"The Queen? Already? That's convenient." Luke choked out the words as he turned to make sure Milla wasn't injured. When he saw her peering out from behind a boulder, he waved for her to follow. Best not leave her on her own before continuing on toward what had been the battle between Integrated and ants before the tunnel dropped boulders on their heads.

  Shadows surged from Luke's feet as he hurried, and soon Hannah ran beside him. "I'll do what I can to hold the ants back while you get him on his feet."

  "Mateo?" Luke asked. Weaver's Perception allowed him to sense what'd happened, but he still had to ask.

  She gave him a grim look. "Mateo."

  "Yeah," he grunted, upping his pace even more, leaving Hannah behind.

  "Mateo, you stupid asshole!" he heard Penny shout before he got to the scene of the accident. "I told you! I frickin' told you so!"

  Nymh stood peering up into the ceiling, a dazed look on her face. Luna sat on the ground. A trickle of blood ran out of her ear, but she wasn't seriously injured. The same couldn't be said of Mateo.

  "Penny," Luke shouted, coughing through the still settling dust.

  She spun to face him, pointing at Mateo on the ground. "Fix him! He pushed me out of the way when the damn thing fell! Bastard!"

  A boulder the size of a small car covered everything below Mateo's waist. The weight must've crushed his legs and hips. Without that pressure there, he would bleed to death in seconds.

  "Hermano," Mateo whispered. His lips were pale and his breathing shallow, but he was still alive.

  Luke pointed at the ceiling. "Penny!"

  "What?" she shouted back, her face a mask of rage to mask her shock.

  "Lightning! We need lightning!"

  She looked up then, and he saw her expression shift as she came back to herself. Swallowing hard, she nodded. "I'll fuck them up." With those words, the blue glow surrounded her, and she rose into the air.

  Queen on the field? Well, too bad, hun!

  Hurt my friend, and the storm guns run!

  Flash and crash, your reign is done!

  Luke didn't turn to see the effects of her spell. His place was here, by Mateo's side.

  "Oh no," Milla breathed, catching up to him.

  "Nymh!" Luke shouted, but she didn't move a muscle. Didn't even seem to hear him. Instead, waved for Milla to tend to the woman. It was all hands on deck now. With an army of ants and that huge Queen squeezing through the hole in the ceiling, it wouldn't take them long to wash the Integrated away in a flood of mandibles and chittering legs.

  As if on cue, a blob of what looked like acid slammed into the ground right next to them, melting even the stone with a hiss. Another followed, but Luke dissolved its spellweave. Not something biological then, just a spell. Spells, he could deal with. Destabilize Spellweave, Luke's new skill, made it almost too easy. Not that he'd complain.

  "I'll fix you right up, Mateo," Luke said, getting down on one knee. He extended several threads of mana and braced himself. "You need to kill that Queen, after all."

  Mateo coughed up blood mixed with dust and sand, whispering, "For glory."

  "For glory," Luke agreed, using the now-improved Weaver's Mercy as he set his jaw and heaved.

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  At first, the stone wouldn't move at all. Lightning crashed and echoed, lighting up the tunnel as shadows danced in the corner of Luke's vision. Pushing with his shoulder, using his hips and legs for leverage, and several threads of mana to get the damn boulder off his friend, it finally budged. Mateo let out a shriek of pain as Luke roared, retrieving every ounce of willpower and strength in his body to heave the immense weight off. It thudded back down right next to Mateo, but that was enough.

  The legs were in ruins. If it'd been anyone else, even another healer, Mateo would never have walked again. Weaver's Renewal, though, was beyond mere healing. The skill restored the body, almost like rewinding time. It had allowed Luke to save so many people, and now it let him return Mateo to health. All it cost was mana. Eighty percent of Luke's entire mana pool. Worth it, despite the headache.

  Mateo's screaming stopped, and color returned to his face. With some trepidation, he got his feet under him and stood, bending his knees a little as if unsure they'd carry him. "A miracle, my friend."

