Shawn angled his wings to slow his fall, fring every feather he had now that the long shaft had given way to a cavernous opening. He saw massive mushrooms, pale blue and glowing, growing from the floor of the new cavern he’d stumbled into, as tall as trees.

  He bounced off the top of one and it felt like he hit the surface of a giant trampoline. He rebounded to the top of another, stumbled off the edge and couldn't correct, and tumbled to another mushroom top that bounced him like a superball.

  Shawn I’m going to be violently ill, and I’m not even equipped biologically for the task!

  He finally bounced to the ground, his golden barrier holding steady, and groaned audibly. It felt like he’d just just been hit by a truck, all over. His wings were sore and one joint exhibited a nonstop, dull ache–but at least it wasn't broken, when he examined himself. He let out a hissing exhale from the numerous cuts he’d sustained from the rough terrain on the slide down. The barrier and his armor had likely saved his life.

  And, it felt like etteria burnout again. Great. That burn wasn't as bad as st time, but it didn't register as worse than the physical injuries.

  “Ow.” One word couldn’t describe the battering he’d just taken on that fall, and he couldn’t help but admire the miraculously soft grass analog that he’d nded on. Along with being bounced around like a feathery pinball, in the massive underground cavern of mushrooms, and mutated bears–

  His head snapped to attention when he realized what was missing–the screams of the dying monster. He heard a whimper and a panting sound, and gazed warily at where his foe had nded–and was immediately thankful that his nding had been far more generous than his foes’.

  The ursina had nded on, and been impaled by, a massive stagmite, piercing through its torso. Blood dripped and gathered in a growing pool as it pawed at the spire, its breath shallow. The spines along its back were bent and broken. Shawn grabbed his dagger, ready for another fight to the bitter end.

  He softened his gaze, and unclenched his beak when he realized this creature was at death's door. He could feel a trickle of power in the air–like his body was bathed in the surge of that power the Etteria granted when he channeled it for his gestalts. Something was leaking from the creature.

  Not just blood. A pale silvery substance that glowed with a soft light. With a final gasp, the creature went still, its tongue sck, its eyes gzed over, locked on him in a final, eternal accusation.

  He let out a soft breath of relief but refused to sheathe the dagger. He grabbed his rifle, mostly intact except for a crack in the buttstock. It had amazingly survived the fall. He walked over to the creature. At that moment…he almost felt bad for it. It wasn’t a creature born of evil–it was just an animal. Acting on its instincts to eat and survive. He drew closer to examine the strange substance emerging from the wound, deep within its chest.

  The material looked like the Etteria he’d seen in the sample cases–but this was in a liquified form, with an opalescence he hadn’t seen before. He warily looked at the now-open mouth and impossibly sharp teeth, now sck. He felt a trickle of power become a buzz of energy on his skin, below his feathers. He reached out his hand to touch the substance–but stopped, catching his breath.

  This has ‘bad idea’ written all over it, Halsey.

  You were already lining up a dozen ‘bad ideas’ you went through with anyway, ever since you stepped into this death trap of a mine! Why stop now?!

  She was pissed, to put it mildly. He retracted his hand and took a step away from the corpse of the ursina. He heard shouts above him, distantly, but muffled. Bits of rock still crumbled down; the passage he’d fallen through had colpsed. If it was the others, he couldn’t hear them, they were too distant.

  He reached for the small silver disk in his vest pocket and tapped it. “Regia, Garrett, I’m okay, can you guys hear me?” he called out weakly. He winced as the motion of his arm drew protest from his body. There was a metallic-sounding resonance, and Regia’s voice emanated from the device.

  “Shawn, are you hurt?!” she called out, sounding distressed.

  “Bruised, I think I strained one wing on the fall down, but it’s not broken. I’m alive.”

  Cire's voice joined in the arcane communicator. “Shawn, I thought you were dead!” her voice was hoarse. “The floor colpsed, I think there was another passage below ours that the tremor must have crumbled. Is that thing you were fighting dead?!”

  “It impaled on a stagmite on the fall down. It’s dead.” He rubbed at a sore spot on his face, where a bit of blood was present. “I can’t see a way up, and I can’t fly up–it’s too narrow. I’m in a natural cavern, a stone chamber with…giant mushrooms. I must have fallen at least a hundred meters.” He gnced at his now-defeated foe. “What are our injuries up above, is everyone alive?”

  “Trask was hit hard, but he's stable. Health potions patched the worst of it,” Regia reyed. “Varrick got winged, he’s alright, but he won’t be flying for a bit.”

  “What about Raine?” Shawn asked, knowing there was a reason he was mentioned st. The pause in Regia’s response told him the answer was bad before her words confirmed it.

  “It’s not good. We need to get him to town, and fast.”

  He nodded grimly. “I’m safe for the time being, I have a few medical supplies and my weapons. Get Raine out of here, I’ll look for a way out. This pce is like a giant honeycomb of connected caverns, I see at least three connecting passageways.”

