Lucas groaned, his whole body aching as if he had been running for days or somehow got stretched, and now he didn't quite fit his body.
He tried to open his eyes, but darkness crowded him, and he brought his hand to his face to rub it. Something nagged at him. Something important. 'A dream?' His thoughts were slow.
And then everything slammed into him. One person had just killed another in front of him. He tried to process that when another bundle of memories slammed into him like a hammer to an unprotected skull.
And more. Some unknown memories forced their way into his head, and he saw white as a splitting headache cleaved his brain into two.
Lucas... Kyrexiel... Lucas opened his eyes with a gasp and saw death in the shape of a war axe coming for his head. He didn't think; he had no time to as his body responded.
Kyrexiel jerked away from the metal bed he was lying on, faster than he thought possible, and crouched, both hands touching the ground. He growled, a deep rumble that came out of his mouth.
Lucas blinked and pushed his purple hair out of the way. He blinked again. 'Purple? When did my hair turn purple? Wait... who is Kyrexiel? I am Kyrexiel. No, Lucas!' His thoughts spun, and his eyes rolled as his headache intensified.
But the axe, and the owner—a metal golem—followed him, sending an overhead chop that Lucas thought would take his head off. But like before, his body reacted. He jerked back and then forward as if to ram the attacker with a weapon, but his brain came up short as he realized he wasn't holding any weapon.
His action brought him so close to the golem that he was able to smell the metal it was made from. Then his "Lucas" brain got in the way, and he jerked back, muttering in panic, "I'm crazy, I'm crazy! The Arcane must have done something with the circle! Maybe I should have believed in magic!"
Lucas was losing it, but the golem continued towards him with mechanical efficiency, its axe in its right hand held high. Something occurred to him then. He was not dreaming, and if he didn't do anything now, he would die.
That thought brought everything into focus. "Alright, a new set of goals for me. Kill the golem, know what is going on, and get the fuck out."
That calmed him. The thought that he needed himself, that he had something to do, made him calm down. His eyes narrowed at the monster, and some memories tickled into him—this is a metal golem, usually made with a set of instructions like "kill all," and this one was no different. They usually have a source of energy, their core, and crushing that is the same as killing it.
They are usually slow unless they are specifically made ones. Kyrexiel smiled. "You underestimated me too much, Elders." Lucas blinked. Kyrexiel? Elders?
He made a mental note to check himself for madness in the hospital when he got out of here. But for now, he would take from his madness and escape death.
He looked at his surroundings. It was dark, but his eyes easily picked up everything as if it was day. He was in a room, big with a lot of space.
The only thing in the room except for Lucas and the golem was the table he was lying on. Nothing except for smooth stone. No weapon.
The mad part of his brain quickly thought about using the table as a weapon, but Lucas looked at it doubtfully. He could never lift that bulky thing. He knew his own strength.
The golem was lumbering towards him, and it was on him before he could spell his name. Lucas turned and ran; the room was big enough for that.
He searched for a door, but the wall was smooth stone.
"I'm fucked," he whispered, and it came out strange from his mouth because of the fangs in his mouth. Wait. Fangs? Lucas brought his hand to his mouth to touch it and felt his sharp, long fangs. In fact, all the teeth in his mouth were sharp.
He created more space between him and the golem. "Okay. Purple hair, fangs, strange memories, and..." he looked at his hand. It was slender, dark brown, and tipped with short claws.
"Where the fuck am I?" Lucas looked at the rest of his body. He was still the same height, but his body was strange. First, the color of his skin was now dark brown. He was dressed in a white but now brown robe, and he wore no shoes.
Something came to mind then, something he read in a novel about some weak boy waking up in another body in another world. Lucas scowled. "I'm not some weak bullied boy!"
And then the golem came to a shuddering stop, and the mad part of Lucas tingled as a memory came to him. Golems can use bursts of explosive power taken directly from their core. And they need to be motionless to do it.
"No," Lucas whispered. As Lucas, he knew he might just be about to be crushed to death, but his now mad part with the strange memories was confident he could pull through.
Lucas had been avoiding prodding the mad part of his head; he tried it once, and he nearly fell with the headache. So he waited for the memories to come naturally.
He tensed, standing in front of the golem with all his muscles strung tight and ready. Lucas waited. This body, Kyrexiel's body, was strong. Unlike his human one. Wait. Kyrexiel? Human?
He felt the headache press against his eyes, and he shook it off. He had to stop thinking and defeat this walking metal.
Lucas relaxed his hand as the strange memories whispered to him. His body listened naturally, as if he had done this hundreds of times.
The golem started to glow. It came from the head, a small white dot that got bigger in seconds and sounded like the hum of a plane taking off. Kyrexiel understood why. It was glowing because it was taking power from its core.
And the core was in its head. That was why golems always hesitate to use the explosive power, because it will show where their cores are hidden.
"Good. All I have to do is bust that head open," Lucas muttered. He was shaking inside, but the strange body he was in lacked no composure.
The good thing about the mad part of his brain was that it told him how he could fight the golem and how dangerous it was. A simple mistake could kill him.
They faced each other until the sound coming out of the golem reached its climax, and then it exploded forward, a thing of metal and flashing axe.
Lucas... Kyrexiel was also a blur as he met it. He stopped thinking and let the other memory take over. What he was doing was a game of timing because immediately they reached the space where they should collide, he jumped, shifted all his weight, and threw a punch at the golem's right hand as he flew above it.
The golem stopped and turned, but it was too late as Lucas already snatched the axe before it reached the floor. He stood, his lean form straightened. He flashed his fangs at the golem. "Be thankful that my body is not at its peak. For that, you have a few seconds more to live."
Lucas barely blinked as he spoke. It was perfectly normal for him to talk like that. His right even. He understood all this because the memories were now like his own. As if he lived them. He shuddered. Maybe all this was still a dream.
The golem looked at its right hand and then clenched it tight to make a fist.
Lucas was breathing hard. "When last have I... have Kyrexiel done this much work?" Lucas was fit in his body on Earth, but this body looked and felt like something used for a while.
He gripped the axe tight, and it reminded his body of his real weapon. This would have to be enough for now. Kyrexiel's way of fighting was not to waste any movement but instead use all of it to fight.
He shifted on the balls of his feet. He checked the length of the axe, and a memory tickled in. Of when he started learning fighting on the training grounds with his father. Lucas shook his head. 'When Kyrexiel started learning fighting,' he thought furiously.
But then he didn't have time to think again because the golem was on the move again, rushing forward like a wall. Lucas took the memory and left the rest for the body.
The memory was when Kyrexiel was taught how to use an opponent's power against them. So Lucas ran forward and raised the axe as if he was going for a chop.
But when the golem came within distance, Lucas slowed and changed his stance. He held the axe with both hands and lifted it up to the golem's face.
The golem collided with it, face first. Too fast to avoid it, and metal tore with a whine. And the body hit the floor with a thud.
Lucas was breathing hard. "Okay, okay. I am in another world and in another body. And I'm so, so, fucked." The brief glances he saw of the memories were enough to firm his conviction to that.