The building seemed to be segregated into two parts; the main store and the storage area behind. For as large as the publicly accessible area was, I was under no doubts that the storage area would prove to be substantial in size as well.

As we waited outside the large doors to said room, The Hand paused us to talk.

“Now, we’re going to be fighting an intermediate strength Manifestation here; the non-combatants are to stay outside the room until the combatants leave it,” He stated.

Separating your group between those vulnerable in straight-up fights and those not seemed logical to me--and we even sort of did it with Jonathon’s group--but it surprised me that I hadn’t thought to make that a regulation I had when clearing hives. Silently, I vowed to do better.

“Manifold, Stephen, Livvy, all you three will stay here. Luna, your group will stay here as well,” The Hand said assertively. It made sense that he’d be in the position to dictate our positions to us, considering he had hired us after all so it was an implicit agreement, but it didn’t sit right with me.

“All five of us will wait outside?” I asked promptly.

“Yes. You object to that decision?” He inquired. It wasn’t in such a tone where there was an implication to not object but, rather, it had the firmness of a leader. It was appropriate for the leader of a team who cleared intermediate hives all the time.

“I-I can fight!” I said, struggling to get my words out. After seeing how their team worked together so smoothly, so efficiently, it made me doubt my own abilities for a second but there was something inside me that wanted to be involved somehow; I didn’t want to be relegated to one of those people that sat back while others protected me.

“C1 is a fighter as well,” Luna added, her voice calm in comparison to mine.

“Very well. Only Luna and… S1 and S2 will stay outside as non-combatants. Everyone else will take on the Heart’s Manifestation,” He proclaimed.

The girl who hadn’t seemed to use her System Specialisation so far--who I had just learnt was called Livvy--handed her gun over to The Hand.

Once all the checks were done--everyone was in a good, healthy state, had all their equipment, weren’t too mentally fatigued to use their Specialisation, and had enough ammunition--we headed inside.

The room was spacious; the walls were decorated iron shelves filled with a plethora of plastic and cardboard boxes and numerous different toys. Parts of the floor were covered with collapsed and broken shelves, the space they occupied left empty only added to perception of the room’s size.

However, right in the middle of the room was a mound of rubble. It was grey, red, brown--a whole multitude of different colours--and it laid conspicuously together, without any rubble immediately around it.

As we slowly stepped inside, hesitant to suddenly awaken the Manifestation, wherever it was, as my foot loudly hit and clanged against a shelf I didn’t realise was there, the mound moved.

It wasn’t quick but neither was it slow--it raised at a speed expected for a pile of rocks and bricks.

The rubble coalesced into eight distinct appendages; eight points of contact were made with the floor while all the debris in between rose into the air like a crane picking something up.

The rocks were tightly fitted together--I was unable to see directly through the amalgam--but they scraped along as they moved, the sound of a rock slide echoing throughout the place. Rather than a pleasant, mechanical sound of a robot, it was an erratic, uncomfortable screeching of large rocks against large rocks scraping against each other.

This, I could only assume, was the Manifestation.

It stood about four feet high but with it’s eight, thick legs of stone and iron and brick, its width was over double that. Like a stone spider, in a way.

What was strange about it, however, was my inability to discern anything living from it. All I saw was stone, stone, and more stone; it was as inanimate as the eye could see. How would we kill a pile of rocks?

Time wasn’t given to thinking this through, however. As soon as the Manifestation raised itself to its legs, The Hand fired his gun at it, while the other two withdrew pistols and shot at the Manifestation as well.

An explosion of sound reached my ears, the cacophonous noises nearly unbearable as the bullets collided with the stone body of the creature but didn’t seem to even make a dent. They bounced of harmlessly and the Manifestation was unmoved from its upright state.

The sudden eruption of gunfire sent my ears ringing and even after it had ended, I felt like they weren’t quite up to snuff.

