As the sun crested the hills to the west -another difference between Temporis and Earth- I saw an unsettlingly large black blob silhouetted through my influence field standing at the edge of the forest. I didn’t even have time to give the benefit of the doubt before an unholy roar shook the ground and scattered nearby birds.

Sigh.

I truly am cursed or something.

As I had come to know by now, The Tide really liked to stick to their namesake, coming in waves of stronger and stronger forces, until all is crushed under the paws and claws of beasts.

Which meant it was time for yet another fight.

----------------------------------------

***Dun***

I feel the thunderous steps of a titanic creature through the softly carved soil I sleep in.

My senses, honed from ages of bearing mountains, can tell it is the largest foe this Core-Master of ours will have ever seen or faced, but not the last.

I could feel the Core thrum with hidden power and potential, feel the heartbeat of it’s mana preparing for combat, feel the air weigh down with tension as the others awake to the dull thudding barely audible outside both our barracks and the Chosen guard’s residence.

A long time ago, in the mines, I had felt this power once before.

A dungeon core, buried deep in the crust of Temporis, lost to both history and insanity, was uncovered.

Only he, a mere 10-year kit, had survived to bear the news.

Those sand eating bastards had beaten him and sent him back down with a guard escort.

By the time they made it to the dungeon breach, half the guards were already dead, wounded or fleeing.

He felt that same power now, in this strange valley core, as the heavy steps got ever closer, and for the first time in his life, he felt sympathy for a creation of the Masters.

Bolting over to the door, he rallied his comrades into the storage room, grabbing the picks and chisels they had been using for cutting bricks into shape. They rushed out as a group, Dun, Nan, and Kohaku leading them, and saw exactly what possessed those hefty footfalls.

There in front of them was an elephantesque Titan of the Tide, marching closer relentlessly with an escort of over 50 hellish dogs, even as the Chosen guard Kohaku began slashing at its hide.

Pushing down my doubts, I ran forward with the largest pickaxe I could find raised high, crashing into the smaller hellhounds with the pent-up rage only us slaves could muster. The pick crushed bone and sinew with the full force of a [Delver Strike] meant to cleave a tunnel through solid rock, and that force travelled up its spine and leapt at several more beasts before the skill determined itself to have dug through sufficient material.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

I continue to rush forward through the newly cleaved path, bringing my pick into a sideways striking position as a few flying monsters launch from the titan’s back and circle above. Ignoring them, I deal a heavy blow to another hellhound’s skull, cracking it and disorienting the creature enough for Zhen to pierce its throat with a chisel before dashing away.

I soon found Leng and Nan skirmishing with one of the larger hellhounds, bringing the fiend down with a powerful strike to the neck. As I looked around for my next target, expecting to find a claw racing towards my face, I instead spotted something truly unusual.

Tushu was casting spells?

----------------------------------------

***Core***

Once again, Tushu has blown away my expectations even when I haven’t set any. Apparently, Tushu knows magic, although it seems to only be a single magic missile instead of the expected trio… and is doing barely anything against these monsters… and seems to use half of Tushu’s mana each shot… ok so maybe it’s not very good, but it still surprised me and the other fox-kin it seems, so at least the small scribe can contribute to the attack.

Nan seems to have taken it upon herself to guard the newly revealed caster, as she intercepts an approaching hellhound with a fierce tackle and shanking.

With the addition of some ranged attacks, albeit few and far between, the hellhounds fall quick to the fox-kin, soon leaving them, the titan, and the nasty pulsing sacs running along it’s spine. The titan seems more than content to continue its march into my area of influence, and I’m more than glad to start chipping away at its ankles, though it’s taking far longer than the hellhounds due to the girth of each leg.

It makes it another 4 slow steps before the entire creature topples and seems to gain awareness of its surroundings, letting out a low keening noise each time it struggles to regain footing. Unsurprisingly, though still thoroughly disturbing, the sacs all rupture and a small squad of freshly spawned hellhounds charge my foxes with ravenous hunger, only to be put down through repeated skull-bashery.

As the last hellspawn dies, all attention turns to the titan that’s dragging itself towards my gem body and my fox-kin waste no time hesitating before they converge to assault its newly accessible sensory organs. Blind, deaf, and possibly tasteless, the crawling giant meekly swings its tusks at the swift miners who bludgeoned and punctured its skin.

Slowly and steadily, the bestial titan loses its lifeforce and its kill notification arrives in my peripheral view.

[Gnurksh, Lvl 307 Behemoth Runt Defeated] [Griksarc, Lvl 182 Hellhound Defeated] [Snarlis, Lvl 177 Hellhound Defeated] [Nirmok, Lvl 176 Hellhound Defeated] [See More…]

The names stretched downwards on and on, eventually leading me to the strangely thin hellhounds that burst from the behemoth’s spine.

[Kirmaul, Lvl 1 Blood Thirster Defeated] [Cornira, Lvl 1 Blood Thirster Defeated] [Ardrinsk, Lvl 1 Blood Thirster Defeated] [Dremok, Lvl 1 Blood Thirster Defeated] [See More…]

As expected, the freshly spawned creatures were only level 1, and still were driven to attack, yet only when the behemoth was hurt did it begin attacking, as if it wasn’t supposed to be harmed or attack on its own.

I had a theory now, one that not only made sense due to the behaviour of the tide, but also in the context of The System that permeated this world, Temporis.

Someone or something, somewhere, was controlling the Tide.