Inigo tightened his grip on the foregrip of his rifle. "All teams, weapons check. Watch for tremors."
"Motion sensors set," Sark said, hammering in the last of the thermal pegs. "If anything so much as sneezes underground, we’ll know."
Lyra was already perched atop a high bluff, her bow strung and a fresh batch of alchemical arrows beside her. "Visual clear. But the trees aren’t rustling. Not even wind. Something’s holding its breath."
Feron’s voice crackled in over comms. "Leylines just dipped again. They’re shifting. Something’s coming."
As if on cue, the east sensor gave a shrill ping. Then another to the west. Then all of them.
"Contact!" Hal shouted.
The ground to the northeast ruptured first. A spray of soil and molten debris shot skyward as a monster the size of a bison erupted—this one sleeker, almost armored in obsidian plates with glowing red slits where its eyes should be.
"New variant!" Brenna called out. "Speed build!"
"Open fire!" Inigo roared.
The M240 on JLTV One chattered to life, stitching the beast with heavy fire. Lyra launched a frost-tipped arrow that struck the thing’s shoulder, sending a shockwave of ice down its leg. It staggered—but kept coming.
Another burst of earth thirty meters from their left. Two more emerged—one lumbering with massive forelimbs like a tunneling mole, the other spindly and fast.
Sark gritted his teeth and pulled the trigger on the second machine gun, spraying suppressive fire toward the mole-like variant. "These aren’t just random mutations—they’re roles. They’re coordinated!"
Meryl slid into cover and launched an HE round into the midst of the new arrivals. The explosion rocked the basin, throwing chunks of molten dirt skyward—but the mole monster shielded the others with its forearms.
"They’re adapting to our weapons," she said, reloading.
Inigo ducked behind a barricade as the obsidian-shelled creature closed the gap. He popped up and fired a controlled burst into its exposed flank, watching the glowing veins flicker. "Feron, I need a rupture glyph—detonate beneath it!"
"Casting!" Feron shouted, already inscribing a symbol into the ground. He slammed his palm down. "Now!"
A shockwave cracked through the dirt beneath the creature. The glyph burst with light, and the obsidian monster was flung backward, its underbelly torn open in a gush of red-hot ichor.
"Confirmed kill," Lyra reported.
But it didn’t slow the others.
The mole-type slammed into the outer barricade, sending one JLTV rocking. Hal jumped onto the roof and unloaded his P90 down into its exposed back. The rounds chipped armor but didn’t stop it.
She dashed forward and fired both barrels of her shotgun into one of its rear joints. The beast stumbled, and Sark leapt in with his warhammer, driving the spike end into its neck. The blow landed true with a sickening crack.
But the spindly creature had flanked them.
It leapt with horrifying agility, landing on the roof of the second JLTV and ripping at the turret.
Meryl turned too late—but Lyra didn’t.
From her perch, she let loose an arrow that exploded on contact, dousing the monster in a bright flash of concussive light. It screeched and dropped, limbs flailing as it tried to crawl.
Inigo didn’t hesitate. He pulled his sidearm and fired twice into the center of its skull.
Silence again—but not for long.
A low rumble came from the ridgeline.
And then they saw it.
A creature the size of a siege engine crested the hill. Covered in cracked black armor, its head a jagged wedge of bone and glowing veins, steam venting from its shoulders. It moved like a living tank, slower than the others—but far more dangerous.
"That’s not just a variant," Feron said, eyes wide. "That’s a frontline unit."
"Call it the Juggernaut," Inigo muttered. "We need every launcher we’ve got."
Meryl and Inigo both raised their RPGs.
"Targeting center mass," she said.
The Juggernaut roared, and then—
Two rockets streaked through the air, trailing smoke. Both struck the creature’s chest. The explosion lit the entire basin—and when the smoke cleared, the monster was still standing.
But its armor was cracked.
"Exposed!" Sark shouted. "Hit it again!"
Brenna fired a grenade, Lyra shot two more alchemical bolts, and Hal dumped a fresh mag of armor-piercing rounds into the soft spot. Finally, the creature groaned and dropped to its knees.
Inigo ran forward, launcher still hot, and fired the last RPG directly into its mouth.
The beast exploded in a flash of fire and bone.
Only a few seconds passed before the next tremor hit.
"They’re not stopping," Feron warned. "This is an assault wave. Testing the line before a bigger push."
"Then we hold the line," Inigo growled.
"Motion sensors still chirping," Sark said, wiping blood from his temple. "We’ve got more burrowers moving underneath—west side this time."
Hal grunted, swapping mags. "I swear these bastards are playing whack-a-mole with our nerves."
"They’re probing our weak points," Feron said, eyes darting over his glowing runeslate. "If they find a soft flank—"
"They won’t," Inigo cut in. "They’ll break before we do."
Suddenly, a screech tore through the night, more high-pitched and metallic than the others. The ground near the west barricade erupted, sending a JLTV tilting back on two wheels. From the torn earth emerged a creature unlike the rest—sleek and snake-like, its entire body covered in razor-edged scales that shimmered with mana-infused light.
"Serpent-class!" Brenna called, diving to the side as it lashed out, cleaving a trench in the soil with its tail.
"Lyra!" Inigo barked. "Take out its eyes!"
Already nocking a new bolt, she loosed a pair of quick shots—one embedding just above the serpent’s eye slit, the second detonating in a sharp blast of frost. The beast recoiled, screeching, before lunging toward her bluff.
But Meryl was faster. She raised her launcher and fired point-blank into its open mouth as it reared.
The explosion rocked the slope. Chunks of the serpent’s head scattered across the rocks.
"Downed!" Lyra shouted, panting.
"Contact, rear!" Sark yelled suddenly.
Two smaller quadruped types had flanked behind the collapsed barricade, moving low to the ground, their movements erratic—twisting like broken marionettes.
Feron turned and planted his staff with force. A blast of radiant light pulsed outward, halting the monsters mid-lunge. "Wards holding—briefly!"
Hal, perched on the JLTV turret, opened fire with his LMG, sweeping from side to side as tracer rounds tore into both creatures, shredding limbs and cracking exoskeleton.
The other kept crawling—until Brenna drove her combat blade through its skull.
Only the quiet hum of sensors and the crackling of fire remained.
"They’re falling back," Lyra murmured.
"For now," Inigo said grimly.
The team regrouped, bloodied, breathing hard.