~~~~~~~~(16:34PM)~~~~~~~~

The survivors had taken a long and much needed break to replenish their Sev and Mana. Enjoying freshly cooked Giga beetle soup after all the beetles on the first floor were gone.

In this break, they took naps, went into the Zone to absorb more energy, or just sat around resting. With all of this happening though, their were still plenty of people keeping their eyes on the holes and the Gym doors, from both Alpha and Omega’s side

As they idle about Walkie talkie Vibrated as the Principal gave the go to, for Phase two to begin.

Quickly, people woke up their sleeping members, before ordering up just like they had practiced for phase two.

It didn’t take long for Alpha and Omega to both start heading through the gym doors and into the hallway leading to their targeted gyms. People were getting more nervous, before after this bit, they would meet and have to fight the queen.

While they did that, what was left of Zeta, Beta, and Delta dove right into the hive to clear what remained of the beetles below them.

~~~~~

Getting lowered into the tunnel by a rope, Layton calmed himself as his foot touched the bottom of the hole where the rest of his team was waiting for him. Looking up, Layton gave a thumbs up which was returned by the few people staying behind to guard the first floor in case other beetles decided to show up.

Looking over to his team, he saw; Dana, their Crossbower; Robert, their Shield Wielder; Ronnie, their Wizard; And finally Harron, another Spearman much like Layton. Layton wasn’t sure if he had what it took to lead, but he was going to try and keep his team alive as much as possible.

Looking around, there were charred beetle corpses everywhere, with 2 possible tunnels for them to head through. One left, and the other right.

“Alright guys.” Said Layton,” the group before us took to the left, so we’re joining up with the group that went right.” As far as layton knew, of the 8 teams going down here, 4 were going in from the cafeteria’s hole while the other went in from the Foyer’s.

“Robert.” Said Layton, catching Robert's attention,” you’re going in front, then it will be me, followed by Ronnie and Dana, while Haroon will protect our backs. We don’t want to idle here, so let's get moving.”

And with that, Robert took the lead, his shield held up at the read as they trekked through the tunnel, avoiding the dead husks of the beetles. The tunnels they trekked through were damp and humid, with a layer of mud on the floor. All of this might be due to the fact that multiple busted pipes could be seen protruding from the tunnel walls, slightly dripping water. These tunnels were covered with holes too small for humans to go through standing, but big enough for the normal beetles to crawl through. Anything team going down here had to be extremely careful to watch all of these side tunnels incase they are ambushed by beetles.

Layton’s team soon reached an area with 3 different tunnels. From the marking on the wall, the team that had passed by before them had gone through the right tunnel. Silently the team decided to continue going forward, leaving a mark to indicate their passing.

The tunnel they passed into soon began to drop lower into the earth, becoming a fairly steep incline, and with the mud caking the floor, a very slippery one.

“It’s going to be fun coming back this way.” Said Robert testing the area he was about to place his foot on.

“Shush!” Whispered Ronnie,” you voice carries in the tunnel, the beetles will hear us coming before we even hear them.” She scolds.

“It's fine.” began Robert looking back,” we’ve killed like a zillion of these things, most of what left might just be with the---” he was then cut off when Dana’s bolt passed over his head and struck a hidden beetle above them which died with a screech of pain. Tumbling down to the floor.

The team fell silent as Ronnie rose the orb of light she’d been holding to the ceiling where a small tunnel, well hidden by the uneven ceiling.

