Choices III — Ambrosya

"Search for any survivors." My eyes darted from place to place, using the extension of my senses to their fullest potential.

Pools of sticky, drying blood flooded my perception. I could taste the salty iron flavours and smell its rust-like scent. I could feel just how grungy it was as it mixed with the dirty floors. It was a texture that made me retch.

"Ugh," I groaned. I was genuinely about to throw up. The taste of what must be bile, organs, and piss had suddenly burdened me with their horrors.

I glanced at the wrong rancid corpse, and instant regret bathed me.

Was enchanting my eyes with Sight-Sent Senses the right idea? I was having immense doubts. The psychological cons were currently outweighing the practical pros.

It was too late to regret, however. It was now my problem forever.

Clack—

I perceived a sound through my eyes.

"Two o clock. There's movement." I alerted my two companions.

King nodded. "I know. It's something small. Much smaller than a human being."

"Something small..." Mana Vision allowed me to peer through the darkness. I witnessed a blur of movement peek out of the gaps in the buildings. It was a being of dense mana.

As dense as D rank.

"A beast," I muttered, "I don't have the ability to deal with something like that."

"I'll deal with it," Rose spoke after overhearing my mutters. I forgot that this princess's magic dealt with sound. She had keen ears. Under my gaze, she then pulled out a slim, exquisite wand of a pearly white and gleaming silver.

"A little D rank beast is nothing against me. Dear, will you serve as my vanguard?"

King nodded and stepped forward.

"I'll pull it towards me." He said.

I then recalled the [ Specialisation ] of one of the assassins of the Sullied Seven. It was called [ Shadow Summoner ]. A magical ability that was unique to him. No one else in the world could practise it. Much less have access to it.

It wasn't like Rose's founding of musical magic. It wasn't a school, but instead, a mysterious unique ability similar to Virion's [ Bloody Halo ].

"Don't try and approach it," I called King back, "Let's avoid battle with that thing for as long as possible. It is a beast with the intelligence of a human. It's closer to being a monster than a beast."

I looked at where I last saw the beast, and I could now see it staring at me from within the shadows. Its orange eyes had vertical pupils and were glowing like little candles. Three tails brimming with mana fanned out behind it.

A three-tailed fox.

"It has sensed us," I said as I stepped back.

With my extended senses, I could smell the thick scent of death on its fur and feel that parts of its body were sticky—clearly stained with blood. I could also taste the foul flavours of corporeal shadows.

This little being was surely the cause of many deaths... But if it was a simple Rank D summon, it shouldn't have the ability to mess with the territory of a rank C mage.

"And it probably has allies."

BOOM—!

It was just then, an explosion burst forth from one of the central buildings. Debris came shooting out of its top floor, threatening to shower us with shrapnel.

"Rose!" I called out.

"I know!"

A set of mana programs were swiftly drawn in the air with Rose's every movement. It looked as if she was conducting an orchestra as she waved her wand with grace. Her mana programs looked like sheet notes.

WOOOOOOONG!

The powerful sound of a gong's crescendo resounded. It boomed through the air and created a sort of sound barrier that shielded us from the raining shards of glass.

My gaze pierced through the explosion's remnants and the falling debris. There, I saw a fox that was about 5 feet tall, bearing five tails behind its back. It confronted a human dressed in robes who was slowly descending from the air.

With a gleam in my eyes, I discerned the E rank spell.

[]=[]=[]

Spell: Featherfalling

Mana Consumtion: Moderate

Number of Mana Programs: 9

Description: Fall like a feather dancing in the wind. A simple spell that allows its caster to fall slowly and gracefully.

[]=[]=[]

The human was shielded by a light blue sphere as she fell slowly to the ground. Mana programs repeatedly appeared before her staff, shooting out the three different elements.

Lightning, fire, and ice, all of which were bluish in tinge.

Crackle—! Boom—!

A fork of lightning flashed in the air, followed by the rumbling of thunder. Bluish missiles of flames were launched rapidly at the five-tailed fox. Spears of ice slowly formed around her before flying through the air to pierce through the fox's mana shields.

What a sight it was to see a mage in battle. I was frankly in awe. C ranks composed most of this continent's elites. B rank and A rank were simply too difficult to breach given the lacking mana density of the Pillion Continent.

The Gaian Membrane was prohibiting the flow of mana to move from continent to continent.

Of course, there was an A rank within Aelthrie's walls, but she had only achieved such powers given the characteristics of the metropolis.

The other B ranks were scattered across the continent, searching for a place they could devour enough mana to break through to A.

Finally, S rank was the realm of the gods, and no human could reach it. I had set an evolutionary limit. Humans were simply incapable of making it to S.

One needed to evolve. To become High Humans.

"Hah," I sighed in admiration. I wanted to become a being who was even more powerful than S rank.

C rank was simply not enough. Power did not equate to immortality.

The lifespans of A rank humans did not differ from the lifespans of F rank humans one bit.

Then, as I lingered within my thoughts, my instincts suddenly screamed.

Duck!

They roared at me. But I wasn't fast enough.

Thud—!

Something slammed against my chest, launching me straight through the air. I looked back at where I had been standing, and there I found that small three-tailed fox falling from midair.

It had hit me with its three tails in the blink of an eye.

Splash—!

I crashed into a pile of corpses and fell into a pool of blood.