Evelyn pushed forward and when nothing happened she swayed her ‘hips’ and started slithering. The asphalt under her belly was smooth to her scales and she was able to move faster as she gained confidence.
The gnoll knocked the hockey stick out of the young girl’s hand and the teenager was now defenseless. Evelyn zoomed forward with all her might and launched herself at the gnoll’s hairy ankle. She bit. The taste of hair and sweat filled her mouth and to her surprise, the system window appeared with a question. Do you want to use venom?
“Yes!” Evelyn thought. Hoping the system was telepathic because there was no way she could speak with her mouth full. Oh, and she was a snake. There was that problem with articulation as well.
She felt something release from her fangs. Then her whole world shifted. The gnoll’s leg was moving back and forth and Evelyn was attached to said leg. She flailed about, dizzy and confused. She needed to release herself but she had nothing to hold onto. The only thing in her reach was the enemy itself. She wrapped her body around the hairy dog beast and was able to remove her fangs from its flesh.
Even with her head spinning from all the wild movement she instinctively knew to find a dark hiding hole. She observed the alleyway as best she could and focused on the dumpster. She needed to escape to its darkest recesses before the beast’s claws caught her.
She flung herself off the gnoll and sped through the alleyway past the first girl and into the darkness that was the space under the dumpster. It was quite roomy and smelly. There were old bits of garbage that had never made it to the bin. An old beer bottle sat next to a molding half-eaten apple.
Sunlight hit her back and Evelyn knew that she was in danger. The dumpster was no longer above her. Somehow, the gnoll had managed to move it. She was exposed and vulnerable. The gnoll’s mace came down and she barely slithered away in time. The asphalt shook with the impact of the blow. If that had hit her, she would have died. Evelyn inspected her surroundings and found two possible paths, she could go into the glass beer bottle, which her rational brain said was stupid because it would break easily, but her snake brain seemed attracted to it. Or she could go farther away to the brick building on the left. There was a single missing brick that might just save her from danger. Her human brain chose the missing brick. The building would be better at blocking a full-out attack.
Evelyn rushed to the building, dodging pebbles and a few broken pieces of glass as she slithered to safety. She tucked herself into the small space and used her tail to cover and protect her head. A second later the mace hit the wall and destroyed some of the surrounding bricks. Chunks of red bits of brick fell on her, jabbing what seemed to be her liver or spleen. Pain emanated from her left side.
The club hit the wall again and she was half buried in the rubble of clay and brick and mortar. It was difficult to breathe with all the dust in the air. She tucked her nose under her side and held her breath for a moment while the particles in the air settled.
She took a hesitant breath and wheezed as dust coated her mouth and nose. What else could she do? She was just a small snake and how long did it take for venom to kill a beast as large as a human?
A claw moved through the debris, shifting the weight that was pushing down on her. She scooted away from the claw searching for her. Her small movement caused a piece of a brick to move, and her eye saw beyond the black scales of her tail overhead directly into the yellow of the gnoll’s eye. A shiver ran down her spine. She was done for, it knew where she was.
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The gnoll stared at her. That moment dragged on as neither of them moved. Then the eye closed and the gnoll’s head disappeared. Thud, something hit the ground and Evelyn closed her eyes as she waited for her end to come. But the world did not darken and her eyes did not shut. She blinked, or at least tried to. Her eyes wouldn’t close. Why did she have to die as a stupid unblinking snake?
She wouldn’t be able to help Father anymore. She hadn’t even seen him for days and she would never be able to say goodbye. What was the last thing she’d said to him?
‘If I ever see another bottle of alcohol in this house, I’m leaving. I mean it.’ That was what she’d yelled at him as he left the apartment two days ago. Fitting for the situation, but not a great way to end things.
Evelyn couldn’t help but regret other decisions she’d made over the years. She should have left Portland and gone off to college with her friends. She should have told Everett that she liked him before he started dating Emily. She should have gone on that trip to Rome with Becky even though she hadn’t had the money.
“Is it dead?” A voice pierced through the rubble.
“No, look closely, its chest is still moving, but we should get out of here while we can. I don’t know what kind of snake that was, but if one bite was enough to knock down this monster I don’t want to get close to it.”
The voices were young. Probably the teenage girls she’d come here to save. Evelyn counted to a hundred, everything was still and quiet. She shifted her body and contorted her way out of the crevice she’d been hiding in.
The gnoll was on the ground, barely breathing. Her poison must have paralyzed it. Thank goodness. Evelyn took one last look at the gnoll and slithered away to the other side of the alleyway under the dumpster that had rolled away from its previous location. Once she was out of sight she inspected her body. There were a few places that felt bruised and lower down there were three scales missing where she was bleeding. It didn’t look life-threatening, but she couldn’t help but wonder if snakes could regrow scales; she wished she had her phone to look it up.
“Status window,” Evelyn said in her mind. The blue glowing screen appeared in front of her listing her skills:
Evelyn Barker, Age 21, Level 9 Shapeshifter
HP: 10/19
MP: 6/16
Strength: 3
Agility: 10 (+ 25% in snake-form)
Intelligence: 9
Speed: 6 (+ 15% in snake-form)
Luck: 5
*Venom: 12/20 drops
Her magic points had dropped by more than half from using Shapechange. As things stood now Evelyn would have to wait at least two hours to recover enough magic to recast the spell and turn back into a human. It was also good to know that what form she was in would affect her stats. Different forms might change different stats.
She’d used eight drops of poison on the gnoll. Her fangs had been in its leg for quite some time as it had kicked her around. What she really needed to know was how many more enemies she could bite before her venom was gone. “System, how much of my venom is needed to kill a gnoll?”
The screen changed to answer her question. She’d only needed to use 2 drops which meant she’d wasted 6 drops of venom by being overzealous. She would need to be more careful in her next fight and make sure she only used the smallest amount of poison.
Time to use Heal on her bleeding wound. “Heal,” she thought loud and clear. She cleared her mind and imagined the scales regrowing, but nothing happened and her stats did not change. “System, can I use my other spells while I am shape-shifted?”
Evelyn read the status window’s description. The spells you can use depend on your intelligence stats, MP stats, and form type. Most animals are not compatible with healing spells. As she leveled up her different forms would also gain various skills.
While it was interesting that she could switch forms to turn into a different type of fighter, it didn’t help with her wound. At least it wasn’t on her belly and she could still move without any impediment other than some discomfort.
The system window reappeared with a new notification: she had killed 1/20 monsters for her quest. She didn’t have enough venom to kill 19 more enemies but as time passed her MP and venom would return and she might be able to shape shift into another form. At the very least she could use her weapons to kill more monsters. Evelyn wasn’t going to give up. She would complete that quest no matter what because she would need all the rewards she could possibly get in order to survive the apocalyptic new settings of The Game.