“I’m afraid there aren’t any weak hives that aren’t already claimed by a group,” The woman at the desk told us.

This wasn’t the same desk that was in the lobby when we entered; this was a desk specifically for people who were registered for the G.U.G. They handled issues, directions, and other stuff that I actually didn’t know about. However, importantly, what else they handled was the claiming of hives, which is why Luna brought me over to here.

“We can’t claim a hive for ourselves?” Luna asked.

“To claim a hive, you’d first have to register as either a team or a guild, and you have too few people for that. There would also need to be an unclaimed hive as well, which, as I’ve just said, there isn’t,” The woman replied with an exasperated tone.

“I see,” Luna accepted defeat before turning to me. “Guess we just gotta find a hive instead,” She prompted.

And so, I followed Luna and S1 out of the G.U.G. building and we began to wander the streets aimlessly, much like we did to find the hive the first time.

“Where are we going to go?” I asked her after we had walked a fair distance away from the building.

“Just anywhere, really. Like last time,” Luna replied, without looking back at me.

“Since you were a heart, do you know where a weak one will emerge?” I decided to ask S1.

“I do not know where other hearts will emerge,” She replied gracefully, as always.

“Do you know why you emerged where you do?” I probed further. Any little insight could help refine our search.

“I don’t know why I emerged where I did,” She answered.

“Stop interrogating my servant!” Luna playfully called out to me.

Eventually, we found ourselves back to wandering around the rough area where Luna lived anyway. I reckoned it was because, if we gave up, it wouldn’t be that long a walk to go to her place. And, besides, a hive was just as likely to emerge somewhere around here than anywhere else.

We spent a good hour or so walking around. Some of it was in silence but, surprisingly, most of it was intermittent with at least a modicum of conversation between Luna, S1, and myself. I found it unexpectedly easy to just converse in a relaxed fashion with them.

Every now and then, Luna would ask me to activate my system and I’d do so, looking around the goal to find a hive in mind. No luck. Hives were occurring frequently enough that you could stumble across one very easily.

Since hives only emerge in human-constructed buildings--I never understood why, though--cities, naturally, had a higher emergence rate than more rural areas. As such, there were days where multiple hives emerged on just one day, and they were unfortunately quite common, but they tended not to emerge near each other.

Cities are quite large and so hives tended to emerge on opposite ends of the city. Because of this, it was actually quite lucky--or unlucky, depending on how you look at it--to stumble across a hive or to actually be in the building where the hive emerges.

As such, it could be seen that we were quite lucky for one of the random times I activated, it happened.

[t%+ 21 minutes]

“Anything?” Luna asked?

“Yeah. Looks to be not too far from where you live, actually.”

“That’s convenient,” She replied.

“Are we going to go straight away?”

“Do you have any prior commitments?”

“Not really,” I didn’t have a reason to lie.

“Good. However, before we do go there, I need to pick something up at my place so let’s go there first, okay?”

Thankfully, the distance between her warehouse and the hive was short so this was a manageable thing for us to do.

What she needed to pick up was a knife which she gave to S1–a knife that resembled an easily obtainable kitchen knife rather than a combat knife—as well as a plain bow that was a tad bit under her height in length.

“Why a bow?” I asked.

“I know how to use a bow and if we diversify our fighting capabilities, that’ll be better for clearing a hive.”

“You know how to use a bow?” It just struck me as strange and I couldn’t take my mind off it. She lives in a warehouse and I didn’t know if she had any family or friends; where would she find the necessary free time to practise with a bow?

“Sure I do; I was taught by my dad when I was little,” She elucidated.

With that, we began making our way over to the hive itself.

On the way, I kept activating my Specialisation as well. Before, I knew the rough area but with each activation and getting closer and closer to the auspicious time, I knew better where the hive was going to emerge.

About a minute or two before it did, I was fully confident that the two storey warehouse we were standing in front of was going to become a hive.

“This is it?” Luna asked me, putting at the warehouse.

“Yep. Two minutes to go.” I replied.

“You know, the first time I heard the word ‘warehouse’, I didn’t know what it meant; I thought it was a person who turned into a house at night.” Her ridiculous statement sent me chuckling.

“What? Why?” I managed to get out.

“Well, warehouse is pronounced the same as werewolf so it just seemed logical to me.” She didn’t have the slightest bit of shame or embarrassment in her tone,

“I wish there were werehouses; that’s just be funny to see.”

“Werewolves are problematic on their own with tearing up their clothes. A werehouse would tear up the room they’re in. Nothing but trouble I imagine.” Her face was completely straight and her tone flat and serious, as if pondering on something that could actually happen.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get the opportunity to respond.

Abruptly, both of our faxes were transfixed upon the structure in front of us. Initially, no physical alteration appeared but then, with a speed like a racing car, giant, red tendrils ripped through the roof, the windows, the walls.

They were thicker than me in length, red like raw meat before being cooked, and as disgusting as the flesh inside a person's body.

They were solid in form and moved rapidly that they would’ve ripped themselves apart if they were any softer.

