Chapter 143: The Monster I Needed Controlled All Thirty-One

Maelor laughed once as he started climbing.

"I’m running out of insults."

"You can reuse some."

"I thought Black Hound was a military unit."

"It was."

"This looks like demolition work."

Raven grabbed a protruding section of stone.

"We did that too."

Valeria was climbing behind him.

"Every time you tell me something about your old job, I understand less about how you survived that long."

Raven started upward.

"Good teammates."

The answer came out before he thought about it.

Valeria went quiet.

So did Raven.

For a moment, he remembered Cole, Mason, Ramirez, Park, and Davis—people he had entered worse buildings with, and people who had later received orders to kill him.

Not now.

Raven kept climbing.

Valeria didn’t ask.

That helped.

The upper gallery was in worse condition than Sila had expected.

The explosion had reopened old conduits and torn holes through sections of rock that had been solid only minutes earlier, but the passage was still climbing toward the surface.

That was what mattered.

Roland should be somewhere above them.

If he was still alive.

Raven saw no reason to assume otherwise without evidence.

Then he heard three metallic strikes, followed after a pause by two more.

Maelor lifted his head.

"Was that...?"

The same pattern came again.

Raven recognized it immediately.

It wasn’t one of Kharad’s bells. Someone was deliberately striking metal.

"Roland."

Valeria turned.

"You’re sure?"

Raven struck his knife against a support beam three times, paused, then struck twice more.

The answer came back in the same pattern.

Raven almost smiled.

"Yes."

Sila pointed toward a narrow ventilation shaft climbing above them.

"He must be using the old vent pipe."

Raven approached it and called out without raising his voice more than necessary.

"Roland!"

The answer came distorted through the metal.

"I thought you were dead!"

"Not yet."

"That’s reassuring!"

"We need a route."

There was a pause.

"The main exit collapsed! Joren is clearing the northern entrance! I can guide you toward Vent Six!"

Maelor looked at Sila.

She nodded.

"Vent Six connects."

"Distance?"

"Five hundred meters. Maybe less."

Raven turned back toward the pipe.

"Mark every junction!"

"I’m already doing it!"

A metallic strike came from the left.

Raven understood.

So did Sila.

"That way."

They moved.

For the next several minutes, Roland became their map. Metallic signals traveled through the old ventilation system: one strike for left, two for right, three to continue straight.

It was improvised, but it worked.

Until the Burrowers started responding to the vibrations too.

The first answering impact came from below.

Then another followed from farther away.

Raven stopped.

"That signal isn’t ours anymore."

Valeria looked toward the floor.

"They’re following it."

"Yes."

Maelor cursed.

"Then Roland is guiding the colony toward our escape route."

Raven shook his head.

"Not necessarily."

He listened.

Roland struck twice.

Several seconds later, vibration came from the right-hand tunnel.

The Burrowers were reacting to the sound, but they didn’t understand the code.

That distinction was enough.

Raven struck a beam on the left four times.

The sound traveled through the structure, and Predation showed one signature change direction before another followed it.

Valeria understood.

"We can lie to them."

Raven looked at her.

"Exactly."

"I’m starting to worry about how much you enjoy saying that."

"Later."

As they continued, Raven began using the tunnel network against the colony.

He struck side conduits to draw juveniles away, launched stones with Kinetic Acceleration to create deeper vibrations, and timed their crossings around pressure discharges.

He wasn’t fighting thirty creatures.

He was manipulating their attention until they interfered with one another.

At one junction, two Burrowers approached from opposite directions while following the same vibration. Both inflated their Pressure Chambers as soon as they saw each other.

Raven stopped the group behind a corner.

"Wait."

WHUMP.

WHUMP.

The pressure waves collided.

One Burrower was thrown backward, and the rock between them fractured enough to partially seal the tunnel.

Raven crossed while both creatures were disoriented.

Valeria followed.

"Do you always do this?"

"What?"

"Turn wherever you are into a weapon."

Raven considered the question.

"When it works."

"That explains Dunvar."

"Dunvar had better walls."

