Chapter 21
A Long Lost Friend
I watched in agony as my joints welded back together, my feet ligaments moving back into its place, muscle tissues straightening, patches of skin forming. In just one moment my arms and legs were broken, I really should have contested panthy in this arm-wrestling shit, it’s way too strong.
The bright side is, I now had a grasp on this new ability I got. Ever since I engaged with the animals in my head in that surreal experience, my body started to change, or to be more exact, I now had control over something I never knew I could manipulate.
Ever since Cordi left my head, those useful utilities I had were gone, no HUD, no map, no hp bar, nothing. In return, I think I acquired something even more powerful, and I could see it on the perplexed faces of my companions watching my body fix itself.
“B-by Gola, how did you…” whispered Mahaar, his eyes fixed on my wiggling head after the white dumbbells he was holding escaped his grasp into the floor in a muffled thud.
“Adam, what was that? A metamorphic spell?” Asked the floating Saido, his orbs - which is now somewhat bigger than a year ago – spinning faster than usual, the half Noran was certainly excited.
I just stared with a dumb grin on my face. I was going to explain the whole ordeal, but I wanted to enjoy their faces for a while. Too bad Ryola quickly got bored or something and went to stare at the window, as usual, her eyes probably saw everything in extreme detail.
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*** A few minutes earlier, Ryola’s POV ***
Ever since he came back, the mood on the ship drastically changed. Mahaar’s enthusiasm went back to its normal levels, along with his usual grin while the Noran’s training nearly doubled.
My new eye was adjusting, everything was changing, I now could see beyond mere sight. It’s hard to explain but if I focused hard enough, I could make the shape of someone’s soul, and I doubt I was going try using it again soon after watching those monstrous souls of everyone present on this ship.
The connection with Zao also changed, it was deeper, stronger, and I finally could see him in my mind, a middle-aged man with a human complexion, short but stout and full of lean muscles, his eyes was a mixture between violet and purple, but what caught my attention the most are the horns on his head, he explained that it was called antlers.
Now Adam was getting ready to face the ship in that game the AI taught us after Mahaar’s bagging. Arm wrestling, she called it, most of the time I and the half Noran passed, but the Grokati wouldn’t take it with constant nagging, I don’t know where he gets the energy for that.
Not even once someone won over the ship in this contest of strength, even Mahaar with his huge arms the size of my torso, but he kept challenging the ship more than ten times a day, and so far, zero wins.
Adam started stretching and flexing his tall arms, a platform formed from the floor for him to sit on, facing a two-meter-long arm that is the ship’s, both Adam and the ship extended their arms and did this motion that Mahaar calls fist pump, and their palms entangled, signaling the start of the match.
Everyone was rooting for Adam, probably because of their previous losses to the ship, but as soon as the match started, the sound of bones cracking could be heard, it was too easy for the ship to overpower Adam. The man grimaced but kept grinning, and before his forehand hit the table, he ignored the rules and used his second hand for support in order to pull back the ship’s arm, a futile effort, but what happened next was not expected, I finally knew how Adam was changed, aside from the few centimeters his head grew ever since we last met nearly a year ago.
“Kangaroo” He defiantly howled a weird word. I detected a quick movement in his lower spine, it started violently shaping into a thick limb that looked like a strong tail, it planted itself in the floor, making space for him to rise both his legs and shout another word…” Anaconda”.
His legs moved in a strange manner as if his bones were softened, it coiled around the ship’s arm and pulled. Now Adam had both his arms and feet around the ship, pulling as strong as he could, strangely the arm started backing a few centimeters, but the ship quickly regained its dominance and pushed him back to submission before he made his last desperate effort.
“Squid” He wheezed, and from the top of his long head tentacles started sprouting like hair, quickly on the arm and sticking itself with what seemed to be organs used to suck air. Adam used all his might to pull the arm, but with one final push, Pantharax, our ship, smashed him into the ground, severing his head tentacles and breaking his bones.
“Ahhhaaaaa, Pantharax, you cunt!” the man playfully howled with a pained tone of laughter, not minding his limbs broken or his right arm handing to his elbow by a thread of muscle and skin.
“I guess I can’t maintain it for longer than a few minutes, and it makes me so hungry, but that’s fine” I watched as he started healing at a steady pace, shattered bones repairing, muscles regenerating. The extra limbs and tentacles he grew fell off his body and started shrinking until it completely disappeared.
