Mana 4 Chapter 10 (Patreon)

I tried to curse at Tracey, but all that ended up happening was blood dribbling out of my mouth as I mumbled.

“Fuck.” Her eyes widened as she took in my current state. I knew I was in terrible shape, but I must have looked like a disaster based on her face. “Looks like you weren’t that strong after all.” She turned her nose up as she turned away, giving her full attention to Guo Ying. “Do you have the payment?”

Guo Ying laughed. “The deed is done. What, are you going to ask for a refund?”

“I need the funds to pay for his death. Madam Orchid will want compensation for losing a guard.” Tracey’s face grew more worried as Guo Ying stared at her without saying anything. Her voice wavered a little as she continued. “And you better not be going back on the other half of our deal.”

She was clearly in over her head, but I was having trouble dredging up any sympathy out of my utter hatred for her.

“Ouch, stop that.” Claire’s voice came from my left as a guy roughly dragged her over into the conversation by her hair. “What’s going on?”

Claire, I could feel a little sympathy for; it didn’t seem like she’d been a part of it. I had a feeling this was going to go rotten quickly.

Tracey must not have been a complete idiot, because there was fear in her eyes now. “What are you doing, Guo Ying? Don’t bother them.”

The young master sat on a large rock and put his leg up like he was on a throne. “Tracey, I was never going to marry you. Really, you should have known better. You might make a fine concubine, but I had to entice these boys to make this trip out here.” He gestured as he licked his lips. “Think of it like an interview.”

“You fucking bastard.” Tracey screamed, hysteria starting to bleed into her expression. I’d seen that look before; she was a cornered animal.

Lightning peeled through the sky as the next hill erupted.

Guo Ying startled as the boom echoed among the mountains. “Fuck, why are we so close to that? Couldn’t you have just led him into the cave like we planned?”

“It was harder than you made it out to be.” Tracey spat back. “He isn’t an idiot.”

But her anger only made Guo Ying smile wider. “I don’t think that matters much anymore.”

While they were arguing, I was doing my best to heal my thigh. There was still a sword in my calf, but I needed to do everything I could to get ready to run.

The current situation was not in my favor. Tracey was likely going to be killed after they took advantage of her, and if she died, it would spell the end for me as well. There was no way I could push through my current state and the mental pain that came from my bracelet.

I needed to escape, and unfortunately, that meant bringing Tracey along. She didn’t deserve it, but it was my best option at the moment. I knew I would have limited shots to escape before they secured me with something stronger than a sword in my calf. I’d have to make my one shot worth it.

My three mana beasts started beating in my chest, telling me they were ready to come out. I paused. As much as I wanted to do this myself, they were right.

Hanging my head and leaning on the ground, I tried to hide beneath their notice as the argument between Tracey and Guo Ying picked up.

“Stop it.” Claire was screaming and crying at the same time, as men pushed her around and my heart went out to her. I felt shitty for using her as the distraction, but she was doing a great job of keeping everybody’s focus.

Three streams of light shot out of my chest. “Aurora, stall them. Mei, get Tracey. Quinn, help me up.” I commanded.

Mei popped from my side to Tracey before anyone even realized what was happening. She snapped a punch to Tracey’s face and then my vision was blocked.

Aurora rapidly grew into a mountain of green and gold feathers as she took on her Kunpeng form. She was a truly massive mana beast, easily the size of several houses, and her six wings snapped open and started beating.

It was like I was suddenly in the middle of a hurricane.

“Wha—” The man who’d been standing over me had his voice cut off in a spurt of blood. Quinn’s hand came away bloody and tossed a chunk of the man’s throat on the ground.

I smiled at her ruthlessness, glad she was there with me. All three of my mana beasts worked seamlessly.

“Stop them!” Guo Ying screamed, jumping off his rock. His leisurely attitude was gone. “What are those?”

Aurora’s appearance had thrown everything into chaos. Beth and Claire had their swords out now, fighting tooth and nail for their lives.

I ripped the sword out of my calf and Quinn hoisted me up over her shoulder like a bag of rice. I tried not to let it get to me that I was needing to lean on her. We were a team, and I did need her at that moment. “Hold on.” She clung to me tightly as she jumped on Aurora, joined immediately by Mei.

“Got the bitch.” There was no playfulness in Mei’s face. I had a feeling that if Tracey’s life wasn’t connected to my own, she’d be long dead by now.

The cue from Mei seemed to be all Aurora needed as she launched herself into the air. I might not be able to fly in the immortal world, but Aurora was still capable of physical flight.

