Slipping back out of the wall-crack gifted me with a wonderful sight; one of the bad-things, upon regaining its sense of balance, had been attracted to the sounds of shouting. Ignoring the flames that blocked its path, the stupid thing had tried to smash its head against the wall. Again.

Except, this time, it hadn’t gone so well. In their distraction, the slow-spot of [Chrono Fire] had more than enough time to grow in power - leaving the bad-thing stuck inside, barely moving forward at all. Vulnerable.

I slithered forward, fangs all but dripping with anticipation. [Chrono Fire]’s slow-spot slipped off my scale-flesh like a coat of mana-water, [Traveler] denying it before I could begin to be affected. A moment later, my fangs dripped with bad-thing blood. I bit into its flesh; I gouged at its horrified, slowly - far, far too slowly - widening eyes. Flames seared its near-frozen legs, tendrils licking at its flanks.

When it finally managed to open its mouth in a pained cry, I spit a glob of the [Poisonous Blood] that still leaked from my torn throat-flesh down its own throat. Still, it didn’t die. Trapping itself within the slow-spot of [Chrono Fire] - challenging the Great Core’s might - had been its doom, but it was also keeping it alive.

For now.

Crippled, blinded, and soon to be dying, I left it behind.

The other bad-things watched from a distance, pawing at the ground as if ready to charge. Unfortunately, they didn’t. From the doom of their brother, they had learned to fear the flames, and to fear the altered time that came with it.

So they only watched - which was disappointing. [Chrono Fire] would only last a little longer, and I didn’t have enough mana to use it again. Once it was gone, there wouldn’t be much that I could do. I still had all of my venom, but I had been so focused on [Little Guardian’s Totem] that my normal attempts to accumulate [Mana Venom] had been forgotten. The venom that I had stored was weak; far from enough to take on such large - and so many - bad-things.

Instead, I pulled from the light of [Chrono Fire] again, drinking deeply before sending a false-self slithering out from the flames’ edge. The act barely touched on what I had drawn; [Chrono Fire], its slow-spot having decelerated time so heavily, had become a beacon of light, though not as much as it might have been were there other powerful sources of nearby light able to become trapped within its field. The light of the surrounding glow-caps had an effect, but not nearly as much as something stronger might have.

Even so, I formed a few more false-selves at [Chrono Fire]’s edge, hoping that the bad-things ignored the way that they appeared out of thin air and recklessly charged at them. If I was lucky, one or two more of the bad-things would trap themselves within [Chrono Fire]. I would have made my false-selves slither from out of the center of the flames, but they were just illusions; they did not receive the benefits of [Traveler] like my actual body did. The slow-spot affected them just as much as anything else.

The bad-things pawed at the ground aggressively as my false-selves slithered into view, snorting and shaking their heads. One broke the line, legs pumping in a charge - but, just before reaching the slowed time of [Chrono Fire], it skidded to an abrupt stop. Only its lead foot caught itself within the field; it struggled to pull itself free, moving at a glacial pace. I struck, sinking my fangs into the unguarded flesh and emptying slow-venom into its veins.

I allowed it to pour down my fangs in twin rivers, not holding anything back. My unenhanced venom was too weak, without the mana that I normally paired it with, but I had hopes that it would be enough to send this single bad-thing into a helpless torpor. I released my hold and slithered back into the center of [Chrono Fire]’s embrace, the wounded bad-thing’s leg finally coming free as I did so.

I could hardly hear any noise from outside; not anymore. Anything that did come through was warped and mangled beyond recognition by [Chrono Fire]’s slow-spot - which could only mean one thing. The first trapped bad-thing, its mouth still open in a near-silent shriek, was barely budging anymore, its movements almost entirely arrested by near-frozen time.

That only meant one thing, and it wasn’t good.

[Chrono Fire] was finally running out. Soon the bad-things would be free to charge at me again and, having seen the way their weight had crushed the bones of one of their own, I knew that would not go well for me. Even with the skin of ore-flesh that the-female-who-was-not-Needle had gifted me, I was nowhere near that durable.

Instead, I turned around and slipped back through a wall-crack, putting a solid - though slightly crumbling - wall between us.

I slithered through just in time to see a path open up in the opposite wall of stones; a Coreless’ head peeked through, the mana-glow of ore-flesh fangs and claws casting wavering shadows across his face, his brow furrowed in an odd mixture of worry and relief. Worry, when the Coreless noted the haphazard way that much of the rubble had fallen, pinning one victim and wounding others. Relief, when he saw that all of them were still alive.

That was a pretty complicated one! I was getting pretty good at this whole emotions thing nowadays, I thought.

A sharp crack of sound, a deafening mixture of noise trapped within the slow-spot’s power, announced the death of my [Chrono Fire]. It was followed almost immediately afterwards by a flickering of the thought-light; I hissed with satisfaction, feeling the warm glow of accomplishment.

Experience Gained!

“What the hell was that?” one of the Coreless squeaked in startled awe, turning in the direction of the sudden noise. I preened slightly, basking in the recognition given to [Chrono Fire]’s strength. I sunk my fangs into the nearest Totem link, delighted at what I found.

[awe]

It quickly fell away, slipping into something closer to determination as the wall behind me resumed its shaking with an audible crash. The remaining bad-things, no longer blocked by the impassable barrier that [Chrono Fire] had become, began to rapidly make up for lost time.

Stone cracked, forcing dust to fall down upon my scale-flesh from somewhere above me. The pinned Coreless cried out in pain as the rubble shifted, his eyes rolling back slightly and his face paling ever further. Meanwhile, the newly-arrived Coreless motioned urgently towards the others, making noises at them in a clipped tone.

“Quickly, now. Those of you who can move, get moving. That wall’s not going to hold for long.”

Whatever he said, it got the formerly trapped - and now, blessedly free - Coreless to move briskly, pulling themselves up with noticeable difficulty and audible groans. Four of them limped through the opening, leaving only two behind.

I turned towards one of the remaining two, catching her wide eyes. One hand still clutched at the Totem around her neck, while the other reached down towards me with an upturned palm. I accepted the invitation from my new Coreless, twining myself up the proffered limb.

She turned to look at the final Coreless, a brief flicker of concern reaching across her Totem link, before finally picking up her weapon and slipping through the opening in the rubble. She likely knew just as well as I did that her presence would not help him; I wasn’t large enough to pick up the stones that pinned his limb, and neither was she.

Hopefully, others would be.

On the other side of the wall, a large number of Coreless were assembled. The Staring One barked orders at them, and they jumped to follow them with an impressive urgency.

“You, you, and you. I want any wounded well away from here by the time that wall comes down. You two, you’re on rescue duty with me. We’ve got a pinned Guard in there still, and I’d prefer that he keeps all of his limbs attached. Start getting him out of there before I have to change that. Valera, take the snake with you and be ready to stall. By the sounds of things, there’s not much time left. If parts of the rubble move enough for you to get through to the monsters, do so. We can’t have the wall coming down with so many people to defend.”