Chapter 47: Mana Blast
The smaller wolves did not retreat out of fear.
They retreated because whatever the larger Wolfthrall was building in its mouth, they knew enough to be clear of it.
Hide watched the circular mana formation rotate inside the beast’s open jaw. It had started as a faint glow at the skull, the anchor feeding mana down through the vertebrae column into the throat... and in the four seconds he had been watching it, it had grown into something the size of a fist, dense and dark-edged at the perimeter, rotating slowly on its own axis.
Mana can change its properties depending on the user’s body... and what the wolf bastard was making had a dark edge to it, that meant dark mana or for simpler terms.
...Corrupted Mana!
Even hide knew about it, it was the main cause of mana poisoning.
He gritted his teeth, the thing looked like a hole.
A sphere with the visual quality of a hole in the air, and somewhat as if it was pulling the space inwards.
Hide’s eyes narrowed.
’Is it going to blast? How big will the perimeter be. Wait...’ Suddenly a wild idea surfaced in his desperate mind. ’what if I could somehow close its mouth and the attack unleashes inside its skull.’
No one could argue that it was a great plan, it would solve the problem of its skull being too tough and break it, killing the wolf.
Having thought that he started sprinting straight towards the beast. The wolfthrall flinched, not having anticipated such a sudden lunge.
The wolf fired it without it being completed.
The sphere left the jaw at a speed that was not fast by the standard of ranged attacks.
Hide ground his teeth and it was a good thing he still had time to move, and he did, throwing himself left and back with the full agility of a level-six body.
But the sphere never reached him, it stopped a few meters from the wolf and then expanded, created a large area of effect.
Hide had, thankfully stepped out of the range mostly. But his right arm was inside the area of effect. He immediately jumped.
The contact lasted half a second at most.
In that half a second, the Carapace on his right forearm was gone. The scales turned into mana and were sucked in to the body of the wolfthrall.
’What the fuck!’ Hide called the scales back to his arm.
It was not him alone, any other small wolf which had by some accidental chance stepped into that area, fell to the ground in a puddle of bones and rotted skin.
’Shit... that area absorbs the mana and sends it to that wolf.’
Hide was bewildered, he had thought that it would be some kind of attack that blasts, who would have thought that the wolf was hiding something so vicious.
Just then, the system window finally appeared in front of him.
[Adaptive Override — Analysis Active]
Mana Absorption
Location — Right arm surface
Source: E-Rank Calamity Beast — Wolfthrall Ruler
Severity: High — External mana negated on contact
System query: Initiate adaptation sequence for this damage type?
[Awaiting command.]
Hide stood up, and summoned abyssal flames in his palm.
"Evolve" He uttered the words out loud.
[Adapting - 3%]
[Adapting - 6%]
A smaller wolf jumped at him from the left and he caught it mid lunge, crushing its skull in his hand.
Then he took stance and formed a sphere of flames in his hand and threw it at the beast. The flames flew like a baseball ball and entered the area of effect.
They were not sniffed out instantly and instead went on for some distance.
The beast took a step back in fear. But the flames actually turned into mana and vanished into its body before reaching it.
But by the time, the wolf looked up. Hide was gone from where he was. He appeared on the side of the area of effect which had the least distance from the wolfthrall and sent another ball of fire flying towards it.
The wolf turned just in time, to take the hit directly in its face.
Angered, it growled and taking its growl as a command almost all the smaller wolves stopped what they were doing. Fuu had almost disappeared beneath a lot of them, but now they all looked directly at Hide with anger and purpose in their rotted eyes.
Hide gulped hard through his dry throat, and looked at the stairs. The stais were down enough now, maybe five more kills would bring it to a jumpable distance.
He looked at Fuu who had all his resources drained and looked like a fale ghost, he had even lost some weight.
But maybe it would be a good thing to leave that asshole behind, he was not bound to Hide, nor he was some good person.
’Sigh... Even still I can’t bring myself t leave him between Calamity beasts.’ Hide was frustrated, when the window finally showed itself.
[Adaptive Override — Adaptation Complete]
Counter Skill Generated
[Mana Blast — Rank A (Active)]
— Concentrates environmental mana to a single discharge point at the palm
— Fires as an internal-pressure burst on contact with target surface
— A concentrated blast cannot be absorbed by external mana drain fields
Hide read the window and dismissed it, a smirk playing on his lips.
The scales climbed higher covering his mouth, turning into the underside of an helm.
He brought his palms together, and activated the new skill. Suddenly... dark, black colored mana from the atmosphere started moving towards his palm, spinning and turning into a ball of highly compressed mana that wanted to be released so badly that it was hard even maintaining its shape.
"You are dead..."
It felt like holding a coal that had been burning for a hundred years.
The second wolf’s jaw began to glow.
Hide moved.
He did not wait for the formation to complete. He was already crossing the hall at full speed — the agility of level six carrying him across the flagstones in the time it took the wolf to register that something was moving toward it.
The smaller wolves in his path redirected toward him and he went through them without stopping. And when he was close enough, he fired the Mana Blast at the first wolf inside the area of effect.