The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage

WM [43] Because Joha Said We Should

The signal from Alfred came almost soundlessly as the world slowed down. The magic of the jeweled winged monarch bathed the world in dazzling colors as its wings lifted into the air. Magic concentrated on the outstretched insectoid appendages as they neared the final stages before it could take flight. The monarch's desire to lift off into the great beyond was almost palpable as its mana became a typhoon that washed out into the minds of any creature too weak to resist its domination.

Then, in an instant the mesmerizing colors were bleached monochrome. The monarch’s mana seemed to just evaporate as Bjorn unleashed the full force of his power. Aether screamed into existence, its very nature raw and uncontainable, as white flame erupted from his jaws and spilled out into the clearing torching anything in its way. The blaze moved as if alive with many hands reaching out hungrily to consume and spread the toxin that could bring entire worlds to their knees. Tanisha and Alfred had to leap back as the temperature in the clearing rose hotter and hotter. 

The plume of white fire condensed, focusing into a searing beam of aether that cut through the landscape like a massive divine blade. It sliced through the throne of fallen trees the monarch had claimed for itself. The intensity of the beam left a glowing scar across the land. As mana the beam was terrifying but as aether it was something otherworldly.

Bjorn's focus was elsewhere, he needed to do something he had never tried before. He felt the aether surging within him and pulled on it more and more. He demanded that it give everything he wanted. His opened his right mouth and Poison Cloud burst forth as if he just opened the floodgate of a raging storm. The cloud crackled with aetheric toxin, filling every inch of the clearing with deadly vapor. Bjorn could feel his aether clashing with the monarch's aura, each force battling for supremacy over the space. 

Then came the sound—a dreadful thing, a piercing thing, a wail of pain and confusion as the monarch was struck. Its beautiful, terrible magic faltered, the light in its wings dimming as the creature reeled from the unexpected pain when it was at the precipice of its ascension. The battlefield was a chaotic blend of aether, flame, and a toxic cloud, all of it centering on the now wounded, jeweled winged monarch. 

“I didn’t know we could multicast!” Failsafe said in Bjorn’s head with enthusiasm. “That means—that means! New options, new experiments!” 

“Focus, Failsafe,” Bjorn ordered.

“Right, sorry that is for later,” Failsafe said sheepishly.

The very moment Bjorn’s fire stopped flowing from him the monarch turned to face him. All of its thousand eyes focused squarely on him. Through the pain and the constant burning it knew its enemy. It could feel Bjorn’s location through his magic. The white flames had engulfed the creature, burned through its chitinous armor and dug deep into the odd writhing mass of faux-flesh within. Even so it was not dead, no were near close, it wasn’t a real creature of flesh and blood, it was a mass of corrupted magic.

His toxin would do its work, it would eat away at its vitality but until then they had to keep it here and distracted. The creature roared from mouths that appeared all over its grotesque form. Bjorn wasn’t done, Tanisha and Alfred forced him to save his magic for this moment, and he wasn’t going to let it go to waste. 

He opened his mouth again feeling the heat bellow out from his core as a second beam of aetheric fire struck the creature. He felt his core strain as he pushed the aether through. He felt his muscles burn. His vision reddened as his eyes threatened to boil from their sockets. He wouldn’t give up though he had one chance and he was not going to waste it.

“Bjorn stop, you are going to overheat!” Failsafe screamed.

The last of his fire petered out as he collapsed, the expenditure of so much aether so explosively rocked his constitution. Smoke escaped his nostrils from his burning throat and mouth. The aether within him threatened to cook him from the inside out as his natural healing kicked in to keep him alive. His left head slumped lower than the others as the muscles in his neck struggled to keep the head up. 

Tanisha jumped to his side in concern. She tried to touch him but he was so hot she flinched back after being burned through her armor. Despite that, she activated her Chain Breakers Mantle and endured the pain as she pet him lovingly.

“Are you okay, Big Man?” Tanisha asked and Bjorn nodded. “Good, stay here. You did your part excellently.”

“Better than fuckin’ excellently, what in the name of the Divines kind of fire was that!” Alfred said, he then put his hand to his mouth and whistled. It was the signal for everyone else to attack. “I’ll stay back with Bjorn and keep him safe while he recovers. We need to kill that thing now, Tanisha.”

“Right,” Tanisha said.

 ***

Tanisha’s gaze swept over the field in front of her, she smiled beneath her helmet, the fire was beautiful. The screams of the monster in pain, soothing. The power in that creature would soon belong to her. Its blood and flesh hers to consume and grow stronger. She could not hope for better prey, it was something she could eat without issue, something she could kill without judgment. 

