The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage

WM [55] Everything Went Dark

When the Druids attacked they came in force. The medical ward was under siege from all sides. Time almost seemed to slow down as Tanisha took in the scene from the kneeling position as she finished administering the cleansing potion to another knight. Joha had already sprung into action and it looked like Sigvard had returned with more men that needed to be treated right away.

In her black-and-gold armor, Tanisha stood out starkly against the royal knights’ standard blue steel and purple tabards. She wore neither her helmet nor her gauntlets, prioritizing her dexterity and precision as she worked with patients. She felt torn; the familiar urge to fight surged through her veins, even as she continued tending to the wounded.

There was a choice, join in the fight and let those that desperately needed to be treated die or trust in Joha, Bjorn and the soldiers she had already helped to defend themselves. Her cernunnos blood craved the conflict, she wanted to fight, kill and grow stronger. She could feel Valkyrja, the part of her that yearned for carnage and strength, stirring within. It was her rational mind that fought against it, reminding her that Joha was right, she didn’t have to be a soldier. 

she looked over the injured, grounding herself with a new sense of purpose. Being the Chooser of the Slain wasn’t just about who would die; it was also about who would live. With a renewed resolve, Tanisha grabbed another potion from her inventory, watching as Jakob and the other healers moved with desperate urgency. They had healing magic, but she had her potions and knowledge, and so far, they’d been a formidable team, saving as many as they could.

She nodded to herself feeling more affirmed in this role. Today this is where Valkyrja belongs, Tanisha thought to herself as she moved on to the next person that needed her help.

“Tanisha,” Jakob’s voice cut through the noise as he pointed toward another pair of incoming soldiers.

“I am on it,” Tanisha said as she used Arcane Shift.

She reappeared beside a knight carrying another soldier, the latter barely clinging to consciousness. Tanisha wasted no time, pulling the injured man’s arm over her shoulder, surprising the knight for a brief moment. He quickly fell into step with her as they moved the man to the healers.

“Set him down here,” Tanisha instructed. “Have you gotten a cleansing potion?”

Neither knight had received the potion, but the one that carried the other had much higher resistance to the poison. Tanisha still insisted on giving him the potion correcting his dosage to his constitution as to limit the side effects. As soon as he took the tonic he was gone to join in the fight. The other man was far worse off. He would have to take several doses over the course of a few minutes if he was going to pull through.

“Don’t close your eyes, whatever you do stay awake,” Tanisha said as she propped him up against a chair. “You received the first dose, but you have to stay awake to take the second.”

“Thank you, thank the Forest Father,” the man said as his eyes were glassy but awake with recognition.

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Bjorn hissed loudly as he avoided a spear aimed to pierce his side. The druid’s advance was halted by a retaliatory swipe of Bjorn’s tail which hit with such force that it sent the man flying. Bjorn didn't waste time watching where his opponent landed; he had to focus on avoiding an assassin who suddenly Blinked behind him, brandishing a sword coated in the same druidic poison that tainted the air.

“Bjorn I think right now is a good time to use the new ability we got!” Failsafe said. 

Aetheric Scales

You have felt the power of your master’s aura and mantle and embraced the influence of the chain breaker. The power you felt now resides within you. Call forth the power that defends you from harm. Harden your scales with the aetheric touch. As this is a shared natural ability you can not level this ability by any means but through communing with your master. This ability is tied to your master, should your master die or reject your bond you must reclaim her soul or you will lose this ability.

A shimmering array of symbols and magic circles danced across Bjorn’s body, mirroring the intricate formulae tattooed on Tanisha. The magic circles faded as quickly as they had appeared, leaving his scales polished and gleaming, like freshly waxed armor. Immediately after the sword struck his side with an audible clang unable to penetrate the scales which left the assassin momentarily confused and vulnerable. He didn’t have to worry for long though, as Bjorn's left head struck his neck and ripped out his throat.

