I could hear Lucy running across the starsand to catch up to me, her metallic armour clinking with every heavy step the half-goblin girl took. I didn’t have time to focus on her. I had arrived at the mouth of the dried up ravine Kate and I had gone scouting just a few days ago.

It almost felt like another lifetime now, but I didn’t stop to take in the broken boulders or crystalline corpse of the amuralite scorpion I had killed. I just kept going, finishing reloading my repeater and holding it ready.

I had thirteen shots left. They would have to be enough.

“Cyrus, just wait a-”

“No, Lucy. We have an opportunity here. If things look hopeless then sure, we turn back. Right now though? I’m not wasting anymore time on discussions.”

I never slowed my stride. I could hear Lucy swearing and muttering to herself but she kept following me. I had agreed to turn back if things looked like they were too much, but I didn’t plan on following through.

Some part of me knew I was being stupid by ignoring her. She seemingly did have my best interests at heart. But I knew that Kate was likely being held in the camp up ahead, the camp that seemed under attack, and I felt like I couldn’t walk away when I was so close to rescuing her and ending this nightmare for good.

I had my repeater and enough ammo to put down a swarm of crystal creatures and whoever was controlling them. Thirteen shots might have been cutting it a bit close, but I had taken on a lot more with a lot less and come out on top.

I couldn’t help but recall my last job before this one. Those diamond dogs had seemed like a real nightmare. They had cornered me and nearly ripped me to shreds but I had got the better of them and lured them into a trap.

Now? I wished that diamond dogs were the worst I had to deal with. I’d take dealing with actual monsters over people any day.

As Lucy and I kept making our way through the ravine, full of a variety of large mulicoloured crystal clusters that had gone untouched by any miners for a long time, the sounds of gunshots and monstrous screeches echoed off the walls around us. We were clearly heading in the right direction, and it wasn’t long before we encountered a wooden palisade blocking our path.

It was a surprisingly simple wooden structure I hadn’t expected to see here. Honestly, I didn’t know what I had been expecting. Maybe some kind of crystal fortress? Walls made of pure obsidian?

Given the frightening abilities the outlaws had demonstrated, it seemed a little basic, but I wasn’t willing to stick around and ponder it for long.

“Guessing the guards are busy.” I winced as several gunshots rang out from over the wall, making my point for me. “Ready to take a look?”

“Just a sec.” Lucy sighed, awkwardly fiddling with a pouch underneath some of her armour and retrieving a simple looking iron revolver. “Kinda hate these things, but I’m not walking into a gunfight with just an axe.”

Lucy shook the cylinder of the gun open, loading six shots before snapping it shut again. She had shifted her grip on the emerald axe so that she was holding it further up the shaft, presumably so she could maneuver easier and switch between gun and blade without too much trouble.

Thankfully, my repeater could handle both humans and creatures at a distance without much issue. I tried to avoid using the ruby repeater directly on people unless I had no other choice, but today I knew I wouldn’t hesitate if it came down to it.

I regretted not killing Sean while I had the chance. I could have Just gunned him down with one of his own pistols, or finished him off with a quick cut from his own armblade while he was stunned.

I had to shake my head free of those thoughts and focus before they consumed me. I had done the best thing in the situation, and there was always the possibility that his group would have attacked Clearvein anyway, out of revenge.

I honestly just wanted things to be over. I’d thought I would be doing some simple scouting work with someone I was enjoying the company of.

I figured maybe we’d find some new interesting facts about a couple of crystal creatures that some researcher miles and miles away would someday cite as a resource in a paper without ever setting foot in the Scorch.

Instead here I was, about to raid an outlaw camp with a rook, taking on an unknown number of individuals with unknown abilities.

“Well, you ready?” Lucy was the one to speak up, having finished checking over her weapons and armor.

“As I’ll ever be.” I nodded. “Mind getting the door for me?”

Lucy returned my nod and approached the palisade, carefully leaning her back against the gate and sliding it open, peeking through the widening gap with her pistol ready.

“Seems clear, think we’re safe to head inside.” she whispered, just low enough for me to make her out over the shouts and screeches that were now frighteningly close to our position.

I took a deep breath and joined Lucy at the gate, following her lead as she slipped inside, letting the palisade slide shut behind us. I quickly turned to make sure we would be able to escape through it again if we needed.

The large wooden gate had a rudimentary bar lock that could be slid into place from the side of the camp. We were fortunate that it had been left unbarred, otherwise getting in would have been troublesome.

With our escape route cleared, I turned around to take in the camp, following Lucy in taking cover under what seemed to be a makeshift wooden guard tower, for people to look out over the palisade.

The camp was more or less normal at first look. From our position we could make out several large black tents set up on the starsand, as well as several other wooden structures of which the purpose wasn’t immediately apparent.

If there were any lingering doubts that Lucy and I had snuck into the wrong secret camp, they were quickly put to rest as we saw a pair of figures hurry by. They were dressed in the familiar all-black ensemble of the outlaws we had encountered before, complete with the crystal masks, and were clutching shotguns.

