Melody of Mana

I would have to learn silver jacket guy's name, because he was something else. He was turning and slashing as he went blow for blow against what was formerly Armina. The mana-eater was terrifyingly fast, and it seemed to take less damage than I would suspect from the few slashes that landed.

I fell back a bit as did Dietrich and the priestess. The girl we'd tried to help seemed to still be in shock, and was staring at the pair of combatants with saucer eyes. She held tight to the young faith caster, seeming to tremble as she did so.

"You lot, fire, non-magical variety!" the man yelled as he ducked under a blow, the hand grazing his hair.

I looked at the other two, to see if they had any ideas. The priestess looked at a loss. Dietrich, for all he wanted to help immediately tried to light the grass with magic, a failing idea if ever there was one. The boy had a good heart but he was perhaps not the brightest in the world.

This was complete crap, where were we supposed to get something that could burn? If only I had a flamethrower, napalm, or heck even a Molotov cocktail... Wait that could work, maybe. I knew it well enough. I'd seen it made, tried it, smelt it, had it spilled on me. I even knew the formula from some nerdy t-shirt a friend had had.

"Burning summoned things okay!?" I screamed as my idea took shape, feeling it all come together in my head. I felt so stupid, I should have thought of this years ago.

"Yes!"

"Get me a shot then." I brought my hands up and began to cast. I even knew the song to go along with it. Luckily the translation was so simple I could do it on the fly.

"What do ya do with a drunken..." As he kicked the mana-eater back I forced as much mana into the spell as I could. This close to the monster it wasn't easy, but a spray of clear liquid flew forward, just like it had with the water. It even looked like water, not much more than would come out of a rather anemic hose, but a good spray for me none the less.

"Fire you idiot girl not water!" Those words were followed by my call of "Early in the mornin'" and a small spark woven into my spell.

I should have anticipated how energetic the fire would have been. I did not, and found that it sent me diving for cover as everything forward just lit. The blue flame seemed to travel almost instantly up the whole stream and onto the confused mana-eater, turning yellow-orange as it left the flow of alcohol.

I wanted to laugh at all the people who'd told me bards couldn't do combat magic, but it really wasn't the time. The creature screamed as it caught and tried to backpedal, only to hit a bush. It was hurt, but by no means out of the fight yet. The little monstrosity was some other kind of durable.

That did mark the turning point though. While the monster charged and slashed and dodged, the fire both injured and seemed to slow it. I could now just keep my eyes on it's movements as the man cut chunk after chunk away until finally managing to bring the beast down after several tense passes with his blade.

All of us currently alive in the little clearing by the fountain took a second to gaze at the burning corpse, and the fire that was still going hot right near it. The man kicked the body into the flames and looked at us after confirming that the beast moved no more.

"Can any of you heal?"

"I can." The priestess and I chorused.

"Good, come." It took her a second to convince the viscera covered young woman to hold onto Dietrich instead, and I struggled for breath from the running and spell improvisation, a draining feat at the very best of times.

We passed a number of the dead on our way back. There were more young people here who'd lost their lives than I'd care to admit to. We did stop to check those that lived, finding mostly survivable wounds. Once or twice the priestess stopped at a person casting a quick healing spell to stabilize them before moving on. I was nearly out of mana and so let her take the brunt of that as we headed towards the manor.

When we got to the manor what we found was a bloodbath. There had been perhaps two hundred people who were supposed to be there, counting servants and non-casters. Of that I guessed that perhaps half had perished here and on the outside of the house. Most of the men had gallantly thrown themselves at the creature to buy us time and whatever injuries on it they could. They had taken the highest toll.

I found Jackson struggling to stand, a woman helping him move from person to person so he could heal them to stability. He'd taken what looked to be a hit to the ribs and just managed to keep his casting going. He nodded and pointed to the side of the carnage furthest from himself, telling me where to go first.

I found Lord Johannes and Rieg, bent down and holding Armond. The boy had taken a crossbow shot to the gut and looked as if he might die any second.

"Hold on son, the healer will be here any second, just hold on." The man wept as he held his child. His twin seemed unable to form words.

I stumbled to their side and began to cast, though I had to ask both father and brother to sing with me so that I could even do that much. I was running on fumes as I struggled through closing up his wound. It seemed to take longer than it should have but eventually it was done enough that I could tell he'd make it.

I had to drag Rieg with me after explaining that his brother would live and I needed his help as a gestalt. Dietrich had taken over helping the priestess as best he could, applying pressure to wounds and finding the most injured. When he'd come over before his father had waved him off, pointing at the other girl without breaking from the song I'd had him singing.

As I worked on the next person a group of men in full armor arrived, charging forward into the carnage as they looked for the source. As they took in the full sight I saw a few of them have to slow to process it all, quickly returning to action as they looked about.

