Blood trickled down my throat, spilling from the tears in my throat-flesh; I swallowed it down carefully, clamping down on my tail before my [Poisonous Blood] could drip down on the-female-who-was-not-Needle’s shoulder. The glowing skin of ore-flesh that she had covered herself with would be able to mostly protect her from the effects of my blood, but she had not covered herself fully; here and there, bits of flesh were exposed, spots that would have been vulnerable to my toxic blood.

My throat-flesh began to knit itself back together as she continued to move forward, pushing through the throng of panicking Coreless. The Great horde - for what else could such a large number of the Great Core’s future disciples be, even with their current weakness - swept by. I twitched involuntarily at the ones that were lost, fury filling me as the Great Core’s converts dwindled under the assault of the flying bad-things.

They were ours.

I opened my mouth again, and another Shrieking Bat toppled to the floor. The-female-who-was-not-Needle flinched in the brief moment before I pulled the sound away from her damaged ears. Blood poured down my throat-flesh again, and I swallowed it down as the thought-light flickered.

Experience Gained! Reduced Due To Assistance Received.

I opened my mouth again, not bothering to heal myself just yet, as another bad-thing swooped down from the ceiling above.

Level 3 Shrieking Bat Consumed.

Transferred to Core.

Blooded Trait Acquisition Progress: 20/20.

Blooded Trait: [Sound Shaping VI] Increased.

[Sound Shaping VII] Acquired.

Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 0/40.

The flying bad-things were beginning to thin out, no longer dipping down from the ceiling above like they had been before. Though it had taken some time, I had managed to practice with [Sound Shaping] enough that I could use it more reliably than before; I was sure that the-female-who-was-not-Needle was thankful for that. The first few times that I had used it, I hadn’t been able to direct it quickly enough to prevent slight damage to her ears. Luckily, she didn’t take those as attacks or remove me from her shoulder. It didn’t stop her from glaring at me and shouting something, though.

Not that I knew what she was trying to say.

Eventually, the Coreless began to thin out as well. Whereas before, there had been a massive tide that flooded the tunnel, now only a few remained - the strongest, as well as the weakest.

There was a clear difference between the two types of Coreless that remained, even to me. The weak ones stumbled along on injured and broken limbs, clinging to one another in their attempts to keep going. They were the damaged, the old, and the young. They were the small and the withered.

In many ways, they were useless to the Great Core. And yet, they were protected by their opposites, a group of Coreless that formed a wall between themselves and the useless ones.

Those were the ones that I wanted.

Ore-flesh gleamed and glowed. Not all of the strong Coreless were covered in skins of mana-lit ore-flesh; some of them were weaker, their ore-flesh a dull gray covered in grime and dust. Those ones moved slower than the glowing Coreless, stumbling and tired, barely managing to keep the attacking bad-things at bay.

And when I saw what lay beyond the wall that they formed, I wasn’t surprised by their exhaustion.

The Shrieking Bats had been dangerous; they could glide through the air, passing by the more dangerous Coreless in order to attack the ones that fled. Their shrieks could stagger enemies and their claws could rip flesh. Their fangs could do the same.

Despite that, they were vulnerable, lacking the ability to defend themselves as soon as they came in for the kill - and though they soared away freely more often than not, a single glancing blow could lead to their deaths.

The bad-things that assaulted the strongest of the retreating Coreless were the Shrieking Bats’ opposites in many ways.

Whereas the Shrieking Bats flew through the air, they lumbered across the ground. Whereas the Shrieking Bats squeaked and shrieked, they were as silent as death itself. Whereas the Shrieking Bats were small and physically weak compared to the Coreless, the other group of attacking bad-things...were not.

They were patchworks of twisted flesh, walking on four heavy legs, with each splayed outward on twisted joints. The flesh-twisted bad-things attacked with bone-tipped spurs, the dangerously sharp points attached to the ends of the six arms that split from their shoulder joints and various points on their backs. Even their mouths were twisted and mangled, with teeth that jutted every which way, some even turning back to scrape and mangle their own mouth-flesh, causing lines of blood to drip from their maws.

