CHAPTER 152: WAR ZONE 3

With the earth-shaking steps, the beast moved forward with its gaze locked on the intruders. The first blow came fast, too fast for its size. The ground split as the beast slammed its fist down, nearly crushing Darius where he stood. The shockwave flung him backward, his hammer fell across the rocks.

Lyra fired arrow after arrow, but they snapped harmlessly against its stone armor. "Nothing is piercing it!" she shouted, scrambling for higher ground.

Kelvin leapt forward, Xerion’s spirit blazed in his blade. He struck at the creature’s leg, but the steel only scraped sparks off its armor. The beast swiped at him with its massive arm, sending him tumbling across the dirt, blood spraying from his lip.

"Kelvin!" Lyra cried, loosing another volley that at least forced the beast’s attention away from finishing him.

Darius, staggering to his feet, roared in defiance and retrieved his hammer. "Then we break it the old way to hit it harder!" He charged and slammed his weapon into the ground near the Goliath’s ankle. The impact cracked the earth, toppling the beast momentarily off balance.

Kelvin seized the moment. "The joints! That is the weakness!" Lyra’s arrows shifted, now aimed at the softer flesh beneath the stony plates. One found its mark, sinking deep into the creature’s exposed knee joint. The beast howled, stumbled as its massive frame lurched sideways.

Kelvin and Darius moved as one, Kelvin darted in with lightning speed and slashed through the softened weak points, while Darius brought his hammer down with bone-crushing force. Together, they shattered through the stone armor at its leg.

The beast enraged and wounded, unleashed a furious assault with fists smashing wildly. One blow nearly caved in Darius’s chest, his armor crumpling under the impact as he was hurled back against the cliff wall. Blood streamed from his mouth, but he refused to fall unconscious.

Kelvin’s heart thundered. If they didn’t end it now, the beast would kill them all. "Lyra! Now!" he shouted.

Lyra, perched on the top of a broken boulder, he drew her final arrow—its tip wrapped in a faint, glowing enchantment. She released it straight into the beast’s chest, right where a crack had already begun to form. The arrow struck deep, and in the same heartbeat, Kelvin plunged Xerion’s spirit blade into the same wound.

The energy was reduced within, splitting the creature’s stone body apart. The beast let out a deafening roar before collapsing, its body crumbled into rubble that shook the ground.

There was silence everywhere, which was broken only by the ragged breaths of the three warriors. Darius coughed blood but smirked faintly. "Tough bastard... almost had me."

Kelvin helped him up, his grip wass steady despite his own injuries. "If this is what the path holds, the den will be worse."

Lyra retrieved her arrow, her voice steady though her hands were trembled. "Then we survive each step... one battle at a time."

The Swarm in the Hollow Woods

As they kept going they came to point where the path was twisted deeper into the wilderness, the air was heavy with a silence that was too absolute to be natural.

Even the night insects had ceased their noise and the forest seemed to shrink away from what lay ahead. Kelvin’s hand never left the hilt of Xerion’s spirit-forged blade, its faint pulse was reassuring him that he was not walking into this abyss alone.

Lyra padded lightly across the uneven ground, every motion of hers were calculated. Her bow rested against her palm. Darius was behind them he moved with his war hammer slung across his shoulder, each step was deliberate, like a mountain walking on mortal legs.

They had survived the Shade-Wolves, the Fen Serpents, the winged Night Fiends, and even the monstrous Abyssal Ravager and Stone hide Beast. Yet a gnawing unease threaded between them now.

Their bodies carried bruises, their breaths were heavier than when they began, and their wounds, though patched but was ached with each movement.

"Quiet," Kelvin murmured, raising his hand. "Do you hear it?"

At first, there was nothing. Then, faintly, a low clicking—like hundreds of tiny stones rattling in jars drifted from deeper within the trees. Lyra froze, her keen ears twitched. "That’s no beast I have heard before."

The sound grew louder as the clicking became clattering. Clattering became scraping.

The three emerged into a hollow clearing where the moon barely touched the earth. The ground was riddled with burrows, jagged holes that was leading into blackness.

The air reeked of musk and decay, and the soil was torn as though something had clawed its way out rather than dug in.