“Seems to be immune to bullets!” The Hand called out, making sure we were all aware. The sound must’ve been bad for him too, seeing how he shouted.

Only now, after that sudden assault, did the Manifestation begin to move. Its limbs creaked under the force of a walking hill as it placed one leg forwards, and then the next, and then the next. It looked like a lumbering machine, like how those expensive robots moved inelegantly and methodically.

As the… Thing started to move, The Hand called out ‘Shannon’, and turned to look towards her, only nodding once, before turning back to look at the Manifestation.

Why exactly he did that I didn’t know; Shannon wasn’t doing anything outwardly perceptible before or after that acknowledgement so I shoved that mystery to the back of my mind--I had more important stuff to be focusing on.

However, the Manifestation didn’t seem to have the same disinterest as I had adopted; only after a few seconds, it turned to face Shannon (I mean, I think it was facing Shannon but for a creature without a face, it was hard to know where it was facing) and immediately charged towards her.

Its slow, lumbering rise to its feet and subsequent ambling afterwards were deceptive; the speed with which it ran towards her was startling and I started stumbling backwards, wary of it getting anywhere close to me.

With unexpected alacrity, it reached Shannon in only a few seconds, raising up one massive, rocky limb to swipe the head clean of the young woman. As its claw swung downwards it collided with… Nothing. It took a stark, sudden step back before throwing itself to its side in a haphazard turn and then collapsing.

Collapsing? My mind was confused and jumbled as the Manifestation we were meant to be fighting just disappeared suddenly, its body crumbling to the ground like a corpse.

Have we won already?

Although it looked victorious, I was suspicious at the situation.

It can’t be that easy; this is an intermediate hive, isn’t it?

I was on edge and, thankfully, so were the rest of us. If the veterans smelled something strange in the air, that only served to cement my own arousing doubts over the situation.

As a safety precaution over not being attacked suddenly and finding myself unable to defend myself, I activated my Specialisation.

And then I acted instinctually.

I turned towards my right, to the side of Shannon, and immediately aimed, pulled back the string, and released an arrow. She could barely even react when she saw the arrow racing towards her, past her, and into the small, sudden body of a rocky mound.

My fire pulled everyone’s attention over there as the debris and rubble raised together once more, in its distinctive, eerie fashion, into the Manifestation.

It was trying to flank us?

The realisation set me on edge; adopting such a maneuver suggested at least a limited form of intelligence. Nothing was more deadly to a human than another human.

Immediately after my shot, The Hand raised his gun once more and fired at the Manifestation. It probably wouldn’t have done anything but with the speed of which he reacted, I doubted it was anything but instincts of trying to protect his team.

As the bullets hit the Manifestation--and did nothing to it--I activated my Specialisation once again; we’d need more information if we were going to kill this thing. Whatever it was.

I didn’t see much, just seconds into the future, but it helped to confirm what I did see after all; the bullets hit the rocks and then fell to the ground, entirely natural.

As far as I was aware, the bullets lived their whole lifetime entirely unmolested by the Manifestation’s telekinetic will.

While under the shower of metal, the Manifestation didn’t just stand still; no, it was lumbering forwards like a drunk goat. It was slow in comparison to its true speed, and seemingly directionless--just walking away from the wall.

And then it lunged again, straight for Shannon. It practically jumped through the air as its rear six legs propelled it forwards as immense speed. It swung down with almighty force and, once again, its clawing limb collided with an invisible wall and bounced off.

However, it did not react startled to this development--I suspected it had already expected this to be the case--for within a moment's hesitation, it attacked the guy standing right besides her.

As the Manifestation drew its arm back for another large swing, its target, in a dramatic and heavy motion, shoved his arms to his left, like he was moving a gigantic weight falling on him.

Without even making contact, the Manifestation was subjected to an improbable amount of force and tumbled to the ground rather quickly, rolling once, twice, before rising to its feet with the speed and experience of a veteran predator.

