Chapter Five

What’s going on? These monsters that were on the verge of eating me dropped dead from gunshots. I thought I was in a fantasy world with magic and swords.

I take another look at my savior. She is holding an assault rifle of some sort, but the bullets had some sort of plasma sound, something you would hear in a sci-fi movie. She has a peculiar off-white hair color, like ash white or grey, and some black streaks. There is some coolness with that type of hair. Her cerulean eye color struck me. In a dimly lit cave, those eyes stand out as if peering into my soul. She wears some sort of fantasy military outfit, something designed for camouflage and combat.

“T-Thank you.” I stutter. I hope she can understand me.

Am I speaking English or is it this world’s language? My brain could be interpreting it as English and I’m speaking another language. Oh wait, I’m not human, but she is, will she think I’m a monster and finish me off?!

As soon as I start panicking, she extends her arm, her hand facing the ground. I naturally tilt my head in confusion. Suddenly spores of light emerge from the fallen monsters and nearby neon crystals. A myriad of light bubbles ascend and head over to the gun girl’s open hand. The collective mass crashes like a wave. She drives her arm back as the spores of light absorb into her body and gun. She glows like an angel. The divine light almost blinds me, even with my eyes closed, so I had to cover my eyes with my hand.

Her stern and stoic expressions do not fade with the light. As soon as she is done charging, she adjusts the strap on her gun and heads in the opposite direction.

“Hey!” I yell.

Suddenly, the same zombie I’ve been battling stands up and startles me. I feel my dog tail go stiff. I go for a front kick, sending it back to the ground.

“This guy freaking bit me.” I say to myself. I grip my infected arm where the bite mark is. I don’t really feel the pain anymore and I don’t know if it’s a byproduct of my adrenaline or if I’m turning into something else.

I try to think up of a solution, but my thoughts are interrupted by the rock zombie again rising up. I see now that the gun girl did not shoot this guy at all. It is virtually unscathed. I approach this punching bag of a zombie and unleash another combo of jabs, crosses, and hooks. I think I was holding back in the beginning, but this rock zombie is starting to annoy me. I watch for his mouth every time I strike and pull back my arm. Its bite attacks and rocky arm miss me every time.

Anyways, this went on for another eight minutes. I could tell because the timer of my tail magic says I have two minutes and seventeen seconds remaining. It was around the ten minute mark when the gun girl arrived and eviscerated the other rock monsters.

I’ve been thinking a lot during this period of time. Regrets and fantasy scenarios. I wish I got to see more of Japan. I was planning to explore the country during my holidays and go to the far northern snow cities and far southern beach cities. Oh, also since I am technically a creature of fantasy and this place has some sort of cartoony feel of laws and physics with all this magic and monsters, I should have a finishing move.

The rock zombie gets up once again and I sidestep and shift to a good angle.

“Lizard Heavy Punch!” I managed to get a solid haymaker in. I feel the skull crack under my fist. This finishing move has a name in progress.

“Lizard Heavy Kick!” I put all my weight into this kick and into the zombie’s femur snapping it. The loud crack does not seem to affect the zombie’s emotional state, but its decreased mobility is definitely noticeable. Especially in this uneven ground, the zombie struggles to stand up.

I don’t let this kill my momentum as I land another kick with my other leg.

“Lizard Double Kick!”

This kick sends the rock zombie into the middle of the pond. It is unable to swim from its broken bones and gradually sinks as it tries to grasp the water as if it were solid. My athletic and physical parameters are tenfold, roughly.

At this point I’m also embarrassed, but it is something new that I’ve never done. I should definitely think up a different name for these attacks though.

I’m not as exhausted as I believed I would be after an extensive 14 minute fight. I sit on a rock facing the pond and sigh. I glance at the virtual timer as it counts down from five seconds. I take a look at my tail as it begins to glow and transform back to its glorious green form.

Wait, what was the point of the dog tail? I scratch my head. I did not exhibit any dog magic or physical abilities. If anything, my fists and legs did all the heavy lifting and they were lizard-human. My dog tail wagged at some points of contentment and stood up when I was all tense and scared. Emotions, actions, and characteristics that my lizard tail already has.

“Is this magic useless?” I begin to scroll the virtual wheel to look at the options. I see more animal silhouettes of basic pets and zoo animals. There are also options locked away with question marks. I have several questions, but I don’t know if I’ll ever get the answers. I choose the bird option.

[Bird Tail Equipped]

My tail once again transforms into a different animal body part that contrasts with the rest of my body. The feathers extend downward in an angle. It sorta reminds me of an airplane as I feel the air wrapping around it like a protective layer?

“Can I fly?” This is after all a tail engineered for flying, but where are the wings?

This magic is shamefully incomplete. My train of thought is interrupted by a crackling sound, like fireworks. Something unearths itself from my arm.

Cubic rocks the size of dice start protruding from where the bite wound is. Other geometric 3D shapes begin to crystallize and form a bracelet-like formation around my arm. Then it slowly starts spreading towards my hand on one side and my elbow on the other side.

“One thing after the other.” I sigh.

Then an idea pops up.

“I can chop it off!”