Shawn hit the monster with everything he could muster, five high-powered fire darts flung in rapid-succession. Every lesson, every agonizing trial figuring out his powers was used to push his core to his limits of rapid-fire assault. He felt the Etteria drain as all five shots hit their mark, impacting and damaging the tough scales of the monster. He drove each hit in on the same spot on its body, hopefully where its heart was. The creature snarled in fury, scales smoldering but it wasn’t outright incapacitated. It veered in his direction, undeterred by the injury.

  It would have been convenient if the viper had rushed right toward the ambush zone, while Garrett stood near the console. But it veered around the unhealthy pile of bones that had accumuted after they turned off the gravity trap. Shawn pumped his wings and veered off to the side as the creature lunged forward, with teeth the size of daggers attempting to chomp on him. It caught nothing but air, much to his immense relief.

  That wasn’t to say the viper wasn’t fast, as it chased him, slithering and sliding over the terrain and knocking aside small stagmites. It coiled its whole body and leaped through the air like a giant spring. A spring with deadly teeth and powerful muscles propelling its body, that likely could chomp him in one bite.

  Every time he wanted to fly tely, he was hindered by terrain. This underground fighting shit is getting old, Halsey!

  Tell me something I don’t know already! I hate snakes, Shawn, I hate ‘em!

  “Hold on to the explosives until we’ve pinned it!” Shawn shouted out. He ducked low and swerved through a pair of stagmites, using his airspeed and tight maneuvering to lure the creature into an obstacle where it couldn’t pursue him. It lunged again, right as he expected it to, and smashed into the rock formations, shattering it but slowing it down. He threw another powered-up fire dart at it, disrupting it and cracking the scales with the impact, but it failed to catch fire.

  These monsters were just built differently.

  Try not to kill this one in a way that we can’t get close! I have a theory, Shawn!

  Trying not to die here, science ter! He swerved and banked around, feeling that rush of adrenaline as he navigated the tight confines of the cavern, and that deadly viper still chasing him. One wrong move, and he’d be chomped in half, or crash into the cavern walls. There was no room for error.

  He banked around, waiting for the creature to lunge, and prepped his force barrier. He didn’t need it to do much, except provide an obstacle as the viper lunged again–and wedged its mouth open with a split second timing of his barrier at close range. The creature coughed and sputtered, and hinged its jaw closed, shattering the barrier in a burst of gold sparks. But, it allowed him to bank around, while he shot another fire dart at the creature.

  He wasn’t pnning on killing it with these. He just needed to draw its attention. “Garrett, get ready for the mark!”

  The viper decided that wasn't dramatic enough, reared back its head–and spat a yellow liquid. This maneuver had 'danger' written all over it, and he dodged with a quick swerve and felt his leg gnce off a rock. He heard the hiss and sizzle of the rock reacting with the fluid, and he guessed it was acid.

  Acid. Spitting. Vipers. He hated snakes more than he ever did, before. He veered across the expanse with the viper scooting behind him, hissing menacingly. He crossed the threshold of the gravity trap.

  “Now!”

  Garret turned the dial, and looked on with anxiety as Shawn felt the pull of gravity flip, and he barrel rolled to change his wings orientation–now flying upside down while the viper lunged at him, snapping and missing. He felt the brush of air on his feathers, that was too close!

  That was the st lunge the viper got as gravity took its toll. Its eyes widened as the serpentine body sailed upwards in a deyed fashion, part of the body draping down and not fully in the field of effect. Shawn fred his barrier when he got too close to a rock, scraping by on his armor vest, whirled around to face the right direction, and slid to the ground, groaning. He looked at his foe and took in the scene.

  The giant serpent had been impaled partially on the stactites and thrashed frantically. Rock shattered and was flung outside the gravity well, and rained down. He put his barrier up protectively to ward off a few errant chunks, and Garrett ducked to cover, reaching for his explosive.

  “Light it up!” Shawn called out, already pulling the fuse and chucking the bsting charge, hoping they didn't cause a cave-in. He threw his ordnance, as did Garrett, and the twinned explosives detonated against the creature, with debris raining up or down, depending on where it fell.

