I shifted to my umber hound form and waited at the top of the stairs for the two giant insects to finish duking it out. The two of them looked different from the last time I saw them, which implied that there were different insects fighting each time. Or at least, once one died, they were replaced by a different one. The giant ant had orangish-yellow crystals embedded in its giant carapace, and the beetle had what looked like giant emeralds on its shell.

  The sight made me think of two schoolyard kids who might set down two beetles next to each other to watch them fight. These giant bugs were locked in an endless loop of fighting the other insects before picking up the pieces, fixing the ground, and doing it again. The only thing that seemed to change was the slight differences in the territory each of them held. Perhaps this fight was about expansion, and the two kept the environment in a state of homeostasis, neither able to spread any farther due to their conflict with each other.

  A stray icicle shot toward me from one of the random insects, and the shield that I was supposed to be testing shattered when I blocked my face with an arm. As Nevan suspected, the bangle was only able to protect me from one good shot of magic before the entire thing ran out of power. I couldn't see the magic while in this form, but the subtle sense I had for it told me that the bangle was mostly drained. It may have been able to take a slightly stronger hit, but it could only deal with one before being too drained to continue functioning.

  I sighed. At least one of the things I came to test worked out. This bangle was decently helpful, but being able to block one stray hit wasn't going to be enough for people to safely harvest the insects in this place. The ring that stops bites works a lot better since it could be focused on physical damage rather than a whole suite of magical attacks of all different types. The two of them might still be helpful for gathering insects after the two titans are finished killing each other, but it won't be enough to allow people to collect them during the most dangerous time of this floor's cycle, when the insects were at their strongest.

  ("They're almost finished fighting,") I told Luna through the rings. She repeated my message to the others while I kept watching.

  Now that the bangle was used up, I retreated a little more and was ready to dodge down the stairs if something else randomly shot toward me. I usually didn't like the idea of wearing a helm of any kind while fighting, but something like that could be useful now. Though I suppose the bangle would serve a similar function. Maybe it would be more efficient if it were focused around my face, rather than all over my body, since that wasn't at too much risk with my regeneration. That wouldn't help others much, but it would help me.

  ("Looks like the beetle is going to win this time,") I said. Luna repeated the message to the others, and I could hear the laughs and grumbling from Iris and Aria respectively, who had been betting on the outcome each time we observed.

  ("Iris says that she has the mana to maintain a shield for long enough for us to harvest some of them. We'll have less time than usual, but we should be able to gather a decent amount. What do you think?") Luna asked.

  ("What does Maxwell think?") I asked in return.

  ("He thinks we should continue to test our new equipment, provided you don't think there's a problem this run through. You're the only one who can watch them, so you would know if it looks any more dangerous than usual.")

  I tapped the arch of the doorway in thought as I continued to observe the two insects fighting. ("No, it doesn't look any different than it usually does. I don't think it'll hurt to gather some while we're here.")

  ("Okay, tell me when one of them dies so we can be ready to harvest the little ones while they're still strengthened,") Luna told me.

  It wasn't a long wait before the two finished killing each other. As I thought, the beetle had been victorious this time, and the giant ant was covered in a horde of them, being visibly taken apart by a swarm of the little monsters.

  ("It's time,") I told her.

  My friends were quick to run up the stairs, and we fanned out to harvest as many of the insects as we could. Since the beetles won this time, it was easier to attack their group from the sides since they were so focused on running forward to devour the ants and take some of their territory. This brief window between the beetles swarming forward and the new skirmish lines being established between the two 'factions' of insects was the best time to harvest as many of the empowered versions of the gem-crusted beetles as we could.

  Even as we killed the crowd of insects with our magic and sucked the dead beetles into a nearby pile, they didn't even bother to attack us and didn't try to reclaim their dead brethren. Right now, they were solely focused on their expansion. The ground softly rumbled, half as strong as when the moon was in the center of the sky, as the surviving giant beetle burrowed back under the marble stone ground. All of my friends were testing out their new equipment, and I decided to finally test something too, now that I was less worried about being eaten alive while doing it.

  I shifted my body into my fire zebra form, and my rings transformed into bracelets around my long hooved legs. I didn't exactly have fingers in this form, so I was glad that the rings had found a way to adjust. I shook, and a wash of fire splashed over me as I prepared to run through the crowd of beetles and kill as many as I could in one go. It was lucky that we wouldn't stay here long, because this form still took a bit out of me to maintain. I would have to be careful not to hold it nearly as long as I had in the goblin cave. At least I'd be able to grab a snack on the way home.

