Chapter 161: Twin Divisions
Already the ruckus from my core had died to a less distracting level, easier to parse and peel through as I dove beneath the Hungering Reefs, letting the mana wash over me as the smoke filled my visions. The heat, the dry, crackling air; the nightmare I'd made that had served as the last bulwark of my defense.
The Scorchplains hadn't returned to normal—because there wasn't really a normal, not yet. It was still so new, its creatures only just figuring out their positions in the food chains, and then they had slammed themselves together into a truce and were now stuck figuring out what to do next.
The herd of bounding deer, leaderless and injured, limped around Shoth's corpse with their ears pricked and tails up. At their hooves, scorch hounds padded around, inspecting each other and tugging off sections of houndspore with their teeth to free up the injuries underneath. The kobold walked between them, slumped with exhaustion and missing a patch of scales over his chest, but still helping out his pack. At the fringes, spined lizards crept in for bites of flesh, dodging around paws and bristling whenever seen.
And through them all, light burned.
Their first invader; the death of a Gold. Something above and beyond what they'd ever encountered, even with Seros occasionally coming down here to check on me and the scorch hounds previous life in the Skylands. No, this was more. No, this was everything.
I went for the smallest first, the spined lizards; four of them were ready to evolve, already curled up beneath outcrops of basalt as their eyes closed.
Congratulations! Your creature, a Spined Lizard, is undergoing evolution!
Please select your desired path.
Coalback Lizard (Uncommon): In a land of smoke and fire, this creature adapts to match. From spines grow veins of coal, heavy and protective, as well as protective; due to the coal growing over its scales, it can catch alight without harming the creature.