The descent down the far side of the mountain came with laughter and light steps. Spirits were still

  high from their last victory, every member brimming with the kind of confidence that comes only from

  success.

  “Signal’s just two hundred meters ahead,” Rhenn said, checking his datapad.

  Calen nodded, scanning the slope. The terrain dipped into a rough valley, green over stone, quiet,

  peaceful. Then, just below them, the ground shifted in tone. Dozens of faint shapes moved in patterns

  across the dirt, each one glinting in the light.

  “Hold up,” Verron murmured. “You seeing that?”

  They all crouched. At the base of the hill stood a mound the size of a small fortress, an anthill, easily

  thirty meters across, its tunnels cut deep into the mineral crust. Dozens, no, hundreds, of ants the size of

  a forearm crawled around its base.

  Kira whispered, “They’re just… walking. Guarding maybe.”

  Calen’s System Core flickered.

  Classification: Tier-One-Common, Mineral Type. Swarm designation confirmed.

  “Looks simple enough,” Calen said. “We take one, test reaction time.”

  They studied the mound a moment longer before spotting a lone ant off to the side, separated from the

  others near a line of rocks about fifty meters away.

  Renn smiled. “Perfect target.”

  The squad moved in formation, quiet, coordinated. Verron advanced first, shield angled. Calen and

  Voss flanked left and right, bows and sidearms ready. Thane and Renn anchored the center. Kira and

  Erys took their place behind, light motes already swirling lazily around them.

  “Engage,” Calen ordered.

  The clearing erupted.

  Verron slammed forward, shield flashing as the ant lunged. Voss’s pistols spat fire, molten rounds

  bursting across its carapace, while Calen’s arrows shattered against the dense plating. The thing

  shrieked, claws raking across Verron’s reflective barrier, each strike sending shock ripples down his

  arm.

  “Keep pressure on it!” Calen called. “Focus the head!”

  They poured everything into it, light, heat, weapons. For thirty relentless seconds, the air burned with

  resonance until the creature let out a long, piercing scream and collapsed.

  Rhenn staggered back with it. His rifle slipped from his hands as he clutched his chest, pain twisting

  across his features. He fell to one knee, a raw cry tearing out of his throat.

  “Rhenn!” Kira shouted, rushing toward him.

  He wheezed, trembling, the last traces of resonance fading from his armor. “T-Two-Greater, again,” he

  managed between gasps.

  Calen froze. “What?”

  “T2G,” Rhenn repeated weakly. “It was Greater.”

  Calen’s eyes narrowed. “No, my Core called it T1C.”

  “Guess your Core’s having a bad day,” Verron muttered.

  “Or something’s wrong with the data,” Calen said, his tone sharp now. “Everyone fall back, now.”

  They began hauling Rhenn upright, forming a protective perimeter as the sound of chittering grew

  around them. The guards near the hill had stopped wandering. All fifty to one hundred had turned,

  heads raised, antennae twitching in eerie synchronization.

  The first shriek came from the base of the mound. Dozens of jaws opened in unison, the sound drilling

  through stone. The ground trembled.

  Calen turned to Rhenn, his voice low, urgent. “When you said this portal hadn’t been touched in a

  while… how long?”

  ***

  Bash’s team filed out of the cafeteria not long after Calen’s group had gone. Their trays were still half

  full, talk light, strategies for Portal 141, the day’s route, nothing special.

  Then, as they passed the registry counter, Bash’s attention snagged on a flicker of light.

  Portal 137, queued, active.

  He frowned. “That’s Calen’s team.”

  Before he could think further, S-C’s voice cut sharply through his link.

  “Portal 137. You previously flagged it as unsafe and removed it from the rotation list due to excessive

  harvest lapse.”

  Bash’s pulse spiked. “How long a lapse?”

  “Thirty-four cycles.”

  He froze. “Thirty-four?”

  That was more than a full evolutionary phase. Every beast inside would have had cycles of unchecked

  growth. Their entire resonance hierarchy could have shifted beyond predictable parameters.

  He turned, already running.

  “Bash!” Taren called after him, confused. “What’s going on?”

  “That portal hasn’t been visited in thirty-four cycles!” he shouted over his shoulder.

  The words hit her like a shock. Her expression hardened, and without another question she sprinted

  after him.

  They rounded the corner just as Calen’s squad reached the access gate. The attendants were verifying

  coordinates, systems humming.

  “Stop!” Bash roared, cutting across the walkway. “Don’t go in!”

  Calen looked back only once, irritation flashing across his face as the shimmer of the portal flared to

  life around him. Bash’s voice was drowned in the surge.

  A second later, the seven Spartors vanished into light.

  “Damn it!” Bash slammed a foot against the floor.

  He spun toward the portal operator. “Pull them back! Now!”

  The tech blinked, startled. “We can’t, sir. Once the Grey’s sequence is active, communication uplinks

  are outbound only.”

  “What about the emergency beacons?” Bash demanded.

  “One-way transmission,” the operator replied. “We can track their signals, not send to them.”

  Bash’s jaw clenched. “Then open it again. I’ll go in myself.”