  My heart swelled in excitement as I ran through the crowd of beetles. This form's instincts were happy to be able to stretch its legs and run, even if they were a little concerned about the crowd of monsters I was heading right for. That part of my instincts wasn't hard to tamp down though, as I knew that I wouldn't need to worry about their bites. Each gallop through the crowd of insects left a satisfying crunch as I trampled dozens of the beetles while my fire dragged a blaze behind me. I knew I couldn't go too deep into the crowd, despite my desire to run and play, because we would still need Iris to gather these rocks for us. I was burning extra mana as my regeneration was forced to repair my hooves continually, since running on sharp rocks wasn't good for them, but there wasn't much pain, and I was too exhilarated to care right now.

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  If I could smile, I would be beaming. Instead, all of my giddiness and jubilation was expressed through the dazzling bursts of fire that flowed off of my mane like a cape. It had been subtle, but now that I had shifted into this form again, I could tell that eating the heart of that changeling had done even more to my transformation than I realized at the time. I could feel this form's instincts so much more vividly than I had before. They felt like strong emotions that were easy to get swept up in. Just like the time I had spent as a floral king deer, feeling its emotions so strongly, I was now experiencing the strong emotions of this creature too. The only difference was that I was happy to feel these ones.

  I turned around and began to make my way back to my friends. Luckily, the instincts and emotions that were swirling through me didn't need suppression. I could still think clearly, but I felt light and happy. I could already see Iris working to collect all of the dead beetles I crushed, and a gale of wind swept across my body as she tried to yank me with the little gems. I giggled and pranced in joy as Iris laughed and tugged at me with her magic. My body language must have been quite plain to all of them, since they were all laughing at my antics.

  With one last leap, I shifted back to my umber hound form in one bound and landed heavily next to Iris, who looked up at me with a grin. "You seemed like you were having fun," Iris said.

  I stretched and smiled, though it likely looked odd on my canine face. "I felt amazing! Running as fast as I could through that crowd of beetles was so exciting!"

  ("How did the ring work out in that form?") Luna asked with a genuine smile.

  I glanced down at the ring on my finger, still visible even in my umber hound form. I suddenly felt a bit embarrassed, since the thought hadn't even crossed my mind. In all of my joy and excitement, I completely neglected to think about how much it was helping me. Did the ring help at all, or were the flames on my body enough to keep the insects at bay?

  Laughing awkwardly, I scratched my head. "I uh... didn't think about it. I was having too much fun."

  Iris snickered, and Luna shook her head in amusement. I was about to say something when a sudden crack of lightning from a nearby beetle slammed against Iris's wind shield and made her wobble on her feet.

  ("Iris, are you alright?") Luna was quick to ask.

  Iris rubbed her face before nodding. "That spell hit my shield, but it took a lot out of me. We should probably go home soon. I don't have much mana left to gather any more of these stones."

  We both nodded, and I glanced at the ring on my finger again. I really should find out if it affects my flame zebra form. "Let me check one more thing real quick. Luna, will you help Iris collect the rest of this for me? I won't be long."

  ("Sure, hurry though,") Luna replied with a nod.

  I was forced to shift back to my beastkin form so that I could intentionally shift without the ring on my finger. I didn't have a ton of energy left for this, so it would just be a quick test. I shifted into my flame zebra form once again, this time without the ring to protect me, and waded into the beetles.

  It took me all of about thirty seconds to realize that while this form did help avoid getting bit, it didn't dissuade all of them from me. The beetles that were covered in fire and flame themselves didn't care at all about the fire magic wreathing my form, and they told me so by biting into my ass with their sharp teeth. I whinnied and physically shook them off before making my way out of the horde of beetles and shifting back to my werewolf form. This experience certainly answered that question for me.

  My ass still hurt, and it caused the two to laugh at me on my return, because I was rubbing at the phantom itchy spots on my hide when I walked up to them.

  "Looks like the ring helps, even in that form," I grumbled out.

  Luna giggled. ("I'm sure Nevan will be happy to hear that particular ring was such a success, even if the bangle he gave you was less effective.")

  I frowned and scratched my ass again. "Let's just get out of here already. Did the two of you get everything?"

  Iris was scooping the last of the gems into a heavy bag and hefted it over to me to carry. We would give all of our spoils to Maxwell later, but for now, I would be the one lugging it around.

  While bobbing her head in reply to my question, Iris started walking toward the stairs. "I'm pretty much wiped out. We should get out of here before I take any more hits to my shield."

  I nodded and put my body on the outside of my friends so that the group of nearby beetles would have to shoot through me to get to the two of them, just in case. I licked my lips as I thought about eating one of the changelings one floor below. The thought normally turned my stomach a bit, but after all the fun I had, I was famished.

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