I didn’t have to go far to locate another madmaw.

  That didn’t make it easy to get the drop on it.

  [Savage Reflex] combined with my thermal sensor made finding the lone monster easy, but I was less sneaky in my approach than I’d have liked.

  The beast was gnawing on a recent kill as I shifted closer, and didn’t seem to pay any mind to my advance until I stepped on—and inadvertently snapped—a small set of bones.

  The beast raised its cackles immediately, fur shooting out. Needless to say, my [Stealth] skill didn’t increase.

  I engaged the wolf before it could decide how to handle me. I rushed forwards, blade in hand, stabbing with the knife and catching the monster on its side. I activated [Flame Body] as I moved, more habitual than anything, and felt the knife-edge begin to heat as I cut into the beast’s muscled shoulder.

  The wolf snarled, snapping at me as I withdrew the knife and backed up a couple steps. Eyes locked on my enemy, I watched for its next attack, planning to dodge and follow up with another stab, but the madmaw was too fast to dodge.

  Claws raked across my forearm as I barely brought it up in time to block my face, ripping skin and drawing blood.

  The moment it had happened, the moment I’d felt the sting, it was as if a primal haze had descended over me. I redoubled my speed. My focus narrowed to a pinpoint. I felt less fear than I should have in this situation, I was almost sure of that.

  All I could think about was how to kill this thing.

  I pushed back against the wolf, leaning into its attack until I was past it, deepening the cuts in my arm until I emerged at its backside. It hadn’t expected such a response. It wasn’t reacting fast enough.

  I slashed straight across the side of its body as it rushed to turn. When it did reach me, I ducked to avoid another strike, then brought my knife up into its belly.

  The monster howled like crazy; I didn’t manage to retrieve my knife after. The madmaw stomped at me wildly, causing me to roll away and clamber to my feet just in time to catch the monster’s skull in my chest.

  It barged and headbutted me as it forced me back against a jagged cave wall, snarling, pushing and attempting to pin me, to bite my neck…

  I reached down with my left hand, pulling a fang from my belt and stabbing into its neck before its jaws could find purchase. The beast chomped at the air for a few more seconds, muscle memory still in effect, then fell to the ground, gasping and choking.

  Panting, I waited for the creature to stop thrashing so intensely before retrieving my knife from its gut. I stabbed it where I thought its heart was, and watched as the monster went limp.

  I retrieved my fang, heart still pumping. The pain in my arm was muted with the blanket of primal focus still numbing everything. I recognised the dearth in my emotions. I was usually more panicked after a fight. Less satisfied.

  This skill was useful. I stored the corpse and hit disassemble.

  More meat, more bones, another E Grade Beast Core.

  I tried to lock onto the feeling of [Savage Reflex], to see how easily I could lift it.

  It wasn’t difficult. Immediately, it became harder to see and hear that which existed around me, panic set in, and pain exploded across my arm.

  Then I heard a new howl, and trepidation crawled up my spine. I hurriedly located the feeling I now associated with focus and slipped back into it.

  The pain was manageable again. The rapid beat of my heart within my control. More like that of a wardrum than the frightened rabbit I’d been only moments before.

  Two more madmaws were approaching. They’d clearly heard the fight. This one must not have been too far from its pack.

  Both rushed me simultaneously. Thinking fast, I pressed my left arm against my right and squeezed where the wound was.

  [Savage Reflex: 1 >> 2.]

  I was rewarded with a burst of speed. The pain heightened my reaction time, slowed everything around me. I was able to dodge the first incoming monster, while the second just barely managed to tear my left arm with its teeth, [Flame Body] resisting a portion of the impact.

  Both forearms bloody, I pulled myself away and then drove my knife at the closer of the two creatures.

  It moved too quickly for me to catch it, my knife rending mottled fur from its body, and my second slash hitting nothing at all.

  I pushed more mana into [Flame Body]. I needed to remain quick. To not leave myself too open. These monsters were coordinated, biting and slashing at me one after the other, and if I didn’t manage to catch one of them soon, I was sure I’d be worn down.

  Thinking fast, I reached into my [Hoard] and flung out the bones of the most recent wolf I’d killed.

  None were broken or jagged enough to pierce their bodies, but the result I’d been looking for was disorientation, and that I received. The madmaws whined and snapped at the air as I drove my knife into the side of the rightmost beast’s head. It fell to the ground, dead as I removed my blade.

