The mine's mouth loomed ahead like the jaw of some buried titan, its edges jagged with broken rock and old timber supports that groaned in the night wind. Angela stopped just short of the entrance, planting her greatsword into the soil with a dull thunk. She rolled her shoulders, cracking her neck as her crimson braid swung behind her.
Already, she could hear it, the faint skitter of claws on stone.
Her lips curled into a grin. "So you didn't make me wait."
The shadows moved. Dozens of small shapes scuttled forward, dog-sized, their shells mottled grey and streaked with mud. Each one carried pincers sharp enough to shear wood, their beady eyes catching light like dull glass. A few of them clustered around something in the corner, a bloated deer carcass, its ribs cracked open, entrails spilling as the creatures tore at it greedily.
When they noticed her, they froze. For a heartbeat, the air was still. Then the swarm surged.
Angela bent her knees and let her voice roll like thunder. "Let's see if all your shells can protect you from my strength."
Golden lightning coiled around her calves. The ground split with a thundercrack as she launched forward, Juggernaut's Rush propelling her straight into the tide. Her sword arced, a gleaming crescent that cut the night open.
Eleven scuttlers burst apart in one swing, shells cracking, legs scattering, ichor spraying the dirt.
Angela laughed, the sound rich and savage. She dashed again, boots striking like war drums. Every rush restored her stamina, every swing dropped clusters of monsters. Scuttlers tried to circle her, some leaping from rocks, others lunging low to catch her legs. Each one was met with brutal precision, a backswing splitting three in half, a downward crush that flattened four more like rotten melons.
Minutes blurred into blood and dust. Dozens turned to scores, then hundreds. The ground became a carpet of shells and twitching limbs. Angela's armor was streaked green-black, her crimson hair wet with gore. Still she pressed forward, laughing as though every swing of her blade cut away not only beasts but weariness.
At last, the tide faltered. The scuttlers that remained skittered back, vanishing into cracks and tunnels, leaving silence broken only by Angela's rough breathing.
She rested her greatsword on one shoulder, exhaling steam in the cold air. "Done already? Hmph. Then I'll drag you out."
With a sigh, she strode into the mine.
---
The tunnel swallowed her whole. Darkness pressed from all sides, the damp air reeking of rot and minerals. Angela lifted her hand, golden lightning flickering across her legs, then sparking faintly around her boots. It was enough to paint the world in pale firelight.
The ground crunched beneath her steps, shell fragments, bones, discarded husks. She moved slowly, eyes flicking to every sound. The deeper she went, the more the walls came alive.
Click.
A scuttler peeled off the ceiling, lunging from above. Angela twisted, greatsword flashing upward in a brutal cleave. The creature split midair, raining ichor down her gauntlet.
Click. Clickclickclick.
Dozens more burst from holes in the walls, pouring from every direction. Angela slammed her boots down, shockwaves cracking stone, then spun her blade in wide arcs. The confined space turned every swing into a spray of shards and gore.
"Come on!" she roared, laughter laced with fury. "I can do this all day!"
Her Juggernaut's Rush made each charge thunderous, each strike restoring her momentum. She hacked, cleaved, crushed, always moving forward. The swarm broke like waves against a cliff, yet more came, until the tunnel shook with the chorus of their chittering.
But Angela endured, step by bloody step.
---
The mine's deepest chamber finally opened before her, a cavern vast enough to hold a cathedral. Stalactites loomed above, dripping slowly into a subterranean lake at its center. And there, squatting on a mound of bones, was something far larger than the rest.
The Scuttler Queen.
It was the size of a man, its armored carapace jagged like obsidian. Its pincers were broad, serrated, glowing faintly with mana. And unlike the others, its many eyes gleamed with a sickly green intelligence.
Angela smirked. "Finally. The head of the brood."
The queen hissed, its body crackling with runes along the shell. Mana pulsed out in a visible wave, rattling pebbles across the ground. Then its pincers clacked together and a spell tore through the air.
A jagged spear of stone shot from the ground, aimed at Angela's chest.
She twisted, the projectile grazing her pauldron before shattering against the cavern wall. "A caster, are you?"
The queen screeched, raising both claws. From the walls and floor, sharp stone spikes erupted, a forest of spears meant to impale her.
