Of the five great rivers that flowed down from The Spine of the World and into the Tyhr Desert, the easternmost and the westernmost ones flowed into the sea while the three in between meandered through the desert before losing their momentum and seeping into the sands. Two of the rivers, the Ravi and the Beas, merged at the tail end of their courses and drained into the Mire Desert Area – a broad region of quicksand that would draw any unfortunate enough to wander into it deep into its bowels never to be seen again. Large monoliths of red and ochre striped sandstone jutted out of the moist sands providing the only footholds in the region.

The overlords of the area were Mire Crabs, also known as Bog Spiders. Gigantic beasts that spent most of the hot days slumbering within the depths of the marsh while emerging at night to gorge themselves on the cacti that grew on the rocky outcroppings at the junction between stone and mud as well as the smaller denizens of the swamp.

It was over one such outcropping that the air began to waver and distort, an unremarkable sight considering that it was high noon and the harsh sunlight had made the rocks hot enough to fry eggs upon. But unlike the slight shimmer of a heat haze, space itself seemed to crumple inwards at that point like a tablecloth being bunched up by a fist. Then, with a ripping sound that seemed to echo throughout the mire, a dark gash with jagged edges was torn in the very fabric of reality.

Out of the wound in the world stepped three figures: Ezekiel and Lirael followed by Sand.

Ezekiel cut the supply to his Portal shard and the gash began to slowly heal. There were thousands of varieties of shards related to space and spatial manipulation. Of them, the majority were geared towards mobility. Different shards achieved the same function of transferring an object from one point in space to another in a myriad of ways.

The most common Teleportation shard, for example, forcibly altered the spatial coordinates of an object, shifting it from one node of the Space Lattice to another. Meanwhile, the Portal shard owned by Ezekiel achieved the same goal by literally ripping a hole in space. It treated space like a piece of cloth – if you folded it and then poked a hole through the fabric, you could connect two distant places together. The Tier of the shard and the amount of mana used determined how deeply space could be folded, and hence how far one could jump using the portals.

This synergized well with his Shattered Space shard that could crush the Space Lattice in a region, thereby increasing the malleability of space there. Using both in tandem let him jump great distances with minimal effort. The only caveat was that the mana costs of this method were extremely prohibitive for anything beyond short to medium length jumps. This was because, unlike Lirael’s Shrinking Space shard that drew support from the Space Lattice, both of his destroyed it. The advantage, though, was that no known space shard could block him if he wanted to escape.

“What can you sense?” he asked Lirael as he surveyed the marsh from his high vantage on the boulder. Their sudden appearance had alarmed the local fauna and several drab brown birds flew out of the hollows in the rocks they used as nests and began circling above them, filling the air with their noisy screeches. They were mudpeckers, birds that lived in a cleaning symbiosis with the Mire Crabs, consuming the Oasis Leeches that parasited their shells.

Ignoring them, Lirael closed her eyes and activated her Seismic Sense shard. After a moment, she opened them again and reported, “There’s a Tier 3 Mire Crab under the quicksand. It’s resting now.”

“Perfect,” said Ezekiel before snapping his fingers. A bright streamer of purple electricity arced out from his fingers, trailing thin feeders along the way before slamming into the wet sand with a thunderous boom. The lightning dissipated harmlessly into the mud, only raising a burst of steam at the point of impact. Startled by the sudden display of magical might, the flock of mudpeckers dispersed, squawking in alarm.

“Your Dungeon just went through severe changes, introducing a Tier 4 or 5 creature so suddenly would unbalance it. While gathering enough Tier 1 or Tier 2 Mire Crabs for what you want would take too much time. Tier 3 is the perfect middle ground.” He turned to Sand. “Also, it’s an appropriate test for the boy. Go on, show us what you learnt from your Mistress.”

With that, he stepped back, covering both Lirael and himself in his Domain, erasing their magical presence. At the same time, the surface of the quagmire began to bubble fiercely and a crab the size of a house burst out of it, wet sand dripping down from the sides of its soil-coloured shell. Its massive pincers clacked threateningly and frothy bubbles spilled over from the corners of its mouth in its agitation as it searched for the intruders into its territory.

Sand’s mind swiftly brought up the information he had on Mire Crabs and their weaknesses. First, they were blind. They sensed the world through vibrations in the earth – a select few elites of the species even condensing Seismic Sense shards to amplify that sense. Next, like all crabs, they could only move sideways on their six spindly legs. They had a hard time turning around. His advantages were his manoeuvrability and agility. He’d be able to run circles around the crab, but he’d have to be careful not to get caught by those massive pincers or he’d be dead, regeneration or no regeneration.

Spinning around, the crab immediately locked on to Sand, ignoring Lirael and Ezekiel who were concealed by their Domains. Clicking its claws, it rushed at him sideways, slamming the edge of its hard shell against the softer sandstone boulder he was standing on, sending debris flying.

Leaping off the rock, Sand landed on the crab’s shell before taking a running start and leaping off just before it slammed one of the pincers onto its back to crush him. He landed on the quicksand behind the crab and his legs immediately began sinking into the tacky sand.

~ Flame Body shard ~ ~ Netherfire Aura shard ~

His legs, from his feet up to his knees, burst into greyish-green flames that caked the mud into loose dirt. In the two years within the Dungeon, he had assimilated a Tier 2 Flame Body shard to complement his Netherfire Aura shard and to fill the two empty skill slots he had left over.