  The viper screeched in pain but was still in the fight. It spat more of that acid at Garrett’s location, and he fred his wings to dodge, rifle in hand, now. But Shawn realized a bigger problem.

  That acid was now eating into the console, and he knew something broke when the rock fragments being broken off by the thrashing, started raining down–including the ten-meter snake.

  “Oh shit!” It wasn't his most intelligent excmation of all time, and the snake smmed into the ground, dazed and pinged with rock shards. But it locked with eyes with him, and slithered forward at an adrenaline-fuelled pace, even with its injuries. He scrambled back up to a run, avoiding another spattering of acid, but this was barely a dribble–it must only have so much reserves of the deadly substance.

  They could outrun it, but there were also chunks of rock still falling, and he dove to avoid being crushed by a chunk of debris the size of a washtub, Garrett was weaving between the destruction raining down. Even for this veteran warrior, this verged on panic reaction.

  Shawn took flight, warhammer in hand. The viper's mobility was reduced, and he was willing to bet it wouldn't take much more to put this creature down for good, with its slowed response. A shard of rock clipped his wing, muted by the barrier, but he felt it and tumbled back to the ground, skidding and feeling the pain.

  “Shawn run!” Garrett screamed out, firing his rifle faster than Shawn's eyes could track, and smming rounds into the feed tube while advancing. The rounds pinged off the creature's tough scales, but the prior damage meant some penetrated, leaving it reeling.

  But he advanced, hammer and hand ignoring the aching pain, and swerved right from a coiled lunge. He smacked the creature right in the skull, focusing his Etteria for a force bst not from his hand–but through the weapon.

  This was something he'd been meaning to test, when he thought back to Varrick's comment about the weapon, earlier. Something about channeling abilities. Here he was, testing it in the most dangerous way possible, in a fight for his life, where every desperate option was on the table.

  The weapon lit up with the hexagon-patterned gold barrier around the hammerhead and impacted the viper with the force of a small missile. The recoil on his arm ached but didn’t shatter bones. The creature swooned, and he followed up with another hit, impacting again, draining his core.

  He could feel pinpricks. He was going to hit burnout soon. Two more strikes and the creature was on the ground, scales smashed, one eye bleeding and damaged, it's tongue sck out of its skull. He panted, out of breath and enraged. He was not getting killed by a snake today, not when he had to find Maggie, and he stood over the dying foe.

  “Shawn. Shawn.” Garrett put a hand gently on one wing, breaking him out of his focus. He gnced at the warrior, green eyes dim, and gestured to the viper. “Don't let it suffer.”

  His weapon felt loose in his hand, and he was out of breath. He nodded between gasps of air. “Can you…can you do it? I’m tapped out. I don't….I don't like the idea of…causing more enduring pain.”

  Garrett flipped the lever action back and nodded. “Yeah. Gd you understand.”

  The final gunshot rang through the now-still cavern air, and the creature ceased to move. Shawn saw that silvery material leaking from the wounds, and Garrett pointed at it. “Interesting. What is that? It’s not blood.”

  They didn't have a chance to figure it out, as Shawn remembered what happened st time, and he stepped backward. “Garrett, something happened when I killed the ursina. I need to–"

  It was too te, and he felt that thrum of power in his core, pulsing in tune with his skyrocketing heart rate. He staggered to his knees, feeling dizzy. “Garrett, pull me away!”

  The warrior didn't hesitate, dropped his rifle, and dragged Shawn a short distance away. His head was swimming and he was doing everything in his power to calm his heart rate, taking deep breaths, and going through every calming motion he knew. He hoped that the therapy sessions of years past had helped him deal with the worst moments. His breath was a rasp as he forced himself to count before inhaling and exhaling.

  But it was enough. He still felt a trickle charge of energy emanating from the now dead creature, a tendril of silver energy that wrapped around him, but not to the same intensity as the st time. Garrett propped him up against a boulder, in awe, as the trickle of energy faded.

