The fight was over, and before Orion could shed the transformation, Commander was already at his side, frank surprise on his face.
"Stripped it down to the bones. Looks like less of a fighter than before—but raw force beats finesse every time. You're hitting harder now than you ever did."
Orion shifted from the four-headed, eight-armed shape back to ordinary human form. It looked like a weaker combat state. It wasn't. It was a body grown denser, strength reforged. Not an evolution of the blood—a secret art, forcing the body's shape to change so it could shoulder more power than it ever had before.
