56 walkie-talkies were recovered from the scavenging the group had done beforehand. It hadn't really been hard to find them. Most teachers left them in the room, never really taking them around with them like they were supposed to. The rest of the walkie-talkies were either destroyed, digested, or hidden too well for them to find. But 56 was more than enough for them. All the adults got a walkie-talkie, leaving 39 available to be distributed. First, Alpha and Omega would get 5 walkie-talkies. Their group was split further into groups of ten. Beta and Delta also received 5 as their group was split further into teams of 5. Zeta received 2 for their 2 groups of 5. While Epsilon received 3 for their 3 groups of 4. The supply team, Sigma, also received 5.

That left 9 walkie-talkies which were given to the leaders of the 8 groups that will be heading down into the tunnels. The final one was snagged by Leo since he asked.

~~~~~~~~(8:46 AM)~~~~~~~~

Alpha and Omega double-checked their equipment. Making sure their armor was tightened and secure on their bodies. Checked if their weapons were sharp. Re-checked the number of bombs they had, as well as their Sev and Mana capacity, and finally the state of the friends before parting through their respective hallways.

As they left, Zeta made their way to the upper floors to clean them out if necessary.

As team Alpha walked down their hallway, it did not take long for them to find their first group of beetles, led by a Mega. This group seemed to have already been heading there, thanks to the noise that they had made before they left.

“Shields! Brace!” Shouted Coach McConnell as the shield wielders tighten their hold on their shield. The Mega surged forward as team Alpha’s front liners braced for impact. When the beetle was close enough, the shield wielders charged, meeting the beetle in just a few seconds, easily pushing it back from their combined force.

A Sev-coated spear then passed through gaps in the shield and struck deep into Megas head, killing it instantly.

“Carefully Tobias. Don’t waste your energy.” Said Coach McConnell.

“Yes, Coach.” Replied Toby as he pulled back his spear, right as a multitude of normal beetles rushed for them, screeching as they began throwing themselves at the survivors.

As the coach had said, the group did not waste their Sev with this first group. They easily crushed and decapitated the normal beetles with ease. These beetles were just throwing themselves at them with no tactics.

When that battle came to an end. Team Alpha continued until they met the next group of beetles, and then next….and the next. With each battle, the noise attacked more and more beetles to their position.

The further they went from Velysium hall the worse their surroundings got. Hallways cracked, ceiling panels dislodged and sprawled on the floor, and adding to the ambiance, busted water pipes spilling water into the hallway. There were holes everywhere from the beetles as they dug into classrooms, some of which may have been used to keep their food supply.

Even with their increased strength, all the survivors, with the exception of the select few, were just normal people, not soldiers. The bulk were teenagers who were still somewhat terrified of the whole situation. This terror led to many hiccups along the way.

There were many people who found themselves in a dangerous situations. Thankfully, however, the tension and adrenaline coursing through their peers, making them hyper-attentive, helped them pul out of difficult situations

“Homer Look out!” Shouted Zane as he grabbed the guy by the back of his armor and pulled him back, just before the beetle’s mandibles closed shut.

“T-thanks!” Replied Homer, still a little shaken about the situation.

“Don’t mention it!” Zane said quickly as the Shield wielders pushed back on the Mega beetle that had managed to get its mandibles past them.” Hang back for a while.” After saying that Zane passed through the shield wall to the side of the Mega beetle and began attacking with his glaive, all the while people kept the smaller beetles away.

On another side of the battlefield Toby was having a bad time keeping all the beetles on the side he was guarding. The shield wielders were focusing their attention on keeping the Megas back, as they thrashed about. He couldn’t hold it much longer on his own, but thankfully Steven arrived just in time. “need some help buddy!” He said as a few more people joined in on the efforts.

“Thank god!” Sighed Toby

“Let's kill these bastards!” said Angus.

At some point, the beetles began climbing the walls and ceiling to try and drop into the group. The archers and Wizards were keeping the bulk away. However, some still managed to get through. One of which lunged from the ceiling at Irene from her blindspot as she shot an Arrow towards another beetle crawling on the ceiling.

Before the beetle could get the drop on her. Irene saw Emelia pointing a bow at her and dodged to the side, just as Emilia’s arrow whizzed past her and struck the beetle before it could touch her. She then looked down in shock as the beetle tumbled into their group, only to be levitated away by a wizard and stuffed into one of the rooms. Irene looked back at Emilia who was already shooting her 4th target since the interaction and could help but give her a silent thank you.

“Stop slacking Irene!” Shouted Owen as he dodged a dead beetles body, tumbling into his position.

Irene rolled her eyes at Owen before resuming a stance and picking a target.” I got the one on the far left!” she called out.

