Author Note:
Hope you dont mind taking a break from the tournament! ( im getting sick of it :P )
"Accidentally" wrote a chapter word of content about the dragonian Karisha!
Dont worry, this is not a "filler" it is entirely part of this story
i can guarantee that the next chapter will be the final part of the tournament
enjoy :)
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Karisha was laying down in the middle of a runic circle.
To her right and left was placed 20 centimeter long crystal shards hanging in the air, they light was dimly fluctuating to the sound coming out of the non-magic speaker and the dark mage standing just outside the circle. It was a “humming” sound.
Further back there was an identical circle with a creature in the middle; it too had two crystals hovering to its sides. It was too dim to determine what it was.
The dark mage kept his humming and mana perfectly in sync with each other and the sound from the speaker, a pre-recording he had made specifically for this event. It all amplified each other and the crystals and runes were reacting accordingly.
To move the soul of a person into another body was a highly complicated procedure, and it required some “shaking” to achieve, thus the reason for the fluctuating “Humming”. The mana filled up the room and moved accordingly.
It was therefore important that the area, in which the ritual would be performed, was cleansed from unimportant mana. That was the reason for the non-magical speaker, a rarity to find.
The Mage was quite happy for the device, without it he would had needed the help from singing bowls and at least 5 more persons, depending on their skill.
He kept on humming; the ritual was closing to an end.
Too Karisha it was a very weird felling. Her consciousness was in sync with the ritual, one moment it was fading into darkness, the other it was soaring into the light at an alarming rate. She couldn’t determine if she lost conscious at any point, and if: exactly when she did.
It wasn’t a pleasant experience, but it couldn’t be called an entirely unpleasant either.
Suddenly she had a falling experience, the world started moving.
Blink
The floor started tipping!
Blink
It moved the other way now! Wait,were these her limps?
Blink
they were, she was hanging from the roof, she was falling!
Blink
She landed the body of the creature, what was left and right? Up and down?
Blink
Inside her own body, yet it was so distant and large, her soul couldn’t fill it out. A mental arm was stretched out inside her, yet she couldn’t reach the edge of her body. As she fell into herself, it all twisted around
Blink
The creatures body. Everything was shrinking! Wait, it was expanding!
Blink
Still the body of the creature, the floors from all the sides rushed beneath her. The fluctuation of her consciousness stopped. She came up on all fours.
She resisted the urge to puke on floor. A headache had appeared, but it was already getting better.
She looked around.
Everything looked different.
Her field off vision was larger. The floor was closer to her. The world was filled with colors...
She realized she was looking at mana with her physical eyes.
She looked towards her body, her eyes could now also so in the dark so she could clearly observe her body despite the dim light. A string of connected her current body to her Dragonian body.
(Dark mage) ”How are you felling?”
He grasped a little crystal, tightened his grasp around it, it began to shine bright. The he “placed” it above and behind one of his should, and left it hanging there.
Karisha, in her new body, looked confused at him. How was she supposed to answer? She opened her mouth but only a growling sound come out from it.
The dark mage laughed
(Dark mage) “you don’t need to answer that, follow me I want to see how successful the soul transfer was. It will be confirmed with a few simple tests. “
He turned around, she followed him, as they were walking down the hallway he explained the situation to her once again.
(Dark Mage) “as you know, this is only a partial soul transfer, you can return to you own body at any time you would fell like it, and vice versa. That rule should even apply when you have gone thru the portal. It will enable us to communicate. I’d suggest you try doing it , when I have confirmed how well integrated to the body you are.
Your body is currently that of a female Drake youngling, it originated from the southern parts of the Steel mountains.”
Karisha kept walking beside him, and was listening. She was 1.5 meter in high, and covered in scales. Spikes ran along her spine and onto the tail. Her Drake body was young, but it was already growing some fearsome fangs.
(Dark mage) ”The reason too that is because of the genes. Dragonians, drakes, and dragons shares the same ancestral genes. This particularly drake is a crossbreed of a drake with latent humanoidian genes and a drake with latent dragonic genes. My soul transfer will, once you grow stronger, let you be able to little by little add your dragonian aura, mana, and arcane genes on top off your current body.