  Downing a mana potion, Luke looked up after Mateo, who raced toward the wall even as he threw his spear almost straight up and toward the Hiveling Queen.

  "That was something," Milla said.

  "The healing?"

  She nodded. "My healing would have shored up the non-crushed pieces, but it wouldn't have been able to restore his legs and hips. Not like that."

  Even as she spoke, she cast heal on Nymh, who'd returned to her senses and was now fighting off an onslaught of ants. "Not like that."

  "Your healing works from a distance. That's worth a lot," Luke said, feeling the worst of the headache melt away as mana regeneration kicked in. He looked around. "Where's Luna?"

  Before Milla answered, he sensed her standing there, right in front of them. Frowning, he took a step forward and reached out.

  "Don't touch her," Milla said.

  "Stealth?" he asked, swatting another glob of acid. Behind that attack, the ants had launched a rock the size of Luke's head. Equipping the Tempered Staff, he whacked the stone to the side. The stone tumbled to the ground and bounced, rolling off.

  "Something like stealth," Milla said, hiding behind the boulder he'd lifted off Mateo.

  Luke didn't register her answer because he had just found that his staff, strong as it was, didn't hold up against stone. "A dent," he said, dismayed. Disgusted, he threw the staff to the side, then picked it right back up and attempted to enchant it. When that didn't work, since it was a weapon and not armor, he threw it again, even more frustrated. Stupid tools not holding up.

  A ball of lightning grew between Penny's hands as she levitated right in the middle between the tunnel's ceiling and floor. Crackling bolts surged from the larger ball, reaching outward and to the ants descending along the wall. Plenty of monsters were charging toward Luke and Milla at that point, and while the spell killed wide swaths of monsters, large groups still made it through.

  He saw no sign of Hannah, but tentacles emerged from shadows everywhere to strangle and crush ants that did not advance on the Integrated. The spellcasters and healers fell to her shadowed limbs while Mateo advanced on his prey, running up the wall at incredible speed to reach the Queen, still freeing herself from the hole.

  If the Behemoths were ten times larger than the common ants, the Queen was bigger still. The back half of her body, which she was in the process of prying from the tunnel they'd dug to ambush the Integrated, was wide, and the small part that showed glowed an ominous acid green.

  "We're not in danger, are we?" Milla asked.

  Luke: "Hannah, Penny. Could either of you help Nymh? She's struggling."

  Penny: "A little busy."

  Hannah: "I'll take care of it."

  He turned to his sister. "Of course, we're in danger." Looking around, he shrugged. "Just not a lot of it."

  "Ants!" Milla shouted, pointing to the advancing horde.

  After the last dungeon, where Luke had struggled to stay alive as he fought Archons, Fiends, dragons, and even other Integrated, there was just something about this whole tunnel and its inhabitants that felt... dull. Uninspiring, even. Checking his experience bar, it hadn't even moved.

  As the large group of perhaps fifty ants moved in to attack, Luke used Cascading Threads. This skill, while still requiring short range to activate, greatly enhances his capability to fight against several opponents at once. Threads extended to the closest ants and leapt to those next to them, then leapt again and again, forming a web of threads that allowed Luke to twist and pull. With an unimpressed sneer, he ripped the monster cores right out of their bodies.

  The chittering sound of ant legs on stone ceased. With his inventory full, he helped Milla back up to her feet.

  "You killed them all," Milla noted.

  He nodded. "Yup."

  "You don't sound too amped up about it."

  Luke gave her a look. "Their level is low. No experience. Boring."

  "Poor little brother," Milla said, her joking tone wavering a little, showing she wasn't quite as comfortable in the situation. She threw another heal Nymh’s way. "Being overpowered can't be a walk in the park." Looking up, she pointed to the ceiling. "What about her?"

  "The Queen?"

  Only when their friend approached his target did Luke appreciate the size of the Queen. Mateo looked like an ant compared to her, and not the other way around. That didn't deter him, however, and the Lancer charged to attack. Light from Penny's lightning glinted off the metal of Mateo's spear point as he drove it into the Queen's neck.