Chapter 108 On to a New Adventure.
A beast with nature’s blessings.
A man with nurture’s tools.
Who will survive? Who shall prevail?
It is only a matter of time and experience.
And many to pave the road forward.
Tonisha, the Lady of Ventures.
{28} Amaret (July) the 6th
The sun is high in the sky, and the summer's heat is unbearable. This island is the warmest place I’ve ever been to in my life. My skin burns under this merciless sun and I seriously consider traveling with a hood despite the heat. The road is rather empty, flanked only by some dry grass and the occasional tree, but no monsters or bandits hinder our way. Although, most of my entourage wearily eye the forest to our right.
The wide river to our left shimmer in the sunlight. The currents seem slow, and if not for the male presence in our group, I would’ve taken a skinny dip to shake off this heat.
I ride on Loyal’s tall back as we set out on the road leading south. Looking down from the tall horse, I feel like a giantess. Everyone else suddenly look so short, I’m too used to being the shortest person in the room.
Loyal refuses to let me put a saddle or saddlebags, and the adhesive effect of his skin keeps me stable instead. I’m surprised to find out that there is no sticky liquids or anything gross involve, the horse’s skin just magically attaches to anything that touches it. The normally wide back also morph in an odd way to support my legs, saving me the pain after normal horse riding.
Loyal seem to be controlling it, and when I want to get off his back, his skin is no longer attached to me. His mane is rich and curly, and it’s very comfortable to put my hands inside it or hold onto. I know that he’s a magical beast now and no longer a normal horse. It’s nice to have my own magical beast, I still have no idea why he’s so loyal to me, but it doesn’t matter.
We are a pretty large party. Salik with an entourage of his soldiers. Balgrum and a group of his orcs. They heard I planned to hunt magical beasts on the way, and couldn’t pass on the opportunity to join my hunt. Ryon comes along because of Agilla, his orcish girlfriend. Jerro, Sharla, Zoe, and of course, Berthold, the hunt depends on him after all.
The only person of my original group that stays back in Red Cedar city is Kolag. He claims that someone has to watch the city, and he can’t leave his newly trained knights without their leader. As much as I want him to come with me, I can’t object. Even if we left our disagreement partially unsolved, I trust him. I need someone I can trust to keep my home turf safe, just in case some of these so called “sorcerers” comes along and stir some trouble in my absence. If anyone can put down a mage apprentice going wild, it’s Kolag.
In the afternoon, we make camp. I join Berthold and the orcs on the hunt for magical beasts. In the first few days, we only find small creatures, rarely magical. I use their souls for Zoe’s meditations. The orcs don’t want to hunt them, and they’re pretty upset when I have Berthold shoot them anyway. But the orcs calm down when they realize I don’t bother eating any of these small animals myself.
Three days later we finally encounter our first real prey.
{28} Amaret (July) the 9th
“Berthold…”
“Y-yes, My Queen?”
I sigh. “There’s nothing I can say that will stop you from being afraid of me, is there?”
“Ah… I’m not afraid?”
“You’ve been avoiding me like wildfire, you stutter when I ask you questions, and you’re jumpy. I don’t see you being so jumpy near Salik or Zoe,” I comment.
“Aheem… hehe… I…” He scratches his nape, shifting awkwardly.
“Just out with it. There’s nothing you can say that’ll make me hurt you, Berthold. You can hate me and say it. I’m ok if you hate me, I mean… I did introduce you to the Maven, I shouldn’t have…”
“That? That was the best thing that ever happened to me! I… I’m sorry… He told you, didn’t he? This is why you two are fighting…”
“Who?”
“Kolag…”
I raise an eyebrow. “Told me what? That he’s a paladin of Noxi now? Yes. What does it have to do with you?”
He coughs, nearly choking. “Nothing… Nothing… Ahem…” He recovers and plays with his recurved bow. “Ok, yeah, you’re scaring me sometimes. And that war… I’ve never seen so many people die before, not even when a monster destroyed half a village. I’ve been thinking if that war was really worth it… why were we even fighting that other sorceress to begin with?”
