Phyara wound up waking me up almost three hours later. The soreness and exhaustion I felt in my body was unreal, but I got out of bed despite my grogginess and headed down to the gym. It was explained to me that the second half of my day was going to consist of two different types of training. One would consist of some kind of fucked-up exposure therapy. The other was going to be me attempting to do weapons training with the [Juggernaut Blade]. I wasn’t looking forward to either one. I flipped a coin and chance dictated that it was going to be exposure therapy. I knew when they brought a big wooden bucket that I wasn’t going to enjoy this.
It was just Phyara and I this time around. Eilyen was downstairs in the lounge serving food and drink to visitors and company members alike. Phyara and I were sitting on some stools with the bucket next to me as she explained the rationale behind why this kind of training was part of their prescribed doctrine for company members.
”So, the body is composed of essence, which is then composed of mana, just like anything else. This is something you understand, correct?” She asked me.
“I don’t quite understand essence, but yes, I know that if you were to break something down to its most basic form, it’s all different forms of mana,” I agreed.
“Essence is a type of highly concentrated mana completely of it’s own type. In the same way that the least dense form of mana is etheric mana, followed by liquid mana and then finally solid mana, essence sort of sits off to the side a bit past liquid mana. They’re not the same thing, but it is possible to transmute essence into mana.”
Phyara pulled a small vial out of her spatial storage. It was sealed with a cork and looked like dirty water. I eyed it warily, dreading the implications. She handed it to me with a wan smile and told me: “Drink this. I suggest knocking it back like liquor, because the taste is rather foul.”
I took the vial, uncorked it, and did my best to slug it back in a way that it would touch as little of my tongue as possible. Partial success. Grimacing, I re-corked the vial and handed it back to her. It tasted foul all right, like the kind of ‘herbal remedy’ we got as kids in the orphanage to discourage us from complaining when we were sick. Absolutely disgusting.
“Ugh, what was that?” I asked.
“It was poison.” She replied merrily and the vial disappeared, only to be replaced with another one, along with a long straight needle.
I spluttered as she uncorked the new vial, which looked like someone had collected spit from a homeless alcoholic, dipped her needle in it and told me: “Pull up your pants and expose your calves, we’re going to do both.” Grumbling under my breath, I did as I was told and just as soon as I had I was stuck in my left calf. She re-dipped the needle and stuck me in the right calf then put those back into storage as well.
“Oh, ow, that seriously burns!”
“There you go! Go on and sit back down and we’ll continue your lesson.”
A status notification popped up, followed by another right afterwards.
You have been [Poisoned]!
You have been [Envenomed]!
“Well I am officially poisoned and envenomed now, great. Anyways, you were saying?”
Phyara shifted on her stool and crossed her legs. “Yes, this is about essence. Suffice to say, you are made of it, all living things are. In ancient times they referred to it as the ‘soul,’ but that’s a downright foolish and rudimentary understanding of what essence actually is.”
My calves were burning and pulsing in time with my heartbeat, and my stomach was churning a bit like I had indigestion.
“Now I will explain how this training relates to your essence. Now you might be wondering: ‘Why not simply use magical items to provide immunity to all the bad status effects?’” Phyara asked me, raising one eyebrow in my direction.
I gave my chest a few thumps with my fist and nodded to her. I hated indigestion, and I was really hoping that the bucket wasn’t for me to fill with vomit. I was pretty sure it was there to fill with vomit.
“The bucket is there when you need to use it…” Phyara said, and I shook my head in response. She shrugged and continued: “…The reason why you can’t simply load up on magical items is that your essence is burdened by the magical effects you place on your body. Everyone has a maximum limit on the amount of magical equipment that they can use at a given time. As you level up and go through evolutions, your essence becomes denser and more powerful, and you’re able to use more magical effects, stronger magical effects, or any mix of the two.”
My stomach bubbled and I felt the need to belch, but I wasn’t getting any of the other warning signs of vomiting, such as suddenly salivating, so I risked it. I turned my head to the side and held my fist in front of my mouth and tried not to be super gross ripping a major belch. When I let loose, rather than expelling acid-tinged breath, I shot a plume of jet black, sooty smoke into my fist that immediately billowed around my head as a result of blocking my mouth. As soon as I did, I felt noticeably better.
