The muggy darkness of the forest clung to the druid forces like a shroud, the heavy air almost weeping for the sons and daughters of the Forest Father. The trees, ancient and watchful, swayed in mournful silence as if grieving for those who had fallen. Kara’s soldiers’ footsteps, once proud and swift, now dragged against the forest floor in a chorus of defeat.
Morale was shattered. The hundred remaining soldiers marched westward, away from Birchgrove, away from the ruins of their compromised base. The battle had been chaos—an assault by both werewolves and a horde of twisted monsters that had torn through their defenses with brutal efficiency. Forty-six of her soldiers had been claimed by that bloodbath, and sixteen more fell during the desperate retreat. Each death weighed on Kara, even as her hatred for the wendigo, for the war, for the monsters that harried them, twisted her focus into a blade of cold determination.
Of the remaining soldiers Kara, Steffen and Waddell were the only mages left in the detachment; everyone else were wizards. They still had a two day journey ahead of them. The forest was growing darker by the minute as the sun set beyond the canopy. Kara wiped her brow as she led her men to a position they could finally rest.
“We are going to need to stop soon commander,” Steffen's quiet voice interrupted Kara's thoughts, walking beside her with his thin frame and weary eyes hidden behind fogged glasses. “We still have injured who have not had long enough for the prosthetics to fully grow.”
Kara took a few more steps forward without saying a word. There was rage bellowing beneath the surface of her stoic expression. The sense of failure brought up by his words cut her ego at the reminder that her men were wounded because she wasn’t strong enough. It was her weakness that led them to retreat, her poor leadership that allowed them to be found in the first place. She knew Steffen didn’t bring it up to spite her but she had to let her emotions settle before she could speak levelly.
“You are right, Steffen, as always,” Kara said with calm understanding. “Send out the scouts to secure the area.”
Steffen turned to give orders to the soldiers, his voice soft but firm. The men responded to him with silent obedience, grateful for his leadership in these moments of darkness. He might not have been a warrior, but he was the logistical heart of the group—the one who made sure they had supplies, who knew where to find shelter, who thought three steps ahead when the rest of them were just trying to survive.
***
When the scouts returned they brought news of a small clearing a few hundred yards ahead. As the makeshift camp began to take shape, Kara stood at the edge of the clearing, her eyes scanning the darkened woods. Not just for monsters but also for any signs of the skinwalkers they had released or any that escaped the tree during the assault. Not only that but she knew the wendigo were out there, somewhere, hunting them like animals.
At that, Waddell, a hulking figure, walked up beside her. His antlers, large and solid like the rest of him, seemed to brush the low branches of the trees as he moved, his steps heavy but deliberate. Despite his intimidating size and strength he was a kind man with a face that rarely wore a frown. He gave Kara a reassuring nod, his expression a mix of exhaustion and warmth.
“They’re dead because we weren’t ready,” Kara muttered, her voice low but edged with fury.
“It wasn’t something that I think we could have prepared for, Kara,” Waddell said as he looked out over the camp. “We did what we could, and saved who we could.”
“Yeah, and look what it got us. We came here with two hundred men. Now we are barely one hundred strong. We lost Hagan in that fight, now we don’t even have a mage healer. It is going to get worse until we get out of here. If you didn’t put up that rock wall we would have been stuck there until we were overrun.”
“We still have healers and medics, it will just take a bit longer to heal with wizards but don’t count them out,” Waddell said gently. “I know it's been hard Kara, but don’t beat yourself up over everything. We have accomplished more than enough to return home and there isn’t anyone else I trust more to get us there.”
Kara turned to him, her green skin glistening with sweat in the dim moonlight. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do, Waddell.”
Steffen rejoined them, wiping his hands free of dirt on his robes, his glasses slipping slightly down his nose.
“We’re as set as we can be for the night,” Steffen said. “But we can’t stay long. I am sure wendigo reconnaissance and kill squads are searching for us.”
Kara gave a curt nod. “We move at first light. Keep the sentries rotating. No one sleeps through the night. Waddell, I want the ground reinforced. We’ll make a defensive line with your magic.”
Waddell cracked his knuckles and smiled, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “You got it, Commander. I’ll have this place as solid as a fortress.”
As she watched her soldiers settle into uneasy rest, she felt the rage burning inside her like a storm waiting to be unleashed. The wendigo had taken everything from her. She knew as long as she had breath in her body, she would make sure they paid for it—no matter the cost.
