The road to the Iron-Mines was a jagged scar cut through the grey granite of the Oakhaven foothills. Unlike the deep, humid tunnels of Kaelen's youth, these were surface excavations—massive, open-air pits where the earth had been flayed open to reveal veins of raw ore. The air here was filled with the constant clink-clink of hammers and the low, rhythmic thrum of heavy-duty mana-pulverizers.
The Ember Spark Company stood at the edge of the overlook, watching the wagons struggle up the muddy incline. The job was simple on paper: "Clear the harassment." For three days, supply caravans had been losing horses and drivers to something fast, silent, and incredibly strong.
"The tracks we found at the last ambush site were... strange," Ria said, kneeling by a churned-up patch of mud near the road. She traced a claw mark that was nearly a foot long. "Deep, heavy, but with no scent of fur or musk. It's like the earth itself rose up and took a bite out of the wagon."
Elara adjusted her spectacles, peering at the mark. "It could be a Geo-Construct. Or something worse. Kaelen, can you feel anything?"
Kaelen stood a few paces back, his right arm still wrapped in the heavy oil-cloth. He didn't need to look at the tracks. Ever since they had left the city gates, the "Echo" in his chest had been humming a different tune. It wasn't the sharp, biting heat of the dragon; it was a heavy, crushing vibration that felt like a falling mountain.
"It's not an animal," Kaelen said, his voice low. "It's a resonance. Something is 'Imitating' the stone, but it's doing it wrong. It's too heavy. Too loud."
"A CRUDE REFLECTION," Ignis rumbled in his mind. "A MERE SHARD OF THE EARTH TRYING TO PLAY AT BEING ALIVE. BREAK IT, ECHO. TAKE ITS DENSITY."
"Heads up," Ria commanded, her spear snapping to the ready.
From the shadow of a massive ore-pile, a shape detached itself. At first, it looked like a boulder rolling downhill, but as it gained speed, it unfurled. It was an Iron-Crawler—a beast the size of a carriage, encased in natural plates of jagged magnetite. Its "eyes" were nothing more than glowing pockets of pressurized gas, and its legs were thick, obsidian-hard pillars that cracked the stone with every step.
The beast didn't roar; it emitted a high-frequency screech that made Elara's nose begin to bleed.
"Get back!" Ria shouted, lunging forward. She aimed for the gaps in the beast's armor, but her steel spear-head simply sparked off the magnetite plates. The Crawler didn't even flinch. It swung a massive, spade-like limb, sending Ria flying into a stack of timber.
"Ria!" Elara screamed. she raised her hands, trying to weave a Binding Ripple, but the mana in this area was too saturated with the "Iron-Echo" of the mines. Her spell dissolved before it could reach the creature.
The Crawler turned its glowing gas-eyes toward the easiest target: the girl in the robes.
Kaelen didn't think. He didn't have time to calculate. He tore the oil-cloth from his right arm. The blackened, scaled limb was glowing a fierce, incandescent orange, the heat so intense that the surrounding mud began to bake into ceramic.
"Hey! Stone-skin!" Kaelen roared.
The Crawler pivoted, sensing the massive heat-signature. It lunged, its heavy body carrying enough momentum to crush a stone wall.
Kaelen didn't dodge. He planted his boots, feeling the dragon's power surge from his heart down into his blackened hand. He didn't use fire. He used Pressure. He imitated the weight of the very mountain they stood upon.
"Expansion... and Collapse!" Kaelen grunted.
He met the beast's charge with an open palm. When his scales hit the magnetite armor, there was no explosion of flame. Instead, there was a localized ripple of distorted air. Kaelen forced his internal heat into the beast's cold, brittle armor, causing the metal to expand at an impossible rate. Then, he yanked the heat back into himself—the Collapse.
The sudden thermal shock was too much for the natural ore. The Crawler's front plates shattered like glass hitting an anvil.
The beast screeched, stumbling as its structural integrity failed. Kaelen didn't let up. He stepped into the creature's reach, his glowing hand punching through the shattered armor and deep into the core of pressurized gas and mana.
"FEED," Ignis commanded.
Kaelen felt the "Iron-Echo"—a cold, dense, and unyielding energy—flood into his arm. It was a different flavor than the Lens. It was gritty and heavy. He could feel his blackened skin becoming even tougher, the scales taking on a metallic sheen.
The Crawler collapsed, its glowing eyes flickering out as Kaelen drained the last of its animating force. The massive body slumped into a heap of useless, cooling rock.
Kaelen stood over the carcass, his right arm steaming. He could feel the "One-Week" clock reset, but the sensation was different this time. He felt... heavy. Stronger, but less human.
"Kaelen?" Elara approached him slowly, her eyes wide with a mix of awe and terror. "Your arm... it's not just black anymore. It's... it looks like iron."
He looked down. The scales on his forearm had turned a dark, gunmetal grey. He closed his fist, and the sound it made wasn't skin on skin; it was the heavy clack of metal.
"I'm fine," he said, though his voice sounded metallic, even to his own ears. He turned to help Ria up.
"Nice hit," Ria coughed, rubbing her shoulder. "But we have a problem. Look up there."
On the ridge above the mine, a group of figures stood watching. They weren't miners, and they weren't the Gilded Lilies. They were wearing the heavy, dark-green liveries of the Iron-Worker's Union. And at their lead was a massive, green-skinned man holding a heavy iron ladle in one hand and a cleaver in the other.
"That's a lot of noise for one bug," the half-orc said, his voice a deep, gravelly bass. He started walking down the slope, his eyes fixed on Kaelen's arm. "And that's a very interesting way to cook a steak, boy."
Kaelen stood his ground, the heat in his chest simmering. "We're the Ember Spark. We're here for the contract."
The half-orc stopped ten feet away, sniffing the air. "I'm Korg. I run the mess hall for the miners, and I'm the one who put out the call. You killed the Crawler, sure. but there's a dozen more in the deep pits. And my boys are too scared to dig." He looked at Kaelen's arm again, then at Ria and Elara. "You look like you need a tank. And a decent meal. You lot haven't eaten a real carb in weeks, have you?"
Ria blinked, her spear lowering slightly. "Are you... offering us a job, or a sandwich?"
"Both," Korg said, turning back toward the camp. "But first, you're going to help me clear the rest of those rock-suckers out of my pantry. I don't care if you're 'authorized' or not. A hungry man doesn't ask the cook for his license."
Kaelen looked at his iron-scaled hand. The dragon was quiet, satisfied by the dense meal of the Crawler.
"We'll take the job," Kaelen said.
The Ember Spark had found its fourth member.