I held my breath for as long as I could, but it was never a fight that I was going to win. I needed to breathe eventually; it was that or die. I chose to live.

Air filled my lungs, and the Lesser Core’s spores came with it. Latching themselves into my mouth-flesh, my lung-flesh, and every other bit of flesh that they could reach. Digging in.

Trying to take control.

Beside me, The Grateful One’s face was quickly invaded by lines of green and black; unlike me, she hadn’t hesitated to breathe in the spore-mist, taking in unconcerned lungfuls with each and every moment.

Instead, her head was twisting back and forth, turning about as she tried to track the movements within the mist. There were shapes there sometimes, figures like Coreless that formed themselves in the floating spore-mist for brief moments before they wiped themselves away. It was different from what I had seen before.

The Little Puppeteers that released these spores were stronger somehow, I knew. None of the ones that I had devoured before had reached level 10, and though that was far lower than my own level, that made them more dangerous than the others.

Less predictable, too.

“Are you doing okay?” The Grateful One murmured in [concern], reaching out with one of her hands to press against my scale-flesh. Even resting on her shoulder like I was, I could barely hear it. Something about the mist around us seemed to swallow the sound near-whole, devouring all but the tiniest remnants.

I didn’t have time to worry about the changes in the mist, though.

Not with the changes that I could feel happening inside me; the spores were growing. Fast. Too fast for me to be comfortable with it. It felt like a betrayal.

My lungs pumped, traitorous lung-flesh following the will of the spores that infested them. I turned, punishing my own scale-flesh for its blasphemy - and at the same time, seeking sweet relief.

My fangs clamped down on my tail, activating [The Snake That Eats Its Own Tail]. My insides tingled ever-so-slightly, spore-roots beginning to quiver as my flesh fought harder against them. A few drops of liquid gold joined the fight, [Life - Invigorating Bite] working alongside my first ability’s regeneration.

It helped - some.

And then I had to take another breath, and it started all over again with a new set of spores that invaded my lungs.

The world moved around me in clouds of swirling mist; figures that appeared and disappeared, but none that stayed. I was thankful for that, at least. I wasn’t in any condition to resist if something had come. The Grateful One was saying something, one hand still pressed against my scale-flesh, but I didn’t even have the presence of mind to check on her [Little Guardian’s Totem] for a hint on what it was. It didn’t matter.

Nothing else mattered; not for a while.

Lesser Core Skill: [Life - Invigorating Bite XI] Increased.

[Life - Invigorating Bite XII] Acquired.

The pain lit a fire within my insides as every new spore tried its best to take root within my flesh; they slipped through again and again, only to be wiped away by the combination of [The Snake That Eats Its Own Tail] and [Life - Invigorating Bite].

Of the two, [Life - Invigorating Bite] was far more effective; still, it was a limited resource, one that I could already feel was dwindling. Already, I had converted the vast majority of mana contained by my mana core to pure life essence; the golden drops sloshed and stirred within, pulled and pulled and pulled as each new spore invaded my flesh.

Lesser Core Skill: [Life - Invigorating Bite XII] Increased.

[Life - Invigorating Bite XIII] Acquired.

There was plenty of life essence left, but there were far more spores left to deal with. Far more than I could deal with, if I kept going in the same way that I had been.

So I didn’t.

Instead, I tried something that I hadn’t in a while - doing something new with the life essence inside me, all while trying to keep a few drops of liquid gold funneling down my fangs every once in a while. Until I actually managed something, I wouldn’t be able to stop that. Not while the spore-roots still dug into my flesh.

My body sucked in a new breath, pulling new spores through the tiny gaps between my tail-flesh and jaws. I bit back down, turning my attention back to the fight, and let another series of golden drops flow down my fangs.

Lesser Core Skill: [Life - Invigorating Bite XIII] Increased.

[Life - Invigorating Bite XIV] Acquired.

Drop after drop of the lifesaving fluid was pressed into a tight and dense ball, corralled by the control that [Life Essence Manipulation] gave me, all while another part of my control was set towards ensuring some of the remaining life essence continued to drip through my fangs simultaneously.

It was a mental strain, and was made an even harder one by the rising anxiety that had begun to infuse my thoughts. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just hoping that something would work.

My focus faltered and the condensed life essence fought against my control, squirming within my mental grasp like a bad-thing caught between my jaws, desperate and overall wiggly. And just like the bad-thing that it resembled, it slipped free and injured me in the process.

My mind recoiled, tattered and bleeding.

My scale-flesh twitched, trying to lift from The Grateful One’s shoulder. [Clinging Grasp] was all that kept me attached, the spore-roots not yet at the point where they could take control of the ability for themselves. My flesh tore as it tried to fight against itself.

Another few drops of [Life - Invigorating Bite] began the process of solving the newest of my problems, reknitting bruised scale-flesh. I still had the sense to be thankful that I hadn’t had any of my blood spill outside of my body; even for the Great Core’s Coreless, it was still somewhat poisonous, and The Grateful One was not covered as thoroughly as some of the other disciples.

With all of my focus on keeping the spore-roots at bay, The Grateful One was the only protection I had against any of the Lesser Core’s minions that tried to attack me; by now, I was hardly even paying attention to the outside world at all, only finding it in the occasional light touch of The Grateful One’s fingers against my head-scales and the horrible sensation of spore-mist pressing against my scale-flesh.

Out of pure desperation, I started on a new tactic. [Life - Invigorating Bite] wasn’t enough on its own to hold back the spore-mist forever, but it also wasn’t purely focused on healing. I had noticed from the very beginning that it had other effects; it healed, yes, but it also increased speed, strength, and more.

Such a varied use had to have come at a cost in strength. Something more focused on healing in particular might have been longer lasting, or more powerful, or something that could help.

It had to.

I needed it to.

So, rather than try to condense mass amounts of life essence in a desperate bid for power like before, I focused on a single droplet of life essence - the same as what I would send spilling down my fangs when I used [Life - Invigorating Bite] - and then I tried to force it to split. Not into halves necessarily, but into parts.

The two pieces that formed [Life - Invigorating Bite]’s effect: regeneration and enhancement.

It fought me, just as the life essence did when I tried to condense too many droplets together. The life essence didn’t like change, didn’t like to be changed.

I kept trying anyway, though I was beginning to lose hope.

Separate, I thought-hissed. The little droplet didn’t answer.

My scale-flesh twitched itself again, and I absent-mindedly sent two more free droplets of life essence down the hollows of my fangs.

The thought-light flickered.

Lesser Core Skill: [Life - Invigorating Bite XIV] Increased.

[Life - Invigorating Bite XV] Acquired.

Lesser Core Skill: [Life Essence Manipulation III] Increased.

[Life Essence Manipulation IV] Acquired.

And then everything just became a little bit easier. The tiny droplet in my mind’s eye began to quiver. Tremble. Shake. Break.

Separate, I thought-hissed again.

And, this time, it did. The little droplet split into two, and I sent each half-drop down a single fang, staggered carefully so that I could get a sense of what each did.

When the first touched down, the thought-light flickered again.

Gained The Lesser Core Skill: [Life - Vigor I]

And then the second touched down, causing another flicker.

Gained The Lesser Core Skill: [Life - Vitality I]

The spore-roots drew back again, beaten away by my healing flesh - but not yet defeated entirely. More spores always came.

Still, it was a start.