Ever since things had started to get really bad around the collateral, they'd never recovered. If anything, while it was safely tucked away, transforming, they'd become worse.

  Approaching the lines was truly daunting now, even during a particularly tranquil downtime such as this, and even if - unlike the frog - the being had the sense to go with the flow, rather than fight against it. There were just so many creatures in the way!

  Fortunately, once one got strong enough, common rules didn't apply. And the being reveled in this as the frenzy uneasily and temporarily came back to their senses, to make way for it.It was probably more than simple respect or even primal fear. Rather, the fact that a very powerful creature was marching within the group, but outside of their unnatural synchronicity. Throwing off their rhythm.

  Still, the enjoyment it felt at the image of the crowd parting for it, clearing the space for its fateful comeback, couldn't be helped.

  As the being marched, alone and defiant, towards an entire group of those same creatures that could terrorize anything around.

  Knowing the risks, but strong and smart enough to overcome them.

  Indomitable!

  ... Unfortunately, the fact that the guards were now a tiny bit smaller than itself marred the image some.

  And then they ruined it further when a small group broke off and came forward - the great majority still holding the line firmly, even though pressure had decreased a lot with the being scaring off the frenzy.

  It seemed this fateful confrontation would have to be held against quite a smaller number than expected. Of course, they always did that against stronger creatures acting up, but the being had somewhat expected they would understand something was different about it...

  It was truly peculiar how the guards could be so much more advanced than anything around, and yet so much simpler in certain respects. How could they not feel the being's strength nor realize from the surrounding creatures' behavior that it was more? True, they were sending a group forward, so they must know something was afoot at least... but they were still unempowered!

  Well, at least they sent more than one. Truly the guards were something different...

  In fact, wasn't there something strange going on with them? Something other, on top of the already copious other strange stuff it had already found. Nothing to do with the whisper, for obvious reasons...

  Pretty soon, the guards arrived. Facing the strongest assailant while the frenzy around stood away, in a strange parallel to the bison and the knight's duel. But while the being was easily comparable to the bison - or at least very close to - the guards weren't up to their champion. Far from it. In their unempowered state, they couldn't touch it even when it was the frog! At least dodging their sloppy poking with such ease was good for restoring its strong, defiant image, and made for some time to focus on the strangeness without worry, as it definitely didn't need to try against... this.

  There was indeed something peculiar going on with them. And when one guard reacted - though still far from effectively - to a strike that it couldn't have seen coming, not by what the being knew about them, everything became clear in its mind.

  The preternatural, impossible coordination it had noticed between the guards was just that: they had some kind of unreal connection, that must allow them to share perceptions, and maybe more.

  How this was possible, what it meant and how exactly the being was sensing it in the first place were all mysteries…

  but they seemed pretty complicated, and this wasn't the time to solve mysteries, was it? The being was here to have some fun, and the guards with their pretend fight - or whatever this was supposed to be - were ruining it!

  They would need an incentive to really get serious.

  However, looking down at its hand and the conspicuous lack of claws, the being was at a loss on how to proceed. Usually it would try to get in the enemy's neck and mess things around. But that no longer seemed feasible. Of course it could still try to bite their head off, but it was supposed to have become more advanced, not less! This was going to ruin the image again! It needed new strategies, it needed-

  its gaze caught onto the rocky ground, and on the splendidly pointy offerings around.

  Sweeping down, it quickly caught a particularly sharp rock and managed to pierce its own skin testing its quality. That hurt. Which meant that it should fit nicely.

  The being started circling the guards, testing their reaction times, trying to goad them and take advantage of their aggressiveness to separate one from the rest. With this pointy little thing, it should be easy enough to dig inside the joint. It would take a while, but if the guard got far enough, one kick to its spike and some effort later, the thing would be incapacitated, just like before. It seemed reasonable. In fact, it felt far more than reasonable to complement its strength with what was available. How had it never thought to do this? It wasn't its first time using the environment to its advantage, after all... How the strategy would fare against the others when they inevitably powered up was a problem for later. In the meantime, the being would dispatch at least one.

  And it didn't take long for a particularly eager guard to get too far from the group, giving the being the perfect opportunity to-

  but with the momentum of the lunge, in that brief moment before contact, a sudden temptation took hold.

  What if it simply threw this little thing?

  It probably wouldn't amount to much, but it felt nice to try. And wouldn't it be funny? There were plenty of stones around here to try again the right way, if it went wrong.

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  Stepping sideways while pulling back its arm... the being threw the stone at the guard the hardest it could, almost point blank toward its head, without even bothering to aim the pointy bit forward. The guard's shell would absorb most of the damage, but the being fully expected to daze it at least a little bit.

  What it hadn't expected was that the guard's head would recoil back violently. And as the thing collapsed, a visible dent on its head, the being was even more stunned than the guards.

  It stared down at its hand in wonder, even as it felt the others summoning the whisper all around.

  Even the whisper changed nothing.

