What even is mana debt? I'm guessing it happened because I overcharged the void blast.
Mana debt is a physical and spiritual condition where you've wasted and lost more energy than within your body, directly from the atmosphere. Firstly, the magical vacuum created by this has pushed mana back into your body and kept you alive. Secondly, you need to fulfill your mana debt; in this state, you have no ability to cast spells or use any ability that requires it, and your physical stats are halved…yeah, a pretty horrible status condition. After you fulfill your mana debt, it takes about a minute for your stats to recover and a week for you to regain magic ability.
YOU NEED TO MAKE DO WITH THE RESOURCES YOU HAVE.
Okay, maybe blowing myself away to create a dramatic exit wasn't as smart as I thought. But hey! at least they'll have a harder time going after me. It may have not been the best choice to show off my abilities to huntsmen in training that would 100% pass the information onto Ozpin either, but they'd most likely seen my summons on the cameras already.
The mana deficit status is extremely shitty though, so I'll have to wait and camp it out... also, no going below zero mana ever again. My previous plan is fucked either way now, but looking at the positives, I know what's my position on the timeline. Okay, let's just start off with a headcount and a swift review of my 'army' after all of that craziness. "Ah right dragon, deform." Right after the words leave my mouth, the dragon changes into the smaller forms of multiple voidlings, resting atop the giant spider.
Okay, I have 4 tanks, 2 assassins, 2 bombardiers, 5 sentries? and the newest addition that occupies 5 spaces; the spider? Nah too generic, the mad netter? It's an incredibly stupid name, so no. Oh, I know! "Observe."
Voidling
Type: 5 slot net casting spider
HP 400/400
MP 450/450
He has good stats but that still doesn't help with the name! Uh, Ranger! Yeah, that should work for the time being. Let's see how much space I have left. "Skills," I say while focusing on the summon voidling spell.
Summon Voidling – Active (Lv.12)
Summons a Voidling that obeys your every command.
Allows the user to create a tiger sized voidling that occupies 5 spaces.
Max: 24
Currently occupied: 18/24
Cost: 50 MPOkay, not as much as I hoped for, it's probably best if I leave at least five spaces free for emergencies and I can't use any fucking spells either. Well, time to form a new plan. I probably should get myself a scroll, but that can wait. I'm in the middle of nowhere, I mean it's not exactly true Vale is somewhat close by but I can't go back there right now so the middle of nowhere is an accurate description. And moving most likely isn't the best option with how weak I am now. "Bombardiers! Look out for some type of clearing where we could stay!" I command, putting some steel into my voice.
Now, I guess I could try riding Ranger as a mode of transport, while I wait for the bats to come back. I attempt to pull myself up onto the giant spider, with emphasis on attempt. Who knew that it's hard to climb a giant spider? I embarrass myself by falling six more fucking times before I give up.
"Why are you looking at me like that?! Do you find this funny?!" I ask the massive spider as a way to let out my frustration. "Okay if you're so smart, help me get up, Ranger."
His response to this was…laughter? Or the best way a giant spider could imitate cackling. The massive spider lowers itself and props up a leg for me to climb up. After I awkwardly make my way up ranger looks at me with an expression I can't pin but I have a feeling it's a goofy grin. "Ah fuck it calling you ranger is annoying and I probably won't make more voidlings of your type for a few years, so your name shall now be Jeff! Yes Jeff! the spider, perfect!"
Do you wish to name Voidling Type = 5 slots net casting spider, Jeff!?
Y/NI jumped a bit from surprise at the new window. Is a name that important? Whatever, sure.
Voidling Type = 5 slots net casting spider successfully named Jeff!
Looking up from my comfy position on Jeff I see one of the bombardiers swooping in right in front of me.
"Have you found a location that fits what I asked for?" The fruit bat starts nodding at me eagerly. "Well where is it then?" After my question it pointed his winged arm in a direction I guessed was our destination.
"Jeff, start following where the bombardier leads, everyone else follows." To my surprise Jeff started walking in the opposite direction and stopped next to the sentries. Where it took its massive net off his back and started placing them inside of it, after he threw the bag over his shoulder, it landed right behind me.
