Chapter 9 Fell Forest meets the Prince

After making the deal with Kai, the general left with swift steps, informing messengers who let his soldiers know, that the Magi would be fighting.

The general thought it a bit odd that Kai had requested to learn from the healers. However, it took years of training to become a basic level healer, so Haixo wasn't that worried about it.

As the news swept through the army, there was a tangible sense throughout, that their perilous situation had just gotten much better.

Kai slept after finishing eating and brushing Blizzard.

The next morning, he went to the bathroom in a dug out tent, then rode on blizzards back towards the wounded animals that hadn't been killed, and she quickly brought one down, biting into its spine and twisting her mouth while on its back. She drug it by the neck off to the side, and began eating it.

While watching her tear out chunks of flesh, Kai looked on nonchalantly. He heard a soldiers footsteps, and turned to see a fairly young soldier, though older than Kai.

He looked pale as he watched blizzard, and made a wide path around her to approach Kai.

The soldier said "Hello Sir! I'm Jack. General Haixo assigned me to be one of your runners. He told me to let you know you can fight as little or as much as you want, there is no hourly requirement. If you wanted to do the shift of an army soldier it would be 12 hours, off and on combat."

Kai nodded, not saying anything.

The soldier swallowed, trying to moisturize his dry throat. "Is there anything I can run and get for you Sir?"

Kai looked at jacks frightened appearance as he watched blizzard crack bones and tear chunks out easily.

He chuckled, and said "Well jack. First off, you are going to need to become accustomed to seeing the carnage that blizzard affects. Second, go run and get me 2 full bowls of cooked rice, with meat, salt, and hatsuf in it.. off you go now. You'd best get the food from the chef Han."

Jack saluted in the way of rakanshians, which was lifting his arm up palm up to be level.

Kai saluted him back, and Jack ran off swiftly. He found Chef Han easily, as it was next to General Haixos tent. There were several guardsman around the generals tent, and the chefs as well. A line of soldiers was waiting for their chance to order food, and a different group that was eating their prepared food. Jack was making a ruckus as he arrived with his running feet pounding the earth. The result was that chef Han looked up as the young Jack slid to a stop near the back of the line. Han spoke quickly with a fair bit of an edge to his voice. "Hey, youngster at the back. What's the big hurry huh? If you get dust in my clients food il beat you with my spoon!

All the people in front of jack turned their heads back to stare at jack. He looked guiltily at them, the ground, then stepped to the side to be in sight, and tried to speak clearly. " ahem. Well you see Sir."-

"I'm not an officer you dolt. I'm a Chef. Call me Chef or Chef Han. Now continue" the mid 20 aged chef said after interrupting Jack easily.

Coughing into his arm, Jack said "Well you see, Chef Han, the general assigned me to be a runner for the black elf Prince Kai. He has asked me to get him food before beginning his aid in defense of the battle lines."

The Chefs posture changed, and he said "well why didn't you say that from the start! Come to the front of the line then. Quickly now!"

While a few of the people in line chuckled quietly, some hiding it behind their forearms.

Jack quickly skipped past the ten of the people in line, still being careful not to rush too fast and put dust over the people eating food, standing and eating out of bowls.

"What did the prince want to eat?" asked the chef.

Jack said "2 full bowls of rice, with meat, salt, and hatsuf." Looking proud of himself after getting the order right. But the chef continued looking on, waiting for something.

The chef said "what did he want to drink?!" And Jack felt himself at a loss. He said "he didn't ask for a drink Chef Han."

The chef scoffed and said "ugh. In the future Jack, you best get what he wants to eat and drink before running off. Everyone needs to drink with meals. Well, since he seems to like it the most, I will send you off with water, but it's your fault if it's wrong. And I expect to hear about it for his next meal, not only what he wants for lunch but what he thought of the water, and not another drink."

The chef quickly began fixing a bowl; with his assistants helping him do a number of tasks. The two bowls of rice, meat, salt and hatsuf were completed, and the chef had an assistant run to get a fresh bucket of well water, filling up a large glass cup with a handle.

The chef handed Jack the bowls, with a spoon in one. In addition, he handed the cup full of water over. The chef said "bring these back to me after the prince finishes eating, or I'm going to charge you for them. They are expensive! And don't spill them!"

Jack nodded his head and said "Yes Chef Han!" And took off at a slower pace than he arrived, but not by that much.

