It’s been around 20 minutes and the beast has caught up to us. It doesn’t seem to have worked out that we’re invisible so sometimes it just stops right on top of us and swipes at the ground in confusion. “Ignis this isn’t going to work at this speed, if you can’t follow me then you’ll just need to climb on.”

“Yeah I was starting to think the same thing.” With my arm already around the back of her neck it’s as simple as floating up and onto her back.

Reaching around her neck with my other arm I clasp my hands together above her peytral plate and lean in close for stability. As soon as she can tell that I’m done adjusting myself I hear her wings open and we lift into the air. As we’re climbing into the air I watch in horror as a sudden blue aura appears where her horn would be if she was visible. With a panicked whisper I try to stop her, “Wait, Luna, stop! If you cast a spel-” It’s too late. Our speed rapidly increases but the princess is completely visible now. “-Spell… it’ll… negate the invisibility…”

I can barely hear Luna’s reply over the Ursa’s sudden roar. “Perhaps that would’ve been something to share earlier!”

I’m still invisible thankfully, and apparently that means I’m not in combat because there’s no initiative roll. I reach into my component pouch so I can try and reapply the invisibility, but Luna quickly dips and rolls to avoid a swing from the Ursa. With only 1 hand half way looped around her I’m not prepared for the sudden maneuver and start to take a tumble. I instantly remember that my potion of flying is still in effect so I just let go and float away from the alicorn. As soon as she feels my weight disappear she calls out my name in a slight panic.

“I’m alright, my potion of flying won’t wear off for at least another 30 minutes. What spell did you cast?” I start moving towards Luna while taking note of where the bear is swinging so I can safely approach.

“It was a simple speed enhancing spell. I didn’t see any faults in the plan, so I wasn’t as concerned with conserving mana.”

I see a window and dive towards Luna, she turns towards me as I get close. As soon as I reach out my hand to grab onto her I see a translucent limb come into view. It’s coming down towards her diagonally from behind, and it seems she hasn’t noticed it. As soon as I feel her soft fur graze the tip of fingers I flex my arm and engage the Mizzium Apparatus. “Fragor Curro!”

Arcana Check (Mizzium, DC: 16)

3 + 13 = 16. Just Barely.

An instant away from disaster I become visible as the glass tubes on the magical device hum and flicker. The Ursa’s paw swipes through the space we were occupying as a loud thunderous boom erupts from our position. Thanks to that Thunder Step we appear a good 90ft away from the beast.

3d10 = 13.

6 Thunder Damage.

As soon as we appear I keep my momentum and with a fluid motion I rotate my body in the air and pull myself down onto her back again. “Punch it!”

“What?” She glances at me with a look of confusion.

“It means GO!”

With a burst of wind we’re off. Everything becomes blurry as the wind makes my eyes start to water. She said this was a simple speed enhancement?! Glancing back I watch as the Ursa barreling towards us starts to slowly get smaller and smaller as we gain distance on it. How fast are we going to be able to outrun that thing? It covers literally hundreds of feet in a step.

The Ursa turns into a dot on the horizon as we start to slow down and gradually descend towards the ground. Luna’s mane that had returned to its starry form during the dream transforms back into normal hair. “You okay Luna?”

I dismount right before she lands and as soon as she lands she collapses onto her barrel. “It was a channeled spell, more speed for more mana. I’m fairly immobilized right now, so this is where we’re setting up camp. I know we’ve only been awake for an hour or so, but I need to rest. On the bright side though, we covered the same amount of distance we normally cover.” Her breathing is ragged and she’s covered in a layer of sweat.

“Do you think it’ll follow us this far? If it tracks us all the way out here and you’re still out of mana we’re gunna be in big trouble.” I start unpacking the camping bag and getting the tent setup.

“It shouldn’t, but it shouldn’t have even been concerned with us to begin with due to its size. You need to suppress your presence by the way. It’s been unsuppressed since you went to sleep.”

It’s easier to do now than it was yesterday, so that’s nice. It takes a few minutes to get the tent setup and then I lay out our bedrolls. We must be close to the mountains because the temperature has dropped considerably, so we’ll likely need a campfire. If that monstrosity is still tracking us though the smoke will be a dead giveaway. “Should I set up a campfire, or do you just want some help getting into the tent?”

“Without access to my illusions the campfire would just invite more trouble. We’ve been fine without a campfire though, why do you want one for this night?”

