Brace For the Wolves

by Nathan Thompson

  “I'll take it,” I suddenly said. “I need a second wolf inside me anyway.”

  The tiny wyrm cocked his head at that statement.

  “The parable of two wolves,” I replied. “I already have a wolf in me, or traces of him, that wants to kill, steal and destroy. I need a better wolf to help me battle him.”

  Agreed. Then, I, Vinclum of Honor and Bonds, do hereby form a brotherhood of soul with Wes Malcolm.

  “I, Wes Malcolm of Earth and Avalon, do hereby form a brotherhood of soul with the dragon Vinclum.”

  We hereby bind under the common cause written within both of our hearts. To protect...

  “And prevail,” I finished.

  Something rushed out of my chest and into the tiny dragon's. And something rushed out from his breast to slam violently into and through my ribs.

  I heard snarling inside, as remnants of something violent and terrible had to make way for something else violent and terrible, and my body shuddered.

  With this bond I offer the knowledge of dragons to the Earth-born. Let him cast off the restraints imposed by false councils. Brace yourself, mighty Malcolm.

  My muscles twitched and quivered all over. New knowledge poured into my brain. Fire. Ice. Light. Darkness. Earth. More fire. Blood. And something else I could not name.

  Vinclum grunted in front of me, and I could feel as well as hear the sound.

  You dare, Pain's voice sounded inside of my head. After all of the other blasphemies—

  Enough, Vinclum's voice overran Aegrim's.

  Pain quieted.

  And just like that, this became the greatest deal ever.

  Furthermore, Vinclum continued. Honor your pact.

  You seek to lecture me? Pain snarled back.

  Power is owed to him. The covenant will be enforced. I will not permit you to enforce it in such a way that limits him, as you tried to do before. He has been wronged enough. Give him his due now, that he may master his power in place of it mastering him.

  The twitches in my muscles became quakes. The knowledge in my head became epiphanies.

  Suddenly the magic I had been using in the past, with everything save Lightning, felt simpler, easier.

  Lightning felt as if it could become something else, but not yet.

  Especially the Ideal of Fire, which I had just now realized I had somehow always known.

  He cannot have it all! Aegrim snarled. We are cosmic beings! He is beneath us!

  You know full and well that his lineage is at least as exalted as our own, Vinclum argued firmly. Or have not enough ancients paid the price for underestimating the Earthborn?

  I don't care how nostalgic you are about his race! He cannot handle either my power or yours!

  He will, in time, Vinclum replied calmly. He need not unlock it all at once. You will see.

  No! Pain insisted. He will break!

  No I won't, I thought back at both of them. Finish this. I have work to do.

  Fine, Pain snarled. Suffer and break like the small thing you are!

  My vision went white again.

  Then it swirled with colors, and memories.

  Two giant beings the size of planets battled one another, one gold, one scarlet, fighting for dominance in the depths of space. Armies clashed on all the worlds nearby, with forces thick enough to be even seen through atmospheres. The scarlet being fell, and was bound with light as he plummeted.

  But even as voices on every nearby planet rejoiced in victory, the golden being was struck from behind, and fell as well, grappling his enemy as they both tumbled toward a blue planet nearby. Then the vision jumped to other battles, to other wars, and other feats of magic or engineering. Nations were raised and torn down by smaller beings, with histories too complex for me to grasp in the brief glimpses I had of them.

  Power, a voice said from inside my flesh.

  Might, another answered from a different muscle on my body.

  Birthright, something said as it swam along my veins.

  Hope, something said inside my soul.

  I grasped at the pain currently wracking through my body, imagining it as a fabric tearing through my muscles, veins and soul. I ripped and pulled at it, directing it to where the weight rested inside of me. Then I wrestled with it, wrapping the fabric of pain around the weight resting on my soul and inhibiting it, until I had managed to add the pain to the weight's mass. Then I tried to process the pain further, ensure I hadn't missed any. But too many memories flashed by, and I knew without a doubt that I had more pain in me than what I had managed to grasp. Oh well, I thought. It would have to do for now.

  Clutching the pain tightly around the weight that would prevent me from Rising, I heaved, lifted...

  and pushed.

  What... Pain mumbled, confused.

  Do not act surprised, Vinclum derided. Did you expect him to only sow, and not reap? This is your doing.

  My muscles bulged.

  He was supposed to be broken! Aegrim, or Pain, insisted. Broken so that his Other could take over, and bring me kingdoms!

