“This should be good.” I held up a hand, stopping Kate from going any further into the valley.

We were out in the Scorch about half an hour from Clearvein. Having rested and refilled out water flasks we were now visiting one of the locations on Kate’s map where the crystal creatures were said to be acting strangely.

“Alright, should we find somewhere to set up Cy?” Kate whispered solemnly, reminding me of a student asking whether or not the homework was due today.

I gave her a soft smile and nodded, happy to see that she was taking the outing seriously. I had taken a few too many rich tourists out into the Scorch when I needed money desperately, and trying to wrangle them and keep them safe when they were insistent on getting a good view of some crystal creatures was far more effort than it could ever be worth.

“Sure, we don’t want to actually go into the valley though, never want to corner yourself out here.”

The place we were scouting had once been a river, but after the impact that created the Scorch, it had become nothing more than a dry canyon of rocks and starsand. Not a drop of water in sight. It did rain plenty out in the Scorch, but where all that water went was just another mystery of the wasteland.

The sharp crystal sand that the forest had been blasted into, glittering and twinkling so beautifully it really did earn the name starsand, seemed to greedily drink any liquids into itself without ever becoming wet. It was a blessing of sorts, as it meant I never had to worry about spending the night on cold and wet ground, but it made actually growing anything green out here, other than giant glowing emeralds, extremely difficult.

There were still people that collected and tried to sell starsand, but there was so much of it that it didn’t sell for much in the outside world anymore. After all, who would settle for the tiny crystals when the scorch held much greater treasures?

The starsand did at least make the place look especially pretty on some days when the sun was shining down on the wasteland, but I found it hard to enjoy the novelty when I knew the risk the starsand presented in storms and when inhaled. To me, it had become another painful obstacle to avoid.

I kept watch as Kate jotted down a few notes about the area. According to her, there had been several reports of strange behaviour in crystal creatures from this area and a few others around Clearvein. Before we had headed out in the morning, we had made sure to ask a few of the miners who must have filed the reports, but they hadn't been too helpful. Most of them went out in a large group with a few guards and scouts and fled at the first sign of danger.

The most they could tell us was that the creatures had been acting especially protective over certain areas where valuable crystals grew, which made it difficult for the miners to do their jobs. It wasn’t strictly unheard of for crystal creatures to be territorial, but I had to admit it was rare for them to patrol areas and not keep pursuing their prey as some of the miners described.

“So, this valley is one of the places the miners can’t get into anymore. Which means, if their reports are right, we should see some activity here soonish.” If Kate was worried at the idea of crystal creatures showing up, she was certainly doing a good job at hiding it.

“Not sure how much of their stories I believe to be honest, the creatures can hunt in packs, but patrolling and guarding an area? Never seen it myself.” I liked to think I knew what I was talking about to some degree, my continuing survival being proof of that.

“Well, I agree with ya that the info is spotty but there are at least a few confirmed reports of similar behaviour out here ya know.” Kate eagerly started to rummage around in her backpack as I found a good rock for us to take cover behind at the entrance to the canyon.

It would let us observe activity within the crystal and rocky divide in the land without trapping us. If any creatures came from behind, we would be able to run to either side of the canyon, and if they came from the canyon itself we could easily run back in the direction of town.

“Really? You hear a lot of rumours, but I usually think they’re just that.” I replied, pulling my spyglass out and checking that the canyon was clear before settling myself down on the rock.

It was far from comfortable, but it beat laying on the sandy ground by a lot.

“Ya oughta pay a visit to one of the research guild branches sometime, sure ya know lots about ‘em already but they’re making new discoveries pretty much every day down there.” I could tell that Kate was truly passionate about her work, so I nodded in response.

“Sure, as long as those discoveries can help me survive out here, it sounds worthwhile.”

“Well, more than that, aren’t ya at all interested in where all this came from?”

“I suppose, but not really my priority at the moment you know?”

“Ah, fair enough. I guess I’ll just have to take ya one of these days.” Once again Kate was managing to effortlessly make me smile, even when I was on edge looking for any potential threats.

