But Lincoln had to continue.

  Hector wanted to give his friend some encouragement, but that would only slow their momentum. So instead, he opted not to answer. His fist shot out and caught an ant mid-leap. Then he slammed it into the ground, the crunch reverberating through his knuckles.

  Purple energy crackled to life along his forearm, and static electricity condensed into twin blades, light coursing through them. He drove one blade down into the insect’s head, little resistance giving way, then swept the other through a second bug that lunged from a nearby boulder.

  He maintained the fighting momentum, even with Lincoln’s complaint, because what else could they do? If Lincoln fell, the endless horde would consume him.

  Minutes bled together. Hector’s breathing came harder, his muscles burning with effort. If he felt this bad being at Gravity Forging-Four, he could only imagine how Jodie and Lincoln were holding up. Even her battle intent had faded, her eyes returning to their usual blue.

  “We’ve taken it far enough,” Hector said, pivoting and sliding to a stop, voice tight. “We’re going to have to hold them here.”

  He’d come up with a plan. The enormous creature struggled to move—or at least pivot—within the tunnel, so they’d just have to rob it of that ability. Like most insects, its weakest points would be its joints.

  If he could use Blazing Arsenal to melt the joints, along with Jodie’s help, they could sink the beast and at least prevent it from advancing. It would act as a natural blockade and give them more time. But the question remained: how would they get around it after they’d downed it? The little ones would hardly let them pass just because it had fallen.

  The swarm pressed closer, overwhelming them with sheer numbers. Lincoln’s spear became a whirlwind. Jodie’s claws painted purple arcs through the air, viscera splashing onto the walls. Hector’s blades carved through chitin with flashes of purple light, arms straining from the relentless pace, though the blades still cut with ease.

  The behemoth released another screech, and Hector’s chest tightened. The surrounding walls trembled. Why were they trembling? They shouldn’t be.

  The stone rippled, bulged. Cracks spider-webbed across the surface. Then, bugs erupted from small tunnels that shouldn’t have been there. They poured through the openings, mandibles snapping, antennae waving. Dozens of them, if not more.

  The bugs had led them into an ambush; the realisation almost made Hector buckle. He’d half-heartedly hoped he’d been leading these creatures away, leading them farther from the survivors. But in reality, they were the ones being herded.

  These bugs were more than just intelligent. He’d given them maybe the rating of a six-year-old, able to come up with basic plans, wants, and needs. But this was almost at the level of an adult setting up an ambush.

  His heart hammered against his ribs. The tunnels compressed around him, the air thickening as more insects flooded the passage, bodies forming a barricade between them and any hope of reaching the survivors.

  His mind raced, cycling through options and discarding them almost as fast as they came. Everything eventually led to them being swarmed and consumed by mandibles, crushed beneath chitinous bodies.

  What were they going to do?

  The solution bubbled up in Hector’s mind. Those survivors—the same ones trapped behind the walls while the ants moved the stones—they’d faced a similar situation. A cave-in, probably one they’d triggered themselves. The thought punched through his panic and steeled his resolve.

  “Jodie!” he barked, his voice cutting through the cacophony of chittering mandibles. “I need you to put up a firewall. Lincoln, you go with her. Place a mud wall just behind it.”

  Jodie glanced over her shoulder. Her clawed hand caught an ant mid-lunge. She wrenched its head back and slammed her foot onto its neck, ripping the skull free. “That’s not gonna hold them for long,” she said, then pivoted and pelted the head into another insect’s carapace, shattering it.

  Lincoln’s spear plunged through the chittering mass beside him. A mantis-like bug surged from his flank, mandibles spread wide. He sidestepped; the movement was controlled even with the exhaustion that no doubt flooded his limbs.

  His spear slipped between the creature’s mandibles and punched straight through its head. Ichor sprayed. Lincoln ripped the weapon back, viscera whirling off the blade in green ribbons before he thrust it into another target.

