The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage

WM [42] Not a Mindless Animal

The hunters were not just running into danger haphazardly. In fact they would avoid any monster they could unless they saw a perfect opportunity to take it out quickly and with minimal risk. The horde was not their main concern at the moment. They needed to find the jeweled wing monarch before its evolution was complete. Fighting random monsters lost them the time and stamina they desperately needed if they were going to kill it before it was too late.

After the initial engagements with a few crawling stalkers and the now well acquainted thornmire they had successfully avoided further conflict. The groups were divided to cover as much ground as possible. They knew the general location of the monarch but needed to find it as soon as possible. Bjorn’s group was led by Alfred because he was the most seasoned monster hunter.

Bjorn finally got a good look at Adelheid in her wolf form, which made her a few inches taller than Tanisha. She stood upright like a gnoll, although he remembered that werewolves and gnolls can both move extremely fast on all fours. Her brown and silver fur bristled beneath the once oversized hide armor, which had hung loosely on her human frame. In that form it fit perfectly and hugged the contours of her significantly more muscular body. 

Bjorn noticed she didn’t use any weapons; her hands had become formidable claws, each digit sharpened to a deadly point, ready to rend flesh. In fact, he had seen her do so against the first thornmire. There was a faint scent of magic that radiated from her arms and legs. It tasted similar to the wendigo ability mana muscle saturation but sharper and more focused. He saw that it made her arms and legs far more durable enabling her to block attacks with her forearms and shins as if the flesh itself was her armor.

“You see that right?” Bjorn said mentally.

“How could I not?” Failsafe responded enthusiastically. “I think if Tanisha ever gets over the, her family tried to kill us thing, she should see if she could learn that. We should see if we can learn that! We did lose the ability to harden our scales when we lost access to maya.”

Bjorn felt a pang of frustration as he watched the others fight, knowing they wanted him to stay close to Alfred and save his magic for the Jeweled Winged Monarch. It made sense, but it grated on him. Every time Tanisha engaged in battle, his instincts screamed to be by her side, to be her backup. Instead, he had to place his trust in Alfred and Adelheid to keep her safe. His worries eased somewhat after witnessing their combat skills, but it was strange to be sidelined completely.

Alfred’s fighting style was nothing like what Bjorn or Failsafe had anticipated. With a class called Prana Iron Netcaster, they hadn’t known what to expect, but this was beyond anything they could have imagined. Prana, the essence of a person, was closer to one's soul than to mana. To Bjorn’s senses, prana tasted uniquely like the person it belonged to, making Alfred’s combat feel deeply personal and intimate. It was as if Alfred were fighting with a piece of his very soul, and in a way, he was.

The iron net Alfred wielded was a thing of terror. He controlled it with such precision and speed that Bjorn found it nearly impossible to track. The net could slip into the ground, seemingly teleporting beneath the feet of his enemies, ensnaring them before they had a chance to react. The dagger-like blades, each nearly seven inches long, were even more menacing. They moved around the ring that connected them to the rest of the net, each blade capable of independent action, slicing through flesh and bone with deadly accuracy.

“Everyone quiet!” Alfred said as he ducked down behind a tree. “Get down and don’t move.”

They all found cover immediately and lowered closer to the ground to make themselves a harder target to spot. The forest was noisy with incessant screams of monsters just out of sight. Bjorn could not accurately track any of them because of how many there were. It confused his sense of smell. 

Then everything went silent and the shadows became denser and denser. They started to spread out regardless of the direction of the sun. That was when Bjorn noticed that it wasn’t the shadows, it was his vision darkening. He could taste the magic aura being spread out from a single point. His heads turned and saw the monster as it slowly meandered towards the town.

It was a humanoid abomination that stood nearly eight feet tall, its emaciated frame wrapped in leathery, gray skin that seemed to stretch too tightly over its sinewy muscles. Instead of a head, the creature's neck ended in a grotesque, gaping maw filled with jagged, needle-like teeth that constantly dripped with a thick, black saliva. This mouth, unnervingly large, opened vertically, splitting its throat down the middle. Six arms extended from its torso like twisted tubes of meat. Each arm was long and dragged the ground behind it ending in razor-sharp, bone-like blades that gleam with a sickly, greenish hue.

Identify

Name: None
Species: Dreamweaver
Level: 63
Vocation: Consume consume consume consume

The creature continued past them, none the wiser of their presence. Once Bjorn was out of the range of its aura his vision and hearing returned. No one moved for a few minutes as Alfred signaled them to continue.

“What was that?” Tanisha asked in a whisper.

“Dreamweaver, it would have been a hassle to kill and I’d rather avoid it for now,” Alfred said with a sigh.

“They are the evolution of the crawling stalkers,” Adelheid added, her wolf form adding a growl to each word. “If they manage to consume enough mana they will turn into one of those. They are pretty common, although that one is stronger than most I have seen.”

“The monarch is attracting some of the more powerful monsters towards the town now,” Alfred said as he rubbed his chin in contemplation. “Nothing to do now but hurry and kill it. From here on expect larger monsters, we avoid all combat even if that means we run. The goal is the monarch first and foremost.” 

***

It was an hour before they saw the signal that a team found the jeweled winged monarch. A blue flare shot up into the cloudless sky a good distance north. The sapphire gleam bright enough to pierce the broken canopy above. The team’s nerves tightened as Alfred immediately redirected them north, their pace quickening as they moved through the dense woodland. They maneuvered carefully, skirting around monsters, narrowly avoiding detection on several occasions.

James, the team’s sharp-eyed crossbowman, was the first to spot them as they approached. He waved them over urgently, his demeanor tinged with seriousness. As they closed the distance, James pointed ahead. 