All in all, it results in a magnificent synergy. The potential for growth and… evolution.. . is limitless in your new body.
The beast was specifically handpicked for you, it is a perfect match”
He opened a door to an outside yard, the private garden of the rector. Karisha was amazed by the arcane energies in the place. It could easily be called a sacred spot. The mage entered and she followed, but stopped up for a moment. The colors of the mage didn’t quite match that of this place, it was too dark. Shouldn’t it match?
The mage turned around.
(Dark mage) “This is a Zen-garden for this academy, only the greatest magicians of this place and outside is allowed to meditate at here, with the exception of you of course. I hope they will forgive me for using it, but i need a place with both privacy and sand”
The Drake loosened up, so that was why the energies of this place was different from the man in front of her. Others used this place as well.
What followed was a series of simple tests.
First was a check to see if she still had maintained he cognitive functions. It contained a series of logical questions and puzzles. She also had to remember and think like a typical dragonian. It was solved using the sand as writing material.
Next was a physical test in which she asked to do certain motoric tasks like running around or moving a specific claw. At first she had trouble with some of them, but she quickly gained control of her body.
The next test was weird, this time she had to think like a Drake not a Dragonian. She had to do tasks like curling up in the right manner in order to sleep, sneak, and look at some certain pictures of drakes and humanoids. That part felt a little too intimate for her to think off, but she could to her surprise conclude that some feelings were simply bound to the body, not the mind. Thankfully the mage kept it all in a professional manner.
The last part of that test was a meal!
..only it a meal for a Drake.
She was presented with a bowl of cooked meat, and a bowl of raw meat.
(Dark mage) “This is merely a test to see if your mind corresponds to the digestive system of your body. Can you be so kind to smell to both of these dishes and point to the one you would prefer eating?”
She sniffed at them. Normally she loved cooked meat, but now it didn’t appeal to her. It just didn’t give her the appetite. The meat on the other hand..Smelled delicious! The blood, the rawness, she just wanted to take a big juicy bite off it.
She pointed a claw towards the meatball
(Dark mage)”good, that is within my expectations. just to make sure: can you please taste both of these dishes?
She took a bite of the cooked meat, it could be eaten, it was just that nothing within her wanted to eat it.
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The raw meat was just as she had predicted, juicy and delicious. She realized she felt famished; there was deep hunger within her. She started taking bigger bites.
(Dark mage) “Oh, I see you are hungry. I’m sorry the possibility slipped my mind. I guess it is quite some time since that Drake body had something to eat”
Then was the last test: arcane control a.k.a. Mana control. That test was performed on a training ground.
The Drakes had a high amount of ki , also popularly called arcane stamina. When she started to use it she could feel the power inside her. The difference it made when she leapt and sprinted was huge.
Her claws could, with some stamina, shatter the wooden puppet like it was nothing. She was unsure if she had even felt any resistance at all.
Drakes didn’t only have stamina, they had mana as well. She could spit fire!
[Dragon breath]
Yellow fire erupted from her mouth. It was filled with lightning. It hit a wooden puppet. The air sparkled with electricity and a few sparks flew between some metal screws.
The attack was not very powerful. Karisha realized she probably had to think of that move deferentially. She named it [Electro flame breath]. It could not be called a true dragon’s breath.
(Dark mage) ”up until now you seem to have a good grasp of the arcane control, there is however one thing I would like to add a comment”
She looked towards him, was she missing something?
(Dark mage)” in terms of arcane control you have an advantage over other drakes, your intelligence.
Studies shows that drakes rarely expands their arcane control beyond their breath and stamina, and those few who does only manages increase the strength and use it at places like claws, spikes and end of the tail.
Try to send out mana from your shoulder, if possible: could you alter it a little?”
Karisha felt stupid for a moment, she had been overtaken by her instincts!
She concentrated, the shoulder was a tricky place, the mana natural flowed towards places like her mouth and claws, but it was harder other places. It was like trying to write with her secondary hand.
A little yellow flame began to linger at her shoulder.
She tried to change it, but couldn’t.
She could however with breath:
[Negative electro flame]
A third puppet was hit.
The screws from the puppet hit with the [Electro flame breath], and the air around, discharged into the hit puppet. Not only that: parts of the puppet dissolved into dust, even a few natural flames could be seen.