'Huh I guess that solves the problem of their immobility. '
Now that Jeff was done with helping his crippled brethren, he followed my order and started skittering behind the bat. The ride there took a relatively short time, or maybe it was Jeff's speed? The clearing was pretty small but had plenty of room for me and all my summons.
"Well, let's settle down for the night. Jeff! set up a circle shaped defence perimeter with the sentries, Bombardiers patrol for any nearby grimm and kill the ones you can keep low to the ground. We don't want to attract nevermores, tanks and assassins defend the sentries. Jeff come over to the middle." Immediately they spark into action and fulfill my orders to a T.
As Jeff comes over, I crawl under him and prepare to sleep. He looks down at me with the same grin as earlier, finding me laying under him amusing.
"I'll ignore that"
Soon after, I fell asleep.
-xXx-
Nudge.
Nudge.
nudge nudge Push Push
"Five more minutes mom, please."
nudge nudge nudge nudge
"Fine! I'm waking up." I say groggily. I slowly open my eyes. My senses readjust themselves to see...the night sky, illuminated by the shattered moon, and
"HOLY SHIT!" I jumped up from underneath jeff. But then I froze, my body was unwilling to move and I felt fear strike my heart once again.
Grimm massacred my sentries and assassins, to the side lay the corpses of tanks and a bombardier with a pierced chest, the cause seems to be the Ursa Major currently aiming another rock at the second bombardier still flying above.
A crippled and injured bombardier is crying, crawling to me, behind it an ursa minor. It grabs its wings and tears them off the horrible act accompanied by an equally bad flesh ripping sound.
"No! Stop! Stop! get away from them!" I yell out, as I start running to save the voidling. An ursa slaps me into the nearby forest. My skin tears from the impact, as I continue my flight, tree after tree, I finally stop a few meters into the forest.
"ARGH!"
I push my bloody self up, my eyes jumping toward my attacker, the same Ursa Major that managed to hit the bombardier out of the air, as it presents me with a challenging look and smirk? Since when are grimm sentient?
I can't win this fight no matter what I do! I need to run away.
'I wanted to save the points for as long as I could for when I couldn't level fast enough but I fucking need them now If I want to live. '
"S-sstatus" I practically whimper.
John Smith
Class – Void Caller (Lv.15)
Race – Human
HP – 30 (12 per minute)
MP – -400 (48 per 30 seconds)
STR – 24 (12)
VIT – 24 (12)
[DEX – 24 (12)]
INT – 24
WIS – 24
CHA – 24
LCK – 24
Points available – 70c-crack!
a pained squeal is heard behind me, making me rush frantically to choose
'fuck, I need to put the points into STR and save my voidlings!'
As I am about to attribute the points I get charged in my side by a boarbatusk and miss my intended target.
"NO!"
John Smith
Class – Void Caller (Lv.15)
Race – Human
HP – 30 (12 per minute)
MP – -400 (48 per 30 seconds)
STR – 24 (12)
VIT – 24 (12)
DEX – 24 (12)
[INT – 94]
WIS – 24
CHA – 24
LCK – 24
Points available – 0 SKILLS GAINED!
Eidetic Memory
Parallel Processing (can be taken multiple times)
Rapid Processing
Cold Reason
It felt like a tight band formed around my neck, squeezing my skull. New and familiar information overload my mind, as everything in my body is used to make new neurons and connections in my brain. I lose all of my energy, but I hang on, and finally...everything clears.
"All voidlings! Avoid combat and rush to my side!" I yell out a command as an idea formed in my head. I see Jeff rush his way toward me avoiding the grimm, grabbing the last remaining sentry on his way, beside him a damaged tank. Above, a bombardier tries to make his way towards me but a looming shadow led me to believe history was repeating...only for my hope to reignite as it gets saved by the tank. As the injured beetle is pulverised by the smug Ursa Major. I wince as my once lively army gets smashed to bits by these sadistic fucks.
I pray this will work, after all...it's my last hope.
'Alright, bend your knees slightly, toes at your opponent, heels 5 millimeters off the ground, right hand and left shoulder against the chin.'
