Modern Mancy Pt 1

The pursuit of knowledge was central to Alexi’s life. For as long as he could remember, he would go to any lengths to attain more. Until recently, however, he had been bound by his duty as a spellsword for the central empires self-defense force. Military service was compulsory for his home land, and he was not about to burn bridges by refusing service, unless he had to, no Centralian would. So, he bided his time while he waited for the tenure to end. Now after more than five years, his power had grown but his hunger for knowledge wouldn’t be sated. Out on his own now, he had studied all he could in the libraries of his home, and he had to move beyond Centralian borders, well outside of his safe zone.

Alexi was slightly taller than average, his frame more lanky than muscular. His hazel eyes complimented his sandy brown, sweat drenched brow. Despite no longer being a member of the SDF, he retained some of the garments composed of advanced textiles and medium line tech; top of the line was reserved for active duty. The forest was endless, the path he was on, barely qualified for the name. It had been tough going, especially for one used to wide avenues and uniformly flat paving.

The miles of travel in the wilds were beginning to take their toll on his feet, despite wearing the most comfortable broken in shoes he had. After all, his feet hadn’t been through this kind of punishment for quite some time. Since his time as a LT on border patrol, 4 years ago, in fact. Sighing, he checked his watch, he hadn’t made the time he was hoping for, but he had time, and it was time to set camp for the night.

He found himself in a small clearing atop a small hill, a perfect overnight spot. He dropped his black overland pack and practiced hands unpacked his tent and utilities. Slowly he began to assemble the temporary lodging.

+++++

Pride life was about being as great as you could be, so that one could give the pride all the support it needed. This was in every aspect of life, and one could add to the whole with cooking, research, work, but until fully adult there was only so much you could do. One could not, for example join in the hunt, or the defense of the Pridevale until adult.

To that end, Khana’s first change, the entrance to adult hood, was fast approaching. Any night now, her body would be contorted and changed into the form of her inner beast. At once frightening and exciting, this grand occasion was not helped by the fact her younger friends had already had their first transition. It was so frustrating, especially for the one that had been the defacto leader and strongest of her peers.

For the fourth night in a row she would be spending the night just outside the Pridevale in the sacred glen of her pride. Her sisters of blood would stand guard over here first change, as the first left one most vulnerable. She sat atop a blanket covered hay pile wrapped in her favorite quilt and little else.

“Ungh, why can’t we do this at home, like you do?” she groaned at her mother, trying to get comfortable.

They were quite the pair, Khana almost twice as tall as the rest of her pride, she towered over her mother, though they did share long orange-red hair, pointy ears and almost feline features. Her mother had piercing blue eyes, and she had deep green eyes. Night slowly coated the glen in black velour as nightly insects called into the nocturne.

“Oh, my sweet little one,” Felishia stroked her daughter’s hair soothingly, “The first change, well, the first several really, are excessively violent. This is about not only your safety, but the safety of others. Trust me little one, it’s for the best.”

The night crept along and fog rolled in as frustration built up, “Unh, I’m older than Thania and Sasha, and the others. Why am I last?”

“Sweety, the stronger the transfigurer, the older they are on their first night…”

“Ungh, why can’t it just happen so I can get it over with?”

“You may be retarding the process by thinking too hard.” Felishia soothed, “How about you close your eyes and listen to me. Picture a forest full of fog, beside you a babbling brook…”

Khana did as told, and let her mother lead her through a calming meditation, even though she didn’t think it would work. Slowly the calm overtook her nerves, then suddenly, pain ripped across her whole body. As she growled in pain, she tried to open her eyes, but red coated her vision as pain continued to ripple across and distort her form. Quicker than she thought possible, the pain eased up as she got used to it, it wasn’t comfortable but... Things instantly got worse than before; bones disjointed, her skin threatened to rip itself off, and finally the pain knocked her out.

+++++

As he put the finishing touches on his campsite, the sounds of a struggle, though somewhat muted, cascaded through the forest. The sound while distinctly not animals, was animalistic, and Alexi was not aware of the political climate of the area. It was never a good idea to get involved in a dispute between two unknown parties, but so too was it ill advised to ignore potential threats. He knew he would have to get some knowledge of his surroundings before he turned in, so he gathered his equipment to scout around.

