Celia would’ve dodged. She really would have. But there was just one teeny tiny problem. After eating the queen’s corpse, Celia was shaped more like a small boulder with a woman attached, than anything remotely capable of flexible movement. So she defaulted to the only other option she had, and that was hitting it back harder than it hit her.
And it hit like a tram going at full speed. Ramming into her headfirst and carrying her off her feet and into the broken wall behind her.
She lashed out with a tentacle. One that sliced cleanly through a limb. Followed by several more, reaching over her back and lashing out at her foe. And as they did so, the feathers attached to her newest set of foreign limbs sang. A singular rising note that when it reached its peak promptly exploded in blasts of white.
Unfortunately, it was the non-discriminating kind of explosion. Both rocking the wasp she had been attacking, and shredding Celia’s new limbs. Pain assaulting her mind for a moment before the eagle wasp reeled back in pain of its own and let her down.
A short fall to the ground punctuated with another digestive burp. And the sudden realization that she had left Dreg completely undefended. His supine form lay perfectly vulnerable to whatever mischief may befall him. Which, if any did, would mean that Celia had failed in her mission to protect him. A mission she gave herself, which arguably would make it feel like even more of a failure.
So, she ignored her newest wounds, shrugging off the pain, and moved to end this fight as quickly as possible. Which, in this case, meant throwing herself at the downed wasp like a living landslide. As her weight - which was a bit more substantial than she would’ve liked - practically turned her into a living projectile. One that only barely made it to her destination before the second eagle wasp intervened.
Skinnier than it’s twin, this wasp did the unthinkable and wrapped itself around Celia. Limbs grappling onto her, gripping her as tight as possible. And then, it suplexed her.
Celia turned her biology hostile as it did. Teeth erupting out of her skin. Body taking on horrific camouflage, skin bubbling up with rocky armor and spines. Back tentacles that she hadn’t realized had regenerated already lashing out along with their older shoulder bound sibling.
The result of her last ditch defense was simple. The wasp, in the process of suplexing her, mostly stopped being functional. As it was incredibly difficult doing, well, that when your body became a living pincushion. One filled with rock like spines, giant teeth, and lacerated by a storm of cephalopod like limbs.
Which just left the second one for Celia to deal with. Unfortunately, she almost immediately ran into another problem. Said problem being: she was stuck. Spines and teeth holding her fast to the wasp she had just killed. Spines that she caused to recede back into her body. Camouflage being undone in real time over the course of several seconds. The same couldn’t be done for the giant pairs of teeth growing out of her skin however.
No, she had to break those off. Which, from her current position seemed quite impossible.
Fortunately she wasn’t alone. And the second, still very much alive, wasp was more than happy to give her a helping hand. In the form of gripping onto her with its mandibles and flinging her at the wall. A wall she met back first. Whatever teeth hadn’t been yanked free from her from the throw breaking on impact with the wall. A grunt of pain escaping her as they did. As, at the end of the day, ripping teeth out still sucked no matter where you were.
Celia was given only a second to recover. Then the wasp was on her. Charging with a high pitched shriek. Mandibles opened wide, and stinger under slung, sharp bit pointed at her.
A burp escaped her as she tried to dodge. Middle shrinking by a commensurate amount. Which was, apparently, all the encouragement her stomach needed. And with a show of force, it began to digest her meal. Rapidly shrinking, to the point of outright deflating, in size. Going from a considerable boulder that was almost too tiring to move, to a… well, still considerably large and much softer sphere that rested upon her gut.
And it didn’t come alone.
Modification acquired!
Sing oh Queen of harvest
Celia barely had enough time to read it. She was already changing. Hips exceeding their current bounds by another few inches. Boundaries becoming just a bit rounder, softer, more expansive in a way that was becoming all too familiar. And then there was the rest of her. Which plumped up all at once like she’d just put on another twenty pounds. Most of which found its way to her butt and thighs. But not before adding a bit more insulation to her growing belly.
And then the rest of everything caught up with her. Needle tip stinger coming far, far too close to her still remaining eye. Which she barely yanked out of the way in time. Avoiding the worst of the stinger, but not fast enough to avoid scoring a gash across her cheek.
She told herself it would heal. Forced her focus off of it and back onto the wasp. Who was now stuck like she had been seconds prior. Stinger driven down into the stone wall of the hive and leaving the wasp completely vulnerable. Well vulnerable outside the range of its remaining limbs. A host of reed thin black legs. Toes tipped with eagle like talons that it tried its hardest to scratch her with.
Celia remembered the ranged addition to her arsenal right then. And rather than get in close and fist fight it, she spat molten spit at it and watched as it burned to death.
Which smelt far too good for her waistlines sake.
She somehow didn’t regret the meal that followed. Or the additional inches it added onto her hips, what she did regret was that she received no benefit from it. No screen telling her that she had gained some new modification or even a Mod slot. Instead she just got a tasty meal out of it. Which she still considered a win… just a lesser one.
And that reminded her of the new Modification she had received.
Sing oh Queen of harvest
It felt significant. Like it was something strong. Reliable in s way that promised power. But there was just one problem.
Designation: Trueborn Hybrid (Beyondling)
Classification: Feastling
Slots open: 7
1: locked, 2: This maw for Mine, 3: These teeth unending, 4: Tremor sense, 5: Lash, 6: Candle hearth, 7: The camouflage horrific, 8: Chimera physique
Modifications available: Hard shell, Sing oh Queen of harvest
Insight(s): The color of shadow, The weight of self sworn independence
[The Hunger Pained, The Self Fractured]
|Mark of the Belong to None|
She didn’t have room for it. Worse, she didn’t feel like experimenting right now either. Not when she was on a relatively short time limit and still needed to find somewhere to hide Dreg, at the very least. Who was still passed out on the rock she had left him on.
If anything, though, there were only three candidates for removal in order to make room. And that was Lash, Tremor sense, and Chimeric physique. But again, that was of she had more time. Time enough ti comfortably, and safely, experiment. Which, as far as she was concerned, she didn’t. So it was off to the bin with her newest Modification until she found the time. And an appropriate time at that.
So, once again, she picked up Dreg and started her search. Climbing up and out of the now abandoned and partially destroyed Chimera wasp hive and out into a different sort of chaos all together.
The forest was on fire.
Celia just can't catch a break. She can finally hold her own against some foes, buy said foes are nothing compared to a forest fire. She should just go back into the hive, seems safer there.