Another day passed, and more projects were added to Fang's list.
Fang stood still, holding the rabbit in his hand. It was limp and cold, its fur soft against his fingers, but lifeless. The forest around him was quiet, the rustling of leaves the only sound breaking the silence.
His hand, still gripping the rabbit, began to leak mana as he looked at the small creature.
His purple mana was not bidding his will in its gas form and didn't seep into the rabbit.
"God damn it, why can't I reanimate such a powerless creature!? How much mana will it need for me to be able to do it?".
Fang clenched his jaw as frustration filled him. His mana felt almost restless today, swirling within the rabbit's body that remained in his grasp.
The mana seeped from his body, a faint purple mist, but it didn't penetrate the rabbit's body like it should have. It simply clung to the surface, swirling uselessly, disobeying him.
"Why can't I do this?" Fang growled under his breath, shaking the rabbit slightly, as if hoping it would somehow spark into movement.
His mana, his connection to death, should have been enough to give this small creature life again, but instead, it was an utter disappointment.
His power just wouldn't follow his will, something didn't add up.
"This is harder than I imagined, and why can't Asu help me here?"
Taking a deep breath, Fang held the rabbit firmly.
"Focus," he muttered to himself, closing his eyes and trying to steady his racing thoughts. He could feel the magic pulsing inside him. Maybe it's too small, he thought, his brow furrowing. Maybe the body's not substantial enough to carry it.
"Damn it…" Fang's voice broke, tinged with a mixture of anger and desperation.
His tendrils recoiled back into his body as he stepped back, taking a shaky breath.
"I'm going to make this work." He muttered. It wasn't enough to simply push his magic into the body and hope for a miracle. He had to find the balance. He had to understand the process.
Fang lowered the rabbit to the ground gently and began pacing back and forth. He needed a strategy. If he pushed too much power, it would destroy the body. If he used too little, it wouldn't work at all.
"Perhaps it's the flow," he said aloud, as if talking through his thoughts. "If I'm too harsh, too abrupt with the magic, it disrupts the body's mana flow.
But if I release it too softly, it won't be enough." He pinched his temples.
He extended his tendrils once more, this time with more precision. He wasn't just sending out his magic blindly. He was guiding it, threading it carefully into the rabbit's body like a needle. As his tendrils neared the rabbit, they twitched, pulsing with the flow of power.
Fang exhaled slowly as he attempted to guide the magic with a delicate touch, not too fast, not too slow. He could feel the mana seeping into the rabbit's body, slowly.
His tendrils pressed against the animal's cold skin, and for a moment, nothing happened.
Then, a twitch. A shift in the rabbit's ear.
Fang grinned like a child.
He held his breath as his mana continued to flow through the animal. He could feel the body awakening, but as it began to move, his muscles started to bloat and deform.
Fang dropped it in fear, just in time as the Rabbit's body exploded to bits.
"Fuck fuck fuck, this is some nasty shit!"
The gore is too graphic for Fang, and the smell is much worse.
He walked towards the stream, fuming at the results of this little experiment.
He felt lucky for doing it near the stream so he could wash himself.
'For real, No clue about magic, and he expects me to learn it on my own?'
Fang splashed water onto his face, the cold sting snapping him out of his frustration. He stared at his reflection in the stream, watching droplets run down his cheeks.
"This is bullshit," he muttered. "How am I supposed to do this if I can't even handle a damn rabbit?"
He glanced back at the mess behind him. Bits of flesh and fur scattered across the forest floor, already attracting flies. The sight made his stomach turn. He never thought his power would be this uncontrollable. The way the body had bloated and burst...
It's likely that his magic just corrupted it from the inside out.
He slapped the water with both hands, sending ripples skittering across the surface. "If I keep screwing up like this, I'm never gonna get anywhere."
He knew he was going about it wrong.
He just didn't know how to fix it.
Wasn't magic supposed to be second nature to him as a chosen one? Being chosen was supposed to mean something. But so far, it just felt meaningless.
He crouched at the edge of the stream, staring at the water as it rushed past. "Maybe I'm missing something basic," he muttered. "It's gotta be more than just brute force. Something like magic must follow a logic of some sort."
His eyes narrowed as he considered it. The rabbit he exploded was gone, and he will need to find another one.
Shoving power into it wasn't the same as reanimating it.
'What if I won't be able to learn magic? I know nothing about survival, much less about magic.
This can't go on; using just tendrils won't be enough to survive.'
He shot a glare at the mess he left behind, resisting the urge to torch it and move on. That would just be admitting failure. He wasn't about to let this power make a fool out of him.
He moved deeper into the forest, ears alert.
His footsteps were slow, barely making any sound.