He returned to Kai, the cup and bowls safe and sound. He handed a bowl with the spoon to Kai, who began to eat it wordlessly. The rice was cooked perfectly. When he took a drink he sighed, a rather unhappy one at that, even young jack could tell.

Jack gulped, and said " well you see, I messed up Sir. Even though you didn't say what you wanted to drink, and chef Han said it was my responsibility to ask if you forgot something. So, I am sorry Sir Prince Kai."

Kai wiped the water off his mouth with the back of his arm, and looked into the warriors eyes. He said "it's fine for today, but for breakfast I like Milk. And you can just call me Sir."

Jack said "thanks Sir, I won't forget.. about preferring milk for breakfast."

Kai smiled briefly, then spooned a mouthful of rice and meat into his mouth. He finished the two bowls off, and drained the glass of water. Handing them back to jack, with the bowls stacked on top of each other, Kai said when you get done taking this back, collect a 5 gallon animal bucket of water, and bring it here for Blizzard. Then I shall be going to battle."

Jack saluted and said "Yes Sir." He turned and hurried back to the chefs tent, which was now being packed up, like the entire camp.

He handed an assistant the bowls, who gave him a dead stare, and then said "off you go."

Jack ran to the water well, and worked quickly to lower an animal bucket down and fill it, then heaved it back up. Pulling it towards him, a bit spilled, but he centered the bucket as he got it near his chest.

By the time he got back to Kai, he was sweating from exertion. The bucket was heavy with such a big distance to run. Jack went to hand it to Kai, who raised his eyebrows and said "I'm not the one who's gonna drink it. Take it to Blizzard. She's friendly."

Blizzard looked up from licking her feet after her meal. The cow from before was gone, its leftover bones thrown into a deep carcass pit by other servants.

She watched as Jack approached, his hands shaking, spilling some of her water. He set the bucket down. Blizzard waited for him to back up so he wouldn't spill her water, then said "good job human. You barely spilled any of my water."

Jack coughed, and said "y-you can talk?"

Kai laughed, with blizzard looking over at him indignantly.

She said "of course I can talk. I'm not some dumb cow like the animals that the humans in this army ride."

Jack said "wow. That's amazing! Do all of the black elf tigers talk aloud?"

Blizzard laughed, but it sounded much more like a growling grunt. Jack looked quite terrified, jumping a few inches. "Yes we can all talk, even the tigers who aren't part of the black elf tribes."

"There are more than one? There were quite a lot of black elves.. even tho we outnumbered them."

Blizzard said "of course there's more than one. There are hundreds of tribes, some small, some the size of the Kahn clan, and some quite a bit larger."

Before Jack could ask another question, Kai came over carrying her blanket that works as a poor man's saddle, and put it on her back.

Then, he jumped smoothly onto her back, not landing with a huge force on her but a very gentle one.

He said to Jack, "Enough questions Jack. Try to keep up with me, but if you find yourself gasping for air, get your breath back and make sure to drink water from the waterers."

Jack said "Yes Sir." He started racing after the Prince. Kai had directed Blizzy with his mind, and she had turned towards the advance of the army, and began moving swiftly. Jack fell behind quickly, but the direction the duo were headed was obvious.

Within a minute, Kai arrived at the advance guard. He was still constantly guarded by soldiers, but in a general sense of being surrounded by the army, rather than having bodyguards. He'd pointed out that the best place an assassin could hide was among the bodyguards. Who had the best access to someone? Kai had read of many Roman emperors who had died at the hands of their praetorian guards.

It had made perfect sense to General Haixo, who had experienced such things during the course of his life. Not directly, but people he'd known or known of, had been killed by their bodyguards, and others had barely managed to escape death by valiantly fighting off their would be murderers, with loyal bodyguards often foiling the attacks as well.

The advance guard of the army held 2 battle lines of warriors, that were each in ranks 12 deep. The lines would change every 6-12 minutes depending on battle intensity, and the front line would fall back to the rear of the battle line, with them getting water, a chance to go piss or shit, if they hadn't had it happen involuntarily, during the course of the bloody battles.

The commander of the advance guard came towards Kai, who was surveying the battle. There were tall monsters that would take out 2-3 warriors at a time, while being stabbed by many more before they were brought down.

The commander arrived beside Kai, her horse acting very nervous next to Blizzard. It kept sidestepping, with the commander handling her reigns deftly to keep the horse in somewhat of a steady position.

She said "Greetings Prince Kai. I am Captain Lorain. The general said to obey your commands, but my primary mission is to make sure you come to no harm, and the army comes to no harm."