  “Shawn, don’t wander off, we can come to get you!” Cire pleaded.

  “Cire, there are thousands of tons of rock between you and me. Unless we have heavy-duty gestalts to move all of that, it’s easier for me to reconnect with you guys.” He leaned against a rocky outcropping. “I’m gonna be alright, Cire. I made a vow when we first got here on Remaria. I’m getting us home. You, me, Maggie. And anyone else who got yanked into this world on the whims of self-decred gods. I need you to get Raine back to town. You probably know the most first-aid and trauma response out of all of us.”

  “Shawn–”

  “Don’t argue. Please. You need to prioritize the wounded.” He gnced around but saw no immediate threats in the vicinity. Just the giant mushroom trees that glowed with soft blue light, and green and teal moss draped the ground, and rocky outcroppings. “I need you to do that, so I know you’re safe.”

  She let out a frustrated sigh over the arcane communicator. “Watch your back down there, Shawn. We’re coming to get you as soon as we get reinforcements. We’re not leaving this pce without you.”

  “Okay, Cire, we need to go. Help me get Raine, Varrick, I’ll need you to lift him.” Regia issued commands in the background, and Shawn heard a growl of pain distantly, before she spoke again. “Shawn, as a favor to me? Don’t die doing something stupid. Garrett is heading down there with you and looking for a connecting passageway. Watch your head. I don’t know why the nd mass is shaking, but it’s probably not good.”

  “Got it. I’m gonna get moving. I’ll try to avoid anything rge, dangerous, and hungry,” he added with a soft ugh. He felt a sear of pain as he wrapped gauze over one of the rger cuts on his arm, and tightened it.

  “Shawn? I mean it. I would have said Telga was full of shit, but you…you might be the first person I’ve seen from Earth that has a chance to do the impossible.”

  The communicator clicked off, and Shawn rose, despite the aches across his body. “Halsey, since we’re alone…does Regia have a thing for me?”

  Welcome to the patently obvious, you overqualified genius.

  He let his arms go sck, ruminating on that one for a few seconds. “I don’t even know how to feel about that one yet. I’m not even the same species–oh, right,” he added with a growl as he gnced down at his body. “Still need to fix that issue. Now, regarding our fallen foe…”

  He gnced at the fallen ursina, and that metallic substance dripping from it. Stranger still, the substance was glowing brighter. “Uh, Halsey, what in the hell is going on with that thing? Is that Etteria?”

  I’ve never seen that before. I think your instincts served you well before, don’t touch it–

  A surge of bright blue light emerged from the material, and Shawn felt his entire body wreathed in buzzing energy, crawling along his limbs. Tendrils of that energy snaked through the dead cavern air and connected between the silvery material, and himself. He felt himself being pulled inexorably to the corpse of the ursina, his heart racing at a rate so fast, that he thought it might seize. His breath was shallow, and he felt nauseous.

  Shawn, get away from it!

  But he couldn’t. He fell to his knees, feeling that overwhelming buzz of power course through him, leaving him disoriented.

  Stranger still, that Etteria core within his body was vibrating with an intensity he’d never felt before, and it surged with power, energy arcing across his body.

  He felt a final snap of power, and fell forward on all fours, panting, and still seeing spots from the brilliant light. “Halsey…what just happened?” he gasped, clutching his chest anxiously. His heart was no longer beating as fast–in fact, it had slowed to a normal holding pattern.

  Something felt off. He felt instantly refreshed; a moment earlier, he’d been on the verge of Etteria burnout. He let out a shaky breath before propping himself up. He gnced up at the ursina, and stared bnkly.

  The creature was crumbling to dust. The silvery material that had been there was now fading into wisps of blue energy that traced their way back to him, before fading to nothingness. “Halsey, what did I do?” his voice wavered on shock. For the first time, he didn’t have an answer for what he was observing. And that frightened him.

  Shawn, I think you absorbed the Etteria core of the ursina. I felt the pathways reinforce. I know you can’t see them, but I felt them become more refined, more complex. I feel…more of myself, now.

  The feeling of energy, and Halsey’s words, got him thinking. There had been one other time he’d observed this–after making shrapnel of the thunderhead beast. He coughed and rose shakily to his feet. “Uh, Halsey, you know who else has Etteria cores? Everyone. Oh shit. I can’t go back! I might…vampire everyone’s cores and turn them into dust!” He put his hands to his head, gripping his feathers tightly. “I was fine with ‘avian humanoid.’ That was a hard sell, but I made it work! But ‘mana vampire’ is where I draw the line!”

  Shawn, calm down for a moment. This did not happen until after the ursina was dead, and its Etteria was exposed. Now, unless you pn on impaling every foe you kill, or blowing it apart with explosives, I don’t think you need to worry. Well, maybe not too much. C'mon, don't fall apart.

  He let out a groan and regarded the now ashen beast with disgust. “Memo to ask Telga what the hell else she knows about the Etteria. Maybe I have another gestalt that allows me to siphon Etteria off foes? Which sounds about as gross as you might think.”

