Chapter 69 – Fireballs & Flora

Titus didn't exactly know what it meant to take Petra's Mana from her but after a few minutes, something became apparent: if he didn't use it, the Mana slowly returned to his friend as if he were holding a leaky bucket. It was just like his Mana regeneration rate, but in reverse.

What this meant, he understood immediately, was that he couldn't just keep getting fed Mana by his friends until he had an infinite amount. But it didn't mean there weren't some great uses for this new ability. For example, Petra could give Titus all of her Mana, and Titus could feed that into a fireball that was then imbued with a total of thirty-eight Mana – speaking in maximums – and that would no doubt mean some serious stopping power.

His mind raced with the possibilities, and he knew that when morning came and all three of them had had the chance to rest, he needed to see if he could firstly do the same with Jordan, and then both his friends at the same time.

But all the effort he'd expended meant that Titus needed to rest. He already felt his eyes heavy, and the last thing he needed was to make another huge breakthrough while he was too tired to understand it.

But before he went to sleep, he made sure he could do one last thing: he willed his Mana to return to Petra – and this time it obeyed his command. It did not touch her skin and stop; rather, this time it refilled Petra's Mana pool to the maximum – though Titus knew he could've put less in if he wanted – and when she was back up to ten of ten again, he bade her goodnight and found a small spot near Jordan to curl up and drift off to sleep.

When the morning light awoke Titus, it took him a minute to remember where he was and what he was supposed to be doing. He found Jordan and Petra sat outside their makeshift shelter, speaking softly, and as he approached them from behind, he recognised the fact that they were talking about him, specifically what he could now do.

Inevitably, neither Jordan nor Petra would let the group continue along their hunt until they'd carried out some experiments, and although Titus really wanted to get on and rescue Henderson, he couldn't help but admit he was curious too.

An hour was spent with Titus figuring out exactly what he could and couldn't do, and after a breakfast of sweet red berries that Jordan had supplied, he felt a lot better about what they had planned for the day.

"So, I can take your Mana and let it orbit me," Titus said. "But I can't forcibly take it. I can take both of your Mana at the same time, but it depletes twice as fast as both of you maintain your regen rates," Titus summarised. "So with Petra's ten and Jordan's ten as well, I can use a grand total of forty-eight. But I can't store it all within myself, and I can't keep hold of it all for very long."

"But you can use it all at once to cast the mother of all fireballs," Jordan said.

"Hey, how much Mana do you think Torres was putting into the ones he was firing off at the behemoths?" Petra asked.

"Seven," Titus said. "Remember, other Spellcasters can't increase the power of their spells with Mana alone – they have to use equipment that does it for them."

"I bet he's got something good," Jordan said. "I mean, you saw him back there, right?"

Titus nodded.

"How do you think they're getting on back there?" He asked quietly.

It was the first time that any of them had acknowledged the battle they'd left. A battle that had no doubt concluded by now, but they had no way of knowing which way the victory had fallen.

"The City always wins; we're the good guys," Jordan said with a reassuring smile. "Besides, I know what you're thinking – even if we'd stayed, we wouldn't have made much of a difference to the outcome. Eventually, either those Ironjaw Behemoths would've won, or the Instructors and Black-Ranked. Do you really think we'd be anything more to either of those than annoying insects?"

Titus shook his head slowly. Jordan was right, but it didn't make him feel any better. He had thought to help a fellow Contestant as he was carried away into the wilderness, but he thought they'd have been in and out in minutes. Now, with this taking so long, he felt like more of a deserter than someone on a mission of mercy.

Steeling himself, Titus spoke. "You're right, Jordan," he said. "We have to keep moving. I'll use my Mana to its fullest extent when we need it most, but right now, let's focus on finding Henderson. We have no idea what kind of danger he might be in."

"Plus when we do find some monsters to kill… that Mana of yours combined with your Fireball spell… it's a good thing that neither Petra nor I use our Mana because that's going to be something to watch."

