My Sudden Monster Convergence

“Today class, we will be going over one of our greatest fears. What to do if we can’t fly.” Mr. Argen began. “Regardless if it is a fear immobilizing you, your mana failing to function, being thrown off course or even receiving damage and massive pain.” He then tapped his talon on the floor, creating a strange yellow square around everyone. It felt spongy and soft like a fuzzy blanket, looking at it I noticed small gems inside it sparkled like electricity. Pressing my foot into it even created some little sparks the gems absorbed making pressing into it harder.

“Now class as you can see this material is what the tops of certain roofs are coated in which is called torrent turf. If you need to land due to an emergency you must aim for one of these areas. This material pulls out kinetic energy and the crystals in it absorb it, which gets transferred to a localized battery that the owner can sell or use. This battery also keeps track of how much energy it takes each hit. In layman’s speech, it can tell how fast you were going as you hit the turf. Even areas that are designated landing zones has a firmer version in the color light blue.” He explained before tapping his talon again to bring up the blue version. It was less spongy and a lot easier to stand on but was still soft to the touch.

“Now to spot one of these zones you look for either the red border going around the torrent turf or the outline of alternating lights called forebears.” Tavis came up holding a light inside a soapy looking glass in the shape of a sphere. “it is called forebears because it took several to work, die and push for its creation. So the name is more in respect to those that died or went missing before these lights became the norm and as a reminder of the past blunders of pride. This light will flash red before flashing off and on again and is easier to see at night. If you hit the turf at a certain speed the cameras will look for any duress or non-movement. If it notices any of that, the lights will flash rapidly to warn others that this roof has someone injured and an alarm will be sent to paramedics.” He said while his feathers puff up and his face seemed super serious.

“Now you may miss a taller building but by law all buildings that are three stories or less must have this turf in case you overshoot your landing. This gives you more opportunities to hit the turf and survive any possible deadly crashes.” He said before turning to Tavis.

“We’ll go over some of the actions you can take in these dangerous situations.” As Mr. Argen said this Tavis stepped into one of the levation tubes. His weird cape opening up in the middle and glowing softly, he sorta looked like a flying squirrel but his cape moved like a wing flaps on an airplane.

“Now when you feel your mana weaken during magic power flight, you generally will notice a sudden slowdown in speed unless you’re moving faster in allowed areas. In that case the slowdown is less noticeable. For now let’s focus on if you noticed the slowdown.” At this Tavis would move forward quickly before falling back in speed like he was being pulled back. “If you use magic flight, you will feel a slight pullback, if you’re running low on mana then you’ll feel sleepy. If your mana has a blockage then your muscles might feel a slight ballooning in the areas you wanted to use your mana like your wings. If for whatever reason your mana is blocked then you’ll find that your mana doesn’t move past a certain point and can feel like a blockage. Now to handle this situation please watch Tavis.” He said.

Tavis’ wings slowly started to stop glowing before stopping completely, he looked around quickly before using his wing cape to glide over to an open turf. At certain points it looked like he wasn’t going to make it as he began falling before using the fall to move him forward faster and once he was above the turf. He rolled up into a ball protecting his neck and head as he fell onto the turf. Once he hit it, his body sunk into the turf a few inches before completely stopping his fall.

After learning about this and a few more variants of falling without mana he allowed everyone to practice this form of falling. But I was pulled aside by Tavis to talk with Mr. Argen again. This time we talked about a new technique.

“Now once you notice your fear taking hold, an easy way to push it away is something I developed myself using the Oni’s anger burn as a springboard. To explain, the Oni have a unique mana gland that saves any mana affected when a Oni becomes stressed or angered and once they need a boost they push out this extra mana that empowers their actions. But instead of storing your fears or anxiety, you push out these emotions to the very edges of your body until you release them out of your body. It uses mana channeling to do this.” He said before opening his wings. I saw a gleam of light spread from his core to the tips of his wings. It kinda felt like he was breathing out the negative emotions and calming his heart.

