Jerome transformed into Rikan, causing the pain in his chest to disappear and a long bloody stone spike to clatter to the ground. He’d killed the thing for a second time, and he had a feeling it wouldn’t be his last. If he had more time he might be able to burn the body or something like that, keep it from respawning, but he had to get out of here quick.
Scrolls littered the floor, knocked around by the fight. However, most of them were near the shelves; the two that he’d picked out had fallen to the floor nearer the counter. He grabbed them, then stuffed in several random scrolls from the Flows section.
How wonderful it would be to clean out the whole place… but it wasn’t to be. There was a commotion outside, likely from the guards that had been fetched. Jerome ran out the door, nearly running into a beefy guard on his way out.
“He’s hiding behind the counter!” Jerome yelled. “I think he has some invisibility power!”
“We’ll take care of this,” said one of the guards. “Wait here.”
Jerome did not wait. They’d find Rikan’s real body soon enough. Thankfully they didn’t bring any more mages, so he was able to sprint away from them.
Two guards chased him, leaving six to fight the fake invisible human in the shop. Jerome turned into an alleyway, one that connected to a street on the far side. As soon as the two guards got into the alleyway and got out of sight of the others, he cast Hold on them. Thanks to Rikan’s high Alteration level the spell barely put a dent in his MP pool, so he could make it all the way to the other end with ease, slightly amused by their futile attempts to follow him. However, the effect still dissipated once Jerome hit the far side of the alleyway and went into the street, breaking line of sight.
Now he was in the crush and flow of a busy street, with lots of other gnolls that were nearly identical except for their clothing. He could try and blend in to the crowd, but mage clothing stood out a bit, and the guards knew the face he was currently wearing. Time to switch again.
He didn’t have access to the storekeeper — it was too bad, because the stone skill would have been amazing — but he did have access to the warrior from earlier. He went into a second alleyway, found some convenient shadows, and took the warrior’s form.
Immediately upon exiting the alleyway he saw the two guards frantically looking for someone with Rikan’s body. When he walked by them in the warrior’s form they saluted him, suspecting nothing. What a fantastic skill this was.
Jerome made his way to the gates trying to look like he didn’t have a care in the world.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Truth be told, things had turned out pretty well with this mission. He’d gotten all the materials, found some useful scrolls, learned a little bit about the palace, and even gotten some juicy bits of information that may eventually crystalize into real insight.
Sure, he hadn’t technically completed all the quests yet, and he’d had that embarrassing incident at the beginning, but he could come back when he had Krystyna’s form ready again and he’d practiced his Flows. The best bit of information was that with Nakat gone they’d stopped their ‘research’, which meant that for at least a little while they wouldn’t be dissecting humans. He had time to practice.
It was super disturbing that gnolls really were getting resurrected, but they’d mentioned that before, so it really shouldn’t have been a surprise. Still, seeing a resurrected gnoll in the flesh was different than hearing about theoretical respawns.
As he exited the gate he smiled thinking about what was going to happen next. He could give Krystyna the new armor. They’d go and learn the new spells he’d picked up. Then, when he transformed back into his own form, he could level up.
They’d also have sex, most likely. As rough as this world was, the sex (and the constant self-improvement) made it all worth it.
Jerome spent the next hour or so thinking about different positions and remembering Krystyna’s ecstatic face when he noticed something funny… he wasn’t getting hard. In fact, he didn’t have a dick. Or a pussy.
What the hell?
If the warrior was a eunuch then there should be some trace, but no… there was nothing.
He checked all over his body for any alternative organs, but there was nothing new. They really didn’t have sexual organs.
That explained why they hadn’t seen any women. All gnolls were… well, not men exactly. They were just gnolls. One gender.
The Gnollture quest updated, showing partial completion and giving him 600 EXP.
Weird as hell, but okay. Not much weirder than telepathic pterodactyls, sentient octopi that had somehow invented cannons, and his ability to take the form of whatever he touched. So no reason to think about it further. All thoughts, until he got into his sexytime body, must be about combat.
Fighting multiple mages was the biggest challenge. It had been crazy hard keeping track of both of them, even in that confined space, and if he’d missed any two-second window he would have been toast. The new spell he’d stolen would help with that, but he couldn’t rely on it long-term because of the stamina cost.
A better way would be to bring allies along. One stone throw from a level 1 teammate would interrupt Crystal Overload channeling just as easily as a knockout punch. But that produced a conundrum: where to get the allies needed for his ally-rescuing mission. Krystyna would help, but to fight a bunch of mages they needed numbers.
Possibilities churned in his head the rest of the way back.
Finally he arrived, following secret markings he’d made on his way out.
Krystyna was there and his heart leapt with joy. She was sitting on a log, laughing, looking beautiful and — wait, why was she laughing? Had she gone mad in his short absence?
That’s when he saw the gnoll.