Logan leaped from one precarious segment of the Devouring Coil to the next, each scaled plate beneath his boots disintegrating underfoot. The entire outer layer of the monstrosity shed away, revealing the gelatinous body beneath it. Above him, a mass of that churning flesh rippled with movement, its globs of muscle and ooze shifting in waves.

Claws out, Logan triggered Null Pulse, turning himself into a human arrow to strike the bulging monstrosity. As soon as his fingers touched the writhing muck, a prompt flew across his HUD.

Climbing has decreased to level… 10.

The goo hissed, eating into his palm with a sucking noise. The Coil's body shifted again, reshaping into new ridges and ledges that formed what looked like a natural climbing path.

Logan scoffed. The monstrosity was mocking him.

Right after it had sapped levels from Alden's and Cassandra's ice and radiant attacks, it weaponized the skills immediately back at them. Now it was doing the same with Logan's Climbing. Only since the skill wasn't offense, it taunted him instead. The rung-like ridges it formed spiraled upward, inviting Logan toward the summit of its writhing body.

It hadn't even bothered to disguise the trap. Nearly every new foothold emerged from patches where the outer shell had fallen away, exposing raw, slime-slicked tissue. Climbing there meant contact, and contact meant consumption.

Climbing as a skill wasn't crucial to Logan's plan, though, so he took the bait.

Each time he gripped a lumpy ridge, Logan's skin sizzled, but he ignored the pain. The Coil only mimicked his Climbing skill in Logan's immediate area.

Logan realized he was wrong. The monster wasn't mocking him; it was just a reflex.

Wherever the Coil had absorbed a skill, its body responded instinctively. Near its head, warpincer raptors were latching on, burying their claws deep. The Coil's response was instant as spikes erupted from its flesh, skewering the birds, followed by a flick of its tongue that yanked their twitching bodies into its mouth.

For every two handholds Logan climbed, another of his precious levels vanished. When his Climbing dropped to level 3, his fingers gave way. He slipped, sliding two feet down the slick, pulsating hide.

He gritted his teeth and cursed. He had almost reached a flat section where he could have run along its body to a point close enough that still offered a shelled platform, but with only 3 levels remaining he wouldn't make it.

With a deep breath, he burned 50 Stamina with an upward rush anyway. Once Climbing hit 0, he lost his grip.

Before he could fall, he twisted and slammed both gauntlets into the Coil's softened flesh, locking himself in place.

Gauntlet Mastery has dropped to level 15.

Come on you stupid snake.

He twisted his body and smirked when he discovered he had predicted the response attack accurately.

Similar to how the Coil reacted to the raptors, spikes erupted around the point of Logan's gauntlets' contact. One grazed his ribs, slicing his tunic and burning the flesh beneath, but his quick maneuver had avoided any true damage.

Logan retracted his gauntlet and carefully looped both arms around one of the protruding spines jutting from the Coil's side. It was solid, made of the same hardened material as the shelled hide and mercifully free of the jelly-like interior. It held him without crumbling apart.

Grimacing, he hoisted himself up.

Climbing is level 1!

The tiered spikes provided enough grip for him to quickly regain a few levels. He scrambled upward, hitting level 3 in the skill, just to throw it all away again.

From the top of the spine, he leaped.

His fingers dug into the bulging flesh, and he scrambled over the remaining few feet to the flat expanse near the topmost loop of the Coil's body. His boots slipped on mucus-slick tissue, but he held fast, crawling his way to relative safety.

It still didn't seem to notice Logan any more than the raptors it feasted on. Two more coiled layers loomed above. Past them: the entry to the furnace chamber.

Logan glanced back. Alden and the others still struggled, forced into evasive maneuvers by the creature's erratic spasms.

The Coil wasn't hunting them any more than they were him, but its mere movements could spell disaster if it dislodged them into the abyss.

He turned forward again. Just a little higher…

Logan stomped down on a stretch of exposed membrane and funneled the gathered Void energy toward his foot.

