Skyborne Raider

Heavy clouds of smoke swirl above. Breathing is harder than ever, but not because of the smoke I inhaled.

I’m curious how a non-smoker would handle this. In the end, those few secret cigarettes every few days might come in handy now. Those damn clothes—my jacket almost makes my chest collapse inward. The less oxygen, the less concentration.

My poor girl Astrid, she’s choking from the smoke and compression. I bet she’ll never forget if I just lay here like a coward.

I try to get up again. All my muscles twitch and shake. How am I supposed to fight this thing without a weapon?

“Aargh.” That stings!

I can’t pull my damn hand out from under the sabre.

Slowly wiggling it out, it scratches my skin and mangles my flesh. But I have to keep this boss as far away from her as possible. It seems Mark isn’t coming back anytime soon. If he’s already dead, a trip back here in these conditions is impossible. I need to excel! I need to prove myself!

What if I somehow manage to remove my clothes? An idea sparks.

I wriggle like a worm on the ground, collecting dirt and dust all over me again. My sweaty forehead and bare arms attract the dirt, and I feel like I’m getting heavier.

After a long struggle, I somehow manage to raise my arms over my head and wiggle out of the jacket and shirt.

Yes! I can at least kneel again. I kneel and take off my belt. Why isn’t it tearing off my pants though? The belt is heavy, like it’s made of tungsten.

“Hmm.” The weightening effect seems to be increasing the density and weight of the materials. My jacket is way stiffer than it should be.

I decide to leave my pants on and slowly stand up. Baby steps. All I can manage are extremely slow, exhausting small steps. After a few moments, I see the silhouette. So it begins. All I can use are my fists.

I’d rather die trying than be a coward again!

“Hey shithead! Over here!”

“Face me, you fucking skyscraper!”

*Bam* a heavy rope hits the ground, whipping out chunks of grass with soil still attached.

Crap! This one landed too heavily. I can feel it from the vibration in the ground.

Right, left, right. He hits the ground on both sides with that heavy oily rope. Is he warming up or just flexing?

As he slowly approaches, I prepare to evade. Yes, yes, exactly! I see the pattern.

*Dodge. Dodge, and another dodge.*

I perfectly dodge all three attacks in a row, even though I’m still slow from the burden of my pants and boots.

“Hah, I can do this all day!”

He continues whipping the ground, but I fail fatally on the fourth hit.

*Bang*

"Ah, crap! My arm!" I barely block the strong hit with my forearms. Dammit, three dodges and I lose my sharpness. My mind is fuzzy, everything’s chaotic and black for a moment. Then I recover, but it’s too late, and I take some damage. I slowly feel the pain emerging.

He continues immediately after the attack, and I have no chance to react. *Dodge follows dodge.*

“No! Fuck!”

The blackness fills my vision again. The last thing I see is the rope closing in on my face and head. This hit makes me lose my balance, and the weighted pants don’t help. After a fast flash, I see a new perspective.

Yep, it’s the ground with dry yellow patches of grass. How do I save her? My girl is barely aware of what’s going on. She’s far from me, deprived of oxygen.

“Aaargh!” *Flick*

“My back!” *Flick, Squelch*

“Aargh!” I scream from the top of my lungs. I feel that these wounds are deep, not just scratches. Is my damn flesh ripping off? I stop thinking about anything at all. Pain is now the kingdom I live in.

I scream, believing it’s better than forcing myself to be quiet. Preparing for the next hit, but it doesn’t come. Suddenly, they stop. “What?”

*Loud thud*

The weightening suddenly diminishes.

Am I dead? My body relaxes in an instant. I turn my head rapidly, and there he is. Up there, mid-air, flying. It feels like time stops.

I’m so jealous. He clenches his teeth so hard they could break. I see that spark in his eyes. Did he die and return with new powers? That fast? I gulp.

Something odd haunts me for a moment.

I notice his arms. Oh boy, this is disgusting. They’re so skinny, like a skeleton. But on the contrary, his lower body is huge.