I was regularly scanning the sides of the dried-up river and checking as far as I could see down the length of it with my spyglass while Kate told me about life at Lunar Heights. It was honestly quite relaxing hearing about some of the antics that came from everyday life at a magical academy, from some of the eccentric students to the even more eccentric professors. However, predictably enough, the calm didn't last long.

The red-haired researcher was just finishing up a particularly funny story about one of her friends discovering that their assigned roommate was actually a ghost inhabiting a full suit of armor, when I had to raise a hand to her, quieting her down right away.

I caught a glimpse of movement far down the rocky canyon, but it was hard to be sure if we had company or not at first. Since the many reports of dangerous activity in the area had kept the local miners away, the walls and floor of the dry basin were covered with huge glowing crystals, sprouting out of the sandy ground in jagged formations.

It was behind a particularly vibrant cluster of glowing purple amethyst that I thought I spotted a crystal a few shades lighter, and sure enough, once I focused on it I could tell it wasn’t like the others. This particular crystal was attached to something moving.

“I’ve got something. Can’t see it clearly yet but definitely a creature.” I whispered, not wanting to leave Kate in the dark.

I kept on staring at the softly moving light blue crystal, trying to identify what we were dealing with. It most likely wasn't another spider, it was a bit too big, but I couldn’t rule out the possibility; not until I made out more details than just the chunk of armour peeking out over the amethyst crystals.

“What do we do?” Rather than panicked, my temporary employer sounded excited.

She had already retrieved one of her notebooks, and started scribbling down notes rapidly.

“We observe until something strange happens, that’s the job right?”

“Y-yeah, and if things get dangerous…”

“I’ll protect you, don’t worry.” I heard a soft sigh of relief from next to me, followed by more scribbling.

“Just keep an eye out for me in case something else shows up.”

“Got it.”

I silently wished that Kate would start taking things a little more seriously. After the caravan being attacked by a whole swarm of sapphire spiders, just spotting one creature a distance away must have seemed tame in comparison to her. It was sadly a false impression, as there were plenty of individual creatures out in the deeper regions of the Scorch that were far deadlier than a full swarm of spiders on their own. The kind of creatures my bullets would barely scratch, and that wielded strange powers from the unfamiliar magical crystals that had overtaken their bodies.

Thankfully, my experiences with the truly dangerous types of these creatures were few, however that luck seemed to be running out. I swore under my breath once I finally managed to identify the creature. It was definitely one of those more dangerous types.

“Quartz, it’s a scorpion, keep your head down.” Kate silently obeyed as I looked closer at the creature, checking to see if I could identify the type of crystal it was armoured with.

Scorch scorpions had always been particularly nasty, even before the crystal corruption made them larger than grizzly bears, with crystalline armour covering every inch of them. As with all other transformations, they had become much deadlier. Their pincers could now easily tear through stone and even steel armour, and their stingers had grown more dangerous in an entirely different way.

At first, I thought the crystal was just sapphire, but upon closer inspection of the softly glowing jagged rocks that clung to the creature like spiny armour, I realised that wasn't the case. I swore again.

“Blast me, it has amuralite armour, I won’t be able to take it down with just one shot.” I began preparing my gun, knowing that if it did spot and rush us I would need to be fast to take it down. Amuralite was an extremely rare crystal, and so far found exclusively in the Scorch.

Usually I would be overjoyed to find even a small outcropping of the material, let alone an entire creature worth of the stuff, but it was hard to think of all the fancy tools and upgrade I could get when the amuralite was currently attached to a vicious killing machine scuttling our way.

The light blue crystal was nearly as strong as diamond, one of the most valuable crystals that grew in the Scorch. To the right people it was even more valuable, due to being much easier to enchant. Hitting its body with my rubyshot would only crack the crystal. Then the angry scorpion would turn its stinger on us.

“Amuralite? That’s super rare right?”