"You lot, you're late. Send your fastest man to The Shield, tell them the fighting is over and we need help here as fast as possible. Most of the victims are non-combatants; they will help. The rest of you; scour the grounds for enemies and hiding party-goers, particularly the injured."

"Yes sir, Lord Fallon!" I'd finally learned silver jacket man's name. It seemed a bit odd to me that the knights obeyed him without any hesitation, but I was happy about it.

I finished up with my second patient and was having Rieg help me up to my feet when a hand fell onto my shoulder. "Cease casting for now girl. You've reached your limit." It was the old man who'd blown the wall off of the building. He was the same man as had an aura that was so bright it was unpleasant to look at.

"There are still people hurt," I objected.

His face was kindly, but his voice firm and commanding.

"If you overreach you will do nothing but knock yourself out. At which point you will be unable to do anything for longer than if you just rest. So you will rest, and when you've gotten enough of your mana back to be useful again, you will return to helping. Trust me on this young lady."

I really wanted to fight against his judgment, if only because he was annoyingly patronizing. He was right though. I was on my last legs and before long would be out cold on the floor. With that in mind I let him lead me over to a seat by the bar after a "Fine, I'll take a break."

"Drink something while you wait. It will help."

Shortly thereafter he went to make the same declaration to the priestess. She'd had more mana to work with than I had on the healing, but was working far faster through patients. I suppose she must have actually been around thirteen and not a reincarnated girl because after a few comments I couldn't catch on his side she began loudly telling him to mind his own business.

So he did, and after she'd finished with her next patient she fell over unconscious. He floated her over to the bar where I was sitting, feeling like a dunce. After putting her down on the floor the old man looked me over again.

"Stabilize three more, then another break. You two are still too young to keep it up like this. Good job though."

The knights had started organizing the injured while I was benched and it was easy to find who I needed to work on next. Even as I started a few priests arrived to help with the carnage, a most welcome sight. They could do far more than I could in the same time and with the same effort.

When I'd done my three and returned I found the young priestess just starting to wake.

"Ow. Who are you, and why am I on the floor?"

"Alana, and because you over-pulled on your mana and knocked yourself out." I knelt down beside her, knowing how unpleasant it was to have someone stand over you.

"Oh! I've got to..." She began as she tried to rise.

"Relax, a bunch of people arrived and are taking care of it." I put a hand on her shoulder lightly to guide her back down to the floor.

"Alright then, I'll rest a bit if it's okay." It was not really okay, but she'd only be getting in the way. Regardless she let me guide her back to a laying position. "I'm Kala by the way." I grabbed Kala a cushion from one of the bar chairs for her head and sat with her for a few moments in silence.

The priests had everything well in hand by the time I returned to assist. Kala had passed back out, proving the old man right, much to my chagrin. I spent the rest of the night trying to patch up people as best I could until Lord Fallon gathered up Kala, Dietrich and myself to have a conversation with himself and the old man, whose name I still didn't know.

"All right, care to explain what happened before I arrived?" The man asked as we went into a side room.

I finally got a good chance to look over Lord Fallon. He was well muscled and tall seeming to loom over others. If I had to guess I'd say his age was mid-fifties, but it was a bit hard to tell, his hair was dark but a few specks of gray had seeped in here and there.

"A handful of men were attempting to rape a woman. I intervened. That was probably what got the mana-eater's attention." Kala was rather straight and to the point on that.

"I saw, and I saw what was left of them, not that anyone will complain." He turned from her to the Dietrich and I. "You two, how'd you end up in the middle of that?"

"We were hiding nearby and also decided to intervene." Dietrich nodded along with my explanation seeming satisfied with it.

"All right, fair enough. The guards will want to have a look over you and ask a few more questions but that's most of what I need to know."

"Lord Fallon said you used some kind of liquid fire against the mana-eater. Could you explain that to me please?" The old man finally asked from where he stood nearby.

I had to stop and consider this. Mystien had been very clear about me sharing secrets. That said I didn't think a no would be well received here. I needed to think carefully about how this could be abused, or used, by others, and if it was too valuable to explain. Or rather how I could explain it in such a way as to not have it be too big a deal.

"Um... that was just liquor. I summoned liquor onto it and lit it up."

"Liquor? Like... whiskey?"

"Yeah, it burns if you get the strong stuff."

"Huh, I'll make some notes on that. Did someone teach you to do that?"

"No, I kind of made it up on the fly. Wasn't even sure it'd work."

"I'll have some of the bards I know try it out. I'm not sure how good a combat spell it would be, but knowing that it could fight a monster like that will be helpful. Shame, food and drinks are a bard's domain, except water of course." He seemed disappointed. That was good, because a wizard definitely could summon ethanol and I decidedly didn't want to see what kind of fires they could make with it. "Your name was Alana was it not?"

I nodded at his last question, hoping I didn't get any more attention than I already had.