Chương 63: 1-62 Flowing Mana

"Shit, are you sure about this?" Bezzo was warily eyeing the rabbit staring at his stomach.

"No, but unless you have a better idea, or want your new friends to stick around, we're gonna do this." Josef grimaced, dreading what they were about to do. If only he had a spell that could put someone asleep, but it was too late to come up with one now. That, and he couldn't even imagine what affinity that would require, unless restoration covered that part as well. Maybe restorative sleep? He had delayed enough, though, so no more putting it off.

Thanks to a fresh batch of involuntary donors, he had a full reserve of mana to work with, and that was after dumping most of his initial reserve into the most potent Regeneration he had cast yet. It was better to be safe than sorry, even if refills were pretty much free right now. In fact, he would probably have to deal with more of the creatures interrupting his operation. Hopefully, they wouldn't pick a bad time for it.

"Whenever you're ready, Dusty," he signaled his familiar to start. But the bunny wasn't ready yet. There was something he wanted from Josef, that much was clear through the link. Interpreting the combination of static and hunger wasn't simple, though. Then, his familiar went for one of the dry and broken worms that remained from Josef's earlier attack, and pawed at it. Then, it clicked. It should have been obvious, but Dusty wanted to have mana.

A massive amount of it, going by the degree of hunger he was expressing. Shoving the magic juice through their link with both hands, metaphorically speaking, he quickly moved most of his supply. But his rabbit hungered for more, demanding to be fed another load, even as he slinked off in a moment of distraction. As always, the little nightmare wasn't comfortable being watched doing whatever he was up to.

Scooping up another batch of worms, he established a supply line from the monsters, through the summoner and into the familiar. One complete load was followed by a second, then a third.

"I really hope you know what you're doing," he muttered while working on the fourth group of creatures. At this rate, they might just run out of enemies before the bunny was willing to begin. Bezzo was already writhing on the ground, clearly in a significant amount of pain from the parasites burrowing through his body. At least he was getting really good at his combination spell, casting it almost as easily as a regular one.

Well, not quite, but if he kept telling himself that, maybe it would become true and make his headache go away. As for how Dusty was using all that mana? For one, he could feel his familiar vibrate through their link, though it wasn't clear whether this was caused by an overload of mana, or merely a side effect of whatever spell he was casting. On top of that, there was the echo of cracking bones, sounding close by but simultaneously impossible to track.

Josef took note that he could, in fact, hear that sound pretty clearly. The cacophony caused by that plant monster had finally stopped, signalling that one of their fights had likely come to an end. Finally, Dusty emerged, dropping straight from above onto Bezzo, burying into his stomach, following the trail of those parasites. It was almost too quick for him to catch, but Josef managed to glimpse his familiar's descending form.

Gone were those piercing red eyes, making room for a massive predatory mouth that occupied the entire head. The same went for his limbs, which had disappeared without a trace, reabsorbed into a much thinner body, making Dusty look like a large furry worm. He immediately wished he could unsee that, or how the worm-bunny disappeared into his friend, because he already knew there were more nightmares coming his way. Then began the screaming.

Whatever pain the parasites had inflicted on Bezzo, it paled against what he was experiencing now. It was enough to draw the attention of Zippa, but Josef got him to turn away and focus on the fight instead. There was no need for him to sear the image of his convulsing brother into his mind. There was a visible bulge where the not-rabbit dug his way through flesh and blood, and Josef had to follow every bit of that trail, using his magic to close up whatever damage his familiar was causing on his hunt.

Josef could tell that he was at least mostly avoiding going straight through any organs, as there weren't any of the notable spikes of mana consumption he would have expected from that. A sudden jerk was the only sign they got before one of the parasites burst from Bezzo's body, only to be caught by a snapping maw coming right after it. The first one was gone, but several more had to follow.

"How many got to you?" Josef asked, as much to himself as to the lizard in front of him. Unexpectedly, he received a clear answer.

"Five," he groaned weakly between bouts of pain.

"One's going up, I can feel it." Spreading the news to Dusty, the hunt continued, and soon the second parasite was chomped up by the rabbit. This time, however, there was no bloody display of bursting out. All he had to go on was the spike of accomplishment going through his link, as well as the blood Bezzo was spitting up. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

Clearly, they had damaged his lungs, forcing Josef to immediately redouble his efforts with Greater Heal, before the injury got out of hand. Numbers three and four were more cooperative, or maybe they just couldn't adapt to the fact that another burrowing creature was preying on them. Either way, Dusty managed to catch them in quick succession, cutting down the remaining threat to one last creature.

"Almost done, Bez. Hang in there," he tried to console the whimpering reptile, to little avail. After this, he was definitely figuring out how to anesthetize others with magic, or at least how much force was acceptable to not kill someone with his mace. The last parasite, however, was making a frenzied stand. It didn't take long for Josef to realize that it had given up on whatever it planned initially, and was now causing as much damage as possible to his host.

