The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage

There was a cold breeze in the air in the town. The guards were on full patrol now that skinwalker was confirmed to have infiltrated the settlement. Monster hunters were being called in from the Jackrabbits’ camp to bolster the patrols. From atop the roof of the building, guards down were muted. Tanisha felt the terror and fear Bjorn was going through and knew, without a shadow of a doubt, nothing would keep her from him.

“Now that you are collared, don’t do anything regretful,” Adelheid said, her tone and body language relaxed. “We were told to kill you if your mind had already been poisoned, but you seem lucid. It should be over soon, and then you will never see us again.”

“This was a boring hunt,” Falko said as he held the chain to Tanisha’s suppression collar, “I thought she would at least put up a fight or something.”

“The hunt is not always about fighting. If you do it right, you won’t have to fight at all,” Adelheid said.

“That makes it boring.” 

Tanisha stopped listening to them as she tried to look inwardly towards her core but found that she couldn’t. All of her connection to her magic was cut. She felt vulnerable and powerless but not at all broken. Feeling inadequate was how she felt most of her life. People with magic, influence, or strength were always dictating her life until very recently. So instead of focusing on what she couldn’t do, she decided that above all else, she needed to get to Joha. 

“What happens after you kill Bjorn, are you all just going to leave? What about Sabec?” Tanisha asked.

“Sabec is your problem. As for us, what does it matter?” Adelheid said, “We are monster hunters. We go where there are monsters that need killing.”

“You are the first werewolves I have seen in Yuhia; what brought your people here? We aren’t exactly known for our monsters.”

“It was luck. Our pack travels all over, but we just so happen to be in the right place at the right time to find Sabec collapsed out in the wilderness.”

“Our pack? I am the one that found him,” Falko interjected.

“That is beside the point, Falko,” Adelheid said.

“No, it's not. I am the one who found him, and I am stuck here with you when everyone else gets to hunt the hydra,” Falko walked around Tanisha to Adelheid’s side, the chain dragging along the ground as he did. He was looking out into the dark forest beyond the wall. “If only they let me join the hunt tonight,” Falko added.

“And what let you get in the way? A puppy like you is not ready to face a hydra, even if it is just a pup too,” Adelheid said.

“I am not a puppy!” He stopped a foot, “So, let me guess, I am not ready, but you are?”

“Of course I am. The only reason I am here is because someone has to look after you.”

“I could have done this by myself!” Falko said.

The two started to argue, so Tanisha focused on her storage items. The bracelet and the necklace that she wore were both storage items. The necklace was given to her by the Isi family, and that was where she stored the majority of her personal potions as well as her weapons. The bracelet had a much larger storage capacity, but because of that, she needed her mana to take things out or put things in. 

The necklace used ambient mana, meaning she should be able to take things out at will, even with the suppression collar. While the two werewolves continued to argue, she stealthily took a copper coin from her inventory and put it back in before they saw it. The coin flicked in and out of existence in a flash. It worked, so she was pleased with herself.  

Only going to have one chance at this.

Tanisha took a deep breath to center herself. She pulled a draught of strength from her inventory. The potion was usually used by laborers to aid them in picking up heavier loads or working that much harder. It wouldn’t increase her strength by much, nowhere near the boost she got from her mantle, but every little bit helped. In a single motion, she raised her hands, stepped on the chain so that it was taut, and summoned her bardiche. 

The weapon came down with all the strength she could muster. It cut through the chain and well through the roof of the building. The werewolves reacted instantly, both of them lunging towards Tanisha. To their surprise, the bardiche vanished back into her inventory, leaving her bare-handed as she got into the stance of a second form, VritraVajra, the Thunder Dragon.

Adelheid reached Tanisha first and attempted to grab and restrain her, only to find that Tanisha not only deflected her tackle somehow but also moved in such a way that she was flipping uncontrollably through the air. Falko followed, only to be met with the same, and in an instant, both werewolves were on their backs with no idea how. Tanisha moved so gracefully that it was almost as if it were a dance.

“Don’t make us have to kill you, Tanisha!” Adelheid said as she flipped over onto her feet, “That damn hydra is a poison to our world.”

Tanisha did not wait around to see how the werewolves would react. She immediately jumped off of the roof and rolled into a sprint once she landed. She did not turn around to see if they were following; the only thing that mattered was getting to Joha. With the number of guards and new enforcement in the town, there was no way they would attack her again, especially if she made a scene.

“Help!” Tanisha screamed, “I was being attacked!”

She ran to the door, which was locked, but she didn’t let that stop her as he nearly ripped it from its hinges when she ran into it. Inside, the owner and his wife were startled, both of them being in the lobby, looking out of the blinds because of all of the commotion outside.

“What in the Divine's name?” the elderly human owner said.

