The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage: Reincarnated as a Hydra

SS [12] What Friends Are For


"Happy Birthday!"

Fuyumi, Aurelius, and Ivoi said in unison, their voices echoing slightly in the metallic hush of the Xenobiology Lab.

The celebration was modest as all of their birthday celebrations had been. They were still inside a derelict facility surrounded by the threats of killer machines. Even so it felt good to have something to celebrate aside from the ever increasing kill counts. The usual clean surface of Ivoi's fabricator was currently buried beneath a celebratory spread: stacks of perfectly seared meats glistening with juices, and something else more unexpected.

Ivoi had gone out of her way to prepare something special: bloodwine and cream ale.

Tanisha blinked. "Wait—how do you even know about bloodwine?"

"I might've mentioned it," Fuyumi said with a shrug and a sly grin. "You only turn eighteen once."

"I remembered you saying that the wendigo were obligate carnivores," Ivoi said, proud as ever, "so I took the liberty of consulting the local databanks for a solution to your celebratory beverages. I may have also extracted relevant information from your biological profile. I don't recommend anyone but Tanisha drink the bloodwine. It will make you sick."

"Oh that reminds me." She clapped her hands. "I confirmed that you are indeed omnivorous although meat remains your primary dietary requirement. Your Cernunnos evolution has likely altered this part of your physiology. But you can enjoy fruit and grain-based substances as well. Like these."

She gestured to the gleaming bottles. The bloodwine shimmered a deep crimson-black under the lab's sterile lights. The cream ale had a milk-like look, beside them were all sorts of ales and wines.

"I thought you weren't allowed to make alcohol," Aurelius said, raising a brow as he inspected the bottle.

Fuyumi grinned. "You don't get to pour one glass today." She waved at Ivoi. "Tankard."

At her command, a heavy stein formed in Ivoi's hands with a quiet shimmer, the metal stylized with geometric Yuhian engravings. Fuyumi filled it to the brim and handed it over with a celebratory grin.

"To our little Tani becoming a woman today!"

Tanisha took it with a small, surprised smile, glancing toward Aurelius. He held his own cup, filled with a more amber-hued liquor, and offered her a quiet toast with a small nod.

"Thanks, guys," Tanisha said. "This has been a long journey. Tough. But—"

"Yes, yes, very emotional, very touching," Fuyumi interrupted. She raised Tanisha's tankard with one hand and planted a finger on the bottom. "Drink first, pontificate later."

Tanisha laughed and tipped the tankard back. The bloodwine hit her tongue like a memory, like the ceremonial drink she'd tasted when Sigrun named her the Fourteenth Princess. But this wasn't a sip. It kept flowing, and when she tried to stop, Fuyumi's finger nudged the base upward until Tanisha had no choice but to finish it.

She let out a long, satisfied gasp, the world pleasantly hazy, and the others erupted into cheers.

"See?" Fuyumi declared. "Wendigo are full of drama but they can hold their liquor."

Tanisha stumbled backward a step with a smile, setting the tankard down. "Alright, alright. I'm officially celebrating now."

Ivoi, without needing further instruction, dimmed the lights around the vivariums and turned on a soft pulse of colored lighting from the ceiling. There were reds and blues moving slowly like stars on water. Then she waved a hand and strange, rhythmic music echoed through the lab: deep, primal beats laced with high ringing tones like alien flutes.

"I took inspiration from several genres of music and rhythm that elicited the strongest emotional response in humans," Ivoi explained proudly, swaying with one arm in the air. "I believe this is 'party mode.'"

Fuyumi whooped and immediately pulled Tanisha toward the open center of the lab. "Come on, birthday girl! I didn't survive assassination attempts and a man-eating robot panther just to sit still."

They danced.

Tanisha was stiff at first, more accustomed to battle forms than celebration, but Fuyumi had already lost herself in the rhythm. She was practically half-floating, graceful in a way that made her look like she belonged to the music. Eventually, Tanisha loosened up, letting the sound fill her chest and limbs. Her footwork was a little wild, but that just made the others cheer louder.

Even Aurelius was eventually coaxed into joining. His dancing was even more awkward at first, but the alcohol helped with that. He stayed near the edge, bobbing his head, one hand still on the hilt of his sword out of pure habit. But when Fuyumi mock-twirled Tanisha toward him, he actually laughed and caught her, spinning her clumsily before she stumbled back to her dance partner.

Ivoi joined too, albeit in a strange mechanical interpretation of dance. Her movements were too precise, too fluid, like she had studied a dozen videos and was trying to replicate them all at once. Somehow, it was charming.

They danced until they collapsed in laughter.

Later, they sat on the floor surrounded by empty cups and a few smoked meat bones, warm and spent. The lab lights had softened to a warm orange, and the music faded into ambient echoes.

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For the first time in a long while, the dangers of the world felt distant. And for a night, just a single night, they let themselves be normal again.

***

Tanisha woke in the middle of the night and bolted to the bathroom. She fell to her knees in front of the bowl, clutching her head as she vomited. Her first hangover. Drinking had been fun, but this part sucked.

I need to make some hangover pills.

Once her stomach settled, she dragged herself to the sink, washed her hands, and rinsed her mouth. The water was cold, bracing. She lingered a moment, staring at her reflection before trudging back to the sleeping bags in Ivoi's lab.

Fuyumi was asleep, her form almost completely unmoving. The problem was that Fuyumi was the only one there. Aurelius was missing.

She looked at Ivoi, who silently pointed to the door. Her eyes followed, landing on the tall, slender shape of an elf silhouetted against one of the softly glowing tanks. Aurelius was leaning on a desk, staring into the containment glass at one of the monsters held in stasis.