  I began pelting rocks at the left wolf as I advanced on it. It was backing up now, looking scared of me.

  As soon as I saw it about to make a break for a distant clearing, I jumped atop its back and drove my knife inside.

  Still it tried to run, so I held onto the knife with one hand as I pulled out a fang and stabbed that into the creature too. It threw me off its back, sprinting forwards, but only made it so far until it crashed into a nearby wall.

  I shook the dizziness from myself as I stood, walking up and finishing off the twitching creature. I stored and disassembled it, paying the cost and receiving another bevy of monster materials.

  I’d also received two new cores: one Uncommon Prey Core, and another Rest Core. Both were E Grade.

  I’d figure those out later. For now, I could use some self-inspection.

  I tapped my light crystal twice and then took a good look at myself.

  I was hurt, but it wasn’t anything terrible. Sure, when I’d let my [Savage Reflex] down my arms had really stung, and my ribs ached, but I assumed it wasn’t bad enough that I needed healing yet.

  I had about one and a half superior potions left. I needed to hang onto as much of those as I could. That meant dealing with some pain.

  Besides, thanks to my new skill, being injured made me faster. No good reason to undo that unless I was really hurting.

  That said, I took the time to wrap my injuries. It didn’t do me any good to bleed everywhere, and I imagined it made me quite easy to smell.

  Speaking of smell, the mask on my face made it impossible for me to smell anything, which was a shame, as I imagined [Savage Reflex] might have even helped me use my nose to hunt if I had the option available.

  It was something I’d have to test when I was back on Tellos. Not that I had any idea when that would be.

  I was overthinking. I put those concerns out of my mind.

  Right now, my concern was fighting. Finding more enemies to kill and increasing my skills in the process.

  That and mapping this cave out. I hadn’t been far, and had yet to encounter anything besides madmaws, but I had no clue how far I was from the facility.

  Maybe not an incredible distance, but depending on which route I took, I could end up walking in the opposite direction. I wished I had a more effective means of pathfinding down here.

  I thought about it. What had Toar done in a similar scenario?

  I reached into my [Hoard] and pulled out a large leg bone. I used my pick to dig out a hole in the ground and then stabbed it in.

  There. Now I had a marker to tell me I’d visited this room.

  I had a lot of bones. I should be able to do that after each room I visit.

  Today, I’d make my priority clearing out a large enough area that I could safely sleep. That and finding water. I had a decent amount in a skin in my [Hoard], but I could be down here for weeks. I needed a lake to stock up from, and I knew those existed somewhere through these tunnels. I’d seen them already.

  I wasn’t sure about the water this deep in the caves, but I figured if I boiled it with a Recovery Stone, it should be drinkable. If not, I was dead anyway.

  Mind made up on my next steps, I located the three exits to the room I was in, dimmed my light crystal, and got a move on.

  ***

  Using [Savage Reflex] was helpful in navigating the dark. My vision was far sharper, but there were times where things slipped into pitch blackness, where only the faint red dots on my submachine gun were visible to me, and I had to walk incredibly slowly to avoid either tripping or walking into a wall.

  I had a bottle of catseye from Selsor’s stock, which was meant to give some form of night vision, but there wasn’t much of it, and I’d rather save it for an emergency.

  Besides that, I only had a single light crystal, and while I’d been using it for weeks, I knew these things eventually ran out of charge, and I wasn’t sure how long mine had left. I’d seen two people in my group have to go and replace theirs in the last two weeks, incurring another fifty gold cost on their tabs. Maisie said hers had lasted her for three weeks. Ceri said six. It seemed random. Maybe the crystals weren’t uniform in function, or maybe some were using theirs more often than others. It was hard to be sure.

  Either way, I needed to be conservative with its use. Not only that, but I needed to get better at getting around in the dark. I couldn’t let myself be helpless if the crystal ran out of charge. I also couldn’t allow every creature in the underground to see me coming from a mile away due to the bright light shining off my body.

  Sure, they might also hear me, but I was willing to risk that. I had heightened senses, too, which meant I could better tell how much sound I was making. I could even try and control my footfalls to produce less noise.

  I was having mixed results, but it didn’t seem like a fruitless endeavour. Plus, with all of the near-pitch black walking I was doing, feeling out my environment and listening as I went…

  [Perception: 7 >> 8.]

