Devouring the Neverglades: (Beta Version) Chapter 14

I’d ended up kneeling down and writing in the dirt with a sort of clawed finger to talk to the boys. 

“So you can’t see well either!?” Sammy yelled and I shook my head. “That sounds bad!” 

I just nodded.

Irritating.

Thankfully communication removed most of the fear, and the boys had come over to poke at me.

Erik had even poked at my teeth which was a weird sensation as they felt like they were completely in the wrong spot for my head.

Finally We all sort of settled in, and I decided to do some testing.

First off. I walked towards the river, ignoring the boys for a moment as I reached the water and just stood there for a while.

The mana flowing out of the Neverglades moved past me, and for the first time I didn’t feel like I was fighting to grab every scrap of mana on the wind.

It was all flowing into me. I could feel that buzz of mana as it sparked against my skin, and was then absorbed.

Mana. I was just… Collecting Mana.

I ended up finding a spot and just sitting down. I wrote a note to the boys that I was doing magic stuff, and ended up just sort of splashing my feet into the water. It felt… Okay? I could still feel the water, but it wasn’t… Hot, or cold.. The numbness seemed to mostly cut away the sense of temperature. 

Then again I felt nice and chilled. Unlike the normal heat, the constant sweating, the muggy air.

I felt cool.

I think that alone was a pretty nice change. Huh. I guess, if nothing else, my magic gave me a sort of air conditioner, or at least a way to not feel hot all the time anymore.

Okay Magic, you win this one.

With that I started feeling out. Trying to draw Mana in with my Wavelength to see if I could do anything new, but, instantly I realized it was pointless, the force that was pulling in the ambient mana into me, was  so much stronger than my Wavelength I couldn’t do anything with the flowing power, until it actually reached me and was absorbed.

Despite what this could do, it didn’t change anything about my weak Wavelength.

So I stopped focusing on that, instead looking myself over as best I could.

My skin was… Soft, not hard and solid like I’d kind of imagined, but it was a horrifying feeling, just from the ridges, I could feel. I probably had a bone like appearance. 

No wonder the boys were freaking out.

My head was about what I expected. Fleshy and spongy still, but it had a much wider mouth, full of sharp teeth. And as I ran my fingers over the back of my head, I felt a sort of Ridge out the back, but it was small, and still that same fleshy feel.

There was no carapace. No sharp bits besides my teeth.

Still disappointing, but at least it had one benefit. Mana.

Okay Vicky, ignore the negatives, what is the positive? I was sucking mana in like a drowning man, so what could I do with that?

Cast a spell?

I only had the Iron Flesh spell, which would be worth practicing considering. If I could actually provide enough mana to make me tough, even if I could barely see and hear, I would be a lot safer. Like wearing armor.

Hideous fleshy armor.

Okay. I’d just keep gathering mana for now, and instead see what the boys were doing… Where were the boys?

I couldn’t see them, and I couldn’t really hear them….

Lame.

I started walking away from the compound. I was fairly certain they went this way, and after a few minutes of slowly walking struggling to see where I was going, I found them. 

The boys were knee deep in a mud pit and like usual trying to catch food.

I was so proud of them.

I suddenly realized I didn’t seem to have tear ducts, because I couldn’t even fake cry for a moment.

Huh.

I guess with my eyes covered like they were, I didn’t need them… Wait, could I go underwater? Eh… Best not for now. Lots of things liked to hide in the water. 

Instead I hurried over, stumbling once on a rock I couldn’t see which was annoying, but I instantly dropped to all fours to join the boys as they were creeping up on some Rock Crabs.

Yummy.

I dropped down and scurried over with a bit of difficulty, nearly startling Willas for a second before he waved at me and pointed.

I shifted. Thankfully while hunting, quiet communication was more useful than speaking, so I could follow the hand movements.

Nodding at his point, I shifted around. The Rock Crab was happily digging through the shallows having not noticed us yet. Or at least just not worried about us.

I glanced around, able to see that Erik and Willas had the pot, and were maneuvering for the pick up.

I continued shifting, I’d come around at the other side, and I watched as best I could as the boys all prepared. Yet, my appearance was definitely throwing some disruption into the mix. I could tell, the boys were… Distracted.

Yeah well skeletal flesh monster was a bit distracting.

I waited, and then Erik gave the signal, and we all rushed in. Coming in from different directions we leapt at the Rock Crab, but something shifted, and instead of managing to surprise him, the crab plopped itself down and all of our fingers were just scrabbling at solid rock connected to the ground.

“Aww.” I heard Sammy call out, just loud enough I could make it out. “It saw us.”

“How!?” Erik called out as usual, the boy getting a bit heated. “We didn’t do anything different!” 