  My skin reddened, very faintly, and then bronzed by the smallest of hues.

  No, Vinclum growled. He was never meant to be broken. He was meant to be great. Powerful. Victorious. It should be no surprise that he has thrown off your designs.

  Wind began to whip around me. My knuckles hardened faintly, but still noticeably.

  No! I refuse to believe that a sick, frail ape-child could ever defy me! Desist and bow down!

  I did no such thing. Fire crackled around my fingertips. I felt their nails thicken and sharpen by a single degree.

  You are nothing! You are an accident of genetics and timing! You are a mistake began hundreds of years ago! Stop this farce and give back the power you are unworthy to wield!

  My teeth itched again, and then hardened. They finally felt like they fit me now, and I knew that I would keep them even if I grew fangs over them again.

  Water began to condense around me in red droplets, the fire on my palms notwithstanding.

  Pain gnashed his teeth in my mind but said nothing more.

  My feet sank into the ground, made heavier by my gained muscle mass.

  Earth rose out from between blades of grass, specks of it dancing in the wind that now encircled me.

  From another corner, Vinclum chuckled in my mind.

  Lightning crackled in the air, ran along my wrists, crawled up my neck.

  And then I let out a roar.

  Debris flew away from me, missing all of the still and silent people around me and slamming against the low-hanging rock walls. Mist whirled again, and this time the Avalonian in me listened to it, and sang back at it. But that noise was only a background buzz compared to the might of the two beasts sharing their anger with me.

  “RHODES!” my widened maw boomed. “CAVUS!

  “MALUS! RAW-MAW!

  “I'M COMING FOR YOU!”

  Chapter 14: Tremble, Little Dragon-Man

  The power raging around me settled down. My nails and teeth both shrank back down, though not completely. My new tan remained, just a hair darker than I was before.

  You have killed him, Vinclum, Aegrim mumbled, still in disbelief. You have killed our host. And you do not even understand how.

  I shook my head, adjusting to all the tiny changes in my body. Everything felt right but one thing, one thing I couldn't place. Everything else inside me felt just perfect, felt like I had finally straightened out a hundred different kinks in my back and muscles and brain, but one small thing still felt horribly wrong. And I couldn't quite place it, no matter how much it screamed inside.

  You think you have risen him to the highest of places, Pain snarled inside. You think you have exalted him.

  I have done no such thing, Vinclum answered calmly.

  I looked and saw the tiny dragon still hovering in front of me.

  Tell me how you feel.

  “Really good,” I answered honestly. “Almost perfect. Just a little... off though
, if that makes sense.”

  It didn't. But Vinclum understood.

  Both feelings will intensify as you continue to Rise. You have a long road ahead of you.

  “So this is your help?” I asked. “Make me super-powered? Because I feel like I could take on Cavus right now.”

  I have done no such thing, and you are still unready for battle with any foe at the level of an Umbra. Especially the one you call Cavus. You have merely undergone a normal Rise, and done so with the removal of but a fraction of the many restrictions placed on your race long ago. An Earthborn of old with but a single Rise to their name could still break you in half over his or her knee.

  “That really doesn't explain the new teeth and super-calcium fingernails,” I answered carefully.

  Again, your kind once formed even stronger bonds with brethren beasts and brethren races. I attempted to only awaken the amount of power you could handle. And it was still too much. Check your mind-screen.

  I screwed my eyes shut and tried to once again open my handy messaging service. This time it worked.

  The Challenger has awakened a restricted flesh bond with a Beast of Power. Beast of Power is the Dragon of Affliction, the Blood and Fathom-type Linnurm Aegrim. Bonding with a Linnurm-class Dragon grants the Challenger an enhanced body and nature, granting him an additional point of Strength, Constitution, Intelligence and Charisma per Rise. The Dragon's natures of blood and the fathomless depths provides Innate comprehension of the Ideals of Fire, Water, and Earth. The Challenger will also gain an understanding of the Ideal of Darkness if he continues to advance his Flesh-bond. Any Ideals already at an Innate level of understanding will instead gain a free advancement of one skill point per Rise or Descent. This benefit is retroactive.

  Then the mind-screen finally acknowledged a change that happened in my last battle.

  The Challenger has acquired an Innate understanding of the Ideal of Fire. Fire is the domain of heat, passion, and swift bursts of intensity. An Innate understanding grants the Challenger an initial and constant increase to Strength, Dexterity, and Charisma. Over time the Challenger will notice a further improvement to their Speed, fast-twitch muscles, and a strictly beneficial improvement to one's metabolism, in both their projected and original bodies. The Challenger further performs fire-based magic to greater effect, and also receives a significant resistance to fire-based magic as well as a slight resistance to heat in both bodies.

