The asphalt rippled.
At first, Liam thought it was his imagination.
Then cracks spread across the street like spiderwebs.
The ground itself...
...was moving.
A second Burrower burst through the pavement twenty meters away.
Then a third.
Then another.
Chunks of concrete rained onto abandoned cars, setting off alarms that echoed through the silent city.
The monsters hadn't disappeared.
They had simply gone underground.
"Everyone back!"
Marcus grabbed the wounded soldier and pulled him behind an overturned checkout counter.
Rachel planted her spear between herself and the entrance.
Emma raised both hands, icy mist gathering around her fingertips.
Noah stepped beside Liam.
"So..."
He forced a grin.
"Any brilliant ideas?"
Liam looked at the Level 12 Burrower chewing through the twisted metal barricade.
"Not yet."
"That's comforting."
The Burrower forced its way inside.
It was nearly three meters long.
Its body resembled a cross between a centipede and an armored beetle, covered in overlapping black plates that gleamed like polished steel.
Six crimson eyes scanned the room.
Its massive mandibles clicked together.
Click.
Click.
The sound alone made Liam's skin crawl.
The gray window appeared.
Observation
Burrower – Elite
Level: 12
Behavior: Tunnel predator.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
Strength: Extremely high.
Armor: Resistant to blunt force and blades.
Weak Point: Soft tissue beneath lower jaw.
Threat Assessment: Extreme.
Estimated Survival Probability: 9%.
Nine percent.
Those were the best odds they had.
The Burrower lunged.
Marcus fired first.
BOOM!
The shotgun blast scattered sparks across its shell.
The creature didn't even slow down.
It slammed into a support pillar.
Concrete exploded.
The entire supermarket shook violently.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Ben screamed.
"It's bringing the building down!"
Liam realized he was right.
The Burrower wasn't trying to kill them.
It was collapsing the supermarket.
Bury them alive.
Then dig through the rubble at its leisure.
"Everyone out the back!" Marcus shouted.
The survivors surged toward the emergency exit.
Children were carried.
The elderly were helped along.
Panic threatened to turn into a stampede.
Liam stayed behind.
He couldn't explain why.
Something felt...
Wrong.
The Burrower ignored the fleeing survivors.
Instead...
It turned.
Toward him.
Again.
Just like the Alpha Wolf.
Just like Ethan.
Its crimson eyes locked onto Liam.
The monster let out a low hiss.
Not hostile.
Curious.
Then Liam noticed it.
Around the Burrower's neck...
Barely visible beneath its armored plates...
Was a tiny metal spike.
No.
Not metal.
Crystal.
Black crystal.
It pulsed with crimson light.
The Administrator window flashed urgently.
Unknown Control Device Detected.
Origin: Not Native.
Liam's breath caught.
Control device?
Did that mean...
The Burrowers weren't acting on instinct?
Something was controlling them.
"Liam!"
Emma's shout snapped him back.
The monster charged.
He rolled aside as its mandibles smashed through the floor where he'd been standing.
The impact cracked the tiles.
The crystal around its neck glowed brighter.
The Burrower's movements became even faster.
Almost frantic.
As if someone...
Had just given it a new order.
Noah appeared from the side.
"Liam!"
"Get down!"
He swung his sword with everything he had.
The blade scraped across the crystal.
CRACK!
A tiny fracture appeared.
The Burrower shrieked.
Not in pain.
In panic.
Its movements became erratic.
It slammed into shelves.
Walls.
Support beams.
As if it no longer knew where it was.
Liam's eyes widened.
"The crystal!"
Noah looked at him.
"What?"
"Hit the crystal!"
Rachel reacted instantly.
She sprinted forward, spear held low.
The Burrower turned too slowly.
Her spear struck the cracked crystal.
SHATTER!
Black fragments scattered across the floor.
The Burrower froze.
For one terrifying second...
Nothing happened.
Then the crimson glow vanished from its eyes.
The monster looked around in confusion.
It took one slow step backward.
Another.
It looked at Liam...
Not with hatred.
But with fear.
Then it let out a mournful cry and burrowed straight through the floor, disappearing into the earth.
Outside...
The rumbling stopped.
One by one...
The Burrowers retreated underground.
The city fell silent again.
Nobody spoke.
Rachel slowly lowered her spear.
"...Did..."
"...Did we just scare it away?"
Liam stared at the broken crystal on the floor.
He crouched and carefully picked up one of the fragments.
The moment his fingers touched it...
A flood of unfamiliar images flashed through his mind.
A battlefield beneath a sky filled with stars.
Countless worlds burning.
A throne made of black crystal.
And a voice...
Cold.
Ancient.
Merciless.
"No civilization escapes the Harvest."
Liam gasped and dropped the fragment.
The vision disappeared instantly.
The others looked at him.
"Liam?"
He looked down at the crystal.
His heart raced.
Whatever that thing was...
It wasn't just controlling monsters.
It carried memories.
Memories from somewhere far older than Earth.
The gray window appeared one more time.
Administrator Archive Updated
New Subject Recorded: Harvest Crystals
Further analysis requires 10% Authority.
Liam looked toward the crimson sky.
For the first time...
He realized humanity wasn't simply fighting monsters.
They were fighting an empire.
One that had conquered worlds long before Earth had ever existed.