Thalia dashed toward their camp…the sun was sinking in the horizon painting the sky orange red. It was only a matter of minutes until the darkness overtook the sky…and that meant magic beasts were more likely to roam.
Her heart sank deep into her chest…she perceived mana signatures in the sky above the camp where Gaia and the children were waiting. That could only mean one thing, flying magic beasts were attacking!
Dashing even faster, she caught sight of Gaia fending off waves of Demibats. Kesi was by her side, stick in hand swatting furiously at the Demibats as they swooped down to attack. Despite their best efforts, Gaia and Kesi were unable to do significant damage…the Demibats were simply too fast. They would swoop down and attack, and swiftly retreat to higher altitude safely out of reach.
Gaia could easily exterminate all the Demibats in one attack, however, doing so would require her to unleash a considerable amount of mana. Since the children were huddled close to Gaia, such action would likely injure them…or worse…kill them.
"I'm here! Is everyone alright?" Thalia asked…her breath hard and sharp.
"Thank goodness you made it!" Gaia exclaimed, "we are ok…no one is seriously injured but these Demibats are very annoying and persistent."
Gaia immediately noticed a change in Thalia…even though they had separated for only a day, she seemed stronger… and her mana seemed denser.
Thalia jumped around swatting at the Demibats with her cutlass. This yielded little success. Despite being the same size as a person, the Demibats were surprisingly agile and maneuvered quickly in midair.
After a few failed attempts, Gaia shouted at Thalia, "it useless to swat at them! These Demibats are blind…they can't see mana…but they can feel the vibrations in the air. That's why they are so nimble…they feel your attacks and can quickly react."
'Blind…they can't see mana…perfect! In that case, I was wanting to try out this new skill I unlocked,' Thalia thought as she smirked in appreciation for this sudden turn of events.
She extended her left arm, opened her left palm while holding her hand out. Thalia closed her eyes for a moment…focused on the flow of her mana. She felt its warm glimmer build in the palm of her hand like a contained fire waiting to unleash.
!ALERT!
[ASTRA skill used]
[Astra - A light based magic attack. Reduces magic resistance and physical defense on target area by 50% for 1 minute]
In a flash, a bright beam of light erupted from the palm of Thalia's hand…like a laser beam, focused but deadly. It penetrated a nearby Demibat burning a clean circular whole right through its chest. The Demibat let out a death rattle and plummeted down to the ground.
!ALERT!
[Demibat has been defeated]
Thalia thought inwardly as she smirked, 'good it worked!'
In an instant, a dozen more beams of light erupted from Thalia. The mana laser-beams illuminated the night sky followed by a dozen death cries of wounded Demibats falling to their end. That was followed by a flurry of system messages…
[Demibat has been defeated]
[Demibat has been defeated]
[Demibat has been defeated]
[Demibat has been defeated]
[YOU LEVELED UP!]
The messages kept popping up as Thalia continued to fire Astra after Astra. Each beam more powerful, faster, and more deadly than the previous. The system messages kept flooding her field of vision….more Demibats defeated and more level ups!
Gaia stood nearby, guarding the children while silently assessing the situation. She was amazed by two things: first, Thalia was using light-based magic! The most common type of magic-based attacks used by humanoids and magic beasts was fire magic…followed by ice magic. Lightning-based magic was significantly rarer…but light-based was by far the most rare and most potent form of magic attacks. In fact, it was so rare that only the Itarim, Apostoles, and a few powerful beings could use it. So, when and how did Thalia learn to wield this power?
The second thing that amazed Gaia was the undisputable fact that Thalia was clearly getting stronger with each Demibat she defeated…Gaia could feel the change in mana and magic output coming from Thalia…instead of getting weaker with fatigue, she was getting stronger.
How was that possible? What exactly happened over the last few hours?
The Demibats unable to see the light-beams were completely helpless…like fish in a barrel, Thalia quickly finished off the last of them.
The group had little time to hug and talk…their immediate priority was to assess their current situation. A few children had suffered minor flesh wounds…thankfully none of the Demibat attacks seemed to have inflicted poison or similar debuffs. Furthermore, it seemed the supplies the group had acquired from the merchant group as a 'thank you payment' was mostly intact.
While she was attending to the wounded children, Gaia thought to herself, "whatever happened back there, I'm sure Thalia will talk about it when she is ready…for now I am glad she is safe.'
[NAME: THALIA LVL: 30
JOB: ERROR
TITLE: NONE FATIGUE: 0
HP: 2,680
MP: 1,800
STRENGTH: 40 VITALITY: 31
AGILITY: 64 INTELLEGENCE: 110
SENSE: 182
REMAINING POINTS:0]
[PASSIVE]
SAVANT Lv. 1
Due to high natural affinity to mana, your growth rate is accelerated to 150%.
INSIGHT Lv. 1
Bonus to Intelligence and Sense.
[ACTIVE]
ASTRA Lv. 1
A light based magic attack. Reduces magic resistance and physical defense on target area by 50% for 1 minute.
SIGHT Lv. 1
Allows Player to see mana. Higher SENSE stat increase Player's range.
Mana cost is 0.