That sharp, ear-splitting *Kreeeeee* crashed over them like a wave of terror. In the darkness, all around them, dozens of red, glowing eyes opened. They were on the walls, on the ceiling, and everywhere in the tunnel ahead and behind them. They were surrounded.
"Form a circle! Now!" Mara's voice rang out like a commander's. The fear on her face was replaced by a grim determination. "Keep Liora in the center!"
They didn't need to be told twice. Grak, like a giant mountain, stood in front of Liora, his hammer resting on the ground. Kael took his place on the right, and Mara on the left. Aarav took the position behind Liora, holding his sword with both hands. He was their last line of defense.
"What... what are these things, Grak?" Liora asked, her voice trembling as she peeked from behind Grak's massive frame.
"The stories say they were the old miners," Grak said in his deep voice, his gaze fixed on the darkness ahead. "When the Heart-Forge first awoke, its Aether energy transformed them into this. Now, they are just hungry. Always hungry."
"So what's the plan, Captain?" Kael asked calmly, as if he were discussing matters at a tea party. "We can't fight all of them. There must be at least fifty."
"We're not fighting, Kael," Mara said. "We're just... surviving. Aarav, you said the walls of this tunnel are weak. Where?"
Before Aarav could answer, the first Crawler attacked.
It dropped straight down from the ceiling like a spider, aiming its long, sharp claws at Kael.
Kael didn't move. He simply stepped to the side. The Crawler landed on the ground beside him. Before it could turn, Kael's twin swords pierced its body simultaneously. Click! A strange, glass-shattering sound echoed, and the Crawler went limp.
"That's just the beginning," Kael said.
And he was right. With that first attack, the entire nest seemed to awaken. From all sides, the Crawlers descended upon them.
"INCOMING!" Grak roared.
He swung his hammer in a wide arc and smashed it into three approaching Crawlers. KRA-KOOM! The force of the hammer was so immense that the Crawlers' bodies shattered like armor. But six more came to take their place.
The sound of Mara's steam-gun, Pshooo! Pshooo! , began to ring out. She was firing with precision, taking down the Crawlers that were trying to leap at them from the walls.
The battle turned into a horrific dance. A dance of light and shadows. Grak's every blow was like an earthquake. Kael's every move was a precise calculation. Mara was finding their weak spots and stopping their advances.
Aarav had the most difficult job. He had to protect Liora.
A Crawler snuck up from behind them and lunged at Aarav. Aarav turned. He had no time to think. He just surrendered his body to Kael's training. He ducked, and the Crawler passed over him. Aarav spun and swung his sword at its leg. The sword scraped off the metallic claws with a screech.
"Their hide is too tough!" Aarav yelled. "Like armor joints!"
"Then find the joints!" Kael called back from the other side.
The Crawler turned and attacked Aarav again. This time, Aarav didn't look at its claws; he looked at its eyes—which it didn't have. He looked at that black, round mouth. And the warmth of the Blade Sigil made him feel something. A weakness. Right below that mouth, where a neck should have been, the flow of Aether was very weak.
The Crawler raised its claws towards his face. Aarav ducked low and thrust his sword upwards with all his might—straight into that weak spot.
The sword went in. The Crawler let out a painful, silent scream and went lifeless.
Aarav was panting. He had killed another one. But two more were coming to take its place.
"Mara! How many bullets left?" Grak asked, sweat on his brow.
"Just two clips! This isn't going to work! We're getting tired!" Mara yelled back.
She was right. No matter how many they fought, the number of Crawlers wasn't decreasing. Their circle was getting smaller.
"Aarav!" Mara shouted again. "THE WALLS! WHICH WALL IS WEAK?"
Aarav pushed a Crawler back. He didn't have time to close his eyes and concentrate. He had to feel it on the move, in the middle of this storm.
