Defenders of Evodusai Part 8

Story by Mizucharoshi on SoFurry

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Barely dodging a bout of

electricity, I was stunned at how quick his attacks were. "Oh?"

the flaaffy wondered aloud. "You dodged it? There aren't that many

who could effectively dodge that. Then again, it's only that fast

because I sacrificed power for speed. Even if it did hit, I

wouldn't--" Taking the initiative, I blew out a wave of ember in

hopes of hitting him when he was talking. He was able to nearly avoid

taking the full hit as the flame singed off some of his fluff. Seeing

the burn marks on the right side of his shoulder, his face took on a

serious tone. Firing off a couple more bolts, I managed to avoid most

of his attacks. However, a stray bolt struck my left leg and I was

brought down onto a knee. The hit reminded me of the feeling that one

would get after sticking a fork into an outlet. Shaking the blow off,

I soon saw a bunch of floating wool swarm around me. The faint sound

of crackling static made me aware of the attack, but by then it was

too late as these things started to stick onto me. Slowed by the wool, I hurled a

gushing spout of fire. Responding with a large wave of electricity,

the sudden explosion caused by these two forces provided him with a

perfect opportunity to counter-attack. Appearing through the smoke,

the flaaffy rushed head first into me. Slamming into the area

underneath my belly, he successfully tackled into me and launched me

back a couple feet. Before I could even respond to the pain in my

groin, a strong jolt of lightning struck my form and burned off all

the wool on me. The pain around my entire body was then amplified

when another more powerful bolt made its mark on my chest. Crumpled in a heap after those

multiple attacks, all that I could hear was the sound of laughter.

Taking a glance over to the line, I saw the flaafy interacting with

the crowd. Wincing from all the pain, I slowly made my way up from

off the ground. Fueled with rage, I'll be damned if I just gave up

now. Noticing that I still had some fight left in me, the flaafy

looked to Plena before coming back to the center of the arena slowly.

His stupid face glowed with pity as he looked at me, smiling at the

damage that he had done to my body. "You just don't know when to

quit. I like that in a potential mate!" Hearing the word "mate" just

set me off. My mind raced uncontrollably and rising through to

capitalize on the chaos was instinct. Spitting out a cloud of thick

black smoke, I saw his face go from smug to shocked before he was

enveloped in it. Pushing forward, I did my best to ignore the pain

and charged forward with my claws. With the flame on my tail blazing

brightly, I lost myself to the giddiness of battle. The smoke began

to clear and the flaaffy could be seen rubbing his eyes in

displeasure. Striking multiple times with scratch and ember, a

maniacal smile soon grew on my face. The way he cried out in pain

every time I hit caused a rush of happiness to spread through my

mind. The silence of the crowd as I smashed the flaaffy down was

extremely satisfying and I soon jumped back to prepare for my final

flame attack. It was here that I noticed what

was actually going on. Consumed by instinct, I had turned an

embarrassing defeat into a stunning and shameful victory. Did I

deserve this win? Was that really me fighting or this other persona

that had found its way into my psyche. I was unhappy. Frightened. I

almost went and attacked a guy who had already been knocked out. I

could have killed him. I would have killed him if I didn't return to

my senses in time. Cringing, all the pain that I ignored up until now

rushed back and I felt my heart skip a beat or two. Everything

swirled around and around until my vision faded. The last thing that

I felt was the hard surface of the ground connecting with my aching

body before losing consciousness. I found myself sitting in a

strange area. Around me was the smoldering ruins of a place that

reminded me of home. Wait. This is my home. My human home. Panicking,

I tried to get up and run towards the building but something around

my neck held me back by choking me. Feeling around my neck, I found a

leather collar with a dog tag under my chin. A chain connected the

collar to a burning rock shaped like a tree. Desperately pulling at

the chain and the collar, I came to the conclusion that it was

impossible to remove. Even trying to melt the chain with my fire

attacks didn't work. The crunching of dried grass alerted me to the

presence of another. "Oho! It's good to see you! Or should I say

me?" Emerging from behind the tree, another charmander appeared

with an arrogant smirk plastered on his face. "W-what do you mean?"

I growled. Taking his time approaching me, he gave a shrug and shook

his head slowly. "Think back to what that Mr.

mime had told you. You know, about how your psyche was damaged by

internal conflict? Well, this is what he saw when he entered your

mind." Gasping after finding out where I was, I examined the scene

around us. The place did look like a battlefield, but if this was

true then... "Of course it's true," the other charmander giggled.

"I fought your human form in here and won easily. Merging with you

and taking over should have been easy but I didn't take into account

the overwhelming amount of stubbornness still left in you at the

time. The process was interrupted about halfway through the

conversion, which meant most of your body and only some parts of your

mind was changed. Since this is the first time the process was

stopped, I didn't know what to expect then. After what seemed like a

day, I was forcefully separated from you and an unexpected change to

your gender occurred. With the transformation complete, we were now

left with a female version of my body coupled with your thoughts and

memories." Taking a moment to absorb all

this info in, I still had a question to ask this guy. "Why did you

choose me to change? I was nothing but a failure of a man who

basically lost everything in his life. My friends stabbed me in the

back, my home ruined from said friends, even my parents went through

a change that turned them into entirely different people obsessed

with revenge. I--" The other charmander placed paw over my mouth.

"You were chosen because of your hardships, Winta. The

transformation should have given you a clean slate to start anew.

Think about it. After changing, you were reunited with your long lost

baby totodile and joined an organization dedicated to helping out

these lands. Life can only get better for the both of us." Finding

some sort of comfort in his word, I teared up and hugged him. The

feel of his scales on mine put me at ease and I relaxed my tense

muscles. Part of me hated these feminine feelings while a majority of

me slowly started to embrace them. A soft click was heard and the

collar fell from my neck. Inscribed upon the dog tag were unknown

letters spelling out the word "fear". "Once you accepted you

new self, you'll find yourself free," he winked.