  I was making improvements. Maybe not the [Stealth] increase I was looking for, but it was still something. The fact that [Savage Reflex] was allowing me to passively train multiple skills was testament to its versatility. I was considering combining it with [Perception] once one of the abilities hit ten, but maybe refinement was a better option.

  After all, I didn’t want to lose any of the features that [Savage Reflex] provided. Not unless I could be certain I’d receive something better.

  It took about fifteen minutes of walking for me to come across three new red dots, all of them deep inside a new cavern that afforded a measure of natural light thanks to some pale white crystals dangling on the ceiling.

  The light was a welcome reprieve. The experience of walking around almost blind was an alien one, and I second-guessed myself almost every time I took a step.

  If the new creatures had noticed me already, they hadn’t made me aware of it. There was a chance that if I could inch closer, I might be able to catch these ones off-guard.

  That being said… these weren’t madmaws. I could hear the sounds they were making, and they were distinctly different. Less whining. Much more roaring.

  There was a large rockface between me and the creatures on the other side, rising about ten feet into the air. I clambered up onto it, hoping to get a decent vantage point.

  Eyeing ahead, I saw a strange scene unfurling before me.

  Three… six-legged… bear things. I think. I’d never actually seen a bear. Pretty sure they didn’t have six legs.

  All I knew was that these things were big and covered in fur, and they were each staring at a wall of blue and green crystals, each unmoving, apparently enmeshed by the sight of them.

  For a while, I stared too. They were pretty, no doubt, but I imagined that wasn’t why the three six-leggers were staring so intently. There must’ve been something here that I wasn’t noticing straight away…

  My eyes snapped to it just before the bears did. A large crystal above chipped suddenly, shards raining down. In a flash of motion, a small, blurry shape that almost resembled a crystal itself moved at incredible speeds.

  The bears all reacted at once, moving up onto their hind legs, placing their front paws on the wall and attempting to bite at the creature as it ran past—that or crush it with a paw.

  None of them managed. And so they went back to waiting. Watching to see when the crystalline creature would next make its move.

  It took me some time to spot it, but with the help of [Savage Reflex], I was able to make out the creature’s outline to a level of precision that would usually be lost on me. Nevertheless, I could see it, small and cautious, standing completely immobile for over a minute at a time, then leaning down and taking small bites of whichever crystal it was perched on. It somewhat resembled a lizard.

  Occasionally, the bears would spot the offending creature and move to attack it again. Once more, the little creature would zip to another perch faster than my eyes could track it, and even with my new skill active, I’d be searching for a good twenty seconds before I located the lizard again.

  It took me a moment to realise that it was changing colour. That it seemed to assume whatever colour was a part of its background…

  Stolen novel; please report.

  That was interesting. Even more interesting was that there were at least ten of these things zipping around up there. It took a shift of my perspective to even realise, as most of them laid dormant, but once I saw the outline of one, the others came into far more plain view.

  So, these bear things liked to eat these lizard things…

  And they seemed incredibly focussed on them…

  Now seemed like as good a time as any to train my [Stealth]... How could I go about killing these bears?

  I tried to devise a plan. Was I just going to run up behind the three of them and start stabbing?

  They were even bigger than the madmaws. If I didn’t hit something vital, I was probably gonna end up being mauled to death.

  …how stealthy was it to throw a grenade at them?

  I pulled a C Grade Resonance Stone out of my [Hoard]. It was the lesser of my two remaining explosives, and it glowed to my touch. I could easily throw this down and blow them to pieces. I was sure it’d be enough destructive power to get the job done.

  But… what would I get out of that?

  It took me a second to consider. I wasn’t actually sure what benefit I was going to receive from blowing up the bears. More monster cores? I might destroy those in the explosion, plus anything else valuable. I doubted I was going to level any skill from blowing them up.

  And when it came to heading down the rockface and slitting their throats… there were three of them. I’d barely bested two madmaws, and that was with one of them trying to run away from me.

  Something told me that three on one, even if I got the drop on one of these things, the other two wouldn’t run. That even if I juiced myself up with Power Stones, I wouldn’t be a match for these things in physical combat.

  It took some effort, but I lifted the viel of [Savage Reflex] away from my vision, and immediately, I felt myself beginning to gain clarity.

  I felt… disoriented. I felt nauseous. My right arm felt like it was on fire where I’d cut it earlier.

