The first trees fall to the north.
More impacts come from the west and the south, advancing at different rhythms. The Pincer Magnatos at the center of the clearing raises its pincers and answers with another call, spreading the vibration through the roots.
The reinforcements are close.
I shift my grip on Kraken and look for a point behind the creature. There’s a wide tree at the edge of the clearing, part of its trunk exposed above a pool of brackish water.
I throw the sword.
Kraken passes over the Magnatos’s shell and punches through the tree. The trunk bursts in a shower of wood, moss, and bark. The upper section topples to the side, snapping the branches of the smaller trees around it.
Every one of the creature’s eyes swings to the impact.
"Into the water!" I say.
Freya looks at the pool.
The dark surface is covered with leaves, small insects, and an oily film moving between the roots.
"No."
I step in before she finishes.
The water reaches just below the knees in the center. I lower my body, run my hands over the Horizon’s hood, and rub the brackish water across my chest, my arms, and my face. The smell of rotting plant matter goes up my nose.
"Get in. Now."
"This is full of—"
A tree comes down near the clearing.
Freya looks at the branches splitting apart to the north and steps into the pool with the expression of someone choosing between two different kinds of suffering.
"Cover everything," I say. "Hair, clothes, weapon. Leave only what you need to breathe."
"You could have explained before you threw yourself in."
"We don’t have time."
She dips the scythe and spreads the water over her arms. Then she wets her hair, her face, and the top of her clothes. The grime built up during the chase mixes into the dark mud.
Kraken returns, flying low.
Before it reaches my hand, the sword drops into the pool and travels a few meters below the surface. When it emerges, water and plants hang from the guard like tentacles. The eye on the pommel blinks, plainly offended.
"You knew what you were doing," I mutter.
Kraken gives a short vibration in my hand.
Freya looks at the sword.
"Is it complaining?"
"It’s learning about teamwork."
"Looks more like it’s learning to hate you."
The first reinforcement breaks through the vegetation.
It’s a little smaller than the original Magnatos, but its crushing pincer is wider. The creature enters the clearing knocking down shrubs and stops beside the one that sent the call.
Another appears from the west. Then a third pushes through the roots to the south.
We stay inside the pool.
The Magnatos don’t attack.
They spread across the clearing, moving their rows of eyes over the trees, the ground, and the passages opened during the chase. Some lower their snouts and breathe near the marks left by our boots. Others tap their pincers against the ground, making short vibrations.
Freya keeps her voice down to a whisper.
"They’re... looking... for us?"
"Yes."
"One of them looked straight at us."
"The eyes catch distance and movement. They don’t identify creatures the way ours do."
Two more Pincers enter the open ground. Their shells touch as they pass close to one another, but neither reacts to the other’s presence.
"The identification is chemical," I go on. "The pollen carries the call and the territorial pheromones. This water soaks up the same substance when it settles over the grove."
Freya looks at the dark film on the surface.
"We’re covered in their smell?"
"In the smell of the herd, the plants, and the terrain. As long as the water stays on us, they’ll have trouble telling our presence from the rest of the field."
"Trouble?"
"They still catch quick movements, temperature changes, and vibrations."
She stays motionless.
"That part should have come sooner."
"You moved carefully the second you saw Rank C monsters. The explanation wasn’t necessary."
Freya turns her face to me, but another Magnatos entering the clearing pulls her attention back to the trees.
I count the bodies.
The original stays at the center. Ten others have answered the call.
Eleven.
The water carries their smell, but it doesn’t make us invisible. A sharp movement in the pool would send out ripples. A quick change of position could be caught by the smaller eyes. If any one of them released an alarm pheromone, the whole advantage would vanish.
I ease out of the water.
"Stay low, and don’t lift your feet off the ground any more than you have to."
Freya follows me.
The water runs off our clothes and back into the pool. We move along the roots, keeping our motions slow while the Magnatos go on searching for the intruder that triggered the call.
One of the black eyes tracks my passing.
I stop.
