I swear that I should feel scared right now. I mean, it is not every day that you wake up in a half-destroyed ship, in a land as strange as this. On top of all that, I feel numb all over my body. I don't know what that is about, but I can't let myself lose my mind over that. I have more immediate worries after all.
Well, to start with the positive news, the storm has passed us by. I can't sense the storm wall anywhere near me. It could not have happened at a more opportune time as well. I don't know how much longer my ship could have survived in that storm. I am surprised that the ship is not a pile of scrap wood already.
My ship is not in a pretty state, though. The bow has been bent to a weird angle. (It would have been worse if it were not reinforced.) I certainly am not going to be doing any ramming with this ship, and there are holes in the ship.
These holes are my main worry. After all, there is a barrier on the ship that is keeping the ice mana out of the ship. The holes will put strain on this barrier. I think it has already begun to fail. I can feel myself shivering. I do not know how these barriers work. It still must be holding, since I am not a statue of ice.
If that is the situation of my ship, the other ship is in a worse position. Laufen's ship is split in two, barely hanging on by the thinnest plank of wood I have ever seen in my life. My ship is still able to move. I am sure that his not going anywhere. Not that the asshole needs a ship to come attack me.
The man is making his way towards me even as we speak. I don't know how he is doing this. After all, we are minutes away from a storm. The ice mana here should be able to harm somebody like the snowlord as well. I have to assume that the massive amount of mana that he is absorbing has something to do with it. Whatever the asshole is doing must be suicidal. Somebody at his level should not be able to control that much mana.
The man right now looks like a cyclone in my eyes. If I could see the man right now, I am sure that he would be shining like a little sun. Thank god I can't see him. he is already enough to overwhelm my mana vision. He would have left me blind.
If I am honest I don't want to look at the man even through my mana sense, especially when it is enhanced like right now. I can already feel my vision darkening, something like dark spots appearing in my eyes. Well, that is nothing good. I am sure that I will pay the price for this later. Right now, if that man were to enter this ship, I would be dead. I can figure out the issue with my mana sense later.
I start the ship feeling it slide forward. I don't think that is even a quarter of the speed the ship should be able to achieve. The crash has damaged it more seriously than I thought. Still, the ship is faster than the man, even if barely.
Still, trying to get rid of the asshole is kind of like trying to swat a fly. No matter where I turn the ship, the man is there. I am surprised that I can even keep up with the man. You do need to realize that the formation that I am using is acting like a formation stick, allowing me to use the ship. No matter how well-made these formations are, there is going to be a lag in trying to control the ship. (I can assure you that these formations are not well-made.) That is what the asshole is exploiting to keep up with me. Hells, he has begun to catch up with me.
As if that was not enough, I am barely able to keep my eye on the man. Compared to the ship, the man is the size of a mosquito. On top of that I can't even use the sensory formations for this. (The damn thing has already failed in the crash.) I have to rely purely on my mana sense, right now.
How do I tell the whitest spot when the world seems to be made from shades of white? The only reason I can track the man is because he is absorbing and emitting so much mana. If he could manage to be a bit more stealthy with his mana, he would already be on the ship with me. I can barely manage to keep the man away from my ship as it is.
I don't know what I am supposed to do now. I am trying to think about what I can do. At the moment I don't know where I am going since the sensory formations are knocked out.
Even when I could see the place, this place was completely plain (as smooth as a mirror). I don't think I have even noticed a small hill in this place. There is no place for me to run away, nor any place for me to hide. No last-minute trick that I can pull off here. No haven towards which I can direct my ship.
Who will tell my mind that, though? Even now, it is trying to form plans, each plan doomed to failure. Plans of attacking that might have worked if I had a more intact ship. Plans of escape that might have worked if the environment were not so hostile. If I had my sword at least, I would not be in such a miserable position. At least I would be able to think more clearly.
Fuck, fuck. The ship swings to the left under my control as I dodge the man's attack. This attack was a bit too close for comfort. The man had managed to almost touch the ship. Maybe the ship would be able to hold against the man's attack, but that is a gamble that I can't afford.
Thankfully, that has brought me a bit of time. The man is still running in that direction at his full speed. It will take him a while to turn towards me. The man is barely able to control the mana that he is using right now. Even something as simple as turning is going to take the man a while.
I can't pull of more direction changes like this, though. My ship is also not in a pristine condition. I can feel the formation strain in my hands, though I don't know the reason for this. All I can tell is there is no issue with the formation itself. There has to be some problem with the ship, then, if that is the case.
Still, if I were to push the formation a bit more, it would collapse. (And explode on my face, most likely.) then I won't even be able to maintain the little control that I have over this ship right now.
Sadly, the man seems to realize this fact as well. He begins to change directions towards me as quickly as he can. (It must be pretty painful to him.) I accelerate the ship as much as I dare to. Any faster, and the magic that is running this ship will fail. I can't even predict when because I don't know how exactly these runes are supposed to be working.
I feel the ship slow down even before I realize why it happened. The mana strings that I was using to control the formation have disappeared. I can feel the mana leaving my body, but as much as I want to, I can't seem to bring myself to manifest the strings. It is almost like I can't recall the structure of the string. That shouldn't be possible. I have been making formations continuously for the last five years. This is something that I have to do thousands of times per day.
I don't know why this is happening. I think a reason can be that my vital mana has been almost fully consumed. The little dregs that remain are still trying to enhance my mana sense. Well, now is not the time to think about it. There is an enemy at the gate. I can learn about what is wrong with me after beating him. Not that I can see how I can beat somebody that much stronger than me right now.
Even as I am thinking this, I feel my legs give as I fall to the ground. I try to move my legs, which I can't feel anymore. I retract the mana from my mana sense, which I redirect towards my legs.
There is no change as I keep trying to get up. Screw it, I begin to redirect that mana to my arms. So what if I can't move? I will attack him the moment that he comes close to me.
I lose sensation in my hands, just as my hand reaches my sword. It is not like my arm is numb. It feels nonexistent, as if it were never there. I can feel the panic crawl up my spine as I feel the feeling of numbness spread across my body. Slowly and steadily, like a snake crawling up my body.
As the feeling spreads, I look at the roof of this room. There is something off about it. It takes me a moment to realize that my mana sense is not working. The only time when my mana sense does not work is when I am actively suppressing it. Even then, I can still sense mana to a certain degree. I have never seen the world without my mana sense butting in one way or the other. All I can think of for a moment is that it looks very weird. Like somebody has removed all the colour in the world and left it in black and white.
Yet the weirdest thing is my panic is not affecting me. I can feel it, but where it should have been overwhelming me, it feels muffled. Like trying to hear somebody speak a thousand feet away. I swear that I can hear somebody speak. I can't understand it. I still feel like I can understand this nonexistent speech. It is motivating me to move, to keep thinking, to keep fighting.
I feel the world fading around me, the void taking over my sight like it did the rest of my body. I don't even know why I am still fighting, to still keep moving. Even if Laufen did not have one of his arms or one of his legs. Even if I were to break through to the next stage. I still wouldn't be able to fight the man in a duel now. Still, I am not able to stop myself from trying. Almost like it is the most natural thing that I can do at this moment.