The fireballs between Khalia and Elias’s hands lit the cavern with an orange glow.
Orange against blue.
Heat against mist.
In front of them, around twenty mutant rats burst out of the darkness, mouths open, claws scraping against the wet stone.
“Grrriiih !”
Dave raised his gauntlets.
“Come on little pests I will take you on.”
Clack.
Clack.
The metal plates slid along his forearms.
Astra circulated through his body with brutal weight, like liquid lead injected into his muscles.
A bluish light covered his arms, followed the contours of his shoulders, then solidified around the gauntlets.
His arms gained volume.
Not organically.
As if invisible armor had grafted itself onto his flesh.
“The Giant’s mark!”
He leapt.
The first rat did not even have time to turn its head.
BOOM.
Dave’s fist crushed its skull against the rocky wall.
Bone, blood, and brain matter splashed across the luminescent roots.
The body dropped, already dead.
“One.”
To his right, Elias raised his hand.
“Fire Javelin !”
An incandescent shaft crossed the gloom.
Fwoosh.
It pierced a rat’s chest.
Flame entered through the front, burst out the back, then spread through its fur like burning oil.
“Griiiihhhh !”
The mutant rolled across the ground, claws curling, before going still.
Khalia stepped forward.
Her red hair floated under the pressure of Astra.
The air around her folded.
“Wall of Flames.”
A wave of fire erupted in front of the horde.
The first rats were swallowed.
The smell of burning flesh filled the cavern, greasy and suffocating.
“I love it when they come grouped up.”
“Focus.” Dave crushed another rat’s jaw with his elbow.
“This isn’t over.”
A larger mutant suddenly leapt from a ledge.
Too high and too fast.
Its claws aimed straight for Elias’s throat.
Dave pivoted.
His foot, covered in the blue aura of the Mark of the Giant, struck the beast full in the stomach.
The impact slammed it into the ground before it could reach its target.
“Grrrih !”
The rat tried to stand.
“Fire Javelin !”
Elias’s spear skewered it against the stone.
“Thank you, captain.”
“Stay focused.”
“Yes, captain.”
Dave pointed toward the next line.
“Khalia.”
“At your command.”
She joined her hands.
Heat compressed between her palms.
Then it twisted, rose, swelled.
“Fire Tornado!”
An incandescent vortex rose inside the corridor and swallowed the survivors of the first wave.
The rats screamed, caught in the movement, hurled against the walls or reduced to living torches.
“Griiih !”
“Griih !”
“Griiiih !”
Those that survived came out of the flames like mad things, fur burning, eyes scorched, bodies driven by pain more than instinct.
Dave received them head-on.
Fist.
Elbow.
Knee.
Gauntlet.
Each impact produced the sound of splitting rock.
A few minutes later, the last rat collapsed.
Silence returned.
Not true silence.
A silence filled with short breaths, dripping blood, and dying fire.
Julian swept his gaze over the team.
“No injuries.”
“Good.”
Dave shook the blood from his gauntlets.
“Because that was only the entrance.”
The deeper they went, the more the Hole changed.
The blue roots grew as thick as cables.
They ran along the walls, entered the rock, emerged farther away, slowly pulsing beneath a cold light.
The ambient Astra weighed more heavily.
It stuck to the skin.
Slightly hindered breathing.
Even Dave felt it in his Nodes, that dull pressure searching for weak points in the body.
Khalia frowned.
“You feel that ?”
“Yes.”
“I feel like we’re being watched.”
Logan was still walking behind them.
Hands in his pockets.
Calm gaze.
But beneath that calm, his attention had sharpened.
‘This Hole is abnormal.’
For an intermediate Hole, the Astra concentration was too dense.
Too stable.
Too nourished.
Then they arrived before the lair.
Everyone stopped.
The natural chamber opened across several dozen meters.
An immense rocky vault.
Black pools.
Luminous roots covering the walls like veins.
At the center stood a blue crystal about one meter tall.
The heart of the Hole.
Its light breathed.
Around it, dozens of red eyes opened.
Elias took a step back.
“Shit…”
Khalia raised her hands.
“How many are there ?”
Dave observed the mass.
Around fifty.
Maybe more.
And in front of them, sitting against the crystal, was the Guardian.
The rat-man.
Two and a half meters tall.
Monstrous musculature.
Black fur streaked with scars.
