The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage

[77] Fight In The Street

Power unlike anything Tanisha had ever felt coursed through her veins. She expected pain or to be knocked out for days or something, but no, there was none of that. She was a little dizzy but even that quickly dissipated. She felt good; better than good. 

That was, until she sniffed the air and nearly keeled over while she dry heaved from the stench.

“Trues above, it is foul down here,” Tanisha said, but was caught off guard by the sound of her own voice. “Is that me?” 

Her voice was more mature and melodic than before the transformation. She looked herself over as best she could. Glowing symbols slowly vanished, leaving what appeared to be moving tattoos and spinning magic circles. After a few seconds they also stopped, becoming stationary and barely visible patterns across her skin. Her outfit, the white and blue scaled Isi garb, was too small on her. She had grown in height, musculature and feminine curves. She freaked out when she felt something move in her pants, rubbing up against her leg. She jumped with a squeal, only for Joha to catch her in the air.

“What is that, what is that?” Tanisha panicked.

“It would appear you have a tail now,” Joha pointed out.

Tanisha’s mouth was agape when she saw the black furry appendage exiting her pant leg.

“What in the Higher Planes is going on?” Svan asked, full of panic. “What was that power?”

Tanisha stuttered. “I-I uh…”

“Now is not the time. We all will have a million questions after we get out of here,” Joha said, cutting them off. “Tanisha, it is you in there, right?”

Tanisha was taken back by the question, but then remembered that they didn’t know if she would still be herself after she evolved. She still felt like she was fully herself. How would she know if her mind had changed fundamentally? For now, she would have to remain conscious of how she thought and felt.

“Yes,” Tanisha responded. “And I can run. I feel fine.”

Joha placed her back on her feet. He then bellowed out maya which surrounded them both. When the maya vanished their outfits had changed. Their clothes were now bland earth tones not meant to stand out. Joha couldn't add fabric to clothing he changed with maya so her outfit was a little more revealing than she liked, but there was nothing she could do about it now.

Tanisha had to, as stealthily as she could, pull her tail up and out of her pants. The appendage was long, about four feet and covered in black fur? Hair? She didn’t know how to classify it. She found that she could control the tail as if she’d always had it. It was weird having the instinct to do something she’d never done before. She made it wrap around her hips like a furry belt to keep it out of the way. 

“Bjorn, are you okay Big Man?” Tanisha asked. Bjorn hissed his agreement. “Thank you for accepting the bond, I’ll make it up to you, I swear.”

“Let’s get going,” Svan said. “With everyone looking so different I doubt they could identify us. We can go up to the surface soon. But we will have to be quick; as soon as they see Bjorn they will attack.”

Tanisha didn’t know how different she looked, but the changes had to be substantial since she was at least a foot taller. She touched her face, which gave her little insight into the changes. That was, until she touched her ears, which were long and elf-like. The group started running, not too fast at first as they wanted to make sure Tanisha could keep up. When she started to outpace them they kicked it up a notch. Tanisha could easily keep pace as long as they didn’t use Flash Step; if not for the endless stench she would have found it amazing.

It took only a few minutes before they made it to another cellar door. Svan opened it and looked out after a few tense seconds. He told them to wait while he checked out the surroundings. 

Tanisha decided to take the time to look at her status menus. She needed to know what she could do now that she was no longer a wendigo. It was a weird thought to no longer be the same species she had always been, but she quickly moved her attention to the task at hand.

Status Menu

Name: Tanisha Scalebound
Species: Cernunnos
Level: 22
Vitality: 26 + 20 = 46
Restoration: 20 + 20 = 40
Constitution: 46 + 30 = 76
Willpower: 20 + 100 = 120
Strength: 20 + 20 = 40
Dexterity: 35 + 20 = 55
Stamina: 20 + 15 = 35
Seiðr: =  (16 maya + 40 mana/aether) + 200 + 210 = 466
Seiðr Regeneration: 35 + 200 =235 (+100 from bond)
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Tanisha whispered to herself. “What in the world is seiðr? Did I lose maya and mana?”

In a panic used her maya breathing and exhaled a sparkly green and gold hued… maya, aether, mana? She couldn’t tell what it was, but it felt like all three and none of them at the same time. She looked inward at her core, and it was as she remembered it before her evolution. Well, with one notable change; the ring of mana and aether had fused with the ring of maya, creating a fast-moving spheroid around her chaotic inner core. The inner core was also spinning, but much slower. It spun outward, away from the star in the very center.

“Seiðr is the mixture of all three.” Tanisha’s eyes widened as she left her core. “That means… Wait, what does that mean? I need to look at the other menus.”

