Dawn broke pale and thin over the plains, the air cool enough to mist Eliakim's breath.
He woke to an odd sound—soft, wet boinks echoing across the ruined watchtower camp. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he sat up and froze.
They were surrounded.
Not by wolves. Not by mercenaries.
By slimes.
Hundreds—no—thousands of tiny, bouncing porings in every color from bubblegum pink to sky blue, their gelatinous bodies catching the rising sun like drops of stained glass.
Gideon rubbed his eyes, then let out a baffled laugh."Well… this is new."
"They're not attacking," Eliakim noted, rising slowly to his feet. "But they've surrounded us."
Ezra emerged from her blanket like a phantom, her staff in hand, eyes scanning the sea of slimes. "They're… watching," she murmured.
As they began walking toward the western edge of the plains, the porings followed in a rippling tide, bouncing in eerie unison. Skyling perched uneasily on Eliakim's shoulder, feathers puffed.
By midday, the land began to change. The grass gave way to scorched earth, blackened patches steaming faintly despite the chill air. Jagged lines of frost cut through the burn marks, the ice gleaming with unnatural clarity.
Ezra knelt, brushing her fingers along one of the frost veins. "This is the anomaly's touch… fire and ice where they shouldn't meet."
That was when the light dimmed.
A sphere of shadow rolled over them, blotting out the sun. The porings around them stopped, shivering in place. Then the shadow… moved.
It wasn't a cloud.
From beyond the ridge came a single, massive bounce—the ground shuddered beneath their feet.
The creature crested the hill with an almost cheerful boing.
It was a poring—but easily the size of a cottage. Its gelatinous body was deep purple, veins of crimson and pale blue swirling inside, pulsing with heat and frost.
The smaller slimes scattered in panic.
The big one didn't.
It let out a sound that was part gurgle, part roar—and slammed into the ground, sending a shockwave through the cracked earth.
"Anomaly variant," Eliakim said, eyes narrowing. "Aggressive."
"I'll take its legs," Gideon said, already dropping into a half-lycan stance.
"It doesn't have legs," Eliakim replied dryly, then rolled aside as the poring lunged, a blob of molten ice slamming into the ground where he'd been standing. Steam hissed upward in choking clouds.
Ezra… didn't move. She stood stiff, her eyes locked on the creature, staff trembling faintly in her hands.
"Ezra!" Eliakim barked, but she didn't respond. Her pupils had shrunk to pinpricks, her breath shallow—locked in some unseen battle of her own mind.
"Then it's just us," Gideon growled, tearing forward. He slammed into the poring's side with raw brute strength, sending gelatinous flesh rippling like disturbed water.
"Skyling—harry it!" Eliakim ordered. The bird launched into the air, darting past the monster's 'face' to rake its membrane with sharp talons.
The poring spun, swiping a pseudopod of semi-frozen sludge toward the bird. Skyling swerved, the icy tendrils missing by inches.
Eliakim ran a quick circle, noting how the creature's body shifted between solid frost and molten sludge. Two states. Probably unstable when it changes.
"Gideon—strike when it's shifting!" he shouted.
The big man didn't hesitate. As the poring's purple flesh bled into pale blue, Gideon dove low, fists smashing into the frost-veined section. The thing howled—if a poring could howl—its body collapsing inward before springing back with vicious force.
Chunks of semi-frozen gel splattered the ground, sizzling where fire and ice met.
Eliakim vaulted onto a shard of the fallen frost membrane, driving a dagger deep into the poring's core before flipping off as it convulsed. "Keep it destabilized!"
Gideon went in again, this time grabbing and throwing a chunk of its outer layer to the side. Skyling darted in through the opening, pecking furiously at what looked like a pulsing, crystalline core inside.
The poring screeched, body flailing violently. A whip-like tendril of molten gel lashed toward Eliakim—he slid under it, tossing a small vial into its shifting mass.
It exploded in a burst of pressurized steam, tearing a hole wide enough for Gideon to plunge both clawed hands into the monster's heart. With a roar, he ripped the core free.
The poring shuddered once, then collapsed into a harmless puddle, steam rising from its remains.
For a moment, there was only the sound of their own breathing.
Ezra finally stirred, her voice soft but strained. "…That thing… its mana signature… not of this plane."
Eliakim glanced at her sharply, but before he could ask, the ground ahead cracked again—revealing even more frost-veined scorch marks leading toward the anomaly site.