  “Uh…you wanna tell me what just happened?”

  “When my head stops spinning…sure.” He closed his eyes, feeling slightly refreshed and no longer on the verge of Etteria burnout. Garrett however was already in motion, putting a cloth pad to his shoulder, where a deep cut was present. He’d barely noticed it. He forced his eyes closed, shuddering at the sudden pressure, and the reminder of pain. “Okay. I’m not sure how to expin this one. So, I’ll y out a theory.”

  “Shawn. The energy was coursing from the dead viper to you. I’m pretty sure I’m willing to listen to whatever theory you’ve got. You also killed that thing, by the way.” Garrett didn’t hesitate to finish patching him up.

  “More like, defended us.” He still felt his world spinning a little, and that trickle of power had been enough to cause that itching, pinprick sensation through his limbs and torso, and Halsey spoke up in a shaky voice.

  Well, that answers that. You certainly absorbed part of its Etteria core. More importantly, physical distance can break the connection. You okay?

  I am slightly sickened that this is now a repeat occurrence. I don’t want to kill things for power, Halsey. That was never my goal. He felt her presence drift a little…and she took on a more somber tone.

  Then consider it like you would for your pns for a technological revolution. Each piece in furtherance of helping others. Each piece brings you closer to finding Maggie, and finding out who you are. If power isn’t your ultimate goal, consider it a step to getting to the goals that matter.

  That’s an interesting take. He certainly didn’t pn for it. But, now that he had the means to choose in the matter, whether he absorbed that power wittingly or not, it felt like control was put back into his hands. He took a shaky breath when he felt Garrett jam down a compress to stop the bleeding. “Holy hells, Garrett, that was…that was crazy.”

  “Shawn, you're kinda crazy, but the good kind!” Garrett stated with a flicker of amazement on his face. “I mean, we just used a giant Radiants-damned gravity trap to kill a rock tunneling viper. And there you are, flying through said trap like you had a pn!”

  “Spoilers. I had part of a pn.” Shawn managed to ugh weakly, even with the bruises and aches on his body reminding him of his fragile state. “Okay, now for the not-fun part. I absorb Etteria cores from dead monsters. Or really big, mean, dangerous monsters.”

  “Yeah, that’s kinda what it looked like. You broke the connection though. Why?” It was surprising that Garrett didn't regard him fearfully at this notion.

  “Because I absorbed the ursina Etteria, and it made my powers slightly stronger.” He cupped his hands gently and gnced at the corpse of the monster, which hadn’t disintegrated. “Except I absorbed all of the Etteria, before. It crumbled to dust.”

  “Shit.” Garrett let out a soft sigh, before finishing his work and sitting down next to him, gazing at the viper corpse. “So, any delusions of becoming an all-powerful Radiant going through your head?”

  “I just want to find my sister, kill a tyrant, and build stuff. You know. Small goals,” he replied deadpan and leaned back against the rocky outcropping, his wings protesting at this gently. "That answer your query?"

  Garrett clicked his beak, then shrugged. "You don't strike me as the type to get obsessed with power. Maybe obsessing with science a bit, but that's a different thing."

  "Speaking of science, I need you to take one of my mineral sample vials, and grab that Etteria oozing out of that corpse. Purely for study work.”

  Garrett ughed heartily at this suggestion. “Regia had it right. You’re focused, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah. Kinda have to be, in this messed up world. But seriously, grab a sample. Cire will murder me if I pass up on a discovery like this.” They both fell silent for a second. “Also, we’ve got questions for Telga, when we get back. Because, that primal Etteria clearly is different. I’m not sure how to approach that one, yet.”

  “Me, too. You’re taking credit for the kill, though,” Garrett reminded him as he pointed at the giant viper.

  “That was a half and half effort. I’ll take credit for yeeting a giant-assed bear off the side of the pnet.”

  Garrett grinned at this. “Deal. Now, let’s go get this done, and get out of here before Regia murders me for taking too long.”