Boundless Evolution: The Summoning Beast

The chamber was still shuddering with the aftermath of the Keeper's hum when Yvren raised his staff, light pushing back the gloom.

His calm voice cut through the chaos, measured and resolute: "We cannot hold them here. Retreat back through the tunnels—fall back to where we came from before the Nest drowns us."

Veyra's bowstring quivered as she steadied her aim, her tone clipped but urgent, "He's right. We need to run for now. More are coming."

She shot a glance at the red eyes gathering beyond the resin haze, "If we stay, we'll be buried under them."

"We need distance…" Yvren murmured, his gaze shifting toward Kalrek, "Kalrek, your bombs—will they make the tunnel cave in?"

Kalrek huffed, ragged but stubborn, "Aye, they'll work. When the tunnels fall, the swarm will fall with them."

Yvren drew a breath, lifting his staff, "Retreat, before the rest of them get here!"

Kalrek snapped back, sweat-slick and wild-eyed, voice bristling with defiance, "Wait! Not yet. You think I've been wasting my craft?"

He slapped the pouch at his belt where faintly glowing rune-stones clinked, "If we trigger them too early, we waste the trap. Those tunnels will cave in, and when they do, it'll crush far more of these bastards than what's here. Hold a little longer, let more come, and then we bury the rest."

Veyra's eyes narrowed, her tone cutting, "You're gambling by letting more of them gather—if the Nest swarms this chamber before the collapse, we'll be overwhelmed by numbers rather than crushed by stone."

Ash's ears pricked at that, his gaze dark, the system's counter glowing faintly before him—31/50.

His claws twitched with hunger for more, "He's right. We should use this. At the end of the day, we don't know how many beetles there are. We need this chance."

His shadows flexed at his shoulders, as if eager to prove his words true.

Veyra cursed under her breath, unwilling to yield, "We don't even know what else waits deeper in this Nest."

Tholn's voice was calm but firm as he stepped forward, blades gleaming, "You're not wrong, Veyra. But the greater the number we cut down here, the less danger there is for those beyond. I stand with Ash."

Veyra drew a sharp breath, glaring at him, but found no words. Her bowstring trembled, silence falling heavier than any retort.

Kalrek broke it with a crooked grin, "And you'd waste the chance to bleed them before they drown us? Trust me—my runes will sing before the night is done."

The swarm began to stir again, a wave of sound and motion swelling.

The Grunt Beetles shrieked as one and charged, a tide of resin-slick carapaces surging forward. The chamber shook under their weight, the walls trembling as if the Nest itself was ready to swallow them whole.

Yvren's staff blazed, his command cutting through the roar, "It's decided! Hold them here as long as you can. Kalrek—fall back into the tunnel. Set as many charges as you can manage. We'll retreat toward you on your signal."

Kalrek gave a sharp nod and bolted toward the tunnel, clutching his runes tight as the thunder of the swarm grew behind him, "On it—don't you lot dare die before I set these charges!"

Ash hurled himself into the swarm the instant Yvren's order rang out, his shadows lashing like living whips. Resin sprayed in foul arcs as his claws split open the first Grunt.

The system's counter flared in his vision—32/50.

Riven darted ahead, a blur of shadow and fur, his Shadow Sprint smashing two drones against the wall. Ash followed, Eclipsing Fang igniting his strike as he came down hard, splitting a beetle's shell wide.

35/50.

The chamber roared with chittering.

Mandibles clashed like iron, legs scraped resin, and the swarm thickened with every heartbeat.

Veyra's Moonpiercer arrows hissed past Ash, bursting with pale light as they drilled through joints and eye sockets. She moved like a machine, loosing arrow after arrow, sweat streaking her face as the swarm pressed harder.

The fight raged on, resin flying in every direction.

Tholn fought beside Ash, blades weaving in ruthless arcs. A drone's mandibles grazed his ribs, slicing through cloth and flesh before he twisted away and gutted it. He hissed softly at the sting but kept moving.

Yvren pressed forward through the chaos, his staff blazing as he swung it in a wide arc.

The blow cracked against a Grunt's mandibles, splitting them before a flare of light burst from the wood, scattering beetles in a searing flash.

One drone's claw raked across his arm, leaving a shallow but bloody cut.

He grimaced, steadied himself, and with a sharp word of power hurled a surge of light that detonated with a crack, blasting the nearest wave of beetles backward—but the gaps filled instantly.

'I need to conserve my strength...' he thought to himself as he felt the urge to use more aether in his attacks.

Tholn was suddenly at Ash's side, daggers weaving. A drone's mandibles grazed his ribs, slicing through cloth and flesh before he twisted away and gutted it.

He hissed softly at the sting but kept moving.