At the front of the battle, a teen's leg got grabbed by a beetle feeler as it pulled back. Knocking her to the floor as she screamed. Before it could drag her off, Coach McConnell Punted the beetle away. Killing it in the process.

“You okay?” he said picking up the girl from the floor.

She nodded and whipped the tears from her eyes as someone handed her weapon back. “Go to the back and take a breather, come back when you're ready.” Said the Coach turning to punch a beetle that was dropping from the ceiling at him.

“I-I’m Fine!” Said unwilling to leave the front,” I can still go on.” The Coach Looked back and nodded with confirmation.

Feeling a vibration from his side, the coach grabbed his walkie-talkie and pressed the receive button. “This is team E! There’s a tunnel entrance in Room 147. over.” said the student.

“Copy that,” Replied the Coach,” but don’t send it to me, send that to Team Epsilon so a part of them can deal with it. Over.”

There was static again until another response came in,” Ah! Sorry, I’ll do tha-----Owain! Behind you!” screamed the guy on the other side of the walkie-talkie before its cut. This worried the people on the same channel as him listening in as well as Coach McConnel began asking what was going on as he fought back a group of beetle that was coming for him.

Static came from the Walkie-talkie again as the voice came back,” Sorry, beetle snuck through the hole in the sidewall. It was dealt with, no injuries. We're heading back to you. Over.”

Each time they passed a room in which they noticed beetles in, Coach McConnel would have a small team take care of the beetles in them. They didn’t need nor want to be pincer attacked by the beetles. This tactic proved useful as more than once there were small holes in the ground from which small beetles could come through. The room in which they were in was then relayed to team epsilon.

“Uh….Coach.” Said Richy, gaining the coach’s attention as he looked up, away from the beetle he had smashed to the ground earlier.

“Wha---oh…..” Said the Coach as he saw the tide of beetles head their way. They covered everything, crawling on each other as they dashed to stop the survivors from their goal. Looking at this scene, the coach grabbed his walkie-talkie and switched the channel to team Delta. “ This is team Alpha, y’all might need to get started, we might be here a while.”

Putting the walkie-talkie back after receiving the confirmation, the coach began barking out orders,” Form up! Get closer together!. Wizards blast apart that hoard, take down as many as you can before they reach us!” he shouted.

“Heck yeah!” Said Josiah as a fireball screamed over Team Alpha, followed by numerous others, rushing towards the tide. As the fireballs hit, they explode as the screeching screams of the beetle reverberated through the halls. Still beetle after beetle rushed forward, many on fire yet not willing to give up.

“Maybe with something less destructive! We don’t want the hallway to collapse!” Shouted Coach McConnell as he helped finish off the beetles that had gotten in their formation before they tackled the tide.

Due to the fire, the sprinklers, which surprisingly still work, began sprinkling water into the hallway, adding to the 2 inches of bloody water that already covered the floor. The students groaned as they got even more soaked, some however were thankful for the free shower.

“Perfect!” Said Josiah,” Water disks and ice shards people!” He ordered as the wizards began stealing the water from the air. Some formed them into rapidly spinning disks of water and launched them forward. Others took a little longer to make Ice shards before sending them out as well.

Needless to say, the water disks cut a multitude of beetles to pieces, serrating them apart. The Ice shards, meant for the Megas, impaled them and sent them tumbling to a halt, creating more of a blockade to slow down the beetles.

To thin the tide further, the archers sent their exploding arrows into its center. Everyone watched as beetle bits flew everywhere, crashing into the hastily formed shield of the wizards. They had taken down a huge number of the beetles. But the numbers in which they came were still intimidating, That was the truly fearful part about these beetles. There were so many of them coming that a portion of the wizards had to occasionally levitate bodies away from their charge, or burn the piled-up bodies to ashes so as to not block their escape route if things got too difficult. Still, this killed a bunch more beetles who senselessly charged through, it took their air supply. However, wizards were good at clearing out the smoke, having someone hold a shield to keep most of the smoke out.

“Here they come!” she the Coach snapping people to focus as the tide crashed into them.

Spells, swords, and arrows flew into the tide to beetles cutting down the small ones with ease, the mega’s did not die as easily as they were stronger, but still, enhanced blades and magic killed them after blasting their chitin apart.

Ever so often, they would relay this information back to the general channel for the people of Velysium hall to know their situation.

They also had to call for more Arrows and Crossbow bolts.

~~~~~~~~~~

The upper floors were far less eventful. Most of the beetles had long since moved to the first floor, living in the tunnels they had made for themselves. Because of this, team Zeta had an easy time cleaning out the upper floors as there were few beetles trekking about.

