Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 60 - 59: Battle in the forest (III)

’Gotcha!’

I exclaimed, my muscles unconsciously tensing themselves, ready for a chase.

But then, I stopped, completely by instinct.

No, rather than stopped, it was like I froze.

Froze, rooted in place.

Alarm bells ringing in my head, as only a single word overtook my brain – DANGER!!

My body started moving on its own, throwing itself to the side, dodging, getting away, from whatever it was that was approaching.

It was then, that it appeared. A small, stealthy, undetectable, flash.

A simple, unassuming, black flash, that completely evaded my Mana Reading.

Only visible to my naked eyes, and even then, I couldn’t make up what it really was.

It was too fast for me to do so.

It appeared, it passed by me, and then it disappeared.

Did it miss? Did it hit? Or did it graze past me?

I didn’t know.

And I didn’t need to ponder, for long.

-ARRRRHHHHHHHHH!!!

Cause the next second, I got my answer. In the form of a burning pain, a seething pain, that tore at my spirit relentlessly.

My body felt like it was on fire.

Even though I knew it wasn’t, the pain, the burning, was saying otherwise.

-ARRRRHHHHHHHHH!!!

I screamed again, almost casting an ice spell on instinct, only to notice something dire, I couldn’t cast the spell.

Making me realise...

’My mana, it’s too frenzied for me to use a proper spell.’

’This attack, this energy it contained, it is corroding my spirit body.’

And that realisation hit me hard.

’JUST WHAT THE FUCKING HELL WAS THAT ATTACK!!!!’

I screamed in my mind.

Unfortunately, that only came out as another shriek of pain.

-ARRRRHHHHHHHHH!!!

I almost couldn’t feel my body, much less control it.

And from how much I could feel, I could tell, my muscles too, were in a frenzy. Spasming and twitching uncontrollably, as if someone had triggered all my nerves, making my body go out of control.

’And all that with a single attack!!?’

’Just what the hell was that attack!??’

’And just what the hell is this pain?? It wasn’t this bad even when the demon broke my bones!?’

’SO WHY!??, WHY IS IT SO UNBEARABLE NOW!!!’

I thought in outrage, as the pain I felt increased by another degree.

That was the only thing I could do as both my body, and spirit body were frenzied.

(A/N: Mana is in spirit body, so Mana frenzied = Spirit body frenzied.)

’Wait, frenzied...?’

I thought, as I felt like I caught something.

Something important.

Something that could help me, something that could change the situation.

Something that I definitely needed.

So, I thought furiously, racking my brain.

’Frenzied, frenzied, frenzied..., body, mana, beasts..., mind...’

It was hard, especially with the ominous energy running through my spirit body. It kept bringing me loads of pain each passing second.

It was like being on fire.

I had to think, I had to concentrate while being on fire.

And worst part of it was that I couldn’t use my skills.

But as it was the only way. So, I kept enduring.

I kept chasing, that sudden thought, that sudden enlightenment, trying to catch it with all my might.

And then, after a who-knows-how-long session of thinking...

’I caught it!!’

The problem...

...And it’s solution, I got them both.

Albeit the solution was a risky one.

***

Meanwhile, Cana was having the time of her life.

Yes, you heard it correctly. That timid, that pale, that shivering petite lady Cana Nester, was having the time of her life.

At first, she was scared.

No doubts about it, but as time passed things changed.

As she continued, things changed.

As she blew one monster after another, things changed.

Those fangs, those claws, she was scared of them, deathly scared...

But as time passed, as more and more of those deadly claws, as more and more of those deadly beasts failed to reach her, the more fearless she became.

And along with that fearlessness came a thrill. A thrill of strength, a thrill that blew away her feeling of weakness.

A feeling that almost never left her.

Right now, she felt liberated. Liberated and free.

Even if the feeling was fake; Even if it was only due to the adrenaline flowing through her system; She felt great and she decided to enjoy it...

Meaning, she kept doing what she was doing.

As for what she was doing??

She was using ’spell-balls’ or ’one-shots’ as Rayne called them.

