Defenders of Evodusai Part 8
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.