PHANTASIA by R. Atlas Read Free Book Online Page A

the wisp more than anyone else. Its eyes sparkled like tiny stars; they looked attentive but tired.  
    “I see it,” Raven’s voice followed. “Let’s go.”  
    Red looked around and then saw it on their left side, it must’ve been the team to the west he thought to himself. Three pink flares shot up towards the sky. Hungry for some action, they all banked towards the flares in unison, slightly slowing down as they went. Pinks indicated stronger critters; three meant there must’ve been a pack of them. Likely, whoever had signaled them needed help taking them on.  
    A lone figure flagged them down once they approached the area. Red recognized her as a girl from Professor Kep’s class. The rest of her team lay behind an artificial trench they had dug. He couldn’t remember her name but recalled her classification, a stalker — a category that specialized in killing from long ranges. They were known for their vast knowledge of weapons and skill in tracking prey.
    Magnus nodded to her as they approached.  
    “What did you find?” Raven asked, skipping the greeting process.  
    The girl seemed to light up to attention when she realized who Raven was. She pointed over the trench they had dug and ushered them over. Climbing to the top, Red saw a cluster of Ignot Gilas a short distance ahead of them, all of them clawing and biting at a carcass they couldn’t seem to penetrate. The reptilian creatures had a tough, energy resistant hide and a bite powerful enough to shatter protective shields like glass. Their chins drooped far below their mouths, bulging with glands that produced a potent mix of bacteria. When they stood on their forelegs, they were about twice the size of an adult human. Their long snouts curved around a sinister looking set of jaws that were lined with oversized teeth. In the darkness, the moonlight glinted off their scales like slashes of radiant ivory.
    “We were waiting for more people to show up,” the girl began. “They’re mostly stage 2s, but there are two stage 3s.” Red noticed them immediately, they looked like giants among their cousins — big enough to swallow a person whole. “I think we still need another team or two,” the girl added. The Gilas were still panting around the hull of the creature they had found. The scavengers couldn’t seem to penetrate through the hide of their dead prey. Red couldn’t see what it was, but judging by how spread out the Gilas were, he guessed that the creature must’ve been enormous. It was buried under the sand, but patches of an ethereal green shone through.
    Raven walked over to the top of the trench and took out her bow and arrow. The other team watched in wonder.  
    “S,” Raven said quietly.  
    “Already ready,” S replied. She was sitting in a meditative position that Red recognized as her healing stance. He had tried healing for himself once, but the position was too stressful. Healers were required to be so in tune with the rest of their team that they shared their pain — a way for them to efficiently recognize how their energy, or mana as it was appropriately called, should be spent. Very few people took on the position, and having a healer on their own team was one of the major reasons behind their success.  
    Raven stuck an arrow between her nocking point and pulled back stiffly, exhaling calmly as she stretched the weapon back. Red noticed the head of the arrow slightly bulging as it sparked with electricity; her cast imbued the weapon with a voltaic property. He was familiar with this cast, she had used it many times before. It required almost no energy on her part, but made the weapon much more effective. Everyone kept still as she concentrated; any disturbance to a person’s focus as they fulfilled a cast could cause their effectiveness to decline sharply and their mana to spiral out of control. The stillness was more out of habit in this case; it was only for more major casts that impeccable concentration was an