Some inner sense, as of yet unknown to Nick, told him that the corrupted rhinoceros was no longer an animal, but a beast. Albeit one that was twisted in a way that he was unable to quantify.
Five seconds after the creature’s eyes lit up, as if the fires of hell were roiling within its skull, the beast’s body started to transform. Its muscles pulsed and writhed beneath its wrinkled grey skin, like snakes were slithering through the rhino’s veins. Tissue shifting, breaking apart, and giving way, like wet clay upon a potter’s wheel.
Somehow, the process reminded Nick of the changes that occurred within his body when he spent his free attribute points, but this version felt wrong. These alterations were dark and sinister, a mockery of the growth precipitated by the System.
Instead of enhancing the beast’s physique, the Herald’s energy was forcibly altering its body on a cellular level, destroying the old as it gave birth to the new. While raising some of his attributes had been painful, especially his strength, the process that the rhino was undergoing looked excruciatingly agonizing.
The beast’s screams were intense and unending. Shrieks of anguish so forceful that they broke through the fury of the drug-maddened animals in the adjoining cells, who looked disturbed on a deep, fundamental level. Not that Nick could blame them. He felt exactly the same way. The differences between System-sanctioned growth and the Herald’s mutation soon became even more pronounced.
Five breathless seconds later, the creature’s flesh ruptured, leathery hide splitting open in a spectacular geyser of blood and viscera. From the ragged, weeping gaps, a living tide of muscle fibers came bursting through the seams, wrapping themselves tight around the exterior of the beast’s body. Growing bigger and bigger, even as the tendrils of muscle continued to condense.
There was soon far too much mass to be contained within the creature’s skin. Every surface of its body now glistened with a patina of fresh blood, which the beast apparently no longer needed to survive. Patches of weeping grey flesh fell to the ground like rain as the fallen creature shed its skin, and something monstrous emerged.
What Nick was witnessing felt wrong. A perversion of the natural order that he couldn’t capture with mere words. Watching the forced transformation was revolting, terrifying, and utterly captivating all at the same time.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Nick would have tried to attack the beast now, before its grim metamorphosis was complete. But the rhino was still shielded by the walls of the crystal cage and rushing in through the hole that the Herald had made didn’t seem like the best idea. He forced himself to think through his shock, trying to come up with a plan that would let him live through the day as he witnessed the finale of the gruesome spectacle.
Before long, the corrupted beast was so big that he was certain it wouldn’t be able to leave the cage. The hole in the wall was far too small for its hulking form to pass through. A twist that he had absolutely no idea how it was going to play out. When the creature finally stopped growing two minutes later, now at least three times its original size, its limbs began to swell.
A repulsive crackle filled the air. The sound of every bone in the rhino’s body shattering in choir, which would haunt Nick’s dreams for long nights to come. From the four balls of muscle encasing the fallen rhino’s feet, jet black talons emerged, severing muscle and vein as they pushed their way through the mounds of quivering flesh like knives cutting through a bowl of pasta.
There was noticeably less blood pouring from the mangled tissue this time, and the damage seemed inconsequential. Each blade was twice the length of Nick’s dagger, tipped with cruel barbs that were designed not to slice flesh, but to tear it apart.
Maybe the changes will stop there, Nick prayed. When the head pops out, it will have the face and horn of a typical rhino. Nothing that will obliterate us without breaking a sweat. Nick’s prayers were fervent, as his world view now accepted the existence of gods and other greater beings. But if any of them were listening, they were as powerless as he was to stop what was happening. Although he was even more worried about what would happen next.
Nick’s fears proved to be well founded. Because at that very moment, the tip of the fallen rhino’s horn slid out from the condensed globe of muscle encasing the corrupted creature’s skull.
Instead of a single gleaming point, what emerged was a legion of horns, all sharp edges and sweeping tines that looked like the roots of a demonic tree. They tore the rhino’s flesh to rags a second time, as an endless procession of obsidian barbs pushed through its weeping tissue. The sprawling array of black ivory was so massive that it pinned the beast against the floor, pressing its head into the corner of the crystal prison.
Shuddering like a creature possessed, the fallen beast opened its jaws, muscle fibers parting like rubber bands to reveal the midnight cavity of its maw. Nick felt a chill premonition of dread as he took in the sight of jagged teeth like scimitars, braced by hulking jaws that could tear him in half effortlessly. The beast drew in a great breath and roared out its rage, bellowing like a living avatar of fury.
It cried out again, even louder than before, the sound so intense that it vibrated Nick’s teeth within his jaw. He knew deep in his bones that the mutant wouldn’t be trapped for long. That within a fleeting handful of heartbeats, his next ordeal would begin.