1

Damon and Harper were the first ones to ascend to the fourth floor, which was almost completely filled in with sand. They rose into a cylinder of vacant space that was surrounded by the compacted sand. Harper guided her glow spell up the length of the shaft to the ceiling. The majority of the face sculpture was covered by the fine granules of light brown rock. They could only see the mouth, which was closed.

As they examined the tight space, water swept past their boots. “That must be coming from the overflow,” Harper mentioned.

A series of thirty-inch-wide tunnels were burrowed into the sand embankment.

“The mob or mobs must be in there,” Harper whispered to Damon. “The orcs are too big to fit in those tunnels. Why don’t you head back down—”

The general shook his head. “No. I’m staying right here. In case something comes out of the hole.”

Harper shrugged, then called down to the team. “It’s a tight space up here,” she yelled as she noticed the clear water flowing down the hole in the floor. She glanced at Damon. “That’s the water coming from the wall.” He nodded. She turned her attention back to the lower floor. “Only the smaller members can come up. I want only Thao and Sierra.”

The two members came up and squeezed in the tight space against the hard sand. Soon afterward, the three teammates crawled into separate tunnels while Damon stayed at the opening.

2

Thao knew why she’d been chosen. As the smallest team member, she had no trouble fitting into the tight, dark space of what she was certain was some kind of insect tunnel. As she progressed into the claustrophobic space, Thao extended her long claws, knowing that any potential attack would come from in close.

She glanced back to see how far she’d gone. She could see the edge of Damon’s sword ten feet behind her. Looking ahead, she crawled up a slight slope that soon dipped downward. She was sure that whatever creature lived in the sand would be roughly the same size as the tunnel. “A three-and-a-half-foot worm,” she muttered into the dusty air.

Thao could hear the constant flow of the water that ran down the dungeon’s eastern side. The sound calmed her, but the fear that pressed against her chest wasn’t going to subside. She knew she was in another predator’s domain. It knew where each tunnel led to and was probably watching her right now. She, on the other hand, was flying blind in unfamiliar territory, completely exposed.

As the pores on her skin started to secrete sweat, she checked in with the other girls, Have you seen anything? They told her no. She took a deep breath and continued. Thao could hear her heartbeat thumping inside her eardrums. Drops of sweat were dripping from her face, landing onto her hands. She felt a tickle on the back of her neck and retracted her claws in one hand to scratch herself. As her fingernails glided under her red-dyed hair, she realized what was making her itch. Grains of rough sand had dropped onto her clammy skin.

Now, more clumps landed on the back of her neck. The fear that pounded in her chest jumped to her throat. A heavy cluster of sand fell on her, tumbling down both sides of her neck.

Thao cried out in terror. She tried to backtrack, but now something was scurrying on her neck. She extended her claws and ran them through her hair. A cold liquid squirted onto her fingers and scalp. As she pulled her hands away, she saw the ant she had impaled. Five inches in length, the insect writhed against two of her claws. Thick, yellow blood oozed out of the creature and into the webbing between her padded fingers. Groaning, she withdrew her claws. The ant landed on the tunnel floor and rapidly hobbled toward her bare knee.

Another large patch of sand fell onto her hair. Now, she could feel many ants creeping on her head and shoulders. Thao shrieked. The floor ant reached her knee and drilled into her blue-furred skin. She screamed and extended her claws again, stabbing at the creature in a frenzy of panic.

The ants on her head dug through her hair. One crawled under her chain mail, down her back. In unison, they bit her at once. She screamed again and instinctively rolled onto her back, hoping to crush the insects. They stopped moving for a moment, then bit through her fur again.

“Help! Help! Help,” Thao shrieked, but she was alone, deep inside an ant nest. She couldn’t even see Damon anymore. Another hand-sized ant scurried up her leg, dipping under her mail.

Thao, what is going on? Harper telepathed her.

Ants! Ants, was all the Grimalkin member could muster. Thrashing against the horde of ants that tapped insidiously against her body, Thao’s Creature Description details popped up, but she barely registered it.

Use Mana Flash, Harper telepathed to her.

