The Shaman by WZRD
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
The Chronicles of Inthandonia: The Wizard Wars
The Shaman
I had left my pursuers far behind me, in the cold snows of the mountain heights. But there was another threat, one I couldn’t outrun no matter how fast or far I travelled. My biological body was now in full rejection of the alien nano-technology that both consumed and enhanced it. Every cell and membrane of my human body was now wrapped in a superconducting net of flexible metallic crystals – so light and subtle that there was almost no change to my body’s previous weight.
Yet despite its ethereal structure this invading machine organism was incredibly strong. The metal network acted as a frame echoing my physical being in shape as well as providing an incredibly complex array of tightly focussed pathways for intense magnetic fields. Nano-sized quantum computing nodes flooded my bloodstream and directed the web of electro-magnetic flux lines which strengthened and augmented my body while also housing a vast distributed network of linked artificial intelligences. I was faster, stronger and far smarter than any other person in the planets history by several orders of magnitude.
My biological auto-immune system however was determined to rid itself of the invading nano-tech. My bloodstream had become a battlefield. My skin broke out in rashes and boils, blood and pus erupting forth to spatter on the ground. Fever ran through my being and waves of delirium and intense pain lashed me as I fled ever downward into the jungled foothills of the Inha Sosul Mountains.
Each time the tides of agony crested the nanonet A.I.’s recalibrated and fine tuned its interface within my body and the pain would fade to be replaced by a supreme euphoria the likes of which I had never experienced. My awareness would reach out through enhanced vision and hearing, sampling ambient data at wavelengths far beyond that of other humans. Micro radar pulses and magnetic resonance scans emitted by my augmentations provided me with an incredibly vividly detailed view of my surroundings. The resulting inflow of data was processed effortlessly by the nanonet so that I was aware of where the birds and small forest creatures were, I knew in advance which stones or mossy logs would support my weight and where to place my feet with pinpoint accuracy even in the darkest pockets of the benighted jungle. I was one with the landscape, flitting silently and rapidly through the densest thickets, gliding sure-footedly over the slipperiest mossy stream-bed. The feeling was sublime, an intimate and almost spiritual interaction with the world of nature around me.

Comments (11)
Thus, on the third day of continuous flight from the Skrell Mind-ship, I was taken by complete surprise when I first saw him. My nanonet enhancements had completely failed to detect his presence. When my single human eye registered that there was a man standing before me I could sense a series of subroutines crashing and running through emergency diagnostics and reboots throughout my extrasensory systems. Defensive capabilities I did not even know I had kicked in and my physical body and embedded exoskeleton became hyper efficient – it felt like time itself had slowed tenfold as my augmented cyber-systems flicked into combat mode. It soon became apparent however that this man presented no threat to me. He stood on one foot, motionless in a dappled pocket of sunshine, a welcoming smile upon his face and made no threatening moves. Accordingly my cybernet powered down its defence mode and time seemed to click back to normal speed. My A.I. assigned multiple resources to figuring out how this semi-naked old man came to be standing before me, visible to my human eye yet not registering on any of my extended cyber-senses. The conclusion was obvious however to my human brain – this tattooed figure before me was clearly a Wizard of considerable ability. His garb (or lack of it), his demeanour and his entire ‘vibe’ – quiet serene confidence shone from him like a light – indicated he was a powerful Shaman capable of hiding his presence from my cyber-senses. I stood and gaped at him in astonishment. The Shaman simply smiled and spoke in heavily accented Common Tongue. What he said was almost as surprising as his unexpected presence. “Welcome, Great One,” he said. “I’ve been expecting you”.
The story line just keeps getting better and better!
Xcellent!!!
Brilliant! Excellent tale, captures the imagination. :)
beau travail!!
Excellent read and image, your story is really engrossing.
Talk about pleasure and pain on a whole new level...or three ! OUCH Lucky Mr Shaman was pleasant, otherwise this scene might have had a fair bit of claret in it ! Nicely evolving story line and kool rendered Shaman ! ~Cheers~
The storyline and artwork are totally engrossing. Great stuff, O WZRD!
Impressive work!
You did very nice pic! Great!
This is one of my favorites, of yours.