The first one came out of nowhere.

  Jess was moving through the trees, scanning for the next target, when the ground erupted behind her. Chitin and mandibles burst from the soil—a scout, smaller than the others, its carapace a lighter shade of black. It had been waiting. Buried. Ambush predator.

  She spun. The mandibles closed on empty air where her arm had been.

  Her fist drove into its face.

  The carapace cracked. Not splintered—cracked, like thin ice under a hammer. The beetle's legs folded. It hit the ground twitching and was still.

  Jess stared at her hand. Then at the corpse. Then back at her hand.

  [Onyx Skitter Scout slain. Exp +2,400]

  [Level Up: Level 5 → Level 6]

  The warmth flooded through her—familiar now, but no less intoxicating. Muscles tightened. Bones settled into denser alignment. The world sharpened at the edges.

  "Huh," she said. "That was easier than the first one."

  She kept moving.

  By midday, she'd killed twelve.

  They came in waves—scouts first, the smaller ones, probably sent to investigate the disturbance. She met them in the gaps between trees, in the clearings, once in a shallow stream where the water ran red with ichor before she even realized she'd hit that hard.

  [Onyx Skitter Scout slain. Exp +2,100]

  [Onyx Skitter Scout slain. Exp +2,300]

  [Level Up: Level 6 → Level 7]

  Her knuckles were raw. The biosuit had regenerated over them three times now. She didn't feel the pain anymore—just the impact, the give, the satisfying crunch of chitin giving way.

  "Phantom, your strike force has increased 18% since the initial engagement."

  "Feels like more."

  "It is not. You are simply hitting more often. Efficiency gain."

  She wiped ichor from her face and grinned. "Same thing."

  The soldiers came at dusk.

  Larger. Darker. Mandibles curved like scythes instead of the scouts' needle-points. They moved in formation—three, then five, then eight—emerging from the trees like a wave of polished obsidian.

  Jess met them head-on.

  The first one charged. She sidestepped—faster now, so much faster—and drove her fist into the joint between head and thorax. The mandibles kept moving for a second after the body stopped. Then nothing.

  [Onyx Skitter Soldier slain. Exp +3,800]

  The second one caught her in the ribs. Her armor held—dented, cracked, but held—and she answered with a hook that caved in its eye cluster. It thrashed blindly. She finished it with a stomp.

  [Onyx Skitter Soldier slain. Exp +3,600]

  The third one tried to flank. She grabbed its mandible—one in each hand—and pulled. The chitin split down the middle. Ichor sprayed across her chest.

  [Onyx Skitter Soldier slain. Exp +3,900]

  [Level Up: Level 7 → Level 8]

  She stood among the bodies, breathing hard, and looked at the remaining five.

  They stopped.

  For a long moment, nothing moved. Then, as one, they turned and fled into the trees.

  Jess let them go. She needed the rest.

  Three days.

  That's how long it took for the pattern to settle. Wake. Fight. Eat Terry's leavings—he'd gotten bold, pecking at wounded beetles while she finished them, earning his keep. Sleep. Wake. Fight again.

  The first day was a blur of notifications.

  [Level Up: Level 8 → Level 9]

  [Level Up: Level 9 → Level 10]

  [Level Up: Level 10 → Level 11]

  Each one brought the warmth, the sharpening, the quiet settling of power into her bones. By the end of day one, she could crush a scout's skull with one hand. By the end of day two, soldiers took three hits instead of five.

  "Phantom, your current strength metrics exceed baseline Orc parameters by approximately 340%."

  "Feels good."

  "It should. You have killed 147 Onyx Skitters in the past 52 hours."

  She blinked. "That many?"

  "You stopped counting after 83."

  She had. Somewhere around the second day, the numbers blurred. They were just targets now. Obstacles. EXP with legs.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  Day four was different.

  The beetles were still coming—but fewer. The scouts had thinned out. The soldiers came in pairs now, not waves. And the EXP...

  [Onyx Skitter Soldier slain. Exp +1,200]

  Jess frowned at the notification.

  "Miri. That's lower."

  "Diminishing returns have accelerated. The system values novelty. Repetition yields reduced gain."

  "Of course it does." She crushed another soldier. [Exp +1,100] "Of course it does."

  She kept fighting.

  By day five, she'd learned their patterns.

  They emerged from the tunnels at dawn and dusk—peak activity times. During the day, they scattered through the forest, grazing on mineral deposits, fighting each other, ignoring her unless she engaged. At night, they retreated underground.

  She started meeting them in the tunnels.

  Not deep—just far enough to catch them before they reached the surface. The close quarters favored her. No room to flank. No room to flee. Just her fists and their carapaces and the endless crunch of chitin.

  [Level Up: Level 11 → Level 12]

  [Level Up: Level 12 → Level 13]

  [Level Up: Level 13 → Level 14]

  The tunnels became a second home. Dark, close, smelling of earth and ichor and something deeper—something wrong that she couldn't name. She'd fight until her arms burned, then retreat to the surface, sleep in the crook of a tree, and go back down.

  Terry learned to wait at the tunnel mouth. He'd peck at wounded stragglers—hesitant at first, then with growing confidence. "Peck," she'd told him, pointing at a beetle dragging a broken leg. "Use peck."

  He'd tilted his head. Looked at the beetle. Looked at her. Then delivered a surprisingly vicious stab with his beak.

  "Good boy."

  He'd preened for an hour.

  Day six.

  The soldiers were almost gone. The scouts were a memory. What remained were the workers—slower, softer, barely worth the effort.

  [Onyx Skitter Worker slain. Exp +180]

  [Onyx Skitter Worker slain. Exp +170]

  [Onyx Skitter Worker slain. Exp +190]

  Jess sat on a rock, watching the tunnel mouth, and did the math.

