“Hello,” came the faint voice from everywhere and nowhere. The angel’s blue eyes widened. “Help.” The hind was dying and Brivaria did not have time to channel Healing Touch into the creature or, at least, not enough to mend its fatal wound. Thankfully, she had something better.
“I can hear you. I’m here to help,” the angel said quickly while pulling something from her inventory. It was a small, red vial of healing liquid. It was the only healing potion her team owned.
Healing potions were very expensive and this one came from the dead gaborn brothers. Each had carried a healing potion for emergencies. One brother had used his potion to prolong his life in the face of a terrible foe but the other had left Brivaria’s team this one upon his death. She would put it to use.
Unstoppering the vial, Brivaria poured the red liquid directly into the wound. The effect was instantaneous. Organs began to heal, flesh began to mend, and life was given back to the golden hind. The angel stowed the empty vial and put a hand on the deer’s head. She channeled Healing Touch briefly to give the beast some mental clarity or that’s what she hoped. A whimper from behind her brought the angel back to the fight. She turned to rise and felt her foot step on something wet and spongy—a torn chunk of the hind’s side. Into the inventory it went.
Trixie had taken a grazing blow from the bear but it drew blood and hobbled one of the dog’s rear legs. The sound of her beloved dog in pain wrenched something free of the angel’s heart and she screamed. Alternative Form activated. Brivaria’s boots and gloves disappeared as her feet and hands grew claws, immediately being magically improved with her Natural Weapons skill. A black tail snaked out from her pants only to have its spaded tip grow into a slender blade. Horns grew from the winged girl’s head to curve forward like those of a bull. The sclera of her eyes turned black as a System message appeared and was promptly dismissed.
She was moving, flying through the air as fast as her abilities would let her. Her claws and tail glowed with ominous black light as deadly, withering magic was infused into each of them. She landed on the bear’s back and dug in. Her claws pushed into its hide. Unlike her blade, they were magically enchanted for cutting flesh and they did a frighteningly good job at it. Flesh neatly separated followed by the muscle that lay underneath and Brivaria saw blood pool to engulf her fingers as she worked to cut ever deeper into the creature’s body.
The bear roared and twisted but Brivaria was ready. She was leaping upward but her bladed tail swept forward in an arc. The bear saw it coming just as it sliced through one of the ursine beast’s eyes. The bear’s natural toughness and endurance were surely massive but the blade at the end of Brivaria’s tail was enchanted and the eye was naturally soft. The thing reared up on both legs, roaring pain and anger as its eye bled. Maybe she couldn’t kill the bear but she’d fucking try.
That thought was interrupted as a flash of light struck the area and the angel recoiled. Something anathema to her very being passed by her and struck the bear in the face. Brivaria turned to see Trixie, limping on one leg, but staring at the bear. The golden sunchaser’s brown eyes were locked on the bear but it was the golden glow between the dog’s teeth that drew Brivaria’s eyes. She knew that light. As the dog opened her mouth and released another bolt of power, Brivaria recognized the magic. It was holy-aligned.
The bear’s eye was bleeding, its back was bleeding, and the golden hound’s magic was the last straw. It growled and dropped to the ground on all fours. It was still massive and still every bit as dangerous as it had been moments before but now its sounds were that of a wounded animal. Half blind and pawing desperately at its injured eye, the bear’s roars turned to whines. Brivaria flapped her wings and moved away from the bear. She never took her eyes away from it even as she let the winds of Current Control carry her over to her dog.
Trixie whimpered as the glow faded. Her brown eyes were large as blood seeped from her injured leg. The angel touched the golden gingerly, still looking at the bear even though it was making no more aggressive moves. The claws receded leaving fingers with black nails to stroke the golden’s soft fur. Brivaria channeled Healing Touch into Trixie’s wound and the leg wound mended until it was completely gone. The golden’s fur was left crusted with blood but whole.
A sudden pressure at Brivaria’s back made the angel turn, tail raised to strike and teeth bared. The golden hind froze in place, sudden fear in its eyes, and Brivaria relaxed. The bladed tail lowered. Behind her, the bear let out a disgruntled roar and started ambling away. Trixie didn’t move and the golden hind bent down to sniff curiously at the dog. Brivaria just wrapped her arms around Trixie and thanked the universe that something terrible hadn’t happened to her dog.
