Stories Of Mana: Origin of the Dragon Lady

[Pilgrim]

The Creators of Mana sealed the Ancient Powers away, but because of the nature of the Dragons, from whom the Powers were born, they could not be sealed completely, for then the Dragons' existence would be ceased and the fabric of the world would be undone. So the Creators hid the Powers inside something that they thought the mortal races would never discover. But one day, the Great Fairy Aeshara discovered the power, and when she saw the good it could do if placed in the right hands, she made a pact with the Dragons that would allow all mortal races to access the Ancient Powers, under the following rules:

1) No mortal may acquire the Ancient Powers for themselves.

2) Any mortal may acquire the Ancient Powers for their children, if they perform the appropriate rituals to earn the favor of a Dragon or Dragons, thus creating the Mageborn.

3) The Ancient Powers may be revoked from any that posses them if at any point they displease the Dragon or Dragons whose Powers they were bestowed with.

4) No mortal may possess the Powers of more than two Dragons at once, though they may trade powers through the proper rituals.

5) Mortals may only manipulate the Ancient Powers through the mediums which are granted to them by their patron Dragons, dependent wholly on the Dragons' whim and the nature of the rituals performed to invoke them.

Thus the Dragonborn were brought into the world, and thus through them the dragons sought to take control of the very fabric of existence away from the creators. And so to restore balance, the Creators made Demonspawn, the mindless monsters which wander the land and ravage its people. They believed these creatures would conquer the Dragonborn and remove the mortal's alliance with the dragons.

That didn't really go over as planned.

Huang Lin spent more time staring straight at the mirror this morning than she ordinarily would ever consider doing. Her eyes moved up and down, up and down, tracing her lithe, muscular figure and examining her ceremonial yellow and black qipao dress for any trace of wrinkles, smudges, or disarray. She tightened and fiddled with her bear-fur bracelets, and her wide, flat nose twitched slightly just from looking at them. She needlessly adjusted and re-adjusted her twin white hair bun covers. Then, when she was certain that everything was in place, she took a deep breath and settled into the Coiled Dragon stance, which placed her arms into a T shape in front of her face, with her right arm and its bracelet directly beneath her nose.

“Hah…HATCHAAAOH!”

As she let loose the thunderous sneeze she spun around and aimed a kick towards the wooden training dummy in the corner of her room. A gust of wind so strong that it shattered the dummy in half was kicked up by her powerful legs.

“Haah-Ah…ATCHAAAOH!”

With another sneeze she turned to her left and threw a hard punch, which summoned another gust that tore apart the shelf containing her numerous weights, which clattered to the floor of the humble temple room.

“ATSSHAAOH! HATSCHAAOH!”

Two spinning chops created a miniature tornado that ripped the numerous scrolls displaying exercise and training advice from the walls, shredding them to pieces.

Rubbing her nose on her forearm, careful to avoid the fur bracelet, Lin admired the decimation of her training equipment. She wouldn’t be needing any of it after today. Today was the day the Demonspawn army lead by Oniking would come down from the mountains to her humble village, as it did every five years, to plunder and pillage it to their heartless content. Today was the day she was bred and raised for, as Mageborn imbued with an allergy to various furs thanks to the beneficence of the most venerable Bho-Ai-Ry-Dra, the Yellow Dragon. And with that allergy came control of one of the five Ancient Powers: Energy. She had been trained to wield that power by the monks of Bho-Ai-Ry-Dra’s temple all her life. Now she would not require any more such training, one way or another.

A New Challenger Approaches

Name: Huang Lin

Race: Human (Leng Tribe)

Age: 16

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Chestnut Brown

Ancient Power: Energy (Wind specialty)

Unique Traits: Extensive training in multiple martial arts, raised by monks since birth, chosen before birth to be a savior for her people.

Theme Song:

Will Kick Your Ass: All day long

And Not Even Break: A sweat

“You can’t beat me with strength alone. Go ahead and try.”

As Lin walked down the temple steps down into the village, she smiled at the throngs of people crowding the streetsides. Some were praying, some were singing, some were cheering, all were adorned with the colors and emblems of the most venerable Yellow Dragon from which she drew her power. They had been waiting for this day ever since her parents had decided to leave their child at the temple to be a Dragonborn warrior. So that she would focus on her training, they’d left town afterwards, swearing to return on the night of their child’s sixteenth birthday; today. Now all she had to do was single-handedly defeat a Demonspawn army to make sure she saw them.

