“Liam! Not a good time to nap.”

My tired ass says differently. My heavy eyelids agreed, both of us not giving a care what the voice said. My oddly numb body was fine with it as well.

“WAKE UP!” The voice rang out in my skull, forcing me to open my eyes. I was laying on the battlefield, back to the ground, with an enormous weight bearing down on my chest. "Ow, the hell?” I groaned, barely getting the words out. I was having a hard time breathing. My lungs burned with each attempt.

I looked around, trying to see what happened to me. I could move one arm, my right, freely but the other was trapped under whatever sat on my body. I rubbed my eyes with the free arm.

It was brown and furry. Not nice soft fur though, no that'd be asking for too much, No it was coarse, scratchy fur. I looked over, just making out two figures pushing up against my uncomfortable prison.

“Come on Hait, push harder!”

“I am!”

Tawny. Hait. Right, Raid…We still doing that? My vision cleared up more, now I could make out the twins clearly. They were trying to push something off my body, and failing miserably. Painfully so. Each time they started to lift it, they ended up dropping it, crushing me even more. “Stop.” I said breathlessly, but neither of them heard me.

How did this happen?

Then a hazy memory popped into my head. I was fighting a couple of the boars. Tawny and Hait hit them from the side. Their brains learned a new definition of chilling thoughts thanks to my icy claws right after. Then a roar came from behind us. Unlike anything else I'd heard in the battle.

A big Ursa type monster had broken through the line held by the squad to our left. It bum rushed Rashith on sight. I body blocked its assault just before its massive paws battered our healer, earning a few gashes along my back for it. The bastard had to be three times as heavy as the salamander, and way more limber. I strained all of my muscles and it still pushed me through the dirt. A pop came from my left shoulder.

There was a saving grace however. As I held it back, archers from the squad that let it through pelted its back with arrows. Dang thing probably looks like a weird porcupine/bear hybrid now. Something I really, really hope isn’t real in this world. But the arrows worked well, killing it quickly.

But my foot slipped on something, upturned earth most likely, while I wrestled with it. I stumbled before I could get out of the way from the lumbering corpse. It fell on me, bringing the story back to the current shitty predicament: A thousand pound bear carcass crushing my body.

I tried to push the beast off, surely my Ursa enhanced strength could get me free. But no matter how much I strained, it wasn’t moving. I looked at my free arm again, finally noticing that my hairy arms and bear claws were gone. Awesome. I looked at the timer. 58 minutes and counting. Well at least I wasn’t out for very long. Okay, how do I get out?

After a quick run through of my other abilities and forms, I determined something. Not a single one of them would help. Gremlin would just get me crushed faster. Apis’s tail was useful but not particularly strong. Tigris would just get pissy. And Squirrel, yeah Squirrel. Maybe I could bite my way through the thing with the buck teeth. I chuckled at the dumb notion. “Ow.” Bad idea, hurts to laugh.

No object form would help either, I needed to contort my body to use them properly. So I was completely and thoroughly stuck. I peered around the battlefield, searching for a different solution.

“Cough. Cough. New Forms. Cough, cough.” Tutor said in my head.

What? Oh level up, right! Yes! Maybe I can find a new form to help me out. And why did she hide it in a cough? I’m the only one who can hear her.

“Thanks.” I replied, softly.

“Why are you thanking us, we, argh, haven’t freed you yet.” Tawny said, her back to the furry beast trying to lift it with her scrawny legs.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

How the hell do you hear that and not my protest to stop crushing me!

“Don’t worry, Rashith went out to get help. He shouldn’t be too long. Huff. We’re just trying to relieve some of, argh, the pressure.” Hait said, joining his sister in her well-meaning yet futile efforts, his oddly bulky shelled shoulders digging into the bear’s fur. Though the pressure did actually subside some as they changed their grip. Marginally at best, but it was something.

“Cool.” Was all I got out. One word answers were all that my lungs alloted to me.