The creature comes closer, lowering its snout until it nearly touches Kraken. The plates of its mouth open, releasing a hot breath of earth, salt, and ground wood.
I don’t move.
Freya holds a few steps back, the scythe parallel to her body.
The Magnatos breathes again.
The water on Kraken carries the same chemical signature as the clearing. After a few seconds, the creature turns its head and moves off toward a broken tree.
I wait for it to get clear.
"Let’s take the ones on the edges," I whisper. "One at a time."
"And kill them without the others noticing?"
"That’s it. The join sits behind the head. Kraken opens the plate, you hit the nerve point and freeze the inside before the blood reaches the gills."
"If the plate closes?"
"It won’t."
Kraken’s eye narrows.
We circle the herd along the smaller-pincer side. The last Magnatos has stopped near a cluster of roots, sniffing the traces left by the pollen cloud.
The creature keeps its head low.
Kraken leaves my hand.
The sword advances through the mud without lifting its body above the plants. The tip enters under the rear plate, right at the join between the carapace and the base of the neck.
The Pincer reacts.
The plate starts to come down.
I grip the hilt and press Kraken upward. The sword answers on its own, using the weight of its body to hold the gap open.
Freya takes a single step.
The point of the scythe enters through the join.
The ice spreads under the carapace before the Magnatos can make a sound. The legs lose their strength, and the creature sinks slowly onto the mud.
None of the others turn.
The notifications appear.
[Pincer Magnatos defeated.]
[Combat contribution recognized: 44%.]
[Experience acquired: 0.4%.]
[Scales acquired: 42.]
[Rank D — Experience: 96.0% → 96.4%.]
[Scales acquired during current hunt: 42.]
The method works.
Freya draws the scythe back, keeping the ice inside the wound.
"Next," I whisper.
The second is near a smaller pool.
We have to wait while two Pincers cross the path, hunting for tracks among the roots. When one of them turns toward us, Freya starts to change the scythe’s position.
I grab her wrist.
She stops before the movement can turn quick.
One eye passes over her face. Another follows my hand on her arm.
The creature keeps walking.
I let Freya go.
She says nothing. She only follows Kraken as the sword advances under the next target’s carapace.
The gap opens. The scythe enters.
[Pincer Magnatos defeated.]
[Combat contribution recognized: 41%.]
[Experience acquired: 0.4%.]
[Scales acquired: 42.]
[Rank D — Experience: 96.4% → 96.8%.]
[Scales acquired during current hunt: 84.]
On the third, the plate starts closing with more force. Kraken has to twist inside the gap, forcing the carapace up while I use both arms to hold the leverage.
Freya lands the hit before the creature can turn.
[Pincer Magnatos defeated.]
[Combat contribution recognized: 43%.]
[Experience acquired: 0.4%.]
[Scales acquired: 42.]
[Rank D — Experience: 96.8% → 97.2%.]
[Scales acquired during current hunt: 126.]
The number climbs.
I still don’t feel the barrier, but the reserve of experience is starting to press against the Coral mark Rank under my skin. It’s a faint sensation, like OXI trying to move through a narrow passage.
We renew the chemical coat before the fourth kill.
Freya steps into the water without complaining this time. She dips her hair, works the mud over her neck, and covers the scythe’s blade.
The Pincers stay busy with the search.
The fourth has drifted off to investigate the trunk Kraken destroyed. We come up from behind, using the wood fragments to hide part of our movements.
The creature lifts its head when Kraken touches its carapace.
The gap opens smaller than in the earlier ones. Freya has to change the angle and enters from the side.
[Pincer Magnatos defeated.]
[Combat contribution recognized: 38%.]
[Experience acquired: 0.3%.]
[Scales acquired: 42.]
[Rank D — Experience: 97.2% → 97.5%.]
[Scales acquired during current hunt: 168.]
Five monsters notice the fallen body after the fifth kill.
They come closer, breathe along the carapace, and study the ice inside the wound. No smell of blood has escaped. The low temperature seems like nothing more than part of the water and vegetation in that sector.
The system registers the death before they move off.
