The Great Core's Paradox

Valera grinned widely, eyeing Rowan’s shocked expression. The man looked exhausted, worn to the bone in a way that she had never seen him before. Still, it was good to see him alive. Valera had been worried; as competent as Rowan and the rest of his party were, they wouldn’t be the first group of Seekers to disappear on a mission gone wrong.

Far from it, in fact.

It had been a relief to see all of them among the living. For a moment, when she had seen the way that the bat-like creatures had run amok, she had almost begun to prepare herself for the worst. In the end, she didn’t need to.

Rowan, Aela, Peter, Corinth...were fine. Exhausted, run-down, bloody, and on the verge of being overrun - but alive.

Sometimes, that was the only thing that actually mattered.

The other three had stepped back already, trying to keep order as the refugees were forced to wait for more boats to become available for the crossing. Valera didn’t begrudge them for it; as panicked as some of the survivors were, it wasn’t an easy or simple task. Most citizens weren’t used to the danger that came with being outside the protection of their city’s null-water. Barring merchants and a few others, most citizens never left the safety of their city.

Not without some sort of catastrophe spurring them on. The World Dungeon was too dangerous for that.

And they were well aware of that danger, which made the situation all the more dangerous. It was easy for that knowledge to take hold, to shift into a panic that could catch like fire, spreading through the crowd and burning lives in its wake. Those still waiting could be trampled underfoot. They could stumble into the null-water. They could even hurt each other intentionally, desperate to get away from the obvious danger approaching.

No, she didn’t begrudge the others for moving back to keep order. Valera was fine with holding the line.

Besides, she would have hated to miss this.

Ally attack, she signed towards Rowan, smirking at his confusion. Hold defense.

The truth was, she could have tried to explain things a bit more, even with the limited vocabulary that hand signs provided. She was just enjoying herself too much for that. Either way, it wasn’t as if she could have explained the things that had happened recently, that the tiny snake they had picked up could somehow see the future and act on it. She couldn’t explain how she was mostly sure that the little creature would know what he was doing, that everything should be fine.

That should be was the main concern; even with knowing what the future held, their newest companion hadn’t shown himself to be strong enough to take on larger monsters. He was just so small and cute, with his little fangs and his itchy poison and his noodly body...

Not that being cute had anything to do with it, but Valera felt like it was worth mentioning.

So cute.

For a moment, she toyed with finding a way to question if Rowan agreed via sign, but there was no hand sign for cute. For some reason.

She was distracting herself, she knew. After all, she was only mostly sure that the little guy knew what he was doing. Mostly.

Still, there wasn’t much for it. So, rather than worry herself sick, she pasted on a wide smile as he slithered towards the incoming monsters. She grinned wider when Rowan’s exhausted fingers stumbled over questioning hand signs, fumbling through an ‘Ally monster?’ and a simple ‘what’. She beamed when the little snake’s scales began to warp slightly, shimmering oddly.

She held it when a blast of blue flame coated the first of the monsters, when the little seer, fluctuating slightly in her vision, somehow twisted around a vicious stomp and slithered up the limb. She held it when the blue flames finished off the first of the enemies, when the scent of burned and melting flesh pressed into her nostrils. She held it more tightly when the little snake split, shimmering body turning into a set of identical twins, both warping and twisting oddly.

When a lance of bone cut directly through one of the shimmering snakes, as if the armor she had tied to him didn’t even register, Valera convinced herself that it was a fake, that the real snake was the other one. That their little seer would know what he was doing, that he had the precognition to avoid danger.

When a second lance of bone stabbed through that one, her smile fell. She jolted forward, pausing after a half-step. There was nothing she could do.

The monster fell, and her little snake fell with it.

And then it split itself again.

And again.

And again - each of the new little snakes climbing up the nearest monster, winding up their bodies far faster than she had ever seen the little guy move.

Noneof them were real.

Valera smiled again, this time for real.

They didn’t bite. They didn’t even dodge anymore. The monsters didn’t notice, too focused on attacking every snake they saw. Too busy with what was happening to move towards Valera and the humans that she was guarding.

The snakes didn’t bite.

But the monsters still died. They gored each other on their bladed limbs, killing one another in their eagerness. And as the fight went on, more snakes continued to appear. Each time, they were less real. They moved oddly, and sometimes they stopped moving at all.

Again, the monsters didn’t notice, already thrown into a mindless frenzy of blood and battle.

But where was the real one, then?

Her eyes cut across the field. It was hard to see now, with the way that broken bodies littered the ground, with how the monsters had gathered around the dim blue flame where the first monster had died.

Wasn’t that flame a little too dim?

Her grin widened again, and she glanced towards Rowan. His eyes were wide and bewildered. Valera gave him a little bump of the shoulder, and he startled slightly, turning towards her.

Ally attack, she signed again. Hold defense. This time, her smile was just a touch more smug.

The ringing in Rowan’s ears had fallen silent. No, that was wrong. He just found it hard to notice, with everything going on. Mostly with the way that the monsters were swiftly murdering one another while trying to attack a horde of tiny glowing snakes. He was more than happy to watch them die, with how many people they had managed to kill, not to mention how many times one had almost killed him. But, still...

What the hell was going on?

A bump against his shoulder jolted him into awareness. Valera met his gaze with a mischievous grin, that smile that she had whenever she found that she knew something that someone else didn’t.

Ally attack, she signed quickly. Hold defense.

Smug little shit.

She knew that he wanted to know what the hell was going on. He hadn’t noticed it at first, mired in the fight and the retreat, but that fucking thing had a Core. Where did they get an Ascended monster? How did they get an Ascended monster? Fuck, why did they get an Ascended monster? Those things were the bane of Seekers everywhere, as vicious as any monster and one thousand times more unpredictable. It was almost impossible to tell what abilities they might have, since they could have so fucking many.

What the hell was going on?

He narrowed his eyes, ignoring the way that they desperately wanted to close.

Why/how ally? He signed back. Skies above, this was annoying. And he knew that she knew that the curiosity was killing him - which was probably why she was laughing so hard. He couldn’t actually hear it, but he could damn sure see it. That almost made the whole thing more annoying, especially when she started laughing harder after his eye involuntarily twitched.

Smug, annoying little shit.