  “Authorization required,” the operator said quickly, shaking his head. “You’d need clearance from

  either Commander Virk or Commander Jouk. Without it, any interference risks destabilizing both portal

  states.”

  Bash stared at the swirling gate, his reflection warped in its surface.

  “They’re walking into a death trap,” he muttered.

  ***

  Renn hesitated, eyes flicking to his display. “Thirty-four cycles.”

  Calen went cold. Bash’s words came back instantly, his explanation about unharvested portals, how

  extended lapse cycles allowed the beasts inside to evolve unchecked. Fifteen to twenty cycles was the

  typical time lapse between standard harvest, resonance densities compounding, essence signatures

  evolving.

  Anything beyond that became unpredictable.

  That was what had happened with both Summoner, the ones that almost killed them. It was

  evolutionary drift, a runaway cycle where even common beasts climbed entire tiers over time.

  And this one… thirty-four cycles.

  Calen’s pulse spiked. “We need to get out of here… now!” he shouted, eyes wide.

  But the hill erupted before he finished.

  Wings tore from the mound in a shrieking storm. Hundreds of flying ants, each one twice the size of the

  ground types, burst into the air, their bodies gleaming with translucent membranes and arcs of faint

  blue wind resonance. The pressure wave knocked several Spartors off their feet.

  “Wind-types!” Calen shouted. “They’re Wind!”

  The sky filled with motion. Below, the ground ants surged forward, a tide of mineral shells and

  gnashing mandibles.

  Verron raised his shield as the first wave struck, the barrier flaring bright under the impacts. “Form up!

  Circle formation!”

  The squad obeyed instantly, closing ranks with Kira and Erys at the center. Beams of golden light

  pulsed outward from their hands, washing the team in regenerative glow. Their overheal effects

  shimmered, buffs stacking across armor, boosting speed and stability as they tried to hold formation.

  “Verron, keep your front high!” Calen barked. “Thane, control the ground! Voss, on the air!”

  Voss nodded, spinning his pistols upward. Streams of fire burst toward the sky, but the flames sputtered

  almost immediately, shredded apart by the cyclone above. The wind-beasts twisted through the inferno

  like dancers, their wings scattering the embers before they ever reached their mark.

  He cursed under his breath, swapping to rapid-fire bursts just to keep them back. “My flames aren’t

  holding!” he shouted.

  “Then switch to the ground beasts!” Calen barked. “Your fire’s wasted up there, burn through the

  mineral types instead!”

  Voss pivoted instantly, twin sidearms flashing downward. Streams of molten fire carved into the

  advancing ground ants, their thick carapaces blistering under the heat. The blasts hit hard, each impact

  Stolen novel; please report.

  cracking open mineral shells and leaving glowing seams of molten rock behind.

  The recoil kicked through his arms, but this time, the resonance bit deep. “That’s more like it!” he

  growled, firing again, flames washing over the front line in brilliant waves.

  Rhenn’s rifle unleashed arcs of lightning that danced through the cluster, splitting them apart, but the

  real surge came when Voss’s fire blasts tore through the ground ants. The first mineral beast detonated

  in a burst of orange light, its resonance leaping straight into Rhenn.

  His entire body seized, the shockwave of essence slamming through his core like a live wire. “Ghh!”

  He dropped to one knee, rifle clattering to the dirt as a second pulse from another fallen mineral ant

  struck a heartbeat later, doubling the pain.

  “Rhenn!” Kira cried out, half rising.

  Calen cut her off sharply. “Not wounds, it’s essence absorption! Stay on task!”

  The moment their firepower dropped, the swarm pressed harder.

  The air thickened with heat and static. Fire ants, larger, red-glowing brutes, began clawing out from the

  mound’s entrance.

  “New signature!” Erys gasped. “Fire-type, lots of them!”

  Calen swore. “Everyone, focus forward! We carve a path out!”

  Dozens of fire ants broke from the rear ranks, mandibles glowing with internal heat as they spat arcs of

  molten flame toward the team. The air thickened with red streaks of burning resin. Verron’s shield

  flared to intercept, but the barrier flickered violently, its reflective lines stuttering as his essence

  reserves bled away.

  “Hold… hold!” Calen shouted, voice cutting through the chaos. He loosed a rapid volley into the sky,

  each arrow slicing clean through a wind-type flyer. Three dropped in succession, their bodies bursting

  into whirling trails of azure dust.

  But the brief victory came at a cost.

  The resonance from the fallen wind-types surged back toward him, slamming into his core with

  staggering force. Calen gasped, stumbling as arcs of pressure crawled along his arms. His bow

  flickered, resonance faltering under the strain.

  “Calen!” Kira’s voice broke through the noise, but he forced a breath and steadied himself, shaking off

  the disorientation. “I’m fine, keep your focus!” he barked, drawing again even as his pulse hammered

  in his ears.

  The team shifted, focusing their attacks in one direction. Progress was slow but steady, until another

  pair of resonance pulses hit. Rhenn dropped again, screaming, then Voss stumbled beside him, his

  hands trembling as feedback from the fallen fire ants coursed through his system.