Kai easily understood the meanings of her words, and nodded. He said "Greetings captain Lorain. I understand, I won't endanger my life unduly, and the army means my safety for the time being."

The captain said "excellent, any questions about the battle Prince?"

Kai said "how long has the front line been fighting captain?"

She looked at the fighting force, easily correcting her scared animal still dancing around. "It's been about 2 hours. It's time to reset the line after the next battle line change."

Kai said "excellent. Have them do so now. I will take control of the battle line."

The captain didn't ask questions, but waved her hand, and her advance horn blower rang out the horn out of an ebony horn, in the battle order shift. The 12 rows in the rear marched forwards, and the front troops marched back after waiting for the right moment. Rather than meeting the enemy, Kai placed himself ahead of them about 10 feet or so. He activated his new skill easily. Speedrunner.

He began moving with extreme speed, not maxing out the possible amount, but rushing up and down the battle line, from left flank to right flank, and then back to the left flank. With no weapon in his hands, but riding a living weapon, the warriors wondered how the Magi Black elf would attack the dozens of large fell forest beasts.

Kai summoned Rapidly spinning frozen icicles, that launched themselves from above his head as he rode.

The frozen missiles of ice smashed through the monsters flesh and bone as easily as glaciers carving out mountain canyons. Impossible to resist, and nullifying the creatures sometimes imposing defenses.

The tremendous spinning motion helped the ice slice through the monsters much easier, due to the magnus effect.

The front line of monsters were killed in the span of a minute. The spears of ice remained behind afterwards, the wide backs often stuck in the monsters, with the sharp tips piercing into the ground and pinning the beasts. It was helpful for cold blooded monsters like snakes, which can bite for a very long time.

The soldiers looked at each other, thinking thoughts like.. I'm really glad we didn't have to fight this fiend! He would have crushed us even with our numbers.

Many in the advance guard wondered why he hadn't tried to fight the army off, instead of surrendering himself.

The more intelligent among them reasoned that Kai thought that it would have been too much of a risk to his own people, and that it wouldn't be that bad to go with the army as a hostage.

The real reason was that Kai wanted to learn more about his new world. His clan was relatively safe from harm in the black elf plains. He missed true civilization though, and wouldn't be able to change the way his people lived while his father ruled.

More than 12 minutes went by, and the soldiers at the very front line all scratched their chins, with nothing to do.

Kai was riding back and forth on blizzard, throwing spears created from the moisture in the air easily. Creating the spears took him half a second, so he could launch 2 for the cost of 1 mana. He was glad to have worked on increasing his spell casting speed for the first 16 years, and to present of his life.

After spearing down about 150 of the fell forests monsters, a loud roaring noise was heard by Kai, and the entire army.

It was a grating, screeching roar filled with spite. Many soldiers in the army, especially the support soldiers, accidentally released bodily fluids from the horrible noise.

Kai swept his hand forward, creating a tornado of wind that blasted all of the fallen monsters into the forest, and out of the armies path. He had already marched the army forward a few hundred feet in the past few minutes, making faster progress than the regular army.

The advance guard followed after him, and then Kai heard the sound of what he thought was footsteps, with immense weight pounding the earth. It sounded like mini earthquakes. Kai thought optimistically it could be his first sight of a giant, until an enormous snake came sidewinding itself out of the forest. It was crashing against the earth powerfully as it slithered, creating a loud earth pounding noise. Kai couldn't see how long it was, but it was easily big enough to eat Blizzard and Kai at the same time, without struggling or probably even needing to unhook its jaw.

Blizzard said "uh, you got this one right Kai?? Right?"

She looked back at him with the corner of her eye.

Kai patted her on the shoulder as he said in her mind "of course."

Kai then created a fire tornado, in front of the giant snake. He made extremely highly unstable nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen compounds that continually increased the temperature of the Firenado. The flames turned bright blue, and raged at a temperature of 100,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Kai added in anti matter positrons colliding with highly electromagnetically charged electrons, creating electric arcs, plasma, and multiplying the 100,000 degree flames into much hotter ones.

All that happened in 5 seconds or so, with the nearby air being sucked inwards to fuel the roaring flames. The firenado met the snake, who began to vaporize, turning into less than ash or mist in an instant. The tornado ate the giant snakes entire face, then into its still violently shaking body, dying down in height and width as it finished off the tail.

