Luke and the group were deep inside one of the mine tunnels when a loud rumble shook the wall. Dirt and stone blasted outward—and a dark figure leapt from the shadows:

[Devourer Ant (Beast Captain) – Lvl 29]

It screeched, a guttural roar that echoed through the cavern as cracks spidered along the walls. The ceiling groaned. Earth fell in heavy chunks. It was a trap. Perfectly timed. Brutally executed.

Five more Ant Captains burst from the breaches, their glowing red eyes locking onto the group. Confined space. No room to breathe. No room to maneuver.

The team scrambled into position, but the ants struck from every side. A soldier tried to shout something, orders maybe, but his voice vanished beneath the grinding screech of metal on stone.

The creatures raised their four arms in eerie synchronization and began to spin. Blades of chitin and rage. Whirling death.

"Surrounded!" Bob shouted. "MOVE!"

Luke's eyes darted from target to target, too fast, too many. One mistake meant death.

The first impact shattered the air. The Beast Captains slammed into the formation like wrecking balls, the pressure crushing everything around them. Ricardo reacted fast, conjuring a glowing barrier dome around the team. A momentary shield.

Allison launched a freezing orb. Snow erupted across the spinning beasts, slowing their momentum as ice crackled against their limbs. Charlie charged into the chaos head-on, spectral shield flaring with pale light as she collided with two Captains. The impact sounded like a landslide. The dome cracked under the pressure but held, barely.

The mist thickened. The ants slowed, slightly. Charlie slammed into one of them with brute force, disrupting its spin just as the dome gave way, shattering like glass.

"Attack!" Angelica's voice rang out over the chaos. There was no choice.

Luke hurled a kukri. Arrows followed. Mana-charged spears flew like missiles. Charlie vanished in a blur of motion.

[Spectral Charge] activated as she drove a crushing kick into a Captain's face, sending it slamming into the wall with a thunderous crack. Angelica didn't hesitate. Her arrows struck the joints, pinning the staggering creature in place.

Meanwhile, Luke and Jonathan advanced. Another Captain barreled toward them, screeching. Jonathan met the charge, twin sabers crossing to block the blow. Sparks flared as steel clashed with exoskeleton. Luke moved in, no hesitation, no restraint. His kukris danced fast, focused, fatal.

Then he saw her, Charlie, cornered by another Captain. She held her ground, but she was being overpowered.

Luke didn't think. He moved.

The ant reared, all four arms swinging to crush her. Charlie dropped low and Luke launched himself off her back.

He soared upward, blades ready.

[Force Infusion] activated.

Dark energy surged through the kukris, glowing deep and violent. He came down like judgment.

One clean strike. One arm severed.

The Captain shrieked and stumbled, black ichor spilling from the wound. Luke landed in a tight roll and rose just in time to meet the next lunge. The remaining arms sliced through the air. He twisted between them, deflecting one, ducking the others.

Behind him, Angelica's mana flared. She loosed an arrow. It struck true, deep into the ant's exposed neck joint. The creature convulsed, shrieking.

"Keep going!" she shouted. "I've got your six!"

Luke seized the opening and sprinted forward, kukris flying from his hands mid-run. They struck the ant's face in tight, vicious arcs, rebounding, slicing, returning, then striking again. A relentless cycle. Blue blood sprayed across the tunnel walls as the creature reeled, stunned. He closed in, spinning low to avoid a wild strike, and in the middle of that rotation, he channeled his energy.

[Force Infusion] activated.

One kukri ignited with dark power and another limb dropped to the ground, severed clean at the joint.

Charlie arrived like a ghost. Her sword drove deep into the ant's back, anchoring it in place, then her fist followed, a brutal blow to the skull, reinforced by the Iron Fist skill. The creature collapsed instantly.

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[Princess Charlie has slain a Devourer Ant (Beast Captain) – Lvl 29]

*The [Pugilist] 2nd Class of Princess Charlie has reached Level 6! (Class Bonus Points Acquired)*

She'd landed the final hit but the fight was far from over.

Around them, the tunnel flickered as belt lanterns dimmed and reignited, a strobe of light and shadow pulsing through the corridor. Mages couldn't spare focus, caught in their own duels, they struggled to balance offense and illumination.

A sharp slicing sound rose behind Luke.

Instinct took over.

