Chapter 2: 2: For The Great Core

I leapt from my hiding place, uncoiling my length and springing into the air. My mouth opened wide in a defiant hiss just as I hit a sacred fast-spot that had suddenly appeared in my path. The Great Core was smiling upon me. I would succeed. I would drive away the evil baddest-things.

My speed of travel increased, flinging me even faster into the female Coreless. She raised her arms, eyes widening in fright. It was too late. By the Great Core’s grace, I had already arrived.

I avoided the protective ore-flesh that covered most of her body, sinking my fangs into the weaker pink-flesh of her arms. Knowing that I needed to act quickly, I pumped her veins with all of the venom that I had stored. It flowed through the grooves in my fangs, dripping down with all the fury that I could muster - which was a lot, with the Great Core in danger.

She screamed, overwhelmed by pain. I was certain that she knew her end was near.

“Doran! This damn thing just bit me. It itches really bad.”

Her cries of terror would not sway me. For the Great Core, I would end her life. She thrashed in agony, flailing her arm to dislodge me.

“This damn little thing won’t let go!”

With my venom depleted, I finally released my hold on her pink-flesh. I soared through the air with great speed, only slowing due to a not-currently-annoying-and-definitely-sacred slow-spot. I hissed my thanks as I exited the slow-spot, landing safely on the ground.

The male Coreless had run to the dying female. It was useless, I knew. My venom had once killed a small-tailed bad-thing, and that had only taken half of what I had stored. I had barely been able to fit my jaws around its corpse. She was already doomed.

For threatening the Great Core, it was only just.

“I’m bleeding a little,” she cried out, wailing in the face of her death. Despite her obvious terror, she was lucky - she would get to die while basking within the gentle glow of the Great Core. There were many who never received such a mercy. She scratched at her pink-flesh, but I knew that would not save her from the venom. “Damn, this is itchy. You got any salve handy?”

“No, you’ll just have to deal with it.”

“Damn.” The female looked at me, her final opponent, with commendable resolve. She bared her teeth, displaying her defiance. “He’s kind of a cute little bugger when he isn’t biting me, huh?”

I hissed in response, displaying some defiance of my own.

“Aww, look at him! Is this really the Dungeon Core’s minion? So weak and small and...cute!”

“I guess so. I don’t really get it. Even infant Dungeon Cores should be able to easily create hundreds of minions at his size. Based on the time-fields, this one isn’t even that young - but look at how small the Core is.” The male Coreless pointed at the Great Core. I didn’t need to understand his senseless jabbering to know that he was amazed by the Great Core. “It used most of its power on something, but I don’t see anything to show for it.”

“Do you think it was to make the little guy?”

...I was confused. They were still making noises at each other. The female still wasn’t dying. How was she not dying?

“Maybe. There’s no way to know without an appraisal. Should we take him with us?”

“Why not? Worse comes to worst, he’d make a cute pet.”

I hissed as the female Coreless approached me, slowly winding her way around the Great Core’s sacred spots. She did not even tremble under the strain of my venom. It was as if it had done little but annoy her - like it was the same as the annoyance that I felt when passing through a slow-spot. Noticeable, but little more than that.

I tightly coiled myself, poised to strike, knowing that it might be my last chance.

When she reached out, her giant hands ready to strangle me, I struck. This time, without the aid of the Great Core’s fast-spots, I was too slow. My fangs snapped at the empty air. An enormous hand wrapped behind my head, holding me fast in its grip. I despaired.

The other hand came down, its fingers gouging at my head-scales. For now, they held firm. The female Coreless’ claws of pink-flesh were nothing compared to the claws of ore-flesh that she carried. They were dull and weak.

I hissed. I would endure. I would not be broken.

“Do you think he likes that? I think he likes head scratches.”

“No, I don’t think he does. He’s a monster, Valera,” the male Coreless jabbered back, likely plotting murder. “I do wonder what monster, exactly. It’s very strange, a Dungeon Core with an aspect as rare as time only having a little minion like him.”

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“What do you think would happen if we fed him the Core?”

“Why would we do that? We managed to find a Dungeon Core that wasn’t even protected by any Ascended Minions. Now you want to create one out of curiosity?”

“Well, I’m just curious. I’m not actually going to do it.”

“Good. Minions don’t attack their own Cores, anyway. It’s hardwired into their instincts, according to the eggheads who study them. They’re drawn to find and consume other Dungeon’s Cores, but never their own.”

I thrashed and twisted, trying to break free of the female’s grasp. My efforts were wasted; I was too small, too weak. I had failed the Great Core.

I could only watch as the male approached the pedestal, bathing himself in the gentle glow of the Great Core. I hissed involuntarily. He was not worthy of it. That part of me that was bound to protect the Great Core - which was every part of me - was in a panic. They would hurt the Great Core, I knew, just as all of the other bad-things would wish to do.

He pulled it from the pedestal, placing it within a small brown skin-mouth at his side. The strange little thing consumed it, the skin-mouth closing itself slightly when the Coreless tugged at it. Its light dimmed. For a moment, I slumped in horror - but only a moment.

The Great Core needed me.

I thrashed and shook, trying with all my might to break out of the female’s grasp. I squirmed like never before, nearly ripping myself apart with the strength of my struggles.

It wasn’t enough.

Her grip was unyielding, as if formed of the greatest ore-flesh.

I wasn’t enough.

I wasn’t enough to defend the Great Core. I wasn’t enough to defeat the Coreless. I wasn’t enough to hold back the bad-things.

What use was I, then?

Why had I been created by the Great Core, when nothing else had been?

Surely, it had a plan for me.

Surely.

I steadied my shaking tail, wishing very much that I still had the comfort of the Great Core’s soothing light. I would have to do without it. I would have to be brave without it.

For the Great Core that had created me, I always would be.

I relaxed in the female’s grip. My chance would come, I knew. The Great Core would provide it. I needed only to be faithful. I needed only to wait.

The two Coreless continued to jabber at one another; I no longer cared enough to try to interpret meaning from the senseless noises. My only focus was on the Great Core, which had been consumed by the skin-mouth attached to the male’s side.

Something within me was terrified by that thought.

Still, I waited for my chance. The giant Coreless were far stronger than I was, and had proven to be resistant to the venom that had been my only chance at victory. Now, there was only escape.

But I could not leave without the Great Core - that would be a betrayal of everything that I was. Yet, as the Coreless carried us away, my chance never came. I did not know how to escape the female giant’s grasp. I did not know how to free the Great Core from the skin-mouth. I did not know how to achieve victory.

So I prayed to the Great Core, that I might save it from the bad-things.

As it always had, it soon proved its greatness.

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