Cornered like a rat. Sweat trickled down my spine as I pressed against the cold stone wall of the grotto.

  Ten feet away, Lyren lay motionless, her life hanging by a magic bubble that crackled and dimmed with every scrape of the Darroch's claws.

  How had my life spiraled into this nightmare?

  I clenched my jaw. That witch with the violet eyes did this.

  Her face floated into my mind like a ghost, uninvited and unwelcome. That cascade of white hair. That smile that said she knew every secret I'd ever kept. Those amethyst eyes that had no right to exist in nature.

  I shook my head, trying to dislodge her from my thoughts.

  She had dumped me here. No tutorial, no weapon, no explanation. Just plucked me from my miserable, mundane existence and dropped me into a monster-infested forest. The sheer absurdity of it made me want to laugh, but the manic urge died in my throat as the Darroch’s claws shrieked against the barrier again.

  It sounded like nails on a chalkboard, amplified by a megaphone.

  I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block it out. Bad move. In the darkness, the violet eyes returned. But they weren’t a memory anymore. They were pulsing orbs, staring directly into my soul, bridging the void between dimensions. They elongated, shifting from human to something feral. A wolf prowling the ether.

  Then, the pain hit.

  It wasn't a headache. It was molten slag poured directly into my heart chamber.

  I gasped, my vision whitening out. Somewhere deep in my skull, I heard a sound like bacon hitting a hot skillet. My knees gave out, hitting the stone hard. I clawed at my face, a guttural, animalistic sound escaping my lips.

  The Darroch, sensing weakness—or perhaps just the sudden spike in mana—went berserk.

  The gray-skinned monstrosity hurled itself against the translucent bubble. Its flesh smoked and blistered on contact, but it didn't care. It was frenzied, its claws tearing at Lyren’s shield with renewed purpose.

  My vision swam back into focus just in time to see the creature's jaw unhinge in a silent scream. Its inky black claws punched through the barrier.

  I should have been terrified. I should have been pissing myself. But I wasn’t.

  A storm was churning beneath my ribs.

  It was expanding with every heartbeat, a pressure so immense my skin felt too tight to contain it. It was excruciating, yes, but familiar. Like running into a childhood bully twenty years later. The suppressed trauma came rushing back, sudden and debilitating.

  The realization crashed over me that this monster had always lived inside me, coiled and waiting. It had been there when I was growing up. It had been there when my parents died. It was there during all of those forgotten dreams just like the violet eyed woman had said. But it wasn’t a gift as she claimed. It was a trojan horse.

  It promised power. Power, enough to kill these creatures. Enough to save Lyren. To make her mine. The violet storm beneath my ribs whispered promises of a life without pain or fear, if only I'd surrender to its embrace.

  This sensation, this wrongness, was the same that echoed during those forgotten dreams. Accepting this gift meant sacrificing pieces of myself to something darker, something hungry.

  So this was her plan, I realized, a bitter laugh bubbling in my chest. This is why I’m here.

  She’d dropped me in these woods, right next to a high-level party fighting for their lives, knowing I’d be forced into a corner. She knew I was stubborn. That none of the bullshit I’d been through on Earth had been enough to tempt me. She knew I wouldn’t take the power for myself. But to save someone else? To protect the woman who had saved me?

  I looked at Lyren. Then I looked at the barrier.

  One of the Darroch's hands had pushed all the way through. It sizzled and hissed, the gray skin bubbling, before it pulled the appendage back out.

  They’re going to get in.

  I took one last look around in desperation, but there was only one exit from the cave. No way to escape. No place to hide. No way to protect Lyren who lay on the moss-covered floor of the grotto unconscious.

  My terror wasn't just for me. It was for her. If that barrier fell, they would tear her apart.

  Maybe it would be best if she was unconscious when it happened. I thought to myself but immediately my mind rebelled. You can do this Garber. You have been through so much bullshit and always found a way to make it to tomorrow. If today is the day you die then at least go down fighting. If not for yourself then for her.

  Then it clicked. That’s why the violet eyed witch dropped me in these woods. It had been tumbling around in my mind for a bit now. Why here? Taken to what I assumed was a different world and dropped into a forest hundreds of miles wide, but for some reason I ended up right near Lyren and her companions in the middle of a desperate fight for their lives.

  They were obviously a strong party that was prepared to take on the monsters of the Glimmerwood, so it wouldn’t even surprise me if the woman had set them up against a creature they couldn’t defeat just to ensure I’d try to help them.

