《Rise of the Fallen》


 The thief

    The guards walk down the hall while making idle conversation. Turning a corner, the light from their lantern fades away as they walk. Leaving the finely decorated walls shrouded in darkness once again. I wait until they are completely gone before I drop down from my perch on the ceiling. Landing soundlessly on my padded shoes, I continue with my search while listening for approaching guards. There were three rooms in this hall that I needed to search for my target. The first room was apparently used for storage, everything in here was covered in thick dust. It didn¡¯t look like it has been touched in years, but I still gave it a quick search just in case. Sadly, my target wasn¡¯t here, but I did find a small pouch of gold coins and a small scroll that gave off a weird feeling. I took them both and added them to the cloth bag I had strapped to my back and moved on. The next room was much more promising, it looked like an office and workroom for some sort of deviant occult practitioner. There was a desk in the middle of the room which I checked first, ignoring the tables on either side of the room that were covered in what looked like human limbs. The papers spread out on the desk were useless, just reports from various businesses detailing expenses and revenue. The drawers had much more useful items within. More pouches of gold coins and a magic crystal. But the final drawer was locked and protected by some sort of curse. I could sense the magic coming out of the drawer. This must be it, I took off my cloth bag and took out my tools and a scroll. I picked the lock first, waiting till I heard that satisfying click before I opened the scroll and spoke the words to activate the scroll while focusing on the drawer.


    ¡°Remove Trap¡±


    The scroll flared with a dull light and disintegrated. At the same time the drawer was covered in barely noticeable tendrils of light. After a second the tendrils disappeared, and the drawer returned to normal. I returned my tools back to my bag and open the drawer slowly. As soon as I opened it a nauseating aura washed over me, and I fought the urge to throw up. It was exactly as they described it to me except the aura wasn¡¯t one of power. It just felt wrong, I immediately removed the object and carefully stuffed it into my bag. Wrapping it in the enchanted cloth I had to smother the aura and keep it from leaking out. I put the bag back on but waited for my stomach to settle before I left the room. My stomach felt like it was spinning in circles.


    It wasn¡¯t long before I finally felt well enough to leave. I had collected my target, now my debts will be forgiven. Why they wanted this puke inducing vase was unknown to me but whatever. I opened the door slightly and light poured into the room. I quickly backed away from the door and hid in the shadows. The guards must have come back around. It couldn¡¯t have taken me that long to pick that lock, could it?


    The brighter the light got, the closer I pressed myself into the dark corner. I realized I wasn¡¯t breathing, but I couldn¡¯t bring myself to let go of the breath I was holding. If I get caught I automatically fail, and the debt will double. I can¡¯t pay 14 thousand in gold, I couldn¡¯t even afford the 7 thousand I owe already. It felt like forever before the light finally started fading away. I let go of the breath I was holding and went back to the door to peek through. I opened the door a little more and saw the guards walking away from me, down the hall. I didn¡¯t move till they were completely out of sight before dashing down the hallway in the opposite direction. I was being as quiet as possible while escaping as fast as I can. I ran into several patrols on the way out. The first two I could simply hide from but the third gave me a problem. The window I used to get in here was found. luckily, I closed it after I came in but now they were nailing it shut. Apparently, it started storming while I was in here and the strong winds pushed the window open as one of the guards were passing by.


    It was unfortunate but nothing I can¡¯t handle. At least they weren¡¯t suspicious of an intruder. I Hid in a nearby room and pulled out a map of the mansion. I was on the western side of the mansion on the second floor. Last week I watched the mansion and marked several entrances and exits just in case. The closest one to me now is the fireplace in one of the guestrooms. I heard from some local masons that they were having the fireplaces replaced with larger ones. They shouldn¡¯t have finished yet so maybe I could climb up the flue and reach the roof. I still had to get past the guards, so I waited until the hammering stopped and their footsteps disappeared before leaving my hiding spot. The guard that fixed this obviously had no idea what he was doing. There were nails sticking out in all directions and only a few were in deep enough to hold the window shut.


    I followed the hallways east, dodging patrols and hiding whenever I can. Making my way through the oversized mansion till I finally reached the guest rooms. I cracked the door open and peeked inside, looking for any sign of movement. There was nothing in the room but a large decorative partition and some odd-looking wall decorations. Plus, a large hole in the wall where the new fireplace was to go. I got excited and entered the room, closing the door behind me. I started walking straight for the hole in the ceiling. Things were finally going my way for once. Ill get out of here, hand over this stupid vase and be free from my debt.


    Vasily wasn¡¯t very happy. First his son hated him for arranging a marriage for him to an airheaded girl who was the daughter of a high-ranking member of the iced dragon clan. Secondly, his wife thought his recent visits to a very expensive healer was just him buying gifts for his mistress. How could he tell her he was just worried he was going bald and was buying expensive tonics and potions to help. The latest tonic carried a strong pleasant scent that she mistook for his Mistresses perfume. She banished him to the guest room. She didn¡¯t even care that it wasn¡¯t finished and was freezing. Even with all his martial training it was still freezing in here. But there was hope, as he rolled over and tried to find warmth in the thin blanket he sensed that the door opened slowly. He assumed it was his wife coming to apologize and ¡®warm him up¡¯. He grew excited, it surely has been a while since he was so busy, and she always seemed angry at him for some reason. He ignored the cold and quickly pulled off his bedclothes underneath the blanket. Preparing to receive his wife with a big smile plastered on his face.


    As I walked towards the fireplace I got my rope ready and attached a small metal hook to the end. I had just finished as I passed the decorative partition and froze. Apparently, the partition was hiding a large bed and on that bed was the patriarch of the Huan clan in all his glory. Completely naked with a large smile on his face. Which disappeared as soon as he saw me, replaced by an angry scowl. I dashed out of the room as fast as I could as he scrambled to cover himself with the thin blanket and scream for the guards. The only think I could think of was how fucked I am and how much I want to forget what I just saw.


    ¡°SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!¡± I needed to escape as fast as possible. Not only was I seen, but I was seen by the fucking patriarch of the entire Huan clan. Why the hell was he sleeping in the guest room anyway?


    I abandoned all attempts at silence as I sped through the halls, desperate for escape. The halls were now completely lit as the amount of guards skyrocketed. I almost ran right into several big burly guardsmen and almost got caught a couple times. The patriarch was still yelling but it sounded like he was getting closer and closer to me. I started to panic until I saw the window that the guards ¡®fixed¡¯ and ran straight towards it. I could practically feel the hot smelly breath of the guards down my neck as I jumped for the window. Landing feet first my weight and the piss poor repairs caused the window to shatter, leaving me in a free fall. I would¡¯ve been relieved in my escape had I not just remembered I was on the second floor. This was going to hurt.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    I rolled when I hit the ground to lessen the impact. It would¡¯ve worked as well, if only the gardener didn¡¯t leave his tools out.


    I rolled in the dirt, trying not to scream while I pulled the metal rake out of my shin. I couldn¡¯t afford to stop, the patriarch¡¯s voice was still getting louder and louder. I forced myself to get up and hobbled into the shadows. The sun was starting to rise so I was running out of shadow to hide in. Another reason I need to get out of here.


    The mansion was located on a large hill on the edge of Pyei city. All I would have to do was get to the slums below and I could reach my hideout and fix my leg. The patriarch wasted no time with stairs and jumped gracefully out of the window. Landing softly on his feet, unfortunately he suffered the same fate as me and landed on some of the gardener¡¯s tools. Sadly, it was only a dull spade. Doesn¡¯t mean it didn¡¯t hurt though. I stifled a laugh as the patriarch hopped around holding his foot and cursing about the incompetence of the gardener. I used his distraction to escape and hobbled to safety. Down the steep side of the hill that was covered in rocks and shrubbery I struggled to stay hidden as I climbed down. Halfway down a queasy feeling was building in my stomach. I looked down, but I wasn¡¯t too far from the bottom. The sun almost ruined my escape as the shadows were shrinking more and more every minute.


    Suddenly I felt a chill and hugged the rock I was hiding behind. I froze and waited, hoping I wasn¡¯t found.


    Frantic footsteps were growing closer and closer. I hoped more than anything that it wasn¡¯t the patriarch. Minutes passed with the footsteps getting closer and closer. Until they finally reached the rock I was hiding behind. I shrank down and tried to make myself as small as possible in the morning gloom. I sighed in relief when I saw it was a guard. Which was a terribly stupid mistake to make when hiding.


    The guard heard me sigh and immediately attacked me with his already drawn axe. Almost severing my left arm as his axe cleaved right through the rock. I rolled away, completely forgetting about my fucked-up leg. Tears ran down my face as I fought through the pain. Dodging and rolling around while taking good care not to use my hurt leg again. The guard unleashing mighty swings and furious chops as I danced around him on one leg. I may not be a good fighter, but I made up for that with my expertise in dodging.


    I was hoping to tire him out after a while and escape after tripping him or distracting him with something. Yet he seemed to just get more excited as I get more exhausted. Damn cultivators battle hungry maniacs the lot of them.


    I couldn¡¯t handle this anymore, I was covered in bruises and cuts while I haven¡¯t even been able to attack him yet. I need to get out of here and fast. I took a deep breath and ran away from the guard, ignoring the tears on my face as I run on my injured leg. I¡¯m so close to escape, I can see the edge of his property. A long pearly white wall that surrounded his yard. Even with one leg I can still get over that wall. Then blend in with the crowd and disappear. Almost there.


    Then everything went black.


    Vasily was outraged. Not only was he robbed but he was seen in such an embarrassing way by the thief. He flew around his property searching for the thief while spouting constant curses for the incompetence of his servants. It took several minutes before he noticed one of his guards was running after someone. Vasily scowled angrily as he flew as the intruder with as much speed as he could muster. This thief must die for what he saw. No one shall know of his embarrassment. He swooped down and delivered a swift punch to the back of the theif¡¯s head, knocking him out instantly.


    His thoughts were filled with nothing but how to get rid of this man. Till he had an idea.


    He grabbed the man by the collar and flew off. Exiting the city as fast as he could Vasily went to the one place he knew no one would go.


    It took him about 10 minutes to reach his destination.


    A cliff about 10 minutes out of the city. The cliff was extremely high up and overlooked a raging river. Even if one survived the fall into the water they would also have to survive the hungry monsters that feed here and the jagged rocks below. It was surrounded on all sides by a thick forest that is almost impossible to cross by foot. With the unknown monsters and such. Plus he had his subourdinates spread rumors about this forest being cursed and haunted and whatnot. All sorts of things, it wasn¡¯t hard as this forest was already known as a place of evil. He loved having his own place to get rid of his enemies. No one knew about this spot but him with made it perfect to dump bodies and there would be no evidence.


    He landed on top of the cliff and roughly dropped the thief near the edge of the cliff. He waited for a little bit but the man didn¡¯t wake. So he gave him a quick kick in the gut to wake him up. He coughed and sputtered before looking around. He had a really confused look until his eyes landed on Vasily. Then understanding dawned on him. He loved seeing that look on his enemies. When they realize that they are going to die.


    I puked as soon as I woke up. Not only was I extremely naseous but I was also kicked in the gut. But once I saw who kicked me I realized that it didn¡¯t matter.


    Im going to die.


    Not only did I steal from him but I embarressed him. These clan patriarchs are known for killing people for stepping on their shoes and I embaressed him in his home. I looked up at his face and saw his smug smile and knew I was right. I was afraid, but I felt other emotions build up in me as well.


    Anger mostly. Anger at myself for getting caught, also for getting such a large debt in the first place.


    Ah, the debt. A debt I built gambling away my depression because of my family¡¯s death. At least I wont have to worry about that anymore.


    I expected the patriarch to say something. Gloat over how powerless I am before him and how I am going to die for crossing him. But he didn¡¯t say anything. Apparently me seeing him before I die was enough.


    Or not.


    Out of nowhere he appeared next to me and started beating me. I couldn¡¯t even see what was happening. All I know was that I was in pain. I couldn¡¯t scream as everytime I opened my mouth my head jerked to the side as I was punched repeatedly in the face. He beat me for what felt like hours before he was satisfied. He made sure to break as many bones as many times as he possibly could before he finally stopped. Tears streamed down my face as my every breath was pure agony. He looked at me that same smug smile on his face before he picked me up by the neck and walked to the edge of the cliff.


    And dropped me. Causing my nausea to escalate rapidly. Only then did I realize why I felt so bad. That thing I stole must have broken during the beating. It no longer matters now though.


    I was always scared of death. But now that its here right in front of me. I welcome it. I was falling face first and could see my end. The rocks below me or the monsters around them. I close my eyes and embraced the end.


    He watched still sporting that self-confident smirk as the thief¡¯s head smashed open on the rocks. He turned away and flew off before he realized his error. That man was a theif!


    He should have excecuted him publicly to warn others not to test him!


    Cursing himself for his haste he flew back to his mansion. Ready to have breakfast alone again. Thinking about how to fix things with his family.


    Two Days Later


    The river bank was peaceful despite the many monsters and creatures ready to devour anything stupid enough to go for a swim. Something shot through the forest, snatched something up from the edge of the river and sped off into the trees. A chunk fell off as the shadow ran away. If one would look closely, they could see the chunk on the ground was actually an eyeball that was still in its socket.


    And it blinked.

 Reborn

    Logan watched as his father absentmindedly put jam on his tie and tried to open the door with a fork. Not realizing that he wasn¡¯t wearing any pants and his shirt was covered in coffee stains. Then my mother walked in and ruined my fun. She came in the living room and saw what dad was doing, realizing that he was sleepwalking again and giving me a nasty look for not getting her.


    She walked up to him and softly took his hand, leading him back to bed. Still giving me the stink eye as she left. I held my hand over my mouth to keep my giggles quiet. It was a new routine of mine, to wake up early and watch my dad sleepwalk around the house. Sadly, my routine cant last must longer. The only reason he sleepwalks is because he has been taking a new medication. My mom was sick of waking up to a wrecked kitchen every morning, so she is making him get a new medication. One with hopefully fewer side effects.


    I can hear mother coming back so I hold in my laughter in and turn back towards the tv. There was some sitcom playing for the past half hour. I just had the tv on in the background while I watched my dad fumbling around the kitchen and putting the laundry in the trash can. She said nothing as she started cleaning up the kitchen, but I could practically feel her eyes on the back of my head. I looked out the window and noticed the sun was coming up. It was almost time for¡­.


    What...


    I can¡¯t remember what I was supposed to do today.


    Whatever, I turned around to ask mom what we were going to do for breakfast, but the kitchen was gone. I spun back towards the tv but now that was gone too. I was alone, floating in an empty space.


    This must be a dream. Please let this be a dream.


    I tried to wake myself up, but nothing happened. This blank space I was in didn¡¯t change in any way.


    I tried to relax and calm myself down to think about this rationally. Opening my mouth to take a deep breath I realize something horrifying.


    I can¡¯t feel anything. I can¡¯t even move my body. I try to look around to see if I still have my limbs, yet I only succeed in wiggling my left eye to the left and right. I could even blink, but only that one eye. No other part of my body responded to me. After freaking out and trying everything without being effective I managed to calm myself down enough to try and remember what happened.


    My memories from that day are missing after that morning. As are most of the memories of my life. I remember having a job, but not what I did there. I remember my house and my parents but nothing else about my life there.


    A strong feeling in my left eye disrupted my thoughts. It was a weird feeling though, like my eye was being moved around separate from my body. Well, more like thrown. I felt the weird tickle of wind flowing around my eye before I felt something hard and rough smack into it. After inwardly cursing out whatever caused that I calmed down again, at least my eye was closed. Unconsciously opening my eye, I realize I can see a little bit. Apparently, something was covering my left eye and the impact knocked it loose. Now that my left eye was partially free I could see that I apparently was looking up at the sky. Tall trees reached up and almost completely blocked my view of the blue sky. The excitement bubbled up inside me as I realized that I¡¯m still alive. I immediately tried to get up and look around, until I remembered that nothing except my left eye was working. Remembering that fact made me a little depressed. There was nothing I could do but sit here and wait, at least I can kind of see now.


    I move my eye around to find out just how much I could see around me, and I found out a few things. First, there was a huge river with an extremely strong current to my left. Second, when I looked over to my right I realized that I have no nose. Or head.


    I could see the bare rock below me.


    WHAT.


    THE.


    FUCK!


    How the hell am I alive!?


    I felt like crying, screaming and cursing the name of every god I could remember. If I had a body I would be thrashing right now, but the most I could do was blink furiously and cry. Until something happened.


    I moved. I stopped crying immediately and tried to remember what I did. But I couldn¡¯t, all I was doing was thinking about moving everything I could as much as possible. Somehow, I shifted myself to the left a little bit. I could tell because I could see a little more of the river now. I looked as far to my left as I could, and I noticed something. I may not have a head, but I have...something. I could see something dark red just out of my field of vision. I focused on it, trying to see a little more of it and it twitched. I realized this was some sort of appendage. I closed my eye and tried to imagine moving my foot. I opened my eye and looked while keeping that in mind, but nothing happened. The appendage wouldn¡¯t move at all.


    I closed my eye and thought about why it wasn¡¯t working. I thought about my body in my mind and realized that it felt, wrong. Then I understood what the problem was.


    I was imagining myself with a human body and as much as I don¡¯t want to admit it, I don¡¯t have a human body anymore. In my mind I pictured a small fleshy jellyfish with an eyeball in it, sprouting many small tentacles. Then I focused on trying to move them.


    Success!


