Ashlani’s Reincarnation

As I’d already promised, I was going to ensure that Innervating Address evolved, and soon. I witnessed my people’s initial excitement melt away into fear and then desperation, but still, I didn’t come to their salvation. Instead, I watched the thrashing shadowy approximations of life and grimaced. From where I stood in the center of the city, atop my palace‘s roof, I could see their approach and then their arrival on top of the city's walls.

So far as I could tell, there were a dozen of the beast-like constructions, though I doubted I could call them creatures. Each was more an amorphous shadow where hooks, claws, and hands occasionally thrashed out. They obviously disliked the light that covered the walls, but the creatures, whatever they were, didn’t recoil at that light. Instead, it seemed to push them into a fury that made them lash out at the source of the light as well as whatever else moved in the surroundings. I watched as my people fell and died against the nearly unstoppable beasts, trying to stand their ground but forced to retreat.

“Do you have any idea what’s happening there?“ I asked Sybil.

“I do not,“ she answered, clacking her teeth together for emphasis. “Due to the form thereof, I would assume that these creatures have something to do with the Misti Hawar’s magic, but it is obviously more than a mere manifestation of their abilities.”

After a few seconds to think about it, I spoke.

“Before you say anything,” I said, “I’m not going to stay away until they’re killed. I’m taking time right now to allow my people to remember what the terrors of war can be, but I remain the spear of my people. I won’t stay here and wait for others to brave dangers when I can do so as their Zaaktif.”

She flared her frills and bowed her head in an admission of my point, but as I came to the decision to begin moving, she said, “Walk with care and slay those who dare to invade our land.”

I didn’t answer with anything other than a laugh, but instead, I strengthened myself with the Spear of the Many, doubling my stats before I drew deeply on my sonilphon and shouted, with Innervating Address filling my voice, “Fear not! Victory by fang and blood!”

With that, I carefully jumped from my palace roof to ensure I didn’t destroy it, but as soon as my feet touched the cobblestones before my palace, I rushed towards where the enemies were grouped en masse. As I approached, I could feel the moment in which my struggling fighters remembered my existence as well as the strength my existence granted them. They turned back towards the shadowy beasts and fought desperately, though their physical bodies struggled to do anything more than pass through the enemies’ tendrils. The enraged beasts, however, had no difficulty in making their attacks shred through Kha and Khatif defenses.

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I didn’t care to assist that same section of wall, instead trusting it to Took and going to the next closest overrun one. There, my people were rallying, but still losing the battle and handling. Other than the shadow beasts, I could see other, separate shadows that cut the tendons on the back of legs to cripple my people while they were distracted by the larger enemies. That lesson had been learned, and, in addition to Innervating Address, I continued to hum. I pushed more of my magic to my throat to create a general air of hostile magic to the Misti Hawar, and I saw guttering shadows all around both sides of the wall seem to freeze in the wake of my arrival. Instead of caring about the treacherous, furred intruders, I trusted the more mortal beasts to my people as I pulled my arm back and threw my spear for its inaugural strike.

The spear flew true, my hundreds of hours of practice guiding it into the center of the thrashing mass. What I hadn’t expected was the immediate, visceral reaction that the monster gave. When Took had made contact with the other, it had fought back and its screams seemed more like those of challenge. As the tisarite spear pierced into this one’s center, though, it wailed in agony while it seemed to consider escaping.

“That is my prey!“ I shouted as I leapt onto the battlements. My people spread around me, cheering in excitement as I declared the most troublesome foe nothing but another notch in my belt. With my continued presence, the Misti Hawar were slowly forced from their hiding places, and Wisterl was the first to throw herself at the nearest she could find. Her arms and chest were covered with wounds, each bleeding, though none so deep as to be life-threatening, but she did didn’t he hesitate to leap onto a particular mass of shadows. She screamed a challenge to them as I myself jumped into the thrashing shadow beast.

It struggled and shrieked as I drew closer, but something about having my spear lodged in its guts both forced it to collapse in on itself as well as to hold still. With my spear weakening it, it looked something like what I had once seen, an octopus. A bulbous head with many limbs sprouting from it, but it lacked that same cohesive shape, instead seeming only to try to separate itself from my spear. That same weapon that kept it trapped was plunged through its body and into the wall, and I could feel the weapon resonating with the sonic waves from my magic. While a part of me decided to look deeper into that resonance at a later date, I only cared to kill the creature as fast as possible.

With a fierce grin, I locked the scales in my left and right forearms in place, making each hand an impenetrable gauntlet. Then, with my prey trapped, I ripped its limbs free and tossed them towards a growing bonfire. Looking there, I saw Hala erupting with flame. Her fires immediately reduced the shadow beast’s tendrils to ash and smoke, and it squealed in agony as I continued ripping it to pieces. The limbs that I ripped free regrew again and again, but each one grew smaller and more slowly than the last until, after several dozen were burned to cinders, I could lift my spear with the center still remaining into the air.

My people squealed in victory as I held it aloft, and I sent a pulse of Destructive Wave through my spear to shred the last vestiges of magical darkness. Around me, my people rallied, and I watched the Misti Hawar respond to an invisible command to retreat, their shadows flickering back over the wall with my people continuing to rally to protect ourselves. Several seconds passed, and only the sounds of my people’s labored breathing filled the air. I allowed myself a smile and my people cheered as well as I did so.

While cheers filled the air, I checked my Status for the changes I’d just experienced.

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