Sense: A Fantasy LitRPG Saga (A Touch of Power Book 3) Read online

  She could hear their angry cries in the canopy above her as she drew closer, reaching the level of the lowest branches. They even held crude clubs, which they were waving and occasionally throwing towards the fellacai until they realized wind gusts were redirecting them away from the shiny treats. Jade was proud of their ability to work together, and also a little amazed at their combat ability. There were seven apes, all of whom utterly dwarfed her babies. They were basically fighting the equivalent of giants and holding their ground.

  A bow appeared in her hand as she neared, a quiver falling into place on her back. Drawing an arrow as she perched on a branch, she shot the reinforced projectile at the largest of the beasts. Arrow after arrow was drawn and shot in succession. The first three apes died, dropping like rocks from the branches as arrows lodged in their heads. The remaining four scattered, realizing the danger that approached them from behind. In their anger, they turned their attention to the interloper who’d killed three of their brethren.

  Fellacai all but forgotten, the furious apes swung in and out of the trees towards her, dodging the arrows she sent at them whenever one came into view. She’d apparently only hit the first three because they’d been surprised. Her babies, exhausted from the fight, quietly waited for her to deal with the problem after she reassured them mentally. They’d done their best, and now it was time for her to finish off these attackers. She’d finally been reminded of something Count Eamonn said when he was introducing the fellacai: other creatures loved to have them as snacks.

  She dove forward into the air right as a club smashed into the branch where she’d been standing. One of them managed to get behind her while she was distracted by her babies. It seemed surprised when, after flipping arse over teakettle, she rolled to a stop in midair instead of falling to her death. Standing on the wind platform that she’d hastily erected, she was panting slightly, glad her danger senses tingled in time.

  Furious, she saw the other three had surrounded her and were hiding behind the branches as they peered at her, obviously trying to figure out how to reach her as she stood in midair. “You think you can hide from me? Dream on.” Concentrating, she sent her bow into her ring to keep from dropping it as she lashed out with four razor-sharp streams of wind. The monkeys didn’t have a chance to realize what happened before they were beheaded, a bloody mist filling the air. She caught their bodies before they could fall to the forest floor like the other three. Dragging them in one large wind sphere, she dashed to check on her babies.

  “Andy…” She knelt next to her babies, reaching for the tiny mint and chocolate colored butterfly. Carl was hovering protectively next to him, and it was obvious he’d healed Andy up a bit already. She held her hand out and Andy wearily hopped on. She finished healing him quickly, then beamed at the rest of her babies. “You did well, my lovelies. Come here, hop on. You’ve earned a rest.” Her babies flapped over to land on her hair as she held Andy up to allow him to hold on too. Once she was confident that they were all secure, she stepped into the open air and began to descend, more slowly now that she was making sure her babies were okay every inch of the way.

  As she approached the ground, she realized that many of her people were studying the fallen apes. “Jade! You’re okay.” She could hear the relief in Marcelle’s voice as the woman emerged from behind one of the giant apes. Now that Jade was really looking at them, she realized they were twice the size of a human, and she was casually hauling four of them and their bloody mess behind her so that it didn’t attract other creatures.

  She nodded a little wearily. “I’m fine. Let’s get these back to the shelter. I don’t want the blood to attract anything else.” Marcelle nodded, and Jade wearily grabbed the other three with wind magic, adding them to her floating bubble. With blood magic, she called every drop they spilt on their way down, holding it in a separate little bubble. “Let’s go.”

  She figured the guards could see her mental exhaustion, because they took up ranks around her and her ‘prize’ to escort her back. She could feel the other earth magician erasing the traces of their passage and felt vague gratitude that she didn’t need to worry about that, too. The door to the shelter was open when they reached it, and she smiled at the worried faces that turned to relief when they realized the entire team returned safely.

  Walking silently down the tunnel, she turned to enter a larger room she’d connected to the main room and deposited the corpses there. She figured the skins and meat would be useful for the people living here and in the city. She cast a chill of ice around the room so that it would act like a freezer and preserve the meat, then walked back into the main room.

  “What exactly happened?” Marcelle asked her with soft concern as Jade snapped out of it, having been staring absently at a wall.

  “My fellacai were attacked by these creatures as they were scouting.” Her voice sounded numb and a bit dead, even to her. She absently took a seat at the stool one of the men guided her to, staring blankly for a moment at the food placed in front of her before she reached for it, beginning to eat. She quickly grabbed an empty nearby plate and put some leafy greens and juice on it, to which her fellacai eagerly flocked. They needed to restore their energy after that fight too.

  The silence of the room made her chewing seem especially loud as she ate almost robotically. She was polishing off the last few bites when a comment broke the silence. “I think she needs to take a nap before we leave.” She didn’t know who the male voice belonged to, but it sounded reasonable to her tired mind.