    Oddly enough once I changed my mental image of myself I could sort of ¡®feel¡¯ my new body. Not entirely, but I could feel several tentacles sprouting from around my eye. I concentrated on wiggling my tentacles and opened my eye again, looking to the left and sure enough a small tentacle was wiggling next to me. I was happy that I can move, but I couldn¡¯t help but wonder about what the hell I am. Whatever, I put that to the back of my mind and focused on moving. I moved my tentacles underneath my ¡®body¡¯ and pushed upwards. Lifting myself off the rock was step one, I still must find out how to walk around with tentacles and an eye that was on top of my head. Maybe I was on my back and my eye is on my front? This is extremely confusing. But I continued anyway, I may be fine now, but I am in a forest and something may think I¡¯m food. I mean something threw me earlier.


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.My tentacles were now fully extended and holding me up. Now to tilt forward, slowly. Bending the tentacles in front of me while keeping the back ones straight I slowly leaned forward. I could see the river clearly now and I was almost sitting straight up. Whoever came up with the design of this body is terrible. Why couldn¡¯t I have a body with an eye in the front?


    I get distracted with my thoughts about better body designs and stopped paying attention to what I was doing. I lost control of my tentacles and fell forward, slipping off the rock. I instinctively reached forward and tried to stop myself from falling before I remembered I don¡¯t have arms and then just screwed my eye shut to brace for the fall.


    Five seconds passed before I realized I wasn¡¯t falling. Opening my eye, I realized I was looking straight down at the dirt around the rock. Also, I saw that all my tentacles had appeared on the front of my body now. I almost laughed, apparently I can move them anywhere on my body that I want. Not only that but they were extremely long now. They were about as tall as the rock I was on and extremely thin. I would probably sigh in relief if I had a mouth. I wanted to get lower to the ground, I don¡¯t like being up so high.


    As soon as I had that thought the ground started getting closer and my legs felt a little weird. I looked at my legs and couldn¡¯t believe what I was seeing. My legs were shrinking. A couple seconds is all it took for me to reach the ground. Still staring at my tentacles in amazement, I raised one up and imagined it getting longer. It immediately started growing until I willed it to stop. I was curious about what else I could do so I spent the next 10 minutes shaping my tentacles into all sorts of things. A tiny chair, a spoon, a tiny house and a bunch of simple shapes.


    I¡¯m a shapeshifter!


    YES!


    This was awesome!


    Since I¡¯m a shapeshifter I can turn into anything right?


    I tried to remember what I used to look like and imagined it as a 3d model spinning slowly in my mind. With some ¡®enhancements¡¯ I solidified my mental image and tried to will my body to shape into it. A couple things happened. I could feel my body start to take a different shape. My eye shifted upwards and I could tell the rest of my body was shaping what I assumed to be my big toe. But I was too damn small. I only completed about half of the toenail before I felt like I couldn¡¯t continue. It took me this long to realize how small I really was. I looked at the rock I was on earlier and just now realized that it was only a pebble. There was grass farther away from the river but this area was just covered in what to me, looked like a sea of rocks. It was hard to not get depressed about this. I used to have a life with all the conveniences of modern society. Now I¡¯m smaller than a toenail. Whatever, I need to get out of here and to do that I have to alter my body to something more manageable than an eyeball with tentacles.


    Maybe one of those ideas I came up with earlier?


    My thoughts turned to a baby spider. It¡¯s the right size, but I don¡¯t really have anything to attack with. I don¡¯t exactly have a mouth. So, I added a scorpion stinger and gave myself claws.


    After adding the claws, I felt like I couldn¡¯t add any more. Like right now this was my limit. So, I went with this and willed my body to change. My body started shifting around getting longer and slightly smaller. I could feel the mass shifting and spreading out from my body to create my new tail and claws. Several minutes after it was finally done, and I started getting used to my new body. Moving one leg after the other I crawled through the sea of pebbles and away from the river. I noticed while I was changing that the clouds got darker and I needed to get to shelter before it rained. I was way too small to deal with the rain.


    Several hours later I had finally reached the grass. I only got this far because I got used to moving in this body. I kept crashing into stuff until I managed to split my eye into two. My field of vision shrunk a little as my eyes are now a little smaller but it¡¯s worth it to regain depth perception. I speed along as fast as I can. The sky is filled with dark heavy clouds, I¡¯m amazed it hasn¡¯t started raining already.


    ¡°BOOM¡±


    I spoke too soon.


    The rain started falling and every drop was like a massive explosion to me and almost just as deadly. I moved as fast as I possibly could to avoid the rain. But everything was too far away, I was too small to make it anywhere before I was crushed. I had hoped to make it to a tree before I stopped but it is clear I am just to slow and too small to get anywhere. In my rush to get somewhere safe I neglected to pay attention to my surroundings. So, I fell into a large hole in the ground. I couldn¡¯t see the bottom, but I did see small tunnels on the walls of the hole every now and then. I used my new shapeshifting powers to flatten myself out and try to direct my fall. I was aiming for a tunnel that was coming up in a few seconds. I was larger than the other tunnels but seemed just as empty as the other ones. I shaped myself into an odd fleshy umbrella. It was the only thing I could come up at such short notice and angled myself towards the wall. I was feeling pretty smart until I smacked right into the solid dirt wall.


    The impact made me disoriented and I missed my exit. I was spinning out of control, I collapsed myself into a ball and shot tendrils out in all directions. I made sure the tips were as sharp as possible and they all pierced the wall. They were too thin though and my momentum caused several of them to rip off. Leaving me with only two tendrils anchoring my body to the wall. The pain was so intense I blacked out, with my last thought being.


    ¡°Am I going to die again?¡±

 The hive

    A jolt forced me awake. I looked around in a panic while I tried to remember what the hell happened. I spotted two of my ¡®legs¡¯ stuck into the dirt wall and it came back to me. Apparently before I passed out I absorbed all my legs except the two I was using and used the extra mass to make a large hook at the end of the tentacles holding me in the wall. Giving myself a mental pat on the back for my quick thinking, I get an idea and sprout two more legs with hooks and used them to start climbing. My target was the tunnel not far above me. It was close, and I wanted to get out of this damn hole. I couldn¡¯t even see where I came in anymore. The tunnel tilted a bit and twisted slightly, leaving me with no clue as to how deep I fell. I wasn¡¯t even sure how I could still see but I¡¯m not one to question a good thing.


    It took me a good ten minutes of climbing to reach the tunnel. I made sure nothing was there before I entered and noticed that I wasn¡¯t even tired. Even the tentacles that were supporting me weren¡¯t sore or anything. I just added it to the list of good things not to question and moved on.


    The tunnels were confusing and seemed to lead nowhere. Forked tunnels led to dead ends and collapsed areas. Whatever made these tunnels obviously left a while ago.


    After exploring tunnels for a while, I got bored and sat down to think. Before I could even gather my thoughts, I felt something. I flattened my entire body onto the ground to see if I could feel it better. It took a moment, but it started again. Small and almost imperceptible vibrations spreading throughout the tunnels. I had nothing else to do so I followed the vibrations to the source. My memories were still lost to me, so I decided to figure out more about this world and my new body than worry about it.


    The vibrations led me to an oddly flat section of the wall. I used two tentacles as shovels and carefully dug into the wall. It didn¡¯t take much till I broke through to another tunnel. As soon as I poked a hole into the other tunnel the vibrations grew in intensity. I moved through the tunnel getting closer and closer to my destination. The vibrations were so intense I could feel it throughout my entire body. I could handle it but the closer I got the more trouble I had moving. I had to go back, the vibrations were too strong for me. I turned around and headed the other direction. I decided to go the other direction and see what that leads too. On the way I also experimented with ways to move. I wanted to move faster and growing more tentacles just made me clumsy. It still feels weird having no feet, but I had finally gotten used to moving around. With three tentacles on either side and one large tentacle on my back that I always kept sharp, so I could defend myself.


    I went through the tunnels as fast as I could, just to see how fast I could go. I was curious about the vibrations but there was nothing I could do about that right now. I sped through the tunnels, going so fast that my surroundings started to blur. I didn¡¯t realize I hit something until after I passed through it. I tried to stop and see what I hit but I couldn¡¯t get any traction and slipped. Falling flat on my body and sliding along the floor before coming to a stop. I felt like an idiot as I went back to see what happened. It turns out what I hit was an ant. It was obviously dead as I tore a huge hole right through the length of its body. I poked it a couple times to be sure and after getting no reaction I was sure it was dead. I realized that its bodily fluids are what I must have slipped on. I rubbed a tentacle on my head to see if I was still covered in it, but it came back dry. I thought this was a little weird and then I looked down. I was standing in a small puddle of its fluids and my body was slowly absorbing it.


    ¡®Gross¡­. I think I found out how I eat though.¡¯


    This is kind of gross, but this is my new body and I must eat somehow. I don¡¯t have a mouth to chew and I¡¯m pretty sure I don¡¯t have a stomach. I guess its lucky for me to find out how I eat before I get hungry.


    I used my sharpened tentacle and stab the ant¡¯s body. Which immediately shriveled up and disappeared. If I had a face and a mouth, my jaw would be on the floor.


    I expected it to shrivel a bit as its fluids disappeared. I didn¡¯t think that I would absorb the entire thing.


    ¡®Well. Maybe it¡¯s a good thing? I don¡¯t have to worry about what to do about its body now. At least I didn¡¯t have to taste it.¡¯


    I shivered a bit imagining the taste. I¡¯m not entirely sure why the thought makes me feel disgusted. No new memories came back or anything. Just a vague feeling of sickness when I think about the taste of insects.


    ¡®weird¡¯


    I shook it off and started moving down the tunnel. I went fast but I was more careful this time. Paying more attention to where I¡¯m going. I didn¡¯t seem to get tired to I just kept going. By the time I finally reached the end of the tunnel I ran into seven more ants. They were in the way so I just stabbed them in the head and absorbed them so I could keep going. The tunnel led me back outside and I stopped to look around.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    ¡®I¡¯m still at the fucking river.¡¯


    I couldn¡¯t believe it, after all that time. I went so fast and travelled so far and I only made it to the other side of the rocks near the river. I didn¡¯t know what to do. How could I enjoy my life while being this small?


    As if responding to my thoughts, my body grew slightly. It wasn¡¯t much but I was happy for any improvement. I even felt like I could grow a bit more. It must be because I absorbed those ants!


    I was so excited. I found a way to get bigger. I just had to hunt. I didn¡¯t have a problem with it. I mean, they are just ants. Who cares right?


    I immediately went back into the tunnel to begin. I shrunk myself back down a little bit to make it easier to move in the tunnels and descended. The vibrations got a little stronger since I started my journey, but it didn¡¯t bother me much. I was just focused on finding all the ants I could. It didn¡¯t take me long to figure out the ants were coming from where the vibrations are strongest. It was weird but I didn¡¯t really give it much thought. I had to figure out some way to deal with the vibrations, so I decided to give something a try. I focused on my body and imagined it growing a soft fleshy layer to absorb the vibrations. I didn¡¯t add too much so that I can still move without difficulty. But just enough to help, if I need more I can probably add it later.


    I headed towards the source of the vibrations once more making sure to kill and absorb any ant I passed by. The closer I get, the more ants I run into. Its weird but they are not just more numerous, they also seem to be getting stronger. It was simple to kill them before, now they seem to be covered in a strong carapace. They also have long, sharp mandibles which ended up cutting off several of my tentacles. They were getting faster and it was almost impossible for me to pierce them now. I had to use my tentacles as hammers and smash them against the tunnel wall. Crushing their carapace and exposing the soft flesh underneath. Absorbing them afterwards was easy. I could feel myself getting a little stronger with each ant I absorb. I mean, I¡¯m pretty sure that I would still die if I was stepped on. But to things that are my size I can put up more of a fight. I also found out that I can heal my wounds instantly, which to be honest didn¡¯t surprise me all that much. Being a shapeshifter, I can move my flesh around easily so, it makes sense that I can close wounds without worry. I also made a weird discovery. I do feel pain, but it is extremely dull. Even when an ant managed to cut off one of my tentacles, it was like stepping on something sharp. It hurt but I could just re-attach it and the pain went away.


    I reached a large empty chamber that was filled to the brim with ants all working on digging more tunnels in various directions. These ants were rather small and seemed to ignore me. In fact, they seemed to move out of the way as I walked through. I thought it was a little weird, so I just ignored them and moved on. The closer I got to the source of the vibrations the more my curiosity grew. This couldn¡¯t be caused by something organic. It reminded me of my cell phone vibrating in my pocket. It would vibrate strongly for a couple seconds and then softly for a little bit before starting over again. I grabbed my head as I suddenly got a huge headache.


    Memories flooded into my mind. I remembered more of my life. From the elementary school I attended to the high school I went to. I even remembered some useless things like my old bank account and the contents of my hard drive. The memories abruptly stopped as soon as the headache stopped. I even tried to force myself to remember for a little bit and only succeeded in giving myself another headache. It was good that I regained some memories, but they weren¡¯t exactly useful. Except one memory that caught my attention. The day I was going to go in to my new job.


    I remember most of the day, right up to the interview and then everything goes blank. The pain mostly subsided but I was still confused. Why does that memory feel so wrong to me? Something about it just isn¡¯t right. I snapped out of it just as a large ant ran straight into me. Stabbing me with its thick mandibles, tilting its head to smash me into the wall. The pain was dull as usual, but the impact was jarring. This ant was a lot stronger than the ones I have been fighting. This ant is black, and its armor is stronger than anything I have run into so far. I immediately started smashing at the armor with hardened tentacles, but it didn¡¯t even scratch it. Despite my flailing it was still smashing me into anything nearby. Even crushing its fellow ants in its frenzy.


    I had already closed my wounds, but with every smash I get more. I tried tightening my body around its mandibles. I wrapped as many tentacles around its head as I could and squeezed as hard as I could. I also made myself shrink to increase the pressure. It didn¡¯t seem to mind at first and just kept running into walls and other ants.


    *CRACK*


    I heard a loud sound from underneath me and the ant froze. I could tell that its armor was starting to crack. The ant emitted a weird screech and using everything it could to try and get me off. I held on with all I had and squeezed until I heard one of the most satisfying sounds I have ever experienced.


    *CRUNCH*


    The ant¡¯s head was almost completely folded in half and leaking juices that were absorbed as soon as they touched me. It spasmed a couple times before it finally fell still. I waited a little longer before I was comfortable letting go of it. The smaller ants were still in the chamber and they were staring at me. So I changed back into my spider-scorpion form and got ready for another fight. But they just turned around and ignored me again. They didn¡¯t seem to want to fight so I ignored them and shot a tentacle into the large ant to absorb it.


    When I was done, my body changed a little bit. My body was kind of pale before, but now its gotten a little darker. I could feel certain changes in my body but I decided to wait till I get out of this nest to figure out what exactly has changed.

 Escape

    I left the large chamber and once again headed towards the vibrations. After about 10 minutes of wandering I finally found what I was looking for.


    The main chamber.


    It was massive compared to what I have experienced so far. There were countless levels with tunnels leading in every direction all along the walls, circling a large pit in the middle. The bottom was impossible to see. But I finally found the source of the vibrations. A large metal object was half buried in the ceiling of this massive room. It was a large silver sphere covered in dim lights. The lights sparkled and moved around the surface. It was obviously the source of the vibrations. I was not very far from the top so I could see the object clearly and I noticed a large number of ants moving in and out of the object. This strange device was obviously doing something to them. The ants that went in left through the other side, but they came out¡­different.


    Every ant that went in came out the other side bigger and stronger. More geared towards fighting than survival. My curiosity won over my cautiousness and I started climbing to the top. I wanted to know what was going on in there. It was only a couple levels higher, so I made it there in a couple minutes. The ants going into the sphere completely ignored me, like they were in a trance. I slipped into the line and followed them silently until they reached the sphere. There was a large opening the ants were walking into. It was too bright for me to see into, like the ants were just walking into a white wall and disappearing. I decided to be cautious after all and shrank as much as possible and stuck to the underside of the ant in front of me.


    It passed through the doorway and I was shocked at what I saw.


    This device had way more space inside than I thought, and it was filled with a factory line conveyor belt. Complete with robotic arms injecting and altering the ants as they go through. This is weird though; this level of technology is way different than what it was from what I remember.


    My thoughts are interrupted as the ant I was hiding on was lifted from the conveyor belt it was on by a large mechanical claw. I jumped off and clung to the side of the belt next to the other ants that were coming in and watched. The ant I had been riding was taken to a large vat and dunked in a couple times before being set down in a large empty room. I realized what was going on.


    Whoever¡¯s device this is, is doing some sort of research on the ants. Testing some sort of chemical on them. The vat that the ant was dipped in was filled with a thick black fluid that oddly enough dried clear. The needles injecting the ants on another conveyor belt nearby was also filled with a black liquid. I saw that the small room below were the dipped ant was put had small silver things on the walls. I assumed they must be cameras so they could see how their experiment is going. At closer look, the small silver cameras were everywhere. I can¡¯t believe I didn¡¯t notice them until now.


    I clung to the bottom of the conveyor belt to hide and just kept riding it. It would take me out eventually and then I wouldn¡¯t have to worry about being found by whoever built this thing.


    The ride continued as I dodged cameras and grabby robotic arms that grabbed the ants above me.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    I can¡¯t tell how long I was doing this; the insides of this device are well lit. Makes it a little hard to tell time. I couldn¡¯t see the exit from my position, but I knew I was getting closer to it. I was running out of belt to hold on to.


    I looked around at the ants and wondered who would do something like this. What was the point? What was that black liquid and why is it important?


    I looked back at the ant in the observation room below and it looks the same as before. It is oddly still though, not even a twitch of the antennae disturbed the air in there.


