{Crete POV}

As the 3 of us ascended the walls of the tunnel, I reflected on the plan I formulated to separate the regular beetles from the alpha. It would require a great measure of delicacy and finesse, using the glowing moss I’d gathered. I intended to first lure away all the grubs that would serve as an alarm if stepped on, and after luring away the creatures it would be easier for us to maneuver around the room and hopefully be able to execute the next phase of the plan.

All of the planning however was greatly dependent on a certain factor, that the beetles were sleeping, because if they weren’t things would become unnecessarily complicated and spiral out of control. A situation I was wary of due to the simple fact that if things do happen to go south, it wouldn’t be just my life at risk anymore. So, in the case that there were any unaccounted-for factors, I had already instructed my brother and sister to escape immediately, whether or not they would obey the instructions I didn’t know.

“How much longer do we have to climb, it’s so uncomfortable” the complaining voice of my younger sister came from under me. “Not much longer, maybe about 10-15 minutes of climbing left” my response to her was immediate and followed by another of her increasingly frequent sighs. “Are you sure you’re fine with taking on the alpha beetle for yourself brother? Amore and I can help you if we finish up with our beetles you know.” Concern at my stubborn refusal for any assistance was evident in Vito’s words.

“Yeah, I think I’ll be fine, and besides you guys will probably be too beat after dealing with the other beetles, so I wouldn’t let y’all risk a battle like that in non-optimal conditions” the words were only a half-truth. The other half being my desire to avenge the humiliation and beating I had taken at the hands of the creature. “He’s right Vito, what if there are more than 3 beetles that we have to take care of, I don’t think we’ll be in any shape to fight grubs much less the alpha beetle after fighting 2 or more each” the logic in Amore’s words saving me from further scrutiny.

The dialogue among us continued and we further discussed the plan, it had also distracted us from the journey for I realized we were only a few minutes away from the hole now, judging by the flow of energy cascading down the incline. “We’re almost there, I’ll go ahead to scope out the scene and see if it’s safe or not before we begin luring the grubs out,” I said increasing my pace, the feeling of vengeance driving me on, but the caution caused by having my siblings involved kept it in check.

Crete quickly increased his pace, passing by the remnants of the beetle’s infuriating actions and soon reaching the entrance to the room. Carefully he approached, sensing for any movement nearby it with his slowly regenerating antennae. Not noticing any, he inched closer until his eyes were just above the ground level and surveyed the room. The first problem he noticed was the grubs were less scattered and bundled up in two balls.

Cursing mentally, he moved his eyes over to the corner where he saw the beetles last time, and to his surprise, they were all there, and the cherry on top of it was that they were all asleep. Checking at least one thing off the list and mentally revising his plan for the grubs, he let his eyes rest on the only other thing of interest in the room.

The dungeon core remained floating, just as it was when he left it, although Crete noted that the core looked a shade brighter. They would have a few hours before the grubs would usually have to drop again and turning back to his patiently waiting siblings, he signaled them over. “Change of plans, I don’t think we’ll be able to lure most of the grubs, so we’ll just focus on the ones closer to the beetles” he whispered to the intently listening Amore and Vito.

“Okay, but how will we do that brother?” Vito asked curious of Crete’s intentions. “Heh-heh, that’s what I brought the moss for, I realized from the way the grubs wiggled towards the moss in the feeding chamber, that they probably had an attraction to the plant. So, using the pieces I brought we’ll lure away the ones in our way, so they don’t disturb us setting up the trap.” “Oh okay, and I’m assuming the trap has something to do with that beetle husk you brought?” the voice of Amore brought the two’s attention to her. “Righto my dear sister, while the beetles are still sleepy one of you will have to wear the husk as cover and get as close as possible. After that, someone will try to the dungeon core, and in the panic caused by the action, I’ll charge the alpha and grab its attention. That’s when the termite undercover will lash out and obstruct the rest of the beetles from charging with it” the plan sounded a lot easier than it would be to execute in reality.