***
Tanisha sat on the box seat of her wagon, Bjorn was cuddled up alongside her asleep as he had been for a few hours. The border was only a day's journey away and night was quickly approaching. Tanisha knew it was finally time to assign her UCP that she had obtained the last few days. She opened the screen to assign the points.
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Unassigned Cultivation Points Distribution
You have leveled up 8 time(s) before assigning your UCP.
You have 80 UCP
You have appeased your heritage and have gained the following:
+3 Dexterity
+3 Vitality
+1 Free UCP
Please assign all UCP within 1 day(s) or UCP will be automatically assigned.
Assign [yes/no]
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Tanisha knew she had already gotten three points to her dexterity after killing Sabec. The addition to her vitality must have been from killing the monarch. She had already talked to Joha as to where she should invest her eighty-one points. The goal she had was to get all of her stats to at least one hundred. So she figured she would start at the top of the list with Vitality. It would make her much harder to kill in a fight. She had seen how monsters with high vitality could just keep fighting despite how grievous their wounds were. She would then work on her Restoration.
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Status Menu
Name: Tanisha Valkyrja Scalebound
Species: Cernunnos
Level: 37 + 3 = 40
Vitality: 50 + 50 = 100
Restoration: 45 + 34 = 79
Constitution: 100
Willpower: 130
Strength: 55
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Dexterity: 83
Stamina: 48
Seiðr: = 470
Seiðr Regeneration: 235 (+100 from bond)
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Skills Analysis
Delta Familiar Contract
You are bonded with a Delta-class familiar. You gain +100 to seiðr regeneration. Your bond has grown, allowing you to convey emotions through your bond. Your bond is resilient against outside influences and can not be forcibly severed by outside parties. Your familiar’s life expectancy is extended by five years.
Hard Air Constructs
Seiðr cost: Variable
(I) Low cost, 2 seiðr. Speak the words of power and create seiðr air constructs. Form air constructs into any shape and they will interact with the world, acting out the caster’s will. (II) Medium cost, 6 seiðr. Air constructs with darker aspects of seiðr to burn any that oppose you. (III) High cost, 16 seiðr. Constructs will become invisible and silent.
Ringularity Sage Core
Seiðr cost: Variable
Chaos, mana, maya and aether compose the inner workings of your soul. Their coalescence in one body created seiðr; an energy seeking to uncover the very nature of the world around it. You can control all aspects that make up your core. Exerting your will over seiðr controls mana, maya and aether. You can use tools from any of the energies that make up your core. Your will can dominate mana, maya and aether outside your body for a short distance and use ambient energies for your arcane machinations.
Chain Breaker’s Mantle
Seiðr cost: Variable
(I) Low seiðr cost per minute, seiðr will inundate your muscles and bones with power to temporarily increase your physical attributes. (II) Medium seiðr cost per minute, the Marks of Seiðr greatly enhances unarmed strikes. Unarmed punches and kicks will produce a seiðr shockwave, increasing the range of unarmed strikes a short distance. (III) High seiðr cost per minute, the energies within you grants the ability of arcane shift to teleport up to five yards.
Sage Soul Forge
Seiðr cost: Variable
(I) Use seiðr to alter and twist existing spellforms connected to your Ringularity Core. (II) Meditate on your core to deepen connections and meridians to your soul. Study the Marks of Seiðr which etched themselves across your body to gain greater insight. (III) Unknown. Unknown. Unknown.
Divination Hydromancy
Seiðr cost: Variable
(I) Create seiðr constructs with liquid attributes, condense water from the atmosphere and/or control water from a water source. Exerting control over water allows you to change its state and temperature with ease. (II) Alter the properties of water to cause it to glow. Only those you choose can see the light produced. (III) Water in any state will condense into a blast of highly pressurized water. You maintain control of water even after it is fired, allowing it to change trajectory and home in on enemies.
Appeasement of the Cernunnos
Seiðr cost: None
(I) Drink the blood of a recently defeated foe and gain +3 to your stats based off of their highest physical statistic. Their level must be higher than yours. Their highest statistic must be higher than yours. You or those bound to you through a soul bond must have delivered the killing blow. (II) Consume the flesh of a recently defeated foe and gain an additional +1 to a physical statistic of your choice upon level up. Stackable up until +20. (III) Unknown.
Venomous Fang
* You have felt the venom of your Familiar; it now courses through your veins. Your saliva carries a necrotic venom. As this is a shared natural ability you can not level this ability by any means but through communing with your familiar. This ability is tied to your familiar, should your familiar die or reject your bond you will lose this ability.
Poison Breath
Commune with your familiar to unlock.
