Rough fingers coiled around my serpentine body in an attempt to grab it, but my body was already liquefying. Flas engulfed even as I shifted into a Blue Sli, yet there was no more pain. Instead, my liquid mass bubbled and boiled as I landed back on the ground.
I shrank in size, which would have made scream in panic if I wasn’t a sli without a mouth. Rather than screaming, I perceived the flas around disappear–courtesy of my liquid body. The fire died down in exchange for consuming most of my liquid mass. A mont later, I transford into the strongest Kerink form at my disposal.
Bursting into the sky would have been best, but I saw the antler girl running up to her mother. She flailed her arms and scread, tears running down her face as she did. The remaining soldiers unsheathed their weapons, their arms trembling.
They’re not going to do that, are they? I wondered when I saw a glimr of sothing dark in their eyes. It set off, so I did the only thing I could think of. I flapped my wings and shot toward the girl. I slamd into her, pushing her to the ground just as a steel blade whizzed past us.
The soldier moved faster than expected. He didn’t appear as dangerous as the older man and the others had been, yet his movents were clearly sharper and more refined.
He was using his Power!
After fighting monsters for days, I’d completely forgotten about Powers. More precisely, that everyone had one. It should have been obvious that I wasn’t the only one with a Power, yet the realization still rattled . Shift allowed to transform into bona fide copies of the beings I killed. Even their flaws carried over.
So did their Powers... maybe?
I was about to transform into the human who had shrouded in flas but decided against it at the last mont. Experinting with sothing I didn’t even know was possible was foolish. It wasn’t sothing I could afford to do. Not when more than one life was on the line.
I transford back into my main form and bent down to pick up one of the bloodied steel blades on the ground, all while pulling the child behind .
"Stay behind ," I ordered, only to feel her flinch at my back. She was still sobbing when I continued in a much gentler tone. "Please. I want to help your mother. Will you help with that?"
The antler girl stopped sobbing at once. I couldn’t see her standing behind , but I felt her tense, forcing herself to hold it together.
The swift soldier attacked with shocking velocity. I barely managed to raise my blade and alter the trajectory of his strike. Even then, his blade grazed my neck. The second strike was worse. Two deep cuts opened across my chest and upper arm.
I was neither strong nor fast enough to block his attacks. So I transford into the strongest Hnoll in my repertoire. That imdiately drew his attention.
"You are that kid. The idiot who jumped from the ship." Realization dawned in his eyes.
I burst forward with speed and strength my main form couldn’t match. The flow of the battle shifted, if only briefly. I managed to leave a scratch on his cheek, but he returned the favor with another cut across my arm. Only then did I notice that the wounds inflicted to my main body were still there. They hadn’t disappeared during the transformation but had transferred to my new form instead.
It hadn’t been like that with the Blue Sli form... or had it?
My concentration faltered for a mont, but a mory fragnt resurfaced–of my fall, and how my Blue Sli body had possessed a gaping hole that repaired itself as I plumted toward the ground.
A heartbeat later, the swift soldier’s blade carved two more wounds across my abdon and my other arm.
The bleeding was bad, but what followed was worse. My transformation ended. I tried to extend Shift and maintain the strongest Hnoll form. It was the only one that allowed to fight him head-on, even if only barely. Alas, forcing an extension only seed to worsen my condition. I was shoved back into my main form, staggering as my abdon burned and my vision blurred.
I tried to push into the second-strongest form at my disposal, only for Shift to betray .
It didn’t activate.
"No..." I gasped, my throat tightening as my Core burned like it was on fire. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t done yet. So of the soldiers were still alive, and their focus had shifted to . I didn’t believe for a second they would spare the girl and her mother once I was dealt with.
I couldn’t leave them like that.
But... what was I supposed to do?
Warm blood spilled from the wounds across my body as the swift soldier stepped closer, the corner of his lips curling upward.
"Should I kill you?" He laughed, the mirth in his eyes turning my stomach. "No, that would be a waste. I’ll leave you alive and bring you to the captain. He’ll be happy to present you to the earl."
"Spare them," I mouthed, failing to stay upright as my legs gave out beneath . I collapsed onto the ground, the suns burning high above in the sky.
"Spare who? The Forest Folk?" He laughed again, licking his lips out of the corner of his eyes. "Oh, don’t worry about that, monster boy. We’ll take very good care of them. They won’t die, though I promise they’ll wish they had."
I shuddered as he spoke. How could such people exist? Why did the gods allow such evil? How could that be?
"I... I will kill you," I croaked.
Another laugh escaped him, joined by the others, until they noticed sothing was wrong.
The forest had gone silent. No sound echoed through the clearing except their laughter and my ragged breathing.
"Wh–" The voice of the soldier in the back was cut off abruptly.
One mont he was there, laughing.
The next, he was gone.
Then the world turned upside down.
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