A soft hiss and pop emanated from something nearby as a small cluster of the green worms suddenly popped. “Leave some for me.” My father called from above as he flew over me. Well, not flew as he couldn’t fly with his power, but that didn’t stop him from crossing the distance with a single leap.

  “Go left.” My mother’s laugh rang in my ears as she moved to stand next to me. The thing that caught my eye wasn’t the ear-to-ear grin or her hair as it fluttered in the wind. It was the odd rod-like device in her hand.

  If I didn’t know that she didn’t have a power that gave her the ability to use mana to attack, I would have thought it was a wand of some kind. It even had the odd blue glow that built up around it. The projectile was also very similar to a mana bolt. While I could have turned to look at the fight, I felt that I had to figure out what the hell was going on here.

  Actually, the closer I looked at the device, the more differences I found. The mana didn’t flow across the device in one smooth wave. Instead, it flowed along odd channels. Sure, there were runes and such that used channels to direct power, but those were curved and almost natural looking. These were anything but.

  Each line was ruler straight with perfect right-angle turns. All of which led from one end of the device to the other. From what I could tell, her mana flowed in from one end, got forcefully compressed, then shot off at whatever she was targeting. But how?

  A loud crunch was accompanied by childish laughter. Given that it was my father making that noise, I found it a bit disturbing. Of course, the moment I turned around, I wished I hadn’t.

  The idiot that is my father was using what looked like a chair leg to poke the things to death. Each time the creature gave a soft hissing squeal that cut off a moment later as their body gave with a soft pop.

  In a hurry to not throw up at the sight, I focused back on my mother and asked her about what I was seeing. “I thought you didn’t use spells?”

  “I don’t.” The device released the built-up mana as another series of popping filled the space behind me. Not that I was going to check how many she managed to kill that time. “But who says you have to use a spell to turn mana into a weapon?”

  She had a point, but from what I knew, those weapons required refined mana. That, or have their own way to refine the mana as it came in. Mana from a person was just too unstable. Wasn’t it?

  Her eyes flicked to me for a second. “Oh, it isn’t all that hard to figure it out.”

  If she said it wasn’t hard, then it wasn’t. But how would one go about using raw mana? The various bits of will and emotion would make anything you put it into unstable. There would be no way to focus it into a compressed bolt. In fact, even trying would cause the mana to be violently ejected.

  I wanted to slap myself. That was exactly what was going on. Her mana built up in the device. Constantly growing in pressure until the inherent instability causes it to rush toward the weakest point. It would be simple to put the weak point at the end. This would also make it possible for one to aim the resulting bolt at whatever one wanted.

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  “See, I knew you would figure it out.”

  “But that is so…” I reached for the best word to describe the idea.

  “Brilliant?” She tried to help. “Enlightened? Efficient?

  “Stupid.” I pushed back. “There is no way that has any real power behind it. And it has to be an absolute mana hog.”

  “Both are true,” she agreed as she returned the device to her belt. “Still, there is something to say about the simplest solution. It even managed to survive the mana pulse without any issues. Also, the lack of damage is a bit of a bonus. I mean, look at how much damage your father did with his little game.” I didn’t want to listen to her, but I had to know.

  It was instantly obvious where her bolt had hit as each left an outward splatter pattern. Though other than the splatter, there were no other signs that she had even fought here. Even the tiles looked undamaged.

  That couldn’t be said about the left side of the battlefield. Tiles were cracked, and some had even developed square-shaped holes. And in the middle of it all was my father, covered in blood. Did he let the damned things climb on him before killing them? Actually, you know what, I don’t want to know.

  “You only have that thing because your next weakest weapon tends to leave small craters.” He pointed out as he tossed the leg to the side and walked toward us.

  “That was one time.” Of course she had a weapon like that. “And that was only because someone damaged the mana circuit and didn’t tell me.”

  “It made a nice firework.”

  “Because the circuit exploded the moment I tried to fire the damned thing.” She growled. “You were lucky that the monster was able to take the brunt of the damage, or that little crater would have been the least of our issues. And you still owe me a Living Crystal Pod.”

  “Nope.”

  “Henry.” The tone she used was one she saved for when one of us was in trouble.

  “Can’t prove that it was me.” He danced out of the way just in time for my mother’s bolt to miss his leg. “Hey!”

  “Oh, it wouldn’t have done any real damage.”

  “That doesn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt.”

  “Good. Maybe then you might remember to get me the parts I need to remake that weapon. And no, my expensive fly swatter isn’t a weapon.”

  “It kills monsters, so it is a weapon.” I wanted to agree with my father, but something told me I would regret opening my mouth.

  “I want my weapon.” My father slid to the side just in time for yet another bolt to miss him. “It was a good weapon.” Another bolt snapped at the ground near him. “It.” Bolt. “Was.” Bolt. “Perfect.” Bolt. “For.” Bolt. “Me.” The last bolt slammed into his right knee.

  The soft explosion of mana, combined with the slightly lubricated stone, knocked his leg out from under him. With a wet splash, my father hit the ground face-first. Barely avoiding the blood with his mouth.

  To my surprise, the man laughed as he rolled over. “You really should pay more attention to your surroundings.”

  She didn’t so much as look around her to see if something, or someone, was sneaking up on her. “I am not the one that had to learn how to harden their body with their power because they kept getting ambushed by various monsters.”

  “Yet you never noticed the package in the back of our closet?”

  “What package?” Her eyes narrowed.

  “The one that has been sitting there since your birthday.” Wait, did he manage to sneak something into the house and keep it hidden for months? How?

  “That is your spare bag.”

  “No,” he took a second to stand up. “The package I am talking about is behind that one.”

  “There is no…” She took a second to think. “Wait. Why. You sneaky little…” I didn’t hear anything else she said as she took off toward the house.

  “And that is how you make a woman happy.” He said as I managed to dodge his slap to my back.

  “To me, it seemed a bit hit or miss at times. What would you have done if your plan didn’t work?”

  “Let her beat me up a bit more, as she loves to personally nurse me back to health. You should see her in the tiny nurse outfit she made for such occasions.” And now I had an image seared into my mind that I wished I could burn out with bleach. “Why do you think we kept asking Bert and his family to watch you?”

  Yeah, I was done with this conversation. Maybe a bit of packing would allow me to at least ignore everything he just said.