Damn it. Ulric truly did not need this added complication to his powers. He'd thought that all he needed to worry about was getting the mana scrubbing down, not that there would be, as a suspension bridge with a specific frequency, unintended harmonics that could cause the manaforms to create hybridizations with which he had no experience or desire to create. Any good researcher knows that consistency and reproducibility are king when it comes to an investigation. This failure of casting due to his inability to control the purity of manafoms was a serious damned problem.

What next? He'd cast a [Water Jet] and get an arc welder? Wait, no, that sounded too much like an invitation for the irony gods.

For all the love of the Watcher's marvelous chesticals and my own Shadow’s baller knockers, please do not listen to me universe, Ulric pled, hoping he hadn't inspired whatever muses out there whispered disaster to his fortunes. Getting his magic back on the rails was mission-critical, he needed as much luck and potentially metaphysical help as he could get.

Putting aside his failure and or success, they were coming to a river, the steep banks sharply declining to a frozen sheet of ice of indeterminate thickness.

Taipan descended the three-meter bluff confidently, her skipping feet keeping perfect balance until she stood on the layers of snow and ice that had blanketed the river. Ulric slid, skidded, and generally barely refrained from sliding down to join her on his ass.

He was readjusting the sheath strap across his chest for the eightieth time since they'd started their journey when the gorgeous Elf took began a light jog straight down the middle of the once-flowing water. Seeing no reason not to join her he upped his pace.

"We in a hurry Taipan?"

Keeping her gaze ahead she replied without inflection.

"We are. I am becoming concerned Ulric." The woman admitted, in a rare tone of apprehension.

"The absence of game, birds even, there is something fell in the air. I smell it. Always the Deep Wood teems with life, but I have seen nothing other than the [Snow Wraiths]. I fear that this is a continuance of the ripples your killing of the [Forest Lord] initiated. Ever since, a movement of beasts has begun, a flux in the habits, patterns, and territories of creatures whose ranges were as constant as the stone before. Especially the Greater beasts."

"You're talking about the monsters that have awakened cores right?" Ulric checked.

"This is so. Like the creature that killed Surlic, evolved variants of the usual denizens of the wood, themselves a threat to the unwary, these beasts are lethal in the extreme. Most are obvious in their natures, marked by destruction, roars of challenge, and the corpses of prey. Others can be as intangible as evil spirits, melding with their surroundings and taking victims almost without notice.” His partner said, scanning the surroundings with that piercing viridian gaze.

In a low pitch, she voiced her concerns, “Of the two, the possibility that an ambushing type is skulking in the area is becoming greater by the league. Something has scared the forest, driven its children into hiding."

"I would have us well away from this area, hopefully without attracting the attention of whatever has been stalking out here. We may travel faster along this frozen river, though it does not run in the direction I prefer. Also, there is no cover to mask the approach of some creature." Explained Taipan nervously

So saying, his Shadow managed to sufficiently take some of the starch out of Ulric's pants and, when she accelerated to a harsh pace for his throbbing head, he did not so much as whisper a complaint. The demon bird that had slain Surlic had done so without the experienced Hunter's even being able to lift a weapon in defense.

Ulric had no illusions about his capabilities to detect threats compared to that gifted Elven woodsman, or his own Shadow. Months spent in the glade didn’t compare to roving out in the Deep Wood for a century.

The Twins were setting, burning reds and golds marking the horizon of their evening resting place. White snow starkly contrasted to the darkening hues streaking the sky. They had not paused for several hours and Ulric was feeling it. He knew his guide was struggling as well. Her lithe form, so unfailingly graceful, was starting to drift in her intended direction, the unconscious bias towards her stronger side coming as she pushed hard against her limits of endurance. On they went though, pushing into the falling night for distance and, if his legs felt no better about it, at least the mana exhaustion faded.

Suddenly, the woman pirouetted smoothly on one foot her form as perfect as a dancer, the bow on her back had flickered into her hands as if by witchcraft, an arrow head a handsbreadth long flying towards his head.

"Gack!" Ulric threw himself to the snow, panicking, trying to figure out why she'd decided now was the time she wanted to murder him.