She padded over to him quietly. He didn't seem to notice her approach until she jabbed his cheek with a finger.

"Gah!" he yelped, jerking upright. "Tani? You can't just sneak up on people like that!"

"I didn't, Speedy. I walked over quite normally," Tanisha said with a shrug. "But next time, I'll stomp for you. How about that?"

He gave a half-smile and turned back toward the tank. The creature inside was an ugly monster Tanisha had never seen in the chaos lands. It looked like an eel with hundreds of finger-like legs. She wrinkled her nose but hopped up onto the desk and sat beside him.

There was a long silence between them as she tried to look anywhere but at the monster in the stasis tube.

"Is everything alright?" Tanisha asked. "Did you want to be all dark and brooding alone?"

"What? No I am not brooding, just needed to walk around a bit and think." Aurelius said.

"You are leaning against a desk staring blankly at a monster in the dark." Tanisha said as she crossed her legs in a meditative position. "You need to talk, I am here."

He glanced at her, then lowered himself to sit more fully beside her. "I… it's just… What happens after this? We've made it this far. Say Bjorn makes it back and builds whatever it is we need to fix the core before it explodes. Then what? We wait, what, weeks? Months? Until it's safe enough to leave? And when we do, we'll be dragging a monster tide with us. I'm worried about my family, about the caravan. About my friends."

Tanisha nodded along although she didn't really have the same fears. A monster tide wouldn't be devastating to the wendigo, and her friends were back in the Salstar Domain safe from anything that could hurt them. But she understood. Joha was still out there. Bjorn was out there. She was worried about both of them.

"I don't know what happens when we leave either," she said. "But you have my word—I'll make sure your family's safe. You took this job because of me, and it turned into two years of survival. I still have to find my family, but I owe it to you to help find yours too."

She reached for his hand. "What else are friends for? Your family's going to be fine. As soon as we get to the Force Isles, I bet they'll be waiting, wondering how you got so freakin' cool. And then they'll see me and go, 'Ahhh, makes sense. He spent too much time with her.'"

He chuckled, "You're still drunk, Tani."

Tanisha groaned, "ugh, no… tipsy maybe, but I have a bad hangover. Sonr, protect me."

This time, his laughter was genuine, and it reached his eyes. Then Tanisha felt something wrap gently around her waist, his tail. Goblins used that gesture like a hug between kin. It stirred memories of Helina. Back then, Tanisha hadn't had a tail of her own.

She scooted closer, curling her tail around him in return. Then she leaned against his shoulder, eyes resting once more on the monstrous thing floating in the tank. It twitched slightly in its stasis field. Her stomach lurched and she gagged.

"Sorry. I'll be back," she muttered, and vanished down the corridor in a blink of Arcane Shift.

"Bathroom's the other hall," Aurelius called out.

"Thanks." She yelled back.

She blinked again hoping to make it before she threw-up again. She didn't.

***

Tanisha loved her new armor and it was performing well in the field test.

From a distance, it didn't look much different from the old one. It was a far cry from the original one she got from Ironjaw and she lost the infused metal she created even so this one was better in every way. Sleek and just as deadly in silhouette.

The color had changed from gunmetal grey to a deep navy blue that shimmered like the edge of midnight. Beneath the surface, though, it was an entirely different beast. The upgrades weren't just aesthetic but instead vastly improved cooling systems, more advanced detection, and most importantly, aether storage. It added a bit of weight, true, but the benefits were undeniable.

Now, instead of draining her own reserves mid-battle, the armor could be pre-charged with aether during downtime. That stored power gave her precious windows of reprieve for her magic draw. Twenty-four minutes at First Activation, twelve at Second, and six at Third. All without the usual strain on her body when the fight started. That meant she could really unleash her magic at full potency from the first clash without fear of exhausting herself.

Most fights didn't even reach the six-minute mark. The exception had been the S-19: a nightmare of stealth that had dragged the encounter far beyond normal limits before they'd finally cornered it. She'd reserved Third Activation for moments like that, but with this new suit, she could deploy it more freely, make it part of her regular arsenal. That mattered now more than ever. Time was becoming an enemy. The pressure was growing daily.

Every hour was accounted for: mornings and evenings locked in punishing training sessions in the ballistics range, followed by hunting androids and twisted machines of composite alloy, endless hours of aethertech instruction with either Laxy or Ivoi. Then sleep. Then again. Again. Again.

They hadn't faced another titan-class yet. The logic was simple: they were massive, dangerous, time-consuming, and worst of all they didn't extend the countdown ticking toward the facility's eventual annihilation. But that changed today. The next behemoth was up: S-17 Siegebreaker.

Tanisha was on reconnaissance making sure they fully cleared out the area of other robots before they got started. Her armor's sensors and magic perception pulsed around her in sweeping arcs. Arcane Shift kept her movement frictionless as she slipped through what was once a thriving district, now buried deep beneath the tomb that was Helmforað. The power plant loomed beyond a sealed blast door in the subdistrict's far edge, its reactors power hummed to the point she could feel it even from her distance.

S-17 was the problem they needed to solve first. It was far larger than the stealthy Shadowmaw. This was no assassin, it was a walking fortress, built for breaking cities, not hiding in them. She could only see part of the behemoth, a large cannon and some of its crab-like legs. But most of it was obscured behind the fortifications around the power district.

"All the other units are cleared out," she whispered to herself, crouching behind the remains of a fallen wall. "We've got a clear path."

She stared out into the abyss ahead, her visor dimming automatically to compensate for the distant flicker of aether from the rapidly overcharging power station.

"Tomorrow," she said, her voice firm as steel. "We start dismantling the Siegebreaker."

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