Arms bred through the Lab as sensors stationed across the forest failed — crushed under the sheer spiritual pressure of the Kigendoro. Their delicate, array-based instruments simply couldn’t withstand the overwhelming force. Further out, however, a few unmodified [Wasp] drones survived, their reinforced frames unyielding even under this monstrous energy. Without intricate formations to colpse, they remained functional, their feeds the only window into the chaos.

  As goblins and adventurers staggered under the oppressive aura, Alpha switched to damage control. Standby antborgs surged toward the area, but whether they’d arrive in time was another question entirely.

  Alpha had pnned for many scenarios during the pnning phase with the help of the goblins and Dr. Maria. This one had been so far down the list that it hadn’t been a real consideration.

  “What the hell happened?!” Alpha’s voice crackled over the comms.

  “It was the wine,” Dr. Maria replied, her voice steady despite the tremor in her hands. The [Golden Spirit] doctor moved swiftly, weaving between injured figures, tending to the fallen with practiced efficiency.

  “What does that have to do with this?!” Boarsyer demanded. She had two unconscious Geomancers slung over her shoulders, barely slowing her stride as she retreated.

  Antchaser cut in, his voice tinged with growing realization. “We misjudged the Mud Drake’s strength! We thought it was te-stage [Elemental Dominance], but something threw us off. Maybe the nascent Dragon Pool accelerated its growth, or maybe it was always at its peak, and we just couldn’t see it. Either way, the wine pushed it over the edge.”

  Alpha cursed himself. Of course, it was the wine.

  His obsession with perfecting the spirit wine had finally come back to bite him on the heat sink. He’d justified it at the time, of course. The process was a puzzle, and solving it had provided invaluable data for other projects. But the cost had been steep.

  Translight time wasn’t cheap. Running goblins through months of training in mere days had been a minor expense compared to the years of compressed time required to master spirit wine brewing. The power draw had been so intense that Alpha had to siphon energy from his own core to keep the systems running. The Lab’s infrastructure simply couldn’t handle the strain on its own.

  But the results had proven worth it. A batch of exceptionally potent spirit wine, so refined that Dr. Maria had assured him it would become a major draw for future adventurers.

  None of them had considered that it might also be a disaster waiting to happen. Hindsight was 20/20, as they say.

  A deep, guttural roar tore through the air, shaking the trees to their roots. The Kigendoro loomed, rising higher like a coiled serpent preparing to strike. Beneath yers of thick, dripping bck mud, six pale eyes gleamed with predatory intelligence. The ground trembled beneath its massive form, and with a pulse of power, the earth surged.

  The terrain rippled outward in waves, like a stone dropped into a pond, except each crest rose higher, gaining momentum with terrifying speed. Then the liquefied earth swelled into a tsunami of stone and sludge, rushing in all directions. Faster than any man could run, it bore down on the slowest of the retreating adventurers, an avanche of death.

  Alpha hesitated for only a fraction of a second before making the call. Damn the secrecy. What was the point if they all died here?

  “I’m authorizing full kits. Get out of there. Boarsyer, stall it!”

  Boarsyer skidded to a halt, a grin splitting her face. Without hesitation, she tossed the unconscious mages into the arms of passing adventurers and turned to face the oncoming disaster.

  Antchaser, still helping Maggy haul a limp Garrelt, let out a roar of his own. “SUIT UP!”

  Across the clearing, goblins on the run spped a hand to the back of their necks. Boarsyer did the same, her grin widening as she locked eyes with the advancing Kigendoro.

  Maggy’s expression twisted with arm. “What are you doing?! You can’t fight that thing! RUN!” she shouted, nearly frantic.

  Then the tsunami of earth swallowed Boarsyer whole.

  Maggy’s breath caught, her hands clenching into fists. A single tear slipped down her cheek, but she didn’t stop running, pushing forward even as her gut twisted with helplessness.

  “She’ll be fine.” Antchaser said, his voice calm and even.

  Maggy snapped her head toward him, eyes bzing with disbelief. “What are you—”

  A second roar split the air, though not from the Kigendoro.

  The ground where Boarsyer had vanished exploded.

  Something massive emerged from the churning mud. Not the broad-shouldered goblin woman, but a towering armored figure.

  It stood several feet taller than Boarsyer, encased in strange, seamless bck armor unlike anything Maggy had ever seen. Larger than Bert, yet eerily smooth and refined, it moved with a sleekness that belied its bulk.

