Darryck pulled Thalia’s blade from the corpse and wiped it clean on his sleeve. “I don't think we had it in the first place. They must have been watching us all along.”
I looked down at the pulse weapon, picking it up. “No more sneaking,” I decided. “We hunt now. These… things. The supers. They’re the real threat.”
“You think that scream we heard… is it like a hive link?” Myccael asked, tightening his grip on his sword.
“Possibly. Or something worse,” I answered. “Some kind of shared neural pain. Doesn’t matter. We’ve drawn blood.”
“And they felt it,” Darryck agreed smugly. "Let's find our seffies."
We didn’t get far. The tunnel widened into a broken, ancient hall, pillars half-collapsed, ceiling split by time and rot. The air felt wrong again. Too still. Too clean. My gut twisted.
“Wait—” I started, but it was too late. Nine shapes emerged from the shadows, not scuttling like Eulachs butwalking.Upright and fluid. Too large for natural movement, and too precise for beasts.
Supers.
All of them.
And they were angry.
Each one held a Zuten weapon that pulsed with eerie blue veins, glowing like they were alive.
Darryck snarled. “We should have brought snygging blasters.”
“They won’t fire with us and them being this close,” Myccael muttered, his eyes locked on the weapons. “Too much risk. Even they wouldn’t survive a full discharge at this range.”
“They wouldn't discharge pulse weapons,” I agreed. “But these look more like blasters, so cover!” I shouted the last word.
We dove behind a fallen slab of stone just as the supers raised their arms. The first volley lit up the darkness. Searing beams of blue-white fire cut through the air, so hot that it turned dust to vapor. The sound wasn’t thunder, it was pressure ripping through space, a hum that drilled into bone. Sparks exploded as the rock in front of us cracked.
“They’re taking down our cover,” Myccael growled. “One layer at a time.”
Chunks of stone flew over our heads. I ducked lower, shielding my face as debris scattered like shrapnel.
“We’re sitting in a snygging trap,” Darryck spat, blade drawn but held loosely at his side, useless against blasters. “We can’t reach them with swords. Can’t even stand without getting lit up.”
Another blast hit the rock, sending a spray of molten stone over my shoulder. My scales sizzled.
“That wall has maybe another minute,” I said. “If that.”
“We need to move,” Darryck said. “But we’ll be ripped apart if we charge.”
I peeked around the edge just long enough to see one of the supers recalibrating its weapon, adjusting the energy core with sleek, inhuman efficiency.
Myccael cracked his neck. “Let’s teach them what happens when prey bites back.”
We weren’t even back in the main tunnel when we heard the scream. It wasn’t a sound so much as a soul-shakingwail,the kind that slithered up your spine and made every bone in your body beg to run. A primal, furious,woundedscream, thick with rage and anguish.
Then it was echoed—again and again, multiplying like some horrible chant. Oksana froze. I stopped breathing.
But Thalia?
She grinned. “That’s our males,” she said with certainty, tucking a blaster under her arm and tightening her grip on the other. “Only Darryck can make somethingthatscreaming mad.”
Relief surged through me. “Then they’re alive.”
“And fighting,” Oksana added grimly. “We need to find them.”
We moved as fast as the narrow corridors would allow, scraping our elbows, bruising our shins. Twice, I nearly dropped one ofthe weapons as the tunnel shifted beneath us. But we didn’t stop. Couldn’t. We rounded a final turn, and the corridor blew open into chaos. The space was vast, like a collapsed cathedral, flanked by ruined arches and cracked columns. Dust floated in thick curtains across the chamber. And at the far end—beyond a pile of ancient rubble—eight of those massive Eulachs stood shoulder to shoulder, their weapons raised and firing at something. Searing bolts of energy pounded into a low stone outcrop behind which three familiar shapes crouched. They were pinned down.
