My eyes opened halfway and with great effort. I must have dozed off at some point. The boulder had protected me and my aqua gel nature seemed to remove any nasty side effects of sleeping on literal rocks, but I clearly still needed to rest despite how much had changed at this point. A slight problem with that being I didn’t seem to get tired, so much as instantly lose consciousness once in a safe place.

So yes, I did just get knocked out; again. Thank goodness for my scentless nature! If even a bit of my old body had remained, not even the boulder would have helped. I would have been found and if I was lucky, awoken by the sound of something digging me out. Now, though, I needed to get out of Dodge and hopefully make it to my goal before my next unplanned rest.

Still, I stayed motionless at the edge of my protective little alcove, watching for even a hint of movement or noise. Better safe than sorry. I didn’t want to get half out of my hole only to be bitter in half. Not only do I not think I wouldn’t have survived that, but it would have been the half with my head.

Once out from under what was likely my last safe space until the climb, I rushed as fast as possible while remaining quiet. This ended up being a lot quicker than I expected as it seems my gel had decent shock absorption properties. My naked feet didn’t slap or splat against the ground, instead making barely a whisper as they smacked down.

I wasn’t quite able to go full speed, but even my stealthy speed was at least half again as fast as my old human running speed. Though my worry at this point was how to tell if I was tired? Like pain, tiredness isn’t just a punishment, but rather an indicator of your body’s state.

To not have that? Despite clearly not being untiring yet? That was very much a nightmare. I doubt my body would allow me to get to the point of literal collapse, but the question was how close would it get me?

A question which I could not answer yet and so I ran with hope. Not my favorite way to handle issues, but it was working. Well, the whole keep running thing worked. It didn’t make me safe from all of the monsters.

The closer I got to the light, the more types of monsters showed up. This includes an old “friend” that managed to take one of my arms in passing. That’s right, I’m never going to escape the mantis threat. Though this one was an albino cave mantis, so at least a change of pace from the usual green. Even better, it was satisfied with just the arm and so didn’t try to stop me.

Oh, and it seemed to be alone. Which is more typical of mantises. Not exactly an insect you see grouped together except right after they are born.

And you know what? I would have been willing to lose my arms over and over, just as long as nothing took my legs or stopped me. My one goal was to leave this underground monster playground and woe betide that which stopped me.

I almost paused at that point. Even now, my mouth splits into a predator’s smile, my teeth on display. Back then? It was all new to me and so having it all react so naturally? I could hardly control myself.

My remaining hand curled and uncurled, claws ready as the thought of something actually managing to stop me and what I would DO to them! Even as I obsessed over the thought, my body began to fall in line.

So far, I had been moving around naturally enough, despite the change to digitigrade. I could even say I was moving naturally, as if I was born this way. For this moment in time, though? Things got absolutely supernatural.

This wasn’t even a new power coming to light. Rather, I was hooking into a part of my new body that had been hidden from me. I guess a body made entirely of gel wasn’t going to be normal from the word go.

As I ran and my predatory smile widened, my steps lost all sound. Each impact was now a perfect rebound, my gel gathering power as my speed increases. That power wasn’t limited to only improving my running speed.

The claws on each hand shimmered with a sharpness that goes beyond simple physics. My fangs grew out as my mouth warped to better fit them. They probably shimmered as well, but I wasn’t in a place to check at the time.

Instincts were coursing through me, and back then it was too much. Thankfully, my focus on that one goal, the literal light at the end of the tunnel, kept me going. However, that didn’t protect those that got in my way.

Yes, protect, because at that point I had lost another chain holding me back. The first to run a foul of my new mindset was some sort of giant isopod, you know, pill bugs. They didn’t attack me, but did happen to be in the way. As I look back, I even feel a bit bad for it as honestly, what I did wasn’t warranted.

I slammed into the insect’s side, my claw scrabbling against its exoskeleton, but unfortunately for it, I found purchase where the plates came together. And so I wrenched that seam open as it tried to curl into a ball. My maw spread open with unnatural fluidity, before I lunged forward and did a repeat of how I took care of the ants previously. Except this time it was unprovoked and on a larger insect which extended its suffering.

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An utter waste. While hunting prey might cause distress, to make said prey suffer for no reason is a sign of an inferior hunter. Which I was, to be fair, but even then I could have done better.

Though even such a large treasure trove of food couldn’t keep me in one place long. I certainly ate a good bit, but more than four-fifths of the isopod remained when I burst out the opposite side. On the up side, this momentary stop gave my body the time and material to replace my arm. My recovery thereof, proving useful.

