Hunting Death- Travelling Alone
#6 of Hunting Death
And we get to the first appearance of Mige's weapon, Anaelin. One of the unique defining characteristics of Mige's people is they all make a weapon out of their own blood (it's considered a rite of passage). And since their blood has a lot of additive properties as mentioned by Rophan in the last chapter, combining additive magic blood all from one individual to molten iron over a long period of time will create a weapon with special abilities that caters to how that individual is. As much an agent of chaos as Mige can be, they are a pacifist. So naturally, a weapon that suits a pacifist is a weapon that cannot kill. So before anyone asks, no, Mige did not kill the werewolf. Just made them fall asleep.
Travelling Alone
I act as if I am going to sleep as well for awhile while I pay attention to what Rophan is doing. When I'm confident that he's fast asleep I gather all my things as quietly as I can and set off, leaving him there all alone. Once I'm sure I'm outside of earshot I walk more casually but it quickly becomes clear that I won't be able to travel for too much longer without falling asleep. I take a breath and sigh before focusing all of my mind on casting a walking sleep spell and begin drawing it out in the ground using a stick as an implement. It's not a spell I particularly like using but it does have its uses. This spell allows me to travel without having to stay awake. It theoretically will wake me up if anything goes wrong but there's no guarantee that it won't walk headlong into a trap or try to climb up a mountain or down a cliff and once I wake up other than direction I'd have no idea where I am in relation to anything else. The other main drawback is that I will be a little drained of magic and won't be able to cast anything for a while once I wake up again.
I wake up the next morning shortly after sunrise, most of my body is fairly sore from the exertion. The sudden jerk of now having control over my body makes me trip over one of my legs and my jaw crashes into the grass. I look around and find myself in some sort of long grassy plain with the forest nowhere in sight. I sit and rest for a bit. I'm certainly not used to having had to walk for almost an entire day straight and my body is complaining considerably. I'll have to take it easy for the time being. As I sit and try and let my body relax a bit I notice that apparently the spell saw fit to do some hunting while I was asleep since I'm not currently hungry. I blink a few times at that realization since I didn't even realize that that spell could even do something like that. I hope that whatever it was that it had me eat was neither toxic nor something that'll get me into trouble later. I also realize something I hadn't thought of earlier. I have no idea where I'm going. If I was still travelling with Rophan he might have some idea of a town to head to. A town could mean a good day or two rest, a means to get some supplies and hopefully find some of the ones that'll help me stop my own death.
I do have a sort of faint impulse to head in one direction, as if something is drawing me towards it. At the moment it's very faint but considering I don't have anywhere better to go I decide to head towards it. It was a fairly lonely trek that day. As much as it was annoying how Rophan would talk incessantly it did alleviate the sensation of being on my own for the first time in my life. As far as I was able to see I couldn't see any trace of a single person anywhere near me. To be honest when I heard a strange howl in the night I was almost relieved. It sounded sort of like a wolf and yet at the same time it didn't. It was a much deeper howl with none of the elegant cadence of a wolf. It definitely put me on my guard and when the howls got closer I put down my pack and instinctively cry out at it, trying to grab its attention. I see a flash of motion to my side and more out of instinct than intent jump as much out of its path as I am able to.
"Anaelin," I cry out, hoping that I am able to use at least this much magic without the sensation defeating the purpose of the act as I draw quite a bit of magic towards the necklace around my neck.
I am rewarded by my efforts in two ways. First, from the lack of any discomfort from the act I know that I have fully recovered from using the walking sleep spell and more importantly I can both see and feel a warm glow coming from my necklace's pendant. As the creature heading quickly towards me starts to get rather close Anaelin finally comes out as my necklace transforms. The chain around my neck becomes a yellow-ish thick cord that is both durable and smooth enough to not rub the fur off my neck. The pendant extends into a long elastic cord, one easily longer than I could possibly cross in one good pounce. At the end of this cord is my weapon, a scythe slightly longer than I am, even with my tail included in that measurement. It has a fairly elaborate design to it, the head having several different segments to it and along the dull side of the curve is a string of runes with a pink blade below that. The bottom of the scythe is bladed as well, but that one is little more than a wide dagger.
When the beast gets into my striking distance I swing my neck back and with it the scythe moves back and circles my head. With a movement forward the scythe follows the motion of my neck and flies towards the large object heading towards me. I curl my head sideways a bit to make sure that it approaches the beast with the blade of the scythe open. When my scythe gets close I jerk my head to the side quickly and the scythe suddenly rotates, the blades moving in on the brute.
Showing that it is capable of at least some thought as well as proving that it is capable of bipedal motion as it raises up one of its forelimbs and blocks the blade with its own arm. Seeing the blade strike I grin slightly, especially since it also seems to have made the beast stop completely.
Now that it has stopped I can finally get a good look at what I'm dealing with as it apparently is doing the same thing. It's a big creature of some sort, that much I can tell. It seems to almost have predominantly canine traits but it doesn't look like any canine that I've seen, which isn't to say much given how little of the world I've been able to see. At best guess I'd say it's lupine in nature but I can't be certain. There are too many features that look nothing like what I'd expect. The teeth for starters are much too long for any canine, especially the long canine teeth. Its muzzle is shorter than a wolf's as well and the muscles are big and bulky which makes it all the more surprising at how fast it was able to move. It seems to be covered from head to digitigrade foot in a coarse black fur and is definitely male.
It makes the next move by grabbing the cord attached to my scythe, not even bothering to try and remove the blade from its arm and pulls hard. He being much bigger than I am I end up being carried off towards him. Having no control over my approach towards him I try and distract him by willing my scythe to extract itself and then strike again, this time in his back. I am lucky in the fact that the effect of my weapon has started to take effect as his pulling slackens enough that I can touch the ground again enough to jump to the side, the cord still wrapped in his hand. I make my scythe cut again in his back and when his grip on my weapon slackens I yank my head back and it cuts through his side and returns to me.
The beast stares at me with a rather groggy expression on its face, as if fighting to keep going but it is a losing battle. Not taking any chances I grab my scythe in my mouth and rush forward, the blade pointing outwards as I make a dive to have the scythe's edge strike his neck, finishing our fight.