Lance Ice 2

My first thought was how I should save mana during this battle when I realized for the first time in a long while that I had no reason to hold back. Most likely, she was either a retainer or scythe, one of the key enemies that I had spent years training to fight against in the land of asuras.

Breaking open the metaphoric wall I had built to control my mana, I felt a rush of mana pour out of my core. The once dim runes that ran down my arms and back glowed brightly, blatantly apparent even through the thick mantle I wore over my undershirt.

Particles of mana in blue, red, green and yellow rushed out of my body while the mana in my vicinity swirled and gathered, drawn to my body like moths to a fire.

“Looks like I found someone special,” the woman effused as she crossed her raised arms, invoking her spell. Dozens of vine-like arms appendages erupted from the ground and shot out from the trunks and branches of nearby trees.

My expression remained calm, her imposing intent no longer affecting me, as the disfigured hands of mana reached for me with their spindly fingers. A small crater formed in the ground below my feet as I dashed toward the slender witch of a woman, ignoring her spell.

I ducked and swayed, dodging the vine-like hands that followed my movement, never breaking my stride as I reached the witch. I was just inches away from reach, yet the woman didn’t even flinch, confident in the aura that had dissolved my earlier spell.

“Absolute Zero,” I whispered, coalescing the spell completely around my body.

The murky green hands that froze inches before contact became a disturbing statue that only philosophers could put meaning to.