"Help out!"
The shout vanished beneath the shardlings' voices — metallic, pulsing, like warped techno beats thundering through the air, each one sharper and more frantic than the last.
Barely able to hear the shout, Cain still didn't budge.
'Never without help without a contract or a payment!'
His grandpa had made it clear. Kindness wasn't real. It was a luxury, a game for the rich and strong.
A heavy blow resounded again in his ears.
Parrying a blow, the panting pygmy elephant reasoned.
"Friend, his tongue struggles in man-language. Excuse him."
His tone nasally yet fluent, for a beastmen.
'This one looks reasonable.'
"How much?"
[Recording…]
Cain knew the etiquette of war and loot distribution.
'Either they tell me to scram, or I get a part.'
Hoping for the former, he waited. His thoughts drifted to the man who recalled his crime without so much as a flinch.
'Maybe I should be a criminal and kill them?'
'Fool. A crime record's a shackle. If you'll be a criminal, be a god or something greater. Make the crime worth it.'
"Even now, I can hear the old man's voice."
Cain realized he'd been rambling. He glanced back at the small elephant, waiting for some kind of answer.
"So?"
The elephant curled its trunk to its face, caught between sharing the find and protecting its own safety.
Seeing him with that pondering expression, Cain decided to back down to a visible distance.
Dozens of bee-sized drones flew from his backpack, each equipped with hypersensitive sensors to detect the slightest disturbance.
He pulled up his terminal to look something up.
'Let's look how much money we can make with these shardlings.'
Shardlings, the lowest class of titans, are born from the blood spilt by sentinel-class and higher titans.
Browsing the shop amidst the clangs and roars, he checked out how much he could sell a shardling core
Cain alternated between watching the videos tutorials on Social and flashing a money sign with his fingers, but they still weren't responding.
Lacerations, lavender bruises, and fresh blood marked their bodies as the two struggled to make a choice.
'Men die for wealth, birds die for food. I guess beastmen are included then.'
"Here we are."
[Shardling Core]
[Weight: 2 kilograms]
[Extremely Poor Quality – Abysmal] [50 Silver]
[Visual Appraisal: In pieces, dims from time to time, low magical flow]
'So, I need to preserve it then? Interesting.'
After some scrolling, he found various core grades. At the end, it showed him the highest commonly traded grade.
[Standard Quality – Uniform] [30 Gold]
[Visual Appraisal: No visible cracks, smooth cuboidal shape, stable luminosity.]
'So, this all comes down to how it's harvested, huh?'
As the commotion grew, more and more shardling got attracted.
'One. Two. Fifteen, huh. Now we're talking money now.'
The lionaire looked at Cain with pleading eyes.
His response, thumb and index finger forming a circle, the other three fingers raised.
'This is already the umpteenth time! Do they still think I'm a child?'
Agitated, the lionare roared.
"Split!"
The feline was hurled like a kite, but hit the ground feet-first, steady and unshaken.
"Contract?"
Cain displayed his unique signature, marked by unique DNA and power signatures.
He didn't care if they died, but a recording and verbal confirmation wouldn't seal the contract.
"Later!"
No hesitation, no doubt. Cain counted it as a deal.
Cain's fingers sparked — magic surged instantly.
Blind. Noise beam. A snap of white disorientation.
Confused for a moment, the shardling looked for the culprit of the confusion.
Seeing the human, the biggest shardling threw the smaller one midair.
Boom!
Holoprojection. The illusion snapped.
He was gone.
A small device shattered beneath the gravel creature's foot.
Wind Acceleration. Weight Reduction.
Unsheathing his sword, his light body climbed up the shardling's arm.
Cain poured energy into the blade.
The sword thrummed — rotation and vibration like a pneumatic drill.
Looking above, one the shardling saw a visage of a man.
Crack! The sensing crystal splintered, shards flicking off like glass tears.
Blinded, the shardling, rolled around and writhe in agony.
Seeing their brother in pain, the tunes of the shardlings started to change.
'They're probably gonna dismantle this one.'
A distraction.
A gum-sized bomb lodged deep into a crack near the shardling's joint.
'Chew it slowly.'
Its single eye was still looking its injured companion with greed.
With a single pummel, it crushed the smaller shardlings, molding a new arm from their remains.
Melancholic tones echoed — a final dirge as they cried their last.
'Too ruthless!'
"Am I going to handle all these?"
The two looked at each other, taking each one from Cain's flank.
After getting a breather, the lionare and pigmy seemed to regain most of their strength.
'I'll pull the big one. Could be a standard core inside.'
Seeing him as a thread, the biggest shardling commanded the smaller ones to charge him.
'Six? Still manageable.'
From a short sword to an estoc, Cain chipped them down.
Chunk by chunk — one boulder at a time.
'There, I can see the core!'
Cain stayed sharp, analyzing the scene without distraction.
"Show me a little more!"
Slowing down, Cain pierced with measured nicking.
Slowly and steadily the core exposed itself more and more.
'Let's see what we got here.'
No flickering nor visible cracks, its light was like the shimmer of cash.
'Jackpot! Even these small ones got those goodies.'
Cain watched the beastmen, each taking on two shardlings with steady, deliberate movements.
'Primal Ki, huh? Think I can use it?'
Pulsing with energy, the fist of the lionare tore shardlings with precision.
On the other hand, the pygmy's staff was transfused with hues of sepia.
'Must be fire and earth element.'
Titan Sensors — Cain's own spell, designed to detect a wide range of energy movements.
'It's still limited to rudimentary elements, but it's a solid start.'
"So, it's infusing into the muscles… makes sense."
The shardlings were fast, persistent — but predictable.
No training.
Just brute survival.
Cain's eye tried to discern the secrets of the beastmen as he lunged around.
'Could I do the same? No… Not yet. But soon.'
Thoughts flashed one after another through his mind.
Lost in his own calculations, the pygmy's staff glow intensified.
The two-ton elephant charged toward the most weakened of his prey.
He saw the fissure bloom, a jagged scar across pure value.
'Has this pygmy gone stupid!?'
"Hey! Wait —"
Too late. A flash. Then a crunch.
Shatter!
'No. No. No!'
Fine dust suffused the air, the energy of the core was released.
"That was —"