“Quinn, can you handle him? I have Master.” Mei flicked a wave of void mana behind me, and I was passed to my lovely fox.

Looking back at where Mei had shot, I spotted a man from Guo Ying’s group clinging to Aurora’s back, glaring daggers at us.

“Shhh.” Mei turned my head and smothered me in her chest. “Quinn has it Master, please focus on healing.”

“Aurora, take us back to the city.” I said before her massive body rocked with impact.

Her beak opened up in a sharp cry as Aurora screamed in pain.

“We aren’t going to make it back to the city, Master.” Mei updated me, concern entering her voice.

I struggled to turn my head, trying to see what had attacked us, but my adrenaline was starting to fade, and my body was taking over in an effort to survive. Darkness began to close in around me.

***

Even in my soul palace, my body ached. As I opened my eyes, I took stock of my situation. If I was in my soul palace, I was at least alive for the moment. Worried about Aurora and the others, I got to work trying to heal myself.

Focusing, I bottled up my pain and pushed it aside, only using it as a reference. In my soul palace, I could still direct my mana throughout my body.

I poured life mana through myself, indiscriminately drawing on Aurora’s ring, pulling more life mana into my body and focusing on my gut wound. That wound was the priority; if it became infected… Well, I wouldn’t stand much of a shot at that point.

It took all my focus to just stay aware as I tried to triage my body.

Time had lost its meaning as I focused on what I needed to do.

I hadn’t had a chance to do a full inventory of my body in all the chaos, and now I was realizing the full extent of the damage the collar had done. Thousands of tiny wounds covered my body. Somehow, the collar seemed to be able to inflict pain by disturbing my mana and using it to injure myself.

I was going to kill whoever had spent time inventing such an awful enhancement. Using a mage’s own mana against them went against nature.

“Master?” Aurora’s voice was soft and pleading as she brought me out of my focus.

I groaned in pain and looked up at my mana beast in time to see her plow into my chest and start rubbing her face against me.

“Your soul was so still, don’t scare me like that.”

My hand found the top of her head and stroked down her hair to the small of her back. She curled into me, but I was comforting myself as much as her. Her soft curves relaxed me. “I’ll be fine. I think. What happened?”

“They hit me as I tried to flee. I’m… I’m not in good shape.”

Now that she mentioned it, the life mana coming from her was a thin trickle of what I was used to. She was weak, and based on the flow of mana, she was fading. I gave her a frown. “Focus on yourself. Cut me off if you have to.” I tried to slow down how much I was taking, worried about her.

Tilting her head up, I stared into her eyes and made sure that she listened.

“But, you’re…” her voice trailed off, and the pain in her face made it clear that I looked about as good as I felt.

“I’ll live. But if something happens to you Aurora—” I left the threat unfinished. Truthfully, I didn’t know what I’d do if Aurora died on me.

She gave me a weak nod and wouldn’t meet my eyes again as she curled up in my lap, like she was trying to cover as much of her skin with mine.

I squeezed her tightly and tucked her head under my chin.

Both of us stayed like that for a long time, Aurora growing deathly still. If it weren’t for my connection to her, I’d have thought she’d died as life mana stopped flowing to me.

For a long while, it felt as if my soul had grown cold with anticipation of bad news. I refused to check on her connection to me and just held her, hoping she would pull through.

Not being able to heal myself further without risking her, I didn’t know what to do except hold her. Rubbing my chin against the top of her head, I tried to at least provide some comfort and let her know I was there with her. I tried to fight back any panic. She had to come back to me.

She couldn’t leave me. I refused to believe it would happen.

Aurora had been with me since the beginning. Decades we had been together. Side by side as she supported me with her mana and peppy attitude. She was a light in my world one I couldn’t bear to see snuffed out.

Molten rage bubbled up in my chest at Guo Ying. I could feel the savage aspect of life shift at times, as if it wanted to come out and destroy the petty young master. All of this was for what? For some childish vengence? A salve for his wounded pride?

But as soon as the rage built up, the chilling thought of Aurora’s fate came and froze that rage. I just couldn’t give up on her. It wasn’t time to seek vengeance just yet. She’d pull through, right?

“Husband.” A soft voice made me look up. Michelle was there, worry painted on her face. “Is she?”

“Barely. Things went south Shell. Things went very south.” My head lifted to speak, but then I pressed my cheek back down against Aurora’s crown of golden hair.

Michelle disappeared for just a moment before coming back and wrapping herself around both of us. More of my wives streamed in soon after, joining us one by one until we were a big family huddling, spilling out over the throne.

