Broken Ability

Considering all this, Ragnar still didn't hesitate to turn into his Shifted form as he tried to reach out to the beast that lay within him. 

Ragnar was serious about dealing with the Realm eventually. He wasn't going to do things the way Realm wanted him to, of course. He was even willing to never use that Shifted form, just to spite the Realm. 

That said, he at least had to check what ability he had, just for, you know, Research purposes.

By the time Ragnar had these thoughts, his body had already completed the transformation. He had turned into a majestic Black Panther that looked so much cooler than his real body. No, maybe just a little bit cooler. 

Along with this majestic form also came the feeling of leaking his humanity. This time, however, he was not worried about it unlike last time when he didn't know what he was losing.

He felt like he could live with a little less humanity, no big deal. There are so many people who are born with no such thing, like that bastard Vorlock. 

Maybe Ragnar had to leave it behind too if he was to ever kill that bastard. 

If he had some left in the first place.

He tried again to summon his status just for the sake of it, but as expected there was no reaction from the Realm. 

He wasn't dispirited by this result and tried to sense for the pull. As if sensing for his arms and legs, and there it was. He could clearly feel that he could use his whole body, or his skin in particular, for something other than rubbing against himself. The fur that covered it were so fucking soft. 

He did not try to use that part of his ability though. Because his attention was snatched away by his eyes that were giving off a much more intense sensation. As if calling out to him that they were the real deal, and the skin was just a bonus. 

Ragnar believed his eyes and decided to channel his energy into his eyes and then it happened. The view that he had been seeing until now churned and shifted, the colours were sucked away from the world and everything turned black and white. Maybe it was his vision and not the world that lost colours.

But, was that it? 

He could not see or feel anything different in the environment, other than the fact that the crystals in the walls seemed to shine a bit brighter than they did before. This time in a black radiance, instead of the previous viridescent glow.

It was a strange phenomenon where the black colour actually seemed like it was shining, but he was seeing what he was seeing, it couldn't be changed. 

Ragnar didn't let this setback ruin his good mood. He could perceive that the eyes would be able to show their real purpose when he encountered a living creature. 

He stopped using the special eyes and the world returned to normal once again, the colour rushed from the corners of his eyes converging towards the centre. As if his eyes had sucked it out of the world, but he was sure that it was not part of his eyes' abilities.

He finally moved his focus to his skin that was shining in his eyes even though it was pitch black and didn't reflect any light. 

He tried to activate his skin just like his eyes and what happened next made him curse under his breath, but it only came out as a hiss from his gnaw. 

His body had disappeared from his view, he could not see it. He moved his gaze towards the crystal in which he had first seen his reflection. What he saw made him curse again, but again, he hissed. 

He was invisible. He could turn himself invisible and it felt like he could keep it going until he completely ran out of Essence. If he had to guess, it would last around 10 mins give or take. That means, he could probably leave this cave without ever having to fight. 

He was aware though that sight was the not the only source that Shifted creatures or even humans used to perceive the world. 

But he still stood by what he had said. 

He believed his invisibility could be called almost perfect and it wouldn't be an understatement. 

His body didn't create any sound and had no smell. As far as his intent goes, it was completely hidden behind his thick skin.

He was sure that even a human or Shifted Creature who were of a higher rank than him could not sense him unless they were specifically looking for him. 

If they were, then he might have to do something more, like running away. He perceived this body to be faster than most humans and Shifted even two ranks above unless of course they specialized in speed. And even If they did specialize in speed, how hard could it be for an invisible quarry to lose its hunter? 

Why am I only thinking of escaping?

He experimented different things but he found out that the invisibility did not come off even after he interacted with the stones and crystals in the cave.

But that was not it. He could sense another ability in his body other than the invisibility. It seemed like this one couldn't be bothered to let its presence known. As if the wielder should be grateful for having it. And that was exactly how Ragnar felt after activating it, grateful and excited, albeit for different reasons. 

He experienced his body losing all the pressure that the atmosphere would usually exert on anything. Like he had entered a vacuum. At this point he was grateful for his claws that instinctively didn't enter this ethereal form, otherwise he might have fallen into the floor. It would have been awkward, to say the least.

He felt excited because he could turn his beastly body Ethereal. As in, it turned intangible, he could phase through anything.

But this ability did not last for long, as he sensed his body become normal, well if we'd call being invisible as normal, after no more than 5 seconds. 

Ragnar deduced that this ability worked in bursts as compared to his invisibility which was a continuous one. He could use this ability several times but one use would only last for 5 seconds. Afterwards, he would become real. He could use it again after a 3 second interval. 

And if he was inside of a structure like a rock at that moment, well he did not want to think about it. 

This ability also used a substantial amount of his essence which means Ragnar could not use it endlessly. But that couldn't take away anything from the boundless possibilities he could imagine where this ability would be completely broken.

It was finally clear to him what it meant to be a Primordial Creature. 

And the worst part was, he felt that it was still not the extent of what his ethereal form offered. There was still another very special aspect of his Etherealness that he had no way of using right now even after he tried several things. 

He could only attribute it to how his eyes would be useful when he encountered another creature or human, maybe this ability was similar too. 

He said that it was the worst part because all this made him want to curse again. But he didn't this time as he had made up his mind. 

He was now sure that the Realm really wanted him to use this form as his main or maybe even his only form. 

So how could he do what the Realm wanted off him. He had decided, he was only going to use it when he needed it. It was a tough call, but Ragnar needed to make it. 

Tough choices are what shape a boy into a Man. 

So, what if this form was perfectly suited for his style? So, what if his human ability was not even the slightest bit suitable for him? If it wasn't suitable than he just had to make it. He already had some ideas on how he could go about it. He preferred his human body anyways.

But that aside, he did need to test his abilities for which he had to find another living creature. So, maybe, he could stay in this form for just a little longer. Thinking up to here, he had the idea of trying one more thing. 

He opened his mouth and tried to create a noise. This time however, he was not using his beastly mouth and vocal cords to make that noise. Instead, he was using his ability from his human form. 

He tried to channel that ability and used sonic waves to emit a slight hum from his mouth.

And it worked!