72 Limb Upgrade (1/2)
'I guess I'll just take some with me and return for the rest later.' Ed controlled his mana to flow into the crocodile's body. It took him 15 minutes to melt a wagon-size amount of the flesh and hide. This was because the crocodile's body was filled with mana. He had to flush out the old mana for his own mana to infiltrate the flesh. If he failed to do so, then not only would he fail to melt the flesh, but he would also likely suffer incompatibility problems when grafting it into his own body.
Next, he condensed the flesh into a heavy backpack. 'I should probably hide the body. It's doubtful anyone would find it before I come back, but why take the chance?' He slowly melted the ground beneath the large corpse, one section at a time. It took him several hours just to hide the thing a meter underground.
His task complete, he flew east towards Harmony, returning to his underground lab. 'Time to get started.' He grinned as he set to work, preparing to replace his four limbs. It only took a brief moment for the flesh and metal to detach from his body, forming a disgusting pile of meat on the floor.
The crocodile flesh floated into the air. The bones morphed into a human shape, followed by the flesh. Muscles, nerves, blood, and veins all formed quickly. Soon, he had four human-shaped limbs, the flesh completely exposed. The crocodile hide melted into a layer of thick skin, giving his limbs an ugly yellowish look. 'Hmm. I don't like the look of it.' He opted to mix in some of the ceramic cloth he had used for the superhumans. This returned his skin to a more ordinary whitish color.
'Feels good.' He nodded in satisfaction as he clenched his fists repeatedly. 'I'll do the rest of the body after testing it on the future mana-infused humans. Who knows what side effects there might be from replacing the entire human body with mutant flesh. The limbs haven't had any negative effects on me, but I imagine replacing the heart, entire skeletal system, and other organs would come with some repercussions.'
He stood up and grabbed fourteen mana-batteries, two of each of the seven types. 'The dark, light, and lightning battery casings wear out way faster than fire, earth, wind, and water. I'll need to find a better material for them in the future, but this will do for now.' He proceeded to melt small amounts of crocodile bone and mixed it into the battery casings of all 14 batteries. It might hurt the conductivity of the batteries a bit, but the increased strength was worth it. Especially for the dark, light, and lightning batteries, which likely wouldn't last a day in ordinary casings.
'The crocodile flesh should be able to handle the raw power of these batteries easily, which means I no longer need a cooling system and can finally implement my ideal designs.' He proceeded to melt a hole in his forearm to penetrate the bone. All of the mana-batteries except for the wind battery floated into the forearm. They were encased in a mechanism similar to the revolver of a steam revolver-rifle. However, the mana-batteries didn't spin. Instead, there were bone-plates blocking off each battery. Ed could move the bone-plates with a twitch of his muscles, giving him access to using as many batteries at once as he wanted.
Next, he set up the wind mana-battery in the center of his upper arm. He chose to place this mana-battery farther back, since he usually just used it for supporting other mana-batteries. The wind would have more time to build up and push the other elements by coming from farther back in the arm, therefore providing a better result when compared to including it in the forearm with the other batteries.
'That should do it.' He smiled. 'It feels a bit odd having bones again instead of metal.' He took aim at a wall and poured mana into the fire and wind batteries. The familiar stream of flame slammed into the wall, scorching it black. Next was water and wind, which released high-pressure water. Earth and wind released something similar to a dust cloud. Wind didn't affect light much, only changing it from a strong beam of light into strong wind-blades of light.Wind and dark released a corrosive smoke. Lastly, wind and lightning released a mixture of thunder and lightning.
'Not bad.' He nodded in satisfaction at his now expanded combat capabilities. He could also combine the other elements together or use them alone. He tried mixing earth and dark elements, which created a dark sludge-like substance that corroded the floor, turning it into something akin to a bog. He slowly experimented with the other combinations, deciding to limit himself to combining three elements together at most. 'I can tell that some combinations of three elements are already pushing the crocodile flesh to the limit. Four would likely blow my arm apart. That'll have to wait until I'm even stronger.'
Finished with the first phase of his new upgrade, he left the lab. 'I'll need World Walker's help transporting the crocodile. He should be back by now.' He found Bolin at the local pub, drinking a glass of whiskey. He appeared out of place in his high-class suit when compared to the various engineers and soldiers surrounding him.
”Bolin.” Ed called. ”Let's go. Another special mission for you.”
”Ugh!!!” Bolin groaned as he slumped against the bar counter. ”You're working me to death already! Do you know how hard it is to teleport in so much food every day? I'm not made of infinite mana you know!”
”Too bad.” Ed replied nonchalantly. ”Should have thought about that before joining me.”
”As if I had a choice!” He complained in a bitter tone.
Ed frowned. ”We all have a choice, Bolin. I chose to follow you that day and regretted it heavily. You chose to make an enemy of me when you betrayed Jarrod, whether you realized it at the time or not. You also chose to be captured by me. There's nothing stopping you from offing yourself.”
A few of the bar patrons stared at the two as they argued. It was hardly a secret that Ed and Bolin were former enemies, though they weren't aware of the full details of how they'd come to work together.
”Fine. Let's go.” Bolin sighed as he picked up his hat from the bar counter. ”Where to?”
”Horn Island. South of Missouri.” He answered.
A black portal appeared, and they stepped inside, soon arriving at Horn Island.
”Why would you want to come to this dump?” Bolin said as he looked around the barren island. There was nothing here but trees and a rundown shack.
”Just watch.” He commented as he worked to raise the ground up. It was several hours before the crocodile body was fully revealed once again. The sun was already setting in the sky by now, its last rays of light reflecting off the yellowish crocodile scales.
”You killed this thing?!” Bolin questioned in shock.
”Yup.” He nodded. ”And you're taking it back to base. Ready?”
Bolin frowned and examined the corpse carefully. ”No can do.” He shook his head. ”Not only is it too big, but it also holds too much mana. I have limits. Mana-cores are one thing. I can always make multiple trips with those. Also, their mana is so concentrated that it doesn't really affect my powers much. But this body is filled with gaseous mana. It would need the mana drained and the body divided into many smaller pieces for me to even attempt it.
”Is that so?” Ed nodded in understanding. ”Seems like we really have our work cut out for us then. It'll take me about two weeks to completely drain the mana and divide up the body into preserved flesh. From now on, you're to make a trip here every day to pick up the shipment.”