The desert changed as the sun sank lower, not quite setting but bleeding heat into long shadows. The air cooled just enough to be unsettling. Owen noticed it first because cautious people noticed patterns. The sand no longer felt still beneath their boots. It shifted in subtle ripples, like something breathing underneath.
"Blair," Owen said quietly, hand tightening around the survival machete. "Tell me I am imagining that."
Blair stopped walking. Her posture changed instantly, playful looseness gone, muscles tightening beneath her crop top. She stared at the ground, then grinned sharply. "You are not imagining shit, boss. Something's crawling up."
The sand erupted.
Huge insects burst from beneath the dunes, chitinous bodies scraping against stone hard sand. They were nearly two feet tall, thick legs clicking, mandibles snapping wetly. Their bodies glistened with dark fluid and coarse hairs, eyes clustered and unblinking.
Owen swallowed. "Big bugs. Great. Of course it's big bugs."
Blair cracked her neck. "Relax, boss. These ones look fragile."
The first insect lunged.
Blair moved faster than Owen could track. Her agility turned her into a blur as she stepped inside its charge, grabbed its foreleg, and twisted. There was a sickening snap. She slammed the creature into the ground headfirst, then stomped down. The chitin shattered. Dark ichor sprayed across the sand.
"Jesus," Owen muttered, watching the system counter tick upward in the corner of his vision. "Kill points. I am actually getting kill points."
Another insect leaped toward Owen. He reacted on instinct, dodging sideways. His let the mandibles scrape a bit of his arm without breaking skin. He slashed down hard with the machete, hacking into the insect's thorax. It shrieked, a horrible high pitched sound, and thrashed until Blair grabbed it by the head and ripped it clean off.
She tossed the twitching body aside. "You good?"
"I am alive," Owen said. "That counts."
More insects surfaced. Five. Then eight. They swarmed, legs digging, jaws snapping.
Blair laughed, wild and sharp. "Now this is exercise."
She waded into them bare handed. Her strength was enough to crush limbs, but it was her agility that made her terrifying. She darted between strikes, ducked under lunges, and tore insects apart with brutal efficiency. She grabbed one by its abdomen, slammed it into another, then tore both in half. Chitin cracked. Fluids splattered her arms and face. The cross scar on her face made her grin look feral.
Owen backed up, breathing hard, slashing at anything that got close. "You are insane," he shouted.
"Compliment accepted," Blair shot back, crushing an insect's skull between her palms.
An insect leaped toward Owen's head. He ducked, then drove the machete upward into its underside. The blade stuck. Owen planted his foot on the creature's body and yanked it free, spraying dark blood.
"Not bad," Blair said. "You don't flinch much."
"I flinch internally," Owen replied, hacking at another leg. "A lot."
The ground kept moving. More insects crawled out, drawn by the noise. Blair ripped one apart by the mandibles, pulling until its head tore free with a wet pop.
Owen glanced at the system counter again. The numbers kept climbing. "We cannot do this forever," he said. "Even if you are enjoying yourself."
Blair slammed her elbow through an insect's carapace. "I am managing just fine. You still breathing?"
"Yes," Owen snapped. "But I would like to keep it that way."
He tossed the machete toward her. "Take it. You can clear faster."
Blair glanced at it mid air and shook her head. "Nope. You need that more than I do."
She kicked the machete back toward him without looking, then snapped an insect's spine with a twist. "You cut what slips past me. That's the plan."
Owen caught the handle, grimacing. "You are really stubborn."
"Damn right," Blair said. "And loyal. Don't forget that part."
An insect slammed into her from the side. Its mandibles closed around her shoulder. Owen's heart lurched.
Blair roared and drove her fingers into its eye cluster. She ripped the head apart while it was still attached, then hurled the body away. Blood ran down her arm, but her durability held.
"That tickled," she said darkly.
Owen slashed another insect down, breathing hard. "You are bleeding."
"Not mine," Blair replied.
The fight dragged on. Blair's movements never slowed. Her endurance let her keep going, her agility letting her dance through the swarm. Bodies piled up. The sand turned black and slick.
Finally, the smaller insects hesitated. Some burrowed back into the sand.
Owen leaned on his knees, chest heaving. "Please tell me that is it."
Blair wiped ichor from her face. "For the little ones, probably."
The ground trembled.
A massive shape pushed upward, sand cascading off a towering insect nearly three feet tall. Its mandibles were thicker, its shell layered and scarred. It screeched, a deep vibrating sound.
Blair's grin widened. "Oh. That's new."
Owen straightened, gripping the machete. "We should think this through."
Blair stepped forward, muscles coiling. "Thinking is your job."
She cracked her knuckles. "Killing is mine."
The giant insect charged.
Blair charged back.