Basically, they were artefacts that looked like glass balls, being the size of a table tennis ball, each ball glowing with a different elemental light.

**

[Magic Spell Storage Ball]

Grade: E

Can store a [Beginner] grade spell.

E-Grade Magic Storage ball; The stored spell can be used ten times by the user, without mana expenditure.

User can use the spell stored in the ball directly after imprinting it.

The artefact is not reusable and self-destructs after being used ten times.

**

Yes, they were also called as ’Magic-spell-storage-balls’, only officially though. The name was too long and too boring, to be actually used.

Anyways, these spell balls were actually a game changing military-resource.

Thanks to them, the cannon fodder of the Empire was actually useful.

After all, even though they could only store beginner grade spells, a simple [Fireball] casted by thousand mages at the same time, packed quite a punch.

And that was exactly what Cana was doing, just in a different way.

Unlike low ranked army mages who had 10~20 of these spell-balls just enough to make up for their low mana levels, Cana had thousands of them.

Yep, thousands.

Her leader was a rich guy.

So, without caring a bit about the money she was blowing, she took out another five spell-balls from her dimensional necklace, imprinted them, and threw them at the monster horde.

Using all ten spells of each spell-ball at once.

Forty fire spells, along with ten wind spells.

Fire spells acting as main damage dealer, while wind spells boosted them while increasing their area of effect.

The mixture of fifty beginner spells created a huge fire tornado that wasn’t much inferior to an intermediate spell in power. A tornado that burnt the monsters to death.

And with Syrus holding the horde back, even gathering them in a place, the casualty rate of the spell increased even further.

Not that it mattered much though, with Cana throwing such mixed spells one after one, it really didn’t matter much.

The firepower she had was much more than what these monsters could withstand.

And the best part of it was, that she could continue this for hours without a break.

The girl only had to look out for some extra powerful, extra dangerous monsters. Thankfully for her, those too were taken care off by Syrus.

All these, the powerful firepower, a reliable teammate, and the first sensation of winning over someone, the first sensation of battle, along with extra adrenaline gave Cana a thrilling feeling.

A thrilling feeling, she wasn’t bound to forget.

(A/N: The same feeling someone has when they touch a gun for the first time or something like that...)

At least she wouldn’t have forgotten. That is if a frigid chill, a chill so cold that it froze her spine, along with her spells, didn’t spread across the battlefield.

A chill that snapped her back in sense.

She turned her head, looking at the source of the chill.

And soon she found it.

It was her leader.

Her leader who was still a kid.

Her leader whom she kept reprimanding the whole day.

The same leader was facing off with ten-meter-tall giant...

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

No, he was massacring the giant.

It was fast, incredibly fast, so fast that the only thing that reflected in her light brown eyes was the sky turning blue, followed by the giant crashing on the ground, headless.

’Fascinating...’

She muttered in her mind. Not a bit envious.

"CANAAA!!! NOW!!!"

She heard her teammate shout, immediately snapping her out of her thoughts.

"OKAY!! HERE I GO!!"

She responded; a bit flustered. Throwing another five spell-balls in the direction Syrus pointed.

This time creating dark water blades, who were not affected by the cold.

-Huu

Breathing out, she calmed herself, glancing to the side to see how Allen was doing.

Finally noticing something was off with him.

Something she should have noticed ages ago...

Was it his atmosphere? His posture? Or his face?

Maybe all of them.

That silent atmosphere, that feeble posture or that emotionless face.

All of them suggesting that something was wrong.

Something that she dismissed before as fear, but now, observing his emotionless face, she feared that it was something else than fear...

Taking a look at the battlefield, Cana took out another ten spell-balls and threw them randomly, before finally nudging the boy.

"Allen! Are you okay!? What happened!? You look so pale!!"

The woman asked quickly in worry.

Her voice seemed to fell on deaf ears though, as the boy didn’t respond.

No, it was like the boy didn’t even hear her. Completely ignoring the call, the boy stayed still, in the same position. Tightly clenching his right hand with his left, with an expressionless look on face, scaring the hell out of Cana.