I leaned back from the cloud of smoke and waved my hand through it, laughing like an idiot.
What was that!?
“Well, that is certainly unexpected! How are you feeling?”
I held my index finger up and turned my head to the side once again, and this time did not obstruct my mouth when I let a second belch out. This time the smoke jetted out and diffused into the air as it traveled outwards. I waved my hand through the nearest smoke again to get rid of it.
You are no longer [Poisoned]!
You are no longer [Envenomed]!
I blinked my eyes rapidly in confusion, and Phyara tilted her head to the side at my reaction. I said: “I’m not [Poisoned] or [Envenomed] anymore. I feel fine, actually. Besides being sore from all the exercise earlier.”
Phyara clapped her hands for me and gave me a cheer, saying afterwards: “Wow, that’s great! That is going to speed things up tremendously! [Poison] and [Venom] [Resistance] is really a pain to level up and evolve! It looks like your other half isn’t bothered by it at all, though!
I considered her words and thought about what she’d taught me some, then asked: “So the idea is to build natural resistances as much as possible through skills and evolutions so that you have more free space to wear other magical items?”
She gave me a huge smile and bobbed her head rapidly. “You’re a great student, I can’t wait until you get your mental stats up higher, you’ll be sucking up information like a sponge! Hehe!”
I blushed, uncomfortable with the compliment. I wasn’t educated, I was told I didn’t do well in my studies, and generally speaking, I was okay with it. I’d come to terms with being perfectly average upstairs a few years ago. I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly.
“Oh, you are so humble and bashful, it’s delightful!” Phyara gushed, standing up and giving me a quick hug while I was still in my seated position. I thought I was going to lose consciousness briefly when her generously proportioned pillows squeezed against my head.
I coughed and stammered: “T-thank you. Does that mean we can do weapons training now?”
She released me and told me: “It sure does! Go get your weapon and see if you can get it attached to your harness on your own!”
I stood and quickly walked away, beelining it straight for where I’d left it earlier. I took the chance to get a better look at the sword. It was pretty rudimentary in construction, more of a weapon of mass destruction than it was a finesse weapon. The four main parts of most swords were present: a blade, cross guard, handle and counterweight.
The blade was blackened steel seven feet long, five or six inches wide and an entire inch in thickness. It had a single edge and tapered slightly from the base of the blade to the tip, where the blade curved up to meet the spine of the sword, similar to how the end of a machete was shaped. The cross guard had to be sixteen or eighteen inches wide, and looked like it was made from a bar of blackened wrought iron. Each tip of the guard was crudely hammered into a forward-facing blunted point.
The handle was wrapped in rough canvas and was more like the handle one would have on a demolition hammer. It was elliptical and roughly two inches in diameter. At the end was a veritable brick of steel in the form of a cylinder two inches thick and three inches wide. A captive pin held it securely in place. The edge of the sword was a bare silvery steel that had been ground and sharpened. The edge itself was nearly two inches wide, the same size as my old skinning knife.
Between the weakness in my body from the grueling workout this morning and my relatively pitiful stature and [Strength] I struggled with trying to get it positioned correctly to attach it to my harness. I wound up squatting some while holding on to the handle, getting it locked to my harness, then standing to lift the blade off the ground. I was thankful that the actual edge of the sword was only what I would describe as ‘fairly sharp,’ otherwise I would be cringing at having the blade moving and pivoting on the stone floor here.
I had a feeling in my gut that sharpening this sword was a tremendous pain in the ass, but I also suspected that it wasn’t just normal steel, either. So hopefully it was more durable, because I really didn’t want to have to re-hone it every time I accidentally hit something with the literal yards of blade. When I [Inspected] the blade, I didn’t get a huge amount of information from it.
[Shadow’s Cleaver]
Epic – Juggernaut Blade
Tier V – Level 150
A blade as dark as the night and twice as deadly. This weapon might be the runt of the juggernaut pack, but it knows how to make up for its lack of stopping power compared to its larger siblings.
