69. Flower picking

Already, Celia held to the suspicion that the task of flower picking was going to be far more difficult than the name implied. And she had already been proven right. Just... Not in the way expected.

What she expected was some sort of monster to jump out at her. Or for a portal to yet another dimension to be torn open. Or for like her body to transform yet again somehow.

Instead the difficulty she was met with was one born of her own current form. Namely that she was so big and her arms were very much not suited for picking things up anymore. As she discovered within just ten minutes of her search.

Seven spent looking for a flower, and the other three spent trying to pick it without her claws absolutely eviscerating it. Which turned out to be a lot harder than she would've guessed.

"Ugh, were... Flowers... Always this hard to pick?" She grumbled torn flower in hand and belly pressed flat against the ground.

A belly that proved to be just as much a problem as her claws. So big that it stuck out from her middle - relatively speaking middle - like a sack of potatoes and made the act of bending over to grab anything off the ground vastly more complicated. Not to mention, she was finally beginning to lose the battle against Vice when it came to her current view on her body.

I.e. it was getting hard not to enjoy how big she was getting. To the point that it wasn't just her collective selves that wanted to give her soft spots a squeeze, but her as well. And not a small quick one either, no, Celia was becoming absolutely ravenous when it came to ALL her appetites.

Which is why at some point, without realizing, she stopped groping at the flower on the ground and started groping her fleshy middle. Squeezing fat handfuls of belly with all four of her arms.

It felt good. Possibly, definitely way too good. Like she was enjoying a meal she'd long wanted and been long deprived of. An animalistic hiss of pleasure escaping her as she allowed herself a brief moment to indulge.

And indulge she did. Wishing that she had six arms instead of four so that she could do so, with more vigor. Instead she had to settle with what she had.

Raking her claws against the open expanse of her flesh in a long overdue explosion of carnal pleasure.

Up until her briefly lived moment of bliss was interrupted by a reminder of her duty, and the very reason she was here in the first place.

Aren't we supposed to be flower picking? Discipline asked, her words a chastisement against Celia's very flesh. But it was much needed. Sobering her up, and causing her to cease in her... Exploratory pleasures.

Though, not without an uncharacteristic hiss of discontent.

"Unf, the day I finally stop to enjoy it all is the day you actually stop me, huh?" She voiced, rising from where she lay.

Well, if she didn't, I would have. Paradox answered. Besides you were crushing the flower with all your writhing.

And true to her words, the flower was indeed smashed flat against the ground. Made almost two dimensional by the press of Celia's belly. Which only served to ingratiate her even more towards her protuberant abdomen. It also served as a reminder that her body was built for combat now. Combat and filling her maw every chance she got.

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But where her main body failed, the multitude prevailed.

Her serpents, slithering through the wartorn chunk of forest, searched for flowers in her stead. Using their horde of eyes to cover ground as fast as possible. And it wasn't long till they found another glowing flower to replace the one Celia had just accidentally crushed.

And unlike their primogenitor their forms were not do geared towards violence as to make the act of flower picking impossible. With a gentle application of a tiny serpents mouth and might, one flower was plucked from the ground. Then a second somewhere else.

And there would have been a third. Unfortunately the final flower they could find and the last one they needed was under guard.

The botanical anomaly under the 'protection' of a glowing guardian. The shape of it's body almost humanoid. Limbs drawn out and elongated, feral and clawed, its head a hive of bruised flesh and hooked teeth. One cyclopean eye gazing out at the world around it.

And whatever it saw within too near a proximity to it's precious flower, it attacked. Launching itself at its latest victim as a raging bundle of limb and rending claws.

Hence Celia losing around ten of her serpents before even one of them could get a good look at the thing.

The remaining serpents nearby, hidden from the Cyclops's view, watched on as it rampaged. And soon gleamed another critical fact to her foe.

It could teleport. Body leaving the site of its bloodied victims in a flash of radiant light, before it reappeared above the flower it had deemed to protect. A flower that was releasing rays of black and white from it like it was a miniature monochromatic sun.

And it seemed as if those rays directly nourished it's guardian, causing what little pockmarks her serpents had left on its flesh to heal within only a few moments of bathing in the flowers presence.

Celia was certain there were more tricks and abilities the flower's guardian probably had up it's metaphorical sleeves, but nothing worry would really help her with. No, now was the time for action. Now was the time for-

The flower guardian vanished from a hundred lines of sight. Four packs of her serpents wildly turning their gaze all about in search of the quarry they had just lost. One they found a second too late. Right as it manifested in front of Celia's main body, long arms already swinging towards her.

She drew her sword instinctively. Handle gripped in the paw of one hand. New fingers and claws making it a strange hold, but if held nonetheless. Blade of bone clashing with chromatic flesh in a sudden clash of colors.

It teleported again.

Massive arms wrapped around her tail. Scales cut and bled flesh. But it was to no avail, the cyclops had her, was lifting her and spinning. Dragging her through the air in circular motion.

Celia was sick before the first round trip. By the second she felt she might lose her lunch. By the third she was taking action, activating her newest skill and biting into the essence of the Cyclops.

It tensed. For a moment. And then it was as if nothing happened at all.

And then she was airborne. Thrown through the sky tail first, weight sending her into a spin. Crashing into the ground butt first, leaving two immense craters in the dirt.

The Cyclops was on her before she could even get up. Heavily muscled arms crashing down on her in a rain of blows that could dig through a mountain. Every strike felt like a mountain. Like a milestone was being broken upon her flesh, like the spine of the world was being caved in on top of her. Fists made boulders pounding into soft soil.

And Celia was the soil. In times past that would have left her frozen in a state of both pain and fright.

Celia was beyond that woman now. She became a thing of hunger and pained retribution at a whim. Claws flashes out in dreadful arcs. Sword parried a blow and returned one of its own, blade stabbing through torso.

Tendrils and vines of limbs tore open space and wrapped around the Cyclops. Gripping him from a dozen different angles and trying to wrench him apart.

She breathed fire and song, every inch of her being transforming to a thing of steel and teeth.

In an instant the tide of battle had turned. With Celia knocking the Cyclops off of her and onto his back. An advantage she immediately pressed upon, wrapping her tail around him as he fell and suffered the full fury of her arsenal. Girth constricting against him, squeezing the life out of him and crushing organ and bone bo-

The Cyclops teleported. Reappearing next to the flower, looming over it like a bloodied building on the verge of collapse. And then it ate the flower. Shoving it whole into its mouth and swallowing, and then...

Then it started to change.