“Yeah, usually never see it this far into the Scorch. You have to venture a lot deeper for the good stuff.”

“Do you think I could get a sample if you take it down?” Kate sounded far too excited, and I gave her another gesture with my free hand to remind her to keep it down.

“We can worry about that later, I’d definitely like to get some myself if we get the chance.”

“Just don’t shoot it too early, this is why we’re here you know.” I looked over to see Kate scribbling away in her notes.

Just the existence of an amuralite crystal creature in this area certainly counted as strange behaviour by my standards, so I was confident Kate would be happy too.

“What’s it doing now?” Kate whispered.

I carefully passed her my spyglass and made sure my repeater was loaded and ready, in case the scorpion spotted us. There was another gap in the rocks that I could slide the barrel of the rifle through quite easily, so I did that and kept it trained on the large, crystal stinger.

“I’m not sure. If it sees us, you need to get down and behind me though, these rocks won’t last long as cover.”

“Oh right, aren't the scorpions the ones that-" Kate went dead silent as I raised a hand swiftly.

The large armoured creature had turned in our direction, stinger raised and strangely still. It had been slowly making its way down the canyon in our direction since I had spotted it, seemingly looking over the many crystal deposits on the way. It was close enough now that I could make it out clearly without the need for my spyglass. About thirty meters or so by my best estimate.

If it started moving at full speed, it could be on us in less than half a minute, but thanks to the stinger we would be goners long before then. I lined up my shot, still aiming at the dangerous pointed crystal, and held my breath.

Just as I was starting to preemptively squeeze the trigger, the scorpion lurched in the opposite direction of us, stinger starting to glow with a violently pulsing red light. I was so focused on the scorpion itself that I hadn’t noticed something moving even further down the canyon. I could make out the movement but not what it was. Kate gasped, having noticed the new arrival too, so I quickly nudged her as the scorpion hissed and engaged it.

“What is it? Can you make it out?” I whispered hurriedly, keeping my voice as low as possible so that we didn’t draw the scorpion back to us.

It was hard keeping the agitation from my voice. I didn't like not knowing what was going on. If a miner or someone from the nearby town had mistakenly stumbled into the path of the beast, I would have to be fast to save them.

“It’s… a chicken?” Kate whispered, the words actually throwing me off enough to turn away from the repeater and give her a confused look.

“Seriously?” I forgot the seriousness of the situation for a second and raised my voice.

Thankfully the scorpion didn’t seem to notice. It rapidly swung its tail about as it snapped its pincers at the object I couldn’t make out. Kate handed me the spyglass wordlessly, and I attached it to a small rail on the barrel of my repeater, taking a closer look.

“That’s a chicken…” I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

A regular non-crystal red-feathered chicken was dancing around the scorpion, sending it into quite a frenzy as it tried and failed to catch the bird with one of its pincers. The chicken was surprisingly deft as it hopped about, dodging the strikes quite easily. It wasn’t so lucky however, when the scorpion finally got annoyed enough to use its stinger. I winced and handed the spyglass back to Kate as I lined up my shot once more.

“Here, you’ll want to see this, I’m going to take it out while it isn’t looking our way.” Kate eagerly grabbed the small copper spyglass back from me and looked through it again.

The scorpion’s stinger had been glowing since it had spotted the chicken, and now that it had given up on using its pincers, it was using its most dangerous natural weapon. The red pulsing grew more and more rapid until the light focused to a point at the tip of the glowing and viciously pointed amuralite crystal, and a fiery red beam erupted from the stinger toward the poor poultry.

Even from this far away, I could hear a faint “BWAK!” as the beam connected, and the chicken’s fate was sealed. Although I couldn’t make out what was happening to the bird without my spyglass, I knew what Kate must have been seeing: crystals beginning to rapidly form across the bird’s body until it was nothing but a chicken-shaped lump of crystal.