Darius sniffed the air and tightened his grip on his hammer. "I don’t like this, it feels like a graveyard for something that never should have lived."

A sound rose from the burrows, like a unified skittering. Dozens of glowing red eyes were ignited within the holes.

From the earth burst the Chitter Spawn, insectoid horrors of the size of hounds, their chitinous shells was glistened with slime. Their mandibles clicked, while their legs tore at the soil, and acidic saliva dripped from their fanged maws. One emerged and before you know it three emerged. Then ten. Then fifty.

Kelvin’s blood chilled. This wasn’t a hunting pack. It was a hive on the move. The first wave surged forward with a shriek of hunger.

"Hold!" Kelvin roared, charging to meet them. His blade was flared with Xerion’s spirit-light, slicing through the first beast in a spray of ichor.

Lyra’s arrows flew like silver streaks, each one was striking between plates of chitin, dropping monsters mid-leap. Darius’s hammer was swung wide, crushing two Chitter spawn in a single blow, their bodies were cracking like brittle shells.

But for every one that fell, five more crawled out of the burrows. The ground trembled with the sheer number pouring forth.

"They are trying to surround us!" Lyra shouted from her perch on a broken stump, firing arrow after arrow with ruthless precision.

Kelvin moved beneath snapping mandibles and drove his blade upward, piercing through the soft underbelly of another creature. The swarm pressed harder with their shrieks filling the hollow.

Claws raked at him, leaving shallow cuts across his arms. He spun cleaved two more down, but his breath came shorter with every strike.

Darius fought like a bulwark, planting his feet firmly in the earth. His hammer rose and fell, each impact was splattering ichor across the ground.

One Chitter Spawn clamped its mandibles on his arm, drawing blood, but he snarled and smashed its head into paste against a rock. Even so, the tide was endless.

A second wave poured from the largest burrow, larger beasts with their mandibles curved like scythes and their shells were thicker and spiked. These were the Dreadspawn, the hive’s guardians.

One charged at Lyra’s position, scaling the stump with horrifying speed. She fired two arrows into its head, but they deflected off the armored plates. With a hiss, it lunged, but she rolled off the stump at the last second, landing in a crouch and loosing an arrow straight into its eye. The creature shrieked and convulsed while collapsing into the soil.

Kelvin saw two Dread Spawn rushing at Darius simultaneously. "Darius, move to the left!" He shouted.

But the warning came too late. One slammed into him, knocking the him off his feet, while the other pinned him with claws scraping at his chest. Darius roared, straining against its weight, but the beast’s mandibles inched closer to his throat.

Kelvin sprinted, Xerion blazing, and leapt, bringing his blade down through the creature’s neck. The Dreadspawn’s head split apart in a spray of acid. Kelvin landed, boots slipped in ichor, and rolled away as the second beast lunged at him. He caught its mandibles with his blade, the force nearly drove him into the ground.

"Lyra!" he shouted.....

Her arrow pierced through the gap in its armor, striking true. The beast spasmed and collapsed, narrowly missed crushing Kelvin beneath its bulk.

Darius shoved the carcass aside and staggered to his feet, blood dripping from a deep gash across his side. He grimaced, forcing himself upright. "I will live. But there is too many if they keep pouring out, we won’t hold."

Lyra’s eyes darted to the burrows. "We need to stop the hive... or at least slow it!"

As if mocking her words, the largest burrow trembled violently. Cracks spread across the earth as something massive forced its way upward. The clicking grew louder, resonating in their bones.

Kelvin’s grip on Xerion tightened, his knuckles white. "Whatever that is... it’s their matriarch." immediately the soil erupted.

A monstrosity unlike the others rose from the burrow, a Broodmother which towered over the clearing, its bloated abdomen pulsated with vile eggs.

Its mandibles were jagged and dripped with venom, and its carapace bore scars of countless battles. From its abdomen, smaller spawn dripped and crawled, immediately joining the fray. The Chitter spawn horde screamed as one, emboldened by their queen.

Kelvin, Lyra, and Darius now stood at the heart of a living nightmare, surrounded by a sea of claws and fangs.