  Now, as I looked over at the beautiful red-haired elf that had saved my life, I knew I had lost.

  And it was absolutely infuriating. There wasn’t a chance in hell I’d let those nightmare creatures get to Lyren even if it meant I had to sign a deal with the devil.

  Fuck. I am definitely going to regret this, I thought to myself.

  "Lyren," I whispered, the hunger in my gut twisting into a snarl. "If I turn into some kind of monster, I just want you to know I tried my best to help."

  I took a deep breath and surrendered to the beast inside.

  The pressure expanded beneath my ribs. Then it felt like all of the energy inside me collapsed like a dying sun before rebirth. No witness would have seen anything unusual, other than a man with glowing purple eyes kneeling in a cave. But inside, violet lightning forked through my body, from my core to my fingertips.

  My nerves became live wires, my blood turned to liquid fire, and behind my sternum, something ferocious and terrible awakened.

  Every joint wrenched free of its sockets, bones elongated as they cracked like dry wood in a fire. I writhed on the cave floor, my muscles tearing themselves apart only to weave back together, denser and stronger.

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  The violet essence pouring through my veins was re-forging me from marrow to skin.

  Beneath the pain, I heard a cold, seductive whisper as if she was right next to me, promising even more power, promising not just survival but domination. All I had to do was let the beast into the deepest parts of my being, hinted that there was another layer beyond the torture I was already experiencing, but I ignored her.

  I couldn’t have made any rational decisions at the moment anyway.

  The pigment of my skin felt as though it were being leached away by a chemical fire, replaced by a pale, alabaster canvas that shimmered with a faint, oily sheen in the grotto's dim light. My hair felt like it was being pulled from my scalp as it grew with unnatural speed, falling in a shaggy, black mane around my face. My nails thickened, hardened, and pushed from my fingertips, elongating into wicked, obsidian claws.

  When the last wave of physical pain subsided, I was sweating and panting, relieved, but something about the transformation felt unfinished.

  The roaring torrent of violet power was still there flowing through my body, having settled into a current that flowed through channels that guided the power through my body. But it hadn’t done this on its own. Dim compared to the rage fire that was the violet energy was a second power. This second stream of power, white and gold, seemed to corral the raging purple energy anytime it tried to stray from these channels. I had no idea where it had come from or what its purpose was but it wrapped itself around the violet power taming and guiding it into something more manageable. Something I could control.

  While the violet current was a wild, thrashing thing. It felt like fur and teeth, tearing at my insides to make room for itself. The white current was the complete opposite. From this power, I got the distinct impression of a great, unblinking golden eye watching and judging the chaos from above.

  Without any warning the pain ceased. Trembling, I carefully stood trying to understand what had just happened to my body. Immediately I could tell I was taller than I had been before by several inches. My arms were long and thin but corded with muscle, ending in overly large hands with wicked black claws.

  Taking a step forward I stumbled, dragging my claws along the smooth stone of the cave wall, leaving four deep furrows in the solid stone. I stared at the wall dumbfounded but then I noticed something far more disturbing.

  The light of Lyren’s glowstone was casting my shadow against the rock. For a split second, it wasn't the shadow of a man, it was a massive beast.

  I blinked, and it was gone.

  That’s not ominous or anything. I thought, noting that my mind felt clear and I was still me inside as far as I could tell, despite my earlier worries that the power would erase my personality or something. But the same could not be said for my physical form.

  It felt incredibly strong, like I could rip the arms off a bear. My entire body felt like a coiled spring, ready to burst into action at any moment. I could feel every muscle fiber, every beat of my heart, even the flow of blood through my veins. It was an intoxicating sensation.

  However, my skin was so pale I was afraid I'd been turned into a vampire. I reached up to touch my face, but what I felt was much worse than just some pointy teeth. My jaw jutted forward like I had grown a short snout, my mouth filled with dozens of razor sharp teeth.

  I was about to start freaking out when a sound brought me back to the dire reality around me.

  Rip!

  The sound of the barrier beginning to tear spun me around.

  Reacting on instinct I snarled, a low, rumbling sound that I didn’t know I was capable of, my body instinctively dropping into a predatory crouch.

  What the hell? I thought, shocked by my own reaction. Where did that come from?

  One of the Darroch had pulled half its body through the barrier, which stretched and tore like a membrane under pressure. Another moment and it would break through completely. Lyren lay motionless on the grotto floor, vulnerable, defenseless.