“Alright, quiet for the rest of this mission guys.” Said Layton, earning nods in return from his team mates before the continued one. Trying their best not to slip and slide deeper into the tunnel.

~~~~~~~

After about 30 minutes, twists and turns into different tunnels, with multiple encounters with a few normal beetles and a mega, the walkie talkie on Laytons side began vibrating as someone was contacting them on the delvers personal channel.

“Hello? This is Amyth’s squad, this message is for the wizards in all the delvers group. Our Wizard figured out something, so please hand the Walkie Talkie to your wizards please. Over. “ To the message Layton Shrugged and handed it over to Ronnie, who looked confused as she hadn’t heard a word that had been said. Still she listen in, as the Wizard from Amyth’s squad relayed something to them. Ronnie’s eyes seemed to sparkle as she handed back the device to Layton before she started doing something else.

“What was it?” Whispered Robert. He didn’t like being kept in the dark.

“I was given a way to sense the beetles before they ambush us in their tunnel. It's like echolocation, but I'm sending out pulses of my own magic and getting an image of my surroundings. If my magic bounces back on something that is alive I get a stronger response.” Replied Ronnie.

“Oh! That's useful!” Said Dana.

When Ronnie tested the spell, following the instructions she received, it took a little while to get used to the new sense. It was overwhelming at first, especially with her new sense going crazy with the 4 people around. Still the skill proved very useful since she could tell exactly when a beetle was coming after them. It was also very fortunate that the pulses took very little of her mana, mana which will regenerate quickly before she sends another pulse. This was because the pulse will return and be absorbed by Ronnie again with only a little pit of losses.

Things were finally looking up for Layton’s crew as they could at least now tell when the next beetle of beetles were coming. But then…..

“Stop stop stop!” Whistered Ronnie as she halted her steps, face contorting with horror.

“What's wrong?” asked Layton in a hushed voice, and terror began creeping into him as well.

“I got a life sign from the pulses, it's definitely not a Mega, Much bigger.” She said,

At this point they already knew what was coming. A Giga. it was just their luck running into one in a fairly spacious tunnel.

“How far is it?” Asked Robert.

Ronnie looked at him blankly,” it's already here….”

They had made the mistake of speaking while it was already approaching them. And as a Giga, its speed may be slow compared to a mega, but it was still fast and reached them before they even had the chance to begin running.

The beetle screeched and Layton and his team screamed in fear. “Dodge!” Scream Layton as the dove to the side as the beetle plowed through the tunnel. As it passed by Dana Shot an arrow to its backside causing the beetle to screech in pain.

The huge bug turned rapidly for another charge, this time Sev enhanced blades on its feelers extended to cut them down.

“Ah shit.” Said Layton as Robert gave a charge of his own, his entire body surrounded by a sev shield.

Ronnie did not stay idle, she knew fairly well Robert could not stop the charge of a Giga beetle on his own. So she began lobing ice and water magic as the beetle to slow it down. Attacking its head on the main body would do nothing, so she aimed for its leg, hoping it would fall.

It seemed this time luck was on their side as the beetle’s legs were pushed back by the spells as it tumbled to the floor. Robert met it on its way and managed to stop it after sibling came back a bit. Not wasting a moment his stabbed for its eyes, Dana doing the same, aiming for its left eye.

The beetle’s Screeched in pain. Stood up and shook its head violently to dislodge the spear and Arrow from its ruined eyes to no avail. In its thrashing it had slammed Robert into the wall with its mandible. The poor guy blacked out as his head hit the tunnel wall.

“Robert!” Screamed Layton worried for his health.

The sound of his voice attracted the beetles attention, now enraged by the damaged it had sustained as it went straight for him.

This time Ronnie froze the mud into front of the beetle solide causing it to slip and slide towards them.

Taking this chance, Layton dodged the blades that came for him, and slashing the beetle in its thorax as it passed with his Sev enhanced spear. The skin parted as blue blood oozed, but the wound was not deep enough to do a lot of damage.

