Chapter 11 Settle Down
I'd eaten a fair bit at our graduation party, yet somehow, none of it remained in my stomach.
My hand dug into the bark of a nearby tree. At my feet lay a puddle of bile and stomach acid. I was in a moment of temporary calm. And then—
The suppressed memory rose up once more. Burnt flesh, a body soaked in blood, no signs of life. The horrific state of my best friend; my best friend whom when last I saw, was laughing like a maniac after drinking too much.
Once again my body forced fluids out of my mouth. My insides felt like they were trying to crawl out of me.
It had been like this for five minutes. The sight of my brutalized friend had overtaken my thoughts and senses. Before I knew it, I ran into the forest and grabbed onto this tree. From then on I've been puking my guts out with intermittent waves of calm before shock and panic returned.
My breathing was heavy and ragged, I didn't know how to calm down or process what I saw. For the first time since coming here, I saw the true horror this jungle could bring. There was no preparing for this, I knew that.
I couldn't stop one thought from lingering.
Why did it have to be him?
I knew that it was selfish; to want someone else in that state instead of Aria, but I couldn't help but wish it were someone else.
"Simon," a shrill voice called out from behind.
I turned back to spot Jenny. She was visibly shaking, but her eyes filled with worry. She didn't know Aria as well as I did, nor were they really friends. Still, the sight of a once acquainted classmate's burnt corpse must be utterly traumatizing.
"...are you okay?" she continued quietly after a pause.
I said nothing—only answering her with the puke on my face and the look in my eyes. She moved in to hug me and I let myself fall into her arms.
"He's still alive," she whispered to me.
My eyes went wide.
She slightly backed away from me so we could talk. "His breaths were shallow… but still there."
"Natasha is doing her best to triage him." Her hands were caressing both of mine. "She's not exactly a doctor, but she's studied hard to be one and is the best we got."
She paused again, biting her lip like she didn't want to say what came next. "It doesn't look like he will survive."
My heart went hollow. The short-lived hope that I was given turned against me. I listened to her silently; hearing everything she had to say without interrupting.
"Nat thinks his body is burning mana to somehow keep him alive, but he's using it faster than he can recover. Once he runs out, he will…"
Her words trailed off. The word was like a taboo, one no one had the stomach to say. It was the same with Jessie, his sentences also trailed off when talking about Aria.
"Die," I finished for her. I was tired of stepping around that word, like avoiding it will somehow make him okay again.
"Yes," she confirmed. Jenny began walking, pulling me with her by the hand. "Let's go back. You should… say your goodbyes."
I walked back into the clearing, Jenny still holding my hand. As bad as I had it, my friends that were with Aria looked even worse. Their eyes were hollow and unmoving. From what I remember, they also puked after seeing Aria's body.
Jenny and I joined back with the group; everyone was gathered around Aria's body. No one said anything, just solemn looks plastered across their faces.
"We should at least bury him." Andre was the first to speak up. His booming voice was a shadow of what it normally was; sadness, audible in his tone.
"B-But… he's… s-still alive." Sunny stammered while choking on his own tears. He looked barely in control, like he was going to burst out wailing any moment.
It was Jessie who answered him. "He won't be…" his sentence trailed off—his voice hopeless and without emotion.
It was then an idea struck me. "Wait—can we infuse him with our mana? Maybe that will save him."
"Sure, maybe that's possible." Nat gave me a pitying look. "But mana is just sustaining his life, not healing him. It would only delay his death."
"Then let's delay it until we get out of here!" My voice was nearly a yell. "This world might—no, probably will have a way to heal him."
Uncertain looks were passed around. I had a point, and they knew it.
Wordlessly, Nat went up to Aria's body before placing her hand on his stomach, and pushed her mana into him.
It didn't take. The mana that went into him flowed right out after. She stepped back, out of breath. Before she could tell us that it couldn't work, I stepped up and tried to do the same thing. I didn't know what to do differently, but I had to figure something out.
Repeating the same process, I poured mana into his body. Again, it flowed in and then out—no, wait! It wasn't all flowing out. His body was absorbing some of it. Barely any, not enough to make a difference, but still something.
I quickly explained to everyone else what I noticed.
"Yeah, I know," Nat replied. "I was going to tell you that, but then you stepped up and did the exact same thing I did for no reason."
Oops. My bad. She looked kinda annoyed.
"Then we need to figure out how to transfer mana more efficiently," I said aloud.
"How do we do that?" Natasha asked.
A boy stepped up. He was tall and very skinny, with extremely sharp features—especially his face. He looked somewhat feminine, with smooth pale skin, and long hair that went to his shoulders. A look that was completely offset with his unnaturally deep voice.
"Let me try," the boy said coolly.
It was Jing! This guy was the smartest person I had ever met—even smarter than Jenny.
"Do you have a plan?" I asked with renewed enthusiasm.
"No, but I have something I want to try."
His left eye suddenly glowed blue. Numbers, that were an even darker blue, began to stream down his iris. This effect—it's exactly what Jessie described when Aria activated his analese!
He put his hand on Aria's sternum like everyone else. Mana began to stream out of him and into Aria. Just like everyone else, hardly any of it was absorbed by him.
Jing remained calm and continued to pour mana into him. I sensed Jing begin to apply changes to his mana. I couldn't tell what these changes were or what they did, but the amount of mana Aria was able to absorb began to steadily rise.