As he was alone, he would need to secure his site before proceeding. To ensure his bivouac was left undisturbed in his absence, he would have to leave behind a glamor. A glamour was a simple camouflage technique that could hide almost anything from prying eyes. Like any other charm (something you make), curse (something you do to a living thing), or spell (something you cast), a glamour needed a power source and means of controlling it. Both could come from the caster, or suitably prepared device. In this case the technological prowess of the Central Empire provided both.

It was a simple device of matte black gun metal with a few spherical gems mounted on it. He turned the device on, checked its power level, enough to last a few hours, and set it down on his mini table. After setting up the distortion level and radius he started off to the source of the disturbance.

After exiting the affected area, he turned back to check how the charm was holding up. As he knew what he was looking at, and that he set it up, he could see the outlines of this camp, but it was strong enough to hold up to passing scrutiny, a fine low level charm. Satisfied with the subterfuge, he moved on. As he stepped away, he activated a similar charm on his wrist to hide himself during his recon.

Almost immediately the hairs on the back of his neck began to quiver, “That is more than my aura rippling, there’s a static glamour here, old almost natural…” he realized, as he reached out with his higher senses.

The subtle field cascaded over him as he took in his surroundings. It was an old magic, simple magic. Many paths crisscrossed, this was a heavily traversed area. As he crested a small hill he found it: a hidden village being ripped apart by powered armor wearing thugs.

The village blended almost seamlessly with the surrounding forest. Doors and windows intermingled with tree trunks, vines, rocks, and the other recesses of the land. Even without the glamour one would be hard pressed to find the domiciles.

The denizens of the area were short red haired women with vulpine attributes. Their resolve in combat made up for their smaller stature against their enemy. They fought with their all, like any would with their home in jeopardy. Though there was only so much one could do against a superior foe. While there were a few men with matching characteristics, they were the clear minority. The residents, in natural fibers and furs fought with men in black advanced composite armor, some of which appeared to be powered armor.

The aggressors were quick, ruthless in their attacks. Having advanced technology, the numbers the residents had were a mere nuisance. They efficiently cut down the resistance, brutal in their tenacity.

“Could it be?” He asked himself, “Yes, their MO is obvious, Black Bolt mercs.”

The Black bolt mercs, BBM, were well trained and well organized, though they tended toward zealosism. While referred to as mercs, they were by most accounts a group of tight knit people that believed in continual improvement, they believed in extreme survival of the fittest, that is to say, they lived to challenge themselves as much as possible and thought nothing of the dead. To die of old age, to them was an insult, death in battle was the pinnacle of the warrior aspect of their group. Though those that weren’t warriors were still expected to hold their own in a fight, while at the same time pushing the edge of science and technology.

There was a time when the Central Empire had employed this over eager troop. But after too many infractions of the charter of civilized combat, they had not only been dismissed from the Empires service, they had been banned from the Empire itself. As the Central Empire had a live and let live philosophy, the current whereabouts and doings of BBM were unknown, at least until now.

He spied a lone gunmen in the middle of the stream making pop shots at some residents, and started toward him. During an active confrontation, his scout’s class glamour charm would be of little use, so he augmented the simple charm with a spell of his own as he silently slipped into the village. As he slipped towards his first target, he slowly withdrew his wakasashi. With a few steps to go, he cast a spell of charming flame and the blade erupted with the faint yellow green of his aura. This was more than a simple flaming weapon now, its flames would now feed on victim’s own aura, a frowned upon casting, but for BBM he was willing to make an exception. Especially seeing as how he was critically out numbered.

As a merc exited a domicile, Alexi slapped up the barrel of his rifle with this hand, eyes still on his intended target. The trigger was pulled, the gun went off, but in the heat of the battle the others failed to notice the report. The merc could not see though the glamour so it was a quick fight of a few left-handed blows as Alexi shifted his focus before the coup-de-gras that ended the merc’s career. Flames licked the corpse, but the dead produced no aura and the left overs were quickly extinguished.

He carefully relieved the man of most of his equipment, the little he could take and still be combat effective. Even though he knew he couldn’t brandish the weapons of the men trying to decimate the village wildly, he knew that having a fire arm could be critical in the bout. And so, he quickly put on a pistol holster, holstered the piston and slung the rifle over his back and slipped on.