“The monarch is on the other side of that hill,” James said.

“We almost ran directly into the damn thing,” Henry said as he hefted up his battle axe onto his shoulder. “It is still shedding, the wings aren’t fully formed.”

“Did it see you guys?” Alfred asked, his tone clipped.

James flashed a quick smirk, a hint of confidence breaking through seriousness. “It’s not our first hunt, Alfred. We know how to stay out of sight. You are the one we were worried about. When was the last time you went on a hunt?”

Alfred retorted, “My skills are still just as—”

“Where are the others?” Tanisha asked, cutting him off.

Henry jerked a thumb over his shoulder toward the monarch’s location. “Oliver, William, and Samuel are positioned on the other side. We’ve got it surrounded so we can hit it from multiple angles. You all were the last to arrive.”

“Well, let’s get this over with,” Alfred said. “They know the plan?”

Of course,” James replied, checking his crossbow with practiced ease. “Bjorn lights the monarch up, and we finish it off. Stay clear of the fire. Once it’s dead, the monsters lose their leader and start wandering aimlessly again. Town saved.”

“You ready, Bjorn?” Tanisha asked.

Bjorn hissed his agreement.

***

Bjorn slithered silently through the underbrush, the damp earth beneath him cool and familiar. His tongue flicked in and out, tasting the air, thick with the magic of the jeweled winged monarch. The creature's presence was overwhelming, a heady mix of potent magic. Up until that point monster magic always tasted raw, and corrupted like a facsimile of mage magic. There was an unsettling quality like the monster and the magic were both wrong.

The monarch’s magic was different; it was as precise and controlled as a mage’s magic unlike anything he had ever encountered. Monsters were mana given life, a primal force, but up until that moment did he really understand what that meant. This monster bent the will of lesser creatures, pulling them into its orbit like a gravitational field. The taste of it was bitter, sharp, and intoxicating all at once, sending a shiver down his scaled spine.

As the team crept closer to the edge of the treeline, the canopy overhead thinned, allowing slivers of pale daylight to filter through. The forest ahead opened up into a wide clearing, its edges marked by the jagged stumps of felled trees. The monarch had made this space its own, clearing it with brute force to create a throne for its own coronation. In the center of the clearing, the monster stood as an amalgamation of beauty and horror.

Identify

Name: None
Species: Jeweled Winged Monarch
Level: ??
Vocation: OBEY. HUNT. FEED

Bjorn's eyes, now keen with the clarity of the hunt, took in every detail. The monarch was immense, towering over the shattered landscape. Its wings, still in the process of forming, hung like heavy, stained-glass windows, their edges glinting with an ethereal light. The body of the creature was a twisted mass of dark, chitinous armor, dotted with many eyes that glowed faintly like embers in the dusk. Its spindly arms twitched occasionally, as if impatient for the wings to fully harden and take flight.

Bjorn tasted the air again, the magic stronger here, almost suffocating. He could sense how the monarch's power radiated outward, a beacon that called to the other monsters, compelling them to obey, to serve. It was as if they just reached the eye of a storm. The other monsters in the forest weren’t just being drawn here; they were being enslaved by the monarch’s magic. Bjorn couldn’t help but wonder if it knew what it was doing, was it intelligent?

“Spread out, keep low,” Alfred's voice cut through the tension like a knife, bringing Bjorn back to the task at hand. Alfred's tone was calm but commanding, the voice of a leader who had faced down monsters before. “James, take position on that ridge to the west and get a good line of sight. Henry, Adelheid, to the left flank. Bjorn, Tanisha, you're with me."

Bjorn moved with fluid grace, his senses heightened as he took his position alongside Tanisha. His hunting practice allowed him to move like a ghost. Tanisha was tense, her eyes locked on the monarch, but Bjorn could feel the resolve and even excitement. He was unsure how he felt about that, she was definitely different since she drank Sabec’s blood—despite everything, she would not back down. She was determined to see this through. For the first time Bjorn wondered if that was because she wanted to help or because she wanted its blood.

“Failsafe, do you think she can drink that monster’s blood?” Bjorn asked.

Failsafe was caught off guard by the sudden question. “Huh? I mean maybe. She hadn’t tried to do that to any of the monsters we killed on the way though, so perhaps it was a one time thing.”

“I don’t know. But I have a feeling that it wasn’t.” Bjorn said.

“Well, it shouldn’t be a problem, wendigo eat raw meat, and she already prefers hers raw anyway.” Failsafe said. “It’s not a person so no reason to worry… unless its blood is acid or something. I think Alfred would have said something already if that was the case.”

As he settled into position, his body coiled and ready to strike, Bjorn flicked his tongue again. The magic of the monarch was so strong here that it felt like a living thing, almost as if it were trying to reach out and snare him as its thrall. Bjorn realized the monarch was trying to influence him as a magic beast, but he was not a mindless animal; he was a predator with a purpose, and his mind was clear. He could feel Failsafe's presence within him, a steadying influence, keeping him grounded.

“We take it down right here,” Alfred continued, his eyes scanning the clearing, his mind already working out the best approach. “Bjorn, when I give the signal, you hit it with everything you've got. We'll close in from all sides and finish it off before it can take flight.”

Bjorn hissed softly in agreement, his gaze never leaving the Monarch. The creature shifted slightly, its wings quivering as they solidified, and for a moment, the clearing was bathed in the eerie, multicolored light refracted through its wings. The spectacle was almost mesmerizing, but Bjorn knew better than to be lulled by it. This was no beautiful creature—it was a harbinger of death, and it was his prey.