Ursula crept over the not-land, grimacing at the strange texture she could feel on the pads of her feet. It felt like a mixture of rubber and rock, a material that practically screamed artificial, and its chemical smell only made things worse. The foliage Bonak had managed to magic into being using his strange technologies helped a little- it was a necessity for her passive skills to work- and the cover the freshly, grown trees provided was more than welcome, but Ursula was starting to think she’d been paid far too little for this job.
As a beastkin, she was naturally predisposed to stalking her prey, hence why she’d been given this task, despite it not being her formal occupation. Beside her was Benjamin, using his sound magic to mask the slight noise their bodies made. With their opponent being a space mage, however, Ursula felt it was all for nought. He’d detect them coming from a mile away; perhaps he already knew their exact position. She shivered involuntarily at the memory of his cold, pitiless gaze. She’d seen undead with more life in their eyes.
The skinwalker made her feel unsettled like nothing she’d ever faced before, an instinctive response that had been wired into her species- every species' DNA- after millions of years of facing the unnatural mimic-type monsters. They were a blight every planet faced, their terror told in stories over campfires on the coldest days of the year.
A doppelganger was never allowed to grow, certainly not enough to evolve into this abomination they were about to face. It was so rare that Ursula had never even heard of this particular variant of skinwalker before, and she dreaded the battle that lay ahead. Fear was not an emotion the Dire-wolf beastkin was accustomed to, yet it was something she’d become intimately familiar with over the last twelve hours. Ever since she’d met him. Arthur Ward.
Ursula wasn’t a stranger to those of stronger bloodlines; she’d gone so far as to have a dalliance or two with beastkin nobility and felt the power of a world-lion as it tried to make advances on her. Rejecting him had been one of the most difficult things she’d done. It had been a fight against every instinct, her very self, that told her to submit. That man’s power had made her feel like a little girl again, made her want to tuck her tail between her legs and lower her head in submission.
Arthur Ward made her want to prostrate herself on the floor.
It terrified her that someone could have such a strong effect on her, and she worried that she wouldn’t have the willpower to deny the man anything he asked of her. He wasn’t even beastkin; that was what made it so humiliating. Ursula didn’t know much about humans, only that they were one of the weaker races, and it galled her that her powerful Dire-wolf bloodline bowed before one. If he’s actually human, I’ll eat my tail. It was the only thought that let her maintain her sense of pride.
“Stop clenching your hands so tightly,” Benjamin ordered, reaching out to grab her forearm. She almost lashed out at the sudden touch but controlled herself at the last second. Non-beastkin weren't aware of her people’s ways, about the significance of touch, and she could allow the small slight considering the priceless items she held in her left hand. She unclenched her fingers and let her palms open up a little. In her grasp were three thin disks the size of dinner plates, two black and one red.
Portable ritual disks, given to her by Iris, the fae princess. She still didn’t know what to think of the strange woman. The seer's confession to Arthur had blinded everyone, most in the room thinking the match-up didn’t make any sense. There was dating down, and then there was someone of Iris' stature pursuing a young man from a tier-1 integration planet. It was like a dragon going after a common lizard. At least that’s what everyone else thought, even Ayesha, though she hid it better than the others. Ursula knew better. They were so equally perfect for each other, it was a wonder it had taken so long for things to take off. Had they been beastkin, Ursula was sure Iris would’ve been knocked up already.
But they’re not beastkin, and you need to get your mind out of the gutter, she chided herself, focusing back on the ritual disks in her possession. Thankfully, they were far more durable than they appeared and remained unharmed from her momentary lack of attention. They probably cost as much as she made in half a year- the power of massive rituals constrained into twenty-centimetre disks. Creating them took a terrifying level of talent, and she was reminded that the fae princess was powerful in her own right, not merely a product of her father’s strength.
Ursula once again cursed the strange land she walked upon. It upset her natural equilibrium, and made her mind wander down strange paths she’d normally never consider. The foliage helped, but it couldn’t make up for the absence of true nature. She closed her eyes for a second and focused her senses. Her species' trait, forest’s sight, hampered as it was in this unnatural land, still worked, and she could sense her target was near. She’d fulfilled the prerequisite condition of looking at him when the skinwalker had invaded their ship.
“Can you track him then, or is it a bust?” Benjamin whispered quietly, even though he was using sound magic to ensure the words reached her ears alone.
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“I can feel his general direction, but it’s not as accurate as I had hoped,” she replied curtly.
“I guess that will have to do. Beggars can't be choosers.”
Ursula smiled at the strange human idiom, finding that it wasn’t as alien as some of the others she’d heard. “How close do you think we can get before you can’t hide us anymore?” she asked.
