Robin pulled the short, round bottle that had the rust-colored gas swirling around inside. He had considered the bottle that had the red powder, but he did not want to choke on dust without time to also drink some water with it.

He uncorked the bottle partially, the cork feeling very dense and heavy for the size. Bringing the bottle to his mouth, Robin uncorked it fully, inhaling the reddish-orange vapor into his nose. It immediately began burning, the sensation exactly like when he had accidentally snorted ocean water into his sinuses - an immediate burning itch spread over the inside of his nose and throat, making his eyes water. He strained his eyes to see through the liquid they were generating and read his menu.

His BODY stayed the same.

Abruptly the burning in his eyes, nose, and throat ceased, the lack of pain feeling like pure physical bliss to Robin. He closed his eyes briefly, feeling himself settle back into the comfort of his own skin.

Why can I still see?

He had definitely closed his eyes, but he could still see perfectly. Robin sat up and found the motion entirely effortless. He glanced down at his body and was surprised when his eyes and head did not move, but field of vision shifted, like a camera mounted onto a pole was swinging down, panning everything as it went.

More surprising than the changes in his perception, though, was the complete absence of a body. Instead, floating below his vision was a collection of … mist?

I look like I am a cloud of evaporated blood… I can handle that, if it means physical attacks will pass through me.

Behold! The Blue Bug-pire!

Robin tested his current abilities as far as movement. He found that he had almost no physical sensations aside from an awareness of the particles of his cloud-body, and even that was difficult to place. The more he focused on it, the more he convinced himself that he was imagining it, until he stopped focusing on it, at which point it became noticeable again.

He willed himself to move upwards, and was pleased when his new form gently lifted off of the ground, rising into the branches above in a matter of moments, passing through them as easily as smoke.

Robin willed himself to stop right above the bottom of the canopy in the trees above, just above a particularly large branch.

I have no idea when this will wear off. I do not think I can use any items until it does, so might as well make good use of the time and find a comfortable, safe spot in case I pop out unexpectedly.

Reasonably sure that the branch would hold his full physical weight if necessary, Robin rolled his attention downwards, scanning the forest floor below. It did not take him long to spot the cause of the rumbling and the gibbering he had heard before, and he was thankful that he did not actually have lungs to draw in the sharp gasp he involuntarily tried to emit,

The top of it just below the treeline, a massive cephalodian clump of white, porous stone was slowly crashing through the forest. It looked like what would be left behind after the death of a work van-sized tumbleweed… if plants, trees, and bushes had skeletons and those skeletons were made of coral.

As it rolled, each “branch” would grow slightly, extending a meter or two in the blink of an eye and driving themselves into the ground, before shrinking slightly and pulling the massive coral-tumbleweed along. It was oddly rhythmic, each branch striking the ground one after the other, sounding just like footsteps.

Robin was not the only one who had been fooled initially, though; he had located the source of the gibbering.

Stuck to the side of the massive thing, barbed on one of the stabbing and contracting arms, gibbering with each motion of the plant was a Tweaker Mage, a little bit smaller than the one he had just fought. It would probably be louder if the bone-white coral tumbleweed had not pierced it through one of the lungs.

The tumbleweed, to Robin, did not seem to be attacking or destroying anything around it intentionally. Rather, it was just moving based on pure efficiency in the moment-to-moment, dragging itself into a slow, spiky roll.

That did not seem to matter much for the massive humanoid in front it, struggling to uproot a tree as an apparent makeshift weapon. Despite the gravity of his situation, Robin found himself wondering what he would call it. Tweaker Hulk? No, that one is taken, and might be confusing. Tweaker Hunk? No, that one is weird. Tweaker Chad? Robin inspected the hulking mass of rubbery flesh more closely. It looked like the same general creature foundation as the other Tweaker creatures, rubbery skin, elongated arms, pointy teeth, but this one was pure muscle layered upon chiseled meat. It looked like a bodybuilder in a competition who suddenly had the entirety of their skin ripped off, just sans the screaming, shock, and death.

Robin found it extremely familiar. The familiarity did not bring him any comfort, however.

Holy Yoshi. He looks just like the Colossal Titan. He has to be at least fifteen feet tall!

