Shifter - Infinite Transformation-Chapter 77: Forea Alliance

A wind blade whistled through the air, beheading yet another ferocious Silverback Elephant. I was not sure what the herd’s problem was but they were very angry with me. And they attacked fiercely, believing their numbers and toughness would protect them.

That was not necessarily the case. The Silverback Elephants were three to four meters tall and weighed several tons respectively, but they could do little against the Gale Wolf’s wind blades. I only managed to force two wind blades out of the racial trait, Galea, but that had been enough to behead three.

The rest was fought strategically. Neither Fern nor Clove could be seen around the battlefield, but it was not like I expected them to come and help, in the first place.

I shifted to the strongest Onyx Panther form accessible to me and merged with the Eserian’s shadows. My claws and fangs were permeated with some sort of magic that made it hard to be blocked by monsters at the 1st Tier. I took advantage of that and spent the minute I could maintain in the Onyx Panther form to emerge from the shadows, strike, and disappear.

The Silverback Elephants struck me twice in that minute, while I clawed one to death, its throat ripped apart, while two more looked like they were going to bleed to death at any moment. As for the rest, they kept attacking me.

The Trickster Demon helped me conjure a dozen Lesser Wisps when I shifted out of the Onyx Panther form. I became a Lesser Wisp and drained the closest Silverback Elephant. Shift’s power skyrocketed once more as the drained energy converted into Shift, and I transformed once more into a Gale Wolf.

This time, I triggered Galea again, but not to conjure wind blades. I restrained the racial trait tightly and only used it to call upon the surrounding wind. To aid me and accelerate my movement.

That it did for as long as I maintained the Gale Wolf form.

By the time I shifted back to the main form, seven Silverback Elephants were dead, and the rest of the herd was more apprehensive. They now turned and ran away, which was probably for the best. I didn’t really feel like killing them any longer, nor did I want to torture them. It didn’t sit quite right with me.

"Something is wrong with the Eserian. It’s like there is no longer an order in place." Fern mused, emerging from one of the nearby bushes. If I hadn’t expected her to return at this moment, I would have been surprised. Alas, neither of the fae surprised me with their weird antics any longer.

"Maybe the host was killed." Clove shrugged as he stepped out of his ethereal form. "Xavier said something about a massive knight charging into the human camp to fight...what was it again?"

He turned to me, but I could only shrug. How was I supposed to know whether the leafy figure wanted to kill the humans or the Nature Dragon? For all I knew, the dragon mother could claim the Eserian as much as the Zetrian Empire did.

"I don’t know anymore." Fern sighed. "And I’m tired of this place."

"That is also why we’re going to speed up a little!" Clove exclaimed, his words earning my curiosity.

"Since we managed to avoid the most dangerous territories, we can split up. Clove moves through the other plane, I will glide through the forest, and you can transform into a Terror Sparrow. There shouldn’t be anything strong or fast enough to obstruct you." Fern explained, "Clove and I talked about it before and we think it’s time to tell the Forea Alliance about our finds. We stalled for long enough."

That made sense. I saw no reason to reject their proposal.

"You agree? Nice!" Clove clapped his hands. "How about a race then?"

Fern rolled her eyes, yet she did not seem all that opposed to a race.

"Race?" I asked, while Clove’s fur grew.

The Trickster Demon emerged on my palm and shouted out loud. In the next moment, both Clove and Fern yelled out loud. The young demon turned to me, snapping its elongated claws at me. Like asking...

You want to race as well?

The Trickster Demon nodded vigorously. Not only did he want to race, the demon managed to give me a head-start. He was playing dirty!

I...was not opposed to that. My heart skipped a beat as I transformed into the Terror Sparrow. A moment later, I shot through the foliage. I burst high through the canopy, flapping my wings vigorously to reach the nearest edge of the forest before the others.

This will be an easy win!

***

Victory didn’t come to me as easily as I expected. Not even the Trickster Demon’s dirty trick had been enough to reach the edge of the Eserian before Clove or Fern.

I was ahead of them for quite a while, but I noticed something amiss after an hour or two. Not only was it exhausting to fly at top speed, but I underestimated the stamina and agility of the two fae. They were both in the 2nd Tier, and I highly doubted that they advanced their Cores at a low saturation.

They ended up winning the race. I wasn’t sure who won, and it didn’t look like the others knew either. Clove was adamant that he had reached the Eserian’s edge first, but Fern denied his victory, saying that she had been faster.

Alas, they did not emerge from the same spot. Clove had been further right and Fern to the left. They met up in the middle, both oddly prideful about their victory.

I hadn’t seen this side of Fern before, but it was endearing in its own way. I liked it quite a lot.

The Demihumans staring at us, on the other hand, were not as happy. I didn’t pay much attention to them earlier since neither Fern nor Clove cared about their presence either. That only seemed to agitate them more.

"What are you doing here? The Eserian has been pronounced a Taboo." A hoarse voice echoed in my ears, and I turned to the monstrosity of a man. A man as bulky as a bull...looking like one. Except that he was more Minotaur than bull. Even then, he was a little bit more human-like than I thought a Minotaur would look like.

Yeah, that’s a Demihuman. I mused to myself, grimacing as he stared at me when I transformed into a human male before the Demihumans’ eyes.

"The Eserian is a Taboo. You are not allowed to be here!"

"But we’re from the Eserian Grove," Clove exclaimed. "And we return with grave news!"

That seemed to catch their attention. More so than my transformation had.