All who’s present, along with the AI whose weird mechanical eyes always showing on the screen in, watched silently as the ship opened a hole in the floor and a green tongue emerged, licking Adam’s body, covering with the same substance at the healing room, nearly doubling his regeneration. “Thanks pal,” He patted the tongue like a loving father, then turned to us wearing the same gentle grin on his face.
“Hey Ryola, what are you staring at” He suddenly said turning his head in my direction, startling me a little.
“There’s a rest station nearby” I pointed in the general direction of a tiny dot on the window. He approached enthusiastically to see what I was pointing at and raised an eyebrow “I don’t see anything, Oh, of course. okay, sorry I’m stupid” he murmured while scratching his hairless head, bits of the healing sludge stuck on his fingers.
“Panthy, take us there! I’m very hungry and I’m sure Mahaar won’t mind a few hours to restock food” The man declared, winking in my direction, I had no idea what he meant by that, or at least I pretended to.
A few hours later, we finally arrived at the rest station, we headed to the launch room and the ship spat us to the landing area and went on its way grazing cosmic energy. It never failed to surprise me how fast it grows.
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** Adam POV **
The station was nothing to scoff at, something the size of a small village that provided fuel and spare parts, repairs, and food among other small services. Right after the dragon spat us and went on its way floating around nearby, we went to grab some clothes since I lost the comfy ones, I had months ago in the tower, so the first stop was the local clothes shop, nearly identical to the one inside Neo Roma back on Earth.
I already knew how the process works so the trio of us went inside the small kiosks while Ryola waited outside, not wanting to get herself something since we stated that she’s more than happy with her armor.
A few minutes later I left with a similar training suit that’s both comfy and “Pre-historic Earth fashion”. Like any gentleman I put the tab on Cordi before I hooded my bald head and sat down beside Saido who picked up the flashiest robe I’ve ever seen, making him look like a clown than the archmagi I think he is. I didn’t want to make him feel down so I didn’t comment while Ryola sat in complete silence. Half an hour later, Mahaar emerged from his kiosk wearing a hakama-like thingy, making his lower half look like a samurai, his upper half, however, was another story, a green tank top, and a top-hat. His face is beaming with a delight at his new attire.
What the fuck, anyone here without a weird sense of fashion?
“Wow, Mahaar, you look amazing” I complimented the giant. Even if his taste is weird, the tank top suited him well, showing off his crazy physique. The top-hat was still weird though.
“BUAHAHAHAHAHA, SAIDO YOU LIKE A DAUMIELA, HUAABAHAHAHA” As soon as his eyes fell on the Noran, his face reddened and he bursted laughing his ass off, tears forming in the corners of his eyes, and the more he glanced at the mage his laughter went louder.
“Cordi, What’s this Damu- whatever the heck he said?” I spoke to my forearm where Pantharax provided a new one of his PDAs that hosted our AI. A hologram emerged from my arm showing a peacock-like reptile, with colored horns coming out from his back.
The Noran’s face showed a pinched expression of annoyance. “Look who’s talking, I don’t even recognize if you’re a male or female anymore” Saido spat back “not like it matter anyway, you Grokati all look the same anyway” He stuck his tongue while floated away to dodge Mahaar incoming truck of a punch, it seemed that the two finally got along enough to exchange a friendly conversation while I was away indicated by the balls on Saido’s head reforming from a crown to a multicolored middle finger.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Oh, so the middle finger is a galactical thing
“Let’s go grab something to eat guys, Cordi, show us the restaurants in this area”
We sat across a round table held up by a magnetic device stabled to the ground, Saido sipping some kind of fruit juice while Mahaar staring at the black hole across him sucking away food like no tomorrow.
“You sure ea-“ I managed to slap my palm onto his mouth before he says something he might regret later. “Why don’t we explore a bit guys while Ryola finishes her … meal” gesturing the two guys to follow me, letting the lady massacre most of the restaurant reserves, my glare indicating that there’s no room for a “no”.
We strolled the paved streets of the station, attracted by the bright neon lights and the animated advertisements that riddled the road until my ears perked up. Something like hard-bass music caught my ear, the same music I heard in nightclub back over one thousand years ago.
“This is interesting, let's go this way guys” I led my companions to the place I picked up the music from and wasn’t disappointed, it really was a nightclub. The sign was written in an alien language I didn’t bother to ask Cordi to translate, the neon sign of a humanoid female pinning up was enough for me to know that we were also in some kind of red district.