“Bwah-ha-ha-ha! Little worm! Crush!” The Oniking guffawed in the broken language used by the elders of his kind as she approached the battalion of red-skinned Demonspawn waiting for her at the village gates. They all held enormous spiked clubs lazily at their sides and wore mis-matched scaled armor tied loosely to their shoulders and chests. The “Ogre” Demonsspawn, as her people called this particular breed, were brutish, reckless warriors with no strategy or discipline in their fighting whatsoever. But they were inhumanly strong, even for Third Circle Demonspawn, and any one of them was more than a match for five mere mortal warriors. And the Oniking, stronger even than the rest, was said to have singlehandedly beaten a hundred men with his bare hands. Lin looked behind her at the small army her village had managed to raise, consisting mostly of monks from her temple. She knew they were there only in case she failed; they would come to aid her during battle.

She nodded towards their stony expressions with a characteristic smile. Good; they would only get in her way. Taking up her fighting stance, she passed her right wrist beneath her nose and took a long, deep breath. Lin was then overcome by an allergic itch so intense that she almost lost her footing as her reared back in preparation for the sneeze.

“Gyhuuh-Huuuh-Huhh-HUTCHAAAOH!”

With a fierce kick, she blasted the steel gates of the village backwards off its hinges and onto the front line of Ogres, squashing them beneath its hinges. Their leader, waiting just behind them, rubbed its enormous beard as if in thought, while his minions surged forward through the gateway. Lin was far from finished, however, and send more powerful blasts of wind that knocked the incoming Ogres clean off their feet.

“Hah-HATCHAAOH Ahh-HATCHAAOH! Hyuhhh-Huh-HUTCHHAUH! Ahhh-Ahh…ATCHAAOH!”

Lin focused hard on suppressing the raging itch in her nose just long enough to create a build-up for each sneeze, ensuring that she would have time to direct another attack before it burst out of her. Keeping control over the itch and keeping track of her enemies was difficult, as her eyes were perpetually fluttering from her tickling nose. But this, like suppressing the urge to bring her hands up to scratch or rub her nose for relief, was something she had been training her whole life. Her body flowed with her allergic fit, rearing back to prepare a strike and then lunging forward to release it with seamless synchronization.

“Ahh-ATSCHAAOH! Haah-Ahhh-ATSCHAAAOH! Ah-HATCHAAOH-Hutschaaoh-HAATSCHAAAOOH!

With each sneeze another fearsome burst of wind launched more of the Ogre soldiers to and fro, sending them careening into the village walls, houses, and each other. Those that were not knocked unconscious upon impact (which indeed was most, as they were a hardy breed of Demonspawn) barely made it five more steps before another gust was upon them. And Lin was careful to direct the wind evenly among them, ensuring that the mighty blasts were constantly crashing down on the Ogre warriors from all sides. And the moment she felt the itch in her nose begin to subside in the slightest, she made another attack that would drag one of her wrists close enough to her face that she could easily take another sniff of the fur bracelets without even pausing her assault.

Before long the vast majority of the fifty or so Ogres were lying beaten and broken on the ground in a semi-circle around the mighty Dragonborn. She stood panting at the center of the wasted army. Her nose was now bright pink and swollen from the uninterrupted sneezing attack, her nostrils in particular starting to turn red, and she had to sniff back a stream of congestion constantly as she’d had no opportunity to blow or even wiper her nose during the fight. But she was smiling unabashedly and not discomforted in the slightest; as the last of the soldiers fell before her she eyed her one remaining challenger with confidence. Oniking had not moved an inch during the entire attack, apparently amused at Lin’s efforts, if that face of bulging yellow eyes, stubby snout, and fanged mouth could show an expression of amusement. As she took down his last warrior, he raised his giant club up onto his shoulders and extended a hand towards her, apparently inviting her to make the first attack.

Lin knew now that the entire battle would be for nothing if she could not defeat this monster. So long as one Demonspawn in any group survives, it can regenerate its fallen brethren simply by providing them with fresh blood before the next dawn after their demise, when they disintegrate in the powerful sunlight. After first allowing herself a fast break in her stance to wipe her running nose on the shoulder of her dress, she tickled the end of her nose with one of her bracelets and sprung forward, aiming a sweeping kick that sent a powerful torrent of wind straight towards the towering Oniking.

“AAAH-TSCHAAAAAOOOH!”

The massive beast’s bushy mane of black hair ruffled as if being blown by a slight breeze.

