As the three men limped into the cave, they were awestruck by the abundance of magic crystals that filled the space. The colorful lights emitted by the crystals danced throughout the cavern, creating a surreal beauty.

“By creation, it’s beautiful,” whispered Oscar. “Ignis crystal, glacies crystal, fulgur with tonitru crystal outcroppings, even some concussa and sanus crystal. We gotta grab some of that.”

“Oscar, focus. We need to find whatever it is we’re here for.”

“Yep, yep, right you are, right you are. It’s apparently something I ain’t never seen before, so it should stand out 'cause I’ve seen everything.”

The entrance of the cave extended in front of them with jagged outcroppings of crystal jutting from every surface. Moving forward, they found that the cave sloped downward, the gradient getting steeper the further they went, until they had to climb down. At the bottom of the slope, they found themselves in a massive cavern whose walls were even more densely packed with crystal. Curiously, the center of the floor was clear of crystals apart from a single large cluster right in the middle. Standing next to it was a massive figure shrouded in shadow.

Seeing the figure, Oscar and Bob panicked and dove behind an outcropping of fulgur crystal.

“Well, it's good to see that you two are learning,” said Billy.

“What is that thing? It's gonna be bad, innit? Oh, I know it's gonna be bad. Is it some kind of feral dragon kin? Or a crystal hide mawbeast? Or, or, or a void devil?” rambled Oscar, working himself into a panic.

“Nah, it’s just a cycloptic ogre. Dumb as a box of rocks and just about as perceptive as well. It doesn’t even know we're here.”

“But... but what’s the bad part? There’s always a bad part. Does it shoot fire from its eye? Or control your mind if you look into it? Does it make you have the gay thoughts?”

“...What?” came Billy’s bewildered reply. “No, man, the only thing about them is that they recover and regenerate from pretty much anything, so we can’t kill it.”

“Ah knew it, oh man, all this way for nothin'.”

“No, we can just hit it with a lighting round, and it’ll knock it out for at least an hour. Pretty simple.”

“Well… that's a bit anticlimactic. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad. But it’s anticlimactic.”

“You are a strange little man. Now, get over here and electrocute this ogre.”

“Nuh-uh, nuh-uh. You seen how I shoot just before; I’ll get us killed.”

“yableddy yer asful tits on a bull. Jist resya gun on ma shooder an' shoot,” said Bob, indicating to Billy and then his shoulder.

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“Alright, you’ll probably want to cover your ears,” said Billy as he rested the frame of the rifle on Bob's shoulder and lined up the sights with the center mass of the ogre.

“CR-RACK,” the firing of the rifle echoed through the enclosed space. The bullet crossed the distance to its target in an instant, unleashing its magical payload on the unsuspecting beast. The cavern lit up as lightning surged over the ogre, shocking it unconscious.

“Well, that wasn't bad,” said Billy, looking down at Bob who was doubled over in pain from his broken ribs. Looking up, Bob gave a smile to indicate he was okay, only the “smile” was more of a grimace, with blood seeping through the many gaps from missing teeth.

“Walk it off, you’ll be right,” said Oscar dismissively.

“I don’t think he will. Bob, I reckon you should just take a seat.”

“Nah, nah, once we get him back to town and see the doc, he’ll be all good, but we should snag that sanus crystal though. And speaking of crystal... look at what we have here.”

Oscar practically skipped over to the large cluster of white crystals in the middle of the room. First, he put his ear to the crystal and flicked it with his finger numerous times. Then, putting what looked like a tiny magnifying glass up to his eye, he pressed right up against the crystal until the magnifying glass and half his face was smushed against it. At this point, he began to move his head around like someone trying to see through a dirty window, darting up and down, left and right without ever leaving the surface of the crystal. After a couple of seconds of this, he took out a notepad and wrote something down, then with a look of impenetrable concentration on his face, he leaned back in, and while still looking at his book, began to lick the crystal. He then pulled back, smacked his lips a couple of times, and made another note.

Reaching into a pocket, he pulled out a small leather pouch full of various metal tools. Taking a small blade, Oscar scraped some of the crystal into a dish, which he then held up to examine before snorting, causing his face to contort as if he’d been punched in the nose.

“HNNNGGGHEH, WOOO, yeah that's it, that it. This is what we’re after,” said Oscar in a manic voice, his pupils the size of wagon wheels. “Billy, Billy, you gotta come look at this; it’s amazing, like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

“I only really care about crystals when they’re in bullets.”

“Just come look, I’ll show ya why it's so unusual.”

Billy sighed. “Alright, but we are short on time, remember,” he said as he walked over to the crystals and stood next to Oscar, leaning in to see where he was pointing.

“Here, take this, and get in real close so you can see the crystal structure,” said Oscar, handing Billy the tiny magnifying glass. With the magnifying glass up to his eye, Billy leaned in close to the crystal. “I don’t know what I’m...” Billy began before being interrupted by the sound of a gun being drawn. He could feel it being pointed at him as he stood up straight.

“I thought you didn’t use guns.”

“Guess I lied,” said Oscar.

“What are you doing, man? You can’t shoot to save yourself.”

“Even I won’t miss from this distance, and the boss man said to take care of ya, nothing per…” Billy attempted to catch Oscar off guard by spinning and grabbing the gun, but all Oscar had to do was pull the trigger.

“CRACK…crack…crack,” the gunshot echoed around the cavern as the bullet punched through Billy's back and out of his chest, leaving a gaping exit wound. Billy collapsed forward onto the crystal, a shard catching in his wound as the world went black.

“Oh shite, oh shite, dinnae shoot me, I didnae dae onythin'!” said Bob, raising his hands.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry. Boss just said him. You just chip some a’ dat crystal and we’ll git outta here before any other beasties turn up,” Oscar reassured him.

Doing as he was told, Bob chipped a large fragment of the unknown crystal off and placed it into his pack before both men set off, leaving Billy to die.