Borderlands: Unnatural selection

Understatement of the fucking millennia ladies and gentleman.

Not good didn't even begin to fucking cover the double shit sandwich I had decided to put myself in. 

"FRUUUUUOOOOOOH!" The monster roared loud enough that I could feel the air shake and my shield activate to stop me from going deaf.

"BANG X7!" I unloaded my gun while the thing was busy posturing right at that giant glowing red eye.

Three bullets hit that soft vulnerable organ and sank in maybe a centimeter. 

"FUCK!" I yelled seeing this and started running as the monster ripped up a piece of the hard stone floor as big as me and chucked it like a softball right at me.

I flinched when I felt and heard the chunk of the floor smash into the wall behind me as I ran and hurriedly focused on reloading my gun. I was also keeping an eye on the monster that I had noticed hadn't moved from it's position even after I shot it. This confused me as I knew for a fact that most animals that can get shot and shrug that shit off also tend to charge the shooter yet this thing chose to throw something at me without leaving it's spot which was strange.-

I also noticed that after it threw that piece of the floor it rubbed at it's eye while growling. It didn't throw anything else though a I quickly noticed why after taking aim again. A thin layer of ice had grown over the spots my bullets hit.

'I forgot about that!' I thought joyously as I remembered that my gun currently had cryo damage equipped.

To be fair the Seraphs were robotic and had shields so I never noticed the effect of the elemental damage type until now.

'Eyes are mostly water and this thing has no shield so it makes sense that that the spot I shot froze over. I think I know how I'm gonna kill this thing!' I thought with a plan in mind.

While it was focusing on clearing the frost from it's eye I stood still and took careful aim at that eye and waited for it to move it's paws away. 

"BANG X3!" I squeezed the trigger three times which I had discovered trial and error style was the max I could handle the recoil from before my accuracy suffered.

"FRUUUUUOOOOH!" the monster screamed angrily as all three bullets hit the eye only this time they sank in enough that some blood started to come out and freeze.

I didn't just sit still though but took off again as the monster chucked pawfuls of stone at me one after the other before focusing on it's eye again like that was way more important than killing me.

'This things dumb as a rock.' I thought frankly insulted at how easy this was.

I quickly came to regret that thought as the monster ripped out it's own fucking eye and started growing bigger. 

Twenty feet

Twenty five

THIRTY

It doubled in size and the spikes of bones protruding from it's now black skin extended like blades bigger than I was tall. As if that wasn't bad enough that eye it ripped out REGREW! Only this time it was way bigger and white pupiled. 

"I think we might of gotten off on the wrong foot, how about we start again?" I asked only to receive projectiles three times my size as the response. "Worth a shot." I muttered under me breath as I ran for my god's damn life.

I of course didn't stop shooting at it and reloading as I ran but my accuracy was frankly terrible and landed all over the thing though it REALLY didn't like cryo damage as the spots on it's skin hit frosted over and cracked to leak blood. After five minutes however I was at my limit and simply couldn't run anymore as my lungs and legs were burning in pain. I waited until I was near one of the now wrecked statues for it to throw another chunk of the ground at me and timed it to dive behind the statue.

"Crack!" my shield got hit with the projectile and broke so I scrapped my hands when I landed but otherwise I was fine.

I laid flat out behind the statue gulping air desperately to recover as much as possible and from a crack near my head I could see that the stupid brute immediately thought I was dead because I had vanished from it's sight.

'Yep, sharp as play dough this one.' I thought relieved as I reloaded my gun and waited for my breath and shield to recover.

I kept an eye on the brute that was dragging itself forward slowly with it's two long arms. 

'It didn't charge because it CAN'T charge, those legs can barely keep it upright much less walk or run.' I realized excitedly.

While killing this thing wouldn't be easy it was starting to look more and more doable as I got better acquainted with it's weaknesses and strengths. For starters cryo damage fucks up its body wherever it's hit, it's dumb as hell, can't move very fast and has definitely lost a lot of blood. Strengths wise it's durable as shit, seems to be able to regenerate when it grows and is ridiculously strong. -

Once I could breath semi-normally again and my shield was back up I stood up and took aim at that massive eye of it's and unloaded my full cylinder before popping it out and stuffing the bullets I had waiting into the now empty cylinder before popping it back in.

"FRUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOH!" the monster screamed in rage and pain as all seven of my shots hit it somewhere on the now me sized eyeball and frozen each and every hit.