  Looking up, she met the concerned gaze of a man who appeared to be in his late twenties. He had such pretty brown eyes that matched his dark brown hair. Honestly, he reminded her of a young Ryan Reynolds. “A nap sounds good, but wake me up in half an hour. We need to get there during the day, if possible.” The young man nodded to her, then held out his hand. She smiled wearily and took it, allowing him to help her up now that she’d finished her meal. She let him lead her over to a bedroll that looked like it’d been prepared for her, laying down and absently growing a baby tree in a small pot of dirt she pulled out and shaped in the rock next to her head, so the fellacai could take a nap too, once they were done. Looking at the nice man, she asked quietly, “What’s your name?”

  He smiled brilliantly down at her as he responded, “Matthew Rylee, at your service. Get some sleep.” She nodded and murmured her assent, closing her heavy eyes. She thought she heard him moving away, but she fell asleep almost immediately.

  ***

  “Jade, time to wake up.” She stirred groggily at the voice and the hand gently shaking her shoulder. Blinking sleepily, she stared up at Marcelle’s face in momentary confusion.

  Yawning, she nodded and sat up as she focused on Marcelle, her memory slowly flitting back into place as she remembered the events of the last few hours. “How long did I sleep?” She had a sneaking suspicion she’d slept longer than the half hour she’d instructed them.

  “It’s been about an hour. You looked like you needed it.” Jade sighed, nodding. She probably did. After all, she’d slept terribly last night and been using magic almost constantly since she woke. Even energizing herself with light only went so far.

  Standing up, she stretched for a moment, ignoring the eyes she could feel following her movements. She used a tiny bit of water magic to clean herself up, reveling in washing away the sticky sweat that coated her from her earlier fights and magic use.

  “Well, that seems like a useful way to use water.” Marcelle grinned at the now-clean Jade, and she smirked back at her.

  Gesturing, water materialized and swept along Marcelle as well, leaving her clean and refreshed, much to her obvious shock. “It really is wonderful for a person’s morale.” Glancing around, she realized that the rest of the hunting group were now standing by the entrance to the tunnel, dressed in dark clothes and weapons.

  She nodded in their direction, asking quietly, “Is everyone else ready, then?”

  At Marcelle’s nod,
she clenched her fist momentarily, then released it and said, “Let’s get hunting.” She called her babies from their tree, and they fluttered over and landed in her hair.

  She walked confidently towards the entrance of the tunnel, stopping to address the men as she whispered into the silence, “We need to be quiet and quick. The real danger starts now.” She touched her quiver, binding wind magic to her own arrows. After she was finished adding the enchantment, she turned to the entrance once more.

  The tunnel in front of her seemed extra dark as she stepped into it, leaving the bright light of the room behind as she quickly opened a few illusory viewing portals when she reached the door. She checked from various positions around the camp, making sure there was no movement of predators in the vicinity before she silently moved to open the door.

  This was where the hunt would truly begin.

  Chapter Five – Encounter

  Jade paused before she opened the door, walking over and briefly touching each person as she cast personal vitality buffs. She didn’t want to focus on keeping an aura going at the moment, and since she didn’t need to include their mounts, it was easier to maintain the personal buffs than to try to keep them close. Especially if she needed to go up above to check on anything. She also lowered their gravity a little bit, explaining as she did so. “I’m making you lighter so we can move faster and more quietly. Try to adapt quickly, and let me know if you need me to adjust it. I’ll revert it to normal before we get there so you can fight like you usually do.”

  Once they were all buffed up, she opened the door, taking the lead. She got out of the way so the others could emerge from the bunker while she reoriented herself, sensing the direction they needed to head to find the dead trees. She nodded to the earth mage, who waited at the door until they were all out, then melded it back together. She smiled in approval, even though the man could no longer see her. It was blending perfectly into the boulder, and unless you were using magic, there was no reason to suspect anything was wrong in this area. Smells might be their biggest enemy, but the constant wind in the trees would hopefully make it hard to pinpoint. She’d also made sure the vents were nowhere near the entrance by causing each of them to surface at least a tree away. That was half of what made her so tired.

  With their vitality raised and their gravity lowered, the group was much quieter as they started through the forest. Jade led the front while the others ranged behind her in twos and threes, with Marcelle taking up the rear. Her babies, now rested, took up patrol as well, flitting through the woods like tiny scouts. She made sure they went in pairs again, not wanting another accident. After all, that had been Andy’s saving grace.

  She quickly realized why the mesmer used the treetops, however. Beneath the giant trees, the roots, leaves, smaller saplings, and bushes tried to crowd in all together. It was literally a giant mess to wade through, and a rather loud one, no matter how quiet they were trying to be. The crackle of dead leaves seemed inordinately jarring as they attempted to skulk along, the natural sounds of the forest hushing in the wake of their passing. She tried to pick the path of least resistance, but she often found herself either pushing through the brush or using nature magic to slightly alter the path for the others to more easily follow after her.

  They’d been forced to walk single file as the brush got thicker, with Jade creating the path of least resistance before them. She mentally cursed as one of the men tripped on a root, tumbling loudly into the surrounding leaves and brush. She stopped, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. There was danger approaching, but from where? “Something’s coming. Get up!” She hissed back at the man, her bow ready, arrow nocked as she looked around.

  Her babies were frantically trying to find what might be causing her to be so paranoid, having felt her alarm through their bond, but she was telling them to be careful and hide with the best vantage points, not wanting to lose them to whatever was making her antsy.

