Call of the Waylanders

L. Another Round of Magic

Isabel whistled. "How did you do that?" she asked her elder.

"Well," Alphonse explained, "You see, I increase the density of the air around me, then create a narrow path of oxygen through which I can fire this Flame Alchemy directly at a target. you heard the popping sound, right? That wasn't me snapping, that was simply the fire. How do I get the fire? Well, I rub the fingers on my gloves together, creating friction, and hence, fire. It's complicated, but very powerful once you get the hang of it."

"Can you use Strong Arm Alchemy with those gloves that you wear?" 

"No, I need the gauntlets, which I have in my bag, but I left my bag at the tent." A pack of matadors drew too close, so Alphonse combusted them without a second thought.

"Do you want me to show you something amazing?" Isabel suddenly remembered. Alphonse seemed confused, but he was more curious than whatever he was thinking at the time. 

Isabel had been re-writing the Runes that originally covered her, and she had been adding more as time went on. Of course, when she had originally begun her restoration, she remembered her favorite Rune: her Wolf Transformation Rune. Now, one would wonder: what did a Wolf Transformation Rune do? Well, if one were to wonder that, one would also be extremely stupid, because Runes were always given straightforward names, and anyone who didn't understand them either didn't deserve to have a working brain or was a small child.

The Wolf Transformation Rune, as it would turn out, allowed Isabel to transform into a wolf. To a type of person mentioned above, that may have come as a surprise, but to even the average layman, that sounded like quite the power to have. And it was. Well, one thing had to be known: Isabel didn't quite become a wolf. She was human, after all, and she couldn't be a wolf if she was human. The solution, of course, presented by Runic magic, was that Isabel should just become a Wolf Human. This solution worked splendidly, and Isabel had used it many times before.

Isabel touched her hand to the Wolf Transformation Rune, and fur promptly began to cover her. Her fingers extended into claws, and she grew two feet within a second. Her face enlarged into a snout, and her ears grew into large pointed things. New smells emerged into her nose, and higher sounds emerged into her ears. She grew a tail, and finally, her toes grew into claws as well, her shoes disappearing with the rest of her clothes and human body. Aside from a simple tunic hanging from her shoulders, Wolf Humans didn't need any clothes.

Isabel, with her long tongue, licked her dagger-like fangs, then howled. Each matador in the area turned their attention to her, and Isabel returned the favor. After a few seconds of hesitation(after all, that was a Wolf-Human they were going to fight), the matadors charged Isabel. 

They didn't stand a chance against Isabel, who had had much practice as a Wolf Human. She slashed the first matador that came near her, cleaving straight through their armor. Once her claw left the matador's body, Isabel discovered that there was a core skewered on her middle claw. No problem; Isabel just crushed it against her other paw. One down, so many more to go.

Luckily, there was another Grand Magician in the fray: Alphonse Harlow, the Grand Warlock. He would send streams of fire that combusted on hit at any matador at Isabel's back, and Isabel would cleave off all the limbs of anyone at her front. Isabel even punched once, denting the armor of her victim. That attack was followed up by a bite in the head, which, with some assistance from her large claws, pulled off the head of the matador. The bull that that matador had been riding looked fearfully up at the Wolf Human standing above it, and the Wolf Human devoured that bull's head, as well.

Isabel suddenly smelled a wonderful smell. It was the smell of a weakened enemy. Isabel followed it and found a wounded matador surrounded by many of his allies. The wounded matador stayed helplessly on the ground, but his allies took up their lances and charged Isabel fearlessly.

Isabel had spent so much time as an immortal being that couldn't be touched that she didn't even remember how much matadorian lances could hurt. 

Unfortunately for her, she was reminded at this time.

The lances, to Isabel's surprise, pierced her Wolf Human flesh, the force of the matadors' impact knocking her down on the ground.

"Now is the time for you to fell pain!" one of Isabel's attacker's vengefully cried as he and his partners repeatedly impaled Isabel. 

Isabel had never felt so much pain in her life. She cried out even though her Wolf Human form was so much stronger than the original, the matadorian lances striking her again and again.

A third time. A fourth time. A fifth time. A sixth time. The pain was overwhelming Isabel, and she didn't want any more of it. She felt her life fading away, but she was saved by a burst of flame that knocked the enemies away from her.

"Quick! Change to your human form, and you will be saved!" Alphonse cried out as a large stone thing, the large stone thing from before, swung its now-extended arms at the enemies that had been attacking, knocking them away yet again. Isabel cleared her mind, then focused on changing back. She didn't want to feel the pain of this form again; she wanted to be human once more.

The snout fell into a face. Her tail disappeared, and she shrunk two feet. Her claws turned into human fingers, and her clawed feet became her shoes again. Her fur disappeared, and her tunic transformed into the clothes she had been wearing. The great wounds she had borne just moments ago were eliminated.

Isabel called her Twister Staff, and it came flying from where she had dropped it when she transformed. She grabbed it in mid-air, then turned and fired a Milia Sagittarium, or Thousand Arrows, at the matadors behind her, firing a thousand missiles made of light at that exact spot, which finished off her attackers and killed many more of their allies.

"Stella Tormento!" was her next spell, the spell also called Star Cannon. A large blast of light that shot forward and didn't stop until it hit the mountains in the distance. Isabel winced as soon as she had fired it, hoping she hadn't hit any Rangers or magicians. Stone soldiers, being immune to magic, would be fine if they were hit by the beam of obliteration that left holes in the bodies of the matadors she had hit, but that very effect would have been the same for Rangers and magicians.

The matadors with holes in their bodies collapsed to the ground. Isabel turned back to Alphonse, who handed her a mana cake. Just before Isabel took a bite of the offered healing treat, she felt a wave of exhaustion from transforming into a Wolf Human and using Stella Tormento, but she ate the cake soon enough that she didn't go unconscious before she was able to rejuvenate herself.

"Your Wolf Human form has just died," Alphonse noted, pointing to the side of Isabel's neck, which held the Rune.

Isabel touched her hand to the place. There was no Rune there.

"Would I be able to write the Rune back on?" Isabel wondered.

"No, the form is dead. You are magically unable to write the Rune, and you can see the Rune has disappeared. You can't be a wolf anymore."

Isabel felt disappointed at that fact, but at least her normal form was alive. "Would I have died if I hadn't changed back?" she asked as the two Grand Magicians walked back to the base. The stone thing continued to crush matadors as they withdrew.

"Yes, you would have been very dead," Alphonse confirmed, and Isabel felt less disappointed that she had permanently lost her wolf form.

The Grand Magicians returned to the camp.

 Months after that day, the Other Plan was initiated.