Jerome used up two of his forms getting to the alleyway. The SP cost to Ether Ghost was better than getting stuck in a Crystal Overload death spiral, but it was still vicious. He was down to thirteen more forms, and all of them except Krystyna were low-level gnolls.

Krystyna’s form he had to save until more of the mages were gone. Her body would only last about twice as long against mages than the form of a low-level gnoll, even with the mageless armor, and he didn’t want to use his most powerful form as cannon fodder.

As long as he was out of their sight he was safe from their magic attacks. He was safe for a moment after ducking into the alley, but it was a long straight passage and he would be in their sight before he even got halfway.

But he wasn’t helpless.

He started channeling Shape Earth to create a thin barrier of stone between himself and the gnolls. It took some time, but it almost covered his head by the time they got into visual range. He simply ducked and kept on raising the barrier.

Their magics were more powerful, but he’d accounted for that. By the time they got close enough to collapse the wall he’d be in melee range and have an advantage. He’d be able to kill at least one of the mages while losing relatively few forms.

Then a club shattered his wall. A warrior! Drat! He could take it on no problem, but killing it would do nothing to slow his SP (and thus form) drain.

The gnolls were using a tank to protect their DPS. How very human.

Jerome stepped back out of the warrior’s range, then used Blast Off towards the wall. His claws scraped against the wall, catching after a short slide. These walls were meant to be climbed slowly, but that wasn’t how this was going to go.

The warrior swung his club. Jerome used Blast Off on the wall to get out of the way, landing on the opposite wall of the alleyway a couple feet higher than he had been before. Another leap like that and he was out of the warrior’s reach.

This tactic was far more dizzying than Mario and other platformers had let on. Bouncing between the walls, slamming himself back and forth with sudden jarring changes in momentum, was not a natural activity in the slightest. His head spun.

But his SP was will draining, so he leapt again and transformed in the middle. He’d barely gotten used to his new claws before he had to sink them into the wall. His head was momentarily clear, at least.

One final jump and he was on the rooftops, where he could roll safely out of the mages’ sights.

It wouldn’t be the end. They could climb too, though maybe not as fast. Or could they channel themselves stairs? Either way, he had to get as far as he could before they got on the roofs — once they got there they’d have long sightlines and he’d have to drop back to the street level. He wanted to be as far away as possible when that happened, so that they couldn’t coordinate as well with their ground forces and box him in.

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He sprinted on four legs to pick up speed, leaping across rooftops to increase his lead. The first two alleys he jumped over, barely managing to clear his legs. A larger street he could get across with Blast Off, but that would only draw attention to himself, so he tumbled into the third alleyway, catching himself on the wall and letting his claws scrape the stone to slow him. It wore on the claws, and one broke, but he’d be out of this form soon enough anyways. He dropped down the rest of the way and absorbed the damage, then immediately changed into a fresh form and acted like he had a good reason to be in this alley.

He strolled onto the street, trying to act like just a normal everyday gnoll. How did gnolls act? He’d always had a mission while here, something to find, but now his mission was simply to survive until his army arrived.

It was amazing how ordered this city was, all things considered. Quite an achievement, considering what he’d seen of gnoll nature in the barely-too-large tribe he’d created

Too bad that impressive order that kept the gnolls peaceful also tortured humans.

“You can recognize the intruder by their stats,” said a voice nearby. The speaker wasn’t looking at him; it was merely sharing gossip. “It’ll have skills that are unnatural.”

“Unnatural?” the gossiper’s companion said in a scandalized tone. “I can’t even imagine an unnatural skill.”

“He can breath fire,” said the first gnoll confidently. “And he has a move where he disconnects his hand and claws you with it from yards away.”

“No, that’s impossible. He disconnects his hand? How does he get it back on without respawning?”

“I tell you, he’s unnatural.”

Jerome was amused, or at least as amused as he could be while running for his life, that it was the skill he actually possessed that was unbelievable, and the one he didn’t have that was accepted without question.

But the bigger implication of the conversation was that the gnolls had realized how to recognize him. Most gnolls wouldn’t go around inspecting the skills of everyone they knew, but if it was known that he was in the city, then enough would start scanning skills that it would be hard for him to hide anywhere.

If the mages and warriors who were chasing him decided to go public with his presence, and he was in public, then it would only be a matter of time until he was caught. And by time, he meant minutes.

Where could he hide?

The Bag of Holding was still on him, which meant he still had his money… he could go shopping! The warriors and mages chasing him might look in shops, but the streets would be searched much sooner than every single store, and once found he’d much rather be in the close quarters of a store than the empty streets.

He ducked into the first shop he found, a general store. The inside was eery. Nearly-bare shelves. An air of tragedy. A familiar shopkeeper, who backed away and yelled “human” as loud as it could.

Of course.

It was the shopkeeper he’d murdered.