Most of the southern continent''s coasts are high cliffs. Atop one of these cliffs, hanging precariously half over the edge, sits an inverted castle with towers and spires hanging down.
Within the throne room, a large snake slides through the doors, a somber and slightly nervous look on her face.
"Plan A will die."
Oros the serpent reports to her teacher. She lowers her head in sadness, genuinely hurt by the future loss. Especially after how much effort Oros spent tracking down and monitoring them.
But her teacher doesn''t care.
"Please remind me, which one was that again?"
Oros holds her tongue, forcing herself to remain calm. It might simply be that her teacher remembers them by name or some other identifying information.
"The false tailed hunter, Lilaphen. The one with ''Assimilate''. The one most likely to possess a system corridor. Plan A for your goal."
"Oh, right, them... so they will die. Oh well, on to the next one."
Her teacher shrugs, indifferent to the severe harm to their progress. Oros takes a moment, freezing time, and shouts into the abyss. All her frustrations, her despair, her rage. And then time proceeds, her outburst unknown.
She does complain though, "It will likely take another few dozen years to locate someone with an S-rank skill, and among them we can''t even guarantee a system corridor. His death will delay your plan by another decade at least! How can you be so... apathetic?"
Her teacher lets out a deep sigh. Oros feels time rippling as her teacher looks at her with entirely empty eyes.
"So what if it''s an extra decade. Time is no cost for me. And plus, Lilaphen was always a bit unstable. Not my favorite plan A."
Oros holds herself back from saying anything else. It was no use arguing anymore. Or rather, it''d only be a waste of time.
She leaves the throne room, letting the doors close behind her. Slithering through empty hallways and climbing along cold stairs, she eventually reaches the observation room. Dozens of scrying gems line the walls, labeled meticulously by Oros, with minimal mistakes. She grabs one labeled "Lilapen" and inserts it into a pedestal.
A faint image of a multi-tailed monster burns onto the gem. As the pedestal lights up, the image becomes clearer. A live view of Lilaphen, though it periodically lags behind sudden movements.
Time pauses. Oros takes a deep breath, and steps forward in time. 3 minutes. 30 minutes. An hour. 15 hours. 5 days. She stops at 5 days, 9 hours, and 11 minutes into the future.
<hr>
The fight between Lilaphen and Mochi (and everyone else) lasted for 13 minutes.
Starting from when both sides saw each other, the first hit was boom bunny''s explosion. From there, Mochi picked them up and ran for 21 seconds before taking cover.
Lilaphen chases after them as a cheetah, reaching Mochi at 29 seconds. She dodges them, but gets knocked away by their tails. 30 seconds.
She stands up, and manages to escape thanks to the boom bunny at 38 seconds. Lilaphen chases, and stabs the wrong target at 42 seconds.
It takes 2 minutes for Lilaphen to find Mochi. During this time, Nikola sees Lilaphen, and travels through shadows to Mochi. Lilaphen tries sneaking around Mochi. 2 minutes 24 seconds.
Mochi sees them. They stop hiding. Eradicating any potential escape route, Lilaphen sets up a guaranteed strike by 2 minutes 33 seconds.
Nikola counter attacks. He stands in front of Mochi, and sets up several shadow barriers as cover. Lilaphen breaks through easily, but Mochi is already running back towards her den. She reaches home at about 5 minutes.
Grabbing two mana gems, she then runs to the briar patch and calls out the boom bunny at 8 minutes. It takes a while to get them out and pick them up, but finally they return to the fight at 10 minutes.
Nikola tried their best to stall during that time. For six minutes he does his best. At 9 minutes, Lilaphen grabs him and threatens ''assimilate''. Nikola refused to listen to the threats. ''assimilate'' is activated.
9 minutes 11 seconds, Nikola''s mana is drained. 9 minutes 12 seconds, assimilate notices additional mana on Nikola. The spider gives Nikola small bits of mana through a web hidden beneath his fur. It stalls long enough.
At 10 minutes and 6 seconds, Mochi runs in carrying a mana gem. 10 minutes and 9 seconds, the white crow duo notice. 10 minutes and 10 seconds, Nikola smells the familiar scent of mochi. 10 minutes 12 seconds, Lilaphen notices a fox right below them.
At 10 minutes and 12 seconds into the fight, a mana gem is detonated. Mochi is unaffected, the explosion of pure mana ignoring her. Nikola is burnt slightly, but a combination of distance and something being between him and the explosion helps minimize damage. The spider is safe thanks to being on the opposite side of Nikola. And Lilaphen''s lower half is damaged significantly, immobilizing them.
Stolen novel; please report.
The smoke from the explosion grants everyone a moment of respite. Nikola is force fed a mana gem to speed up recovery of mana, boom bunny runs away, and the crows wait to see if interference is necessary.
11 minutes, Lilaphen wants Mochi no matter what. 11 minutes 3 seconds, Nikola sends out shadows to attack, Lilaphen shadow steps between Nikola and Mochi, knocks Nikola away, and grabs Mochi.
11 minute 5 seconds, the crows deploy the decaying pillar. It would normally take 2 minutes to kill Lilaphen with it. It''s easy to move out of the light and survive. But now Lilaphen can''t move.
