Chapter 185: Nothing But The Swarm
After Snare's warning cut through the broodlink, the pressure around them shifted. The water felt heavier, tighter against their skin. Panic felt it first. His eyes went wide as he finished choking out a Makara, chain digging in until it went still.
'Snare! Plan!'
Grip tightening on his staff, Snare's mind raced. Every option ran short. Without the Broodfather, their strength wasn't enough for what was coming. He looked to Min as she tore an eel's jaws apart, bones snapping.
'Human! Any ideas?!'
Min clenched her teeth. Thinking wasn't her thing. That was Gregor. She hurled the carcass toward the lessers and pushed forward into the next target. There wasn't even time to plan.
'We just have to hold! Can we move Seo-jin?!'
Voice urgent, Synapse answered immediately.
'The Broodfather cannot be moved! The consequences could be fatal!'
That ended it.
Min drove her fists in faster, knuckles cracking against scale and chitin. If there was no plan, then she'd make one with bodies.
Then a voice cut in, one most of them had forgotten.
It started with a hiccup.
Appearing almost out of nowhere, Teal drifted forward, unsteady, the current nudging her as she moved toward Seo-jin's orb. No one knew she had been riding around inside Grimm's mouth since the fight started, drinking herself silly.
'Hic—Who made dat?'
She pointed at one of the bone barricades.
'I did!'
Firing another shot, Synapse dropped behind his current barricade, bone scraping his shoulder as he waited for the next round to charge.
Blinking a few times, Teal's gaze shifted between the bone structure and the glowing orb. Then she giggled.
'Easy peasy! Come—hic—come here, come oooonnn! Real quick.'
She flopped down into the silt, a soft cloud kicking up around her.
Looking to Snare, Synapse hesitated.
Caught off guard for a beat by his brother's reaction, Snare gave a short nod. With his approval, Synapse slung his gun and swam over to Teal.
Panic's sickle snapped into the face of a Vent Bug just as it lunged for Synapse's leg, yanking it off course and dragging it into his blades.
Arriving beside the human, Synapse turned and fired again, recoil running up his arm as he kept his attention on the fight.
'What's your plan?'
Teal burped, then set a hand on Synapse's head, and patted it.
'Rank up!'
After the second pat, and before Synapse could break her wrist, white light spread across his body. He didn't strike her. He stilled, focusing instead on the shift he felt inside as one of his skills advanced.
Bloodlight surging, he shouted to a group of lessers.
'Bring bodies! Now!'
Without wasting a moment, he pushed the details through the broodlink to Snare, laying out his plan.
Snare's eyes flared with bloodlight as he slammed the butt of his staff into the ground.
'Bring the line back! Everyone gather around Synapse! Bring the dead with you! Panic, Min, Bile! Slow them down!'
No one hesitated. Orders moved fast. The brood and humans pulled back toward the Broodfather, water dragging at them as they disengaged. The second they broke free, each grabbed a corpse and kicked off, hauling it through the current.
The three called out didn't retreat. Pushing forward instead. Along with the remaining lessers, they met the surge head-on. Panic's blades flashed. Min's gauntlets hammered. Bile's fists crushed. Vent Bugs split apart under them, and the last few Makara went down in the same push.
For a moment, some thought it might end there.
It didn't.
The pressure didn't ease. The wave kept getting closer. In the distance, the first glow of the swarm lit the dark, spreading wider and brighter, like a fire building.
After a decent pile of bugs, eels, and Makara had stacked up, bodies drifting and bumping in the current, Hex eyed them hungrily while Synapse raised both hands toward the corpses.
'Everyone stand within ten feet of the Broodfather. Speed is imperative!'
Everyone shifted, pulling in tight around the orb. Some flinched as they bumped into empty space that felt solid. Grimm stayed coiled there, unseen, grinning to himself like an idiot.
Snare pushed the command out. Panic and Bile grabbed Min mid-swing, and tore away from the front while the lessers remained back, their lives sacrificed for the cause.
Just in time.
The distant glow had become a moving wall. A tide of chitin and teeth rolled forward, the water vibrating with it. Vent Bugs. More than they could count. The whole space ahead churned as it rushed them, completely enveloping the lessers as if they weren't even there.
Min, Bile, and Panic slammed down beside the group, silt kicking up around them.
Snare shouted.
'Now!'
Bloodlight burst from Synapse's palms, heat rolling off it as it swallowed the mound of bodies in an instant. It clung to every corpse, crawled over torn flesh and cracked shells, then pulled tight.
The bodies jerked.
Skin dissolved, muscle tore loose as if something inside was yanking it free. Bones snapped then twisted, grinding as they bent and stretched. Tendons drew tight like cables, sinew binding everything together as the mass lifted off the ground and folded inward.
A shape rose around them.
A dome formed, thick and layered. Bone locked into bone, curved plates overlapping while strands of muscle and tendon cinched the structure tight. Wet sounds filled the space as the last scraps of flesh were stripped away and packed into the frame, sealing gaps, reinforcing weak points.
Inside, the surface shifted again.
Slits tore open along the inner walls, spreading just wide enough before locking into place. From each one, bone pushed outward, reshaping, splitting, then snapping into rigid form. Arms, frames, firing channels. Ballistae grew from the dome itself, their limbs pulled taut with tendon cords, tips angled outward through the openings.
At the base of each, piles of sharpened bone formed, stacking themselves into crude but deadly ammunition.
The light faded.
More than half the bodies were gone, and for half a breath, no one moved.
Then the pressure hit.