This naturally meant a very bad time for Bezzo, as the healing magic could barely keep pace. Worse than that, Josef's mana was starting to get low, so they either had to finish this quickly, or he would fall behind as he made time to drain another batch of creatures. The latter option wasn't really appealing, so he and Dusty did their best to strive for the former. Using the trail of destruction the parasite wrought, it became much easier to track it, requiring only a little feel for where his magic flowed.

Coordinating that information with his bunny, they finally managed to end it, albeit with a more than concerning hole in the reptile's liver. Which was the exact moment another group of those parasites picked to ambush the two of them. It wasn't entirely clear which of them both these creatures were aiming for when they emerged from some cracked bricks above. Perhaps they weren't all that picky about their intended hosts, but the ambiguity of their aim didn't exactly help in repelling their attack.

Zippa was too far off, occupied with another writhing mass, to react in time, so Josef was on his own, with barely a second to spare. Without even stopping his healing magic, he raised a hand towards the descending monsters. The spell he created in that moment was the culmination of what he had worked to achieve, using his Mana Drain as a stepping stone towards a more powerful version.

The final missing piece of the puzzle had turned up during his earlier combination spells, creating a cycle of mana as he drained from within his prison sphere, only to send the gained mana back into the spell. His issue was always the image he had worked with, trying to draw lines, cables or tunnels, trying to funnel and suck on the mana he wanted to take away. Everything he created with that in mind was hollow and unstable because his surroundings didn't support such fragile spellwork.

Even if he had succeeded in that on pure willpower and repetition, it would have likely collapsed the moment the actual drain had set in. The added turbulence of the foreign mana within would have torn apart his flimsy creation. From Josef's hand emerged a stream of mana, thick as a finger, shooting out at breakneck speed. This construct wasn't hollow as a straw, but tightly packed with his own energy. It also didn't stop at the creature he aimed for, but punched right through it, continuing on at a sharp angle.

Making a full turn, it pierced a second worm before returning to his hand. A fraction of a second passed, and the mana within that stream moved. Like a river, it rushed along the path, flowing within the loop he had created. Along the path, it violently stripped away the energy of the monsters it crossed. Carrying along the added fuel for magic, it returned its bounty to Josef, leaving him with more than he had before.

Then, fed by the tide of mana coming in, a second stream broke from his hand, piercing more of the parasites. After that came the third, claiming almost all that remained, save for one, which followed a straight trajectory towards the incapacitated Bezzo, who had finally lost consciousness the moment the last worm stopped wriggling within his body. That one met its end within the maw of Dusty, who emerged to catch it like a crocodile lunging for its prey. As for the ones threaded on Josef's newest spell?

They were just as quick to perish, as once the stream washed away all of their mana, their flesh soon followed under the strain of the flowing energy. Pulling it all back, he quickly routed the energy through his body, towards the other hand, and into healing Bezzo. While his spell had wavered in the last few seconds, it had never quite broken off, lending credence to how useful the reduced mental strain of his Mana Drain was. Well, that part was no longer quite as true, as the spell no longer held that name.

☆☆☆ Greater Mana Drain (Moderate) -> ☆☆☆☆ Mana Flow (Moderate) All mana shall flow, from one to another. Spend mana to gain even more. Create a rushing tide that strips away what you desire to gain. Increased compatibility with water as a medium. It was a fitting improvement and somehow incorporated the influence of his use of combined magics without being a full merge. He could also tell that the little note in the back of his mind, informing him of the potential merge between spells, had gone away.

With one component on an entirely new level, doing so was no longer an option. That wasn't the only upgrade he gained in this fight, but the rest would have to wait until he had a quiet moment to breathe. Finally, he could conclude his treatment, closing the last holes left in Bezzo and restoring his damaged liver to a functional state. That last part was a bit of a hack job, considering he wasn't all that knowledgeable about how the vital organ worked exactly.

Fortunately, the final deluge of mana he had gained was enough to patch that gap with sheer quantity. Their fight wasn't over at that point, but it was dying down quickly. Aifreed and Linda returned from their little gardening trip, having successfully trimmed the screaming plant down to size. The knight in particular was drenched in some sap-like substance, looking mighty uncomfortable in his sticky armor. With their help, crushing the last remaining parasite swarms was quick work.

After the plant monster could no longer call for help, the rush of enemies had finally died down, though it had taken a while to become obvious, with how many had already gathered at that point. The very moment the last worm died, Zippa dropped all pretense of strength, rushed up to his little brother, and began cradling him in his arms. His gleaming scales clearly had some sting to them, as Bezzo woke up wincing. Seeing his brother's teary face, however, he swallowed all complaints and gave a weak smile instead.

"I'm fine, you big crybaby."