BOOM!
A massive explosion echoed from the direction they had come.
Alex looked up. Far in the distance, near the tear, the sky was lit up with a blinding orange glow.
Floating in the air, a tiny speck of light, a human figure was unleashing hell.
"A Sky Realm cultivator," the Empress noted. "Likely the City Lord you mentioned."
Alex watched as the figure carpet-bombed the forest with white-hot flames.
"Why is he burning the forest?" Alex asked, squinting against the glare. "Isn't that overkill?"
"That race is a fungal cancer," the Empress said with disgust. "Killing them is only the start. If you leave a single drop of blood or a scrap of flesh, a pile of mushrooms grows around that place growing Gretchin, then Goblins, then Orks. It is an endless cycle."
Far in the sky, the City Lord raised his hand, and a massive pillar of fire descended on each wave of his hand, turning the entire infected zone into a glass crater.
"Incineration is the only cure," the Empress finished.
Alex swallowed hard. If he had been caught in that...
However, just when he sighed and looked down. His face burned hot.
The front of his jeans was soaked. Not with urine, but with a clear, sticky fluid.
The intense vibration of the snake, combined with the hypersensitivity of his changing body, had pushed him over the edge without him even touching himself.
"I... I didn't mean to..." Alex stammered, pulling his shredded jacket down to cover his crotch.
"Hehee…" the Empress purred. "Fear and arousal are close cousins. The adrenaline of the escape, the vibration of the beast between your legs... your body reacted naturally."
"I hate you, don't put it like that." Alex gritted out, stepping over a fallen log.
"Do you? Because your heart rate spikes every time I speak," she teased, her voice wrapping around his mind like warm velvet. "And you can't deny the sensitivity. Tell me, does the fabric rubbing against your… tip… feel good? It's swollen, isn't it? Rubbing against that rough zipper."
Alex stopped, breathing hard.
She was right.
The head of his dick was agonizingly sensitive, throbbing against the metal teeth of his jeans.
It felt like he was edging constantly, a low-grade electrical current buzzing through his groin.
"It's not arousal, it's irritation," Alex lied, his face burning.
"Is it?" The Empress laughed softly. "Haha..ha"
Alex groaned, flopping onto his back in the gravel not wanting to talk back with her. He stared up at the sky.
Far in the distance, pillars of black smoke rose where the City Lord was scorching the earth.
"Iron Head," Alex called out softly.
The giant snake lifted its head.
(Master... Hunger...)
"Yeah, I bet," Alex sighed. He sat up, reached into his bag, checking the loot. The Star Leaf was safe. The Gene Cores were there.
"I need to go back to the city," Alex said, standing up on shaky legs. He looked at his legs. "And I need new pants. These... these are torture."
Every step he took, the rough denim fabric scraped against the sensitive, newborn skin of his inner thighs. It was like rubbing sandpaper on a fresh burn.
"Walk gently, little vessel," the Empress teased. "Or you'll be moaning all the way to the city gates."
Alex chose to not react to that.
"I can't take you with me," he told the snake. "The City should be on high alert. If the city lord or someone sees an E-rank beast near the city while he's in 'purge mode', he might roast you too."
The snake looked dejected, its head drooping low.
"Stay in the outskirts," Alex commanded, using the mental link to push a feeling of reassurance.
"Go to the caves in the east. Hide there. Hunt normal beasts. Do not touch the green ones that appeared today. If you see green blood, run. Understand?"
(Green... Bad. Hide... Good.)
"Good boy." Alex reached out. "Go."
The snake turned and slithered away into the shadows of the rocks, moving silently.
Alex was left alone in the drying riverbed. He adjusted his bag, trying to pull his pants away from his skin to stop the rubbing.
"Thirty-one percent," he muttered to himself. "I'm losing my hair, my skin is changing, and I just had an orgasm from riding a snake while running away from space fungi."
He let out a dry, hysterical laugh.
"This world is insane."
The trek back to the main road was less of a walk and more of a torture session.
Every step sent a fresh jolt of friction through Alex's groin. The denim of his jeans, stiff with dried mud and now soaked with his own fluids, felt like a cheese grater against his inner thighs.
"Nnngh..." Alex gritted his teeth, widening his legs to keep the fabric from touching the raw, new skin.
The result was a walk that was unmistakably awkward, a swaying, wide-legged gait that emphasized the sway of his hips more than he intended.
"Stop wiggling," the Empress teased. "You're shaking your ass like a mating dance."
"I'm trying... not to chafe... my skin off," Alex hissed under his breath.
He stopped by a small, murky rain puddle to catch his breath and wash his face and clothes. When he looked down at his reflection, he froze.
The dirt on his face had been streaked away by sweat. Underneath, his skin was luminous.
It had a soft, milky quality that caught the moonlight, practically glowing in the dim forest.
His jawline seemed softer. His eyes looked bigger, wetter. Even his neck looked slender.
"Oh no," Alex whispered.
He looked down at his chest. His tattered shirt hung loosely, revealing his nipples which were much more pronounced than before.
Through the rips in his jeans, the patches of thigh skin he could see were blindingly white and hairless.
"I don't look like a hunter," Alex muttered, panic rising. "I look like... like a runaway noble girl playing dress-up."
In Iron Creek City, looking like a weak, pretty girl on the outskirts was nothing but seeking your own death. Or worse.
Alex looked around. He needed to cover this up. Mud wasn't enough; it would dry and flake off, revealing the skin underneath.
Something that would make people look away in disgust rather than stare in interest.
Snap.
A twig broke nearby.
Alex's head whipped around. His vision, sharpened by the Feral Gaze passive, locked onto movement instantly.
A large Horned Rabbit was nibbling on some moss near a tree root.
"Perfect," Alex whispered.
Usually, catching a rabbit requires traps or a bow. But Alex felt different. He didn't think; he just moved.
His body lunged forward with explosive speed.
Whoosh!
Before the rabbit could even twitch its nose, Alex's hand closed around its ears.
"Gotcha."
The rabbit squealed, thrashing about.
Alex felt a strange pulse in his veins, a cold, predatory urge. He didn't hesitate. With a quick jerk of his wrist, he snapped the creature's neck.
The squealing stopped, he then pulled a small knife from his boot and slit its throat.
Warm, crimson blood poured out.
Alex took a deep breath, fighting the nausea of what he was about to do, and stuck his hand under the flow.
"Sorry, little guy," he muttered.
He slapped the warm blood onto his neck. Then his face.
He smeared it aggressively over the rips in his jeans, letting the red liquid soak into the fabric and coat the exposed, pearlescent skin on his thighs.
"Oh..." Alex shivered.
The blood was warm. Surprisingly, the wetness acted as a lubricant.
The stinging friction between his legs eased instantly as the warm fluid coated the raw areas.
"That... actually feels better," Alex admitted to himself, his voice trembling slightly.
He didn't stop there. He rubbed the blood into his hair and his face. He smeared it on his chest, ruining the shirt completely.
Within minutes, the delicate, glowing "girl" was gone.
In his place stood a short, gore-covered survivor.
He looked like he had crawled out of a beast's stomach. The smell of copper and iron masked the faint, sweet scent his body had started to produce.
He picked up his canvas bag, which thankfully looked just as dirty as he did.
"Let's go home."