These Eldritch Hips – (Modbased)Litrpg

This was different. This was so, so different. It was the only thought that came to mind. The only truth Celia knew. that this transformation, this sudden gaining, was different. As, for once, there was no pain. No burning of flesh and blood. No phantom of what she once was consumed in the glory of what was new. It simply was.

And what it was, was power. Instinct. Knowledge of a depth she had never once considered the existence of. As if she had seen the abyss and it had given her a part of it.

Her everything hungered to use it, and she was loath to deny the hunger within her core now.

The mark at her side came alight. Rings of webbed flame burning a traitorous blue surrounding a core of red. Its power flowed through her. Like a network of heat and conceptual connection, a bridge between her and a deeper meaning she had yet to fully grasp.

But here and now she understood a part. And that was this.

She was meant to change. And she willed it so. Mark burning bright as its power took hold of her. The cobalt-colored flames twisting around, within, and all about her. Their touch working all throughout her form and causing it to shift as she willed, much to Dreg's alarm. Voice rising a pitch as he tried to twist away from them. An effort in futility, as they flowed around him and back into her. Causing at her mental command a pair of bloodred wings to erupt out her back. They molded themselves in mirror image of a wasp's, a pair of four, yet jagged instead of round.

"Marked!" She heard Dreg yell, grip on her back loosening.

She had a tentacle wrap him closer. Then without any further ado, Celia took flight. Kicking off the ground and rising into the air with a cloud of dust at her back and the buzz of self-made flight in her ears.

And she found it exhilarating. A smile blooming on her face as she rose above the trees. Joy swelling in her chest as her ascent picked up speed, and sudden determination to make a difference as she got closer to the battle raging overhead.

This may not have been exactly what she had been hoping for today, but it was more than welcome. At least that was what she told herself before stopping a moment to take a glance over at the ocean. Eyes staring intensely at the blue waves out in the distance, and the turbulence of a coming storm. At the promise of a way back home.

She could reach it now. She could fly there herself. She could go home.

All it would require was abandoning Haet and his crew to their fate. A fate that she was pretty sure wasn't bad. They were strong, they could and likely would manage.

"What hold up?" Dreg asked, jolting her out of her thoughts. "Forget to fly already?"

"No." She said after a moment, before beginning her ascent once again. "Just got distracted is all."

After this, she promised herself. After this she would go to the ocean. But first, she would keep the morals her father - unfortunately - instilled in her and help the undead dragon ship full of, probably, man eating monsters. Albeit somewhat begrudgingly.

At least that was what she told herself, and partially hoped for, as she approached. Though she doubted her chances of success more and more as she got closer. As there were quite a few of the giant eagle-slash-wasp hybrids in the air. A cloud of them really, with claws and stingers and vicious mandibles.

But there was no use complaining about it. So, with a last glance cast in the direction of the ocean, Celia flew into the horde. Eyes locked onto her first target, an eagle wasp that was already wounded. Sporting a gash in its side and one broken wing. Its injured condition only barely allowing it to fly. Which wasn't much of an issue for the overgrown pest, as it freely launched giant spikes from its body that it threw at the dragon from afar.

Celia approached it from below. Claws aimed at its thorax as she collided with it. Only for the wasp to notice her and twist out of the way a second before she could properly rip into it. Which isn't to say that it got away unharmed. As Celia managed to grab one of its hind birdlike legs and rip it off of the enormous insect. Resulting in an insectoid screech of pain. A cry so loud that it physically shook Celia, rattling her about for a minute as she flew there.

But the more important aspect of its violent shriek came a moment after. When a small contingent of its kin came to its aid. And they quickly taught Celia another lesson of their biology, and likely a trait every species of the beyond shared in common.

They were anything but cutouts of each other. As one of them had over half of his body being more eagle than the others. Granting him a muscled feather colored front most leg, and a proper pair of eagle wings hanging above four more traditional insectoid ones. He also had a beak.

While beside him their flew a member of his species that was almost entirely all wasp, save for one set of his legs being talons, and a vicious pair of hooked tentacles growing out his front. But it was the third member of their crew that was the most striking. It was far more typical in its shape than its fellows, and much more importantly it was armed, with its front two limbs fusing together into some sort of canon. A cannon that it was aiming right at her as they flew to their kins aid.

Celia took that as her cue for evasive maneuvers. Wings suddenly flitting through the air with far more force than before as she swerved out of the way. Narrowly avoiding a deluge of black spines and a red-hot ball of what looked to be wax.

In the process of her erratic dodging Celia felt her wing repeatedly slap Dreg behind her as he held on for dear life. And with good reason, as Celia quickly discovered that actually flying through the air wasn't nearly as easy as it looked. With her often swerving in directions she hadn't meant to go in. Which more than once nearly got her skewered. But that was only one of her problems. As the other two members of their four-man brigade swooped into melee range. And suddenly Celia found herself having to dodge an aerial eagle winged giant and a pair of vicious hooks that with moved with far more ease than even their appearance suggested.

And it wasn't long at all till she wound up getting hit. A hook tearing into her side before pulling her in close. A scream of pain escaping her as she was reeled in. Only for Dreg to come to her rescue. Breaking free of her tentacle before leaping at the wasp and delivering a powerful kick to its face.

A kick so strong that it created a shockwave that re-disintegrated his leg and sent Celia flying in the other direction. She tumbled through the air, flipping end over end. Which finally granted her a chance to actually a glimpse of her recently expanded derriere. And what she saw gave immense credence to Dreg's description. She was pretty big.

But here was neither the time nor place to ruminate on the size of her behind.

Instead, she quickly arrested her own momentum and straightened herself out. And a second after that the big one came right at her. Flying straight at her, beak jamming into and through her shoulder. Hands wrapping around it before she retaliated in kind, striking out with her now free tentacle. The forked limb tearing through the Eagle wasp's beak as well as it had through stone. Which was very easily. But her opponent didn't give up that easily and switched from attacking with his beak to his stinger. Backing up and leveling his thorax at her like one might a sword.

Taken by a sudden bout of inspiration, Celia met him in kind by willing her arm to become a blade of jagged teeth. Which taught her the first limitation of her new skill.

She could only morph one part of her body at a time.

And without any wings to hold her aloft she was quickly reunited with her oldest and worst enemy.

Gravity.