Chuck!

The arrow found its mark, its thumb thick shaft buried to the fletchings from the raw power of the layered composite stave, his gift to her. The creature that had been about to rend Ulric's head from his shoulders buried itself halfway into the drifted snow next to him and did not move, other than to twitch, the arrow driven into its head between ghastly stretched skin where eyes should be.

A gigantic mutant bat, that's what it resembled most, as Ulric examined it from his sprawl in the snow.

Fangs longer than his fingers projected from a massive underbitten jaw, recurved to hold its prey. Spouting from the upper jaw were four grotesquely large fangs. Its leathery wings were almost as wide as a school bus. The rest of it held an almost skeletal thinness, corded muscle on thin, sharp-clawed legs, ribs standing proudly, and a lightly charcoal fur that had navy blue mottling, a pattern that made it invisible against a night sky.

Ulric had heard nothing. Had had no idea the thing was nearly climbing his back. Taipan had, somehow, detected it and pulled a snapshot to its noggin nearly in the dark, without hitting him thank you very much.

What a gal.

"Holy shit Taipan!" Ulric exclaimed, at a slightly higher decibel and pitch than he'd intended.

"What a shot! How in the Sweet Merciful Bosom of the Watcher did you even know it was there?" He asked, pushing himself to his feet.

His savior was backtracking to him her emerald eyes almost glowing, like a tiger's, and she never stopped scanning, even when she smiled at the praise.

"I felt its wing beats disturb my hair. A pressure that came from no air current that should have been there." She said, as if that was something that made sense.

Looking down at the thing she'd slain, she spat into the snow.

Stolen story; please report.

"It would seem we have not found the favor of the Ancestor's on our path. It is a [Bloodstarve]. They travel in swarms, broodlings born to a single mother, as bees to a queen. Not Greater beasts, thankfully, but bad enough. They are why the forest is quiet. The foul things kill everything they can catch, haul them back to a brood queen who drains the blood to make more of them and the cycle repeats until they have annihilated all life in the area. It does not stop until the brood queen is slain, or driven from her territory by another creature more dangerous than she."

That did not sound good.

"That doesn't sound good, Taipan. What the hell are we gonna do about it? Escape?" He asked, doubting it would be that easy.

"Varda has not been merciful today," his guide noted, "There is no choice, Ulric Glade Chief, not anymore. If the [Snow wraiths] were only maybe a threat for dogging our footsteps, these [Bloodstarves] are a certainty. We will have to kill the brood queen or her broodlings will continue stalking us from the skies. We are in luck in this, however, I know these woods and there is only one place where she could hide herself from the Twins' light, which is as poison to them." Taipan declared.

"You will put on your armor now and we will hunt together." She said, her tone warming, as if they were going to play a favorite game.

Which, he supposed, they were. Hard ass Elves.

Ulric dropped his pack and opened the clever clasps on the bottom of it, allowing him to access the wrapped package on the bottom of his loaded gear. He unrolled the thin leather to reveal the majesty of Galed Uldin's craft. Dark charcoal Bone plates, overlapping perfectly and fitted with the precision of a neurosurgeon.

Without delay Ulric pulled the cuirass over his travel clothes, the thick robes acting as a gambeson now. He pulled the leather straps tight, only three along his body necessary to affix the body armour securely. He was wearing a second skin, so well did it fit. On he pulled the vambraces, pulling a tightening lace and buckling it. The plated skirt went next, belted on and hanging lightly over his thighs. Shin guards slipped over his boots protecting the fronts and sides of his lower legs, along with the top of his foot. Next, he pulled the overlapping scales of the pauldrons, fitted to protect his shoulders and upper back and attached to a set of ingenious hooks that would allow the things to be removed or secured rapidly. Last, the helmet, a scaled representation of the old horror from whose bones it was carved, a replica of the visage of the [Forest Lord], final bestial guardian of the [Plateau of Ancients].

It was odd, Ulric had been somewhat skittish a minute ago. Now though, now he felt…invincible. No fucked up vampire bat was going to get through the artistry of Iriel's greatest smith.