After showing me, he turned to Tavis, telling him to watch the class. “Before you try this, you need to understand that this is similar to charging a large attack, do it wrong and you may hurt yourself.” He warned me. But why teach me this? Is he saying I could just kick the bucket trying to calm down? 

“If it’s so dangerous, why teach it to me?” I said with a stern face. no way was I going to kill or potentially ruin my life.

“Because you’re a dragoness, the mana I sense from you is very heavy if not crushing. These are calming techniques that I’m using to keep calm but this- your mana, it needs to be dialed down and a fast way to do this is with this method. Your mana is complex which means you can, to some extent, control it easier. Am I right?” He asked.

“I’m still not trying something that might make me explode.” I said narrowing my eyes in warning. “But I suppose I can move my mana the more I use it.” I admitted.

He nodded. “For some converged that know how to use magic as a human have issues transferring to a new way of doing magic but those that didn’t tend to pick up magic faster. Now I’m not saying you’ll become a master, I’m just saying your mind is more flexible. You were already able to do mana channeling after learning it from another teacher.” He explained.

I see, he noticed how easy I did that. But that doesn’t mean I can pick this up right away. “I can do some things but I can’t pick up everything that I’ve been taught. I might just hurt my body or-“ I began but Mr. Aregn put his hand on my shoulder.

“I’m not suggesting you do it now in the exact way I did. No. with certain magic and techniques, you have to start one piece at a time. I just want to keep you from trying it on your own before you master it and give you a goal to work towards.” He clarified.

Oh! That makes sense. You can’t become a doctor if you didn’t learn your field to the point of hallucination. Otherwise they could kill someone or even themselves. “Ok, so what are you going to teach me?” I asked with a calmer face.

“First! I want you to use mana channeling to move mana from one finger tip to the next one.” He said while pointing at my finger with his thumb. He went up then down and up the next finger, he did this until he reached my pointer finger again. “I want you to do this until you can move your mana in thirty cycles within one and a half minutes.” He said before having me sit down to start practicing.

School was finally over, I was ready to ask Belle about that petal competition but he wasn’t in class. So I asked Mr. Minnow about it but….

“He went to get some things from the nearby forest. Something about last minute prep but he did ask me to tell you something.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out a paper that looked tiny in his palm, handing it to me.

I unfolded the small paper, it was kinda small in my hands too but I wasn’t a guy in that regard. Kinda sucks… anyway the paper had a list of items from that dungeon we went to a while back. It looked like he wanted some shells from those crabs, five rocks with blue coral growing from it and more of those herbs we got last time.

“While I have you here, can I ask how class went with Jaque? I want to make sure he didn’t do anything else.” Mr. Minnow asked calmly leaning on his desk.

Looking up I gave a small frown. “No, he didn’t do anything else but it does get on my nerves that he acted that way.” I admitted.

He nodded before writing something on a nearby note pad. “Alright that’s good….Oh! We have someone that might fit as your new teacher in mana. But she wants to go over magic with you too. If that’s a no then we’ll look for another teacher.” He told me.

“I don’t mind learning more magic but what’s she like?” I asked. Hopefully not a wild card fighter.

“She’s a Magus level Sharrmin that likes big spells.” That made me raise a brow. Was she another crazy person? “She’s specifically a pinpoint caster. So it looks small but ends up as a big spell at some point but it takes a lot of focus to do magic like that. So you might master your mana control before you hit your first magic lesson.” He explained.

Oh? Hmm then she’s not all bad but I don’t know about her personality. “What about how she acts?” 

Mr. Minnow sighed. “Just so you know, everyone qualified to teach you is going to be somewhat eccentric but out of everyone we have here, she’s probably the most patient and friendly of them. “He began with a serious look. “Knowing this, she can be obsessed with showing off and the moment she spots something interesting she basically won’t stop until it’s as powerful as her other abilities are. But really all Sharrmin are excitable with presence.” He said with a shrug. “Some are even in the drama classes and clubs here.”