13 minutes. Lilaphen finally decays completely, leaving only bones.
...
...
...
27 minutes. Pom follows the instinctual message from an injured hive queen. She arrives at the sight of a small crater, where boom bunny struck with a perfectly timed explosion 27 minutes ago.
The only clues she could find was the faint smokey remains of the explosion, and tracks leading ever deeper into the forest. To follow, or to not follow... She doesn''t get to choose, as Dorlin comes up behind her and hugs her tightly.
"Please don''t ever run off like that again. It''s dangerous out here. Especially with that explosion earlier..."
Of course, Pom can''t hear what Dorlin says, and being hugged means she can''t read his lips. But she understood his concern. After all, it''s that same concern that made her come here as well. Concern for a loved one.
The two go back to the village for now. Everyone is relieved that Pom wasn''t hurt. She realizes how dumb she just was. To cause so much worry over even the faintest of hopes of seeing the queen. She ducked her head in guilt, but also in determination. One day, she will prove herself. One day, they won''t need to worry for her.
<hr>
There was a fox. A small, regular, unevolved fox. It gets caught, easily. ''Assimilate'' is used. Nothing happens. Lilaphen dies. That was all Oros got to see.
Oros smiles with a glimmer of hope. The rank of a skill determines it''s priority. A higher rank skill will always override a lower rank skill. In order to counteract an S-rank skill, another S-rank skill is needed.
''Assimilate'' didn''t work on the fox. It wasn''t resisting it, nor stalling. It simply didn''t work. A potential S-rank skill, and a defensive one. This is exactly what Oros needed. This fox is her best chance at breaking free. Now she just needed a way to hide the fox from her teacher...
Oros loses focus. Time shatters back to normal. She recoils and writhes in pain and exhaustion. The pedestal is knocked over. The scrying gem shatters.
...
...
...
"...we lost the signal."
"And by accident as well. We really should''ve invested in a sturdier gem."
"Can''t afford it. Alchemists have been buying them up recently."
"Well, at least we got something. The false tailed hunter, Lilaphen, will die."
"Assuming they don''t try to change the future?"
"If they could, they wouldn''t be worrying about it."
"...What do you think, Mr. Lue?"
<hr>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 23.93%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 99.9709%">Attempting to grant title...</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 23.93%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 100%">Error; Mochi data missing</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 23.93%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 100%">Attempting to...</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 23.93%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 100%">Notice; Reached 1,000,000 attempts. Forcefully ending task</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 23.93%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 100%">Sending bug report to inner System Management</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
"...Oh? It''s been a while since a failsafe got triggered. Let''s see... Mochi?"
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 23.93%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 100%">Creating Override...</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 23.93%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 100%">New Override; Data meant for Mochi sent directly to archives.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 23.93%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 100%">Notice; This will lead to a discrepancy between archived information and knowledge base of Mochi</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
"Humph! I know, I know! But it''s not like there''s any other- wait, actually..."
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 23.93%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 100%">Add Narrator language; Reathic</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 23.93%" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 100%">Set Narrator language; Mix</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<hr>
Nikola wakes up in a panic. His instincts scream danger, and his body burns in exhausted pain. He''s vulnerable. He needs to seek shelter. Where''s the fox? He needs to regain his strength before someone dangerous...
...his cloudy vision clears up enough to see that he is currently inside a dark enclosed... den? No, it''s crude and only a few feet deep. The ceiling is made of packed snow, and a small hole lets in cold wind. Though, the cold does provide some relief for his burns.
Sensing no immediate threat, Nikola calms down slightly. Now he just needs to figure out where he is. Clearly it''s some form of shelter, but how did he get here? Was it the fox... no, they''re not strong enough to move him.
Trying to sit up into a more comfortable position, he lets out a whine, as his joints and muscle ache, barely able to move. He had received many injuries from the fight, and combined with complete mana exhaustion, Nikola is lucky to even be conscious now.
Though, all things considered, his injuries aren''t as bad as he expected. While he does feel some tight wrappings all over his body, similar to what the fox did when they rescued him, there doesn''t seem to be any deep injury beneath them. Only a single injury can be felt; where he got stabbed by a scorpion tail. And even this has already scarred over.
Right... he hopes the fox is doing alright. Even if he was out for only a day or two, that is still time that he couldn''t defend the fox for. And what about food! The fox''s hunting skills were... passable, but still, Nikola can''t help but be concerned.
And then, at just the prefect time, Mochi pokes her head in through the small hole in the ceiling. The two stop and freeze, staring at each other in equal surprise. Nikola opens his mouth, about to say something, but is tackled over by Mochi jumping in and hugging him.
As Mochi attacks with affection, Nikola notes an odd inconsistency. Mochi is a little bigger- no, a lot bigger than he remembers. And certainly a lot stronger as well, enough for that tackle to knock him back a little (though maybe that was just him being weakened).
"...how long was I out?"
He asked, but didn''t expect any answer. After all, Mochi can''t understand what he''s saying. But the small spider hiding on her back certainly does.
"It''s been a boring year without a good game of Fieldom. This fox is quite bad at it."