The plan was, in a word, suicidal.
Lin Ke lay flat on his stomach, concealed by the thick, rotting foliage on the hillock, the foul stench of the Gloomfang Mire filling his nostrils. Below, the Corrupted Grove-Heart pulsed with a slow, sickening rhythm. His plan—his brilliant, scientific, and utterly insane plan—was to have his only partner walk down there and pick a fight with a sentient, monster-infested swamp.
"This is a mistake," he whispered, the words barely audible over the hammering of his own heart. He could still turn back. Report to Thorne that the target was beyond the initial intelligence. It would be the smart, logical thing to do.
But then, an image flashed in his mind: the cold, stone-like shell of the Mythical egg. The impossible shopping list. The Starfall Auction. The future he was trying to build wasn't paved with safe choices.
"Damn it all," he breathed out. He focused his mind, connecting with the Titan Vole through their Soul Pact. You ready, partner?
The response was a feeling: a solid, unwavering sense of trust. The Vole didn't question the logic; it only trusted the tamer. That trust cut through Lin Ke's fear and solidified his resolve into something hard and sharp. He couldn't fail.
Okay. Phase one. Begin.
Down in the mire, the Terran Titan Vole took a single, heavy step forward and let out a roar, a deep, resonant challenge of pure earth and stone. It raised its powerful front leg and slammed it down, not at the Grove-Heart, but at a pulsating, web-like cluster of root nodes near the edge of the mire—a part of the monster's extended body. A massive spike of rock, a 'Titan's Lance' in its most basic form, erupted from the ground, tearing through the root cluster with a wet, ripping sound.
The Grove-Heart's reaction was instantaneous and terrifying. Its single, massive purple eye swiveled, fixing on the Titan Vole with an ancient, fathomless hatred. It issued a silent, psychic command that vibrated through the very air. And the mire answered.
From the black water, a chittering horde of Corrupted Thorn-Crawlers emerged. Simultaneously, the corrupt vines that choked the landscape writhed to life, slithering through the mud like an army of venomous snakes. The Grove-Heart hadn't just been angered; it had activated its entire immune system.
It's using them as a shield! Lin Ke realized, his blood running cold. The Grove-Heart wasn't charging. It was pinning his Vole down with its minions. This thing wasn't just a monster; it was a general.
"Advanced Rock Harden! Hold your ground!" Lin Ke yelled, his voice strained. The Titan Vole became a fortress of amber-veined stone, enduring the storm of poison-tipped thorns and the crushing grip of the giant vines. His Editor's interface was a flashing chaos of warnings: Shield Integrity: 74%... 68%... Energy Expenditure: Critical.
The battle devolved into a desperate, grinding war. The Titan Vole was a bastion in a swirling tide of enemies, using controlled bursts of 'Earth Spike' to churn up the ground around it, creating a moat of broken earth. But the vines were relentless, their thorny tendrils scraping and screeching against the Vole's hardened shell, looking for any weakness.
"This isn't working," Lin Ke's mind raced, his initial plan in tatters. "It's too smart. It's not taking the bait. It's just going to wear him down." He watched as a particularly large vine wrapped itself around the Titan Vole's leg, almost pulling it off balance. His partner cried out in frustration.
Doubt, cold and venomous, seeped into Lin Ke's mind. Abort the mission. Pull him back. Get out of here. He was about to give the command to retreat.
But then he saw it.
The Grove-Heart, seeing the Titan Vole struggling, its defenses beginning to waver, finally made its move. It had concluded that the intruder was sufficiently trapped. It was time to deliver the killing blow.
A deep, resonant hum filled the air as the creature's massive body began to glow with an intense purple light. It was preparing to unleash one of the massive energy waves he had witnessed. This was the moment of supreme danger he had been trying to force, now offered on the platter of his own apparent failure.
It thinks it's won, Lin Ke thought, a spark of desperate hope igniting within him.
The Grove-Heart's body convulsed. The tangled roots on its chest writhed and pulled apart, revealing the pulsating, black-purple crystal at its core. The 0.9-second window.
Time seemed to warp. The chaotic sounds of battle faded into a dull roar. All Lin Ke could see was that single point of absolute vulnerability. All his fear and doubt was burned away by a sudden, ice-cold clarity. The board was set. It all came down to this one, final move.
He pushed every ounce of his will, his focus, and his hope through the Soul Pact, a command more complex than any he had ever given.
NOW! IGNORE THE VINES! FORGET DEFENSE! CHANNEL EVERYTHING! TITAN'S LANCE! AT THE CORE!
The Titan Vole, receiving the command, did something extraordinary. It completely dropped its 'Rock Harden' defense, allowing the thorns and vines to rip and tear at its obsidian plating, drawing trickles of glowing, amber energy. It ignored the pain, the damage, everything. All of its formidable earthy power was drawn inward, channeled down its front leg and into the ground.
The amber runes on its body blazed, not with a defensive light, but with a ferocious, offensive fire. The ground itself screamed.
And from the earth, a single, massive spear of rock—not jagged like the previous spikes, but smooth, compressed, and honed to a razor-sharp point, glowing with the contained, furious power of a miniature volcano—erupted and shot across the mire. It was faster than a cannonball, a streak of pure, foundational earth energy aimed directly at the exposed, beating heart of the corrupted forest.