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Mira coughed blood as the Skraeling Walker’s blade arm pierced her side. Grabbing hold of the arm, she pulled her Vorpal knife and severed it clean. With a Qi-empowered kick, she pushed the monster back into the scissoring arrays of rotating VoidSteel shields. The edges of the shields sliced the mutated beast apart as it stumbled into Mira’s deadly perimeter defense.
Mira fell to one knee, screaming, as she pulled the bloody blade arm out of her flesh. With a pulse of Akasic control, she folded the prize into her Talisman of Holdings dimensional storage.
No sense leaving a weapon available for the next Skraeling. She thought. The beasts thrived in the deadly Akasic antipode region. They were still flesh and blood, but they were steeped in the magic aura. It made them stronger than any beast their size should be.
The Skraelings could remove or add body parts at will, a unique ability of their race. Like crabs trading shells, the more ancient beasts could grow to enormous sizes with a steady accumulation of acquired body pieces. Each creature’s shape and size were determined by luck, aggressiveness, and power. Mira categorized them roughly as: Bugs, Centipedes, Mantis, Walker, Tank, and yet unseen a Behemoth.
Mira trudged on through the dark dunes, made of potent Magicite powder. Her levitating array of VoidSteel shields hovered, rotating and counter-rotating, around her at precisely 2.3 meters. Close enough to dampen the deadly density of Akasic energy, but far enough away to enable her to still cast spells.
Mira grimaced as blood soaked her combat robes around her new wound. A jumbled fluttering hit the ground at her feet, her tiny dragon’s magical chameleon scales discarding its near invisibility. Her familiar, Tiamat, revealed herself with her natural opalescent color shimmering across the pseudodragon’s scales.
Tiamat flexed her claws and wings. She whipped her deadly tail stinger about in agitation and looked up at Mira with a concerned expression.
"[You okay, M? That looked like it hurt. You should take a healing potion.]” Tiamat said.
“[I can handle it. Just give me a second to cycle my Qi and I’ll be good. This shield array is doing a fine job. While it’s still in motion, these beasts can’t swarm me. I just need a moment.]” Mira said tiredly.
“[You should let me help, M. Hiding all the time sucks.]” Tiamat complained pacing back and forth in the powdery terrain.
“[It’s not all about fighting, T. You’re lending me your natural resistance to Akasic poisoning and sharing your mana and Qi reserves with me as well. That’s plenty for now. The Imperial Arcanum’s Beastiary says the Skraeling armor is too dense for your claws and stinger. If you tried to help me fight, you’d just end up getting hurt.]” Mira explained. She looked across the plain. No Skraelings loomed nearby.
Mira briefly closed her eyes and focused inward; her Qi core churned with her power. The internal energy cycled and moved with her will. She focused the energy on her damaged side. She felt its help as her wound stopped bleeding and ever so slowly began to knit itself back together.
Mira was no paragon of Qi cultivation, but she wasn’t a slouch either. Qi was part of this world. Every person and beast had it to some extent. Ten years of adventuring had grown her power and given her a high level of proficiency harnessing both her internal Qi and external Akasic powers.
Mira stood and walked carefully over her dismembered opponent, the Skraeling Walker. She found the beast’s core and separated it from the mass of armor, bone, and tissues. All would serve as potent magic materials. The monsters here were dense with Akasic power from years of pickling in the deadly Akasic aura of the Antipode region.
She flexed her magic and folded them all into her dimensional storage Talisman with a smile. She had accumulated a lot of material for her latest project. Just one more titan-sized beast core would be enough for her; then she could get out of this hellscape.
Mira scanned the horizon. Purple arcane lightning leaped from peak to peak of the exposed Magicite crystals. The Skraeling mountains contained the entire region, monsters and the overpowered Akasic field. To most people, the patterns of lightning would appear random and prove a deadly hazard.
Mira was not like most people. Many mages developed a second sight, capable of visualizing the Akasic energy. The mana formed auras and flowed in strange patterns. Mira’s gift came early in her life; a “gift” from her Faen godmother and former sponsor in the Great Game of Powers. The gift had only gotten stronger over time as her arcane abilities grew.
