Hours bled into each other, each one an eternity of forced stillness. Lin Ke remained a living statue carved from rock and shadow, every muscle screaming in protest as the warm Jamaican sun arced across the sky, painting long, shifting shadows across the desolate landscape. He methodically forced down a single, tasteless ration bar, took a few sips of precious water, and never once allowed his gaze to drift from the dark, waiting maw of the cave.
Finally, as the sky began to bleed into the bruised purples and oranges of twilight, something changed.
A low, guttural rumble vibrated through the ground, a sound he felt in his bones before he heard it. The colossal form of the Alpha Corrupted Stone-Lizard emerged from the darkness, its sickly purple eyes blinking slowly in the fading light. It was a mountain of corrupted muscle and obsidian armor. It stretched, a grotesque unfolding of powerful limbs, shook its massive scaled head, and began to lumber away from the cave on its nightly patrol.
This is it. The moment.
"Rock Vole," Lin Ke whispered, his voice a ghost on the wind. "Phase one. Execute."
A hundred meters away, his partner had been waiting for the exact same signal. The Rock Vole dug its claws into the earth, unearthing a heavy stone. With a grunt of pure effort, it hurled the rock high into the air, aiming not for the Alpha, but for a sheer cliff face a quarter of a kilometer away, in the opposite direction of the monster's patrol route.
CRACK... RUMBLE... CRASH!
The sound was a violent, tearing, echoing rockslide that ripped through the evening's quiet, sending a plume of dust into the twilight air.
The Alpha, its patrol just begun, whipped its massive head around, its glowing eyes locking onto the source of the sound. It let out an aggressive, territorial hiss that vibrated with power. A challenger? Clumsy prey? Its simple, predatory instinct took over. It changed course, moving with a surprising, heavy speed towards the distant noise, and more importantly, away from its lair.
The diversion had worked. Holy crap, it actually worked. The clock was ticking.
"Phase two," Lin Ke breathed, his heart hammering against his ribs as he slid from his hiding place. He became a blur of motion, a shadow darting across the open ground towards the now-unprotected cave entrance.
Stepping inside was like plunging into a cold, dark grave. The air was instantly clammy, thick with a cloying, sickly-sweet smell of corruption that made him want to gag. The only light came from the faint, evil glow of fungi on the walls, casting his shadow long and monstrous before him. Every crunch of loose stone under his boots sounded like a thunderclap in the oppressive silence. He moved low and fast, just as he'd planned.
He reached the center of the cavern. And there it was. The nest. Five corrupted eggs, pulsing with a soft, rhythmic purple light, like five malevolent hearts. The energy rolling off them was a physical pressure, making the hair on his arms stand on end.
No time to be picky. He moved to the closest one, his hands trembling slightly as he reached down. The shell was heavier than he expected, its surface smooth and unpleasantly warm to the touch. He carefully lifted the massive, pulsating object from the nest, cradling it in his arms.
I've got it. I've actually got it.
He turned to make his escape, his mind already calculating the fastest route back to the city. But then, a sound from the cave entrance froze his blood solid.
A low, rumbling growl. It wasn't the simple, instinctual hiss from before. This was a sound full of a dawning, furious intelligence. And it was too close. Way too close.
The rockslide diversion hadn't held. The Alpha, smarter than he'd given it credit for, or perhaps driven by a deeper, primal instinct to protect its young, had abandoned its investigation. It had come back.
He was trapped.
Lin Ke stood frozen in the heart of the monster's lair, holding its stolen child, as the massive, enraged shadow of the Alpha predator fell over the entrance of the cave, blocking his only exit and plunging the world into absolute, terrifying darkness.