11:00 PM
Ruho was deep in a dreamless sleep, his body finally getting the rest it desperately needed after the worst day of his existence, when he heard a sound.
"Pssp pssp pssp."
It was quiet. Barely audible. Like someone trying to get a cat's attention.
Ruho's consciousness stirred slightly but didn't surface. The sound faded back into the background noise of his exhausted mind.
A few seconds passed.
"Pssp pssp pssp."
Louder this time. More insistent. Ruho's eyebrows furrowed in his sleep, his body shifting slightly on the scratchy grass bedding.
"Five more minutes," he mumbled, his words slurred with sleep. "Jus' five more..."
"WAKE UP, MORTAL!"
Vexor's voice crashed through Ruho's consciousness like a sledgehammer through a window. The sheer volume and authority of it jolted him awake so violently that he actually levitated off his grass bed for a second before gravity remembered he existed and pulled him back down.
"WHAT?!" Ruho shouted, his heart hammering, his hands scrambling in the darkness. "What's happening?! Am I dying again?! Is the burrow collapsing?!"
"The Gigantosuchus is sleeping," Azirel said, his voice annoyingly chipper for whatever ungodly hour this was. "You need to leave now while you have the chance."
Ruho blinked in the darkness, his brain slowly coming online. "The... the giant crocodile is sleeping?"
"Yes," Azirel confirmed. "It's been out there all day, waiting for you to emerge. But about twenty minutes ago it finally settled down for the night. This is your window. Get out of the burrow, get away from the nesting area, and find your flat land for the mansion."
"Can't I just wait until morning?" Ruho asked, even as he was already pushing himself to his feet. His body protested—everything hurt, his back was stiff, his chest still ached from the bruises—but he forced himself upright.
"The Gigantosuchus will wake up at dawn," Vexor's deep voice explained. "Which is approximately six hours from now. If you want to escape, you need to move now."
Ruho groaned but started crawling toward the tunnel entrance. His bare feet padded softly against the packed earth, his hands feeling along the walls to guide himself in the pitch-black darkness. Behind him, he could hear the faint chittering of the Pakisuchus deeper in the burrow, probably wondering why their weird giant hatchling was leaving in the middle of the night.
The tunnel seemed longer going out than it had coming in. He crawled and shuffled and eventually crouched-walked through the widening sections until he finally saw it—the faint glow of moonlight from the entrance ahead.
Ruho paused at the mouth of the burrow, his eyes adjusting to the dim light outside. The two moons were high in the sky now, casting everything in silvery blue light. And there, maybe thirty feet away, was the Gigantosuchus.
It was even more terrifying at rest than it had been in motion. The creature was curled in a rough circle, its massive tail wrapped partially around its body, its head resting on the ground with its eyes closed. Each breath it took created small ripples in the nearby water. Its scales gleamed in the moonlight like armor plating on some prehistoric tank.
"Okay," Ruho whispered to himself. "Okay. It's sleeping. Just... just sneak past it. Don't make noise. Don't be stupid. Just walk quietly and—"
"You got this!" Azirel's voice was way too loud in his head.
"SHUT UP!" Ruho hissed. "It's going to hear you!"
"It can't hear me, I'm in your head," Azirel said. "Only you can hear me."
"Well, you're going to make ME make noise by startling me!"
"Just go already!"
Ruho took a deep breath and stepped out of the burrow. His bare feet touched the soft ground outside, mud squelching between his toes. He moved slowly, carefully, each step deliberate and measured. The Gigantosuchus was to his right. He needed to go left, away from the flat nesting area, toward the forest.
Step. Step. Step.
He was maybe ten feet from the burrow entrance when his foot came down on a twig.
CRACK.
The sound echoed across the swamp like a gunshot. Ruho froze, his entire body going rigid, his eyes locked on the Gigantosuchus.
The creature's body twitched. Its tail moved slightly, the tip flicking in what might have been a sleep reflex.
But its eyes didn't open.
Ruho waited, barely breathing, for what felt like an eternity but was probably only thirty seconds. The crocodile settled back into stillness, its breathing returning to that deep, rhythmic pattern.
"Keep going," Seria's voice whispered. "You're okay."
