Juan Herina, or so this stolen skin had once been called. His pale flesh gleamed under the light of the sun, taut over corded muscles, his eyes now a piercing emerald that flickered with primal glee. A jagged scar ran across his chest, a relic of his past life's violence, and his lips curled into a smug. taunting grin.

Eyeing Nier from head to toe.

"Your form."

He repeated, his voice layered with echoes of countless stolen lives.

"Will be another masterpiece in my collection."

Nier's annoyance increase, still from what he knows about Skin Walker, to defeat one, one would need to force it to shed its layers until its true, vulnerable form emerged.

But easier said than done.

'Still though, to beat this thing, I will need to continuously ripped it to shreds.'

The boys, now halfway to the estate's edge, stumbled to a halt, their eyes wide with terror.

Yet strangely awed.

Daniel's voice cracked as he clutched Sam's arm.

"He… he threw her through trees! But it's still moving?!"

Neil, panting heavily, his chubby frame trembling, as he whispered.

"That's not Ms. Rita anymore… that is a dude. We're so dead."

Sam, gripping the drone like a lifeline, muttered.

"We gotta run away… but I can't look away."

Nier ignored their chatter, his focus razor-sharp as he faced Juan. The skinwalker's new form was faster, more agile, its movements fluid like a panther's.

It darted forward, claws extended, slicing through the air with a speed that would've shredded a normal man. But Nier wasn't normal...not anymore atleast.

Kaly's gift thrummed in his veins, Negative Energy begging to be shaped into something more than brute strength.

He needed a form that could match this creature’s agility and hit harder, something unstoppable. An image flashed in his mind, a rhinoceros, a juggernaut of raw power, its horn a weapon of pure destruction.

Without hesitation, Nier channeled another 300 units of Negative Energy to purchase the form, his Body Modification Magic surging to reshape his already hulking frame.

The air around him crackled as his muscles contorted, bones lengthening and thickening with a series of sickening pops. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ NoveI(F)ire.net

His skin hardened into a leathery, gray hide, rippling with the texture of ancient armor. His head morphed, elongating into a blunt snout, a massive, curved horn sprouting from his forehead, gleaming like polished stone.

His arms and legs thickened into tree-trunk limbs, each step shaking the ground as he grew to nearly eight feet tall, a monstrous rhino-man hybrid, negativity coursing through his Veins.

The remnants of his shirt and pants was now shredded entirely, leaving only tattered scraps clinging to his transformed body.

The boys jaws dropped further.

"Holy crap!"

Neil squeaked, stumbling backward.

"He is a freaking rhino now?!"

Daniel's eyes bulged, his burned hand twitching.

"This is insane… with a form that big he could probably crush that thing!"

Sam, still clutching the drone, whispered.

"I hope so, 'cause that guy doesn't look like he is playing.' Still Mr. Augustus is holding his ground. Ha, could it be that he was a Hesta all this time?!"

He questioned himself.

But Juan on the other hand was in a even fiercer predicament. As hi grin faltered for a split second, his emerald eyes narrowing as he assessed Nier's new form.

"So you can change your body too?!"

He hissed, his voice, clearly that of irritation.

"But a beast's skin won't save you. I've taken down worse."

He lunged, his claws flashing as he aimed for Nier's thick hide, expecting to carve through it like paper.

Nier's instincts roared to life. With a bellow that shook the nearby oaks, he lowered his head and charged, his massive frame moving with terrifying speed for something so colossal.

The ground quaked beneath his pounding hooves, the ground dirt erupting in his wake. Juan tried to dodge, his stolen agility making him a blur, but Nier's enhanced senses, bolstered as his eyes became full black in the form, using the occultist eyes to tracked every movement. He pivoted at the last second, his horn catching Juan square in the chest.

The impact was cataclysmic. A sickening crunch echoed as the horn pierced Juan's athletic frame, impaling him through the sternum.

Nier didn't stop, he kept charging, driving forward with relentless force. Juan's body flailed, his claws scrabbling uselessly against Nier's armored hide as he was carried toward a towering oak.

With a final, earth-shaking thrust, Nier slammed Juan into the tree, the horn punching through flesh and bark alike, pinning the skinwalker like a grotesque trophy. The oak groaned, splintering under the force, its roots buckling as it tilted precariously.

Juan's emerald eyes widened, blood, black and viscous, gushing from his mouth as he gasped, his voice fracturing into a chorus of stolen screams.

"You… can't…

His body convulsed, the impaled skin cracking like dry clay. With a wet, tearing sound, Juan’s form began to shed, sloughing off in chunks to reveal another beneath: a wiry, older woman with graying hair and clawed hands, her eyes a blazing amber. Another life burned away, another layer stripped.