Skyclad (Fate's Anvil Book 1) Read online

  No, the Elemental Air Mana danced. While the wind was invisible, she could feel the breeze on her skin and see the Air Mana swirl around everything the wind encountered, dancing with the leaves as they shook on the trees and waving back and forth with the shifting grasses of the meadow. She had no time take advantage of her new understanding of the Element, however, as [Naked Instinct] began prickling at the back of her mind.

  Morgan suddenly knew she was being watched.

  Chapter 9: Run, Fight, or Die

  Morgan Mackenzie was running for her life, a warbling scrubby giving panic-filled trills while desperately hanging on to her shoulder with whatever loofah magic Lulu used. When the first giant wolf had appeared at the far edge of the meadow, she’d felt confident in her abilities to defend herself with her magic. But [Naked Instinct] had simply kept ratcheting up in its intensity, and when [The Naked Eye] had revealed at least a dozen more wolves closing in through the trees, her confidence had drained away like the last swirling dregs of dishwater flowing down the sink. Nervousness became naked fear, as a dozen became two dozen, became three.

  Thankfully [Naked Instinct] was more useful than a simple feeling, as she had found herself rolling to the side without thinking just as Lulu had given a warbling warning right in her ear. The wolf that had managed to sneak up behind her had missed its lunging attack, but its near-silent pass over her was equally disturbing. As Morgan rolled back to her feet, she’d tossed a sizzling bolt of lightning at the creature, but it had simply twisted in mid-air with a snarl, avoiding the charged projectile without so much as singeing its fur as it landed with a roll through the dirt.

  The girl had immediately turned to run, only to find the entire meadow surrounded. The lone attacking wolf was merely the vanguard before the rest of the pack closed in. [Spell Surge], followed by several [Flame Bolt] spells, resulted in new craters and one side of the encirclement scattering. Morgan had wasted no time sprinting for the opening, and that was how she found herself dashing madly through the forest with howling death nipping at her heels.

  The damaging backlash she’d suffered from using [Spell Surge] with the fire magic had left her hands once again blistered and cracked. She didn’t even consider slowing down, however. The pain was tolerable thanks to her [Pain Resistance], and the damage was fairly superficial thanks to her affinities for Heat and Fire, and the associated resistances.

  Her boosted physical capability both from spent stat points and the skill [Naked Athleticism] were paying dividends with interest now. Similar to when she had climbed down from the giant tree, the skill helped her instinctively make the most efficient movements as she ran, and her increased strength meant her strides practically launched her with each step, while her agility helped her keep her balance with the impact of every footfall. Morgan had never imagined being able to run like this, and would have been amazed at her speed, if not for the sheer terror driving her heart to pound like a jackhammer.

  Any possible thoughts of slowing down were immediately curtailed by the moonlit shapes keeping pace with her through the woods in the distance to either side. As fast as she’d been running, the wolves were easily keeping pace, almost as if they were toying with her. They’d closed in a few times, and she’d responded with bursts of lightning and flame, and terrible accuracy, since she couldn’t spare the attention to aim. The oversized canines simply melted back into the trees unscathed, howls mocking her every effort at retaliation.

  Morgan ran for hours. She had no idea how many miles she’d covered. Probably somewhere between a whole bunch of miles and a heck of a lot, she thought to herself, having no breath to spare to speak out loud. As night had fallen sometime around the beginning of her run, the moons had soon risen somewhere to her right. With no frame of reference for the greater surrounding region as a whole, she figured north was as good a direction as any. Between the moonlight and [The Naked Eye], she could see better in the pale night than she’d been able to during the day before she’d gained the skill.

  Back on Earth, a run like this would have killed me all by itself, she thought, with mixed emotions. It was almost surreal that she could even think in a situation like this, but her options were simple, and required little thought to process. Either run, fight, or die. Twice she’d tried to slow down to make a stand with her back to a large tree or earth abutment, and twice the wolves simply melted away from the reach of her spells, panting like laughter as if she were merely a game to them. With fighting proven useless, her choices were reduced to running or death.