Thao found the spell from her list and cast the red beam, drawing it from her mana pool. It swept through the mobs, killing them instantly with a sizzling sound. Did it burn them? She wondered vaguely, then immediately discounted it. I would have felt the flames had they ignited. The dead, motionless insects were still pressed against her body, under her mail. Thao shuddered and unequipped her mail. The ants fell from her body into a pile of carcasses that now littered the tunnel floor.

Except for one. She pulled one final dead insect from her body. Its mandibles clung to the canvas fabric of her underwear. As she stabbed it then tossed it behind her, Harper checked in again. Thao told her the spell had worked. Then she broke into tears, crying for two minutes straight before she was able to stifle her emotions.

She took a few deep breaths, then glanced over her shoulder. Do I go back or continue? Thao knew what she wanted. What the ancient, primal part of her brain wanted. To get the hell out of the confining and deadly lair. More ants could dig through the sand at any moment. But if she retreated, she’d have to face the team.

And what would you tell them? That you just gave up? “Sorry, guys. It was just a little too intense in there and… and look now, my hair is a mess!” She laughed a bit at that last thought, and it relieved her anxiety slightly.

Going back wasn’t an option. Thao didn’t feel fully accepted within the team. She didn’t know where that came from, but she knew she was on the outside, looking in, always on the periphery.

For a brief period, she had felt integrated. Emma had welcomed her, given her a sense of belonging. There had been a real connection between the Grimalkin members. Then Emma had left, and Thao’s status seemed to diminish. If I go back now, they’ll judge me. Then I’ll never be part of the team.

She sighed. “And that doorway to the next floor still needs to be opened,” she said to herself. And the floor after that, and the floor after that, and the floor after that, her mind argued, but she dismissed that inner voice. Thao knew how important it was to establish herself within the team. She bit her lip and re-equipped her chain mail. After taking a deep breath, she started forward again, crawling over the dried corpses of the ants she’d killed.

3

Sierra’s journey through the dark catacomb of her sand tunnel was more direct and less eventful. She scaled similar hills and valleys, but was never attacked by a horde of ants. So, when she saw the end of her tunnel opening up to a cave, she sent her Fire Glow spell through first.

Suddenly a dark appendage snapped at the light orb, jostling it to the side and out of view. A moment later, an ant the size of a large dog chased after her spell. The creature scurried over the hole, exposing its underside, unaware of Sierra’s presence. She quickly queued up a Fire Scorch, but already knew she was too late. The ant had scampered away.

“That’s a golden opportunity missed,” she sighed.

Still, it’s encouraging that the mob attacked the light orb, she thought. I can distract it while I kill it.

Sierra crawled ahead slowly, edging closer to the rim of the opening. She observed more of the ant lair as she progressed. White, tubular eggs covered the floor, and she discovered that the dog-ant wasn’t the largest one in the cave.

An eight-foot-long red ant clambered over the eggs, inspecting the soft, gooey, ovular shapes. Its mandibles, which looked like machetes, opened and closed lazily. As Sierra watched, her Creature Description details appeared.

GYNE (Level 40)

HP: 511

MP: 304

STRENGTH: 65

CONSTITUTION: 51

DEXTERITY: 124

INTELLIGENCE: 30

WISDOM: 11

XP: 285

DESCRIPTION: The queen of her sandcastle.

Sierra shimmied over the sandy bottom of her tunnel, reaching its end. Knowing she was now within sight of the mobs, she whipped the light orb back and forth in the cave. That distracted the half-dozen dog-sized ants, which chased after the spell. Once again, her Creature Description popped up.

HYMENOPTERA (Level 18)

HP: 281

MP: 89

STRENGTH: 32

CONSTITUTION: 28

DEXTERITY: 65

INTELLIGENCE: 8

WISDOM: 7

XP: 129

DESCRIPTION: Soldiers! Defend the queen! Defend the queen!