The most impressive fight was surprisingly not Joha’s, but instead Koll the Royal Knight Commander which had some type of contraption on his face Bjorn had never seen before. It had small gears and pistons which seemed to move with Koll’s breathing. The man was a darkness mage and possibly the most skilled person Bjorn had ever seen in real combat. Although that might have only been because he had only seen Sigrun and Ingrid exchange a single strike.

His fighting style was also unique. Loki, the only other darkness mage Bjorn knew, specialized in summoning shadow constructs while keeping his distance. Koll was a master of teleportation and hex magic, while also being a close quarters swordsman. He was unstoppable with a sword in his primary hand and a sword breaker as his main-gauche. Bjorn could taste the power behind Koll’s aura as he used True Teleportation, something only darkness mages could do, to causally jump between druids, disrupting chants, closing geomancy tunnels and even opportunistically killing druids that were too bold in their assault. 

Alongside Koll, Joha and Sigvard wreaked havoc on the druids’ ranks, efficiently dismantling any breach in the defenses. Bjorn held his own, striking with teeth, claws and tail, but he knew he couldn’t match the devastating synergy of the three veterans. It didn’t take long for the druids to realize the medical ward was far better defended than anticipated. The attackers fell back, retreating to avoid further losses.

As the last of the druids fled or fell to Koll’s blade, a tense silence settled over the ward. Koll’s commanding presence radiated authority as he began organizing the knights and border guards to re-secure entrances and collapse the druids’ tunnels. His prowess had been on full display, bolstering the morale of the men and solidifying his reputation as a warrior feared and respected among wendigo. It was the nature of the wendigo to respect the powerful and he was amongst the strongest Bjorn had ever seen.

It was then that Bjorn noticed Adelheid, the wifwolf, standing vigilant among the knights. Somehow, in the chaos, her presence had gone unnoticed, overshadowed by Koll’s display of power. In her wolf form, her silver fur was matted with blood from multiple wounds, yet she remained on high alert, awaiting Koll’s next command as if she were one of the knights herself.

Suddenly, a violent quake rocked the medical ward. Two of the passageways collapsed, sending rubble raining down. Bjorn leaped back, barely avoiding the debris that crashed into the entrance he had been guarding. The tremor left only one route out of the ward, and wendigo geokinetics quickly moved to secure and reinforce it, channeling their mana into fortifying the tunnel.

“Everyone!” Koll’s voice cut through the chaos. “Prepare yourselves. We are leaving the fortress. Healers, get ready to move the patients who cannot walk. Everyone else, form up. I need geokinetics at the front, middle, and rear of the formation. The recon team will be led by Sigvard. VIPs Tanisha, Joha, and Bjorn are to be secured in the center of the formation. These individuals are to be protected at all costs by order of First Princess Sigrun.”

There was a notable shift as everyone rushed to fulfill Koll’s orders. Tanisha called Bjorn over and he rushed to her side. She was in the middle of placing a man on a stretcher. He had lost his leg in the battle and the healers didn’t have the mana reserves to reattach it while also handling the other injured people. 

“Bjorn, I am happy you are okay. Please help me get people up and moving,” Tanisha said solemnly. 

He nodded and quickly moved to help some of the patients by offering his body as a hand hold for them or picking them up with his long tail. The process was slow going as some of the new people were in critical condition because of the poison. Cleansing them was underway, but there would be a long road to recovery for many of them if they survived today at all.

“Adelheid you’re okay,” Tanisha said.

Once everyone that Bjorn could assist was tended to he returned to Tanisha. Adelheid had already joined her. She converted back into her humanoid form as her larger wolf form was too big. Bjorn sat beside them as they talked.

“Yeah,” Adelheid responded bashfully. “It was rough there for a second though. If it wasn’t for Koll and Sigvard I wouldn’t be here. I was surprised you weren’t fighting.”

“I was needed here,” Tanisha said. “Look. I wanted to apologize for what I said.”

“Apologize for what?” Adelheid questioned. 

Tanisha averted her eyes. “About, you know, saying I still want to kill you. I don’t, by the way. It's just… confusing.”

