New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Unspeakable pain assaulted SharpTusk's every sense. His brain instantly felt like it was being tossed in a blender.

His eyes felt like they were being shone a concentrated ray of the sun into them. His ears felt like the loudest sound in existence was being blared right into them.

He could feel all his organs burn up like molten lava had just appeared inside his chest cavity. His skin peeled off from his body before disappearing in a flash of flames.

The next two minutes of SharpTusk's life felt like an eternity to him. As his body passed through so many stages of intense pain, his mind felt like it was about to break.

When it ended, his body kept twitching for a while, his mind still in utter shock.

What pulled him back to his senses was the sudden sound of a notification.

*Ding!*

Your race has successfully been altered. Do you wish for a name change?

Yes / No

**

"Race alteration? What the hell are you talking about?" SharpTusk asked, his face scrunching up.

But when he raised his hands to look at them, he gasped.

Where his red skin had been previously calloused by the repetitive swinging of his axe, a tough-looking leather had replaced it. And on the top side of his hands, bright red scales decorated his hands and arms.

"What in the hells?!" he barked.

Touching his face and body, SharpTusk realized his entire body had changed to this scaly exterior. But that wasn't the biggest change.

His face was.

Instead of a humanoid-looking face, with two large tusks protruding from his lower lip, now he had an elongated snout, with a scraggly jawline, spikes protruding from it. From the back of his head, two large horns slightly curved inwards.

And the worst, he came to discover when he spun on himself to look at his legs.

A tail and wings.

A large, thick tail adorned his lower back, like that of a lizard, with a crest of small spikes on top.

And on his back, two wings, currently folded, with a leathery texture, stretched between four bony ribs.

"What the fuck did that dragon do to me?!" Tusk cried out.

His appearance had changed so much that he doubted his allies would even recognize him anymore.

What if they thought he was a new enemy?

But he didn't get to mourn his old appearance for long, as the sound of battle and fierce screeching entered his ears, at a decibel level he wasn't ready for. It appeared his hearing was much sharper than before.

As he brought his head back up, he realized he was back in the room from earlier, his hand still on the mage's shoulder. He hastily pulled it back, noticing the claws at his fingertips, slightly digging into the man's robes.

He looked to his side, and there stood still three of his friends, Astaroth, Phoenix, and Jeanne d'Arc. Their faces showed a range of different emotions.

But when he looked further away, he saw the battle that had drawn him out of his stupor.

Opening his party list, he noticed the three allies whose names and status still showed in grey, and the rest of his party, with varying levels of low health, and almost empty mana bars.

He quickly got the gist of the situation and knew he had to act now. He could worry about his strange new appearance later.

But first, he needed to get rid of this notification floating before his eyes.

He tapped yes, entered the rename option, and entered the first name that crossed his mind.

*Ding*

Your new name has been accepted. Congratulations on your new rare race, Player RedWing.

**

Once this stopped flashing before his eyes, he burst into action. Pulling his greataxe from his inventory, he dashed toward the nearest group of corrupted Elves.

The wings on his back unconsciously flapped once, giving him much more speed than he had expected, and instead of appearing before his target, he slammed into them with the power of a compact car going full speed ahead.

He jumped to his feet after tumbling twice, and grumbled, "Fucking wings. Now I have to get used to moving with those darned sails on my back. Fuck."

But he was only complaining for the sake of complaining. In truth, he was impressed with the added capabilities they gave him.

But he would indeed need a while to get used to the extra appendages.

His allies gaped at the appearance of the man-sized dragon suddenly fighting at their side, but didn't complain. Whoever this was, he was helping.

The first one to catch on to the identity of their new friend was Galtion, who recognized the brutish fighting style of his party leader and good friend, SharpTusk.

"Tusk?! Is that you?!" he asked, as he bolted next to the dragon-looking man.

"Yes! I know, I look ridiculous. I'll have that dragon's head, for changing me into this!" RedWing replied.

"The hell do you mean?! You look fucking badass! I'm kind of jealous I just got this artifact weapon," Galtion dejectedly said.

RedWing looked at him with rage.

"You got an artifact weapon?! What the fuck, man! That's so unfair!"

While the two of them bantered and fought, side-to-side, and back-to-back, another of their allies came back, this time with a much louder commotion.

"You fucking green gecko piece of shit! I will burn you to cinders!" Phoenix howled, erupting into flames.

She snapped her head toward the ceiling, not even giving her friends a thought, and flew out with a trail of fire behind her, like an angry comet.

Whatever had transpired in the soul space she had been drawn into, it still filled her with spite, and apparently, a score to settle.

Violette called to her, to no avail, and she resorted to sending a message to her.

'Phoenix, we need your help up here. Where are you going?'

Phoenix's reply came immediately.

'I'm going to burn this stupid green dragon a new asshole! I'm sorry, but figure it out without me up there!'

Violette was stunned by Phoenix's reply. She had never seen her this angry.

'What did that dragon do to her?' she wondered.

But she couldn't afford to take her attention away from the fight for too long.