Basil didn't know how to feel about Auriz's death. If being shattered meant the end for her. He had only been alive for some days, but either way, he was not fond of the idea of being alone in this world. He wouldn't understand it, not now, with his ever-expanding mind growing and trying to connect dots to make sense of it.

By now, Basil was like a child in some aspects, a beast in others, and what you could find in common sometimes between those two is obstinacy. Contrariness to whatever the world tells you is common sense, and for that matter, he looked for a way to talk with Auriz.

Basil looked at the pieces of Auriz while the Houbarok kept getting near him. He tried to call her with his mind but got no response. Still, he kept trying, forcing a connection to whatever might be left of her while looking for a signal with what could be called hope. And at last, a fragment of her core attempted to shine, dimly, but shine nonetheless.

This tiny spark was enough for the Gecko. He took the fragment with his mouth and jumped from the spot as one of the mushroom creatures tried to pounce at him with his squishy body. Basil looked at his surroundings and saw himself girded with Houbarok at all sides and a heavy step coming towards him.

Basil looked for an opening while evading most monsters trying to strike him. Because of his vigor situation and not having a front leg, his mobility was diminished. Basil would get exhausted if he didn't run from the encirclement.

But an opportunity arose. Two Houbaroks in front of him tumbled and fell, giving Basil a ramp to escape. He took the chance with the fragment of Auriz still in his mouth and jumped out of the mass of Houbarok, just in time, as the Amalgam reached the place with its purpose clear.

The thing averaged almost two meters in height while Basil was still crawling on the floor. It seemed to have consumed more of its brethren to grow. Basil gave it no attention and opted to sprint the better he could from the zone towards the odor that permeated his nose.

Two cyclops bats tried to attack him but were intercepted by the amalgam in mid-air, getting crushed in place and absorbed into the mushroom pile with legs. Basil maintained his intention of fleeing and not taking a stance against the thing or the other creatures. He hurried to the river instead.

As he reached the river's edge, he could see Water Golemites shooting water jets against the purple lizards. The Argaranths seemed maddened for some reason, and anyone at their sights was considered an enemy of their kind. Basil was not in the best of shapes to even think about fighting one of those. He avoided all of them the best he could.

Basil entered the river and tried to cross it. Fortunately, it wasn't deep, and Basil only needed to put his head out of the water to breathe. He felt some relief when he managed to cross the river's arm with ease, but his moment of peace was over when more Argaranth noticed him and tried to attack Basil.

To make matters worse, the Houbaroks and the Amalgam reached the river's edge. They seemed to have lost the trail as they looked confused and out of place but were inserted in the fray as one of the Golemites water jets reached one of them as collateral damage. Others noticed Basil and communicated the findings to the amalgam, releasing spores to the air.

Basil was occupied evading the claws of two Argaranths with his diminishing energy, and with a glimpse of the other side, saw the Amalgam trying to cross the river's arm. Seeing this, Basil ran across the islet in a panic and soon found itself in front of the entire river. It had a profundity of one meter and a half and a width of three meters at most.

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Basil didn't know how to swim. He never learned that ability, but what he could do is maintain himself on the ground. He managed to create a big spike where his stub was and two smaller ones on the other front leg because he didn't have enough minerals in his system to make the complete set.

The gecko knew dangers pressed him the worst way possible, but he believed he could manage. Basil entered the river with his purpose clear. All his claws tried to maintain him anchored to the bottom as the strong current wanted to take him away. Basil also knew he couldn't breathe underwater, so the pressure of drowning was another danger lurking.

The Amalgam reached the islet and was greeted by two maddened Argaranth. One of them bit his legs and ripped a piece of it, but the Amalgam instead gifted the other with a smashing punch in the head, fracturing it. It didn't die instantaneously but suffered great pain, and as a last resort, it clenched its jaws against the other leg and died in place.

The Houbarok Amalgam didn't take it for granted and continued to walk forward, but the other was still alive and in a rage for seeing its brethren die. It pounced against the Mushroom monster in the leg it attacked before, making the thing fall forward and to the side for its loss of equilibrium.

Basil didn't know what was happening outside the water, but that didn't matter to him. He was beyond the middle of the River, and his air was running low with each step he managed to take. Below the surface were clams, fish he saw before, and luminescent plants that resisted the force of the current without a hitch.

Like Basil didn't give up in his search for freedom, the Amalgam, too, would not rest until it completed its hunt. The creature crawled on the ground towards the river's edge and punched the water with great force, making solid ripples in the water, creating disturbances inside that portion of the river.

The currents hit Basil, making him dislodge the bottom when he was almost at the edge, but his breath was almost over by this point. Basil got out of the water, and the Amalgam tried to grab him but got dragged by the current. Basil took a mouth of air on the surface and managed to catch one of the algae with his claws.

The Argaranth didn't notice the lizard in the river and attacked the other creatures that entered their territory. It was complete Chaos, but Basil didn't give up and started kicking the water. Basil, taking notice of the slight movement he managed to create, understood something.

Pulling more energy from his body, he reached the shore with the help of the plants. There weren't mushrooms at this side of the river but a mossy plain on sight with big rocks scattered around. Basil kept pulling energy and headed to the zone where the drone planted the beacon.

He tried to walk normally, but without his leg, it was somewhat challenging. As an answer, he maintained the spike where his leg was to at least have some support. After some minutes, he reached the Zone where the Beacon was stationed. What he didn't expect was for it to be full of bats, worms, and other creatures he hadn't seen before.

"Was he supposed to go that way?" He didn't think so. Basil looked around and found a cliff with many holes on the other side of the beacon's zone. "Maybe, that was the way." Basil knew that anything could kill him without much effort in his current situation, which made him vulnerable.

The answer to this dilemma was to reach the other side without being sensed, so he put himself to work. Basil maintained himself behind the rocks and out of sight of other creatures. These actions were exhausting because he had to sneak and use whatever was left in his tank to reach his destination.

Basil noticed that the creatures attacked themselves to put their claws or mouths in a metal orb in the zone where the odor was more profound. He felt attracted to it too, but something in his mind told him to get out. Maybe it was Auriz trying to give him a clue of what he needed to do. Basil wasn't sure.

After a while, the lizard reached the cliff and, without thinking twice, grew a spike in each paw the better he could. He needed to get out of there, or the cavern's residents would consume him. Basil pulled even more energy from within. His tail was deflated, and if you looked closely, you could see a hint of bone in his flank.

The continuous regeneration and use of resources have left Basil no choice but to consume himself to keep pushing forward. As he finally reached the summit of the treacherous climb towards the holes in the wall, he wondered. "How much stronger would I need to be, to never be hunted?"