Leaping forward, Tanatswa reached new heights as he jumped from each tree branch. The issue he had going for him, was how he would land on each branch without missing the mark or crashing into a block of wood. Tanatswa was fully aware of the limitations of his aerial parkour and wondered if it was possible for him to slow down his velocity upon his feet touching a branch. These were all the ideas that engulfed his mind as he was in free fall. The speed at which he was falling was bound to make him smash into a tree, but he was willing to make a leap of faith and hoped that his ability would activate as soon as possible.
Tanatswa felt a tingling sensation as his mana bar began to glow on his left peripheral vision. Refiner was activating and as he glided down, he felt an abrupt rush of adrenaline course through his veins. The manic desire to not miss the mark became one with him and his ability began to work. Tanatswa could see what looked like the transubstantiated form of his energy, come into shape on parts of his body. This ki that shielded his body, acted as an opposing force that began to make his fall lose slight momentum. He could feel the gravity and his energy, competing with each other, wedged between those two forces. As so as he was close enough to land on a branch, the energy that shielded him subsided, just in time for him to make it. When Tanatswa landed, he realised how far he had traversed from his single jump and was enamoured by what he had just accomplished. ¼ of his mana bar was depleted from this feat, but he wished that only a handful of mana had been consumed from this jump. Tanatswa ended up saying to himself, "If I can"t wean out the limits of use, then this ability won"t do me much good if I can only use it a few times. Hmm, there must be a way." Tanatswa remembered that high intelligence was a requirement to be able to use one"s ability proficiently without quick mana burnout. If he wanted to use this skillset more often without having to get constant refills, he needed to level up his brain power. Tanatswa thus decided to dedicate most of his experience points to his intelligence rather than his strength. Tanatswa did 3 more jumps and executed them perfectly. Once his mana was completely depleted, he sprinted back to base to collect more mana.
During Tanatswa"s absence, Shami was still slightly peeved by him ignoring her antics and going off to train. She wondered what was up with that, but then decided to focus on exploring her gift. Shami didn"t have a mirror that she could use to check her appearance and so decided to look for a still pond that seemed to be very reflective. At the pond, she continued to fool around, gazing at her myriad appearances. Changing the appearance of her body parts did not consume a lot of mana. It was barely an inconvenience and the mana bar only shed off a diminutive amount. She felt lucky, but also in the back of her mind she wondered why her bird form didn"t use mana in a frugal manner like her body swapping trick. Shami felt a whirl wind of emotions as she gazed at her many faces. In the past, when she wasn"t so pretty, she remembered how her male friends placed high evaluations for superficial standards of beauty. The a.s.s had to be plump or thick, the b.r.e.a.s.t.s had to have depth and not be flat. The face had to be neotenous and cute. These were all standards that she thought could be achieved with a lot of effort and financing, if smokes and mirrors were your thing. She had always been a tiny girl, who needed to wear gla.s.ses late into her teens, having to eventually deal with eye strain and checking building plans for her university course work. Now she could take the form of any s.e.x G.o.ddess that she envied or admired when she was young. From the Instagram fitness models who mostly posted pictures of their a.s.ses instead of actual footage of them working out, to the popular girls on her campus, she could be like them as long as she had a vivid memory of how they appeared. This body swapping moment for laughs began to slowly remind her of a time she dreaded when she was still alive. Shami touched her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and felt them as they would decrease and increase whenever she changed. She touched her lips which filled up and then shrunk as she changed and did the same for her nose. As she marvelled at this, she couldn"t help but say to herself, "All those years I obsessed about getting plastic surgery, but now I can literally get a face lift on the go. If I could do this back home, I wouldn"t have used 2 years of my savings for that operation. Holy s.h.i.t, Goshem is a place for miracles." Shami began to make a sardonic laugh as she reflected on all the effort she had put into becoming the pet.i.te beauty that Tanatswa had come to know. She had not disclosed this part of her past to him and he probably thought that she was a higher tier girl that only the most handsome and wealthy guys could date. This was not the case, but what she gravitated towards was the fact that in death, she could now be all those things that were once insurmountable goals. Any standard of beauty was now attainable and she could literally adjust her body to meet her preferences. As Shami changed and switched from one shade of skin to another, she decided on a whim, to revert back to how she looked before she got plastic surgery. This was effortless on her part because the image of her past self was engraved in her mind. The self that she had subst.i.tuted upon going under the knife, was now embodying her again. She grimaced, as if driven to the extremes of revulsion upon seeing old herself. Looking at the clear reflection on the pond, the girl before her was something she couldn"t address as a person, but rather as "it". It was something she hated, a form that drove her insane and one she wished to forget. Shami raised her middle finger at the visage that slightly rippled on the pond and said, "f.u.c.k you my old self, good riddance, you p.i.s.s of s.h.i.t. I am better than you and I will f.u.c.ken rejoice in never seeing you again." Shami reverted back to her current self, the pet.i.te beauty that got Tanatswa excited by her looks and laughed begrudgingly at memory of her past self. She was now beautiful, strong, confident and desired by a really handsome man, who despite his bedroom recklessness, was a pretty gifted lover. She wished to keep things the way they were and as soon as she heard Tanatswa"s thuds from his sprinting, she wanted to surprise him, by showing something new.
