38 Chapter 38

For a few moments I didn't know what to do. While I knew I needed to stop the man from turning into a twisted, I knew I couldn't do that under the threat of wolves.

"Concentrate on him." Micheal said, stepping out in front of me. Chewy appeared by his side a moment later. "Have your elementals help us out."

I looked over at the elementals. Delilah nodded while Sil put a determined face on then they moved to float beside Micheal with Delilah.

With them dealing with the wolves I felt better about handling the man who was turning into a twisted.

I knelt down beside the man then placed my hands onto his chest. I started by draining the mana out of him to give myself more time. Just like with Mike I cut the flow once his life energy was beginning to flow into me. Then I used my mana sight to look into his mana core.

Since I had already done this with Mike I already knew what needed to be done.

Once my sight had pierced into his mana core I identified the creepy dark green pulsating mass that was supposed to be his mana heart. I wondered for a moment if the skin color and the color his mana heart had changed into were related. Unfortunately I had no way to know and now wasn't a good time to ask either Delilah or Caly. Once I had identified the mana heart I shifted my gaze to pierce into the mana heart.

As my vision entered into the man's mana heart I was abruptly pulled away while a wave of heat passed by me.

My vision shifted to the physical world to find a wolf glaring at me from a few feet away with Enya floating between us. Caly was by my side and had pulled me away from the man who was transforming into a twisted.

"What are you doing?" Caly asked angrily.

I didn't answer her, I focused on the wolf in front of me. Like I had expected it was bigger than a normal wolf. It stood four feet tall at the shoulder, though I had trouble noticing anything more than its sharp teeth when it snarled at me. I didn't let myself panic though. While an oversized wolf was scary, it wasn't nearly as scary as those big red skinned twisted. Instead of freaking out I called forth a ball of shadow fire and threw it at the wolf. I used my bond with Enya to tell her to move out of the way so the shadow fire wouldn't hit her by accident. She ducked down as soon as I warned her. The ball of shadow fire went just over where Enya had been before she ducked down. The shadow fire hit the wolf on its snout then encompassed it in flames before it even had a chance to cry out in pain.

The wolf didn't have any chance of retaliating. My shadow fire really was a cheat like skill.

With the wolf burning to ashes I stood up to look around. The six wolves had somehow turned into a dozen and that wasn't counting the wolf I had hit with shadow fire. Micheal was dealing with the largest of the wolves while a second stalked back and forth behind the lead wolf looking for an opening. Chewy had grown to be twice as big as the wolves and was fighting five of the beasts, Delilah and Sil were handling the last five by using their wind and shadow to isolate them from the rest of the pack.

"Fuck." I said with a curse then bent back down to touch the man who was transforming. I drained the mana from him again then left him there.

"Daryl?" Caly asked worriedly as she watched me.

"Let's go help them." I told her then summoned a pair of shadow fire balls. I had to think for a moment before I rushed towards Micheal. Chewy didn't look like he was doing very well, but I couldn't use shadow fire on his enemies or it might spread to him.

Enya go help Delilah." I commanded then headed for Micheal.

I tossed the fireballs over Micheal's head one at each of the wolves he was facing. The lead wolf saw it coming and dodged to the side, but the other wolf that had been looking for an opportune time to attack, took the fireball in its side. The shadow fire quickly engulfed the beast taking it out of the equation.

The shadow fireball that the lead wolf had dodged hit the road beside it. As soon as it hits the ground the fireball exploded violently startling everyone, especially me.

The large wolf was pushed away then turned to face the point of explosion.

Micheal seemed to have been startled too, but he recovered faster than the rest of us and rushed the wolf with his arms glowing with a white light. By the time the wolf turned its attention back to Micheal he was already on top of it, his fist coming down on the beast's head.

The wolf dodged to the side but still took a glancing blow from Micheal making it cry out in pain before it could right itself and face Micheal.

Micheal was already on top of it again as he kicked out and caught the beast in its side. I heard a nasty cracking sound from the wolf before Micheal followed the blow with another punch to the beast's head.