Each and every one of them was misty-eyed as they pressed themselves around us. Like somehow, if they all just squeezed in tight enough, they would hold Aurora’s thin strand on life in place.

I held Aurora as tightly as I could. Somehow it felt like letting go at all was giving up on her, and I refused to do that.

“It’s okay.” Michelle assured me, rubbing my back and providing me with support as I took care of Aurora.

I leaned on them all, letting them comfort me. Mana trickled out from them and into my bond with Aurora, as they lent a hand trying to coax her back to health.

“Excuse me.” Kat said from outside the huddle. “What’s happening?”

My wives shifted so I could see though most of them, but they all continued keeping a hand on me, passing along their mana. “Kat.” I didn’t need to see Michelle’s face to know she didn’t look happy. “What is happening?”

“I just asked you that.” Kat looked at me cradling Aurora, and her face went pale. “I saw that, though. She got shot out of the sky; I came as soon as I could get to a safe place.”

“We’re both hurt. Mei and Quinn were okay, but I’m sure they have their hands full working to defend our bodies.” I let out a heavy sigh before I started to explain everything that had happened. All of my wives listened carefully as I told the story of the fight with the drakes and how Tracey had used my cuff to nearly kill me.

Michelle looked around at the others. “We go. Drop everything. We leave right now.”

But Kat stepped forward, crossing her arms. “No. I can deal with this. You need to wait until we can get you through safely. You’re no good to us captured, and if anything, this is proof that you need to improve your cultivation before you get here. Look what they’ve done to Issac, and he’s the strongest of us.”

Knuckles popped as Michelle balled her fist to the point that they were bone white. “I need to do something.”

“I know. But I’m in the area, and I don’t even know where he is. All I know is the direction he went. I caught up to where the fight happened. Those two girls are dead; it looks like they went down fighting.” Kat explained. “I counted eight mages with two injured still left in the Ying Family group.”

I grimaced. I’d hoped more had been taken down. Eight, even with two injured, was still enough to overwhelm Mei and Quinn.

Kat saw my face and grimaced. “It gets worse. Aurora had been flying deeper into the mountains. Right now, they are pushing deeper to look for you guys. The girls might only have a few hours head start on them.”

Michelle looked at Kat. “Can you catch them?”

Kat shook her head. “Their tracks disappear after a mile. I completely lost them.”

“Nothing?” I asked.

“No, I suspect they have some sort of artifact they are using to travel now.”

“They didn’t use one before, which means it probably requires some sort of fuel. Otherwise they would have ridden in on it and used it sooner.” I realized. “That also means Mei and Quinn might be at a disadvantage.”

Kat nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. We need Mei and Quinn to hide.”

“At least we know that they’ll be hard to find. Quinn will figure out the best strategy and keep them safe, but they’re also traveling with three bodies between the two of them.” My frustration began to become overwhelming. I needed to do something. “Damnit!”

Aurora stirred slightly at my outburst, and I immediately softened my body again, not wanting to worry her. I stroked her hair back and did my best to sooth my wounded mana beast.

“Don’t push yourself.” Michelle cautioned, but her eyes held understanding as I met them. I needed to get back out there and help them. My body would have to be healed enough.

“I have to go help them. Take care of Aurora.”

They all kissed me with forced smiles on their faces as I forced myself back to consciousness.

***

“Ugh.” I groaned in pain as I bounced on something soft.

“Isaac.” Quinn turned towards me; she was holding me down to a black furry back.

Looking around, we were flying through the forest, pine trees streaming past. Quinn was holding Aurora, Tracey, and me to Mei’s back as she dove through the forest as a massive black fox.

“We need to hide. Kat says she found where we fought and they are coming with some sort of travel artifact.”

“Shit.” Quinn cursed. “What do we do?”

“Head towards the foothill that had the raiju. They were afraid of it and won’t be too loud on that mountain or fear its attention. Hopefully, we can slip in there and rest. Guo Ying and his group will have to be careful on that peak to avoid detection of the raiju. It’s our best shot at staying hidden.” I laid out the simple plan I had put together. Hide where they couldn’t stomp about and recover.

My hand tightened until my knuckles popped. They would pay for what they did.

Mei landed with one of her bounding strides and turned a sharp corner, effortlessly changing directions to head towards the foothill.

“Won’t that be more dangerous for us too?”

“Yes, but it’s a risk we’ll have to take. I don’t think you two are up for killing eight of them?”

Quinn’s face fell. “No, not unless we can pick them off somehow.”

“We don’t know all their cultivation or abilities yet. I don’t think we should risk it. We’ll go to ground and hide while Aurora and I recover, and then we’ll get out of here in one piece. Kat is nearby, so hopefully we can meet up with her here today too and have more reinforcements.”

