinky. Ah, I mean, one of us lost their pinky. It could be anyone.
Regardless, I have solved the cold problem. Runes softly glow underneath my skin - where my solid mana creates little hollows for the magic to activate within. The gaps are tiny, and it would have been easiest to just carve them into my skin, but I’m wearing a long-sleeve and I really don’t want to get it bloody.
So, instead, I created the runes under my skin. It hurt, and it was messy, and I blew up one of my fingers, but now, my extremities all have heating runes applied to them, keeping the blood and tissue warm. Obviously it’s far better to lose a finger through a mana-instability explosion than through frostbite, right?
Right.
[Job up! Core Controller 9 > 11]
[Inscription 24 > 25]
Now, the levels are very welcome, since making the runes and the tinkering took a lot of mana. About half my vessel, in fact. Maybe using so much mana was what destabilised it and made my finger explode? Probably.
Still, I’m glad it was enough to push [Inscription] over the second threshold - and give me enough job mastery to get another essence package. Already, I can feel it flowing into my head. Ways of enhancing cores more, ways of using their principles in other ways, and once again, it leaves me feeling a little inadequate.
As usual, when I learn. I want more. Every time I get better, it makes everything I’d been using feel so inefficient. Even my [Suppression] field! With this new essence on cores, I know I can make it better. In fact, I could use [Selection]’s targeting mechanisms to weave its strands into pseudo-core nodes and…
I drift off, and Thatch stabs his claws in the snow next to me. I look at him, and he gives me an effortless smile and a shrug. “Shark was about to chew off your foot,” he says.
“Right, thanks,” I reply calmly, bringing a bit more of my focus to [Observation] while tinkering with my skills in the background. As we walk, my suppression loops grow more advanced, a little more efficient, and I grow stronger. Bit by bit.
- - -
“Spotted something!” Sylves yells from above us. Inu nods eagerly, wanting us to move faster for a while. Raven and his posse entered the floor a bit ago and are gaining on us, so we hurry. Trey is still struggling, even with Kuro to warm him up, and us regularly “feeding” snowsharks to him. He is level 14 by now, but that still put him below even me in his physical stats.
When I look where our faerie is pointing, I do also see something in the distance. It’s… a tree. A very, very tall tree, in fact, with leaves an icy white-blue. She spotted it first from above the canopy, flying high - though she couldn’t stay up there for long. The canopy had giant birds that would swoop down to try and take a bite out of her.
“That must be the exit, right?” Anna asks.
“Landmarks usually indicate the way up,” Bofoy provides with a small shrug, their fur rustling at the motion. “I’d wager this is as good a bet as any.”
I nod, then turn to Inu. “Can you call Opal back?” I ask. “They’re probably going to get lost soon, otherwise.”
She giggles for a moment, then nods. I feel a bit of mana pulse out from her with the telltale signs of [Empathy], and a moment later, Opal appears at her side. Their sword is bloody, and their cloak is a little torn. The heating runes on it flare, and Opal looks a bit pale from frost. Yet, the smile on their face is unwavering. “Yo,” they greet. “So did you know there are bigger things than the sharks out there. Cuz I learned.”
“Like what?” I ask, curiously.
Then, there’s an impact in the snow behind us, and Inu flinches softly. “Me,” Coldscar announces cooly.
- - -
We run, of course. Still, I tilt my head when the scithian comes crashing from the sky, and the frost explodes around him. This is troublesome. My shadow-mask is currently absent, so I do the best I can manage - manifest a solid sphere of blue mana around my head, like a fishbowl.
“You went to an ice floor while being hunted by me?” Coldscar sneers. “Come on, what were you expecting?”
“For you to be a fucking moron,” Opal mocks with a grin. “Come on. You, on your own, against all of us? How’s that gonna go, Coldy?”
