บท 112: WM [23] Abomination
The skinwalker was confused, never before had its prey been able to fight back before it was able to subdue them. Hunting was as much a game to it as it was a means to feed itself. Yet now it was hurt more than it had ever been and its food and more importantly new skin was the cause. It was furious, but what little remained of its reason told it this was not a fight it wanted, especially with more people on the way.
Tanisha didn't wait to see what the creature was waiting on and used her Arcane Shift to teleport to the right side of the creature. She swung her bardiche which flashed through the air hitting the skinwalker's arms as it moved to defend itself. Tanisha felt the weapon cleave into flesh but stopped dead at the skinwalker's bones, like hitting iron rods.
Even the bardiche I got from the princess is not strong enough to cut through it. I have to keep my distance then and focus on magic.
Tanisha had to jump back to avoid the wild strikes it did in retaliation as it lunged at her. She directed the water orbs with the bardiche. The blade glowed for a brief moment as the orbs shot its water this time with far more force. The stream of water blasted through the abdomen of the creature. The bardiche was designed as a perfect staff for Tanisha; she had requested from the princess for it to mesh well with hydromancy.
The skinwalker was strong, durable and even with the grievous neck and now stomach wounds it was still a skinwalker. If they could be killed so easily the wendigo wouldn't fear them as much as they do. Tanisha saw why Alfred did not want to fight the one in the woods with just the three of them.
Skinwalkers lost access to most of their magic but not all. One of the magics they retained was the wendigo's natural magic of bodily strengthening called Mana Muscle Saturation. The ability was what Tanisha's own Chain Breaker's Mantle evolved from.
Tanisha assumed that the skinwalker had already been using the Mana Muscle Saturation until she felt it in the aura of the creature. The skin it had been wearing lost color looking like hanging human leather over a horrifying skeletal visage. Whatever magic the skinwalker had been using to keep the skin alive was diverted to its bones, tendons and muscles. The creature wearing the flesh of Herschel was just as surprised as Tanisha at its new found magical strength.
Shit, that is not good!
Tanisha realized quickly she was about to be in well over her head. The creature was already several times stronger than her physically. Now its strength would rival or surpass Thyra's and the only reason Tanisha survived her was Bjorn's poison. She needed to stay out of the skinwalkers grasp at all cost.
There was again a turn in the fight as Tanisha did not want to risk getting closer and instead she pelted the skinwalker with water missiles. She knew if the skinwalker grabbed her now it would kill her no question. The fight devolved into a deadly game of attrition in the street.
Tanisha dodged wild, but deadly strikes, while shooting the creature with water missiles. The effectiveness of her magic diminished now that the creature was strengthening itself and would do little more than shallow gashes. Even the Hard Air Constructs which had been latched on to the creature burning it constantly did nothing. She would have to slowly bleed the monster with a thousand cuts if she wanted to survive.
She was preparing to use Arcane Shift again to avoid a strike when the skinwalker's right arm fell off and hit the ground in a wet squelch. It was the arm Tanisha had bit, her venom caused the arm to rot to the point that the ligaments holding it together snapped. Leaving a blackened decomposed arm to die even while the creature itself fought. Black sickly blood flowed from the torn muscle and veins as the creature recoiled and wailed in pain.
Tanisha did not have time to think about what just happened as an arrow flew past her and stuck into the skinwalker's chest. Prana, chakra, and magic erupted all around her as the town guards finally made it into the battle. Tanisha teleported several times backwards to get out of the way of the guards who overwhelmed the weakened creature. The amount of attacks they threw at it made retaliation nearly impossible and while it was terrifyingly strong it most certainly was not skilled.
Tanisha stayed back but used her magic to continue to pile on damage from her water missiles and constructs. It took an additional ten minutes of hard fought battle between the guards and skinwalker for them to finally put the creature down. It seemed like the main reason it finally went down was because of Tanisha's venom more so than any other attack from the guardsman or Tanisha. The creature was little more than a blackened putrescent flesh pile by the time it finally died, but it went out kicking and screaming until its final breath.
"What the fuck was that?" one of the guards exclaimed.
Tanisha had not noticed just how many of them had shown up. There were at least a dozen all of whom participated in the subjugation. In addition there were at least two monster hunters one of which was the one that fired the first arrow. The other was the man Tanisha remembered guarded Robert's office with the boar spear.
Tanisha did not stick around to see what happened, instead she put the bardiche back in her inventory and used Arcane Shift in quick succession to get to Joha as fast as possible. She felt in the bond that Bjorn was still in danger; it felt like he was fighting his emotions all over the place. Tanisha knew that if it was another skinwalker she would not be able to handle it on her own although Joha likely could. As she reached the outside of the inn she was again tackled.
"Oh no you don't Tanisha," a female voice said as they rolled. "I can't have you alerting that tiger demon."
"What another one?" Tanisha said in surprise. "Let me go!"
