The Market Square was a sprawling expanse of broken dreams and sharp edges. Even with the last vestiges of twilight, the scale of it was daunting. What was once a vibrant hub of commerce was now a desolate urban canyon, lined with skeletal structures of what were once colossal warehouses and administrative buildings. The air hung heavy with the scent of decay, metallic dust, and an almost imperceptible hum that Elara now recognized as the lingering energy of the Great Glitch. Her Data Stream Comprehension skill, though nascent, made the invisible currents of residual energy visible as faint, shifting patterns in her peripheral vision. The path to the substation, a massive, half-buried structure on the far side of the square, seemed impossibly far.
[Mana: 50/50.]
A small comfort. Her Mana had fully regenerated during the walk to the square's edge, but she knew it wouldn't last long in a direct confrontation. She needed to be swift, stealthy, and efficient. Her goal was to find the substation's entrance, secure the power cells, and return to Kael. Fighting was a last resort.
The interior of the square was a mosaic of danger. Overturned stalls, their plastic sheeting long rotted away, formed precarious trip hazards. Ancient data-screens, still humming with residual power, flickered with static, casting eerie blue light across patches of rubble. More ominously, the square was a known hunting ground for scavengers and larger, more territorial mutated creatures.
Elara moved with practiced stealth, her soft-soled boots making barely a whisper on the gritty ground. She kept to the deeper shadows cast by crumbling walls, her eyes scanning for movement, for any sign of life, hostile or otherwise. The metallic tang in the air grew stronger, laced with the scent of ozone. She was getting closer to the core of the square.
Suddenly, a low growl rippled through the stillness. It wasn't the snarl of a pack-dog. This was deeper, more guttural, a sound that spoke of brute force and heavy mass. Elara flattened herself against a corroded cargo container, peering around its edge.
Across the desolate expanse, amidst a pile of overturned market stalls, stood a creature of nightmare. It was a Glitch Hulk, a massive, malformed beast that had once been a human, now grotesquely swollen with muscle and riddled with raw, exposed glitches. Patches of its skin pulsed with unstable light, and one arm had morphed into a jagged, crystalline club. Its eyes glowed with feral, unstable energy. This wasn't a mere mutated beast; this was a product of severe Glitch Corruption, a terrifying testament to Kael's warnings.
[Threat Detected: Glitch Hulk (Corrupted Entity)]
[Warning: High Risk Encounter. Recommend Evasion.]
The Glitch Hulk let out another roar, a sound that vibrated through Elara's bones. It began to lumber forward, its gaze sweeping the square, its single-minded focus seemingly on general destruction, but it would tear her apart if it spotted her. Her Mana was full, but she had no idea how much Glitch Shift it would take to even faze something this powerful. Direct combat was suicide.
She had to get past it. The most direct route to the substation lay right through its patrol path.
Elara's mind raced, fueled by desperation. Her Data Stream Comprehension flickered, and she focused on the Glitch Hulk, trying to understand its chaotic energy signature. She saw jagged lines of unstable data, chaotic fluctuations. This thing was a walking error.
An idea, reckless and desperate, sparked in her mind. Manipulate minor environmental probabilities. Could she manipulate the glitches within the Hulk itself? Or, more realistically, exploit the glitches around it?
She took a deep breath, focusing her Mana. She visualized the broken paving stones near the Hulk's massive foot. She pictured them shifting, becoming momentarily unstable.
[Glitch Shift (Active) – Lv.1. Cost: 10 Mana.]
[Mana: 40/50.]
A faint tremor ran through the ground, unnoticed by the massive creature. A small, almost imperceptible crack spread in the pavement. Nothing significant. The Glitch Hulk continued its slow, destructive march.
She needed something bigger. Something more disruptive. Her eyes darted around. The clock tower. The massive, leaning clock tower in the center of the square. Its structure was clearly unstable, its old gears rusted and seized.
Could she use Glitch Shift to cause a temporary, localized collapse? The thought was terrifying. It would make a huge noise, but it might distract the Hulk, create a path.
She focused intently, pouring 20 Mana into the attempt, visualizing the clock tower's ancient mechanism seizing, pulling a loose beam, creating a cascading failure. She felt a drain, a hollow ache in her gut as the Mana left her.
[Glitch Shift (Active) – Lv.1. Cost: 20 Mana.]
[Mana: 20/50.]
The air around the clock tower shimmered for a split second, a visual distortion only Elara could perceive. Then, with a groan that echoed through the desolate square, a section of the clock tower's face, already severely damaged, detached. It crashed to the ground with a resounding CLANG-CLANG-CLANG of rusted metal and crumbling masonry, sending dust plumes rising into the twilight.
The Glitch Hulk roared again, a sound of frustrated rage. It turned its massive head, its glowing red eyes fixing on the source of the disturbance. For a critical moment, its attention was diverted. It began to stomp towards the collapsed clock tower, drawn by the sound and the newly released chaotic energies.
Elara seized the chance. Sprinting, she darted from behind the cargo container, weaving through the debris, making a wide arc around the distracted Glitch Hulk. She ran faster than she thought possible, fueled by adrenaline and the desperation to save Kael. She didn't look back until she reached the far side of the square, where the substation loomed, a dark, foreboding silhouette against the fading light.
[Major Encounter Evaded! +25 XP]
Elara stumbled to a halt, leaning against the cold, metal wall of the substation, her lungs burning, her Mana almost gone. Her current XP total was [70/100]. A significant gain. She had faced a true threat and survived, using her wits and a calculated risk with her Glitch Shift. It was terrifying, but exhilarating.
The substation's entrance was heavily reinforced, a massive steel door half-buried in rubble. It looked impassable. But just above it, a smaller, less obvious panel, clearly part of an emergency access system, flickered with a faint, almost imperceptible energy signature.
[Data Stream Comprehension (Passive) – Lv.1] allowed her to perceive the intricate, broken patterns of the system. She didn't understand the 'why' of it, but she could see the 'how' – a small power conduit that had been severed. Perhaps a minor Glitch Shift could reconnect it, just enough to activate the panel. Or maybe it was a trap.
She pushed herself off the wall. The substation. The power cells. The Data Nexus Point. She was here.