Riiip—!
His sharp black claw tips slashed savagely along the outside of his calf, slicing a long, deep rent through the cold, damp molting membrane still wrapped around his leg before it could fully harden!
[Tom Pie]'s left hand clamped onto the bone rock at the shore like a vise forged from iron, and terrifying explosive strength erupted from his waist and abdomen!
Snap! Snap!
The thick, sticky membrane stretched to its limit, then tore apart inch by inch, sliding off his legs with the black water like rotten mud. He drove his knee against the bone rock and rolled smartly outward, scrambling onto the dry bone slope amid a grating screech and finally breaking free of the shallow trough's clinging grip!
"Huff... hah..."
He knelt on one knee, panting hard, scalding white vapor spraying between his teeth.
Behind him, scraps of the torn birth membrane slipped silently into the pool. Black water continued its mechanical rise and fall between the channels of bone, as though the magnificent altar had merely seen off a traveler unwilling to sink into its depths.
But his entire body had undergone a staggering transformation.
Looking down, he saw that the three wounds on his left arm, once deep enough to expose bone, had vanished completely. Beneath fresh flesh covered in a thin layer of black scales, thick muscle fibers unleashed heart-stopping strength as he flexed his fingers.
Instinctively, he pushed lightly against the hard bone rock.
His body rose as lightly as the wind. With only the slight force from his fingers and palm, he vaulted onto a weathered bone beam more than half a person's height above him!
This incredible mobility, which almost defied gravity, was a world apart from the sneaky bastard who had been reduced to rolling around with a wounded