The gland pulses between my hands.
The blue-gold liquid shifts inside the membrane every time I change the angle, forming small filaments that seem to search for a way out. Even separated from the body, the structure still reacts to its surroundings.
Freya keeps looking at the silent band of the forest.
"Thinking the same thing I am?" I ask.
She turns her eyes back to the gland.
"I'm thinking nobody with any sense should rupture that here."
"Then we're thinking the same thing."
I store the organ in my inventory so it won't rupture inside the Horizon, where I can still reach it fast without an accident.
Freya breathes out through her nose.
"You're going to use that thing to draw the Reef Stalker."
"I am."
"We just killed eleven Rank C monsters without a real fight. You've got to be at ninety-nine percent already. We could leave, find any smaller creature, and finish this without calling a predator that specializes in ambushes."
I open the HUD.
[OXI: 2,104/2,500]