  What was I doing? Had my new skill really made me so overzealous about hunting that I was considering throwing myself into danger for no reason? That I was finding excuses to use valuable resources for no gain?

  I pocketed the Resonance Stone. I crawled down the rockface as silently as I possibly could. A couple of stones dislodged as I went, clattering down, and I thought I heard a curious grunt from one of the nearby bears.

  I became incredibly still. I’m pretty sure my heart would’ve stopped if I’d clenched any harder.

  I was in a bad place. It wasn’t safe here. My new skill had almost led me into a deathtrap.

  I held my breath and waited until finally I heard the bears once again thundering at the crystal wall. I took the distraction as my cue to leave, igniting my light crystal to assure my footing and leaving as fast as I could.

  [Stealth: 6 >> 7.]

  I got about halfway through the tunnel back before I collapsed against the wall of the cave, panting horribly, clutching at my head.

  I felt scared. This was too much for me. This stupid ability had almost convinced me to try and tussle with death itself. And for what? How was that going to get me stronger? How the hell was I going to survive that?!

  Breathe. Breathe…

  I pulled out one of the madmaw pelts and put it over myself, realising I was shivering. I withdrew one of Selsor’s health potions, letting down my mask and taking a long sip.

  I didn’t need to waste my best on these injuries, but having them gone certainly helped my mental state.

  It took about a minute for me to get my composure back. I’m sure I cried a little. As quietly as I could, because who knew what could hear me down here, but…

  I dunno. It’d been so long since I’d really stopped to think about anything. I’d been making increasingly reckless decisions even without an ability pushing me to. Attacking Carrow, threatening Tattia, running off alone down here, cutting off my finger…

  This was just the latest in a string of self-destructive gambles. What scared me most was that as the panic started to fade, I began to realise just how easily I’d made those decisions. How little regret I’d felt after. How inconsequential it all began to feel as my heart settled.

  Did I not care about staying alive? Was all that mattered to me improving my position?

  Well, look where that got me.

  …it took time for me to retrace my steps. The hysteria had faded, and felt almost silly to think back on after a few minutes’ hindsight. It wasn’t like anyone had made those decisions for me. I needed to own them.

  The truth of the matter was, I’d started using a new ability and almost had a close brush with death because of it. I’d panicked as a result.

  I needed to be more careful about using [Savage Reflex]. I’d force myself to toggle it off every few minutes, adjust to the feeling until I could differentiate my altered mental states and properly control them. I figured there was a good chance that going between such extremes so quickly was the main reason I’d freaked out so much in the first place.

  That wasn’t like me, after all. I was tougher than that.

  That didn’t mean I was going back to deal with those bears. I’d stick clear of that section of the cave and work my way through elsewhere. I’d only double back if everywhere else led to a worse enemy. That or if I was confronted with nothing but dead ends otherwise.

  I needed to make more headroom in this cave. But the truth of the matter was, I was tired. Tired and hungry.

  I decided to find a water source and began working on setting up camp. It took time to wander my way into a room that had a small stream running through it. There were a bunch of furred, subterranean things on the far end of the cavern, burrowing in and out of the ground, each of them a dark brown, but they looked docile. Some stared at me with curiosity, but none seemed to really react when I set down nearby and started pulling items out of my [Hoard].

  I figured camping near a burrow was good. Nowhere in the mine was completely safe from predators, but this was at least safe enough that some creatures managed to live here. That’d have to do.

  I started off with placing a ring of rocks down in a tight circle. That would be the basis for my fire. As for kindling…

  I had shirts and other fabrics. A pyre stone that I could place in the middle to help heat everything through, as well as my own [Flame Body].

  Finding a means to start a fire wasn’t going to be the difficult part. It was keeping that fire going.

  At camp we had sticks and logs available at all times; here there was nothing such to speak of. There was a bed of moss near the stream and along the nearby walls, some of which I took the time to pick, but a lot of it was moist, only a third appearing usable.

  I wondered… could I set the madmaw carcass on fire? How long would that burn for?

  I pulled out multiple bones and pieces of fat and placed them around the Pyre Stone. I placed my hands against the Pyre Stone and pushed as much heat into it as I could without hurting myself. Once I had the stone nice and hot, I pulled all of the surrounding stones closer, then rubbed the cloth of one of my ripped shirts against the pyre stone until that eventually caught fire.

  I repeated the process with more rags, with bits of rope and moss and whatever flammable things I had access to.

