-----V-----

The kypseli larvae were in the hundreds, and they charged at us even though they weren‘t matured enough. And for the first time in forever, I wanted to puke.

I fired my rounds at them, and they died easily without their carapaces as their protection. But with the lack of their hide, they had their numbers. The soldiers kept burning them, but they managed to get through the flames.

Larvae jumped at one of the artifact hunters, biting with their kypseli might. The man tried to rip them off of himself, but they were not budging. Others came in to help, but they couldn‘t use their artifacts as long as the larvae were attached to their friend, so they started pulling them off with their hands and throwing them away.

It happened again with a second artifact hunter, but she was already weak, so she didn‘t last long. Another member of our group fell. The screams echoed throughout the cavern, but it wasn‘t loud enough as the screeches of the kypseli.

Ivona and Ivy, who only used arrows, were only depleting rapidly of their ammunition on the smaller kypseli. But they were using a similar program to each other that would make their arrows split and hit many of them at once. But those arrows will not be retrievable as they brake apart after using the program.

A larva was scuttling towards me, and I kicked it in the air and fired at it, giving me a good target practice for something in the air.

„Why the hell are the babies hatching so early?!“ Amara shouted.

„It is most likely the matriarch‘s doing, she must have told them to hatch!“ Franek shouted back.

I glanced over at the egg layers, and I could see that the eggs they lay would already open up right after expelling it out of their bodies. Their maturation must have increased a lot, but they were still just larvae with no shells and barely any muscles to speak off, some didn‘t even have matured eyes to see, yet they kept running straight at us.

„We need to take out the egg layers!“ I shouted. „More will only come if we don‘t take them out!“

„I‘m on it!“ Amara yelled and aimed her rifle at one of the egg layers.

She had a sniper rifle, but she also had a sword that she used on the larvae. It is pointless wasting zettra power on the little guys with such a weapon.

She looked through her scope, stopped breathing for a few seconds, and pulled the trigger. The smoke trail flew through the cavern, and one of the egg layers exploded. A loud boom reverberated around the cavern.

„That‘s one! Only five more to go!“

That‘s a lot, and Amara needed to wait a few seconds to cool down her weapon to fire again.

One of the egg layers was close to a support pillar, so I brought out my explosive program and fired at the said pillar. Rocks pummeled the ground, crushing a few larvae, then fell on the egg layer, completely gone from view, but I knew it was dead.

„Throw all your explosives at the ceiling and pillars! Bury the creatures in their own nest!“

The men and women with ranged weapons unleashed their explosive programs, and the cavern shattered bit by bit. The larger kypseli finally decided to run at us, their fangs and tentacles baring. But the soldiers kept them away with their flames.

The ceiling was starting to collapse, and the kypseli were getting crushed by the boulders that fell. At the back of the cavern, a ray of light shone, and the egg layers and other kypseli started to dash towards the back entrance of the hive.

„They‘re leaving! Don‘t let them escape! They will only start a new hive in a matter of days!“

Some of the artifact hunters rushed through the cavern with haste, two of them being Braxton and Franek. Like me, the rest weren‘t risking going through the collapsing hive, so we took the long way out.

We ran through corpses of dead larvae and matured kypseli, and made it out with ease. We ran what was most likely the roof of the hive, and saw the giant egg layers in the distance. And Franek was there taking them down with the others. He is most likely going to get more points than me on the bet, like that even matters.

The screeches attacked my ears at a distance, and it would be too late to take one kypseli down before they would all fall by the other hunters.

„Well, this is getting boring,“ Amara said as we ran through the muck.

„Amara, you have a sniper as your artifact, you can shoot them from here. You even fired a shot across the city of Tyrida.“

„Yeah, but I barely want to help Franek.“

„Huh, yeah actually then don‘t take a shot.“

All of the hunters were there who ran through the hive. No one was missing, and barely any had injuries.

The kypseli were all dead when I was about to take a shot, the rest of the larvae were taken care of by the flamethrowers, the battle was over already.

----------

The battle of the second hive, we lost three men. Two from Wilmer's side, one on Franeks‘. Eight against thirteen, this is just getting worse. I‘m starting to believe that we are going to lose the battle. I should just get the gem and not fight Franek, I can find a different way off to the next planet, though it might take a while.

We ended up in a forest of muck. Like the snowy-yuck ground, the branches and the few leaves were not joyous to look at. The kypseli muck drooled from the trees and gave me a repulsive feeling when it slid down my shoulder. I could feel my stomach roiling.

There were no birds, except for the ones that the matriarch made. Franek told us about the kypseli observers. The things that looked like birds, who somehow have insect features, gazed at us with their glowing purple eyes. Their scaly-feathery frames had lines of bioluminescence purple. There was a flock of them on the muck-branches, staring, contemplating.

„Right now they are sending signals to their matriarch, they know we are coming,“ Franek pointed out.

„Aren‘t we going to get ambushed constantly?“ A hunter asked.

„Most likely, but she only sends a few of her brood, always keeping their numbers small. I already know what you are going to ask, and my answer is that no one knows.“

We have already gone deep into the forest of muck, and we had only a few encounters of the kypseli. I secretly glanced at the holographic screen on the shield, and the gem was getting closer. I just needed a good place to start the fight. And I need something that could guarantee our victory.

