The Nabasu while in their youth are a fairly week demon, they drain the living of their vitality and essence much like specters and wraiths can. They are not incorporeal and they also lack many of the abilities other creatures powered by negative energy have. Adult Nabasu have greater control over the powers of death and can snuff out the life force of weaker mortals with ease. They are servants of Orcus and are rarely found under control of another demon Lord.
They appear to be a fleshy version of a gargoyle and have great skill in aerial combat and fly-by attacks. They are often skilled in vampiric and darkness related magics as they have the intellect to apply them in ways that their enemies often find unexpected.
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Adrian
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The trio are rather impressed by how fast a car can move, even if we are only going between twenty and forty miles per hour. While passable the roads do have debris, and crashed cars.
I rolled down the windows at the request of the girls, we will get further without using the air conditioner anyways. I think K is enjoying the car the most as she has her head out the window.
That is definitely not safe, but as we are one of only two cars on the road and moving relatively slow it should be fine. That she forgot some of the top buttons on her shirt and giving me a rather distracting view of herself may also be a part of it though.
I glance back at the car my mom is driving, I thought she would want to separate me from the trio for the driving but would find out that no matter how people were divided I would end up with one or more of my girlfriends in the car. At least after my brothers both made sure to take seats in the other car.
I didn’t even have enough to offer them anything, usually I would have to offer candy or a ride somewhere.
Anyways, it has been a few hours and I want to guess that we are half way to Kansas City, I am not actually sure though. Normally I sleep or play games during trips instead of being the one who drives. Even with the map of an atlas in my head I don’t know exactly where we are.
My mom turns on her blinkers to pull off into a rest stop. Since I only have a third of a tank left she might be near empty. As much as the trio seems to enjoy watching the landscape go by I think they could use a rest stop.
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Arrõchínth Alttânin
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I look out the eyes of the mage, it has been the same thing for hours just sitting as the surrounding land changes. At least this has been better than watching the mage read for days with only short breaks to play with one of his hoard. It wasn’t even one of the actually fun playtime’s either just losing fights over and over.
They are supposed to be ours but I never get to play with our treasures. The mage never lets go of his control over the body. I have only gotten to come out once and that was just a fight.
I should get a turn, not just the mage getting to do everything. He is not confident in what he can do. I tried to help him by merging but the mage recoiled and lashed out at me a few days ago.
We may be the same person but if you won't share I’ll just take what I deserve as soon as I can. The mage may be stronger than me but I am growing faster than he.
I smile mentally as I feel something enter our mind. The foolish mage walked into somewhere we should not be. The world spins in the eyes of the mage and I take a step away from his part of our mindspace. I'm not helping unless he asks this time.
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I am surrounded by grey mist. This looks like that Grey Dream place in the mage's unguarded memories. Am I actually here?
The information appearing in my head confirms my guess and I find myself grinning.
I look at my astral body while performing the tasks the mage deems necessary to get the most out of this place.
My form is no longer a pure dragon as I was when I first awoke. I stand on two legs now and am shaped roughly as the human form of our body is. I still retain my original face, wings, scales and tail but the mage has changed me.
I have changed him too, his eyes are moving to match mine and his hair to match my scales. I do not think it right that I change more than the mage. Perhaps it is because of my recently awakened status or how thin I am in comparison to the mage in the mind we share?
Dammit, now I’ve started questioning things that do not need answered.
Gain: Fly 4 (+4SP)
Fully Awakened Dragon: Dragon Knight may no longer progress, Dragon class unlocked as level 0. Gains: +50 SP, +100 EP
Name: Adrian Ravnos
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Skills
Attributes
Class
SP: 172
Traits
Magic
Languages
EP: 470
I smile, the mage is such a fool. Why would he want to keep all this potential power away from me? We are parts of the same soul, I can no more kill him than he can me.
The most I could possibly do is make him take turns with me so I can finally play with the hoard . . .
Wait, this is my chance, the mage is trapped in some mental prison by whoever owns this territory. I can act and play with the hoard like I deserve.
Excited, I fail to notice as my astral body shifts to be slightly more like the mage, as I press on EP.
Attribute
Draconic
Infusion
Senses
I take the only logical choice, Draconic. Why dilute the magnificence that is me?
Alternate Form
Senses
Special
Void Power
The first thing I should do is raise the ‘age’ of my side of the body.
Breath: Radiance 75
Breath: Void 100
Chill of the Void 75
Juvenile Void Dragon 100
Young Adult Void Dragon 200
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I suppose there are some sort of requirements for my permitted ‘age category’. Whatever I take the oldest available option, a ‘Young Adult’.
