First Spirits!

It is a cat, right? No, fire coming out of its fur. This can't be a normal animal. So it is a spirit too. I am trying so hard to not freak out.

That cute-looking cat killer the turtle spirit with ease. Spirits are as dangerous as I thought. Jason and I were shocked and could only be stood still. This is troublesome. This cat is even more dangerous than the turtle. We couldn't hurt the turtle but it couldn't hurt es either. And then this cat came out of nowhere and beat it with ease.

"It looks cute."

"...and deadly. It has fire coming out of its fur."

The cat looked at us. It had red fur with black stripes. Unlike the turtle, its size was of a normal animal. It had sharp amber eyes. Silently glaring at us, it takes a step forward. With mana eyes I can see its mana, it is enormous.

*Meow*

"Sorry, we can't speak cat."

*Meow*

"Oh! Is that so?"

*Meow*Meeow*

"Wow... That's difficult. Then what happened?"

*Meoww, meooow meoww mweow*

"Would you look at that! That's unfortunate."

"What is it say, Jason?"

"I have no idea."

"..."

You!! And here I am listening to his talk with a cat! I smacked his head hard.

*SMACK*

"That hurt!" He became teary-eyed. Sat down where he was and rubbed where I hit him. While all this happened cat watched us with confusion. I know, I am confused too.

The cat must have some intelligence. Well, more than animals. I don't know if it can understand human speech but it looked like it listened to Jason. But Jason managed the confuse it. I have mixed feelings about this.

The confusion on its eyes disappeared and a fiery expression took its place. It leaped to the air and vomit two fireballs from its mouth. I couldn't dodge it at the time and fell backward. Jason was faster than me he could dodge the fireball but when he was still midair cat vomited another fireball. The second fireball hit him on the face and send him away.

I get up and gathered mana on my right hand but before I could cast a spell, the cat already vomited four fireballs towards me. With no other choice, I jumped backward and escaped from the incoming fireballs. Because of my lack of concentration the mana I gathered disappeared.

Right after I jumped away the cat rushed at me. The fire around its fur grew larger and more violent. But just as it was rushing to me a sudden water ball appeared right in front of its face. Taken aback by the sudden appearance of the water ball it couldn't do anything except flung away with the impact of the water ball.

The cat hit the ground and rolled for some time. The moment it tried to get up it was too late. I have already sent a bolt of lightning to it. Its amber eyes opened wide a second before a lightning bolt hit it. Getting struck by it cat couldn't move and dropped to the ground.

"Did you... finished it?"

"I don't think so. It can't be this easy."

And soon enough cat gets up. This is bad. I don't have much mana left. Neither Jason does. But the cat spirit still has plenty of mana. If we fight again we would most probably lose. Jason had already activated his eyes and depleted most of his mana. That sudden appearance of the water ball really gained a good advantage for us. Unfortunately, cat spirit is a lot tougher than we thought.

I braced myself for the attack of the cat. But something strange happened. When the cat saw Jason's eyes, it stopped moving. Why? This is weird. Jason also stopped moving. While both of them stood there I activated my eyes. It is still hard to activate.

With the activation of the Spirit Eyes, a sudden headache attacked my mind. I ignored it and focus on the cat. Its aura was stretching towards Jason's. And his aura towards its. Both of them collided midair. When they collided a strange sight occurred before my eyes. They merged and create a line that clearly connects both of them.

"How do you feel?"

"Strange. Like I am sharing my head with someone else."

"Your eyes have strange powers. You tamed a spirit just by looking into its eyes."

"You are right. They do have strange powers."

With an anticlimactic end, I let out a sigh of relief. This is a better outcome I could ever hope for. But the fact that Jason could form a connection with a spirit without the sacrifice similar to that I made is worrisome. I know that Jason has done it thanks to his eyes but this proves that it is possible. If any other people manage to do it too, we will be screwed beyond belief.

"I can feel its emotions. It attacked us out of curiosity."

"Well... I don't think there are any humans in the spirit realm."

We both fell silent. It was awkward. I can kind of understand it. It lost its home and fell into the world of humans. Probably the species it never saw. And by looking at the interaction of the turtle and the cat, I guess different species often fight against each other.

"What are you going to do with it, Jason?"

"Of course, I'm going to keep it. It is so strong that it can help us."

"You are right about that. We have a corpse of giant rocky turtle corpse thanks to it."

"It could have been our corpses."

"I'm not complaining about that. It's just, how can we hide a body this big?"

Its height was easily two meters but its width was four meters. It is certainly difficult to hide. And if we just leave it here, there would be no point in trying to stop spirits. It's not even that long since I discovered mana but I already have more than enough problems I could deal with.

"You are right. It will be difficult to hide it. Maybe if we leave it here people will think it like a giant rock."

"A giant rock with deep green skin parts. Oh, and hole you can see fried brain inside!"

"...You don't have to be so mean."

"Sorry, it's just... with the appearance of these spirits I feel a great amount of stress."

"Huh? Why? The fight is already over."

"It is proof that spirits are falling to the world. This won't be the end of it. And with the amount of mana and spells we have, I can't see the chance of us making it through."

He fell silent. We might win the battle but war is just beginning now. At the rate we progress, we are not a match against spirits. They cast spells as easily as breathing. While we can cast them chantless and quickly at that, they drain us a lot. And with chanting, we lose control of it.

We need more power. Maybe more manpower or more mana reserves. While thinking to myself like this a strange light caught my eye. There is a tiny spot that emits a faint light in the body of the turtle. Only with this, I remembered my eyes are still active.

Getting defeated by my own curiosity I reached out to the light only to it intensify and blind my vision for a second. When light dispersed, the turtle's body disappeared too. Only leaving a stone full of mana. A mana stone?! That's it. I'm done. I can't deal with all of this alone. I will get Lydia back.