Widow planted herself at the center, too large to reposition, her legs braced as the dome rattled around her. Snare grabbed the nearest frame, staff clattering against bone as he locked into place. Bile hauled a bolt into position with both hands. Hex swung onto another, teeth bared as sound started to build in his throat. Slims scrambled up beside another. Synapse didn't hesitate, already adjusting angles, already sighting.
Without waiting for command, they started firing. Bone bolts tore through the slits, punching into the front line just as it arrived.
Then, the wall hit.
And the world quaked.
Everyone jolted as the killing intent washed over them, pressing in through the gore. Muscles tightened, breath hitched, then eased a fraction as the bones above creaked but held.
The firing resumed. Bolt after bolt tore into the mass outside as the frames kicked against their grips.
Realizing he'd had enough fun, Grimm let his form go loose, turning intangible. The pressure in the cramped space eased. Split-jaw, Lynn, and Min shifted in closer, hands working, loading fresh bolts.
But Panic stood back, not moving, head lowered, eyes fixed on nothing.
Outside, the world churned with clicking and hissing. The noise pressed in, constant, grinding, so loud it rattled the structure around them.
Fang drifted closer through the chaos, lowering his head.
'Brother Panic, something wrong?'
His stillness didn't fit. Widow felt it too, a prickle crawling up her neck. She reached down, fingers brushing for him, ready to shake him—
He moved.
Panic swam forward, stopping beside Synapse, face set.
'Let me out!'
'No! That would be suicide!'
Panic grabbed him by the horn.
He yanked Synapse up and slammed him into the silt, the impact kicking up a cloud. He leaned in close, voice low.
'Let me out!'
Then he slammed him again and hurled him into the wall, bone cracking under the hit.
Everyone inside froze. The only one still moving was Snare.
'Stop!'
He shoved forward, forcing himself between them.
'What are you doing?! The Broodfather ordered—!'
'The wall won't last much longer, will it?!'
Panic didn't look at him. His eyes stayed locked ahead. Snare knew the question wasn't for him.
'Five minutes at most!'
Synapse pushed himself upright, blood slipping from his mouth. He braced an arm against the wall, fingers digging into the slick bone as it shook.
'With the corpses we have, five minutes is the most I can do!'
Panic stepped past Snare without slowing. He stopped just in front of the wall, sickle low, dagger held tight.
'Let me out!'
No one moved. The air tightened. Every eye shifted to Snare.
His grip creaked against his staff. He looked at Panic, then at the pulsing orb behind them.
'Let him go.'
Placing a hand against the wall, Synapse steadying himself, then looked to Panic. There was no anger in his eyes.
'How did you know?!'
Panic's mouth finally pulled into a grin.
'I just do! Jealous?!'
'No!'
Bloodlight spilled from Synapse's palm, and the wall split open.
Rushing out, Panic screeched into the chaos as he spun, blades already moving.
Min followed right behind him, slamming her gauntlets together and planting herself in the opening, bracing as bodies slammed against her. Bloodlight flashed again as Synapse sealed the gap, the bone grinding shut with a wet crack.
Everyone snapped back to their ballistae and resumed firing, the frames kicking hard against their grips.
Leaning into his shots, Snare tried to clear space, tried to see. Each bolt landed clean, punching through chitin and flesh, but the mass outside kept pressing in. Too thick. Too close. He couldn't see through it, and he couldn't see his brother.
But he knew one thing. Panic wouldn't go easy. They would pay for every inch.
Then Hex's voice cut through.
'There he is!'
Everyone followed his voice, heads turning as one, eyes straining through the shifting mass outside the dome.
There.
Panic. Still alive.
He was tearing through them.
No rhythm, no pause, no hesitation. His body moved without break, chain whipping wide as the sickle carved through anything in reach. It didn't stop. It didn't slow. Each pull dragged him forward into the next target, his dagger stabbing low while his teeth snapped into anything that got close enough.
He didn't look like he was fighting anymore. He looked like something that had been let loose. No one to guard. No one to protect. No position to hold. Just killing. Pure, direct slaughter without restraint.
A bug lunged. He slipped past it, the sickle catching behind its head, yanking himself through its body as his dagger drove into the next. Another came from below. He twisted, bit down, ripped, and kept moving.
It wasn't chaos. It was control.
The pressure on the dome eased just a little.
Snare's claws tightened as he continued to fire, he took a moment to check on the glowing orb while he reloaded a shot.
'How long?!'
Synapse didn't hesitate.
'Fifteen minutes and forty-three seconds!'
Snarling, Snare turned back—
And his mouth went dry.
A bug slammed into Panic's side.
Chitin tore through him, ripping away a chunk of his ribs in a wet spray, but Panic didn't stop. He didn't even react as he turned into it.
His sickle spun faster, a tight, violent arc that tore through everything around him. His chain snapped taut, dragging him through bodies as his dagger kept stabbing, kept cutting, his teeth finding anything that slipped past.
More bugs locked onto him.
More closed in.
He just welcomed it. They piled in, drawn to him, pulled into the storm. His sickle became a blur. His chain whistled. Flesh split and bodies dropped.
Then one got through. Jaws clamped down, and Panic's foot tore free.
He twisted, ripped the bug open, kept moving.
Another lunged from behind. His tail snapped, gone, but he still didn't stop.
He killed it. Killed everything near it.
For a moment, the Brood could still see him. Still see the movement. Then the mass collapsed in. Bodies slammed together, piling over him, chitin grinding, legs clawing as they buried him under sheer weight.
The last glimpse of Panic vanished.
And then there was nothing but the swarm.