  Morgan had found she could spend Stamina as extra effort in short bursts. She’d leapt over fallen trees and jumped over a small stream with the enhanced exertion, resulting in feats that would make Olympic medalists on Earth feel inadequate. Her Stamina couldn’t recover under the strain of her fear-driven flight, however. When she let herself slow enough that it began to restore itself, there was always a wolf or two right on her heels, nipping at her backside, as Lulu’s warning warbles rose to a piercing pitch.

  This is an endurance race, she realized with sudden, dawning clarity. Every big jump or dash brings my Stamina lower, she thought, and they won’t let me slow down enough to get it back.

  That realization almost brought her to the brink of despair. With their numbers and the ease with which they kept pace with her, it was only a matter of time until her Stamina was low enough that her body would begin to devour itself to keep her going. Simply running, even at her impressive pace, was no terrible burden on her reserves, thanks to her improved stat attributes. She could tell through her healing skill’s senses that, Stamina aside, she would run into sleep deprivation problems before her caloric reserves became an issue, going by how efficiently her body seemed to presently be operating.

  Stamina was simply her ultimate problem. Every bite at her flanks and bare bottom when the wolves rushed her or she slowed her pace required healing, at least enough to stop the bleeding. Vaulting streams or other obstacles, and the healings, each cost her a small portion of Stamina, and running at her current pace took enough of it to keep her from regenerating it, even with her high Vitality stat.

  Mana, on the other hand, she had plenty of. There has to be a way to use Mana instead of Stamina to go faster! Her thoughts were frantic; she couldn’t exactly stop to experiment or look for a solution. But I have to try something now while I have the Stamina to recover if it doesn’t work! she scolded herself.

  After running so long, she was getting familiar with how her body used up Stamina when she burned it to speed up, or jump higher, or dodge the snarling fangs. If I can just use Mana instead of Stamina—but I have no idea which Element…

  At Lulu’s sudden trill of warning that her pursuers were once again closing in, Morgan seized her Mana without attempting to filter out the Elements she’d already become familiar with. I’ll just have to throw it all in and hope something sticks, she thought. She pushed off with her legs in the same way she’d used Stamina to jump before, hoping to at least lunge ahead of snapping jaws, but willed her Mana into the jump instead.

  She’d hoped to gain a few dozen paces in a burst of speed. The result she actually got was a burst of Mana running wild as the ground underneath her exploded under the pressure of her foot’s impact. Startled yelps and snarls she barely noticed erupted behind her as she was launched several dozen Morgan-lengths ahead at a truly frightening speed. She would have considered it a resounding success, except for the fact that her left knee had shattered under the shock, and she was not only flying through the air, but also tumbling, while a terrified Lulu emitted purbling whimpers right in her ear.

  Morgan hit the ground in a flopping roll, only her [Pain Resistance] skill keeping her conscious. She could see with her recovery skill that the bones in her knee joint had compressed together with such force that the crystalline marrow core had fractured, then splintered against each other, and practically exploded inside her knee. The marrow-crystals burned with Mana and were quickly dissolving back into
her blood as [Naked Recovery] regrew, then re-aligned the joint almost before she hit the ground, but even with her resistance, the pain was enough to have her screaming. She was worried she might have spent too much Stamina to heal it so quickly, but it was necessary for her to remain able to run.

  She scrambled to her feet, still limping, but quickly recovering. Lulu had come loose from her shoulder when she landed, and she dashed frantically over to the scrubby and picked it up, sticking the loofah back on her shoulder as she looked around for the wolves. She could see many in the distance running between the trees, and the two who’d harried her were both over a hundred yards away, shaking the mud and dirt off their tawny brown fur. They were standing in the middle of a splattered sprawl of earth and brushy detritus that had been kicked up by Morgan’s sudden launch, and it was only the sudden shock of it that had bought the girl a moment’s respite.

