Kamcy

  Without wasting time, I leapt out of Team 3’s vehicle, my glaive answering my call and flying straight into my hand. The familiar weight settled into my grip like it had always belonged there.

  A Wolf caste launched at me mid-air, its jaws stretched wide enough to swallow half my torso.

  I spun.

  The blade flashed.

  Its head separated cleanly from its shoulders, spinning away as its body continued forward from momentum before crashing into the dirt below. Blood fountained from the neck stump in a violent arc, splattering across the side of the moving vehicle.

  Before my boots even touched metal again, I shoved my left hand into the pack containing the chemlights. I yanked several free and flung them upward.

  They scattered into the night sky.

  With a smooth pivot, I smacked them with the polearm of my glaive.

  The impact cracked them open mid-air, sending fluorescent liquid spraying outward before raining down across the road and the charging horde behind us. Green light burst to life, illuminating the darkness in jagged splashes across asphalt and chitin.

  The Swarm became visible.

  Hundreds of bodies.

  My senses flared.

  I bent low instinctively and swung my glaive in a horizontal arc. The blade bisected an insectoid caste that had slashed for my head. Its upper half slid off its lower body before both pieces tumbled apart, spilling dark ichor that steamed against the glowing chemical light.

  My senses screamed again.

  But I was still descending from my previous movement.

  I wouldn’t have time to dodge.

  Damnit. Having an àse core would have made this a lot easier.

  I cursed internally as I shifted my body as much as possible to minimize the damage I was about to take.

  Then—

  BANG.

  The creature froze mid-swing.

  Its torso swelled grotesquely, flesh stretching tight before bursting open in a violent explosion of bone fragments and liquefied organs.

  I turned.

  Khadija had already swung herself onto the roof of our vehicle. Her rifle smoked as she unleashed controlled bursts, each shot detonating Swarm bodies mid-air before they could reach me.

  “We’ve got you! Keep moving!!”

  Behind her, the gunner climbed out, securing himself behind the mounted machine gun. The weapon roared to life, sending a stream of heavy-caliber rounds into the horde. Bodies ripped apart under the barrage, limbs flying, torsos shredding open as the Swarm’s momentum faltered.

  I nodded in appreciation before diving back into motion.

  I sliced and diced every creature attempting to climb onto Team 2’s vehicle. A Wolf caste tried to anchor itself on the side railing. I extended the glaive’s reach mid-swing and impaled it through the spine, lifting it off before flinging the twitching body into the swarm below.

  Once I cleared enough space to give them breathing room, I turned my attention to Team 1.

  They were being swallowed.

  Creatures crawled over their vehicle like ants over carrion.

  “Hey, troublemaker! How the hell are you doing all that? Let me join in!”

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  Before I could respond, Ijeoma grabbed her massive axe and vaulted out of the side opening of their vehicle.

  She flipped mid-air and landed hard on the roof.

  Then she began swinging.

  The axe was absurdly large, impractical by most standards, yet she handled it like it weighed nothing. Each swing cleaved through bone and carapace. Limbs separated. Heads split open. Black blood sprayed across the vehicle roof as she kept the Swarm at bay.

  For a moment, she was holding her own.

  Then the numbers shifted.

  An insectoid caste reared back and let out a piercing shriek.

  I saw it before she did.

  Her body froze.

  Just for a second.

  That second was more than enough as the insectoid swung its claws down, aiming to shred her from collarbone to hip.

  I poured àse into my legs and launched myself. The force of my takeoff dented the vehicle roof beneath me.

  Mid-air, I shrank my glaive to dagger length.

  I sliced upward.

  The blade carved through the insectoid’s arm and through its skull, splitting it in two before it could complete the strike. Its body collapsed in a twitching heap at her feet.

  “Well, at least until it regenerates,” I muttered.

  “I don’t think it’s a smart idea to come out swinging in the open like this,” I told her, even as we turned back-to-back and cut down two more attackers.

  She grinned.

  “Well, maybe if you show me how to tap into that fancy blue energy of yours I won’t need saving.”

  She swung her axe overhead.

  I ducked instinctively as the blade cleaved through the mouth of a Wolf caste lunging for my throat. Its jaw split open vertically as the axe exited through the back of its skull.

