The earth shook with a deep vibration that resembled not footfalls but the pulse of a planet straining beneath an immense burden.

Reidar signaled for the ravens to descend, and the massive birds banked and dropped through the breaks in the canopy until they were hovering just above the forest floor. Until they landed.

The group got off the ravens quickly, and Reidar dismissed the summon to avoid detection, watching the bird dissolve into blue mist.

"This way," Reidar said, moving low.

He led them toward a cluster of mutated oaks whose trunks were wide enough to hide a car.

Pressing their backs against the bark, they peered around the edges in search of the source of the commotion.

In front of them, trees were being snapped. Not just the branches, but the entire tree, and the sound they made was thunderous, as if a storm had erupted overhead.

Something enormous was moving through the forest, pushing everything aside rather than navigating it.

Dust choked the air, rising in clouds where the trees were being torn apart, and that prevented Reidar and the others from seeing what exactly was causing so much destruction.

The summoner glanced at Lena. "What are they?"

Lena closed her eyes and activated Predator's Echo to get a deeper understanding of what was in the distance.

She stood there for a moment, concentrating on the vague feelings that the monsters, or the monster, were giving her.

"It's… chaotic," she said, opening her eyes.

"There are too many signals overlapping. High aggression, but also… confusion? I can't get a clear read of the species from this distance, and there is something interfering with my trait, which is weird enough."

"Well," Reidar said, "it's based on mana like all powers out there, so it makes sense it can be dampened or blocked." He paused. "But anyway, can you estimate their level?"

"It's high," Lena said, nodding. "Above 340 for sure. But I need to get closer to have an exact answer."

Reidar nodded. "Then let's go."

They crept forward, moving from cover to cover. The noise grew deafening as they did, and it quickly turned into something the three knew all too well, as it was the sound of grinding chitin and shattering wood.

They arrived at the edge of a clearing that appeared to have been carved out by the creatures themselves, forming a tunnel-like path through the forest, and peered ahead.

Tearing through the vegetation with the inevitability of a landslide were twenty monsters.

—[Hive Colossus—Level 355]—

…

—[Hive Colossus—Level 343]—

—[Hive Colossus—Level 351]—

—[Hive Colossus—Level 347]—

—[Hive Colossus—Level 340]—

…

—[Hive Colossus—Level 354]—

—[Hive Colossus—Level 342]—

…

—[Hive Colossus—Level 348]—

—[Hive Colossus—Level 345]—

…

They were another nightmare made of chitin and muscle.

Each creature stood between fifteen and twenty meters tall, towering over the trees they were crushing, which were, weirdly enough, shorter than the average tree Reidar found in the Velia region.

Their bodies were segmented and heavily armored, encased in a chitinous exoskeleton that shifted in color between deep, bruised purple and a sickly, toxic green.

Six massive legs supported their massive bulk, each one ending in a spiked point that sank deep into the earth with every step.

Their heads were horrific, as they were filled with clusters of eyes that glowed with a yellow bioluminescence that resembled pus far too much and that were no doubt scanning the forest with jerky movements.

Below the eyes, mandibles the size of scythes clicked and snapped, dripping with a viscous green fluid that hissed when it hit the ground.

Reidar could see vents along the sides of their carapace opening and closing, releasing puffs of yellowish gas into the air.

Two long, segmented antennae extended from their heads, quivering as they sampled the surrounding environment.

"Jeez," Jake said. "They're huge."

"Why always bugs?" Lena asked.

"Because the universe has a sick sense of humor," Jake said. "And apparently it thinks we need more nightmare fuel to haunt our dreams and make us question why we ever agreed to go monster hunting in the first place."

Reidar smirked, a hint of amusement crossing his face. "At least bugs are straightforward and predictable in their behavior. Many legs supporting their bodies, hard protective shells covering their vital areas, and a single-minded desire to eat you alive. It's simple and easy to understand."

"Simple?" Lena raised an eyebrow. "Bugs can usually communicate with each other using chemical signals and pheromones, and they can coordinate sophisticated attacks and defensive maneuvers across distances spanning many miles. That's not simple at all; that's absolutely terrifying and utterly disgusting."

Lena stared at them, her eyes unfocused as Predator's Echo flooded her mind with information.

She watched the way they moved, the way their antennae flicked toward one another, and as vibrations ran through their bodies.

"They're terrified," she said.

Reidar looked at her. "Terrified? They look like they're bulldozing the forest for fun."

"No," Lena shook her head firmly, her expression troubled as she processed what her trait was telling her. "It's their base instinct, their most fundamental response to being in this environment. They feel… wrong. Deeply, fundamentally wrong. They don't belong here on this planet, not in any natural sense. They're scared of the planet itself, terrified of the very ground beneath their feet, as if the gravity is too strong or too weak for their biology, or like the atmosphere is actively rejecting them, pushing against their existence with every breath they take."

She pointed to the vents on their sides.

"Those vents release pheromones. They're constantly signaling each other. And those tremors? That's not just their weight. They're using subsonic vibrations to communicate."

"Like whales?" Jake asked, his curiosity piqued by the comparison.

"Like insects," Lena said. "Which they fundamentally are, but the critical difference here is that they are pulling off this communication on a massive scale." She paused, gathering her thoughts.

"Based on my understanding of their behavior patterns and the information my trait is providing me, they have the ability to communicate with each other across distances spanning multiple miles. If even a single one of them encounters a threat or discovers something important, the entire collective becomes aware of it through their subsonic communication network. And perhaps even more concerning, they have the capability to summon reinforcements and call for help from distant locations, potentially bringing in more of their kind from far beyond our current field of vision."

She watched a group of three Colossi flank a massive tree, tearing it down to check for prey underneath, or whatever they were searching for.

"They aren't mindless," she said. "They are… sort of pack hunters, which is weird considering it is not that common in insects. They even have a hierarchy. See the big one in the center? The others are moving around it, keeping a defensive perimeter while it feeds."

Reidar watched the monster in question. It was at level 355.

And there were 19 more of them, although at lower levels.

Regardless, that was a massive amount of C.L.A.S.P. points. It was precisely what he needed to bridge the gap between him and Silas.

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