Null Pulse has dropped to level 22. Null Pulse has dropped to level 20. Null Pulse has dropped to level 17. Null Pulse has dropped to level 13.

The drain accelerated while Logan used the skill without activating its upward launch, but he needed enough power to reach the next tier.

He didn't think he could risk losing any more since he still needed to climb another tier, so he released and burst upward. The moment his boots struck the surface, it flexed beneath him like a trampoline and bounced him even higher.

Dammit!

He arced through the air, overshooting the topmost tier he had been aiming for. Thinking fast, he activated Meditate, slowing things down just enough to gather his thoughts midair. His mind locked onto his Interdimensional Storage Ripple. Right beside the dragon's egg sat the rest of the scrap metal from the Farrowstead armorer.

He yanked it all out into his arms, and the added weight instantly canceled his upward momentum. He dropped like a stone, landing hard on the Coil's final tier.

The breath whooshed from his lungs and the scrap metal fell into the abyss, but he grinned through the impact. He hadn't needed to burn his last levels of Null Pulse to reach the top. He might have just enough to use the remainder to soar up through the furnace room's chutes rather than the painstakingly slow CryoPyre method for the waterfall.

That actually suited him better, especially since this was no longer about stealth, but speed.

He opened his Interdimensional Storage Ripple once again and pulled out the egg.

Far below, across the cavern, the Devouring Coil's head snapped toward him. Its mandibles flared, and it let out a guttural screech that echoed like tearing metal.

"Looking for this?" Logan taunted.

He raced across the Coil's spine while crashing stone fell below as the Coil smashed through obstacles to reach him.

Running has decreased to level 13.

The gelatinous body rippled underfoot like a living treadmill, forcing Logan to pant as he struggled to make any gains. He felt like he was in a cartoon where a long carpet bundled beneath his feet as he ran in place rather than actually moving forward.

His legs were turning to jelly as his Running drained level after level, but the Coil's gnashing mouth drew ever closer. Finally, down to single-digits in the skill, Logan abandoned the run and hoped he could make it up into the chute from this angle. He started charging a Null Pulse.

Comeoncomeoncomeon…

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It took four agonizing seconds for the Coil to consume the last level, but Logan released his hold on the skill just as it depleted. He shot upward like a missile just as the Coil lunged forward. It smashed into its own body below him, snarling in confusion.

But the angle wasn't right, and his leap wasn't strong enough. Unlike his last entry through the chute where he hit the furnace room's ceiling, he didn't clear the tube's length. As he shot through the chute, his shoulder grazed the wall. Inches from the top, when momentum faltered, he slammed his gauntlet into the stone and hung there.

Below, the Coil writhed, retracting its head from the pulsing body. Its fangs gleamed, and its eyes locked onto him.

Logan's arm screamed in protest. His shoulder was half-dead, and reactivating Climbing to level 1 from this precarious angle felt impossible. He wasn't strong enough. At least, not yet.

With a growl, Logan opened his interface and dumped every remaining free point from his recent level-ups straight into Strength.

A warm surge jolted through his limbs. His stamina bumped just enough to recover motion. The tearing muscles in his shoulder dulled to a manageable ache.

With a primal roar, Logan heaved upward and flung himself over the lip of the chute.

Chest heaving, Logan stumbled across the furnace platform, making for the chamber that housed what Mishki had called the convergence orb. But he had barely covered the distance when the floor behind him exploded and chunks of stone hammered into the backs of his calves and neck, the concussive blast throwing him forward. His health dipped by another 20%.

He rolled with the force and glanced over his shoulder to see the coil hissing. It swung its head in an apparent effort to take down the walls of the furnace, but the tight quarters slowed it down. It might have smashed through rocks with ease below, but with how the stone chute narrowed around its massive body, it couldn't build the same momentum.

It wasn't giving up, though.

Instead of forcing itself through, the Coil slithered more of its long neck into the room, weaving tighter coils to angle its head around the confined space.

Logan stepped backward. To his right: the convergence orb's chamber. In front of him: death incarnate.

"Come and get it," he muttered.