I had seen it happen too many times before, the process of organic crystallisation was almost instant, but it allowed enough time for a terrified look to appear on the victim’s face before they were made completely inanimate by the crystal creeping across their body. The specific type of crystal that covered you could vary wildly from person to person from what I had seen. It wasn’t the same process that turned living beings into crystal creatures thankfully, that was still entirely unknown to us and likely would be for a long time to come.

There was a part of me that was curious what type of crystal I would become if ever hit by the stinger of a scorpion, but I was very content to leave that question forever unanswered. Researchers were still not entirely clear on how the process worked, but understanding it enough to reverse it was enough by me.

Thankfully due to researchers, if you did get hit by a petrifying blast from a crystal scorpion, it wasn’t a death sentence, but for someone like myself? It may as well be. Even if I had people that would care enough to pay for my defenceless body to be transported out of the Scorch to an expert who could treat me, going outside of the Scorch just wasn’t an option for me.

I had plenty of nightmares before about being caught alone by a scorpion, one stray beam from a stinger brushing me and leaving me petrified before they closed in to finish me off. I couldn’t risk it firing that stinger anywhere near Kate or myself, so I squeezed down on the trigger just as the beam died down. If I had been a little faster, I may have saved the chicken, and either returned it to whichever farmer it had escaped from or given it to the saloon owner to make a nice dinner, but it was too late for that now.

The rubyshot exploded out of the repeater and whistled through the canyon. The sound made the scorpion react quickly, and it jolted around practically as soon as I had fired with a frightening reaction time. It wasn’t enough to save it from being hit entirely, but since I was aiming for a slim target already my rubyshot only glanced off the tail, exploding in the air to the side of the scorpion’s body, making it angry more than anything.

“Get down now!” I yelled to Kate as I did the same, laying flat before I could even chamber another round in the repeater.

The force of the explosion from my shot had done some damage, I had seen that a few large cracks had appeared in the armour of the creature and it was no doubt reeling from the sound, but it wouldn’t be enough to stop it from attacking us. I looked over to Kate as the sound of the scorpion screeching filled the air, a high pitched chitter that made me want to cover my ears.

“What do we do?” Kate asked, taking panicked breaths.

“I need to finish it off, but I didn’t take the stinger out. If it hits me with a beam, you need to run. Use me as cover and get out of here.” I grimaced.

It wasn’t a great plan, but it was the best I could do in the short time we had. I had to risk leaning out of cover to take another shot, or the scorpion would be on us and it would be too late to do anything. Kate seemed about to object, but I didn’t give her the chance, taking a deep breath and rolling out of cover, repeater ready to shoot as soon as I had eyes on the scorpion.

As soon as I finished my roll and brought up the repeater, I felt my stomach drop. The barely injured scorpion was doing something I had never seen one do before. Something I had never seen any creature of the Scorch do before. It was pointing its deadly stinger straight up, firing the bright red beam of petrifying light directly into the sky.

The beam pierced through the clouds above the Scorch and bloomed into a ring once it reached a certain height, the shifting and pulsing colours surely be visible all the way from Emberstone, let alone Clearvein. The scorpion wasn't even paying attention to us anymore, frozen in place and scarily silent. The sight filled me with a cold fear I hadn’t felt in a long while.

“I-It’s beautiful…” I could hear Kate muttering to herself, staring up at the sky from behind cover and furiously scribbling in a notebook as if her life depended on it.

I was momentarily stunned by the sight, but my instincts broke me out of my daze. Whatever the scorpion was doing, there was no world where it ended up good for us. I aimed at a deeper crack on the scorpion's crystal armour, which my previous shot had made, a small exposed patch of the scorpion’s dark chitin visible from where I was lying.

Without its crystal armour, the creature was no match for my rubyshot, and the thundering shot hit home, slipping between the cracks, piercing right through the scorpion and detonating inside of it. The creature let out a dying screech as it flailed about wildly. The beam disappeared soon after as the scorpion, in its death throes, went crashing into the canyon wall; bringing down several large rocks onto itself.

A surreal silence followed, a mute encore to the cacophony of battle. I allowed myself a deep breath as I looked over at Kate. Her eyes were wide, and I couldn’t tell what she was feeling at the moment. Likely some mix of excitement and terror as the adrenaline started to die down.