“Sounds like she might force me to do things I don’t want to.” I mumbled to myself. “Is she going to demand surprise matches or some extra outside of school work?” 

“Luckily No. Sharrmin know they can be a bit much. So culturally she won’t push you to do anything without asking. It’s up to you how much you want to do.” He explained before pulling out a paper with a picture attached.

A Dark colored girl? Her skin was a gray color except everything below her lower lip was a chalk white. She had a wide open excited smile showing rows of teeth that were serrated on both sides. Her hair was a similar gray color and cut pretty short but was spiked up like an anime protagonist and big blue eyes. You know for a shark girl she looks surprisingly human, no big snout, just a small nose…well ignoring the rows of teeth that is. But why was her name only TL? Was this something like an Asian name using two or three characters?

“TL?” I asked confused.

“Yup. It’s a cultural thing. They get a letter at certain parts of life but she also uses the nickname, Shogone.” He said with a shrug.

“Alright, so if I take her classes but end up not liking them can I ask to change?” I asked. I had to be sure I wasn’t locking in on one choice.

“It’ll be the same with Jaque. Stay till we set up another teacher. But I’d suggest not to burn bridges if you can help it.” He warned.

I nodded. “Good to know, I think I’ll try her classes. Especially if you’re suggesting her over the others available.” I said with a smile which Mr. Minnow returned with a smiling nod.

Making my way to the gardens was a little weird this time around because in the main building was filled with loads more students than before. I saw huge mossy bigfoot like people that would grow flowers for some reason whenever someone spoke to one and each flower was even making a different fragrance. Another ripped their way out of the ground like a zombie, she was humanoid but was missing half her head, where her upper lip should be was a row of long teeth that went down her back.  her teeth moved freely, reminding me of snakes stretching their teeth, waving and curling inward where a thin tongue rubbed them clean. 

There was even several of those giant flowers of white, blue and even gold but these ones were weird. The small ones had one green or purple girl inside wearing an almost see through nightgown but when the flower closed and opened the girl was replaced with a chiseled man dripping with nectar. He’d then called out to the other flowers regardless if these flowers had men or women in them. That wasn’t the weird part, the larger ones had up to four people inside them! They would pose like bizarre band covers, one behind another hiding their privates, another two looked like they were inches away from kissing each other while watching everyone else. There was even a succubus giggling as a trio of girls kissed up her arms and cheeks. oddly everywhere she was kissed seemed to glow as if she spent years managing her skin care. There were even some humans and other monsters cheering them on as the succubus wagged her black tail, the tip curling inward from each kiss.

I was wondering why they were acting up today but if I got any closer then I’d end up with an audience. Looking around I found a few posters announcing tomorrow’s event, the Flora’s Gathering and another called Friday’s Courting Flowers. The posters for Friday’s event had pictures of blooming flowers with either honey dripping from them or a white gooey substance. I thought it was maybe hinting to some activities but the third poster was a group of naked human women with their legs spread open and bent, arranged into the shape of a flower while their own flowers were spread wide open. They had splats of blue, red, white and purple paint on their bodies like a festival as they looked up at the viewer with hungry smiles. These posters all said a season to push your heart to its limits as the flora-ulva hunger builds up into a night of delicious honey making and pollinating. If you’re a male wishing to donate sperm then please help out at the annual meetings of summer and spring. For everyone else this event is for giving the flora-ulva an opportunity to practice the art of passion. All incubi are free to join.

This is so much too much and wow….. looking back to the flower people, I guess this is some sexual ed? But why would they need that? They’ve had to have seen half the stuff the succubi alone do, let alone anyone else that’s sexually active. And don’t flowers reproduce a lot anyway? But I don’t see any traditional flower parts on them either. Also why incubi?

I don’t know! Flower people don’t make any sense. I’m just going to go before I get tangled in their horny vines.