“You haven’t noticed the drop in temperature? It’s not cold perse, but it is chilly. Your fur and feathers must be insulating you. Seriously though, how immobile are you? Can you get into the tent on your own, do you need some assistance, or do I need to full-on carry you?”

She glances off to the side and mutters out, “I’m afraid you’ll have to carry me.”

Insight.

13 + 6 = 19.

Eh, why not? She’s carried me more than once now and it’s only a few feet. I squat down and help her roll onto her back. I figured it was either bridal style or backpack style and this one seemed more feasible. It’s a bit awkward but I manage to stand up with her. She’s not as heavy as I thought she’d be, but it’s enough weight that I can only shuffle forward now. Once I take the first step forward I glance down and find her looking surprised with her face bright crimson. Should I take this opportunity to do some teasing of my own? Yeah.

“In the future if you want me to carry you, you just have to ask. Can’t believe my Princess would lie to me about the status of her health. Tsk tsk.” Her blush gets a shade darker.

“I did not lie… completely. That enhancement spell puts immense strain on my muscles, and although I can stand and move on my own, it’d be slow and painful.”

I just offer her a soft smile as I reach the tent and awkwardly lower myself so I can enter. “I’m also surprised how embarrassed you got, I think that might be the biggest blush I’ve seen on your face. Especially considering you asked for this.” I lower her down onto her bedroll and she lays down on her side with a pouting face.

“I thought you’d use telekinesis or some other magic to carry me. How was I supposed to know you were capable of just casually lifting and carrying me? It was just unexpected, that’s all.”

“I can’t even cast telekinesis without the Mizzium Apparatus, and unlike your magic system telekinesis is a pretty advanced spell for us. It’s the same level as that paralysis spell or the spell that lets me teleport between 5 targets as I slash them. I was actually going to ask if you could teach me telekinesis next?”

“I wanted to hold off on telekinesis until we had your mana control down to a precise level. When foals learn telekinesis they lack the mana or capability to exert a lot of force onto anything. You, on the other hand, could do some serious damage with telekinesis. For example you could try to lift a dog and end up flinging it hundreds of feet by accident due to too much force. I’ll try to teach you, but if it’s too unstable we’re calling it off. Go find a decent sized rock and bring it back.”

“I hadn’t really considered those dangers… alright I need to go setup the Alarm spell perimeter first, but I’ll bring back a rock.” Since we don’t have the illusion hiding our campsite from any wandering eyes I’m going to expand the Alarm perimeter. It takes around two and a half hours but I feel pretty comfortable with this. I found a rock about the size of my head 45 minutes into setting up the Alarms, so I walked back to where I found it and grabbed it.

Upon entering the tent I was prepared to make some dumb comment about rocks, but I stop when I see Luna’s laying on her side fast asleep. Damn she really must’ve been exhausted to fall asleep at 11PM. We just woke up like 3 hours ago. I think this is the first time I’ve seen her sleeping, usually I knock out first. She looks peaceful.

Nightmare can you teach me telekinesis? Luna was going to but she’s all tuckered out and fell asleep.

I just hear a sigh in my mind. I suppose so. The concept is quite simple, you just focus on an object and project your mana towards it. Once the mana has the object surrounded you exert your will into the mana and it should respond in kind.

Really? That’s it? Luna made it sound more dangerous.

It is more dangerous if it’s somepony like you learning the skill. I recommend doing this outside.

Should I wake Luna up? On one hand I don’t want to, but on the other hand she might fuck up her sleep schedule which in turn will fuck up our palace food schedule. Oh she’s out of mana anyways. I’ll wake her up anyways. I put my hand on her barrel and give a few scritches, “Nap time’s over, Lulu.”

Her eyes slowly crack open, “You were gone for so long~ without my magic I couldn’t conjure my book.”

“Sorry, those alarm spells take a while to set up. You can go back to sleep if you want, but I figured you didn’t wanna mess up your sleep schedule. Here’s my rock though.”

“You figured correctly, I appreciate it.” She goes on to give me a slightly more in depth explanation of telekinesis, but it’s basically the same thing Nightmare told me.

System Update In Progress…..

System offline.

Until the update is complete only critical functions are supported.

Woah. Everything kinda went blurry for a second, but wait can I still cast spells if I use Ignis’ memories? What the hell is it even updating?

“Ignis?” I look over at Luna to find her looking slightly concerned.

“Sorry, kinda spaced out. My power is temporarily disabled. I think I can still cast spells and what not but there won’t be any dice rolls. If something attacks us right now we might be in real trouble.”