He dashed sideways, and the Coil lunged at an angle to intercept him. It smashed clean through the housing chamber's outer wall, tearing down the chamber's casing in a deafening crash of stone and steel.

Logan grinned. Before the dust even settled, Logan activated Unrelenting Hunt. The silhouettes in the haze glowed just enough to confirm what he needed. The Coil had fallen for his trap and its fanged maw was lodged squarely around the convergence orb that once anchored the aerudine.

Without hesitation, Logan grabbed the length of chain that had once bound the aerudine and sprinted toward the beast. Driving his gauntlet into its exposed side, he triggered one of its instinctive spiked protrusions. He looped the chain around it, then heaved the rest of the length over the Coil's thrashing head, anchoring it tight.

The chain snapped into place with a clang.

The Coil hissed, glowing as it tried to channel some stolen vestige of the aerudine's power to break free. But that power only surged into the orb… and from there, into the furnace.

Logan sprinted to the fueling side of the chamber, his boots skidding on the marred ridges of the stone floor as they transitioned to a clear glass. His eyes swept across the mechanisms.

Mishki had mentioned how fuel sources from sites of power absorbed the aerudine's power, which broke them down into raw essence to feed the Coil.

But what he planned to put into the chamber shouldn't break down so easily. It had, after all, survived a fall into an essentially bottomless pit.

He lifted a clear door, placed the egg into the chamber, and closed the transparent panel, hoping he wasn't destroying the last hope of a species.

"Here goes…"

CryoPyre!

Frost mana swirled into Logan's arms and came out as a gout of flame where he blasted the Devouring Coil. Logan splayed his fingers wider, tighter, straining to channel everything he had into the spell. It was like trying to keep shoveling food down his gullet after being full. His body resisted, his core ached, but he forced more power into it.

CryoPyre rose a single level before abruptly dropping by 5, but Logan's plan was working. The Coil's body instinctively repeated the attack and Logan staggered back as the floor pulsed red. Intense heat filled the room.

Heat Resistance is level 18!

Sweat gathered in the small of his back. He held his breath. Even if the hot air was breathable, Logan's attention fixated on his Heat Resistance, dreading that it might fall. As long as he didn't touch the Coil, though, it seemed to hold steady. But that didn't change that his health was plummeting.

He opened his quest tracker.

Heat of a Thousand Firestorms: 39%.

His heart sank. "That's it?"

He stared at the numbers. And that was with the Ashwake Emblem equipped.

The emblem…

Logan's drying eyes flicked to the Coil. He tore the emblem swinging from his neck and hurled it toward the spine that supported the chain cinching the Coil in place.

Blisters popped into existence all over Logan's body as the room practically ignited. His health slid into the red and, with seconds to spare, he grabbed out Torch Slug goop and smeared it on his body. The amulet no longer amplified his skill. It tripled the Coil's.

Heat of a Thousand Firestorms: 100%.

"CryoPyre," Logan screamed, switching the polarity of his attack.

The heat dropped as a wintry blaze overtook the chamber, frost biting the rim of the orb.

His fingers went numb. Only the residual heat from earlier kept him from freezing.

Chill of a Thousand Blizzards: 100%.

A blinding golden light burst from the furnace as the egg rose within its containment chamber.

Cracks splintered across its shell.

Quest progress updated! Save Dragonkind. > Hidden objective uncovered: Hatch the last dragon's egg > Hidden objective completed!

The golden dragon emerged in a cascade of brilliance, lifting the containment chamber's lid with its tail as it corkscrewed through the air. Feathered wings unfurled, catching the light like sunlit banners. Shimmering scales glistened along its narrow body, and Logan's breath caught.

It fluttered awkwardly at first, wings too large for its thin frame, and let out a sound between a warble and a chirp before swooping in low. It gently pressed its snout against Logan's chest.

Warmth bloomed in Logan's chest, a pulse of hope and belonging, but the Coil didn't seem to share the sentiment.

It shrieked, a guttural, gurgling wail of rage and fear. Logan only grinned. They needed a dragon present to kill the thing, and here one was. But somehow, Logan doubted it was going to be that simple.