Phyara wandered over to me and asked: “Do you still have those free stat points?”
I nodded and rubbed the backs of my arms with my palms.
“If you don’t mind the suggestion, I would think that putting all of them into your [Strength] might make the first steps of your training easier on you!”
“No, you make a great point. I’ll go ahead and do that. I still don’t know how I’m going to swing this thing around, let alone fight with it.” I mumbled.
I navigated my menus and brought up my stats pane, and allocated all 12 points into [Strength]
[Strength] has raised 12 points and is now 31!
“Right, I’m up to 31 [Strength] now. How are we going to do this?”
“Well, I think it’s maybe a bit early to start in on stilts training, what do you think?” Phyara asked me, giving me a sly grin when she did so. I nodded emphatically in agreement.
“Well, we’ll just do some basic things here in the gym and get you warmed up. Let me get out my training wand!” She exclaimed with a giggle. A moment later a jeweled, glowing longsword appeared in her hand. The blade was spectacular!
Her blade was long, single edged and had a slight curve to it. It was a bright, shining silver and had gold runes stamped into the full length of the blade, a gold guard and a gold pommel. The guard looked like twisting vines with a few metallic green leaves hanging from them and the pommel had incredibly intricate black scroll work etched into it. The handle was leather wrapped wood, with diamond cutouts exposing a ruddy brown wood.
I gasped when I saw it and my eyes grew wide. Phyara looked like she was brimming with joy at my reaction and got a bit of a gleam in her eye when I complimented her sword: “It’s gorgeous, Phyara! It fits you perfectly!”
“Don’t think I’m going to go easy on you because of your sweet words, Senwyn! First up!” She turned to the middle of the fifty or so foot radius of the empty stone floor and held her sword perfectly vertically in front of her face for a moment. I could sense mana stirring, and she whipped the sword around suddenly, carving something into the air too fast for my eyes to follow. The blade literally sang as it reverberated with the air and mana flowing down it. With a rumble, a three foot wide pillar of ice manifested and settled onto the floor, where it seemed to anchor into place. It was ten or twelve feet tall, and mist was radiating out and downwards from it, causing a ring of fog to start to form on the floor.
Phyara turned to me and said: “You are going to try your best to break that with your sword! Don’t hold back, because it’s not just regular everyday ice!” She broke into a big grin when she was done and made a ‘shooing’ motion with her free hand while she held her sword casually in the other. She looked like she might as well have been carrying a yard stick like an instructor did with it in her hand. I approached the target and did my best to prepare to wield my grossly oversized weapon. I reached my right hand up and grabbed the handle, braced myself for the shift in weight then thought the command.
[Detach]!
I’d be lying if I said that I was entirely prepared for the weight, but I at least didn’t make myself look like an idiot and drop the sword. I could immediately tell the difference in going from 18 to 31 [Strength] in trying to handle the slab of metal. There was no way I could lift it and swing it into a fighting pose with my current abilities, so I ducked under the blade and stepped backwards and moved down the length of the blade some towards the pommel.
The handle was absurdly large, but right now I was really appreciating the fact that it was. I desperately needed the leverage it would offer me. With my right hand right up against the guard, I planted my left hand all the way down on the pommel. The grip was awkward, like I was going to be swinging a scythe more than I was a sword, but it was what I’d have to do right now to make it work.
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Here goes nothing, heave ho!
I grit my teeth and used my entire body to lift the sword. The tip came off the floor! Success! I did my best to hold it in what would be a low guard, but the weight and balance of the sword was all wrong, so I wound up looking like I was fighting gravity more than trying to enter a fighting stance.
Phyara clapped for me and spoke up, saying: “Baby steps, Senwyn! And do not try and use it like a [Sword], because that totally isn’t one! If you try and use it like one, you’re going to fail!” I took some steps and maneuvered around with the beast in my grip, trying to get a better feel for how one might go about attacking with such a thing. Progress was slow, but I was getting the hang of moving around with it on foot, not actually trying to do anything but wield it. I could sidestep, hop and dodge around with it decently. It certainly slowed me down, but I was hoping that would become less of a problem as I raised my stats.