    *CRUNCH*


    *CRUNCH*


    *CRUNCH*


    *CRUNCH*


    The crunching was so loud it was giving me an extreme headache. I had to enlarge myself slightly to regrow some of my vibration dampening exterior. Now slightly fatter I look for the source of the crunching.


    *CRUNCH*


    *CRUNCH*


    *CRUNCH*


    I see nothing in here that could be causing this sound. The ant in the observation room is still not moving. The conveyor belts are running fine. None of the mechanical arms are malfunctioning.


    Wait a moment.


    Everything is quiet. Everything has stopped. The mechanical arms, the belts, everything.


    *SHHHHHH-SHLINK*


    I raise a tentacle with an eye above the belt I¡¯m on and look around. Both doors have been shut. I struggle to hold on as the entire room feels like it has been launched straight up. But despite my best efforts I still slip off and fall towards the observation room. Increasing my soft exterior, I prepare for the landing. I just hope that the cameras are off too.


    As soon as I hit the ground I shrink and attach myself to the ant again. I was reluctant to touch it after it was covered in that weird black stuff. But it seems to be dry now and I would much rather not be found by whoever did this.


    The shaking and rising feeling stopped after a couple moments, but before I could look out of the room a metal ceiling slipped over the room and sealed me in. Then came a weird sense of falling and rising slowly. The ant I was attached to must have been stuck to the floor or something because it didn¡¯t move at all.


    *CRUNCH*


    *CRUNCH*


    *CRUNCH*


    This sound wasn¡¯t as loud anymore, but it continued for a long while before I heard


    *THUD*


    And felt a light drop.


    After that came a light rumbling for a couple hours. During which I tried in vain to escape the tiny room. It was completely sealed off from the outside. Which made me curious about my body again.


    ¡®Do I really not need to breathe?¡¯


    I looked at the ant behind me.


    ¡®Does this guy need to breathe?¡¯


    As I was pondering this the rumbling finally stopped and I felt like I was being moved around again.


    I slipped back under the ant to hide just in case and waited some more.


    _______________________________________


    Me and my ant roommate were finally released after some time. I was extremely thankful I didn¡¯t get motion sick from all that. I looked around and tried to figure out what mess I was in now.


    The ant and I were released into a large tank filled with sand and several thousand other ants. None of the ants looked like they were feeling too good. My ant was still motionless, but the others around us moved around in odd ways. Some were limping and others were only using a couple of their legs. There was one that was just walking sideways. Another one was trying to walk on two legs next to one that was doing¡­. pushups?


    I ignored the weird ants for now and went back to looking around.


    The tank we were in seemed like it was made from glass and was still open on the top. I guess they didn¡¯t expect any escapees from the ants they captured. Through the glass I could see a large laboratory filled with people in white coats. There was a large door with a weird looking keypad on the wall next to it. That was the only way out of the room that I could see. I let go of my ant and partially buried myself in the dirt to hide. I would have to wait until the people in white coats leave to make my escape. I settled in and got ready to wait. Hopefully it won¡¯t be too long till these people go home.

 Escape 2

    I have no idea how long I have been waiting but everyone has finally left. I kept hiding under my ant friend and passed the time observing some of the tests they were doing. It all seemed oddly familiar to me. I recognized a lot of the tests they were doing and the methods they were using. Every now and then someone would come over and take a couple of the ants out of the tank and conduct the tests on them. The last one to leave put a lid on the tank we were in and locked the door. But that shouldn¡¯t be a problem for a shapeshifter.


    Leaving behind my ant friend I stretched a tentacle up to the lid and pushed a little bit. The lid didn¡¯t budge even a little bit, so I applied a bit more pressure. Shifting about 80% of my mass into a large muscle to push the lid up a little. Turns out it wasn¡¯t connected to the tank at all. It was just a weighted piece of glass. Sadly, I didn¡¯t realize this until I shoved a little harder and the glass lid slipped out of my grip and slid off to crash onto the floor. I cringed at the noise and jumped out of the tank and returned to my normal form. The form I woke up in, A large blob with little tentacles. I didn¡¯t give up my two eyes though, I just got used to it.


    The tank was on a table at the far end of the lab away from the door. Between me and the door were various long tables covered in scientific equipment and weird machines that I don¡¯t know the use for. I climbed off the table and ran along the floor. As soon as I touched the floor though I got a weird feeling and something was bugging my eyes. It felt like there was a dim light shining in my eye, it was annoying but didn¡¯t actually hurt. I looked around but I couldn¡¯t see anything other than the boring walls. I kept moving towards the door but kept my eyes open for anything weird. I shifted my eyes around my body, but no matter where on my body I moved them the feeling was still there.


    I saw something on one of the desks so I climbed up to get a closer look. On my way up I noticed that the feeling in my eyes lessened the farther from the floor I got.


    Turns out I found the device that was in the anthill. The device was in pieces, it looked like they were making some adjustments to it. There were some papers underneath it and I got closer so I could read it.


    CAUTION ¨C DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MODIFY THE DEVICE IN ANY WAY.


    Clearly the guy working on this decided to not read this bit.


    BEFORE SERVICING DEVICE, REMEMBER TO REMOVE THE VIAL CONTAINING ?????? AND STORE IN THE IDEAL CONDITIONS MENTIONED IN YOUR BREIFING ON THE SUBSTANCE.


    IF THE SUBSTANCE TOUCHES YOUR SKIN THE EFFECTED AREA MUST BE REMOVED IMMEDIATELY AND QUARENTINED


    THE INFECTED MUST BE QUARENTINED OR ¡°SANITIZED¡±


    ¡®Damn, this stuff must be serious.¡±


    I look at the device again, now that its not in the ground and it is half disassembled it looks like half a beach ball that has been stuffed with tech. I spot something interesting though. Next to a small tube there is a robotic arm that has a tiny razor attached to it.


    I cant make my exterior very hard at the moment. My only methods of attack are crushing my opponents or trying to pierce them with my tentacles. I can harden my tentacles to some extent to enable them to pierce things. But I cant seem to make any weapons with my body. It seems that even though I can shapeshift, my abilities are still limited. So having a weapon like that will help immensely. I wrap a couple tentacles around the robot arm and forcefully readjust it so that it is straight. The arm is firmly secured to the device. The blade on the end however seems to be attached like a dolls arm. I stood between the device and the robot arm and firmly grabbed the knife and the arm. I pulled as hard as I could, until I heard a *POP*.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    I pulled so hard that when the knife came out, the momentum caused me to pierce the tank next to the robot arm.


    ¡®Shit!¡¯


    I got the knife off of the arm, but now its stuck in the tank. I do need the knife, but I don¡¯t really know what I just stabbed. It could be the tank filled with that weird substance these guys were messing with. I don¡¯t really want to be covered in that stuff. I took a moment to think and came up with an idea. I backed away from the device and rummaged around through the parts scattered around the desk till I found one I could use and came back.


    I had a large piece of the outer shell of the device. I planned to use it as a shield while I pulled the knife out. So if some of the substance came out it would hit the shield instead of me.


    I took a second to prepare myself to jump away just in case and pulled on the knife.


    Turns out I was right, the container was filled with that weird stuff and it shot out as soon as the knife was free. Luckily it hit my shield instead of me, but because of that it was still pooling at my feet so I backed away slowly to avoid getting into contact with it. I made sure I was a safe distance away before I admired my prize.


    It was a very small knife. It looked like someone took a piece of a box cutter and gave it a even smaller handle. It was extremely sharp though, so It will work fine for me.


    Leaving behind my shield and a small puddle on the desk I climbed back down to make my escape. The feeling in my eyes came back as soon as I got close to the floor. Just in case I had my weapon ready. To make it easier to use I sunk the handle into one of my tentacles and decided to use it that way. Now I have about 7 normal tentacles and one that ends with a knife.


    I touched the floor and was going to start crawling along but as soon as I brought the knife closer to the floor the feeling in my eyes intensified. Then disappeared all of a sudden. I cant think of any reason for this but I don¡¯t like the feeling im getting. I start heading back towards the door again, faster this time though.


    A machine whirring to life startles me and I jump behind the nearest table leg and hide. I spread my tentacles out and move my eyes around to try and figure out where the sound is coming from. It didn¡¯t take me long to spot an opening in the otherwise solid brick wall. The sound was definitely coming from there. As soon as I had identified the source of the sound my problems had grown bigger.


    Out from the opening in the wall shot two large black disks that skid along the floor like they were hovering and they were both coming straight for me. My first thought was to climb the table leg I was hiding behind and get above them. As soon as I started though they were next to me. That feeling in my eyes came back although stronger this time. I finally realize what that feeling was now. They were looking at me.


    I barely made it up halfway before the weird black pucks spit out some even smaller black pucks. That started floating up to me, sporting mechanical arms and a shredder-like mouth.


    ¡®What the hell? It gave birth?¡¯


    I jumped down right before the two baby disks swipe past the space I was just occupying with their claws. As soon as I hit the floor the bigger disks grew arms and shredder mouths of their own and started frantically grabbing at me. I spent the next ten minutes dodging their claws. I was surprised at how the smaller ones didn¡¯t attack again after I climbed back down to the floor. It wasn¡¯t long before I found them. I caught a glimpse of them buzzing around something on the desk where I got my blade. My line of thinking was interrupted by another one of my tentacles almost getting ripped off. I just let go of the piece that it had grabbed before It could rip the whole thing off.


    My new blade was not enough to do any damage to these things other than scratches. I saw some cords running along the length of their mechanical arms. I tried to sever those but they were also made of something really strong. Nothing I could do would hurt them, I even tried to shrink down and climb inside one of them. But they were sealed tight, I couldn¡¯t find a way in. Until I had an idea, a very terrible and painful idea. But it was all I had.


    I shrank down as much as I could and made my exterior as hard as I could despite my lack of skill. Then I let one eat me.

 Escape 3

    Even with my hardening this was still extremely painful. The machinery pulled me deeper inside while trying to crush me and grind m to bits at the same time. I changed my body to try and minimize the damage where I could, yet I still ended up getting stabbed, scraped and crushed a lot.


    I finally passed all that to reach a large chamber at the back of the robot. It was empty now, but I could tell it had been recently cleaned. The air was thick with a chemical smell and there was a thin film over the walls. I take a moment to repair the damage to my body before I leave the chamber to cause as much damage as I could. I had to leave my knife outside because I didn¡¯t want to get hurt with my own weapon.


    I take a look at the entrance of the chamber and find that there is a small gap between the last set of grinding teeth and the entrance for the chamber. I shrink myself as much as I can an slip through. I make my way around the guts of the device breaking as much as I can along the way.


    Severing connections and ripping out wires. I cracked every circuit board I passed and disconnected everything. I came across a weird crystal that was mounted to a circuit board and pulsed with a weird energy. It gave off a weird feeling one that I was oddly drawn to. I unconsciously started reaching towards it. I was just barely an inch away when I felt the energy start flowing out of the crystal and into my body. I jumped back and immediately checked myself for anything wrong. Ultimately, I found nothing other than I actually felt a little better than before. I felt like I just had a good night¡¯s sleep and a strong cup of coffee.


    ¡®I guess whatever is in this crystal is good for me. There don¡¯t seem to be any side effects so far.¡¯


    I carefully and slowly get closer to the crystal until I feel the energy draining into me again. I let the energy flow slowly just in case. It filled me with a comfortable warmth that I had never experienced before. Its like every cell in my body was being enriched at once. All too soon the experience ended and the crystal turn to dust before my eyes. I guess the energy inside was all that was holding it together. I turn my attention back to my body and I feel great. Nothing feels out of place, I just feel stronger and more sturdy.


    ¡®I need to find more of these things. There was another one of these robots right?¡¯


    The crystal I just absorbed must be like the power source of these robots. As soon as I drained the crystal I could feel the thing stop moving. I make my way out easily now that the gears and metal teeth are no longer moving. The other robot is still wandering around while the flying ones are hovering around it. I don¡¯t really understand what they are doing, but that doesn¡¯t matter. I want their crystals.


    I quickly find my knife that I left embedded in the robot¡¯s exterior and targeted the big floor drone first. Since I crawled around in one already I kind of know the layout and it didn¡¯t take me long to break into the still working floor robot. When I was messing around inside the first robot I found a tube that came out from the bottom, I assumed it was to suck up any liquids that were left on the floor. I simply climbed up this tube and cut it open to allow access to the inside. I immediately absorbed the crystal and just left. There isn¡¯t any point wasting more time breaking everything when it is no longer a threat now. I did take some small pieces of metal that I ripped off and crushed with my tentacles till they were odd looking sharp spears. I made about 12, I don¡¯t really know how many I¡¯m going to need but this seems like enough for now.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Climbing out from underneath the robot with my spears, I can see the things flying around. They are my last obstacle to getting out of this lab. I pick up one of my crude spears and take aim. Putting as much strength into the throw as I could I hurl it at the drone closest to me. It sped towards the drone at high speed just before bouncing off its outer shell and falling harmlessly to the ground.


    ¡®I don¡¯t know what I expected¡¯ I keep forgetting how small I am at the moment. Absorbing the crystals has me feeling stronger but I don¡¯t think I actually gained that much strength. Oh, how I wish I had some sort of system from those stories I loved to read online.


    I gave up trying to pierce the drones with my spears and instead just aimed for their rotors. The drones all had the normal setup of four rotors each. I only had about 8 spears left after my failed attempts. This time I didn¡¯t even aim to break or pierce anything. I just wanted to at least get the spears stuck in the blades or something so they couldn¡¯t fly right anymore. Then I could just leave without having to bother with them anymore. I aim again and throw.


    *THWACK*


    *WHIRRR-WHIRRRRRRR*


    I wished I could laugh as it scraped along the floor spinning extremely fast as It tried to gain altitude. I took down the rest easily after my first success. After I was all done, I was left with a large pile of spinning and whirring drones on the floor. I was going to leave but then I thought about something and walked over to the nearest drone. I saw its camera and sensors swivel around to look at me. If I didn¡¯t know better I would say it was afraid. The nerd in me got the better of me and I couldn¡¯t help myself. I touch a tentacle to the drone.


    ¡®Its afraid¡¯


    I look back and yell to imaginary soldiers.


    ¡®ITS AFRAID!¡¯


    I laugh at myself in my head and move on to what I was doing in the first place.


    I use my blade to help my open the drone and poke around inside for a bit before I found what I¡¯m looking for. These drones have crystals too, they are a lot smaller though and have less energy. But I still drain them all before I move on to leave the room. Draining the last one I finally decide to move on. Growing to my maximum size of baby cockroach I scurry towards the door.


    I finally make it to find out that the door is completely sealed. There is a tiny window on the door, so I look through that and find that the room is more than just sealed. There is a damn airlock outside the door.


    ¡®How the hell am I going to get out now?¡¯


    I keep looking out the window while thinking about this. It wasn¡¯t long before I noticed movement and realized that it wasn¡¯t just an airlock. It was a manned security airlock.


    ¡®This could be a good thing¡¯ I think to myself.


    I shrink down and use the now unused body mass to make my legs super long. I clean up the mess and hide the robots by putting them on the desk with the half-disassembled device I got my knife from earlier. I make it look like whoever¡¯s used this desk got bored and decided to take everything they could find apart. After all that is done, I head back to the door and shrink down as small as I could to hide from whatever sensors were in the airlock just in case. Then I start making as much racket as I possibly can. Throwing beakers and all manner of scientific equipment from the nearest tables and smashing them against the wall. The guard immediately shot up and barged through the door. Entering the other side of the airlock and started cycling it. I stopped throwing stuff and hid above the door, waiting for the guard to come through. Once the airlock is done cycling he comes through the door and I let go of the wall and drop right onto the person with the worst dandruff I have ever seen.


    ¡®At least it will be easy for me to hide in all this¡¯

 Escape 4

    Carl was not happy. His career was hanging by a thread at this point. He had slept through an attempted break in and had let slip some confidential information when drunk. Yet the director of this facility was a friend of his and decided to give him one last chance. This was it, he was sent to the farthest corner of the facility to watch over the project from one of the two local madmen. Of course, it¡¯s the one that terrifies him the most.


    The two local madmen are the brother superstars of this facility. John and Jack Lavern, the most famous scientists on this side of the planet at the moment. John is the mastermind of chemical science while Jack is the pioneer of interdimensional travel. John is the creepiest fucker on the planet. The man only wears gray. He is always breathing heavily and is disturbingly skinny. Carl has never even seen his brother, but this didn¡¯t surprise him. Jack¡¯s lab is on the other side of the facility anyway.


    Now Carl is stuck watching one of John¡¯s newest creations with the newest stuff brought back from the other side. Not only is it extremely boring, but if he screws up this time he knows there wont be another chance and he isn¡¯t entirely sure he wants to find out what the severance package is for what has to be an illegal facility. He shifted himself in his chair to try and regain some feeling in his ass. He had been given the midnight shift for a position that normally doesn¡¯t have one. Carl knew that the director only did this to keep him out of trouble and out of sight for a while. But it still sucks.


    Carl sat back in his chair and pulled out his smart pad. He powered up the screen and flicked around till he started a movie. There really wasn¡¯t anything to do since no one was in this part of the building anyway so he just relaxed and sipped his mug of coffee while enjoying one of his favorite kung fu movies.


    He was just getting to the good part before he heard something.


