Achilles shut out the screams and the cold voice of the Warden and put his focus where it belonged, on the ore in front of him and the slow work of getting it free.
He had the trick of it now, more or less. The ore did not want to leave the rock, and it punished impatience, so he stopped fighting it and started working with it. His Prime Cause of Assimilation wrapped the seam, his amplified Pride threaded all the way through the authority, and he eased rather than tore. Where his first attempt had ruptured his skin, this one held. The splits along his forearms had already closed, his foundations strong enough to mend that kind of small damage on their own, and he kept the pressure steady and patient and even.
The ore came loose.
WUU!