Titus smiled at that. He thought as much too, with having double the available Mana to throw into his spell; it could only be something amazing. He worried a little about casting such a spell while inside a remarkably flammable forest, but he pushed that to one side knowing that it was a problem to deal with later, and only if he really needed to.

With a renewed sense of purpose and knowing they really had no other choice, the three friends gathered their belongings and set out once more, leaving their makeshift shelter behind.

As they navigated the dense woods, they all kept a sharp lookout for any signs of Henderson or the hobgoblins that had captured him. The forest was eerie and quiet though with the constant rustling of leaves, and now there was something new to add to the mix: the distant calls of unknown creatures, which added to their unease. But as they moved, they still saw nothing that would suggest monsters were nearby.

As they moved deeper into the woods, the terrain became more challenging. Thick underbrush and gnarled tree roots made their progress slow and arduous. Titus couldn't help but think about the countless dangers that lurked in the shadows, and he always kept his sword – and spell – at the ready, but he pushed those thoughts aside, focusing on getting to Henderson as fast as possible.

Hours passed and the trio remained vigilant though still encountering nothing out of the ordinary. Jordan still led the way, his shield and axe at the ready, which he used to hack away thick underbrush while Titus kept a watchful eye on his surroundings, ready to unleash his Mana when needed.

Titus had noticed as they walked the signs of someone else travelling through these parts, as the broken branches and tracks through the dense forest became more apparent. Of course he couldn't tell how fresh the tracks were, but he could only assume they were relatively new, as the broken branches still had living leaves and twigs attached to them.

It was hungry work, and Jordan did his best to pass around berries, leaves, and shoots as he encountered edible items along their path. Lots of the food he'd found was bursting with moisture and water, and that too went a long way to satiating Titus's thirst.

They walked for hours again, and eventually, thankfully something new happened.

Just as the sun began its descent toward the horizon and the tree coverage was elongating the shadows into darkness, Petra's sharp eyes spotted something in the distance. She held up a hand to signal the others to halt and silently pointed ahead. There, partially obscured by the dense foliage, was a faint trail of smoke rising into the sky.

"It's a campfire," Petra whispered. "It might be the hobgoblins."

Jordan nodded, his grip visibly tightening on his shield and his axe. "Let's move closer, but quietly. We need to find out if Henderson is there before we make any noise. Especially if it isn't him."

They advanced cautiously, making their way toward the source of the smoke. As they drew nearer, they could hear voices, low and guttural, interspersed with occasional laughter. The unmistakable sounds of a campfire gathering, but still, none of them could be sure what, or who they were about to come upon.

It took a good few minutes for the group to reach the source of the smoke, and when they did, Titus's heart fell.

Peering through a particularly dense bush at the edge of the fire that belched smoke into the sky, Titus could see that it was indeed a small campsite, but Henderson wasn't there amongst the monsters of Chaos.

What Titus did see, though, was a group of monsters who did not look like they were preparing to fight in a war.

Five hobgoblins at level ten, three level four Goblins, and if he hadn't heard a slight growling, he might've missed the fact that there were also five level six Dire Wolves at the edge of the campsite. After watching the group for a short while, it was clear that the hobgoblins kept the wolves as mounts, and the Goblins were there to act as kind of servants to the hobs.

As Titus watched, one of the goblins moved toward a large iron pot suspended over the fire with a small wooden bowl outstretched. The little goblin made it to within inches of the pot and whatever was cooking inside when one of the hobs stood up as quick as a flash and booted the smaller goblin to the ground.

The other hobs laughed, and the fallen goblin ran away to the far side of the camp holding his behind.

This clearly wasn't the party that had abducted Henderson, or if it was, Titus couldn't see the Contestant with them. He certainly hadn't seen any goblins in the group that had abducted the Warrior.

Jordan tapped Titus on the shoulder and when Titus turned to look at him, the large Defender mimed walking around the camp sneakily, so they didn't have to confront this group.