[Pincer Magnatos defeated.]
[Combat contribution recognized: 45%.]
[Experience acquired: 0.4%.]
[Scales acquired: 42.]
[Hunt Chain: 5.]
[Rank D — Experience: 97.5% → 97.9%.]
[Scales acquired during current hunt: 210.]
Freya watches the creatures pass by us.
"They don’t notice the group is shrinking?"
"They notice the signals are disappearing. They don’t understand the cause yet."
"And when they do?"
"We have to be finished before that."
Our pace picks up without the movements turning fast.
We choose the individual furthest off, wait for the nearby eyes to drift away, and use the same opening. Kraken already anticipates the entry point. On some kills, it leaves my hand before I even change my stance.
The sixth creature drops between two raised roots.
[Pincer Magnatos defeated.]
[Experience acquired: 0.3%.]
[Scales acquired: 42.]
[Hunt Chain: 6.]
[Rank D — Experience: 97.9% → 98.2%.]
[Scales acquired during current hunt: 252.]
The seventh tries to turn the moment Kraken opens the plate. I grip the hilt, follow the movement, and keep the sword inside the join. Freya circles with the Pincer and buries the scythe before a claw reaches my side.
[Pincer Magnatos defeated.]
[Experience acquired: 0.3%.]
[Scales acquired: 42.]
[Hunt Chain: 7.]
[Rank D — Experience: 98.2% → 98.5%.]
[Scales acquired during current hunt: 294.]
Four left.
The herd no longer covers the whole clearing. The Magnatos begin to walk closer together, crossing routes and repeating the chemical signals left by the first call.
The water dries faster on our clothes.
We go back to the pool.
This time, one of the Pincers follows us.
Freya submerges slowly as the creature approaches the edge. Its row of eyes crosses the surface and settles on her face.
The snout lowers.
Freya stays still with the water covering her chin.
I take a rock from the bottom of the pool and press it against the side of Kraken. The sword understands. It slides under the water, exits at the opposite edge, and strikes a distant root.
The noise pulls the creature away.
It moves off to investigate.
We circle through the water and reach the eighth Pincer from behind. Kraken opens the join in one clean motion. The scythe enters before it feels the contact.
[Pincer Magnatos defeated.]
[Combat contribution recognized: 46%.]
[Experience acquired: 0.4%.]
[Scales acquired: 42.]
[Hunt Chain: 8.]
[Rank D — Experience: 98.5% → 98.9%.]
[Scales acquired during current hunt: 336.]
The pressure under the Coral mark rank grows.
A little over one percent left.
The three remaining start answering one another with short taps of their pincers. It isn’t another call. They’re trying to reorganize the group.
We need to split them apart.
Kraken climbs a tree and cuts a wide branch. The wood falls at the far west of the clearing. Two Magnatos go to check the impact. The third stays looking at the place where the last body fell.
I come up from the side.
Freya matches my position without waiting for new instructions.
The ninth kill happens by the water. When the creature begins to fall, we hold the plate with Kraken and the scythe to keep the shell from hitting the ground hard.
[Pincer Magnatos defeated.]
[Experience acquired: 0.3%.]
[Scales acquired: 42.]
[Hunt Chain: 9.]
[Rank D — Experience: 98.9% → 99.2%.]
[Scales acquired during current hunt: 378.]
One of the last two reinforcements catches movement.
The water has already dried on Freya’s face, leaving part of her skin exposed to the smell. A black eye follows the line of her jaw. The others start to turn the same way.
She stops.
The Magnatos raises its serrated pincer.
I come out from behind the root and tap Kraken against the opposite side of its carapace. The vibration runs through the plates.
Every eye swings to me.
The creature turns.
Freya moves once.
Kraken enters under the join during the rotation, and the scythe completes the strike.
[Pincer Magnatos defeated.]
[Experience acquired: 0.3%.]
[Scales acquired: 42.]
[Hunt Chain: 10.]
[Rank D — Experience: 99.2% → 99.5%.]
[Scales acquired during current hunt: 420.]