“Do you know how long it’ll take to function again?”

“Could be 30 seconds, could be 6 hours, hell it could even be 6 months. Let’s just focus on this rock.” I exit the tent and tie the opening so that it can’t close. That way Luna can still observe without moving.

Making sure I maintain my suppression I stare at the rock intensely. I hold out my left hand palm open and attempt to “project” the mana from my body. Lift the rock. Lift the rock. Almost instantly the rock is surrounded in a silver glow, but it doesn’t move at all. “Luna, why isn’t it moving?”

“You might need some sort of stimulus? You’re projecting the mana from your hand so why not try gesturing with that hand?”

Following her advice I flick my hand upwards and watch in shock as the rock zips up into the air, severing the mana connection as it continues to soar higher and higher until I can’t even see it anymore. “Looks like I should’ve gotten a bigger rock. Is it bad that I’m terrified about the fact that I can’t see this rock anymore? Where is it going to land? Statistically it shouldn’t hit either of us, right?”

Instead of answering me Luna closes her eyes and starts to tilt her head. After a second or two she opens her eyes again. “It’s falling 30, no, 40ft that way.” She points to the right with her forehoof. Did she just echolocate a falling rock? As if on cue I hear twigs snapping and the sound of something heavy thudding the ground in the direction she pointed.

I run over and grab the rock and bring it back to camp to continue my attempts. The next issue I run into is that the run keeps falling out of my aura as I slowly lift it into the air. Well if gesturing with my hand is what lets me do directions maybe I just need to close my hand like I’m grabbing something before I lift?

When I close my hand into a fist the rock makes a loud cracking sound and compresses 2 or 3cm. That did the trick though, now I can ever so slowly lift it and move it. Looks like I need to be more gentle when closing my hand. The sound of two hooves hitting each other rings out from the tent, and when I glance back I see Luna giving me slow applause. “It’s still quite rough, but you managed to get the concept down pretty quickly.”

“How long have I been at it? It feels like it couldn’t have been longer than an hour.”

“Correct, I’d say it’s been 45 minutes since you launched the rock into the clouds the first time. You even managed to mai-” She stops and suddenly snaps her head in the direction we came from. It looks a bit silly since she’s still in the tent, so she’s just staring at the wall. I assume she heard something though.

I start to ask what’s up when I feel the ground start to vibrate. “Ignis! Help me pack everything the Ursa is coming. We need to move, now!” She grits her teeth and hisses in pain as she rises up to all fours.

I quickly yank out the pegs and start rolling up the tent as Luna uses her hooves and teeth to roll up our bedrolls. I put on the Mizzium Apparatus and throw on the backpack over it. Then I take the camping bag and throw it over one shoulder, positioning it under my armpit. Next I place my hand on Luna and get ready to cast Invisibility. “You stopped suppressing, you need to maintain it now more than ever, Ignis. It will find us if you can’t.”

I’m panicking at this point as I remember the system is offline, can I even cast Invisibility? I need to calm down and slow the mana.

Master Ignis the beast from before is approaching! You have 45 seconds at most!

Focus. Suppress the mana. Focus. I feel a cold breeze hit the back of my neck and everything goes quiet. It feels like everything is moving slow. It’s an adrenaline rush, in an instant the mana slows down and I reach into the component pouch. I have two 1st level spell slots, three 2nd level, one 3rd level, zero 4th level, and one 5th level. This invisibility will be my last 3rd level slot. After I go over my mental checklist I mutter out an incantation and attempt to cast the spell at 3rd level.

Nothing happens.

Again, nothing. Again, nothing.

You’ll be within its line of sight in 10 seconds, sir!

All the noises of the forest and the vibrations of the ground come back all at once, my distorted sense of time returns to normal. “Fuck. Fuck! I can’t do it Luna! We have to hide the old fashion way.”

I scan around to see if I can spot any elevation changes or caves to use for hiding, but it’s just flat ground and trees. I start running to the West, but I only make it a few steps before I hear a yelp of pain from Luna. Glancing back it looks like she couldn’t even gallop for a second without her muscles seizing. “I’ve recovered enough mana that I can slip into the shadows, run Ignis.” Halfway through her sentence at least 5 different instances of my Alarm spell ping me at the same time. It’s right on us. 30ft behind Luna the trees crack and snap as the canopy collapses and exposes the night sky. With an ear splitting roar all the leaves around us scatter into the air completely revealing us and everything else nearby.

