(15.1) Fight the Changeling

Not long after Winter left, Aki had found herself further south of the Overlook Bridge atop a building in a lesser nobility market plaza when a thunderous explosion reverberated in the burning city.

Aki quickly ducks for cover, avoiding the explosion of the weakened glass and rubble.

She had been previously standing on a broken building's roof but the shockwave of the explosion even from far away was more than enough to send her to the ground. Aki manages to roll over the debris, discomfort and possible bruising preferable over being pierced by the broken glass or getting crushed by rubble.

Flames lick at her prone form, singing her cloak before she stands up.

"That could've been worse," Aki dusts herself off quickly and checks for injuries.

Aki, satisfied that she isn't dying or hurt, scans her surroundings.

The buildings are battle scarred and small fires are scattered over the market plaza. A strong smell of iron, ash, and rot lingers in the air. Worst of all, various broken bodies belonging to the city's fallen defenders and the Dead attackers litter the ground all over the plaza.

"With the amount of miasma around, I should get out of here before any of them decide to reanimate."

Aki is about to escape the area when she hears crying nearby. It's faint but certainly it is the sound of tears.

She turns to follow the sound. Aki follows an increasingly dense trail of bodies that end in a pile in front of a broken building with shattered defences. From her position outside, she sees the trembling edge of a skirt belonging to someone sitting on the ground.

"Hello? Are you okay?" Aki peeks in. The crying belongs to a hunched over vibrash woman who has her head in her hands. A little boy's body with his chest ripped open lies in front of her. "Ma'am…?"

The vibrash woman makes no response, continuing to weep over the boy. Aki takes a step closer and reaches a hand to try and comfort her.

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(Tactician Lv. 2 - Insight granted)

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Aki freezes, her hand mid stretch to the woman. She pulls back and tries to step around to look at the woman from the front. Too much debris blocks her way forward and she hasn't responded to Aki's calls. An idea suddenly jumps to her mind.

Bracing herself, she moves in closer to the crying woman.

"Excuse me… miss dwarf?"

The vibrash woman has no reaction to Aki's words. Odd. The term 'dwarf' has long been considered highly offensive to the vibrash thanks in no small part to Otherworlders and their tenuous history.

If anything could catch someone's attention in a situation like this, it would be calling them something offensive out of the blue. At least, that's what Aki thought. The insight she got didn't tell her that much.

Perhaps the woman simply didn't hear? Aki grits her teeth and makes as if she means to touch the woman's shoulder.

Her vision blurs as visions manifest themselves in flashes. A big spike shot at an angle. Blood splatter. Darkness.

Almost instinctively, Aki dodges backward just in time.

Where her head was moments before is a large spike coming from the vibrash woman. Her face looks odd, as if moulded by an experienced artist that has yet to overcome the uncanny valley. Pretty but by far too unnatural.

"Well well, how'd you dodge something like that, eh?" says the vibrash woman in a deep, resonant voice. "You musta been more skilled than I thought."

She brandishes her arm menacingly in front of herself. Turns out the spike that nearly impaled Aki was the woman's right arm.

Aki blanks out, staring at her surprise opponent. Without thinking, she answers her opponent.

"Uh… I called you a slur?"

While true, Aki curses herself for saying so. On the off-hand, she luckily didn't reveal her hand by telling the vibrash about her Gift but being truthful didn't do any favours either.

The vibrash woman blinks once.

Twice.

"...Hah? You- that's right you did!" Her spiked appendage reforms into a normal human arm. "What in reaver's name is wrong with you. Do you go around calling vibrash, dwarfs, all the time?"

"I can explain."

The vibrash woman shakes her head. "Don't answer. Just die."

In the blink of an eye, she steps forward, immediately changing shape into a large rhino-like creature with one thick horn at the forefront of a lightly furred, muscular body.

"I'm sorry! Wait- you're the changeling from before!" Aki tries to step away only to find one of the fallen bodies has begun to resurrect and has her by the ankle.