Angela's legs glowed brighter. She dashed, weaving between spires as they stabbed up from the ground. The mine thundered with collapsing rock as she zigzagged closer, every dodge shaving inches off her path to the queen.
At ten paces, she lunged. Her greatsword whistled down, Juggernaut's Rush exploding in golden arcs.
The queen crossed its pincers, catching the blade. Sparks erupted as steel clashed against enchanted chitin.
Angela snarled, pressing harder, muscles bulging as veins lit across her body. "Break!"
The queen hissed again and cast a second spell. The ground beneath Angela fractured, sucking downward as if the earth itself were swallowing her.
She shoved off, leaping free as the pit collapsed into a chasm. Landing hard, she spat blood onto the stone. "Not bad."
The queen charged, surprisingly fast for its bulk. Its claw slammed down like a guillotine, stone magic coating it in jagged spikes. Angela sidestepped, bringing her sword across in a brutal arc. The blow sheared off half its claw, ichor spraying like acid across the floor.
The queen shrieked, the walls trembling as it poured mana into another spell. Shards of rock lifted from the cavern, orbiting like blades before launching at her in a storm.
Angela roared, sprinting forward into the storm itself. Shards slashed her armor, tore lines across her skin, but she didn't slow. Golden lightning pulsed underfoot as she dashed once more, sword raised high.
"Fall!"
Her blade cleaved down with a thunderclap.
The queen's shell split from head to abdomen, its scream cut off as it collapsed in halves, ichor flooding the stone.
Angela stood above it, bloodied but unbowed, chest heaving. She stared at the corpse as a faint glow pulsed from within. Curious, she stabbed her sword in and pried something loose.
A crystalline core, blue-green, warm to the touch. It pulsed faintly like a heartbeat.
Angela held it up, eyes narrowing. "So this is the aether core the villagers kept whispering about."
She chuckled, slipping it into her pouch. "Worth a fortune, no doubt. Or maybe Loid will know how to use it. He'll like this."
With one last look at the cavern of corpses, Angela turned and began the long march out.
---
Meanwhile, far across the forest, Selvara moved like wind through the undergrowth.
She had tracked the Fang Wolves for hours, following claw marks in the soil, tufts of fur snagged on bark. Finally, she spotted one, a lone scout moving silently through the brush.
Selvara crouched, her silver eyes cold, every motion slow and deliberate. She shadowed the wolf for an hour, waiting. And at last, her patience was rewarded.
The wolf's path led to a clearing where thirty others lounged, their grey fur bristling, eyes sharp. At the center lay the alpha, larger than the rest, muscles coiled under thick fur, fangs yellow with age and hunger.
Selvara whispered to herself. "Good. All of you in one place."
Her veins lit blue. Lightning danced across her limbs, her speed surging as she stepped from shadow into death.
The first wolf never had time to snarl. Her estoc thrust once, piercing its skull, the crimson distortion snapping shut with a crack. She pivoted immediately, momentum carrying her into a second thrust that skewered the next.
Chaos erupted.
The pack howled, fangs flashing as they charged. Selvara vanished in zigzags, a blur too fast for eyes. Each step stored energy, each release carrying her further, faster. Wolves lunged, jaws snapping at empty air, only to collapse with lightning shocks searing their bodies.
The alpha barked a guttural command, and the pack swarmed as one. Selvara's expression never changed. Her estoc flickered, piercing eyes, throats, hearts, every strike clean and merciless. Blood sprayed across her pale face, but she never faltered.
The alpha lunged at last, its bulk crashing into her path. Selvara twisted, sparks trailing her skin, and thrust. The Needlefang Estoc pierced through its skull and out the other side, distortion snapping with a glassy scream.
The beast shuddered, then collapsed.
Silence fell over the clearing, broken only by the faint crackle of sparks around her. Thirty corpses lay sprawled in blood-soaked grass, their alpha slain.
Selvara wiped her blade once, then sheathed it.
---
An hour later, two figures emerged from opposite ends of the forest.
Angela, still streaked with ichor but grinning, and Selvara, calm as ever with faint blood on her cheeks. They stopped when they saw each other.
Angela lifted her sword onto her shoulder. "Guess no need for backup."
Selvara's silver eyes glinted faintly. "Same to you."
The two women stood a moment longer, silent in mutual acknowledgment. Then they turned toward town, the forest behind them a graveyard of monsters.