“Good, good. I want you to try attacking the pillar now. Again, it’s a [Juggernaut Blade] not a sword, so experiment and find what feels good for you and what doesn’t!”
Easier said than done, that glorious sword of yours couldn’t be more than a few ounces over three or four pounds, and this thing has to be sixty. Ugh! And the balance is all so far out away from my body! How am I supposed to move this fucking thing without throwing myself off balance!?
I thought of one way, right off the bat. Using gravity to my advantage. I put the sword behind me to my right side, then held it up and squatted down, drawing a solid foot or so of the blade over the shoulder pad of my harness. Pulling down on the handle with my extended left arm, I pushed up with my legs and hoisted it up into a shoulder carry. Trying to space this out in my head, I approached and backed off the pillar a few times, thinking through what I was going to attempt before sending a huge mass of sharp metal into motion.
Okay, I’m going to lever the sword off my shoulder and approach the pillar quickly. Before the sword leaves my shoulder, I want to try and impart just a little bit of spin on it to spin it towards the pillar, and then I need to twist to get the edge aligned before it hits. It’s go time!
Flexing my knees and pushing myself into a rapid advance at the pillar, I followed through my plan step by step. I literally felt like I had to yell—and did—to get the damn thing up and over the straight up balance point once I launched it from my shoulder and had all the weight on my arms. The twist went off with a hitch, and I was rotating the blade for edge alignment… there! The blade hit a little past the two thirds down the length mark, and the blade bit into the ice savagely, which I was not prepared for! It was like the gods-damned thing had a mind of it’s own when it sheared a good four inch thick, foot long shelf of ice off the side.
Phyara whistled and clapped her hands for me in the background, but I’d just realized that I had a problem.
The godsdamn blade is stuck!
I pulled back on the handle twice with no motion at all. I was scared that if I yanked on it too hard I’d wind up having the thing break free with too much force and I’d wind up chopping my own damn leg off or something.
Phyara saw me struggling and asked me: “Give me one word to describe your blade!”
I grit my teeth and growled: “Long!”
A pair of claps greeted my ears, and she prompted me a second time: “And what are long things good for?”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. I’m dumb. Leverage. It’s a giant-ass lever.
I took a good wide-spaced out grip of the sword and used my off hand at the butt of the sword to press down once, hard, and then I pulled upwards with my strong hand. The sword popped free of the pillar with much less effort, and in a way I could control. Perfect.
“See if you can reset back to your shoulder carry!”
Ugh, please, I don’t want to bust my ass getting toppled over by the blade. You know what, I’m trying new things tonight, why don’t I try praying?
I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. My nerves were trying their best to rattle me.
O mighty Vorthrax, hear my plea and take pity on me.
I looked over to Phyara, who had a puzzled look on her face as to why I was just standing there, not doing anything. Abruptly my stat sheet opened itself in the middle of my vision, and I felt a tingling that started in my eyes and shot outwards to probe at every one of my extremities. A voice filled my head with the intensity of continuous rolling thunder, so loud I barely heard my blade clang to the floor as I covered my ears. It didn’t help in the least, it still felt like my brain was rattling around inside my skull with the impact of the non-existent soundwaves.
Vorthrax knows no pity! And if you shall be my disciple, neither shall you!
I fell to my knees, still clutching my head and Phyara rushed over to my side. She was saying something, but I couldn’t hear her over the tempest in my skull. I pointed at my ear with one hand and shook my head at her. I think she got the point. My god’s next words weren’t nearly as rattling to my brain.
Why does the most pathetic ant of a [Devotee] seek my presence?
If I didn’t know better, I would swear that my god sounded… bored. My system interface was rapidly flicking through pretty much all of my windows at a breakneck speed that I could barely keep up with.
Mighty Vorthrax, I have gained allies and have started training. They tell me to expand my capabilities before growing my levels and experience, but I struggle to even use the weapons you have given me affinity for. How shall I learn how to wield a [Juggernaut Blade] when I struggle to even swing it? Please guide me!