Tanatswa reached the fortress and did a back flip for show, which made him leap over the wall in a bada.s.s way. He was psyched to get more mana, but soon enough Shami showed up, looking slightly different. She had adjusted her height and the distribution of weight on her body. She kept her face and skin tone the same, hoping to not freak out Tanatswa, but her bosom had gotten a noticeable bust, her hips were shapely and for the first time, she didn"t have a white girl"s a.s.s. Tanatswa thought he was dreaming and was in awe at what he was seeing. Shami looked like a super model and for some reason her skin looked varnished and her hair looked straightened. Shami then told him, "Hey, I hope you aren"t going to take too much from the garden. I am not in a rush to plough more dirt just yet. Anyways, have you noticed anything?"
"I am noticing a lot. How the h.e.l.l, wait, that"s not what I should be asking. So, ahem, um, you look gorgeous, but it"s weird seeing you…"
"Look taller. Yeah, I think I will stick to this look for a while." she said, interjecting him.
"Wait, won"t you have to refill your mana bar for you to maintain this consistently? I mean I like what I am seeing but doesn"t it consume…" he said, checking her out as he speculated how much mana was being consumed before she interjected him again.
"It hardly consumes anything. I think slight body augmentations don"t really do anything to my bar. If were to transform into a bird or a wolf, I probably would drain my bar pretty quick. So no worries, I can be like this for a while longer." she said, giving him her wicked smile and posing as she winked at him. Tanatswa was stunned by her appearance, but felt a bit intimidated by her unexpected beauty boost. It was like he was the luckiest guy on the planet, who at the same time realised that harbouring gold all to yourself was a really difficult task. Tanatswa could barely hide his excitement as he looked at her, but quickly snagged 3 mana plants he intended to use.
"So the texture of your hair, it looks straightened. Did you like quickly apply some hair relaxant chemical on it whilst I was gone? Because it looks like some expensive weave is on your head." he said, examining her hair.
"I don"t need a weave or a wig; I can make specific ethnic traits appear on my body. So for the hair I was imagining Indian hair since it"s so strong and looks naturally straight." she said as she touched one of the strands of her hair.
"You know if you were a public figure, they would probably accuse you of cultural appropriation, since you got the Indian hairdo." he said, as he broke into laughter.
"We both know that" that cultural appropriation s.h.i.t is bulls.h.i.t. Anyways, so how"s your training going? Any new things you discovered about your ability?"
"Well yes, but it"s kinda complicated. Hmm, how should I put it, it"s like an a.s.sist ability." he said, holding his chin with his left hand.
"An a.s.sist ability? Could you please articulate it better. Like I am sure I will understand it." she said, getting close to him.
"Well, let"s say there is something you wish you could do, but you are not the best at it, but you get an a.s.sist that helps you get it done the right way."
"So like a cheat code? Is your ability like some life hack?" she asked, a bit confused by his description.
"No, it"s like a boost, nah, okay. Ahem, if I set out to do something that I clearly suck at or I think I suck at, I would do it perfectly fine with my ability." he said, as he took a bite of one of the mana plants he had in hand.
"You should win me over with a demonstration. Show me how it works." She said, patting him by the shoulder.
"Okay cool, let me just show you how it"s done."
Tanatswa"s mind lingered on a few things as he wondered what he was going to have to do, for his ability to immediately register with her. He had to choose something difficult or something he deemed rather impossible to accomplish with his current might. Tanatswa then looked at one of the giant boulders of rocks which was stacked against the wall and walked towards it. Shami followed behind him, waiting to see what kind of showcase he would give her. This particular boulder was the one he used for weight lifting. Shami looked at him and then asked, "You"re not going to karate chop this thing right?"
"No, I am just going to punch it without punching it." he said, unsure if he could actually pull it off.
"So you"re saying you"re now telekinetic?" she asked, raising her eyebrows in awe.
"No I can"t move things with my mind, okay, just watch. It"s pretty simple. I don"t think I can hit that boulder without physically making my fists get into contact with it, but with my ability, I think I can." he said as he got into a punching stance. Tanatswa gazed at the rock and also darted at his mana bar. He then made the punch, but nothing happened. Shami stood there, waiting for something to happen and then looked at him and said, "Did I miss something or was that a misfire?"
"Well that was definitely a misfire, but I will have it under control. Just you wait." he said, getting back into a punching position. Tanatswa calmed his nerves, focused and then began to feel the same sensation as before. He then threw a punch that felt like the wind had been violently deployed at something. Both Tanatswa and Shami"s clothes flickered as the wind pressure dented a huge layer of the boulder as they watched it being pushed back. Tanatswa was equally as surprised by his feat as his girlfriend was, the only difference was that Shami had noticed something peculiar.
"Tanatswa, I saw something just now when you made that punch." she said, looking excited and confused as she tried to uncover the strands of hair that were all over her face.
"Yeah what did you see?"
"Your life bar"s level, which is level 2 shot up to level 4 when you made that punch and then slowly declined back to level 2 again. Do you know why that"s happening?" she asked, as she got a hold of him.
"Did you say that my level just fluctuated when I made that punch?" asked Tanatswa who seemed rather intrigued by her remark.
"Yeah, it was pretty quick. You moved up two levels then went down again. Do you have an idea of what that could mean?" she asked, looking him in the eyes.
"This is new information, but I think with what you just said, I now totally understand how my powers work." he said, finally making his own wicked smile which turned into a roar of excitement.