Before, the hivelord was curious. Now, it was intrigued.

For the first time, the hivelord had seen sentience for itself. Through the eyes of a sentinel sliver, the hivelord witnessed other living creatures as they approached- and quickly ran from- a small group of slivers. It watched the creatures' face turn from curiosity to fear, and it heard them speak, though it could not understand the odd language they communicated with. It watched their bodies walk, pause, turn, and flee. And as the slivers gave chase to the trespassers, it heard their screams.

Now the hivelord had something to compare itself to. Slivers knew that other species- humans, elves, Onakke, even the dim-witted goblins- did not share a collective mind like themselves. Each individual specimen was capable of independent thought. Whereas previously in the slivers' history, only the strongest, the leaders of the hive, could think on such a level.

The hivelord, and the hive on Shandalar, had long forgotten about the slivers of ages past. But the past did not forget about them. Like the ancient Sliver Queen before it, the hivelord had gained the same level of independent thought. And seeing the other creatures in this light made the hivelord pause once more. If it was the hivelord already, but now had this incredible level of thought, how powerful would it become? Would anyone- anything- hold a feather to the hivelord now?

The thought of its new power excited the hivelord.

A few days after buying the Mox Diamond, the party was making good time heading south toward Kalonia. Only one more town awaited they would reach the great forest, and they were making good time. Clouds began gathering overhead, however, and cool winds blew across the roads. There was definitely a storm rolling in. They were walking through the plains of Shandalar, between the mountains and desert, and shelter was scarce.

"Aren't we on the outskirts of Thune?" Karumont asked.

"I think so. The next town up is Ioria, but we won't make it there until the day after tomorrow, at the earliest," Ticus replied.

"Damn. Good thing we stocked up in Valtel. We could-"

"Storm."

Mizu spoke softly, but it was enough to cut Karumont off instantly.

"Mizu?"

Mizu pointed toward the west, where the clouds were much darker. Lightning flashed in the far distance.

"Oh, man," said Ticus. "It's closer than we thought..."

"The food in our bags can't get wet. Can we wait under a tree or something until it blows over?" Asked Karumont.

"There's none aroun' that's big enough. All that's aroun' is grass, dirt, flowers, and small little saplin's." Said Tasken.

"Well, let's find one and keep our packs dry," said Ticus. "This leather gets damp easily, and I'd rather get a little wet than travel for another two days without food."

The group continued on as the sky grew darker. Just as the rain began to fall, they came across a small oasis not far off the road and put their packs under the safe umbrella of the trees' large leaves.

Not a minute later, the floodgates opened.

The rain fell like a raging waterfall that consumed the entire world. It was heavy enough to kill any chance the party had of hearing themselves think- or see, for that matter, as the storm had brought with it a thick fog. Thunder boomed overhead as the four travelers made sure to keep their packs safe, using themselves as shields for the rain. They expected they would outlast the storm and be on their way in an hour.

Ticus was sitting with his pack beside him, and while sitting out the rain, he reached in and pulled out a wad of a lightweight, soft, metallic material about the size of a baseball. It was shapeless, and while it was made of steel, it was very shiny and smooth, colored a bright gray. He held the odd metal in one hand and raised his other to the diamond currently hung around his neck. Since purchasing it in Valtel, he wore it constantly, and allowed his mana to course over it every now and again to get a feel for it. He had yet to use it for metalshaping, and found ample time in his boredom. Luckily, the palm leaves of the trees were just big enough to keep the water away from his precious metal and charm.

Ticus took the necklace off, and held the Mox Diamond in his palm. He began coursing wisps of while mana over it to resync his power with that of the diamond's. Meanwhile, he sat cross-legged and put the sculpting steel on the ground in front of him, hovering his hand over it. Mana began coursing from his hand to the steel, as he had practiced for so many years.

"You makin' something?" Tasken said as he peered around the trees.

"Ah, just trying out the Mox Diamond. Now is as good a time as ever since we're just sitting here," Ticus replied.

"The rain doesn't even break your concentration?"

"Nah, it's just a patter, it fades to the background when I focus on something like this, along with the rest of the world."