A sudden shriek sounded from above. We all halted and stared into the sky, which looked like was starting to fall on top of us.

„Kypseli-shrieker! Soldiers! Burn the skies!“ Franek shouted.

Kypseli-shrieker, a type of kypseli I learned when first entering Smittis. They were like hawks but with insect wings and scales. Their beaks opened horizontally, and inside showed razor-sharp teeth that were like needles. And their shrieks were heard. The sounds they make could ruin a man‘s hearing when listening for only a few seconds. So when Franek yelled at us that they were shriekers, we all put in our earplugs that we were given. Amara didn‘t need to, that helmet of hers will keep her safe.

We would fight the kypseli-shriekers with only our eyes, no communications were available, except for hand gestures.

Before Franek put on his, he shouted towards Amara. „Amara! Kill the main shrieker!“

The main shrieker was bigger than the others, also the one giving birth to them and controlling them. And it was way up in the sky. It had the same features as the other shriekers, but it had eggs on its side that continued spewing out more and more. The offsprings would fly around their mother while maturing, being its shield as their first job at life. All we needed to do was to kill it, then the connection to its brood would fail, then they will die as if the plug was cut from the power source.

Our ears muffled, the shriekers struck. Their scaly wings were sharp like a master-crafted sword, and they managed to break through the armor of one soldier. The flamethrowers burned the shriekers and smoke billowed, covering the sky with smog. The shrieker mother wasn‘t visible, the smoke was hiding it from sight.

„Stop with the flames! We can‘t kill the brood if you soldiers continue covering the sky with it!“ I tried shouting at the soldiers, but my words never reached their muffled ears.

Amara fired a shot, and the air suddenly vibrated. It was most likely explosive, but the shriekers kept on flying.

Ivy was having trouble, shriekers kept gnawing at her and the bow. She drew out her short sword and wailed. Their scales broke as she cut them down with fury. I came in for the backup and fired small rounds, trying to avoid hitting an ally, maybe I will point my weapon down if Franek is in view, but no such luck.

The shriekers kept attacking Ivy, one of her quiver‘s straps ripped and fell, the arrows spilled. Ivona also helped her with her sword. I thought for sure she wouldn‘t intervene. The shriekers fled her, so we started aiming our weapons at the next flock, which was in every direction.

I turned to see shriekers tearing apart the flesh of a fallen man, and again with another. Artifact hunters and the soldiers yelped as they were fending off their own flock of shriekers.

Amanda needed badly to take out the shrieker connection! But the damn smog was still in the way!

I noticed suddenly Braxton running towards Amara, he forcefully took away her artifact, who looked like was shouting curse words at him, and started aiming at the sky. Then a moment later, he fired. Only a faint muffle of its shot was heard, and I knew that the shot wouldn‘t be that powerful due to him already having two other artifacts. Yet It still looked strong.

At that moment when I was still taking out shriekers, I noticed them starting to fall to the ground, and the rest followed. I took out my earplugs along with the others, I could finally hear my surroundings, and it wasn‘t delightful. The sound of the shriekers falling into the muck, only made the sound worse when we were walking on it.

Then I noticed the ground was starting to darken, and I glanced up to see a giant shrieker at the size of a truck, falling to the ground.

„Run!“ Franek and I shouted simultaneously.

All of us ran, completely ignoring that I was running on shrieker corpses. I dived and dodged the giant shrieker body by an arm‘s length. And now I was covered in kypseli shit, that is just great.

Two soldiers were crushed by the shrieker, who had a rather giant wound that Amanda‘s artifact made. But the rest were standing around it with bodies almost intact.

The kypseli observers still stared at us thoughtfully. None even flinched when the fight started. Even when a stray bullet from me hit one, the others just stared.

„That mask of Braxton‘s likely could see through the smoke,“ I muttered to myself. „Otherwise he wouldn‘t have made that shot.“

We made a fire and took a break to heal our wounds and give ourselves nutrition. The battle of the shriekers, four men dead. Two on either side.

Chase was still alive and kicking, along with him there was only Amanda, Braxton, Ivy, and I, and also another artifact hunter. While Franek had Ivona, three soldiers, and six artifact hunters. I think I will change my mind with Wilmer, this fight will only end with Franeks‘ victory, and Ivona will get the shield.

The last hive was on the horizon, and close to it was the gem. Strangely I thought the gem moved a bit, but I haven‘t looked at the holo for a while.

I think I have made my decision, I won‘t be fighting this one-sided battle. Franek is strong, after seeing him fight the kypseli I can tell that his artifact will tear me apart in a flash.

„I think we should skip fighting Franek,“ I said quietly to Amara.

Her helmet seemed to show surprise, then understanding but wasn‘t having any of it.

„Trust me, we can win this,“ she said.

„I‘m sorry, but I am calling it off,“ I said and started to walk towards Chase to let him know, but as I was going towards him, a sniper bolt was fired.

I glanced back with wide eyes to see Amara‘s artifact seething, and the trail went towards Franek‘s chest. We all stood silent for a moment, then weapons were drawn.