Adelheid chuckled softly. “We didn’t meet on the best terms. In fact, I don’t think there could’ve been worse terms. I’m truly sorry about that. The fact you don’t outright despise me is insane. When you and Joha took me from my pack, I thought for sure one of you would torture and kill me for what we did. But you haven’t—although Joha’s training kind of feels like torture sometimes.” She grinned, and the two laughed together, the tension easing between them.

After a moment, Adelheid’s tone grew more thoughtful. “I hope when all this is over, we can put it behind us. Maybe not as friends because, honestly, I don’t deserve that, but at least not as enemies.”

“I think it has something to do with how wendigo are as to the reason I don’t hate you. We respect the strong, it is part of our culture, and something more.” Tanisha said seriously. “When Joha and I leave. I won’t be coming back for a few decades. I don’t, I mean, will you still be… uh… around? Eh… alive? I don’t know how long your people live.”

“Oh, uh, about seventy years, but my people usually hunt until our Last Hunt so it varies wildly. On our Last Hunt we become one with He Who Hunts, our Divine. So, I’ll still be around. No monsters taking me out for a long time. Unless you plan on being gone for fifty years or something, you can meet my grandkids. You could tell them how we met and all this craziness.”

“Well then, I’d like to tell them I met a friend,” Tanisha replied, her voice steady with newfound resolve. “I forgive you. Despite how we met, I’d be happy to call you a friend.”

Adelheid blinked back tears as she pulled Tanisha into a hug, holding on a little longer than she might have otherwise. As they pulled away, she quickly wiped her face, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. 

Clearing her throat, she grumbled, “Please don’t tell anyone that I cried.”

Tanisha smirked. “Oh, you don’t want your grandkids to know you were a big softy? I think they’d love it.”

Adelheid started, “You know what, Iー”

The mountain trembled as druidic magic surged through the stone, crackling with raw power. Suddenly, the roof above them erupted with an explosion of rock and force, sending chunks of stone and debris hurtling down. Geokinetics stationed below reacted instantly, straining to hold the fractured ceiling at bay and keeping massive boulders suspended over the startled crowd.

Two figures descended from the shattered ceiling, shrouded in dust and rubble. A woman’s voice sliced through the chaos with cold authority. “So, this is where they’ve been hiding. Waddell, you have my approval to unleash your power. Kill them all.”

“Finally,” Waddell said, cracking his neck with a slow, satisfied grin. “Let’s put these savages down.”

In an instant, Koll, Joha, and Sigvard sprang into action, their movements a blur as they closed the gap between them and the intruders. Before they could strike, the towering druid—a behemoth of a man, larger than anyone Bjorn had ever seen—seized Sigvard and Joha by their necks with brutal ease. Sigvard gasped, his struggle cut short as the druid’s grip tightened and his throat gave way with a sickening crunch. He released the lifeless body, letting it fall like discarded prey, and turned his attention to Koll, swatting his sword aside with a molten rock-covered hand that sizzled with heat and druid magic.

Joha fought desperately, striking the druid’s arm and torso, each punch sending shockwaves of maya rippling outward and knocking nearby fighters off their feet. Waddell’s grin only widened, reveling in Joha’s defiance. With sinister deliberation, he raised Joha higher, his fist coiled back like a spring, then struck. The impact echoed like a thunderclap as Joha’s body hurtled across the chamber, crashing into the distant wall with a bone-rattling force that left cracks spidering out from the impact site.

Bjorn's roar reverberated through the cavern, fueled by sheer rage. Aether surged within him, crackling and coiling in his middle head, ready to unleash a torrent of power. Failsafe's voice echoed in the back of his mind, a frantic warning about the unpredictability of the unknown Aetheric Breath, especially with allies nearby—but Bjorn was far past caring.

Just as he was about to release the attack, a figure stepped into view from behind Waddell. A woman, her form shrouded in arcs of green electricity that licked the air. She raised a wand in his direction, her smile was a dagger’s edge, sharp and merciless. Bjorn had only a moment to lock eyes with her before everything went dark.