Don't Get Cocky

"Throughout the history of mortals, many have created stories about Gods and Goddesses, and mythical creatures or spirits, but all those stories are mostly lies. However there can still be some truths to be found if you dug deep enough..."

Krieg was giving me more lessons of history on the spirit world as we walked through the forest, looking for monsters.

He was drilling all sorts of knowledge into my head so I dont "embarrass Lady Styx." I paid close attention but I was hoping for more excitement and finally after 45 minutes I finally got some.

A monster named Murder Bunny appeared. It's a meter tall rabbit monster that looks like its starving and on cocaine. Blood shot eyes, eerie smile with sharp teeth. Blood soaked claws.

It was a second order monster but it was counted as one of the weaker second order monsters.

"Jesse. Get used to using the Styx water in combat. This tiny creature should be very easy for the current you."

I nodded and then got closer to the murder bunny. It had yet to notice my presence. When I got with 3 meters of it, it finally noticed me and quickly moved to attack.

I swung my right arm which had transformed into a dark water whip and snapped it at the bunny. It hopped at a tree, dodging my strike and then it propelled itself into the air where it flips and kicked its leg.

'An air blast!'

A blast of condensed wind erupted out the bunny's foot and shot towards me. I attempted to move but my speed is not yet enough.

*Shwing*

The blash of arm took off my right arm that was transformed. However I didn't need to panic. The arm liquified and began squirming back to me. It touched my leg and got absorbed and then my arm reformed at the cut.

The bunny actually looked surprised by my regeneration and then quickly began furiously sending wind blasts at me. I was able to dodge most and get closer to it. Each time I was hit I would lose a few drops of water but most of it would return.

I was able to get within a meter of the murder bunny and I swung my right arm to which it tried to jump up to dodge, however my left arm had borrowed mass from my leg and arched upward like a scorpion tail and pierced the bunny's head.

The back of the bunny's head exploded with gore and I slowly pulled the tentacles out and dropped the monster on the ground. My body reverted to it's original shape but I could tell the blows i suffered decreased some of my mass.

I reached down to absorb the dark wisp of energy that floated off the corpse. The wisp melted into my hand and i could feel a full feeling, like i was complete again. It was also enough to restore a small puddle of dark water within my inner reservoir.

Krieg's voice interrupted my victory. "That was fucking terrible." The little cerberus trotted over to me and said. "You are using the water with just your arms, but your entire body can be used. The advantages of water is it can take any shape and even separate or combine. You can create ranged attacks and use them instead of fighting like an octopus." Kreig then pointed in another direction. "Over there. Another monster that's a little stronger than that rabbit. Go!"

He didn't leave me any room to question him and instead to not make the little puppy more angry, I just obeyed.

I headed in the direction he told me and thought about what he said. I've been fighting like a human would but I'm not exactly human. 'sigh...'

I transformed my entire body into a black liquid mass and slithered my way through the tree like a snake. My senses changed greatly from my human form. I could see in all directions and sense things through vibration it seemed. I was able to home in on my prey which looked like bear in shape but was just a shadowy silhouette. That was how I saw everything around me, and there was many things I'm noticing for the first time.

All the life in the forest became clear to me in the form of shadows in a 360 degree radius with a diameter of a kilometer. The further out from where I am, the blurrier and more obscure the things I can see become.

I saw the bear like creature and guessed it was a moon bear. They are one of the strongest of the second order monsters and are the strongest monsters in this area. They are black in color with a silver crescent moon shape stone in thier forehead. They attack with telekinesis and have very sturdy defenses.

I slithered closer and closer and it had yet to sense my presence. When I got to its feet I spread of you look like a puddle below it. It finally took notice of the black water at its feet and playfully put a paw into it and splashed it reflection. It decided to overlook the odd appearance of the water and moved.

But before it could step away from the black water, I created spikes to emerge from below it and two of them impaled its belly before it could react.

The silver stone glowed as it roared in pain and it's big body lifted into the air and he threw himself away from the puddle of water. The wounds I made with my water spikes just barely punctured the tough hide of the moon bear and didn't cause much damage but still left him bleeding.

*Rawrrrr!* The moon bear roared as rose my watery form to meet his challenge. He raised his head and began gathering energy into the crescent stone on his head. I felt a foreboding feeling in that attack. I tried to sink back onto the ground and slither away but the bear threw his head forward and a wave of kinetic energy shot toward me.

'Fuck!'

