The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 207: His Body or Not?

As soon as he opened his eyes again, Lane was instantly swept by an overwhelming wave of dizziness. He stumbled (why was he even standing? Didn’t he just fall to the ground? With his leg badly injured?), tripped on something, although he didn’t know what, and fell flat on his face.

And then he threw up. He barely managed to lift himself up enough so that his vomit wouldn’t pool around his face, but he still couldn’t avoid his hands getting splashed.

Oh well. Disgusting as it was, Lane had more pressing matters on his mind.

His nausea was overwhelming. Even as he spat out all the contents of his stomach, he still couldn’t stop retching. It took quite a while before the dizziness started subsiding...

And as it did, he realized something... odd. His body felt different. Not in an ’affected by venom’ type of different, or ’on the brink of death’, ’numb and cold’, or anything like that. Rather... As if the length of his legs was different. The width of his shoulders and hips. The size of his waist. His muscle composition. The shape of his knee caps. It was such a weird, unpleasant feeling... As if he didn’t know his body at all.

His hands were also different, though, so it couldn’t just be an illusion. They were wider, but with shorter and stubbier fingers, with prominent knuckles, the skin three tones darker, and with long black hair growing on the back.

Most certainly not Lane’s hands.

The forearms were also different. Chunkier, and hairy. Covered in blood, both dried and fresh, that was still seeping from his open wounds.

Lane tried moving them. And, although clumsy, the fists tightened as he wanted them to. Sitting back on his calves - which didn’t hurt. There was no injury from the monster’s venomous spine on them, it seemed - he lifted his (?) hands up to his face... Which was also different. The nose wider, lips coarser, brows bushier, his jaw and cheeks strachy from the facial hair... Hair shorter and spikier. And there was no piercing in his tongue.

Yup. Most certainly not his face.

But it was HIS, in terms that he could feel the touch, he could move the facial muscles. It felt different than usual - well, of course it did. His face was completely different, after all! - but it didn’t change the fact that it was ’his’.

Well, there was nothing he could do but try to figure out step by step. He couldn’t just mop around on the ground forever. Although he was lucky enough to wake up in a quiet place, but he was still in the dungeon, it seemed... He looked around, trying to figure out exactly where...

And then he saw it. The thing he tripped on.

His real body.

...If it even still was his body? His consciousness wasn’t in it, and it just lay there, motionless...

Which brought him back to the mystery of his current body. He glanced back at the body he was in again... Now that he thought about it, it looked a bit familiar. Wasn’t that the middle-aged man, that new recruit who tried to save him?

...Judging by his clothes, and the place where he was, as well as the fact that there was no one else around... It would appear so.

Rustling in the bushes not far in the distance finally snapped Lane out of his dumbfounded state. Whatever was going on, none of it would matter, if he were to end up dead! He was in the body of a C-rank Esper, yes, but his control over it was imperfect at best, very clumsy, not to mention tired and injured, so he had no confidence in using it to fight. Meanwhile, his real body... was unconscious (or dead. Lane didn’t dare to check), and with even more serious wounds. The best he could do was to grab it, throw it over his back, and run toward the Gate.

Or try to. With this unfamiliar body, running was... to call it ’challenging’ would be an understatement. Lane had to resort to a careful march, if he didn’t want to trip and fall on the tiniest pieces of rock.

Especially that ’his’ condition was quickly deteriorating. He had the injuries on his arms, and another on his back... And through them, the venom from Lane’s real body got into the man’s system. It wasn’t much, but the venom was potent enough for even a small amount to have serious side effects. As Lane walked, it circulated through his veins, slowly shutting down his bodily functions...

To die twice in a row, in a span of what, a few hours? The universe was truly mocking him. He had just found out he had an ability - although not... the most pleasant one - and now he was going to lose ’his’ life again? And then what, wake up in another body? Probably not... Although Lane still hadn’t quite figured out how exactly it worked, that thing he did, back when he was still being carried by the man, must have been the activation of his ability. He would need to do the same to someone else, if he wanted to possess another body...

Or to try in on his own body. If he could just repossess himself, that would be the best. While his identity sucked, Lane at least liked his own body. He didn’t want to abandon it.

Biting on his lip to stop his consciousness from slipping, he quickened his pace. There was no one around to help him (or try to possess), so he needed to get out first. At least he was lucky enough that it all happened when a large portion of the dungeon had already been cleared, and there were no monsters getting in his way...

And finally, after what felt like forever, he saw the Gate. In the last desperate attempt, he gathered all his remaining strength, and ran toward it, crossing to the other side...

Only to tumble down the stairs. freewёbnoνel.com

Right, he completely forgot. The Gate was located right at the top of a staircase.

He lay on the cold concrete, all the noise around him muted and distant. All that he could think about was to try to get back to his body. It fell down just in front of him, limp and lifeless like a rag doll. He stretched out his arm, trying to touch it, to activate his ability...

Just as he was about to touch his shoulder, his vision went black.