Chapter 42

Testing Elemental Beasts

I lowered my head, my ears, and my tail. I wanted nothing to do with an angry Ivo, it just seemed wrong. I noticed Pierce was looking at everything but Ivo, and me. I swear if the man had started whistling innocently it would not have been out of place.

I followed Pierce's lead, sat down, and started innocently cleaning my paw. It was something I usually tried to stop myself from doing, but it seemed both natural and appropriate. A way of physically conveying both that I was done with my little spat, and that I was unconcerned with Pierce or Ivo's obvious anger. The end of my tail twitched, betraying some of my remaining agitation at Ivo's tone though. I did my best to smooth down my ruffled fur.

Though I tried my best to pretend it wasn't, all my attention was on Ivo. I was ready to react if I needed to. I heard him take a few deep breaths.

"I'm okay." I heard Ivo say calmly.

I heaved a sigh, letting out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding.

I heard Pierce walk over to Ivo and whisper to him softly, asking if he needed some time. I didn't intrude, and pretended not to hear their quiet discussion. It should have been obvious, but being around spiking emotions was tough on the empath.

After ascertaining that yes, in fact, Ivo was really okay, and no, he did not in fact need to go, Ivo pointed out that I was definitely only pretending not to overhear them.

I ducked my head a little at that, I couldn't help that I had good enough perception to hear their heartbeats, let alone their whispers.

"So, cat, why the hell are you trying to pretend to be a beastkin? And fighting as one? Seems stupid, you could probably toss me around like a toy in that form." Pierce sounded more than a little annoyed with me.

I let out a huff, and shifted back to demihuman. I hadn't dismissed my clothing when I changed last time, the whole ensemble had joined together to become a loose fitting collar that was studded with the stones from my jewelry. So when I shifted, I was happy to not have to worry about any awkwardness.

"I have been told that I'd have to worry about the wrong person seeing me. I do not want to deal with being hunted for parts. I plan on being more open about it when I am more able to defend myself. With some of the looks I get from the guards who know, I feel the concern is justified." I put my hands on my hips, everyone else seemed to get it pretty much right away.

"Ahh, so you're being an idiot. What was your class name again? Bestial Mana Shifter, bet that's rare enough no one knows what it means. Bet anyone who would hunt you could be convinced you're just a special kind of beast shifter. We had one of those in the guild before the army took him. Nice guy, picked up more than a couple spirit beast forms. Nothing as shiny as you, what the hell did you start out as anyway? Also, what can you shift to exactly? If we're going to be working together, we should know. And how long does the great mother expect this to last?"

My eyes widened the longer Pierce talked, he spoke harshly and rather bluntly, but his tone of voice wasn't unkind. The look in his eyes said he had me pegged as an ignorant cub in need of a firm hand.

My ears had flattened a bit at his words, but I had to admit it sounded like a good idea. My instincts just worked better as a beast, not to mention size seemed to matter quite a lot. I felt how the effects of my attributes were multiplied by my Mana Beast form. I nodded, a part of me still wanted to bare my teeth at him and disregard everything he said, just because of the way he was looking at me.

I answered his last question first with a very informative, "I'm not sure, but probably a little less than a month."

Then I spent time going over what I knew of my elemental forms, what they did, and how they made me act. I explained how I could use the same element for different forms, but I had to discover them first. I explained it as kind of aiming at an idea, I did not mention concepts.

I also told him about my two other animal forms, and how I acquired them.

"Have you tried to see if your animal forms have any effect on what your elemental forms do?" The way he asked it sounded like he knew I really hadn't.

I shook my head. "I used fire while in my cat form one time, it didn't seem any different. But that was before my class evolved."

"I haven't heard of many fire corrupted cats, when they do happen they are pretty crazy aggressive. How about the ram? Have you tried it with air? Lightning is supposed to be linked with air, if I remember right. Stormhorn Rams are definitely Lightning corrupted. Try it."

I raised an eyebrow, but didn't argue.

I tried to turn into as pure a form of the ram as I could. I managed to get it mostly right, I had faint stripes, and my fur was mostly white, but I was very accurate with the form.

Pierce whistled. "Well, that's a bit bigger than we see them grow in the mountains where I came from. What's with the saddle? Planning on giving us a ride?"

I snorted, and dismissed my… tack, it wouldn't do to give the man any ideas. My staff flew away from us as I made the decision to switch to air. I simply focused on getting something appropriate for my form.

I didn't lose my physical form, swirling winds began to surround me as I became saturated with the mana, I could feel them as an extension of myself. My horns started to power up uncontrollably, I didn't have time to respond before the electricity was released.

Contrary to my expectations it didn't flash lightning outward and strike the man I was looking at. It ran through my body, and stayed inside me, it felt invigorating. It happened again, and again, each involuntary use drained some energy from my body, but it returned in a different form. I felt the charge inside me granting me more power with every surge. I began to release small bolts from my fur, they struck the ground around me. I had absolutely no control of the current. Pierce and Ivo had long since backed away, which was good.

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Because I demanded respect, I wasn't a predatory being, I had no need to seek out prey. But I was ready for any challenger, Pierce's way of speaking certainly qualified as a challenge. Actually, I realized anyone within a certain range of me was a challenge. Pierce just had my attention, I pawed at the ground, and lowered my head, at him. Letting him know his challenge was accepted.

When I charged, the wind propelled me, lightning wreathed my body. I was a storm in motion.

I suddenly felt a rage inside me direct me to a new target. I swerved to redirect myself, I was so blinded by the rage that took over my mind, I didn't even understand what I was doing.

I hit a wall, and rebounded. My body was built for collisions, but I still managed to stun myself on the immovable object I had collided with. My back legs gave out, and I ended up awkwardly sitting on the ground like a dog, with my head hanging.