Ruho started moving again, even more carefully this time. He avoided anything that looked like it might make noise—twigs, dry leaves, anything that could crunch or snap or betray his presence. His progress was agonizingly slow, but he was making progress.
Twenty feet from the burrow. Twenty-five. Thirty.
His foot came down on another twig. Another CRACK.
The Gigantosuchus's eye twitched. Its nostril flared. But again, it didn't wake.
"How is it not waking up?!" Ruho whispered frantically.
"They're deep sleepers," Azirel explained. "Have to be, otherwise they'd never get any rest with all the ambient swamp noise. Takes a lot to actually rouse them from—"
Ruho's foot caught on something. Something thick and scaled and very, very solid.
The tail.
He'd stepped directly on the Gigantosuchus's tail.
For a fraction of a second, nothing happened. Then the entire tail whipped to the side, a reflexive movement that sent Ruho tumbling face-first into the mud. The Gigantosuchus's eyes snapped open—all of them, because of course it had more than two—and its massive head lifted off the ground.
It saw Ruho.
Their eyes met.
"Oh fuck," Ruho breathed.
The Gigantosuchus roared—a sound that was part bellow, part hiss, part something primal and ancient that made every prey instinct in Ruho's body scream RUN.
Ruho ran.
He scrambled to his feet, his hands slipping in the mud, and took off toward the tree line. Behind him, he could hear the Gigantosuchus rising, could hear the wet slap of its feet hitting the ground as it transitioned from sleeping to hunting mode.
"JUMP!" Azirel shouted. "Use your spell!"
Ruho saw a large rock ahead—a boulder maybe six feet tall, jutting out of the swamp like a small island. He ran toward it, his legs pumping, his breath coming in ragged gasps. The crocodile was gaining. He could hear it. Could feel the ground shaking with each footfall.
At the last second, right as he reached the boulder, Ruho activated Solid Jump.
He felt the spell engage, felt something surge through his legs, and suddenly he was airborne. Not a normal jump—a powered jump, his body launching upward with force he didn't know he had. He sailed through the air and landed on top of the boulder, his feet slapping against the rough stone surface.
The Gigantosuchus skidded to a stop at the base of the rock, its jaws snapping at empty air where Ruho had been a second earlier. It circled the boulder, its eyes tracking him, calculating.
"Ha!" Ruho shouted down at it, adrenaline overriding common sense. "Can't get me up here, can you?! I've got the high ground! I—"
The crocodile's tail whipped around in a massive arc.
The impact against the boulder sounded like a bomb going off. The stone didn't just crack—it shattered. The entire bottom half of the boulder exploded into fragments, and the top half—the half Ruho was standing on—went flying through the air like someone had launched it from a catapult.
Ruho rode the spinning chunk of rock, his arms windmilling, his stomach lurching as the ground and sky switched places repeatedly. He could see the tree line approaching, could see a thick branch maybe twelve feet up, could see—
He jumped.
For the second time, Solid Jump activated. His mana drained—10 points gone, leaving him with zero—and he launched himself off the flying boulder toward the tree branch. His hands closed around wood, his fingers gripping desperately, and he pulled himself up just as the boulder crashed into the ground below with a sound like thunder.
He was on the branch. He was safe. He was on the high ground again and—
"HAHAHA!" Ruho laughed, the sound slightly unhinged. "CAN'T GET ME NOW! I'M IN A TREE! YOU'RE JUST A STUPID LIZARD AND I'M—"
"Ruho, stop taunting it," Seria said urgently.
"WHY WOULD I STOP?!" Ruho continued, his survival instincts completely offline. "I OUTSMARTED IT! I'M UP HERE AND IT'S DOWN THERE AND—"
The Gigantosuchus turned around and started walking away.
Ruho blinked. "Wait, is it... is it leaving?"
"Don't trust it," Azirel warned.
But the crocodile kept walking, its massive body moving back toward the swamp, its tail swishing behind it. It looked like it was giving up. Like it had decided Ruho wasn't worth the effort.
"YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT!" Ruho shouted after it. "RUN AWAY! GO BACK TO YOUR SWAMP! I'M TOO FAST FOR YOU! TOO SMART! YOU CAN'T—"
The Gigantosuchus stopped. Turned its head slightly, one eye focusing on Ruho.
Then it charged.