“Pffff.” I chuckle. For a second, I find this funny.

But now I notice his legs and hamstrings are way too big. Swollen, his pants barely contain the amount of flesh.

It should be more comical, seeing him with such a big ass and hamstrings. But it’s just not. More like disfigured. I wonder what the limits of this shape-shifting are.

It seems this helped him achieve the leap. Can he transfer this to his arms too?

As I watch him flying, his body starts to deform again. Now in complete reverse and pretty darn fast. The mass fluidly moves to his upper body. Again, it looks swollen. His shirt strains, especially around the biceps, shoulders, and neck. His hands are huge, and his forearms are thick. It seems extreme to me, but in reality, his expanded body parts are maybe the size of an big adult man’s body, maybe a little bigger. Elastic sweatpants are now stretched tightly around his now-skinny legs. Another extreme shift in the blink of an eye.

*Bang*

He hits the tower shield made of dirt, and it disintegrates for a moment.

“What a glorious power!”

“This should’ve been me! Not him!” I clench my teeth.

I peek out and check on him. There’s a bloody greybeard with a jaw attached to it on the ground. The blood pond slowly expands in front of his feet. Is the enemy bleeding out or Mark?

I freeze for a moment.

What is this expression? He looks like a madman. Those eyes are red, filled with flames and hatred. Is he out of his mind? What now? Will he jump on me? He could kill me with one stroke.

As I gaze into his eyes, the madness slowly fades, and he seems to become aware of his surroundings.

Don’t show him your fear, I tell myself, trying to maintain a poker face.

“You look like shit.”

I turn away immediately and head for Astrid before he offers his help.

My back burns like crazy. I can barely walk to her.

“You alright?” I ask her, gently offering my hand.

The moment she notices my condition, she starts to care for me. I take advantage of this and think about strengthening our bond.

She notices the destroyed Mark with his hanging arms and goes to him right away.

“Damnit!”

But looking back at him, I see he’s, as always, closed up in his head. He barely reacts to her questions or even looks at her. His eyes wander into the distance. Is he calculating something again?

Those powers. What the heck did he do to get them so suddenly, out of nowhere? Did he cheat or have some hidden item from the merchant? What’s even his level? I wonder and replay the scene in my head.

We returned back and settled a camp near the river.

I can’t sleep. My mind is unsettled; he’s hiding something. That expression of his. I nervously and carefully move Astrid’s arm and sit up. Gazing into the distance, I watch Mark as he breathes. He’s asleep, so I carefully get on my feet and leap over the stream. After a few quiet steps, I start to run at full speed and finally make it to the area where we fought.

The wounds and scabs on my back shift as I run, making it painful. I straighten my back and try not to move my arms too much. Some blood escapes the wounds and soaks into my dirty black shirt.

The moon is huge, intimidating just to look at. It’s way bigger than I’ve ever seen. But it maintains its classic face, so it must be the Earth. No? It shines brightly over the open area. My feet stop at the corpse, and I take a deep breath.

Oh boy, this is against my nature. I reach my hand into the dark robe and pat the cold body, searching for anything.

Heavy rope and clothes—that’s all he has. I check for some jewelry.

“What’s this?” A necklace.

*Quick pull*

Tearing it off isn’t working at all.

“Yikes.” I feel the resistance that string has on the cold body, and it makes me shiver.

That jawless head with eyes wide open gives me unbelievable creeps, and I have to look around. This will come off only gently.

I slowly slide it up and try to pull it over the head.

Damn, that head is huge and heavy. I try to lift it with my shoe and quickly pull out the necklace.

I back up a few steps toward the tower and lift my hands up to the moon. When the necklace stops dangling, I take a closer look at it. It’s made of metal, a small circle with a tree with a huge wide trunk in the middle.

I put it quickly over my head, and the moment it lands on me my back shivers, and pain flares.

My body stiffens, feeling sturdier. I quickly take off my shirt, reaching to scratch my back as it suddenly itches.

As I run my hands over it, scabs fall, my palms full of them.

I open my stats menu and notice a significant change.