I looked around, as difficult as that was…

Ah.

I pointed at me. Getting the boys' attention. Was my mana draw noticeable? I stood up and looked around waving for the boys to stay. I stalked after another crab. I’d hunted hundreds of these crabs. I knew exactly how to sneak up on them while they were digging around in the mud.

I might be partially deaf, but I knew how to creep closer and closer, and as I leapt…

The crab was already solid rock having dropped down before I even leapt.

I finished futilely tugging on the rock before nodding.

Yep, it was me.

I hurried back over and dug my fingers into the mud to write. 

“They can feel you!?” Sammy called out loudly and I shrugged. It made sense. I was drawing in a lot of mana constantly, that must be noticeable…

I probably felt like a big threat.

Was there a way to stop the draw?

I had no idea, and no way to even start figuring that out. So instead I shrugged. And just flopped into the mud for a moment.

Huh. I looked down. And pressed against my skeleton fleshy ribs and realized I wasn’t wearing clothes.

Had they transformed with me? Gotten eaten? I’d have to get a towel or something before I stopped my transformation.

The boys kinda waffled around me for a bit and I ended up realizing they weren’t sure what to do. So I started scratching in the mud again.

“Go without you?”

I nodded my head up and down then gave them a little shoo motion.

The boys hesitated, so I wrote again.

They responded by talking normally for a bit but eventually I got a response. 

“Okay! We’ll see you later! Don’t take all day!” Sammy called out and I waved at him.

I’d told them to get some good food without me, and I’ll cook it in thanks, but I needed time to practice this.

To figure it out.

I was a mage, and this was a big leap forward in spellcraft. I was still absorbing mana from the air, and I had to figure out what I could do with it. Could I do anything? I don’t know, but I’d rather have a bunch of mana than none at all. 

So I settled in to work things out. I didn’t have the Iron Flesh spell block, but that might be a good idea to bring with me next time. Of course carrying around a block was still annoying, but making myself super tough sounded much more feasible now that I was sucking in mana. 

Would my passive absorption be enough to keep the spell going?

Something to test. Another step on this gathering knowledge, but…

I really wished I could see a bit better. I got up and walked over to the Rock Crab. Stupid Crab. Stupid Rock. I settled in and poked at it, and I could feel the spell it was using. It wasn’t quite Iron Flesh, and it wasn’t quite a full transformation. 

The Crab was still in there, it was just now tied into the ground like a solid boulder. I probably could break it, if I had a pickaxe…

Well and muscle, but that’s what my little hunter troupe was for. 

Yet, as I felt my hand touch against the back of the rock I felt that same buzzing. It was tonally a bit different. 

If normal mana was buzzy almost like sparks zapping at you. And my ooze mana was like a slow deep thrum. This felt more like my ooze. A tone constantly pinging away. The sound of earth I guess? I suppose it did remind me of Bitey’s mana.

But…

I was more than just feeling it at a distance. I was tasting it. I focused in on my hand and noticed, I was still absorbing mana, mana right out of the rock… I looked up for the boys but they were long gone, and I didn’t have a knife, and while scary my fingers weren’t anything.

But, I was breaking down the spell! Or rather the energy the Rock Crab was putting into his little sealing spell was being absorbed away. Just like how I’d plucked the spell circle apart, to stop my transformation, I was doing the same thing to the Crabs Rock Spell!

Huehuehue!

I could feel my tongue slithering behind my teeth, at the thought.

Yummy yummy Rock Crab. I just had to break its spell, and lift it.. Well kill it somehow… Okay wait I could think of something. I still had some time-

The Rock Crab shifted, its spell either broken, or realizing it was going to fail he popped up and his pincers started snapping. 

“Hiiiiissss!” I heard the noise even as muffled as my ears were, as I exhaled in shock as he started trying to snap at me.

Crap think, what do I do?

I reached out and grabbed a pincer and pulled it away as he tried to snap at my ankle, and then I was dancing around as his other claw was coming for my hand.

With a surge forward I grabbed the other claw. And now I had a very angry, very heavy Crab spitting and hissing back at me, as he fought in my grip.

But I fought back, both of us jockeying back and forth. But I was just trying to figure out what to do!

Then I realized I was in a bad spot and decided to just start hitting.

I dropped back onto my butt in the mud and while holding his claws away from me, started heel kicking him right in his stupid face!

Hah! I’m a genius!

Ow! He bit me! Ow! That was stupid!

Then he charged, and I yelped, well hissed, as he slammed into me with his bulk, and nearly flattened me…

Oh no!

I had a heavy crab scrabbling on top of me and he was made of mostly rock!

Shit!

