The tunnel was too quiet.
Dust floated lazily through faint shafts of light piercing the soil above. The main group of beetles, six in all, crawled forward in a thick column, their steps heavy, measured, and laced with unease.
"You smell that?" one of the scouts muttered.
"Soil's a bit loose here," another said. "And these holes…"
Their compound eyes glanced along the tunnel walls. Dozens of fist-sized burrows lined the edges, small enough for an insect to vanish into, but far too deliberate in placement.
The lead scout leaned in, antennae twitching. A claw scraped at one.
"Nothing. There isn't any creature capable of making them, so they must be natural."
"Keep moving."
The leader's steps slowed. His massive limbs paused as he scanned the holes again.
"I don't like this," he muttered. "It's too quiet. Too many tunnels, It all screams unnatural to me."
He turned.
"Lets head back."
But behind him, one of the armored beetles hissed in frustration.
"We retreat now and return with this?" he gestured to the empty corridor. "You of all people should know what happens when the Queen is presented with empty promises. If you so please, then you can return on your own. But I'd like to keep my head intact."
The other nodded, his mandibles clicking.
"We press on. We've seen nothing, fought nothing. I'm sure we will make it out of here just fine. We just need some sort of evidence, even a dead carcass would do." The beetle made his way forward, the others following him behind instead,
The leader glared, torn, but said nothing. He knew what he was saying was the truth and it couldn't be denied. But he hoped that he could've escaped the kingdom. Perhaps even start a new, peaceful life, away from this violence. Nonetheless, he pushed forward.
Farther behind, the two flanking teams advanced through the left and right passages, also whispering their doubts about the tunnel design. One scout leaned into the wall to examine a hole and failed to notice the slight glimmer of a thread stretched across the tunnel's ceiling.
Then it began.
CRACK.
The earth trembled.
With a sound like snapping bones, the floor beneath all three tunnels gave way. Dirt and shell burst into the air as four massive beetles dropped, one after another, into hidden pits.
Mandibles, sharpened and waiting, tore upward.
Screams echoed through the caverns, wet and ragged. Shells cracked. Bellies split open. Beetle blood spilled into the soil like tar, coating the ambushers beneath in a sticky, steaming mess.
From the far tunnels, Zell and Norkk emerged from their narrow hides like blades in the dark. Their strikes were clean, swift, and merciless. Two scouts fell instantly, their cries cut short by mandibles through their throats.
"Attack!!" Adam roared.
The cry exploded into every tunnel.
In the center passage, Adam himself burst forth. His form larger, blurred as he lunged at the rear scout, flipping it with a twist of his legs. His mandibles slammed into soft underbelly. A choked squeal. A shudder. Silence.
The last scout tried to run, but too late.
With a swift flick of his abdomen, silken threads shot out, sticking to limbs and binding the fleeing beetle against the wall. It thrashed, hissed, and snarled, but couldn't move.
The beetle leader, let out a bellow of rage. His final warrior stepped beside him, carapace dripping with blood from the falling dirt, but ready. The leader narrowed his eyes at Adam.
"You. You're the ones, aren't you?"
And then he charged. The tunnel trembled with his fury.
The earth trembled from the thunderous footfalls of two massive beetles, the leader, wide-shelled and furious, and his second, a brutish warrior with jagged mandibles stained with old blood. Their thick chitin gleamed with mana-tinged residue, rippling with each movement like armored plates preparing for war.
Facing them in a narrowing tunnel stood Adam.
He was flanked not by warriors, but two healers, their smaller bodies alert, antennae twitching. They held no offense in their limbs, but behind their fragile-looking forms flowed resolve, and within their abdomens pulsed the warm glow of restorative biomatter.
Adam lowered his stance, mandibles flaring wide. His breath was steady. Controlled.
"We don't need to win, we just need to hold the line." he muttered, more to himself than his allies. "Just heal me." They nodded, antennae twitching.
The beetles didn't hesitate.
The warrior lunged first, a massive claw carving a deep furrow in the tunnel floor. Adam dodged, barely, but the second swing clipped his leg, splintering the edge of his exoskeleton.
Pain shot up his side, but he didn't slow.
He ducked under the blow and fired thickened silk at the beetle's forelegs, pinning them momentarily to the ground. A heartbeat later, the Leader Beetle struck from the side with terrifying speed.
WHAM!
Adam slammed into the tunnel wall. His breath caught. His shell cracked.
Behind him, the healers moved, casting skills with precision.
A greenish pulse of warmth crawled through his body, knitting fractures, slowing blood loss.
The Leader Beetle growled. "To think someone like you were behind these attacks. You should know this will be your last."
Adam didn't respond.
Instead, he lashed out with webs, spinning dense cords between stalactite-like protrusions of stone, crisscrossing the battlefield. It was a cage. A maze.
The warrior beetle thrashed, caught in the strands, buying time.
But the Leader Beetle burned through them, his sharpened limbs cutting webs like paper. Too strong. His shell's reinforced. Not a single gap... except—there. Just under the jawline.
He dove low, drawing attention. The warrior moved to flank, but again Adam entangled its legs, then rolled away just before another strike slammed into where he had been.
The Leader Beetle finally reached him. He feinted left, then struck from above, mandibles like scythes.
CRACK!
Adam was lifted off his feet, slammed into the ceiling and then down again. The floor cratered beneath his weight. Dirt and blood filled his mouth.
The healers moved, hands trembling, but still, they healed. Pulse after pulse of energy pushed into his body. Barely holding him together.
Gritting his mandibles, Adam scuttled forward. He webbed the warrior's face, blinding it briefly. Then, charging full speed, he rammed into the Leader Beetle, pushing him backward, deeper into the tunnel web trap.
The Leader staggered but retaliated. His claw hooked Adam's side and ripped through a chunk of his shoulder. Adam screamed—but didn't fall.
The healers screamed too but kept casting.
The Leader Beetle raised a claw to finish him.
And that's when Adam jumped into the air, using his web to pull himself up, and then came crashing down, mandibles piercing the soft joint under the neck.
The Leader roared in pain.
The warrior, trying to shake free of the webs, charged.
Only for Adam to flip backward, firing web after web, entangling them both in a net strung with accuracy.
"Now!"
"Zell! Norkk! Warriors—go!"
From the pit behind them, two warriors surged out, finished eating through the beetles' flesh, rage burning in their gazes. Zell and Norkk, with two more warriors. flanked from the tunnels.
The warrior beetle turned, too slow.
Six ants hit him like a collapsing wall.
Mandibles stabbed. Legs tore. Chitin cracked. He fell under the mass of slicing limbs and bone-breaking fury. Screams followed—but not from the ants.
The leader turned, wild-eyed, but he was alone.
Adam lunged again, this time embedding both mandibles in the beetle's side, forcing him back. The others didn't kill him—they pinned him, weakening him with precise blows, ripping his legs apart one by one.
Until finally, Adam stood before the writhing, helpless leader.
He looked down, breathing hard, legs bruised, silk dripping from the wound on his side. The beetle hissed defiantly.
"You won't… stop what's coming."
Adam said nothing.
With a flick of his silk, the beetle was bound, his body wrapped in thick webbing, his limbs pinned.
Captured.
Twelve beetles entered. One was left.
Their blood soaked the tunnels, their armor scattered like discarded husks.
The ants stood in the silence, panting, victorious—but wary.
System Notification:
Ding!
Ambush executed successfully.
Status Report: 11 hostile beetles neutralized.