Taking a stance, i yell out
"Suit up!"
And then, I felt cold crawling on my body. Voidlings surrounded me, covering me...like a suit. I felt safe and secure, warmer, emptier, colder...It felt like I was one with the void.
My magical girl transformation was brought to a halt as a beringel charged at me. My feet drag back, hips and shoulders steady, my two first knuckles on priority and when it came close enough, I struck
SPLAT!
My fists collide with its jaw and subsequently its head, slowly it decelerates and most of its momentum goes to the jaw. A horrible ripping sound is heard as the muscles and tendons in the beringel rip and tear, before the skin gives in too and its jaw fall right off, leading to the horrifying sight of a jawless and livid gorilla with a tongue bleeding dust, and quickly punch its head off after, the skull bending and breaking as easily as a can of coke, the ground made waves like a liquid, and the bedrock below cracked.
"Jesus Christ almighty, I could get used to this!"
With my newfound strength, I look to a new victim. An Ursa and I shout.
"Come at me you son of a bitch!"
ROAR!
The ursa runs at me, ready to pounce. Its movement is much lighter than the one Nora rode. And cheerfully, I gesture at it to come at me. Like a bull at a red sheet, the unfortunate ursa complies and shakes the ground in each step it takes to relieve me of my life. Slowly it accelerates to my unmoving form until-
SCHLICK!
a greatsword made of the remains of the fallen tank forms from my hand, slicing it in half.
"oh~ hahahaha! You fucking idiots! can't even kill little ol' me?"
Manically laughing, I ran toward a Beowolf. this one was wise...oh so very wise, jumping out of the way to save it's life.
But wisdom isn't everything, it was about to learn that.
WOOSHHH!
A gaping hole in its body was formed like a knife through butter by the black, corrupted, high pressure acid shooting through its body and sending it to the dinner table in hell.
"Now let's begin the massacre!"
'F A on B=-F B on A...since i am approximately 100 kilograms in weight, the force needed for me to fly would be 981 newtons, high speed needs….probably 3000 newtons, and it's clear from the way that the ursa died so easily that the acid jet's force has enough thrust for me to fly, I'll laugh at gravity once again!'
Holding my fish-like jets behind me, I begin the countdown
"3,2,1"
and I soar through the air! Forests and trees die, corrupted by me as soil dissolves to the void! but it's worth it when-
'bingo!' I caught the tusks of the same boarbatusk that gave me such an intelligence boost.
"So long! And thanks for all the I.N.T!"
I hold the charging boarbatusk with ease, and throw it into the air, before flying up to it and uppercutting it straight back to the grimm pool. Suddenly, my acid rocket stops supporting me, and I plummet.
"Weeeee~"
I aim myself at an ursa, and quickly, I get closer to the ground, closer to the ursa.
'If I reach my arms and hold its hide, lever mechanics will allow me to lift and throw this thing, especially with inertia it'll be sent tumbling! but wait, gravity wouldn't be enough… Maybe I could use the acid jet? '
"Come on, work work WORK!"
WOOOSH!
'AHA!'
With much more momentum, I reached the ursa within mere seconds, my hands clasped onto the ursa's thick hide, it's elephant-like legs dented the ground as the hinge. My legs impacted the floor and I heard a sick, horrible crunch. A small part of my void armour peeled off, but it was worth it as the bear was in the air. And i threw it to a beowolf eating a dead tank
RRRIP!
The great mass of the Ursa seamlessly tears through the monster, I regain the biofuel of the tank from the corpse of the beetle and the guts of the beowolf.
'I can run now! I can escape! I've got all my voidlings on me! So what's the holdup!?"
a brief look at the smirking ursa answers all my questions
'on second thought...maybe systematic execution IS a good idea'
The forest was no longer a forest, just an acidic wasteland with one side willed with pure black evil, and the other with me.
"COME ON YOU WORTHLESS EXCUSES FOR MONSTERS! KILL ME!"
my words echo through the wasteland and the mountain ranges, birds flew away in fear.