“Because she attacked us. Because I have a task from the Maven to rule over a number of subjects and she attacked those subjects. It was a defensive war, we didn’t invade or provoke anyone. She attacked based on a personal misguided vendetta. I tried talking her out of it, Kolag tried talking her out of it. We both knew her… Once. It didn’t work. Bad things just happen sometimes. We can only do our best, can't we?”
“I hear you… I… I saw you fighting… I saw you take out that archer who shot you… I always thought I could take you out if I get the drop on you… But… I saw that and…”
I roll my eyes. “And? I’m deadlier than you in a direct confrontation. Does that mean you have to fear me? Kolag is more deadly too. And I assume Salik can probably take you out as well even with a missing hand. Maybe not in an archery contest, but any other way, he could. I don’t see you stammering around them. How is my magic any different? Why is magic different than a sword?”
He fidgets in place. “I… I know. But a sword I’d at least see coming. You can summon anything with a flicker of your fingers…”
I tuck my hair out of my face. This is starting to get annoying… “Not accurate, not anything, there are some hard limits on magic. And you won’t see an arrow to your back either. It’s…”
“Prey ahead, headhunter!” Agilla interrupts our conversation with a loud whisper, the rest of the orcs are already crouching or hiding behind trees. In the clearing, there’s a massive black snake, half wrapped around a thick tree. From the size of it, I imagine I can easily stand inside its mouth.
“We will avoid this snake, it’s too dangerous,” Berthold declares.
“Dangerous prey is a worthy prey!” Balgrum exclaims and the rest of the orcs growl in agreement.
“Headhunter afraid?” Agilla asks with a sneer.
“What’s a headhunter? And yes I’m afraid, you should be too. That’s a Marili serpent, see the shine of its scales? That pattern? The glow of its eyes? It’s magical, my arrows can’t even touch it unless I somehow hit its eyes or mouth. The snake can suck you into its mouth with just a look. Its venom will kill you within two minutes, if the snake won’t swallow you whole before the venom does its work. I’m not getting close to that thing!”
“Oko, ti-a’ark krashi kreko kreknokreoak.”
The noise of the orcs’ laughter makes the serpent’s head shift in our direction. It slithers our way, keeping its gigantic head low.
“A’ark!”
“Ti-a’ark!”
They stay in pairs, circling the snake. The first pair makes noise by shouting and smacking their axes against their shields. The snake hisses and looks at them. The pair backs off and hides behind the trees. Another pair makes the same noises from behind the snake.
As the snake turns sharply, the five other pairs of orcs throw their spears at it.
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I expect the ten spears to hit the snake. But when they are about to hit its black scales, the violet patterns on the snake’s skin flash bright purple and the spears are blown away, almost as if they were all hit by my ‘Repulse’ cantrip.
The snake whips around and opens its mouth, exposing a pair of giant yellowish fangs.
*Woooooom*
An orc gets pulled toward the snake’s mouth, helplessly held in midair.
“Ti-a’ark!” she screams, waving her axe violently in the air in the direction of the snake.
The snake lunches forward, snatching the floating orc from the air, her screams turn from daring to painful.
Another hail of spears is thrown at the snake from all directions, but like the first hail, the spears simply get repulsed. The snake shakes its head violently, and throws the wounded orc to the side. She hits a tree with a loud thud, and drops to the ground, void of life.
If I expected this would damage the orcs’ morale, I am mistaken, it’s quite the opposite. Their morale flares up, now they’re all banging their shields and shouting. “Ti-a’ark! Ti-a’ark! Ti-a’ark! Ti-a’ark!”
*Hssssssssss!*
The snake shifts its head swiftly, looking everywhere with its glowing purple eyes as if it's trying to get a full view of its surroundings or count the number of orcs. The orcs charge in. They wave their axes and spears, hacking at the snake’s scaly body.
The orcs are thrown backward before their weapons make contact with the snake's patterned scales. They fall to the ground, rolling and snarling. The “Repulse” magic on the snake’s scales is much stronger than my cantrip if it managed to send a group of orcs flying.