Rot her fucking diseased mind in whatever backwoods server farm the Mythic World’s administrators banished her to. Mira thought with grim hatred, recalling her servitude to the Fae Bitch’s court.
The evil demigod had held Mira’s mother captive, forcing Mira to compete in her game. It was a long story from almost ten years past, but Mira had turned the tables on her in the end.
The bitch AI running the Faen Lady was lucky the Turing Cops didn’t reformat her. No more of that, though. I’m a High Sorceress now, and my next creation should provide ample insurance should that devil bitch ever find her way back into the game. Mira thought.
She resolved to finish her mission quickly. No more playing around. Mira focused her attention across the valley. Mira could “see” the folds and flows of Akasic power.
When overlapping auras built up and Akasic energy moved into the creases, it was only a matter of time until the energies condensed to a point where they manifested as elemental energy. The Antipode region was thick with power, enough power to quickly poison a human or elf.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
These beasts roaming the dunes were equal parts magic and magically infused flesh. They thrived in the intense arcane energies of the broken land. They had the opposite problem of the realm’s people. They couldn’t survive anywhere else.
Harvesting crafting materials here would provide a huge boost in power for Mira’s epic device. Mira had planned this mission with her usual thoroughness, gathering details and working the problem to develop clever ways to defeat any challenge she might encounter.
Beyond her rotating VoidSteel Shield Array, she could see the Skraelings with their huge varieties of size, form, and abilities that roamed the dunes. Most had learned to avoid her by now; the smart ones at least. Mira admired her specially crafted Shield Array, while she set Tiamat upon her shoulder.
Twenty VoidSteel shields, forged of the one metal that was anathema to Akasic energies, reflecting and disbursing it. Mira had commissioned the shields to be both heavy and durable, their edges razor-sharp. Each shield had inlays of Aegisite and Moonstone that enabled Mira’s magic to easily levitate and control them with her controller: the Shield Array Pendant.
Ten shields rotated clockwise, and ten shields rotated counterclockwise. Mira controlled the speed, spacing, and distances both from her and in between shields. The array dampened the Antipode’s dense Akasic energy from overwhelming Mira with mana sickness.
Her bond with her pseudodragon familiar also helped her. When in contact with her familiar, they shared Tiamat’s innate magic resistance. Mira was well protected from the deadly mana, thanks to her array and her friend.
The Skraelings had quickly learned that they couldn’t swarm her. The shields would cut them apart quickly. The first couple of rushes had been an orgy of dismemberment and death. Unfortunately, the scavenging beasts consumed and used the body parts of their fallen neighbors before Mira could claim the materials for her research.
Mira now picked her prey carefully, letting them inside her defensive perimeter. There she could kill the beasts and harvest them without cannibalistic competition for her project’s materials. So far, she had hunted and harvested parts from over twenty of the beasts.
She only needed one more arcane component, a titan-sized beast core. She needed a Behemoth, the final stage of Skraeling growth. She looked across the powdery dunes, in the distance the Meridian Plateau loomed.
The cliff face was scored with signs of battle and riddled with caves and tunnels the Skraeling used as homes. Her mage sight could see the immense energy leaking from one of the largest caves in the area. She had no doubts about what she would find inside: her prize!
Mira lurked along the ridge line of an expansive cavern. It was large enough that even Mira’s home city of Thallesadra could easily fit inside. Her final target was below, the busy Behemoth was actively consuming a pile of Magicite crystal.
The monster was shaped like a huge crab, a school bus sized crab. Although, it had three enormous claws instead of two. It was covered with layers of armor, a plethora of smaller arms and tentacles, and dotted with many different types of eyes and ears.
Mira doubted she would be able to hide for much longer, let alone sneak up on it. She double-checked her gear. Mira prided herself on her bespoke magical equipment. Her extensive collection of miscellaneous magic items and her ability to craft specialized devices, enabled her to overcome impossible challenges…so long as she had time to prepare and good information on the task.