    *CRASH*


    *SMASH*


    *SCRAPE*


    *CRASH*


    ¡°SHIT!¡± Carl screamed as he tossed his smartpad onto the console and ran out of the door. He ignored procedure and cycled the airlock by overriding the lock with his security code without engaging the biosensors. The airlock cycled as he was freaking out, trying to figure out what the hell happened and if they would blame him for it. He was the guard but no one had come through the doors and it was impossible to get in there any other way. Carl was so worried he forgot one of the most important procedures put in place. He entered the lab without a hazmat suit. John had put up no such procedure so the director had to. John was more than happy to see what effect his creations would have on live subjects. Anyone stupid enough to come into contact with one of his concoctions deserved to be a test subject in his eyes.


    He whipped out his flashlight and scanned the room with his eyes trying to find the source of the sounds he heard. He was getting more and more paranoid until he looked down and saw all the broken glass next to the table with all the disassembled robots on it. He looked everywhere but didn¡¯t see anything out of place other than the broken glass on the floor. He approached the table and looked at all the scattered pieces. He noticed the partially disassembled device leaking black fluid and reached over. Tilted it back so the goop would stop leaking onto the table and stay in the device. Making sure to not let the black goop touch him anywhere. He decided to just record it in the log and report it tomorrow to the next guy. He was just going to say one of the scientists in there didn¡¯t put things away properly. He returned to the airlock feeling pretty good about his handling of this situation. Until he got into the airlock and saw the space where he was supposed to put his used hazmat suit for de-contamination. With a deadpan expression he cycled the airlock and went back to his post, collapsing in his chair. The sounds from the movie played in the background but he could barely hear it. The sounds of a girl screaming ¡°CHOSEN ONE!¡± in the background used to always cheer him up. He took out a report a filled it out and then shoved the matter to the back of his mind.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    ¡®I didn¡¯t come into contact with any chemicals and I didn¡¯t smell anything so I should be fine right? Besides even though I don¡¯t know what they are working on I¡¯m pretty sure its not gaseous. They had none of the equipment in there for that. Yeah, im fine.¡¯


    He accepted that and shoved that to the back of his mind. Picking up his smartpad he turned his attention and laughed at the guy stuck in a tiny net.


    Not noticing something crawling out of his hair or the small black stain drying on the sleeve of his shirt.


    _______________________


    I waited until the guard was fully absorbed into his movie before leaving. I moved carefully off his head and down his back. I left the room as soon as I reached the floor and found myself in a very long and wide tunnel.


    I looked around and realized I must be in some sort of bunker. I wonder how deep underground I am.


    The hallways was long and straight so it didn¡¯t take much walking in a straight line to get bored. Along the way I ended up practicing my abilities. I tested the range of my shapeshifting once again. I also tried to create a new organ inside my body. I wanted to be able to talk, even if I am tiny right now. Hopefully I can get big enough in the future to interact normally with people. Plus there was nothing else to do, so I started by trying to remember everything I could about vocal cords and how some animals talk.


    From what I can remember from my life before ¡®this¡¯ I was just out of high school. I had just gotten into college, I cant remember what I was studying to be. But I remember I had a friend that wanted to be a doctor but couldn¡¯t afford medical school. I used to help them study to try and get a scholarship. While I helped them study they would always bring up random interesting facts about the human body. Most of these facts were useless to me at the moment. I remember the last study session we had they had said something about how we were able to talk. Apparently it requires three things. Lungs, voice box and articulators. The lungs create the airflow while the voice box creates the tone and pitch. The ¡®articulators¡¯ are pretty much the mouth(Tongue, cheeks, lips) That further shape the sounds into words. I started with just a mouth, esophagus and lungs, I haven¡¯t needed to breathe since I woke up so I have to get used to breathing again. Once I had that in place I then started creating the all the parts of the voice box. When I had everything fully formed and in place I tested it out.


    ¡°STSTTSSTSTBTSPTBPTBPSTBPSPBSTPBPSBP¡± All I succeeded in doing was blowing a raspberry.


    I wasn¡¯t entirely sure how to structure the muscles in my new mouth so I ended up with a bit of a lisp. The voice box that I had made tuned out to not be formed properly either. The muscles inside kept ripping and falling apart. The only thing that worked properly were the lungs I had made. I fiddled around with the organs to try and get them working. By the time I had reached the end of the hall I was so frustrated I gave up and decided to try again later. I made sure no one was coming down the intersecting hallway before walking out. This hallway had only one room that was marked ANIMAL TESTING. I looked behind me and there was only a couple doors before the hallway just ended. The labels were too far away to read and I was more focused on getting out of here than exploring anyway. I continued down the hallway with the animal testing room.


    As I passed the animal testing room I started feeling sluggish. Something about this room was making me want to go in. I heard a grumble and it took me a bit to realize that It was me. Apparently, I do have a stomach. I turned and looked at the door.


    And I am very hungry.

 A new friend?

    The door was very easy to slip past. I just flattened myself and slipped underneath. The inside of the room was filled with hundreds of cages. Each cage had an animal of some kind in it. Most were mice and rats but some of the larger cages had cats, dogs and a couple birds. I started with the mice and rats first because all the other animals were pretty big, and I have only absorbed ants so far. I went to the cage with the smallest of the mice and took one out. I crushed its neck immediately, I may be hungry, but I didn¡¯t want it to suffer. I pierced its body with a tentacle and watched as it shrank away. The hungry feeling got weaker, but I still wasn¡¯t done. I absorbed two more mice before I felt full. I was about to leave but one of the mice lunged at me shrieking. I was close enough to the cage for it to startle me and I pierced its head without thinking.


    ¡®Oh Shit!¡¯


    I pierced its head. So far, I have been piercing the soft flesh in their bellies because the skull was too thick.  I feel like I¡¯ve gotten stronger again.


    While I was thinking I absentmindedly absorbed the mouse that attacked me. I didn¡¯t feel any fuller, but I did feel a little denser. I absorbed another mouse out of curiosity and checked myself afterwards. It seemed to only add a little more density this time. Five more mice later and I stopped receiving benefits from absorbing mice.


    ¡®How the hell does my body work? I have absorbed 10 mice the first 3 sated my hunger but that¡¯s all. The 6 after that seemed to add to my body. But the last mouse I absorbed did nothing. It seemed to have just disappeared afterwards.¡¯


    Its like after my body can no longer absorb anymore, it just sends it somewhere else.


    I would keep thinking about this for a little longer, but loud footsteps broke me out of my thoughts. I frantically looked around for somewhere to hide when I remembered. I¡¯m a shapeshifter, duh.


    I grew my body as much as possible and shifted my body to look like a baby mouse. That was the biggest I could get so far but I was improving. Another thing I noticed was how easy it was to change into a mouse. I even realized I had copied the internal organs as well. The fur was the only thing that didn¡¯t grow right. But that was also what I was focusing on while I changed. I was only concerned on the outer appearance and focused on a mental image of that. The footsteps were getting closer, so I only had a couple moments to try something out. I shifted back into my original form and then changed back into a mouse. This time I just focused on my mental image of a mouse but didn¡¯t try to influence my transformation. When I felt my flesh stop moving, I checked my body and I looked just like the mice I just absorbed. I guess eating something makes it easier for me to change into it. Good to know, I guess. I hid at the back of the cage just in case.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    The door opened and I was greeted with the image of a scientific goddess.


    She entered the room in a long white lab coat and some extreme looking heels. From what I could see, she was wearing a tight black dress that barely covered her thighs and some thin stockings. She was wearing black rimmed glasses and had some freckles scattered around her face. Her face was a weird cross between stereotypical cute farm girl and beautiful actress. She walked in and pulled a clipboard off the wall that I hadn¡¯t noticed. She scribbled something before putting the clipboard back and gracefully crossed the room towards the cages. She walked straight towards me and looked at the cages filled with mice like she was shopping. I was so distracted by her beauty that I didn¡¯t even notice it when she picked my cage. It only registered to me when she picked us up and moved us to the side. She got the clipboard again and looked closely at one side of the cage and I realized she was writing down the number of the cage. I hadn¡¯t seen them before but there were tiny little tags on each cage. I was about to slip through the cage and escape but she turned around and grabbed the cage before I could. I don¡¯t know why but she held the cage at eye level and stared at us while she left the room. The entire time she walked through the halls she never took her eyes off of the cage, like she was daring one of us to escape. She was pretty but It made me uncomfortable with her face so close just staring. I was debating whether to just give up hiding and spit in her eye so that she couldn¡¯t keep staring at me. Luckily before I started thinking about what fluids to use, we had made it to wherever she was going. The door beeped at her approach and opened automatically for her. But before she walked into the door she looked directly into my eyes and whispered.


    ¡°Do not try to escape youngling. I will help you.¡± Then she smiled at me and walked into the door.


    My eyes were wide open as I thought about what she just said.


    ¡®How the hell does she know what I am? What is going on? Is she like me?¡¯


    The room she walked into was filled with scientists doing all manners of experiments on a large assortment of animals. She crossed the room, stopped in front of a large door and put one of her hands on the door. The door beeped and opened for her, closing behind her with a hiss. The room she took us to was a huge office with a lab setup on one end and a large mahogany desk on the other.


    She took us to the lab and sat the cage down on one of the tables. She opened the cage and held out her hand. I stared at her hand not really sure what she was doing. She waited for a moment before rolling her eyes at me.


    ¡°Come out we need to talk, or would you rather stay in the cage as a mouse?¡±


    I climbed onto her hand and she lifted me out of the cage. She closed the cage and took me over to the desk. She set me down and took a seat herself. She took a moment to get comfortable before she looked at me again with those deep hazel eyes.


    ¡°So, what do you know so far?¡± She asked me.

 A new friend? 2

    I look her right in the eyes and shake my head slowly. She sits her head in her hand and sighs slowly.


    ¡°Your that new huh?¡±


    I nod.


    ¡°Okay, well first things first.¡± She opens a drawer and plucks a small flat piece of metal out before shutting it closed again.


    She places the metal plate down on the desk and puts one finger on it. It glows slightly before letting out a very soft *ding*.


    She removed her finger and the plate opened up to reveal a thin piece of circuitry. I watched her as she turned her fingers into a pair of tweezers and picked it up.


    ¡®She is like me!¡¯ I thought to myself.


    She winked at me before holding it up and explaining.


    ¡°This is a new device that was created here. I cannot explain everything now as we are a bit short on time. I don¡¯t know which chamber you escaped from, but they are going to notice your absence soon.¡±


    ¡®Wait, what?¡¯ I wanted to correct her, but I still lacked the ability to talk. So, I just sat there and listened to her.


    ¡°This device will monitor your growth and provide you with some useful functions. I added a couple small programs designed to help our kind out, you will find out about those later. Now, stay still while I apply it. Don¡¯t worry it wont hurt.¡± She brought the electric wafer to my body and pressed it to my side. It melted into my skin and disappeared. I mentally looked inside my body, but I could find no trace of it. I give her a funny look I hope will make her explain more.


    She chuckles at the look I¡¯m giving her.


    ¡°Now, Now. This will only benefit you. It will take a while to get used to your body before activating. Okay, now here is the situation.¡± She takes a deep breath before she continues. ¡°This is an illegal lab that has been kidnapping people and preforming terrible experiments on them for years. We and those like us were created from some of those experiments. With our powers we would¡¯ve already gotten revenge and stopped them by now, however, they all have what I just gave you and it has made them tremendously stronger. There was an attempt at the overseer¡¯s life a year ago but it failed and now they know of our existence. We must be more careful now or they will exterminate us. We used to let the younglings like yourself get stronger here in this world. But they have had much success finding us lately, so we are changing our strategy. One of the head scientists working here created a device that lets him open holes into alternate realities. I am going to send you to another world until you are strong enough to join the fight. It is the only way for our kind to survive now. I will be able to contact you through the implant I just gave you.¡±


    There was a knock at the door and she jumped.


    ¡°One minute!¡± She said. Turning back to me she sighed sadly. ¡°I was hoping for a little more time. But we have to go now. Don¡¯t worry, Ill make sure you get a nice world to grow in.¡± She gave me a warm smile before picking me up and hiding me in her lab coat¡¯s pocket. I try to look out of the pocket but my view is blocked by the fabric on the pocket. I can hear clearly though and I just listen as she opens the door.


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°Ma¡¯am the new project needs your attention. We are about to access a new portal.¡±


    A very deep voice came from the door way. He sounded huge, glad I¡¯m hidden in this pocket.


    ¡°Perfect timing¡± She took a couple steps forward and I heard the door closing behind her ¡°Let¡¯s go¡±.


    Once again I was being carried around and once again I had nothing to do. I was still trying to process what she told me.


    ¡®I was created from an experiment? But I have memories. I definitely remember going to classes and studying with my friend.¡± I was trying to figure everything out but I decided I would get stronger. Not just to help out those like me but to find out more about my past as well. She must know more about what is going on. Maybe she will tell me after I activate the implant.


    She and the guy that knocked on the door had a long conversation as they walked through the facility. They mostly talked about boring stuff or stuff I didn¡¯t understand. Something about special project E.G.M.A being near completion. It seems really important to the man judging by how he was talking about it. They stopped talking about interesting things after a while and I started to tune them out. Instead I practiced my shapeshifting for a while. I was also paying attention to what I could tell about where we were going. I felt her walking down a long hall for a little bit, before we got in a elevator and went down for what felt like forever. She finally got out of the elevator and walked for another 10 to 30 minutes. Turning seemingly at random down what I assume to be more halls before finally stoppingThis tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    ¡®Just how big is this place!?¡¯


    I stretch a tentacle with one of my eyes up and out of the pocket to see what is going on but as soon as my eye leaves the pocket she stuffs it back inside. I did get a glimpse of some huge doors in front of her though. There was a person talking to one of the guards on either side of the door. That must have been the guy she was talking to this whole time. He was huge with some weird metal things on his arms and head. I couldn¡¯t get a good look at what he was wearing though, I could tell it was dark green. Maybe military camouflage or something. I also noticed that one of the guards was carrying a sword. That can¡¯t be normal. Why doesn¡¯t he have a gun?


    *CREAK*


    *SCRAPE* *SCRAPE*


    *THUNK*


    I didn¡¯t need to look to tell that the huge door is open now. I could feel the woman start walking again and she resumed her previous conversation with the man as we passed by the guards. I go back to practicing shapeshifting until I notice their conversation stop.


    The woman had stopped walking and said


    ¡°One sec I have to visit the ladies room.¡±


    He didn¡¯t respond but I heard his clothes shuffle a little so I assumed he nodded or something. She walked into a room, closing the door behind her before grabbing me and pulling me out of her pocket. I struggled for a little bit before I realized she wasn¡¯t hurting me. She was holding me at eye level and watching me struggle. When I stopped she finally spoke.


    ¡°What the HELL are you doing in there. Why have you been moving so much? Are you trying to make this harder on me than it needs to be?¡± She took a breath.


    ¡°Stop Moving, the humans already like looking at my chest. I don¡¯t need them asking why my pocket is moving.¡± She started at me for a minute like she expected me to answer. Since I couldn¡¯t talk, I just raised a mouse paw, grew a thumb and gave her a thumbs up. She looked at me and nodded before stuffing me into a lower pocket and exiting the room.


    ¡°Sorry about that rufa-¡° She began but she never finished that sentence. I heard some metallic clicking around us and a weird *SHINK* sound.


    I heard someone walk forward and stop just in front of us.


    ¡°Ma¡¯am, I need to see your ID card and need you to submit to a bio-scan.¡± The man said.


    I heard the woman curse under her breath.


    ¡°Shit, and I really liked this form too.¡±


    She stepped forward and I could feel her pull something out of her other jacket pocket. She must have handed something to the man because all he said next was ¡°Follow me.¡±


    A short walk later and we were in a very bright room. I could see the light through the lining of the pocket I was in. I heard two people walk in behind us and a door close. She sat down and leaned forward, almost crushing me in her pocket. Before I could try and avoid being crushed by her ample busom, She reached in a pulled me out. As soon as I was out I realized that the arm she was using to carry me was coming out of her abdomen.


    ¡®She really is like me!¡¯ I was wondering how she got so good at shifted but her hand grew a tiny mouth and spoke to me.


    ¡°Climb onto the man directly across from me, I will create a distraction and he will head for the place they lock up their expensive gadgets to try and capture me. When he gets in that room wait until he leaves Do not attack him! he is one of the most powerful men here and he will kill you easily. You need to look for a device that is about as small as my hand. It is a blue circle with a yellow strap. All you need to do is activate it and type in CX-8009. It should take you to a world they use as a dumping ground for their failed experiments. Do not let the device get damaged, it is the only way for you to get back. Be careful youngling.¡± I was still trying to process this when she absorbed her arm back into her stomach and dropped me on the floor.


    She really talks fast, the man in front of her had not even begun to speak before she was finished. I shrunk down and climbed up the man¡¯s leg. I hid inside his pocket and waited for him to finish talking. He was speaking very softly, and I had trouble understanding what he was saying. Apparently, he didn¡¯t have much to say and we were out of there before long. I expected the lady to attack him or transform into something and rampage around but she didn¡¯t appear to do anything. I think I heard her say something to the man before we left the room but that was it. I thought it was weird but she hasn¡¯t given me any reason to not trust her so far so I¡¯ll just follow her instructions for now.


    _____________________________________


    After she sent the youngling off she relaxed a little bit. The man across from her was the commander, he worked directly under the overseer. She was expecting him to call her out, try to find out her plans and if there are any more of her kind and who they are. But what he said threw her off quite a bit. She was waiting for him to speak and was getting ready to turn into a rhino and start rampaging when he started talking.


    ¡°Ma¡¯am, im sorry for this but you have been here all night and one of the night guards reported a disturbance in john¡¯s chem lab. Have you noticed any disturbances or anyone wandering around where they aren¡¯t supposed to?¡± He said in his very soft but stern voice.


