Jerome was stuck, his center of mass pinned in mid-air by some terrible spell.
Transforming didn’t work; he was just as stuck in his new gnoll body as he was in his old one.
The gnoll mage who cast the spell stood just inches out of Jerome’s reach, inspecting him. “A changeling human. The elders will be quite interested in you… but don’t get any ideas. I’ll still kill you if I must.”
Jerome swung his claws impotently. In the background he heard Krystyna cry out in pain.
Maybe the problem was that he stayed as a gnoll. If he could change into another species maybe he’d be free of this spell.
Would you like to transform?
* Norrruru (ockdine, 19 hours remaining)
He selected Norrruru and his hairy muscled body turned into a moist head and collection of wriggling appendages.
Still stuck. Damn.
But his reach had extended.
He wrapped four tentacles around the mage who, for the first time in their interaction, looked frightened. One went around the neck. Another trapped the gnoll’s right arm to its torso. Another held the left arm out to the side, useless. The final one held the legs together so the thing couldn’t run.
Jerome lifted it off the ground.
He could tighten and wait for his helpless opponent to die, but would Krystyna be able to hold off the other five gnolls for that long? He had to finish this quickly. He could fling the thing into a tree trunk, like an ockdine had once done to him. Or…
The Recoil Burst he had to work with was very low-level, since it was only half of his own already-low personal skill level in it… but he had dozens of suckers pressed firmly against the gnoll’s helpless body.
He activated Krystyna’s power and the gnoll’s entire body burst, a torrent of green blood running down Jerome’s tentacles.
Holy hell. Some of these skill combinations were terrifying. Sure, it had used up about half of his SP — 2 SP per sucker — but it had made the gnoll’s inside practically liquify.
As soon as the gnoll mage died Jerome’s body was released. He could move freely again.
He turned quickly to see how the rest of the battle was progressing.
The answer: not good.
Krystyna was on the ground, barely recovering SP fast enough to dodge blows. She wasn’t even trying to hit the gnolls anymore because she didn’t have enough energy.
Sometimes the blows hit her anyways. She was down to less than 10% of her health.
He could intervene. The ockdine body could probably beat any one of those gnolls, although taking on all five of them would be difficult. And then if just a couple more hits landed on Krystyna she was dead.
However, he had just strangled a healer. Which meant he had touched a healer.
Would you like to transform?
* Kanani (gnoll, 24 hours remaining)
He selected yes and his slimy tentacled form condensed into that of a small hairy biped.
Name: Kanami (Jerome Wallaby)
Race: Gnoll (Human)
Level 3. (Level 1, 273% progress)
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
80/80 HP
140/140 MP
95/95 SP
Statuses: Transform (24 hours remaining)
Strength: 8
Endurance: 12
Agility: 11
Focus: 19
Dexterity: 9
Connection: 21
Skills
Special Abilities
Transform Level 1, 93% (unique)
Store, Transform
Recoil Burst Level 3, 47% (unique)
Burst
Healing Level 3 (Level 0, 0%)
Refill HP, Refill SP
Alteration Level 2 (Level 0, 0%)
Blessing
Dodge Level 2, 14%
Herbalism Level 2, 9%
Identify Herb, Make Potion (see recipes)
Claw Combat Level 1
Swipe
Claw Movement Level 1
4-legged run
Grappling Level 1, 12%
Unarmed Strikes Level 1, 5%
Swords Level 1, 15%
A small hairy biped with magic.
He immediately started healing Krystyna with Refill HP. The first attempt only healed a little bit, but he got the hang of it quickly and soon she was at full health.
Next he used Refill SP to get her energy back. Once again the first attempt only did a little bit, but that was enough for her to burst off the ground and start kicking ass again.
It was a beautiful sight.
After fully resporting her SP he looked at his stats and saw that he had one more skill available: Blessing. He tried it on himself, just to see what it did.
Each of his attributes increased by 1! Oh hell yeah!
He cast Blessing on Krystyna and saw that each of her attributes increased by 2. He tried it a couple more times and the increase went up to 3 but it seemed to max out there. No use to continue casting it.
He healed up her HP and SP again and watched the battle unfold. Now that the gnolls had lost their healer they were going to fall one by one under Krystyna’s explosive energy.
Of course, things couldn’t go on perfectly forever. One of the gnolls noticed that the heals were now going to their opponent and decided to change the equation. It sprinted to Jerome, dropping to all fours in order to increase speed.
Jerome put out a hand to use Recoil Burst but forgot that he was now influenced by the mage’s stats instead of Krystyna’s. His strength and agility were now pitifully low, so when the gnoll crashed into him it knocked him over, pinning him easily.
It was a warrior versus a healing mage at close range - not much of a contest.
The gnoll clawed at Jerome’s face, taking off twenty percent of his HP or more with each swipe. It hurt. No matter. He was a healer. Jerome could just barely keep with the damage by healing, but he could keep up.
How to get out of this situation? Each slash across his face distracted him, but he tried to think the best he could. He could keep healing and just stay here until Krystyna was finished with the others.
And then his MP ran out.
That limited his options down to one: transforming into the gnoll sitting on top of him.
Would you like to transform?
* Bakan (gnoll, 24 hours remaining)
Transform selected.
He got fresh HP, MP, and SP with the transformation, but his situation hadn’t changed much. He had half the strength and skill of the warrior gnoll on top of him in every attribute that mattered, so in a straight-up battle he was still losing. Worse, his healing skill was now considerably weaker than before, and his MP pool far more limited.
The opposing gnoll was doing damage twice as fast as Jerome could heal it.
His HP was down to 20%.
It looked hopeless.
Then a head exploded.