Nearby, she heard Thao begin shrieking. Damn, I can’t help you now, Sierra thought. Hang in there, girl. With the soldier ants occupied, she looked over her spells list. Like her teammates, Sierra had kept Defense Buff and Offense Buff running for the entire time they were in the dungeon. That left her with more than enough MPR to cast Fire Bullet at the queen. She cast the spell but as the spell charged the circling flames attracted the attention of the queen and it darted toward her.

Sierra quickly retreated into the tunnel and misfired the spell. It crashed into the side of the cave. Dislodged sand showered over the mother ant as it jammed its head into the hole. It squealed a weird, high-pitched sound.

The rookie mage laughed. “You sound like a record scratching,” she chirped. “You should get into hip hop, queenie.”

The monster banged its armored head against the sides of the opening.

“You ain’t getting in here, bitch,” Sierra said confidently.

The queen spewed slime against the tunnel edges, scraping its legs against the sand wall. Out of her sight, five soldier ants burrowed into the same wall, creating new tunnels.

Sierra readied another Fire Bullet and waited for it to charge. “This is too easy,” she gloated as around her the tunnel walls started pulsating. Her subconscious detected it, but the rookie mage was too focused on the mother to realize the change. As she was about to fire, the tunnel collapsed, and the dog-sized ants descended upon her.

4

Unlike the other two girls, Harper’s tunnel rose steadily upward, so when she poked her head out the hole, she was a good eight feet above the floor. She saw the eggs and the queen ant’s head buried in the wall. It’s attacking one of the girls, Harper thought, and, following that, Why haven’t they telepathed me?

She queued up a Fire Bullet. Not knowing how much trouble they were in, Harper didn’t wait for the spell to charge. She flung it at the massive ant, connecting with the top of the beast’s thorax.

The queen pulled its head out of the wall, crawled halfway up the sand, then stopped. It examined its attacker. Beads of slime glimmered on its flat, black eyes in the amber light. It squealed the same scratchy sound Sierra had heard earlier.

Harper readied another Fire Bullet and let this one charge. For some unknown reason, the queen wouldn’t advance. It clung to the wall and stared at the veteran with insectile indifference. In a surreal moment that seemed frozen in time, Harper was able to detect every detail on the beast’s frame. Its mosaic eyes displayed no detectable signs of intelligence, just a dark gray pattern of dots. Fine yellow hairs stood on end from its leathery crimson armor. Its serrated mandibles opened and closed. It seemed to curl in on its body, and she heard that strange squeal again. Behind her, a soldier ant dug high enough to break through her tunnel floor. Harper heard the noise and turned her head, realizing that the queen had been distracting her.

“What?” she muttered as the large ant scrambled out of the hole and slammed against her rear end, punting her out of the tunnel.

Harper fell into the ant larvae. The mother beast loomed over her. It tilted its head again, regarding its human opponent. As the dog-sized ant crawled out of the tunnel eight feet above her, Harper realized how she had been duped.

It wants me to know, she thought with some amazement. The queen wants me to know how it got the better of m—

The beast opened its mandibles and set upon her as the soldier ant tore into her leg.

5

Zack listened to the screams coming from the floor above with growing frustration. Although Rachel urged him to stay put, he stomped to the center of the room and shouted up to Damon, “Why don’t we just pound the sand and let it spill down here?”

The orc general peered down at him, similarly frustrated. “We tried that already with the boulder,” he grunted. “There’s some kind of force field around this cylinder.”

Zack threw up his arms in a gesture of exasperation. “Yet, the girls were able to crawl through the tunnels?” He was practically screaming now. “How the hell does that happen?”

Damon shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe you should ask Vlad.”

Zack looked around the room for Vlad, but got distracted by an itch on the back of his neck. He scratched the rough skin back there. “Goddammit. Now I feel like I got bugs crawling on me.” When he felt more tickles coming from his scalp, he groaned and clawed his head feverishly. “Fuck. Did I suddenly get infested with lice?”

His entire head felt itchy now and he lowered it, scraping the scalp with his large hands.

He didn’t see the reactions of his teammates as they gaped at him. He heard Vlad gasp.

“Blyat!”

Zack looked up at the members, who were fixated on him with bewildered expressions. “What?” he asked. “What?”

