Pain spiked through my body once more but I was ready. I didn’t resist the pain. I accepted it and then ignored it. The pain was still there, more than I had experienced up until then. My mind was cleared and the fear receded like the tide.

If only my reaction had been better. Even with a clear mind, all I could think was “get it away from me” and so I did. With a wide swing, I slapped the mantis flying. Though seeing as a mantis can fly, that didn’t exactly do much. The bug just flew a couple yards before it flared its wings and came to a stop.

I must admit, as it came right back at me I stopped being able to react. The damn bug flew with blades ready and my mind froze. Good thing my body decided at that moment to go on autopilot.

Something flying at your face? Why not clap your hands and see if it squashes the thing? Of course, this was not the best course of action. It worked mind you; the mantis died. A perfect plan if not for the blades that were now sticking through my hands.

Worse yet, the mantis had managed to get its blades powered up. So instead of the usual knife wound where the flesh is split, those blades managed to destroy. If I had been stupid enough to remove the blades, it would have looked like someone took a hole punch to my hands.

Suffice it to say, I was starting to run out of blood at that point even without removing the blades so things started to blur for me. Wish I could say that I reached deep inside myself and pulled out my power to save myself. Hell, for all I know I might have.

Anyway, next thing I knew I was waking up to a soft glow. Ten out of ten, would wake up to again. Much better than bright lights or pure darkness.

Oh, and there wasn’t any pain. While I appreciated it, that fact was a major cause for concern. There was a dead mantis of considerable size on my chest so it wasn’t a dream. If someone had come along and saved me, the mantis wouldn’t be there anymore.

With trepidation, I opened my eyes and yep, still in the strange grass forest. Since that hadn’t changed, I lifted my hands up, expecting the worst. Especially when the bug corpse didn’t move, meaning I should be dead from bleeding out.

Then I see my hands. How to describe what has happened to them? Aqua? At least that is the first thing that comes to mind. I still had a hole in both hands but they had been filled with the color between blue and green. A soothing color if not for me being able to see my blood flowing through it as if the blood vessels were still there. That and the cross section of the bones was quite spooky.

So of course I poked it. Felt exactly like my palm should. Not just with my finger, either. I could feel my finger poking it as well. A quick check finds my right leg to be in a similar situation.

I sighed. It wasn’t regeneration and I didn’t know how quick it worked, but my power had manifested and saved my life. At least it wasn’t an out-of-control healing that accidentally turns all of my cells cancerous.

Now it is nice that my power ended up in the “not killing me” category. The problem? The clock is ticking and a murderous wizard is going to be showing up as soon as two days from now. Assuming of course my little nap took hours and not days.

How was I supposed to use a bit of translucent aqua colored pseudo natural flesh to not only live, but to kill? For some reason, I doubted that if the guy took my head off, I would be a proud owner of a brand new aqua colored head. Even in fantasy, people tend to die if you take out the brain.

Worries about the future aside, it was strangely easy when I sat up. I had slept on the ground and that should have caused a great amount of stiffness. Still not useful for killing a wizard but the ability to sleep anywhere is a standout long term power in a place like this.

After a quick look around, I grabbed the mantis corpse from where it had fallen when I sat up. The blades might not be magically reinforced anymore but I had plans for them. Though once I accidentally snapped one in half, all the plans that involved using them as a weapon fell away.

Still, they were sharp if fragile tools. So of course the next thing I did was cut myself. Twice. They were still able to cut my normal flesh something fierce. I had tried to just do a small nick but even in death the mantis spited me, leaving a much deeper gouge on my right arm than planned.

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Before I attempted my second test, I took a moment to watch the cut. At first, it bled like normal. I got worried when nothing seemed to happen and was about to try some first aid. After all, maybe I got a power that only worked when I was asleep.

But no, my power was just a slow starter. The wound had started scabbing when aqua colored gel began to ooze out of the meat of my arm. It pooled in the wound ignoring outside forces as even turning the opening towards the ground didn’t change a thing.

Once filled in, I could see blood start to flow. But that didn’t last long. Unlike with my hands and leg, the blade hadn’t been powered and so the flesh wasn’t actually missing. Because apparently that mattered with my power. Instead of staying an open wound filled with aqua the cut closed up as if it hadn’t been there in the first place.

