Jason really didn't like the implications that came with the idea that his soul had been away from his body for too long. Especially since it hadn't really been all that long, just a couple irl days, which meant it probably went off of subjective time. That or he was just so weak the amount of time he had was even more limited.

Either possibility made just as much sense, and neither was particularly comforting. Now, however, wasn't really the time to delve too deeply into the subject. Jason hadn't been paying all that much attention to the land around him recently, what with all the running and demons involved.

Now though, as Jason takes in the terrain, he easily recognizes that things aren't quite as he originally thought. This wasn't just any giant field of grass. This was also a field of giant grass. Those patches of head height and taller grass he had seen near the road weren't the odd ones out.

Rather, the farther from the road, the taller the grass is until it reaches the height of a tree, maybe more. More odd was the fact that these weren't super-sized stalks of grass. No, each stalk was still just as wide as a normal blade of grass, though some did tend towards being more akin to ornamental grass he had seen. Still, this was nowhere near enough to keep the grass standing upright, at least not under normal physics.

So seeing as Jason highly doubted that some wizard had strolled through here and decided to lay down a ritual to reduce the gravity in the area, the grass itself must be in some way mystical. This was likely through the use of Qi seeing as it seemed to be strengthening the grasses body, though he wasn't going to rule out magic actually reducing the effect of gravity on the plants. Stranger things exist out there than some magical grass.

Of course, knowing which it was, wasn't exactly top of the list of things to figure out. And of course Jason wasn't going to let that stop him from taking a closer look so after packing up camp, he leaves the road at an angle intending to check the tree height grass and then return to the road in a curve.

That plan of his however is soon thrown to the side and Jason turns to head directly towards the extra tall grass. It was just too much of a hassle forcing his way through the grass, and he wanted to get it over with. Even then, it still took him a good half an hour to reach the tree height grass.

As Jason reaches the grass, he frowns. In theory, it should have been easy to tell how the grass was staying upright. Qi and it would be rigged, while with Mana the grass would be all loosy goosy. Oh, and Energy would likely be a mix or something else completely off the mark, but he didn't detect any in use so ignored that possibility.

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Now, obviously since Jason couldn't tell right away, neither was quite true. They stood up straight as if solid spikes piercing the sky and yet as the wind blew through the tightly packed mess, the stalks all seemed to sway in the wind. It took noticing the grass being in splotches where it stood straighter or moved around more freely for Jason to have a clue as to what was happening.

Both options were true. The grass was using Qi to become sturdy and at the same time was using Mana to stay up, floating around. It was just that while technically separate entities such that each stalk could store either Mana or Qi; they were still all connected. This caused the effect to be shared around with areas more dense in one power type or the other to follow that characteristic.

Though despite being engrossed by studying the grass, that doesn't mean Jason let his guard down. So as a trio of strange half fox half insect beings jumped out at him from overhead, he was ready. The monsters had a hunched over form with six monkey like paws, the middle pair on arms that face backwards to help it move through the dense canopy of grass stalks.

Jason took one step to the side and yet moved multiple paces, causing even the last of the monsters to miss as they landed heavily on the ground, nearby grass swaying out of their way. If only the grass was as pliant to him as it was to the monsters. Not that he let that stop him.

So with two side steps to circle the closest monster, Jason forces his way through the grass to land a heavy kick to the ribs of the hunched over form. The monster's middle arms move in an attempt to block the blow, but are unable to bend far enough, leaving the monster gasping for air on the ground.

The second and third monsters take this chance to pounce on Jason in turn, one of them even managing to land their grapple. Though, sadly for that monster, he managed to get his arms up before ending up in the bear hug and so was more than able to retaliate. It also didn't help the monsters that its fox head was directly below his arm as this allowed him to use his other arm to send down a powerful elbow.

A blow that when empowered by a Blast of Energy caused a small snapping noise. That noise likely being the monster's neck snapping as the creature's limbs go loose and fall to the ground. Not quite dead, but it certainly wasn't standing up before the fight was over. Both because the damage was high enough to prevent any sort of natural regeneration from quickly patching things up, and also because Jason moved on to quickly take out the final monster standing.

Of course not all things go Jason's way, as one the first monster Jason had attacked saw that the other two had been downed, it let out a hair-raising cry. It sounded kind of like an early era scifi film's laser weapon. A creepy noise to hear come out of an animal's mouth, but the worst part is that Jason then heard a bunch of similar cries respond.

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