Units pushed through the spores toward the outer courtyard wall.

  The shield hummed behind them, cannons thundering somewhere beyond, casting flickering light through the fog.

  Karauro tightened his grip on his rifle, eyes fixated on a massive shape within the swarm of insects and cantors. A worm-like creature, pulsing with red lights, slithered back into the mist, its shriek resonating deep enough to rattle his ribs.

  Soldiers were already clashing behind Lenios’ immense wall.

  He followed Spine into a briefing room packed with mixed military factions. Aaron nudged him forward with the others toward the center.

  Exo-suits, taller than any of them, stood ready beside the units. There was no chatter now—just movement, gear checks, and the clipped rhythm of professionals getting ready to hold a line.

  The gate opened with a grinding creak, and Spine stepped into the ruins with Exo-suits flanking them.

  Lenios soldiers had turned nearby buildings into their last line—windows barricaded, guns jutting from fire-hardened slits.

  Everyone wore helmets, visors glowing in different colors.

  “Ra—er, Mutt, welcome to the big league,” Roy muttered at his side.

  Big league. Try not to look like you’re about to throw up, Karauro told himself.

  Argos led at point with Aaron and Maverick. Nera stayed in front of Karauro. The rest formed up around them in a formation he hadn’t realized he was part of, so he did what he always did—watched and copied.

  A wall of mites swarmed ahead, claws scraping over rubble as they poured between broken cars and shattered stone.

  Argos and Aaron’s cyber-arms lit crimson, electricity building in the mechanisms. They raised them together; the current jumped, stunning mites and cantors in a wide arc.

  They squeezed their triggers, weapons roaring as rounds shredded the frozen mass.

  Roy and Nera pushed forward. Nera’s blade flicked out, cutting close and precise. Roy swapped rifle for pistol and knife, trying—and failing—to match her pace.

  Everyone carved their own path through the horde.

  Karauro lingered toward the back, reloading and firing. It felt like being leashed behind the gun line. Impatience gnawed at him.

  Taron, explosive launcher slung at his side, kept one eye on Karauro even while tracking targets. Riven and Ilene moved along the higher structures, picking off cantors from above.

  Maverick made sure Karauro mirrored his movements, sweeping firing arcs and calling out angles when needed.

  “Training’s not over, mutt,” Maverick said over comms.

  Karauro nodded and kept clearing targets. When a gap opened, he surged past a few Spine mercs, kinetic glove humming as he shattered a cluster of mites. The power spike still surprised him.

  Huh? I don’t remember it being this strong, Karauro thought, brow furrowing.

  “You’re welcome, mutt,” Taron grunted.

  Karauro smirked, gratitude clear on his face.

  A cluster of mites lunged at Roy, scraping across his suit. One skidded, then suddenly broke away from him—snapping its head toward Karauro instead. At the same time, a cantor slammed into Roy, shoving him off-balance.

  Nera clocked the strange shift in their behavior even as Maverick grabbed the incoming mite and smashed it into another midair, crushing both before they reached Karauro.

  A cantor as tall as Maverick staggered forward, jaws gaping in a screech that froze his advance for a heartbeat. It swung a clawed arm; Maverick caught its wrist with both hands, boots digging into the ground.

  Karauro darted in on the other side and drove his charged kinetic glove into its torso. The impact imploded its chest, splitting it open in a spray of ichor.

  “Chew on this!” Karauro shouted.

  “Opportunistic assholes,” Nera muttered, cutting through another cantor. “Always looking for an easy target.”

  “He may look small,” Aaron scoffed, “but he bites back—and hard.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Yeah, just forget about me,” Roy panted over comms. “I’m dying here trying to keep up with Viper. When—”

  The ground shuddered.

  The wall of Grievers began to pull back.

  “Down!” someone barked.

  Everyone dropped to a knee, bracing.

  “Guess it wants to join in,” Nera said, a hint of grim excitement threading her voice.

  “Something’s off,” Argos added. “Why isn’t it tunneling toward Lenios?”

  The tremor stopped.

  Maverick checked his terminal, eyes widening. He didn’t waste time explaining.

  Karauro felt the ground beneath him rumble. What the hell, why me?!

  Maverick tackled him just as two huge talons punched through the ground where the boy had been standing, shredding concrete before withdrawing.

  Panting, Maverick hauled him up by the vest. The talons stabbed up again in a frantic pattern, searching.

  Through his visor, Nera caught Karauros flat expression. You could have just mentioned I should keep running, he thought.

  Is he sulking because he got rescued Nera wondered.

  Karauro, still catching his breath, noticed something in the chaos—those talons weren’t random. The eyes buried in the flesh beneath seemed fixed on him.

  “Mav,” he said, “can you shoot while carrying me like a damsel in no distress?”

  “What are you thinking, mutt?” Maverick growled, already moving.

  Riven’s sniper rounds sparked off the talon’s armored hide.

  “Not loving this angle!” Riven snapped. “Anytime now!”

  Ilene slid a fresh set of long rounds from her pack—each bullet glowing faintly red.

  “Whatever you’re planning, hurry,” Riven added. “It’s tracking you two.”

  “Understood, teacher,” Karauro said. “Mav, get me near those rebars. I’m going to poke its eyes out.”

  “Of course you are,” Maverick muttered, veering toward a collapsed building.

  Twisted lengths of rusted rebar jutted from broken concrete—remnants of some abandoned construction project.

  The rest of Spine hammered more cantors, confidence growing as their formation tightened around Argos and Nera.

