The sky had turned violent.
The Air Dragon shrieked somewhere above the clouds, its body carving spirals through the atmosphere like a living storm system. Lightning split the sky in jagged veins. Wind pressure fluctuated so violently it felt like the world was breathing wrong.
Takeru crouched behind fractured stone, hands trembling.
He'd cast three interference spells in under ten minutes.
For him, that was reckless.
For everyone else, it was warm-up.
He dragged his fingers through the air, forcing another circle to assemble.
Air core.
Water outer ring.
Condensation layering.
His mana flow felt thinner this time.
Like trying to drink through a cracked straw.
The circle flickered.
He winced.
"Stabilize… stabilize…"
> Mana Flow Integrity: Degrading
Casting Speed: Still tragic
Please consider not overextending your extremely limited resources.
"Shut up," he breathed.
He finished the activation script and launched another dense vapor burst into the dragon's flight corridor.
The effect was immediate.
The Air Dragon's right wing clipped unstable current and dipped just enough for an S-rank lightning strike to connect cleanly across its flank.
The dragon screamed.
Students cheered.
Takeru sagged back against the rock, vision swimming.
His interface didn't chime playfully this time.
It went red.
Not slightly tinted.
Red.
Bold lettering slammed across his vision.
> WARNING
MANA LEVEL: 12%
RESOURCE DEPLETION CRITICAL
His heart skipped.
"Twelve percent?" he whispered.
The display zoomed in aggressively.
> Mana Capacity: FFFF16
Current Reserve: Severely Compromised
Recommendation: Stop casting like an idiot.
He swallowed.
"I'm fine."
The screen glitched violently.
A new message stamped itself across his sight.
> SYSTEM DIRECTIVE:
IF MANA REACHES ZERO — HOST TERMINATION WILL OCCUR.
He froze.
"…What?"
The wind howled.
Above, the Air Dragon unleashed a compressed sonic blast that shattered stone across the ridge.
Dust filled the air.
The message remained.
Bright.
Unapologetic.
> Clarification:
Your biological processes are currently subsidized by arcane circulation.
Mana depletion below survivable threshold = System collapse.
System collapse = You die.
His stomach dropped into nothing.
"You're joking."
> I do not joke about administrative shutdown procedures.
His hands started shaking harder.
"I thought mana was just… spell fuel."
> For competent users, yes.
For you? It is structural scaffolding.
Another impact shook the ridge.
Someone screamed below.
The Air Dragon was descending lower now, adapting.
Takeru's breathing became shallow.
"How much is survivable threshold?"
The interface flickered.
> 5% — irreversible organ failure likely
3% — neurological degradation
0% — fatal
A small, blinking bar hovered in the corner of his vision.
11%.
It ticked down.
10%.
"I'm not casting!" he snapped.
> Passive arcane circulation continues regardless.
You are inefficient at merely existing.
"Are you serious right now?!"
> Always.
Wind slammed into him hard enough to shove him sideways.
He caught himself against the rock.
Below, the Air Dragon dove through a barrage of spells and scattered students like debris.
One boy slammed into a cliff face.
Didn't get up.
Takeru's jaw clenched.
9%.
"Fuck."
> Yes. That is the appropriate response.
He forced himself to breathe slower.
Think.
Mana regeneration: FFFF20.
Which meant garbage.
"How do I recharge?" he demanded.
> Standard methods:
1. Meditation (you lack time)
2. Mana potions (you lack inventory)
3. External absorption (dangerous)
4. Kill target and absorb residual field
He stared at the dragon.
"Residual field?"
> Dragons are high-density mana organisms.
Upon death, ambient arcane saturation spikes.
Survive until then.
8%.
Another scream echoed across the ridge.
The Air Dragon's wings folded inward and it shot downward like a missile toward a cluster of wind mages.
Takeru gritted his teeth.
"I need one more cast."
> No. You need survival.
"If it doesn't destabilize now, more people die."
> You are not responsible for macro-outcomes.
You are FFFF20.
That hit harder than expected.
He clenched his fists.
"Build the damn circle."
The interface paused.
Then—
> You are insufferable.
Air core.
Water secondary.
But tighter this time.
Smaller radius.
Compressed amplification matrix.
Lower output.
Lower mana cost.
He felt the strain immediately.
Mana didn't flow cleanly.
It scraped.
Like dragging wire through his veins.
7%.
The circle wobbled violently.
Toon Distortion flickered instinctively.
Glyphs bent.
He forced them back.
"No stretching," he hissed.
> Containment failure probable.
The dragon descended—
Thirty meters.