I wish I had a knife.

I watched that ugly crab face and his stupid mouth opening and closing as he was trying for a bit.

I had very few options. I flinched despite the armor covering my eyes as he kept getting closer and closer. 

I could practically feel him trying to bite at my teeth!

Wait.

I opened my maw, that was wider and had an array of sharp teeth and started biting back. The crab flinched as I snapped at his face and then I felt it. My jaw clamping on, and my bottom teeth actually punctured up as I grit all the muscle I could to bite.

The Crab sort of flinched and then started trying to back away, but fuck you! 

I bit harder and harder, I could feel him trying to bite at my tongue, but I just clamped my jaws all the tighter!

Who was the predator here!? Who was the monster!? Me!

Then my teeth felt like they sank in a bit deeper, and the Crab jerked a bit.

I hesitated, waiting and the strength of the claws I’d been holding back started to fade.

Slowly I pulled my jaw free feeling a bit achy in my teeth, as I pushed the Rock Crab off, struggling back to my feet.

Huh.

I’d done it. I killed it.

I flopped back down and just stared for a while. That was… Dangerous. And not very fun.

My tongue ran over my teeth and I could feel a few of them were cracked or even missing, which would have been much scarier, if they were my normal teeth and not like monster fangs. It didn’t really hurt, thankfully. Then I found a piece of chitin caught in between some teeth and wormed at it for a moment until it came free. Before I could spit it out, my tongue sort of dragged it back.

Having a super long tongue was weird, and playing havoc on my proprioception. But the moment I dragged that piece down into my throat, I felt a weird feeling in my stomach. Was I allergic to shellfish? No, I already knew I wasn’t. I felt it though, and it felt weird. 

There was a weird instinct, which wasn’t entirely unusual, ever since I’d transformed I’d been fairly comfortable despite having a too large mouth, and a tongue that moved wildly, and so many other weird little motions that should have felt unnatural.

Like… Making your mouth water. I flexed a bit, and then realized some of the mana I had been storing faded, and I looked at my hands. The texture was different. Right where the spell circle still resided, it had spread out from that, and the spongy flesh that covered me was now… Harder? 

I used my other hand to touch the other, and… It was a shell. The soft bottom part of the crab shell. The color was still that same dark black, but… It was harder than before. I pushed a bit more, and the spell once more drained mana, and my fingers shifted. I looked at them. Much more rigid, and segmented like a Crabs claw. Armored. Although it was still weak. But…

How!?

Okay, think Vicky! I ate a piece of the Crabs shell, and… My transformation spell was now mimicking it?

But it was still soft. I looked at the Crab. What about the rest of the shell, where it was harder?

What about the grippy claw?

Could I have a Grippy Claw? Crab Claws were pretty OP. Not as good as thumbs, but pretty good.

Okay calm down. Test. Figure this out.

I walked to the Crab and with a bit of effort and using my entire body yanked free his claw. With that I looked at it, and swallowed a bit, but stuck the end in my mouth, and started chewing.

It… Actually wasn’t bad? There was no bad taste-feel from it not being cooked, my teeth chunked it quickly. A bit like eating super crunchy jerky.

But I swallowed it down, hoping that I wouldn’t get sick from some germs or something. 

Magic monster powers protect me!

Then I felt it. That same sort of… Reaction? The chitin I’d just bit into was harder. Denser, and I used that same sort of instinct. Once more it burned a bit of mana, and my palm shifted, and then my fingers. Denser. Harder. Darker.

I ran my hand over it, and gasped in delight. It didn’t feel like spongy flesh anymore, but a shell, and it was smooth, and tough!

Was this another step into becoming a Xenomorph? No wait. I wasn’t a Xeno, but a Eldritchmorph!

Eldritchmorph activate! 

Mwahahaha!

Okay could I make my shell harder if I ate harder parts of the crab? Only one way to figure that out… Actually I should go find the boys and show them what I’d learned! No more trying to sneak up on the crabs, I could just drain their mana and pull them right out of the ground when they gave up!

Oh man we were going to stuff ourselves silly on Crab meat.

I reached over and grabbed the Crab by the other limb and started dragging it. Stupid heavy bullshit…

Oh!

I felt it! It hadn’t actually used up all of its mana! I could feel a bit of mana coming from inside….

And again I had no knife. How was I supposed to get inside it?

I looked from crab to my clawed hand. Back to crab.

Okay… I’ll just… Try it the predator way.

Still half chewing on the other claw I rolled the Crab over and felt the much sharper and tougher ends of my fingers. Then I started scratching.

My claws sort of skittered over the exoskeleton, and I realized despite being a bit tougher… Scratching through a shell was kinda hard?