"I cannot believe you’re criticizing the architecture during this."

"We need something to talk about."

Valeria looked at him.

Even covered in dust, she almost laughed.

"You really are talking more."

Raven pointed ahead.

"Run."

"Coward."

They never reached Vent Six.

Something changed throughout the colony before they could.

Raven first noticed the signatures ahead becoming stationary, and almost immediately the Burrowers pursuing them stopped as well. One had been close enough for Raven to hear its claws scraping against stone.

The sound disappeared.

Silence settled through the tunnels so abruptly that it felt unnatural.

Valeria noticed it too.

"What happened?"

Maelor looked more worried than he had when the charge exploded.

"I don’t know."

Sila whispered, "They don’t do this."

Raven raised a hand.

Nobody moved.

Predator’s Instinct detected no immediate attack. Predation still showed the surrounding creatures as alive and alert, but every signature remained motionless.

Then the pressure changed.

It came from far below them.

Raven felt it first in his ears, followed by a slow vibration through his boots. The lamps trembled, dust drifted from the ceiling, and the pressure continued building instead of releasing.

This wasn’t an explosion.

Something enormous was drawing in air.

Maelor’s eyes widened.

"No."

Raven looked at him.

"What?"

The guide never answered.

The discharge came.

WHOOOOOM.

It sounded nothing like the other Burrowers.

The note was deeper, and the pressure traveled through the entire network rather than one tunnel. The walls seemed to expand around them, forcing Raven back a step even though no direct blast struck him. Sila dropped to one knee as a crack opened across the ceiling.

The Burrowers reacted immediately.

But not with aggression.

One nearby adult lowered itself against the floor, and another did the same farther down the passage. Predation showed the signatures that had been pursuing them become still.

The colony had received an order.

FORGE appeared.

[High-Capacity Pressure Chamber Detected.]

[Source Classification: BLASTBACK MATRIARCH.]

[Estimated Existence Rank: ELITE.]

[Mature Pressure Architecture: EXCEPTIONAL.]

[Estimated Prototype Rifle Compatibility: 97%+.]

[Source Depth: BELOW CURRENT POSITION.]

Raven read the display twice.

The exceptional Pressure Chamber belonged to an Elite Matriarch.

So the organ he needed wasn’t inside a random adult he could isolate from the edge of the colony. It belonged to the creature that had just silenced more than thirty Burrowers with one pressure signal.

Valeria saw his expression.

"I don’t like that face."

Raven looked down.

"We found the one I want."

She needed a second to process that.

Then she looked at the surrounding walls, openings, and dozens of motionless signatures.

"Of course it’s the worst one."

Raven couldn’t argue.

The Matriarch released another deep vibration.

This time, several Burrowers began moving through the tunnels, but none came toward Raven.

They were descending.

The colony was reorganizing around her.

Maelor went pale.

"We need to leave now."

"Why?"

"That signal wasn’t for us. She’s gathering them."

Raven looked toward the conduit leading to Vent Six.

"Then she’s giving us a window."

Maelor stared at him.

"That’s what you took from that?"

"They stopped chasing us."

Raven started walking.

"Use it before they change their minds."

The final three hundred meters became the fastest part of their escape, not because the route was clear, but because the Burrowers had become occupied with something else.

Raven saw juveniles moving through side tunnels in the opposite direction. Two adults crossed one gallery without attacking them.

Every creature was heading deeper.

Toward the Matriarch.

That worried Maelor more than the pursuit had.

"A colony doesn’t gather like this unless it’s changing chambers or reacting to a major threat."

"The explosion," Valeria said.

"Maybe."

Raven didn’t think Maelor believed his own answer.

Neither did he.

Keller Ridge had been detonating charges for weeks. The last explosion had been larger and certainly severe enough to trigger a response.

But the Matriarch hadn’t reacted immediately.

She had waited before issuing a signal that even the adults obeyed.

That felt less like panic and more like a decision.

They finally reached Vent Six.

It was an inclined shaft fitted with an old metal ladder, with natural light visible far above.

Roland struck twice from somewhere nearby.

