They had little time before the sound of a great rumble could be heard. The sound echoed through the halls rather eerily.

It sent a wave of unease down their spines to know that it was coming, but they were prepared. Still, the Fortress Crab was making surprisingly good time for a creature that lacked proper hands. He supposed its massive claws made for good excavators.

Ulgrin would have preferred to become disgustingly rich, but they didn't have that option at this time. Not only would it be exceedingly difficult to haul so much magicrystal back to town, it would ruin the market. Such a bounty could only be sold at a major capital. Having to bring so much loot back would make them much more enticing in the eyes of bandits and thieves.

Small stuff that could be both portable and easily concealed was far more valuable in his eyes.

But it did hurt to see it all go. It was a tantalizing prospect to see them all richer than most of the nobles in the Mithral Halls, but one that wasn’t as easily accomplished. Trying to do so would just be dumping chum into the waters. They’d recovered the massive gemstone and considered that to be a prize in and of itself. Greed wouldn’t be his downfall.

Leaving the magicrystal to its noblest of fates, they continued ransacking the rest of the facility. Bookshelves, beds, and bins were dragged back to the Repository chamber to make it one hell of an arena. Anything and everything in an attempt to inconvenience the crab. He highly doubted it would stop the creature for long, but all they needed was a bit of time.

After two hours of waiting, they could hear the rumble growing louder. It had reached the stone and was starting to carve its way through. A true force of nature.

Today they would be challenging it.

With plenty of time to spare, the group waited and rested. Illuminated by the magicrystals, they dined on a simple luncheon and gathered what strength they could. Ulgrin spent some time creating pre-prepared runic circles that he could activate at a moment’s notice. The new tool in his hands was coming in handy, far superior than chalk.

He practically filled every square inch of the chamber with spots for him to fall back to and utilize. Barriers of force, flashing lights, and buffeting winds that would pick up every nearby piece of junk and throw it at great speed. Honestly a bit overkill considering he would run out of mana far before he used them all up, but that was a problem for his future self.

With little else to do, they sat down and played a game of cards. It was a welcome reprieve from a worrying situation, and served to ease their spirits. Ulgrin was proud to say he handily lost to Saezz’s pristine poker face.

But time did not pause for them. They could not remain there forever, as much as he wanted.

A crack formed in the roof near the rear section of the sixty-foot wide chamber. Gradually it began to widen, crumble, and send rubble downwards into the room. Owing to the chamber’s robustness, there was no further damage elsewhere.

Their first glimpse of the creature was a massive claw slamming its way through and into the Repository. With a great violent force, it widened the hole even further. The claw clacked repeatedly, smashing against either side. More and more of a breach formed, until they could see the mottled shell.

Fortress Crabs were massive, even a juvenile one like this. Having shed its shell to fit into a hole better, the creature still remained rather imposing. Thirty feet tall from its crested head to the bottom of its many legs. The creature just barely fit inside the room, narrowly avoiding the ceiling by five or so feet.

It pulled itself inside, shedding dirt, rubble, and boulders like water. A pair of beady stalks flickered about the chamber, taking in the environment. Without a giant tree on its back, the creature had a surprisingly lithe appearance.

That wasn’t to say it lacked all armor, though.

Patches where the roots hadn’t covered had been filled in with the bones of a great many creatures. A thick and dry mucus substance served to bind them to its brown and white carapace. Being an apex predator, there wasn’t a lack of bones.

Ulgrin lifted his hand and raised the oddly shaped crest they had harvested from the pterosaur patriarch. “Ready yourselves.”

Each of them let loose with whatever attacks they had. A cavalcade of missiles, magic, and explosives filled the room.

For his part, he had been slowly charging up the makeshift staff with energy provided from the many magicrystals. It could only hold a certain amount if he wanted to be safe, but that much was still a great deal. Channeling over the course of minutes had built up a spell he hoped he could perform in the future.

A lightning bolt struck across the chamber, hitting the Fortress Crab directly in what served as its chest. Light blinded them all for a moment and a thunderous boom filled the air. It recoiled, stumbling back and against the wall.

Despite such a powerful spell hitting it point blank, the creature didn’t appear more than minorly injured.

Crossbow bolts plinked off its thick shell and bones. A bomb exploded and managed to break free several carcasses. Saezz threw rocks. That didn’t have much effect, either.

[Detonation sequence is at five percent. Please hurry.] The voice of Lorekeeper spoke from his satchel where he was keeping it safe.