I walked away for a moment and came back with a big rock and just smashed the Crab until I could peel it open, then my armored fingers were much more effective as I dug through the meat until I found the glowing Mana Core.

Nice.

With just a touch, I buzzed as the energy was absorbed almost rapidly into me. Without much else to do, I just grabbed the core and stuffed it into my mouth. 

If I was going to absorb it anyways, might as well free up my hands. With spicey jaw breaker in my mouth, I grabbed the crab, and since it was already on its back started dragging it to our normal camping spot. 

Half a crab arm in one side of my mouth, while my tongue kept poking at the sparky mana core. I hissed as I dragged the heavy monster behind me out of the mud, and then skidded it along the dirt path that led back.

I was actually back to the camp first. Noticing the fact the pot was missing the boys were obviously trying to get some Rock Crabs still.

So I settled in, Sammy’s kit was already here, so I just went through his knives, cutting and harvesting the Crab and putting the meat in one place and all the stuff we didn’t eat in another as I worked. 

All the while I sort of rolled the heart and mana core around in my mouth, almost sucking on it like a candy, the buzzing sensation was kinda funny, plus, I was absorbing all the mana, which alone was awesome. It felt nice to not constantly fumble Mana through my ‘fingers’ as I tried to hold onto it. 

I sorted out the entire crab before the boys got back, and since I didn’t have a pot to cook it in yet, I looked at the sectioned pile of Crab.

Popping the Mana Core out of my mouth and setting it to the side, noticing it was much smaller, I grabbed more of the Crab Shell, and started crunching.

The thicker bits got that same reaction, but only a few times, instead as I chewed it down, I noticed I didn’t ever feel full. I just kept grabbing chunks of shell, bits we usually threw in the river and just kept crunching. It was a nice feeling even if I wasn’t getting any more full. 

The slow devouring gave me time to consider everything. Breaking down what I’d learned.

The Transformation spell made me into a spongy dark flesh monster. Not great.

It also lets me constantly absorb Mana. Super great!

It covered my eyes and ears, and I could barely see or hear.

Not great. Although the built in goggles were kinda neat, even if I couldn’t see.

The spell let me add… Chitin? Shell? Into my transformation. Okay, very interesting, what was the limit? I looked at my hand, I couldn’t see it, but I could feel it, that spell circle still active, still holding solid. Perhaps even more solid than ever before. 

Spending mana to alter the transformation, based on what I consumed. What was the limit? I had thought I’d get a tail when I transformed, could I grow one?

I looked at my hand, well that was all well and good to think about, but for now I should focus on what I could do. Another experiment. I should have plenty of mana, so, that same instinct. Some weird action I barely had to think about to do, I shivered as it spread up my arm, my body shifted. Like tiny slivers of myself bursting forth with hard chitin and then settling in.

I felt the Spell Circle flow with fresh mana, practically buzzing in my palm as more and more mana was spent, but… If felt like so little, my body still burned with Mana. I’d really gathered so much already!

Up my arm, then shoulder, and across my chest, I hissed as it ran up my neck, tingling in a way that made me want to shiver, and then across my face.

I gasped, as it flowed over my face, and that scuffed almost impossible to see, the view shifted, going much darker….

But then it was like my ears popped.

Huh? I can hear? I can hear! Great!

I can’t see.

What? But what? Why could I hear? I sat there in the dark so to speak as the spreading finished and I could feel my body felt… Firmer. Less gooey. No less fleshy… I ran my fingers over my forearms, and felt segmented almost smooth firmness. I could still feel it, but… It was actually really good. Firm.

Wait… The reason I couldn’t see, or rather I could see so poorly before, and now couldn’t see at all. I pressed my hands over my face. My eyes were indented, and I had to look through whatever the cover was over my face. The flesh had been thin enough I could still see out, but this was armored chitin. Basically a Crab shell over my eyes. Of course I couldn’t see…

Wait. Where was that crab? It had covered eyes. Like a lizard! I scrounged around which was harder with my fingers being all armored, but I found the shell, and with a bit of digging found the face. And pulled one of the eye stalks free…

Bottoms up?

This was a good test though, to see what I could do.

I tossed it back into my mouth and swallowed.

Then I waited. C’mon. Give me some eye covers, but let me see!

Then I felt it. That burny sensation in my stomach, and I guided my spell once more instinctively. 

The mana flowed up my arm, and soon settled on my face, and then…

Slowly light began to seep through to my eyes, and I blinked a few times as it shifted more and more clear.

It still felt like wearing a bicycle helmet, but… It was clearer. Much clearer. I looked out over the campsite and then at my almost shining black armor.

Yeah… Okay, my magic was officially really cool now.