I had envisioned myself becoming a god of lightning-fueled death. Or, at the least, an avatar of electrical fury. The reality turned out to be somewhat less grandiose and a bit more disappointing. Or maybe vastly more disappointing.

As I hunted my next thunder drake, I discovered that my improved resistance to electrical attacks was just that, resistance and most certainly not immunity. So when I carelessly allowed myself to be struck by one of its bolts of lightning, instead of being killed, I was merely wracked with pain and involuntary muscle spasms and left disoriented. I barely recovered enough to evade the next strike and take to the air after it.

One thing did turn out better than expected: my integration of the thunder drake’s flying ability with my own through my flying form. My speed and maneuverability improved by a significant amount by incorporating the structures that enabled electrically charged movement of air into my existing wing structure. This allowed me to outmaneuver and quickly get above the thunder drake I’d been fighting, and dive down onto it, tackling it to the ground. We impacted with a wet snapping sound, and my opponent thrashed about limply, its limbs no longer seemingly able to operate properly. The fight ended not long after, and I rapidly ate the corpse.

I backed off on hunting the thunder drakes until night fell, then continued to hunt them in their nests. It really was far easier. Over the next two nights, I killed eleven adult thunder drakes, and wiped out eight nests.

With that, Dendra seemed satisfied.

After consuming all of those thunder drakes, and using the technique that Dendra taught me, I was able to bring my own electrical abilities nearly on par with a healthy adult of their species. This allowed me to further understand their limitations, and adjust my usage accordingly. For example: unless I was flying, my electrical attack was near useless beyond a few feet. It would simply arc to the ground, or whatever else was closest to my hands. I tried for hours to try and find some way to direct it, but the electricity followed its own path regardless. The thunder drakes’ ability really only lay in generating the electricity, not manipulating it. It would still make for a very useful addition to my close combat repertoire, but would likely never be a good ranged attack unless I was flying directly above my target, and not near any trees, which seemed to be the thunder drakes’ main mode of attack.

The electrical sense was interesting, and added a bit of information on top of my already keen senses, but it didn’t really give me any particular advantages. Perhaps if I didn’t have such innately strong magic perception, it could have become a lynchpin ability for me.

While I did not regret gaining their abilities in the least, I was still disappointed. I was a long ways away from challenging those beasts I saw up in the mountains.

Having concluded my business, I prepared to head back to my forest when Dendra spoke up.

“Have you ever gone aquatic? There’s a good lake not far from here to try it in. Plenty of rivers as well.”

Thinking back, I couldn’t recall a single time I’d gone into water other than to cross a stream or river. I’ve stalked prey that were at or on their way to water, but my body stays hydrated through the use of consumed magic aura, so I don't need to drink, myself. The fish in the streams and rivers in my forest never looked particularly large or strong, so I never bothered trying to eat them.

“Never tried.”

She squealed and clapped her hands. “Perfect! We’ll just need you to do a little bit of preparation, then we can see if you can make an aquatic form!”

“Okay. I can try it.”

She directed me toward a nearby river, a bit to the north. It was wide, shallow and slow. I took a few moments to appraise it. The sound of the water rushing over the river stones was actually quite relaxing.

“Okay, so, Shaper… By the way, I decided on your name: Shaper Mahkken. Shaper for your ability to shape your own form, and Mahkken is a word in an old world language for predator. I think it’s a good, strong name. Way better than just calling you chimera or 'Hey you!'. Anyways… Where was I? Oh, yea, so, try to catch a bunch of fish here. There shouldn’t be anything particularly interesting about the fish here in this part of the river, but what you want from them are their gills and fins. Just eat a bunch of them until you can manifest those traits in a form like you did to make your flying form.”

I grumbled a bit as I waded into the river, following the scatterbrained dryad’s instructions. I stood out near the center, then waited and watched the slightly chilly water that rushed past my calves and tail. I could see the occasional flitting form of a fish, but even the few that came near me, I was not quick enough to snatch with my claws. Dealing with the resistance of the water caused me to misjudge my timing, and the fish were surprisingly quick to react.

I stopped and thought for a few moments, trying to think of a better way to do it. James apparently had a fair amount of knowledge related to recreational fishing from his childhood, but I didn’t want to take the time to try to build a fishing rod or make fishing lines or even try building a trap. However, there was one thing of use. According to James’ memories, there was a practice in his world called electrofishing. It involved discharging electrical current into a body of water, stunning or killing fish in a small area.

I took several minutes and waited, staying as still as possible, hunched over with the tips of my claws dangling in the water. Once I saw more than a couple fish swimming around my legs, I let loose a blast of electricity. I felt a slight spasming in my legs, but mostly what I noticed was the several fish now floating belly up near me, lazily drifting with the current. I snatched them up real quick and took them ashore.

I took a few minutes to snatch up a few pieces of dry wood, and piled them up. Then I discharged a bolt into the pile, causing it to catch and burn. I took a moment to skewer the fish on sticks, then planted the sticks so the fish would roast next to the fire.

I didn’t feel particularly interested in Dendra’s plan, so I thought I’d take a little bit to try to make them taste delicious.

Once the fish were properly roasted, I ate them. I was slightly disappointed. They didn’t taste bad, and were actually pretty decent, but they were not nearly as good as what I expected from James’ memories. Perhaps I’d need to resort to using herbs and seasonings to enhance the flavor.

I went back out to the river, and kept shifting my position before discharging. I didn’t bother to cook the fish I caught then, I just ate them raw, which actually tasted about as good as they had when roasted, though different.

After I’d consumed a few dozen fish, Dendra told me to sit in a deeper part of the river, and try to focus on making an aquatic form. I humored her, since I had nothing better to do, and so far she had led me towards overall improvements, even if they fell short of my expectations. I settled in, sitting with my head just above the water, and the current pushing against my bulk.

I meditated and focused on understanding the various aspects of the fish I had eaten, then took some time to visualize what it would be like to move freely throughout the water, and to not need to surface for air.

I maintained the mental image until my body began to shift and take on the traits I’d imagined. Physically, I was much like my land form, aside from webbing between my fingers and toes, fins protruding on my forearms, and gills along my back. The quills on my tail were still present, though they stuck out less, giving my tail a bit more of a streamlined look. I ducked under the water, and stayed there for a few minutes to ensure that the gills worked fine. It was certainly a different kind of sensation, not needing to breathe but just moving water through my gills.

There wasn’t really enough room to test out my swimming, so I surfaced and waded back to the edge of the river, shifting back to my normal form.

“Alright! That was perfect! You make such a cute little fishy! Well, I’m not really in that big of a hurry, since you’re kind of entertaining, so I was thinking, would you like to try going to a lake? There should be some aquatic monsters there for you to hunt. As long as you promise to leave behind a viable population, I can lead you to it.”

I thought for a moment before agreeing. I would like to try out the aquatic form in a larger environment and see how I might use it for hunting.