  “Are you sure there’s something coming?” There were two other women in the group aside from her and Marcelle, and she wasn’t sure which had spoken, but she was ready to flay the woman alive. She hadn’t even bothered to lower her voice very much. If whatever it was hadn’t known exactly where they were before, it did now. The look Jade shot back at her must’ve convinced everyone else to shut their traps, filled with venom as it was.

  In the silence, she strained to listen to the surroundings and tune out the breathing of her companions. She heard the barest scuff of something against stone coming from her left, and her head whipped around in that direction, trying to pinpoint what could have made the noise, but she couldn’t see anything…or maybe she could.

  There was the barest shimmer in the air, a distortion she recognized from her previous experiments with her fellow light mages on creating invisibility. Without hesitation, she loosed her arrow, cursing herself for not keeping her mana sight active. She’d wanted to conserve some energy where she could, but it was a stupid thought. As soon as she activated it, she could see the white of light magic being used by two beasts on a nearby rock.

  They seemed to think she was firing randomly, since her first arrow glanced harmlessly off the rock a few feet away from them. She hadn’t pinpointed their position before she fired, hoping to startle them into moving or dropping their magic. The others were staring at the area where she’d shot in confusion, clearly thinking she shot randomly into the air, which she sort of had.

  “There’s two of them.” The words left her mouth as her eyes glowed brightly with her use of magic. She loosed another arrow, this time aiming directly for one creature. “Start shooting on top of the rocks!” She hissed the words at her group as the creature dodged her arrow, aware that somehow, this human could see it. They started to run forward as the others shot arrows in the same direction. They could now see irregularities in the air, and they aimed for those.

  Jade focused, shooting only when the creatures dodged. She finally managed to catch one mid-dodge, and its control over the magic broke. “Keep shooting!” She heard Marcelle order from behind her, and was grateful the woman was keeping her head. More arrows began to pierce the visible one while the other was trying to sneak around the side, thinking it hadn’t been seen. Jade turned her bow slightly, shooting directly at it. It jumped out of the way, then let off a high pitched growl of pain as the arrow turned, controlled by Jade’s wind magic to follow it. It, too, lost its illusory magic.

  Arrows flew through the air, turning the two black panther-like creatures into pincushions. The first one collapsed barely ten feet in front of Jade. Hatred burned in its eyes as its claws reached for her, even as it entered the land of the dead. The second, not having been charging like the first, didn’t even make it within twenty feet.

  “It’s the beithiche.” The horror and awe in the man’s voice was evident. “We survived the beithiche.” His whisper came clearly to her, though at least he was quiet enough that he shouldn’t alert anything...that hadn’t already been alerted by the fight. Shoot.

  “Whatever it is, we need to move, and quickly.” Jade waved her hand, using wind to pick up the two beasts. She ruthlessly yanked the arrows from their hides, storing any that were broken, pulling the blood from those still intact, and quickly handing them back to their owners. She used wind to grab as many other arrows as she could sense that missed, which was easier given that she’d enchanted her own earlier and could see them with her mana sense. The beasts themselves disappeared into her storage ring. Thankfully, she’d expanded it before they left.

  Examining the thicket of growth in front of them, she knew if they tried to pass through it, they wouldn’t be getting out of this spot anytime soon. Letting out a soft growl of frustration, she shook her head. “Never mind. It’ll take too long. Don’t yell when I lift you.”

  There were a few questioning looks, but they understood a moment later as her wind lifted them up. As soon as they were all in the air, she clumped them together and created a wind platform
bubble. She could feel the extra exertion it was costing her, but ignored that in favor of quickly leaving the area. They shot through the air like a wind bullet, and only when they were probably a mile away did she slow down, lowering them to the ground once more. The forest floor was less overgrown than the one they’d left, thankfully.

  As soon as they were on the ground, she let her wind bubble drop, immediately pulling a smoothie mix from her ring and drinking it while absorbing light. Probably realizing the strain she’d put herself through, no one was stupid enough to suggest that they travel the whole way like that.

  She was starting to hate these woods, and she hadn’t even seen her true enemy yet. Heck, she almost wished the next things to attack her were those winged whatevers, simply so she could tame them and use them as transportation. I really hope I didn’t just jinx us… Never mind. It would be best if they could get to the nest without any more encounters. They had to be getting closer, right?

  The only problem was…she wasn’t totally sure they were still going in the right direction. Sure, she’d traveled in as straight a line as possible, but they could still have easily gotten off track, especially in that last bolt through the woods. Eyeing the people who were also taking a breather and checking over their equipment while keeping watch on their surroundings, she nodded to herself.

  “I’m going to go back up above the canopy.” When Marcelle glanced over at her questioningly, she shrugged. “I’d rather double check that we’re headed the right direction than get too far off track.”

  Looking thoughtful, Marcelle nodded. “Hurry back, and be safe.”

  “Always.” She replied cheekily, showing some of her normal good humor. She had to keep her attitude up, because she was the figurehead of the operation. If she started to become negative, it would leak into the team. Optimism was key!