The sound of a plasma gun was a special kind of music. There was a brief hum as a bead of orange light blossomed from within the barrel, and then a long, tinny whine of reverb as it leaped out with a thunderous crack-

And then there was a hole in the world where there hadn’t been one before.

In this case, it took away a chunk of a crimson bird’s neck, leaving the beast to prance around headlessly for a long moment before abruptly collapsing. The flock was spooked. They glanced up at him, bugmeat dripping from their long, curved jaws.

He had no fucking idea how he was supposed to handle this many with just a sword. Probably Kadra trying to teach him a lesson.

Lifting his pistol, he braced it over one arm and knelt down, squeezing off another shot. For a second the backwash of light tinged his face orange. Another bird fell, struck through the midsection. A charred crater remained where all its bones, organs, and meats had been all neatly tucked away.

They panicked now, squawking, and began to run, long legs kicking up huge clouds of dust as they bounded away. He managed to take down one, two, three more they cleared the firing distance, watching the running figures drop as the herd went thundering towards the distant treeline.

It was a little cruel, but he needed the Essence in a big way.

Still, the ease with which they turned and ran away worried him. Every one of them looked like a real threat in hand-to-hand, with their long beaks and deadly claws, but they had the instincts of prey. That meant somewhere out there, there were predators fierce enough to make them turn tail and just bolt without even trying to fight back.

It was distinctly possible he’d end up meeting that predator someday. When he did, he hoped there was plenty of charge left in his gun.

He returned to Kadra with a twirl of the pistol, dropping it neatly back into the holster. She gawped at him, ears flattened down and mouth open in shock, and then held out her hand. Pike firmly shook his head. Not a chance on Earth - or wherever he was - he was going to disarm. She held up one finger, and scrambled up the ladder back into the hollowed out Titan.

When she came back down, she had something in her hand. A crystal wound with a tiny silver sculpture of a snake. The crystal itself was a long, five-sided prism of pale milky white, with tiny needles of gold spanning its clouded inner body. The snake was beautiful, every scale defined and engraved with care, tiny peridot eyes staring at me. She urged him to touch it.

The moment Pike did, he felt a buzzing, crackling energy run up through his fingertips and coalesce in the space between his brows, growing stronger and stronger until he snatched his hand away.

“Essence.” The window blipped in again, and sure enough…

His Cosm was back to full.

Unfortunately for Kadra, the only reason he’d want full Cosm would be to charge his pistol. He shook his head, patting the gun at his side. Where it belonged. Where it would stay.

The goblin stomped her foot, lip buttoning up cutely, and shot back up the ladder to stow her treasure.

This time, she came back with a distinct, forboding grin on her face. Picking up the sword, she thrust it into his hands and pointed at the field. For herself, she took a long pole and began to thump the ground with it as she walked.

“Oh no.” Pike groaned. If all the crimson birds were gone, that meant-

Yep.

An enormous centipede burst out of the loose, dry earth, sending sand cascading in all directions. It was a visceral yellow color between plated armor of black, and its big, red chompers were serrated all down the inside, gnashing at the air where Kadra had been. The girl simply used the pole to summersault-vault backwards, landing behind Pike and jabbing him in the back of the legs to get him moving.

He reached for his gun, and she knocked him on the head.

So this was his punishment for not letting her have the gun, huh?

Stepping forward, sword raised like he’d been taught all of ten minutes ago, Pike prepared himself mentally for what was about to happen. The centipede lunged at him, a train of chitin and tiny limbs shooting across the ground towards his leg. He jabbed down, stabbing it between the pincers, and it thrashed, long body lifting into the sky. Yellow blood welled in thick droplets where the blade pierced its head.

Being impaled through the skull didn’t seem to slow it down much. Those godawful pincers gnashed the air like scissors, trying to push its way towards him, fighting him slowly back as his feet slid in the loose dust.

All of a sudden it bucked, a whipcrack move flicking down its long body and casting its head skywards, tearing the sword from his hand. He watched as his weapon flew away, and the centipede’s bulk interposed itself between him and the sun.

In the moment before it came crashing down where he used to be, Pike threw himself aside, rolling through the dirt. His hand touched his pistol, drawing-

And the dirt behind heaved up, another centipede rushing out from its hidden burrow. He spun and fired blindly, and there was nothing for it. Three shots split the air with a tangy reek of ozone, and a fourth punched a hole through the centipede’s midsection to split the ugly ass bug in two. The lower half slid back into the earth, leaving the horrible thought it might be alive, regenerating.

His mistake was taking time to think. The remaining centipede slammed into him from behind, pincers scrabbling to get a purchase around his waist, countless legs crawling over his back as it pushed him down into the dirt.