  Hector’s throat tightened. The firewall and mud wall wouldn’t hold. True. But they didn’t need to. All they had to do was buy time. With enough time, the collapsing roof would crush the horde without trapping them with it. Probably.

  Mana surged through his veins, and his mantle of leaves bristled free with several pops. He raised a hand and fired, purple streaks slamming into the swarm. Then he reached into the back of his mind, pulling on [Blazing Arsenal]. Off to the side, stone bubbled and split as a magma pool tore through the tunnel floor.

  Heat washed over him in waves. A fireball coalesced above the pool, then ripped free a moment later. The explosion slammed into the front of the horde and sent insects flying. Severed legs, shattered bodies. The path ahead cleared in an instant, and now his friends had to make the most of it.

  The behemoth at the rear released another screech that rattled through Hector’s chest, its beady eyes fixed on him.

  “Go now!” he yelled. “Just trust me.”

  Thankfully, neither voiced any complaint. Jodie rushed forward into the cleared opening, boots pounding on stone before she slammed to a stop, fingers splayed. A wall of fire erupted before her, flames surging upwards. The insects reeled back with screeches and clattering mandibles. Some slipped forward and burst into flame, squealing as they burned.

  Lincoln slid to a stop behind her and dropped to one knee. Mud poured from the ground, rising and solidifying into a thick barricade just behind the flames.

  Hector reached into the back of his mind again, pulling on his Talent. [Quickening Brace] slammed into being, and the flames froze mid-flicker.

  Insects hung suspended in their retreat, the world standing frozen around him while his mind raced ahead. The magma pool at his side still pulsed beneath its frozen surface. He pulled on it, and a gout of flame ripped free from the pool, shooting toward the ceiling.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  More fire gathered as a second fireball took shape, then ripped free, aimed at a different section.

  The the world started again. Both fireballs struck simultaneously as time crashed back into motion.

  Stone groaned. Dust rained in thin streams that thickened into a cascade.

  “What did you do?” Jodie yelled, her eyes snapping to Hector.

  “Just trust me.” His words came out hollow. He didn’t even fully trust himself with this plan. He’d really only given them two options: be crushed and killed by bugs, or crushed and killed by rocks.

  Large chunks broke free from the ceiling, and the tunnel shuddered.

  “Get back over here now!” he yelled. “We need to hold this spot!”

  Jodie and Lincoln pulled back from the walls and ran toward him. Behind them, the mud wall Lincoln had erected began crumbling as insects pressed against it, chitinous bodies writhing against the barrier. Flames licked through the gaps. Mandibles snapped. Screeches echoed off the stone.

  A mantis-like creature mounted the wall, its barbed legs finding purchase as it climbed upward even as it burned.

  A chunk of rock crashed into the mantis, splattering it into guts and flaming chitin fragments.

  Breathing hard, Lincoln and Jodie staggered to a stop at his side.

  “Hector, are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Jodie asked, resting a hand on her knee.

  He met her gaze and let out a sharp laugh. He had no idea what he was doing. It was more gut instinct and hope that things would pan out. If it didn’t, this risk would be foolish at best. The odds felt thin, but the hope burning bright in his chest kept him clear-headed.

  He nodded.

  Jodie held his gaze briefly before looking back at the chaos.

  The cave shook harder. The behemoth’s screech rose above everything else as more rocks tumbled down. Bugs crushed beneath stone, chaos swept through the tunnel in clouds of dust and falling debris. The bodies of insects continued surging forward while others fled backwards, their fellows erupting in ichor as the cave collapsed around them.

  Jodie and Lincoln pressed tighter against him.

  “Lincoln, do you think you could erect another mud wall?” Hector asked, turning to his friend.

  Lincoln tilted his head, glancing at Jodie and then back at him. “I’m not sure what good that’ll do, but by the Great Lake I’ll try.” He paused. “Though I don’t think this is going to be strong enough to stop the roof from crushing us.”

