Anyway, once the gate to my memory reopens I felt right away that my head was different, more reptilian. Then the mantis are upon me and I don’t get a chance to navel gaze over my makeover. It was time to fight.

Not that I was going to stand for it. Rather, I ran for it. Of course, I now know that wasn’t the smartest idea. Hell, I knew then that it wasn’t a smart idea. Don’t rush into an unknown area, especially not while in the middle of a fight.

The thing is, even if I didn’t know how they found me, I assumed they had. So as far as I knew they would keep coming and the best way I thought of to lose them was water. So irrespective of the danger, I raced off towards where I thought it was.

Of course, with the mantids flying it wasn’t like I out ran them, nevermind the ones coming at me from in front of me. Good thing my claws were more than a match for the bugs.

Too bad I didn’t exactly have training with any claw-like weapons, but I made do. My flailing at least contained some semblance of style from the time I had taken martial arts lessons as a kid. Still, if it wasn’t for my healing factor, I wouldn’t have made it far.

For every mantis I cut down, another would leave their mark on my body. Despite that, I ran, the pain falling away as I focused on how my body now moved. With my legs taking on a digitigrade form, I could feel an innate difference.

My body now felt like it was made to run and fight, all I needed to do was get out of its way. So I did. I had never been one for moving mediation but in this situation it fell into place.

What was a somewhat awkward gait smoothed out and I sped up by almost half again. The punch-like swipes lost their jerkiness and became flowing scythes of death. As I passed by mantis after mantis, they fell from the sky, split in twain.

Where before they were scoring hit after hit on me, they now had a hard time touching me. But this couldn’t last. I had never been much of a runner and while I held onto some of my humanity, my new form wasn’t that of a persistence hunter.

Still, my healing factor held me together as I overdrew my stamina. Each moment brought more and more of the mantid menace and I started to take hits again. I could feel as I converted more and more of my body to the aqua colored gel to the point I doubted any of my legs would be remaining after this. If any of me remained at all.

Onward I ran, gasping for breath as the green area grew closer. I didn’t even know if there would be a solution. Not that by this point I even had room to doubt in my head. I devoted every last bit of brain power to continuing my escape.

Even my attempts to slash at my enemies started to fall to the wayside till my claws ended up simply held in front of my muzzle. Sure, it killed a few of the bugs, but it was more to keep them out of my mouth so I could breathe.

Then, as the green area came into sight, even my regeneration started to flag and my legs began to stumble. Cuts that before would have closed in moments, instead starting to ooze blood and my legs had long gone numb. I held on though, and was greeted by a large pool of water.

More important for me was the stream that led out of the pool. I didn’t have any room to think about this at the time though and instead dived into the pool, ignoring everything else as I dive towards the bottom. Deeper and deeper, then darkness takes me as I finally reach the bottom and grasp onto a stone I find there.

Waking up was a surprise for me. Not only was I not dead, but I had even managed to maintain my grip on the rock. Of course, this wasn’t exactly a good thing as I hadn’t developed some miracle ability to breathe underwater.

Rather, my entire body and especially my lungs felt like they were burning and my brain screamed for oxygen. Except I was still where I had entered the deep pond so I couldn’t exactly do anything about it right then. So, instead I forced my pain fogged brain to take stock of things.

Which actually revealed things weren’t that bad. About the worst was that I had probably been in the pond a few more hours than I could afford, what with a mad wizard hunting me.

Besides that, though? I had fully healed barring the continued suffocation damage. Damage that I was more than capable of healing through. That wouldn’t hold if something else was damaging me, but useful nonetheless.

There was one tiny thing that worried me beyond just wasting time. My lower body? It felt different.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

From the waist down, I could feel things that shouldn’t be and also not feel things I should. Though I must admit, at the time, what worried me the most wasn’t my physical body, but the complete lack of clothes. I put it to the side quickly, but as the narrator let me assure you, this does not end up being a problem.

Anyway, while I wasn’t certain then, my instincts blared that surfacing right where I had entered would be a bad idea. Whether that would have been true or not didn’t matter, as being in the middle of literally drowning wasn’t the most conducive to thinking straight. So, instead of thinking I took a moment to gather myself and swam out of the pond and into the stream.