Long, thick, dark claws.
His mere presence crushed the air.
Even Dave felt his heart accelerate.
“Six Nodes.”
“No.”
Logan’s voice remained calm.
“He’s at the peak of the sixth.
On the verge of forming the seventh.”
Silence fell.
The rat-man slowly opened his eyes.
Two red pupils shone in the darkness.
Then he rose.
Every movement carried the slowness of a beast certain of its strength.
His shoulders rolled.
His spine cracked.
Astra vibrated through his fur like black electricity.
“Grrrraaaahhhh…”
The roar shook the cavern.
Fragments of rock fell from the ceiling.
The rats immediately answered.
“Griih !”
“Griih !”
“Griiiih !”
An army.
Dave inhaled.
“Usual plan.”
Julian sighed.
“You call that a plan ?”
“It always worked.”
Khalia gave a dry laugh.
“He’s not wrong.”
The Guardian took one step.
Then the entire horde charged.
“Now !”
Khalia and Elias’s flames exploded together.
Javelins.
Walls.
Tornadoes.
The first line was swept away.
Burning bodies flew.
Rats twisted on the ground.
The cavern became red and black.
But the mass kept coming.
Too many.
Too compact.
Dave fully activated his gauntlets.
The steel deployed up to his shoulders.
“Seventh Node.”
His Astra roared.
Not like a flame.
Like a siege engine.
“Bastion of the Giant!.”
The blue energy around his gauntlets doubled in size, thickened, hardened, then spread over his shoulders and torso.
The ground cracked beneath his weight.
Dave launched himself forward.
BOOM.
The first row flew.
A second.
Every blow carried the impact of a truck launched at full speed.
Bones crushed.
Skulls opened.
Bodies thrown against the walls.
But they still came.
More and more numerous.
More and more aggressive.
“Dave !”
Khalia pointed ahead of him.
The Guardian had vanished.
Then he reappeared.
Right in front of Dave.
Too fast.
Impossible for a mass like that.
His claw swept through the air.
Dave raised his gauntlets.
CLANG.
The impact echoed through the entire cavern.
His legs sank into the rock.
“Ugh !”
Cracks appeared across the blue aura.
‘Fast.’
Dave clenched his fist.
‘and strong too.’
He concentrated Astra into his right arm.
The aura around the gauntlet swelled, vibrated, became almost solid.
“Giant’s Fist !”
His punch shot out.
It struck the rat-man square in the face.
The Guardian was thrown backward and crashed into the wall, bringing down a rain of stone.
“Chief !”
“Eliminate the others and protect Julian.”
Dave advanced.
“I’ll handle him.”
The Guardian was already getting back up.
His lips pulled back over enormous fangs.
He leapt again, claws open, aiming for the throat.
Dave blocked.
CLANG.
“It’s useless.”
The bluish aura covered his entire body.
His silhouette grew again, shoulders wider, arms heavier, center of gravity lower.
“Giant’s Mark.
Release!”
Dave was now almost the same size as the Guardian.
The two monsters collided.
Claws against gauntlets.
Fists against bone.
Every exchange spat sparks and shockwaves.
The rock beneath their feet cracked.
The blue roots trembled around the crystal.
Dave found an opening.
He raised his knee.
BAM.
The Guardian raised his own at the same instant.
The two attacks blocked each other with a dull impact.
The rat opened his mouth and tried to bite.
“Graaah !”
His fangs shattered against the blue aura.
Dave slammed his forehead into him.
Then a hook.
The Guardian stepped back.
An evil glint passed through his eyes.
His gaze slid behind Dave.
Toward Khalia.
Toward Elias.
Toward Julian.
Toward the rats dying too quickly.
Then his face twisted.
A smile.
Dave felt the danger too late.
“Shit.”
The Guardian disappeared from his field of vision.
‘How can he move like that with that build ?’
Dave launched himself after him.
Too slow.
The rat-man reappeared in front of Khalia.
She had just carbonized three mutants with a single gesture.
Her hands were still raised.
Her attention still turned toward the horde.
“Graaah.”
She turned her head.
“What the…”
The Guardian’s claws pierced through her abdomen.
Clean.
Deep.
The heat around her went out at once.
Her eyes widened.
Dave screamed.
“NOO !
KHALIAAA !”
A black smile appeared on the rat-man’s face.