23

Thankfully right now I didn't have to keep my soul fang sharp. Dull was just fine, and didn't take up much mana. My muscles were well versed in holding even through muscle pain. I just had to focus on opening up my mana veins bit by bit until I could disrupt this massive beasts mana enough to cause it harm. I didn't just want to thread my mana through it's body. 

I wanted to interrupt it's mana cycle, and cause it harm. I knew how painful it was to have a disrupted mana cycle through my own slow opening of my mana veins. If it was painful then there was a good chance that damage could be caused if I pushed it far enough. Backing up enough pure energy resulted in so many dangerous explosive situations. Mana was no different. 

All I needed to do was disrupt his mana to the point that it would interrupt the flow. Once I did that then the mana would wreak havoc on the creature's insides. Focus. I narrowed my focus. Blocking out all unnecessary thought. 

Only two thoughts mattered beyond what I wanted to do. One was holding on to the knife. The other was keeping in the hollow of the spine. The creature didn't know I was here so I could do some damage when I was ready. My focus slowly intensified as I clenched my eyes shut. 

It was the only way I could ignore the sand stinging my eyes as it rushed past me. My focus intensified to the point that I became completely unaware of the world around me beyond the knife I was holding, and the hollow I was hiding in. The feeling of the sand scraping at my skin, and the blazing sun as the beast moved went almost entirely unnoticed by me. That was probably a good thing. I could see my opened mana veins as clearly as I could see the sun during the day. 

They branched away from the core of my being almost like tree branches so far they'd only formed four branches off of each trunk. There was a small tree like trunk of mana headed up my neck towards my head then there were four larger tree like trunks for my arms, and legs. They were slowly starting to look more like my circulatory system instead of tree trunks as I slowly worked at opening them up. I couldn't even sense the smallest of the mana veins yet. I knew that just from the small number of unopened mana veins I could sense so far. 

There was no way that was the full extent of what my mana veins were. They just felt so complex when I started trying to get deeper, and deeper into them. I knew without a doubt that I had barely scratched the surface so far, but I wasn't going to concern myself with that for now. Deeper, and deeper I focused my attention inward. Splitting my focus just enough to start to clear a path into other mana veins. 

Pushing on despite the fact that I'd just vomited black sludge on myself once again as the freshly flowing mana forced the black sludge out of the way, and out of my body as the flow opened in my left arm. My body wanted to convulse as my eyes tried to roll back, but somehow I managed to muscle my way through it despite the pain it caused me. That meant that whatever the convulsions were they were not seizures. Had they been seizures like I originally thought then nothing would stop me from convulsing. I noticed something else while I was muscling through that violent internal process. 

The mana vein that was opening up to my mind would be forced open little by little as I opened up the other mana veins. There were thousands of blood veins in the human body. If mana veins were the same as blood vessels then there would be thousands of them as well. It would take time, but eventually I would be able to open them all. Eventually the flow of mana would not only reach my mind, but flow freely through my mind as well. 

I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I guess I would find out eventually because risky or not I would open all my mana veins. My mana flow increased slowly as I opened the mana veins in my right leg next. Moving on to my left leg which I'd already gotten started while working on the right leg. My focus was starting to wane about then from the mental exhaustion. 

I opened my eyes which by now were crusty, and dry. It made my vision blur, but it wasn't enough to bother me too much. I needed a break, but I didn't know how I would get that break while on this beast's back. I touched the beast's flesh gently with my free hand, and closed my eyes once again. I needed to know if it was possible for me to beat this thing. 

I found it. The mana flow of the monster. I could only sense the large vein that was close to me, but that was all I needed for now. I just needed to cut off or disrupt the flow of this mana veins somehow. There had to be a way for me to do what I wanted. 

I knew on instinct how bad it could be if I messed up the flow, but my own mana wasn't enough to completely stop the flow. I decided to test the waters. Inserting my mana into the flow. I sensed something odd as my mana entered the mana flow of the beast. It quickly turned black in the beast's mana flow, and was picked up in the flow of mana. 

This got me a little excited. Maybe I could clog up the flow using my own mana. It wasn't anywhere near an important main vein of mana on this beast, but clogging up the flow had to do some damage to a healthy mana vein like this. I pushed again with more of my mana. Keeping in under control with sheer force of will alone as I created a large clump of foreign mana in the beast's mana vein.