  Hector’s gaze drifted to the ceiling. “It doesn’t need to stop the ceiling from crushing us. You just need to make it curved so it can deflect the lighter ones. Better to at least see a big one coming than get knocked out by the smaller ones.”

  Not putting up any protest, Lincoln dropped to his knees. The ground morphed again as mud rose and shaped itself into a curved structure, a semi-dome that arced above them. Rocks continued tumbling, smashing onto the dome and sliding away across its surface. Smaller pieces clattered around them, dust filling the air thick enough to coat his tongue.

  Then Hector saw it.

  One large rock breaking free from the ceiling directly above them. Too large. The dome wouldn’t be able to deflect something that big, and he didn’t fancy his chances of surviving that impact, even with the metal carapace.

  So again, he reached into the back of his mind, willing everything he had. Energy bubbled in his throat, the familiar pressure of [Force Cry] building. An instant later, he opened his mouth and roared.

  The sound manifested as visible waves rippling through the air. It struck the falling rock and knocked it off course. The chunk slammed into a sidewall, shattering as smaller rocks rained down with wet squelches, probably crushing more bugs he couldn’t see.

  The world continued to crumble around them, narrowing and compressing in the overwhelming roar of falling stone.

  Then black.

  —- —- —- —-

  Water lapped at Hector’s ankles as infinite blackness expanded around him. The soulscape, familiar and warm, stretched in all directions. A few paces away, five white marble pedestals rose from the shallows, each topped with brown pots where his talent saplings grew, their golden leaves rustling in the unfelt breeze.

  Hector sighed, taking them in for a moment.

  It was a miracle that he and his friends had survived the cave-in. A miracle he did not wish to waste. But they had a pressing issue, and it was the reason he was here. There was no light in their current cramped confines outside the soulscape.

  Hector shifted, sending ripples of blue across the dark water. His mind crunched through his options. [Blazing Arsenal] definitely could not light their way. In such cramped confines, not only would they cook themselves alive, they’d be doing all the work for the bugs.

  That left only one other Talent that would be useful, one he didn’t think he’d ever find a use for.

  “System,” Hector said.

  A text box materialised before him, hanging in the void.

  “Call down, [Verdant Luminescence].”

  Above, the sky rippled. Streaks of white and green cut across the darkness, each representing a currently equipped Talent. Hector marvelled at them, then paused.

  He should probably check what Talent to exchange [Verdant Luminescence] with. He wouldn’t be using it for long, just enough to navigate what would soon be their tomb, but it would definitely be good to have it equipped.

  Another system screen appeared, this time a list of his equipped Talents.

  ————————————————

  Talent List:

  ————————————————

  ///

  ├─Hearty Body [?○○] (1/3) — Quickening Brace [?○○] (1/3)

  ├─Volt Runner Harness [?○○] (1/3) — Force Cry [?○○](1/3)

  ├─Awakened Soul [??○] (2/3) — Crowd Compass [?○○] (1/3)

  ├─Metal Carapace [?○○] (1/3) — Blazing Arsenal[?○○] (1/3)

  ├─Mana Forge [??○] (2/3) — Phantom Masquerade [?○○] (1/3)

  └─Circuit Surge [?○○] (1/3) — Shared Secret [?○○] (1/3)

  ///

  ————————————————

  Hector scrolled, and his gaze immediately snapped to [Phantom Masquerade]. Useful, no doubt. A fantastic Talent in the right situation. But he was far from the right situation.

  He hadn’t even had time to activate it, and more to the point, what good would a decoy be when hordes of bugs raced toward him? It wouldn’t matter whether the decoy ran left or right. The horde would land all the same.

  That situation wouldn’t change while they were in the hive.

  Might as well swap it out.

  As he considered, a green light streaked from the sky and slammed down mid-air. A rippling wave pulsed through the black void, brushing against his white hair. The Talent hung there, its crystal-like form, inscriptions swirling across the surface. Soft and luminous.

  [Verdant Luminescence].

  Right then. Masquerade, it was.