What starts out as Tamotsu trying out a new spell enables a normal person to stand up for themselves, even if they're not exactly a normal person anymore.

=-=-=-=

“Hmm, haven’t seen this one yet,” Tamotsu said, as she rolled the magic scroll she was reading out further across her lap as she sat on the floor of her shack. The kitsune was always interested in new opportunities to test out her magic, so she thought she would look through a couple of scrolls she got recently to see if they held any new spells for her. As she was looking through one of the rolled parchments, one spell stood out to her.

“The Blue Flame of Echidna,” she read aloud. “Originating from the western land of Greece and rumored to be created by their fabled mother of monsters, this spell will bring out a human’s inner beast. Conjure the flame and direct it to a target and they will transform into the creature that lies within them.”

Tamotsu thought about it for a moment and a smile came across her muzzle as she imagined the kinds of things that could result from such a spell.

“Let’s give it a try,” she said.

As she looked over the requirements for the spell. After focusing her magical energy into her left hand and imagining the blue flame bursting forth from it, she tried to bring out the spark as she opened her paw up. Surely enough, as she did, the flame appeared.

“Nice. It works,” she said, gazing at the blue flame she held in her paw. It seemed easy enough to do, but according to the scroll, only beings with a large pool of magical energy to draw from could perform the spell without help. Tamotsu, apparently, was one such being, because she felt like she still had energy to spare. As she continued to hold up the flame, she looked to the entrance of her shack.

“Well, I already have the flame out. Let’s see if I can find someone to use it on,” Tamotsu said as she quickly got up and ran out the shack and into the forest.

She ran between the trees, scanning the forest for a potential target for her new spell. When she thought she saw something, she slowed down to a stop and hid behind a large tree. On a beaten path going through a forest, she saw a young human man in cheap, dirty clothes walking down the path, carrying a bag. The village further down the way was likely his destination. Still holding the flame, she waited until the person walked past where she was then jumped out onto the path.

“Hey human, think fast!” she said as she threw the flame at the human, not giving him any time to respond or react before the flame hit his body and began to engulf him.

He dropped his bag and closed his eyes on reflex once the flame was about to hit him. As it did, he thought that the fire would send searing, scorching pain through his body as it ate away at his flesh, but to his surprise, he felt more of a strange tingling sensation spreading across his body. When he opened his eyes, he saw that, while the fire did indeed engulf him, it was not burning him away. Instead, it seemed to be quickly altering him. He saw that he was growing, both in size and in muscle. Eventually, he grew big enough that his clothes started ripping apart. His skin began changing color from its pinkish hue to an unnatural dull blue. As the blue skin spread down to his hands, his fingernails grew longer and sharper, more resembling claws now. The same could be said for his feet as they broke his shoes apart as he was growing, showing their new blue coloration and nails-turned-claws. As grunts of discomfort came from his mouth, his teeth began changing, growing into rows of sharp fangs. A single appendage began protruding from his forehead until it solidified into a point at the tip, forming a horn in the middle of his forehead, and his hair grew longer as it turned from a solid black to a reddish-orange.

The transformation finished, and the blue fire faded until finally dissipating, the former human looked down at himself in confusion while the kitsune who started this looked over his form with an intrigued smile across her muzzle. While the new creature, clad in torn-apart rags of what used to be a full outfit, still looked vaguely humanoid, it looked larger, more muscular, and despite his obviously confused state, more ferocious.

“Ooh! It worked! That looked amazing! I’ll have some fun with this spell!” the kitsune said as she looked over the form of the new creature. “An oni, huh? I wonder how the spell chose that. Was it random or something about this person?”

Meanwhile, the ex-human’s look of puzzled horror stayed constant.

“What the hell just happened to me?! I-I’m a monster!” he said, trying not to scream, but finding hard given what he just experienced.

“Okay, let’s play it safe here,” Tamotsu said, using her illusion magic to turn herself invisible. She wanted to stay to see what he did with his new form, but he didn’t want him lashing out at her. Meanwhile, before the oni could try to get answers from the one that did this to him, he found that she was nowhere to be seen. He looked around and saw no hint of the fox woman.

Looking down at himself, he took in the details of his new form, especially his claws and muscles. He looked strong. Seeing a nearby tree, he walked over to it.

How strong am I now?, he wondered. Forming a fist, careful not to pierce himself with his claws, he threw a light punch at the tree, which caused it to shake. Seeing this, he threw a harder punch at it which caused it to shake some more and, he wasn’t sure, but he thought he think he heard it splintering.

Encouraged by this, he started throwing more punches at the tree. After a couple of punches, he definitely heard the tree starting to splinter. After pausing for a moment, he decided to test out his new claws as well. Focusing on the same tree trunk, he slashed at it with his claws, which left gashes in the woods so deep, they may as well have been axe strikes. He slashed at it a few more times cutting deeper into the tree. The tree looked weaker as he attacked it, looking like it might eventually fall over. For one final strike, he raised up one leg and kicked at the tree. As his foot impacted the wood, the tree went flying off the jagged stump and fell to the forest floor.

Walking over to the down tree, he looked at himself again. He nodded to himself as a small smile came onto his face. He was starting to like how strong he’d gotten and he already had an idea what to use this new strength for. Looking back to his bag still sitting in the middle of the path. He walked back over to the bag and looked inside it. A large bundle of gold coins and a note lay inside. A scowl came to his face as he saw the note again.

“If you want to see your girlfriend again unharmed, come alone to the gambling den in the town past the misty forest at the end of the week and bring a bag of 100 gold coins.”

It had been days ago since his girlfriend was kidnapped and he had done a lot since then just to barely scrape together a portion of the money that was requested. He was going to present what he had and try to plead his case and hope the kidnappers have mercy on him and his love, but now?

“I’m going to give them something alright, but it won’t be gold,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tamotsu was looking at the oni, still magically hidden from his view.

“This ought to be good,” she said, following him as he continued down the path towards the town past the woods.

-

The small gambling den was live with activity on this warm night. As people were sitting at the small tables trying to win it big, the leader of the gang that ran the establishment looked out over the large hall. His dealers were raking in the money from most of the poor saps that played here. Of course, they had to let someone win occasionally so that people wouldn’t get suspicious, but that was just the cost of doing business.

They’d be raking in even more money once the poor sap whose girlfriend they kidnapped showed up. He knew he set an unrealistic price for her safe return, but then he wasn’t really planning on it being met. He already knew how this night would play out. That guy would show up with not enough money, beg and plead for another chance, and depending on how pathetic he looked, he’d either force the wimp to work for him or have his goons beat him to death out back. Either way he wasn’t getting his girl back. She was far too pretty for a guy like him.

If I don’t keep her for myself, maybe I could… Before he could finish that though, the entrance to the gambling den was bashed in, the shattered doors clattering to the floor. Everyone’s attention was drawn the entrance as a large figure stomped inside. It was a large humanoid creature with dull blue skin and long orangish hair, wearing torn and tattered clothes. Its large feet left impressions in the floor and in its clawed hands it held what seemed to be a small tree trunk as a makeshift club.

“AAH!”

“ONI!”

As people cried out in fear, the oni raised its club, pointing it at the gang leader.

“I’m here for him!” he said. “The rest of you can go.”

Most of the people began to run out of the gambling den through a side entrance that one of the escaping dealers opened up, a few people drew weapons to protect the gang leader against this monster.

“It’s payback time,” the oni said.