The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage: Wandmaker Vol.2

WM [20] Werewolves

The forest was alive with various birdsongs. Not much had happened so far on Bjorn's solo hunting trip. The hydra had a brand new carrying harness which he very much liked. It had some metal plates which offered limited protection to his belly which was by far his most vulnerable area, as the scales there were the thinnest and most flexible.

The harness was primarily used for its storage; it had two tactical compartments on either side of his body which had a storage space powered by ambient mana. Each one holded up to sixty pounds and would reduce the weight of whatever was inside by seventy percent. Bjorn could easily place things inside, but taking things out would require more dexterous hands than he possessed. Something about having pockets cheered him up though and made him feel more human or in his case more nephilim.

He kept control of all three of his heads despite Failsafe's insistence on helping with the search. He wanted control of all of his senses for the hunt. During the inevitable battle with the crawlers he would, but he wanted to get better at tracking. Now that he had hunted the crawlers once he could recognize their scent and magic. After a few hours of travel he finally picked up the taste of crawler magic in the air.

"You know, now that we are away from everyone it is a good opportunity to see what your Aetheric Breath does," Failsafe said.

The breath attack that replaced his maya was one that neither he nor Failsafe knew what it did. The maya version strengthened his scales and gave him a boost to his attacks. For all they knew the aetheric version would do the same. However there was a chance that it would do something totally different and unexpected. Given the fact they are in a potentially monster infested area and those monsters could track them if they use too much magic at once he was against trying a power he didn't understand.

"If it comes to it we can. I don't want to attract more than we can handle," Bjorn said. "Monsters are drawn to magic and the crawlers can track us quite accurately when we use Poison Cloud. What if it acts as a beacon and brings who knows what our way?"

"Fair enough, just thought I would suggest something."

"It is a good idea, I should know what my abilities are and having a huge blank spot on potentially a new attack or defense as powerful as the Hellmouth is foolish. Can you bring up both the Hellmouth ability I lost and this new one really quick?"

"Sure."

Hellmouth (Excised Ability)
Your middle head can exhale all the maya stored in your body. This maya can be breathed in by your other heads to use maya-infused breath attacks. It can also enhance the durability of your scales and potency of your venom.

Aetheric Breath
Aether Cost: 15
I have know idea what this is or how it works. It replaced Maya Breath, but until you use it, I don't know what it will do. I recommend trying it when no one is around.

"Can you figure out anything else about the Aetheric Breath ability before I use it?" Bjorn asked.

"No. I can analyze it after the effect is used once. Although the use of other aether abilities might give me more insight into it if you are adamant in not using it. Studying the effects you experienced in your memories as Isin helps too. Although you didn't use Aether much back then from what we have seen so far, aside from studying it with your Aetheric Sight. The way the Angels used aether seemed almost as though it was just an inherent magic to them almost like animal magic to you now."

Bjorn was silent for a while as he trudged along the forest. He was careful to make as little noise as possible and his predatory instincts as well as his six eyes across three heads meant his spatial awareness was extremely high. Failsafe didn't rush him to respond, which Bjorn was thankful for.