    She was surprised but tried to hide it and simply shook her head. He nodded and got up and left. As he was leaving the door she asked ¡°So, can I leave?¡±


    He nodded again without looking at her or stopping. She also left the room and walked to the lab she was going to in the first place. Before she stopped and cursed at herself. She had just sent the newest youngling with the commander and she had no idea where he was going.


    She couldn¡¯t do anything about it now. She had to just keep on going and hope the youngling can survive and escape. She reached the lab she had been heading to in the first place and Rufas was waiting by the entrance. She just nodded at him and followed him inside the lab. Things like that happen all the time at this facility, not normally with the commander though. He looked worried and curious but he didn¡¯t ask what happened. The inside of the lab was buzzing with activity, people in white lab coats speeding through the room trying their best to not run into each other. They all had deep bags under their eyes and had bloodshot eyes. Rufas led me to the only scientist in the room that was standing still fiddling with a device on the table. The very same device she had just sent the youngling to get. She deeply sighed and walked over to the table to see what jack wanted with her.


    ¡®Well, I guess that youngling is dead. I have to go through the list of candidates again to see If I can make some new ones¡­¡¯ She thought to herself as she approached jack.

 a new friend? 3

    After another while of riding around hiding in someone¡¯s clothes while they walk around I finally reach my destination. The man I was hiding on walked to a room that required a keycard and retinal scan before it opened. Once inside I realized that this was the man¡¯s office. I was wondering why he had such a large amount of security on the door to his office until I saw the large wall full of weapons. There were all kinds of weapons on the wall. But what I didn¡¯t understand was how low-tech all the weapons were. Based on what I could recall about my past is how advanced our society was. I had seen the army start using laser weapons, why was this man¡¯s office decorated with swords and crossbows and weapons like that. They weren¡¯t even just for decoration, for one thing there were too many. They had also seen much use. Little scratches and chips in the blades, even a stain here and there gave it away.


    Maybe this has something to do with the other worlds the lady was talking about.


    The man walked over to his desk and sat down, taking a moment to light a thick cigar and puffing on it for a bit. I took this moment to crawl off of him and onto the bottom of his desk. I hid underneath his desk for a while. I¡¯m getting sick of all this waiting, I haven¡¯t been¡­..whatever I am for very long and most of the time I¡¯ve been here has been spent waiting. It¡¯s frustrating not being able to do anything.


    But despite my inner protesting I sat and waited, just watching the commander work. Mostly he had just been looking over some paperwork and typing on his laptop. It was several hours of this boring torture until he did something to make it infinitely worse.


    He leaned over and let out a disgustingly wet sounding fart.


    He sat there for a moment before getting up and walking a bit stiffly towards a door on the other side of the office, away from the entrance.


    Finally, this was my chance!


    As soon as he closed the door behind him I set out searching for that device the woman told me about. I slipped a tentacle into each of the drawers of his desk to check those first. The top one just had a bunch of files and a gun. ¡®Oh, so he does have a gun¡¯


    The next couple of drawers have some things I couldn¡¯t identify like a large amount of small vials and what felt like a tiny bike pump, so I moved on. There was nothing on top of the desk either so I climbed on top of the desk and looked around the room till I spotted something. There was a small bracelet sitting on the desk in a tiny little case. I popped open the case to get a better look. Turns out the case it was in magnified it. It was actually a tiny blue cloth ring with yellow plates mounted in it every so often. It was sort of like the device that the lady was talking about right? It has the right colors at least.


    I heard a toilet flush in the other room and the sink started going. I decided to just take it with me, I grabbed it and ran towards the door. I reached the door just as the man was leaving the bathroom. Much to my horror he looked directly at me in front of the door and froze. Neither of us moved and just stared at each other. I saw him glace at the ring around my neck (that was the only place it would fit normally) and he leapt at me. I couldn¡¯t shrink under the door with the ring around my neck. I jumped out of the way just barely dodging his fist. He punched straight into the floor, sending cracks out into the surrounding concrete. I¡¯m glad I dodged, there was no way I would¡¯ve survived that. I stretched my legs out for more speed and escaped. I dodged everywhere I could, sometimes just moving certain parts of my body out of the way so I don¡¯t take and damage.


    His office was now covered in smashed furniture and holes in the walls and floor. Even the bathroom door was smashed into tiny pieces. I was running out of things to hide behind, I resorted to trying to hit him instead of just running. I leapt onto the wall full of mounted weapons and started pulling them free, tossing them as hard as I could in his general direction. I managed to get a glimpse of him while I was throwing things and he was still demonstrating his superior speed. The man was simply dodging most of the weapons, some of them he caught set them aside carefully. With every weapon I threw he seemed to get angrier, he started throwing some of them back at me.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    Now, not only do I have to keep throwing weapons at him and moving along the wall, I have to dodge the incoming weapons as well. This is getting frustrating, I grabbed one of the last three weapons on the wall. A small spiked mace and threw it at him using as much strength as I could muster. My aim was a little off and I ended up throwing it towards his shoulder. He deflected it with a flick of his wrist, tearing a small hole in his uniform. He must have been getting frustrated too because he deflected it with a lot more force than he needed to use. The mace flew towards the door and smashed almost completely through it. I would¡¯ve thought about just how much force would be needed for that to happen, but I was a bit more distracted by this opportunity to escape. I immediately set into action, throwing the last of the weapons at him to keep him distracted for a bit. The I leapt off the wall and spread out my arms, forming a soft thin membrane between them to keep myself aloft. I was very close to the ceiling so in order to escape I would have to get closer to the rabid commander staring at me with almost bloodshot eyes. I picked up speed by spinning in circles a bit before entering his strike range.


    Once I was in range I immediately spun around his head, he may be fast. But he doesn¡¯t seem to be able to catch me. Like he isn¡¯t really used to his speed and didn¡¯t think to try grabbing ahead of where I was to try and catch me.


    I spun around his head a few times, dodging out of the way when he tried to grab me. Then as soon as I got behind his head I changed course and sped towards the new hole in the door. The mace hadn¡¯t gone completely through the door but it had made a big enough hole for me to get through with the ring. He tried to grab me before I made it through the door, I could practically feel his huge hand behind me as I folded my arms against my body to fit through the hole. Once I was through I got rid of the membrane and started running down the hall. I heard a loud crunch behind me, looking back I can see the commander went through the door! He must be really pissed I took this thing.


    He was way to fast for me to out run him, but lucky for me the nearby guards heard the commotion and were coming by to investigate. When they saw the commander trying to catch me they immediately summoned more guards to try and cut off my escape. This was really straining my mind, constantly dodging the commander¡¯s deadly strikes and shifting my body out of the way when I couldn¡¯t dodge. Luckily It wasn¡¯t much longer before both sides of the hallway were filled with guards sporting all sorts of tools for capturing that I assumed were used to capture escaped experiments. I waited till one of the guards tried to step in and help the commander capture me before I acted. I grabbed the guard¡¯s helmet and launched myself over the heads of all the guards. Once again growing the thin membrane so that I could glide and control my flight.


    I dodged all the guard¡¯s attempts to grab me as I passed overhead and landed on the floor behind them. I heard the commander yelling something at the guards, but I had already flew down the hall before some of the guards broke out of their stupor and started sprinting after me. I needed to figure out how to use this device around my neck. It is a little smaller than what the lady said but the man really wanted to get it back so it has to be important right?


    I glided down the halls, speeding away from the sound of stomping boots. Whenever I lost speed I grabbed onto the wall and pulled to gain speed as I went. The various scientists got in my way every now and then but they either screamed when they saw a flying mouse with tentacles flying at them or tried to swat at me with whatever was in their hands.


    I found that the farther down the halls I go the less people I ran into. There were even less rooms the longer I flew. Eventually I ran out of halls, reaching a large and very long chamber. There was a small stone platform at the entrance that ended just behind a large stone circle. The floor seemed to disappear into nothingness after the platform ended. The stone circle was covered in a large amount of circuitry and devices that I didn¡¯t understand. I could see several more large stone circles directly behind it going in a straight line off into the distance. I couldn¡¯t even see the last one. Each one was mounted on a large floating rock. The way they were floating gave off the impression that they were floating in water, but there was nothing there.


    I grew my legs out and landed on the floor just in front of the large stone circle. Once I touched the ground I felt a slight warmth from my neck.


    It was the ring!


    The ring started warming up around my neck, I wasn¡¯t really sure how to feel about that though. I have no idea what this thing is supposed to do. I was contemplating taking it off when I was once again reminded I was being chased by the sound of boots stomping down the hallway. I subconsciously took a couple steps away from the entrance and ended up stepping closer to the stone ring. The ring was starting to get hot and vibrate. I looked down at it and something smacked me in the head knocking me right through the stone ring.


    Then everything went dark.

 It awakes

    I¡¯ve been a magitrucker for all my life. It was my first job and one that I take pride in. Making my way down the long road at around 500 mph I watch the world blur as it goes by. It used to be illegal for us magitruckers to go this fast on the highway, animals would explode as we go by from the magic that propelled the trucks forward. The kingdom was sick of constantly getting complaints about how corpse-ey their highways were. So the king had enchanted fences brought up along the highway to try and keep the animals out. It helped, but I still had to clean some splattered dire wolf guts off the front of my truck every now and then. The wide array of screens and dials set out in front of me allow me to control my custom magitruck. The early days of magitrucking truckers like me had to make do with speeds under 250 mph, I cant believe how slow we had to go in those days. I shake my head just remembering how I could actually see the scenery pass without my enchanted goggles. The new inventions from the Waygrand kingdom have significantly increased the efficiency of the magitrucking business. They were the ones who invented the Grav-Shield. Without it us truckers would have to travel at low speeds to dodge obstacles and to avoid getting crushed by the force. Now, we can just plow straight through. It is so much easier.


    I had grown my company from just me with my truck ¡®Maybell¡¯ to a huge powerhouse spanning multiple kingdoms. We had contracts to haul all sorts of things, from weaponry to large machinery. I ran the company for thirty years, just recently I gave my son the head seat of the company. I wasn¡¯t exactly retired, I took a contract every now and then. Just to get back in Maybell and hit the open road again. At the moment I was about two days away from the Kingdom of Frevelia. I don¡¯t usually make deliveries to the dwarves, but I had recently come into a large amount of a special ore that apparently no one could identify and they were extremely interested. I looked through the windows at the blurring countryside and forests as they sped by over the fence. Reaching an arm up I flip a switch on my goggles and they whirred to life as mana flowed through them. Activating the delicate circuitry held within. My vision gained a light blue tinge for a second before clearing up. The goggles enhanced the eyes and gave a temporary boost to the brain so that the user could process the information now being delivered through their eyes.


    What was a blur was now just as clear as if I was jogging through. There was something off about the fence. I remember a while back before the fence went up, the mages guild were protesting the fence because of something called oversaturation. They were complaining that if you had that many magical devices arranged like that then the mana released by them would gather along the area. Such a chaotic force as mana gathering like that could only cause trouble. No one knows what that could cause, but they were ignored due to lack of evidence and because the king couldn¡¯t be bothered to care.


    With my goggles whirring on my face and improving my vision I could tell something was going on with the fence. There was a sort of blue aura around the fence, which was pretty normal, but the weird thing was that the aura was being pulled upwards. I could see trails of blue smoke-like tendrils being siphoned off and flying straight up into a cloud above. The cloud was heavy and dark, but it had a distinct blue coloration to it. ¡®Seems like it will rain soon¡¯ was the thought going through my head.


    Right until I noticed the cloud wasn¡¯t moving. Well, to my perspective it wasn¡¯t moving. But that means that it was following me. With every slight turn I made on the road that cloud was still in the same position in the window. The mana from the fence still being pulled towards it.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    *boom*


    I jumped in my seat. ¡®Damn that scared me, I guess it is going to rain¡¯.


    *boom*


    *boom*


    ¡®Okay¡­.thats weird.¡¯ I thought to myself, keeping an eye on both the road and the cloud.


    *boooom*


    *booooom*


    The cloud¡¯s shape started to change and warp with every explosion.


    *Boom*


    *Boom*


    *BOOM*


    *BOOM*


    *BOOOOOM!!!!!*


    The truck lurched to the left as the cloud shot towards me out of nowhere. It hit my truck and I fought for control, but I knew at these speeds that I couldn¡¯t do anything. So I just buckled myself in and hit the eject button. A safety bar shot down over me. I heard a series of clicks and all of a sudden, I wasn¡¯t in my truck anymore. A light blue shield surrounded me, protecting me from outside force. I could see my truck smash and flip around, scraping up the highway crushing several fences as it careened off the road. It took running into a cliff to finally stop my truck. After the ejector lowered me to the ground I followed the destruction till I found my truck.


    The cockpit was completely smushed, except for the magitech engine which was protected by the same blue shield that kept me safe. Which is good, a magitech explosion is something no one wants to be responsible for. It would taint the mana in the area and they would charge me for the mana cleanup.


    I shook my head as I went over the damage. The reinforced wheels were all crushed and the trailer was almost completely folded in half. Which was weird, from what I could see the trailer had only scraped along the ground. I got closer to inspect the damage and I realized I was looking at my cargo. There was a huge hole right in the side. Some of the softly glowing ore was leaking out. I look up at the sky and the cloud is gone. Reaching up I realize I left my glasses on.


    ¡®SHIT¡¯


    I try to pull them off but they wont budge, I didn¡¯t even notice the mana being pulled out of me until now. Without the supply of mana from the truck the goggles were drawing it directly from my body. Which isn¡¯t a problem for adventurers, however I¡¯m a trucker. A civilian. I barely have enough mana to light my stove at home.


    I remembered to switch just in time to pass out from mana exhaustion. As my vision faded the only thought going through my head was


    ¡®didn¡¯t I have more ore than that when I left?¡¯


    _______


    I felt something pulling me, dragging my body along. I mentally check my body and everything feels okay for the moment. I could still feel the ring around my neck although it wasn¡¯t hot anymore. I could feel some weird warmth in my body now. It seems centered in the middle of my body. This was weird but it felt kind of good having that feeling there. It seemed to radiate something that made me feel energetic. I try to remember what happened.


    I remember getting hit with something and falling into the stone ring. After that all I can remember are short moments.


    I see the stone rings spinning around me.


    I felt an immense pressure and felt like I was shot through a cannon and went through a wall.


    Something happened to my body, like I was being bathed in two different types of energy.


    I pushed the thoughts to the back of my head, I was being pulled by something and I wanted to make sure it didn¡¯t want me for lunch.


    I opened my eyes and noticed two things.


    <ol>


    <li>I was in my original form. A flat squid-thing with thin tentacles.</li>


    <li>The creature pulling me was a wolf the size of a large Dobermann</li>


    </ol>


    Killing it wouldn¡¯t be too hard though, luckily for me it already has some of my tentacles in its mouth.


    I just grow them until it cant breathe and wait. After it finally stops squirming I start absorbing it. As soon as the body shrivels and disappears a message pops up in front of my face.


    <table width="693">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Dire Wolf absorbed


    +25 biomass


    Unlocked Dire wolf Transformation assistance


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 Here i am

    ¡®What the hell is this?¡¯ I thought.


    I tried to poke the floating blue window, but my tentacle went right through it. Then it disappeared. Leaving me wondering what RPG I got pulled into. Maybe this has something to do with that device that lady put on me. She said something about it monitoring my growth or something. I guess this is what she meant by that.


    I¡¯m not proud of it but I spent the next half hour trying to find out how to open my status. Eventually I gave up and moved on. The wolf had dragged me through some thick forest before I had killed it. Thankfully because I was being dragged there was a clear trail leading me back to where I was found. I wanted to make sure I knew where I came out of¡­.whatever the hell I fell into before I leave the area.


    I wasn¡¯t too far away from where the wolf found me. The tracks stopped about half a mile away. There was nothing really notable around the area. I kept looking around for something, Anything out of the ordinary. All I found was a stone platform with a tree growing in the middle of it. The only thing unusual about it was the large hole in the middle of the tree. It was a perfect oval, but it didn¡¯t look like it was cut this way. It looked like it naturally grew like this. I walked onto the stone platform to get a closer look but the ring started heating up. I backed away and it cooled down.


    ¡®I guess I know how I got here then.¡¯


    I made sure to remember where this place is. Marking it and any nearby landmarks in my memory so that I can find this place later. The sun is pretty high up and there are no trails leading from here other than the trail the wolf made when dragging me. So I guess finding shelter and water were my first move.


    Before I leave though I want to test my shapeshifting ability first. After coming here I seem to be a lot bigger. About the size of a large dog.


    So, I tried changing into a large variety of animals. But no matter what I couldn¡¯t seem to get it right. I changed into a cat, but I couldn¡¯t get the head right and the tail wouldn¡¯t move properly. I tried a squirrel because they are fast, but it just got confusing as I ended up looking more like a flat skunk. I was about to give up but I remembered that weird blue box. It said something about transformation assistance?Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    I tried bringing up some sort of menu again, but I still couldn¡¯t figure it out. So I just changed into a wolf. As I shifted I could feel some thing messing up again. But as soon as I noticed the feeling of something forming wrong it corrected itself. There was a weird warmth in my core that seemed to emit a pulse of warmth during my transformation. When I was complete, I stretched one of my eyes out to get a good view of myself.


    I looked exactly like that wolf I killed. Perfectly wolf shaped in everyway I could tell. I retracted the eye and moved around in my new shape. Somehow I just instinctually knew how to move it. It felt¡­.natural.


    Like I had done this a couple times before or had been watching wolves move around for a while. I ran through the forest, leaping over low branches and speeding through clearings.