The next minute was eerily quiet. Brivaria could feel Trixie shaking with nervous energy while the angel’s own heart was thundering in her chest. The winged girl kept glancing back the way the bear left fearing she’d look back only to find it charging at her. The grip of fear and paranoia on the angel’s heart loosened with each passing moment. Slowly, she began to calm down.
“Hello,” the golden hind said once more. Brivaria wasn’t certain if she was hearing it aloud or in her head. The angel suspected the woman from Sparrow’s Revenge hadn’t been certain either. The winged girl raised her head from Trixie’s soft coat and looked at the golden hind.
“Hello. I’m Brivaria. This is Trixie. Are you okay?” the angel asked. Before she could say anything else, the deer began shrinking. It got smaller and smaller until it was the size of a fawn then laid down.
“I am better. Thank you,” the animal said. Trixie gingerly put weight on her previously injured leg and stood. It was her turn to sniff curiously at the now tiny deer. Brivaria recognized growth magic easily enough. The deer had been using magic to make itself larger. This was likely its true size.
“Do you have a name?” Brivaria asked while checking her mana. 51 points left. She had enough to change back to her normal form and maybe enough for a little more healing.
“Giselle. I am not good with words. I am learning. I am new,” the golden hind said. Brivaria looked at the tiny deer. She was alive. She was talking. The angel’s heart sank because she knew she couldn’t let the humans hunt Giselle. It was wrong.
“Giselle, may I heal you?” the angel asked, knowing it would strain her mana. The little deer pondered the question for a long moment.
“Yes. I am needing healing.” As soon as Brivaria heard the answer, she put a reassuring hand on Giselle’s back. She channeled Healing Touch while petting the deer then winced at the number of points it took. Soon she no longer had enough mana left to transform back to her normal form.
“I am more better now. This is nice,” Giselle said while leaning into the pets.
The angel produced the cushion she normally let Trixie sleep on while they were camping. Brivaria gently scooped up the fawn and laid her on it. Trixie seemed aghast at her bed being used by someone else. She responded to this unconscionable invasion of personal space by licking the fawn. Brivaria giggled then glanced at her System messages, hoping to find a specific set of notifications.
You have reached level 37.
Gained +3 Physique, +2 Endurance, +3 Arcane, +3 Spirit, +2 Awareness, +4 Presence.
Gained one new skill selection.
Success! Brivaria hoped she was close to level 36 but was pleased to see the jump to level 37. She hadn’t defeated the bear so much as it decided fighting was no longer worthwhile. That was apparently enough for the System to grant her an additional level up for her efforts. Good thing too because the angel highly doubted she could kill the bear before it killed her. Stamina was her limiting factor, more so than mana. Her claws could maybe deal a fatal blow but she had only so many dodges in her before one of those gigantic paws put a swift and brutal end to things.
With Giselle recovering and Trixie on guard duty, the winged girl went looking for her sword. Demon eyes, it turned out, came with a built-in prey sense and the ability to see in the dark. Brivaria didn’t fully understand the nuance of the prey sense but living creatures were more noticeable. It wasn’t like they glowed but any kind of natural camouflage was rendered useless.
That special prey sense told Brivaria the boar was dead. Granted, that was fairly obvious from the fact that it was wholly unmoving and also that its side was totally crushed, legs and all. It was terrifying to see what the bear did in a single swipe. It was equally terrifying to think the only reason Trixie survived was the angelic circlet the dog wore as a pseudo collar. The angel thought the dog looked adorable with the little white wings of the circlet coming up from her neck but, more importantly, the magic it held would keep Trixie safe.
Briefly, Brivaria considered getting out a knife and cutting into the boar. There was probably meat in there that the angel could use. The corollary to which was the fact that the angel had no idea how to butcher an animal. She’d made her peace with eating animals shortly after arrival on Zlithia. That was part of life on the planet and Brivaria had no qualms about joining the circle of life. Actually cutting apart something one killed and pulling out its meat and organs to eat was something she’d not been forced to do yet nor had any idea how to do correctly. Maybe she’d try and stuff what she cut off into her inventory or maybe she could store the whole boar in her inventory?
Brivaria poked the boar and tried to do just that. She received a System message informing her that she had insufficient inventory space. Yeah, her inventory was far from large enough to accomplish that but the message said there was insufficient space, not that it was impossible. That gave her ideas for later. For now, she went back to looking for her sword. Her demonic eyes may not have helped with prey sense but the ability to see in dark places helped her spot the blade in a pile of leaves and she pulled it out.