“Whelp.” Ulgrin grunted, hefting his warhammer. “Looks like we’re gonna have to do things the hard way. Distract it!” He gave a nod back to the party and quickly chugged a potion. Alyss had been working on these concoctions of haste for quite some time. While nowhere near a high-tier variant, it still served to speed up their movements a good deal.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Now moving much faster, he ran towards the monster. Another bomb detonated above its head, forcing the creature to shut its eyes and cover them with a pincer.

Raelza and Wreath were the first to reach the creature, harassing it. Even a full-force charge by the thornshield did little more than force it to flinch. He supposed mass really made a difference. Her glaive spun back and forth, starting the painful process of shearing away bone.

Saezz reached it next, long legs coiling as he leapt up and onto the creature’s back. It was there that he discovered one unique fact about the Fortress Crab.

It carried its children on its back.

The lizardfolk jumped back in surprise, barely keeping his balance as one of the corpses moved. A young crab had taken the bones of a triceratops as its shell, and made good use of the three spikes. Saezz backpedaled, wobbling as he avoided the creature’s stabs.

Already, Ulgrin could see two other shapes starting to move on its back. Curses.

Stopping, he took aim with the staff once again. After a few moments of channeling, a lightning bolt shot forth towards the crab harassing his friend. Nowhere near as powerful as the first, it still managed to stun the small creature.

Seeing that Saezz was swiftly taking advantage of its disadvantage, Ulgrin threw himself out of the way just in time to avoid a sweeping claw that flattened the landscape around him. Splinters of fossilized wood filled the air as it ignored most barriers. At least it couldn’t ignore everything with its legs, but there was little solace in that.

Half crawling and half throwing himself forwards, he landed in the center of a barrier formation.

Looking up, he let out a gasp of pain as the claw came straight down upon the freshly formed shield. Feedback from the spell hit him like a runaway train. But it held.

He had a moment of pride in his craft as a large chunk of his pool was sucked away.

Saezz took that moment to leap from the back of the creature to its thin eye stalk. Hanging on for dear life, he drew a blade and promptly started stabbing the shit out of the crab’s eye. A deep roar filled the air as the Fortress Crab stumbled away, limbs flailing in pain.

He was surprised at how so many giant creatures were weak to having their eyeballs gouged out. Was that normal? One day they would encounter an eyeless giant and be in real trouble. He prayed to all Gods that were listening that such a thing would never occur. Wait, weren’t the Gods bad now? Or had the Ancients been the cause for the war? He wasn’t too sure.

Still, he had little time for theological ruminations. Getting to his feet, Ulgrin leapt for the back of the creature, having to scramble up bone to reach.

The three miniature crabs turned their attention to him.

Fighting on the back of a rampaging monster was not a suitable environment for combat. Only his stout legs allowed him to keep standing. The trio converged on him, and he responded with a barrage of force.

Luckily, they had just as much trouble. The third, smallest of the bunch, couldn’t keep its footing after being hit and went flying off the edge. Then he was stuck in their midst, warding off claws with swings of his hammer. Both of them came up to his chest, large claws pinching and prying.

Behind him, he heard the creature raise its massive claw. With a crunch, it grabbed hold of its own ruined eye stalk and tore it off, Saezz in tow.

Ulgrin heard him exclaim some serious profanities before the lizardfolk landed on top of one of the crabs he was fighting. “Oh. Hello there,” Saezz said, groaning as he rolled away from the rather hard and pointy skull shell. “Saezz did not expect to meet up like this. Truly, fate was-” He was cut off by a snipping claw going directly for his head. “Rude.”

[Detonation sequence is at fifty percent. You’re almost there.]

Now only facing one of the creatures, Ulgrin felt a second wind hit him. He pushed it back, warhammer batting away the claws and cracking bone. With one final heavy swing he knocked it off the side

“Watch out!” Raelza called suddenly. “Hold on to something!”

Hitting the deck, Ulgrin grabbed onto a spike bone and tried to hold. Below them, the Fortress Crab had sidled up to the wall and promptly smashed itself against it.

A shattering sound filled the air as a limb clipped one of the magicrystal pillars.

[Warning!] Lorekeeper called. [Imminent detonation from pillar fourteen!]

Suddenly, an explosion far surpassing Alyss’ bombs filled the air. The pillar had crashed to the ground and cracked, landing next to the crab’s right legs. Prismatic force filled the air as flame, wind, conjured stone and water, as well as numerous other effects suddenly radiated outwards with immense power.