“Damn it!” Said Layton as he pounced back to the beetle throwing a stab towards the creature. It connected, causing the beetle more pain. Then Layton was hit in the gut by the beetles back legs sending him flying into Dana were she was tending to Robert.

Now the ones in the most immediate danger were Haroon and Ronnie, both of which were directly in front of the sliding beetle.

“Get back it’s attention” Screamed Haroon as he and Ronnie ran back further into the tunnel.

“We have an Idea!” Ronnie called out.

“They hell am I supposed to do that!?” Layton called out as he picked himself off Dana, who immediately readied her bow and sent an exploding arrow at the Gigas posterior.

It is worth noting that they had all reframed from used skills that were too explosive for fear of having the tunnel collapse on them. Being buried alive didn’t not seem like the best way to go. But this situation left them no choice.

The glowing Arrow exploded in the back of the giga beetle causing it a large amount of pain. The tunnel around them rumbled as pieces of dirt and what not dislodged from the ceiling and fell. Thankfully though, the tunnel did not collapse. As the Giga beetle was a hardy creature that didn’t seem to want to die, the explosion would only leave a large crack on its back with sharples from the arrow lodged in them.

That got the giga’s attention fairly easily, as it spun around in rage and charged for the 3 of them. Layton took Robert's shield and prepared to fend off the terrifying creature.

“Dana!” Shouted Layton,” Get Robert as far away as you can.”

“What!” Cried the Archer in surprise,” what about you? You can take that thing by yourself!”

“Sure as well can’t! We can probably dodge it again, but Roberts is a sitting duck, we need him away from the Giga, I’ll buy you time!”

Knowing he’s right Dana took a second before rushing over to her unconscious teammate, picking him up and running away, back the way they came.

Layton didn’t try to stop the beetle head on. No, he’ll be bulldozed away if he does. Instead, he dodge it again, this time not paying attention to the feeler blade which cut his thigh.

Grunting in pain, Layton used his sev to slay the big creature into the tunnel wall, halting its charge as its head grinded against the dirt. The Giga though didn’t just let this happen and also slammed Layton into the opposite wall.

Being the less tough of the 2, Layton began coughing blood, trying to regain focus right as the Beetle Rammed him again. His only protection, being the table shield he held which splintered as the beetle hit it a second time.

Layton could swear his rip had broken and punctured his lung. Still he pushed on. Grabbing the Spear Robert had left lodged in Giga's ruined eye.

As if sensing Laytons intention, the creature pulled back. As the spear left its eye socket, it took the whole eye with all its muscles and veins. Blood spurting out and splashing onto Laytons face. Seeing this Layton wanted to Vomit, but instead coughed up more blood.

To add onto the beetle's pain, an arrow from Dana came crashing right into the open eye socket. THe subsequent scream nearly finished off Layton as the beetle backed away, only to slip on the mud ice and start sliding back towards Ronnie and Haroon.

Layton thought he had dodged a bullet, but then the flat side of the feeler blade swatted him across the head, knocking him out as he too began tumbling down with the still screeching beetle.

“It's coming for us!” Said Haroon and he used what little he knew about magic to freeze the rest of the mud on the way to their trap.”You ready?!’

“Yes, let it come!” Said Ronnie as she finished forming as many earthen Spikes, slated towards the approaching creature.

As the beetle got closer and closer, Ronnie sent her magic its way, using it like a hand to yank the beetle towards her, increasing its momentum on the frictionless icy mud. She then shoved Haroon into a grove in the Tunnel wall she had made.

It didn’t take long for the beetle to screech past them as its legs broke apart the ice as it tried to slow down. Looking out of their hiding place, they watched as the earthen spikes spreaded the beetle before they broke. Its own momentum had been enough of the spikes to rip its underside open. Separating pieces form its body. Its own head, still attached to the neck, tore right off and remained impaled upon a spike as the body continued into the spike-covered tunnel.

The stench of blood was thick in the Tunnel. That and the sound of their fighting would attract a lot of beetles to their position. So they need to run.

Before rushing back to pick up their team members as they fled, Ronnie looked back at the very dead Giga beetle. “Physics, Bitch!”