  Most of that news was great. I needed every scrap of power I could get, and I couldn't pretend otherwise. But the word 'retroactive' explained the uneasy feeling I had been having. I now knew I was gaining knowledge that passed my Risen level, and while I was handling the changes in Traits well, I knew what the increase in magical skills was going to do to me.

  “I'm about to have a really bad headache again, aren't I?” I asked my tiny cosmic friend.

  No. You are about to have a cerebrum-shattering experience best compared to the shifting of planetary tectonic plates. I am sorry.

  My mind-screen blinked with new text.

  The Challenger and a beast of power have formally recognized their kinship of spirit with a Soul Bond.

  Beast of Power is the Dragon of Honor and Bonds, the Orichalcum and Zenith-type Sunwyrm Vinclum. Bonding with a Sunwyrm-class Dragon beast grants the Challenger an enhanced body and nature, granting him an additional point of Strength, Constitution, Wisdom and Charisma per Rise. The Dragon's natures of fire-refined gold and the exalted heights provides Innate comprehension of the Ideals of Fire, Water, and Air. The Challenger will also gain an understanding of the Ideal of Light if he continues to advance his Soul-bond. Any Ideals already at an Innate level of understanding will instead gain a free advancement of one skill point per Rise or Descent. This benefit is retroactive.

  It was probably a bad way to handle the experience, but I told myself that the pain I was about to suffer was my own fault. By now I knew that bad things happened whenever I read my mind-screen. It wasn't necessarily true, Stell had explained to me at one point. I would have felt the consequence of the change at some point anyway. Reading the mind-screen just helped me become aware of my body's changes faster, and by noticing and feeling them sooner I was actually helping my body get through the experience.

  But right then, feeling like the experience was my fault gave me a sense of agency, and in an odd way, empowerment. I still shouldn't have done so, and I definitely don't recommend it as a coping mechanism for anything but headaches, but at that time it was the solution I went with.

  At any rate, the earthquake-level pain Vinclum had just alluded to came on then and there. I have no idea what I did because my vision turned to white snow with red dots. But I could still hear, both within my mind and outside it.

  I told you this would kill him, Asshole Dragon Number One (or ADNO, for short) spat.

  And you were wrong, said Asshole Dragon Number Two (or ADNT, for short). Though I regret his agony. He has already suffered too much.

  Statements like that are the reason the first war began, Vinclum, ADNO said snidely. Mortals can never suffer enough.

  And uttering such heresies show your de-evolution, Aegrim, ADNT retorted. There is no such thing as 'mortal.' You would do well to read their true names and know them. They are written on the heavens above our own, and in easy view.

  I had forgotten how much harder talking with you is than trying to kill you, Vinclum. It is fortunate that the boy will soon die and rid me of the both of you. For all of your vaunted wisdom, you still forget the de-evolution of his own race. Not even his ability to Rise will allow him to surpass his overtaxed limits. In fact, in this instance it works against him.

  It would, ADNT agreed, save for his one remaining hope. Awaken, Time, and resume your local course.

  You are ending the compression? ADNO asked. Why?

  My physical ears heard a hum. I still had no sight beyond the red-and-white wall in front of me.

  But my pain decreased by the smallest of fractions.

  “Hurt!” a voice said near my feet. “Heal! Heal! Di-rec-tive! Heal! Wake!”

  “Guineve?” a tired, high-pitched voice asked.

  “Breena,” a tense, motherly voice answered. “Help me. Wes is still hurt.”

  “Help! Heal! Di-rec-tive!”

  “Yes, you can help too, little one. Breena, I need you to use your familiar's link to examine his mind.”

  “On it!” my fairy friend said confidently. “That's actually easier now. I'll tell you why later but for now I'll oh my gosh it's like an overstuffed spaghetti and berry pie that glows and sparks! Guineve, we need more help!”

  “I'm trying, dear. Just stay calm and use your Water and healing magic.”

  “I'm trying, Guineve, but I don't! Have! Enough! And neither will you!”

  “Care? Heal?” the little voice asked.

  “By all means! But I don't think it will work! We'd need a whole bathtub full of you little happy heal-balls just to get one of these veins of magic under control! Guineve, don't let him twitch the wrong way or we'll have a magic noodle bomb go off!”