The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage

WM [102] Sky Bridge

Bjorn had long since lost track of time which is why he had to rely on Failsafe’s timekeeping. There was no sun here, no moon, no stars to mark the passage of days. The aurora overhead never faded, shifting in its ghostly colors, casting eerie light upon the floating skylands. The distant glow of the Flaming Forest burned against the sky like an angry false sun.

Challenges rose as the mana hurricane continued to peel back the secrets of the world and yet, despite the odds, he was still alive. Six months had passed since the rock beast had nearly taken his life, since he had clung to the jagged cliffs of the mountain, blood pouring from his severed limb as he forced himself to descend. The wound had long healed, his Hydra Regeneration worked as it always did, but the lesson remained carved into his mind.

Never assume the ground beneath your feet is safe. Never assume the world is what it seems. The Chaos Lands had a way of teaching through pain, and Bjorn had been a fast learner. 

There was no room for arrogance here, any power he gained helped him to survive but not thrive. No room for missteps, he was but one danger away from death. He had encountered monsters unlike anything he thought possible, horrifying, twisted things that lurked in the dark corners of the world. Some of them were relentlessly matching him in power, resilience and in some terrifying cases intellect.

It was not just the creatures that sought to kill him. The land itself was his enemy. More than once, he had nearly fallen victim to collapsing terrain or the mana hurricane’s twisting of the land beneath his feet. There were times in which raw magic that warped the atmosphere into something that burned his lungs, forcing him to retreat into the few safe zones he had mapped out.

“Bjorn, it's happening again we need to retreat!” Failsafe yelled.

“Already moving as fast as I can.” Bjorn said as he galloped.

“Move faster!” 

The weather was unpredictable, storms rolling through the skylands in bursts of chaotic energy, their winds sharp enough to flay flesh from bone. As he ran one of his heads watched a winged monster caught in a forming storm, its body twisted and torn apart before it was pulled screaming into the abyss.

“Trues, it’s nearly here, did you see that?” Failsafe said.

Bjorn saw the cave he had been using as a safehaven up ahead. Behind him the wind cut up the landscape as if invisible blades carved sections of the ground out. He had only a few steps when he felt the wind at his back. Then he was through the entrance of the cave. The slicing wind hit with force and flung him deep inside. 

He was in a heap, breathing heavily as he turned to look at the storm billowing outside. There was no peace here. Only survival but that alone was not progress. Bjorn had explored several other floating skylands, all of them close enough to risk the journey. Each had been dangerous, filled with strange and deadly creatures, but none of them had what he was looking for. No mana crystals or mana trees on any of the skylands and worst no way down.

He was going to go back to the main skyland. It was time to see what the sleeping monster was guarding. That place was different than the smaller skylands. The creatures that lived there weren’t just predators. The few times he had dared to stray too deep, he had felt their eyes on him, felt the weight of something old pressing against his mind. The Sanguine Traveler had tried to lure him in more than once, guiding him toward whatever horrors lay deeper in that cursed forest.

The monsters in the forest were unlike anything he had ever seen. There was no reckless aggression, no mindless charge toward prey. These things waited, watched, calculating their movements with an intelligence that sent a chill down Bjorn’s spine. Even now, after six months, he still felt as though he was being observed and that meant he had to be careful.

Bjorn sighed deeply, “After the storm we have to head back. This place is a bust and the storms are too dangerous.” 

“I think in a few more levels we could survive a fall to the ground if there isn’t a way down.” Failsafe said. “It is going to hurt though. Like a lot.”

“I should apply the new points while I have the time or did they also go to maturation?”

“Half of them went to maturation so you still have five to work with. We are starting to grow quickly now even without converting points to maturation. Base stats have increased just by all the physical and magical drain.” 

“If that is the case just put it all in maturation the next level I will start assigning points again.”

“You got it.” Failsafe said.

Status Menu

Name: Bjorn Isin Scalebound
Species: Lernaean Hydra
+ Level: 66 < 67

Level Progression: 3%
+ Vitality: 204 / 250 < 270
+ Restoration: 272 / 305 < 330
+ Constitution: 150 / 190 < 217
+ Strength: 145 / 220 < 254
+ Dexterity: 116 / 200 < 300
+ Stamina: 145 / 159 < 183
+ Primana: 155 / 200 < 250
+ Primana Regeneration:  166 / 235 < 276  (+235 from bond)

Page 1 of 4

Bjorn looked over his status, it had been so long and the fights never stopped. He had killed countless monsters, some towering beasts with bladed limbs, others small and fast with venomous fangs. He had endured ambushes, traps, even battles against things that should not have existed simply by how they seemed to move, so alien in form, it made his scales crawl.