I winced at the sight of the double-barreled firearms. Dealing with revolvers and rifles was bad enough, but they could be dodged and taken cover from. Larger arms like shotguns? They left us with little room for error. A single blast could easily rip through a lot of cover and leave me full of holes, and Lucy likely wouldn’t fare much better even with her armour.

“It’s going to be too dangerous to go loud, Cyrus. We stick to reconnaissance only, got it?” Lucy whispered hurriedly, clearly having noticed the heavier weapons too.

“Got it.” I replied as calmly as I could manage.

Lucy’s tone left no room for argument, which made me feel even worse about my plans to ignore her if I saw a good enough opportunity. I didn’t look forward to breaking my word, but I had promised Kate I would protect her and in my mind? That came first.

We waited a few seconds for the pair of outlaws to vanish deeper into the camp, gunshots and shouts still ringing out consistently, then Lucy and I both emerged from our hiding place and started to move quickly around the outskirts of the clearing.

“Where to?” Lucy whispered as we ducked behind a tent.

I was about to reply when I saw a large crystal spider skittering down one of the steep ravine walls on the other side of camp, leaping down and letting out a loud screech. I swore and pulled Lucy into the tent in front of us, not at all liking the idea of a creature crawling down the wall behind us while we talked strategy.

I had expected the tent to be empty and was thankfully correct. If someone had been inside, I was sure Lucy could handle them quickly and quietly enough to not draw attention. I doubted my chances of winning any close quarters fight were too high right then.

“Let’s try and search the camp and just… avoid whatever the quartz is going on over that way.” I winced as more shots and cries, accompanied with the familiar sound of shattering crystal this time, washed over us.

“Sounds solid, but I think we at least need to figure out what that actually is first.” Lucy cautiously poked her axe toward one of the many sleeping bags strewn across the tent, confirming that it was indeed empty. “Could be just as likely to cause us trouble as them.”

“Alright, you ready?”

Lucy thumbed back the hammer of her revolver and nodded to me, and this time I led the way. Or more accurately, my repeater did. I pointed the barrel straight ahead of me, shouldering it, and pushed through the entrance flap of the tent.

I hated being in a situation like this, where there could potentially be enemies on all sides. Crystal gunslingers like myself excelled at range, taking on swarms from a distance.

There were certain crystal firearms designed for closer combat. I had met a couple of fellow gunslingers who opted for just such weapons.

I had been particularly impressed by the sheer firepower of one sapphire shotgun and the speed and precision thatanother gunslinger operated a pair of diamond revolvers with to shred through his enemies, but range was always where I felt most comfortable.

Despite this, I did carry many tools for closer encounters. My ruby-tipped pickaxe and diamond studded knuckle dusters for example, but one-armed they were hardly viable options for me anymore.

I did consider holstering my repeater and switching over to Sean’s revolver, but I felt much more comfortable with the familiar crystal weapon in my hand. If a crystal creature rushed me, the revolver wouldn’t do much good and I wasn’t sure I could switch back quickly enough.

As it turned out, it wouldn’t have mattered either way. We had been carefully making out way deeper into the camp, crouching in the shadows and moving from tent to tent, when suddenly a large object collided right into me.

I barely had time to register what was happening before I was knocked prone. I had been passing in front of a tent just as someone had been rushing out, and they had ran straight into me and tackled me to the ground.

I wasn’t even clear if they had done it intentionally or if the whole thing was an accident, but the ruby repeater had been thrown from my hand and landed far out of reach. I stared up into the masked face of my attacker, and he seemed just as surprised as I was.

Before either of us could react, Lucy jumped straight to my rescue. One moment the outlaw was on top of me, the next he went flying. Lucy had held nothing back, kicking the man straight in the head with her heavily armoured foot.

There was a sickening crunch and the outlaw landed right back in the tent he had emerged from, the fabric collapsing on top of him as his undoubtedly unconscious form took out some support structure.

“You good?” Lucy quickly helped me to my feet.

I scrambled to grab my repeater before answering, checking that it was still intact. It was made of strong stuff, but with a firearm as explosive as mine you didn’t want to take any chances when it came to misfires.

“Think so, definitely better than that guy.” I nodded towards the tent. “Think you killed him?”

“Not sure. Doubt he’ll be getting up anytime soon though.” Lucy shrugged.

I hated being exposed out in the open like this, the sounds of a fight still raging on nearby, but I still took the time to check under the tent. The outlaw seemed to be breathing, but his mask was cracked.

“Quartz, was hoping to take that.”

“Think it would help?”

“Couldn’t hurt.”

I wasn’t sure, but I had a theory about those masks. The outlaws had to have some way of controlling the creatures and stopping them from attacking on sight, if I had an intact mask could I maybe borrow that power?

I knew that I should probably save the experimentation for later, but I made a mental note to try and grab an intact mask if the opportunity presented itself.

Lucy and I, having recovered from the surprise attack, kept heading deeper into the camp to where all the commotion was coming from. We didn’t run into any more outlaws, but the reason for that became pretty clear once we finally found the source of all the gunfire.

