The last Nibblefang dropped back through the gears.
Jason didn't watch it go. He stood with his hands on his knees, breathing through the burn in his chest, waiting for his legs to remember how to hold him upright.
The chains had stopped swinging. The platforms had settled back into their slow, grinding rotation.
He straightened slowly.
His HUD flickered into view.
VITALITY: 72/100
FOCUS: 55/100
ENERGY: 25/100
The timer sat at 00:02:00 in the corner of his vision. He looked at it for exactly one second, then turned his attention to the chains.
The Gear Fields went quiet.
Then, somewhere beneath the machinery, something shifted, and a new platform groaned into place ahead of him.
Jason rolled his shoulders.
"Alright," he said. "One step at a time."
—
Cold iron under his boots. Wind rushing up through the gears below.
The air changed.
A pale mist began leaking from the seams between the gears.
Jason frowned. "That wasn't there before."
The fog crept outward, slow at first, then spreading across the platforms like spilled milk.
Within seconds the metal bridges ahead blurred.
Jason lifted his hand in front of his face.
His HUD flickered across his vision.
FOCUS: 55/100
ENERGY: 25/100
The fog thickened.
Jason took a step.
His leg felt heavier than before.
He lifted the other foot. Same resistance.
Another step. The weight increased.
Jason shook his arms out.
"Heavy," he muttered.
A low mechanical hum vibrated through the fog. He walked forward again. Slow.
Too slow. The gears beneath the platform rotated normally, yet his body moved like something was pulling at him from below.
He stepped again.
The platform ahead seemed farther away now. "Wait… that was closer a second ago." The fog shifted.
Something enormous moved within it.
Jason stopped.
A silhouette rose slowly inside the mist.
Huge.
Jaw-shaped.
The fog itself curled toward the shape like breath being inhaled.
Jason whispered, "That can't be good."
The shape opened wider.
And the fog rushed inward.
---
Jason ran. Or tried to. His boots struck the platform with dull, sluggish thuds.
"Move," he muttered, smacking his thigh. "Come on."
The fog swallowed the gears around him.
Only faint outlines remained.
Another platform slid past his right side.
Jason pointed at it. "Shortcut." He jumped.
His boots hit the metal bridge. For one second it held. Then the platform dissolved into fog. Jason dropped straight through empty air.
"No,"
A lower gear caught him hard in the ribs.
He rolled across the iron surface with a groan.
"Okay," he wheezed. "That wasn't a shortcut." The fog pulsed.
A deep inhaling sound echoed around him.
Jason climbed to his feet.
His HUD flickered.
FOCUS: 45/100
Another bridge appeared ahead. Shorter distance. He squinted at it. He sprinted forward. Halfway across, the metal beneath his boots softened like smoke.
Jason stopped instantly.
The bridge vanished.
He jumped backward just before the fog swallowed the path.
Jason wiped sweat from his brow.
The fog rolled slowly across the gears.
The massive silhouette shifted again.
Closer now.
The fog vibrated as the shape inhaled.
The mist rushed toward its massive mouth.
Jason's HUD flashed.
- 10 min
TIME RESERVE: 00:55:00 → 00:45:00
TIME LOSS DETECTED
FOCUS: 40/100
The platform vanished beneath his boots.
Jason froze. The silhouette expanded inside the fog. Its jaw opened wider.
Jason's breath hitched.
---
Jason forced himself to stop moving. The fog swirled around his legs. His heart pounded. He drew in a slow breath.
One step. Deliberate. No rush.
The platform held.
He stepped again at the same pace.
The fog drifted aside, barely, but enough.
Another step. The gears below rumbled softly. The fog thinned just enough to reveal the next platform.
Jason kept walking.
Step.
Step.
Step.
No rushing. No jumping. No hesitation. The fog retreated in thin ribbons.
A muted rumble stirred somewhere within it. Jason watched the mist curl across the gears. "Slow them down," he murmured.
His eyes tracked the shifting haze.
"And wait for them to lose themselves."
His HUD flickered.
TIME RESERVE: 00:33:00
Jason nodded slowly.
"Time Predator," he said quietly. "That fits."
The fog trembled. The massive silhouette began moving faster. Jason kept his pace steady.
Step.
Step.
The fog peeled away further. Three platforms visible ahead now. The gears beneath him stopped. Not slowed. Not shifted.
Stopped.
The platform held perfectly still beneath his boots, and in that sudden silence, the fog collapsed inward all at once.
The silhouette was no longer across the field. It was directly ahead.
Jason's next step never came.
The jaw opened.