After the twins’ legs inevitably gave out, a small crew of splicers hurried over to the body, each wearing the same sash around their arms. Medics. A retrieval squad probably.

I guess that’s one major bonus to fighting in an army like this. Support from the backline. That’s nice.

The crew all worked together and rolled the bear’s body off of my own. My lungs filled with air as I took in huge gulps once they were freed. A large portion of my body felt numb, then prickly as the blood rushed back through.

I tried to get up, but my body felt so tired. And I couldn’t actually feel my left arm yet. My eyes faltered as the pick up crew spoke to each other. I couldn’t really make out their words, something about my left arm maybe. It sounded like gibberish. Loud annoying gibberish. Even Tawny and Hait joined in on the whack talk, they had rushed over to my side at some point. Rashith stood a few feet away, a disgusted look on his face. Better than his usual condescending one.

Whatever. Stupid bird.

The medical squad ended up throwing me on a cloth stretcher. My vision blurred again now that the adrenaline had worn off. I looked over at one of the medics, a cat man, and saw his hand hover over my arm as they carried me song. A neat green hue covered my numb left arm. Pretty. I thought to myself, as the warm sensation brought that beautiful temptress named slumber back around. Just got rid of her too.

But I fought pretty hard, right? Saved those guys down in the hole. Killed some monsters. That has to be enough, surely. I think I deserve some sleep.

“Don’t Liam, stay awake.” Tutor spoke again, impeding my desperately needed slumber again.

“Why?” I mumbled, no longer caring if people thought me strange for talking to myself.

“Nope, Raid’s not over yet. The second you fall asleep, you’ll be out for hours. I can tell.”

“I did plenty. Lemme sleep.” I insisted.

“Sorry, bub. No can do. Finale’s coming up, and you have a part to play. Now stay awake, or I swear I will blast Trap remixes of classic Polka songs in your head.”

“What?” I said, wondering if it was just Tutor’s turn to spout random nonsense like everyone else was. Or maybe I was losing it.

Yet her threat proved true, the wildest mixture of accordion and bass drops blared in my head, creating a level of migraine I never thought possible. It stopped after a few agonizing seconds. It had successfully sobered me up, to a degree.

“Fine you win. Keep me awake. Gimme something to talk about then.” I said while checking my ears for blood.

“Hmm, any ideas for new monsters you want to mimic? Ooo, better yet, riddle me this. Of all the monsters you encountered so far, which ones would have given you a form that would have freed you from that bear’s clutches? Hint, there is a right answer.” She said, I swear I could hear the pride swell in her chest as if she just dropped a question worthy of Solomon on my head.

However… It wasn't a bad question. Lord knows, I won’t tell her that. What would have helped? The boar? Nah, probably just grow a damn tusk out of my mouth and get some charge related ability. Magic Moose? Shoot the corpse off me with magic. Sounds nasty, and wouldn’t work.

A few more monsters ran through my head, but nothing quite stuck out. Don’t think wolves or geckos were going to do much in that spot. Maybe one of them came with a huge strength buff. But I doubted it would give me more than a leveled up Ursa.

I bumped along as they carried me, throwing my head over to the right. Close by, I saw one of the salamanders writhe around on its side. It wasn’t quite dead, but it wasn’t going anywhere either. Then it hit me.

“The salamander.” I answered Tutor.

“Bingo, partner. We could have gotten you all nice and slimy and then yanked you out from under.” Tutor replied, that baseless pride still going strong in her voice.

“First, yawn, I’d still need outside help. And second, yaaawwnn, what do you mean, we? You just sit around in my head all the time, you wouldn’t have done anything.”

“Hphm. It would have worked.”

“Sure, we…we’ll, go…with…that.” I felt my consciousness slipping again. I looked at the large dark salamander shift again, he wasn’t too far away. Then my eyelids drooped. But I heard a little jingle in my head just before I fell unconscious. That and some terrible music.

[Mimic Entry “SALAMADRA” Recorded]

[Proficiency Level 1]