~~~~~~~

After unfreezing the mud to make their way up easier, they made a hasty escape, Dana taking Layton, who she had managed to catch before slipping further with the beetle, which Haroon carried Robert and his shield.

They ran and hid in a small space they had passed before lading themselves in the tunnel the Giga had assaulted them in.

Ronnie then proceeded with shrinking the entrance to their hidey hole to be small enough to not allow beetles through but still let air in. While she did that Haroon and Dana did what they could to give first aid to their very much unconscious teammates. Especially Layton.

Like they were instructed to do, they reported the situation to Mrs. Alonzos, who was their go to adult for their delve through the tunnels. They told her all that had happened and that both Layton and Robert were down, mostly emphasizing Laytons Injuries.

If he was to be saved, their whole group had to head back the way they came to the healers there. It was going to be a fairly long trek back, especially with the chance of meeting beetles at every instance, but they had to do it.

~~~~~~~~(18:23PM)~~~~~~~~

“Damn….talk about unlucky.” Says Amyth as he puts his walkie talkie back on his side.

“What happened?” asks Avalee, his team's Wizard.

Amyth’s team had much of the same set up as Layton’s: Amyth Denall, VFO Spearman and team leader; Avalee Elsey, Wizard; Aspen Sours, VFO Spearman; Jolene Grigas, their Shield Wielder; and Rudy Lesney, their Crossbower.

“Layton’s team got jumped by a Giga while exploring a tunnel.” Amyth said, gulping as he imagined themselves in that same situation.

“Are you Serious right now!” said Aspen in shock.

“None of them died right?” Asked Jolene in a worried tone.

“Yah, no one's dead, but Robert was knocked unconscious, and Layton’s was badly injured and he may die if they don’t get him help soon.”

“Shit!” Cursed Rudy,

“There is really nothing we can do. We have no idea where they are in the tunnels. But the healers left by the hole in the cafeteria are going to try and follow the markings they left to find them. Ronnie should be helping them with Directions too.”

There was a moment of silence between all of them as they hoped Layton’s fate would not be death. There had already been a lot of that in the past. And so far it's only been severe injuries since they started their attack. They hope that it doesn't escalate any further.

Done with their break. Math’s team got back to exploring the tunnels the beetles had dug. So far they’ve found chambers where they kept their food, other their esciments, ones where they kept their dead, and a few Nurseries for their eggs. Like most people who had found the egg chambers, Amyth’s team had killed the beetles and the Mega guarding it, before destroying all the eggs and hatchlings, they didn’t need another beetles army to join in the efforts of protecting the hive.

After a 30 minute trekk in the damp tunnel, the group found a large hole on the side of the tunnel, however what it connected to was not another chamber the beetle had built, like they were expecting. But a dimly lit cavern.

“Woah….” Said Jolene as she took in the vastness of the cavern.

“What in the literal Fuck, it this doing here?” echoed Question Aspen.

“What? Never seen a cave before.” Asked Rudy as their group made their way into the cavern. Which thankfully did not smell like beetles, but had reasonably fresh air coming from a small cracking high in its roof. There were mounds of dirt everywhere, mixed with other rubble and plumbing pipes. This was where the beetles were dumping their excavated dirt.

“No, it's not that.” Replied Aspen,” we haven’t walked that far away from the school, even if we had, we couldn’t have gone more than a mile. That means we're still in the city.” he said, pausing to see if his team mate got the point he was getting to. To his irritation, they didn’t,” Which means, Scientist and City planners would know that there's a whole damn cavern down here…..one so close to the surface.”

“Ah.” Said the rest of his team as they too got a grasp at what he was saying.

“Then how would It get here?” Asked Amyth.

“That's what I'm asking.” Replied Aspen.

“Well maybe when the planet broke apart, this cavern formed.” Jolene proposed.

“Hell no.” Avalee said quickly,” No way, I may not be an expert on caves. For one of these to be big enough for a human to walk through, it would take about 100,000 years. And this one is massive, like really big. It's probably been eroding for a really, really, really long time.”

“Well, how do you think it got here?” ask Rudy.

Avalee looked around the cave a bit more, making a second Light orb which she moved closer to the space she was inspecting before she found what she was looking for.

“Look there!” She pointed at a section of the cavern with marks of water having once passed through, however its source seemed to have been cut off abnormally as a wall of earth was all that remained. “It looks like a river may have flowed through here, before it was cut off, maybe you’re partially right Jolene, whatever happened at the beginning must have moved it here!”

“Your name is officially, Cave nerd now,” Said Rudy to which Avalee rolled her eyes.

“Caves are just interesting!” Replied Avalee.

While the 2 of them began to bicker between each other, they failed to realize how their voices, especially their echo’s, were calling something to their position. The creature currently stalking towards them creeped slowly. It lacked eyes to see, but its sense of hearing and smell was enough for it to survive for as long as it had. That was even without using magic to sense its surroundings.

This creature was covered in a thick layer of scale like stones. Its 4 feet padded to muffle any of the sounds it made as it inched closer to its new and stupid prey for making such a racket in its environment. Each of them capable of releasing 4 razor sharp claws. It had a long and powerful tail, covered in jagged spikes which it used to impale its enemy, even now, there were still decaying carcasses and skeletons of the creature it failed to get off. Its mouth was filled with rows upon rows of pointy teeth upon purple tissue.

If this was under its usual pitch black cavern, the 5 students would not have seen it coming until it was too late. But as the Cavern was now dimly lit from the afternoon sun, Jolene screamed as she saw the huge 15 feet long rock lizard climbing over a hill and descending towards them.

“What the hell is that!” Said Ruby, Joining Jolene in the screaming.

“I don’t give a shit, back to the damn tunnel!” Ordered Amyth as he grabbed the frozen Jolene, whose go pro captured the whole thing, and ran back the way they came.

Sensing its prey moving further away from it, the rock lizard gave chase and roared as it dashed towards them. Claws now fulling extended, leaving deep gashes on the cavern floor.

The students shivered at the roar, Rudy nearly tripping in surprise, but kept running. When they got into the tunnel they made a mad dash back to the place they had taken a break in minutes prior, never looking back in the process.

The rock lizard’s charge turned into a crawl as it stopped. It took a sniff of the tunnel, before running away as far as it could get from it, crawling back up the hill and disappearing into the caverns.