Karumont, by now, had turned to see Ticus crafting as well. Mizu sat a few feet away, against a tree, with his head lowered and eyes closed.

"That one would sleep through an earthquake, it seems." Karumont said.

"Even the vague, mysterious types need their down-time." Tasken chuckled.

"Or maybe that crazy lightning of his takes a bigger toll on his body than we thought," said Ticus. The three often pondered over Mizu when given the chance. But right now, there was a more important matter at hand.

Ticus began coursing his mana over the sculpting steel in one hand, while he continued drawing out the power of the diamond in his other. His mana also flowed between Ticus and the land itself; as every user of the power could attest to, the land was the engine behind the mana. Since he was currently in a flat plains, his while mana was eager to draw power from the world. He sat and closed his hand around the diamond, allowing its power to synchronize with his mana and amplify his power, as he'd been practicing. Ticus had used amplifiers plenty of times before, but never one this powerful, so he had to be careful. The process took time. But, after a few minutes, he released the diamond and tied it back around his neck.

"Alright. I've... Got it. The merchant wasn't kidding about this thing's power."

The others looked upon Ticus in wonder as he began to manipulate the raw steel in his hand. Swirling wisps of white mana swirled around both of his hands as he went to work on the steel, moving his fingers like a puppeteer in the air around it. His mana responded with his careful movements, slowly but surely altering the steel into a discernable shape. The steel curved, wobbled, and swirled like silly putty between his hands. A piece eventually fell off, which Ticus shaped into a small, broad dagger. He continued toying with it for a while, fine-tuning its shape and durability using the power of the diamond. When he was finally finished, the dagger sat before him, as hard as steel could be, and polished to perfection- unrecognizable from the shapeless, colorless wad it was just formed from. The others were impressed as always with Ticus's skill.

"I always get a kick outta you making this stuff! Haha!" Tasken laughed.

"Heh, thanks," Ticus responded as he put the materials away. "It's nothing special, just a big knife. I just wanted to give the diamond a test drive."

"I'd call that a success!" Tasken boomed. "Looks like a fine a blade as any. Except my stone blades, o'course! Hahaha!"

The three went back to their packs as the rain continued. It let up every now and again, but the intense thunder and lightning always heralded its resurgence quickly. Just when the rain finally began to slow, Ticus heard a different sound through the patter, one that surprised him.

A chittering noise on the road.

Ticus turned to the direction the noise was coming from and heard a high, toneless chittering that the patter of the rain couldn't mask. It grew steadily closer, then stopped for a moment. Karumont heard it, too, but Tasken, on the other side of the tree, didn't pay any mind.

It grew steadily louder, and Ticus looked around for the source.

"You guys hear that?"

Karumont looked up. "Hear what-"

Karumont was interrupted by a loud growling noise. The group looked around, and on the other side of the tree they found the source.

And it found them.

It was coated in metal, standing idle like an abandoned robot. Between its metal skin, very long arms that extended down to its legs, and hair that touched the ground, it looked very alien, an illusion helped by the fact that it didn't appear to have a face. It was humanoid only in the sense that it had two arms, two legs, a body, and a head. And with its black, empty eyes, it was staring at Ticus.

Ticus could only respond with a stare just as blank.

The creature began lumbering towards him, keeping its empty eyes locked on him. Ticus was still. He was not only dumbfounded, but paralyzed with fear. He had expected the Slivers to be alien, but he hadn't quite prepared himself for just how unreal they were.

Karumont turned to face the monster. "That... Is that...?"

"A sliver," Ticus responded. "It's a steelform scout... This far up north."

"We must be a hundred miles from Kalonia, maybe more," Karumont spoke. "How can it be this far up...?"

Karumont's gaze as locked on the creature, as well. It slowly inched forward, its head unmoving. Soon, it stopped about twenty feet from the group, and stood idle.

"What does it want...?" Karumont asked.

"It's observing us," Ticus responded. "I don't think slivers fully understand humans. We're just as strange to it as it is to us."

"So that's what they look like."

Karumont and Ticus were standing across the road from a creature neither of them could comprehend. The sliver cocked it head, as if it were studying them, and twitched a few times.