“Sorry!” Tanisha responded but didn’t stop running, “I will pay for that!”

As she ran to the stairs, she heard glass breaking on the second floor. She didn’t slow down as she made it to the floor, but she scrambled to a stop as soon as she saw two werewolves in their beast forms waiting for her. Werewolves were a unique race; they were one of the few that could transform into their lesser form at will. For them, it was where the wolf came from in their name. 

They were both humanoid wolf monsters, both now taller than her with significantly more muscle. Of the two, Adelheid was larger; her fur was brown and silver. Her hands were now claws, ready to rind flesh, and her wolf-like face was in a growling snarl. Falko was only slightly smaller, his fur was dark gray but also popped with electricity. 

“Joha!” Tanisha yelled, “Help!”

“You could have made this easy, Tanisha,” Adelheid snarled, “You didn’t have to die.”

“I am sorry, who is dying?” a deep voice bellowed as red mist filled the hallway.

“Falko, run now!” Adelheid panicked as she turned around to face the voice.

In a blur of motion, Joha appeared in front of Tanisha. He was in his combat form, which was tall and sleek with black fur and younger-looking. The maya slowly shifted from red to black as soon as he saw the collar around Tanisha’s neck. Tanisha felt relief as she saw the tiger demon.

“Are you okay?” Joha asked as he popped the metal suppression collar off of her as if it were made from paper. 

As soon as Joha appeared Tanisha felt anxiety, disbelief and rage. “Yes, but they are trying to kill Bjorn. He is hurt, they set up a trap for him and Iー”

“It’s alright, I am here, Tanisha,” Joha said softly, with a hand on her shoulder, “We will save Bjorn, but first, I need to deal with them.”

He turned around and faced the werewolves. His maya changed from black to something far darker. Abyssal maya flowed from Joha’s mouth like a waterfall. The dark energy is a representation of the deepest connection to the Infernal Planes. The world itself grew heavy as reality struggled to process the invasion of a higher power so deep and twisted. 

Falko fled through one of the rooms in the hallway as he was instructed, which left the shaking Adelheid alone. She looked mortified as if she was already dead and just waiting for the executioner to drop the axe. Joha took a step towards the cowering girl, and she took a step back. She turned to flee but found that the maya itself wrapped around her body, solidifying into chains with barbs that dug into her flesh. They even gagged her so she could not speak. She fell to the ground in a bloody cocoon of black chains.

It was Tanisha’s first time witnessing the first form of the Way of the Rakshasa MayaMundra, illusionary seals. It looked so different than how she had imagined it. It was a pure manipulation of maya in a way that was unlike anything she had ever seen Joha use before. She had seen him use maya constructs during their training, but this was something different. Something that required intimate knowledge of the dark depths of the infernal power. 

“Now let's find Bjorn,” Joha said.

“She’s alive?” Tanisha asked. “What about the other one?”

“We won’t get answers from corpses. As for the other one, he didn’t get far.” Joha said as the maya pulled a second mass of chains into the hallway from the room Falko tried to escape from. “They won’t be able to escape.”

Tanisha knew that if they hurt Bjorn there wouldn’t be any questions when they got back. She was so pissed off that she wished Joha had just killed them now. She knew for a fact she was going to find Sabec and put him down too but she didn’t say that to Joha. For now finding Bjorn was the priority.

Tanisha said in as neutral a tone as she could manage in her absolute fury. “Okay. We have to go before somethiー” 

Tanisha stopped talking, breathing, moving as she felt something in the bond her entire body seized up. The connection weakened; she felt his emotions stop and the flow of mana between them halted. She couldn’t draw in any breath as her legs gave out and she collapsed to her knees. 

The connection between a master and their familiar could be severed but not without extreme circumstances. What she felt was not the work of an enemy mage breaking the bond but one end losing connection. Even if Tanisha had never felt this particular feeling before it was unmistakable it was death. Bjorn was dead?

Tanisha turned to the werewolves, tears rolling down her face as she went from complete disbelief to unbridled rage. Those motherfuckers killed Bjorn and think they will get to breathe a single breath more? No no no no no!

Tanisha only saw red as she screamed and her bardiche appeared in her hands. Her tattoos blazed to life as she focused her magic into the weapon. She had something to let out all of her fury as she teleported to the closest of the two. Adelheid was in complete shock as Tanisha appeared over her with the bardiche already swinging down.

Adelheid screamed as she closed her eyes and winced. “Stop please!”

The weapon stopped at the nape of her neck. Tanisha looked off into the distance and felt the connection to Bjorn reconnect. He was alive. He had to be alive.  Her mouth hung open for a moment before in hopeful shock. The bardiche vanished as she ran towards the stairs to get out of the building without saying a word. Joha followed behind her until he realized he could run faster than her and picked her up off her feet and ran as fast as he could in the direction she pointed.