Michael stood before Beginning’s massive kneeling form and let the silence stretch a little longer.
Then he lifted his hand once more.
"Reduce to my size," he said simply.
He expected the change. At least from Beginning.
But what happened next made him still.
All five creatures began to shrink.
Not just Beginning.
Not just Lily.
All five.
Lucky’s towering, draconic-wolf fra compressed inward, his dense, muscled form lightening as his massive limbs folded and narrowed, bones shifting without sound.
Gale’s massive wings folded tighter, his leonine haunches shrinking smoothly beneath his feathered bulk.
Prince’s armored fur lost none of its sheen, but diminished in scale.
Within seconds, the towering monsters beca more... manageable.
Michael’s brows lifted.
He wasn’t shocked that Beginning and Lily could do it—they’d demonstrated size manipulation before—but the others?
Then realization hit him.
His eyes flicked toward the panel in his mind—the interface that governed their awakened abilities.
There it was.
A skill shared by all five.
Skill: Transformation
Allows the user to assu an alternate form.
Michael’s gaze remained fixed on the five figures now standing at human scale but his mind wasn’t settled.
> "Allows the user to assu an alternate form."
This was the skill description and it didn’t seem like it had anything to do with size manipulation.
And yet... all five of them had responded to his command to reduce in size.
Even the three—Lucky, Prince, and Gale—who had never shown size-manipulation ability before.
Michael crossed his arms slowly, suspicion forming like mist behind his eyes.
Could it be... sothing else?
Michael narrowed his gaze.
He rembered how all Rank 2 Awakeners gained flight as a passive threshold.
And now, watching his undead shrink in unison, the thought ford clearly.
What if Rank 3 monsters... could inherently manipulate their size?
Maybe not endlessly. Maybe not beyond their maximum. But beneath it?
Yes. That seed likely.
The transformation skill sounded like sothing else.
Michael turned his gaze toward Prince.
The powerful wolf stood poised, seven feet tall now.
Michael raised a hand, voice steady.
"Prince," he said. "Return to your previous size."
There was no delay.
The earth beneath Prince’s paws shifted.
And then he grew.
Fur rippled. Bones expanded with fluid power. Mana surged like a storm through the creature.
Six feet.
Eight.
Ten.
In seconds, Prince was once more the hulking beast that had bowed before him just monts earlier—massive, armored in scale-like fur, standing nearly seven ters tall.
Michael’s lips curved faintly as he studied Prince. Then he gave another command, voice firm.
"Bigger. Grow more."
Prince’s pupils glimred with green light before he slowly shook his massive head.
Michael said nothing. Instead, he turned toward the others. Lucky and Gale.
"Increase."
The two did just as instructed.
But when it ca ti for them to increase past their original size... they couldn’t.
That limitation gave Michael pause.
It still didn’t prove that the ability wasn’t tied to the [Transformation] skill. The lack of upward scaling could simply be a feature of the skill.
Maybe he had been overthinking it.
After all, both Beginning and Lily had their traits by nature. Perhaps their ability to manipulate their size had clouded his judgnt.
Still... there was a way to confirm the truth.
A direct thod.
Thanks to the system interface, any skill—whether learned or granted—could be used instinctively once it was recorded in one’s panel.
Which ant there was no need to experint with guesses.
Just use the skill.
That would answer everything.
Michael’s eyes narrowed.
"Use [Transformation]," he ordered. His voice rang out clearly, laced with authority.
The change was instant.
All five undead responded at once—and the sight was... sothing else.
The shift.
It wasn’t just size.
This wasn’t rely compression or expansion.
Lucky, Prince, and Gale began to shimr. Their hulking beastly forms lost mass in waves, reshaping as if chiseled by invisible hands.
Within seconds, their new forms stabilized.
Lucky now stood as a tall young man with long black hair cascading down his back, streaked with hints of grey that resembled the fur he once bore. His eyes remained the sa. Green pupils. Faint ridges ran along his back, barely visible where wings used to sprout.
Prince looked like a young man in his early twenties too. His silver-grey mane had beco shoulder-length hair and faint fang-like protrusions curled from beneath his lips.
Gale, the griffin, had taken on the form of a tall dark man with dark hair and dark wings at his back. His eyes still mirrored a hawk’s. A noble presence radiated from him.
They looked human—but not quite.
And Then... the Goliaths
Beginning and Lily now looked human.
Too human.
Michael stared hard in surprise, his eyes and mouth wide open.
They didn’t even feel like undead.
Only soone extrely sensitive to life energy would notice the difference in his undead. But unless you were trained to see it... they were indistinguishable from real humans.
Michael blinked.
"What sort of monsters have I created?"
A second later, another realisation arrived.
These five were naked.
Even transford, the skill didn’t conjure clothing. And while Lucky, Prince, and Gale bore more monstrous dignity in their partial-animal forms, the Goliaths—appearing entirely human—stood bare in front of him without a shred of modesty.
Michael clicked his tongue sharply and turned away.
"Enough," he muttered, rifling through his storage space. "This is awkward."
He pulled out five neatly folded sets of clothes—spares he had prepared for Spartan and the humanoid undead he raised.
Without needing words, the undead stepped forward and dressed themselves thodically.
None of them appeared ashad. They didn’t seem capable of embarrassnt, at least not yet. But the mont they clothed themselves, sothing did shift. They looked... more complete.
Michael crossed his arms and observed them silently.
Their transformation in rank 3 had taken things to another level. Not just physically—but ntally. Even now, standing in humanoid form, he could feel their intelligence clearer than ever.
But he wondered, now that they looked human like Spartan, could they speak like him?
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