Karamir, the giant gnoll Commander, was definitely going to kill him.

Name: Karamir

Race: Gnoll (Giant)

Level 14, 25% progress

270/270 HP

100/100 MP

190/190 SP

Statuses: Giant (+20% to Strength and Endurance), Armored (damage protection according to armor stats, armor skill, and strike placement)

Strength: 72

Endurance: 64

Agility: 35

Focus: 12

Dexterity: 15

Connection: 11

Skills

Special Abilities

Clubs Level 17, 61%

Claw Combat Level 12, 29%

Swipe, Eviscerate

Heavy Armor Level 11, 87%

Reduced Burden

Claw Movement Level 8, 32%

4-legged Run, Climb (improved speed)

These giant monsters were his bane. First the giant ockdine and now this giant gnoll. It made sense that he’d encounter them after running through hordes of the smaller versions, but it was still annoying.

“The stories of you are true,” it said. “The formless devil. I thought Katani’s fallen warriors must exaggerate, as a way to force unity, but for once the imperials do not lie.”

Stories? They told stories about him?

Wait, Katani’s fallen warriors told stories about him? ‘Fallen’ must mean something different here, because surely they didn’t mean dead warriors. That would… that would be terrifying. Regular gnolls were bad enough, but undead gnolls would be even worse, and he hadn’t seen any Holy magic yet.

It wasn’t all bad. With Karamir’s form he had inherited some of its Strength, Endurance, and HP, as well as half-level versions of its skills. His own skills were cut in half as well, and the gnoll’s lower Focus, Connection, and MP lowered his own, but the gains were bigger than the losses. He also got sharp claws and a set of heavy armor, but no club. The armor must have registered as clothes, while the club didn’t.

Even with all that, Jerome was at a huge disadvantage. Not as huge or insurmountable as it had been in his base form, but it was still pretty damn big. If he had a shot, it would have to be through clever use of his special moves. And he would have to do it before Krystyna ran out of MP/SP and got killed by the eight gnolls surrounding her.

He started off by using Blast Off to launch in the air and get in a flying kick to Karamir’s jaw. A nice, lucky hit! It usually took him some time to get used to the form, and in his first action he’d taken 13% off of the beast’s HP.

However, the luck didn’t hold — the impact set Jerome to spinning in midair, so that when he landed he sprawled on the ground, limbs flailing. By the time he recovered the gnoll was already swinging its club down at Jerome. He rolled out of the way, but not enough out of the way. The club hit him in the leg, crushing it and taking out 21% of his HP.

Crushing it. Club and ground met, leaving the shin-bone between them shattered and spread across the earth. The pain was excruciating, and the only reason Jerome didn’t pass out was because he knew this wasn’t his own body.

Mind over other people’s matter.

He tried to stand up but ended up tipping over again, because for all practical purposes he had no left leg anymore. It was a mass of barely-held-together flesh.

Blood loss drained his HP — not enough that he would die purely from that, not in the time frame of this battle, but enough that it gave him great pain and put him at a definite disadvantage. He couldn’t focus on that though, or he’d get hit again.

Jerome rolled onto his back then saw another club strike coming down towards him.

Thinking quickly, he used Portal Hand to place his hand on the gnoll’s chest. With the club less than two feet from his face he activated Recoil Burst, pushing the gnoll violently up and to the side and making the club scrape the ground — and not his face — as its owner flew away.

Karamir rolled on the ground, thoroughly disoriented.

Jerome went to his knees — thank goodness the strike had only taken out his shin and not his knee — and turned to face his opponents.

Two regular gnolls and Karamir. He couldn’t move very well, so he was going to have to use Portal Hand, Recoil Burst, and his claws to keep them all away from him. It was a good thing he’d leveled those first two so much in the last couple days — even at half of his native skill level they were still far more formidable (more accurate for Portal Hand and stronger for Recoil Burst) than they had been during his fight in the city. Portal Hand had dropped below 5, alas — having two portals available would have been useful — but the increased accuracy would still help.

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While Karamir recovered, Jerome decided to even the odds a bit. He used Portal Hand and a claw swipe to rake one of the smaller gnolls. 47% of its HP gone! The next hit wasn’t as lucky, only taking down 31%, but still — one more hit from these giant claws and he would only be facing two opponents instead of three.

However, he wouldn’t have time for that. The gnoll he’d been attacking was certainly vulnerable enough, laying on the ground in pain and fear, but the other small gnoll started circling to get behind him, and Karamir was up and approaching him again.

Jerome used a Portal Hand and a Recoil Burst to knock the smaller flanking gnoll back to someplace he could see, then turned his attention to the true threat: Karamir.

He put a Portal Hand in front of the charging beast, and used Recoil Burst to knock it back again. It didn’t lose its balance as drastically as before, and it took no damage, but it did get pushed back. This wasn’t a winning strategy long-term, but it was good while Jerome figured things out.

There were a couple seconds where nothing was a threat, so he used that to send a final Portal Hand claw attack to the almost-dead gnoll, killing it. Things were getting more manageable, especially since the other small gnoll was running away.

Towards Krystyna. Could she handle nine? She was having enough trouble with eight.

Jerome sent a Portal Hand claw attack at the fleeing gnoll’s back before it got too far away for his strikes to be accurate.

59% damage! Back attacks truly were wonderful.

The smaller gnoll turned to face him, backing away more slowly while keeping an eye out for more attacks. Smart gnoll.

Jerome didn’t have time to take that gnoll down completely, because Karamir was rushing him again.

