Morning was approaching again, another night spent alone working on my aura. I tried anything that came to mind. Anything.
Pure compression, rotation, multiple focused compression points, transforming it into a stream and making it flow just under my skin, distributing it unevenly, thinning it over my upper body and focusing it in my legs so I could at least touch someone with my arms without giving them a heart attack. I tried everything.
Quinn gave me an idea for creating something he called a stand. I didn’t know why, but the concept had merit, if not for the absurd amount of aura and control it required. It made things even worse than before.
The idea was to create a humanoid figure, like a version of myself made entirely of aura. It would be me, but capable of acting independently, controllable yet able to react on its own if needed, like a program. I thought it was possible, surely there was a skill for something like this, but after trying, I managed only to condense a ton of aura into the blurry humanoid shape tethered to me by my skill, while my remaining aura became several times harder to control.
Splitting my focus like that was not an advantage, so I discarded the idea, much to Quinn’s dismay for some reason.
But I found something that worked, more or less.
I manifested my aura into a thin barrier and used it to compress the remaining aura inside me. The feeling was akin to an overly full stomach, except instead of affecting me physically, it made my more magical senses feel sick in a way that was hard to describe.
But like this, I apparently looked like a man in black and white stepping out of an old TV, or at least that’s what the others said.
Still, the technique was useless. I managed to decrease the area my aura covered even further. Now it circled me with only a couple feet of range, little compared to the two-plus yards from a few days ago, but now it was so compressed that further improvements would be difficult.
What the fuck happened to me?
Between this and my growing irritation at my curse not letting me off the hook, I was starting to become both depressed and furious beyond belief.
I had to find a solution soon. I hoped Adrian was willing to disclose the location of the Tyrant of Aaranor, otherwise I was screwed. Fuck, I didn’t think that through when I pushed those three to betray us. Honestly, it wouldn’t have affected me that much if that fuckface hadn’t asked for help as if it were his fucking right.
I took a breath to calm myself.
What to do, what to do…
I could kill them.
That’s it. I had no idea how the curse would punish me for that, but it was a possibility. It would save me… or condemn me.
Probably condemn me.
I sighed.
I had just managed to reclaim my flight capabilities. It was difficult, but I could fly again if I used the barrier compression method. Why that was required for me to lift off, I had no idea, but regardless, not even flying around was enough to lift my mood.
I talked with Rhea about it, and she tried to come up with some requests, something to redirect the curse’s focus from the people I left behind to other matters, but it didn’t work. No, it only exacerbated the issue.
I hadn’t slept a wink, trying to think of a solution, but the only thing that came to mind now was to hurry up.
By tonight we would be in the new safe zone.
I really hoped I could get the direction of the king. I even subjected myself to a ton of curses to increase my resistance and try to force my trait to evolve again, but progress was slow, and excruciating.
The curses together with my own were too much to bear. The sheer power of the resonance would have been enough to unmake the me from before the serpent fight. Right now I could feel my resistance growing, but not fast enough. Maybe if I had a couple of weeks to dedicate to this it would be feasible, but in this condition?
Impossible.
I would use the trait strengthening token if needed, but first I would wait another day at least. Or until I managed to talk with Adrian.
We disbanded camp and trudged on.
I had to admit that the group was doing exceptionally well.
I implanted another curse in everyone. Veiled Marionette was not going to work with two or more curses at the same time. No, the two were somehow merging together. The first one whispered for everyone to cooperate, while the new one made them want to improve.
I had the feeling we’d need it.
In the end the two curses would become one, possibly stronger than before, and I even used some aura tethers to subtly infuse the curses with more power, though not in everyone, only the weaker ones, to avoid getting discovered.
It was working.
I could feel the curses interacting and mutating, slowly becoming one.
We’d see what happened later on.
For now, Jack was dealing with a stupidly fast monstrosity of a mosquito.
Yeah, that’s right.
We had been blessedly free of the little shits in this forest. Not once had anyone suffered even a single bite.
And we came to understand why.
Because the mosquitoes here were the size of house cats.
The thing darted in, trying to pierce through the shield with its proboscis. The clank was followed by a grating sound as the mosquito opened it to try and saw through the shield with one of its stylets.