He let the warmth of the Blade Sigil spread through his entire body. He wasn't just seeing enemies anymore. He was seeing the entire tunnel like a blueprint. He could see the joints in the stones. He could see the centuries-old, rusted pipes running along the ceiling. And he saw... a spot. Right above them.
A section of a massive, main steam pipe, pinned down by an old, weakened slab of rock. There... there was a stress line. A crack.
"UP!" Aarav screamed with all his might. "RIGHT ABOVE ME! THE CEILING! THERE'S A HUGE PIPE! ITS SUPPORTING STONE IS CRACKED!"
"What are you talking about?!" Grak yelled, throwing a Crawler away from him. "I'm fighting here!"
"Grak, listen to him!" this time it was Kael who shouted. "His eyes see more than ours now! We need a way out!"
Grak looked at Aarav for a moment. There was surprise in his eyes, but no time. He looked up. It was hard to see clearly in the darkness.
"How am I supposed to aim?" Grak asked.
Aarav looked at Liora. "Liora! A light! Can you...?"
Liora was weak, but she hadn't given up. She put her hands together. "I'll... try."
She gathered all her remaining strength into her fingertips. A very small, weak beam of green light shot out from her hand and struck the exact spot Aarav had indicated.
For a moment, that weak section of the ceiling glowed green.
"I SEE IT!" Grak said.
"Now it's on us," Kael said. "We have to give him time. Fight with everything you've got!"
This was their last stand. Mara switched her gun to full-auto. Pshoo-Pshoo-Pshoo-Pshoo! A barrage of shots stopped a wave of Crawlers. Kael's swords became a blur; he was fighting three Crawlers at once. Aarav also moved to the front, shielding Liora behind him.
Meanwhile, Grak took his position. He raised his hammer above his head. His muscles tensed like stone. He took a deep breath, the kind one takes before shattering a mountain.
"GET BACK!" he roared.
And he slammed his hammer onto the ground.
But this was no ordinary strike. He hit the ground in such a way that the entire force, the entire shockwave, traveled upwards, towards that weak spot in the ceiling.
KRA-DOOOOOOM!
For a moment, it seemed like nothing had happened.
And then, above them, a small crack appeared in the ceiling. Then another. And then, with a tremendous rumble, the entire section of the ceiling—the heavy pipe, the massive stones—began to fall.
"FALL BACK!" Mara screamed.
They all scrambled backward.
A huge pile of rubble and metal crashed down between them and the horde of Crawlers. Many Crawlers were crushed beneath it. Their screeches were drowned out by the thunderous noise.
A huge cloud of dust and steam rose. Everything was plunged into darkness.
Silence.
Only the sound of their coughing and panting could be heard.
"Grak...?" Mara called out softly.
After a moment of silence, Grak's voice came. "...I'm alive."
He relit his lantern. The light slowly spread.
In front of them was a solid wall. A wall of stones and broken pipes. They had sealed themselves off from the Crawlers.
"Is... everyone okay?" Aarav asked, panting.
Liora was leaning on his shoulder. "We're alive."
Kael was leaning on his swords, his breathing also heavy. He looked at Aarav. And he did something he had never done before. He nodded slightly and gave a small smile. A tiny, tired, but genuine smile. "You felt it, Aarav. You felt like a warrior."
For Aarav, those words washed away all the exhaustion in his body.
But their relief was short-lived.
A faint tremor ran through the ground.
"What was that?" Mara asked.
"That wasn't just rocks," Grak said gravely, his eyes on the ceiling. "The entire level must have felt that shock."
He hadn't even finished his sentence when they heard sounds from a distance, from the other side of the rubble. These weren't the sounds of Crawlers.
They were the sounds of metallic boots. And angry commands being shouted.
"They're somewhere here! The tremor came from this direction!"
"Clear the rubble! Quickly!"
Aarav's heart sank.
"Now the Syndicate knows where we are," Kael said.
"Exactly where we are," Mara finished.
They had escaped one danger only to call upon an even greater one. And now, they were trapped in a sealed tunnel.