~~~~~~~~~

“Are you serious?” Asked Mrs. Alonzos in shock through the Walkie Talkie. Even Gaby was surprised as she listened to what Amyth was saying. It's been about an hour, and it was time for their mandatory report to the teacher.

“Yes! It was a huge ass Lizard made of rock, lacking eyes, and with teeth as big as thigh! The thing terrifying as fuck!” Said Amyth in panic through the channel.

“Now hold on!” Said Haley, a part of the Magisterium,”where the hell was this again?”

“In a Cavern.” Replied Amyth.

“Why were you in a Cavern? More importantly, where did you even find one?” asked Mrs. Alonzos.

“It was connected to the tunnels. The beetles probably dug into it by accident and we went in to check it out.” Amyth answered.

“Is it in the tunnels!” Asked Wilbur in fear, wondering if they would now need to be wary of a huge lizard crawling around in the tunnel.

“.....We don’t know, we didn’t stick around to find out.” answered Amyth.

“Ah great. Now we have to worry about a big lizard in the tunnels as well. Good job Amyth.” Said Lindon in annoyance.

“How was I supposed to know a rock lizard was going to jump us!!!” said Amyth in his defense.

“Well maybe we start with not checking out the Cavern in the first place. You were just supposed to explore the tunnel, killing the last of the remaining beetles down here.” Answered Mrs. Alonzos.

“Ah….” Came Amyth’s voice in understanding.

“They’re right Amyth, all of this could have been avoided if you left the big cavern alone.” Joined Mildred, to which Amyth grumbled something in audible to the channel.

“Anyways.” began Gaby,” My team and I found this chamber full of eggs, has anyone else found them?” she asked.

“Oh just squish 'em all, that's what we’ve been doing here.” Said Lindon to which multiple confirmations came from the other group leaders.