“Oh boy, this is gonna be fun” I judged the chest of the already excited Mahaar who followed without question while Saido hesitated for a moment before giving up and following us to the entrance.
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*** Shivonna's Club ***
“Boss, we have a problem”
I’ve been faring space for more than forty years and running this place for twelve, and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen a species like this one.
One of the waiters came running to my room calling for help, someone has beaten the bouncers at the entrance senseless, two powerful Grokati overlords that have cost me a fortune to hire. I was really curious who’s strong enough to beat two overlords in a fist fight since the waiter said that there were no weapons used.
The first thing I saw was a trio of male, on looked like Noran with hints of some other race, but mostly Noran, wearing a robe that made my eyes hurt just by looking at the number of colors on it.
Another was a metallic armed Grokati gently putting down a bloody-faced bouncer after breaking his face. The Good news is that this one was civilized, a primitive Grokati would have ripped the bouncer's arms off as a trophy, especially when this one has only two arms and was a head shorter than both of the bouncers.
My eyes quickly darted to the final one who seemed by the leader of the bunch, a strange creature wearing some weird yet comfy pre-historic human clothes, some people still wore them and the fabrication machines didn’t mind anyway.
I had to quickly diffuse the situation, this was a business after all.
“Gentlemen, may I get your attention please?” I said wearing my best smile, getting the attention of the creature in the middle who spoke without even looking in my direction.
“Oh, a fellow human. Didn’t see many of us here” the creature spoke with a happy voice that sounded human, but he looked nothing like one. I had many questions in my head but the current situation didn’t allow chit chat so I had to ask the most important of them.
“I see that you gentlemen have been rather aggressive, care to tell me what exactly happened here?” I asked looking at both bouncers arranged on the floor.
“Oh, that. Well, these guys wouldn’t allow us insi- “the creature started to explain but cut short by the Grokati “They called him a filthy creature” the Grokati quietly stated, pointing at the creature in the white hooded training suit.
“I’m sure there was a mistake, I don’t see any filthy creatures around here, only three gentlemen” despite the strange looking creature that I wanted to scream about it being the weirdest thing I’ve seen on this station I kept the smiling poker face up, and fortunately my speech seemed to be working as the Grokati was started to relax so I continued “The thing is, they had strict orders not to let any “unidentified” races inside. I’m truly sorry, it’s the rules of the place” I had to be as respectable as possible, making a scene here is bad for business.
“I see” The creature spoke again, “I’m a human, my looks are the result of numerous experiments back on Earth, it was truly horrible” it theatrically declared. I knew it was lying, I’ve been in this damn business for way too long to spot an easy lie like this one, even its lackeys were looking at it with surprise.
“Sir, I’m sure you are, that’s why I brought this identification terminal with me here. Just stand here and stare at it for a second” Glad I kept one of those on my most of the time, you never know when you might need it.
Now the machine will just show either some species from a backwater planet or some life form that needs the attention of some big corporation, and I really was hoping that calling the station security to drive these scums away won’t make much of a scene.
The creature stood before the devices, his data flashing after a second of processing.
“What?” I blurted out spontaneously., Darrel Locke, that was its name, a human from Neo York, Earth.
Maybe He was telling the truth after all. I just hope they won’t make problems inside, maybe I’ll make some phone calls once they’re busy with drinking, but my guts are telling me that this thing is dangerous, and my gut never let me down.
“Two thousand credits” A last effort to drive them away, the actual price was only a hundred, this was a rest station, not a capital city, but I tried nonetheless.
“No problems” The creature simply shrugged, I still didn’t believe the data I saw, forging data was out of the question since only the filthy rich could have access to someone that can alter official data, and the filthy rich have no place in this shit hole.
“Each” I didn’t care, if they had six thousand credits on them, I’d welcome them even this creature was a parasitic alien that will end the entire system.
“Great, here’s ten!” He waved his hand and my PDA pinged, 10000 credits safe and sound in my account.
“Thank you for your generosity Mr. Locke, allow me to show you around” I gestured for them to enter the club, but the creature halted after its first step, waving his arm once again “Here’s two more, Welcome back Ryola” I nearly fell down on my ass as something fell down from the sky, a gorgeous woman wearing a black combat armor and a strange pair of purple gloves, I was going to protest but my PDA pinged again, I was in no place to argue, money talked and I loved what it said.