Appeasement of the Cernunnos
Seiðr cost: None
(I) Drink the blood of a recently defeated foe and gain +3 to your stats based off of their highest physical statistic. Their level must be higher than yours. Their highest statistic must be higher than yours. You or those bound to you through a soul bond must have delivered the killing blow. (II) Consume the flesh of a recently defeated foe and gain an additional +1 to a physical statistic of your choice upon level up. Stackable up until +20. (III) Unknown.

The other monster hunters had begun their attacks. The Plague Fire died down to smolders and the toxic magic dispersed to make it safe for them to cross. Tanisha knew she or Bjorn had to be the one that killed this monster in order for her to gain the extra power she wanted. She looked back at Bjorn for a moment, her familiar was winded but fine so she trusted Alfred to keep him safe. 

She pulled the bardiche she got from Joel out of her inventory and spoke the words of power to summon her wind hands then again for Divination Hydromancy. Streams of water sliced through the air hitting the monarch even as she pulled out the long curved sword from her inventory tossing it into the grasp of the Hard Air Constructs.

The monarch was a thrashing beast, its many arms swiped through the air with the speed of cracking whips. The damage Bjorn had done to it had slowed it down but it was still a highly evolved monster. It could take a beating and keep fighting. Its vitality was just too high to be killed in a single move but the jeweled winged monarch was not a monster that was designed for fighting. It controlled other monsters to fight for it while it flew over its prey and waited for its minions to do the fighting for it.

Tanisha reached the creature at the same time as the other melee fighters. She struck it immediately with all her might but her water, and weapons barely did any damage to the exoskeleton. The monster had eyes all over its body, each one watching a different opponent while its arms lashed out. Its arms were sharp chitinous blades which bent and twisted in ways that would be impossible on a living creature. Tanisha dodged the first attack by inches only for the blade to twist and contort impossibly in the air and slam into her side. 

Her armor absorbed the blow leaving her unharmed as she prepared to use Arcane Shift to gain some distance as the blade twisted around to hit her again. She stopped when she felt her armor react to the attack. A dozen golden aetheric feathers shot forward from the golden lines that traced the armor intercepting the next attack for her, each one cutting deeply into the exoskeleton. The blade slowed down, and she was able to duck down. 

Identify

Name: None
Species: Jeweled Winged Monarch
Level: 257
Vocation: OBEY. HUNT. FEED
Highest stat: Vitality: 6237 

Honey gold prana zipped by her as a heavy object struck the side of the monarch with a loud bang that knocked the monster onto its side. Tanisha only got a small glimpse of the object that hit the monarch. It was Alfred’s metal net which he had made into a large ball easily half the size of Tanisha herself. The blades were all sticking outward, turning it into a giant morning star. The ball shot back away towards Alfred and Tanisha didn’t want to waste a second. 

The impact cracked the shell of the monster near her and left a gap in the armor. She wasted no time in using the wind hand to plunge the long blade of Sabec’s sword into the chink in the armor. The monster screamed in pain as the mystic wind hands pushed the blade deep. The monarch lashed out wildly as prana infused axes, spears and bolts assaulted it from all sides. 

Tanisha did her best to dodge and deflect the attacks aimed at her, but each attack was so heavy they nearly threw her off her feet. A blade arm struck at her from a blind spot and by the time she saw the flash it was too late to dodge or defend. She prepared for impact but before the blow could land, Adelheid appeared in a blur, catching the monster’s blade mid-swing. 

“You’ve got to watch yourself in that helmet, Tanisha!” Adelheid chided with a smirk. “It messes with your peripheral vision.”

Tanisha didn’t have time to respond. She raised her bardiche and brought it down hard, severing the appendage with a satisfying crunch. Adelheid was already gone, vanishing with another flash step just as a second blade arm whistled through the air where Tanisha’s head had been moments before.

“Don’t worry, Tanisha!” William called out, thrusting his spear into the creature’s exposed side. “We’ll make sure you don’t lose that pretty head of yours!”

Oliver deflected a heavy strike with his shield which saved William. “You should be more worried about your head right now.”

Tanisha barely heard them as she used Arcane Shift multiple times to get high into the air for a bird’s eye view. Alfred’s net struck the creature’s side again, tearing away more of its exoskeleton. The beast’s once-rapid healing was now sluggish, Bjorn’s poison gnawing at its ability to regenerate.

She had to make sure she was the one that landed the killing blow. The problem was she didn’t have any magic that would be strong enough. The Water Missiles were all but worthless in the fight, and her sword and bardiches weren’t on the level of the prana users’ weapons. When she landed on the ground she saw the holes in the creature from Bjorn’s fire breath. Neither of them had healed and the inside was chard black. The sight sparked a realization she couldn’t believe she had forgotten. 