He dropped into a roll just as an Ant Captain burst through the stone wall behind him, carving through solid rock with spinning limbs. Angelica reacted instantly, arrows already flying in rapid bursts. Her shots struck the beast's legs, staggering its momentum.

From nearby, a soldier's scream cut through the chaos. "Help me!" One of the ants had pinned him against the wall, dragging him in, mandibles crushing his shoulder. Anna responded with a flurry of arrows, her bow snapping with speed and rhythm.

Charlie and Angelica closed in on Luke's position as the creature, feral and frenzied, leapt from the wall, lunging straight at Angelica.

Luke vanished.

[Dark Dash] activated.

He reappeared mid-air, intercepting the beast mid-pounce. Kukris met chitin. Sparks erupted as he deflected the spinning limbs, carving through exposed joints. Blood sprayed across the corridor as he slashed with brutal efficiency.

"Duck!" Angelica shouted, already drawing.

Luke dropped into a slide. An arrow flew over him, then burst mid-flight into a cluster of smaller projectiles. Metallic. Blunt. Precision-designed to disrupt movement. The impact struck the ant squarely, flinging it sideways into the wall.

He lunged again. No hesitation. He drove into close combat, meeting the creature's frantic blows with speed and control. Stone trembled as they collided. The Captain twisted, trying to escape, too slow.

Luke hurled a kukri, charged and gleaming with raw force. It embedded deep into the beast's back. The creature roared, spinning—

But he was already behind it.

He drove his second blade into the base of the neck.

[You have slain a Devourer Ant (Beast Captain) – Lvl 30]

He turned just in time to see the last of the captains collapse, picked off one by one by the Refuge's elite strike squad.

A rare moment of stillness followed. Angelica exhaled, lowering her bow. "At this rate, we'll be back by sunrise for drinks." Her voice was light, but the tension still hung heavy in the air.

Then—

A roar ripped through the tunnel. Faster. Deeper. Angrier.

Another Captain surged into view, larger than the rest, moving in a blur.

Luke reacted—

But not fast enough.

The impact slammed into them like a battering ram, driving Luke, Angelica, and the ant straight through the tunnel wall. They fell, spinning through collapsing stone and cascading dirt, swallowed by debris.

They landed hard. Deep below. In a vast, hidden cavern.

The ant shrieked as it rose, its wounded form igniting with rage.

"Watch out!" Angelica shouted, but Luke was already moving.

The creature lunged—four arms outstretched, each ending in serrated claws. Angelica drew her bow, an arrow crackling with electricity, and loosed it in a single fluid motion. The bolt struck home, detonating across the ant's torso in a burst of blue light. Sparks lit the dark.

Luke appeared behind it in the same instant, kukris slashing in sharp, lethal arcs. Angelica didn't let up—her hands moved with precision, arrow after arrow flying in relentless rhythm.

Luke hurled both kukris upward and triggered the pull. The blades reversed course mid-air, arcing down like spinning guillotines. They struck the creature's leg with punishing force, cracking bone and throwing it off balance.

Angelica nocked one last arrow. She paused, aimed.

The ant staggered, its footing weak.

She released.

The shot cut the air like a blade and buried itself straight through the creature's skull. It stood frozen for a heartbeat—then collapsed, lifeless.

Luke exhaled, sweat running down his face, his grip still tight on the kukris. Angelica stood nearby, panting, pressing a hand to her bleeding shoulder.

"I think we dropped into a lower level of the mine," Luke said, voice low.

Angelica scanned the collapsed cavern, then gave a faint nod. "We really are two unlucky bastards."

They hurried toward the hole above—barely visible now, already half-sealed by loose rock and soil.

"Are you okay?!" a voice called faintly from above.

"We're fine!" Angelica cupped her hands to project the reply.

Bob's voice echoed down next. "The ground's still collapsing! You'll have to keep going without us—"

The wall groaned. Earth began to crumble again, steady and unrelenting.

Then silence.

The opening above vanished behind falling dust and debris.

Luke stood still, listening. "I guess it's just the two of us now."

Angelica managed a breathless laugh. "Feels like a date... except it's all monsters and death."

"Romantic," Luke smirked.

Then they both stopped.

A deep, low hum began to pulse through the stone around them. The air shifted. Vibrations moved through the walls—steady, deliberate, unnatural.

From the shadows, two sets of eyes appeared—unblinking. Cold.

The system pinged.

A bright, urgent notification flashed across their vision.

They read it.

At the same time.

And froze.

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