"What?"

"Cave Stalkers. They hunt in packs. Six to twelve usually."

"Usually?" Belle demanded.

"Sometimes more."

The clicking intensified.

I caught movement in my peripheral vision. Something pale and multi-legged scuttling along the wall thirty meters to our left. Then another on the ceiling. Then three more emerging from the darkness ahead.

They looked like someone crossed a spider with a scorpion and a mantis, then made the whole thing translucent and covered it in frost. Eight legs. Two massive pincers. A segmented tail with a barbed stinger that dripped something viscous and glowing. Each one was maybe four feet long not counting the tail.

Their eyes glowed pale blue. All sixteen of them fixed on us.

"Diamond formation," Misato barked. "Jace center position. Everyone else on the perimeter, eyes outward. They’re going to hit us all at once." 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"How do you—"

"Because that’s what they do, Wayne. On my mark we break formation and scatter. Don’t let them surround you or you’re done."

The Stalkers clicked in perfect synchronization. The sound multiplied as more emerged from crevices in the walls. Eleven visible now, maybe more hanging back in the dark.

Then they charged.

Naomi didn’t wait for the order. Her Wave Motion blast caught the lead Stalker mid-stride, blue-white energy detonating on impact. The creature exploded into frozen chitin fragments that clattered across the stone floor.

Belle’s crossbow sang. Her bolt punched clean through another Stalker’s head segment, the creature crumpling with its legs still twitching.

Jordan’s shadows erupted like living chains, wrapping around two more of the charging creatures. But these bastards were strong. They thrashed against the restraints, their pincers tearing at the dark tendrils while their barbed tails whipped overhead.

"Can’t hold them long!" Jordan’s voice came out strained, veins standing out on his neck from the concentration required.

"Don’t bother!" I fired Wave Motion downward, the golden spiral propelling me up and away from the cave floor just as three Stalkers converged on where I’d been standing. Their pincers snapped shut on empty air.

From fifteen feet up I had the whole battlefield laid out beneath me. Eleven total. Four corpses already cooling on the stone. Seven very much alive and absolutely furious. Time to thin the herd some more.

I aimed and fired twice in rapid succession.

My golden spirals slammed into two Stalkers from above, cratering their carapaces and sending them tumbling. The upgraded Bronze rank made each shot hit like a truck instead of a thrown rock.

Misato and her clone moved through the remaining five with violent efficiency. She grabbed one Stalker by its tail, swung it like a club into another, then stomped both their heads flat. Her clone intercepted a Stalker that tried to flank Belle, catching it mid-leap and slamming it into the wall so hard the stone cracked.

Belle reloaded and fired again, her bolt catching a Stalker in one of its cluster eyes. The creature shrieked and stumbled, giving Naomi an opening. Her Wave Motion blast took it in the thorax, blue-white energy cooking it from the inside until it collapsed smoking.

The last Stalker made a run for the darkness.

Jordan’s shadow caught it by the tail and yanked it backward. "Someone finish it!"

I dropped from my hover, landing hard beside the thrashing creature. My spear drove through its head segment before it could turn around.

Silence crashed back into the cave.

We all stood breathing hard, scanning for more threats.

"Clear," Misato finally said. "Core collection. Two minutes."

I knelt beside the nearest corpse and located its core. Smaller than the bat cores but brighter, pulsing with cold mana that made my fingers ache through the gloves.

Belle worked beside me, her movements smooth despite the adrenaline probably flooding her system. "You’re getting better at this."

"Practice."

"That, and you’re not breathing like you’re going to die anymore."

I glanced at her. "Was I that bad on Friday?"

"You looked like you were going to pass out after the first Crawler." She pulled another core free and examined it. "Now you’re flying around shooting things and barely sweating. It’s actually kind of hot."

"Focus on the loot, Fox."

"I am focused." But her mouth curved. "Multitasking is a skill."

Jordan approached, dropping cores into his own pouch. "Did she just call you hot?"

"She did not."

"I definitely heard hot."

"You heard wrong."

"My ears work fine."

"I’m going to push you into the next monster we find."

"Promises, promises."

Naomi joined us, her own pouch heavy with collected cores. "Eleven Stalkers. Good haul."

"Could be better," Belle said, gesturing at the glowing wall ahead where my Treasure Sense continued pinging. "Those crystals are worth more than everything we just collected."

"Let it go," Misato ordered. "We don’t have harvesting equipment, and breaking them out would take an hour minimum. Clock’s running."

She was right. My HUD showed fifty-three minutes elapsed. We had approximately ninety minutes total before the gate’s mana density destabilized and forced evacuation.

"How much deeper?" I asked.

"Unknown. Could be another hundred meters. Could be a mile." Misato consulted her own HUD. "But the boss room is down here somewhere, and we need to find it before time runs out."

We moved forward as a unit.

The tunnel sloped downward, the temperature dropping further with each step. My breath came out in clouds now, and frost covered every surface. The glowing veins grew denser, brighter, until walking felt like moving through the inside of a neon sign.

Belle stopped suddenly.

"What?" Misato’s hand went to her blade.

"The crystals. They’re everywhere here." Belle’s voice carried something between awe and greed. "This whole section is one massive deposit. We’re talking six figures easy if someone had the right equipment."

I activated Treasure Sense and confirmed her assessment. The walls practically sang with value, every surface embedded with crystallized mana worth a fortune.

"Note the location for future runs," Misato said. "Maybe third years will pay for intel."

"Or we come back with pickaxes," Belle suggested.

"Or that."

We continued deeper.

The tunnel opened into another chamber, this one smaller but more oppressive. The ceiling hung lower, maybe fifteen feet, and the walls closed in on both sides. Only one exit, straight ahead through a narrow passage barely wide enough for two people.

My instincts screamed.

"This is a kill box," I said.