DATE: 03/21/501 PC

  LOCATION: The Grey Wastes – Captured Harthaven Transport

  The night sky of the Grey Wastes was torn apart by streaks of incandescent blue. Jim’s artillery, guided by Sara’s surgical coordinates, rained down like the wrath of a god. The ambush points where the "Bone-White" enemies had been hiding erupted in fountains of rock and pulverized bone-armor.

  "Go! Go! Go!" Zel roared.

  The core team erupted from the swamp like shadows made flesh. Zel was a blur of red lightning, his blade severing the heads of disoriented guards before they could even raise their weapons. Behind him, Ashley was a whirlwind of blue precision. Every time a survivor tried to channel a counter-spell, she snapped her fingers, her blue mana vibrating in a "Forceful Cancellation" that caused the enemy's mana to implode in their own hands.

  They reached the central transport in record time.

  Inside, huddled in the corner of a cold metal cell, were Mrs. Harthaven and her young daughter. Their high-grade MGM suits were flickering red—low on fuel and failing to filter the toxic atmosphere. They were pale, shivering from malnutrition, but alive.

  "Sara, the spares! Now!" Zel commanded, keeping his eyes on the perimeter.

  Sara moved with clinical speed, swapping their failing masks for fresh Void-standard MGMs. "You’re safe now. We’re the Void Wolves. Can you walk?"

  The mother nodded weakly, clutching her daughter as they were ushered toward the large mana-transport parked nearby. But just as the door began to hiss shut, a sound like a thousand dry leaves skittering across stone echoed through the gorge.

  SHIIIIK!

  A bolt of pure, oily Black mana streaked through the air, aimed directly at the transport’s fuel cell. Zel’s instincts, honed in the pits of Omega, screamed. He lunged, his red-infused sword intercepting the bolt. The collision sent a shower of dark sparks flying, the Black mana attempting to "eat" the energy of his blade.

  From the ceiling of the gorge, she descended.

  The Arachnoid Matriarch. She was a towering nightmare of chitin and shadow, her lower body that of a massive, bone-white spider, while her torso was unnervingly humanoid, draped in tattered, silk-like Black mana. Flanking her were twenty Arachnoid Infantry—each one a high-speed killing machine with blades for legs.

  "Black Mana..." Ashley whispered, her blue aura flickering as she felt the "selfishness" of the energy. It didn't push like Red or Green; it pulled, trying to drain the life force of everything nearby.

  "Be careful," Zel murmured, his flippant attitude gone, replaced by the cold stare of a predator. "Even the low-level ones are dangerous. Black mana ignores armor; it goes for the soul. If they nick you, they start draining your core."

  Zel turned his head slightly. "Mac, Sara, take the transport. Head for the extraction point. Don't stop for anything. Jim! Once they pass the ridge, blow the guns and meet them at the bikes!"

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  "But Captain—" Sara started.

  "That’s an order! Go as planned!" Zel’s voice was like a whip.

  Mac gripped his rifle, nodded once, and slammed the transport into gear. The heavy vehicle roared to life, tires churning the mud as it sped away toward the Gamma border.

  The Matriarch hissed, her eight eyes glowing with a malevolent purple-black light. She signaled her infantry, who began to scuttle down the walls with terrifying speed.

  "Ashley," Zel said, his sword crackling with Red lightning. "I’ll take the Matriarch. You keep those twenty legs off my back. If we don't kill her here, she'll hunt that transport all the way to the Bastion gates."

  Ashley took a deep breath, her blue mana expanding into a shimmering, acrobatic field. "Just make sure you don't get eaten, Captain. I haven't finished my training yet."

  The two Hunters stood alone in the dark, the black-armored wolves facing the weavers of death.

  DATE: 03/22/501 PC

  LOCATION: The Grey Wastes – Deep Gorge

  Zel could feel the temperature in the gorge drop as the Matriarch’s Black mana seeped into the ground. Physically, she was not as imposing as the Ogre he had fought in the Red Zone, but the air felt heavier, more suffocating. One touch from those black bolts was enough to shatter the soul of a low-grade hunter. He looked at the scorched earth where the ten escorts had fallen; they hadn't been defeated by strength, but by the absolute corruption of their life force.

  "Ashley, now!" Zel roared.

  The two sides collided. Ashley moved with the grace of a dancer, her Blue mana manifesting as translucent whips that lashed out with a crackling hum. Before the Arachnoid Infantry could close the distance, she triggered a wave of "Forceful Cancellation." The scuttling soldiers stumbled, their internal mana-flow suddenly disrupted, leaving them wide open for her whips to shred through their chitinous armor. She maintained a perfect mid-range circle, her eyes darting between the twenty soldiers to ensure Zel’s back remained clear.

  With the infantry occupied, Zel became a red blur.

  The Matriarch was a nightmare of coordination. She had four humanoid arms, twelve glowing eyes, and eight razor-sharp legs. Each of her hands pulsed with Black mana, ready to fire bolts that would bypass Zel's physical defenses. To make matters worse, she began to vent a thick, sickly-purple gas from the pores in her abdomen.

  "Toxicity levels rising," Zel’s HUD warned. His MBS could filter the air, but the corrosive gas began to eat at the very integrity of the suit’s black latex. If he stayed in the cloud for too long, his armor would dissolve before his eyes.

  Zel’s movements were purely tactical. He didn't waste energy on grand strikes; he aimed for the sensors.

  He waited for the Matriarch to raise all four arms to charge a massive Black bolt—a move that forced her to open her guard. Now.

  Zel lunged. He funneled his Red mana into his blade, turning it into a white-hot spike of lightning. He drove the energy upward, the flash blinding the right side of the Matriarch’s twelve eyes. As she shrieked in agony, Zel used the momentum of his dash to sweep low, his blade severing two of her front legs in a single, surgical stroke.

  The Matriarch collapsed to one side, but she wasn't finished. In a desperate surge of self-preservation, she began spewing massive, sticky webs from her thorax. She thrashed her body left and right, coating the ground and the nearby petrified trees in a thick, Black-mana-infused silk.

  Zel was forced to skitter back, his boots nearly catching on the soul-draining adhesive. The webs acted as a barrier, preventing him from closing the distance while the Matriarch backed away into the shadows of the gorge, her remaining eyes burning with a vengeful, dying light.

  "She’s playing for time," Zel hissed, his Red Core vibrating. "She knows her babies are dead, so she’s turning the floor into a graveyard."

  Ashley moved to his side, her blue whips still humming. "The gas is getting thicker, Captain. If we don't finish this in the next two minutes, we'll be fighting without suits."