Dahlia stood at the edge of the empty oasis, clad in four firefly bracers, two locust greaves, two assassin bug gauntlets, and a gift from the town chief’s daughter: the butterfly goggles that could let her right eye see in the dark.

  If she’d known she was going to be fighting Madamaron solo a whole week ago, she would’ve asked Alice and Safi to leave a month’s stock of insect flesh behind for her to gnaw on, but there was a reason why the hands of the pocket watches her dad always made could never turn backwards. It was less so to deny the feeling of regret than to strengthen the resolve to move forward no matter what—and on that front, she felt more than inadequate to think she alone could dare to take on a Mutant that’d been terrorising the town for an entire decade.

  [Name: Dahlia Sina]

  [Grade: C-Rank Giant-Class]

  [Class: Assassin Bug]

  [Swarmblood Art: ?R!C?O80L8C10T!O?N]

  [Aura: 711 (+125)]

  [Points: 29]

  [Strength: 3 (+3), Speed: 4 (+1), Toughness: 4 (+2), Dexterity: 3 (+1), Perception: 3 (+1)]

  [// MUTATION TREE]

  [T1 Mutation | Swarmguard Deity Lvl: 2

  [T2 Mutations | Basic Chitin Lvl: 3Basic Antennae Lvl: 2

  [T3 Mutations | Basic Claws | Stridulating Throat | Basic Setae] 150P

  [// EQUIPPED SWARMSTEEL]

  [Assassin Bug Claw Gauntlets (Grade: C-Rank)(Str: +2/3)(Dex: +1/2)(Aura: +100/300)]

  [Adaptable Desert Locust Greaves (Grade: E-Rank)(Spd +1/1](Tou +2/2)(Aura: +15/60)]

  [Glasswing Butterfly Goggles (Grade: F-Rank)(Per: +1/1)(Aura: +10/10)]

  [Adaptable Firefly Bracers (Grade: C-Rank)(Str: +1/2)(Tou: +0/1)(Aura: +10/250)]

  … But, at the same time, she didn’t like she was alone.

  The town chief was behind her. Smith Jaleel was behind her. Her dad, her mom, Issam, Raya, Amula, and everyone else in Alshifa—their hands were warm on her back, and they gave her a gentle push forward, her assassin bug claws pulling her goggles down as she slid down the giant pit that was the oasis.

  She'd like to drill Kari about her mom and what the 'Swarmguard' really was, but right now, she had a bug to slay.

  Moonlight faded the moment she dropped through the hole at the bottom, and while it may be dangerous sliding down with her claws screeching against the sandstone walls, the fact Kari didn’t tell her off meant this was the right move… that, or there was no other choice. She didn’t think the assassin bug insect class would have a wing mutation to unlock, nor did she have enough points to even attempt unlocking a tier three mutation. Maybe she could glide down the hole if she’d made Swarmsteel wings, but there weren’t any parts in the Oasis Town for that; what she had on her was the best she could manage.

  So she touched down at the bottom of the cold, dark tunnel, and knelt there with all four hands on the ground for a few seconds. Her eyes were closed, she was trying to steady her heart. Her dagger antennae weren’t warning her of any imminent threats, so she had a bit of time to focus on feeling out any vibrations underfoot.

  … Nothing of the sort. Madamaron and its brood must’ve retreated deeper underground along one of the tunnels around her.

  Exhaling coolly, she turned the red dial on the side of her goggles, and her right eye lit up like a torch.

  Three tunnels around her led left, right, and forward respectively. The walls were corrugated like sandworms had burrowed through, but one of the tunnels was also large enough for a eight-metre-tall Madamaron to feasibly squirm through without leaving any traces.

  She stared down the left tunnel, scowled, and began running full speed ahead.

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  Kari replied curtly, musing at her status screen as it did.

  She glanced behind her as she ran, and the oppressive darkness of the tunnel stared back; she felt a strange sense of comfort in the silence nevertheless.

  Her eyes may not be able to see ’it’, but her antennae told her ‘it’ was watching behind her.

  she asked.

  Kari thought for a moment before looking at her, turning atop her shoulder.

  it said.

  Dahlia clicked her tongue.

  A small smile crawled onto her face as she sprinted towards a point of moonlight in the distance. She was coming up on some sort of cavern with an open-air ceiling, and… she already had an idea where she was going to end up in.

  But she wasn’t worried.

  She wasn’t nervous.

  The closer she got to her first and final arena in the Sharaji Desert, the calmer she felt—if it were her from a week ago, she’d lose it and try to run away, but there was no reason for her to do it now.

  ‘Home’ was on her back, in her nape. Not in front of her.

  She laughed—so did Kari—and that was the sound she brought into Alshifa as she sprinted out of the once-blockaded Southern Luwu Tunnel.

  Alshifa wasn’t as it used to be. Dark and gloomy it may have always been, but it was never dilapidated or ruined; now, most of the buildings around the walls of the cavern were crushed under mountains of rubble where the firefly had zapped the ceiling above with lightning. The streets were jagged, broken, and uneven. The rivers and sewers were dry with sand still trickling down from the giant chasm overhead, where moonlight illuminated the entire Undertown in soft, chilling glows of blue and white. Several streets and buildings still stood across the cavern, but they were few and far between—the brood of antlions had turned Alshifa into their own den.

  Standing at the opening of the Southern Luwu Tunnel, she almost had a full view of the Undertown at a slight incline below her, and she could see the things that didn’t belong: near the outskirts, where beautiful fields of bioluminescent wheat and flowers used to be, dozens of sandpits were dug to trap crowds of Sharaji townsfolk within. Slimy eggs clung to most of what remained of the buildings, leathering shells pulsing faintly pink and purple. Every street was slick with blackened, devoured bug carcasses, and Mutant-Class antlion nymphs crawled all over them as they continued feasting to their heart’s content.

  None of the antlion nymphs seemed to notice her arrival immediately. They probably weren’t expecting anyone to follow them here after the violent display aboveground.

  A quick headcount of the captured townsfolk to her far left made her sigh a short breath of relief. It seemed she’d arrived in time to stop most, if not all of them from getting eaten—the antlions probably wanted to finish all the carcasses that were already in Alshifa first before diving into fresh food. If she could somehow sneak past all of the antlion nymphs and kill Madamaron first, that might break any ‘morale’ they had.

  … As if it was going to be that easy, though.

  Her antennae shot up straight, and she whirled where she stood to see Madamaron clinging to the wall above the tunnel—sleek, four-armed, four-winged, and armoured from antennae to claw, it was the same eight-metre-tall monstrosity she’d seen aboveground.

  Unlike the rest of its carefree brood, it’d been waiting for her, and the glowing, beady crimson eyes that glared down at her reminded her of Alice’s own eyes.

  But its killing pressure wasn’t as high as Alice’s.

  Not even close.

  So, for a few seconds, neither of them moved.

  Dahlia didn’t breathe.

  Madamaron didn’t blink.

  And then she braced her forearms in front of her as Madamaron lunged down, rearing a single, jagged fist back.