6

After hearing both Sierra and Harper screaming, Thao looked over the rim of her tunnel and saw the carnage a few feet below her. Someone was under a massive ant, but she couldn’t tell if it was Sierra or Harper. It didn’t really matter. Whoever it was, they were in big trouble. In the amber light, the Grimalkin rookie could see blood splashed on the eggs that covered the floor.

On instinct, Thao disregarded her spells. She didn’t want to take the chance that one of the fire spells—her first preference—would further injure whoever was under the giant ant. She planted her palms on the edge of her tunnel and leaned her body halfway out. She called for one of the steel spears. The cold, thick metal materialized in her waiting fingers. It was positioned perfectly. Balanced perfectly. She pulled the spear back, then threw it.

The weapon pierced through the beast’s thorax so cleanly that Thao immediately regretted using the weapon. That might have gone right through to whoever is under the ant, she thought.

The queen squealed loudly and tried to arch its body away from the floor, into the injury. But its movements were severely hampered now as it clambered away from the bloody body that lay among the eggs.

Harper, Thao realized. It’s Harper!

As the beast thrashed against the sandy wall, the remaining soldier ant sped up the wall toward Thao. She retreated and equipped her Nagamarrow, swinging at the approaching insect, but her trajectory was off. The sword bumped against the wall and slipped from her fingers. The ant crawled onto her body and its mandibles went for her neck. The Grimalkin hunter threw her left arm up to block the attack. The mandibles’ serrated edges broke through her skin and she screamed.

Thao checked her weapons list. The spurs or the throwing knives. Maddeningly, for a fraction of a second, while the ant ground into her forearm, she couldn’t make up her mind. “Ugh, throwing knife,” she called out. The cold, iron handle pressed against the skin of her palm.

Thao swung wildly, again and again. Yellow blood splattered onto her body and into her mouth. The sour taste disgusted the Grimalkin hunter, making her want to retch. She snapped her mouth shut as she continued to stab the soldier ant.

Finally, its heavy body settled upon her and its sharp mandibles released their grip on her arm. Thao moaned and wiggled out from under the dead ant. She raised her arm and saw that it was covered with blood. Her stomach did a somersault when she saw the yellow pigment of the ant’s blood blend with her own crimson fluid. Then she heard Harper moaning and Sierra still screaming. Thao climbed out of the tunnel to save them.

7

Harper was in bad shape, but Thao couldn’t ignore Sierra’s screams. The Grimalkin hunter emptied her mana reserves casting Mana Heal on the veteran mage, then ran to the tunnel the screams were coming from. To her right, the queen ant continued to thrash against the far wall. It wasn’t dead but had been immobilized… for now.

Thao reached the tunnel opening, but all she could see was a flurry of movement in the darkened passageway. “No,” she groaned with frustration. She directed her glow spell into the hole and saw five soldier ants attacking Sierra, who had not stopped screaming.

The Vietnamese rookie called up another steel spear and jabbed it into the opening at the marauding mobs. She squinted as she tried to focus under the dim light.

“I don’t want to hit you, Sierra,” she yelled.

As she thrust the metal weapon forward, the ferocity of the attacks lessened. Still, one soldier broke from the pack and lunged at Thao, colliding with her. She heard her spear thud against the compacted sand just before she was slammed to the floor. She re-equipped the throwing knife and slashed at the ant as it scraped against her injured left forearm. Thao wailed in agony, but with a few more hacks, the large ant fell over.

She scrambled to her feet, grabbed the dropped spear, and rushed to Sierra’s tunnel again. The mage was attacking and defending, down to the last dog-sized ant. Thao didn’t waste any time impaling and killing it. She extended her right hand to the mage, who didn’t immediately grab it.

“Just give me a minute,” Sierra gasped as she tried to catch her breath.

“We don’t have a minute,” Thao shouted more harshly than she intended to. “Harper is badly injured.”

The rookie mage looked up at the hunter and grasped her hand. Covered in blood, Sierra crawled out of the tunnel and, together, the two rookies limped to Harper.