Fear

Zac focused on his Mana Core, directing all his attention toward it, trying to return it to the pure white color that it previously had.

Nothing happened.

"Agggghhhhh! Whuwt the phuuuu!" Zac started to yell, staring at his webbed hands and feet, tears overflowing from his beady black eyes, thanks to the overly moist nature of his current form.

'Alright, this isn't too bad, right. I'm resistant to magma, I can see heat, and I can swim faster than anyone. This is just like having an extreme G-Type Augmentation.' Zac thought, as he tried to console himself.

'Who am I kidding! This is f******* terrible! I'm a damp, red, weird cross between a human and a newt! Only those weird girls are going to talk to me now!' Zac started to flail around on the ground, slapping the ground in frustration, loud squelching noises ringing out as he did so.

Anyone who came across the scene would have either laughed at the absurd sight or run off as fast as they could in the opposite direction.

They would have seen a two meter tall, dark red humanoid with large flippers like hands and feet, as well a fin on his back and a tail, rolling around on the ground and slapping it in fury.

Once he had vented his frustration on the ground, Zac took a few deep breaths and composed himself.

He looked around and heaved a sigh of relief, 'I'm glad the Magma Newt didn't follow me, or it would have eaten me during that foolish tantrum. I would've deserved it for being such an idiot anyway.'

There was a loud squelching noise as Zac pulled himself away from the ground, leaving behind a strands of sticky mucus from his skin.

He started to walk back towards the forest, without any idea of what to do now, he decided to return to the forest, staying in the magma field would only mean he ran into more and more high tier beasts.

As he walked, Zac let out a series of massive sighs, 'I knew it, the Mana Core forming was too good to be true, of course I'd end up turning into some kind of half-human half-newt abomination.'

His weird black and white vision ended up being quite helpful for walking through the forest, clearings would show up as darker spots, thanks to the sunlight.

Thanks to this, he wound up walking through clear trails that the Magical Beasts that lived in the forest had used, he wasn't too worried about running into one of them, surely his odd appearance would be intimidating enough.

And if it wasn't then he was sure he could withstand the attacks of any Tier 1 Beats, since he had turned into a some sort of hybrid with a Tier 2 Beast.

After about half an hour of wandering along the trails in the forest, which were twisted and often looped around themselves, Zac found himself in a large clearing, about fifty meters across.

There was a large pool within the clearing, which appeared dark to Zac's newt eyes.

He looked around, and noticed many other trails opening into the clearing, it must be where many beasts came to drink, but for now, it was empty.

Zac walked over to the water, stumbling a little over his webbed feet, and leaned over to look at his reflection.

Unfortunately, he couldn't see anything except the dark of the sun warmed water that was heated by the hot sun above.

But now, even as Zac had practically given up, kneeling by the water, a flood of tears streaming down his face, he once again felt the intuitive feeling that had accompanied him touching the newt rather than dodging it.

He looked into the water, and as he thought about wanting to see the water, strands of mana travelled to his eyes, rewriting his genes, and then pain shot through his head, as if nails were being driven into his skull.

His beady black eyes transformed back into the piercing green eyes that he had seen thousands of times when looking into mirrors.

And then he screamed.

He could see the weird, lumpy dark red skin that covered his entire body, and the flat teeth that filled his mouth, which had been stretched wide.

The weird webbing between his long clawed fingers, and the wisps of stream that he breathed out, curling around his odd, triangular shaped head and non existent neck.

At that moment, Zac wished for nothing more than to be human again, and his transformation didn't stop at his eyes.

The mana continued to spread out to his entire body, reverting his genes back to his human form, and then the pain came.

Zac fell to the ground beside the small pool, pain spreading all throughout his body as it completely reconstructed itself once again.

Anyone watching would be sick, and he turned from a human/newt hybrid to a bag of meat that shifted color from red to pink to white, and twisted and moved around as his bones and muscles rearranged themselves once again, the tail and fins disappearing.

"Haah, haah, haah." It only took a few moments, but the transformation left Zac gasping for breath, the pain had been just as unbearable as the first time.

Zac dragged himself over to the pool, his vision alive again with colors, and looked for his reflection.

He saw the pale pasty skin and freckled face, his green eyes peering at himself from above his nose.

He stood up, and there he was, his scrawny limbs and thin torso was back. Zac flushed red with embarrassment for a moment before he realized that no one else was in the clearing.

An enormous sigh of relief left his lips as he collapsed onto the grass by the clearing, tears of relief streaming down his face.

He had forgotten all about the Mana Core and any ability, at this moment, he was just glad he wasn't stuck as some twisted, inhuman creature that would make even the most extreme G-Type augmented look normal.