However, there were a few interesting things to be found up there.

“Ew…” Said one of Roman’s teammates as he picked up a slimy membrane off the floor of one of the large art classrooms they had gotten into. “What is that”

“No idea.” Said Roman inspecting the thing,” It looks like a membrane.”

“Maybe it is a piece of beetle eggs?” Proposed another person on his team.

“Frick, then this was once a beetle nursery? No wonder they attacked the second floor so badly that one time we made too much noise.”

After reporting their finding they went into another room, before rushing back out. “It smells like ass in there!”

Since they had taken everything of use from these floors they hadn’t returned. From what they found, the beetles got right at home. Many rooms had odd white wilting paste and sheets on the floor. They guessed that it had been a room where the beetles had previously kept their eggs, some of the bigger rooms were used for this purpose. The Smaller ones held beetle feces, which did not smell good after how long it had stayed up there.

The theater hall was the messiest of all, it seemed to have been a food storage, as heavy amounts of dried blood and leftover body parts from various creatures were spread about the room. Humans included.

~~~~~~~~(11:22 AM)~~~~~~~~

Luke had a broken hand, so he was put into Team Sigma and tasked with delivering Items where they needed to be. From what he could tell things were going well so far. Both Alpha and Omega had reached their goals and were fighting the beetles there to take back the area. Beta and Delta were also doing a great job finishing off and reporting holes for Epsilon to close. Zeta had also joined them as the upper floors were soon devoid of beetles.

He and a few others rushed past a group of people in Team delta as they dealt with a Mega sneaking up on Alpha. Once they arrived at the cafeteria the archers there seemed grateful that they had arrived as they were running low on arrows.

“Here you are!” Said Luke, breathing heavily as the Archers came towards him. ”how are things over here?” he asked.

“Look for yourself.” Replied Irene, multiple cuts and injuries already on her person. She quickly filled up her quiver before rushing back into battle.

Looking over at where she was running back to, Luke and his team gasp.

The cafeteria was a mess of destroyed and overturned tables and chairs. Joining that were piles of dirt, and rubble everywhere. Then there were the rotting body parts of its previous inhabitants everywhere, in places the beetle didn’t bother to clean up.

In this rough terrain, multiple portions of Alpha were taking on 8ft tall beetles, while the rest kept the normal and Mega beetles away from them. Some Wizards were busy cleaning up the area so they could walk easily. The Gigas as they came to be known, was much stronger than the Megas. Their mandibles were barbed and tougher; they had blades on their feelers which were long and cruel; their chitin was very strong, and resisted a lot of the hits they were sending its way. The best way to kill it was to attack the exposed areas and its mouth when it opened it, as well as its eyes. But that was only if they could reach them successfully since they had the ability to use Sev. They too could charge the blades on their feelers along with their mandible to unleash devastating attacks, one of which already cleaved a shield in 2.

“How the frick are we supposed to kill those!” Asked Luke in shock.

The Archers re-arming themselves laughed until one of them points at the far corner of the Cafeteria where the bodies of at least 10 of these Giga’s lay, causing the jaws of Luke and his team to drop with shock.

Flashes of light and the clashing of weapons upon Chitin would be seen and heard all over the cafeteria. It was a war. With People and beetles alike darting to attack their next target.

Off to the side, the OHS was healing the already climbing injuries received from the battle. Most of them coming from the Giga beetles despite the several already killed. Luke and his team went over to them to deliver more alcohol to them.

“We got the alcohol!” he said as he approached Raymond, one of the healers, who looked positively drained.

“Oh thank god!” he said, his complexion somewhat brightening and he smiled.

What the healers were doing was essentially just closing the wound by force. This means all the bacteria and other microbes that make their way into the wound are still there. To properly heal people, alcohol was needed to clean the injury first. This was a problem since they only had a few of them in stock. So they had to dilute the alcohol somewhat to extend their supply.

“You guys don’t look so good.” Said Luke as he watched the Healers stumble onto their next task.

“Well.” began Raymond,” you’ll be drop-dead tired too if you had to endure this as well.” he said before looking back down at Owen, who he’d been healing,” you’re good Owen. the gash on your side is closed, but try not to agitate it, the tissue is still soft.”

“Thanks, man.” Owen Groaned out,” Gatta get back there. That Giga isn’t going to slay itself.” He said, rapidly putting on his equipment and grabbing his bow, before jogging back into battle.