  She’d rolled partway up a low, rounded hillside, and she put her back to the mounded earth as the pair of wolves closed in. Every moment not running was a few more points of Stamina regenerated, but that wasn’t the only reason she’d stopped. The rest of the pack had been left farther behind the two vanguards, and Morgan wasn’t about to miss a chance at some payback. Especially not when her Mana was literally brimming over, the channeled recovery skill having topped her off. As the wolves spread apart to attack her from both sides, she planted her feet and timed their simultaneous lunge as much by instinct as by sight.

  [Spell Surge] caused violet arcs of wild power to snap at the air around her as she pulled on every bit of Earth Mana she could muster and shoved outward with both hands. No amount of twisting could save either wolf as the ground around Morgan exploded toward them in a massive [Earth Wave]. Hundreds of finger-width spines of jagged stone, accompanied by tons of smaller rocks and a cascading wall of mud, blasted outward from where she stood. The raised wave of muddy dirt fell away, but Morgan was already certain of her victory because of notifications, even before she could see the pin-cushioned canines suspended in the air mid-charge.

  You have defeated [Wildlands Direwolf Scout (Lvl - 6)]

  For earning your victory while [Naked] and [Unequipped], experience gain doubled.

  +300 experience gained.

  You have defeated [Wildlands Direwolf Scout (Lvl - 6)]

  For earning your victory while [Naked] and [Unequipped], experience gain doubled.

  +300 experience gained.

  A minor victory, but she felt a surge of exultation anyway. The sudden and massive expenditure of power had drained her Mana by almost two thirds, but it was quickly coming back as she activated [Naked Recovery] to finish healing her shattered knee. The rest of the pack seemed almost stunned by her sudden, violent retaliation, slowing their approach to a creeping stalk as they paced through the trees around her. The deaths of two of their packmates didn’t go without consequence, however, as a new howl Morgan hadn’t yet heard shattered the hushed, whispering quiet of the night.

  The howl wasn’t just louder than the previous ones that had so terrified Morgan during her frantic flight from the pack. It was deeper, and it vibrated in her bones with mournful notes that spoke to her soul of ancient rage, forlorn despair, and wild expectation all at once. The night itself stilled as the sorrowful sound laid like a blanket across the world. With this new eerie howl turning her fear to stark terror, she actually wet herself. As one, every wolf in sight sank to their bellies, even the ones closest to her. Those four had stopped just shy of her range, and they now lay trembling before the moonlit grief of that primordial howl. The shaking woman gritted her teeth and fought to keep from kneeling as two more howls—just as powerful, though shorter and not quite as deeply pitched—answered the first.

  Farther behind the crouching wolves, the dappled moonlight seemed to bow away from three massive shadows that even [The Naked Eye] could not pierce. All of the pack were huge, as tall as Morgan, even crouched as low as they were, with massive, triangular heads that turned in deference before their betters. The three shadows stepped into the bright moonlit night from under the forest canopy, and Morgan understood why the pack had knelt, as the same urge to kneel almost overcame her own senses.

  This was submission, for the Alphas of the Pack had arrived. On her shoulder, Lulu’s whimpering purble trailed away to a quivering vibration Morgan could feel as the scrubby tried to shrink itself and hide in her hair. The Alphas were true giants, and she could have easily walked underneath any of them without her head so much as disturbing their chest fur. Two of them were golden shades of dappled brown fading to darker reddish hues along their ears, paws, and tails, and they spread out to the sides with silent steps to bracket her position. The third was slightly larger than the first two, and dark grey, with black ears and muzzle instead of brown. Undeniably the dominant, male leader of all the others, he stepped forward to where her earthen spikes had skewered the two lesser wolves.