“Okay, and what happens if the beetles realize the imposter before you get to occupy the alpha?” the well thought out question of Vito gave Crete a pause. “In that case, they should just high tail it out of there and I and the other termite will meet up and hold back the charging beetles as best as we can while we escape”

“But won’t that make the beetle’s alert enough so that any other surprise attacks would fail” “Hmm, good question Amore, in that case, we’ll retreat until more of our siblings evolve, but that should be a last resort because whatever is happening is causing more grubs to evolve. So, if we don’t figure it out and put an end to it as soon as possible, we’ll be forced at some point to face dozens of the beetles at one time…” the possibility of such a battle alarmed Crete.

Although he may be barely able to survive the increasing number of beetles, due to the 6 undistributed stat points he received at each level, he doubted that his siblings could keep up, even with the extra stat they got from the achievement. This anomaly he realized would no doubt end up claiming a few of their lives if he didn’t get to the root of it while it was still manageable.

Silence overcame the group as the seriousness of the situation finally clicked to his other siblings and they solemnly turned their heads back to face the room. “Well, I could see I don’t need to explain why that should be our last resort and time waits on no termite so we should begin now” not wanting to waste any more time Crete egged on his siblings to start the plan.

{Amore POV}

Here I was, upside down in a tunnel looking at my older brother dangle and shake some of the glowing moss at the edge of the opening, the nearest unsuspecting grubs already captivated and rolling excitedly towards their demise. The moment a grub successfully made its way over, it fell headfirst into a steep incline, and before it could squeal due to the sensation of sliding uncontrollably down the tunnel my other brother Vito was there to send it on an early trip to the afterlife.

This went on for a good while before the only other grubs in the chamber were in a corner suspiciously balled up, probably over a cocoon according to Vito’s predictions, the first phase of our plan complete. Next was the infiltration, where either Vito or I would have to sneak into the mound of sleeping beetles, at the ready to separate them when the time was right. “I’ll do it” my voice full of conviction sounded out not giving Vito any room to debate.

If something as dangerous as this required a termite, I’d rather it be me than my younger brother. From the way Crete visibly froze for a moment at my voice, I could see he’d rather it be him too, but he had a more dangerous job, and I was the faster of us two anyway. So, in the case that I needed to escape, I was the right termite for the job. “Okay then… put this on and be safe and wait for my attack on the Alpha before moving into action,” my older brother said passing the beetle husk to me while the 3 of us carefully creeping into the chamber.

The husk completely enclosed my rear end right up to the base of my neck. Something I realized would require my body to be facing the beetles, lest they discover one of their kind with the head of a termite. After completely donning the husk, I made my way over to the sleeping group, as slowly and as quietly as possible. All 6 of my legs moved with an unnatural grace.

It didn’t take long for me to reach close to the beetle’s and recognizing the largest beetle on the other side of the pile to be the alpha I circled the sleeping pile until I was right in front of the normal beetle before it. Trying my best to be as inconspicuous and as beetle-like as possible, I turned my body and slowly squeezed my way in between the normal beetle and the alpha, rear-end first.

There was no immediate reaction but when I was halfway between them the normal beetle turned and pushed against my husk, and I froze for a moment. Please don’t wake up, please don’t wake up, please don’t wake up, I chanted fervently in my mind. I was so close to getting in position, so close. As if responding to my worst fears, I saw the beetle’s eyes twitch and doing my best to fit my termite head under the husk, at least hiding my mandibles and antenna, I watched the beetle’s eyes slowly open while holding my breath.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see the confusion of being pushed and searching for the reason, dreary eyes looked me over and remained on me for what felt like ages. Feeling its eyes on me I did my best to stay silent and not move, but further movement from the beetle made me tense my legs in the scenario I had to escape. I felt it slowly get up on its feet and for a moment the force of its shell on the husk relented, my senses completely alert just waiting for any hostile sound or action to trigger a mad dash to the exit.

An action that never came, as the beetle only got up to make some space for me to move in closer on the pile. Silently releasing the breath I held, I shimmied my way in, careful not to touch the alpha for the only thing I could rely on to remain undetected were the regular beetle’s inferior senses. Observing the larger beetle’s completely still mass, I concluded the infiltration to be a success, and casting my eyes to my older brother who was already positioned a short distance away from the alpha beetle, I waited for the signal.