Ulric's vision was only minimally impinged on by the helmet, even when he closed the "lower jaw" visor that protected his face he found himself with most of his peripheral vision, some miracle of contour and design allowing his vision to take in the dark shapes of trees, the dead monster in the snow, and the eager grin of his Shadow.

Taipan nodded her approval. "Come. Stay close to me and ready your blade. They prefer a vertical attack angle or a low rear angle as did the one before. I will cover the front and skies, you will guard my rear."

"Oh, your rear is all mine lady." Ulric said cheerfully, trying to squeeze humor from the situation as best he could.

She deftly stepped away from a lecherous hand and scolded him, "One track is your mind but you will focus now on killing your enemies, Glade Chief."

Her Elvish lilt held no heat though so he knew she wasn't angry.

"Besides, we shall see whose rump is whose. Would you care to wager on it? Say, the most monsters slain gets three forfeits?" She asked with a casualness that screamed TRAP! to Ulric's sensibilities.

"Oh, you would like that would you not? You with your seeing in the dark and your killing flying monsters at range? No deal. Instead, let us make the mark the Brood Mother. Whoever takes its life's blood gets the forfeits." Counter offered Ulric in his own improved Elvish.

"And you will not be playing games with my butt!" He demanded.

"How boring. Very well, I have been thinking on a few things that you will find…distracting." She threatened.

Oh, goody. He was unable to tell if that would be net positive or a net negative, Taipan could be a little…assertively rough. Ah well! Skin regrew and a man's jaw eventually went numb.

He put thoughts of later aside and felt that almost giddy fury-excitement that now accompanied thoughts of bloodshed. Bald'rt had been right. He was, slowly, getting used to the Lord's Instinct. Warrior's Instinct countered the budding aggression somewhat, focusing his thoughts and letting him concentrate better in a fight as he pulled the long blade of Xef'tocht free. Ulric felt that gentle hum of latent strength, the inlaid black metal seeming to radiate heat.

It was time to hunt.

His hands gripped the grain of his weapon tightly, probably too tightly, but he wasn't quite used to something so large, nor the adrenaline that was taking him along for a danger ride. Tiredness of a few minutes ago was left behind. For now, at least.

The figure of his Shadow stalked in front of him, steps placed to make no sound, balance even. Ulric recognized the precision of the Thousand Steps Dance in her movements, the angles of her body adhering to the half steps with which Ulric was only recently obtaining a minimum of competence. It was a reminder to him to watch his form, to maintain the integrity of his footing, as Idra had insisted. Battles were won by position, position was gained by the relationship of the feet to the body's weight.

Recalling the eyeless muzzle of the [Bloodstarve Broodling], Ulric whispered, "Taipan how is it that these things fly in the dark without eyes? How do they home in on their prey?"

Without turning his Shadow confirmed his suspicions, "By sound, Glade Chief. The monsters emit a chirp higher than our ears detect, though some Wolven Beastkin claim they can hear it. They brag about everything though, so I know not if that is truth. In any case, the pulses somehow paint an image to them, as good as a hawk's eyes. You can blind them temporarily with a loud sound in close quarters."

"Can't they hear us whispering like this?" He checked, figuring it for a bit of a silly question.

A short laugh ahead of him confirmed his too-late caution's inanity even before she commented "They can hear our hearts beating Ulric, do not worry for your whispers."

Oddly enough, that actually settled his nerves a bit. Echolocation, just like the bats of his previous life. Sonar. Reflected and interpreted patterns of sound, capable of precise resolution on moving objects, even small ones, like insects. Jammable though, with the right frequency of sound. Ulric's engineering came back to him, sinusoidal voltage patterns produced by alternating current sources could make distinct pitches, tunable, a frequency of sound dependent on the half frequency of the source. Could Ulric maybe jam these fuckers using a simple Ceraun fluctuation? Theoretically. No…he remembered the clear buzzing of his [Voltaic Riot]. More than theoretically. All he had to do was raise the frequency of oscillation and he'd be able to do it. Probably not before his awakening, he hadn't managed that kind of control. Now though? Now his synergy with that mana was astronomically greater. How to test it?