Her attack had removed electrons from the puppet. Now that they were removed the molecules dissolved into atoms and others were made to fill up the electronic shells.
Even the mage was impressed by the feat.
(Dark mage) ”I think that should be sufficient. Your control is beyond that of a normal drake. There is only one last part of the arcane test. Could you attack me please?”
Karisha hesitated, was he sure of that? Well. Then again: she trusted him, and he was asking for it…
Powerful leap towards him!
He raised a hand: [Black vortex push].
Her momentum was stopped. She landed on all four, ready to make another jump.
(Black mage) [Weakening]
She suddenly felt all her arcane energy being drained, it shrank into almost nothing. Her legs collapsed under her weight. She had trouble breathing
The mage walked towards her until he stood in front of her. She could barely lift her head.
He moved his foot forwards. [Black vortex push]
Her body was flung across the yard. It smashed a few puppets before she hit the back end, and collapsed
The mage simply dusted of some unseeable dust from his clothes and continued to speak in the same tone as always.
(Mage dark)” This last part is a lesson. A Drake is a poor man’s Dragon. It got stamina, it got arcane breath, and even some degree off arcane defense, which is why you even survived this, but compared to a dragon it’s lacking in every aspect. I want you to know that you by no means are invincible, keep that in mind and get stronger. The reason you got this body is after all not because of its initial strength but because of the potential.
When you are ready, I want you to immediately return to your original body, so that we can have a verbal communication, it should feel natural too you”
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Karisha walked out of the room. Too be back in her dragonian body felt somewhat weird. Being a drake had actually been somewhat fun to her.
Except that returning to her original body had been just as disorienting as the first time, the only difference was that had only been one “Blink”
She knew that there were some cultures and people who would dislike taking the body of a beast, it was too downgrading to them, but to her it wasn’t a problem.
Maybe it was because Dragonians had some degree of ancestral proud, or was it because she was on friendly terms with the argonian beast culture, that actually promoted the idea of connecting too beasts?
Maybe it was, but there were one more reason.
A vivid of picture of a burning village flashed up in her mind.
A large orc pushed her aside as he rampaged through the village. She tried to stop him but her petite child body failed her. As she felt the heat from the flames she could only watch as the slaughtering happened, her vision blurred from her tears, and ears filled with the sound of her screaming.
She almost stumbled from remembering it.
Tears filled her eyes once again, only this time they had a glow of anger, hate, and desire for revenge. She stood still for a few moments, her whole body trembled.'
She resisted urge to simply grab the sword on her back and start destroying everything around her until something forced her to stop.
Instead she angrily kicked a random black crystal lying around; it flew violently through a window, shattering the glass to pieces. Seeing the destruction made her somewhat calmer.
Why was she having these “visions” now? She didn’t know why, but lately they had been starting to appear more frequently. It hurt, but she didn’t mind. They served as an excellent reminder for her mission. A mission she was willing to suffer any kind of pain for to achieve, be it physical or mental.
Get stronger.
Find the artifact.
Make the orcs suffer like she had.
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There was a quick verbal briefing between her and the rector of the academy.
It was short and it basically confirmed the tests from before and her willingness for the mission.
It also revealed some other technicalities about the creatures send in besides of her.
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The time had finally come.
It was time to enter the portal and the otherwise enclosed area behind it.
Karisha was back in her Drake body.
In front of her was a broken down wall. Behind the rubble was a large vortex of light swirling endlessly into a center which couldn’t be seen duo to the apparent distance. Sometimes scenes could faintly be distinguished in the swirls, but they always changed. Cold could be felt from the portal.
The spikes on her back shivered, a short growl emerged from her. The thought of walking into that phoneme in front of her was intimidating.
She had no real idea of the place she would end in.
The mage was behind her.
(Dark mage)” I have already sent in some scouting wisps and crocodilians to confirm the safety. My mental connection reveals that none of them are death, so it is safe. Enter”
She decided that there was no point in dragging it out. She bended her legs.
And Jumped!
She could feel a pull from the portal. She was dragged towards the center.
For a split second she could feel her body swirl too, and become part of the stream, before she lost conscious.