  The being kept tormenting this one in front, repeatedly leaning close to it and batting aside its spike contemptuously, all while easily avoiding the others with some careful positioning.

  To think that the guards would be this little of a threat!

  These creatures that had chased it relentlessly back then and overcame the frog even with its moves, were now completely helpless against the being. So much weaker that if hadn't been very careful and restrained its strength, the fight would have been over long ago. Even like this a few had already gone down when it had mistakenly swatted them too hard. Letting loose would be immensely satisfying... but then what would it train against? There were some thing that it could learn on its own, but most needed something else to be applied to.

  It grabbed a roundish stone from the ground, and started bonking the guard each time it leaned in, for good measure.

  No, best to dull its strikes and extract as much opportunities from this as possible - the fact it would also extend its enjoyment was just a fortunate coincidence, purely incidental.

  And best to try anything it could think of, the stranger the better. After all, the guards' strike didn't really hurt even if it failed to dodge and got hit. Because strength wasn't the end of it. It might even be just an afterthought!

  The next bonk was just a little too... enthusiastic, forcing the being to find another victim.

  Yes, this body might lack the brute power and speed of the bison, but it was so much more versatile. In fact, that might be the quality that had improved most from when it was the frog. It could move, fight and twist in ways that where simply impossible before, opening up entirely new approaches.

  And the being was barely scratching the surface of what was available to it now: it could feel as if this new body could somehow... adapt to what it was doing. Grow after its needs.

  Every time it focused on a particular approach to fighting -- be it harassing the guards by throwing stones and maintaining good spacing, tackling one to the ground and twisting it around or even simply bludgeoning one with stones, or anything at all -- it was like its body itself was somehow changing slightly to make doing that very thing easier. And it would be better and better for each time the feat was repeated in a row.

  Of course, this was likely just a delusion, the result of overenthusiasm and of simply getting more proficient. But in the remote case that there was truth to it, the being kept changing styles, stopping immediately as soon as it got too comfortable with something, possibly for an altogether different approach from what it had tried before.

  It had just gotten this body. It wouldn't do to commit to anything so soon.

  Holding back one guard with a few, well-placed kicks, it slapped a few others away with some arms it had pilfered... somewhere. Where exactly it couldn't remember, and there didn't seem to be any guard in sight missing limbs. Curious...

  Of course, there were a pair of things it desired, no matter the circumstances.

  For the whisper, unfortunately, there was still little it could do, even with its mysterious and improved perception. During the transformation, it had been rather explicit with its desires for the ineffable thing and the other eerie powers around, but the guards were using the whisper right in front of it, and the being could still do nothing at all. Even that brief whiff that had clued it in the first time was silent.

  It would of course keep trying its best going forward with the guards, but true progress would likely require observing a... better source.

  As for the moves, the being had assumed that it might manage to recapture that first trance it had fallen in back then. After all, they were but a shell of that power. And even more might be hidden. There was something deep in the way the dark one moved, even if it was just to swat away a random creature.

  But not only was it failing to summon the trance... it had even lost that pale shell it had learned as the frog. Its prized moves were gone!

  To compound its frustration, a leg slammed into its face seemingly out of nowhere. But a quick glance revealed that there was a guard slung over its shoulder, somehow. When had it put this one here? Oh, that's where the arms it was wielding came from!

  Dropping the limbs in question down, the being yanked the thing off by the offending leg and started battering its kind with an entire guard.

  Feeling much better now... this hadn't been that much of a material loss, admittedly: everything it could have done with the moves as the frog, it could do now, and more. There was just this feeling of something beneath that was missing, and without the trance, getting it back was looking harder by the moment.

  Hopefully, the guards would last until it had met at least some success.

  Yet another little slip - a throw with a little too much passion, a landing less than fortunate - and the being had run out of guards to play with. At least from the group that had willingly come out of their line. Which meant that it was time to go.

  Of course, it could keep going: force some more to come out, or simply crush their barrier entirely. But there was too much movement above. Not only was there already a sizable queue coming down to bolster this line, but the guards were clearly agitated overall. It was clear in their movements, and in that strange connection that bound all of them - and that the being could now tap onto if it really focused.

  And though there was no trace of it, the last time one single creature had been cleaning up entire lines so easily, the knight had come out. The being was not ready to face that challenge. Yet.

  It couldn't deny feeling a bit frustrated with having made no tangible progress. But mostly it felt overjoyed.

  These were creatures that had terrorized it. When it had first arrived here, only one of them - and a crippled one at that - had taken its arm and almost its life. Even after learning its moves, a small group had still been too much to handle.

  And now almost an entire line was gone, without even trying. Better yet, the being had won while actively attempting to hold back.

  This was glorious progress.

  If it was anything's fault, it was theirs for not lasting enough. Though... it might have to add restraining its strength to the things it needed to learn, otherwise it risked going through all of them before accomplishing its goals. And also because it wanted perfect control over its body, to avoid becoming like the bison, with its brutal, uncaring violence. So many things to train...

  Luckily there was no shortage of targets to practice on.