Jack tried to stab the thing with his spear while defending, but it darted away too fast for him to reach.
“Fucking hell! Can someone please swat away this bastard?! I can’t hit it!”
As it came back to strike at him, his shield lit up and he bashed it. The mosquito got pushed back, but no damage was done to it. From the back, though, Lena fired a beam that managed to clip one of its wings, sending it careening toward the ground.
At that point Jack blurred forward in a burst of speed. The mosquito tried to sting him again, but he deflected it, and finally his spear struck true, nearly severing it in half.
Not yet dead, he stomped it into mush with an armored boot.
“Bleagh, I feel like vomiting…” he complained, trying to clean his boot on the grass.
“You’re not the only one,” muttered Jerome beside him.
“Lena, great assist, but it should have been Anthony’s role to support Jack. Let’s try to focus, folks! This is not going to be easy from now on, so keep your eyes out and watch the sky for threats too.” Tom said.
We were finally out of the forest.
Before us stretched a vast expanse of grass sloping gently downhill, multiple ponds and small lakes dotting the landscape. It would have been an idyllic view if I couldn’t see thousands of various giant insects flitting around over the water.
The map had clearly indicated mosquitoes. It was drawn right on it.
But I hadn’t really thought they would be so big.
Or so many.
In hindsight, it should have been obvious.
All the people who bought insect repellent were cursing the waste of points.
“Come on, we don’t have time to waste, and those things won’t kill themselves. Into formation. I’ll deal with any that get too close before they hit anyone, but give it your all. This will be good training.” I told the group.
I received mixed responses. Most were worried by the creatures, but some were excited.
“Finally I can shoot without worrying about a forest fire!” said Mark. The mage had been with us since the beginning, but hadn’t managed to shine because of how dangerous his skills were to everyone around him. Even I didn’t have a counter to a forest fire. The only thing I could do in such a case was run.
“Yeah! Me too! I can shoot them, right Dad?” asked Kyle.
The child was well protected in the middle of the formation, near me. I had to reassure Frederick multiple times that I wouldn’t let any harm come to his son as he took position on the frontline.
The man in question turned back and looked first at me.
Honestly, I didn’t see why not.
The boy had the skills, and if he didn’t learn while there were healers and multiple people protecting him, he would try by himself later and possibly get injured or killed.
So I gave my consent.
“Kyle, can you tell me what skill you have for shooting at them?” I asked.
The boy looked at me with sparkling eyes before replying.
“I just evolved it! Now it’s called Freezing Ray! But that’s just for slowing the monsters down, then I have another that wou—”
“I think it’s better if you stick to just that one, Kyle,” said Frederick, looking at his son with worry.
“Bu-but Dad! I want to level up too!”
“Kyle, we talked about it already. Don’t act spoiled, and remember what I said.”
The child looked chastised enough.
I could understand it, though. The urge to try your skills, to improve.
I decided to play the cool uncle this time.
“Let’s do this. For today, shoot any mosquito that comes from our right. You’ll be responsible together with Lena for this sector, so we’re counting on you to defend us. If I see that you’re good enough and don’t shoot any of us,” I said while raising a finger, “then we can talk about training you for something more. But only if your father agrees.”
Frederick looked at me, then nodded.
“That’s acceptable. But if you even graze anyone that is not a monster, you won’t participate again until I deem it fit. Was I clear?”
“Yes, Dad!”
I looked at the boy.
Many were chuckling at the duo.
I had already talked with Frederick about his son. He told me that the skill wasn’t that dangerous in terms of damage, a cold burn at best, but it had the property of slowing targets significantly.
Maybe it would be an asset against the mosquitoes, depending on Kyle’s aim.
I wasn’t really expecting much from the boy, but who knew.
Maybe he would surprise us.
We could use all the help we could get against these monsters. With so few mages capable of attacking fast-moving targets at range, it wouldn’t be easy for the more physical fighters to perform their role.
“Enough talk! Let’s move, folks. We have a long march ahead, but with some luck, by tonight we’ll sleep under a roof again!”
A cheer went up at that, and then we proceeded toward the horizon.
The new safe zone was near.
But we couldn’t reach it soon enough.