At the edges of this dark cavern, the floor has been relatively flat. Now that I was getting closer to the light, that became less and less true. What had been a few boulders and scrapes in the ground began to turn into mounds twice my height and getting taller with subsequent pits of equal depth. Good thing I got my arm back, oh, and was in some sort of flow state.

The bounding leaps powered by the perfect rebound of force jumped up over the first few such mounds and gave me a head start on those to come. More important was that once I couldn’t just leap twice my height, my claws were able to grab onto the stone. The supernatural sharpness of them cutting into the stone like it was wax.

Not that the rough terrain meant there weren’t still dangerous monsters lurking around. In fact, the pits below hid some of the worst there was. Strange oozes gurgled as I leapt over them, pseudopods reaching up to try and slap me down, instead leaving behind smoking trenches when they missed and hit the sides of their pit.

In others, swarms of various vermin boiled out to try and catch me. Whether it was the brightly colored millipedes as big around as my thigh, the rat swarm raising up a more humanoid looking rat with two heads, or the pit of worms that seemed to phase through the stone itself. All dangerous and likely able to reduce me to nothing in moments if I had fallen in.

Good thing I still had some boost to my bounce, leaping over the pits and scrambling up the side of the next mound. Oh, and there were more of the classic threats both down below and up with me. However, at the time, I was certainly more susceptible to swarm tactics.

The giant lizards? Strange mutations and combinations? And other similar larger-than-life monsters? I could see them, avoid them, and most importantly I wasn’t that tempting. It wasn’t safe and I was probably inches from death multiple times, but sometimes ignorance is bliss, especially since I wasn’t in quite the right state of mind.

Though what helped was that just as more monsters popped up the further into the darkness I got. The density of monsters declined as more light shined down on us. This did make the pits all the more dangerous, if I had ever slipped into one. Just from the few abominations that reached out to try and grab at me, even back then I could tell those pits were packed.

Which is odd. Even now, I’m not really certain what was going on. Like, why are there so many monsters squeezed together? You would think that unless they are a swarm, they would be fighting and eating each other. Maybe they were and there are just too many? Also weird, since nowhere else was the density of monsters so great except for the swarms. And those were a more localized mass.

But I managed to make my way through. I managed to lose another arm or three to various grasping limbs including what looked like a crab claw. There was even an instance where I lost a leg and almost fell into a pit. But I made it to the mountain made up of stone from the collapsed roof.

The light shined directly down on me and even if it was just the weak light of more mushrooms; I felt invigorated. My warped smile began to ease up, but of course it couldn’t be this simple. As a connection point between what was at the very least, two different strata of caves, it wasn’t a free pass.

While the monsters in the dark stuck to their domain, the monsters above weren’t shy about trying to make their way down. From above, a motley collection of giant insects, undead, and overly mobile plants were throwing themselves at the pits in an attempt to make their way through. They were failing, but the constant influx of more from above forced even the reluctant to eventually make their way down.

This actually presented me with a choice to make. From what I saw, now being directly under the hole, the fallen roof had opened up into three separate areas of the cave system above. One clearly dominated by the undead, while the other two more closely matched to what I had already seen back the way I came. I could only tell it was two separate areas because one direction had a wasp presence.

Did I say I had a choice? I meant I was going to the green area without the giant wasps. Sure, they were mostly the size of my fist with only a few as long as my arm, but hell no. But I don’t trust them to remain that way. The mantises above ground certainly didn’t.

And while I don’t mind the undead, they’re not exactly edible. I think? I guess technically I hadn’t tried to eat them at this point, what with the burial mounds being mostly humanoid undead. And these did seem to be made from the remains of beasts instead. However, I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to chow down on the undead.

Anyway, that left me one final push where I would have to circle around this mountain of stone as I climbed up. Because, of course, the area I wanted to reach was the opposite of where I was. Though the bigger problem was always going to be the upward part.

While the monsters weren’t streaming out of the holes in the ceiling, they climbed down at a steady pace. Each new addition pushes those already on the pile closer to the pits below. I would have honestly been hard pressed to get on the stone mound if not for the fact that around two-thirds of the way down, the monsters would bunch up before making a rush downward. Each hoping for quantity to overcome the dangers below. They didn’t, but they also didn’t have a choice.

Which was good for me. These were weak monsters being pushed out of an overpopulated area. Though also bad for me, as it meant the region above me wasn’t going to be any easier than below. If only because it seemed there would be more monsters to fight.