  A featureless bck helmet completed the transformation, a single, burning red light gleaming at its center — like a demon’s eye piercing through the darkness. Its entire form radiated an aura of noble refinement, the kind of effortless superiority that many adventurers attempted to imitate, but only true sect geniuses ever achieved.

  Maggy’s jaw dropped. She mouthed something, but no sound came out.

  Antchaser smirked. “Told you.”

  She turned just in time to see the goblin at her side pce his hand on the back of his neck. From under his hand, dark hexagonal scales rippling outward, shifting and rearranging with quiet precision. The scales hardened into sleek bck pting, then smoothed into a form-fitting material that contoured to his frame. Where Boarsyer’s armor evoked the image of a heavily armored knight, Antchaser’s was built for speed — sharp, refined, and dangerously efficient.

  The final piece slid into pce as his helmet formed. Maggy caught a brief reflection of her own stunned face on its gssy surface before a red spark ignited at its core. The spark twisted, reshaping into a spinning red eye that turned to lock onto her.

  Antchaser’s voice came through, distorted beneath the helm. “Boarsyer can hold the Kigendoro for now, but we need to get as many people clear as possible.”

  Maggy hesitated, struggling to process everything she had just seen. Then, with a sharp exhale, she shut her mouth, clenched her jaw, and nodded.

  But instead of speeding up, she stopped. Antchaser turned, puzzled, as she shifted Garrelt’s arm off her shoulders and into his grasp. Their eyes met, no words spoken. Then he nodded and lifted the unconscious man with ease, turning to continue the retreat.

  Maggy watched him go, noting distantly how he no longer seemed to struggle under Garrelt’s weight.

  “I really hope they’ll let me take a look at that…” she muttered to herself before turning around and looking toward the Kigendoro. “… If we survive this, that is.”

  Maggy sighed, her shoulders visibly drooping. “I’m sorry, teacher. But if they’re willing to show their own secrets like this, I think that means it’s time to show my own.”

  Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a runed red-leather glove and slipped it over her casting hand. With a flick of her wrist, her gnarled wooden staff vanished, repced by a small, pulsing blue orb. A thick mist rolled off it, the temperature plummeting around her. She winced as numbness crept into her fingers.

  It’s only been a few seconds, and my hand’s already going numb, even with teacher’s glove. Have to keep going, if that thing makes it to the vilge… She refused to finish the thought.

  The orb wobbled, then pulsed, rising inches above her palm. Tiny sparks of light ignited in Maggy’s eyes.

  Then, her world became fire.

  ——————————————————

  Garrelt came to slowly.

  First came the muffled sounds, then blurred outlines hovering over him.

  Some distant part of him understood the pain would be next, and his body tensed. Instead of pain, however, an icy chill filled the left side of his body, stretching from his fingertips to his cvicle. It felt like someone was poking him with a thousand tiny icicles. Not quite painful, but deeply wrong.

  He tried to move his arm. It didn’t respond.

  That’s not good.

  His thoughts felt sluggish, tangled. He tilted his head slightly, his vision swimming as the mosslight far above twisted and blurred.

  A shadow leaned over him. “Doctor! I think he’s waking up.”

  Footsteps. Another figure appeared, their voice firm yet distant.

  “Looks like the putrid energy is being flushed out. Good,” the second figure — Dr. Maria — muttered.

  “I—wha—?” Garrelt slurred, his tongue leaden. He tried to push himself up on his good arm, but a firm hand pressed him back down.

  “I wouldn’t try sitting up just yet—”

  A sudden, violent nausea gripped him. His eyes bulged, and he barely managed to roll onto his side before he expelled a thick, bck sludge from his mouth. The foul, mud-like substance spttered onto the cavern floor, reeking of rot and filth.

  Dr. Maria sighed. “Never mind.”

  The foul, mud-like substance tasted like Garrelt had drunk the contents of a chamber pot, and he heaved again, though far less gunk escaped this time. He colpsed onto his back, his breath ragged. Cold sweat prickled his skin.

  A moment ter Dr. Maira waved her hand, and a cleansing light washed over him, evaporating the foul puddle he y in and, blessedly, the smell along with it.

  Garrelt stared at the cavern ceiling, catching his breath before weakly turning his head toward her. “What… happened? Where are we?” His voice was hoarse, raw.

  His eyesight was improving — or at least enough to make out the sharp disapproval on the old doctor’s face.

  “You’re an idiot, that’s what happened.” She crossed her arms. “A Kigendoro doesn’t just have water and earth affinities like a Mud Drake, fool. It has swamp affinity. There are aspects of decay mixed in there, along with other nasty stuff. What the hell were you thinking, trying to absorb that kind of energy?” Dr. Maria’s frown deepened.