Their texture was revolting even from a distance; not smooth but a rumpled, crinkly mess of overlapping strands of flesh, constantly squirming around. Like a human made of worms.

One arm tore through the roof, a multitude through the walls, and only countless more inside that we couldn’t see.

The emergence of a hive was always the most dangerous part—that’s why we had stayed outside for it.

Finally, however, as the tendrils settled down into some massive structure and stopped flailing like an incredibly strong infant, we were prepared to make our way inside.

“It’s a medium sized one,” I said to Luna.

“I reckon all the warehouses would be medium ones,” She replied as we made our way inwards..

Once we stepped past the threshold and were not officially in a hive, we could begin to see the changes from within.

There was a red, ambient glow all around us, emanating from the tentacles that were everywhere. What once would’ve been a spacious floor of the warehouse had been chopped up and compartmentalised into a maze by this hive.

The sight itself was nearly overwhelming; it was like being birthed. The latent heat in the air only added to that illusion.

Before I managed to ask Luna what do we do know, I saw it; the first monster.

It was hideous and unlike anything I had seen before; it had three legs that were more like stilts—no feet—only stood on its four hind ones, was covered in a carapace-like armour, and had two overly large mandibles in front of what I presumed to be its mouth.

It’s head turned to and fro, I imagine it was looking around, but it’s attention was quickly grabbed by the arrow that came whistling through the air, chipping off its carapace and failing to injure it.

“Shit,” I heard Luna exclaim under her breath, drawing another arrow from the quiver by her side.

“The armour’s too tough to get through,” I informed her as it sunk down onto all six spindly legs and began to make its way towards us at an ominously low speed.

“I know that,” She replied, aiming her bow.

Thankfully, I wasn’t paralysed with fear this time so I picked up a brick that must’ve been dislodged from the wall and held it in my hand.

From the look of Luna, she would release the arrow soon. So, I threw with all my might at the monster, hoping it will damage it or knock it away somewhat.

Simultaneously, Luna releases the arrow, clinking against the armour once more. My brick, pathetically, made contact with the ground and nothing else.

By now, the monster was within a few metres of us.

“S1,” Luna called out, and the servant started to act.

With the knife in hand, she approached the monster slowly—matching its speed, in fact. Then, all of a sudden, she whipped herself around, grasping onto the carapace and throwing herself onto the monsters back.

She was a slender woman, reminiscent of supermodels, even, but her strength was incredible. She grappled the beast and pulled its head upwards and back, exposing its soft underbelly to us.

It had collapsed to the floor under her weight and its legs were scraping the ground in futility as S1 plunged her knife down into the top of the beast and pulled the knife straight down.

Luna didn’t even have to fire another shot; with just that, S1 had killed the monster.

“Thank you,” I said impulsively towards her as she made her way back to us.

“Don’t thank her yet; there’s still the rest of the hive to go,” Luna replied.

High on the energy of killing our first monster, we confidently carried on into the hive. None of us knew where the heart might be so our wandering was aimless, however.

On the way, I periodically activated my Specialisation whenever we were coming up on a corner and more than a few times I saw a monster there. With this vital information, we got the jump on a few monsters.

The monsters were strange; they were solitary and all similar insecticidal in fashion. It didn’t feel like we were rummaging around in an ecosystem but more like the monsters were adversaries you’d find in a game, intermittently placed to allow time for you to recuperate.

Additionally, while the first few monsters could just be taken out by me telling S1 how to grapple them effectively, rendering them unable to move or retaliate, the further into the hive we went, the less easy it was to immobilize them.

It got to the point it took the coordinated effort of Luna and S1 to kill them, and even then, S1 came away with injuries.

“Isn’t it bad for you to be getting injured like this?” I worriedly asked S1.

“As a heart, I have an effective regeneration factor so minor injuries will not faze me,” She replied nonchalantly as the gash in her stomach began to heal up ever so slowly.

“But surely accumulated injuries would be problematic?”

“Then you’d better make sure to help us to not get injured,” Luna responded to me.

By this time, I think we were all worn out, especially those two. S1 was fighting up close, getting injured, and moving about quickly and intensely—I was surprised that she showed no signs of exhaustion. All Luna had been doing was shooting things with her bow but even so, there was clear sweat glistening off her body and she was breathing heavily.

I felt guilty in comparison, relatively fine and able to keep going. I called out when a monster would turn around a corner but I was next to useless when actually in a fight. I was pathetic in that sense.

With all hives, however, there is a monster. A monster beyond all other monsters in the hive, demonstrating powers like they have a Specialisation if their own and a strength that makes them otherworldly. They are monsters to protect the heart and emerge close to the heart. As such, they are known as a Heart Manifestation.

“It’s right up here?” Luna asked me, to which I nodded in response.

In front of us was a large room on the first floor of the warehouse and while we could only see into the open door, I saw something that could only have been the Manifestation.

“You ready?” She asked me. Truthfully, I wasn’t.

“Yep.”