None had caught him off guard the way the rock beast had. That encounter had been a wake-up call, a reminder that he was not invincible, that even with his regeneration, even with his growing power, he was still just one misstep away from being torn apart. 

The leveling had slowed dramatically. This was his first new level in a month he gained more by using his abilities than by leveling with the system. Failsafe mentioned that it was because each level required twice the experience of the last. However by using abilities and pushing himself he could increase what Failsafe called his base stats which is what he had been doing.

“How is Tanisha?” Failsafe asked.

Bjorn felt the bond and could feel her emotions as taunt as a bow ready to fire. It was a telltale sign that she was in the middle of a fight. It wasn’t anything to worry about though as she seemed fine.

“She is fighting right now.” Bjorn said.

“Hope they are having better luck than us. Monster meat is gross, the land is trying to kill us and we’re stuck on a bunch of floating rocks.”

“Yeah, not the best situation, but the world hasn’t erupted into Infernal Maya so we at least know they are keeping up.”

Tanisha had definitely been doing her share, she was close to becoming a Dagda. A few months ago she finally opened all of her Gates. Bjorn wondered what she looked like now. The only thing she had left was communing, the Aetheric Tool and of course level 100 which was going to be more difficult then Bjorn had originally thought now that levels were starting to be so hard obtain.

Follower Ascension Panel

Name: Aki’al Hashemi
Title: Sonr Orma Eilífra
Divinity: Demi True Immortal
Divine Realm: Venom
Followers: 1

Follower List:
Name: Tanisha Valkyrja Scalebound
Species: Cernunnos
+ Level: 67
Status: Alive
Special Status: Soul Bound (Partial)
Evolution Status: Pending

Follower Evolution(s) Status

Name: Tanisha Valkyrja Scalebound
Species: Cernunnos (Greater Wendigo < Normal Cernunnos) - Dagda (Greater Cernunnos)
+ Evolution Prerequisite  7 / 10
Current Approved:
Mana Gate Open, Blood Gate Open, Mind Gate Open, Spirit Gate Open, Bone Gate, Maya Meridians and Veins, Pledge of Soul
Approve Current Evolution Status Prerequisite Met:

[None]

Status Not Met for Evolution: Cernunnos - Dagda
Complete Communing (4/5),  Aetheric Tool Bound, Level 100

Page 4 of 4

Failsafe’s voice pulled Bjorn from his menus, “Sounds like the winds are subsiding, we should get moving.”

Bjorn grunted his agreement and cautiously left the cave. The outside was scarred as if a massive beast had been raking it’s claws across the land in mad fury. Bjorn didn’t stick around to see if  the winds would return. He already knew they would and he was planning to be long gone before that happened.

It took hours to traverse the rugged terrain, but at last, he reached the bridge, if it could even be called that. The Sky Bridge stretched before him, an impossible path of floating stones suspended in midair between this fragment of land and the main skyland. Of course, "bridge" was Failsafe's word. Bjorn had a few other, less polite, descriptions for the nightmarish crossing. Frankly, Bjorn just thought it was fucking terrifying. 

 There was no solid land extending out to connect the skylands, no reliable platform to walk on. Instead, there was only a chaotic scattering of floating stones, ranging from palm-sized pebbles to boulders as big as a man. None of them were at the same level and he’d have to ascend and descend as he made his way across, leaping from one to the next. Being quadrupedal meant he would need to locate clusters and try to maintain balance.

They were as stable as the skylands themselves and would float as long as the magic that held up the skylands remained. Or at least that is what Failsafe had assured him.  Bjorn never really considered himself to be afraid of heights but this was something that was pushing his limits. He stood at the edge looking at the first set of  floating rock.

“You're not scared, are you?” Failsafe said with a voice filled with smug amusement. “After everything we've been through, you're hesitating over a few floating rocks?”

Bjorn scowled. “I'm not scared. I'm being careful.”

