72. Head hunt

I came upon my prey like an avalanche. Scale and mass and esoteric strength barreling through the trunk of a tree and down towards the brute I set my eyes upon. It wasn't ready for me. Tentacled head whipping towards me, flailing mass of crustacean shell rapidly turning it to face. There was a flicker of not quite surprise in it's form. An acknowledgement of the cycle of the beyond.

We met in the sound of thunder. A fist the size of my torso coming towards me, and met by a wall of sinuous portal bound limbs.

I ducked under it's captured arm and towards it. Sword hefted up and driven towards its chest. Only for the wall of white muscle to shift before my very eyes, and become a maw of gnashing teeth.

I pulled away at the last second. Sword driven to the beasts side and scoring little more than a cut of white blood. Blood that boiled against the bone. Sizzling and hissing, as a second fist crashed into me. Large and heavy, like a boulder made of flesh. Forcing me back several feet.

A retreat I turned into an assault of my own, whipping my tail at the beast in the second that followed. Flowing with the motion and lunging back at it. Poised to strike like a viper dashing for it's prey.

And despite the size of the abomination I threw myself against, that's what it was. Prey. It's tentacles and tendrils lashed out and struck me. Trying to buffet my scales with enough force to bisect trees clean through. But my armor adapted and soon enough it was like I wasn't being hit at all.

I didn't even need to use magic against it. Instead, I simply threw myself into the fight. Using mass, speed, and strength to tire it out.

It was a slow death. But a death nonetheless. Besides, there was a certain joy in the simplicity of just overpowering something.

And so, as the fight eventually drew to a close - my prey unleashing one last flurry of blows upon me - I finished it. Sword launching out from where it was in a crescent arc that should've bisected head from neck.

Which it did. Followed by a black pillar being shot out the gorilla's torso.

A pillar that transformed into a centipede with an owls face the moment it hit the ground. And as I stared at it in a moment of confusion, it scuttled off, deeper into the forest. Completely abandoning it's host body - at least I think it was a host.

Regardless, I couldn't bring myself to care. I had my prey, which conveniently doubled as third lunch, and I was happy. For a little while, at least. Until I heard the whispering call of Paradox come yet again.

The centipede. We need the centipede! Go get it! She demanded.

And I quickly took off after it. Silently grumbling about how she should've warned me that it was the centipede we needed before I let it get too far away.

On NovelPhoenix, readers can find the chapter as published by its author; this copy was taken without consent, and the source supports them.

I didn't realize it was the centipede till I told you it was! She defended, sounding like an oddly young version of me for a second.

I focused on her lack of knowledge instead.

"You didn't know? How? I thought you wer-"

I am. We are. It's just, not as simple as you think. Like I said, messing with time like this is a fools errand. Fun, yes. But wildly unpredictable.

I growled, once again trampling over another tree as I gave chase. "Why'd you do it then?"

Because it's fun, that dumb bird was practically taunting me, and things weren't developing how I liked.

I spawned a new cluster of serpents, grafted several of my minds to them and activated my newest modification, Flash scale. Teleporting my new serpents mid metamorphosis. Whilst they were still between the state of my natural armor and living extensions of my will. Scales vanishing in a flash of blue and further away, closer to where my tremor sense said the centipede was.

And it wasn't close, nor easy to track. The owl faced bug was both fast, and insultingly light. It practically glided over the ground, leaving only the faintest vibrations in its wake. Barely enough to track.

I activated morphology. Taking several notes from Vice and modifying my body rather than grafting new limbs onto myself. And, as it turned out, it was a harder thing to do then it looked.

Twice in the span of a second I lost focus and felt a scale morph out of control. Becoming like a sickle in my side. By the third, I was beginning to gain some traction. The bottom half of my serpentine body gradually transforming into a more streamlined shape. Wind dragging across me less and my speech increasing by an equal amount.

Which really wasn't much. But it still made for good practice. Not to mention, I needed all the speed I could get.

The centipede, slight as it was, was covering an astonishing amount of ground and showed no signs of slowing. The gap between us growing more pronounced by the second.

So it was time for a new strategy.

First using morphology again, I lengthened myself with a squeeze. Tail growing a fraction more slender and agile. Next, I started singing. Cutting trees and bushes down with blades of razor sharp song. The clearer space than blanketed by a blast of every spell I could sling in the centipedes direction.

Then, in the bristling of chaos I caused, I did something I hadn't done in quite a while. I activated one of my insights. All the shadows of the world becoming crystal clear pillars that only I could see. And I slithered through them, the distance between where they began and ended halved.

All together, it made the difference it needed to. Trapping the centipede behind a layer of burning and frozen trees, a field encased in heavier gravity, and granting me the speed to actually catch up to it before it escaped.

And I arrived like a bolt out of the blue. Too fast to stop myself before I crashed into the centipede belly first. Trapping it beneath me.

Which, as far as I was concerned, was a job well done.

It won't be if you leave our prey as nothing more than blackened paste on the ground. Paradox chided. Now please get up.

Slowly, I did. Rolling off of the centipede with a grunt and increasing the gravity in the area enough so that it wouldn't be able to vanish as a blur once again. Which thankfully proved completely unnecessary.

I was apparently heavy enough to create craters at the appropriate speed. And the centipede was sprawled out flat in the one I had just made, slightly pressed into the ground itself. Which, should've been embarrassing. At least a little bit.

Instead i felt a small thrill at the prospect. As if my weight was some sort of badge to be flaunted.

And maybe it should be. Whispered every one of my minds - except for discipline - in response.

I ignored them, mostly on account of needing to stay focused, and set about my newest task.

Dissecting.