Skills Analysis

Delta Familiar Contract
You are bonded with a Delta-class familiar. You gain +100 to seiðr regeneration. Your bond has grown, allowing you to convey emotions through your bond. Your bond is resilient against outside influences and can not be forcibly severed by outside parties. Your familiar’s life expectancy is extended by five years.

Mystic Wind Hands < Hard Air Constructs
Seiðr cost: Variable
(I) Low cost, 2 seiðr. Speak the words of power and create seiðr air constructs. Form air constructs into any shape and they will interact with the world, acting out the caster’s will. (II) Medium cost, 6 seiðr. Air constructs with darker aspects of seiðr to burn any that oppose you. (III) High cost, 16 seiðr. Constructs will become invisible and silent.

Arcanist Sage Core < Ringularity Sage Core
Seiðr cost: Variable
Chaos, mana, maya and aether compose the inner workings of your soul. Their coalescence in one body created seiðr; an energy seeking to uncover the very nature of the world around it. You can control all aspects that make up your core. Exerting your will over seiðr controls mana, maya and aether. You can use tools from any of the energies that make up your core. Your will can dominate mana, maya and aether outside your body for a short distance and use ambient energies for your arcane machinations.

Mana Armor < Chain Breaker’s Mantle
Seiðr cost: Variable
(I) Low seiðr cost per minute, seiðr will inundate your muscles and bones with power to temporarily increase your physical attributes. (II) Medium seiðr cost per minute, the Marks of Seiðr greatly enhances unarmed strikes. Unarmed punches and kicks will produce a seiðr shockwave, increasing the range of unarmed strikes a short distance. (III) High seiðr cost per minute, the energies within you grants the ability of arcane shift to teleport up to five yards.

Sage Spell Form Crafter < Sage Soul Forge
Seiðr cost: Variable
(I) Use seiðr to alter and twist existing spellforms connected to your Ringularity Core. (II) Unknown. Unknown. (III)Unknown. Unknown. Unknown.

Hydromancy < Divination Hydromancy
Seiðr cost: Variable
(I) Create seiðr constructs with liquid attributes, condense water from the atmosphere and/or control water from a water source. Exerting control over water allows you to change its state and temperature with ease. (II) Alter the properties of water to cause it to glow. Only those you choose can see the light produced. (III) Water in any state will condense into a blast of highly pressurized water. You maintain control of water even after it is fired, allowing it to change trajectory and home in on enemies.

+ Venomous Fang

Commune with your familiar to unlock.

+ Poison Breath

Commune with your familiar to unlock.

+ Hydra Fire

Commune with your familiar to unlock.

+ Poison Infusion

Commune with your familiar to unlock.

+ Queen of Reptiles

Commune with your familiar to unlock.

All of her skills had changed to use the new power within her. They were more powerful, since they had the effects of maya without having to switch between using mana and maya. She would need to experiment with the abilities to know their new limitations. It made her feel less assured about any potential fight they might get in soon. Her body and magic were different now, so she wasn’t confident she would be as effective in a fight.

The skills she got from Bjorn were dormant for now, like she expected. She would have gained access to some of his skills at the next rank, once he became an Iota-Rank Familiar in a few years. She wondered what would happen at that stage now. She would need to find some books on how to commune. It was a ritual that required a lot of time to set up.

Ringularity Sage Core Analysis

Sage of Seiðr
Your soul is permanently bonded to another in life and in death. The core of the Sage of Seiðr has been crafted to utilize the powers of other worlds. Seiðr is the power of divining one’s own path. Free from the constraints of one's fate, you weave your own destiny.

Nature Discipline

Specialties:
Venefikinesis - Creation and control of toxins, venoms and poisons.

Elemental Discipline

Specialties:

Ionikinesis - Creation and manipulation of ionized gas, wielding intense heat and electrical energy.
Aerokinesis - Control over air currents and atmosphere.
Electrokinesis - Creation of and control over electricity and lightning.
Hydrokinesis - Creation of and control over water.
Pyrokinesis - Creation of and control over heat, fire and thermal temperature.
+ Geokinesis - Control over the ground beneath your feet.
+ Ferrokinesis - Control over metals; the purer the metal the greater your control.

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Tanisha was even more confused about the Sage of Seiðr after reading the Ringularity Sage Core Analysis. Divining was a power of the Starlight Mages, if they specialized in it. Did it mean she had that ability somehow, despite not having a skill, or was it metaphorical? Either way she was impressed that she was so much stronger now.

