Slow-venom flowed through the hollows in my fangs, dripping into the bad-thing that grasped me. I chose not to use my original venom at the moment, not certain if it would even be useful against a bad-thing of its size.

Its claws loosened against my scale-flesh, beginning to feel the effects of the slow-venom.

Enough for me to slip free.

I fell to the stone below with an ungainly twirl, having jerked and thrashed until I spilled from its grasp. Fortunately, it left me be. I was unsurprised.

Grabbing me had only been in passing, a reaction to rolling against my form.

The Coreless had its real focus.

Its grasping arms scrabbled against the female’s protective ore-flesh, bouncing off of the mana-lit covering with an uncomfortable ringing noise. That having failed, it slammed the plate of its skull into her stomach, sending the Coreless rolling backwards and setting itself swaying.

Seeing a chance to act, I slithered towards it, biting its unguarded heel. The bad-thing jerked as my slow-venom spilled in, throwing me in a low arc across the cavern. I hit the glossy stone below, sliding across it until the wall brought me to a painful halt.

The bad-thing turned towards me and charged, lumbering forward with surprising speed despite the hitch in its step. It lowered its head just before it reached me, smashing me against the wall with a cracking of stone - fracturing many of my fragile ribs with ease at the same time.

I twitched and writhed, overcome by agony.

The bad-thing opened its mouth, preparing to bite down.

A fang of ore-flesh pierced through its throat, narrowly missing my mangled length.

Experience Gained! Reduced Due To Assistance Received.

Level Up!

1 Trait Point Gained.

I hissed weakly, painfully bending upon myself so that I could bite my tail. My insides tingled as [The Snake That Eats Its Own Tail] began to take effect, a terrible sort of itching that made me want to pull free from my own flesh. The blood dripping down upon me didn’t help with that sensation, either.

The ore-flesh fang ripped away, sliding back out of the bad-thing’s throat. Without it there to prop it up, the corpse toppled in a meaty thud directly in front of me.

“Are you okay, little guy?” the female Coreless hissed with a strange tone. Again, it was a poor attempt. This time, however, I didn’t have the inclination to correct her.

Useless as she was, she had still managed to save me.

I let out a quiet hiss at that thought, upping my opinion of her. Slightly. I still preferred Needle, for obvious reasons.

She reached out and took hold of my scale-flesh. For once, I didn’t force her back, allowing her to place me on her shoulder in the same position that I had rested on Needle. With a painful shift, I let go of my tail and looped it around her arm, clasping it again with my fangs a moment later.

All the while, my insides itched furiously. It wasn’t surprising that I was injured so greatly. The wall itself had been left with a network of little wall-cracks - none large enough for me to slip into, but cracks all the same. Even as I watched, a small dribble of fire-water began to spill from one of the fractures, slowly running down the fissure at a sedate pace.

Then and there, I resolved to stay away from the wall-cracks in the area.

I was willing to swim in mana-water. Fire-water was a different story entirely. Still, I pulled what light that I could from the bits that seeped through the wall-cracks, beginning the rather slow process of refilling the reservoir of light that my scale-flesh could now hold. Already, [Illusion Spark] had proven useful, though not in the way that I had initially expected.

Behind us, the largest of the male Coreless finally managed to squeeze himself out of the tunnel, pushing through with a final shrieking grind of ore-flesh against stone. The others weren’t far behind, Needle and the male - who had not yet made an offering - crawling through shortly afterwards.

The large male kneeled over the bad-thing, examining its strange form, before reaching for a small ore-flesh fang at his side. He stabbed deeply into the corpse’s abdomen, quickly pulling loose a strange red organ and placing it within a skin-mouth at his side. Looking towards the other Coreless, he shrugged and made a few noises.

“Flametouched Salamanders’ glands can go for a decent amount. They’re fairly useful for creating coatings for fireproofing purposes. We need to grab what we can, just in case we have to back out early.”

He pointed towards me, though I couldn’t hiss in response with my tail in my mouth. “What’s he doing there?”

“Not sure. Started biting his tail almost immediately after he got hurt and has hardly let go since.”

“Hm.” The Coreless grunted. “Make sure you don’t get any blood of his on your skin.”

With the corpse dealt with, the Coreless began to move on. Though I would have wished to see what Blooded Trait the Great Core would grant me for consuming enough of them, I had no hope of fitting my jaws around it. A common problem that I would face in the future, I feared.

The largest of the Coreless took the leading position, holding the hulking piece of ore-flesh in front of his body with a single arm. The others fell in behind, first the other male, then the female-that-was-not-Needle, and finally Needle. I was tempted to switch over to Needle’s shoulder, as she was less likely to be near the fighting with her needle-fang spitter and thus less likely to put me in danger, but there wasn’t enough time - nor was there an easy way to communicate that desire.

Once again, I was stifled by the Coreless and their inability to understand and communicate with proper hisses. It was frustrating, relying on creatures not created by the Great Core.

The male Coreless ahead of me stepped past the strange wall that divided the two sections of the cavern - and immediately flung himself forward, rolling awkwardly across his slab of ore-flesh as he landed. A second bad-thing, mirror image to the first, crashed into the floor where he had stood, brutally cracking the glossy stone.

He had just managed to bring the ore-flesh up on top of him when a third came down, slamming into the impromptu shelter. The impact released a sharp gong and a flash of mana-light, vibrating the great slab of ore-flesh with its strength.

Yet it held.

He let out a sharp shout, throwing the bad-thing atop him to the side with a brutal show of strength. Meanwhile, the female-that-was-not-Needle slashed with her fangs of ore-flesh towards the bad-thing that had smashed into the ground, still swaying from the hard landing.

A thin, grasping hand reached out and blocked the swing - getting sliced off for its trouble, yet protecting the torso of the bad-thing. An acceptable trade, most likely.

A few moments later, the Coreless had retreated back into the first section of the cavern, unwilling to do battle with the bad-things from such a dangerous position.

“Kala, be ready.”

“Of course. Did you see how many of them were in there with you, Erik?”

“Looked to be at least four or five, but it was hard to tell. I saw what looked like their nest in an alcove to the left, so keep an eye out for any more coming from that direction.”

Needle drew her needle-fang spitter, holding it steady in the direction of the bad-things. When a head poked around the corner a moment later, it was quickly met with a well-aimed needle-fang. Unfortunately, it was too thoroughly protected. The needle-fang’s tip glanced off of the thick ridged plate that enveloped the top of the bad-thing’s head, unable to reach the vulnerable eye beneath.

Rather than pull back and hide after coming so close to death, the bad-thing charged, ignoring the possibility of death.

As I would have, were it my own Core in danger.

In a way, I respected its decision.

It took a needle-fang through the shoulder immediately afterwards, forcing it to the ground - and yet, it had opened a path for the remainder of its family. Five more bad-things streaked across the cavern walls, leaving dripping trails of pink-red liquid to trace their path.