Titus nodded his agreement, but before he'd even completed the motion, a deep, guttural growl came from one of the Dire Wolves, and Titus's heart froze.

The Hobs all stopped laughing immediately and turned to see what the wolf was looking at, following its gaze to exactly where Titus and his friends remained concealed.

It was like the hobs were looking directly at them as they slowly stalked toward the hiding place with their crude swords drawn. The goblins didn't join their larger cousins though, choosing rather to huddle together, possibly in the hope that their tormentors were about to be killed and they could finally get something to eat.

The bush and undergrowth that concealed Titus and his friends must've been far more effective than they'd thought previously because the hobgoblin at the front of the pack got so close that Titus could have reached out and poked him in the eyes.

He didn't have the chance to do so though, because as the beast's face contorted into an angry snarl, Jordan swung his axe in a devastating upwards arc and buried the blade into the hobgoblin's chin.

Being level ten though, the hob wasn't felled by the strike. Instead, it jerked backwards, wrenched the weapon from its chin, and discarded it onto the ground. Then it raised its sword and dived directly at the bush.

Titus nearly fell over at the sudden action by the hob, but thankfully the creature, although brave, was also not exactly the smartest of the bunch. It was clear after a second or two of the thing thrashing about that it had just got itself stuck in the thick roots and branches that provided Titus and his friends with their cover.

Petra was quick to act, stabbing her Stiletto through the brush in order to nick the hob to poison it before it was returned to its senses by its friends, but they were unfortunately a little smarter than their belligerent kin.

Taking the time to mount their Dire Wolves and skirt around the thicker undergrowth, the four remaining hobs left their friend to fend for himself while they bore down on Titus and his friends from the other side.

Titus saw immediately that they had nowhere to go. They needed to fight their way out of this, but their enemies were much stronger than they were, and there were eight of them all at once, counting their mounts.

The Dire Wolves didn't look like regular beasts though. Their fangs protruded and were coated with a thick red substance. It was like they'd been twisted or warped somehow. And at level ten each, Titus thought they'd make formidable opponents themselves.

They were cornered within a moment, and Titus backed away with his two friends until they couldn't back away any more. The mounted hobs stalked in slowly, obviously enjoying the fact that their prey was helpless before them. Even the one who'd managed to get caught in the bush had managed to right himself and find a mount, joining the others, although his health pool had taken a hit, and he was clearly poisoned by Petra's dagger.

"Now would be a good time to take our Mana," Jordan said out of the corner of his mouth to Titus, who actually hadn't remembered he had a new ability that could very much help in this situation.

He saw that Petra was nodding slowly, and so for the first time in a real situation, Titus drew all of the Mana from both of his friends and added it to his own.

The hobgoblins moved closer and just as they had done before, they stood shoulder to shoulder in a tight formation that would let nothing through.

In fact, that was what Titus wanted.

Only just out of reach now, Titus cast his spell. As he had practised with Ferran Torres and as he had used in the arena already, he charged the fireball with everything that he had. He urged every single drop of Mana within himself to flow into the spell and to end the lives of the hobgoblins before they could do the same to him and his friends.

And then he let the spell go.

The heat that emanated from Titus's hands as he let the forty-eight Mana-strong fireball was extreme. It didn't hurt him or his friends, he could tell, but the sound that the hobgoblins made the moment that the fireball left Titus was so satisfying that it almost made him laugh.

It was like a loud, high-pitched screech, followed by an explosion, and then a sizzling, burning. The air filled with the stench of skin and hair ablaze once again, and when the bright orange-yellow explosion, followed by the black smoke dissipated, Titus looked out to see that where there had been five level ten hobgoblins riding five level ten Dire Wolves a moment ago, now there were ten charred, black corpses motionless on the ground.

And then Titus saw the message fade into his vision, and again he smiled.

You have gained 440 experience points. Congratulations, You have reached Level 5.

Congratulations, You have reached Level 6.

XP to next level: 208.

You have 10 stat points to distribute.

You have 3 Ability points to use.

Skills Available to learn:

None.