A growl reverberated in my head with sufficient force that I felt it in my sou- essence. I whimpered at the sensation.
Fool child! Did I not bestow you with a terrible second form to ravage your foes with, and with gifts such as [Titanic Strength] for this very reason!?
My [Divine Skills] window snapped up in front of my vision and I could feel Vorthrax staring at it through my eyes. A second later my gaze shifted over to the [Juggernaut Blade] and I [Inspected] it.
Ho ho! So that’s where that went! What a perfect pair! The scrawniest of the Juggernauts, here with the most pathetic of ants! This amuses me greatly!
Chuckles that sounded like an avalanche of boulders ran through me. I didn’t dare voice any thoughts in my head, though. When the laughter wound down, Vorthrax had a slightly happier sounding tone to his voice.
Fool child, listen well: Use [Touch of Flame] to put yourself into motion, and [Draconic Surges] will carry that motion until you graduate from a pathetic ant into a wriggling earthworm!
My god, I…
I didn’t know how to voice my issue without sounding like a whining child.
Spit it out, ant! Or do you dare to waste my time?!
I’m scared of shape shifting!
The sudden stilling in my mind was so abrupt that I feared the very worst, like I would be struck dead, or would burn to ash on the spot. Instead I heard… a sigh.
Scared of your own shadow, are you? Fine, child. It is clear that you need a lesson and since you have amused me, it will be in the form of a blessing. Prepare yourself shortly: For until you evolve into a worm, you will not see your most pathetic self again. You will be filled with boundless energy to gorge yourself and grow! Do not draw my attention to yourself again until you have evolved, ant!
I fell forwards onto my hands at last, with tears and snot running down my face. I hadn’t even realized it, but I’d apparently been bawling my eyes out the entire time. I took shuddering, deep breaths. His presence was gone, and he’d closed all the intrusive informational windows when he left. Even though my ears were still ringing some, I caught the tail end of Phyara whispering to herself.
“…suffered some kind of fit, you’d better get down here. It looks like she’s snapped out of it now, see you in a moment.” I barely recognized the extremely serious tone of her voice.
I wiped my eyes and cheeks with my hands, then wiped my nose clean. I stood up, my legs a little wobbly and coughed a few times to clear my throat.
“Senwyn, are you okay!? What happened?” Phyara asked, taking my arm in her hands and stabilizing me.
“I… I prayed to my god, and he answered my prayers,” I said, feeling sore, tired and mentally exhausted from my long day. I spoke quickly, as I was not sure what kind of a timetable I was on. “I need to go someplace private and strip down, like right away. He said he was going to give me a blessing and force me to use my other form until level 100, from what I could gather. He said I was too weak right now and that my other form wouldn’t have that problem. Can you carry my blade please? And where should I go?”
Phyara nodded, picked up my blade and casually slung it over her shoulder like it was nothing. I felt a surge of jealousy flare up inside me at the manner in which she could wield it while I couldn’t. “Let’s just go to your room, it’s fairly spacious and it has silence runes installed.” My strength was returning, so I led the way and headed up to my room with Phyara in tow. Along the way I undid as many of the buckles and straps as I could on my harness.
As we were walking up the stairs, I told Phyara: “There’s something up with that [Juggernaut Blade], do you know where it came from, who made it, or what the history of it is?”
“I don’t know any more than you do, Senwyn. Why do you ask?”
“My god recognized it; he spoke to it like it was a person. It sounded like it was in his possession or something and got misplaced at some point? It was all very strange, but he thought it was funny that I had it as we were both the weakest of our kind, or something?” I explained the best I could while it was still fresh in my memory, but taking steps rapid-fire certainly wasn’t helping.
We made it to floor three and I hastily walked my way down the hall and entered my room. I’d since learned where the rune was on the wall, and with a press against it the mage lights in my room came to life with a warm glow that mimicked daylight. Phyara came in right behind me and stood the sword up on the tip of it’s blade, with the handle resting in one of the corners of my room by the door. I got the rest of the harness off and tossed it onto my bed. Kicking off my boots, I pulled my socks off, dropped my pants to the floor and pulled my tunic up and over my head after unlacing the neck. I half-shoved, half-kicked the pile of clothing off to the side next to the desk.