This snake is obviously using gravity magic, and the weakness of gravity magic is energy-based magic, fire, electricity, and maybe wind… Making myself weightless will also give me a huge advantage…
I take out a handful of rose petals and move my fingers in the right gestures for a ‘Weightless Body’ spell. “Myrsha, nia tsaf lah! Lu myrsha ni kull lah! Nia wuan nalahi myrsha!”
“Felul”
I fly above the snake, reaching for some of the lavender petals from my belt. A few petals slip from my hand and floats down, scent of lavender enter my nostrils as I chant. “Reviss! Rit at kas tak! Kas at oarofisia!”
A yellow speck of light leaves the cloud of yellowish smoke and circles my wrists. Electricity jolts out of my hands, and since the snake is higher than the rest of the orcs, the electricity gets attracted to it.
I am correct in my assumption that its scales cannot repulse energy.
The electricity flows through the snake’s body, sending white sparkles all over its dark scales. The massive snake spasms, squirming under my ‘Electric Channel’ spell. I keep channeling light mana from my necklace in order to keep the creature paralyzed, and do my best to ignore the headache that forms in my temples.
The orcs howl and cheer happily. They stand in a circle around the electrocuted snake, beating their axes against their shields. A loud chant comes out from the wild tribal group. “Potasi! Potasi! Potasi! Krek luska potasi!” <___! ___! ___! prey ___ ___!>
The serpent wiggles and shrinks downward, moving lower and lower, closer to the ground. It places its head in the middle of its body in a protective manner, then raises its head toward me from amidst the glowing dark-purple scales and:
*Wooooom*
Its power has no effect. Ha! I knew it! This stupid beast is dead! I find myself laughing manically. An insane elation at being right, and overcoming this powerful but stupid being in front of me, along with the electricity sparking out of my fingertips.
My headache intensifies, there’s a limit to how long I can keep a light spell going with a low affinity. But this is my only strong long ranged spell that’s based on energy. I ignore the blood that's coming out of my nose, I ignore the mana patterns slipping away from my mind's grasp, I have to maintain this spell until it kills that thing.
My spell winks out of existence after a few seconds of channeling, and my vision blurs when one of my patterns slips entirely. A blast of blue light blinds me.
If I die to my own spell it defeats the purpose!
My vision returns just when the snake's head launches itself toward me. “Felul!!!”
I pant higher up above, and wipe the blood from my face. Warm sticky tears flow down my cheeks, my eyes are bleeding too. Using low affinity element is way too risky… What if I passed out? Or worse? I’ll have to limit it to weak cantrips now…
“Fotyr folo!”
I weave a 'Firefly' with amplifying patterns. “Fotyr folo!”
“Shaman! Let me!” Balgrum shouts from below.
“Go ahead, Balgrum!” I shout massaging my aching head between my eyebrows. Even if I do have the mana to spare, weaving so many patterns of low affinity elements is harsh. It’s like my mind can’t comprehend them as well as gravity or water patterns. At least wind is somewhat ok. It still doesn’t hurt to know these spells… They’re useful and I can remember them all… Gravity magic wouldn’t help me here… fire and light do… I just have to limit myself to low amounts of patterns and I’ll be fine.
Balgrum takes a spear from another orc and steps forward. “A’ark! A’ark!”
The snake hisses and raises its head, looking down at Balgrum. Balgrum growls in response, raising his shield and spear.
The serpent opens its mouth and:
*Woooooom*
Balgrum gets dragged by the gravitational pull toward the large cave-like maw. I hold my breath when the snake pounces to bite him.
Balgrum fixes his spear forward and the snake, and the beast impales its mouth on the spear.
The orcs cheer and howl as the snake moves back, shaking its head violently. The spear still stuck in its mouth with Balgrum who keeps holding onto it. When the snake stops waving its head, Balgrum climbs into its mouth, fixing the spear in a way that holds the snake’s jaws open. He holds onto his spear and hack at the snake’s fang with his axe.
*Crack!* The snake forcefully closes its jaws, breaking the spear. Balgrum disappears, his body creating a bulge in the snake’s throat.
*~*~*
Power level: 3rd stage apprentice.
