Happy that my plan worked out so well, I went over to his collapsed body and melted the spiles out of his body. The reason I chose spikes is that I realized that the spikes on the forearm of the Great Ape species could extend outwards and retract, causing puncturing woods with every hit. Thinking this would be a good enough wound to make it seem like he is barely alive, but could die any second, I wasted no time memorizing him.
This is a very difficult process of Memorizing full humanoid anatomy and would have been near impossible for me when I was in the temple. Had I not used it profusely and gotten many opportunities to do so, I would never be in this situation. The luck I have experienced is unbelievable. Putting all that aside, I focused intently on my work. Starting from toe to head, which is less complicated to more complicated, I worked on the bones first.
There are 206 bones in a human body, so there must be more in Beastkin due to their ears and tail. Surprisingly, the bone structure of Best is close to humans, as the ears only have 2 bones in each, which help it stand up and droop, and the tail has 8 consecutive bones, with tendons in them, like cats and dogs, only bigger. Next was the hard part. The nervous system. So many intricate systems that I am surprised I was able to memorize them.
Anyways, there is so much more to Memorize that I blacked out for a bit. When I came back to my senses, I sat up. Wait a second. How could I be sitting? Seeing that I was still in the forest, I was immediately scared. I could see! That must mean that the Memorization immediately transformed me into the Elder. And, indeed, looking down to my left was the bloodied body of the Elder. Flexing out my newly made hands, my legs, and my other senses, I felt complete again.
Sniffing the cool air, I could finally tell what time of day it is again. In this instance, it is nighttime. Flipping off to my knees, I shakily tried to raise one leg into a one-knee kneeling position. Seeing that I was able to maintain a somewhat stable balance, I tried standing up. That is when I knew I pushed too far. Falling straight onto my ass, I realized that I did not feel any pain from that.
It would seem that although I memorized the nervous system, I did not memorize the brain, which is the control center. With that, I could not receive any pain signals. So that is a major plus. Still, memorizing the blood vessel system is a good thing to do if I want to trick people into thinking I am of that species, which is the next step in my plan.
To test something out, I stuck my new hand into my chest at full force. Flinching out of reflex, I realize that my hand sunk right through me. I guess being human still has its disadvantages even after years. I will need to work on that. Shaking around my hand in the new body, I realized that I could still control the spores, even in this compounded state.
Taking my hand out of my chest with a poof, which released some spores, an interesting thing happened. Without me willing them to do anything, they immediately reformed into the shape of Gallen. I guess this is another perk of the memorization skill. I will have to check up on that later. Now, it is time to test out the abilities of this transformation and how much I can utilize it.
First off is the manipulation test. Holding up my hand, I willed the finger to disassemble and create a drip effect that makes the spores fall from my hand. Unsurprisingly, it did work. clumps of my spores fell from my hand in a fluid motion, almost making my finger look like a wax candle melting. Seeing this happen, I must have leveled up or something because it is so much easier for me to manipulate my spores now than before.
With automatically forming back into the shape of a hand, I could not wait to test out all of its abilities. From then on, one would go into a clearing in the middle of the forest, they would see a Beastkin dancing and undulating strangely for hours on end, surrounded by death, destruction, and blood. So much blood.
With the sun rising, I stood up with ease, my horse of practice paying off. Implanting spores of the dead Apes, I grabbed the clothes off Gallen and put them on, molding my spores into the wounds that Gallen had. It was a good call to memorize the blood as well, or else this would not have worked. Going around and grabbing all of the dead Beastkin, I filled them onto my back, or the back of Gallen, which I was impersonating.
Why am I doing this? It would make the struggle more believable and then I will be able to convince them that I am Indeed Gallen, the village Elder. With newfound power and extra muscle I can make with my spores, I ran as fast as I could to the outskirts of the village, which only took me about 2 minutes to get there.
Making my gait shaky and stumbling, I walked through the village entrance, screaming 'I'm Sorry!'. The reason for this is to gather as much attention as I can so that they would know that the fighting force is dead. With hundreds of people coming out of their humble houses and market stalls, I slowly crumbled to my knees, falling flat on my face, spilling my body across the ground.
Screams resounded through the village square, the shock of their best warriors dying forever etched in their minds. Many fell to their knees, and the village was filled with weeping and silent mourning.
"I defeated them… I defeated them. We are safe-AUGHHH!!!" I mumbled, faking massive pain. Coughing up fake blood, I tried my hardest to convince the Beastkin of this village that I am dying. Putting a sense of hope out there that the threat has been vanquished at the cost of my life and the lives of the fighting force made a mix of happiness and sadness.
Drawing my last breath, my eyes stopped moving, as well as my heart. With many people shouting Gallen's name, the crowd of villagers increased. Minutes later, an elderly female cat girl, looking around 80, pushed through the crown and came to my side. Checking my pulse, which I don't have because I'm made of spores, she concluded I was biologically dead.
Head down, she slowly stood up and announced to the crown that I had passed away. The wails grew louder and more people joined until almost everyone from the village came around this group of dead soldiers. Many stumbling back in disbelief, the brave few came forward and carried me, Jaren, and the others away to a different part of the village.
Going to the familiar road to the village Elders hut, they laid us down in the meadow surrounding it, and brought out shovels from nearby markets. Digging for horses, they finally managed to dig six foot deep holes, 8 in total. Laying 4 of the 8 soldiers into the holes, some screaming came from atop the hill, from inside Gallen's hut.
Three little girls came rushing down the hill, tears streaming down their faces, as well as snot and mucus.