Xavier Halur
Core: Tier-1 (10.3%)
Primary Power: Shift
Accessible Shifts – Human(Main form), Blue Slime, Arok Serpent, Hnoll, Greyskin Borillar, Kerink, Spiketail Trout, Herculean Ant, Human, Veridian Bee
My Status didn't look all too bad. The Core was growing steadily and much faster than people said it would. However, I was more interested in the changes happening to the Accessible Shifts.
At first glance, only one monster had been added, but that was nowhere near the truth. Almost a dozen different forms were added to the sections of Herculean Ant and Veridian Bee. Herculean Ant soldiers were added, and so were bees with varying degrees of power. One had been particularly nasty, paralyzing one of the stronger Herculean Ant soldiers with a single sting.
But I needed a greater variety of Accessible Shifts. With that in mind, I traveled deeper into the Eserian forest before heading north once more. Or I would have done so if I hadn't been interrupted mid-flight.
After my Core crossed 10% saturation, I could finally transform into the weakest Kerink permanently. Its Core was only a little weaker than mine with a saturation of 9.9%, but that was all I needed to reach to earn my second permanent Shift. As exciting as it was, I didn't celebrate too much in the wide-open.
I burst through the canopy and cut through the sky rather than the densely grown undergrowth. As it turned out, that was a mistake. I had been foolish, thinking nothing would attack me since all the threats were down in the forest. That was stupid. I know. I learned it the hard way.
A screech from overhead warned me. It was probably the only reason I made it out alive.
My head snapped up to see a wide-open maw filled with small but razor-sharp teeth. They snapped shut around my right wing. I pressed my wings firmly against my body at the last moment, escaping the razor-sharp teeth by a feather's breadth, although it did pluck some of my feathers.
Then the monster's wings shot down, three distinct marks entering my peripheral vision, each ending in a curved, grasping claw.
I transformed into the toughest of my Herculean Ant shift, its claws raking across my exoskeleton. It successfully pierced my exoskeleton, which should have been the first warning sign. A moment later, it screeched loud enough to send my mind reeling. Something oozed from its maw as it screeched, but I couldn't quite grasp it. It wasn't transparent nor was it visible, yet it resembled a wave.
Not given any time to study the monster that couldn't be much longer than 50 centimeters, I shifted into a Kerink and flapped my wings even as pain raced across my back. I gained height on the monster that was half reptile, half bird, and spun around as it followed, its maw wide open. It prepared… something but was never given the opportunity to test it out when I transformed into my Greyskin Borillar shift.
Why? Because it was my heaviest form.
The monster let out another screech. It tore through my head, inflicting pain much worse than the wound on my back ever could. Then we collided. The reptilian bird clawed at me and snapped its maw shut around my shoulder, but I held on to it. I embraced it firmly, trying to crush it with raw force. When that didn't work, I let the realm do the rest.
Restrained and unable to flap its wings, we plummeted to the ground. We fell back into the forest, through the canopy, and smashed into several branches before the ground met us. All this time, I was on top of the reptilian bird, using it as a cushion–a light payback for all the pain it had caused me. The sound of breaking bones rang in my ears, but they were not mine. The bird was the one suffering.
It whimpered as I got up, transforming back to my main form. Unsheathing my steel sword, I stared at the monster, its broken frame looking miserable. Blood dripped to the ground all around me, fiery pain spread throughout my body, and my mind felt like it had been pulled out of my head and crushed by a smith's hammer, over and over again.
Nonetheless, wounded and all, I could still move. And that I did, stabbing the reptilian bird in the chest. I twisted the blade and tore it downward, ready to attack again when the System notified me.
Airborne Archaeopteryx has been defeated. Shift has been updated.
"That… is a mouthful." I groaned, my legs caving in.
My mind barely registered the surroundings. I wasn't even sure where I was, what I wanted to do, or how I got there at this point. Thus, I sought comfort in the only way my boggled mind could come up with.
I shifted to the Blue Slime form and squeezed into a crevice in a tree barely wide enough to fit my core. Then came the peace.
***
Several hours must have passed before I slithered out of the tree crevice. I shifted back to my main form, hands reaching for the pouch containing small pieces of Bloodclot Leafaar and bandages. Turns out, that wasn't necessary. I didn't have to tend to any wounds. The bite mark on my shoulder was still there, so were the scratches on my abdomen. My back also felt a little odd, but it wasn't pain that bothered me.
My back was itchy instead. The kind of itch that told you your wounds were healing.
None of my wounds were as severe as they should be. They had yet to disappear, which they would have if I'd stayed in the Blue Slime form a little longer.
Fern was right. The Blue Slime form heals all physical wounds. That was exceptional, and it deserved more attention than I accounted for. Unfortunately, that didn't solve the ringing in my ears.
My head was still a mess, ringing and thumping painfully.
Turning to the Archaeopteryx's corpse, I grimaced.
Whatever it had done to me… Now I could do the very same to my enemies.