Alexi was highly trained and quite powerful. Confidently he strode the battlefield, his glamour shielding him from most enemies as they were not looking for something like him. Undetected he made it to his next victim and stomped violently on the back of his knee. Clearly surprised, he none the less managed to use the force of the blow to roll and turn to shoot at where his attacker should be. Alexi had moved in anticipation of the retaliation, and rushed the merc. As his glamour was low powered and the merc was hopped up on adrenalin, and obviously better trained than the first, he managed to detect Alexi and the tussle was a bit more intense. Alexi attacked with his blade, the merc blocked with his rifle, all the while trying to get a bead on the vapor in front of him. The longer it took to take this man out, the more likely it would be that he was detected by another.

A lucky blow cracked the control crystal of his glamour charm gauntlet on his right hand, and the subterfuge dropped. Knowing he didn’t have the reserves or skill in glamour to hold on to it unassisted, he let it go and focused the newly free mana to barrier spells, something he was so practiced in he could hold one almost indefinitely, under the right circumstances, to protect against stray bullets. Now able to see his enemy, the merc fought harder, but was soon taken down by Alexi’s superior skill.

A glancing shot to his side told Alexi another had found him. He turned to see it was actually two. They popped off a few more shots with their pistols before holstering their guns and drawing blades of their own. It may seem counter intuitive, but as blades had a better chance of getting though barriers. The reason was that they had more mass and traveled slower, giving a phycological boost to piercing that bullets just didn’t have. Drawing the pistol with his left hand, Alexi found the marauders had their own defensive barriers and his gun was just as useless as theirs were. With smiles they began double teaming him with their blades and newly drawn friction lock batons.

Sometimes a fight is more about wearing down one’s opponent as opposed to beating them out right, especially if you had numbers against skill. The trio traded blows, Alexi expertly deflecting and dodging the attacks of the others. As the commotion continued they attracted the attention of the rest of the brigade. Now that they had a worthy adversary, the villagers were left to their own devices, and thus allowed to regroup. Now in an extremely unbalanced combat, Alexi began to take blows, but he also managed to give more than he received. He managed to get behind one of his attackers and slit his throat, his aura instantly igniting. Now crazed and in pain he scurried about the field igniting in turn anyone he happened upon until he succumbed.

As this was going on Alexi blocked, sliced, and cast the most aggressive spells he could without depleting his reserves needed to hold the barrier around him. The clash of blade and bludgeon punctuated the lightning, fire, and ice from all sides that began to cover the area. Though he hadn’t fought passed the wall in some time, Alexi did manage to power through and finally snapped the neck of his last nearby foe.

“Damn, they have been practicing.” He panted, “But what the fuck do they want here?”

Rather than getting an answer, all he received was a blow to the head. Years of training and a strong sense of self-preservation took over. He dropped and rolled while he drew the handgun and took a few shots at where his enemy should have been, he missed. Even stretching out all of his senses he was unable to detect his aggressor, even as he took another blow to the face, knocking hi`m face first into the creek.

“That’s at least a class IV glam-tec,” He realized, “Probably has an optics bending array too. That is highly experimental tech.”

He struck blindly trying to land a blow, but this must have been a decently trained adversary. Rather than attack specific targets like one was supposed to, he had to result to less powerful area of effect attacks, while at the same time avoiding unseen strikes. He managed a few hits, but he was rapidly declining in energy.

“Outsider!” Called a voice from his right, “You may have better luck with this.”

The small woman tossed a long stick in his direction but it was deflected by the unseen. The staff was a long oaken rod seemingly inlaid with precious metals, at one end were some gemstones that looked like the wood had grown around. Hoping that it was something extremely useful, he dove after it. As soon as he touched it, a rush of energy, like a static charge, engulfed him.

“Whoah, old magic artifact.” He marveled, “I hope it knows I’m trying to help its people.”

The length of the staff allowed him greater reach allowing better chances of hitting his foe. The rod seemed reluctant to take in his mana and act as the focusing implement it was designed to be, but it did appear to want to take down the threat. Alexi’s focus was slightly elevated, he was now able to partially discern an outline of his enemy. But he was still getting his ass handed to him, even with some of the villagers managing joining in.

