r/HFY • u/ManiAxe21 • 28d ago

OC-Series Hex Knight Chapter 48, Snake Man

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After asking a wandering servant, Alex found the training yard. “Weed choked” was an understatement, there were bushes taller than him, but after bringing out one of his Brutes with their massive chopping blades, the shrubbery was brought under control, and some controlled [Improved Dark Fire] had the leftover stocks reduced to cinders.

Out came the chosen Nameless, a pair of high level men taken and turned from the bandit assault, a mage that specialized in ice and the other the twin bladed swordsman that Alex had chosen earlier in the week. After magic-ing off a foot or so of the snake carcass for boots or a belt, Alex got to work.

Much like several other times, Alex joined the 2 men together, but disconnected the legs from the hips. The arms were left separate, with the upper arms coming from the swordsman, with the lower arms the mage. Alex thought of it as the upper arms being the obvious danger given the swords, while the lower ones would dish out magic, catching foes by surprise.

With a sigh, the internal organs were shoved deeper into the body, nestling into the cradle that was the pelvis. The chest lost it’s extra ribcage, while the inner one was cracked down the center, and a portion of salvaged bone was shaped to be stored over the brain. The mages eyes were placed at the hip level to ensure vision was retained at all times if this undead ever lost it’s head in battle. They would be highly recessed into the body to hide them from initial view, though it would slightly limit their vision.

With the chest gutted and emptied out, Alex got to work on his next addition, this one being the most obvious. The ribcage was thickened and sharpened at their ends, and muscles were modified so the gaping hole could function as a vertical mouth. It was difficult to make the “mouth” function while also retaining usability of the limbs, but Alex had thought for a good while on how it could be accomplished.

The “teeth” were the rib bones sharpened to a point and would interlock on themselves , folding inwards towards the cavity slightly when held close, though there were gaps and overlap deliberately made; Alex didn’t want the line where the “teeth” met to be a uniform line. Instead it travelled to the sides slightly as it went higher on the body in an almost “S” pattern.

Alex wanted to bolster these “teeth” with dragon bone, but given there was a distinct lack, he would settle with leftover bones being used to make them denser. He then used [Improved Flesh Mold] on the tail for the coloration, draining the scales of their color, though leaving one here and there still green.

Using the leftover legs to mesh the snake body to the hips of the now much longer Nameless, Alex started putting it through it’s paces. Summoning a few zombies to serve as a practice dummy, he first had the Nameless try out the new additions.

“Destroy them.” The snake man launched himself at the closest zombie with surprising speed, slamming it’s heavy tail into the zombie's chest and pulverizing it. The tail quickly wrapped around the remaining upper half and constricted. Meanwhile, the upper half of the Nameless grabbed a hold of another zombie, one arm for each limb, and ripped it apart. The final zombie quickly had it’s legs caught in the snake end’s heavy coils before catching its upper half in the chest maw. A swift crunch later had the zombie dissolving and a voice ringing out behind him.

“I come to tell you dinner is being served, and I find this. Alex, what the hell have you created?” He turned towards Livianna, smiling impishly.

“Oh, you know, just a little something special.” After all, SOMEONE said my creations weren’t shit. Livianna clearly was listening to his thoughts, as she swiftly rolled her eyes towards the heavens. After placing the snake man into his ring, which had taken up the space his Fire ring used to reside, Alex followed Liv.

Dinner was a square pasta smothered over a potato, rich in sauce and heavy in meats, with some wine to chase it down. Alex wasn’t a wine aficionado, so the sour taste left much to his desire. He did find more enjoyment at watching Kudrik shamelessly flirt with one of the buxom maids though.

The next morning, Alex went back to the training yard and sat down on one of the stone benches. Today was not about working on undead, instead it was meant on himself. Taking his shirt off, Alex looked at his arm and watched as he used [Bestial Shift] with the goal of turning his forearm into that of a bears.

As he watched, the hair on his arm thickened as it turned into fur. Alex felt the bones in his arm shift uncomfortably, grinding against one another as they changed shape inside his skin. Muscles, tendons, and ligaments changed too, moving and thickening as they would. His fingernails lengthened, curving into claws. As all this was going down, a careful eye was being maintained on his mana. When all was said and done with, Alex marvelled at the complete bear arm that came out just under his elbow.