Time to repeat the strategy he’d used before. Jerome used Portal Hand to put his palm in front of Karamir’s charging body, and then… Karamir used a Claw Swipe to knock it aside!

Ow!

It wasn’t a strong hit, but it took 6% of Jerome’s health away and, more importantly, destroyed his simplistic strategy. He would have to either time the Portal Hand more precisely or he would have to think of something more clever.

First he would try the precision strategy. Just a couple inches in front of the charging beast…

Nope. The portal ended up on the other side of Karamir, and his palm pointed uselessly at open air.

Trickiness would be the order of the day. He would have to do it quick, too, because Karamir was upon him. Way too close for comfort. The club was already pulled back, looking like a stronger strike than the one that had taken out Jerome’s leg.

He couldn’t dodge very well, thanks to the fact that he was on his knees and missing half a leg. The best he could do was throw himself to the side, and then what would that do? Let Karamir take out his other leg?

Karamir had even jumped a little bit in order to land a harder hit.

Jerome could try to use Portal Hand and Recoil Burst, but if he messed up he was dead.

Magic Pulse + Crystal Overload was his emergency move, the one he could use only once (at most) per form, and this looked like an emergency. He used it, taking 82 MP and 41 SP.

The effect was exactly what he wanted. Karamir’s body shook, making it drop the club and turning its coordinated attack into just a ball of furry momentum.

The momentum, of course, was still heading directly for Jerome. He put out both hands, hoping to block the incoming creature. It crashed into him, and even though Jerome successfully activated Recoil Burst and sent the thing flying, the initial impact was enough to push Jerome backwards. His head hit hard soil, knocking off a couple HP points and making him dizzy.

He picked himself up quickly, ignoring his spinning head and the excruciating pain from his leg.

This was progress.

Sure, he’d used up about two thirds of his MP, and his health was still draining out through blood loss, but he’d separated the giant gnoll from its most formidable weapon. A quick Portal Hand + Recoil Burst tossed the club far afield, making sure it couldn’t be retrieved during this battle.

Then another claw swipe and the second smaller gnoll was gone.

But Jerome’s SP was almost drained. He used Refill SP while Karamir recovered from the surprise double-handed Recoil Burst and the loss of its club, but then his MP was gone. This was Jerome’s last burn through the SP bar (it wasn’t even full), and he had no MP with which to call on his magic techniques anymore.

Jerome’s HP was at 61%. The gnoll’s HP, on the other hand, was still at 73%… and it still had both legs.

Perhaps he could even the odds there. It would require a precise Portal Hand, but it was his only good shot at making this a fair fight.

Karamir was lumbering towards him, more carefully now. It didn’t know that Jerome no longer had the mana for the Crystal Overload trick — it just knew that it was without its favorite club, and the shapeshifting human had killed three of its companions (including a mage!) and kept on besting it with crazy new tricks.

That slowness, however, allowed Jerome to focus and use his Portal Hand with increased accuracy. He sent out the portal, then was able to grab Karamir on the side of the knee. A Recoil Burst and boom — the knee was blown.

Karamir roared in pain. The move only took out 9% of its health — seriously, this thing was a tank — but it fell to the ground and looked around for the next attack, paranoid.

After looking in vain for another phantom claw it decided to crawl towards its attacker. It had more movement experience in this body than Jerome, but it was still hampered by the loss of a knee. It hobbled jerkily forward on all fours (all threes?).

Jerome sent out a Portal Hand on top of it, pushing it down with a Recoil Burst and making it collapse onto its stomach. He sent the palm down further and tried it again.

Success!

The move didn’t take more than a couple points of HP off of Karamir, but it kept the thing down.

Jerome glanced over at Krystyna. Her SP bar was almost full, but she was down to 35% of her MP and she’d taken a couple hits that knocked her HP down to 79%. She ducked and dodged through the tangle of gnolls, their claw attacks and swings narrowly missing her. Occasionally she had time to Recoil Burst one away, or get in a punch, but it was all she could do to not get hit. Jerome would have to finish his battle and then draw a couple of the gnolls away from her before she ran out of MP.

The only way he could do that was if he got in a bunch of good hits. That could either be claw attacks to vulnerable areas or Recoil Bursts on other vulnerable points.

A Recoil Burst on the other knee… that would get him a huge advantage.

Jerome tried, but Karamir was wise to his tactics now. Instead of carrying on forward and ignoring the brush against its knee, Karamir collapsed it, slowly its total progress but pulling the knee rapidly away from Jerome’s hand, and almost crushing his hand in the process. Jerome was able to get a Recoil Burst off against the upper leg, but that sent Karamir flying closer, which was not the desired result at all. Hitting the ground, once again, only took off a couple points of the monster’s HP.

Claw attack were the new order of the day. They didn’t require the same precision, and they could be executed quicker.

Karamir batted many of them away as it moved haltingly towards Jerome, but many of the others landed. By the time it reached Jerome it was at 28% HP. Jerome, due to the blood loss, was down to 39% HP. More importantly, he was just about out of SP and completely out of MP.

Jerome tried one last Recoil Burst, hoping to push Karamir away, but the beast swatted away his hand. Then it raked Jerome’s face and chest furiously with its claws, knocking him down to 18% health.

This was it.

One more claw attack like that and he was dead.

This form was done.

The small gnoll form would be almost useless, so he had one shot left: Krystyna.

He transformed into her body. He didn’t have much of a chance, but it was a chance, and this was a pretty good body to die in.

Then he saw a small message at the edge of his vision.

Intimacy Bonus applied.