The anger receded, and I shook my head. Ivo stood with his shield held in front of him. A slowly fading bubble of energy surrounded the man, it seemed to be emanating from the man's gigantic shield. I noticed that the shield had a small dent in its otherwise perfect surface.

I had a remarkably clear mind for a moment, and cataloged my current Concepts. Challenging, Charging, Building, Rushing, Discharging.

It sure was different, but I didn't think I'd be using that one again. I deactivated the core after my horns blasted another charge through me.

I felt like hell, I had lost most of my calorie reserves. You could see almost every bone through my loose skin. I wasn't quite in the starvation state I had endured from mana debt, but I would have hit it in about ten more expulsions from my horns. I had wondered where the charge came from, I knew it wasn't mana. That was good to know, if I ever wanted to use my horns with any frequency I'd have to eat even more than usual.

I briefly considered how much food I already put down. I ate as much as three people, and I'd only felt full once, briefly, since my class evolved. The System kindly informed me that it wasn't my class evolution, but the growth of my Mana Beast form that required so many calories. I was eating for that form, not my demihuman form, since it was my true form.

I was so hungry I couldn't think straight, still sitting in my ram form, I allowed my forelegs to collapse, and started grazing at the grass that had somehow escaped being scorched by the small bolts of electricity I had been letting off uncontrollably. I heard Ivo and Pierce talking, but my mind was so consumed by my state of hunger I didn't hear the words at all.

Suddenly I was standing at the arena entrance, fit and healthy in my demihuman form.

"That was not a winner." I said, grumpily stating the obvious.

"It was different from what you described before though." Said Ivo.

"It seemed powerful, you dented Ivo's shield, that doesn't happen often." Said Pierce.

"It wasn't controllable. It would have eventually killed me, did you see the state it put me in?" I grumbled.

"It's a good thing we were in the arena." Ivo said, his voice sounded sympathetic.

"It was a good test, it doesn't prove your form affects the element, but it does make it seem possible." Pierce pointed out.

"Try it with the squirrel, it has elemental in its name, it should work well," Pierce added.

I groaned, and changed to my squirrel form for the first time since I passed out during my shift, and my form ended up messing with my mind more than normal. It felt like forever ago, but it was only… a little over a day? My new life was weird.

The world grew around me, I instinctively hated being out on the ground, I wanted to hide in a tree. The two giant humans nearby didn't help matters.. I reminded myself that they were friends, which helped a lot. Despite my instincts ringing alarm bells at me, my mind made the shift totally intact this time.

I still found the urge to climb distracting, and was considering running up a nearby tree when my staff companion placed their roots next to me. My eyes lit on them like I had seen my savior, and I darted up the shaft, to sit on top of them. I chittered a quick thanks. My companion bobbed a little up and down, then lifted us up so I was above Ivo and Pierce's heads. I instantly felt my instincts relax, so I was able to as well.

"Your forms really affect your mind, I felt that fear." Ivo said, he sounded a little sad.

I sent a response to him. Just an image of how big the world looked.

"Ah, yeah I can see how being so small could be more than a little intimidating." He replied.

I took a deep breath, and tried what I had before. Asking the mana to be appropriate, I did try to specify something that wouldn't drain me dry of resources.

I hadn't thought my perch through, because as soon as I activated my core, my staff turned to air. While I was falling, my core pulsed like crazy, and then I was flying. Gravity had entirely lost its hold on me.

I felt great! I dive bombed Pierce, tapping his helmet with my tail as I darted past him. I flew off to go gather some ammunition. I suddenly felt the compulsion to play with the men. There was an oak nearby, and I swooped up to gather some acorns. I felt my staff flying with me, even if it couldn't be seen. It would make sure my rounds found their targets. I didn't land at all, I was weightless, and moved by controlling a tiny bit of air around me.

When I grabbed my first acorn, it fell to the ground, taking me for a ride with it. I wound up floating tail end up, while I gripped the little acorn for dear life. I couldn't fly with it, as an experiment, I maneuvered myself so my feet were on the ground. I was able to lift the acorn easily enough, but it felt terribly wrong to be grounded. Wondering what influences I was under, I took a moment to inspect my current Concepts. Weightless, Mischievous, Fast, Harmless, Amusing.

I imbued the acorn with my current Concepts, and flew off to grab more. I could hear the men laughing at my trouble with the acorn, both Ivo and Pierce sounded highly amused, obviously affected by my Concept. That felt good, but I still chittered at them like I was angry. They laughed harder. I darted around the trees, the more mana I was saturated with, the faster I got. It didn't take me long to reach full saturation, at which point I was surprised I wasn't creating little sonic booms when I accelerated between acorns.

When my arms, and mouth were full of acorns, I commenced an attack!

I tossed my acorn ammo at them, sending it pinging harmlessly off their armor. Ivo fell to the ground, he was laughing so uncontrollably. When the ammo in my arms was thrown, I realized the ammo in my mouth had disappeared mid flight because it tasted too good.

I flew at Pierce darting around his head, periodically whacking him with my long tail while he laughed at my antics.

He tried to grab me a few times, but he seemed to be moving in slow motion. I came up with a grand plan, I touched the side of the usually stoic, currently compulsively laughing man's helmet, and started to imbue it with mana. When he tried to stop me, I simply circled around to the other side, I always stayed where he could totally grab me if he was fast enough. The act of saturating his helmet, might, possibly, theoretically have broken the enchants that lived there. But, oh well, I pulled his new weightless helmet off his head, chittering with glee.

As I flew off with my prize, I turned it upside down and climbed inside it. I could use it to hold so much ammo! Pierce was laughing hard enough to be losing his ability to stand, as he haltingly stammered out the magic words, "Reset arena" between his increasingly breathless laughter.