    It was exilirating, this feeling of freedom. Of course this feeling brought on a feeling of curiousity. If it feels this good to be a wolf, I wonder how it feels to be other creatures.


    _________%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%


    A couple Hours ago¡­


    A young fawn was drinking from a lake. A lake it had drunk from hundreds of times before and would drink from hundreds of more times in the future. A branch cracked in the distance, startling the fawn. It stood still and looked for danger. Moments passed by in silence before it picked up a sound in the distance. A loud and deep rumble that ended in a piercing whistle. The fawn was scared, It had never heard sounds like this before. It sped off towards its family as fast as It could. He never strayed too far from them. Hopping through the forest he tried to run from the whistling as fast as he could. Passing trees and hopping over bushes the little fawn didn¡¯t even notice that he had run over a soft pink thing. He looked back just in time to see the pink thing try and get up. Just to get hit in the head by whatever was making that whistling sound.


    The young fawn was happy that the sound stopped but was still a little scared. He was also very curious and wanted to know if the pink thing was still alive. He cautiously approached and sniffed the air. It smelled funny, the pink thing smelled like dirt, blood and bile. But it also had a different smell to it. A smell the fawn didn¡¯t recognize. He got closer and saw what had hit the pink thing.


    There was a large glowing blue rock sticking out of the pink thing¡¯s head.


    ¡®Poor pink thing¡¯ the fawn thought to himself.


    He felt bad for it, but then it twitched, and he was gone. As soon as it moved, he ran away as fast as he could. He would report it to his parents and vowed never to go far away from them again.

 Plant of doom

    I was so excited I was barely paying attention to where I was going. When I finally stopped, I realized I had no idea where I was. I had found myself in a clearing edged with dangerous looking brambles and thorny vines. I had managed to come through the only area that wasn¡¯t covered in sharp plants. Something was off about this place though. There was a weird smell in the air. It was strong, I followed my new nose trying to figure out what the smell lead to when I almost ran into a weird patch of brambles.


    The rest of the clearing had greenish-purple brambles, but here the brambles were bright purple. The smell got sweeter the closer I got to the plant. It just seemed so inviting. The smell was so strong now, I could feel myself salivating all over my front paws. I couldn¡¯t take my eyes off the plant. Large purple flowers were all around me. All of them letting out that sweet scent. Their soft petals looking so enticing I get closer and my nose touches the tip of one of the flowers petals. The flower secretes some sort of fluid that makes my muzzle go numb. At this point I don¡¯t care, all I can think about is that smell and the pretty color of the flowers.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="621">


    WARNING ¨C WARNING ¨C WARNING


    You are under the influence a harmful substance


    Losing Biomass


    WARNING ¨C WARNING ¨C WARNING


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    These annoying windows have been popping up for a little while now, but they block my vision so I can¡¯t see the flowers, so I dismiss them as they come up. Then they come up faster and faster till they completely block the flowers from my view. They start re-appearing faster than I can dismiss them. It isn¡¯t until all my attention is on the windows that I actually read what they say and realize what I¡¯m doing. The scent is still strong and overpowering most of my senses, but I fight to maintain control of my body. I will my legs to move and try to back away from the flowers. My legs move slowly like I carried a mountain on my shoulders. Moving just my legs took forever but it was all I could focus on. That smell was clouding my head. ¡®Wait a minute¡­. I¡¯m a shapeshifter!¡¯


    Fighting against the influence of the scent and the pretty flowers I managed to get back enough function of my brain to remember this important fact. Immediately I breathe out and then absorb my respiratory system. No longer needing to breathe lets me slowly work the stuff out of my body.


    It was slowly getting easier to think and something things started becoming apparent.


    I was being eaten.


    The flowers had grown teeth and were ripping chunks out of my body. The clearer my head got the more pain I felt.


    I started thrashing, ripping off the thick vines and roots that had started growing around my body with my fangs. Clawing at the flowers and desperately trying to escape the carnivorous plant I fought with everything I had. Using my back leg to tear through a particularly resilient vine I was free.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    I ran out of the clearing and far away from that monster as fast as I could. My vision was a little cloudy and my body was practically torn to shreds. I ran until I collapsed next to a large cave opening. The agonizing pain and the window blinking in front of me made it impossible to rest.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="623">


    Warning ¨C Warning ¨C Warning


    Biomass low


    Body damage surpassing 70%


    Recommendation:


    Enter recovery mode to repair


    Warning ¨C Warning ¨C Warning


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I had no idea what would happen when using this ¡®recovery mode¡¯ but I would rather not die. So, I dragged myself into the cave mouth to get some shelter. It led to a small room with an opening that led further into the cave. I limped to a corner and curled up.


    ¡®Recovery mode¡¯


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="623">


    Would you like to enter recovery mode?


    Yes/No


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡®Yes¡¯


    I lost consciousness immediately.


    __________________________________


    I fixed my tie for the thirtieth time before getting off the bus. This was the fifth interview I have gone to this month. No one would hire me though. I didn¡¯t understand what I was doing wrong. I graduated from college with pretty good grades in everything. I walked towards Grump Towers to try and get a job. It was a large skyscraper run by a family owned conglomerate. The tower was a large monstrosity of steel and plasti-glass with an American flag hanging on the front. There was a rumor that one of the members of the Grump family was actually president. No one believed that rumor though.


    I passed by the spinning doors and entered the building. Trying not to get distracted by the gaudy decorations I walked straight to the front desk and introduced myself.


    ¡°Hello, my name is A-Adam and I am here for the i-interview?¡± I stammered to the lady barely looking at me from behind the desk.


    ¡°Take the elevator to the 2<sup>nd</sup> floor, it¡¯ll be the fifth door on your right.¡± She said before going back to completely ignoring me again.


    I thanked the lady before walking over to the elevators on the right and pressing the call button. It didn¡¯t take long for the elevator to come. I entered and took another deep breath to calm myself. I didn¡¯t want to stammer again when I actually meet the person for the interview. I unconsciously straightened my tie again before I pressed the second-floor button.


    ________________________________________


    I could feel the sensation come back to my body and all the pain I felt was gone. I opened my eyes and looked around. Everything seemed a little bit blurry. I stood up and had a good stretch and then walked outside. The cave mouth looked a lot bigger last night, but I was also in lots of pain and my head was still a tiny bit cloudy from that stuff the plant secreted.


    I look down at my paws and gasp. They had shrunk!


    Before I could even process this a window popped up.


    <table width="636">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="636">


    Notice


    Biomass required for healing insufficient


    Form has been reduced to


    ¡®Dire wolf Pup¡¯


    Extra biomass was used for repair


    Recovery mode deactivated because injuries have been healed


    Congratulations!


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 Chapter 14

    ¡®Well, shit¡­ I¡¯m small again..¡¯ I thought to myself as I look around at the once again big and scary world.


    ¡®At least what happened kind of makes sense. If I take to much damage my body needs biomass to repair itself. Since I lost so much to that plant, my body used all my reserves and now I¡¯m a puppy... I guess it¡¯s time to hunt again.¡¯


    I head out of the cave trying not to stumble on my suddenly shorter legs. The sun was high in the sky and I could barely see. The trees around the cave were so out of focus they looked like they were censored. ¡®I can¡¯t hunt like this. I need to fix my eyes at least.¡¯


    I sat down and focused my mind on my eyes. Trying to enhance them a little bit. Which made my current problem obvious. As soon as I started focusing my mind, I realized just how little biomass I had. My body felt almost completely empty, I shifted a tiny amount to my eyes to try and improve them.


    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="623">


    WARNING ¨C WARNING ¨C WARNING


    Biomass reserves are extremely low


    Transformation ability severely limited until more biomass is acquired.


    WARNING ¨C WARNING - WARNING


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Looks like my eye improvement took the last of my biomass. My vision didn¡¯t even improve that much. At least It doesn¡¯t feel like I¡¯m looking through wax paper any more. I should be able to find something small I can absorb.


    I headed out into the forest to search for some tasty biomass so I can grow again, I have had enough being small. It may not have been long, but it sure wasn¡¯t fun.


    ______________________


    Victoria had messed up. Not long after her meeting had she found out that the youngling she had written off as dead had survived. But he had wrecked the commander¡¯s office and stolen the untested trans-dimensional ring. Now the commander was scouring the facility for our kind once again. It had been years since the last time we were actively hunted. She had to get at least get in contact with the youngling and try to give him some guidance. As far as she knows the project responsible for creating them had been scrapped and the survivors had been ¡®liquidated¡¯.


    That she had found another youngling had to mean that someone was continuing the experiment. She had to find out who, then she could steal the experiment from them and create more of her kind. The only problem would be how to train them all. The training world this facility used was a low tech one that was one of the first ones we found. We figured out that normal strength training coupled with hunting monsters on other worlds made you ridiculously stronger. We couldn¡¯t explain it but the director immediately started sending people for training and study. If we could figure out how they are getting stronger and bring it back, there was no telling just how much money that would be worth. The problem was that travel to this world was heavily monitored. She had managed to get a couple of her people sent there while disguised as lab animals. Within the first month they had progressed smoothly, but there are still too few of them. She knew that in order to destroy the facility and stop the people that ran it she would need more strength. Right now, she was sitting at her desk and was looking through some files she snuck. It was a list of new hires that never showed up. They had applied and been accepted but when they were called to come back in there was no answer. Upon investigation it was discovered that they never made it home. There was only about 20 of these incidents out of a group of 250 applicants so it was ignored.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    But she had found it after sifting through a couple months¡¯ worth of paperwork. She had found the records of all but one of the ten missing applicants. There was one of the missing applicants whose paperwork was mysteriously¡­.missing.


    There wasn¡¯t even any record of him checking in at the front desk. Like he walked into the building and disappeared. This was highly unusual, the director demanded that everyone be responsible with their paperwork. He handed out severe punishments to those who didn¡¯t. On one occasion the head of a department was sent to a recently found world by himself as punishment. He came back a different person. Covered in scars and missing a couple fingers, he no longer doubted the severity of the director¡¯s punishments. No one did. He was only in there for half an hour and they had to drag him back out.


    So finding someone who had the balls to openly mess with the boss¡¯s paperwork was extremely rare. She had to get to the bottom of this. If the person who stole the papers also continued the research on her people she needed to find out.


    ______


    Deep within the bowels of the illegal research facility, a man stood staring at his new creation. A bizarre amalgamation of several ¡®test subjects¡¯ all combined into one creature. It had the legs of a ostritch, the body of a lion and three human heads. The three heads all carried the same expression of horror and pain. The man watched as his newly created chimera floated in the vat of fluid and smiled. He typed in a couple commands on the console in front of the tank and a low level current was ran through the liquid. The chimera twitched in response, bringing an even wider smile to the man¡¯s face as he upped the current. The chimera was almost flailing in the liquid before he cut off the current and watched how the creature reacted.


    After a couple minutes of no response he switched the type of energy he introduced to one that only the people in this facility had access to in the entire world. Mana.


    He introduced a small crystal to the tank and watched as it slowly sank. To the man¡¯s surprise it stopped sinking right in front of the chimera. It seemed to hover for a second in the liquid before it disappeared right in front of the man¡¯s eyes. He tried to recall what just happened in his mind when he noticed something. To see if he was right he dropped two more of the mana crystals into the vat. Sure enough, as soon as they floated in front of the creature they disappeared as well. He was paying extra close attention this time so he managed to confirm what he was thinking. They weren¡¯t disappearing. The chimera was eating them.


    He noticed a flash of some sharp teeth right before the crystal disappeared. He smiled. He had succeeded. It was alive.


    His creation.


    Unlike the first failure he threw out near that stupid ant experiment of his colleague, this creature would earn him a large bonus and maybe even a new contract with the director. He was running out of time to present a new experiment before he would be deemed ¡®useless¡¯. Now they would be begging for him to stay. Giving him anything he wanted, just to keep him working here. He was almost drooling at the prospect. He stroked the vat almost lovingly as his thoughts turned to his imagined wonderful future.


    ¡°Now I just have to test you and see how you do in the field.¡± He said to himself.


    ¡°Now that I think about it there was a new world found the other day, apparently some experiment managed to escape into it somehow. That sounds like the perfect testing ground to me, how about you?¡± He asked the chimera. It just floated there in response.


    ¡°I thought so¡± He smiled at it. Before he went back to running some more tests on his new creation. It would be a little while before he could actually start the test. Due to the security still being on high alert, but things should calm down soon. The man walked over to his desk and looked at the files in a messy pile on the corner of it. He picked up the top file and went through it one last time before throwing it away.


    ¡°I always knew you were going to be a failure.¡± He said while staring at the photo that had fell out when he threw it into the trash.


    ¡°Son¡±

 Chapter 15

    Well, I found out more about my new body over the past couple of hours. Mostly that bugs don¡¯t give me any biomass. I found this out by accident, crushing a fly with my paw when it annoyed me. My body automatically absorbed it but I got no message saying biomass had been added. So it must not be enough to make a difference. I guess I need either a lot of bugs or to just find something bigger.


    A couple hours of wandering through the forest later I managed to find something. A large pile of crap. Literally.


    It was still steaming too so it was quite fresh. It was also at this point that I was actually grateful that my senses were dulled slightly by the loss of biomass. The smell was terrible, but I know it could have been so much worse. Large oddly shaped foot prints lead away from the area. They were hurried at first, but seemed to calm down after a little bit. The tracks resembled large hoof prints, but whatever made them had only two feet. They were really deep so the creature is pretty heavy. Maybe they are carrying something they hunted?


    I kept following the tracks for a while. More out of curiosity than to hunt. Plus maybe whatever this is had some food I could absorb easily. Hunting wasn¡¯t really going to well for me at the moment anyway. All I seem to be able to kill are bugs and a baby snake I stepped on by accident. The creature seemed to not really care about leaving tracks so it was very easy to follow them. They left an obvious trail of broken branches and partially destroyed bushes as they went on. Their smell was getting stronger, even to me with my dull senses I could tell I was close.


    It wasn¡¯t until the sun was low that I arrived at what was apparently a tiny village. When I arrived I caught a glimpse of what I had been following. Large chubby creatures with hooved feet and thick muscle. Small tusks protruded from their mouths at either side, though some of them had smaller tusks. They stood on two feet and carried thick clubs made of wood. Most of them were a dull shade of pink and they lived in mud huts. They were built in a semi circle, surrounding a large fire in the middle. There seemed to be gathering together as the ones I was following arrived. The largest of the ones arriving was carrying what looked like a large deer on its shoulder. The ones around the fire cheered when they saw this. All chanting something together that sounded like ¡°MOOGREH MOOGREH ¨C DOH¡± I assumed they were just excited at the return of their successful hunters. This was reinforced when several of the ones sitting at the fire left and came back with a large flat stone and several small pots. The chanting had stopped but they were still grunting things at each other. I didn¡¯t bother trying to understand and just watched what they were doing. The hunters had brought the carcasses to where the large stone was placed. Dropping them in front of it and then joining the others around the fire.


    Several of the smaller ones got up and pulled out some sharp stones and started preparing the meat. The others had stacked a bunch of flat stones on either side of the fire and had placed the large stone so it was directly above the flames. These creatures remind me of the orcs from certain video games I used to play. Trying to remember the names of the games only gave me a headache so I didn¡¯t try for long. I don¡¯t know what else to call them so I will just call them orcs for now.


    The smaller orcs that had started cutting up the meat placed each prepared piece onto the stone above the fire. Soon they started to sizzle and pop. Once that began one of the older looking orcs took the pots that were brought out and opened them. Dipping his hand in he pulled out some powder out of the first one and sprinkled it lightly over the cooking meat. Then the other he pulled out an unevenly ground sand and sprinkled that around as well. He seemed to know just how much to add because he put most of what he pulled out back into the pot before sealing it again. The smell spreading around the area was so appetizing. I could practically feel my body begging me to eat some of that meat. I started walking towards the smell before I realized. I didn¡¯t know just how hungry I was. I was starved for biomass and I was starting to feel it even more. The smell was a mixture of garlic and something else that I just couldn¡¯t identify. The closer I got, the stronger that smell pulled me along. Before I realized it, I had my nose right next to the sizzling meat and the orcs were all staring at me.


    I froze immediately and tried to back away slowly. I haven¡¯t really seen these orcs act aggressively towards each other but all the stories I had read and anime I had watched in my past life had me a little worried about how they would react. I kept taking slow steps back, while keeping my eyes on them. None of them moved, except the ones still cutting apart the meat. One of them glanced at me for a second but just went back to cutting. I was just about to turn and run before the small orc that had looked at me while cutting the meat had crouched down and was holding its hand out at me. On its hand was some raw meat. Took me a second to realize she was offering it to me. At first I thought it was a trap, but none of the other orcs moved. They didn¡¯t get up or make any aggressive motions but just sat there and looked at me. Every now and then one of them would grab a piece of meat off of the stone and stuff it into their mouth. Chewing slowly to savor the taste while waiting to see what would happen. I wanted to run but I was so bad at hunting and it smelled so good I couldn¡¯t just leave.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    I slowly walked forward, Making sure to watch for any movement. The small orc hadn¡¯t moved either. Still holding her hand out at me with the piece of meat. Now that I¡¯m close I can tell that this orc it wearing a small cloth over its chest. I guess this one is female. I couldn¡¯t tell earlier what they were wearing because they were so dirty. Also not all of them bothered to wear anything at all. The girl almost didn¡¯t blink as I approached. I got close enough to sniff the meat she had in her hand. It smelled very bloody and looked like it was ripped out instead of cut. It smelled fine so I took a small bite to test it. It tasted like blood and was tough, it was not very appetizing but I was pretty much starving so I dug in. The other orcs seemed to relax at this and once again started talking to each other around the fire, although they were a lot quieter than they were before.