  With a chuffing rumble and growl that gave off power she could feel from over thirty yards away, the spikes holding up the two wolves crumbled to dust, and the corpses fell to the ground. Morgan backed up slowly, trying to angle her path to bring the hillside between her and the wolves. Her plan was to put some distance between her and these mighty beasts, even if she had to burn half her Stamina and Mana at the same time to do it. She was in a place somewhere beyond fear and dread, and it was empty, calm and clear as the still surface of a cold winter pond. She knew, beyond all certainty, that she would either live or die, and all she could do was all she could do. She had no hope of outrunning these three, not even with enhanced abilities, nor with any magic she could imagine, but she’d somehow decided she wouldn’t just lay down and accept it.

  The massive Alpha male silently gazed down at her as the two females stepped forward, each gently lifting the smaller dead wolves by the blood-matted napes of their necks like cubs. The Alpha turned his head to watch as they somberly strode away to Morgan’s left, while she backed away to the side of the hill, readying her will for a last-ditch effort to sprint away to the right. She called forth her Mana in full with [Spell Surge], the Alpha snapped its muzzle back in her direction with a snarl, then the hill to Morgan’s left side stood up, and all hell broke loose.

  Morgan fell to the ground, staring at the terrain to her left that kept on rising, despite its appearance of being a mere hill that had no business having any methods of locomotion whatsoever. The Alpha, too, fell flat on its ass, and Morgan took a grain of comfort that she wasn’t the only one who’d been surprised by whatever this new catastrophe happened to be.

  Her eardrums were simply blown out by an impossibly loud, hooting roar, somewhere between a steam whistle and a jetliner on takeoff. Dirt and rocks, and even small trees tumbled all round, and her ears—now ringing as she healed herself—revealed shocked yips and snarls as the mountain turned. A mighty chelonian foot the size of a steam-shovel bucket descended next to her, sending her tumbling to the ground once again. As the rubble continued to fall away, it revealed a broad, domed shell that had been the hilltop only moments before, and as it finished turning, the mighty beaked head struck.

  In the span of a heartbeat, one of the female alphas was completely devoured in a single, echoing snap of that horrible maw. The wolf’s front half, including the cub it had been carrying, were simply gone, leaving shortened hindquarters that took a ludicrously stretched out moment to fall over. The Pack scattered, and the Alpha’s howl of rage shook the moonlight itself.

  Morgan didn’t stick around to watch the imminent battle. She still held her Mana, and now she tried again to boost her speed, this time using her Stamina at the same time as a sort of guide. She headed north once again, fueled by terror and adrenaline, and urged on by Lulu’s whimpering purbles. With her Stamina and Mana together, she was finally rewarded with a most exceptionally useful skill:

  You have learned the skill [Naked Acceleration]! All too often, sheer speed is the key to survival! Expend Mana to accelerate your body with a tem
poral dilation effect, but beware! Inertia is not cancelled out by this skill! This skill shares synergy with [Naked Instinct], allowing you to more easily compensate for high impact movements while the skill is active.

  The experience was surreal, especially given her situation. Morgan wasn’t moving faster so much as the rest of the world was barely moving at all, at least to her senses. As she curved her path around what she’d already mentally named the Doomturtle, the rocks and trees still tumbling down moved in slow motion. Sound was felt more than heard, a full body buzzing like low pitched static while swimming underwater. As she leaned into turns to dodge nearly still rocks slowly descending toward the ground, her bare feet punched divots of dirt into the air every time she kicked off to change direction.

  She now understood what the skill description meant by inertia and high impact movements. She could feel her knees and ankles developing microfractures she constantly had to heal with her Stamina as she burned Mana to keep her speed up. But while she felt as if she was running normally, albeit at a full sprint, she knew the reality was, well…

  This is damn FAST! Morgan thought to herself. A glance back had revealed that the wolves had barely begun to react, and the Doomturtle’s movements were nearly imperceptible. She turned her attention back to putting as much distance between her and the danger as she possibly could before her Mana got too low. Every step she pushed off with launched her forward in bounds that covered more than twenty yards per footfall. She felt she could go even faster, but that would cost too much Stamina due to the constant healing. She paced herself in order to allow her Stamina to recover. By the time her Mana had dropped below half, she’d put several miles between herself and the pack, and she let go of the newly acquired skill.