Boss Battle

Name: Oniking

Race: Demonspawn (Fourth Circle)

Unique Traits: Massive strength, minor magical capabilities

Theme Song:

Likes His Humans: Grilled On A Spit

“Hyuck.” The monster chuckled or growled, and raised his massive club up into the sky. The clouds directly above him gathered closer together and became a threatening black color, and a swirling vortex of wind and lightning grew around the full length of the club. Then he brought it crashing down onto the ground in front of him, releasing the vortex in a torrent of destruction that flew forward, tearing up the ground as it traveled.

The sound of the storm gathering around the club had drowned out Lin’s further sneezes, so the monster was surprised to find that while he had successfully maimed several of the soldiers standing behind her and torn apart an entire house, his target was nowhere in sight. This was because Lin had launched herself high into the air, and was holding onto her next sneeze until she could line up a kick just right.

“Huahhhh…Huhh-Uh…Haaah-Ahhhh-Ah…ATSCHAAAOOHH!”

Lin hurtled down towards the creature like a diving falcon feet-first, ready to plant a kick straight into his head like a meteor strike. However, she had propelled herself high enough that the giant had time to turn and notice her before she got too close, and he snatched her right out of the sky. If Lin’s allergies had been done, he would’ve crushed her right then and there.

“Haaah-TSCHAAAOH! ATSCHAAOH AHAAATCHAAOH!”

A whirlwind erupted around her, forcing the monster’s hands open, and Lin flipped backwards out of them. He swung his club, but was too slow for the lightning-quick martial artist. She ducked and spun to the side, propelled by wind summoned by more sneezes, and stood up just out of reach from the humongous Ogre. Placing her hands behind her, she tilted her head back further and further as she prepared her most powerful attack, which necessitated a long build-up to prepare.

“Haaaaaah-AH…Ahh-Ah-Ah-Haah…Hhaaa Haa-ATCH…Nnggyuh, Huhhh-Haaaaah-Ahhh…AH…”

The itch in her tingling nose proved difficult to control and she nearly lost it too early several times, but she managed to hold it back until she had focused two small whirlwinds in the palms of her hands. With one deft movement she brought her hands outstretched together in front of her, and plunged her face down forwards into both of her bracelets. The resulting series of sneezes launched not only a whirling tornado, but a growing blast of pure yellow energy; the purest essence of her Ancient Power concentrated to a humongous destructive sphere.

“HAARRRAAATSCHHAAAAAOOOH! ATSCHHAAOH! ATASCHAAAOH ATCHAOH AARATSCHHAAAOH! HUHHHH-HUTSCHHAAUH ARRTSCHHAAOH AHHH-TSCHAAAAAOOOOHH!”

Sneeze after sneeze burst forward as howling winds carrying the explosive energy engulfed the Oniking, buffeting him back and forth inside a sphere of destruction until Lin’s massive fit finally ran out of steam. The two powerful fighters fell backwards in unison; the Demonspawn bruised and beaten and the Dragonborn gasping for air and tearing up from the allergic fit.

Now, amidst thunderous cheers and applause from the other villagers, at last the soldiers rushed forward, though they would still maintain their distance from the triumphant warrior for a time, in case any sneezes remained. Although her arms felt like lead, she lifted them forward to rub the last of the itch out of her nose and wipe away at the congestion streaming freely down her face. Though sore, sweating, and exhausted, she still smiled almost deliriously. At least, she had fulfilled her destiny. At last, her village was free. At last, she would meet her parents.

**end Chapter 1**

Edited July 31, 2012 by Pilgrim

[Oolia]

That... was... AWESOME!

Your writing is impeccable, and I was so pleasantly surprised when I realized the fur bracelets were on purpose! I totally thought it was a downside to her outfit and she'd be annoyed by it, but the fact that she uses them to fight is so imaginative and, well... hot

[Blah!?]

What was the best part?

**end Chapter 1**

Why?

Because that means there will be MOAR!

Dude, this series totally ROCKS! I love the characters, and the way you give each of them little profiles. It's simply brilliant. I can't wait to see who pops into this story next, or where their adventures take them.

And, of course, this was on my mind the whole time:

[kushamizuki]

a martial artist dragon girle who draws power from alergies ... posibly the hotest concept yet

[Hollow]

That was just AWESOME! Do a part 2 soon!

[megacycle]

That's one way to sneeze your way to victory.

Please continue. ^^