The ground under me exploded and sent my liquid body splattered in a few different directions. The bear trot forward and looked around for me and noticed I was reforming. There was a small puddle beginning to reform and instead of wating for the bear to attack, I raised what remained of my body up and took aim.

Kreig told me I could use ranged attacks by controlling my body, so I decided to try something while the rest of me was gathering.

I compressed a piece of myself to the upmost limit and "spit" it at the bear. A condensed bullet of water shot out at high speed straight at the bears head. However the bears instincts were strong and it raised its paw to block.

*Kaboom!*

The water bullet collided with the bears paw and exploded into a mist of steam and blood.

*Rawwrrr!* It roared in pain limped back away from me. It charged another blast to try and kill me from the crescent stone. I saw it glowing and knew I needed to move quickly.

I compressed more and water bullets and shot them at high speeds. Like a machine gun, water bullets pelted the bear.

The energy gathering on its forehead came to a stop as the bears body became riddled with holes. The bear had died during my attack but the energy gathered at his forehead began pusling.

'No! It's self-destructing!

I quickly reverted back to my human form and started sprinting away as fast as I could. The energy pulsing got faster and faster until...

*BOOOOOM!*

An explosion that shook the entire forest and created a small mushroom clear blew everything away in a 300 meter radius. Needless to say I wasn't in the best shape.

I called all of my body back and after a few minutes of liquid slithering into a puddle, my body reformed.

Kreig appeared after all the dust had settled and my body regenerated. I reverted to my human form and noticed him. But... he seems a little bigger...

"Kid, that was pathet- pfft!" He suddenly put his front paws on his belly and rolled on the ground.

"Hahahaha... ahhahaha!"

"What the hell is so funny?" I didn't understand why he was laughing. "And why did you suddenly get bigger?"

"pfft... hahahahaha" He began rolling around even more hysterically. "You're... pfft!... Fucking chibi! hahahahaha!"

'Chibi?' I looked down and sure enough I was alot closer to the ground than I used to be. It didn't take me long to figure out what the problem was. I lost so much of my water that I didn't have enough left to even have a teenager's body! I'm the size of a three year old!

"Why?... Am I not immortal? Why did so much of my water get destroyed?! Kreig?!"

"Hah..ha.. Calm down." He picked himself off the ground after getting his laughs all out of his system. "Don't get cocky. You are immortal, but not invulnerable." He shakes his head at me and then continues.

"That monster had a higher energy that yours and was able to destroy you easily, since you have only just been "born" and haven't devoured enough souls, you're still weak like a newborn." He walked over to a piece of the bear that remained and picked it up with his mouth and then brought it back and dropped it at my feet.

"There should still be some chaotic energy in this. Go on and take it."

I reached down and a small wisp floated into my hand. My body grew a few inches taller as my mass returned a little.

"There have been mortals who were bathed in Styx and got limited immortality. There was once a mortal in another mortal world who was baptized in the Styx. His mother held him by his ankle and soaked him the waters. His flesh always regenerated when he received wounds in battle. However the heel of his foot where his mother held him didn't get the blessing and he bled to death after his heel was attacked." Krieg chuckled a little as he remembered being told this story.

"The blessing of immortality that warrior received wasn't complete like yours. If your entire body was destroyed, you would survive in your spirit form. It would take a long time but you could eventually reform using every ounce of spirit energy you could generate for about 100 years." He looked at me in pity, then said. "But by then, you would have failed your trial, and would be called back to Lady Styx. She would take back her power and then purify you for reincarnation." He stopped and looked at me again. A more serious look in his eye, then said.

"However, I won't let you fail like that, even if I have to use my own energy to give you a kick start back to life. I really dont want my Lady to be troubled anymore. So you better be worth the attention I am paying to you, got it?"

I understood. I'm still too weak and if I'm not careful, even if I can't die in the same sense as before I could still die if I fail my trial. But I grew curious about a few things. "Kreig. Why did Lady Styx choose me to help her? Why didn't she just use you or one of her other servants?"

Kreif just sighed before telling me. "She needed a mortal, as the issues lie in the mortal realm. Since you are now a half-spirit, you can travel between the worlds in the mortal realm through the spirit realm. If you pass the trial in a year then you will be dispatched to other mortal worlds to investigate some things. We can't do it as we are whole spirits and our powers are greatly diminished in the mortal realm. I mean, just look at me! As mighty as I am, I can only manifest this small form here."