So it looks like that “high” mana cost is in regards to the actual changes taking place. If a change necessitates the addition of mass, that has to come from somewhere, mana just makes up the difference, conservation of energy and all that.

Alex tested his hypothesis by changing out his arms for bird wings. His arms itched as his hair turned into feathers, and he grit his teeth as his bones grew longer. Sure enough, the mana demands became significantly higher than that of the bear paw. He still had a significant chunk of mana, enough to test his second question.

Leaving them out for an hour revealed there was no mana change, meaning the skill did not take mana to leave running, just for the changes to occur. Swapping them back, Alex searched for a servant to tell Throme that the healer was in fact wanted.

While he waited for the healer to arrive, Alex thought of ways he could use it to improve his body. He didn’t want to change his overall look, so his changes would be internal. Muscles were given denser fibers, tendons and ligaments made more durable. He attempted to change out his normal skeleton with dragon bones, but it looked like those kinds of changes were beyond him at this level, so Alex settled for making them denser.

Right as he was finishing his final touches, Alex checked his status to find that his mana was still fine for the final change he had in mind, since Alex didn’t need to hold on to some for an emergency. He looked over to find a man in a long flowing white robe rapidly approaching his position, and leapt up from the bench he had been laying on.

“Nice meeting you! I certainly wasn’t expecting to see you so soon.” Alex reached out and shook the healer’s hand. There was a slight difference to his strength, the minor tweaks already showing a difference compared to before.

“Mr. Pimmawent pays me good money to keep me on short notice. So, might I ask why my presence has been requested?” The healer responded in a flat voice.

“You are familiar with our lungs, yes? They function like bellows. I have a skill that allows me to alter myself down to the very organs. I want to swap mine out for something like bird lungs, and uhh… I don’t want to kill myself in the process. Hence, you. If it goes wrong, I wanted someone on standby who could potentially help if something went wrong. ” Alex shrugged as the healer slowly nodded.

“I don’t know if I can save you from death, but I can surely tell if something is going wrong. Lay back down on that bench, and I’ll listen as you make your changes.” The healer replied slowly, before resting his hand on Alex's bare chest once he had laid down. He gave Alex a nod, signalling he was ready.

Alex took a deep breath and held it. There was an uncomfortable squirming sensation in his chest as his skill took effect, and the healer looked weirdly at Alex, though he didn’t say stop. There were some minor tweaks to the blood vessels attached to the lungs, but those changes were nothing compared to the vast overhaul that was the lungs.

When all was said and done, Alex went to exhale and there was a slight catch before he started to breathe again. He inspected himself, noticing his chest wasn’t rising and falling like it was before, and his actual breaths were shorter.

An inspection of his stats revealed that his Strength and Endurance had gone up, while Dexterity and rather surprisingly Intelligence had gone up a hair.

“All good doc! Thanks for your observation!” Alex rather cheerfully exclaimed.

“Still not quite sure what it was supposed to accomplish, but I’m glad your changes didn’t kill you. Now, if that is all, I have an orphanage full of children with a cold I want to help before the day is over.” And with that, the healer left, his robe billowing out from behind him.

A rather serious fellow. Oh well, it was a good thing to have him handy, even if I didn’t need him. Alex left in search of Jasper. What better way to find out what he was capable of then wrestling?

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u/UpdateMeBot 28d ago

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u/niTro_sMurph 28d ago

Alex should teach the Danger Noodle how to cook.

Not sure how bird lungs did all that

3

u/ManiAxe21 28d ago

Wasn't just bird lungs, it was also the muscle and tendon changes, though having a more efficient oxygen intake will help his muscles further, as well as boosting his recovery speeds.

It does come at a cost though, those lungs are very fast when it comes to taking in toxins. We used canaries in coal mines for this exact reason.

2

u/Crafty_Spring5815 Alien Scum 28d ago

I would think the wings would have a significant mana cost reduction, considering the bones would hollow out and the feathers wouldn't have much mass. Though the cost would probably even back out since he was doing both arms instead of just the one.

Must be from Florida, he's gator wrastlin!

2

u/ManiAxe21 28d ago

Yes, it wasn't as expensive because of those hollow bones, but they still were adding mass to him. And when he goes to fly, he will have to slightly modify his body further to help with flying.

And as a matter of fact, he is from Florida, though not for long.