  Voss took the lead, his fire-lit pistols spitting bursts into the advancing ground ants. Each shot hit with a

  concussive blast, molten arcs tearing through mineral carapaces and igniting the cracks in their shells.

  Flames hissed across the ground, but the swarm pressed closer, the heat drowned beneath the shadow

  of beating wings.

  The battlefield had become a storm of wind, mineral, and fire, resonance and flame colliding in violent

  rhythm.

  For a moment, the team found their pace again. Calen’s arrows cut clean paths through the sky,

  shredding flyers before they could dive. Voss’s flames roared to life once more, sweeping the front

  lines in molten arcs. Thane’s greatsword pulsed with impact after impact, each swing scattering shards

  of broken carapace. The rhythm returned, breath, motion, strike, heal, like the heartbeat of a single

  organism.

  Then Thane brought his greatsword down with a bellow on the ground beneath him. Three fire ants and

  three mineral ants disintegrated.

  Six resonance pulses erupted at once.

  Rhenn and Voss screamed as the surges hit them simultaneously. Rhenn’s rifle flew from his hands as

  the overload buckled his body. He dropped to both knees, trembling violently before the recoil of the

  absorption hit full force. The air crackled around him, arcs of lightning crawling up his armor, then the

  ground shifted beneath his feet.

  A group of mineral ants surged forward, pincers snapping. Before anyone could react, they latched onto

  Rhenn’s arm and shoulder, dragging him back toward the writhing swarm. “Rhenn!” Calen roared,

  firing wildly, but the distance was too great, he disappeared into the mass of churning bodies, his

  screams cutting short.

  Voss fell next, the feedback from the same pulse knocking his pistols from his grip. His leg was caught

  instantly, a pair of fire ants clamping down with burning mandibles, pulling hard.

  “Not this time!” Erys shouted. He dove from the inner ring, boots skidding through the dirt. “I’ve got

  him!”

  He caught Voss by the arms, essence flaring weakly around his palms as he tried to pull him free. The

  glow sputtered, Erys was running on fumes, but he didn’t let go. Thane turned, rage fueling his swing,

  his sword smashing down with a resonant crack that splintered the ants’ skulls. The grip on Voss’s leg

  loosened, and Erys yanked him back just as the broken insects collapsed into smoking ash.

  Voss gasped, coughing, his armor scorched and dented but intact. “Thanks,” he rasped.

  Erys didn’t answer, he was already slumping to one knee, hands trembling, the last of his essence

  fading to nothing.

  “Damn it, Erys, fall back!” Calen barked, loosing another flurry of wind-charged arrows. The air

  thrummed with the strain, every shot bending under the weight of resistance. The formation barely

  held, each second without Rhenn’s precision fire or Voss’s full output meant more pressure, another

  surge of heat and wings closing in.

  Voss forced a breath through clenched teeth, shaking off the aftershocks. He snatched his pistols from

  the dirt, their barrels scorched and slick with ash, and stepped back into line beside Verron. Together

  they anchored the defense, Verron’s reflective shield blazing like a barrier of fractured light, Calen

  firing to his right, Voss to his left, every shot cutting through the thick haze of dust and flame.

  Behind them, Kira and Erys stood shoulder to shoulder, Erys drained of resonance, Kira nearly drained,

  both trembling. Erys tried to summon one more burst of essence, but only sparks came. “Kira!” he

  gasped, voice ragged. “I’m dry!”

  Thane moved just behind them, his greatsword a constant blur of motion, arcs of mineral resonance

  flashing from each strike as he cleaved through ants pressing too close. The earth beneath his boots was

  scorched black, the ground shaking with each impact.

  “Keep it tight!” Calen shouted, shifting position to cover Verron’s flank.

  But even Verron’s shield was beginning to falter, the mirrored surface flickering, cracks of light

  running through it like veins. He grimaced, voice tight with exhaustion. “Resonance’s gone, I can’t

  hold...”

  The shield collapsed in a burst of sparks.

  Instantly, the ants surged forward. A dozen pincers struck at once, latching onto Verron’s arms and

  torso. He barely had time to shout before he was yanked off his feet and dragged screaming into the

  swarm.

  “Verron!” Voss fired wildly into the mass, hitting several, but the ground erupted around him. More

  ants burst forward, clamping onto his legs. “No… no!” he yelled, trying to blast them off, but his fire

  flickered weakly against the mineral shells.

  Erys dove again, grabbing Voss’s arm. “I’ve got...” was all he managed before the swarm closed over

  them both. The pair vanished in a flurry of pincers and claws, pulled down beneath the churning tide.

  “Thane! Kira! Fall back, I’ll Cover!” Calen roared, voice raw.

  Thane pivoted, swinging hard, but a burst of air slammed into his chest, knocking him off balance. His

  footing slipped, and before he could recover, a cluster of fire ants seized him by the legs and waist,

  dragging him down.

  Kira screamed his name, extending her hand instinctively. A surge of light shot from her palm, her

  boots and leggings flaring to life. The phasing effect triggered mid-motion, her body blurring into

  streaks of pale resonance as she stumbled backward, retreating, half-real, half-ghost.

  And then...

  A blinding flash.