"Taipan, this is going to sound a little crazy, and I don't think we can test it without an injured [Bloodstarve], but I think I can blind them. Any of them that get close to us, anyhow. It's going to take a bit of mana though and I'm still recovering from earlier. Let's not take any chances, but, if the opportunity arises, I think it might be worth a bit of an experiment." Ulric ventured, recalling her request to let her know before he started playing around with the forces of the universe.

Her voice was not without a hint of doubt, "If opportunity arises, with a creature crippled beyond ability to threaten, you may have your fun chasing [Bark Weasels] Glade Chief."

Permission to experiment get!

Restraining his enthusiasm was as easy as remembering that all he needed to do was bring down a flying carnivore bigger than a man, that moved faster than a horse, completely silently, which could tear a guy's head off in a mere moment of inattention and do it without killing it. Somehow. Easy peasey.

It didn't have long before he realized his plans were doomed to amount to nothing as it was damned near impossible to actually take one alive. Firstly, Taipan didn't take prisoners.

They were only a few minutes farther along in their course before next contact. A half-seen flicker of movement from his four o' clock was all he had before the Huntress in front of him released an arrow, followed swiftly by a second, then a third. Three whistling bolts impacted on the fleeting silohuette, almost at eye level and only twenty meters away and it cried out a high-pitched shriek of mortal injury, dropping to the ground in a broken heap.

The Elf retrieved her shafts from the beast, giving the fletchings a quick inspection and a wipe on the monster's thin, patchy fur before returning them to her quiver.

They had gone another fiftyish meters before she repeated that feat, dropping another broodling with two arrows to the face and chest as it closed in a vertical nose dive. These arrows were ruined as they broke when the corpse smashed into the snow in a grisly ruin.

Ulric kept his eyes up, scanning constantly. He hadn't seen the second monster but his Shadow was adept, they were fully in her element now. Honestly, these things, were they not allergic to sunlight, would have been better off to try this in the day. At night, Taipan was at her most deadly.

A shape flittered past the impression of branches on his left. Turning Ulric was greeted by a fanged maw barreling down on him. Instincts trained for months at the merciless hands of Idra'se, Christ, and Taipan took hold, guiding Ulric's motions, the thousands of repetitions turning them into instinct.

His feet moved smoothly, Root side, to shift his body from the path of those teeth, Undan Ready, his arms raised in a semicircle to bring the blade high over-head and he brought it down smoothly his stroke parting the oncoming wing from the thin body. The force pushed his wrists slightly, an almost gentle resistance, but the metal parted the limb so easily that it might as well as have been cutting through a balsa branch.

The beast passed by, blood freely flying through the air and crashed into the snow, trenching the snow. It started to rise, scrabbling unevenly, keening. Ulric had already started sprinting, judging the trajectory of the monster's crash. His legs churned, tiredness forgotten, propelling him at a few meters a second. He leapt, three meters away from the thing, driven by intuition, his high jump carrying him into the air to fall on the beast's back, blade secured downward.

Impact bent his legs and he felt the hilt jar against him as the sword impaled the creature, his full weight smashing against it, with all the momentum he could muster. Down his body leaned until the cross guard slammed into its fur, digging deeply. Ulric wrenched the blade viciously back and forth, tearing the flesh and organs before he ripped the long blade free and hewed downwards again. And again. A hand on his arm broke the murderous spell.

His eyes shifted to the side, blade still held high, ready to enact carnage, and he saw Taipan there at his side.

She shook her head gently, short tresses rocking. "It is done Glade Chief, you have killed it. Very much killed it." She informed him gently.

Letting himself be led away, Ulric took in the pile of gore that had been the broodling. Viscera steamed in the air.

Okay, so maybe he didn't quite have a handle on this whole fighting monsters thing. A war drum of murderous impulse beat in the back of his head, the Lord Instinct fully roused. Adrenaline put the ultra-violence on loudspeaker. He pushed it down a little, just a little, and got his breathing under control.

Whatever. He could see the use for it. There was a time and a place for cultivating peace and gentleness. This wasn't it. Varda in general, did not seem to be conducive to passivity.