This is outrageous! How dare you, snake! This is my secret, personal technique! Have you been peeking at my notes, stealing my private writings and copying my homework? This can''t be allowed!


    Gandalf! Intervene in this situation <em>immediately</em>.


    My gravity bomb screams and howls as always, but even through that din, I can still hear the spell unleashed by the snake monster hiss and spit as it shoots forward. My mana sense is screaming about the dense, potent mana contained within, some form of venomous mana.


    It doesn''t feel the same as the fifth''s native energy; this is something different entirely, though likely just as deadly.


    The two energies collide and I btedly leap into my hidey-hole, digging in my ws and sticking my head out over the edge to watch what happens.


    The gravity bomb expands, turning into a whirling vortex of inescapable doom. Just the sort of thing I wanted to see.


    Your bomb is a cheap imitation, snake! How dare you try and copy my technique?!


    However, even though I know my spell is overpowering the other, I can still see it. I don''t even need my mana sense to tell what''s happening, I can see it with my own eyes. The ck hole I''ve created is flecked through with that potent venom. Every now and again, it sshes out in bursts and arcs like coronal ejections from the sun.


    That lousy venom is <em>eating</em> my gravity mana!The two energies are busy cancelling each other out, but the gravity bomb is stronger, much stronger. Despite its own spell, the den of the snake is far from unaffected by the magic. Slime is getting ripped into the air, stones are crumbling, the walls of the tunnel shaft are cracking, chunks breaking off and falling into the void.


    But the venomous properties of that slimy-toothpick''s mana are eating away more of the bomb than I''d like, weakening it quickly.


    When the ck hole finally sputters out and fades away, the snake remains, unhurt, ring up at me.


    I re right back.


    You think you have the right to feel upset just because Iunched a devastating and deadly spell at you out of the blue with no warning? Nonsense! I''m the one who has a legitimate grievance!


    Well… honestly, now that I think about it more closely… the gravity bomb technique isn''t all that secret.


    I learned super early on that it was possible topress mana… and I killed a monster by shooting a ball of in, unchanged mana at it. Not long after, I got ess to gravity mana and naturally used that to perform the technique from that point forward, since gravity mana works super, <em>super</em> well with it.


    But… you could make a bomb out of <em>any</em> type of mana, and it''s not like it''splex to do it, you just take a massive amount of mana and cram it into as small a ball as you can, thenunch it.


    Honestly, I wonder why more people don''t use it?


    A wave of all of my near-death experiences caused by the gravity bomb shes through my head in an instant.


    Ah.


    That''s probably why.


    Also, even if it isn''tplicated, it <em>is </em>hard. Condensing mana to the extent necessary to create a bomb requires dedicated Skills and is mentally taxing… putting it mildly. Not to mention, using regr spell forms is probably ten times more efficient.


    Anyways! Stupid snake!


    It''s still down there, staring up at me, menacingly. Deadly venom drips from its massive fangs as it shifts its body slowly. Is it priming for a leap?


    I tense.


    Instead of springing forward, I feel a powerful surge of mana as dozens of bolts begin to form in the air. The snake hisses as they surge forward, flying toward me at dizzying speed.


    You''re actually a mage-snake?! You''d go this far just to defy my expectations?!


    I snap a barrier into ce, more than enough to block such weak attacks, only to double-take when the venomous mana starts to eat through the shields.


    Anti-mana mana… that''s cheating, surely.


    I refuse to ept this!


    My brains kick into gear. Leveraging my constructs and Skills, I push them hard and begin weaving mana like a master weaver with a hundred arms making two-dozen rugs. More shields spring into existence as bolt after bolt of blue me isunched down towards the lousy serpent.


    You want to throw bolts? I can throw bolts just as well as you! Better, even!


    Unsurprisingly, the slime coating over the snake snuffs out the mes quite easily, but I suspect with enough heat it''ll eventually be burned away. For its part, the monster isn''t all that pleased by my attack, and though it doesn''t defend itself, it redoubles its efforts, adding spears of condensed venom to fire at me alongside the bolts.


    These spears punch into my shields with tremendous force before sttering and dissolving them in moments, forcing me to make more and more. The two of us have fairlyparable cores, so in a battle of mana, we''re likely toe out even… depending on who has the better organs and mutations.


    In that sense, using regr mana isn''t to my advantage. It''s probably drawing from an organ, orwork of organs, to produce this venom mana, whereas I''m working with energy from my core.


    I''m way more efficient when using gravity mana anyways.


    I cast away my blue fire bolts and dedicate those minds to drawing out and weaving the dense, potent energy contained in my gravitational mana nd. It isn''t cheap to cast gravity spells, and I only know the one, but we''ll see how well this lousy snake likes being crushed under the might of an empowered well.