I glanced at Phyara and my cheeks went beet red in embarrassment. It was just my underwear between her eyes and my modesty. She gave me a small, understanding smile in return. I was conflicted, because part of me didn’t want to be alone during whatever I was about to go through, but at the same time, I also didn’t want anyone to see me before I could see me. A modestly sized hand mirror lay on top of a waist-high dresser near the foot of my bed, that would be more than sufficient for my needs. I made up my mind.
“I think I would like to be alone. I don’t know what to expect and… my god told me that I have to stop being afraid of my own shadow.” I said, sighing with the admission tacked onto the end.
Phyara reached over, squeezed my shoulder and told me: “You may not feel like it, but you’re super strong and brave for someone your level. It might feel like we’re so far out of reach, but I don’t think you realize your own strength Senwyn, even at the level you are.” She released my shoulder, turned and opened the door. When she was halfway through the threshold she said: “We’ll be right outside. Roland is here too; he’s concerned about you just as much as the rest of us.” The door clicked closed behind her.
With butterflies in my belly and a slight tremor in my hands, I unwound my chest wrap and took off my shorts, dropping them on top of the pile of my other clothing. I took a seat on the side of my bed and waited. I didn’t have to wait very long before it started.
The first indication I had that something was going on was when my heart lurched in my chest and started to be hard. Not fast, mind you, but hard. I could feel each beat as a powerful pattern of clenches. My veins stood out on my legs, arms and neck, and I was struck with a sudden and intense bout of dizziness and vertigo. I slid forwards off the side of the bed and kneeled on the floor when I started to feel an uncomfortable pressure at the top of my butt.
The changes seemed to take off rapidly from there, with shifts, pops, snaps, cracks and all sorts of honestly somewhat gross bodily sounds taking place. I think it only took about thirty seconds from start to finish, but to me it felt more like five minutes as my overstimulated brain was panicking and trying to process a dozen shifts and changes across my body all at once. And that was before some of the more radical structural changes took place, like my legs reconfiguring so I walked on the balls of my feet and toes, as well as when a serious tail slithered out of the base of my back.
It was unpleasant, painful I would say, but not in the way you might imagine. Joints cracking and bones shifting, my entire skull warping and reshaping? That felt very… strange. What was painful were my muscles. It was like having a cramp that came and went to the timing of your heartbeat, except with every major muscle on my entire body, all at once. It was a dull pain, and really not bad on it’s own, it was just the volume of it that made it awful. Clench, thump-thump, unclench. Each time my muscles clenched, they swelled as they bunched, as would be expected whenever you flexed. But when they were released, they didn’t return to their previous size, they stayed at the size they were when they clenched. Needless to say, I gained some mass.
I was on my hands and knees with my head hanging down and my tail… sort of being all over the place. It was huge, so much so that I could tell without looking at it or feeling it with my hands. Just the fact that part of it was in my field of view was a good indicator of it’s size. I was left panting when the experience of shifting ended, but I wasn’t really out of breath or exhausted by the shift. It was more like how you’d breathe heavily after getting an adrenaline rush.
I took a few deep breaths and let them out slowly. I closed my eyes and did my best to relax and center myself. I tapped my thumbs to each of my fingertips. I kept clicking what I’m assuming are claws together, but five fingers on each hand, good. Next I wriggled my toes starting from the outside and working my way in. One, two, three, four… wait a moment, four was my big toe. Aha! I had a fifth toe that I could twitch, but it was further up on the side of my foot. That was a little strange, but I’d deal.
My legs felt more or less the same, with the exception that my feet were way bigger: much longer and really quite wide at the ball of the foot. Still keeping my eyes closed, shifted into a sitting position. It was a little weird with a tail that felt like it was getting in the way, but I learned that the root of my tail was perfectly fine with taking a significant portion of my body weight along with my butt.