Mana pools status:
Crown-knot: Affinity 10: connected: 1 gem replenished per minute.
Neck-Bridge: Affinity 6: formed: max amount of gems drained per day: 79
Abdomen-storage: Affinity 5: formed: 16 gems. Conversion ratio: 6:1
Air: Affinity 4: formed: 26 gems
Fire: Affinity 2: formed: 13 gems
Light: Affinity 3: formed: 19/20 gems
Water: Affinity 6: formed: 39 gems
Earth: Affinity 1: formed: 6 gems
Wood: Affinity 2: formed: 13 gems
Gravity: Affinity 9: connected: 91/95 gems
Cantrip known:
Air: Shavi’s Breeze, Shavi’s Sword. Shavi’s Hair Dryer, Aria’s Enhanced Hearing. Aria’s Sonic Scream.
Fire: Nuriss’ Flame. Effrat’s Firefly, Effrat’s Fire Breath. Sorladika's Lesser Heating. Nuriss’ Ignite. Oniga's Soap Creation.
Light: Noxi’s Light. Lako’s Blinding Light. Rika’s energy hand.
Water: Water Evocation, Water to Ice, Ice to Water, Water to Vapor, Vapor to Water, Mayan’s Icy Spike, Ayla’s Water Jet. Ayla’s instant freeze. Ayla's Flowing Shield. Ayla’s Freezing Vapors.
Earth: Alice’s Oil Summoning, Reiko’s Acid Spray. Alf's Copper Bolt
Wood: Arigor’s Lesser Vines. Kolosu’s Vegetable Summoning.
Gravity: Lumina’s Kinetic Burst. Tukado’s Repulse. Tukado’s Lesser Shield II. Imari’s Minor Telekinesis. Imari’s Jump. Leo’s Pull. Leo’s Grounding. Alino’s Light Body. Alino’s Heavy Body. Alino's Orbiter.
Transmutation: Oniga's Laundry.
Spells known:
Light: Rika's Electric Channelb1
Gravity: Alino’s Weightless Bodyb1x2. Imari’s Lesser Flightb2.
Life: Brigit’s Lesser Cure Poison. Brigit’s Skin Restoration.
Focus capability: 18 patterns.
Social status: The Queen of Red Cedar City. Shaman of the Twin Moon Tribe. Inara, Daughter of Mysteries. Apprentice to the Maven of Mysteries. Sorceress.
Personal Wealth: 1465 Magic Gems. 1420 Golden Peas, 45 Silver Scales, 32 Copper Bits.
Personal Items:
Magical necklace. Contains 100 gems of general mana, can be drained like a mana pool. It’ll recharge by itself at the rate of five gems an hour.
1 potion of lightning body.
1 potion of mana, medium grade.
5 potions of Lesser Healing.
5 potions of Pain Tolerance.
An enchanted belt with eight pouches, the enchantment keeps the pouches’ content fresh. Each pouch may contain 10g of petals or six potion flasks.
Glitter ingredients. (1 bag)
Fresh rose petals, 37g
Fresh lavender petals, 7g
7 empty soul bottles. 3 Luard's soul shards. Glass with a diamond stopper, put in scaled leather wrapping.
The Great White Egret grimoire. Dedicated by the Maven of mysteries to Inara. 27/100
Present Companions:
Salik
Sharlafyn Nettledew
Jerro
Berthold
Loyal
Ryon
Zoe
Languages:
Toml’a
Sinteo
Myrsha
Felul
Nim
A'arkalu
Injuries and scars: Nosebleed.
Curses:
-
Kingdom’s treasury: 3836 gold coins. 123 magical gems.
Kingdom’s citizen: 3,881 humans, 1,836 human children. Twin Moon Tribe: 1,158 orcs. 293 orc children. 529 sheep-slaves.
Kingdom's army: 1,1156 Orc Warriors. 324 Footmen. 49 Peacekeeper Knights.
Notables at Court:
Tasiya Keyholder.
Jolla SilverQuill.
Talbot Bookkeeper.
Marasi Chef extraordinaire (spymaster.)
Old Gardner Tiom.
Balgrum Orc Chieftain.