  At one point, I began to supplement my regular rocks for some of the ariline in my inventory. I found it conducted heat better, and while I didn’t want to cook with a fire produced from burning metals, I could use the material to at least get the fire roaring.

  Speaking of which, the smoke was horrendous. I had to pull away multiple times, eyes streaming, holding a hand over my face like a visor as I poked at the smoldering flames with the end of my pickaxe.

  Even with all of my work, it was forty minutes after setting the pelt alight that I saw the bones of the madmaw finally beginning to burn.

  [Tinkering: 6 >> 7.]

  That was sweet relief. For a while, there, I’d been worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep a fire going.

  Now I could finally cook. I took pieces of the madmaw’s belly and leg and seared them over the flames, holding them to the fire until they looked thoroughly browned on the outside, then a while longer just to be safe.

  Once I was, well, fairly sure I wouldn’t poison myself, I took a bite.

  That tasted… pretty bland. Chewy, too. Already, I was missing Ceri’s cooking.

  More than that, I was missing conversation. That felt weird for me. I’d gone a lot of my life not really being around people. Not really trusting them either.

  I didn’t fully trust my group. Not like I trusted Summer. I’d been through shit with them, yeah, but we hadn’t known each other that long.

  But that didn’t really stop me from liking them. Which was strange to me. I was used to being more averse to company.

  I wasn’t sure I liked the part of myself that relied on others. I wasn’t sure I liked the asocial part, either.

  Then again, I could say the same thing about the part of me that got scared. Sure, I preferred being self-assured. I often felt confident in difficult situations, or at least I think I did. I definitely preferred whatever that feeling was. That felt like control.

  But… maybe if I was never scared I’d have gone and fought three bears today.

  It was probably important to remain fearful. At least a little.

  I needed to get stupid delusions out of my head. I was Tier 0. Until I was stronger, places like this weren’t here for me to conquer.

  They were for me to survive.

  I clutched my wolf pelt as I tried to sleep. Even if it wasn’t for the uncomfortable mask on my face, I doubted sleep would’ve come easy.

  Tomorrow, I was going to need to find a new means to travel through here, fighting small enemies as I went in an effort to grow stronger. I’d need to avoid the bigger ones. Keep an eye out for anything that might kill me.

  All it took was one misstep for me to die down here. I needed to respect that from now on.

  ***

  I wasn’t sure how long I slept. All I knew was that even through the mask, I woke up coughing during the night, smoke billowing in my face.

  I spent about thirty minutes getting the flames back to full heat, then an hour cooking through as much meat as I could, storing most of it.

  After, I began filling a metal box with water from the stream. I didn’t have a way to boil it over the fire without risking melting the box, so I instead dumped a Recovery Stone inside and stored it for later.

  I considered dousing the fire after, but figured it prudent to just let it burn. I might need to reuse this fire pit later. I chewed on warm madmaw thigh, considering my next steps.

  I wasn’t going back through the bear tunnel. I’d thought about it before I’d slept, and now that I was up, I was solid on that decision.

  I needed to find alternate paths. Ones with the least life signatures. If whatever I ran into looked killable, I’d fight it. If I found anything that resembled useful loot, I’d grab it so long as I could do so safely.

  This was the mentality I needed to have until I was back on my feet. It wasn’t one I was used to, but it was the right way to think in a situation like this.

  And so I decided to be cautious. Thankfully, I wasn’t low on food, and assuming the water I’d picked up wasn’t toxic, I wouldn’t be running out of that any time soon, either. Plus, my mask hadn’t shown any signs of wear or deterioration since I’d entered the underground. The recovery stone didn’t seem to need replacing, and while I wasn’t sure how much longer that would hold true, it was a good omen for the future.

  Having all of that plus a light source and a weapon or two was pretty damn solid. Really, I needed to look on the bright side of things.

  I walked through tunnels leading away from yesterday’s direction until I finally came across a single heat signature.

  Something was on its own in the tunnel ahead, not that I could see what it was. Maybe I could sneak up on it?

  I was somewhat reluctant to activate [Savage Reflex] after my previous experience with it, but I knew that if I wanted to hunt effectively, it was my best option to do so.

  And so I let the feeling descend over me. This time, I was more cognisant of it, of the boost in confidence, the surge of adrenaline that pushed my more extreme traits to dangerous heights.