The EP contrary to the labeled costs only drops by an hundred and eighty. I smile and purchase both of the breath weapons before looking back to the Draconic menu to notice the color of Special has changed.
Partial Transformations 100
I take it, and open up the senses.
Darkvision 25
Greater Darkvision 50
Greater Keen Senses 50
I take Greater Darkvision dropping the EP gathered up by the mage to seven. A perfectly small number to have as leftover change. Not enough to buy anything else.
I cannot help but chuckle as power flows into me and the mage. Even if the woman was not eliminating the taints in the power they would be eroded away by the void.
I turn back to the screen interface as my astral body becomes more solid. The mage was clever in having this created but it is still lacking some of the options I can see in his games. Where can I spend SP to purchase feats or perks?
As if whatever spirits that run this place did not want to allow it but had to the screen I wanted appears only after a few seconds, rather than immediately as the others were.
Ambidexterity 50
Accelerated Learning 50
Endurance 50
Greater Endurance 100
Fast Healer 50
Iron Will 50
Lightning Reflexes 50
I smile as I purchase Greater Endurance and Accelerated Learning.
The Grey Dream fades away as I reach for consciousness. The mage is not currently controlling our body so I can easily take hold.
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I bolt upright, and look around.
The blood relatives of this body are lying unconscious, as are the mage's friend and his mate. Of my hoard the elves are unconscious but the human who the mage keeps getting a wolf from is sitting up.
She is looking around and looks straight at me. The light within her eyes is wild like the wolf I so often have to fight within the mindscape.
That is not the mage's 'K', but the wolf within her. I barely my teeth as she growls at me.
She ceases to growl and speaks in a tongue I do not know. It is not the tongue of the void nor one that lies within the mage's memory.
I move towards her, she tenses up until I am really close and grab ahold of her. I pull her up against me and bite her ear. She is a beast, actions will work better than speaking in a tongue she does not understand.
She calms almost immediately, she knows what the mage does to 'K' and would be able to tell she is mine.
The beast lays down and exposes her throat and belly to me. Good she has accepted me as her alpha, or at least I think the title is alpha.
For part of a moment I think of taking the beast within the mage's ‘K’ for a tumble in the grass but I want all of my hoard so I step back from her and sniff the air.
I can smell far more than the mage ever could before, though he will likely be able to do the same now. He can use any and all of my powers, I wonder if this goes both ways. It would only be fair.
There is the smell of something draconic nearby, something young that just bit off more than it can chew. Maybe if it was just the mage in our mind this youngling could have taken him but even without me the woman could have defend the mind on her own.
She must be using the mental prison for her own plans. I do not like her, she is a female inside our mind and soul but she will only interact with the mage. She should not disregard me as she does.
The beast speaks two words and I can tell it is a name, Moonlight Runner. I smile and speak my own name though she frowns as it is clearly not from the same tongue as her own.
Moonlight Runner will be mine first and then the mage, but first I will kill and eat the other dragon who decided to touch my hoard. Boundless rage surges forward from the depths of my piece of our soul as this thought passes through my mind.
The scent of the creature is to the east. In the building, whose roof does not exist in the infrared spectrum. My mage half is a fool in some things, not even checking our other senses before walking into somewhere.
I look at Moonlight Runner and then towards the building holding the dragon that touched my hoard baring my fangs.
My companion and treasure growls, she feels anger over the same thing as me. Only the intensity is different, nothing can be as angry as a dragon but another dragon.
She follows behind me as I walk to the building, it should think we were prey trapped as there are nine minds in its illusions.
Stifling down as much of my anger as I can I only open the door instead of smashing the wall down. Some of what the mage calls stealth can actually be useful even if it is not something great.
Within the building, many of its interior walls have been broken, leaving a massive interior with scattered objects hidden within the ruble.
Center stage, sitting in a sunray not blocked by the illusionary roof is a dragon a bit bigger than a human. His scales are bright and seem to be a blinding white.
A radiance dragon. Some of the older ones can pass through the vacuum of space but not the void between planes by becoming light. A dangerous foe if it can stay outside of your reach.
I rush at the radiance dragon, shifting into my original form. Moonlight Runner also follows me but slows for a moment as she sees my glorified form. She will accept me or I will make her do so.
The dragon notices me as I am now somewhat larger than it. I feel something change and the world shatters. This was an illusion.
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The positions and placement of Moonlight Runner and me do not change though where we are in this building did, and so did the locations of those the mage was traveling with.
They are standing around the room, awake from the weak illusion that this dragon made.
The radiance dragon cries out apologies, that it did not know another dragon was nearby.
He thinks I am mad about it crossing into my territory. No, what he has done is far worse. I am the only one who can understand him judging by the looks on the faces of the others.