Not toward the tree. Toward the cliff face behind the tree—a rocky outcropping maybe twenty feet high that Ruho hadn't even noticed in the darkness.
"Oh no," Vexor's voice said.
The Gigantosuchus hit the cliff face head-first with enough force to trigger a localized earthquake. The entire rock face shuddered. Cracks spider-webbed across the stone. And then, with a sound like the world ending, the cliff began to collapse.
Boulders the size of cars started tumbling down. Rocks and dirt and debris cascading in an avalanche that was heading straight for Ruho's tree.
"JUMP!" Azirel screamed.
"I'M OUT OF MANA!" Ruho screamed back.
He couldn't use Solid Jump. But he could still jump normally. He leaped from the branch, throwing himself sideways, his body horizontal in the air as the rockslide crashed through where he'd been standing a second earlier. He hit the ground hard, rolled, and kept moving as rocks the size of his head slammed into the earth around him.
One boulder clipped the Gigantosuchus's snout—a rock easily weighing several tons hitting it square on the nose. The creature reeled back with a roar of pain and surprise.
Ruho didn't wait to see if it was okay. He just ran.
His bare feet pounded against the ground, his arms pumping, his lungs burning. He could hear the Gigantosuchus behind him, could hear it shaking off the impact and resuming its pursuit. But Ruho had a head start now. He had momentum.
The ground started to slope upward. He was running uphill now, his calves screaming in protest, but he didn't stop. Couldn't stop. The incline got steeper, the terrain rockier, and then—
His ankle rolled.
Not just twisted. Rolled. His foot came down on an uneven rock and his ankle bent at an angle ankles were absolutely not meant to bend. Pain exploded up his leg, white-hot and immediate, and he went down hard.
"NO!" Seria's voice was panicked. "Get up! You have to get up!"
Ruho pushed himself to his feet, tried to put weight on his injured ankle, and nearly blacked out from the pain. It was bad. Really bad. Possibly sprained, possibly broken, definitely not functional.
But he could hear the Gigantosuchus behind him, getting closer.
He limped forward. Each step sent fresh waves of agony through his leg, but he kept moving. Limp-running, really—an awkward hopping gait that used his good leg for most of the propulsion while his injured leg just tried not to make things worse.
The slope got steeper. He was climbing now, using his hands to pull himself up rocky sections, his ankle throbbing with every movement. Minutes passed. Then an hour. The Gigantosuchus's pursuit sounds faded behind him—either it had given up, or the steep terrain was slowing it down. Ruho didn't care which. He just kept climbing.
Up and up and up. The swamp was far below him now. He was in rocky terrain, scattered trees giving way to bare stone, the air getting cooler as he gained elevation.
And then, finally, the ground leveled out.
Ruho pulled himself over one last rocky ledge and found himself on a plateau.
It was flat. Perfectly, beautifully flat. The surface was mostly bare rock with patches of hardy grass, stretching out in a rough circular shape that seemed to go on forever in the moonlight.
"This is perfect," Vexor's voice said, and there was genuine approval in his tone. "This is an excellent location for your mansion."
Ruho limped forward a few more steps, his eyes scanning the plateau. In the distance, he could see more plateaus—rocky formations rising from the landscape like giant stepping stones, maybe ten or more of them visible in the moonlight.
"How big is this one?" Ruho asked, his voice hoarse.
"Approximately forty square kilometers," Vexor said. "The diameter is roughly 9.3 kilometers. More than sufficient for your mansion and future expansion if needed."
Forty square kilometers. Ruho's brain tried to comprehend that much flat space and failed. That was... that was huge. That was bigger than some cities. And it was all his.
He took another step forward, his injured ankle finally giving out completely. He fell to his knees on the bare rock, his hands catching his weight, and he looked out across his new domain.
The two moons hung overhead. The distant swamp was a dark patch far below. The other plateaus rose like monuments in the distance. And somewhere up here, on this impossible flat space on this impossible island on this impossible planet, he was going to have a mansion.
"Ruho?" Seria's voice was gentle. "Are you okay?"
Ruho opened his mouth to respond.
His vision went dark.
His body pitched forward.
And consciousness left him as he collapsed face-first onto the stone, his quest for flat land finally, mercifully complete.