  I was also more aware of my surroundings. Not only that, but I could suddenly see the beast ahead of me.

  It was… something resembling a deer, almost?

  No. It looked more like a horse. More thick in body and taller than a deer, but still it had some fashion of antlers adorning its head.

  A horn… spikes?

  It was a quadrupedic creature, and the closer I got to it the more I realised its head was covered in spikes, long and jutting.

  If that thing ran into me I was definitely getting gored. I could turn around and go the other way, but…

  No running. I needed to take it out.

  I drew a fang from my belt, inching towards my prey. I stepped lightly, timing my footfalls with those of the creature, until eventually, after thirty seconds, I thought myself in close enough reach.

  I aimed the fang and threw it straight ahead.

  I’d been shooting for the back of the creature’s head, but I instead struck it around the flank, causing the monster to howl and rear in the narrow tunnel.

  It almost toppled over itself as it threw its body back; it snarled, searching for its sudden assailant.

  I took the opportunity to go in for the kill, running closer as I pulled my knife and jumped onto the creature’s back.

  It tried to buck and kick me off immediately, but I held one of the hard, boney spikes around its head as I pulled my knife out with my free hand and stabbed into the creature’s neck.

  It fell to the floor, dead, and I stored it. I didn’t have time to inspect the monster now, not when it’d made such noise. I knew it better to move on.

  A minute of brisk walking later, I was out of the tunnel and into a large clearing. The walls in this part of the dungeon were high, with pillars rising into the air and a multitude of crystals lining the walls, shining in a marvelous spectrum of colour.

  In the centre of the room was a monumental drill; it was unlike any of the ones I’d seen above ground. This tool was far larger, lined with multiple blue and green veins. It looked as if it were capable of punching straight to the bottom of this cave with no effort at all, and it had. A huge hole ran into the nebulous dark below.

  I was convinced this was a Drassian mining site. The aesthetic of the drill and the fact that certain carts that remained here looked dissimilar to the ones we used only made me feel more sure of it. This all looked more like their equipment than ours. Even though there was no one around to confirm it, I doubted that the Association had set up such extensive mining infrastructure this low down without bothering to make any use of it.

  This stuff didn’t look like it’d seen use in a while. That made sense, considering the fate of the Drassians.

  That said…

  There was tons on display here. Hundreds of pounds of gems lined the walls of this place. A couple of cartfuls had been picked off already, simply laying there.

  A mountain of gems out in the open. Ready for the taking.

  Not only did the existence of this area mean the facility was somewhere close by…

  Somehow, some way… I’d hit the jackpot.

  Hah… was this what being cautious got me?

  I didn’t dare smile as I stared around the room, fearing everything would go to shit if I did.

  I had to be realistic. I could potentially pocket enough here to clear all of my debts if the contents were valuable enough. No, not possibly… look at all this. If I spent a couple of days mining here, I’d have enough to clear my debts plus make a tidy profit. Enough to spend materials on skill refinement and combinations and then take whatever I could still carry out of here.

  I almost wanted to thank whoever had thrown me down here. Almost wanted to. I’d still rather kill the bastard.

  But right now, it was hard to be angry at anything.

  This was the ticket. I just needed to start collecting. Start mining.

  Somewhere, in the back of my head, I was vaguely aware that [Savage Reflex] was still running.

  I walked past a central pillar. Began inspecting a handful of crystals.

  Somewhere even further in the back of my head, I was aware that I’d just loudly executed a creature only a minute away from here.

  I thought about lifting the veil, about inspecting the area for enemies and making sure this was all safe…

  Too late.

  Why was it too late? Because I’d caught something in the reflection of the large, expensive-looking crystal I was marvelling at in my hands.

  Something large. Something metallic and imposing.

  Something right behind me.

  I turned in a flurry.

  What… what was that?

  Before me stood a giant. The creature was horrific even by the basis of comparison I already possessed, resembling some demented cross between a crab and a scorpion. Its chassis was armoured. Its head contained rows of sharp teeth. It was over twice my height, and had a pincer that raised even further into the air.

  Its legs were larger than my entire body.

  It looked down at me. It tilted its head.

  The guardian of the crystalline tomb angled its steely pincer, then shot it right at me.

  I barely threw myself to the side before the crystal wall behind me shattered into a million pieces.

  I scrambled for my submachine gun. Emptied a full clip into the monster’s body…

  Every bullet bounced off.