Luna immediately transforms into a starry mist that sinks into the ground and starts to move between the shadows of the trees. Okay, she should be fine like that. I turn and start to move in a dead sprint away from the Ursa. There’s no pointing running from something this big though. In one step I watch as a large shadow zips across the ground before stopping right above me. I can hear the paw coming down to stomp on me and at the last second I leap forward and just barely manage to avoid being crushed.

Unfortunately it’s not a graceful leap. When I impact the ground I land shoulder first and roll several times. At some point the camping bag and my backpack got slung off while I was rolling. I scramble to my feet and try to keep running as it moves to stomp me into the ground again, but my foot slips. I catch myself with both hands and start to fast crawl forward while trying to stand up at the same time. Before I can get back up I see the ominous shadow overtake me.

I can’t help but to let out a dark chuckle as I start to realize that this is how it ends. Until I see my arms get enshrouded in a dark blue aura and I get yanked, hard. As I’m flying through the air I see Luna has come out of the shadows and is panting with one eye close and the other eye squinting. She saved me with her telekinesis.

I land on the ground and watch as the Ursa’s other foreleg starts to crash through the air towards Luna. Several shields appear on top of her, and the paw stops when it hits the first shield. An instant later it smashes through half of the shields and the rest of them disappear as Luna’s horn sparks and she cries out in pain, collapsing onto the ground.

Everything slows down again and several trains of thought go through my head. It’s made 3 saving throws, if it has Legendary Resistance there’s a good chance it’s out of them now. I have one last 5th level spell slot I can use to cast Hold Monster, but I haven’t been able to get my spells to work. The paw is inching closer to Luna.

In one fluid motion I reach behind my back and grab my spellbook from its mounting mechanism on my lower back, with my right hand. At the same time with my left hand I reach into the component pouch and pull out a piece of iron. You're my magic, so fucking LISTEN TO ME!

The book snaps open and the pages start to move on their own to the page of Hold Monster as I squeeze the iron in my hand while glaring at the Ursa. The paw is half a second away from crushing the alicorn.

“IMPEDIENDUM!”

The paw stops mere centimeters away from Luna as silver lines shoot up the legs of the beast and a loud ringing sound pierces the air. A fraction of a second later I send my mana towards Luna and fling her away from the Ursa. She flips through the air a couple of times before opening her wings and gliding to a stop. Before she lands though, I’ve already decided that one minute isn’t long enough for us to make any meaningful distance on this thing. It has to die tonight. After a couple more seconds I get hit with a dizzy spell but continue on.

I turn towards the leg that’s currently on the ground just a few feet away from me and pull out my Moonblade. I know she said it’s immune to physical attacks, but I doubt they used magical weapons. 7 seconds have passed since I paralyzed the Ursa. Now let’s see if I can emulate my smite using mana.

I try to grasp onto the thread that I feel whenever Nightmare speaks to me. Surely that’s an access to the well of divinity they both share, right? My right arm swings backwards, winding up for a slash with all my might. Suddenly I’m looking at the planet from space. Did I grasp it? I try to will myself back down to the planet, to my body, and gasp as I instantaneously rocket through space and the atmosphere back into my own shell.

As soon as I’m back in my body a giant pillar of white light comes down and engulfs me, it’s Moonbeam, or at least some variation of it. The Ursa lets out a roar of pain as it’s shoulder and part of its leg is caught in the pillar of light. The Moonblade currently wound up behind me starts to vibrate as all of the runes on the blade glow and shine with silver light. I know this hurt you last time, but this time I’m not brute forcing my mana through the blade, it’s power from the moon herself.

With a roar of my own I swing the blade at the creature's leg and my eyes widen as the moonbeam narrows and engulfs just the Moonblade as it slashes through the air. The edge of the blade makes contact with the beast and I’m blown backwards as an explosion rings out and destroys everything below the knee on the creature's leg. Since its other paw is stuck in the air the bear completely loses balance and it roars in pain as its head plummets towards the ground.

I land on my ass next to Luna and laugh at the surprised look on her face. The Ursas head crashes onto the ground right in front of us and I slowly get up and dash to its neck. I can tell from the silver lines it’s still paralyzed. I grasp the hilt of the Moonblade with both hands and bring the blade high above my head, ready to finish this.

“Wait!” I glance at Luna and watch as she slowly rises and walks right up to one of the eyes of the Ursa. “Creature, it does not have to end this way. We meant you no harm and have no intentions of invading your den. Take my mercy and leave us alone.”

