Rough fingers coiled around my serpentine body in an attempt to grab it, but my body was already liquefying. Flames engulfed me even as I shifted into a Blue Slime, 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 me scream in panic if I wasn't a slime without a mouth. Rather than screaming, I perceived the flames around me disappear–courtesy of my liquid body. The fire died down in exchange for consuming most of my liquid mass. A moment later, I transformed 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 screamed, 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 glimmer of something dark in their eyes. It set me off, so I did the only thing I could think of. I flapped my wings and shot toward the girl. I slammed 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 movements 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 me. Shift allowed me 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 me in flames but decided against it at the last moment. Experimenting with something I didn't even know was possible was foolish. It wasn't something I could afford to do. Not when more than one life was on the line.
I transformed 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 me.
"Stay behind me," 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 me with that?"
The antler girl stopped sobbing at once. I couldn't see her standing behind me, 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 transformed into the strongest Hnoll in my repertoire. That immediately 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 Slime form… or had it?
My concentration faltered for a moment, but a memory fragment resurfaced–of my fall, and how my Blue Slime body had possessed a gaping hole that repaired itself as I plummeted toward the ground.
A heartbeat later, the swift soldier's blade carved two more wounds across my abdomen 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 me to fight him head-on, even if only barely. Alas, forcing an extension only seemed to worsen my condition. I was shoved back into my main form, staggering as my abdomen burned and my vision blurred.
I tried to push into the second-strongest form at my disposal, only for Shift to betray me.
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. Some of the soldiers were still alive, and their focus had shifted to me. 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 me. 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 something 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 moment he was there, laughing.
The next, he was gone.
Then the world turned upside down.