Rewards of Battle

I raised my arm to guard my head from the boss's monstrous teeth. A sharp tang rang as its fangs bit down on my arm, and cracks formed along its surface. Suddenly, a sharp jolt rushed up my arm towards my shoulder, something I hadn’t experienced in a while. Without any pain receptors, I was caught off guard anytime I had any kind of sensations at all. I felt the irritation of my life force being sucked out of my body through its bite.

Its teeth let out a hollow purple hue as my HP lowered slightly by the second.

{HP is dangerously low due to Life Drain}

Crap, I thought I was safe thanks to my defence, but it’s…actually starting to chip me down. My health bar's colour drained from a bitter orange colour to something resembling blood red. Damn, it’s over if I don’t break free.

With my mana at zero and my health slowly reaching those numbers, I freaked out and flailed in place, but couldn’t break its hold on me. I was locked in place.

No matter how much I tugged and thrashed, my health points continued to drain, and the desperation in its eyes mirrored mine.

It’s the only way.

Without another second to think, I angled my body away from my arm and with a sudden jolt, launched myself back and felt the weight of the boss pull away. Loose ivory stones scattered as the joint where my shoulder had been, was blown to pieces.

I staggered back, armless and barely able to keep myself standing. Still no pain, I felt some scrap of relief.

Alright then, no arms, no mana… What can I fight with then?

Without a moment to think, the Malevolent Arachnid charged at me. Leg rissen, it swung at me in wild succession. I had no choice but to tank it and felt more of my body chip away as it hacked me down. The tips of its legs were firm, but not invulnerable to me. Bloodied and broken, it continued to bash bluntly at my body.

Doesn’t that hurt? Then why are you still hitting me?! I guess you don’t care how you end up either, huh? If that’s the case, then I won’t falter.

A magic circle appeared from its mouth and aimed towards me. I stood my ground, prepared for whatever would come my way, but nothing appeared. The magic circle glitched momentarily and suddenly disappeared, as if shattered.

Out of magic? Then I won't waste this chance!

{Bulldoze activated}

Without any arms to hold myself up, my short legs struggled forward and sent me into a full-blown roll, as I barreled towards it. The cracks along my body opened up further and split into large chunks that came off as small stones.

I wasn’t sure how I became so brittle; my best guess was that it had something to do with my low HP and MP. I couldn’t think about it too much; everything sort of blurred together as I rolled full speed.

Not sure if I was heading in the right direction, I continued my roll and felt the discernible wall of something large as I slammed against it. It pushed back slightly, and I was brought to a sudden halt.

My face rose to the drooling spider's furious expression.

Green blood oozed from its cracked thorax, and the two fangs it was so proud to attack with had been shattered. It brought itself up to full size over me, breathing faltered and a moment later, it puffed up its cheeks. Acid drool fell from the corner of its mouth.

An acid attack?! From this range, I won’t make it in time. I need some kind of way to dodge– Damn, Bulldoze will be on a cooldown, I can’t move in time.

I winced as the oncoming attack drew closer and suddenly, the spider's leg caved in and snapped, its body was brought down to the ground and it struggled to regain some footing. I shifted my weight up and hopped onto my feet, struggling without any arms, but managed to get to a crouched position.

I shifted forward, acid spewed over my face and body. I pressed on, paying no notice to the portions of my body that crumbled away and drove my cracked head into the mouth of the beast until a loud crunch rang through my head. It's blood coated me as I threw the full weight of my body into it. The full weight of its bloodied body rested over me, broken and battered.

{580 Exp gained}
{Level Up}
{Level Up}

Relief rushed over me as I separated from the struggling monsters, now stiffened body and basked in the rewards that followed.

I…actually…killed it? Even thinking it seemed absurd. Even once I looked at its corpse, I wasn’t completely convinced. He-he-he… it only took everything I had to do it.

{HP: 7/225}

My health’s really skyrocketed through those level-ups, it’s hard to believe where I started out. Now I can finally leave this place and… why aren’t my legs moving?

I looked down at the shattered stones near my body and all that was left of me was the large, heavy chunk that made up my torso and the smaller rock for my head.

Well, that’s terrific, I’m stuck here. Wait, will I even be able to regrow my legs? I know my health restores over time, but I’ve never suffered a wound this bad before. Am I just a rock now?! I shifted slightly and fell over onto my back, unable to move at all.

Calm down… I need to think about this. Hold on, didn’t the system have a bit of information I skipped before? Let me review while my mana replenishes. Maybe I can use it somehow to lift myself up once it's full again.

Hey system, display what I missed from before!

Suddenly, a screen reacted to my command and screens flooded my vision, layered over one another.

{Skill <Basic Earth Manipulation> has evolved into <Greater Earth Manipulation>}

My earth magic evolved into a new skill, that’s pretty amazing, isn’t it? I didn’t know it could do that… How do skills evolve?

{Unable to provide information}

Still not giving me the full scope. This system really is limited to what it can tell me. I guess I’ll have to figure things out myself for now.

I appraised the skill and to my surprise, information appeared for it.

{Greater Earth Manipulation}
{You are able to create and manipulate earth to your thoughts, even at a distance}

Pretty much what I knew already… What else was there?

{Congratulations on reaching Level 10. Evolution options will present themselves}

Oh yeah, I did see something like that during the fight. I was so absorbed that I barely took notice, but that’s actually pretty important. Oops… Well, better late than never. Show me the options, please.

{Would you like to evolve?}

…That’s it?!!! I don’t get to choose what I evolve into, it’s just a simple Yes or No?!!!!

I genuinely got angry, but without arms or legs to thrash about, I was limited to silent shaking in place. I somehow got angrier thanks to that.

So monsters can evolve in this world, I’m assuming I’ll get stronger if I do. I’m not sure what I’ll evolve into though, not that it could be much worse than this… I gave it some thought, but came down to a single conclusion.

I’ll evolve!

Suddenly, an intense pressure erupted from my chest from the depths of the small orb–my core.

It lit up with a golden glow that enveloped the room with the wrath of its blinding light. I felt my mind slip away slightly and my connection to my body had momentarily been paused, almost like blacking out.

Once I came to, I found myself able to stand. I had a full range of motion from my joints and stood up with energetic vigour.

H-hey, my legs work again. I feel different, am I taller?

I reached for my head and grazed it with my bumpy fingers.

Feels rough…Wait, feels? Since when did I have fingers?!

I felt the rest of me and found stone no matter where I grabbed, not that I cared. What mattered were my hands, a joy I couldn’t put into words, that filled me to my core as I hugged my new body.

I have hands!!!!! Finally, goodbye stump arms! I’m so happy, but what exactly did I turn into?