Remembering Kat’s comment on trying to find us, I looked around, trying to commit landmarks to memory so I could guide Kat to us. I looked down at Tracey’s body, annoyed that Mei and Quinn had to deal with dragging her around. But until we got the cuff off, she was necessary.

“You got this Mei.” Quinn encouraged the fox underneath us as she ran at breakneck speeds through the woods, darting between large conifers.

I clung to her sleek black fur around a very pale Aurora, whose chest was covered in blood. Each beat of Mei’s loping stride strained my wounds, and they were starting to catch up to me. I bobbed in and out of consciousness until Mei finally came to a stop and Quinn helped me off.

Refusing to let go of Aurora. I wavered unsteadily on my feet as Quinn took Tracey off. Mei darted into the cave, returning a few minutes later in her human form and waving us inside.

The cave had a small mouth and opened up wide shortly after into a large cavern. It was big enough that it might have been able to fit Aurora in her kunpeng form, and that was saying something. But it also meant that the space was cold and drafty.

I took notice of Aurora’s body, realizing how cold it had become. “We need to keep her warm. She’s healing, but we need to help take care of her.”

Quinn handed Tracey off to Mei and glowed as she shifted into a large metal and gold dragon. Long ago, she had absorbed the blood essence of a gold dragon we’d met known as Old Jin. The gold dragon blood had taken over and changed much of her mana beast form, which looked like a proper dragon now and was mostly gold with steel stripes blanketing her flank.

Before she’d taken the blood essence, she was a metal element serpent with the barest traces of draconic blood. But it had turned her into a large serpentine dragon. Her head had become more square, and she had four claws that seemed comically small on her massive frame.

Quinn curled tightly around us, and immediately the air grew ten degrees warmer.

“Thank you, Quinn.” That problem solved, I tried to wrap my head around our next one. Tracey.

Slipping off her spatial ring, I turned it over in my hand. It was a simple metal band embedded with complex enchantments. I tried to push mana into it, but my mana slid around it, unable to get a purchase.

It made sense that it would be tied to Tracey in some way, but I was still disappointed.

“Mei, wake her up.”

Unfortunately for Tracey, Mei was not in a good mood. The fox started slapping Tracey’s face, alternating sides, until she woke up.

“What?” Tracey’s eyes slid open, only for Mei to slap her again. “Ouch. Stop that.”

Smack. Mei hit her again. “Stupid woman. Almost got Master killed.”

“Mei, you can stop.” I said gently, trying to soothe her. I received a stubborn glare in response. “If she does anything stupid, feel free to stop her.”

“Happily.” Mei’s tails curled around her as she crossed her arms and glared daggers at Tracey. If looks could kill Tracey would be dead a thousand times over.

Tracey flicked her hand, surprise lighting across her face as she looked around, spotting the spatial ring in my hands. “Give that back.”

“Fat chance.” It was almost hard to hate her, given how inept she seemed at playing the role she’d taken on. I had the urge to laugh. She genuinely seemed to think she was in a position to order me around. “I have no reason to give this back to you. Now tell me, how do I access what’s inside.”

“I bound it to me; you’ll never get what’s inside.” She lifted her head haughtily.

“Shame.” I tossed it up and down before deciding to slip it on my own finger. It was where the crystal connected to this cuff resided. I wasn’t letting that anywhere away from me. “Anything you can do about this?” I shook my wrist out for her to see.

She eyed the band. “No, Madam Orchid has the key to open it. I just tuned it to the crystal, which will only last a week before it switches back.”

I read her face carefully. She was no master deceptionist; I believed she was speaking the truth. “Unfortunately, heading back right now isn’t an option. Unless you want what happened to Beth and Claire to happen to you.”

The blood drained from her face, and she looked at me in horror. I could only imagine the scenarios she was imagining. The truth was, they went down fighting, but I wasn’t about to correct Tracey’s runaway imagination.

“Then what do we do?” Tracey asked as she deflated.

“Well, I need to rest, and you need to stay very still, or Mei will kill you. If you think you can take her, then meet Quinn.”

The draconic head shifted over the coils that surrounded us, and Tracey’s mouth hung open. “What is that?” She asked in shock.

But I ignored her, shifting myself back into a more comfortable position, curled up with Quinn wrapped around me. I pulled Aurora closer against me as I felt myself drift back off to sleep. I trusted Mei and Quinn to handle the situation for now. Kat needed to know where we were.

AN: I'm sorry we don't get to murderlate Tracey. But it doesn't make sense.