Their voices sound dull and muted through my fishbowl-hat. I have to use [Observation] to even get a sense of what’s going on around me, and Coldscar is almost invisible. I can see now why Inu failed to notice him getting close, properly. He’s almost made of snow, melting into it, and I can’t even properly keep track of him while knowing he’s here.
Why did he announce himself with an entrance, though? If we take him out, we’ll bring the Ire down on the rest of their team. But despite that, I feel a shiver crawl up my spine. The air feels even colder. In fact, I can feel ice beginning to grow along my remaining four fingers. Well, at least I have less to lose than the rest of our team.
“Trey!” Anna yells for the kid. I feel more than see her dashing for the kid, quickly shielding him with her body as more ice crashes over us and the temperatures drop. And drop, and drop. Hm. How troublesome.
“Don’t bother,” Coldscar says, shaking his head. “There’s simply a price to pay for crossing me. And that price must be paid. It is as simple as that.”
And at that, I feel a change. Richard. Her mana bubbles upwards, and I notice that she has a lot of it.
Like, wow.
Holy shit.
The little hiy’ht erupts into a bonfire of mana, a roaring tempest, and I’m reminded for the first time that her body runs on heat. And her class is an eater. She can store things, but if she chooses to just devour them… is literally everything turned into thermal energy, I wonder?
Flames flow out from her unendingly, and her figure turns into a small volcano in this frozen landscape. The hissing sound of snow melting spreads out from her, in a ring that soon approaches me, and soaks my shoes. Then, her flames course forward, right at Coldscar.
But the old scithian just frowns, walking towards us as we continue to run and gain distance. He’s fast, gliding across the snow, his body darting forward with the flakes. To my mana-sight it almost looks like he’s coming apart, and then recombining-
Oh, right in front of me.
Mana spills out from me in a torrent, and [Selection] latches on to him, whispering his position to me. I weigh him down, suppressing his movements, pushing down on him with far more force than ever before. My own mana burns its way through me, and for a brief moment, the runes in my arms overload.
And the snow around me slows.
Somehow, Coldscar distributes my debuff across not just himself but a whole blizzard. Unless, of course…
The blow crashes into me, even as I bring up my arm to block. A patch of ice spreads on me as I’m sent flying, tumbling through the snow, my fishbowl-helmet cracking. Kuro spreads out, darkness cutting through the white, but I grit my teeth.
“He’s the entire storm!” I yell, my voice muffled by the sphere around my head. “He can make bodies from the snowflakes!”
Even as I say so, some more of the falling snow touches the patch of ice on my arm, and it spreads. Tendrils of cold creep under my skin, sucking the heat coursing through me away. I hiss, feeling my blood cool and my flesh grow numb. With my warning, though, Coldscar drops all pretense of being locked to one body.
Three simulacrums rise from the ice, targeting Jean, Anna and Bofoy. Opal and Inu block two of them, authorities spilling out and crashing into each other. I pour more mana through me, heating the runes, dispelling the cold as my flesh sizzles around them. Mana pours out of me, and it spreads through my entire field.
[Suppression 30 > 31]
I feel the vastness of the storm resist this change, distributing it into places where Coldscar isn’t actually at, but still bear with it. Sylves begins to call up a storm of her own, wind carving through the snow and tossing the flakes aside - until all at once, the simulacrums that targeted us fall apart into piles of white.
Instead, they materialize around her. The gang-leader stares at her with that same everpresent frown on his three faces. I see Sylves’ vicious smile fade for a moment. “Well, that’s just unfair,” she says, quietly, before the blows land.
Despite slowing them down as much as possible, the faerie is sent flying, frost creeping across her. Ice spreads all over her skin, and I hear Thatch roar. Anger bubbles from him, crawling across his skin, coating him in layers upon layers of monstrous muscle and fur. There’s a deep growl as he pounced on the snowy manifestations of Coldscar.
