The single sylble, a raw, desperate "No!", ripped through the quiet of Bathilda's subconscious, jolting her awake. The echo of a child's terror, the phantom scent of impending doom, clung to the air even as her eyes snapped open to bck. She was back in her cramped, self-made refuge, the walls a suffocating reminder of her ever-growing form.

  A sharp, painful thud resonated as her head collided with the low ceiling. Her body, once perfectly accommodated by this space, now forced her into a perpetual hunch. Fucking, shitty, stupidly-sized, useless body of a bastard bat! This is bullshit! she hissed, the frustration boiling over. The once snug hideout, her sanctuary for evolution, had become a prison.

  Turning towards the impossibly small entrance, she paused, a flicker of curiosity momentarily overriding her anger. I'm a lot bigger now, she mused, the obviousness of the statement a testament to the dramatic change. The tiny entrance proves that fact. My evolution didn't mention anything about my size changing though.

  Reaching out to begin the borious task of excavating the entrance, her hand froze mid-air. An arm, distinct and separate from her wings, moved forward. Covered in coarse, wiry hair, it was a startling anomaly, a grotesque addition she couldn't believe she'd missed. Well, that's disturbing! I look like I'm Mrs. Big Foot, but... she thought, a dark humor creeping into her tone.

  She cast (Enhanced Echolocation), a familiar skill that now offered a vastly different perspective. The echoes painted a vivid, horrifying picture of her transformed self. For the first time since arriving on this alien world, Bathilda truly took in herself.

  The sight was a grotesque tapestry of monstrous features. Her wings, now tipped with vicious spikes, dwarfed her already substantial frame. But it was the arms, the hairy, cwed appendages, that truly stole the show. "I've got arms and wings now!? Vampire Bat for the win!" she roared, her voice a guttural rasp.

  Another head-banging collision with the ceiling dampened her momentary triumph. Her joy, however, quickly returned. She was no longer confined to the limitations of bat-like locomotion. Actual, proper-sized legs, ending in cwed feet, supported her weight. Yes. Fucking yes. I knew it! Well I didn't know it, but I was definitely hoping for it!

  A maniacal ugh echoed through the cramped space. She was more than just a bat now, more than just a monster. She was... something else. Something terrifyingly new.

  Hey!? Why did you say I looked scarier now? she demanded, her tone ced with sudden indignation. The memory of Hiro's casual observation, made before she'd succumbed to sleep, now rankled. She was ecstatic with her new form, even if it was a hairy, cwed monstrosity.

  "Have you looked at your face? It's horrifying!" Hiro retorted, his voice a disembodied echo within her mind.

  Bathilda, caught up in the euphoria of her new limbs, had indeed neglected to examine her face. Now, she did.

  Well shit! I guess I'm back to not looking at myself again then.

  Human eyes, slightly above the elongated snout, stared back at her. But above those, a second pair, crimson and pupil-less, glowed with an unsettling intensity. Below the crooked nose, a maw filled with rows of needle-sharp teeth stretched into a grotesque grin. Her entire body was covered in short, bristly hair, save for the sparse, wiry strands that sprouted from her scalp. And the ears, a bizarre hybrid of bat and human, gave her an almost elvish appearance.

  No one is approaching this face. Not without wanting to slice it up, that is, but I quite like the ears, she thought, a strange fondness for the bizarre appendages creeping in.

  "It could be worse," Hiro offered, a feeble attempt at consotion.

  How, Hiro? How could I look any worse? I might have a few human aspects now... Oh, shit. I can see. I can fucking see! Her eyes, wide and disbelieving, fixed on the entrance to her base. After an eternity of darkness, the sudden rush of sight was almost blinding, the crity was overwhelming.

  It shows how good I've become at seeing through skills, but I still can't believe I missed that. Anyway, back to the subject, how could I look worse than this? Maybe my next evolution will humanise me some more, but right now, I'm the picture that represents scary monsters in children stories. How could it be worse than that?

  "You could be a Brat."

  ...Well... I stand corrected. That would actually be worse than this... Vampire-type-human-thingy, if that's even what it is. Is this what vampires look like on your world?

  "I'm sorry to say that I don't actually know what a vampire is."

  "They're supposed to be beautiful and shiny and gorgeous and radiant... And sexy as hell too," she sighed, her voice still raspy, fangs glinting in the dim light.

  "You still have more evolutions to go through, right? It should be fine," Hiro said, trying to reignite her motivation.

  "Yeah, I do... The problem though, is the level requirements keeps rising. This time, I probably need to hit level fifty to reach my evolution and what if I still don't become what I really-really-really want to be? Huh?

  "The level cap after that will probably be a hundred. A hundred! One hundred is a huge number! Especially when I already feel like I've been in this pce forever! How much time would I have to put in to reach that number? A fuck load. That's how much! But..." she sighed, "What else am I going to do? I'm not going to sit here and starve am I? I'm not stupid. I'm just really, really, really annoyed right now."

  Summoning a fresh clone, Hiro found himself ejected from Bathilda's mind, his consciousness transferred to the smaller, hairy form. "How did you do that?" he asked, his voice ced with panic.

  "Don't worry, you can come back ter. For now, four arms are better than two, so get digging," she commanded, pointing towards the blocked entrance.

  "So you're not giving up? Yes! I really didn't want to die down down here in this pce," Hiro excimed, a wide, toothy grin spreading across his face.

  "Hiro. Please don't smile. Our face is already bad enough as it is without having to see all those teeth."

  "I know right. This is a lot of teeth."

  "More digging, less smiling." Bathilda warned, her four eyes narrowing.

  "Yes, mam."

  Together, they dug, pushed, and cwed at the earth, finally breaking through the barrier. Stepping out onto the ledge, Bathilda surveyed the pit below. The red-stained floor, devoid of corpses, was a testament to the rats' voracious appetite.

  A hail of stones was unched into the air as the Barts, enraged by her appearance, unched their primitive assault. Bathilda retreated, biding her time.

  "Is that the next problem?" Hiro whispered.

  "No. I thought of it while we were excavating the doorway and I was looking at you. The problem is seeing if these wings fly as well as the st set did. The others were all attached in a different pce, but it's too small in there to test."

  "Alright! How do we do..."

  Before he could finish, Bathilda shoved him off the ledge. "You pushed me!" Hiro cried, his voice a mix of shock and indignation. He was, however, treading air with minimal effort. A stark improvement from his st attempt.

  "You'll get over it. Plus, you can't die." Her off-handed comment was met with a frown. "Right, if it's that easy, let's go."

  Launching herself into the air, Bathilda unleashed a torrent of (Wing Ssh+) at the Barts below. The bdes of air ripped through the crowd, their screams echoing through the pit. "Haha, let the Bartpocolypse begin," she roared, Hiro in the clone joining her in the aerial assault. The XP was needed, and the revenge was sweet.