The only thing to indicate it had happened was the slight light-headedness from losing even more blood in such a short period of time. But like I said, that didn’t stop me from cutting myself again. There was a method to my madness, though.

The second cut was across my palm and intersected the hole. Had to test if it was tougher than my normal flesh after all. It didn’t even hurt the same. About the only difference I could find, was the aqua material was homogeneous. Something that might spell trouble as part of it was taking the place of bone.

Though the healing process was quicker as the aqua gel began to ooze out of the aqua flesh within moments. That, that called for some more experiments. And pain, can’t forget the pain.

Over an hour of pain and literal torture, in fact. Why? As I already proved, wounds connecting with a changed area of flesh heals faster. I had also assumed that for an area to be changed the flesh needs to actually be gone. A simple enough assumption to test.

Though I wasn’t too much of an idiot about it. No cutting off fingers to see if they would grow back or not. No, I simply used the curved mantis blade to lop off some skin right next to the pre-existing area on my leg. Not touching it to make certain it would work in new places and not just spread. It did and was similarly transparent.

I had been planning something quite gruesome, but with the transparency I scaled it back. So instead I just skinned myself in areas you can’t normally see. Because while I’m a loner no man’s an island and seeing my actual muscles would strain my meager social skills.

So yes, I spent over an hour strategically skinning myself. All the sensitive fun places except that one. The arm pits, strips off my lower hips, small bits from behind my ears, and the most extensive part of course being the bottoms of both my feet. I didn’t trust my shoes to last and once barefoot I wanted them to heal as quickly as possible.

The pain was sickeningly bad but I knew it was coming. Didn’t stop it or reduce it but I could ignore the pain. The worst part was the tools I had available made it very awkward. How am I supposed to skin myself and get straight lines with only the blade of an oversized mantis? Honestly, the bits behind my ears worried me the most. Once again, the brain is generally not replaceable.

It was only after I finished that a certain thought graced my mind. The idea that maybe it isn’t the best idea to stick around an area covered in blood. That mantis couldn’t be the only one and it was a miracle that another hadn’t come around to get me while I was distracted.

They must be fiercely territorial and the apex predators of the area for nothing else to show up. Of course, I didn’t believe a bug that doesn’t even measure up to my knees could hold down the area. I just had great faith in there being bigger ones further in. It made too much sense that younger members of the species would be pushed to the outskirts until strong enough to compete for a better place.

A place I had to find because while a healing factor was important long term, I need a weapon. And since one mantis had already awakened a healing power, maybe another will give me an attack. Wishful thinking yes, but my powers partly run on that so worth a try.

What followed was a cavalcade of failure. You would think that knowing they attack the legs from behind would make it easier to avoid. The five new aqua scars across my legs told a different story. Now, I still folded like a house of cards but I had gotten really good at reacting by clapping above my head.

Problem is that it wasn’t helping with new powers. At the time I was frustrated, though in hindsight it wasn’t like I was doing anything different from when I got my healing ability. The thing is not only was I on a time limit because of a homicidal mage but also for self development.

One little fact I had learned was that I had a limited window of time to gain new powers before it would lock down for a time. Good news when the next power might kill me, but inconvenient when I still don’t have a way to defend myself.

Good thing seventh times the charm, which I’m sure someone beside me has said before. Anyway, I spotted one of the mantises ahead of time. Not from any skill on my part, but purely from spotting it on the move.

So of course upon being spotted it flew at me. Experience with this meant I didn’t freeze but instead tried to clap the bug out of the air. Tried because without the first attack, the mantis had enough juice to boost its wings, flying right between my hands.

Quite the bad time for me as it followed that up with a nasty swipe across my upper sternum. The good news was it hadn’t fully charged its attack so the bone was just scratched. The bad news was that I was once again falling on my butt, except this time I didn’t have a chance to kill the mantis.

In desperation, I slapped out with my left hand hoping to fling it away to give myself a chance to stand up. But once again, its wings sped up to escape my attack. Except this time was different.