The Witch's Relay

Chapter 40: Mana Vision

We encounter a snow-howler at our first location, which was expected, but technically unusual. Like Kade mentioned before, the dungeon up in the mountains is chasing down bigger creatures than normal, although that is not common knowledge.

I only know because I can sense the flow of mana, and I myself can feel the dungeon's imposing presence.

"You know what to do." Grim directs Kade towards the beast.

"Got it." He quickly unwraps the object which had been slung onto his back, and when he does, a rather odd sword is revealed.

"That's a rather funny looking blade if I may say so." Grim says once Kade charges the beast.

"It's custom-made, Burke's craftsmanship I'll bet." I remark.

"That would make sense, he is always making odd ones."

A snow-howler is basically like a giant white wolf, but with an extra resistance towards magic. Not that that matters to anyone nowadays. The beast also emits a constant cold effect, so if it slashes you, you might have to watch out for getting freeze burns or frostbite. Also due to it's protective and thick fur, you are basically forced to engage it at close range.

From experience, I know that the first attack will most likely be a pounce, and an attempt to bite off the head. They easily become impatient, and want fights to end quickly.

Kade dodges the moment the wolf pounces, and dashes to the side, slashing during the process the bottom of the snow-howler's paw before it has time to land.

"Wow, that is some pretty amazing reflexes." Grim comments to himself. His axe is drawn, and in both hands, just in case he needs to step in.

"You can say that again."

The wolf howls from the blow, causing me to cover my ears in pain. The wolf's howl is not technically meant to be an attack, but it might as well be. It is also of course where snow-howlers got their name.

Following up on the first attack, the wolf monster lunges forward, trying to swipe at Kade in anger with its claws, who narrowly escapes by once again dashing to the side, and also once again manages to slash at the pads under the snow-howler's foot.

Like almost every animal, the snow-howler shares the weakness of having sensitive feet. While the damage technically dealt is minuscule, if one can make it afraid to slash, a serious advantage can be gained.

Something catches my eye however, when Kade performs the same routine for the third and fourth time.

Now that Kade's opponent has learned his response and go-to move, it should be rather easy to take him out. Against more intelligent monsters, it is usually important to add some variety to your attacks, just to make the monsters hesitate on what to actually expect. But somehow Kade is getting away with it just fine.

It's his reaction and response time. Most people simply can't react to the subtleties in a fight like this, but somehow, while he is dodging by more and more narrow margins, he doesn't seem worried about it. It is as if Kade himself is learning the snow-howler's move, down to the very tiniest detail.

After twice more, the monster begins to hesitate more openly. It takes a couple steps back and without warning, swipes at the ground, sending a large amount of icy dirt flying in Kade's direction.

Grim grips his axe harder, and is about to charge in, fearing that the fight is lost, but I hold him back.

"He can do it, just watch."

Somehow, miraculously, Kade reacts just in time to turn his back towards the incoming dirt, and when the wolf once again lunges forward, while Kade has his back turned, he jumps to the side, landing with a roll.

"Whoa.." I glance at Grim, his eyes wide.

Something is definitely not right. I smile. This is very interesting.

Glancing at Grim one more time, just to make sure he is completely focused on the fight, I whisper some words to myself.

"Tumbles and crumbles I guarantee, open my eyes and let me see!" Because my eyes light up when casting this spell, for a moment I am blinded, but after a couple seconds the light dims and I can see clearly again. Well, even more clearly than before.

Surrounding the wolf monster I can see almost like a blue bubble of mana, this is what makes it resistant to spells, and in the surrounding area I see a few stretched out strings of mana flowing towards the mountains.

But what I am most interested in, is what is going on with Kade.

From the immediate area surrounding him, I can see the mana being sucked in and gathering around his heart. But what is even more interesting, is that the mana doesn't quite stay in his heart, bits of it are constantly escaping, leaving the heart and then being pulled back like a magnet.

Almost everyone draws in a little bit of mana, but as a general rule, only a little bit accumulates, giving them a faint glow. Some people who are gifted, draw in more mana, but those who have truly exceptional amounts accumulating, are without exception, trained mages. The more you use mana, the more you draw it in. It is as simple as that. The reason why people don't just spontaneously develop magic, is that you must first use magic in order to grow your capacity, which means using magic that is so weak that it is unobservable, since in order to cast magic, you must use the mana which you have stored up.

Now Kade here.. I have no idea what is going on. It is like the mana is randomly rejecting him, despite being drawn in, it refuses to stay.

But by getting fascinated over his mana flow, I just almost overlook one small detail. It appears as if he has a second location in his body which draws in mana. But I know better.

On his right upper arm, hidden underneath his clothing, I am absolutely certain that he is wearing a magic item. And that item is the reason why Kade is able to react so fast to the monster's attacks.