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Strawberry Emerald was in a dangerous situation. Something was in the spire. They weren’t sure how it had gotten in. The entrance was closed! They were sure they had closed it! But now something was inside, its form was familiar yet strange, it wasn’t the prismatic shifting that Strawberry’s was, instead it was a pulsing mass of flesh that seemed to crawl upon half-formed clawed limbs. It moved about without cohesion, slamming itself into the pieces of furniture in the entry room. Strawberry didn’t know what it was, but it definitely wasn’t a Gloink, which made it dangerous. 

The thing stopped for a moment, its formless head moving about, almost as if it were searching for something. Then, it stretched out its half formed limbs, the sound of flesh ripping and bones cracking encompassing the room as the limbs grew in size. Its form extending out from its flesh, the mass hardening into a blackened exoskeleton, its head taking shape with a singular unblinking red eye at its center. Which quickly began to sweep around the room, its gaze seemingly scrutinizing every little thing. 

Strawberry ducked behind one of the bookshelves, their form squeezing flat to be able to fit. Only keeping a small sliver of their body out to be able to keep an eye on what the creature was doing. They didn’t know what to do, there never had been something like this creature in the spire. The others were still upstairs, enjoying the loam meal they were having. Oh why did they have to be the one guarding the entrance today! 

A crashing noise took Strawberry out of their thoughts, the horrid creature had grabbed onto one of the pieces of furniture, causing it to crash down in front of it. They needed to do something before it tore apart the spire, and fast. 

Slowly, they emerged from their hiding spot, gradually taking a more solid form as they did so. The creature noticed them almost immediately, its large red eye staring at them with an intensity they had never seen before. 

There was barely enough time to solidify before the thing came charging towards them. Forcing the gloink to rush out of the way to avoid the thing slamming into them. Instead letting it smash against the wall, causing it to emit a loud growl of anger. Strawberry had never really fought before, Gloinks were good at a lot of things, but fighting was beyond many of them. Sure they could transform into many things, but many of those things were just as squishy as they already were. 

This meant that Strawberry had very few options, the thing was quickly regaining its senses after hitting the wall, and they would need to think of something, and fast, before it came at them again. Their gaze turned throughout the room, something could surely help them. Something, something. Their gaze fell back onto the creature, and its black exoskeleton, the layers of bony plate encompassing the creature’s form. Strawberry had an idea. 

With another roar, the creature charged at them, but this time, they were prepared. Shifting their form, Strawberry gave themselves a large limb, one covered in its own layers of bony plate, transforming their near liquid goo into a solid layered mass of bone and armor that ran all the way down to their core. Bringing it around, they caught the creature right as it reached them, the club of an arm crashing straight into its jaw and head. 

The creature sprawled as it smashed back into the wall, its head smashed with the force. But it wasn’t done yet. It rose once more with a gurgled roar, its flesh and bone snapping back into place, a large maw of teeth forming as it reared back to strike. 

Strawberry was ready, their own form shifting, the layers of bone spreading into their newly humanoid shape,  forming their own pink and green suit of armor. The creature surged forth, claw and teeth slashing against their bone, a sense of pain still rang through Strawberry’s dispersed neural system, but the beast clearly couldn’t pierce as deep as it wanted. They responded in kind, bringing another of their clubbed fists up into the beast’s chest, sending it flying off. 

This was their time, they rushed forward, charging at the creature and delivering several blows in succession, ensuring the beast’s regeneration could not activate. This time, they didn’t stop until the thing was a broken mash of flesh and bone. Portions of it still caked onto their arms and fists. They gave it a moment, checking if it would regenerate again, when it didn’t, they decided it was time to get rid of it. Shifting their hands to be able to grab, they picked up the remains, taking them to the entrance door, and quickly tossing them out. This time they made absolute sure the door was locked. 

They looked at themselves, the layers of armor still on them. They should tell the others. Well, after they cleaned up. 

[hider=summary]
A quick story telling of the Gloink Strawberry-Emerald, who, after an outer horde beast manages to break into one of the spires on their guard watch, has to fend off the beast. In doing so, Strawberry learns how to mimic an exoskeleton and develop it into an incredibly deep layered plate armor(due to not having internal organs that need protecting, so therefore having more armor). Using this, they manage to beat the shit out of the creature, and get it out of the spire. They decide to tell the others of this development later, after they’ve cleaned up.
[/hider]