  "Miri. How many to level?"

  "Current level: 23. Required EXP to level 24: 24,000. Average current EXP per kill: 185. Estimated kills needed: 130."

  She looked at the tunnel. The workers emerged at a trickle now—five, maybe ten an hour.

  "That's... a lot of hours."

  "Affirmative."

  She stood. Rolled her shoulders. Walked toward the tunnel.

  "Then I'd better get started."

  The workers died easily. Too easily. They didn't fight back—just tried to flee, their soft bodies no match for her fists. She felt almost guilty. Almost.

  [Onyx Skitter Worker slain. Exp +160]

  [Onyx Skitter Worker slain. Exp +150]

  [Onyx Skitter Worker slain. Exp +140]

  The numbers kept dropping. Diminishing returns even on workers now. The system was telling her something: You've outgrown this place.

  She kept killing anyway.

  By the end of day six, she was Level 24.

  [Level Up: Level 23 → Level 24]

  The warmth was thinner now—less a flood, more a trickle. But it was still there. Still something.

  She sat at the tunnel mouth, watching the stars wheel overhead, and listened.

  Something was different.

  The tunnels had been quiet for hours. No workers emerging. No soldiers. Just silence.

  Then she heard it.

  A roar.

  Deep. Angry. Primal. It came from far below—deeper than she'd ever gone, deeper than the tunnels seemed to go. The ground vibrated with it. The trees shivered.

  Jess went still.

  "Phantom. Audio analysis suggests a creature of significantly higher rank than any encountered in this hive."

  "I heard it, Miri."

  The roar came again. Longer this time. Closer? She couldn't tell. The acoustics of the tunnels made it impossible to judge distance.

  She looked at her hands. Level 24. One more to go. One more level and she'd hit the cap for Rank 1. Everything she'd fought for, everything she'd earned—one more step.

  The workers had stopped coming hours ago. The soldiers were gone. The scouts were memories.

  The only thing left in that tunnel was the source of that roar.

  "Miri. If I go down there..."

  "Probability of survival cannot be accurately calculated with current data. The creature is at least B-rank, potentially higher."

  The roar again. Angrier.

  Jess stood. Walked to the tunnel mouth. Stared into the darkness.

  She could leave. She was Level 24. Stronger than she'd ever been. Stronger than Jake, stronger than any of them. She could walk away right now and no one would blame her.

  The roar echoed up from below.

  She thought about the monkey. The yawn. The walk away.

  She thought about Litos, asking if she'd come back.

  She thought about Kirael, wherever he was, doing whatever he was doing, while she sat here counting beetles.

  "Phantom. Your heart rate is elevated. Adrenaline levels suggest fight-or-flight response activation."

  "Yeah." She took a breath. "I know."

  She stepped into the tunnel.

  The darkness swallowed her. The roar came again—closer now, definitely closer—and she kept walking.

  [Onyx Skitter Worker slain. Exp +90]

  She'd stepped on one. Didn't even notice. Crushed it without thinking.

  The tunnel sloped down. The air grew thick, heavy with the smell of earth and something else—something organic and wrong. The roar vibrated through her boots, through her bones.

  She kept walking.

  Another worker. Dead before it knew she was there. [Exp +80]

  Another. [Exp +70]

  The numbers were almost nothing now. The system was practically begging her to stop. You've had your fun. Go find something else. This is pointless.

  The tunnel opened into a chamber.

  She couldn't see the far wall—it was too dark, too vast. But she could feel it. The presence. The weight of something massive breathing in the black.

  The roar came again, and this time she felt it in her chest.

  She looked down at her hands. Green. Scars. Blood under the nails.

  Level 24. Ninety-seven percent to 25. Three percent left.

  [Onyx Skitter Drone slain. Exp +40]

  She hadn't even noticed it. Stupid. Careless. The old her would never have—

  The roar came again. Louder.

  She looked at the darkness. Felt the weight of whatever was in there. Felt the weight of her own exhaustion, her own stubbornness, her own stupid refusal to quit.

  "I think," she whispered, "I do not want to face that one."

  The darkness didn't answer.

  She stood there for a long moment. Then she turned and walked back up the tunnel.

  Behind her, the roar shook the earth one more time.

  She broke the surface gasping.

  The night air was cold and clean and she drank it like water. Her hands were shaking. Her heart was pounding. She'd walked away. She'd actually walked away.

  The tunnel mouth stared at her like an accusation.

  [Onyx Skitter Drone slain. Exp +30]

  She hadn't even noticed. One must have followed her up. Dumb thing. Dead thing.

  She stared at the notification.

  Level 24. 99.2% to 25.

  One more. One more kill. Any kill. A worker, a drone, a straggler—anything.

  She looked at the tunnel.

  The roar was still there. Faint now, but there. Waiting.

  "No," she said aloud. "No."

  She turned her back on it and walked into the trees.

  An hour later, she found a straggler.

  A worker, half-crushed by something—a rockfall, a fight, she didn't care. It was dragging itself through the undergrowth, leaving a trail of ichor, oblivious to everything but survival.

  Jess stood over it.

  It didn't even try to flee.

  She raised her fist.

  [Onyx Skitter Worker slain. Exp +20]

  [Level Up: Level 24 → Level 25]

  [Maximum Level Achieved for Current Rank]

  [Advancement Quest Available]

  The warmth came—faint, barely a whisper, but there. She felt something settle into place. A ceiling. A limit. She'd hit the top.

  She looked back toward the tunnel. Toward the roar. Toward whatever was down there that she'd chosen not to face.

  "I think," she said quietly, "I really do not want to face that one."