As soon as it regained its footing, in a remarkable display of bodily control, it lunged at its next closest target; The Hand.

However, predictably, it failed. The same familiar--and most likely annoying--forcefield raised up around him and the Manifestation just bounced off harmlessly, unable to do anything.

It seems that with The Hand here, and the Manifestation’s predictable attack pattern, it can’t hurt us. All that’s needed, then, is to figure out how to kill it.

My mind was racing to sift through all the data I had observed, trying to figure this thing out quickly.

Bullets have no effect on it but it also can’t control them.

Its body is made out of rocks and rubble so it's quite sturdy.

It's fast but its attacks involve its whole body; you can destabilize it easily once it's committed to a vector of attack.

My mind was whirring but I was drawing up blanks; the only offensive Specialization we had here was C1 and I didn’t even know if she could do anything to a pile of bricks.

A pile of bricks? Maybe she can do something…

However, my ruminating was cut short by a rather unexpected development; the Manifestation collapsed again.

Experience told me to expect the creature to try to flank us again--as well as everyone else, for they all moved around and looked to their sides, not wanting to be taken by surprise--but I didn’t know whether it’d keep the same tactic. By far, this was the smartest monster I had seen; nothing had adapted its tactics and used such a wide variety before, though its not like I had a large sample size.

As we tiptoed around, scared of any sudden movements lest they be the Manifestation, I activated my Specialisation once again. However, unlike before where it allowed me to predict where the Manifestation was going to be, I saw something different this time.

Something unnerving, terrifying even. As I activated my System Specialisation and looked around, I saw rocks climbing up around my teammates, encapsulating them in suits of rubble and debris.

Desperately, I deactivated my Specialisation, my breathing hitched and rapid. I blinked my eyes a few times and could feel my heartbeat in my ears.

It’s not happened yet; we’re all still mobile.

I turned to look towards C1; maybe she could do something? I tried to distract my thinking--leading it to productive pastures--by trying to come up with a way to kill the thing.

But it didn’t work. The sight was still on my mind and something, in the deep recesses of my head, it urged me to take it seriously. And so, I called out to C1:

“Be ready to jump with all your might.” It was cryptic but it felt right.

And then the ground began to move.

All the static and stationary rocks and bricks and broke shelving--all the rubble and debris that had collapsed and broken apart from the emergence of a hive--began to move like ants a part of a hive mind. Like swirling, tentacled limbs, they reached up my legs--our legs as they also assaulted my teammates--and dug up, in the pressure painful.

I tried to move, to kick my way out, but more and more stones piled one, locking my feet in place. I dropped my body to the floor, trying, desperately, to free myself. I clawed at my feet, pulled at the rocks with my utmost strength, but nothing. They stuck firmly in place, like I was trying to move a mountain with a spoon.

Panic beset my mind as I felt the rubble climbing higher and higher. On my shins, and then my knees, and then my thighs. I became trapped in this awkward, almost painful crouching position.

This was petrification.

The concept overtook my mind as I couldn’t help but dwell on it. More and more of my body struggled to move, aches and pains rousing and coursing through me. My legs were starting to become stiff and I flailed whatever I could widely.

I don’t wanna be trapped. I don’t wanna stop moving. I don’t wanna be here.

I pulled at whatever I could. My hands were slick with sweat and I could feel my hair sticking to my forehead as I grabbed at my legs, now my abdomen, or at the ground, just trying to pull myself out of this binding prison.

I’m sure the others were yelling, screaming, or crying out anything but I didn’t hear them; my mind was focused and utterly unfocused at the same time.

But it was all futile. The rocks ascended along my body as more of me became stiffer by the second. I could barely feel my feet anymore, and that loss of sensation coupled with the inability to move sent my heartbeat racing.

I gulped large mouthfuls of air like I was drowning. I found my vision in front of me beginning to blur even though I was wearing glasses, and I felt tears begin to trickle down my face.