As we made our way into the room, that’s when we saw it; a large but slim creature. It possessed many legs—too many to count at a glance— and its whole body was covered in red, gleaming carapace armour. It must’ve been at least twelve feet in length.

It’s head was obscured but legs and it’s whole body had an unnervingly flexible shape to it, like an armoured worm with legs, in a way.

However, once all three of us could see it, our faces froze.

All the monsters so far were Earthly and grounded—could imagine them as just large bugs and nothing more—but this? It was fucking flying without wings!

It sat there on a cushion of air like a sneering creature looking down on lower life forms, Except, once we had caught its attention, it dived straight towards us like a missile, it’s feet never gracing the ground.

It took all our effort to dodge out of the way and only because I warned everything it was going to happen.

My Specialisation was active and even though doing so for prolonged amounts of time fried my brain, I felt like I couldn’t take the chance not to.

It flew at us like a bullet zipping through the air, each time getting close to us, unfurling its legs, and revealing the monstrosity inside.

It was a hideous, mawless creature with a mouth that extended to half of its body.

However, we were running on fumes by this point. It charged at us for only a few times before backing up and adopting another strategy;a strategy unobservable to the naked eye.

As it sat there in its throne of air, I felt a vague push from behind me. Then another one. They were weak and hard to notice. Looking over, it seemed the other two did as well.

And then the pushes died off but the moment they did, the creature flew at us again. I saw I coming, seconds earlier, but I always saw a barely avoided dodge by us.

Not this time. In my sight, as the creature flew through the air, legs wide, it shot past S1 and her arm was dismembered from her body.

The sight was sickening, with blood pouring from the wound and the flesh revolting to even imagine.

And the creature moved. And I felt the push again, but stronger this time. It urged me closer to the creature, directly in front of it. I fought back against it, walking backwards, but I was sliding forwards. I was too focused on myself that by the time it made its attack, I could only fall to the ground, failing to earn the others.

A scream pierced my ears as the tremendous speed of the Manifestation sent the air whirling around us in a frenzy.

S1 still had her arm. Barely. I could see the ligaments of muscle connecting the limb to her torso, her face contorted in such excruciating pain I wouldn’t dare to imagine.

As the creature turned around, it’s reddish body glistening with blood, liquid dripping off its legs, it didn’t waste a moment in floating or monologuing and came rushing again, an endless barrage.

Again, I foresaw it. I could see it tearing into S1, arms flying off. She was stronger than me, yes, but she still seemed human. Even she wouldn’t survive it.

And then, it fell. It ragdolled to the ground like a toy and rolled over, inanimate.

All three of us just stood there, unsure on what to do. My mind was screaming in pain and it was barely all I could will to keep my eyes open but there it was, just lying on the ground.

S1 was clutching her arm close to her and Luna’s Dave was inscrutable. I took my opportunity and deactivated my system, my brain unable to take any more.

“It’s… Dead?” Luna asked the room. Silence responded.

How could it be dead? We didn’t kill it…

I closed my eyes, my palms pressing forcefully against my temple as if to combat the coming migraine.

“It seems to be dead,” S1 replies at last.

“Let me check,” I heard Luna say before a hard thud against something solid. “Yep. Dead.”

Then I heard Luna walking over to me, pulling me up to my feet.

“Are you able to walk?” She asked.

I opened my eyes, glistening with moisture, and saw her staring at me. I nodded; there was nothing more I wanted to do than get out of here right now.

“Okay. S1, harvest the corpse while Charlotte and I find the heart,” Her confident tone was comforting.

I was tired, dehydrated, and had a migraine but I soldiered on with Luna.

We had checked the ground floor all over already and the heart wasn’t there and we had only checked some of the first floor before deciding to take on the Manifestation.

As such, we began to check the rooms that we hadn’t yet. They were all empty except for what you would expect to find in an abandoned warehouse.

All except one.

I hadn’t dared to use my Specialisation again so the sight took both of us by surprise. There, kneeling on the ground in a scaled suit of armour was a man. His outfit had a green tint to it, with the grey metal accenting it nicely.

He was facing away from us, his long, shaggy brown hair obscuring any identifying features. He didn’t react to our presence though I’m certain he must’ve heard us.

Why is he here? He was kneeling on the ground, a helmet resting by his thigh and his back bent over, eating. There were the unmistakable sounds of chewing in the room.

On the far wall was a recess from the hive; it looked like tendrils culminated there like a nexus of some sort. This room looked more like the interior of an organism than a warehouse, compared to every other location that was at least recognisable a warehouse-turned-hive.

I felt Luna pull my arm and my previously transfixed gaze turned to her, the fear on her face evident. I didn’t need words to understand her intention.

Trying to make nary a sound, we escaped back to where S1 was, busily cutting up the armour of the Manifestation.

“We need to go. Quickly.” The agency in Luna’s voice was unprecedented.

Without any arguing, S1 collected all the scales and armour she had relinquished so far

From the mighty beast and with that, we made our way out of the hive.