This hatchling had nowhere near Razor's strength. A quick scan confirmed his hunch: level 1. Still, Logan had played enough games with prophecies to know that their fulfillment often hinged on cleverness, not brute strength. Whatever the dragon's role, it wasn't about raw power.

As the Coil recoiled in visible discomfort, drawing back its bulk from the chamber as much as possible while remaining fixed to the orb, the hatchling zipped away from Logan.

Rather than strike the Coil, it circled twice as it gathered momentum and then smacked its head against a pedestal near the convergence orb.

It flew away and returned with another thwack.

Then again.

And again.

Logan followed the rhythm with his eyes. "You're pointing at something."

He turned toward the pedestal. Just beside the chain, partly hidden beneath debris from the crumbled walls, was a mechanism.

He recognized the design as similar to the light-crystal puzzle from the Cave of Cursed Music. Logan hadn't had to solve that puzzle, but he remembered rotating a few prisms and watching how they refracted beams of light.

He bolted toward it, heart thudding. The Coil's snout was only feet away. Hot, fetid breath rushed past him. Drool dripped from its jaws, sliding down the orb.

Logan reached the contraption, where a series of miniature crystal lenses and angled mirrors affixed to swivel joints. If it was like the other contraption, this was a small-scale model of something greater.

With no labels to guide him, he began rotating the first arm. The dragon whipped itself before Logan's face, though, and dove down a nearby chute. He saw it through the translucent floor, and it pulsed with a golden glow, illuminating the darkness as it sank into the depths. Before it vanished completely, its shining form lit an etching in the stone. A sunburst.

It careened further, and then revealed another symbol. Then another and another.

When it revealed the cornucopia of food, Logan gasped.

The Kalashi brothers!

He should have pieced this together sooner! Why was the mountain so special? It was a huge site of power, half of which hid behind the Boundary. There was something missing in their lore, but at one time they had been eight priests in charge of keeping this monster sealed away.

With the dragon guiding him, he shifted the furnace's focal beam. It landed on a symbol, and the ruined disc began to glow.

It was storing the power.

He moved onto the next, then another. Each one held a charge, and the Coil kept fueling it, writhing but confined.

The dragon zipped to the next symbol, needing to search for each one in the dark. Its whole body flitting with excitement.

Until it reached the last symbol, of feathers caught in a whirlwind. That had to be Silence's.

And the disc was crumbled.

Logan's heart sank. Was that a coincidence? Or had it happened because he had taken the bounty?

The chains started to crack, and the glow on the first seal Logan had charged waned.

Without thinking, Logan slammed his palm against the Coil.

Meditate!

Logan's veins glowed within his forearm, shifting in a way that should be gruesome but didn't hurt. They rearranged themselves into a pattern like feathers beneath his skin, cast about in a gale.

The seven other sigils glowed bright and a concentrated beam shot from each one, piercing into the Coil's mucinous length.

The ancient monster shrieked. From within, it glowed with each convulsion, trying to twist away from the very power it was generating. Its blistered hide began to collapse inwards, steaming patches shriveling into sagging folds. The orb flared brighter, casting strobing shadows across the chamber walls, its brilliance ramping into a blinding surge.

Whatever excess energy the Coil tried to pump out backfired, compounding into an even stronger blast. The Coil's colossal body spasmed as if struck by lightning.

Pustules burst like overripe fruit. Its dense musculature withered into twitching jelly, sinew steaming and spasming. It was consuming itself.

Logan stumbled backward. The dragon had flitted back to him, and now he shielded it against his chest as the chamber trembled violently.

Then, without warning, the Coil's bloated, skeletal neck tore at the ground beneath Logan's feet. It struck a hanging slab of broken stone, and the entire ceiling above Logan buckled. He dove, barely getting clear as a cascade of rubble slammed down. A jagged edge tore across his thigh, and he screamed, dragging himself with bloodied fingers toward the wall.

Dust choked his lungs and his vision swam. The Coil's neck spasmed a second time, and the floor split open beneath him.

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