The tumbleweed was not impressed to be in the presence of a celebrity [look-alike]. Nor was it impressed with the size of the angry brute now swinging at it with a small tree.

To the arboreal spectator’s surprise, the tree smashed through the first few arms of the tumbleweed, and the Tweaker Titan roared in triumph.

Robin was celebrating his own triumph above them.

Tweaker Titan! That is the one!

Robin’s elation at finding a name was cut short by the sheer visual trauma of what happened after the titan smashed the tumbleweed’s branches, eliciting another mental gasp.

The titan had immediately begun hefting the tree back for another smash, but it had embedded partially in the ground after smashing through the apparently-brittle tumbleweed.

The tumbleweed did not seem to be doing very much aside from heaving backwards, seemingly to slam the titan. Robin was amused in some dark corner of his brain by the fact that he was almost rooting for the Tweaker Titan to win the engagement, seeming to be the less dangerous of the two creatures.

I also have no idea if that thing will be able to find me or not. It could have weird plant-senses.

Robin felt his hopes drop clear out of the tree and down to the ground when the tumbleweed reared back like the beach before a tsunami and then immediately cracked forward, an bone-white, pock-marked arm growing like before.

Unlike before, however, this arm was surrounded by crackling purple-blue electricity, and it was twice the size of the ones that had preceded it. The Tweaker Titan attempted to dodge to the side, but it did not let go of the tree it had embedded in the ground, and was yanked backwards, partially falling down.

It was struggling to stand when it realized that the tumbleweed had impaled its calf. The massive humanoid reached down to casually snap off the coral-esque arm, finding it slightly tougher than expected. It exerted the full strength of one of the rubbery red arms, easily snapping the arm, and roared up at the tumbleweed in victory. The bellow was cut off after the first moment as the tumbleweed released the purple-blue electricity again, causing the titan to spasm and twitch, completely missing the next growth of the tumbleweed.

The tumbleweed’s attack caught the Tweaker Titan in the chin, driving all the way through its chin and neck, killing it instantly.

Robin was mentally frozen, unable to fully process what he had just seen.

That thing just punched right through it!

The tumbleweed had drilled through the dense muscle of the Tweaker Titan like it was cotton candy, and seemed to be doing so again, with another branch digging through the corpse of the Tweaker Titan and into the ground. The clump of white coral-esque arms slowly rolled forward, over and onto the body, impaling it repeatedly with separate arms.

Robin hovered, wishing he could close his eyes. He did not dare move from his position above the branch; if he fell now, he would fall directly onto the tumbleweed.

It was passing under him now, and Robin could see the now-separate parts of the titan stuck on various poking arms, the blood dripping down the arms and into.... he stared, his terror forgotten for a moment.

Is the blood dripping into the holes…? Is that how it feeds? He kept watching, unable to blink or bring himself to look away. He watched as small gibbets of flesh were dragged slowly into the holes, as well, taken to whatever digestive organs the tumbleweed had.

It continued pulling itself forward, shooting branch after branch ahead of itself. Soon it was almost completely past him, shambling into the trees to the south, and Robin felt himself relax.

As he felt the tension leave his body, Robin realized that it was far too physical of a sensation, too tangible. He could feel the magic slowly leaving him, the physical sensation slowly returning to his material form.

Not much time now. I had better go while I still can.

Robin drifted down through the branches to the ground, checking his BODY as he went.

He landed on the ground where the killing blow to the Tweaker Titan had been dealt, feeling himself become more and more dense, his form taking on a more visible outline as he stood over the bloody ground. .

Robin had not closed his BODY window, and he noticed that it was increasing rapidly after he landed, having gone up to nine and abruptly stopping.

Moments after his BODY stopped increasing, Robin felt himself crunch down onto the dry earth as he became solid. The dirt had an unusual consistency to it, as if it had been baked in the oven.

Robin scooped a bit into his hand as he stood, taking a closer look at the soil.

I thought it was wet with the titan’s blood...

A light went on for Robin, and he grimaced slightly.

Oh... oh! Did the potion transform me into a vampire mist? Gross...

Robin heard the tumbleweed crunching away behind him, and turned to glance at it.

It was crunching towards him, now, having apparently sensed or heard him.

Robin took a moment to try and will a concept to Opal before he turned and ran for his life.

Follow me, Opal! We need to find May!