Chapter Eighty Three
After they made it to the top of the wall, the Matriarch retreated from their group, offering her goodbyes as she shifted down the wall a good dozen ters before arriving at her normal place of defense. She did not climb to the upper wall, however. She stayed on the lower rear half of the wall and seed to take a eting with everyone. Allanar joined her. Joe, for his part, sat down on the stairs and joined in with the conversation of the others while also answering so rapid questions of what had happened. The questions mostly ca from Gwenvair, which made sense as she was likely concerned with the power dynamics within the clan.
"So, is all well?" Gwenvair asked.
Joe nodded, "Yeah. I basically said the blacksmith couldn't use or have any of the giant's harvest."
Gwenvair looked at him, confusion painting her face, "how?"
Joe smiled, "I asked her if her… your clan wanted the materials from the giant."
"Of course we would want it, but it is not our…" Gwenvair trailed off as realization ca to her.
Joe smiled.
"You… promised the clan the materials as long as the blacksmith could not receive any!"
He nodded.
Gwenvair stared at him for so ti before she smiled, a brilliant happy one. She said nothing. Joe stared at her for a bit before nodding and looking away, acknowledgnt and grateful thanks readily understood in her smile. The two fell silent while Joe turned back to the conversation the other three were having. Kilniara had listened in while Gwenvair and Joe were speaking although she did not join in.
When they fell silent, she rejoined in the conversation with Garnedell and her brother. The conversation was spent mostly on Joe's exploits over the last couple days, the majority of it spent on his fight with the giant, although so of it was spent on the sli fight as well. The excited exclamations were interrupted by several questions that the others sotis asked for clarification, most of the ti from the boys. The morning was spent this way until the day shift for defense began. It wasn't long, only twenty or thirty minutes if Joe guessed correctly, and when the shift change did occur, he stood with a sigh and took his place. Right. Second verse, sa as the first. Or… well… third? Right, third day? Man… it feels longer!
He stepped up to the higher outer wall, and shambled towards the current defender. He was quite tired despite the good amount of sleep he'd received the night before. Going to need a vacation after? I guess? No… definitely! I'm getting…
"I am ready to take the shift."
The woman defending who had been arcing massive boulders over the corpse of the giant imdiately quit and slumped, her shoulders dropping, spine sloughing, and hands dropping to her knees as she collapsed, exhausted.
"Finally!"
He pulled out an arrow and fired, slinging a half dozen arrows with mana tornados out to clean up the line before responding.
"Tiring, huh."
"Very much so," she gasped, not looking up.
Joe sent a few more arrows out, his speed at forming mana tornados significantly faster now that he'd been doing it for a couple days straight now. Once he'd stabilized the line quite a bit further away from the corpse to give the guards and elite defenders of the giant a bit of a rest, he turned back to the still gasping woman.
"It seems you did well."
The woman grimaced, preparing to snap at him when she stood. Her mouth actually opened to snap at him, but she imdiately stopped as she gaped at him a bit.
"… Eccentric!"
"Hi!"
She stared at him for a few monts then spoke, "Hello? I… hi?"
"You kept the monsters back, which is all that's tasked of us, which ans you did well."
She stared at him for a while before she bobbed, said thanks, and fled the wall. Joe watched her go, offering a belated goodbye while being a bit confused by all this. He stood, watching her scurry way for a few confused minutes until he ca to himself and returned to his fight on the wall. And the day's monotony began.
The morning blended into a long blur of arrow shots, dead monsters, and ever draining mana. Noon ca and Joe swapped out his jobs, continuing on his path of the soldier and rcenary, swapping to sergeant and young hunter, respectively. Lunch ca and he enjoyed the break but found himself too exhausted to really even be involved with the others' conversation. Physically, he felt fine, but despite that, his exhaustion was still bone deep. Lunch passed in a rapid blur and he found himself back on the wall once again, firing arrow after arrow, keeping his wall clear. The afternoon blurred even more than the morning and so did the next several days.
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Over the next three days, Joe slept early, slept well, and woke to mana, mana point, and skill practice each morning before breakfast. He did end up sleeping a bit earlier but no matter how much he slept, his exhaustion only grew ever worse and soon his mind began to detach as he fired arrow after arrow out over the fields. His body felt fine. His stamina was also fine. He'd even taken the ti to exercise yesterday morning, making sure to push his system stamina to zero then pushed his own body. He found his body working fine, even excellent. His muscles were unaffected and his heart rate remained steady. It wasn't until the next day in the morning that made him realize what was happening.
He woke as normal, took a mont to enjoy his awakening, basked in the presence of Kilniara, and then began his mana, mana point, and skill exercises. When he did so, his entire body … his entire being, even more than his body, flinched. Pain suffused through him and he quivered, grimacing. Kilniara woke with a start and looked at him with concern. With her wakening, he didn't try to hide his groans, allowing them to moan out louder. He panted for a bit, struggling to get the pain under control. Once it was a bit easier, he began taking stock of his body, trying to find the pain.