The trees stretched high above him, blocking out most of the sunlight.
After a few minutes, he spotted movement.
A small, twitchy nose poking out from behind a bush. Fang crouched, his hand moving instinctively.
The tendrils he was going to raise were already proficient enough to move toward the rabbit without a need to focus.
'Well, at least I am getting better and more natural in my Death's grab. I should try and practice on it in the cave, Maybe I'll be able to craft some tools with it later on.'
His hand pressed into the ground, and tendrils of darkness spilled from his fingers, making their way till they were all over the rabbit. The creature gave a single twitch, then fell limp in his grasp, its life force drained in an instant. The tendrils recoiled back into his skin, leaving behind nothing but a lifeless husk.
'This... This was easier than before. It just drained it instantly.'
Fang knelt beside the rabbit's remains, wiping some dirt off his hands. As his frustration simmered down, something caught his eye—a glint among the mess. He leaned closer and spotted it.
Something shiny lodged in the rabbit's chest, barely visible through the ruined flesh.
"What the hell?" he muttered, using his fingers to carefully pry the object free. It was small, no bigger than a pebble, smooth and dark with an iridescent sheen that shimmered purple when it caught the light. Holding it up to his face, Fang felt an odd pull from it—like his mana was drawn toward the stone without him even trying.
But then, Fang's eyes went wide.
The rabbit's body trembled.
Black smoke began to coil from its mouth.
The air around it grew cold, the fur now replaced with a coat of purple gas.
The stone, still lodged within its chest, glowed faintly as the creature's body began to twitch.
Fang took a cautious step back, a shiver running down his spine. The rabbit slowly lifted itself from the ground, the smoke clinging to its form like a living cloak. Its body remained rabbit-shaped but was now made entirely of shadow, the faint glow of the stone pulsing at its core.
It turned its head toward Fang, and instead of eyes were holes with glowing orbs, where its eyes once were.
Fang could feel it, an unnatural connection, like a thread binding his soul to this undead creature. The rabbit didn't move. Instead, it just sat there, quietly still, waiting for his command.
Fang's mind was deeply disturbed. That thing wasn't alive, not really.
It was more like a golem, a remnant of life shaped by his magic and the strange stone. But it didn't feel hostile.
it felt loyal, bound to him by magic.
'This is one hell of a weird week.' Can it be, though?'
Slowly, Fang extended his hand toward the creature. The smoke-rabbit perked its ears, almost as if acknowledging him. Fang swallowed down his unease and murmured, "Follow."
Without a sound, the shadowy figure hopped closer, its smoky tendrils swirling behind it like dark, thin tails made of smoke. Fang's lips changed to a grin, satisfaction swelling within him. Maybe he didn't understand the full extent of what he'd just done, but he knew one thing for sure.
This was progress.
A wave of dizziness hit him as the Mana drainage caught up, forcing him to lean against a nearby tree.
His vision blurred, but he held his ground, determined not to lose his grip now. He forced himself to stand tall, eyes fixed on the newly created creature.
"Guess you're mine now," he muttered, wiping the sweat from his brow. The rabbit simply remained at his feet, its smoky form unwavering.
'I need to see what effect this has on my body, if the mana drainage is this critical.'
"Show mana."
{23\210}
''So much mana for raising two rabbits, and one was a complete failure.
Anyway, I need to get back to the cave fast."
Fang looked at the newly formed friend he had made and figured he didn't know how to use him or what the cost of its survival would be.
"Well, at least you can come back with me for now. I will find ways to use your help later on.
But you do need a name. What should I name you?"
Fang stared at the smoky rabbit, still trying to wrap his head around what had just happened. The shadowy creature tilted its head, and hopped closer to him. Despite being made of black mist, it moved with a natural grace, like it was just another little rabbit.
A soft chuckle escaped Fang's lips before he could stop himself. "You're... kinda cute for a little nightmare," he muttered. The rabbit gave a faint flick of its smoky ear, and Fang couldn't help but grin.
"Guess I can't just keep calling you 'rabbit' now that you're... whatever you are," he murmured. The creature cocked its head again, and Fang found himself snickering. "You're just a little puff of smoke, huh? All wispy and... dark."
He thought for a moment, tapping his chin as the rabbit sat down, looking almost expectant. "Hmm... Smoke," he finally said, testing the word. The creature's ears perked up, and Fang couldn't help but smile wider.
"Yeah, you like that, huh? Smoke it is," he said with a sense of finality. The little shadow rabbit almost seemed to bounce in place, as if pleased.
Fang couldn't help but ruffle its wispy ears, his own irritation fading into something softer. "Alright, Smoke. Let's see what else you can do."