    Once I had finished the meat she had in her hand she was going to grab another one of the raw pieces, but before she could I snatched a seasoned piece off of the stone slab. This was a pretty large piece so I dragged it a couple steps away and started gnawing at it. It tasted so much better, whatever that powder they sprinkled on the meat made it taste so much better. The girl looked at me with what I think was surprise on her face. She turned to one of the older orcs who was still looking at me and said something. His look became a little curious before turning to the girl and answering her. She turned back to me after grabbing a piece off the stone for herself and watched me eat while she bit at her own piece.


    Everytime I finished a piece she would throw me another until I couldn¡¯t eat anymore. Turns out they had a lot more meat than they could eat. Another successful hunting party came back and added more meat to the pile. After everyone had eaten their fill the rest of the raw meat was taken to one of the huts that was a lot larger than the others. Maybe that¡¯s where they store their extra food. I curled into a ball and just watched the orcs for a while as they went on with their business. Some stayed around the fire for a while, but a couple of the ones with smaller tusks that I identified as the females had taken the discarded skins and started processing them. I had to say they seemed more advanced than I thought at first. Maybe this group is from a larger tribe or something and these guys split off from them. Sometimes one of the females would leave, following a path that started right behind the biggest hut and come back with a bundle of some sort of herb in their hands. The girl that fed me went with them, but she came back with a different bundle of herbs. The others came back with a plant that had thick leaves, but the little girl had a clump of plants that looked like they were just stalks and they were soaked. The girl headed to the large hut and dropped of a large amount of the bundle but kept a single stalk. She walked towards me with it held firmly in her hands, I had no idea what she intended to do with this but I didn¡¯t want to be aggressive as they were pretty nice to me so far. She stopped at the fire and placed the stalk down next to it to dry. As it dried, she just stared at me some more. Causing a disturbing thought to pop up in my head.


    ¡®They keep staring at me. I hope they don¡¯t start worshipping me. Or try to eat me.¡¯ I watched her carefully as she watched me. After a while I got bored of our staring contest and I went back to watching the other orcs move around the village. Apparently, this was the moment she was waiting for. As I was watching the orcs move around with torches doing random chores around the village the little girl was slowly getting closer to me. About when she was an arms length away she pulled out the stalk that she was drying and held it out to me. It smelled weird, like cucumbers mixed with cinnamon and a hint of ocean salt. The smell was weird, I was curious as to how it tasted. She didn¡¯t move as I got a little closer and gave the plant a curious lick. The flavor was completely different than what I was expecting. It tasted like salty butter but also somehow sweet. It wasn¡¯t bad to be honest. I kind of liked it, but as I moved to take another bite I noticed the girl was chewing on a piece of it as well. Maybe this is some kind of treat for them?


    I took another bite and chewed slowly to savor the flavor. The girl only took a couple of bites but gave the rest to me. The flavor seemed to get better with every bite. Eventually I lost myself in the taste. When it was all gone I felt a bit loopy. Like I was floating along a calm river and my legs were noodles. I had so much trouble standing up the orc girl started laughing at me. After that everything was a blur, somehow, I ended up wrapped in a blanket in one of the huts. I couldn¡¯t tell very well but I think I was in a cage. By now my head had cleared enough to notice a blue window that I had for some reason thought was hilarious earlier and had even tried to talk to it a couple of times. It said something that I had suspected and I wished I had hands so that I could facepalm right now.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="623">


    WARNING ¨C WARNING ¨C WARNING


    You have been drugged


    WARNING ¨C WARNING - WARNING


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    ¡®DAMMIT! again?¡¯

 Chapter 16

    I woke up in a small cage that was built out of sticks. I was in one of the mud huts with the little girl. By the time I woke up she was already awake. She was rummaging around in some box in the corner before pulling out a small piece of what I thought was leather till I noticed it was green. I was wondering what she was about to do, till she started polishing her tusks with it. I started gnawing at the weakest part of the cage to escape while she was distracted. Sadly, soon as I was almost through one of the weakest part of the cage I accidentally bit too hard. A loud crunch sounded out destroying any hope I would¡¯ve had of escaping unnoticed, so I did the only thing I could. I turned away from the part of the cage I was chewing on, curled into a tiny ball and looked at her with the best puppy eyes I could muster. When she heard the noise, she turned to look at me and smiled when she saw me. I thought my puppy dog act worked, until she continued to polish her teeth while watching me. She seemed to live in this hut by herself, I only saw one bed of furs on the ground and I could only detect her smell in here. Although I was captive at the moment, there was some good news. All that food I was fed yesterday helped me grow a little. I didn¡¯t get much biomass though, maybe I get more from live creatures?


    I would have to test this at some point. But for now I must bide my time, till I can escape.


    <ul>


    <li>Half an hour later ¨C</li>


    </ul>


    She was still Polishing her tusks. I¡¯m so bored! She stopped for about five minutes to do something but then started polishing her tusks again.


    This is getting ridiculous, I¡¯ve even started spinning in my cage out of boredom to try and get some reaction out of her. Feels like it took forever for her to let me out of that damn cage. For a little bit I thought she just thought I was amusing and would leave me in here forever. As soon as she let me out I ran outside and managed to get about ten feet before one of the bigger orcs grabbed me and handed me back to the young female orc like I was a run away puppy.


    ¡®I don¡¯t wanna be a pet!¡¯


    I struggled as much as I could to try and escape her grip but she held on to me easily somehow. I thought I was getting close to getting her losing her grip, I even started changing my form slightly to try and get her to drop me. But she did something I wasn¡¯t exactly expecting. Despite the tusks sticking out of her mouth she frowned at me, grumbled something and brought forth another piece of that herb she tricked me with last night and shoved it right in front of my nose. I was surprised and forgot to stop breathing again. So I got a lung full of the scent of that plant and it was almost twice as strong as it was yesterday. Causing the dreaded window to pop up again, marking a long period of time I cant remember.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="623">


    WARNING ¨C WARNING ¨C WARNING


    You have been drugged


    WARNING ¨C WARNING - WARNING


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    -----------------------------------


    Victoria had finished her research into the missing potential employees and was now trying to figure out who took them when she heard a soft *ping* on her laptop. She sat down at her desk and opened the notifications. She smiled when she saw she got a message from one of her people on the other worlds. Smiling when she saw the name she typed in a quick reply.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    Heron: Mother? It has been a while, how are you?


    Victoria: I told you before that I¡¯m not your mother and I am well. How far have you progressed?


    Heron: To me, you will always be mother. I am progressing well, I have managed to raise a small army of strong individuals. We have already managed to take down some of the groups that the commander has been sending into this world for training.


    Victoria: Good work! I¡¯m proud of you Heron, but as you know a simple army wont be enough to take down the organization the commander works for. We must have the strength and wisdom to destroy an opponent like them.


    Heron: I know mother, I will not fail you.


    Victoria: I know you wont, how is your implant working by the way? I know I gave you one of the models we tested but we don¡¯t know how they will fare with such extensive use.


    Heron: It is fine mother, I have made sure to keep it undamaged. I would hate to lose my only way of contacting you after all. I must go mother, my underlings require my attention.


    Victoria: Very well, keep me updated on your progress and as always. Don¡¯t get caught.


    Heron has left¡­


    Victoria stood and stretched her back. These updates are the only news she gets from the other worlds where she sent the others of her kind. Her eyes wandered her office as she thought back to all the people she had ¡®replaced¡¯ over the years as she hid in this organization, trying to save her people as soon as she found out what she had become. At least she was able to make sure her people had the implants before they left. With those she could monitor them and provide power boosts over time. The only problem was that she had to activate the power boost manually, when she was sure that they had enough biomass to handle the amount of power.


    She pulled out a hidden drawer from underneath her desk and pulled out the file she had been hiding for years. One that explains how the organization had begun to purify and amplify mana. What she had was the original formula. Over the years they had changed something about it and now the amplified mana came out black. She had no idea what they were using that stuff for, once it becomes black like that it can no longer be used for magic. She hadn¡¯t been allowed to take part in the experiments for it but she was sure it was bad news. Every day these scientists brought back something or created something that added to the power of the people she needed to kill. Now that the commander is hunting for her kind again she needed to go back into hiding for a while. Causing a small accident and destroying a lab, pretending to die in the blast was her usual strategy. However, there was a scientist who she worked with that was a little grabby with almost any female he came across. She considered framing him for her murder and disappearing for a bit before coming back and replacing someone else. She smiled as she planned it out in her head.


    ¡°That could work¡± She said to herself as she left her office.


    ______________________


    It has been three days since I found myself at the mercy of the drug dealer orc girl. I found out that that plant she found is rare and she is the one that found out its properties. To the orcs it seemed to relax them. On animals it made them docile, although it seemed to just get me really high. The girl seemed to prepare them somehow to give them a stronger effect. She always put me outside when she processed them though. No matter how many times I tried to escape, one of the orcs caught me every single time. Then I would get the drug treatment from the girl. I think she was trying to get me addicted to it. The problem with it was if I stopped breathing when she tried to drug me, she would find a different way to make me take it. She would put it in my food or grind it into a powder that she would mix into my water. Luckily, I don¡¯t feel any addiction to it, I don¡¯t even know if I can get addicted to things. Though she seemed determined to try and find out. But with every meal I gained a little more biomass, soon I would be able to escape and they wont be able to stop me. I think some of them are getting curious as to why I don¡¯t poop and I don¡¯t want them to start wanting to find out.

 Chapter 17

    The orc girl treated me pretty well, despite the drugging and the cage. She always made sure I was fed and well taken care of. She even started taking me out when she went with the bigger orcs to hunt. I think I also managed to figure out her name. The larger orcs called out to her once and she responded, so I think her name is Greta but they pronounced it GRAH-TEHH. I gave up on escape and decided to stick with them for a while. Hanging out with them I would be safe and they always gave me large cuts of meat. I was even able to grow a bit, even though I think I get more biomass from living creatures I absorb. Cooked meat was tastier.


    Greta had taken me out of the hut earlier than usual this morning and lead me to the other side of their village. A small group of older orcs were standing around talking to each other. They each had long wooden spears and small knives made of sharpened stone. I assumed she was taking me out to hunt again as we had done before. However, this was a lot earlier than I was used to leaving for a hunt. The sun had not even begun to rise and we were starting to leave the village. I licked my lips in anticipation, I hope we get lots of meat on this hunt.


    _________________________________________


    Victoria was walking around her apartment. Well, it would make more sense to call it the real victoria¡¯s apartment. It was where she first met the original Victoria and also it was where she made her disappear. Sometimes Victoria would look at the scratches on the floor and think about that night. She turned her attention back to the tv program she had been watching. Something to do with how the country was being destroyed by earthquakes caused by the central power plant in the capital. She shut it off and got up for a stretch. She was currently in the form she was most comfortable in. She looked like a short teenager with pitch black hair. Her eyes were as black as her hair but had a almost imperceptible ring of white in the corner. She was currently wearing a thin t-shirt that simply said ¡°ROCK IT!¡± and some gray shorts. She loved to just laze around on her days off but the recent discovery of the missing applicants from the main building she simply couldn¡¯t get it off her mind.


    She walked into the room she used as her office and sat down at the desk. She opened her laptop opened a program. A small window opened up and displayed a large chart detailing everything she had found out so far. Which wasn¡¯t very much right now. She knew that someone who had access to the main office building had abducted some new recruits. She assumed that whoever they were used these new recruits for a discontinued experiment. She also had a small list of suspects that she compiled, but she doesn¡¯t have any proof about any of them. She went over the list a couple times and decided to go down the list and check them out one by one. She didn¡¯t really have anything to do today so, why not.


    She got dressed and was about to leave her apartment when she caught sight of her face in the mirror.


    ¡®This wont do¡¯ She thought to herself. This form was very beautiful and would catch the eye of many people. She wanted to sneak around without being noticed so she gave herself a less noticeable appearance. She wrapped a beige scarf around her neck and altered her face just enough to be unrecognizable. She made herself less pretty but not ugly enough to draw attention to herself and then left her apartment. She looked at the list and started with the person she knew lived closest to her. He was a very dedicated scientist, in fact he rarely actually left the lab. She thought she would break into his house and do some snooping.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    __________________________________________


    I followed Greta as she followed the group through the forest. For some reason all the orc had stern faces and refused to look at Greta or me at all. We came across some small animals but the hunters didn¡¯t stop at all for them. We were even attacked by a predator but they just killed it and moved on. Ignoring all the meat. I waited till they were far enough away before sneaking off to absorb it and coming back. No one even noticed I was gone, probably because they keep avoiding my gaze. This was giving me a bad feeling.


    We walked for a very long time, it didn¡¯t take long for me to be completely lost. I feel I could find my way back by smell if I need to though.


    Eventually we reached a clearing and stopped. The orcs set up some kind of table they made by stacking up some large flat rocks that they found at the edge of the clearing. This must be some kind of ritual place for them. I wonder why it has to be so far away from their village though.


    The hunters put a large bag on the rock and backed away. Greta walked up and started going through the bag. I walked up and sat next to her, I tried to look into the bag but she kept finished looking through it before I got close enough for a sniff. She closed it and grunted something to the others, the biggest one nodded to her and started to set up camp. None of them hunted anything so I left to get some food.


    _____________________________________________


    Greta watched as her wolf walked off. She knew he was going to hunt and knew he would return. He always returned to her after she shared her gorulla root with him. She just thought that he liked her, she didn¡¯t seem to notice that he shyed away from the larger members of her tribe. She looked around at her family and sighed deeply. She knew what we came here to do. This was her rite of passage. Every orc that comes of age has to go through this before they would be considered an adult. She was allowed a small bag of food and she was able to request one thing from the tribe to bring with her. It was expected that she would have chosen a weapon but she chose her wolf. The elders were worried but they couldnt interfere. It wasn¡¯t their place to and her parents had fallen when their tribe split off from the main clan. She was scared, the elders that came with her would leave in the morning and she would have to survive in the woods by herself for a week and then find her way back to her tribe.


    Her thoughts were clouded by her fear. Her heart was thumping as thoughts of the monsters that lived in the woods filled her mind. She whispered a short prayer to whatever gods she could think of and began to prepare herself for her trial. She was going to tell her elders she was ready but she remembered her wolf wasn¡¯t back yet. She wanted him to be here as she went through the ritual, having him near would calm her spirit. It was very uncommon for her people to get pets, but when they do, they were treasured by the tribe. It was seen as a blessing to have a strong monster as a pet but its not something they went out of their way to do. It was something that had to happen naturally. Like a starving wolf walking towards the center of their village. She was startled by a rustling in the bushes nearby, but she calmed down when she saw the black fur of her wolf dragging along some animal he killed. She smiled and went over to help him, she doesn¡¯t regret taking him along with this trial. She only hopes he doesn¡¯t hate her afterwards.

 Chapter 18

    I woke with a start and sniffed around. I was in an animal skin tent surrounded with partially gnawed bones with tiny bits of meat stuck to them. Greta was sleeping behind me with her face buried into my fur. I guess I passed out after we ate last night. I got a good stretch in and got up, being very careful so I don¡¯t wake greta. I left the tent to find that we were alone, all of the other orcs left us here. I didn¡¯t understand, were we abandoned?


    I went back in the tent to find greta awake. I bit her sleeve and tugged on her to get her to come outside. She looked confused but followed me anyway. When we got outside she noticed the lack of the others and saw me looking around and sighed. She kneeled down in front of me and patted me on the head.


    ¡°Gree-tah T¡¯arshe Gren¡¯dea¡± She said this with a sad look in her eye before going back into the tent and changing. I guess this was supposed to happen, she didn¡¯t seem surprised or anything. What is going on? Were we actually abandoned? I need to find out how to speak orc at some point.


    Greta and tore down camp, well she tore down camp while I got breakfast. After eating we left the campground behind towards what I believe to be a completely random direction. Im getting a feeling we aren¡¯t going to see the tribe again¡­


    We spent hours walking towards no where in particular when the monotony of our travel was broken up by a loud scream. Greta immediately took out a stone knife and hid behind a tree. I stared at her for a second, is that all she was going to do? I was curious so I went ahead to check it out. She called after me but I was already too far ahead to stop now. I rushed through the forest and burst out of the treeline to run right into a large man repeatedly stabbing a corpse. My momentum caused me to push the man over, causing him to smash his face into the face of the corpse. He screamed and rolled over, ripping his blade out of the body and brandishing it around. I had already gotten up and was taking in the situation. There was a smashed carriage on a road not far from me, with bodies spread out all over. Apparently I had come across the common bandit attack scenario. Most of the bodies were wearing some sort of armor that was marked with what looked like a crest. As soon as they heard the one bandit I knocked over scream, everyone froze. The person that screamed was a woman wearing a deep blue robe with gold and green trim. She was pinned to the tree by an arrow that went through her shoulder. She was surrounded by five bandits not counting the one I ran into, there were 2 guards left and they were surrounding the woman in defensive positions. I thought this would be a great opportunity to get lots of biomass and finally be able to get a human body again. I looked back and I could just barely see that Greta was hiding in a bush, watching what was going on. I don¡¯t know how Greta will feel about me after she sees this, but if I do nothing they are going to die.


    I shifted my body slightly, allowing several sharp tentacles to emerge from my sides. My claws also got sharper as they extended slightly. This broke the trance everyone was in when they noticed I was changing. The bandits all got their weapons ready, two of the bandits focused on the two guards with the other three coming towards me. The one I knocked down was behind me and I think he assumed I forgot about him. He was currently trying to sneak up on me with the large knife he had. I smacked him with a tentacle and rushed towards the other bandits. They were surprised But charged at me, wildly swinging their weapons. I could see the two guards struggling to fight the bandits, It wont be long till they fall.