And then there was rock.

Nothing.

I didn’t know what to feel.

I didn’t know what I felt.

Was I going to die?

Am I going to die?

I might die.

Even encapsulated in a stone prison, I was scared. I couldn’t do anything but watch as my death approached my body. I couldn’t do anything as my limbs lost the ability to move, as I lost the agency of my body.

You’re so weak that you’re going to die.

There was no way out of this. I’d either starve, desiccate, or suffocate. There was no pleasant option.

This was it. Not even my fingers could bend. Not even my toes could wiggle. All I could was shut my eyes.

And listen.

I didn’t hear much--mostly just breathing. These rock walls muffled anything that passed through; the vibrations lost their energy, the amplitude of the waves lessened, and what would’ve been distinct noises blur together. But I could still hear something.

I didn’t know what it was--maybe rocks--but there was shuffling about, moving, even. Was it the Manifestation? Or someone else? I didn’t know and my mind didn’t feel up to the task of thinking about it.

I sort of just took in the sounds absentmindedly, like they were mere ambient noise.

Movement. Loud clashes of rock. Scraping and falling. More movement. It repeated, over and over and over again.

I didn’t know what to make of it. Something was happening outside but that didn’t involve me.

I was here.

Trapped.

And then, movement. Not the faint, indistinct, hard to decipher sound transmitting from the outside but something intimate. A slow trickling as I could feel tiny rocks tumbling down my stone body.

And then more rocks. More and more, and larger this time.

A sudden cascade erupted out of nowhere as nearly every rock that made up my prison broke apart and fell to the ground.

I collapsed to my knees, breathing rapidly as I only know just realised how little air I was getting. Large, mouthfuls of air entered my lungs as I squinted my eyes, trying to flush out the tears. I rubbed my face in my sleeve as I was keeling over, utterly helpless.

Was this a stupid position to be in? Yes, but I didn’t think about that. My whole body was shivering, shaking, and I just wanted it to stop.

I didn't know what was going on in the rest of the room; out of the corner of my eye, I could see C1 running around frantically in a stop-start fashion. She was showcasing an immense amount of power, pulling back her arm for a few seconds and then, once her fist connected, every punch obliterated the rocks that housed the Manifestation.

However, there was blood on the ground. Small splatters of red dotted the rocks, the rubble, adding a tiny bit of colour to the otherwise drab and bland room.

The blood, clearly, had all come from C1. She had a large scratch across her arm, the blood staining her pure white skin, as well as a slight limp in her leg as there was a non-insignificant wound in her thigh.

However, all of that was nothing in comparison to the massive gash in her abdomen. Frankly, if she was human, I doubted she’d still be alive. A stomach-churning hole of blood and flesh was all I could see, the sight alone enough to make me throw up.

I stayed in that position, kneeling, hands on the ground, and just trying to calm myself down, to relax myself, as C1 had backed the Manifestation into a corner. She readied her arm, pulled it back, and held it there for seconds as the Manifestation was trying to get away.

However, no matter how fast the Manifestation might’ve been, C1 was not slow. With almost imperceptible speed in her arm, her hand rocketed through the rubble and debris making up the body of the Manifestation, crushing the silicate material effortlessly.

As her hand reached the nucleus of the Manifestation, it froze. The Manifestation, the stuff of nightmares, just stopped moving like all the life had drained from it, whatever sort of life it was.

And then C1 pulled back her hand and what was once the Manifestation crumbled into a pile of inconspicuous rubble, indistinct from all the other random mounds dotted about the room.

In her hand was a small, spherical black object of some kind. It had eight small bumps along the surface in two parallel lines but that was it for any markings; it was smooth and ink black, reflecting very little light.

No one got to stare at it for long, however, for it stayed in C1’s hand for only a few seconds before, in a sudden movement, she crushed it. Effortlessly. As easy as that, the Manifestation was dead.

It was over.