Is she serious? This thing was a fraction of a second away from turning both of us into paste, multiple times. To my surprise the beast makes some sort of noise that isn’t too different from the sound dogs make when they’re in pain. “Blink twice if you understand and agree.”

I’m even more surprised when it blinks twice in rapid succession while still whining. This thing was capable of understanding us this whole time? That’s even more reason I should kill it, in my opinion that takes it firmly out of the “wild animal” category.

She’s the boss, though. The sliver of moonbeam that was still present narrows even further before disappearing entirely. The runes on the Moonblade are still shining however… did that repair the damage? Putting a pin in that so I remember to look at it later, and sheath the sword.

Relaxing my body I stop focusing on the Hold Monster spell and watch as the silver lines on its body disappear. It shakily rises off the ground and awkwardly hobbles away with its 3 legs. I cast my gaze over to Luna, “Why did you stop me? Did you truly want to show that thing mercy?”

“I was debating it, but then I noticed something that cemented my decision to try and bargain with it. You don’t have enough mana to perform that attack again. Once it realized you weren’t able to kill it then we’d surely be done in.” I raise an eyebrow in confusion.

“What do you mean? I feel perfectly fine, I think I could’ve done that attack several more times.” I take a step forward to go find the camping bag and my backpack, and as soon as I take a step forward everything goes blurry and the dizzy spell hits me even harder. “Ope, nevermind. Good call.”

I fall backwards onto my ass and lay down to stare at the sky. Luna sighs and drops down onto her barrel right next to me. “I’m glad your power came back in time, I’m not sure what would’ve happened to me if that creature really buried me under its paw. How did you use my spell at the end, though?”

“First things first, my power still isn’t back. You were in danger and I had an adrenaline rush and put every ounce of willpower I had into forcing my magic to work. Secondly, what do you mean by “your spell?””

“One of my most powerful spells that’s unique to me is extremely similar to what you did. The only difference is that the pillar of moonlight focuses on the tip of my horn and I release it in a concentrated blast. Yours was weaker, but that was definitely my spell.” Her tone of voice is one I can’t quite place. Is that pride?

“I just thought about simulating my divine smite with mana, and when I tried to grasp onto the link I have to your divinity my mind's eye got transported to the moon. After that I fell back down to the planet and into my body, and the pillar of light came with me.”

I feel a wing start to ruffle the hair on top of my head. “That’s my paladin. Thank you for saving me.”

“Oh please, we saved each other. In fact I’m pretty sure you got me beat 5-2 right now if we count me rescuing you from the Changeling pod.”

Suddenly time freezes and I see a familiar prompt.

System Update Completed.

System Initializing….

Ruleset: 5.5e

Ignis Ferrum - Bladesinger 9/Paladin 2
93,000/100,000 XP. Level 11.

Wait… I didn’t get any XP for that encounter?! WHAT THE FUCK!

Author's Note

Chapter felt messy as I was writing it, but I think I'm happy enough with the result. Who doesn't love a classic "Sick/Bedridden love interest gets bed side service from MC" trope?

The power creep has increased even further with this new Moonbeam Smite, but considering all he had done was minor practice with telekinesis he was pretty much at maximum mana capacity. That spell still drained the entire thing, so it's definitely a last resort "you better end it with this or you're fucked after" kinda attack.

Also the 2024 Player Handbook came out today for some users on DnDBeyond, and I think I've mostly been able to transition Ignis from 5e to 5.5e. There are some changes that I'll be making for the sake of the story though.

Smite is not a Bonus Action. This is kind of a crazy decision from wotc imo, but I guess it's because they want to limit Smite to once per turn instead once per melee attack. On the bright side it no longer maxes out at 5d8 damage, it scales all the way up to 9th level AND you can use it with unarmed strikes now. So, for this story I will still nerf the character to 1 Smite per Attack Action, like WotC intended, but it's not using a bonus action. This character is already so starved on bonus actions that it would basically kill the paladin portion of the character.

Secondly, they made it so that even if you Action Surge you can only use 1 spell slot per turn. We were already ignoring the 1 leveled spell rule for 5e because of BG3, and we're going to continue ignoring it for 5.5e. Aside from Smite, Smite will only be once per Attack Action, so I can use it twice if I'm hasted.

Other than that there aren't too many changes for the character, there are some new features and new bonuses and stuff but I'll cover those in the actual story next chapter.

Hope the attempted romance wasn't too cringe, thanks for reading!