    I thrust one of my tentacles forwards and pierced one of the bandits in the head. I tried to do the same for the other one but he ducked and my attack went over his head. He swung his axe and severed my tentacle. I gritted my teeth and dodged out of the way as he swung again at my main body. I fought through the pain and tried to stab him again. But he dodged again, he dodged every attack that I aimed at his head so I aimed for his chest and clawed him. I managed to rip through his clothes and tear into his flesh. He called out to his friends and distracted them, one of the guards took advantage of this and managed to cut down one of the bandits.


    The other bandit freaked out after seeing his comrade die in front of him and started swinging his sword wildly at the guards. He managed to get a lucky hit in and severely injure one of them, taking him out of the fight. The bandit I clawed got back up and swung his axe at me in a large arc. The wound on his chest slowed him down a little so I managed to just dodge the swing and bite down hard on his arm. He screamed and I quickly dispatched him with a tentacle before he regained his senses. I started heading towards the last bandit when I fell over. For some reason my hind legs weren¡¯t working. I looked back and found that my hind legs were missing. The pain hit me immediately but I had to seal the wound and roll out of the way as a sword sliced through the space my body was just at. Turns out the first bandit I had gotten back up and cut off my legs. He then proceeded to do that gross thing that psychopaths do after they cut you.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    He licked the blade.


    I didn¡¯t want to see that. I shot three tentacles at his head, chest and abdomen and he did something I didn¡¯t expect him to do, he grabbed my tentacles out of the air and sliced them off. I reabsorbed what was left of them and ignored the pain. I regrew my legs and stood up, fully focused on the enemy in front of me. This guy wasn¡¯t going to be very easy to deal with. I needed more biomass, I sent out tentacles and absorbed all the corpses in the area and was rewarded with something I haven¡¯t seen in a while.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="623">


    Absorbed Human (x12)


    +100 biomass (x12)


    Human transformation assistance unlocked


    Basic language absorbed


    Mana generation unlocked


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Mana? Ill deal with that later. What I was really interested in was the new abilities I unlocked.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td width="623">


    Rapid transformation unlocked


    Simple menu unlocked


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    I would have to look into those later. Right now I have a bandit to kill. Everyone started freaking out as soon as I started absorbing corpses. The woman that was pinned to the tree by an arrow was frantically trying to pull it out and run away. The injured guard was attempted to help her but the remaining bandit lost his nerve and tried to run away. The other guard managed to catch him though. Which only left one more bandit. I had plenty of biomass now but I still needed to take this guy out. So I did what any normal wolf would do. I stood up.


    My front legs got longer and flattened into blades as my hind legs also got longer so I could stand upright. This transformation would have normally taken a little bit. But it happened almost instantaneously. I guess that¡¯s the new skill rapid transformation at work. The bandit no longer looked as excited to fight as he did a moment ago. I could see his grip on his knife tighten and he adjusted his stance. I dashed at him preparing to bisect him with my blade arm. He redirected my blade with his knife instead of blocking and rolled to avoid me, stabbing at my side before he got too far away.


    There was an odd glow seeping out from his body. Like a red mist that I could just barely see. After this mist started seeping out of him I noticed he got faster and his strikes had more strength behind them. The more red mist that surrounded him the stronger he got. I ended up dodging and waiting for an opening. A moment later I got one.


    Apparently one of the guards thought I was the bigger threat at the moment and tried to rush me from behind. But he wasn¡¯t expecting me to notice him and move out of the way. I spun to the side as he chopped with his sword. My sword arm went right through his midsection cutting the guard in half. The guard¡¯s top half fell towards the bandit because of his momentum. The bandit blocked the sword with his blade and jumped out of the way of the corpse. I went back to attacking the bandit. Swinging both my sword arms at him. The agile bastard just kept dodging till something flew out of the forest and smacked him right on the head. He lost his footing and tripped, which was perfect for me. I cut his head off before he could recover.


    His body fell to the ground with a thud and I looked into the forest. I knew it was greta who threw something at the bandit. I gave her a thumbs up and smiled, I promised myself to thank her somehow later.


    ¡°OWW! That hurts you BASTARD!¡± I heard the woman yelling behind me. I turned to look and saw the last guard still trying to get the arrow out of her shoulder.


    ¡°Sorry Ma¡¯am but its going to hurt. If you stayed in the carriage like we asked you instead of trying to demonstrate your magic-¡° The guard was cut off by more screams from the woman.


    I realized I could understand them now. I smiled and waved Greta over. I may have saved them but I¡¯m not really sure what to do now.

 Chapter 19

    I waited for Greta before I approached the guard and the woman. Of course this confused them and got them to freak out even more. A large bipedal transforming creature was walking towards them with an orc. The guard start trying even harder, the arrow must have embedded itself into the wood pretty deep if he is having this much trouble. I don¡¯t understand why he wasn¡¯t just breaking the arrow and pulling her off of It instead. We were only a couple feet from them now and the woman was practically crying. She kicked the guard off of her and screamed at me.


    ¡°Please just eat him and leave me be! I don¡¯t taste good!¡± She was sobbing uncontrollably at this point.


    ¡°I don¡¯t wanna die..¡± She kept repeating this as she cried.


    I looked at Greta and then the guard at my feet. Greta was just standing beside me looking at her feet. I hope she isn¡¯t scared of me now. The guard was looking up at me, he kind of looked like he was prepared for death. There isn¡¯t really much point in killing these two, I already have plenty of biomass from the dead. There were even more bodies closer to the carriage so I don¡¯t really need these two. I remembered that I understood what they were saying now and I can transform into a human. I decided to try and talk to them in this form first.


    ¡°Rrrr-rrramee?......¡± I guess I need to transform first.


    I almost started when I remembered something. Looking around I noticed that some of the bodies I absorbed left their clothes behind. I picked up the cleanest pair of pants I could find, I avoided touching the underwear at all costs. I slipped on the pants which was a little difficult with wolfman legs so I ripped them a little. But they would cover what I want them to. Greta is here and I''m not really comfortable being naked as a human in front of her. As a wolf it was normal of course, didn¡¯t really feel weird either. The woman and guard watched me put on pants, Greta did as well. I am probably going to be seeing that expression a lot. Once I was decent I started the transformation. I focused on how I wanted to look. I made myself about 5 11¡± and reasonably muscular. I imagined myself with tanned skin and black hair. Focusing on that image I felt my body start shifting.


    A couple minutes later it stopped and I opened my eyes.


    ¡®Oops, I forgot to design my face.¡¯ I realized as soon as I opened my eyes. I felt my head and realized that I didn¡¯t have to. I was expecting to be a ken doll with the face rubbed off. Luckily that didn¡¯t happen.


    All three of my spectators had their mouths wide open. They looked kind of funny so I smiled which cause them to stiffen up. Greta even took a step back.


    ¡®I knew it, I scared her¡¯ I felt kind of bad about it because despite the drugging she did take good care of me for the past little while. She kind of feels like a little sister at this point. I ruffled her hair and turned back to the guard on the ground. Let¡¯s try this again.


    ___________________


    Travis couldn¡¯t believe what he had just seen. The monster that overpowered one of the most famous bandits in the kingdom just transformed. He assumed it must be a new sort of demon, one that had a little orc follower. The demon was terrifying, seeing it change forms so easily without a spell or a ritual sent chills down his spine. This shouldn¡¯t be possible, but he just witnessed it. He was expecting to be killed on the spot, maybe devoured. What he didn¡¯t expect was for it to talk to him. Even his orc follower seemed surprised. Its voice was soft but he could feel the power behind it. It only said one word.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°Name?¡±


    I immediately stammered out an answer.


    ¡°I a-am Travis Broodwen Level 5 K-Knight of the royal g-guards.¡±


    The man nodded at me and then looked expectantly at the mage stuck to the tree. I looked at her and saw she was just staring at him, eyes wide open in fear. She said nothing for what felt like a long time but couldn¡¯t have been more then a couple minutes. I felt like she was going to piss him off so I decided to say something.


    ¡°Uhh, Sir she is Riane the 3<sup>rd</sup> ranked mage in the kingdom.¡± He looked at me again and simply nodded. Then he walked right up to Riane, causing her to start freaking out and beg for her life again. He simply ignored her and grabbed the arrow protruding from her shoulder. She screamed and he snapped it, pulling her off of the shaft and letting her crumple on the ground while clutching her shoulder.


    ¡°You should fix her shoulder before she bleeds to death.¡¯ He turned and walked towards the carriage. The little orc at his side staring at him the whole time.


    Travis was stunned silent, until the soft sobbing and curses coming from a lump of upset mage reached his ears and reminded him of Riane. He grudgingly got up to help the rude mage. Although he swore that if she tried to sacrifice him again she was getting a swift kick to the arse.


    _______________________________


    I led Greta to the partially destroyed carriage to see if there was anything I could use. On the way she tried talking to me. I wish I could understand what she was saying because she got really excited and wouldnt stop asking me questions. I haven¡¯t been able to absorb any orcs yet so I would have to learn her language manually until then. She seemed to realize that I couldn¡¯t understand her after a while and grew quiet. I felt bad but there was nothing I could do at the moment.


    I walked up the carriage and inspected it. It was covered in some nice carvings and decorations. It was a very fancy carriage I couldn¡¯t see through the window on the door, so I walked around to see the other side and found a huge gash in the carriage. I wonder what weapon the bandits used to make this hole, it doesn¡¯t look like the leader powered up and smashed it. It was more like something ran into it at high speed. I looked into the hole and saw a woman crumpled on the floor. Her dress was stained red in multiple places with debris from the carriage sticking out of the wounds. She was clearly dead, a large chunk of wood was partially embedded into her head. I thought she was some unlucky noble until I noticed her clothes. She was dressed as a maid.


    Then something the guard said popped into my head. He said he was a royal guard. Why would the royal guard be escorting a maid? Unless I was missing something here. I saw a piece of cloth that looked out of place underneath the woman. I crawled into the carriage through the hole and lifted her body. Revealing a small girl of about 12 years old I think. She was covered in the maid¡¯s blood but she was unhurt.


    As soon as I saw the little girl the clues started spinning in my head.


    ¡°I just saved a princess¡­IM OUT!¡± I said to myself. I know how this turns out. I am not going to be bound to some kingdom. Just as I was about to leave the carriage the girl opened her eyes, looked at me and noticed I was only wearing pants and screamed. Startling me and Greta. I just jumped out of the carriage, however Greta reacted a bit differently. She ran up to the still screaming girl and gave her a punch. Knocking her out cold.


    I was honestly suprised at her. Greta didn¡¯t notice me and just climbed into the carriage. A moment later she started throwing stuff out. After making a small mountain of bags and boxes and such, she started climbing out of the carriage. She was carrying the girl with her and set her to the side before going she started going through the mountain of stuff. Opening bags and discarding the ones without anything useful in them.


    I was still shocked at how easily she just ran up and punched her. I¡¯m pretty sure she was some sort of princess. Hopefully this wont cause problems later.

 Chapter 20

    Travis and the Riane came running towards us. I guess they heard the scream and came to see what was going on. The spotted me and Greta looting the carriage but didn¡¯t really say anything. It was when they saw the unconscious girl that they had a large reaction. They both yelled ¡°PRINCESS!!¡± and dashed towards her. Riane held her hand over the girl¡¯s head and a warm gentle light flowed from her palm. The light seemed to float around the little girl¡¯s head for a moment before slowly being absorbed into her scalp. Travis and Riane both sighed in relief as the princess stirred. I watched the whole thing, both interested in what the mage just did and also silently urging Greta to hurry before the princess wakes back up.


    Sadly, the princess shot up and let out an odd sounding squeak while looking around in all directions till her eyes locked on me.


    ¡°THAT MAN! HAVE HIM ARRESTED.¡± She screamed at Travis while waving her finger in my direction.


    ¡°I saw him eyeing me hungrily, like he was going to devour me right then and there and YOU!¡± She shifted her anger to Greta. ¡°She dared to strike a member of the royal family and now she is STEALING MY STUFF!. I want her FLOGGED AND THROWN OUT OF THE KINGDOM! ¡±


    I almost broke out laughing. She was the classic princess type, spoilt and jumping to all manner of conclusions. Greta paused as she was stuffing a loaf of bread into a large sack she found and looked at the princess. The princess froze when Greta looked at her, I think she even stopped breathing for a moment.


    ¡°Please your highness calm yourself! These two saved us and the man¡­.isn¡¯t exactly human. He¡­..ate the corpses of those that fell here.¡± Travis tried to calm the princess down. She turned back towards him with a curious look on her face.


    ¡°Barbarian cannibal? If that is so I guess I can excuse his state of dress and lack of manners. But I still want him beaten for eyeing my body!¡±


    I couldn¡¯t hold it in and burst out laughing. I couldn¡¯t help but laugh at the princess. But I felt I was spending too much time here, so I turned around and helped Greta filled a couple bags with useful stuff. I noticed she only took food, water and a couple weapons. I took out all the daggers though, I took a look at them and could tell they were expensive but only decorative. Out of 5 daggers there were two we could use. They were simple steel daggers with black handles. They came with their own sheathes so I just kept those and left the others in the pile. Greta saw what I was doing and looked confused but didn¡¯t stop me. She strapped one of the bags filled with food and several water skins to her back. I walked up to her and offered her one of the knives, she looked at it and then took out a stone knife that she had in her belt. It was extremely crude and old, it didn¡¯t look very sharp anymore either. I tried to take it from her and give her the steel one instead but she would not let me take it. It must have some meaning to her if she wants to keep it.


    I gave up on taking the stone knife and just kneeled down. I strapped the sheath to her thigh so she could easily reach it. I took the other knife and walked over to Riane, who of course saw me walking towards her with a knife and backed away from me. I wanted to move on so I just dropped the knife next to the princess. I was going to take the other bag of food and leave, but I felt bad leaving them here with nothing but a knife so I tossed the bag of food over to them. I waved at Greta and turned to leave.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    ___________________________________


    Travis watched as the man turned to leave. He took a look at the princess who grew silent since Greta looked at her and then at the Riane who was still on her butt in the grass. The safest place for us were our original destination. We wont make it on our own as it is still kind of far. He hated to admit it but they needed this¡­.man¡¯s help so he called out after him.


    ¡°Wait! Please!¡± Travis caught up to him and bowed low.


    ¡°Please sir, we are in need of your assistance. We swear not to reveal your identity to anyone and will reward you handsomely if you simply accompany us to the city. It is around a day¡¯s travel in the direction you are currently heading. You see this young lady is the pr-¡±


    ¡°Okay let me just stop you right there. I don¡¯t want anything to do with your princess. I already did you all a favor by not eating you. Bye.¡± The man just turned and continued walking. Travis was desperate, he had to secure the man¡¯s help somehow. He caught up to the man once again.


    ¡°Please sir, we will promise you anything. Money, slaves, treasures. What would you like? Women? Men? Whatever you want we will give you. This mission we absolutely cannot fail.¡± The man paused in his walking and turned around and looked at me. He had an almost predatory smile on his face when he turned.


    ¡°Anything I want?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Within reason sir..¡± Travis was starting to regret his life choices until he heard the mans next words.


    ¡°I want her¡± He said as he pointed at Riane and the princess.


    ¡°Riane sir?¡± Travis thought about it for a moment. He thought about how she had treated him until now. How she had just tried to sacrifice him to save herself. How almost everyone hates her for how she treated anyone that hadn¡¯t reached her ¡®level¡¯ in magic. Travis smiled in a way that was almost as bad as the man as he came to a decision.


    ¡°That can be arranged sir.¡± Travis felt like a weight fell off his shoulders as the man nodded at him.


    He ran back to the princess and told her we were going to be escorted by the man and the orc girl. Of course the princess and Riane were extremely opposed to this. Travis spent the next hour and a half explaining to them why they needed the man¡¯s help. Of course it helped that during this time a monster attacked and was killed by the man before it even got close. The man was going to just leave, but the orc girl grabbed his arm and pointed at the corpse. He nodded and the little girl gave him what looked like a smile. Or maybe she was just hungry, Travis didn¡¯t really know anything about orcs.


    _______________________________________


    Victoria was stuck. The man¡¯s apartment was empty. There was a mattress in the bedroom that didn¡¯t even seem to be used. She also found super expired milk and eggs in the fridge. No one had been here in a long while. She left but marked the man¡¯s name on her list just to be sure. There were some scientists at the base that practically lived there so this wasn¡¯t entirely unusual. She just got a weird feeling about this man. The building his apartment was in had a weird feeling to it. All the people she had seen entering or leaving all seemed so¡­.lifeless. She left the building and moved on to the next name on her list. She was making good time, she might even be able to investigate every name on  the list before her break ended.


    ___________________________


    I watched as Greta skinned the animal I had killed. It was a little smaller than a wolf and didn¡¯t feel very strong. I was still going to absorb it but Greta had asked for it. She took the skin and some of the meat and dragged the rest to my side and proceeded to poke me with it. I was curious at what she was trying to do. Maybe she was trying to get me to absorb it? She mimed eating it but kept poking me in the side with it. I couldn¡¯t help but chuckle. I let my body absorb it and she just stared at me as it disappeared. I didnt even get enough biomass from it for a window to pop up. I laughed despite that though, she was acting a lot cuter than she normally does. Maybe she is starting to realize that the wolf she had lived with since now was a person and could understand what was going on around me?


    I really need to find someway to understand what she is saying soon.