"Keep your head, not just your claws," he snapped, gutting another beetle before it clamped onto Ash's flank.

But Ash was already lost to the rhythm of slaughter.

Umbral Bind snapped tendrils from the ground, clutching a cluster of drones.

He ripped through them, resin coating his arms and chest as his breath rasped, his aether was being generously consumed, but the counter dragged him onward.

38/50.

Just then, a sudden lull, just a heartbeat, passed as the thirty-sixth beetle recoiled from Ash's last strike.

The air grew still—too still—and the party's breaths thundered in their ears. Then the resin underfoot began to tremble, dust sifting down from the ceiling. A low vibration crept through the walls like a gathering storm, each beat louder than the last.

THRUM… THRUM…

The sound rolled like the pulse of a living beast. Their ears filled with the rising drone, and even the Grunts in front of them hesitated, chittering nervously as though they, too, felt the shift.

Then, from deeper within the tunnels: SKREEEEEEE!

A new wave of screeches erupted, sharper and louder than anything before. The sound rattled the resin walls like drums of war.

KRRRCHHH—SCRAPE—SCRAPE—

The ground shook beneath their feet as the swarm poured in, greater in number, their armored bodies scraping like thunder. Red eyes flared in the darkness by the tens at first, and the party stiffened.

Veyra's voice broke out, tensed "Here they come."

Tholn's jaw tightened, his stance sinking lower as he braced, "Thirty at least… and more behind them."

His daggers trembled in his grip, not from fear, but from the weight of what loomed.

Ash staggered forward, chest heaving, refusing to stop.

He darted under a pair of snapping mandibles, Shadow Sprint carrying him into a slash that gutted one drone.

Another lunged; he spun, heel snapping its jaw aside before an Eclipsing Fang burst its eye.

The counter burned— 42/50.

Then the sound hit him.

The oncoming swarm's screeches rose from the tunnels ahead, shaking the walls with their violence.

For a single heartbeat his focus faltered, ears twitching toward the sound and that lapse was enough.

Three drones slipped past his guard, scuttling toward the others.

'Sh*t!' Ash panicked as he saw them charge straight past him, heading for Veyra.

"Look out!" he called out to her, grabbing her attention.

Veyra pivoted, loosing an arrow that punched through the first Grunt's eye. She reached for another, but too late—the second slammed into her.

Its claw raked across her shoulder, leather tearing, blood spraying as the force hurled her against the resin wall.

"Veyra!" Ash shouted, forcing his way past two drones.

He slammed into the third beetle just as it lunged, his claws raking across its carapace before his shadows burst outward, tearing it apart.

He stood over her, chest heaving, before pulling her up with a growl, "I've got you!"

Veyra gasped, teeth clenched as she pushed herself up. Her arm shook violently, crimson running down her sleeve. She snatched her fallen bow with her good hand, fumbling another arrow onto the string even as pain made her vision blur.

"I'm not done yet," she hissed through gritted teeth, loosing a shaky shot that still found its mark in a beetle's throat.

Ash froze for a moment, guilt spiking hot in his chest. His lapse had opened the way.

The others closed in beside him, weapons raised but eyes wide. Veyra's bow shook in her bloodied hand. Tholn shifted to cover his side, ignoring the sting in his ribs.

A sudden line of beetles surged forward, mandibles clashing as they barreled straight for Ash, Veyra, and Tholn.

Typhoon Descent!

Yvren had arrived, his staff planted firmly as its glow burned defiantly against the darkness. The staff slammed into the earth like the hammer of a god.

The ground erupted, a shockwave exploding outward in concentric rings, arcs of green and violet light slashing through the mist like jagged lightning.

Beetles shrieked as the blast ripped through them—carapaces cracking, bodies bursting, legs curling as they were thrown back in heaps. The chamber quaked beneath the impact, roots splitting apart as if the Hollow itself had flinched.

When the dust cleared, silence followed. The remaining swarm lay shattered and still, the battlefield carpeted with broken husks.

"Steady yourselves for a little longer," he commanded at last, his voice ringing like steel, "We must hold on until the reinforcements all arrive! We do not break!"

The swarm thickened, fifty, then more.

Seventy… eighty… the numbers grew, the air choked with the screeches of the horde.

Veyra loosed another arrow, her arm trembling, "This is madness—how do we stand against so many?"

Ninety. Then one hundred.

The count surged beyond, beetles spilling endlessly from the tunnels, the red glow of their eyes multiplying like wildfire in the dark.

At last the truth came from Tholn, his calm voice carrying like a death knell: "There must be around two hundred."

The true swarm had come. Everything until now had only been the prelude.

Yvren didn't waste a breath. "Fall back! Into the tunnel we came from!"