Asher tilted his head to look behind him, and his eyes widened in shock.
Dozens of shapeshifters pursued him through the underground passage, and their numbers were growing denser with each passing second. The sight was terrifying, an entire horde of alien creatures hunting him down with murderous intent!
He glanced in every other direction!
Whether to the left, right, or even climbing along the walls and egg pods, shapeshifters converged on his position from all sides. There was no way out, no escape route visible through the tightening net of alien bodies!
Asher had only one option: keep running forward, maintain his momentum, and never stop moving!
"Don't let him escape!!"
A shapeshifter crawling along the right wall spotted Asher sprinting below. It released a guttural growl and launched itself through the air like a predatory bird, its humanoid body hurtling toward Asher with deadly precision!
The creature's shadow fell across Asher's path, nearly covering his entire body as it descended!
Closer... closer...
BOOM!!
At the last possible moment, Asher threw himself forward into a desperate dive. Though he hit the soft soil hard, the impact didn't cause him much pain, just enough to knock the wind from his lungs!
The shapeshifter crashed heavily into the ground where Asher had been running just a heartbeat before!
"Too close!" Asher gasped in relief. His palms pressed against the earth as he gritted his teeth, pushed himself up from the ground in one explosive motion, and raised his legs to continue his desperate sprint.
WHOOSH!!
The fallen shapeshifter's arm shot forward, stretching more than a meter in length. Its grotesque fingers wrapped around Asher's leg with crushing force!
THUD!
The creature's eyes blazed with feral intensity as one hand locked onto its prey like an iron shackle, refusing to release its grip!
"Let me go!!" Asher shouted, feeling the shapeshifter's touch like ice against his skin. He couldn't help shaking as he pulled his leg with all his strength, but the alien creature refused to let go!
Instead, it crawled forward step by step, sticking to the ground like a gecko as it closed the distance between them!
The murderous aura radiating from the creature was utterly indescribable!
Beep!
Asher's leg wouldn't pull free no matter how hard he tried. He could only watch helplessly as the shapeshifter approached with agonizing slowness. At that critical moment, the Omnitrix emitted a distinctive sound!
His mood became elated instantly, and his excitement was beyond description!!
Thank you, Omnitrix! You're incredibly reliable this time!
Asher hurriedly looked down at his wrist, opened the Omnitrix's interface, and without the slightest hesitation, switched directly from Heatblast's silhouette to another alien hero. The holographic display twisted and changed as he selected his transformation.
WHOOSH!!
Just as he made his selection, the shapeshifter that had grabbed him extended its other hand, seizing Asher's right arm with sudden violence and pulling it forcefully to the side!
The creature's immense strength yanked Asher's right arm to the right. No matter how hard he struggled, he could only barely maintain his position on the far right side to prevent being thrown over completely. His left hand couldn't reach the Omnitrix at this awkward distance!
"I'm going to kill you and take you to the boss!" the shapeshifter hissed, crawling directly in front of Asher. Its body transformed from a human shape into a humanoid monstrosity that resembled a mass of green slime. Through the thin, translucent skin, Asher could still see the internal organs pulsing inside!
This was the disgusting true form of the shapeshifters!
Asher resisted the urge to vomit and simply followed the force of the shapeshifter's pull. His body leaned to the right, his right arm accelerated with the momentum, and he deliberately slammed it, along with the Omnitrix interface, into one of the massive egg pods beside him!
The Omnitrix's faceplate struck the pod's surface and activated!!
FLASH!!
At the same moment, the other shapeshifters finished closing in and surrounded Asher completely, their faces twisted with malicious grins as they contemplated what to do with this human child!!
The next second, Asher's entire body fell against the egg pod, but an incredible light radiated from his form!!
The shapeshifters closest to him were suddenly blinded by the scorching rays of emerald brilliance.
"Huh?? What's happening??"
The shapeshifter holding Asher closed its eyes tightly against the light, but its expression suddenly changed to one of confusion. It could feel that the arm it gripped with its palm seemed to be expanding several times over??
The light vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
When the creature opened its eyes again...
The first thing it saw was the waist of an incredibly muscular figure.
A waist...
A waist??
The shapeshifter's gaze snapped upward, and its expression became utterly demented with shock.
A towering alien with four powerful arms and four glowing eyes was looking down at it with barely contained fury. The creature's intimidating presence was more frightening than any ancient beast!
The shapeshifter's palm was still grasping one of Four Arms' massive arms, but all five of its fingers had been stretched to their absolute limit. Obviously, it couldn't properly hold Four Arms' powerfully muscled limb at all!
"Get your filthy hands off me!!" Four Arms growled, his voice heavy with killing intent that felt suffocatingly strong. One arm on the left side of his body clenched into a fist that looked like a cannonball. The punch transformed into a blurred afterimage as the air around it erupted with violent force!
BOOM!!
When Four Arms' devastating punch connected with the side of the shapeshifter's body, the creature's form instantly bent like a crescent moon as it was launched into the distance like a kite with its string cut!!
The palm that had originally grabbed Four Arms' arm was passively stretched countless times beyond its normal length, until it finally snapped apart when it exceeded its deformation limit!
The shapeshifter was knocked backward for more than a hundred meters through the underground passage. With a thunderous "CRASH!", it slammed into the wall next to the entrance, leaving a bottomless crater in the stone before it finally stopped moving!
What kind of insane power is this?!
"Now," Four Arms announced, glaring at the remaining shapeshifters with eyes like the Grim Reaper from the depths of hell, "I'm going to beat the shit out of every last one of you!!"