His eyes blazed with the illusory green flames of his Aura Sight as he dashed atop the mire towards the crab. The world gained colour, taking on the semblance of an impressionistic oil painting as everything shone with its own individual Aura.

Sensing his approach, the crab tried to spin around to face him, but he ran in a circular arc, always putting the beast's own body between him and the deadly pincers. Veering inwards sharply, he rushed in and drawing his mithril knife, slammed it into the knee of one of its hind legs at the point where its Aura was the weakest. His palm burst into flames that raced down the knife and the muddy-brown chitinous plates around the wound began to blush a deep red from the heat of the toxic flames.

Screaming inaudibly with pain and foaming at the mouth, the Mire Crab jerked away from the heat, dislodging the knife. Slamming its claws into the mud, it swept both of them backwards, activating a shard and sending an unnaturally large wave of mud back towards Sand that forced him to leap away. Taking advantage of his momentarily blocked vision, the crab sank into the soil, disappearing in a burst of bubbles. When the wave subsided, there was no trace of it to be found.

The hairs on the back of Sand’s neck stood upright as his instincts screamed of danger. He dived to the side. Not a moment too soon as a claw the size of his entire body burst out of the mud and snapped shut where he had just been.

Setting his body on fire to dry the mud that was clinging to him and trying to drag him down, Sand leapt to his feet and made a dash towards another rocky outcropping. There was practically nothing he could do to the crab while it was submerged. His shards weren’t meant for that. He needed to get out of the mud and lure it onto the stones.

He cut a zigzag route through the mud, leaving dry footprints of a lighter colour in his wake. His erratic path confused the crab making its snapping claws miss by a hair’s breadth each time.

Reaching a rock, Sand leapt up and dug his fingers into the crevices of the rock before scrambling up the steep face as fast as he could.

The large crustacean surged out of the mud, its claw a brown blur in the air as it slammed down towards Sand’s defenseless back. Bracing himself against the rock with his feet, he leapt backward at the last possible moment as the claw slammed into the rock, sending chunks of broken rock flying through the air.

Sand back flipped through the air and landed on the crab's face in a crouch. Drawing his right arm back, he slammed it into its mouth up to the elbow.

~ Burning Blood ~

The Flame Body shard was an interesting shard that Sand had obtained from an Undead Phoenix that had been caught by Lirael for the purpose of evolving her Dungeon. At Tier 1, the shard wreathed its user in flames that wouldn't harm them. Their opponents though, would have to deal with flame damage every time they attacked or defended against physical attacks. It was a great close combat defence shard. But it was at higher Tiers that the shard truly came into its own.

At Tier 2, the shard allowed the user to transform a part of their body into fire for a short while. This meant that even if they were stabbed, they could just turn the affected area into fire to negate the damage. This allowed them to trade wound for illusory wound and become a menace in close combat. The bird had only been at Tier 2, but the annoying combination of its Undead Marrow shard and the Flame Body shard had made killing it a chore despite his superior magical strength. At higher Tiers, the user could extend the area of their body the shard affected and the duration of the effect, until at Tier 5, they’d be able to temporarily transform their entire body into an elemental being of fire.

After some research and a great deal of deliberation, Sand had finally chosen it as his fourth shard. Now, as he activated all his shards at once, the reason for his choice became clear.

His arm within the crab’s mouth burst into grayish-green flames. His chest glowed red as his Phlebotomy shard activated, drawing the toxic flames into his heart through his bloodstream. Under his control, instead of pushing the fiery toxins into his Undead Marrow shard, the shard pumped it into his blood, setting it on fire.

His entire right arm below his elbow blasted out into liquid black flames that filled the interior of the crab’s mouth like so much burning oil. With a silent wail the crab immediately began thrashing about wildly.

Sand leapt off it and landed on the surface of the quicksand, his flaming feet drying out a solid platform for him. The only thing remaining of his right arm was his obsidian skeleton. As he pumped his mana towards it, black flames ignited on the bones and muscles and blood vessels began to reform at a rapid pace, regenerating his arm.

He watched the crab struggling madly and thrashing about from a safe distance. No matter what it tried, vomiting the poison out or even eating mud, it couldn't alleviate the burning pain spreading like fire down its gullet. Its struggles grew weaker and weaker until, finally, they ceased. It dropped limply onto the surface of the marsh, unconscious.

By this time, Sand’s arm had finished regenerating. The only defect was that his skin hadn’t healed, leaving his muscles exposed in a horrific manner. It was a result of his Undead Marrow shard not being at a high enough Tier to heal skin.

With a flash of purple lightning, Ezekiel Enzeal appeared by his side while Lirael appeared beside the unconscious Mire Crab. As she summoned her Gate and introduced the beast into her Dungeon, Ezekiel commended, “Well fought, boy. That was quite the display of battle-prowess and clever shard combinations. I can see why the girl is so fond of you.”

He touched Sand’s right shoulder and strangely docile sparks of white lightning ran down the arm and covered the raw and exposed portion. With a profoundly itchy sensation, the skin began to grow back at a speed perceptible to the naked eye and soon the arm was as good as new – except for the fact that the new skin was several tones paler than on the other parts of his body and felt tender to the touch.

Sand bowed gratefully, “Thank you, my Lord.”

Ezekiel shook his head. “Don’t thank me yet. You’ll probably be cursing me while you help collect the rest of the Mire Crabs we need.” Chuckling at the stunned expression on Sand’s face, he continued, “But you’ll be thanking me for the experience when it’s time for the Champions’ Contest later this year.”