The descent into the crater took far less time than expected. The slope was steep, but the ground was

  firm and dry, and the path spiraled down in long, steady curves that gave the team no trouble. It felt

  almost intentional, as if the ancient inhabitants had carved it themselves for trade or travel.

  By the time the group reached the lower edge of the crater, the sun had fully risen. Light spilled across

  the ruins of the city in long golden lines, revealing broken stone streets, collapsed rooftops, and rows of

  abandoned structures leaning into each other. Dust drifted lazily through the air.

  Kayris scanned the area. “Quiet.”

  Vanra raised a hand, signaling for caution as they crossed the cracked remains of a wide road. A faint

  scuffling sound caught their attention off to the right.

  Near the nearest toppled building, a creature no larger than a small cat wandered along the edge of the

  shadows. Its movements were strange, almost like it kept falling forward in tiny jolts. Rat-like body,

  elongated tail, and a thin haze of warping air distorting the space around it.

  Vanra’s system core pulsed in her head.

  “Gravic Skitterer,” she said quietly. “T3C. Small rodent-class gravity beast.”

  The creature paused at the edge of the street. Its rat-like body hunched low, whiskers twitching,

  metallic eyes reflecting the rising sun. The warped field around it pulsed every few seconds, tugging

  faint dust trails toward its center.

  Orran lifted a brow. “That is our welcoming party?”

  Vanra eyed the creature. “Keep noise to a minimum. These can attract others.”

  She exchanged a look with Korvex.

  No words were needed.

  Together, they raised their hands and released two identical pulses. Wind-driven streaks laced with DoT

  poison shot across the dusty street faster than the Skitterer could react. Both bursts struck its side,

  sending sparks across the wobbling gravity field around it.

  The creature spun with a sharp squeal and darted instantly into a crack at the base of the ruined wall,

  vanishing into an underground burrow.

  Vanra lowered her hand. “Well. We will not be collecting that fragment.”

  Tyrish smirked. “If it comes back out, I call dibs.”

  They moved deeper into the city. Bash remained toward the back of the formation, scanning the broken

  rooftops and doorways. The buildings grew closer together and more decrepit as they walked, the

  sagging structures clearly belonging to the poorer district.

  About a minute passed.

  Then Bash flinched.

  A faint pulse struck his core like a small pebble tossed into water. Nothing compared to the waves he

  had felt the day earlier. Still enough to make his breath hitch for a heartbeat.

  SC’s voice whispered through his mind. “One T3C gravity essence absorbed. The Skitterer succumbed

  to the DoT.”

  Bash did not react outwardly. The team kept walking, unaware of the subtle hit he had taken.

  The buildings ahead showed more damage, more decay. Doorways half caved in. Windows reduced to

  jagged shards. A dozen narrow alleys fed into the main street like skeletal fingers.

  Tyrish stopped in front of the first intact structure. “Start here?”

  Vanra nodded. “Standard entry. Orran, shield first.”

  Orran stepped forward while Tyrish planted his hands on the warped wooden door. He yanked it free

  with a sharp crack and tossed it aside. Dust burst from the frame as Orran lifted his shield and advanced

  through the opening. Vanra immediately pushed a soft healing aura over him, subtle but steady.

  Tyrish followed with both zweihanders ready. Korvex entered behind him, staff raised.

  The inside of the building was dim, the roof partially intact and filtering the sunlight through slanted

  beams. The air carried a faint metallic smell.

  Then everything moved at once.

  Dozens of small insects, no bigger than a hand, raced across the walls and floor. Pale carapaces. Needle

  limbs. Their bodies flickered unnaturally, as if only half attached to the present moment.

  Achronal Crawlers.

  Kayris stepped into the doorway. “That is a lot of them.”

  Vanra held up a hand. “Korvex. One shot. Observe their reaction.”

  Korvex nodded and released a tight pulse of wind and fire, a small, crackling orb.

  It passed cleanly through the first insect.

  It did not hit.

  It did not graze.

  It simply passed through empty air where the creature had been.

  Korvex blinked. “It moved.”

  Kayris smirked. “So they do not like to be hit.”