Even in the best of circumstances, many on one could be more dangerous than one on one, as one had to be wary of friendly fire. But when your allies were more unknown than your enemy, it was a potential catastrophe. Even as they focused on the invisible threat, there were other members of BBM that continued to cut at the edges. The villagers worked well together, covering each other’s rears, they even managed to retake some ground.

“I don’t know if you can hear me, or even if you can understand,” he called out blindly to the villagers, “Combating an optically negative opponent can be aided by light fog. I don’t have the capacity to fend off these attacks and concentrate enough to build a mist. If you can do it would be extremely helpful!”

As the villagers were working in concert they could share the mystic load of calling forth a light fog. This tactic was a tricky endeavor, as too little coverage and nothing would emerge, too much and the point would be moot. Amazingly, they both understood his request and were able to comply. A cool mist issued from the river and covered the vale with just enough vapor that the outline of the invisible aggressor was distinguishable.

Now that the amazons were compromising his cover, the enemy devoted more attention to them, giving an ever so slight edge to Alexi, who was finally able to score a few blows. With each successful hit, the accumulated damage to the suit allowed more to be seen. Attrition was not kind with the amazons, they were dropping like flies. As fewer villagers were available to maintain the screen, the fog dissipated, and more attention was focused on Alexi, though the damage to his suit was done.

The final moments of the fight were something to behold, but it was too little to late. With a final coup-de-gras, the partially visible fighter disarmed Alexi and knocked him to the ground.

“You are skilled, Centralian.” The man congratulated as he removed his helmet and disactivated the suit, “I however have no quarrel with you, despite your people’s shortsightedness, I have moved beyond that. No Centralian would be out here unless there were some kind of disagreement with your government. I could use a man of your skill.”

Alexi was in a pinch, while the man above him was tired, he was beaten, and would stand little chance of winning. His only choice was to stall and hope something presented itself, or perhaps he could convince the other to let him go…

“Why would I help you slaughter innocents?” He panted trying to summon healing energy.

The BBM leader could tell what Alexi was doing and started siphoning off the healing mana Alexi was trying to use, but only the healing energy, he legitimately had no quarrel, but could not let the enemy heal before he could be certain a blade in his back was not in the near future.

“The carnage was, unfortunately, secondary to my main objective. You see, they have, items. We need and they would not share.” He shrugged, matsakatsu was BBM’s mantra, “Look, we’re both adults, and human, these cre… people are not. I have a pourpose and you could share in that. I am not so obtuse to decree that there are only allies or enemies, but you do know what we do to enemies. I wont let you heal until I know your answer.

Alexi had many spells to supplement healing and had been cycling through them slightly to fast for the other to siphon. But now the other was getting weary. He engulphed Alexi in a parasitic aura that would consume any activated aura to make itself stronger, Alexi could no longer risk casting.

“That’s no ordinary spell…” Alexi grunted as the pressure on his psyche eased, “How are you doing this?”

“Join me, and you can learn.” He put on a bit more pressure to make his point, knowing the survival instinct was the best way to gain new acolytes of powerful people, “I am certain you will find the ends justify my means.”

Knowledge, especially about new, different and previously unknown abilities, knowledge, and capabilities, could change Alexi’s mind about helping this man. He could learn about the other’s skill, regain his health, and bring them down from within. But what if he lost himself. Desperation was about to make the decision for him.

Just as he was about to concede defeat, a flash of red shot from the woods directly at the merc’s throat. As the two forms struggled in the water that was changing to the color of wine, the pressure on Alexi dispersed completely. He gratefully put forth some concentration to heal and consider the turn. The red form turned out to be a giant were-fox, almost as big as he was.

The fact this beast had so easily taken him down showed that the merc had been closer to falling than Alexi thought, though he knew he could not have taken him anyway. The struggle was short and the corpse began to float down the river as the were turned on Alexi.

“Oh shit!” He knew he was in no condition to take on a fully raged were-fox in berserk mode, “It's okay, sweetie, I’m not here to hurt you or your family…” he tried to calm the beast with good vibe beast trick spells.

The spells did not work, in fact it looked like the beast was getting more pissed. It slowly inched toward him snarling and hissing. Alexi backed slowly away hands out, palms down, “It’s okay, I’m leaving… SHIT!!”