“Practically everyone’s down to about a 3rd of their Sev reserves.” Continued Raymond. “The wizards are the only ones at about half their mana pool since people who haven’t been using it have been giving it to them. But with how much they’ve been using magic, they’re in pain every time they cast a spell and are just about to fall over too. Thankfully no one's dead…..yet.”

“What happened, didn’t you take a break before smoking the beetles out?” Asked one of Luke's team members. To which Raymond started laughing.

“No way, we haven’t even started smoking them out yet. They just keep coming out of the hole. The normal ones are easy enough to handle. The Mega? A little tougher, but nothing serious. The problem is just the number in which they come in. Then there’s the Gigas which are attracting most of the attention. Our forces are being stretched thin.”

“Damn…..that doesn’t sound too good.” Replied Luke.

“Yeah, if the coach hadn’t pushed us past our limits every day for the last 2 or so months? We might not be pushing them at all and would have just given up and died. Now I feel like a fool for cursing him out in my head.” said Raymond as he went on to heal someone else.

Before Luke could ask something else the coach’s voice rang out over the battlefield,” Another Wave incoming! Blast them to bits!” He cried.

To his words, a myriad of, bombs, exploding arrows and spells shot towards the gaping hole in the floor, from which hundreds of other beetles crawled out of it, mostly normals, with the addition of Megas, and few Gigas.

The wizards shielded the hole and somewhat contained the massive resulting explosion which took mostly all the beetles, apart from the surviving few. Mostly Megas and Gigas, though they were seriously injured.

“Holy shit…” Said Luke putting his hands down after the bright light had faded.

The blast had made the hole a bit bigger, but Team Alpha had succeeded in not getting overwhelmed by the number of beetles crawling through.

“Toby, Steven, Owen, Layton! Finish off those Megas! Team I, hurry up with those beetles and attack the Gigas!” Ordered Coach McConnell.

“Well, that's me.” Said Raymond,” Nothing much to do here anyway.” Said Raymond, grabbing his makeshift spear and rushing into battle, followed by a few of the other healers.

It was then that Luke’s walkie-talkie vibrated. After consulting what was going on, he and his team left for their next assignment.

Niko wasn’t sure if he should feel unlucky or lucky to be in team A within team Alpha. His team was always at the front and was made up mostly of the strongest members. Stronger because they were diligent in their Sev training.

Niko ducked and rolled to the side as his blade went up, separating the left mandible from the Giga’s mouth as it screeched in pain. Loud enough to rupture someone's ear, that is, if they hadn’t been training Sev for about a month and a half now. Internally Niko rejoiced as he’d been aiming for that for a few minutes now.

The Giga’s attention immediately switched to him, and it sent its Sev enhanced bladed feelers at Niko, as he stopped rolling. The attack failed as Zane and Rennard batted the feelers away.

“Thanks, guys!” He said, standing up, only to drop to the floor again as the bladed feeler of the second Giga they were fighting Whizzed overhead. ‘This is ridiculous!’ thought Niko as he rolled away right at Giga's Leg slammed where he had just been, cracking the floor. That had been the wrong move…for the Giga, as it exposed the non plated section where its leg and body met. A wizard, seizing the chance, fired a ray of concentrated mana its way, cutting the leg off, sending the beetle off balance.

Troy and 2 other Shield Wielders then ram the Giga on the side, causing it to collapse exposing the fleshing underbody. Needless to say, as the beetle thrashed to get back up, an Archer sent an exploding arrow its way, which blew up its thorax, sending bits of beetle guts everywhere. That beetle was dead, dead.

“Scapegoat for the win!” Said Josiah throwing his hand up in Victory.

“I still don’t understand why I’m the Scapegoat,” Niko said, picking himself off the floor. This time had been way too close for comfort.

“Less talking, more fighting! We still got a Giga here, and more around the field!” Said Zane as Dodging a feeler from the Beetle.

“Your agile Niko!” said Josiah, answering Niko’s question before rushing in to help his friends.

“Yah! get rolling Niko!” Said Ranzer, causing Niko to groan and drop back to the floor to try and get the Giga's attention.

~~~~~

Luke and co, had their next task with Team Omega, which was in the same situation as Team Alpha. They too were focusing on taking the Giga’s down.

Luke had even asked why not just toss a bomb into their mouth and be done with the beetle, but they had already tried that. Tossing a few bombs in a Giga’s mouth worked to a degree but didn’t fully take them out. It mostly just made them act a little drunk before they snapped back to clarity. Whatever their insides were made of, Luke didn’t know.

It would take an hour or so more of the beetle tides to stop pouring out of their hive. Seemingly finished with tossing their lives away.

The survivors, ironically, survived, but a few people were injured too badly to keep on going with the fight, and were pulled out, switched with some from team Sigma as planned.