The blade was fine. That was no surprise since it was enchanted for durability. It wasn’t supposed to break easily. Normally this was acceptable since the angel would gain added cutting power from skills. Brivaria had none of those. In fact, she lacked even a single weapon skill. Without one of those, the sword was weaker than her new claws.
The angel held the sword in one hand and looked between it and her other hand. The Natural Weapons skill let her extend her fingers into black razors and undo the transformation borderline instantly. The angel’s presence attribute and understanding of the transformation was already sufficient to make the cost of doing so free. The claws were magically sharp, magically durable, and would improve over time. They weren’t going to dethrone her sword as her primary weapon any more than a couple enchanted daggers would but they had demonstrated their value today and she’d need to learn to use them better in the future.
The bladed end of her tail drifted into view and Brivaria also made note of that. If she became good at shapeshifting then the only limit to how many weapons she could have at her disposal was her mana pool and personal skill at controlling them all. She shifted the tail back to its natural, spaded form. The demon tail was akin to an extremely flexible limb. It could wrap around and lift things, stab, or precisely manipulate objects. It just didn’t have a lot of strength to work with. Without magic or a skill augmenting its strength there was a limit to how useful it could be. A magically-sharp blade with even a little bit of force could still do some damage and every little bit helped.
Brivaria walked back to where she left the fawn and Trixie. The angel considered her battle form a success although it was kind of a mess at present. She looked partially like a demon but her big white wings and silver armor made her look more like a bizarre magic experiment gone wrong.
Worse, Brivaria had learned that some skills and traits got bonuses based on how close one was to the prerequisite race or species. Brivaria would always be an angel so her angelic intuition would never go away completely but it could become weaker if she was transformed into a lamia. Likewise, many of the shapeshifting abilities she was using were naturally demonic so they were more effective when her body was more demonic. Flesh Sculpting gave Brivaria the ability to get traits and bonuses from other creatures but there were entire classes and skill lines dedicated to better enabling chimera forms.
Suffice to say there was tremendous potential in her abilities but it would take a lot more training and practice to fully understand them. She would also need to decide on what direction to go with them, if any at all. The angel had long since figured out that her thoughts were different after the incident, contaminated in a sense. Even so, her changes allowed her to survive the mad demon in the unformed dungeon east of Pemburne and save lives. The old Brivaria would have died on the street to an assassin’s knife through the heart if she’d even made it that far. Of that, the angel had no doubt. If it meant she stayed alive and kept doing good in the world then it didn’t matter what she looked like or what skills she had, right?
“Hello,” came the sound of the golden hind’s voice on the wind.
“I’m back, Giselle,” the angel said, walking over to kneel next to where the golden sunchaser and golden hind were resting on the cushion. The angel hadn’t gone far physically though she’d been very distracted mentally.
“This dog is very friendly,” the deer observed. Trixie was snuggled up alongside the deer and the dog’s tail was making a thwap, thwap, thwap sound as it wagged and slapped against the cushion.
“Trixie is always friendly. Would you like something to drink? I think we have a lot to talk about,” Brivaria said while producing a bowl that Trixie normally used. The angel wasn’t certain if deer liked cow milk the same way catfolk did and was even less certain that a land spirit even needed to eat or drink. She opted to put some water in the bowl and find out.
The question was solved as soon as Giselle began licking water from the bowl. Trixie was a good dog and shared. Brivaria scritched the golden hound behind the ears while waiting for Giselle to drink her fill. There was a lot to talk about.
Name: Brivaria
Race: Angel
Class: Apprentice Shaper of Flesh
Level: 37
Stats: Health 51/76, Mana 7/146, Stamina 42/100
Attributes: Physique 62, Endurance 38, Arcane 69, Spirit 73, Awareness 38, Presence 77
Active Skills: Current Control, Defensive Bulwark, Healing Touch, Wind Formation
Passive Skills: Alternative Form, Flesh Sculpting, Infernal Seed, Inventory, Lesser Flight, Lesser Shapeshifting, Lingering Decay, Natural Weapons, Rest, Traits (Angel, Demon)
Magic: Light of Decay
Affinity: Corruption, Decay
Unspent Skill Points: 1