Now extremely worried, the woman pulled the reigns of her raptor, and steered it right beside the boy’s. Then, placing her hands on both of his shoulders, she shook him intensely.

This time using her mana, adding her attribute to her voice, she yelled.

"ALLEN!!, ALLEN!!!!"

Her voice seemed to break some kind of barrier, some kind of seal, as she tried to probe and stimulate Allen’s spirit.

And whatever it was that it broke, it was good.

’Even though it took half of my mana to just wake him up, it was good.’

Cana thought, as she saw emotions returning to Allen’s face.

Calling out again, this time softly she asked.

"Are you okay? Allen?"

"Um-, uh..., yes.... Yes, I’m okay, big sis...."

He replied weakly, which clearly wasn’t the case.

"Allen, what happened?? Answer me honestly."

She asked again, her tone strict, as she demanded an answer.

"I... I don’t know big sis..."

"What?? You don’t know?? But, how can-"

She wanted to probe further, but unfortunately; she was cut-off...

-ARRRRHHHHHHHHH!!!

...By a scream.

A scream with a familiar voice.

Looking at the front, a scene.

A scene of her leader falling on the ground.

A scene that made her cry out.

-LEADEEERRRR!!!!!!!!

***

Meanwhile, in a certain screaming someone’s mind, a tug of war was going on.

A tug of war within oneself.

One side refusing to take such a huge risk.

While the other side saying that the solution was correct, so there is no risk.

And though it felt like the tug of war would last long, actually it didn’t.

Why?

Cause a third side, a side which said ’It’s fucking hurting like hell, do something!!’, came into play and unanimously won, finally spurring the screaming being into action.

’Okay, let’s start.’

I said to myself, in my mind, less to inform and more to psyche myself up.

And honestly, it didn’t seem to work.

I was still nervous as hell.

But since my future only held maddening pain otherwise, I acted.

Leaving my body to do as it pleased, I solely concentrated on my spirit body.

Or rather, on the black corroding energy that frenzied my spirit body.

By now, instead of being focused on a single point, the energy had infested my whole spirit body.

It’s target, my brain or more precisely my concise.

How did I know?

Well, how could I not?

After seeing it infesting me. After feeling it spreading through me, deeply, painfully, just how could I not?

The black energy was flowing through my spirit body, from time to time probing my brain with a wisp of it.

As if waiting for me to give up before acting.

And once I did, I was sure I would become like one of those monsters out there.

A being without a clear will.

A frenzied being, similar to that giant. Similar to someone who would stupidly use all its energy in two attacks.

Funny, right?

Want me to tell you something funnier?

Right now, I just did that.

I gave up.

And as soon as I did, the energy moved.

Without wasting a moment, it gathered itself moving from my spirit body, to my brain.

To my concise. To my mind.

Funnily enough, I didn’t stop it.

Instead, I helped. Pushing the corrupted energy towards its gathering point, making sure it all entered my brain.

And when it did, it was judgement time.

Whether I lived or died, would be all decided now.

With heightened attention, I focused on what was happening in my mind, not daring to spare a moment’s notice.

And I didn’t have to wait for long.

As soon as the energy entered my mind, it attacked my concise.

Or should I say, it tried to...

Standing in its path was an array, a complex magus ranked array.

An array that far outclassed the energy.

The array glowed a bit, just a bit.

Almost like a lion too busy sleeping to deal with a rabbit.

Thankfully, it did start working the next instant.

It easily sucked in all the black energy, not leaving a shred of it.

Then the array filtered it, almost too easily, that is. Annihilating the black energy in a split second before sending it back to my spirit body.

All of it without a hitch.

All the process completed without a single trouble.

And as this scene happened, I couldn’t help but say in my mind.

’Anticlimactic...’

Not knowing whether to feel fortunate that my plan went without a hitch, or unfortunate that I worried unnecessarily.

Just as I was wondering this...

...I woke up...only to hear...

"WHAT!? WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE ALLEN IS!!??"

’Can’t have a moment’s rest it seems?’

I thought, as I pushed myself up.