Below them, the Fortress Crab was pushed away, actually stumbling as several of its legs were macerated and ripped apart.

Ulgrin screamed as a bone punctured his chainmail, piercing his bicep. The force had pressed him suddenly against the crab, creating enough momentum for him to be skewered. “Fuck! Ancestors, smite this bastard!”

Raelza came in swiftly, taking the crab by surprise as it fell to one side. The pain in his arm increased as gravity pulled against him.

Her glaive cut upwards, reach advantage and Wreath’s height allowing her to just barely hit. The crab’s other eye was sliced, and it once again roared. More flailing caused him to grunt and groan before pulling his way free. Blood gushed, but it wasn’t a wide wound. Hurt like all the hells, though.

[I’m afraid that critical mass has been reached ahead of schedule. Please evacuate the facility as soon as possible.] Lorekeeper warned them all.

“Get out, go!” Ulgrin called, leaping down and sliding down a leg. He stumbled, but got to his feet and ran. “Alyss!”

Three bombs flew towards the crab in quick successions. Sticky strands of weblike material covered it, restricting the creature’s movements for a short time. Barely.

He joined his party and they ran for the door, sprinting down the hallway as quickly as possible.

The hairs on his arm stood up as the ambient magical energy built up. Together, they shut doors as quickly as possible and kept running. How much time was left? He panted for breath, hand trying to slow the bleeding in his right arm.

Detonation.

Even with thousands of tons of metal, stone, and rock between them and the blast it was still felt. All six of them were sent crashing into the wall. A wave of magic washed over them, nauseous and sickening. Gravity temporarily stopped working and they floated into the air only to fall back down with a heavy thud.

Silence filled the air. Ulgrin broke it with a grunt, tailbone hurting quite a bit. “Okay. I think I get how our ancestors could wage war on the Gods now. That was rough.”

“Don’t care. Explosion is good.” Alyss said, half delirious from a bleeding head wound. “Best day ever.”

“Saezz would also not like to experience such things again.” The lizard said, struggling to his feet.

Raelza coughed as a bit of stone dust fell from the ceiling. “You think they’ll believe we blew up a Fortress Crab? I hope so. This is going to be a great story to tell in a tavern. Worth a free drink, at the very least.”

Ulgrin stumbled to his feet, arcane senses more sensitive than theirs. He felt somewhat violated, and was close to throwing up. Still, he kept it all down. He didn’t have any desire to see what their bland rations tasted like in reverse. “We need to get going. To the surface. Place might crash.” He burped.

Together, they ascended the long flight of stairs back towards the surface. As they made it into the university building it was obvious the place hadn’t withstood the force well. Much of it had crashed and broken, turning into piles of rubble.

Glittering motes of prismatic light floated down from the air, evidence of the ambient aether being rather supercharged.

Looking back towards the explosion site, they saw something strange. A crater had formed, but rather than be filled with rubble a tree had taken root. The tree the Fortress Crab had carried was now right in the center of the blast zone. It had been changed greatly by the magical energy.

Ulgrin’s eyes went up. And up. And even farther up until he could finally see the green leaves upon the tree’s branches. Somehow, the tree had grown immensely. Now, it was at least five hundred or so feet tall. A wide canopy covered the entire sinkhole, its shade somewhat a relief in the warm air.

For minutes they rested, healing their wounds, and simply staring in amazement at the new titan watching over the entire forest. The world worked in strange ways, he had to admit.

He held up a hand. “Aye, I think they’ll believe that.” Ulgrin turned to start trudging away. “Now, let’s get back home. I’m tired of this damnable forest. Give me a nice mineshaft any day of the week.” He cast one last glance back and then moved on, towards a worrisome horizon. Who knew what the future held in store for them.

Well. This kills the crab. That's the end of Arc 01: Granite! It's been a long ride, and now we've reached the end of the Writathon. Fifty-five thousand words and some change. Two hundred or so pages. I wasn't sure when I started this whether or not I would stick with it, but I've managed to keep slugging my way through. In this time I've grown to love Ulgrin and his friends. They've grown beyond what I originally had intended, and I'm glad for it. I'm going to take a few days break to rest these weary fingers of mine. Up to a week, maybe. We'll see.

Thank you all for reading. The story will continue in Arc 02: Slate.

Have a happy holidays, everyone.