  Another insect appeared to be crawling across the far corner. Korvex fired again. Missed again.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Kayris darted inside, blades crackling with lightning, and stabbed at two that zipped past. Both slipped

  out of existence for a fraction of a second, then reappeared behind her.

  “Seriously?” Kayris muttered.

  Vanra nodded, expression sharpening. “Time affinity. They are stuttering themselves half a second

  ahead of our attacks.”

  Tyrish frowned. “So how do you know where to hit?”

  “You do not,” Vanra replied. “You hit everywhere they might be.”

  She lifted her staff and released a wide blast of wind laced with DoT. The spray spread across most of

  the wall, ceiling, and floor.

  A Crawler shimmered in the wrong place at the wrong moment.

  The blast struck it squarely.

  Its body twisted and convulsed.

  “That is one,” Vanra said. “Now expand your attacks. You are not aiming. You are sweeping.”

  Korvex stepped forward again. This time he fired a rapidly expanding mineral shot, exploding into

  dozens of dust-sized particles that peppered the entire far corner of the room.

  One Crawler dropped instantly.

  The second, weakened by Vanra’s DoT, toppled a heartbeat later.

  Bash, standing at the back of the room, felt two pulses hit him in rapid succession. They were sharp,

  but not overwhelming, like a sting through the surface of his core.

  SC whispered, “Three T3C time essence absorbed.”

  Bash exhaled quietly.

  In his mind he said, “Feels like some of the T2G hits from before.”

  “The intensity has not changed,” SC replied. “Your core is evolving. Your perception of the pulse is

  shifting.”

  “So I have an evolved core,” Bash thought bitterly, “just one without any abilities?”

  “It appears to be that way, doesn’t it?”

  Before he could answer, the room erupted into chaos.

  The remaining Crawlers, dozens of them, swarmed in what appeared to be a coordinated burst. Their

  bodies flickered in and out of the timeline, appearing at angles that made no sense, rushing the team

  from several directions at once.

  Orran stepped sideways, shield raised, blocking two from reaching Kayris. Tyrish swept both

  zweihanders in overlapping arcs, not trying to strike cleanly but to cover space. Korvex launched a

  wave of mineral-charged dust that exploded across the ceiling, dropping several insects that failed to

  move away in time.

  Kayris spun through the center of the room, blades hissing, lightning snapping between them. She

  carved sweeping lines that forced the Crawlers to flicker erratically, revealing openings for Korvex’s

  next shot.

  Vanra layered the entire group in constant healing while simultaneously hurling wide-area wind blasts

  that scattered the swarm and limited their ability to converge.

  Bash stood back, pinned between the wall and the shifting light. He could do nothing but watch and

  brace as pulses from dying Crawlers struck him over and over. Each hit seemed sharper, faster. A sting

  inside the marrow.

  Ten pulses.

  Twenty.

  Thirty.

  He kept his posture neutral, forcing himself not to react.

  But it hurt.

  A synchronized flurry of team attacks swept the room again. The insects that were not killed outright

  were clipped mid-shift on their next cycle, crushed by stray bursts of lightning, fire, or mineral blasts.

  The walls cracked. The ceiling shook. But every time flame or water spread too wide, someone

  immediately dissipated it to avoid structural collapse.

  Bash watched with a sense of quiet amazement.

  Even in a confined space, they controlled their elemental output with precision he could barely

  comprehend.

  Less than a minute later, the floor was littered with dead Crawlers. The scent of scorched chitin hung in

  the air. The last insect collapsed, dissolving into a faint spark of time-aspected resonance.

  Another pulse struck Bash.

  A final one.

  Then stillness.

  He kept his eyes forward until his breathing steadied.

  SC’s voice nudged gently.

  “A total of eighty seven T3C time essence absorbed.”

  He replied silently, “Oh, I did not notice. Thanks for the update.”

  His sarcasm did nothing to lighten the tight coil of pain in his chest, but SC’s brief amused tone helped.

  Vanra swept her gaze across the ruined interior. “That was a good test. Now we know what we are

  dealing with.”

  Tyrish nudged a dead insect with his boot. “If this is the lower district, I do not want to see the upper

  one.”

  Kayris sheathed one blade and stretched her arm. “We will find out soon enough.”

  Bash said nothing.

  He kept his expression calm, just another member of the team catching his breath after a fight.