  Take a sample with you, please. So Cire can analyze it?

  “Oh, hell no, Halsey. I’m not doing it, even if it’s in the name of science. This has now crossed my gross-out threshold.” Touching ashen, dead monsters, filled him with revulsion.

  You’re gonna say yes eventually.

  “Oh for Fate's sake, Halsey. You’re starting to sound like Cire. And not in a good way. Now, if you’re right, and my Etteria pathways were reinforced? And I were to, you know, casually test my Etteria–”

  He crafted a fme dart in his hand, and winced–it burned a little brighter, and hotter, than the ones from before, and he peered at it with confusion. “I’m sure that’s just a coincidence.”

  Probably not. Any sudden urges for world domination, feelings of being invincible, or insatiable urge to consume the universe?

  "I'm gonna go with 'none of the above' for this," he muttered. The fire did burn hotter...it was as if its intensity had been bolstered. "Well, fire in the hole, I guess."

  He threw the projectile at one of the cavern walls--or rather, it darted at incredible speed like an incendiary tracer round, and impacted with enough force and power to shatter stone and turned the rock molten hot. He gnced with fascination at the slightly sooty fingers on his left hand.

  “Holy shit, I leveled up.”

  Told ya. Also, what’s a level-up?

  Cire gripped the arcane communicator, or ‘Arcom’ device so tightly, Regia had to gently coax it from her hand, to keep her from breaking it. “Cire, we must get Raine to Chakra, or he might die. C’mon, we need to go–”

  “I’m not leaving him down here.” her voice was tense, and she was fighting back the urge to scream in rage. “You have no idea what Shawn has been through, Regia. What he and Maggie went through. And then the universe dumps him onto the deadliest pnet in the cosmos, after all that. This isn’t fair!”

  The female avian regarded her with a gentle gnce, and then back to Garrett, loading up extra ammo from Varrick's satchel. “Garrett’s going in after him. I’ve never known him to fail yet, Cire.”

  “Really? I know Shawn is tough, but…Regia, he is broken. And you have no idea why, and it’s beyond trying to find Maggie in this fractured world.” Cire did not waste time and was strapping Raine tightly to a cart they had emptied of all cargo, With an extra bnket as a soft spot, they gingerly lifted the tall Vorhunde in, and he protested lightly. “Raine, y down, don’t struggle. It’s better if you don’t move around.”

  “I’m gonna regen it–”

  “Raine. Stop.” Cire bit her lip, and pointed to the bandage still soaked with blood. “You have deep cerations, and if your anatomy is close enough to humans, your liver could be damaged. That’s a death sentence if we don’t get it squared away, right now, and it’s too severe an injury for the poultices.”

  The injured man y on the floor of the cart, cushioned by the small bnket and Cire eyed the other injuries–a broken arm from the impact, too, and other deep cuts. She gnced back at Regia, who nodded softly. “Shawn has had the worst luck in the world. Without distracting from our efforts right now, trust me. I’m worried about him. And I can’t do anything, because I was too afraid to take the risk he did, using that Etteria on himself.”

  “Cire, you guys have already made a difference. Magic or not, you’ve made a difference.” Regia gnced at Garrett, already geared up and coming back to them, with a pair of goggles he pulled from his pack that glowed ever so slightly. She hoped it was magical night vision. “Garrett, you think you can find him? You’re not gonna have Raine.”

  “I’m not losing anyone on my team. I’ll find him,” he vowed stoically. “Raine, all I need from you, is to hang on. You’re gonna make it. Cire, stay with him?”

  She bit her lip and nodded gently. “I will. But, Shawn–”

  Regia got her attention, eyes focused on her in a solemn expression. “I meant what I said earlier. Shawn is…a little crazy. But damn, if he isn’t determined. He’ll be fine, and he wants you to be safe. With any luck, we’ll reconvene tonight, with a hell of a story to share.”

  She'd suspected Regia had more than a thing for Shawn for a little bit--but she didn't know to what extent. "Regia, you barely know him."

  "I don't have to know someone long enough to know they stick to their principles, and..." she trailed off, tapping one cw on the mine cart edge. "Look, Cire? Before you two came along, I was facing the grim prospect that Revarik was going to burn and y waste to everything in his path. Having a bit of hope, from people determined to beat impossible odds? That means a lot to us. Not just me."

  Varrick was already hooking up to the cart, with Trask lining up to push from the rear, while she sat next to the injured man. Cire gazed at the colpse, then back to Regia, who had confidence exuding from her words, and a hardened smile. “Alright. Varrick, Trask, let’s get Raine out of here and to safety!”

  The cart rumbled into motion, while she kept the stoic hunter stable. She gnced once more at the colpsed floor before it disappeared into the twists and turns of the sloping pathway to the surface.

  I’m going to catch up to you, Shawn. I’m never letting weakness get in the way of making a difference again.