The illusion spell fades and I can see the others waking up and Moonlight Runner giving way to Kythia. Just as the spell fully ends I reach next to the radiance dragon and tackle him. He screams in pain as my claws rend a wing. Cripple an opponent ability to flee is the best way to ensure your ability to kill an opponent in an extended fight.
“You touched my hoard, you have to die for that.”
The dragon pales either from my words or the golden blood flowing from the ruptured wing.
The dragon attacks me, it’s claws slice into my sides but my body is tougher than his. Radiance dragons are meant for speed and trickery not a melee as we already are in.
It begins to exhale a blast of light at me but I jump back and place my wings before me. The young dragon is confused as the wing is the easiest part to damage on a dragon but I am a void dragon and he is sending out light, that is just radiation.
There is a flare of pain shooting down my wings but most of that radiation is now my sustenance, far more than what it will take to heal from the burns left over.
I fly back at the other dragon as I try to will my flesh to mend and heal as the mage does but the only thing that happens is my bite reaching the leg on the other dragon.
So the mage can use my power but I can’t use his. That is bullshit. I clamp down on the front right leg as the radiance dragon tried to cut my throat and exhale a breath of the void.
The other dragon's claw falls from the other side of my mouth as the arm it was connected to dissolves into the raw chaotic matter of the void as it slips away from this plane and back to the void between planes.
There is now fear within the eyes of the radiance dragon, it now knows what he upset. I exhale again and the gravity around us skyrockets just as Kythia jumped over with the blood-stained blade she always wields.
The blade cuts into the side of the dragon but dragon hide is tough and resistant to her magics.
The mage's mother and kin are being talked to by the elven girls, but I cannot hear them over my roars of pain as a claw passes through my side. How is it that the mage can handle pain so well?
I tear a chunk out of the other dragon and swallow it in vengance. The dragon glows brightly as it shifts into being pure light, an attempt to escape. Too bad I can still hurt it even though my claws pass straight through its luminous body.
I release a breath of light just as this dragon did earlier and it tears through the ball of light and the radiance dragon falls out, its front left leg and wing no longer connected to the rest of it’s body.
Golden blood is spreading all over the floor and the humans and elves scramble to get out of the way of the spilt blood. The wood of the building lights on fire as the blood touches it, even so it is not yet hot enough to burn me.
I tackle the likely dying remains of the radiance dragon and rip off another leg to hear it screams. I store the leg in Void Cache to eat later.
Another leg follows as I don’t want to waste anything and eating him will make me stronger.
Soon the other dragon is dead and I fly out of the roof that is no longer a fake illusion.
Landing next to Kythia I shift back and clothe myself, calling clothes directly onto my body with far more skill that the mage could have done. After all Void Cache is my ability and not his.
I turn to the mother of this form, “this is what the world is now. Monsters that take what is not theirs and kill those in the way of what they want.”
I don’t wait to hear her response as I pull Kythia towards a building that is not on fire.
I wave my hand and do another act with Void Cache far beyond the skill of the mage; I drop out item after item in an instant setting up a campsite for the others. I don’t want them disturbing my turn with the hoard after all.
As I pass by the elves I whisper, “follow me” with a smirk of knowing that they will do just that.
We all enter the building though the others take longer than I thought they would. They almost come running to bed for the mage, since we are the same person why aren’t they doing the same for me?
They seem confused and ready to fight. Why would the hoard turn on us? I frown as it is Lysan who speaks up, there is anger in her voice.
“Who are you and what have you done to Adrian?”
I smile at her, she really does love us to be so worried over the changes in actions between our two parts. Why does the mage have such trouble seeing the relationship we hold with them?
“I am Arrõchínth Alttânin, the dragon. Adrian and me are the same person, I have not done anything to him.”
“You are the little dragon my mate talked about?”
Somehow the rejection on the face of who I know as Moonlight Runner hurts more than the other two. More so with how she is starting to growl and get ready to fight.
“I am your mate. Ask Moonlight Runner.”
There is a bit of surprise on Kythia’s face but that name means nothing to the twins. They begin to say something but as the tone is a continued accusation I jump into the air and take on my original form.
I exhale at the roof as I crash through it. I make sure none of the debris lands near the hoard that rejects me even as my tears do land on them. My wings unfurl and I fly away.
I am a part of their lover and mate, why do they reject me? I am the pride in our being, our confidence. I am most of the emotion that exists within us and I know what they perceive us to be.
I land near a outcropping of rocks where I carve a message for the mage before curling up to sleep and just wait for the mage to finish with whatever it is the woman is doing with that illusion that ensnared his mind.