  Simultaneously, I extended my glaive outward, piercing another Wolf through the chest. It yelped before I ripped the blade free and kicked the corpse off the vehicle.

  “What do you mean, teach you? I barely learned it myself,” I replied. “I got turned into a statue multiple times before I got the hang of this, and that was with infinite respawns. That’s not something I can just teach.”

  We moved like dancers in a slaughterhouse. She hacked. I sliced. Blood coated our boots, making the metal slick.

  “Besides, why didn’t you ask our extra elite team member, Ms 1, how to use àse?”

  By the way, where was she?

  I hadn’t seen her in action, even though her vehicle had nearly overturned earlier.

  I pushed the thought aside.

  Every time the Swarm thickened around us, assist fire came from Khadija and the mounted gunner. Bullets ripped through bodies, thinning the numbers just enough for us to breathe.

  “Oh! So what you mean is, for me to use that blue energy, I need to let the Swarm suck my soul out first?”

  The innocence in her voice almost made me laugh.

  “You’re twisting my words,” I snapped. “That’s dangerous. And the suit you’re wearing already boosts your senses. So unlike me, you don’t need to risk your life like that.”

  We continued carving space for the soldiers.

  Then my senses screamed.

  Again.

  Too late. I was becoming slower with each passing second.

  A thick tentacle lashed upward from beneath the vehicle and wrapped around Ijeoma’s legs.

  “I guess I’ll trust you not to let me die then,” she said casually.

  Then she was yanked off the roof.

  High into the air.

  And dragged straight into the Swarm.

  “Bomboclat! Well, one don go be dat!” Orezi shouted from the window, staring wide-eyed as he fired occasional shots from his Z30.

  I was stunned too.

  Not by the attack.

  By her reaction.

  A plasma bolt tore past my shoulder, incinerating a creature about to stab into my spine. I turned to see the captain firing his Z30 through a gap in the hull.

  His aim was steady, even with one shoulder bleeding heavily.

  Ms 1 was beside him, working on the wound while maintaining situational awareness. So that’s where she was.

  “Go get that idiot, please!” he wheezed. “The rest of you, tighten formation!”

  “Yes, sir!” came the response.

  Morale had shifted.

  Pressure on the vehicles had lessened slightly with the clearing around us.

  All guns were now focused to the rear, pouring fire into the advancing tide.

  “On it,” I muttered.

  Then I leapt.

  Straight into the horde.

  The moment my boots hit the dirt, I was surrounded.

  Claws lunged.

  Teeth snapped.

  In response, I spun my glaive in a full arc around my body. Limbs flew. Heads rolled. Bodies were severed in clean halves that collapsed into twitching heaps.

  But they kept coming.

  I moved forward, calculating every single action.

  Step.

  Slice.

  Step.

  Impale.

  Kick.

  Blood soaked my legs.

  A Wolf caste lunged from the side. I ducked beneath it and drove my blade upward through its ribcage, splitting its torso open as its guts spilled over my arm in a slick cascade of steaming viscera.

  Another slammed into my back. I twisted and shattered its skull with the butt of my glaive before decapitating it in the same motion. Bone fragments scattered across my shoulders.

  Ahead of me—

  Ijeoma.

  She had landed hard but was still moving, axe swinging wildly as Swarm creatures climbed over each other to reach her.

  I carved a path toward her. My breathing was becoming labored. I’d have to get her back to the vehicle fast before I passed out from exhaustion.

  Ten meters. I counted mentally.

  A tentacle shot toward my throat. I barely caught it with my free hand, feeling bone ridges cut into my palm as I channeled àse and sliced it apart.

  Three meters.

  She was being overwhelmed.

  “Get down!” I roared.

  She dropped low on command as I extended my glaive to full length and spun with everything I had.

  The blade became a ring of death around me.

  Creatures were cut cleanly in half. Their bodies collapsed in layers, forming a grotesque wall of meat around us. Entrails spilled over boots and pooled at our feet.

  Even as I carved a path, I remained cautious of another tentacle attack.

  I could feel it.

  An intelligent gaze pressing into my back from somewhere deep within the mist beyond the Swarm.

  Watching.

  Waiting.