My fangs dripped with fire-pain, but it was bearable now - not comfortable, but it no longer caused my scale-flesh to helplessly dry, nor my mind to cry out. Tiny flames and waves of heat sparked from my scale-flesh in a never-ending torrent, held steady by the increased capacity and absorption rate of [Illusion Spark V].

I felt renewed, able to move with a speed that had just moments before felt impossible.

I felt relieved, saved from a slow and uncomfortable death.

I felt powerful, a merciless predator among the helpless bad-things.

The thought-light flickered again and again. Six times I struck, and six times it answered with its congratulations. The crowd of Flame Wisps disappeared, becoming nothing more than the scent-taste of smoke and power on my now-recovering tongue.

Experience Gained!

Level 0 Flame Wisp Consumed.

Transferred to Core.

Blooded Trait Acquisition Progress: 6/40.

I hissed, the sibilant sound conveying so many things. My relief. My excitement. My joy. My thanks.

Death had been close, and I wasn’t quite ready to welcome it yet. Not without doing all that I could to beat it back; the Great Core demanded no less from me, I was sure.

With the crowd of Flame Wisps gone, the cavern had dimmed. The shadows that had played across its wall disappeared, fading away with the lives of the Flame Wisps that had created them. The stone dropped into a deeper blackness, one that nearly rivaled my scale-flesh in hue.

I preferred it that way.

I wasn’t sure how long the Coreless would distract the swarm of bad-things; for all I knew, they were already on their way back. When they returned, I wanted to be as difficult to spot as possible.

While I appreciated the sacrifice that Will made for the Great Core, giving up his life to destroy and delay the swarm, I did not want to be him. I was not a Coreless. I was meant for greater things.

With that in mind, I searched the cavern, throwing the occasional blast of light against the wall to break the darkness that now held sway. It strained at my reserves slightly, and I shortened them to brief and focused flashes - tiny beams that would be enough to reveal what was hidden in the shadows.

I could have slithered around the edges of the cavern, searching that way, but I didn’t know how long I had. The cavern was large, and working my way around it might take too much time. That was what I told myself anyway, and it was mostly true.

Still, I was willing to admit that I had begun to enjoy what [Illusion Spark V] allowed me to do. It had quickly become my favorite of all of the traits that the Great Core had gifted me. While it wasn’t as useful in a direct fight as something like [Paralyzing Venom], it allowed me to avoid some of those direct fights. It let me strike from unseen angles. It had already proved its worth against the Flame Formicans - though I wasn’t sure how effective it would be against a smarter form of bad-thing.

It proved its worth again each time that it beat back the flame-death. I had really grown to hate heat. It was a cowardly opponent, worse than some of the worst bad-things, not even allowing me to fight back. Unwilling to reveal itself before me. Instead, I could only let it do what it wished.

Still, I had defeated it.

For now, at least.

I could feel the way that the reservoirs in my scales rapidly filled, and even the cooled air that still remained scoured at my insides. Each wave of heat that I released tried to rush back in; I focused on freeing it backwards, away from the direction of my head-scales, pushing it as far as I could from my mouth.

[Molten Bite] still fought against my efforts, the dripping fire-pain a constant reminder of something that I should have known. Blooded Traits were stolen from the creations of lesser Cores; their traits would be lesser as well. Not made just for me. Stolen. Dangerous sometimes, if they grew too powerful.

I should have expected it when I first noticed the fire-pain that it caused, but I hadn’t been able to resist the opportunity that the Coreless presented. The corpses were there, and so I had feasted.

Even if I went back, I might repeat the same thing - after snacking on a few Flame Wisps first, probably. No need to be greedy and stupid.

That was the job of the Coreless and the bad-things.

Finally, one of my beams of light hit something new, bending slightly around a giant cluster of stone-spikes and plunging into the darkness of a tunnel that hid behind it. If it wasn’t for the way that the light glinted off a piece of exposed ore-flesh in the tunnel wall, I still might not have seen it.

Despite its hidden nature, the tunnel was rather large - even the Coreless would be able to fit through it without trouble. Some of the largest of the bad-things that I had seen would have greater difficulty, but that was a very small number.

I slithered forward. For a moment, I thought about returning to the caverns where we had fought the second of the bad-things, the ones that dripped with strange pink liquid and climbed across the walls as they walked. There had been more Flame Wisps there, and I thought I might be able to increase [Illusion Spark] again, or at least come close.

The faint sounds of click-clacking mandibles made the decision for me - or rather, it forced me to make one. I covered myself in a light illusion, straining the final reserves that I held within my scale-flesh. An image of one of the Flame Formicans fell over me, draping itself across my scale-flesh like a second skin. That was the easy part.

Next came the hard part, carefully releasing enough heat so that I could keep moving without it being visible to the bad-things. It was difficult, with the way that the heat that I absorbed tended to rush outwards the moment that I tried to empty the reservoirs in my scale-flesh, as if it was eager to escape. I tried to start slow as I slithered across the cavern, releasing a tiny amount of heat behind me. I tried, anyway.

My scale-flesh sparked, the sudden light flashing in my eyes as it gleamed from behind and around me, and I nearly hissed in frustration. The fire-pain began to grow with each slow slither, matching the growing sounds of the bad-things as they returned to the cavern.

One of the bad-things turned towards me, alerted by the light and clicking its mandibles. I clacked my own back, hoping that the stupid thing didn’t notice it made no sound. It didn’t charge me, which was at least a welcome sign.

I couldn’t risk releasing the heat anymore; not with them so close by. [Molten Bite] sizzled on my tongue, unchecked and indifferent to the pain it caused me. My tongue-flesh began to make a hiss all on its own, the sound dimmed by my closed mouth and yet like a roar in my ears.

I slithered along. My stores of light had almost run out, the bad-thing illusion around me beginning to flicker even more than usual. Every now and again it disappeared entirely, forcing me to imagine the sensation of mandibles crushing my scale-flesh before it returned.

Finally, I moved onward, leaving the cavern behind and slithering into the new tunnel. I hissed in relief. Consuming all of the Flame Wisps before the bad-things had returned had saved me - and also nearly doomed me. All that remained in the Flame Wisps place was darkness, shrouding the cavern and hiding me from view. Still, as much as I blended with it, I doubted it was a worthy substitute for my new illusions.

And those had nearly disappeared entirely, leaving the unreliable darkness as the only thing that could save me from the swarm.

I continued on, creating more distance between myself and the bad-things until the fire-pain became too much. A blast of heat and flame ripped loose from my length as I emptied my reservoirs all at once. The heat singed me again as it exited my scale-flesh, marking me as a sign of its passing. I ignored it, focusing instead on the fire-pain that dripped through my fangs.

[Molten Bite] cooled slightly, and my damaged mouth thanked me for it.

I paused for a few moments, curling inwards to clamp down on my tail before continuing on. The heat grew once more as I slithered through the large-tunnel, confirming what my instincts were already telling me.

I was sure the Core was near.

With the bad-things blocking my path out, there was only one way to go - forwards. That was okay. I wanted to go that direction anyways.

When something sharp suddenly sliced off the tip of my tail a few minutes later?

Less okay.