She was not a water mage, she was a sage, and she had affinities in all elemental magic. She only had one spell in the other elemental disciplines. The spells Helina had taught her to test her affinities, and she had accidentally altered one of them when she gained the Sage Spell Form Crafter ability. Since then the skill had evolved again into the Sage Soul Forge. Regardless, she did have a spell she could use, the same spell she made and turned a simple affinity test for ionikinesis into a pillar of destructive energy. She even remembered the spell and wouldn’t need to use her Sage Soul Forge to do it.

The problem was she needed to be close and stationary to perform the spell. The others were all fighting, and she wouldn’t have long before the monster died. Their teamwork was impeccable, each of them watching each other's backs. Attacking and defending with weapons that glowed with prana and sliced easily through the carapace. 

Adelheid was the only one who moved around the monster freely attacking opportunistically and confusing the creature's strikes by utilizing her speed and strength. Tanisha swallowed her hatred that simmered just beneath the surface. It didn’t matter right now that she wanted Adelheid dead, or that she had only agreed to Joha’s plan to keep the werewolf alive because it was his decision. She needed to focus, and right now, that meant relying on the one person she despised most.

“Adelheid,” Tanisha yelled, her voice cutting through the noise of battle. “Defend me!”

Adelheid didn’t hesitate to Flash Step, dodging and batting the monarch's legs and arms with her claws. It was impossible not to be impressed by her agility, even in her large, humanoid wolf form.

Tanisha dropped to the ground and crossed her legs and focused on the words of power. Her hands pressed firmly on the ground, feeling the pulse of the energy beneath her. This would be her moment—the one that would end the fight, it had to, so she could get stronger. The ambient mana swirled around her as her concentration focused on the word she would intone.

“F̴̝̃̉h̶̲͠o̸͖̻̎ũ̸̡̥͝ḿ̸̜ü̵̦̇͜t̴͙͚̑̀ḣ̵̞ Ḏ̶͝ŏ̶̺͐ș̸̞̍h̸̢̙͠ǐ̷̲̭n̴̼̋͒a̴̖͌͜ḩ̸͗̽a̷̢̖͐ ̶̖̫͆S̸̱̿i̸̞͕̐́k̸̼̐e̵̛̼͑ạ̷͒d̸̝̉ȋ̴͓̘,”she said, her voice steady as she summoned the spell of her own design.

A torrent of seiðr made plasma—ionikinesis—beginning to rise up from the ground, spearing toward the creature from below. Its exoskeleton holding strong but heating to the point at more cracks began to form. 

The Jeweled Winged Monarch was far from finished. Its furious screech was full of rage and defiance, it turned its attention to Tanisha, sensing the power she was calling forth. Its remaining blade arms slashed through the air, all aimed directly at her. The spell required total concentration; she couldn’t defend herself. She would have to hope her armor and powers were up to the task. The monstrous arms closed in on her, and for a brief moment, she wondered if this would be the end.

Then, Adelheid was there, throwing herself into the path of the creature's deadly strike. One of the monarch's blade arms impaled her through the stomach, but she didn’t falter. The monarch retracted the arm only for the wifwolf to let out a guttural growl, and she clamped down on the blade with her jaws, holding it in place as she slashed at the others with her claws. Tanisha’s eyes widened in shock. She hadn’t expected Adelheid to go this far, to risk her life so willingly. The wifwolf’s blood spilled onto the ground, but she held firm, her body a shield between Tanisha and the creature's wrath.

“Keep going!” Adelheid snarled, her voice strained but determined. “Finish it!”

Tanisha didn’t waste a second and refocused on the spell, pouring Seiðr into the attack. The plasma the color of white-gold with brilliance that forced her to avert her eyes. Heat and electricity scorched the air and cut through the monarch like a stake pinning it to the ground. The Jeweled Winged Monarch let out one final, agonized scream as the spell tore it apart from the inside. Its massive form convulsed, then collapsed, its life force extinguished. 

In its death-throes Adelheid was shaken loose of the blade that speared her through and dropped to a knee. Blood dripped from the gaping wound in her abdomen. Tanisha stood and ran over to the injured wifwolf without even thinking she pulled a healing potion from her inventory. 

“Why would you do that? You could have avoided it.” Tanisha said with a mixture of confusion and disbelief. “Here.”

“If I had moved, it would have hit you.” She shook her head and declined taking the potion. “Thanks, but I will be fine. This isn’t as bad as it looks and I need the scar. It will be an interesting story when I finally get to go back home to my pack.”

Tanisha looked at Adelheid for a long moment, but felt like she was really seeing the wifwolf for the first time. Tanisha didn’t respond immediately, still processing what had just happened. She had wanted to kill Adelheid for so long, to make her pay for what she had done. But now, seeing the werewolf’s sacrifice like this for her was not what she expected. 

For now, they had won, and the battle was over. The Jeweled Winged Monarch was dead, and she was sure she was the one that killed it. All that was left was to drink some of its blood and with all of the wounds it was not going to be difficult.