...
none of them respond
' well...too bad for them'
I run toward the sea of grimm, that far and small black ocean almost teleporting to me in the blink of an eye. I tore through one beowolf, turning it to fine dust. And then, I held the leg of an ursa, using my acid jet and threw it to a nearby pack of beowolves. Finally, they start attacking me, one aimlessly pounces at me, and their mistake was my reward! I hold it's paws and crush it, and then I shoot it to a melting pile of goo and toward other grimm, bones were crushed, craters formed and a huge cloud of dust obscured my vision.
-xXx-
After almost half an hour of blotting out the moon with corpses of grimm, I felt a bit tired, little chips and chunks of purple and blue fell off of me as I walked toward the grimm masses. I was winning, they were losing and I felt good. I until i see that face...that smug fucking face.
"Cold reason, Objective:kill all grimm!"
and then...I felt...nothing, pure drive, pure logic.
I took a deep breath...and then limbs started flying in the air. My body moved on its own and started ripping grimm apart so efficiently that it was hypnotising. I never knew I was that much of a genius until I fought this fight, as I jumped from grimm to grimm stabbing them with the spider legs on my back like the iron spider, and held onto them tightly, spinning them fast enough that I could hear a sonic boom, all I could hear was dust flying, ground cracking and grimm splashing into each other and dissipating. High pressure jets of acid start blasting grimm left and right almost randomly, jumping from grimm to grimm, a 1/1 kill/dodge ratio. With much work done, I started moving considerably faster than before, denting the soil and leaving a cloud of dust, spider legs on my back were helping me move forwards, and even using nets and jets to make myself even faster!
With the helpful momentum, I raised my greatsword and with great speed came great death.
SPLAT!
SPLIT!
TEAR!
SPURT!
RIP!
My velocity allowed me to swim through a beringel, then an ursa, and then another, and another and another, web after web after web led to different grimm, their numbers decreased and the golden rays of morning sunlight illuminated the land. My armour cracked, I was getting out of breath, I kept going, I felt no pain, no emotion, I knew no fear and I ripped and tore.
SMACK!
And then, my murderous joyride was put to a halt by a smack to the face.
my back, face, and knees kissed the ground, rolling back. After 10 seconds of being thrown back, I gain control of my momentum and grasp the floor with my claws.
Panting, I now realise that I'm getting tired. Still, I try to rush toward the grimm.
FZIIP!
'what was that?'
FZUP!
something small, something fast was moving and zipping around me, and it was getting closer.
CRACK!.
I took a deep breath.
'Calm, make yourself zen, do an epic slow-motion scene and take out that thing'
'oh, right, parallel and rapid processing! use that'
the wind picked up, something was there.
I opened my eyes and held the spinning black ball
"A boarbatusk? Really? Pathetic."
I quickly clap and grasp the still spinning pig, and in disgust I start crushing it. My hands push to each other more, as I crush the hog it has the audacity to escape and tries to spin even faster and then-
CRUCK!
RRIIIP!
It's tusks pull on my chest and start ripping it off, a dead bombardier is pulled off my chest revealing the winds of the world to my body, and my soft flesh body to the Grimm. That previous sense of oneness with the void was gone, my manic gleeful persona was shattered, I was frozen in place...again, first by weiss, next when trying to save my voidlings, and NOW
'No! John Smith! You've cleaved through an army of grimm nonstop for almost an entire day! You are a fucking badass and you're going to live through this! don't let a pathetic pig stop you from knowing that!'
In anger, I start to crush it even more until the pig stops spinning…and finally, it pops.
SCRAPE!
something hit my back, a horrible scraping sound followed. I gathered my strength to fight the backstabbing enemy behind me.
a towering, shadowy black warrior looked down on me, I gulped and said.
"Whoo boy...just...just give me a sec' so...I can catch my breath." It attacked immediately, giving me no room to evade nor to attack. I tried to weave and dodge the thing...whatever it was, but to no avail. I jumped and used my webs to try to sling around it but it caught me with its hands, trying to escape from certain death. I stabbed its hand with my greatsword, it roared in pain and threw me onto the ground.
sliding on the ground, I collide with a beowolf. Paying it no mind I try to get up and kill it until
CRUNCH!