Her primary weapon, the cornerstone crafting project that she made when she graduated from the Imperial Arcanum, was her Aether Nexus Staff. The Aether Nexus Staff was a masterpiece, a convergence of her knowledge in a single weapon.
It was designed to capture and store Akasic energies. She could use it to power or amplify her spells or disrupt other spells. Runes and gems along its length could convert the power to elemental form. It was her primary weapon, especially useful when dueling other mages. It would work splendidly on this Behemoth.
She had also brought a pouch of spell-trapped gems, each gem held a prepared spell that could blast through even the hardest natural armor. Mira had used her only Eldritch tattoo, sigils to convert her internal Qi to Akasic telekinesis, to float them strategically and discretely around the cavern. Powerful traps to use in case things got out of hand.
She'd need to be quick, though—the bombs were set to detonate on with a mental command or on contact, and she had to ensure she was at a safe distance when they went off. The creature was already far too close to several already.
She flexed her fingers, feeling the thrum of the Shield Array Pendant at her neck. She had stored the shields in her Talisman. The terrain near the Behemoth was littered with stalagmites and would not allow good use of the Array. The beast below continued its feast, oblivious to the tiny threat looming above it.
Before she could second guess herself, she leaped from the ledge, diving towards the Kaiju-sized horror. Mira grinned as her comfy Feather-Fall boots turned her dive into a glide. Her Impervious cloak trailed behind her as she soared towards the beast. In her mind's eye, she saw herself from Tiamat’s point of view high above.
Damn, needs better lighting in here! My superhero leap is only impressive with good lighting and a proper virtual audience. Mira had long since dropped her life feeds as the game had grown stale. She shook her head and refocused. She was almost there.
She quickly sent the command… “[Now]” to her little dragon.
Tiamat dropped the first spell gem, a Flash Bang which created an acid cloud, upon the tail of the monster. The beast has a multitude of eyes which shifted slowly to the noise, whether from their scrutiny of the Magicite or from vigilantly watching the cavern entrance for other Skraelings. Their new focus settled upon its tail.
Over twenty mouths screeched or roared in anger and pain as the acid chewed into the thing's armored hindquarters. With almost perfect timing, Mira triggered her dueling staff and swung it in a powerful downward blow.
The Aether Nexus Staff’s quartz headstone shattered in the conversion of all its pent-up energy into one massive kinetic release of force. Mira rode the blast backward, still light as a feather from her boots sustained spell form and rebounded off the wall with athletic ability.
Mira was close enough now to see the creature's mismatched colorful “eyes”. She knew she was in trouble a split second before it was too late. The many eyes of the Behemoth were made of gemstones, of various sizes, grades, and types. Far too many of them had Akasic energy already building into a visible glow within their cores.
Mira canceled her boots' charm and dropped to the ground as a rainbow of elemental energies speared and swept over the space she was previously occupying. She hit hard, her Qi-tempered body absorbing the thirty-foot drop.
Mira tumbled sideways and summoned one of her VoidSteel shields just in time. She hid behind it as a myriad of beams struck the anti-magic metal shield and pinned her down under an onslaught of elemental energies.
“The fucking Beastiary never mentioned the Skraeling Behemoth getting the ability to evoke elemental conversions! Gah!” Mira screamed. Mira primed her escape gem, one of her ten custom spell gems loaded into her Spell-Shard Bracer.
The beams cut off and Mira summoned her Qi to activate her gem when something impacted the shield driving her into the wall. Hooked blades crept around the edges of the shield and pulled, dragging it and Mira screaming across the floor of the cavern.
Mira’s vision was doubled, seeing Tiamat’s view of her being pulled toward the Behemoth. Her own view cleared with a terrifying sight of huge gnashing teeth above her and thrashing bladed tentacles around her as she finally unhooked her arm from the shield.
The beast lunged and Mira panicked as teeth, tentacles, and claws came for her...
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