Ticus could get a better look at its skin now. It was a plated steel, like armor bonded to its skin, with ridges and spikes covering much of it. While it was likely a brilliant metal when it was first crafted, it was now filthy and muddy, its shine long gone. Ticus thought that this meant this sliver was older, a conclusion helped by the fact that they weren't anywhere close to Kalonia.

Then the sliver made its move.

The average human reaction time is around 2/10ths of a second. While the sliver wasn't quite that fast, to Karumont, it felt like it was; it was certainly fast enough to move before Ticus or Karumont could flinch. But, within a half-second, the humanoid sliver moved with blurring speed, lunging at Karumont. It smashed into his torso and pinned him to the ground, crashing his head right into the tree he was resting on less than a minute ago. The sliver's face was unchanged, as if it felt no emotion, no rage, nothing. It was like a cold automaton, programmed only to attack.

Ticus screamed his friend's name, causing Tasken to turn and see what all the commotion was. What he saw was his friend pinned to the Earth, with a face as red as a tomato, gasping for air, arms grasping the metallic arm of the sliver. Tasken was no slouch, and without hesitation, he threw his hands onto the ground and, using the red mana he was so adept with, created a plume of sand underneath the liver that sent the creature flying back. It few off of Karumont, but not before leaving a deep gash in his neck.

Ticus ran over to his friend, who was breathing, but grimacing badly in pain. The sliver had cut the sides of his neck with its long claws, and he was bleeding badly.

"It's ok, just hold on," Ticus said. "I think I can cauterize the wound with some heated metal, I'm not an expert but I can-"

"Ticus, we got company!" Tasken yelled.

Ticus turned around to a horrifying sight. Before the group stood at least five more slivers, all of varying forms, about thirty feet away. They all had armor similar to the first sliver's, but their bodies were all variants of the same twisted model. One of them had an enormous talon in the place of a left arm, while another had a huge, gaping jaw and a claw-like appendage for a right hand. All of them sported the same armor-like skin and tube-like veins underneath, as if their bodies were constructed from the ruins of a factory. They looked truly bizarre and otherworldly, and Ticus could hardly grasp what he was seeing.

"Slivers…" He mumbled.

Ticus grasped the Mox Diamond in his hand, drawing mana from it quickly. The slivers seemed to sense the power emanating from his necklace, and hesitated.

"They can feel yer power, Ticus." Tasken said. "Their skin, you were right, it's metal… Or something. They know an artificer when they see one."

"Good." Ticus said. "Then they know to be afraid. I'm not weak."

"Nor am I, my friend."

Behind them, Karumont chuckled, then winced in pain. Ticus and Tasken instinctively formed a shield between him and the slivers.

"Hold on, Karu," said Ticus. "It's only a few of them… We can take them."

"We don't know anything ABOUT them, Ticus," said Tasken. "How can we fight them?"

Tasken's question took care of itself. Just as he finished speaking, a sliver with two enormous blades for arms charged at them. It was the one that had been at the front of the group, and appeared to be their leader. Its armor was more of a while color than the other slivers', and its armor-like skin was more rigid and serrated. It attacked Tasken, who responded by meeting its blade with a stone he had forged out of the ground a moment ago. He fashioned it into a small shield and deflected its attack perfectly, causing it to reel back. The other slivers had begun moving forward, but hesitated.

"Didn't expect a big lug like me to be so fast, did yeh, you monster?!" Tasken yelled, with a confident grin.

"There's too many." Ticus spoke. "How are we going to-"

Then a noise as loud as thunder erupted from the makeshift battlefield. In fact, it was thunder, and it was faster than anyone could have expected. Even the slivers jumped back, startled.

A great bolt of lightning flashed from behind the party, blasting into the bonescythe sliver that had attacked Tasken, and sent it flying back into the group of slivers. It flew so fast that it scattered most of them across the road, and even the slivers couldn't register what just happened. Ticus and Tasken looked behind them to see what had just sent a massive, sword-armed sliver flying 100 feet, already knowing the answer.

"Don't ever wake me up." Mizu spoke softly.