42 – Thief

The magic beasts who had taken over the mana well were not carnivores, but when it came to defending a mana well, all magic beasts were the same. They would become territorial, and fight to the last. The only difference when it came to herbivores and carnivores was that the herbivores sometimes tried to resolve things nonviolently first.

These beasts were a species of deer with antlers that seemed to shimmer in and out of existence. Both the bucks and does had them, though it was still obvious which was which, because the bucks were much larger, and their antlers were angled forward more, almost like bull horns.

They emerged from the trees and formed a semi circle around them, posturing and snorting foggy breath, trying to get Igrette and Jonny to back off. There were about fifteen of them, and their antlers grew brighter as they stepped forward. Jonny could sense them giving off a scary amount of mana. He definitely didn’t want to get hit by any of them.

“The strongest ones are third layer,” said Igrette calmly. “Most are second. I’ll leave you one of the second layer does.”

“Okay,” he said.

The next moment, Jonny felt a gust of gold wind as Igrette disappeared from his side, reappearing at one end of the semicircle of deer. She dashed forward, swinging her sword in a long arc and beheading half a dozen of the deer in one go. Jonny barely saw her move, and didn’t sense her use any mana. She had done that purely with the strength of her body.

Somehow, despite her speed, the buck in the center, the largest of the bunch, somehow managed to react, and when she reached him, he lowered his head as his antlers flashed, letting out a powerful blast of mana. Igrette braced herself against it, but she still didn’t use any mana, and was sent flying. She landed on her feet, skidding through the snow, but Jonny saw her clenching her teeth and grimacing in pain.

A second later, another half dozen deer died, leaving one doe and two bucks still standing. All three lowered their head and tried firing mana at Igrette, but this time, she dodged to the side, letting the mana obliterate a tree behind her instead. The two bucks died a second later, and Igrette reappeared near Jonny, leaning on a tree with her good hand holding her side.

“Your turn,” she said as the destroyed tree crashed to the ground.

Jonny nodded, then turned back to the one remaining doe. It looked nervous, as it should have after watching its entire herd die, but it still stubbornly stood its ground, pawing the snow and lowering its head as if to charge.

Jonny stepped forward, making sure that he would be its primary target, reinforcing his body with mana as he did. He used what he had been calling his furnace breathing technique, accelerating his circulation as he exhaled, only to stop himself after one breath. The furnace technique was great for combat, but what he was trying to do now wasn’t just fight. He was trying to see if he could steal mana from the doe. He wasn’t sure if it would make a huge difference, but when he did it with Tommy, he had been using the original technique, accelerating as he breathed in, so it was probably better if he started with that.

The doe pawed the ground a few more times before charging at him, and when it got about ten feet away, Jonny dived to the side as far as he could. He knew he would probably survive being hit by the mana blast, but he didn’t want to take any chances. Especially when his goal relied so heavily on his ability to get in close.

His dodge worked, but when he got back to his feet from his roll, he saw the doe doing something surprising. Rather than continuing forward, or skidding to a halt, it released a blast from its antlers anyway, and not only did it halt its charge, but it had turned its head at an angle, and lifted its back feet off the ground, so when the mana blast went off, it spun right around to face him, as its antlers started glowing again. Jonny made a mental note not to underestimate magic beasts just because Igrette could run circles around them, then prepared to dodge.

It did not charge immediately. Instead, it just eyed him warily while the glow of its antlers increased.

So it needs to charge up, he noted.

After a few seconds, it finally attacked again. It was clear that going all out to get out of the way wasn’t going to work if it could change directions so quickly, so this time, he didn’t do a diving roll. He did a long sidestep instead, which fortunately worked out fine. The doe did not try to blast him, instead using its mana to stop its charge again. By the time it turned around, though, Jonny was already running toward it. It lowered its antlers again, ready to meet his charge, but he surprised it by dropping into a slide, slipping under its head and between its front legs. As he slid under, he could have sworn it looked surprised.

Directly under the deer was actually a very good place for him to be, because if he was able to uppercut it from that position, it would do a lot of damage. A direct uppercut like that would have none of the downsides that his small size usually brought, and he would be able to use his full power to devastate its innards.

Sadly, although he played baseball for one year in middle school, he didn’t remember how to come up from a slide properly, or at least in a way that would have allowed for that. Instead, he used his momentum to kick out one of the deer’s back legs as he slid by. It stumbled, splaying its legs to retain its balance, and almost sat on Jonny’s face as he slid past.

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Once out of the way, he turned over and scrambled back to his feet, digging his fingers into the icy ground to gain some purchase. The deer tried to turn as well, using the same mana blast technique as the first time, but with its balance broken and its antlers low on charge, it only got halfway around by the time Jonny got back to his feet and launched himself at its side.