Jean runs for Sylves, as does Richard. The hiy’ht arrives far earlier, the snow melting around her as more fire spills out, keeping the storm at bay. Even the ice on Sylves thaws slightly from her influence, letting me get to her side. I feel the heat brush up against me, too hot, but I ignore it. Instead, I flood Sylves with healing, and her eyes shoot open as she gasps for air.
A half-second later, she sees me, then grits her teeth, and raises in the sky. The winds around her roar. Inu and Opal dash for more facsimiles, vanishing. Coldscar keeps teleporting, but Opal remains right on their heel, and Inu somehow locks one of the apparitions down with her authority.
A heartbeat passes, then another, as Sylves and Richard work together. Wind catches fire, and the storm hisses as some of the snow melts away, the cold receding faintly. Our weaker members fight to reach this haven of heat, struggling through the blizzard while Coldscar laughs cruelly.
“It will not be enough,” he says. “You will never be enough.”
At that, I look at Sylves. “Hey,” I say. “Bet you half my mana that you won’t flick my forehead.”
She grins, viciously, and nods. “Accepted.”
Chapter 186: Fighting up the Trunk
I feel Sylves’ authority wrap around me, a binding chain that vanishes a moment later, when her finger crashes against me. Instantly, the bargain gets resolved. And my mana spills out.
The winds rise. They pick up fire. And then they rise some more.
Heat streams along the gusts of wind, the magical flames fed plenty of Oxygen. They evaporate the water from the grass underneath, and then that, too, catches fire. I see some of the pines begin to smoke, the ice turning to vapour in seconds. I laugh, even as the fire brushed my skin, and everyone else.
[Level Up! 86 > 87]
My mantle comes into being, and shields me from the roughest parts. I wrap myself in [Suppression], weakening the heat, until it feels like I’m in an oven instead of the centre of a roaring bonfire. I hear nothing over the screaming fire and wind, and the mana is so dense I can hardly see through it with [Observation].
Smoke and heat consume the entire world for a dozen seconds -then they burn themselves out. By the end of it, Coldscar’s gone. Inu and Opal are covered in tiny bits of frostbite, and Thatch has half his skin cracked and flaking. Trey’s teeth are clattering, and Kuro hangs around his shoulders defeatedly.
But the blizzard around us has stopped. And, even hurt, we keep running towards the tree. And, with Coldscar beaten away for a moment, I can dispel the stupid fishbowl around my head. Even though it was really, really funny. “Alright,” I say out loud, then cough a bit from the remaining smoke and giggle. “Let’s book it.”
- - -
The tree is even taller from up close. The weather around us has intensified, but Coldscar doesn’t come back. Richard shivers occasionally, and I let her eat spheres made from solid mana, to feed the flames a little. Sylves, too, looks shaken. A bit of ice still clings to all of us, stubbornly refusing to disappear.
Coldscar’s power really is vicious. I can feel it trying to burrow into me, barely kept at bay by a boundary of my own mana and heating runes under my skin.
[Core Controller 11 > 12]
Even after all of that, I still have mana to spare. My vessel generates it almost endlessly, and is already halfway filled again. I have so much to play around with that even after spending so much, I’m still experimenting. Improving my skills as we walk on, striving to be as efficient as I can, and preparing.
Runes grow underneath my skin, nascent ones I don’t activate. Just in case. The cold is growing stronger as we walk further, but nothing like when we fought Coldscar. Trey sticks close to Richard and slowly warms up.
I focus my eyes on the gigantic tree in front of us. “So, does anyone else see a door?” I ask.
Thatch shakes his head. “No, but it is hollow-”
“Oh I see a door alright,” Opal says with a smug grin. I tilt my head, thinking about their lack of sensory abilities for about half a second before it clicks. My eyes widen in suspicion, and they blink forward. Then, their sword stabs into the thick bark, carving a deep scar into it, far deeper than it has any right to be.
Space itself hums around their sword, screeching softly when they carve through the wood. Another five slices and a brutal kick, and a rectangular sheet of bark falls inwards. Instantly, warm air hits my face, and I take another deep breath.