A green flame flickers weakly from the melted eye sockets in contrast to the vice-like grip it has on her.

The changeling is charging at her now, head lowered in preparation to cleave her in two with their horn.

"Let go! Let go!" Aki kicks at the Dead in a panic.

If she couldn't get out, this would be the end for her. Aki can't seem to focus as death comes closer.

"Shield!" Aki throws her arms up defensively around her, the amulet held firmly in her hand.

A powerful shell of mana forms around her at the same time the changeling strikes her. The force of the blow tears her free from the Dead's grip, though not without having her flesh torn into from the Dead's nails.

She goes flying as if fired from a cannon straight through the stone wall of a shop on the far side of the small plaza.

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Aki Title: Witch

LE: 50/55 HP: 180/200 

MP: 250/300

SP: 49/50 

[Stunned: Balance and vision distorted for a short amount of time]

[Starved: Lack of food dulls sense by a small amount]

More: ⟲

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"Ow…" Aki's shield blinks in and out of sight, struggling to maintain its protected form around her body. 

She rises out of the rubble, still dazed but alive. Her shield shatters as she steps free from the building.

"Are you lost, little nalv?" The changeling jeers and lowers its horned head again. "This is a battlefield, not a children's playpen."

The changeling charges Aki again. For such a large creature, the changeling is surprisingly quick on its feet. The quadruped creature whose shape they borrow practically flies over the flagstones toward Aki.

Aki's vision and balance still haven't returned to normal. However, that doesn't mean there's nothing she can do.

The tactician skill doesn't have to activate here because Aki has already spotted a way to temporarily gain ground.

She makes to step back into the building as she raises her amulet up at the charging changeling.

"Illuminate!" She shouts.

At the same time as the light flares to life, she leaps backwards into the open space of the plaza.

The changeling doesn't have the time or space to course correct and barrels straight into the building, destroying it completely. However, Aki doesn't come out unscathed either. Her moves were tactically sound but her speed and mobility are yet lacking.

Although she avoided getting struck, Aki's cloak is ripped open and her bag is torn off and gets launched into the air, landing somewhere in the plaza.

"This cloak is supposed to be magically reinforced and that thing ripped it?" Aki grips her cloak and eyes the changeling pulling free from the rubble. "I don't think I can win here."

"That's not the kind of flashing, I'm into." The changeling morphs into a tall, two-legged beast resembling a tyrant lizard with two fleshy frills on either side of its head. "I like 'em tall, thin, and more mature than a pipsqueak like you can give."

Their voice comes out in hacking growls but is strangely understandable. Is that how changelings function? More importantly, Aki feels herself cry out as a barrage of heavily shrouded, obscured noise claws at her mind.

So much pain and a massive feeling of emptiness left lingering in place. As if some part of her inherently recognises the creature to some degree.

"I'm an adult, just small!" Aki shouts at them. Her anger tempered somewhat by the changeling stepping forward. "Probably. I was on Earth but am one here? It's too confusing to think about…"

Her feelings burn strongly but she finds herself somewhat reluctantly agreeing with the changeling. Last time she felt as strong as she does now was when she was a teenager. No, even then she hadn't been quite as powerful as she is now. Although she never was all that tall, age has a way of taking one's youthfulness.

When she arrived two years ago, she looked like when she was around 10 years old but also not at all. Yet her height was unchanged from her adult self at 149 cm. Unconsciously, she had even been treating herself with that dissonance.

Even now, it still doesn't feel like she's in her own body. Should she be glad? Afraid?

Shifting rubble snaps Aki back to attention.

"Now isn't the time for an existential crisis." Aki thinks. "I'm dead if I don't focus."

The changeling easily stands taller than some of the buildings. A massive creature more than triple the size of the previous beast.

"So you've seen a crocosaur, kid? Then cower in fear beneath my might!" They proclaim with a mighty roar.