  A surge of possessive rage flooded my system. You won’t fucking touch her. The intensity of my feelings startled me. This wasn't just being protective, this was something territorial, something primal. What the hell is happening to me?

  With a final wrenching squeal, the Darroch, smoking and covered in burns, broke free of the barrier's hold and without stopping immediately lunged at me. Its gaunt head and gaping jaws twisting toward me.

  My new claws extended on their own. Heat flooded my eyes, burning violet in their sockets as an inhuman roar ripped from my throat. Instinct driving me, I shot forward meeting the monster’s charge with one of my own.

  The Darroch crashed into me with incredible force for how thin its horrific body was. We slammed into each other, my new form barely moved as I completely stopped its momentum. Unfortunately, the creature wasn't nearly as shocked about that fact as I was. Without pausing it raked its knife-like claws across my torso, carving deep trenches through flesh and muscle.

  Pain seared across my chest, but I only roared in its face in response. It’ll take more than that you horror movie Gollum wannabe.

  When its horrific head lunged forward again, the ripped-open cheeks exposing clacking needle teeth, I dodged my head to the side before shoving the monstrosity back with my newfound strength. It flew back several feet, scratching its claws on the moss covered stone of the grotto to stop its momentum.

  Having created a bit of distance between us, I risked a glance downward. The ragged wound on my chest was already knitting closed, muscle fibers stitching themselves together before my eyes like living threads through torn fabric.

  The Darroch used my distraction and leaped at me, crossing the distance in less than a second.

  But I was fast now. I reacted just in time to grab its thin clawed arms. With considerable effort, I held them in between us to keep the monster from snapping its disgusting mouth at me again. I crushed the creature's arms in my iron grip causing it to click and squeal like some kind of mutated B-movie dinosaur.

  It tried twisting its body to get around the shield I’d made of its arms but I ducked under the lunge and used my hold on its arms to slam the Darroch face first into the cavern floor.

  Whoa, I could get used to this, I thought. Surprised at how my body reacted so quickly.

  The Darroch seemed dazed but shook it off quickly. Before it could right itself completely, I darted over and grabbed one of its arms. I wrenched it backward until bone splintered with a sickening crack that reverberated through the grotto.

  The creature's agonized howl pierced the air. With a powerful kick to my chest, it tore free of my grasp and circled me warily. One arm now hanging limp as its burning, hate-filled amber eyes locked on me. It leapt into the air like a cat pouncing on a mouse but whatever these beastlike instincts of my new form were they seem to know how to fight far better than myself.

  I dodged at the last second and slipped behind the anorexic looking monster. I held its remaining functional arm tight against its body while I wrapped my other arm around the creature's throat.

  It threw itself backward, slamming me into the cave wall. Stars exploded behind my eyes but I didn’t let go. The Darroch twisted its neck at an impossible angle, catching me by surprise as its jaws clamped down on my forearm.

  Pain shot through me like my veins were being filled with molten lead, but I still refused to release my grip. However, I realized my chokehold was useless. Did these things fucking things even breathe? I felt the sharp protrusions of blackened bone along its spine digging into my chest as it ground me into the wall and decided to try something different.

  I wrapped my legs around its waist, like a wrestler, trapping its good arm and freeing my own. My claws, smaller than the creature's but no less lethal. I raked them across its face, shredding the slick gray skin as easily as tearing through wet tissue. Black ichor oozed from the wounds as the monster screamed and tried to shake me off but my legs held on to it like I was riding a mechanical bull.

  It stumbled around the room while I tore into it over and over with my claws but the damn thing just wouldn’t go down. While we fought I saw the other Darroch were beginning to breach Lyren’s barrier.

  Overall I was dominating this fight but I doubted I could take on multiple of the creatures at once. I needed to end this quickly.

  Changing strategies, I seized the Darroch’s head in both hands and twisted with everything I had. To my shock the creature's head rotated almost a full 360 degrees like some nightmarish owl, but I kept twisting with all my strength until finally a sickening SNAP echoed through the grotto.

  The monster and I collapsed into a heap on the moist stone. I rolled to my back, exhausted and in massive amounts of pain, but I’d done it. Panting I turned. Next to me, a puddle of black ichor was oozing around the Darroch’s long snake-like tongue that lolled from its mouth.

  The thing’s face was horrific to look at, but like a car wreck I couldn’t look away. From this close its alien nature was fascinating, but as the burning amber light dimmed in their sockets I was shocked to see a pair of surprisingly human eyes staring blankly back from those deep sockets.