“They’re close,” Inu whispers, then hurries us inside. Trey shivers and stumbles as he walks, his shoes soaked through with icy wetness. Anny grits her teeth, cloaked and hidden, while Bofoy’s fur is covered in a layer of ice. Even Isabelle, the most resilient out of them, is shivering by this point.
I wonder if my skin would already be dying without my heating runes. Something to keep in mind.
The inside of the tree is a gigantic, open hall of wood. Its walls are those of the tree itself, growing upwards almost endlessly. Vines stretch along the walls, and long, flat branches for a staircase up the side of the tree. Mana pulses through the ground beneath me, and it feels almost… alive.
I lock eyes with Sylves, and she grins, then nods. A small shiver runs up my back, even as the faerie floats upwards. “Come on!” she calls. “Move!”
With her words, we start our best impression of a mad dash up the walls. But when we’re only about halfway, I hear the telltale fluttering of dark wings. Looking down, I see the light and snow spill in from the doorway Opal carved - Raven and their posse standing inside. The gang boss fixes a dark gaze upon us and I grimace, summoning my lovely fishbowl again.
Forced to rely on [Observation], I let the pulses of mana guide my feet up and up the stairs. Running as fast as is reasonable - until black feathers shoot our way. Some of them are heading right for Trey.
With a soft sigh, I decide then. To do the right thing once more.
With a deep breath, I launch my full combo. [Observation] to find the feathers. Then, [Selection] latches onto them. [Suppression] flows along those tethers, slowing them, weakening them, turning them fragile. And then, finally, [Deconstruction].
Two dozen midnight feathers crumble to dust in the air before me. Mana burns its way through me, carving channels through my muscles. I hiss in pain, but my spell takes hold, and Raven’s attack crumbles apart. And I hear a surprised and annoyed hum from them.
“Who in the seven hells are you even, fishbowl?” they hiss at me, their hackles rising.
I smile in my fishbowl, refusing to give an answer. Instead, I draw upon more and more mana, summoning a hail of needles around me, as a tether slowly presses forward. It’s sneaky, hidden by [Obfuscation] and the mana that spreads.
Needles crash into feathers. Cleaver rampages up the stairs, only to be torn into by Thatch. Coldscar huddles behind Raven, the man’s skin covered in criss-crossing burns. Opal teleports down, their sword humming through the air at the zoof. Inu stands in front of me when the old woman raises her cane, a ray of light ricocheting off her armor and exploding against the bark, and Sylves shoots arrows at Dove again, dodging his flying knives.
Raven growls, their dark cloak spreading wide, stygian wings beating once, then twice as they rise into the air. “No matter,” they hum. “I will carve Kuro apart!”
With a vicious motion, they shoot towards Trey again, currently wearing my mantle. Ah. How troublesome.
My tether latches on. [Selection] finds Raven, and I smile, softly. They’re a rogue. Letting me find them so easily was their first mistake. I raise my remaining arm, my missing finger still bleeding faintly, a layer of frost covering it, and [Deconstruction] rips out of me.
It’s a violent, brutalist version of the spell. There’s at least three skills that Raven is activating, and I aim for all of them at once. My spell slams into them with such violence that their feather-mantle twists in on itself, one of their wings breaking and shredding, sending them into a spiral.
Broken bits of mana fill my vessel, and I smile gently. A blink later, I feel Raven split apart into a hundred little presences, and a flock of Ravens spreads through the open chamber. Explosions surround me, and I duck underneath a violent swing from cleaver. A dark feather shoots through my shoulder a moment later, leaving a clean hole, gushing blood.
I smile faintly.
Adrenaline courses through my veins alongside the pain. My head is covered by a stupid fishbowl, but once again, life has become so simple. No hiding, no waiting, no more posturing. Just gotta win.