I led the four of them into the club. “This is the bar, everything you drink is on the house” they all seemed uninterested except the woman, who directly went and grabbed a rather expensive bottle of Shi’sh wine, but nothing was expensive enough for what these guys have paid.
“This is the dance floor and this is the VIP lounge, I wouldn’t allow you gentlemen to sit down on normal tables, please follow me” as we were on our way to the lounge in the largest hall we had, a door beside us hissed and slid open.
Oh god please no!
“Hey there handsome” A Noran girl emerged from the door, followed up by a Grokati and a Human. Droplets of sweat formed on my forehead, this was the bread and butter of the club and my most prized possession, and only god know what this “thing” might do to it.
“BY GOLA, YOUR BEAUTY IS UNMATCHED UNDER THE THUNDEROUS SKY” the Grokati bellowed some idiotic Grokati compliments, mesmerized by the girl.
Well, that may turn out even more profitable! I liked my lips unintentionally my greed taking over my caution, these guys were loaded, and a night here were not cheap, given that I will charge them ten times the price.
The first one to fall was the Brute, he swept the Grokati girl by her feet and ran inside the room, like his resistance to cranial desires didn’t exist in the first place.
It was going well, until a voice came out of the creature’s arm where his PDA is, this was going to be a problem.
“Adam, I’m detecting that the molecular structure of all these females are the same, It’s a Taar! Don’t go near it”
So, the creature really lied, is called Adam, and an AI? How didn’t I notice that before? The system installed on the club’s door should have detected it, something fishy here!
The AI spoke again to the girl standing in the corners chugging a bottle of wine like it was water “Ryola, this is dangerous, get inside and get Mahaar, we don’t know what might happen to Adam in a sexual interaction with a Taar, Ryola, RYOLA!”
It was too late, a young man that looked exactly the same species as the woman emerged from the room, instantly charming her, but stopped midway with a horrid expression on his face when her gloves started glowing and oozing with a menacing looking aura, they just kept staring at each other without mouthing a word.
The Noran was even easier than the Grokati, floating a meter in the air and looking the girl down as if she was made from dirt. “You lowly, lowborn, beautiful angel, want to fornicate with the great, handsome me? I shall grant your wish” he landed behind the girl who in turn started giggling, taking his hand and disappearing inside.
I didn’t know what to expect from the creature standing there in front of the human girl, the AI on its wrist started firing warning after another “Adam, snap out of it, the Taar is emitting pheromones to attract you, it’s not really a human, Adam, wake up!” the AI wouldn’t stop shouting warning, until the creature raised its arm, looking at the PDA and talking in a very calm and collected manner “Cordi, shut up for a minute would you?” and after a few seconds, the Ai gave up.
I turned out to leave, but a scene made me drop on my knees, staring at what made me forget to even breathe, the Taar was morphing.
Taar was an extremely rare species that scattered across the universe, it had the ability to shapeshift into almost any creature in existence, but its main trait is the ability to sexually attract other species. It instinctively knew what the best-looking form of the species it’s attracting, appearing as gorgeous male or female, making it a perfect asset in any brothel in the universe, it also had this unique ability to produce pheromones that attracts certain species as well.
I found this particular Taar on a shipwreck on a planet at the edge of the cluster, and I’ve made a fortune from it ever since, but that’s the first time ever seeing it act like that. A grotesque scene was happening before my eyes, the Taar was rapidly changing to species I’ve never seen before, a furred animal with hound-like features, then to a humanoid figure with plant-like structure, a reptile, and an insect, the morphing process stayed like that for a while, the creature stood there with amusement on his face, looking at the amalgamation of creatures the tar turned into like it was the sexiest thing in the universe.
“W-Wait, not here” The creature started taking his pants off, I was surprised that it had no reproductive organs… I was wrong!
“Horse” The man whispered, an unrealistically large limb started forming between its long legs, that didn’t stop it from continuing, the Taar also seemed interested about what the creature was doing.
“Pig, Spider, Honeybee, Tortoise, ….” It kept blabbering weird names, making its penis change shapes and enlarging, some extra penises started sprouting as he kept talking as if he’s commanding the organs to evolve. The food in my stomach couldn’t handle the shock as I started uncontrollably vomiting on the rugged floor. Finally, the creature stopped evolving, looking down on the grotesque monstrosity he just created with a smile of satisfaction written all over his face.
“Welcome back, Old friend” He happily said looking at his new groin while following the Taar inside the room.
What the fuck was that? I was lost in thought until it finally hit me.
This thing was a Walker.