I crossed my legs and felt my feet, trying to make a map of my body with my mind by feel and not by sight. It wasn’t entirely because I was scared to look at my reflection, I swear. I couldn’t fight staring at the ground and watching where I put my feet, I needed to operate by feeling alone. The balls of my feet and contact surface area of my toes were thickly padded. It was soft skin, and I could feel it just fine, but I could also feel that it was tough and durable.
I had hard claws on both my feet and my hands. My toe claws were pretty serious business at around two inches long, I think they’d work quite well as weapons when kicking. The claws on my hands were only a little over an inch in length and weren’t super sharp, but I knew as soon as I tried pressing one against my thumb that they’d have zero issues piercing flesh if that was my goal.
Still using my hands to map out my body, I discovered that I’d gained significant muscle mass in every part of my legs, arms and shoulders. My skin was scaled, and the scales were relatively small and felt soft and flexible to the touch, but when I pressed against them with my claws, they didn’t give way. Interesting. My torso was longer, and my waist had filled in with muscle which reduced the hourglass shape of my figure. The front of my torso was featureless save for some substantial abs and pectoral muscles.
Time for the part of my body I was most afraid of, as I could tell how dramatically it had changed: my head and neck. My neck was longer and bulky with muscle. It was wider at the base—along with my shoulders—and tapered some until it met my skull. I wasn’t sure how to describe the length, maybe somewhere between one and a half times to two times longer than it normally was when I was a human? Much thicker throughout the entire length, though.
Onto my head next. My head felt wider and the way the jaw connected to my skull felt more or less the same. My ears were the same sort of style as the kind they’d recently changed to but were both wider and longer. My earrings were all present and accounted for! I had hair, too! But it was different than what I was used to having. It was longer, coarser and significantly thicker and more voluminous. It ran from the top of my head all the way down my neck. I couldn’t feel it on my scales, so I wasn’t sure how long it was in total.
My face now was now a muzzle, and my eyes had shifted to the side some. My snout, or muzzle, whatever you want to call it was long and rectangular in shape, being taller than it was wide. My nose was entirely gone, instead I had two vertical nostril slits on the top front quarters of my muzzle and strangely enough, when I tried to flare them, I felt something inside snap shut. Guess that would come in handy if I was ever underwater or had to hold my breath!
Opening my mouth I could feel my teeth lightly sliding against each other. Each tooth was round, slightly curved and came to a nasty point, and I had a quartet of prominent canines with two on the top and two on the bottom. They weren’t huge and my lips covered them, thankfully! When I closed my mouth I could feel the teeth interweave with one another, and when closed, my jaw was very effectively locked into place. That would come in handy in a fight, I wouldn’t have to worry about biting off my tongue from getting slugged.
I was ready. I could do this. One more deep breath in… and out. I opened my eyes. I was surprised to find that I had two sets of eyelids that moved independent of one another. A pair of thick, sturdy outer eyelids that blocked out light really quite effectively, and a pair of transparent inner eyelids that didn’t seem to really obstruct my vision at all.
Huh.
I looked around my room, expecting to be disoriented and discombobulated, but I wasn’t, not at all. There were changes that I was not used to, but whatever changed in my brain when my skull decided to flip evolutionary paths seemed to just take it in stride. I had a wider field of vision, for starters. I could partially see behind myself when looking forwards, which was trippy. My vision seemed to bend and warp at the very outside edges in a way that made things look warped, but I could still clearly see things like movement. Then there were the other senses. My nose was taking in loads of information from my pile of discarded clothing, the bedding, even some of the furniture.
Time to make my debut, I suppose. Can’t sit in here forever. Oh, but uh… what about…
Even though I was alone in the room, I still tried to surreptitiously check downstairs like a goof. There was something down there, but it was tucked away and wasn’t exposed. I let out a sigh of relief, which sounded like a big snort when it came out of my nostrils. That was going to take getting used to, I wasn’t sure how talking was going to work with a weird new mouth cavity and significantly different and far bigger tongue.