Before Tanisha realized it she was in the air and landed on the top of a building. A person landed beside her when she realized she had been thrown. She quickly looked up at the person that landed beside her and aimed the water spheres in her direction. Before attacking she Identified the person.
Identify
Name: Adelheid Strider
Species: Werewolf
Level: 70
Vocation: Beastborn Berserker
Highest Stat: Health Regeneration: 272
"You're that wifwolf from earlier!" Tanisha said. "What do you want? Why are you keeping me from Joha?"
"That was an impressive fight with the skinwalker," Adelheid said, completely ignoring the question. "If that thing grabbed hold of you again you would be dead. I guess I shouldn't expect less from a Salstar should I Freja?"
Tanisha looked at the woman for a long time. There wasn't any hostility in Adelheid's tone or demeanor. She simply sounded like she was stating a fact. Tanisha decided that if this person somehow knew her by name despite her appearance there wasn't much reason in hiding her identity.
"I don't go by that name anymore," Tanisha said as she stood up, her gaze sharp. "Did Ingrid send someone to kill me already?"
"Ingrid? Your mother? Oh-boy, noble families are so strange if they would go out of their way to kill one another. No, I was not sent to kill you unless necessary and I definitely wasn't sent by your mother."
"Well I don't have time. Adelheid Strider."
"How do you know my na—" She stopped herself. "Not important. How about you have a seat?" Adelheid motioned to chairs positioned not too far from them. "I think we need to talk."
Tanisha pulled on her connection to Bjorn; he was still in trouble fighting something out there and she was not going to be stuck here. She looked around and she was again across the street from the Inn. She was on the farside of the building so there was no clear way to see Joha's room, but she could see her own. She was looking out for the other werewolf as she distinctly remembered there being two.
"I don't think so," Tanisha said.
"Don't do anything crazy. I would hate to have to kill you when things are finally about to be over."
"Do you have anything to do with the skinwalkers?" Tanisha asked accusingly.
"No. My clan would never do anything that would lead to one of your kind turning into one of those things. Honestly I am just as surprised as you that it was in town. I am here for you. Let's be honest with each other for a little while," Adelheid said as she took a seat. "I am sure the name Sabec rings a bell."
Tanisha continued to look around as if the name meant nothing despite being thoroughly interested. Sabec was someone she once thought of as a friend, but he turned out to be a lying snake that would have sold her and Bjorn off to slavery. He and his clan, a band of gnoll war merchants, were scum that traded in blood and lives. They took Bjorn and tried to take her and kill the Isi family before they had arrived at Lavi.
Bjorn killed everyone in that camp when he was consumed by the maya. Tanisha always wondered what happened to Sabec; they found a lot of bodies at the gnoll camp, but none of them matched the traitor. Tanisha assumed he was one of the ones that were burned to death and was unidentifiable.
"No point in trying to hide it," Adelheid said with a long breath. "We met him. He took us to the camp. We saw the bodies. The merciless killing of the old and the very young." She let the last word linger for a moment. "Did you do it? Did you walk into their nursery and kill them or did you have your familiar do it. Was murdering every other member of the pack not enough for you?"
"They did it to themselves." Tanisha turned around, her voice sharp as she faced the wifwolf. "Do you work for Sabec, are you part of his slave hunter lot? Did he tell you what really happened? How he and his mate tried to kill an entire convoy of civilians escaping from a Druid attack? Or how he kidnapped my familiar and placed a magic suppression collar on him that caused my familiar to go berserk and nearly kill himself to get back to me?"
"You're familiar that killed a tent full of kids?" Adelheid said coldly. "Do pardon me if I don't weep for you."
Tanisha knew the wifwolf was trying to get a rise out of her so she pushed the conversation along.
"So, he did send you?" Tanisha's voice was reserved, training in politics helped her not to show her emotion.
"Yes and no. He told us about you, he got a few details wrong, but your master is a shapeshifter so I guess he taught you a few tricks of the trade." She crossed her legs. "The old gnoll was a liar so we parted ways. He are probably in town somewhere, but we don't really care. He does have it out for you and honestly you probably deserve to die."
Tanisha could all but taste the hostility in the air as she spoke. "Why are you here?"
"Simple. To kill the abomination you call a familiar. Greater dragons, greater naga, and greater hydra these creatures can not be allowed to—"
Tanisha rushed forward and in the blink of an eye as she was throwing a punch toward the wifwolf. Before the strike could connect something locked around her neck. The cold feeling of a metal collar settling as she is yanked backward and falls to her back. She felt her magic constructs disconnect as they faded away. The Chain Braker's Mantle also lost power as the magic suppression collar fully activated.
Tanisha sat up confused as she followed the chain connected to her collar to the second werewolf she remembered from earlier. She reached up and touched the collar around her neck. She had been captured so easily they planned for the whole conversation to get her riled up and off guard. She turned back to the forest where she felt Bjorn's bond as he fought some unknown foe. She failed him.
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