Twenty.
Students scattering beneath it.
"Activate!"
The compressed burst shot upward—not wide like before, but focused.
Dense.
Localized.
It slammed directly into the dragon's wing joint.
For half a second—
The airflow around it destabilized catastrophically.
The wing caught a reversed pressure pocket.
The dragon spun sideways violently.
An S-rank lightning spear pierced through the exposed underwing.
Another spell followed.
Then another.
The Air Dragon shrieked as its spiral broke entirely.
It plummeted.
Crashing through stone.
Impact echoing like thunder.
The ground trembled.
Silence followed.
Heavy.
Takeru dropped to one knee.
His vision tunneled.
6%.
The interface pulsed violently.
> MANA LEVEL CRITICAL
ARCANE CIRCULATION INSTABILITY DETECTED
His heartbeat felt wrong.
Not fast.
Weak.
Like it couldn't decide whether to continue.
"Recharge," he whispered. "Do the dragon thing."
> Target Status: Dying
Residual Field Accumulating
Remain conscious.
"That's not reassuring."
> Neither are your vitals.
5%.
His fingers went numb.
The edges of his vision darkened.
Students were gathering near the fallen Air Dragon.
Some cheering.
Some collapsing from exhaustion.
No one noticed him sliding sideways against the rock.
He tried to stand.
His legs failed.
He hit the ground hard.
4%.
The warning message expanded until it dominated everything.
> SURVIVAL THRESHOLD APPROACHING
HOST FAILURE IMMINENT
"Don't—" he rasped.
His thoughts felt slow.
Sticky.
"Don't let me—"
> External Arcane Spike Detected
Dragon Life Signature Collapsing
In the distance, the Air Dragon gave one final, violent convulsion—
Then went still.
The atmosphere shifted instantly.
Takeru felt it.
A pressure change.
Like humidity before rain.
Raw mana flooded the area in invisible waves.
The interface reacted.
> Residual Field Saturation: High
Automatic Absorption Engaged
Efficiency: Poor (as expected)
Mana slammed into him.
Not gently.
It felt like inhaling electricity.
His back arched involuntarily.
He gasped as arcane energy forced itself through channels that weren't designed for this volume.
The Toon Distortion parameter flared wildly.
Glyph outlines flickered across his skin briefly like luminous tattoos.
3%.
Then—
4%.
5%.
6%.
His lungs dragged in air like he'd been underwater.
He rolled onto his side, coughing violently.
The red overlay slowly receded.
> Mana Level Stabilizing
Current Reserve: 18%
You nearly died.
That was statistically predictable.
He lay there, staring at the sky.
"You could've led with that," he croaked.
> You do not read disclaimers.
He barked a weak laugh that turned into another cough.
Below, students were celebrating the Air Dragon's defeat.
No one was looking at him.
No one knew he had been seconds away from death because his internal fuel gauge ran dry.
He pushed himself into a sitting position.
His stat sheet flickered.
---
> LEVEL UP
Mana Capacity: FFFF16 → FFFF15
Mana Regeneration: FFFF20 → FFFF19
Mana Control: FFFF13 → FFFF12
New Passive Unlocked:
Emergency Absorption (Inefficient)
Rank: FFFF20 (unchanged)
Evaluation: You continue to survive out of spite.
---
He stared at the mana percentage in the corner.
18%.
Stable.
For now.
"If I hit zero," he said quietly, "I actually die."
> Yes.
You are not playing a game.
You are a poorly funded organism running on volatile energy.
He swallowed hard.
Far to the south, a massive tidal surge erupted into the sky.
The Water Dragon.
Still alive.
Still rampaging.
The wind shifted colder.
The mountain ridge felt suddenly very small.
Takeru forced himself to stand.
His legs trembled.
Not from fear.
From depletion.
"Okay," he muttered.
"No more reckless casting."
> That is the first intelligent sentence you have spoken today.
He looked toward the distant river basin.
Most of the class had split.
Scattered.
No formation.
No coordination.
Just talent colliding with monsters.
He clenched his fists slowly.
He wasn't strong.
He wasn't fast.
And now he knew—
He wasn't even allowed to run empty.
Mana wasn't just power.
It was survival.
The interface flickered one more time.
A smaller message appeared beneath the percentage bar.
> Advisory:
The more efficiently you construct circles,
the less you risk self-termination.
Recommendation:
Get better. Quickly.
Takeru exhaled slowly.
"Yeah," he said under his breath.
"I fucking figured."
And with 18% mana, shaking hands, and three dragons down—
Takeru Isora began walking toward the last one.