{Vito POV}

I watched closely as my sister slowly squeezed her way in between the creatures, freezing up at the movement of one of them, before successfully infiltrating and settling between them. Feeling the tension in my heart because of the beetle’s movement fade away, I cast my eyes over to my brother, and seeing he was in place I decided it was time to start the operation. Everything in position, I approached the floating orb, and using on the object, a blanket of light flooded the room and a series of disgruntled SCREEs followed soon after.

Crete witnessed the flash of light and the abrupt but still confused eyes of the beetles locking onto the dungeon core and the swiftly approaching Vito before releasing their trademark sound. Not wanting to allow them any time to process the situation he quickly jumped into action, rushing up to the alpha beetle, who in the last moments before his incoming recognized him, too late. Hastily unleashing his mandibles on its exposed left underside, he succeeded in removing its middle leg and ripping off some of the unprotected soft flesh, just barely, however. Immediately backpedaling to avoid the incoming right “hook”, he noted the increased resistance of the alpha to his attacks.

His attack didn’t go unnoticed by the other beetles either as they quickly decided Crete to be a more immediate danger than the incoming termite. Along with the alpha’s retaliation, they burst into action, legs moving to face the soon-to-be stampeded threat. Their charge was interrupted however when the “beetle” right behind the alpha burst out of its shell and tackled the closest of their kin to the ground, mandibles piercing its underside.

The momentary pause in their action was enough for the alpha, unknowing of the betrayal behind it, to charge at a retreating Crete and out of their immediate vicinity. The beetles only now putting the pieces together seeing the termite that was mutilating their toppled sibling, and with another more genuinely infuriated SCREE, they charged Amore, who was already escaping in the direction of the incoming Vito.

The plan was successful so far, two isolated battles were occurring simultaneously. The charging alpha beetle had now cornered Crete but unlike its inferior relatives, it was intelligent enough to terminate the attack before coming into contact with the wall. Crete and the beetle were now face-to-face with one another, both staring the other down, waiting for either the other to make a move or in the case of the beetle, reinforcements.

It wasn’t long after the staring contest ensued that it realized something was off however, her faithful minions were nowhere to be found. The confusion brought by that realization overpowered the instinct to keep her eyes focused on her enemy, and unable to stop the growing need to try and figure out why, she turned around, her eyes diverting from Crete. What greeted them, however, were the unfortunate scenes of one of her minions sprawled out on the floor bleeding out, unable to stand and the other was a battle between her other two minions and two creatures similar to the one it was fighting-

Her thoughts were cut short as a wave of pain assaulted her, one leg away from where her most recently removed appendage was and looking down at the enemy she momentarily forgot about, backing away from her with what appeared to be another of her legs in its mouth. Rage consumed the beetle’s mind as it realized Crete had taken advantage of her distraction to inflict more damage, and gathering air into her lungs, she channeled the skill that hurt the creature last time.

Crete momentarily froze up, trauma from the attack still present, allowing the beetle enough time to activate the skill and release a sonic blast that he only attempted to dodge at the last second. An action to escape the attack a second too late Crete realized, as he felt the blast graze his abdomen, rattling his organs once more and momentarily causing the loss of feeling in his right side.

Unable to use his legs, a sloppy sidestep resulted in him crashing headfirst into the floor, knocking the concentration away from his mind. However, raising his head immediately, he was quick to try and recover his balance, and with eyes searching for his opponent, he found her quickly charging toward him, completely intent on ending this battle with a quick stomping out.

He was up on his legs before she had the chance though, but not up quick enough to avoid the collision. So, trying his best to mitigate the damage, he rotated on his legs turning his body so that the part hit would just be his thorax. Succeeding in the movement, he felt the impact catapult him through the air for about two meters, but with the feeling returned to his legs he was able to land standing up. Although he was unable to avoid the winding pain that followed, he suppressed the feeling and stared down his opponent with renewed focus. This would be a battle where death could be one misstep away; One that would fully test his strength, and judging by the overjoyed squealing of grubs and SCREEs that came from an unaccounted direction of the room, he determined it would be one he needed to end quickly.