Cornered

The Gravicore's jaws snapped shut on empty air. Cassius had moved without thought, slamming into Servius's side and sending them both tumbling across the rocky ground. Crystal teeth clicked together where his friend's head had been a heartbeat before.

"Move! MOVE!" Cassius hauled Servius to his feet, feeling the air ripple unnaturally behind them. The beast's landing shook the earth, and for a terrifying moment, Cassius felt his own weight double. His knees buckled before the sensation passed.

They scrambled deeper into the ravine, Cassius's mind racing. No way past the creature. Walls too steep to climb quickly. His hunting knife might as well have been a toothpick against that crystalline hide. Think. Adapt. Survive.

The Gravicore didn't pursue immediately. It padded after them with leisurely menace, head low, eyes glinting with an intelligence that made Cassius's stomach turn. This wasn't just hunger. The beast was enjoying their fear.

"We're going to die," Servius whispered, his voice cracking. "Oh gods, we're going to die."

"Not today." Cassius grabbed a fist-sized rock, testing its weight. "When I say run, you go left. I'll go right. It can only chase one of us."

"I'm not leaving you!"

"You will if I tell you to." Cassius tried to project confidence he didn't feel. "On three. One... two..."

The Gravicore lunged. Not at full speed—just fast enough to make them dive apart. Cassius rolled right, came up throwing. The rock struck the beast's shoulder and shattered like glass against its crystalline fur. The creature's head swiveled toward him, lips pulling back in what looked disturbingly like amusement.

"Hey!" Servius had found his courage, or at least his desperation. He swung his staff at the creature's flank. The wood connected with a sound like striking stone and vibrated so violently that Servius cried out, dropping it.

The Gravicore's attention shifted. One massive paw swept out, catching Servius in the chest. The boy flew backward, hitting the ravine wall with a sickening thud. He slumped to the ground, groaning.

"No!" Cassius charged without thinking. His knife was in his hand, his training taking over. He ducked under the beast's snapping jaws, slashed at its foreleg. The blade skittered across crystal fur without leaving a mark.

The Gravicore's growl resonated through the ground itself. The air around Cassius suddenly felt thick, heavy. His next step took enormous effort, as if he were wading through deep mud. The beast's power—localized gravity manipulation, even in this juvenile form.

Cassius forced himself forward, each movement a battle against the crushing weight. The Gravicore watched with those too-intelligent eyes, letting him struggle. Playing with its food.

Then the pressure vanished. Cassius stumbled forward, suddenly too light, and the beast's paw caught him across the ribs. He felt something crack as he tumbled across the stones. Pain flared white-hot, stealing his breath.

Through blurred vision, he saw the Gravicore turn back toward Servius. His friend was trying to stand, blood trickling from a gash on his forehead. The beast prowled closer, taking its time.

"Run," Cassius wheezed, struggling to his knees. "Servius, run!"

But there was nowhere to go. The ravine had narrowed, walls pressing in on both sides. They'd trapped themselves as surely as any snare.

The Gravicore crouched before Servius, muscles bunching beneath its impossible hide. Servius pressed back against the stone wall, eyes wide with terror. "Cassius..."

Something inside Cassius snapped. Not broke—snapped into place. The pain in his ribs faded beneath a surge of... something. Heat and cold at once. Pressure building behind his eyes, in his chest, along his bones. That sensation from the tree, when he'd felt the dead zone. But reversed. Instead of absence, presence. Instead of void, power.

He lurched to his feet. The world looked different. He could see the way gravity bent around the Gravicore, invisible threads of force that the creature manipulated as easily as breathing. Could feel the weight of the stones, the density of the air, the pull of the earth itself.

"Get away from him." His voice came out strange, resonant.

The Gravicore's head whipped around. For the first time, something like wariness flickered in its eyes. It could sense the change, the potential building within him like water behind a dam.

Cassius took a step forward. The pressure inside him increased, searching for release. His vision flickered between normal sight and something else—a perception of mass and force and fundamental interactions he had no words for. His body felt too small to contain what was building within.

The Gravicore abandoned Servius, turning to face this new threat. It growled, and the gravity around it intensified. Stones began rolling upward. Dust swirled in impossible patterns.

Cassius raised his hand instinctively, and something responded. Not quite his power—not yet—but an echo of it. A promise of what could be. The air between them shimmered.

Then the pain hit. White-hot agony lanced through his skull as his body rebelled against power it wasn't ready to channel. Cassius dropped to one knee, gasping. The almost-power flickered and died.

The Gravicore sensed weakness. It bounded forward, jaws wide, victory assured.

"CASSIUS!" Servius's scream cut through the pain.

Time dilated. Cassius saw everything with crystalline clarity. The beast's trajectory. The certainty of death in its eyes. Servius struggling to reach him, to help somehow. The glint of sunlight on crystal fur. The distortion in the air that marked the creature's gravitational field.

The power inside him surged against its barriers. He could feel them—limitations imposed by his unopened Nexus Core, his body's desperate attempt to protect itself from forces it couldn't yet handle. But Servius would die. They both would. Unless...

Cassius reached deep, deeper than training or instinct. He reached for that burning cold pressure, grabbed it with mental hands, and pulled.

The barriers cracked.

Power flooded through him like molten metal in his veins. His vision went white. He heard his own scream mix with something else—a sound like reality tearing. His hand moved without conscious thought, and the air obeyed.

The ravine shook with the force of power unleashed.