I climbed to my feet and without intentionally doing it, my neck shifted forwards some and my tail curled and lifted off the ground. It felt like… sort of like there was someone holding my by the back of my hip and steadying me. Could move my tail around as easily as I could my arm, if my arm didn’t have bones, or instead of bones had a million joints. Even when I was intentionally moving it though, parts of it would shift around naturally to keep me balanced and planted in place.
This tail thing is awesome! Seriously, I need one all the time! Also, whoah, I am way bigger now.
I took two steps forward to the dresser and picked up my hand mirror.
Moment of truth…
Looking into it, I was shocked to find out that I didn’t hate my reflection, and I felt like I could still see me in the face looking back at me. I looked like one of the reclusive lizardfolk, pretty much. There was some differences, to be certain, but I couldn’t exactly name them. It’d been at least a year since I’d last seen a lizardfolk in the parts of the city I frequented. They lived in Foundation along with everyone else fine enough, but they didn’t speak much and tended to stick with their own kind in clusters. My eyes were the same, just bigger like my ears. I did notice that my ears seemed to stick out a bit more, but I wasn’t sure if it was because of my wider head, longer ears, or if they were angled a bit more aggressively. It didn’t bother me in any case.
A quartet of horns grew from my head that looked black but had a slight brown to the light they reflected. The two largest horns were situated on the top of my head, above and behind my eyes. They were eight to ten inches in length and had a very gentle slope that curved downwards. The second set grew directly behind the first two and angled more to the sides, following a similar line as my swept ears. They curved slightly as well and turned inwards. They looked pretty mean, truth be told, although I had zero plans of trying to somehow gouge something with them oriented towards the back of my head like that. I figured they’d act as protection more than anything, a weapon aimed at the top of my head would hit them before connecting with my skull.
My ski-scales was two-toned. I had a narrow band that started under my jaw, ran down the front of my neck, covered most of the front of my torso and continued under my crotch and alongside the bottom of my tail. The insides of my thighs and upper arms also had patches of lighter color scales. That swathe of scales was a red cerise, bordering on a pink hue.
The rest of my scales were a darker, richer maroon, red color, and I quite liked the way my colors looked. It made my bold crimson eyes stand out nicely! That plus the dark rings that surrounded the immediate area above and below my eyes, where my brows and cheekbones protruded from the sides of my face to protect my peepers.
One big change I did notice that my emotions felt and hit differently. Normally when I looked at myself in the mirror, I felt ashamed and guilty. Right now though? My heart swelled with pride when I looked at my changed self.
I look good, gods damn it!
The only thing that was going to take a little getting used to was the fact I had a high widow’s peak now, because my hair didn’t grow at the root of my horns, which were above and behind my eyes. But hot damn! I had a full on mane of hair now, and it was way longer! Holding my mirror up and over my shoulder I saw that the tips of my mane came down to a single point between my shoulder blades, which was a big jump in length, considering my neck was twice as long and I was just far bigger overall.
I need to go do things! Enough sitting around!
I dropped the mirror on my bed where it bounced once, grabbed my harness and hooked it over my right wrist. I felt good. I felt strong. And I felt powerful. I wanted to fight! I wanted to fuck shit up! My lips separated and I grinned a rack full of carnivorous killer teeth when I reached up and grabbed my [Juggernaut Blade] with my off hand and casually slung it over my shoulder like it was nothing.
I felt like it weighed more than a long sword did, and the balance was still far out from the grip, but with only a single hand on the grip near the guard, I could feel the oversized pommel on the end of the absurdly long handle acting as a counterweight. I turned the handle and yanked the door open with my big grin on my muzzle.
They want to train? I’ll show them training!
My big entrance was nearly derailed when my horns clipped the top of the eight foot tall door frame, but I paid it no heed and strode out anyways. I heard wood grind and crack, and something clattered to the floor behind me. I didn’t care, this was my moment.
Eilyen, Phyara, Roland and even Francois were standing by the opposite wall of the hallway by my door. My grin widened marginally, and wisps of black smoke trailed up from my nostrils as my chest burned with their wide-eyed reactions. Standing there, I had to look down at all four of them.
As I should.
My voice radiated with my confidence when I declared: “It’s time to train!”