I have Nine Lives

Felix looked at the battlefield- as it slowly compressed and since the battles were mostly done. The human soldiers were now cleaning the corpses so they could bring them back to the base. And send them to the research facilities back on the planet.

The enemy's general slipped out of the defensive formation as he ran away with his quickest speed, slowly morphing back into his humanoid form so he would become a little less detectable.

Felix shook his head as he felt the galaxy spinning around. His head hurt due to the long time he used the transformation ability, and he also felt rather weakened.

The metal-eyed general dropped from above as he glanced at Felix's situation then told a nearby soldier:

"Bring him back to the base for rest. He had done a great job today, and 90% of the contributions will go to him."

The soldier saluted and picked Felix up before starting to fly away using the thrusters of his armor.

Felix felt his surroundings move.

As he looked up from the helmet of his armor to the person that was carrying him. He could see the face of the person.

He looked to be a rather young human as he had no other animal features such as different ears at the top of his head or something like that.

The man looked down at Felix and asked:

"You woke up? We are almost back at the base."

Felix nodded as he didn't feel any headache anymore. His momentary rest gave him some respite from the pain that assaulted his mind and body.

He took in small breaths to calm himself as the transformation also made him rather irascible even after he reverted from it.

He wasn't entirely sure he knew what the transformation did, but he realized its ups and downs after using it once.

He wasn't sure when he would use it again.

Felix coughed a bit as he felt something was lodged in his neck. But he didn't remember eating anything besides the few moments he tore off pieces of the dragonoids heads or backs with his mouth.

However, he remembered not swallowing anything as he didn't know what would happen after he ate even more of them as he first got this strange ability after he ate one body which let him to a lethargic state, so he didn't want to eat anymore until he was in a safe place.

The soldier took Felix back to the base before he returned to the battlefield. To continue the cleaning efforts.

The bodies were in the hundreds of thousands, and any extra pair of hands was really useful in the processing and cleaning operations.

Felix started to slowly crack his bones as he unveiled his body and stretched it. He had a few corpses sent to him already, so he could fully absorb all of the best traits of the dragonoids.

Felix started eating as he opened his small mouth, eating small bites out of the first corpse, just as if he was a rat nibbling away at a piece of bread.

The bodies of the dragonoids were rather hard. But under Felix's strong teeth, their bones cracked and broke all the same.

The bodies around him slowly started to disappear as he nibbles through them. In total, he had eaten around 15 until he felt full.

That's also when things started to change again for him.

His body which was fine before slowly started to transform. After he ate the dragonoids bodies, Felix also found quite a lot of things. They had small wings on their backs which were furled under their beast hide armors, and the toughness of their scales was weaker than those wings.

He could feel his back drenching in sweat as something tried to come out of it. Up till now, he hadn't grown an extra appendage or anything like that after he ate those beings.

Would he grow wings now?

It felt unlikely for him, but as time passed and the pain in his body continued, he felt that something was going to pop out of his back.

After that feeling intensified, he could swear that he heard some cracking sounds coming from his skeleton as it slowly diverged into a new form.

His skeleton shook as it transformed. Wings growing out of it and piercing through his back, blood poured slowly as the incision closed by itself really quickly, and the wings appeared.

They weren't really big as they covered Felix's back, but he could retract them at will as he now sensed a deep connection to them.

They were just like his tail, an extra appendage that he could use.

He tried to take off from the metal tiles in the base, trying to fly up for a few seconds.

In the first few tries, he could only lift himself only a little bit from the ground.

His wings were just like a newborn dragon's now as they have just been created, but they wouldn't take much time before they strengthened themselves.

Felix could use the Rubix cubes for both training and battle. Felix controlled the interface of the armor, making it pump purified energy into his body and especially his skeleton.

His newly modified skeleton started to toughen at a quick speed, especially the new area around his back.

The skin on the wings started to wilt and fall, as new stronger skin quickly grew after.

The skin that fell immediately dried up and broke into little pieces before disappearing altogether.

Felix could feel that his wings were pretty sturdy now, and he tried to take off once more.

He slowly flew up into the base, and a small smile appeared on his feline face.

This was his dream since he first boarded that airship of the ravens.

He wasn't sure when it would ever happen, but this came a little bit earlier than he expected.

He started to increase his flying speed as he did hoops and loops around the insides of the base, and he realized that this flying state of his was quickly using the stored energy in the Rubix cubes, his armor started to flash a red notification. Saying that his energy reserves were being emptied at high speeds.

It was even quicker, compared to the times he was fighting!

Felix dropped down back onto the floor as he craned his neck back and looked at his wings.

Why would they require so much energy to function? Wasn't he using the wings as a part of his body?

Technically, his new wings shouldn't require any type of energy besides the stamina of his own body.

He wasn't sure what was wrong here. He tried to take off once again, but since the Rubix cubes were almost empty, he only flew for a little bit before he dropped back onto the ground.

Felix was quite annoyed by this as he needed some answers.

Since the battle was over, he could report to Vangar now. And maybe get his help with this problem.

Felix had Vangar's communication link in his armor preinstalled, so he only needed to think about talking with him before the armor would send a call.

After sending the call it didn't take much time before it was picked up and Vangar's voice was heard in Felix's armor:

"Good job on the first mission Felix, you are ready for the second one?"

Felix replied:

"Not really. From this mission, I have gained a few things, and I'm not really understanding how one of the abilities I took from the dragon works..."

"Oh, you need some help with that? I'm not sure how I could help, considering you are the one that gained the ability and you don't understand it..."

"No, I understand how to use it. What I don't understand is why it takes so much energy to use it."

"Energy problems? Considering your condition... I guess I could have called someone from the scientific institute... but you know about your relationship with them."

The relationship with that part of the humans was a rather sour spot for Felix. However, he could compromise with them in this situation.

"Call them anyways as I can forget them for what they did if they forget me for what I did. Now that I'm part of the human army we will have to work together from now on. Of course, Shima will be a small exception, and I would only work with him if he is the last researcher left."

Vangar cut the connection for a few seconds before returning:

"You have clearance to meet with one of the scientists for improvement on your energy control in your new ability. You can return to the planet. For the time being. You can go back to your missions after you are fully prepared."

Felix nodded and felt his body being absorbed by something, while his dizziness returned one time higher compared to the last time he experienced it.

He really didn't like this teleportation thing, but it was too convenient.