The firenado then died down completely. The frontline soldiers chests all hurt from the air being sucked out of their bodies during the extremely violent firenado. None of them understood what had just happened, but they did know that it was a magic of incredible might. They had felt the flames from hundreds of feet away. Their skin felt sunburnt even now. Kai had been much closer, but his magic shielded him and blizzard with gravity, magnetic, and electrical waves, creating a non visible shield around their bodies.

With the snake defeated, the front line of the battle died down. It had thrown its servants in to kill the army, and then tried to do so itself and failed miserably.

Kai turned back towards the army who quickly resumed their march forwards towards him, after being blown backwards and struggling to breath.

He didn't march towards them, but simply waited where he was as they caught up to him.

The front lines split to absorb him into their depths, forming back into a cohesive unit soon after.

After seeing Kai's might, they weren't quite so afraid of blizzard. Kai was clearly the most dangerous threat they had ever seen.

Once passing through the second line of the advance guard, Kai motioned to Jack who was waiting for him.

"Water for Blizzard, and myself."

A advance guard runner had water for blizzard ready in seconds, and set it down for her. She began drinking while Kai sat on her back. Jack handed Kai a drink of water. Kai took a break for 30 minutes, which replenished the 60 mana he had used up during the fight. His 60 mana was very useful to him, but Kai was still excited for when he would be able to have much more.

He decided that he would put all of his level upgrades into mana from now on, until he got to 500 mana. He was 302,743/355,043 of the way to hitting level 36. The battle had gained him a lot of experience, especially creating the firenado and eradicating the giant Terror forest snake.

Once his mana was fully replenished, Kai marched back through the lines, taking a place in the center of the front line. He began working with the soldiers, shouting out to them, "kill the weaker ones, and I will kill the rest."

The soldiers to his left and right took on expressions of determination, and they each got a boost in confidence. They had a brilliant warrior fighting with them, who seemed like a great leader as well.

Kai saw a rhino looking monster barreling towards him, and created a strong lightning blast that killed a line of weaker enemies before striking into the rhino looking thing in its forehead, blasting through it with much more force than a standard lightning blast. The rhinos feet froze in death, and it's feet with no muscle resistance, collapsed into the dirt. The beast slid forwards and built up a pile of dirt in front of itself.

The lightning blast didn't go all the way through the rhino, but it did create a burnt blackened hole around 8 feet deep and a circumference of 12 inches.

The battle continued in that way for hours, with Kai using his magic sparingly, large beasts being provoked by the feeling of a larger predator than them, and Kai would kill that charging beast.

He would then go behind the advancing lines, and recharge his stamina and mana, but mostly his mana. He wasn't doing any personal fighting, but riding blizzzard in the hot and humid forest took stamina as well. Just less than using martial artist.

The army made its daily 10 miles, settling into camp a hour earlier than usual. Kai made his way to the hospital tents. The sides and rearguards had lost less than normal, but still had plenty of wounded soldiers and the lost. Kai hadn't been fighting along the combat field, after all, just the entire advance guard marching forwards. It was the hardest of the fields of battle though, with plenty of the fell forests beasts liking the open space, a bit away from the tall trees that spit acid, and with explosive pollen seedcones.

Kai thought the trees would be useful for harvesting the acid, but it would take a lot of infrastructure the forest didn't have. His fundamental forces ability had allowed him to inspect the acid, which was a mix of Formic acid, sulphuric acid, and fluoroantimonic acid, the strongest acid in his last world. It was 25% formic acid, 25% sulphuric acid, and 50% fluoroantimonic acid.

The trees seperately create each of those, and they mix together in mid air, creating strong reactions that increase the lethality of the spray many fold.

Kai began studying the healers closely, who used magic to heal wounds. His scholar skill activated, and his learning happened quickly. He soon unlocked Healing - Basic level one. He continued learning though, as there was a healer with the army that is called a Heavenly Healer. She can regrow limbs, heal soldiers with missing guys, and otherwise amazing things, far outside the ability of normal healers.

The levels went basic, intermediate, advanced, expert, magical, and heavenly. After level 3 in each you had the chance to evolve your skill, if you had the internal capability to learn more, and could find the teacher to watch or learn from to do so.

Kai didn't need to stop to regenerate his mana, as he recovered mana at the same pace as his scholar used mana. 2% understanding a minute.

He ranked up over the course of about an hour, until he reached the skill Heavenly Healer Level 3. Heavenly healer can heal everything short of death. Mana cost: 5 mana per second healing.

Looking at the skill description, Kai smiled. He could heal himself and others easily now, when he wanted to.