“Iris wanted us within at least fifty metres before we activated the rituals, but since you can’t track him perfectly, I don’t think it’ll be safe to move past seventy. Past that, I can’t promise our safety. Hopefully, the rituals are still effective at that distance.”
Ursula nodded her head grimly. The plan they had come up with- if it could even be called that- was the most harebrained scheme she'd ever taken part in and relied as much on chance as it did their team's skill. The first step was the riskiest. They had to somehow get close enough to the ghoulish skinwalker to get their rituals off. How they could sneak up on a bonafide space mage, practically omniscient as they were within their domains, was anyone's guess, but she was most suitable for the job, and so she’d see it through.
Renewing her purpose, Ursula stalked through the fresh grass. Whatever technological sorcery Bonak had cooked up, it was fast-acting. In the past few minutes, the grass had grown to reach her knee, and the saplings had become sturdy oaks that looked well into their middle years. Every moment that passed, Ursula felt her strength grow as the environment became one she was more used to. Unfortunately, they were on a timer; every second they waited was another they gave their enemy to prepare.
Frankenstein's little stunt with his time-lock had already taught them how deadly their foe could be when given time. They wouldn’t be making that mistake again. According to Iris, they didn’t have to worry about such a powerful skill being used again. Ursula wasn’t so sure. They crept through the underbrush, pausing every few seconds to reorient themselves. The landing pack had created an area just over a mile across; more than enough room for a landing, but for the zone of their battle, it felt too small.
Not for the first time, Ursula wondered at the physics of everything. For all intents and purposes, the mass of land they had created for this battleground was simply a very large, unwieldy boat, anchored to nothing, and yet it was as stable as any rock she’d ever stood upon. She had a feeling these ancient landing packs Iris had found had been used for a lot more than emergency docking. Off the top of her head, Ursula could think of a dozen different applications- military applications- for those tools, case in point, the way they were using the items today.
“We’re getting close,” she whispered. “He’s a hundred, hundred and twenty metres in that direction. I can’t get it more accurate than that,” she said, pointing at a particularly dense brush of trees. The foliage was denser the closer they got to the skinwalker’s ship, approaching the natural growth levels she’d expect to find in a healthy forest. Ursula knew it was safe to talk as loudly as she wanted with a sound mage on her team- if they were caught, it wouldn’t be because they were too loud- but she preferred to be cautious.
“Shit, I can sense his domain now. It’s one hundred and sixty metres across, a perfect sphere. We won't be able to get within eighty metres of him without him noticing,” Ursula said grimly. “That’s- that's a lot bigger than we expected, isn’t it,” Benjamin muttered, his skin paling.
Ursula nodded her head. “The only other space mage I’ve seen had a domain ninety metres across. That guy gained a legendary class at level 200. Frankenstein’s almost twice as big,” she said.
“Are you telling me this bastard's got a mythical class?” Benjamin said, appalled. “Are we ready to handle something like that?”
“I guess we’re about to find out.” Ursula wasn't too fond of their chances. They’d gotten as close as she dared. Any more, and she was certain they’d be noticed. Space mages had notoriously small domains relative to how much they were feared. It was ironic that those with an affinity for space magic laid claim to the least when employing their domains. They more than made up for it with the absolute control they had over their territories though, their ability to deny other magical affinities within them just one of many broken abilities they possessed.
No, avoiding battle with creatures with spatial affinities was one of the first lessons you learned in life, though their being rarer than unicorns certainly offset the hazard they represented. Ursula placed the three ritual disks on the ground in front of her. Eighty-three metres away. It would have to be good enough. Any closer and the ghoulish skinwalker might just teleport away, forcing them to engage in a game of cat and mouse across the small island. He definitely would once he sensed the ritual disks and he certainly could if the rumours about space mages were at all reliable.
There was no use in delaying. Ursula quickly pressed the centre of the three disks, and was rewarded with the satisfying clicks Iris had told her of. Three things happened at once, though only two had a visible effect on the world. One, all her teammates were suddenly teleported to her side, each and every one of them with spells ready to be unleashed. The invisible thing was a ritual that Iris had set up to lockdown the skinwalker's domain- only for five minutes, true but it was a feat that told the terrifying story of Iris’ capabilities.
It was overshadowed, however, by the pillar of light that erupted in a dark shade of green as every cloud in a mile radius was obliterated. It was like God's wrath had descended onto earth to smite his enemies. Except the light had originated from land. She’d seen the attack from hundreds of thousands of miles away in space, safe on Lady Sleyca’s ship. It had amazed her then.
Now she was in awe.
An attack using poison magic, except it looked like green flames. She could feel the heat like she was standing before a massive bonfire. The sound reached her then and it was like the magic had taken on a life of its own. She’d heard its like decades ago when she was but a child, and it had terrified her then.
A dragon was roaring.