In a single heartbeat, I split my mind. The attunement loop on my vessel loosens. I’m already down to a third of my mana, but it’s still enough to kill me outright. I grin as the magical power pours from me, and disable the cruncher. My bones turn lighter, and I breathe easier.
Ravens charge at me like bullets, their beaks seeking my flesh, and my needles form around me as a swarm of bees. Long, thin mana spins around me, gaining speed, whirling through the air, and the ravens meet them in a flurry of violence. Blood gushes from wings, feathers clatter to the ground, claws and beaks tear at my skin.
Crimson liquid spills from my veins, watering the wood beneath me. I can feel the ancient tree groan as warm red feeds it. But I don’t stop. [Selection] is still active - and I pour a torrent of mana down that way, [Suppressing] Raven.
The flock slows. Their little wings weaken, and my needles tear through them. Instantly, the leader of Aviary changes tactics. The swarm pulls away from me, tearing upwards, towards Trey, Anna, Jean, Isabelle, and Bofoy.
Ah. Not so simple, after all. Tragic.
I sprint up the stairs as fast as my feet will carry me, the tower quivering around me. Ravens tear at me as I move, beaks digging little holes all across me. It hurts, but I don’t slow, not even for a moment. My [Suppression] field intensifies, little knots forming alongside it as I latch onto the ravens, weakening them until their wings don’t beat and they fall from the sky.
[Class up! Vesselsmith 11 > 12]
More mana pours into me from the sudden level. I smile happily, intensifying my efforts. A dark bird flies at Trey, and Anna steps forward. It slows, and the girl grimaces as she slashes out with a shortsword, cleaving off the bird’s wing, and making it explode into a puff of inanimate feathers.
And then, Thatch crashes into me, tossed by clever. Both of us sprawl out on the branch, and again, my fishbowl-helmet cracks. A moment later, my bestial friend is up, claws digging into the wood as he races down the side of the wall. I smile, and get up myself, using small motions. Efficiently.
Raven’s authority wraps itself around me like chains of barbed wire. It’s cold and cutting and horrible. I see it touch on the others, running ahead, slowing them down, and I see how Kuro boils against them, shadows spreading out and crawling outwards. What a loyal critter. Go get ‘em.
My own movements remain small. Efficient. I’m wrapped in barbed wire, but it’s superficial. A wrap.
I don’t move my arms. I don’t even move my legs. I stand still as a statue, my face impassive, calm, underneath that bowl. And Raven sneers at me. “That’s right, bitch. Crawl back into whatever hole you crawled out of. Don’t get between me and Kuro - that is personal!” they demand, their swarm flocking upwards.
But I’m not done. No, I’m far from done.
[Selection 28 > 29]
Tethers sprout from me like blossoming flowers. I fully drop my attunement loop, finally unsealing what remains of my mana. It almost kills me. Blood pours from my eyes, filling the fishbowl, and I still smile.
Mana turns solid, into pale-blue needles. Then, one after another, the swarm turns grey. One, two, half a dozen, two dozen… the brilliant blue of my solid mana is stained as I imbue them. [Deconstruction] and [Suppression] weave themselves into my constructs.
Already, the needles start falling apart. But despite that, they buzz with power. And all at once, I focus.
[Job up! Core Controller 12 > 13]
My job is meant to be one that deals with complex mana structures and lattices. That allows me to modify enchantments, to create mana-storage devices and integrate them properly. Well, right now, I’m not doing that. Instead, I’m using it to fuck with [Selection].
[Selection 29 > 30]
Each tether suddenly twists in on itself. Instead of connecting me to something else, I sever that connection - and tie it to my floating needles. I create self-sufficient systems. Needles that are connected to some of Raven’s many bodies. And I smile, happily, when it works. My will leads them on much more easily, and my swarm of needles crashes forward.
“Eat anti-magic, Raven,” I whisper to myself.
With just a little bit of bleeding from my eyes, I’ve turned my needles homing.