I looked back to see Jeff being eaten alive by the beowolf
"No no no no stop that!" I rushed to save Jeff, manifesting my greatsword again. I stabbed it, slicing off its head...but Jeff was dying. His legs were frantically trying to attach to me, trying to live or comfort me. I didn't know and I hugged that spider, my own creation…and then, his body went limp.
"Jeff! Come on! There's no time for pranks! Wake up!"
A portal opened up, confirming my worst fears as tears fell from my eye
"No! We barely met! I could've known more about him, travelled with him! You can't take him away! I-I'll give you a dead assassin or something just don't take Jeff away!" a hand emerged from the portal, as I tried to pull Jeff back, the hand overpowered me without effort and took the spider from my hands and brought jeff along to the portal.
the growls and roars of the grimm were unheard as my vision wavered. There was no one to blame, the killer was dead, jeff was dead and I was running out of steam...And then th-
I saw the smiling ursa.
And John Smith saw red.
His acid jets instantly began shooting and shot him at the bear, he could feel the wind peeling off his armour but he didn't care all he wanted to do was killing that damn motherfucking bear, as a purple and gold gauntlet manifested on his fist, he was so sure he could just KILL I-
CHOMP!
it felt like time stopped...dreaming, yes dreaming! he must be dreaming right!? as he was just so close at killing that monster, and yet something stops him! that's what dreams do, right?.
"Wha!? No, no no no nononononono...NO! NO! NO!" John tries to tear himself away from the beowolf munching on his abdomen, pushing himself off his own liver, even his arms being lost to the endless pit that was the beowolf's stomach to just punch the ursa, to wipe that smug grin off its face. He felt claws on his shoulder and he tried to push it away, ripping off his own skin. His steps were weak, He was bleeding, and if he could just...punch the damn thing
his fist was so close! he just needed to-
SCHLICK!
His eyes were wide, as realisation dawned on him...this was not a happy ending, nor the story of a hero, there was no grand adventure and he was going to perish just like any other kid in a deathworld.
"F-f-fuck...fuck yo-" those were his last words, as his weak, frail, and dying body was pulled back into the horde.
His world was filled with black, his world was filled with pain, his world was filled with regret…
G̸̹̙̱̦̥̗̲͍͂̔̏̂̅͑͜͝á̸̜̐̈́̿̋̇̐̀̑ͅm̵̛̰̲̞̣̻̫̦̪̏̾͐̏̈́̍̕̕͝ẽ̶̢̡̥̻̞̘͝r̵̲̠̫̈́̄̾̈̈͆̈͜'̷̱̬̹̰̗̭͍̆̆̇̽̈́̈́̃̚̕s̶̩̈́̒̽̕ͅ ̵̛̭̤̫͕̝̯̰̼̰͐͊̄̿́̐̃͌̓s̴̡̱̪̱̟̻̙͖͂͆̉̌̒̄͠p̴̡̗̲̙̰̖̳̖͔̑i̸̼̳̺̳̣̱̝͗̽̍̐͌̓͜͠r̴͖̀̅ḯ̶̡̠̪̳͓̤̐̍́̄̿̌̕͠t̵̡̢͈̲̬́͗̎̉̑͌ ̵͔̈̿̆̔̀̈́̄̒̚̚E̸̛̗̬̅Ŗ̸̙̻̭͙̦̑͌͌̒͌́̈́́̂͠ͅͅR̸̘͂͂̊̒̔͘͝͠͠O̶̩̰̪͚̱̪͌̈͗̽̅͂̚R̷̦̖̱͔͙͇̩̯̲͛̒̓͑̓
And then...John Smith died in vain.
AN: And that's it for this chapter! Why was Jeff so adorable? Why did I do him dirty like that? Why is this getting edgy? Is it going to stay edgy? (No, not really) What's next? Some of those questions will surely get answers some day. With nothing else I wish to add I'd like to once again thank my incredibly helpful beta reader S. law/the boys' last branch here on , who's basically a co-writer by now and one more person that helped make this chapter into what it is now, north south gorrem!