The first one is all that’s left.
The caller stays at the center of the ruined clearing. The flowers on its carapace are still open, but they no longer release pollen. The creature watches the bodies scattered among the trees.
It knows something is wrong.
It doesn’t understand what.
The Pincer starts tapping its pincers.
Once.
Twice.
The gills open.
"It’s going to call again," Freya says.
"It can’t finish the song."
We go back to the pool one last time.
The cold water covers my body. The smell no longer bothers me; it has soaked into the Horizon, into my hair, and into every space between the armor and my skin.
We come out on the bank behind the creature.
The Magnatos raises the front of its shell and draws in through the gills. Its chest expands. The dorsal plants tremble.
Kraken advances.
The point enters under the plate.
The Pincer notices.
The larger pincer swings back, destroying a root on the way. I keep the sword inside the join and lean with the swing. The carapace begins pressing Kraken against the inner tissue.
Freya passes me.
The scythe crosses the gap the instant the first sound escapes the gills.
The ice runs up the base of the head.
The song dies inside the body.
The four legs give out, and the creature drops at the center of the clearing. The water trapped in its carapace spills between the plants as the row of eyes loses its movement.
The messages fill my field of vision.
[Pincer Magnatos defeated.]
[Combat contribution recognized: 37%.]
[Experience acquired: 0.3%.]
[Scales acquired: 42.]
[Hunt Chain completed: 11.]
Total Experience acquired: 3.8%.]
[Rank D — Experience: 99.5% → 99.8%.]
[Total Scales acquired: 462.]
I open the full screen.
[DRYDEN SANDS]
[Rank: D — Coral]
[Experience: 99.8%]
[OXI: 2,116/2,500]
Two tenths short.
After eleven Rank C creatures.
Freya cleans the scythe’s blade in the water and comes over.
"Another one should show up."
"Not in the next few days."
"Ten answered the call."
"That was probably the whole group for this sector. The Magnatos that stayed far off will notice the herd is gone and avoid the territory."
I look at the number again.
99.8%.
Close enough to feel the barrier. Far enough to stay a Rank D in front of the entire notoriety ranking.
I can’t wait days.
I close the screen and walk to the first corpse.
Each body has a collection window. I open the first.
[Pincer Magnatos Carapace Fragment — Rank C]
[Brine Gill Tissue — Rank C]
[Saltroot Digestive Fiber — Rank C]
[Dorsal Bloom Petals — Rank C]
I flag the materials but don’t take any.
Freya watches me move to the second corpse.
"What are you looking for?"
"A gland."
[Pincer Magnatos Carapace Fragment — Rank C][Crushed Territorial Gland — Unusable]
I move to the next.
The third was frozen by the strike. The fourth split open when the creature fell. On the fifth body, all that’s left is an empty membrane near the dorsal flowers.
I keep going.
[Damaged Territorial Gland — Quality: 9%]
Useless.
On the seventh, Kraken had passed through the tissue during the opening. On the eighth, Freya’s ice reached the structure and solidified the contents. The ninth and the tenth have nothing usable either.
The original is what’s left.
I kneel beside the carapace.
I push the open flowers aside and find a thick membrane below the roots. A translucent sac pulses between smaller plates, full of a blue-gold liquid.
I open the collection window.
[Pincer Magnatos Territorial Gland]
[Rank: C]
[Rarity: Rare]
[Integrity: 94%]
[Type: Biological Lure]
[Description: An intact gland holding a concentrated territorial signal. When ruptured, it releases pheromones capable of attracting creatures that recognize or prey on Pincer Magnatos.]
I take the gland.
The organ fits between my hands. The liquid shifts inside the membrane with every change of position, and the small fibers attached to the surface still try to contract.
Freya reads the shared description.
Then she looks at the silent band of the grove, where we’d suspected a Reef Stalker since we walked in.
Her hand tightens on the scythe’s haft.
"What do you have in mind?"
I keep watching the liquid inside the gland.
Freya takes one more step closer.
"I wonder why I already dislike it, even before knowing what it is."
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