Gaby could not believe her ears. They were essentially murdering innocent babies! Her team had been thinking the same thing and proposed she asked the teacher what to do. But hearing this, she would not stand for it. “Why the hell would you do that!” She said in anger, “there babies you idiots, they've barely even been alive!”

It took a second for anyone to say anything, Lando being the first,” What the hell! Did you forget how many of us they’ve killed!” To which nearly all of the other 6 people in their channel agree with.

“Yes but that was their sibling! Or whatever. How would you like it if I came to kill you as a baby because of something you brother or sister did!” She countered.

“I’ll do you one better!” shouts Lindon over the channel, now equally just as angry,”how would YOU like it if I came to murder all your siblings because of what some of them did! Then go after you parents”

“That's not the same thing!” Argured Gaby.

“It’s just as fucking bad!” Countered Lindon,”we’re not even sure if all the beetles we are killing even took a part in killing our friends. The queen probably didn’t even order any of this, she’s just an animal and the beetles are doing what they do best, protect and feed her. You’re saying we should spare them too? Let them get the jump on us later!”

“You’re not listening. That isn’t the same thing! They’re grown beetles, the ones you're killing are just babie. Innocent newborns.” Continued Gaby.

“No, you’re not listening!” Said Lindon with a pause. “It is the same fucking thing! You act of if they aren’t going to murder us any differently when they grow up. Heck I had some weird long legged hatchling jump me from the ceiling. And Innocent? You talk as if they were sapient, they’re mindless bugs! Monsters who wouldn’t care less were sparing them and would kill us at any instance they get!”

Gaby did not know Lindon could make such a good point. In all the years she had known him, he was as dumb as a rock. Leave it to him to be perceptive of these things. But she was not backing down. “I get that. And I agree, but what I'm talking about is Moral obligations. Just because the world has gone to shit, doesn’t mean we leave our morals behind. That makes us just as much monsters as the beetles are. The beetles are trying to kill us all, trying not to leave any of us behind. If this was a scenario of human extinction, what makes it different when we are exterminating all of them? We become just like them, just mindlessly killing machines, it doesn’t matter if it's for revenge. It’s morally wrong to kill just for Killing, more so when it's deliberately killing a baby. And their life isn’t less precious than yours just because you’re sapient and they are not.”

“Damn…”Said Amyth in a low voice, “ Just… Damn. Both really good arguments.”

“I -I don’t even know where to begin with both of you.” Said Wilbur in mild shock.

“I could really care less about the beetles survival.” Said Lindon, somewhat diffused from his past anger. ”There's probably like a zillion other hives on this massive floating rock we call earth.”

“Yeah, and there’s 9.7 billion of us.” Said Mildred, seemingly joining sides with Gaby.

“With like 80% probably dead!” Cried Haley,” y’all are insane, I’m killing the eggs. Moral obligations will be for later not when my best friend was killed by these things.”

“Ok everyone calm down.” Shouted Mrs. Alonzos, putting a pause in the rising argument,” We don’t even know the statistics of how many have died, but 80% is a stretch. We're putting this aside for now. We’ll decide what to do with the eggs with everyone, so refrain from killing them.”

“But---”

“No buts Landon!” Said the teacher, shutting him up.”We’re not doing anything to them any more. Some of them might die without any of the beetles tending to them anyway. I don’t want to hear any more of this for now. I hope this compromise is okay for the both of you.”

“Sure.” Replied Gaby.

“Fine.” Answered Landon in irritation. The rest also voiced their agreements.

“Good. because we have a problem.” Said a new voice, joining their Channel.

“Principal Salinas!” said everyone.

“While you were arguing, we got to the Gymnasium. The queen isn’t here. And with the hive still active, there’s only one place she could be.” Said the principal in a pressing tone.

“Oh fuck!” Says Landon as everyone joined him in cursing their luck

“Get out of the tunnel!” Says the Principal with a sense of urgency,” Now!”