The bike slammed into the ground. Rix's suspension system screamed, absorbing the impact, but they still bounced hard, skidding across a surface that wasn't dirt.
It was white, calcified, and hard as steel. They came to a halt in a cloud of dust.
"We're alive," Rix gasped, checking her dashboard. "Systems critical. The bike won't fly again without repairs."
Kaelen stepped off the bike. The air was thick and tasted of iron. He looked down. The ground beneath his boots was textured with microscopic ridges. He looked up. In the distance, a mountain range curved upward like a ribcage.
"Rix," Kaelen whispered. "We aren't on ground. We're standing on a Rib."
Rix shone her flashlight. The beam cut through the dark grey fog. "It's true," she murmured. "The myths... the Old World is just a giant graveyard."
[Guide: Welcome to the Surface. Warning: Ambient Corruption is at 20%.]
Kaelen felt a prickling on his skin. Without the System's filter, the magic of this place was raw radiation. "We need to move," Kaelen said. "My Guide says standing still is dangerous."
CLICK-CLICK.
From the shadows of the rib-bone forest, creatures emerged. They looked like wolves, but their skin was inside out. Their muscles twitched with erratic energy. Chaos Hounds.
[Scanner Error: Level Unknown.]
"My scanner is dead!" Rix panicked, raising her EMP pistol. "I can't see their levels!"
"They don't have levels," Kaelen realized. "The System doesn't reach down here."
Three Hounds charged. Rix fired. Her EMP blast hit the first hound. It stumbled, but didn't stop. Biological monsters didn't care about EMPs.
"Get back!" Kaelen stepped forward.
He didn't have a health bar to watch. He didn't have a mana bar. He just had the Aspect of Fluidity.
He dissolved his arms into whips of liquid muscle. He lashed out. The whip struck the lead Hound. [Decay Applied.]
The Hound yelped as its face began to rot instantly. It collapsed, twitching. The other two hesitated.
Kaelen roared—a sound amplified by the Spore Aspect in his throat. "Scram!"
The Hounds, sensing a higher predator, turned and fled into the dark.
Rix stared at him. "You... you just scared off Surface Monsters."
"Let's find the Tower," Kaelen said, his hands solidifying back into human shape. "Before something bigger hears us."