 I didn't run to the side this time but straight towards the thing as it gouged out its eye and started to turn red as the bone spikes actually fell out with fountains of blood as they could not grow with it again.-

Ignored that and as a new eye started to grow out to fill the now even bigger hole I stopped and took aim right at the now exposed brain behind that rapidly growing organ and unloaded the cylinder. Most of the bullets hit and froze the expanding eye but two hit that small brain causing it to turn into solid ice and shatter.

"RGHRGDDFGHR!" the sound that came out of it's throat was hard to describe as it was like it was screaming and choking on it's tongue all while suffocating.

"The bigger they are....."

"BOOM!"

"The harder they fall." I said with a smile that threatened to split my face in half as the beast fell over, dead.

I felt a rush that I can't even begin to describe, if I wasn't currently in such a young body I'd probably have a raging boner. It was ecstasy pure and simple from the thrill of death and the sheer feeling of accomplishment that came from laying low such a mighty beast in single combat. I was so caught up in the moment that I hadn't even realized that the Vault archway had repaired itself.-

Once I was done riding the high I finally noticed these details and walked over to the black and purple swirling portal and stepped through. For the briefest instant It felt like I had gone both a long distance and in every direction at once before my sense snapped back and I was in a massive spacey void chamber place. Immediately I screamed as an intense burning sensation covered my entire right side from my foot all the way to my eye.-

It was pain unlike anything I had ever experienced before and I couldn't even fall to the ground as some force was holding me up. It didn't last long though, maybe a minute or so. At the end of this timeframe I fell to the ground as whatever force had me released it's hold. I gripped my head however as knowledge started to pour in as the process went from physical to mental.-

'Project E-X, First log: The purpose of these experiments is to create empowered beings that may be able to combat the anomalous existences we continue to find across the universe. Beginning procedure. "AAAAAAH!" (flesh exploding sound) Subject has expired.- Log end.'

 'What is this? Why am I hearing this?' I pondered briefly before another memory took over.

'Project E-X, Fifth log: We've done It! After refining the process we have finally empowered a member of the Homo Sapiens race. Subjects powers proved too much for it's body and expired after first use but it's a start!- Log end'

'Human experiments? Weren't those illegal?' I thought in horror before another memory hit.

'Project E-X, Tenth log: It took heavy refinement but the empowerment has stopped overstraining the subjects upon use. A new problem has appeared however in that we have picked up signs that the laws of reality are growing more strained with each new empowered subject. We deduce no more than seven can exist simultaneously before backlash will occur.-Log end.'

'Project E-X, Nineteenth log: The universe has played us for fools! The laws of reality have warped to turn the powers of the subjects into a permanent fixture of reality. Six of the seven sets of powers have escaped containment and been scattered among the Homo Sapiens race. The last and only remaining subject codename: DARWIN will be sealed away as his powers are an extreme threat if given oppurtunity to escape.- Log end.'

'What the fuck is this? What sort of twisted mad scientist level bullshit is this?' I thought disgusted by this knowledge before one last memory came to me.

'Project E-x, Final log: Hello subject Darwin, or I suppose whomever it is that inherited Darwin's powers. I leave these logs intrinsically linked to subject Darwin's powers but after you finish assimilating them will vanish should another come to possess them. We were wrong to create these powers. We know this now when it is too late to do more than seal them away. The rest of our kind were content to seal away the anomalies as they were found but we hoped these subjects would allow us to eradicate them instead, we paid for this mistake gravely. I am the last of us left, the last of this dissenting group of our race, unknown by the rest. Darwin killed us before we could escape the chamber and left with no choice I closed the seal with me within it and Darwin perishing from his wounds. The time slows as the seal begins to chain the anomaly chosen as the prisoner here and eradicates the remaining lifeforms. These logs are the last and only remaining evidence that we exist and I beg that you never forget that we did not choose to stand aside passively!- Log end.' 

'Seems like these people got what was coming to them.' I thought coldly as I finally started to make sense of the sudden understanding I had of my new powers.

It was known as [Phase-evolve] and was roughly broken down into four parts that worked together to create a virtuous cycle of growth and power. The first part was [Hunt] where I gained the lifeforce of whatever died. This meant I lived longer and longer without aging the more I killed but that was the most passive use of the stolen lifeforce. The second part was [Graft] where I could steal traits from anything I touched in exchange for the amount of lifeforce it would take to adapt my body to accept those traits. The third part was [Fuse] where I paid lifeforce to fuse two or more traits I had together into a superior trait so long as the fused traits were similar. The final part though was insane. It was called [Burn] and basically I could ignite my stores of lifeforce in order to basically become temporarily immortal and drastically empowered.