A group of outlaws and crystal creatures had formed a half-circle around what looked to be a blazing ball of blue fire, and they were repeatedly firing off their various weapons into it. There seemed to be about twelve people, including the two with shotguns we had spotted earlier. They all looked terrified, even with their faces obscured.

Mixed in with their ranks were crystal scorpions and spiders, who were also taking turns attacking the strange fire. The scorpions were repeatedly firing petrifying beams from their stingers, while the spiders shot streams of liquid crystal webs.

It was an ability only the stronger crystalline arachnids held, but it was a massive pain to deal with. It was hot enough to sear your skin, and once it hit you it would rapidly harden and leave you trapped at the mercy of the spider.

Those attacks were just as ineffective as the gunfire, the bullets, slugs and buckshot all melting to slag before they could make contact while the beams and liquid crystal seemed to go right through without any effect.

It was a truly bizarre sight to stumble across, and at first didn’t make much sense. The fire was just floating there, seemingly emitting no smoke and not doing anything. Was it a spell of some kind? A creature I had never seen before? Why was everyone attacking it?

Then, I looked closer and saw that the flame wasn’t as shapeless as I first thought. It was difficult to make out, partly because just looking at it hurt my eyes somewhat, but there was definitely a vague humanoid shape to the flames. Just as I caught sight of it, it moved, pointing what must have been a long arm wreathed in flickering flames toward an outlaw with a shotgun.

“N-no!” the young man cried out desperately, firing off both barrels to no avail.

There was a moment where the whole world seemed to grow darker around us, the air distorting before suddenly the man burst into fire. His screams were cut short and he was reduced to nothing but ash in seconds, only his mask surviving the intense heat intact.

“What the…” Lucy gasped behind me.

“I don’t know, but we need to find Kate, now.”

“B-but, what the hell is that thing Cy?”

“Not our problem.”

I meant what I said, but I couldn’t force myself to look away. I had no love in my heart for the strange obsidian-clad outlaws, but to see someone killed so easily, reduced to nothing but ash? It was a painful reminder of what had driven me here in the first place.

My instincts were telling me to retreat, but a large part of me wanted to raise my repeater and blast the strange fiery being to kingdom come. Of course, there was no guarantee that my rubyshot would work where everything else seemed to he failing against the intangible magical creature.

I was about to turn back and start searching elsewhere in the camp, when a man among the outlaws caught my eye. He was slightly taller than the rest, with an outfit that looked much fancier, as if put together by a professional tailor rather than just thrown together on the fly.

He was holding a pair of ebony revolvers and, more impressively, flanked by a pair of huge crystal lizards.

Each one was almost the size of a horse, but their powerful bodies were close to the ground. Their bodies were wreathed in softly shimmering diamond armour, but it was strangely different to what you usually saw on crystal creatures.

Usually, the crystal growths to overtake creatures in the Scorch were wild an erratic in nature, but the armour around these lizards seemed far too intricate. I saw plating and spikes across their bodies and down their tail in a pattern far too complex to seem natural.

The way the crystals were layered and formed into natural weapons offered the lizards extra offensive and defensive capabilities. If I didn’t know any better, I would have said the crystal armour was custom designed for the creatures by a master gemsmith.

The only area that seemed normal on the lizards was their backs, which were a mass of jagged crystals that looked like they could impale me with ease if I got too close. I recognised the phenomenon as something known colloquially as “crystal scabbing”. When a crystal creature was damaged and their armour broken, more crystals would grow to cover the wound.

It was a defensive mechanism that pretty much all crystal creatures shared, and it made them even more of a pain to deal with if you didn’t kill them outright. A lot of people liked to pass around stories over certain creatures following them, recognising them through their unique crystal scabbing. It was also how a lot of bounty boards identified specific creatures they wanted killed.

It meant that the two lizards had survived a lot of fights, and I didn’t look forward to taking them on myself, especially when I noticed the pair of sacs bulging on their throats.

“Quartz, you know what those things are?” I pointed the lizards out to Lucy as the man standing between them effortlessly emptied twelve shots into the fiery creature.

“Crystal lizards, not sure on the specific breed. Why?”

“Those aren’t any regular lizards. They’re salamanders. Diamond Salamanders.” I swore under my breath.

“You’re kidding me! As in-”

Before Lucy could finish speaking the salamanders moved. Their boss, the man in black, was busy reloading his guns while the flaming figure extended an arm in his direction. A large ball of purple fire formed in the air in front of them, growing in size until it was larger than the man in black and then flying rapidly in his direction.

“Sparkle, Shimmer!” he called out and the salamanders flanking him both opened their mouths and produced white hot streams of flame that collided directly with the purple fireball.

I turned to grab Lucy but once again my body reacted slower than my instincts. For a split second, it looked like the twin streams of flame may push back the blazing orb. but then the world grew dark around us once again as the orb exploded.

If the force of the detonation that sent us flying wasn’t bad enough, what I saw when I managed to look up made the whole situation feel about a hundred times worse.

The force of the fiery explosion had sent cracks up the sides of the ravine, and now it was collapsing inwards right on top of us.