I didn't know what Jing was doing, I'm sure he didn't either. From what I heard, the analese couldn't make you learn about something you had no idea about. Jing was just arbitrarily making changes in his mana, and tracking them with extreme precision using the analese. With that, he was able to tune his mana so Aria could absorb more of it.
After a while, Jing stopped. He was sweating profusely and out of breath. Still, he got the job done. Aria was now filled with mana—enough to last him a few days at the rate he was consuming it.
Natasha tried her best to take care of him physically. She bandaged him best she could, cooled his skin using the cold water from the waterfall, and helped him drink it too. Lucky for us, the water was fresh, so we didn't have to worry about water poisoning or whatever the heck happened when you drank polluted water.
After Aria's situation was mostly sorted out, we divvied up chores for everyone the best we could. We assigned people to lookout duty, foraging for food and supplies, crafting things for shelter, scouting the forest for enemies, and mandatory mana practice to strengthen us all.
With that, we all went to sleep for the night with alternating lookouts throughout. When I awoke, I went to do my agreed-upon chores before transitioning into training. Any free time I had was spent next to Aria. He wasn't awake, but I still hesitated to leave his side. Sometimes I'd pretend to talk to him, like he could hear me.
Jessie, Andre, Havi, and Sunny also spent a lot of time with him. We'd talk often and pair up to train. They were good to practice with and had a slightly different understanding of mana than we did. Jenny was still my best teacher though.
"Don't just flare and relax your mana like you're lifting weights." I recalled her telling me. "The third stage doesn't come from building power, but learning control. You have to experiment and force your mana to work in uncomfortable ways. It's closer to rehabilitation than it is muscle training."
With her advice, I began to push my mana to its limits. I continued to push how much I could output and sustain while also trying to manipulate it in ways I hadn't before. I stopped and sped mana along in different parts of my body. I tried to perform multiple forms of manipulation at once.
It was difficult and uncomfortable as Jenny had said, but my progress was noticeable. It wouldn't be long before I caught up to her…unless she reached a fourth stage. Knowing her, maybe she did.
Jessie was practicing alongside me; he seemed to have a knack for mana himself. Something was bugging me, though—a question swimming around in my mind.
"Remember how you told me about Aria's description of mana?" I asked Jessie. "Wasn't it a bit odd?"
According to Jessie, Aria said he "flared" his "flow" wherever he wanted to use it. That didn't sit right with my understanding.
"Yeah," Jessie replied. "The way he described made it sound like something that manifests everywhere in your body at once. Not like mana, where it travels and flows through your body from your mana channel."
Ironically, that didn't sound like something that flows at all. It sounded more like flexing a muscle—something that just ignites wherever you want it to.
"Was it like that for you?" I asked Jessie.
"No. Not at all. For me, it's the way you guys described mana; same with the others. It originated from our chest, then spread to the rest of our bodies.
I cocked a brow at him. "Did you ask Aria why he described it like that?"
"No." Jessie stopped his training and began reminiscing. "At first, I thought Aria just interpreted it wrong, or he was just explaining things in a weird—only he would get it—sorta way. But when we fought the roaches, it became obvious he wasn't using mana the same way as the rest of us. Those flare-ups were something only he could do."
I pondered the lengthy explanation. "So, what was he doing differently?"
"I'm not sure." Jessie shook his head. "But whatever he was doing, it was clearly working for him. His output of mana seemed similar to ours, yet he got so much stronger from it than we did. I meant to ask him about it, but… we didn't get the chance."
"Interesting," I remarked. "Sounds like Aria got some absurd idea when he first felt mana and took it in some crazy direction instead of the 'normal' one."
"Sounds like him," Jessie chuckled. "But his way seems to be the better one."
That's true. At first I thought Aria just reached stage 3 early, but it seemed too quick. Even Jenny, the most talented person I knew when it came to mana, took hours longer than Aria in that hypothetical. Aria could be even more talented than her, but from my personal experience, I knew it wasn't physically possible to reach stage 3 that quickly.
I guess him finding an absurd new way to use mana that was more efficient sounded even more improbable though. But maybe because it was Aria, I found that explanation to fit better. He was the type to do something like that.
But that still leaves the most pressing question: What the hell did he do? I couldn't even begin to imagine how I would use mana to fit the descriptions Aria gave. "Flare" it up in a certain spot? I could gather mana in one place by stopping the flow and letting it build up, but that wasn't a "flare-up".
Thinking about what Aria had done made my head hurt. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't make sense of it. I think I'll just stick to the standard way to use mana.
The leaves rustled.
A figure began to shift around near me. Jessie noticed this and quickly went on guard.
Then we saw it. Failing to hide behind a tree, just like last time, was a roach. But it looked different. Compared to the ones we'd seen before, this one was skinnier, more slender. In place of two of its roach arms, it had long, grasshopper arms. From the elbow down, they were coated with sharp lines like a comb, allowing them to function as a sort of blade. Its mask was different too. Instead of two U's for eyes, it sported two upside-down V's or carets.
It crept forward slowly. I swallowed, getting ready for its next move. After walking a bit closer, the roach stopped. I watched it carefully, ready to attack at any moment.
Suddenly, the roach moved. Its arms clung to its sides, and its back bent forward.
It was—bowing?
Its face looked up at us. The monster's caret eyes gave it a much creepier aura.
What was it doing? I wondered.
After a moment, the roach straightened itself again. Then, just as quickly as it came—
It vanished.