Greaters were not always stronger than normals or lesser. The lesser skinwalkers were physically stronger than wendigo, just like the treants were stronger than druids. It was lucky that her species’ greaters were apparently stronger magically and physically. If her calculations were right, she gained over eighty levels in UCP. Which meant that even though she was the same level, she was far stronger with raw stats than even Svan, who was level 54 last time she looked. Where she lacked was skill; she didn’t have the mountains of experience he did, so she shouldn’t let it go to her head.

“Are you alright, Tanisha,” Joha asked. “Changing what you are fundamentally… Becoming this.” He seemed conflicted. “Power changes people. I pursued power for a long time before seeing that it had changed me. I did a lot of things I am not proud of and I have a lot of regrets. I don’t want you to have to go down that road.” He looked at her for a long moment, and Tanisha could see the pain that ran deep in the rakshasa’s eyes. “It is easy to lose yourself to the fastest solution to a problem, but just because you have the power does not mean you are right.”

Tanisha opened her mouth to respond, but Svan returned before she could. 

“We have to go now!” Svan said quickly. “The Hands are keeping the others from escaping. It looked like the wagon with the children and only a few others got through.”

Tanisha looked over to the tiger demon, who started breathing out black maya and was ready to engage. He nodded and the group ran as fast as they could out into the main street. 

There were bodies everywhere; Isi, knights and civilians. They heard the explosion of spells and clashing of magic and chakra. It looked like they’d had a hard-fought battle to the gatehouse even after so many knights were led away. 

Tanisha used her Divination Hydromancy, finding that it used the same words of power as Hydromancy to create a liquid construct. Instead of one orb like she had been practicing with, two popped into existence floating to her right. It didn’t seem any more difficult to control two, so she was happy with the result. 

Joha was the first to engage as he changed into his sleek black tiger combat form. He used Maya Blink and acrobatics to scale the wall of a nearby building, where archers were firing down on the Isi who were surrounded. Tanisha also saw Harald with his familiar; they would be a dangerous pair. 

Tanisha activated Chain Breaker Mantle second stage, the sensation feeling like she was being supercharged by her magics. Her body felt lighter, her movements more calculated and precise, and the world seemed to move slightly slower. She realized she was perceiving things at an accelerated rate. If this was how high-leveled wendigo perceived the world, it was frightening to think what her father and mother were really capable of. 

She pushed that thought to the back of her mind. She was the one with the power right now; she was the one who could make the difference.

The hail of arrows coming down on the Isi stopped right as Tanisha, Bjorn and Svan crashed into the unsuspected back line of the knights. Bjorn unleashed a wave of poison, which spilled out amongst the battlefield with streams of what Tanisha recognized as aetheric power instead of mana. 

Tanisha wasn’t idle while this happened; she summoned her bardiche from her necklace and her magic lit up the runes on the blade. She slashed the first man she reached. Her water orbs shot out streams of water that were targeted at joints and gaps in the knight armor. The protections on the armor were impressive to say the least; some of these men were survivors from Bjorn’s fire breath on the gate. 

It took precision, not brute strength, to take any one of them down. At least, that was what Tanisha thought before the bardiche nearly cleaved the knight in twain. The weapon snapped halfway through the man’s torso, leaving Tanisha flabbergasted with her strength and holding the wooden handle of a once beautiful weapon. 

She immediately had to dodge the strike of another man, who seemed to move in slow motion as she weaved out of the way and kicked him across his armored face. The armored helmet dented but held strong. The man inside, however, was not so lucky. Seiðr exploded out from the point of impact, killing him and sending him flying. Tanisha directed her water to strike at the nearest men, some of who were starting to succumb to Bjorn’s poison. 

Svan blocked another strike aimed for her as they pushed through the knights. Bjorn tackled someone off their familiar; his claws cut through the armor with surprising ease. Any time he bit someone Tanisha saw aether transfer venom through the air into people close by. It happened so quickly she thought she was seeing things. That was a truly frightening ability.

The poison cloud started dissipating far faster than it usually did, meaning the knights had medics cleansing the area before too many people died. It was fine; they successfully sowed enough chaos to break the knights’ formation and momentum. The Isi were pushing back, using the momentary confusion to try and break through the blockade. Tanisha and Svan finally reached the Isi disciples; some of them turned their weapons on Tanisha.

“Stop, that is Tanisha!” Svan yelled.

The Isi immediately changed targets; they had too many enemies around them to have their weapons drawn at an ally. Tanisha looked around at the survivors; it appeared the majority of the group either died or made it through the gatehouse as there were only seventeen, well twenty-one with them, in the group.