I was still falling, my heart racing as I cursed the soldiers and their mothers. The fuckheads' mothers should have taught their children to be nicer people–to stay away from the bad guys. Clearly, something had gone wrong in their childhood for them to be willing to imprison innocent men and women.
Trixy? She was…
I shuddered, spinning in the air, feeling like vomiting. Trixy might not have been as innocent as the rest of us. She killed without hesitation.
A vampire. That was what one of the soldiers had called her. The stronger soldier who'd snapped Trixy's neck.
My neck was still intact, but my chest was burning, and I was still falling. Soon, I would die with a splash–if my Power failed me.
Xavier Halur
Core: Tier-1 (1%)
Primary Power: Shift
While the Power couldn't be accessed in the Essencium cages, I could think about it. Wonder what it was about. Maybe even make educated guesses. Then again, educated guesses were difficult when there was too little to base them on.
Nothing about the Status had changed, but I was no longer restrained and had some time to spare. Thus, I focused on my Power more intently once the unrestrained desire to survive replaced fear.
Accessible Shifts – Human (Main form), Blue Slime
That wasn't much. It was a lot less than I'd been hoping for. But it could have been worse. At least I had one more form to change into.
Glancing down at the ground, I grimaced. The endless green mat had transformed into a widespread forest that stretched as far as I could see, which, honestly, was not all that far at this point. The ground neared faster than expected, forcing me to do something.
So I used my Power. I shifted into a Blue Slime before it was too late.
The transformation was weird. My limbs were the first to disappear. They were sucked into the rest of my body, which dissolved into a blue liquid. Next, the burning pain in my chest vanished. The sensation of wind bashing against me faded as well, quickly followed by the sense of smell, and then my vision.
My sight disappeared. No, that wasn't quite it. My senses didn't vanish just like that. They warped. I could still feel my body, and I knew I was still falling. I also felt my body trying to pull itself together. The hole inside my liquid mass mended and disappeared.
I regained my vision, though I couldn't see. Instead, I felt my surroundings, visualizing them in a way similar to how my eyes had once allowed me to see. But it wasn't the same. I felt everything around me in every direction, which, truthfully, was not very much.
There was nothing for a few seconds. Then the first treetop entered my range of perception.
I splashed right into it.
The impact should have killed me instantaneously, yet I fell through the canopy. My liquid body splashed against dozens of branches with enough force to kill a human. It should have killed me, yet my fall continued until my mass splattered onto firm ground, turning into a liquid puddle that pulled itself together after a few seconds.
Something in the center of my mass hurt a little, but being able to feel pain was the greatest gift I could have hoped for. After all, feeling pain meant I wasn't dead just yet.
I am alive! Fuck you, soldier bitches! Fuck you, Earl fuckbrain! I screamed inwardly as my slimy mass gathered into a small glob.
Then came the hiss.
I didn't hear it as much as I sensed the vibrations in the ground.
Something entered my range of perception and–
It... swallowed me?
All I wanted was a minute. One tiny, little minute to take a breath. Maybe celebrate surviving a bit? I thrashed around, still trying to make sense of the Blue Slime's motoric skills as the monster swallowed me.
But how was I supposed to learn how to move this cursed body? I could stir and wiggle a little, but that was about the extent of my current abilities.
Then there was the issue of the long-ass sneaky serpent that had decided to swallow a cute little Blue Slime right after it fell from the sky. It didn't even wait a moment to observe the Blue Slime and attacked like the mindless creature it was.
I am going to beat you up! I swore in my heart…slime core? Anyway, I would kill that mindless creature as soon as I figured out how to move. And how to stop my body from falling apart.
Can I shift back?
That didn't feel like the best choice. It was an option if nothing else worked, but I had the distinct feeling it would hurt real bad if I used my Power to turn back into a human inside the monster's stomach. If it had been any other monster, I would probably kill us both by shifting back, but a serpent was a different matter, depending on its length.
Putting my Power aside as a contingency plan, I wiggled around. Learning how to control my new body was surprisingly easy. Or maybe the narrow space simply made movement easier. Regardless, I began to move, hopefully in the right direction, hoping to escape before Shift inevitably morphed me back into a human.
Is that a thing? Will I be forcefully transformed back into a human?
If that was the case, all that remained was to find out how much time I had left before I turned back.
I hate this so much!