Let me tell you, a stream is not the easiest place to stay submerged. I managed it though and after an indeterminate distance the stream met up with another and suddenly there was enough room to maneuver and get the lay of the land. That was a bit hard at first, what with having to look through water and my eyes finding the less than clear liquid somewhat irritating.

Then I felt the urge to blink my eyes and at the same time keep my eyelids closed. A strange feeling for anyone who started as a classical humanoid, but I went with it. So yeah, it was a new addition to my ability.

With a quick blink, the world took on an aqua shade while becoming unnaturally clear. Oh, and my eyes didn’t sting anymore, but the fact that I now had nictitating membranes like a lizard sort of stole my attention. Not just that, but they had some sort of special power because if you’re only wearing goggles that won’t make the water clearer.

A nice feature as it allowed me to see there weren’t any mantids nearby. Oh, and my entire lower body from the waist down was replaced. Though not just replaced, but changed.

Instead of taking on the form of my old legs, they were now shaped like my altered form except not as extreme. If when I changed, my legs looked to be a part of some sort of large monster. They were now the size and appearance of a more classic lizardman, tail included.

I don’t know how I managed to miss that addition! You would think having a tail while swimming would be pretty darn obvious. I guess this just shows how natural my new form was to me. After all, it isn’t like you notice the fact you have two legs when you’re walking around and paying attention to other things.

Oh, and I took after lizards in a few other ways as well. One of the more important being the scales. Not for any protection, but because, unlike the rest of my aqua gel, the scales were quite opaque. I didn’t particularly mind being see-through, but I’m sure it would have made it harder whenever I next had to socialize with others.

Though my moment of introspection couldn’t last forever and a wandering mantis as tall as my forearm ended up forcing the issue. It wasn’t the biggest I saw in the swarm earlier, but still a step up from the ones I fought individually and I hadn’t yet gotten used to my new strength.

Still changed as I was, my power was more than enough to handle the mantid. If only I had still been panicked and attacking based on pure instinct. Because let me tell you, I was not ready for the physical changes at all. Sure, they felt natural, but that doesn’t change the fact that I was used to a certain amount of strength and now had significantly more.

In theory, I had the speed to get out of that fight unharmed. In reality, I ended up all slashed to hell and back. Still won though! It just took me longer than it should have.

Good thing that after my stay in the water, all the grass gunk had washed off so no other mantids joined in the fun. Though it is embarrassing to admit that I had so much trouble with a single bug. I guess we all have to start somewhere.

Anyway, I was still brain fogged from the whole “drowning for hours thing” so the next bit just involved me wandering around aimlessly. Even looking back on it, I can’t be certain that I didn’t end up going in circles or some such. Though there were a lot of fights to pound my new capabilities into my head.

Oh, and speaking of head, at some point my horns became a permanent fixture? At the time I was a little worried and I can respect that. Not even I had the proper appreciation for a good set of horns right from the start.

Anyway, at some point I found the end of the grass forest and what a view it was! This wasn’t some natural fade to another terrain type. It was a sudden change where it turned into a barren land of ground level stubble.

It wasn’t hard to see why, either. Grand beasts stood around, at least six times the height of the grass and that looked to be the smaller ones. I couldn’t tell at the time, but off in the far distance there were behemoths over ten times that size.

As for why there was a strict line between grass forest and barren land? Well, that had something to do with some absolutely massive mantids standing guard. They blended into the background something fierce and at the time I only found out about their presence because one beast tried to wander into the grass area.

I didn’t personally see the attack, though not because I had been looking in the wrong direction or anything. Rather, I kept staring right at the beast and the mantis simply attacked at a speed I was incapable of even noticing. So yeah, that straight line? It represented the edge of the mantis’s territory and stepping into it meant death.

Then I ran. Remember, the sap of the grass calls all the mantids in the area. So when that giant beast fell, it crushed at least some of the grass and called in a new swarm of mantises. Except unlike near the water, these all started at man size and grew from there.

Hah! I was so unprepared for the new world I had been thrust into. Good thing I had an advantage of my own. The people back on Earth were right to be afraid of people with my power. It represents potential that honestly shouldn’t appear in such a backwoods sort of place.

Of course, it only represents potential and not actual power, so nothing was assured for me. Every inch needed to be grabbed and held onto.