+ Hydra Fire
* You have felt the residual heat of your familiar fire and instead of flinching away you embraced it. The heat that burned you now resides within your core. Call upon the power of your familiars fire it now carries a necrotic embrace. As this is a shared natural ability you can not level this ability by any means but through communing with your familiar. This ability is tied to your familiar, should your familiar die or reject your bond you will lose this ability.
Poison Infusion
Commune with your familiar to unlock.
Queen of Reptiles
Commune with your familiar to unlock.
Page 2 of 3
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Tanisha’s eyes widened at the fact she now had the Hydra Fire. It mentioned she was burned by its residual energy. She thought back to when that could have been. The only time she could think of is during the fight with the monarch she had touched Bjorn after he breathed the breath attack twice in a row. He was extremely hot after that happened to the point she had burned herself when she was checking on him.
It couldn’t be that simple, right? Familiar bonds are built on trust so it must have been the fact that even after being burned she continued to touch him to ensure he was all right. She didn’t care about a few burns, all she cared about was his well being. Was that the key to this odd form of communing the abilities required? Tanisha took a deep breath.
“More to look at later I guess,” Tanisha said to herself.
Tanisha focused on the map in her lap, trying—unsuccessfully—to make sense of their location. Despite both Joha and Adelheid’s attempts to teach her map-reading, the squiggles and numbers still looked like an abstract puzzle, and she thought she was good at puzzles, up until recently. She squinted at one of the mile markers coming up and jabbed a finger at the number on the map.
“Sjau-tíu ok tvær,” she murmured, more to herself than anyone else.
Adelheid popped her head over the roof of Tanisha’s wagon. “Is that how your people write seventy two?”
Tanisha looked up at her. “It’s the old way, yeah. How long are you going to stay up there, by the way?”
“Until we come to a stop, unless you want me to hop down,” Adelheid replied with a casual shrug.
Tanisha sighed, leaning back slightly onto Bjorn’s warm side. “No, you’ve been up there all day. You might as well stay. I think we’ll make camp soon, although Joha’s been pushing for us to keep moving ever since we left the Jackrabbits’ camp. He’s been real jumpy about leaving Yuhia.”
“It's fine by me, do you need help figuring out where we are?” Adelheid asked with a knowing smile.
Tanisha flushed, waving her hand dismissively. “No! I know where we are.”
“Oh, do you?” Adelheid said, her smile widening. “Then go on, point to it. Show me where we are and which way we’re headed.”
Tanisha looked back down at the map. She knew where the mile marker was, so she knew she could do this. She puffed up her chest, feeling an irrational need to defend her very limited cartography skills.
“Here. And we are going that way.” Tanisha pointed proudly.
“Are you sure about that?” Adelheid asked with an amused tone.
“Uh…” Tanisha glanced down at the map. “Yes. Maybe?”
“Mile marker is right but the direction is the exact opposite,” Adelheid said with a chuckle she tried to play off as a cough.
Tanisha’s face turned even redder as she groaned in frustration. “Fine, fine. You win but only because this doesn’t make any sense at all. We are going forward! How is this going to show me forward?”
“Well no one is asking you to lead a convoy anytime soon, that is for sure.” Adelheid said as she jumped down to the box seat, careful not to disturb Bjorn. “Don’t feel bad. You’ve been teaching me all sorts of things about alchemy. You’re not hopeless.”
Tanisha rolled her eyes but couldn’t help smiling. The past few days of traveling together had brought them closer in an unexpected way. They’d found common ground, trading knowledge. Tanisha finally saw what Joha was trying to teach her with mercy. Adelheid was a good person underneath the incident that brought them together in an unfortunate way. Tanisha wouldn’t forget what she had done, the part she played, but she was starting to forgive her as even Bjorn didn’t seem to harbor hatred against her.
“After combat training let's go on another hunt. It might be the last time before we let you go and there is still a lot I need to know about monsters,” Tanisha said.
She couldn’t help but look at Adelheid’s neck. The black necklace that Joha had placed on her as a means to keep her in line was gone. They had dispersed the deadly maya construct before they left the Jackrabbits’ camp as a sign they would trust her to uphold her end of the deal between them and Alaric. She was a prisoner, yes, but not one they would continuously hold the guillotine over.
“Don’t stare like that,” Adelheid said. “My eyes are up here.”
“Sorry-sorry,” Tanisha said bashfully. “But what do you think about going monster hunting tonight?”
“Sounds good to me. But before that we have to survive Joha’s training,” Adelheid said. “You have a couple of healing potions ready, right?”
“Of course.” Tanisha said.