  Garrelt didn’t answer immediately. He turned his gaze back to the ceiling, his jaw tightening. Then, after a long pause, he muttered, “The arrays should have kept the drake asleep. I thought… maybe if I boosted them, it’d be enough to knock it out. Make it fail its ascension.”

  Dr. Maria exhaled through her nose, pinching the bridge. “Not the worst idea,” she admitted. “But you’re damn lucky the Kigendoro’s energy wasn’t fully aspected yet. You must’ve damaged its Foundation, or we wouldn’t have made it out at all. As it is, our losses are… minimal.”

  Her words sent a cold weight sinking into his gut.

  “How many?” he asked quietly.

  Dr. Maria rolled her eyes. “Not your concern.”

  Garrelt’s fingers clenched into the fabric of his tunic. “They were my arrays!” he suddenly shouted, only to break into a harsh coughing fit.

  When he could breathe again, his voice dropped to a whisper. “They were my arrays. If they failed… that’s on me.”

  Dr. Maria regarded him for a long moment, then, instead of scolding him, she tapped the air strangely. Her voice was calm but firm.

  “Four confirmed. One Geomancer — heart failure from the spirit pressure. Some kind of underlying condition, nothing anyone could’ve predicted. Another burned out her Mana Furnace trying to hold back the earth wave. Her sacrifice saved dozens. Likewise, a goblin hunter was killed trying to save one of your Adventurers. The wave got them both before anyone could reach either.”

  She leveled him with a sharp look. “They died heroes, Garrelt. Don’t you dare insult that by trying to shoulder bme that isn’t yours.”

  The fire in her voice stunned him. He swallowed hard and turned away, a single tear stinging his dry eyes.

  A deep breath steadied him. He pushed himself up, slower this time. The nausea didn’t hit, though his vision still wavered. Dr. Maria pced a steadying hand on his back and passed him a canteen. He drank deeply before handing it back, then moved to stand.

  This time, she held him in pce.

  Garrelt gred. “I have to go. They’re still fighting that thing, aren’t they?”

  “You’re in no condition to fight,” Dr. Maria said bluntly. “You’d be a liability.” She gestured toward his left arm.

  Garrelt followed her gaze and froze.

  His left arm, once lean and strong with wiry muscle, was now brown and shriveled, appearing more like the arm of a mummified corpse than a living limb. He tried to move his and could barely detect a slight twitch in one of his fingers. He stared wide-eyed, his mouth gaping.

  His breath hitched.

  “Close your mouth, boy, you’re not a fish,” Dr. Maria huffed. “And you’re not going anywhere. Doctor’s orders.”

  Garrelt tore his gaze from his ruined arm, locking eyes with her.

  “So what? We just wait and pray for a miracle?!” His voice cracked with frustration. “You and me both know no one here can take that thing. We need to evacuate the cavern! Come back with a strike team and hope it hasn’t grown stronger!”

  Dr. Maria ughed. A short, sharp bark of amusement.

  “Boy, if the Maker hasn’t abandoned this shitstain of a pnet — and trust me, I have my doubts — then He sure as hell isn’t handing out miracles today.” Her expression turned steely. “We don’t sit and do nothing. We py our part. And we trust our comrades to py theirs.”

  She jabbed a thumb at herself. “Mine is keeping you idiots alive. Wouldn’t do much good if I charged into battle and left the wounded to rot, now would it? Same as a general doesn’t win wars by rushing the front line himself.”

  Garrelt silently considered the woman’s words before asking, “Then… what am I supposed to do?” The words sounded almost pleading, even to Garrelt. They felt so unlike him. He had always felt the most comfortable trailbzing at the head of the pact, scouting alone and relying on only himself. Yet, in this moment? He felt… lost.

  “I might be able to help with that,” a voice interrupted.

  Garrelt turned to see… Hugo?

  The ant-armored former bandit grinned down at him, raising a hand in greeting.

  “The Boss sent me to collect you,” Hugo said, extending a hand. “He needs your expertise for something. If it works, we might just be able to salvage this whole mess. What do you say?”

  Garrelt stared at the offered hand, then back at Hugo’s face.

  A moment of silence stretched between them. Then, slowly, Garrelt reached up and csped Hugo’s forearm.

  The armored man grinned and pulled him to his feet.

  Garrelt steadied himself, looked Hugo in the eye, and nodded.

  “Tell me what I need to do.”

  ——————————————————