  Argos boosted Nera with a cyber-arm grab, hurling her over the writhing throng. She sailed above mites and cantors, blade carving through highlighted cores her HUD painted in red.

  She landed hard behind Aaron, Argos, Roy, and Taron, using short bursts of her thrusters to stabilize. Together, they finished off the remaining front-line Grievers.

  Scanning ahead, Nera spotted Maverick weaving between debris with Karauro slung over his shoulders. Talons kept tearing up the ground near them, blind but relentless.

  “How are you gonna hit it if we have to keep dodging?” Maverick asked, sliding behind a slab of broken wall.

  Karauro grit his teeth. “Like this.”

  He pushed off Maverick’s shoulders in a burst, hitting the ground running as a talon speared up behind him.

  “Shoot the joint on that one!” he shouted.

  Maverick pivoted with practiced precision and emptied a burst into the closest talon, chewing the armor just enough to crack it free of the earth.

  The limb jerked up. For a heartbeat, one of its embedded eyes was exposed—swollen, glowing.

  Karauro had already grabbed a jagged length of rebar. He hurled it with all the force his suit and glove could give.

  The makeshift spear punched through the eye and drove it into the cement with a wet crunch. Viscera—green threaded with red—splashed outward.

  More rebar followed as he and Maverick worked the rhythm—Maverick forcing a talon up, Karauro spiking the exposed eyes. Riven finished one already-split socket with a sniper shot that tore it nearly in half.

  The ground trembled. The talons ripped free, flailing, then sank beneath the earth, retreating.

  From Nera’s flank, something huge erupted from below.

  A colossal leech-like body tore out of the rubble, crimson flesh pulsing with energy, its surface bristling with rotating spikes. Clouds of spores clung to it as its many eyes burned to life.

  All four corners of its mouth peeled back, revealing far too many jagged teeth.

  The maimed talon was yanked free of the surface by four remaining tendrils and flung aside.

  “Congratulations,” Nera said dryly. “You just made it even angrier. Well done, mutt.”

  Karauro : Was that sarcasm?”

  “It’s a compliment,” Argos said. “Means it won’t think straight now.”

  Another voice crackled into the comms.

  “This is Unit Four—Chase,” a woman said. “What did you people do to make it stop moving?”

  “Unpredictability?” Aaron replied. “We annoyed it.”

  “The Lenios officer is dispatching exo-suits to the front,” Chase added. “Use them to tear it down.”

  The leech lunged, its teeth spinning and bladed rings circling its body, scattering cement fragments. All Unit 7 members grasped onto nearby exo-suits to avoid it. Chaos erupted as three Unit 4 members were torn apart or devoured.

  Argos: "Shit, hit the damn thing now!"

  Exo-suits paired with four-arms frames opened with missile salvos into the swarm clinging to the leech’s bulk, halting the leech from proceeding further. The creature twisted, slamming itself down in rage.

  The exo-suits moved like a pack, avoiding the spinning spiked sections while targeting softer plates and joint gaps, pouring anti-Griever rounds into its hide.

  Spine retreated a few meters, firing at the flailing tendrils to confuse it. Nera switched to her rifle, syncing with Unit Seven's firing pattern.

  Taron hurled explosives into its mouth whenever it opened, detonating a core beneath its teeth and charring flesh.

  After a roar, it toppled and crashed as exo suits launched wires to slow it. The leech remained motionless.

  Later, Karauro and Maverick rode in the Hauler, sitting on the bench opposite Riven, who manned the turret. Illene drove, eyes narrowed on the ruined streets ahead as they rolled back toward Unit Seven’s position.

  “Hmmm,” Karauro said, flexing his glove, watching the energy readouts. “Maybe I should lift something bigger next time.”

  “Maybe you just need more muscle, not more voltage,” Maverick snorted.

  “Let’s hope you don’t have to use either,” Riven added, fingers hovering over turret controls. “I like clean exits.”

  “Let’s just get there in one piece,” Illene said. “Then you can all argue about who’s stronger.”

  Roy slumped against Taron when they regrouped on-site, pressing a gloved hand to his visor.

  “Oof, I’m wiped,” Roy groaned. “I’ll buy you a beer, old man. You really nailed that mouth.”

  Taron chuckled. “With the money you cheated off me in dominos? I’m listening.”

  The Hauler rolled up, engine rumbling low. Riven on the turret, Illene hopping out first. She bumped her fist lightly against Nera’s.

  Nera’s eyes narrowed when a smaller figure dropped from the back.

  Karauro. Neras thoughts snapped to his direction

  I sense you… A voice whispered into his mind

  Argos gave him a short nod in acknowledgement. Karauro barely reacted. He just walked past them all—including Nera—like they were distant noise.

  He stopped a few meters from the leech’s charred head.

  What is our own kind doing here? The voice said louder this time.

  For the first time, a thread of raw fear slipped under his skin. He drew his gun and aimed it at the head.

  “Karauro—” Nera began, ready to snap at him for acting reckless—

  The leech twitched.

  Its jaws snapped open in a violent spasm. Tendrils shot forward, dragging Karauro through the dirt as he clawed desperately to escape.

  Nera’s hand reached out, brushing past him by mere inches.More tendrils coiled around him and, in the blink of an eye, only the gaping maw remained.

  The leech moved again, but wrong. Not like a dying beast—like something else was steering from within.

  The crimson pulse along its body shifted, turning a deep, sickly purple.