The descent to Level 4B was different this time. The tunnels narrowed. The walls sweated. Faint chittering echoed through the stone—too distant to strike, too close to ignore. No lights. No signs. Just the heartbeat thrum of the Vein and the sting of pheromone trails that weren't meant for humans. We moved in silence, low to the ground. My plasma tail dimmed to minimal charge, humming beneath the surface. Felicity crept beside me; body lean and tensed like coiled wire. "She's got sensory worms in the cracks," she whispered. "No talking past this point."
I nodded. We moved deeper. Through broken bone columns. Through resin drips that looked like blood turned gold. Through a narrow cleft that opened into—
The Hive Basin. Egg clusters. Hundreds. Webbed to the walls and twitching faintly. In the center, the remains of a previous hunter. Still twitching. Not dead. Preserved. Felicity grabbed my arm, her eyes wide warning me. But we were already too late. The hive screamed. The walls cracked. Dozens of multi-legged spawns dropped from above clinging to stone with inverted claws and hissing ultrasonic warnings. Each one the size of a wolf. Chitin-braced. Twitchy-fast. Fanged in all the wrong places.
One leapt. I spun, Plasma tail lit! I fired the burst into its body mid-air—flash frying it. The impact scattered glowing ichor across the walls like fiery tar! Felicity burst into movement—low sweeping strikes and precision kicks. Her aura flared violet. We fought back to back—bug after bug lunging, shrieking, clicking, dying. Tail sweeps. Elbow slams. Fang stabs. Whip cracks. One little bastard bit into my thigh!
I grabbed it by the back of its head and crushed its skull, as I rammed my tail into its torso and fired another Plasma Burst! It detonated! Chitin rained down like snowflakes made of glass, making tinkling noise as they hit. One of the larger drones burst as it died—its core spilled out a glowing amber-like sac. Thick, sweet-smelling resin hardened mid-air.
Felicity caught a chunk in her claw. "Hive Amber!" she shouted. "Worth loads if we don't melt it!"
"Collect later!" I growled, "Kill now."
The damn bugs just kept coming—but slower. We'd scorched through a full wave. I was breathing heavy. My orgone pool was felling drained, but still gathering in ambient heat, recharging even as I clawed down an incoming bug wave.
And then…
The Hive shook. The walls cracked. Felicity's head snapped up. "She's coming." Herja whispered in my skull, "Now. Burn it." I raised my tail—overloaded the plasma core. The chamber screamed as I jammed it into the central egg-mass. A single word burned behind my teeth—
"Ignite."
The tail discharged a supercharged plasma burst directly into the heart of the nest.
Heat bloomed like a nova.
Flame raced along pheromone trails—fire veins spiraling out in all directions. Eggs exploded. Chitin bubbled. Spawn shrieked and ran. And from the smoking corridor behind the nest—
Zerask.
Massive. Crowned in bone. Chitin armor plated with rune-scars and mutant grafts. Six arms. Two jaws. Eyes that reflected nothing but fury. She saw us. She roared. And she charged. The Hive basin had become an arena of fire. Egg sacs burned. Smoke curled in serpent-shapes. Resin cracked underfoot like brittle glass. And Zerask the Brood mother stomped into the ruin, flames licking her legs, wings half-scorched from the plasma surge.
Her roar wasn't just sound—it was signal. Felicity reached into her backpack and flung a hovering Orb into the air! Glyph-lights blinked red.
[BEASTNET: LIVE FEED INITIATED]
TARGET: ZERASK – CLASS DELTA APEX
HUNTERS: TEAM VEINBORN – HERJA / FELICITY
STATUS: COMBAT COMMENCED
VIEWERS: 1,438... 5,220... 17,909...
We were on air!
Felicity flicked her wings behind her, lips twitching. "You ever kill a bug queen on camera before?"
"First time for everything," I said. Zerask came in fast. You'd expect a monster her size to lumber. She didn't. She galloped. Six limbs. Razor-fast. Bulk and instinct synchronized. She led with a pounce—cleaving talons raking the floor. We split. I dove right—rolled—came up with my tail already charging. Felicity blurred left—flash-stepping behind a resin pillar. Zerask turned—locked onto me.
"Come on," Herja whispered. "Let's dance."
I slammed her plasma tail into the Brood mother's leg joint I heard the snap of cartilage and exposed ligature. Zerask shrieked. Whipped her tail back—jagged, barbed, longer than a car—and tried to impale me. Herja ducked. Felicity appeared on her back, Viper whip flashing, carving into the armored ridge along her spine. Amber blood sprayed.
[VIEWERS: 39,000+]
COMMENTATOR: "THAT'S TEAM VEINBORN!"
COMMENTATOR: "THEY'RE CHALLENGING ZERASK!"
Zerask went berserk. She spun—threw Felicity off—smashed into a pillar and cracked the ceiling. The Hive trembled. I charged my tail—full core burn. Zerask charged! We collided. The impact shook the basin. Her jaws snapped—missing my throat by inches. I jammed my elbow into her mandible joint and shoved the plasma tail under her belly armor. "Burn!" I shouted with madness in my eyes and a grin on my face! The bolt fired point-blank. Her chest plate blew out—scattering shards of bone over the arena!
Felicity landed again—this time driving her fang-knife into Zerask's exposed flank! The Brood mother roared in pain—a real roar this time. The kind that meant fear.
[VIEWERS: 72,811+]
COMMENTATOR: "THEY'RE STRIPPING HER!"
COMMENTATOR: "PLASMA TAIL BUILD CONFIRMED OP."
COMMENTATOR: "CLANS BETTER BE WATCHING."
Zerask dropped low—tail sweeping in a wide arc like a blade. I blocked with mine— a shockwave rolled through me!
We circled. Tail met tail—sparks flew, it was Beast bone versus plasma-charged bio steel. Zerask's had reach. Mine had burn and pure endurance. I coiled low, let her overextend, then spun inside her radius and lashed her across the ribs with my talons. She howled. Felicity came in from above—Cracked her whip around Zerask's neck and yanked.
Zerask staggered.
I saw my shot. I leapt. Orgone in my tail was overheating. My Tail was glowing white-hot now—past safety. I drove it through her exposed sternum! Herja and I screamed as one! I looked into Zerask bug eyed pupils, ''Does it feel good!" I unleashed my load into her sternum, the Plasma Burst blew through her back, blasting her wings off and leaving a smoking crater in her chest!
Zerask froze. She looked at me—unbelieving. Then she collapsed into the throne beneath her.
Dead. The glyphs flickered.
[ZERASK – NEUTRALIZED]
TERRITORY CLAIM: TEAM VEINBORN
REWARD: 5000 Digi Coins + 1 TERRITORY KEY AND BROODMOTHER GENETIC CATALYST
VIEWERS: 121,000+
COMMENTATOR: "SPONSOR THEM NOW."
COMMENT:ATOR "WAR GODDESS. WAR GODDESS."
COMMENTATOR: "WHO TF IS TEAM VEINBORN???"
COMMENTATOR: "NEED THAT PERFUME DROP THO"
Felicity limped over, bloodied but high on adrenaline. She looked down at Zerask's cracked shell. Then kicked it.
"Bitch had it coming." I exhaled. Steam curled from my tail. We weren't new bloods anymore.