She was also soon scribbling in one of her notebooks again, so it couldn’t be too bad. I just hoped she would be ready to leave. The beam and my shots would have certainly drawn the attention of many more crystal creatures. I had no intention of sticking around and finding out how many.

“Alright, you’ve seen your weird behaviour. We’re outta here.” I grabbed Kate by the arm and pulled her to her feet, loading another rubyshot into my repeater by muscle memory.

I knew I was down to eighteen shots now. Still enough to take care of a small swarm if it came down to it, but less than I’d like.

“B-but couldn’t we just…” Kate bit her lip, looking back and forth between the canyon and me.

She clearly had enough sense to realise that the request she wanted to make was an unreasonably dangerous one, but the fact that she was still fighting with the urge to make it told me she still wasn’t aware of just how dangerous things were out here.

“Kate, that thing we just saw? Never been reported, right?” I spoke quickly as Kate fumbled with her notes, fixing her glasses which had been pushed askew by all the sudden movement.

“R-right, that’s why we need…”

“So, what are the two possibilities?”

“It’s either entirely new, or…” Kate’s face dropped, and I could tell the inner turmoil she had been going through was all but settled.

“Or nobody has seen it and lived long enough.”

This was far from my first rodeo, and I knew that stumbling across something new in the Scorch was almost certainly a death sentence unless you used extreme caution. I was sure the first people to discover creatures like the sapphire spiders, ruby rats and the dreaded diamond dogs must have been similarly curious before they were torn apart.

“OK, back to the village?” Kate had fully snapped back to her senses now and I nodded.

“You lead. I’ll watch our backs. See anything heading our way, call it out.”

“Got it.” Kate stowed away her papers, leading the way as we fled the canyon entrance.

I scanned for any signs of movement and listened out for any of the telltale screeches that would indicate more crystal creatures converging on us, but it seemed clear for now. I made sure to pay close attention to the ground and sky in all directions too, not wanting to be caught off guard by any flying creatures.

Once we were a good distance from the canyon, I took the lead. I let myself relax a bit, but not completely. I could never really do that out here. Wanting to make sure she was OK, I pulled out a canteen of water and handed it to her before returning my focus to the sandy wasteland ahead. The town was barely visible in the distance past a large cluster of quartz that nobody had bothered to mine.

It wasn’t that it couldn’t be used for anything useful; the white gemstone was just so common, growing just about everywhere in the Scorch, that it was hard to get a decent price. It was partly why the denizens of the Scorch had adopted it as a curse word of sorts. You were much better off going after pretty much any other kind of crystals, as there were plenty more valuable ones that grew in places just as easily accessible as quartz.

I snapped myself out of thinking about crystals when I realised that Kate had been silent ever since we left the canyon. I looked over to see her trudging along, sipping the water. She looked deep in thought, but I still spoke up, wanting to clear the air just in case.

“Listen, I’m sorry for how I was back there. Out here you have to think fast and it can make me seem harsh, I know.”

“It’s alright, I know ya mean well. I hired ya to keep me alive, and so far so good.” Kate laughed.

“Just hope I didn’t ruin your research or anything. Makes me wonder what we might find at some of those other sites you have to check out.”

“Maybe we’ll see another chicken?”

“Is that really going in the report?”

“Of course! I’d say that’s mighty unusual, wouldn’t ya?”

“Fair enough, I say we stop off at town, grab some lunch and head off for the next spot, maybe we can get some more of those meat-”

“C-Cy?!” Kate’s voice was wobbly.

I spun around, my duster whipping up a small cloud of starsand as I raised my ruby repeater, finger on the trigger, ready to fire.

Kate was dangling in the air, locked in place by the arm around her neck. The black-masked assailant that had stealthily grabbed her stared me down, a wicked smile on his face as Kate struggled weakly in his grasp. My blood turned molten at the desperation in her pleading eyes.