Despite his attempts, however, he couldn't find it at all. He felt pain everywhere and nowhere, simultaneously. He then began to press his hand around his body, pressing areas gingerly, but no matter how or where he pressed, he couldn't feel any form of increased pain. What… how… where did I feel the pain? When did I feel… the mana!
Realization struck. The mana! He breathed softly, worried to try again as the pain had been substantial and even the ache still throbbed through him. He clenched teeth and pondered, then realized that Kilniara had been speaking.
"… you OK?"
"Oh… uh… I'm sorry. I'm fine, if a bit… sore."
"What happened?"
"I'm not… sure. I'm … I hurt. I don't …"
"You're hurt? How?"
"I don't know. I was trying my mana exercises, and it hurt, very badly."
"Emitting mana?"
"Yes. It was… painful."
"Really? I… are you… is it OK?"
"I… don't know. I'll have to check."
Kilniara waited silently before she replied softly, her voice almost a barely there whimper, "Can I help?"
Joe noticed her voice and quickly glanced towards her to reassure her, "Don't worry. I'm fine, if just a bit in pain."
She looked at him carefully, her eyes darting across his face, "Truly?"
Joe smiled, "I think so. Just surprised. Let do so testing."
She smiled tremulously as she nodded, "OK."
"Hey. Hey. Don't worry. I'll be careful."
Joe reached up and hugged her tight, making sure to not let his pain show through before pulling back and looking into her eyes carefully.
"Really! I'll be careful."
This ti, her smile was a bit stronger and they shared a look for a mont before he nodded and laid back down, closing his eyes to begin testing where his pain ca from. Kilniara remained above him, watching carefully.
So… pain when I use mana, so… is it… ok… don't want to do the mana again… so let check my points, maybe? Joe took the option to escape the issue and began cautiously attempting to manipulate one mana point. He did the ntal or spiritual equivalent of barely touching the mana point, but felt no pain. He then began nudging it ever more and more, soon having it whipping around the room as fast as he ever had it moving. He added more and more points and felt no pain. So… not the mana points. Emission? All emission or just my personal emissions? I've gotta try … Joe grimaced and shied away again, turning to mana point manipulation instead. He went through all practices he normally did and felt nothing once again, including manipulating multiple points in multiple ways simultaneously. Finally, he attempted to emit from his mana points, incredibly cautious but soon doing it faster and more rapidly. It proved easy and without pain.
In fact, Joe found his ability to create constructs with his points even easier than with his own personal mana core. He even pulled out an arrow and tried emitting mana into the arrow head to form his hurricane with mana repository and it ford with ease, rapidly coming together. He played with this quite a few tis, then had a mont of epiphany and grinned. Definitely not trying to delay… nope… this would be good to know! He tried to suck the mana back from his hurricane mana repository thing back into himself and then quickly grunted in pain. Nope… nope… ok… nope… that hurt… don't use my core! OOooh… don't use my core.
He rested for a ti, Kilniara reacting quickly to his stuttering breathing and pain until he was able to begin again, the arrow head still about half full of his mana. He stared at it, pondering for a mont before he narrowed his eyes. Right… suck the mana back into my point… not my own core… so… how…oh? Instead of 'sucking' the mana back towards himself, he zipped his emptiest point, maybe about ten or fifteen percent full, out to the mana construct and just sorta 'buried' it into the mana construct. So… how do I tell it to suc… ooh! His mana point suddenly just sucked up the entire hurricane construct before it seed to slow and just kind of slowly drain the repository at the end of the long line that had connected the tip of the hurricane to the mana repository. Joe considered that, then grinned, and moved the point into the bubble of mana. The mana repository evaporated, sucked down into the point and when he looked at the mana point, it was about a quarter refilled. Ok… nice. He grinned. He tried quite a few more tis and ended up delaying even more but soon found himself unable to put off testing personal core emissions anymore.
He sighed. Alright then, uh… personal emission then… but… Joe grimaced and Kilniara obviously noticed as he felt her hand press comfortingly on to his chest. He took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. Co on… don't quit. Joe sent out a trickle of mana out from his chest and felt his whole body quiver slightly. It wasn't enough to really overwhelm him with pain but the twinge was enough to let him know that it was the cause of the pain. He released his emission efforts and relaxed a bit before once again letting it out. He started as small as he could and slowly ramped it up, getting a feel for it to understand it. It grew for a bit before a sense of cramping ca upon him, then a strained overwhelming pain. He ended it with a gasp, his body shuddering even as his breath ca out in quivers. The pain faded away once more and he began again, feeling the pain carefully. This ti, he ramped up his efforts as slowly as possible while attempting to feel what changes were occurring.
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