TTIGRAAS: Predator

Chapter 10

A few weeks had passed since my bout with Redhead. We'd both been avoiding each other. From a distance, I'd noticed how dejected he looked, but because I was advised not to say anything, I didn't try speaking with him.

His sister, on the other hand, had gotten closer to me. We've become friends over the time I've spent here, and she sticks near me whenever I'm in the village and not training with the Elder. She doesn't normally leave the safety of the settlement from what I've noticed, probably because she's a sort of royalty.

Anyway, she'd been spending her free time with me a lot. I didn't get what she saw in a slime like me, but the Princess liked to be around me and carry me around in her arms, as well as create new outfits to dress me up in like a doll.

She had also been showing me what she called Mystic Arts (magic utilizing a monster's aura directly). I'm a quick study, according to her, and now I was repaying the favor by showing her some of my skills.

The Princess can't copy them in the same way that I can copy what she'd shown me, but she still seems to get enjoyment out of seeing me play around with them. And 'play' is the best term to call it since I don't entirely know what I'm doing with all of them yet. The [Great Sage] keeps offering me strange combinations, creating new techniques for me to try out, and it's hard for me to keep up with it all.

"Rimuru, could you show me more of that transformation skill you have? It's very interesting," she suggested.

Nice, something simple.

"Yeah, sure."

I morphed into a few of the different monsters I'd previously eaten as the Princess watched in awe. But, as I worked through the laundry list of monsters, something occurred to me.

I'd eaten a Giant Bat in the Sealed Cave, which was awesome because it had given me back my ability to speak, but, there was another aspect to that monster that I could use: its wings.

Ever since I acquired [Universal Shapeshift], I'd been able to partially transform my body with ease, taking on the aspects of any monster I'd eaten without having to fully take its form. I'd used it to test out my skills a bit while hunting, actually, but I hadn't found it incredibly useful since changing my body's shape introduced more problems than it seemed to solve, at least right now. I tried to stick to combining my Human and Slime forms. They seemed the most compatible, probably because I practiced with both so much.

But, in the case of the Giant Bat, creating wings without turning into the monster itself sounded like an amazing idea!

I mean, who hasn't dreamed of flying at one time or another?

"Lemme try something out."

With just a simple thought, a pair of bat-like wings burst from my back. They spread wider than I was tall, startling my friend.

"I think I can fly with these!" I declared excitedly. The idea of soaring through the air was already filling me with anticipation.

"Please be careful!" The Princess pleaded with me, clear concern in her pink eyes.

"Oh, I will be!" I assured her as I gave moving the wings a try; just a little twitch to make sure they acted as I expected, which they did without issue.

As my excitement built, the incident in the cave with the lake popped into my mind; a self-warning to take this easy.

Just a little push off the ground with my feet and a flap of these wings is all I need to try at first...don't get ahead of yourself, man!