If the flesh-twisted bad-things had been any smarter, the wall of Coreless would have been smashed aside in moments. They would have been able to pierce through the defenses, able to rush at the comparatively defenseless Coreless, just as the Shrieking Bats had. Instead, they fought mindlessly and independently of one another, catching each other in their flailing attacks and hampering each other’s motions.

If the Shrieking Bats had been real allies with the flesh-twisted bad-things, that too would have been the Coreless’ end. Yet, they were not - the two groups of bad-things attacked each other nearly as often as they attacked the Coreless, and the pointed scream of a particularly large Shrieking Bat caused one of the flesh-twisted abominations to stumble long enough to be smashed aside by the Coreless that it was fighting. The Shrieking Bat fell upon it with a flurry of sharp claws and piercing fangs, ripping the downed creature’s flesh and gouging at its eyes.

Before it finished its attack, the forgotten Coreless stabbed downwards with its large fang of ore-flesh, piercing through the Shrieking Bat and into the flesh-twisted creature below it. They jerked and squirmed, and then they fell still.

And yet, despite that, the Coreless were losing.

A female Coreless - I assumed, as she was slightly smaller than many of the others, with the general features that I had come to associate with the females of their kind - gurgled as a spur of bone caught her across the throat, finding its way through the narrow gap between the skins of ore-flesh that coated her chest and head. Her fellows pulled her back as the spur retracted again, bringing her behind the line of defending Coreless; another one of them cried out in anguish, desperately clamping a hand on her bleeding wound. Crimson liquid slipped between her fingers, and she fell limp; Clear liquid slipped from his eyes, and he wiped them away, leaving a streak of red across his cheeks.

He stood slowly, rushing back into the battle with an enraged roar, pushing past the rest of the Coreless and directly into the crowd of bad-things. The furious Coreless hacked and slashed, slipping under thrusting limbs and spinning past heavy tackles. Blood trailed in his wake, and I found myself briefly amazed by what I was seeing, by the potential that the Great Core’s future disciples could hold.

Then, the scream of a wayward Shrieking Bat forced him to stumble, and a bone-tipped limb pierced through his leg. He didn’t last long after that; most of the bad-things fell upon him, burying his body under a pile of twisted flesh.

The watching Coreless screamed, but were unable to break their line to save him.

My own Coreless shouted, having arrived too late to prevent his death.

I hissed, mourning the loss of a potential disciple.

Then, I took a giant breath, gathering a large amount from the pool of mana that rested within my mana core.

I breathed back out, and the flames of [Mana Fire]followed, shooting over the shoulders of the gathered Coreless. I twisted the flames’ nature and [Chrono Fire]took its place, falling upon the pile of flesh-twisted bad-things. I knew that it wouldn’t be enough to kill them, but it would slow them. It would hurt them.

The bad-things screamed, a guttural, choking sound - and, for a brief moment, for the first time since my Coreless and I arrived, I could no longer hear the shouts of terrified, dying Coreless.

My own Coreless caught the defending Coreless’ attention, motioning something at them with a flash of hand signs that I couldn't make fang or tail of. The other Coreless nodded after a brief moment of silence, and we slowly began to retreat.

The flesh-twisted bad-things, now covered in the flames of[Chrono Fire] tried to follow. They lashed out again and again, but - slowed by the time-altering effects of the fires - began to falter.

I was tempted to slither forward in an attempt to finish them off, but knew my venom stores might not be strong enough. Instead, I remained on my perch, watching the Coreless’ retreat from my place on the-female-who-was-not-Needle’s shoulder.

Eventually, [Chrono Fire] would run its course, and the bad-things would be free to follow at something closer to their normal speed, but we would have made it back to the defenses of the many-nest by then.

Either way, the bad-things would die soon enough.

Besides, I wanted as many Coreless as possible to witness the Great Core’s power - not just these remaining few, as strong as they appeared to be.

I would wait until we returned before trying to finish them off.

I just had to be patient.