The First Cultivator

Brianna Runedane ran as branches scratched her face and thick brush pulled at her robes. She had been a fool. She knew that now. At the time, it seemed like such a good idea. After all, mana beast meat was sold for good money. She had convinced herself that a quick expedition into the mana forest would be easy money. Foolish. Now, she was going to die for her hubris. It wouldn't be long now. She dared not look back, but the crashing behind her grew louder.

RIP!

SHRED!

SCREETCH!

Tears flooded her eyes as it drew ever closer.

"LESSER HASTE!" Brianna shouted as she conjured the spell yet again. Her mana pool was now dangerously low. Her passive mana regeneration was far too slow to replenish her mana, and she didn't have the focus to run and rapidly absorb mana. Desperate, she reached into a hidden pocket and quickly fondled something inside. She withdrew a small ball. It was brown and smelled like week-old fish. She promptly put it in her mouth and began to chew. A fresh surge of mana flooded her mana pool even as she resisted the urge to gag. Mana pellets were extremely valuable, but she had no choice. There was no time left. The creature had closed the gap.

"EARTHEN WALL!"

A rough wall of compacted earth rose just behind her. It promptly shattered as whatever was chasing her crashed through it.

"HELP!" Brianna screamed. She knew it was no good. Almost no one dared to enter the forest.

Snot ran from her nose, and tears blurred her vision as she fled. Perhaps it was her blurry vision or panic, but she didn't see the tree root either way. With a clumsy crash, she fell, sealing her fate. She turned over to watch the inevitable.

This was it.

This was the end.

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As if in agreement, the creature's chittering followed her with an excited fever.

"BARRIER!"

A force dome surrounded her as a clawed pincer rebounded off it. Brianna felt her mana drain as she struggled to maintain the spell. A scream caught in her throat as she finally got a good look at her pursuer. It was a giant yellowish scorpion bigger than an ox.

"FIREBOT!"

The reddish bolt shot from her hand, impacting the creature's insectile face. It screeched in fury but was otherwise unharmed. She had never been a powerful mage. Her talents lay elsewhere, which made this decision even more foolish.

Two more strikes from the creature and her mana pool was nearly empty again. She reached for her last pellet when the tail barb shot forward. Her barrier shattered like flimsy glass. The stinger wasn't slowed as the last of her mana left her. Brianna watched helplessly in slow motion as the barb descended. The barb halted when a blueish blur suddenly appeared before her, and a burst of wind sent dust into her eyes.

She blinked away the debris and stared in utter shock at the scene before her. The scorpion's tail was held by a single slender hand. The creature tried to rear back, but the tail didn't budge a single hair's width, nor did the figure holding it. It was like a statue manifested out of the earth, denying the beast its meal.

The figure resolved itself as if her brain had finally caught up to her eyes. It was a girl… no, a girl kin? A half-cat-kin? The girl had blue hair with a matching tail that had white tips at the end. Similar colored fur extended from her knees to cat-like paws that seemed rooted to the earth.

This couldn't be. Perhaps Brianna had gone insane at the moment of her death. There was no way a null could be in the mana forest. She would die of mana poisoning after a few days. There's no way a kin could move that fast. And there was certainly no way a kin could stop a mana beast. Yet, that's precisely what had happened. Her disbelief seemed to be mirrored by the oversized arthropod that somehow expressed shock in its insectile face.

Before the scorpion could do anything, the cat-kin swept her free hand through the hard carapace, severing the tail. The creature barely had time to rear back before the half-cat-kin was right in front of it. What happened next was too fast for Brianna to be sure what occurred. One second, the scorpion was five feet away. Then it was nothing but splattered bits spread out in a conical pattern. Chitin and greenish goo were plastered outward from the half cat-kin position. No piece bigger than a loaf of bread was left. Only the extended fist of the girl told her what had happened. She had punched it. WHAT THE FUCK!? That was… that was… impossible. As a wave of fatigue and shock began shutting down her mind, she truly hoped that the world would make sense again when… if, she awoke. That was the last thought Brianna had before collapsing.