Into The Wilderness II
As soon as the convoy passed through the tunnel, Osho’s eyes widened as he was greeted by quite the sight.
The Citadel was built on an elevated piece of land. Not quite a Plateau, but it was of a higher elevation than everywhere else around it. Apparently, this was how most citadels were constructed due to the advantages the high ground provided, and right now, it also gave Osho quite the view.
For as far as his eyes could see, a dense forest stretched out into the horizon. Moreover, the trees weren’t ordinary either as even from here, he could tell each out was dozens of ters tall, sothing that happened due to nature being saturated by Mana.
There were about 4 miles of cleared land between the Citadel and the rest of the massive forest that was the wilderness. In this cleared land, all sorts of things were I’m place to defend against beasts. Various traps like controlled landmines, pits, hidden turrets, and so on.
Osho looked back at the wall and was surprised to see that, unlike its flat face on the inside, the outside part of the wall was at an angle that made it so that scaling it would be extrely difficult if one didn’t have a way to stick themselves to a surface or fly.
Moreover, the wall was lined with all sorts of traps as well. However, they were mostly small holes that Osho couldn’t see into from this distance, but he assud they could spew so projectiles or attack anything that latched onto the wall.
’Neat.’ He thought as the convoy continued to move, following the road that extended to the wilderness. There were still a few checkpoints that they needed to get through. But once they crossed all of them and reached the edge of the clearing, the road turned into a dirt path that went deep into the forest.
"From here on out, we are no longer under any strict protection, so you are to listen to everything we tell you. Understood?" Mrs Jane spoke, her tone firm.
Everyone nodded, and the convoy entered the forest.
Osho half expected so sort of strange change in the air when they crossed the taphorical boundary, but he was surprised when said change actually occurred.
It was subtle, but the mont they entered, it was as though the air suddenly felt heavier. It was a bit uncomfortable as breathing beca a notch more difficult.
’Oh yeah, trees produce oxygen. With this many of them around while being augnted by the ambient Mana, the oxygen they produce has weight.’ He rembered one of the lessons in school.
Granted, all air had weight. That’s sothing like a ball would be all crumpled up whenever air was taken out because the surrounding air pressed down on it to take that shape.
However, if one wanted to use that sa analogy and got a ball and removed the air, it would be pressed down significantly more by the air in this place.
Granted, it wasn’t enough to cause sothing such as oxygen poisoning, but the effects were still noticeable. However, no one comnted on it.
That’s because, besides the air suddenly gaining more weight, there was sothing else. An odd... tension.
Osho rembered that in his past life on earth, people often spoke about how they could feel they were being watched, or how they could feel that soone had malicious intent towards them despite showing no signs of such.
Sotis, these people were right. Other tis, they were simply in over their heads. As such, it wasn’t proven that humans could tell they were being targeted. Otherwise, nurous assassination attempts throughout history would have failed since the target would have known they were a target.
But in this world, things behaved differently.
Mana was odd. If one didn’t pay attention, they’d never know it was there, but when they noticed it, the things they could do with it were simply incredible. Besides Mana, people often called it creation energy due to how it seed to be linked with all parts of existence. There was Mana for all the elents, and even things like space, and Osho saw rumors of Mana for ti. But the fact was that there was still pure Mana which these sub-types stemd from.
Now, living beings were naturally inclined to Mana, but studies and real-life evidence showed that humans weren’t as inclined to it as beasts. Otherwise, they wouldn’t need to take a beast first before they could start using magic.
Now, if one recalls, beasts have Auras, and these Auras have undertones that are used to identify the rank of a beast. But they are more complicated than that.
A beast’s Aura is intricately linked to them. Scientists theorized that their Aura is an amalgamation of everything that makes up their strength. The higher the quality of their strength, the denser their Aura until it reaches the next color/rank.
Moreover, Uaras are largely linked to their emotions, intent, and possibly even thoughts. Auras are passive, but they usually only beco visible whenever a beast is agitated.
Now, if a beast sharpened their Mana with say, Killing Intent, it would beco like a beacon to all beings that had the ability to sense Mana. It resonated with the world and pressed down on everything around it, and the pressure it created was difficult to miss.
In a way, it was Mana reacting to Mana. A sort of silent communication between lifeforms that was embedded in the very nature of this world.
If a beast, or any powerful entity, looked at soone with real intent, even without doing anything, the ambient Mana would react and carry the weight of that gaze, and the more sensitive one was to Mana, the more sharply they could feel this intent.
Now for all intents and purposes, none of the students in any of the buses should have been good enough at sensing Mana to sense if there was an intent being directed their way. Not from far away at least. However, there was sothing most would overlook unless thrust into that position themselves, one that made a chill run down Osho’s spine.
It was the quantity.
The sheer number of intent-filled gazes watching the convoy from different parts of the massive forest. There had to be hundreds, no, maybe even thousands.
The pressure of it all was crushing, and Osho subconsciously gripped the edge of his seat tighter as the weight pressed down on him.
He vaguely heard one of his classmates having what sounded like a panic attack as he wasn’t the only one facing such pressure.
’D-Damn...’ He’d read about this before, but experiencing it was sothing no book could properly convey, and quite frankly, it was frightening.
’How are we ant to train in these types of conditions? It’s like my body is being assaulted by countless tiny needles.’ He thought as he struggled to regain his composure.
That’s when he ’heard’ a snort. It’s more apt to say that he felt it, but not physically, simply because it ca through his bond with Gale.
He was surprised to feel a strong sense of disdain coming from the bird, as if the intent-filled gazes were beneath him.
Then to Osho’s shuck, the pressure vanished.
’No, it’s still there. But it’s no longer as heavy. Like the things staring are now... hesitant?’ He stared at Gale whose beady eyes which usually didn’t hold a shred of thought behind them were filled with, oddly enough, contempt.
’Did you...?’ Osho didn’t finish the silent question as he heard soone clear their throat.
He looked in the direction to see Mrs Jane, as well as the soldiers and the students staring at him.
"... What?" He couldn’t help but squirm under their gazes. There was no intent behind them, but it still fell weird to be stared at so blatantly without even knowing at first.
"You... what was that?" Ellie was the first to ask.
"... What?" He narrowed his eyes. He had a feeling where this was going.
"It was like... idk, a wave? The weight from the stares suddenly cleared, and it started from you as the center." Ellie explained.
’... So it extends to everyone else huh? Interesting.’ Osho mused. But that wasn’t all.
He suddenly noticed that all the beasts of his classmates suddenly found it difficult to look in his direction. Even Sugil, but the snake could still look in his general direction, the rest, they were completely avoiding his line of sight. No, not his, Gale’s.
"This is an interesting developnt." Mrs Jane spoke and everyone turned to her, clearly seeking an answer for the strange occurrence.
"As you have all just observed, Osho, or more appropriately, his beast, did sothing that caused the gazes you lot were feeling to lessen in intensity. The reason for this is easy to explain, but becos severely more complicated the deeper you get into it." She gave all of them a pointed look.
"That would be called Bloodline Suppression".
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