Distracted by Micheal's speed and the pain it was already in, it was unable to dodge the third blow which caved in its head.

With his opponents defeated Micheal hurried to assist Chewy while I turned my attention to the five wolves that Delilah, Enya, and Sil were containing.

Enya had already joined my other elementals. Together the three of them had put down three of the five beasts. I created two more balls of shadow fire and threw them at the last two wolves.

The wolves saw the fireballs coming and tried to dodge away from them, but Sil created walls of air to stop the wolves from getting away. The fireballs caught both of the wolves on their backs, but only one of them flared up. The second seemed to resist the flames, instead the fireball exploded as if it had hit the road. The explosion broke the wolf without killing it. It's pained whimpers were hard on my nerves. While I wanted to put the beast out of its misery, I felt the need to help Micheal and Chewy instead.

"Finish it off." I yelled at my elementals then turned to go help Micheal.

Instead of needing my help, the pair of man and dog were already finishing the last of their own opponents.

I breathed a sigh of relief seeing that. Then looked around to see if I had missed anything. Enya and Sil were flying over towards me as Delilah floated over the injured wolf. Karen, Megan, Courtney, and Heather were watching from the truck. The van Micheal had hit had disappeared along with its occupants. Samantha was in her car while Grace was running over towards me. Caly was still standing beside the man who was transforming into a twisted.

I didn't see the guy who had been running from the wolves. I could only guess that he had run off on his own.

Grace reached me a moment later and gave me a quick look over, "Any injuries?" she asked me.

"No." I replied while shaking my head then gave her a smile.

She returned it then headed for Micheal and Chewy, both of whom looked fairly battered. I watched her go, my eyes drawn to her shapely butt for a moment before I turned my attention back to Caly and the man who was transforming below her. I still needed to save him before he became a monster.

"What are you going to do?" Caly asked as I reached her and knelt by the man.

"Save him." I replied.

"Were you draining him?" Caly asked warily.

I nodded as I placed my hands on the man's chest. "I pulled the tainted mana out of him, but I don't touch his life essence." I told her.

I heard Caly breath out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank the heavens." she murmured.

"Don't worry, he isn't a life eater." Enya reassured Caly.

"I wondered for a moment." Caly admitted.

The man below me had dark green skin again, which was already different from the other twisted I had seen. The man had remained human sized but its arms and legs had elongated and thickened. I noticed that the fingers and toes each had long claws on them that I could guess were razor sharp or close to it. It had the same fugly face as the red brute twisted, just green.

I tried to pull the twisted mana from the monster's body, but it resisted. I tried to pull even harder, but the mana didn't respond to me.

I felt a chill down my spine then used my mana sight to look into the monster's mana core. Instead of finding a mana core, I found a pale green crystal inside its body that resisted my mana sight.

I couldn't figure out what I was seeing for a moment then it hit me. The twisted weren't the same as the awakened. So it didn't have to have a mana core like I did. The crystal was probably its version of a mana core. Which could only mean one thing.

I attempted to use my mana sight to look into the crystal like I did a mana core, but it resisted my attempt. I wasn't sure if my mana sight was too weak, or if it was just impossible. The crystal looked solid so it just might be impossible to look inside, because there was no inside. I couldn't be sure though, a mana core looked fairly solid too.

I felt the body of the monster move under my hands so I withdrew my mana sight.

"Daryl?" Caly called my name worriedly.

I looked down at the monster that had just opened its eyes. It stared up at me with its pitch black eyes. As it realized its position I pressed down on the monster's chest with all the strength I could muster. A wind appeared around its limbs holding them down too. I wasn't trying to hurt it, just restrain it while I tried to think and Sil seemed to have realized that. Now I just needed to figure out if I could save him. Would I be able to look into that crystal if I upgraded my mana sight? Would that even help? I didn't really want to kill him if there was a chance I could save him.

Looking into its eyes as it struggled under my hand and the wind bindings I didn't see any semblance to the human it was just a few moments ago.