“Right. Sure. Because being vaporized by aether storms is fine, but this is too much?”

Bjorn ignored him, rolling his shoulders before crouching low, testing his footing. He exhaled slowly. One step at a time. The first stone was stable, just as Failsafe had assured him. The second, a little less so. He had to keep moving, adjusting his balance as the rocks shifted slightly with each landing. Left, up, down, forward. The path was unpredictable, a three-dimensional puzzle that forced him to stay sharp. Halfway across, he paused for a brief moment, steadying his breath and then he tasted monster magic in the air. 

After months of being exposed to the chaotic ambient mana he had finally gotten used to the different tastes of mana again. His tongues flicked and he saw a ripple in the air. He cursed inwardly that there was always something. Trying to kill him out here.

A piercing shriek filled the air, it was a tarnu blade wing. They had just seen one of these things get shredded by the wind during the storm. They weren’t that powerful but Bjorn couldn’t have been caught in a more precarious situation if he tried.

Identify
Name: None
Species: Tarnu Blade Wing
Level: 112
Vocation: DIVE SLICE FEED 

The hideous monster shot toward him, zipping between the floating rocks with unnatural speed. It was nearly as large as Bjorn himself, its grotesque body a writhing mass of extra limbs, jagged wings, and too many eyes that gleamed with the single minded fury less intelligent monsters always had. Its thin, metallic wings hummed like vibrating steel probably because they were. It was a monsterized alloy, honed to unnatural sharpness, capable of cleaving through stone as if it were paper. Even so the true horror lay in the tarnu’s ability to phase through obstacles, slipping between solid matter like a ghost before striking from impossible angles.

Bjorn launched himself forward, pushing his body to its limit. He couldn’t fight on the Sky Bridge, not where one wrong move meant plummeting into the void. The monster shrieked again, then vanished phasing through a boulder before reappearing right in front of him. Bjorn barely twisted out of the way, feeling the wind from its razor wings as they sliced just inches from his head.

Bjorn used Intimidation Roar which froze up the creature but only for a second given the level difference between them. A second was all he needed to get some distance. 

Bjorn bared his fangs. They had a strategy for dealing with these monsters. First get them into a predictable attack pattern, then when they phased use Aetheric Disruption Breath which would poison their ability to use that pesky magic. However while they were in its territory it’s path and use of the skill was too erratic to target.

The tarnu blade wing dove again, its many eyes flashing with predatory hunger. Bjorn leapt onto the next rock, narrowly avoiding the deadly swipe of its wings. It was herding him, forcing him into a frantic, erratic path.

The last stretch of floating rocks was ahead. The creature phased through another boulder and reappeared directly in front of him, its grotesque maw splitting open. Bjorn saw his chance and light burst forth from his jaws as he used the Aetheric Disruption Breath. 

The creature shrieked in outrage and pain as its spell failed causing a backlash of its mana. He hurled himself sideways barely dodging it as he landed precariously on a narrow set of stones. 

Bjorn pushed off the final rock and landed on solid ground, rolling to absorb the impact. The instant his feet found purchase, he turned, the tarnu was already coming for him.

Bjorn barked, “Now.”

Failsafe opened the right most mouth and white hot flame erupted. The monster was engulfed in moments as the Plague Fire focused into a beam of toxic heat. With its intangibility spell already poisoned it took the attack head on. The explosion sent a shockwave rippling through the air and the tarnu hit the ground like a meteor impact.

Bjorn didn’t hesitate. He lunged, claws already glowing with venomous energy. The tarnu was still alive and still healing. Its monstrous vitality kept it writhing even as its flesh burned, even as poison ravaged its system. Bjorn ripped. Tore. Carved. Monster vitality was still something Bjorn found unsettling. His poisoned claws sank deep into the grotesque mass, tearing through muscle and sinew, ripping and raking until the thing was nearly split in half.

The Tarnu gave one final, shuddering shriek. Its wings flailed violently—then, at last, it went still. Bjorn exhaled hard, stepping back from the corpse. His chest rose and fell with deep, controlled breaths, the battle-high still thrumming through his veins.

Failsafe let out a mock-casual hum. “Well, we’re here.” He continued, tone smug. “See? That wasn’t so bad.”

“Failsafe. Shut up.”