"I’ve got you!"

Deren climbed first because of his injured shoulder.

Sila followed, then Maelor.

Valeria pointed at Raven.

"You first."

"Climb."

"You still have two ribs healing."

"And you spent mana holding up half a building this morning."

"We are not arguing about this now."

Raven looked into the tunnel behind them.

One signature had turned back toward their position.

"Correct. Climb."

Valeria smiled in satisfaction.

"I knew you’d see reason."

"There’s a Burrower behind you."

Valeria started climbing immediately.

Raven waited until she was high enough.

The adult appeared at the end of the gallery.

Level Twenty-Four.

Dust covered its armored body as its Pressure Chamber began to expand.

Raven didn’t draw his knife.

Instead, he studied the wall beside it and found a metal support, an old conduit, and a fracture in the rock above the creature.

He picked up a small stone and used Kinetic Acceleration.

The projectile struck the ceiling behind the Burrower with a sharp CLACK.

The creature turned and discharged.

WHUMP.

The blast struck the fracture, bringing enough rock down between them to block the passage without burying the animal.

Raven started climbing.

Roland grabbed his arm when he emerged onto the surface.

"I thought I was going to have to come down there."

Raven pulled himself out of the vent.

"You would’ve died."

"Thanks for the confidence."

"You have a bow."

"I also have a knife."

"Worse."

Roland helped him to his feet.

Municipal workers and several residents had cleared an area around Vent Six. Deren was already receiving treatment, Sila was drinking water, and Maelor had sat directly on a rock.

Valeria remained standing nearby, covered in dust, her hair disordered and small patches of dried blood staining her hands.

Raven looked at her.

"Everything?"

She opened her arms slightly.

"In general."

"Good medical standard."

Valeria smiled.

"I’m learning from you."

Raven looked toward Kharad.

The bells were still ringing, but there were fewer of them now.

The colony was withdrawing from several areas and converging beneath one region of the settlement.

Joren approached quickly.

"The charge?"

"Detonated."

The man’s expression hardened.

"Then we’re screwed."

"Not yet."

Maelor lifted his head from the rock.

"The Matriarch is gathering the colony."

Joren stopped.

"Matriarch?"

Roland looked at Raven.

"That was the big one?"

"Probably."

"What Level?"

"Elite."

Roland waited a moment.

"And that’s the one you want."

Raven didn’t answer.

Roland closed his eyes.

"Of course it is."

Valeria stepped closer and crossed her arms.

"We can’t go back in the same way."

"No."

"We can’t fight thirty of them inside those tunnels."

"No."

"And if the Matriarch really controls the colony, approaching her directly would be suicidal."

Raven looked at her.

"Yes."

She watched him for a moment.

"I’m worried by how quickly you’re agreeing with all of this."

Raven studied the hills surrounding Kharad and the network beneath them: ventilation shafts, pressure conduits, old chambers, a colony that followed vibrations, and a Matriarch capable of summoning the entire population toward herself.

"Because I’m not going back in to find her."

Maelor lifted his head.

Valeria narrowed her eyes.

"Then what are you going to do?"

Raven looked toward the opening of Vent Six.

They had spent the entire day learning how the Burrowers behaved. The creatures followed pressure, vibration, perceived threats, and familiar routes. More importantly, they responded rapidly to disturbances inside their own network.

Keller Ridge had tried to push them toward Kharad using explosives.

They had done it stupidly.

But the underlying principle had worked.

Raven looked across the old pressure outlets scattered around the hills.

"I’m going to make her come out."

Valeria followed his gaze.

"The Matriarch."

"Yes."

Maelor stood.

"A Matriarch doesn’t abandon the core of a colony because you make noise outside."

Raven looked at him.

"Then we won’t make noise outside."

The guide stopped talking.

Raven pointed toward the old pressure conduits surrounding Kharad.

"We’re going to convince her something is trying to take her colony."

Valeria remained silent for several seconds before smiling faintly.

"That sounds worse than hunting her."

Raven looked at the bells still trembling above Kharad.

"That’s why it’ll probably work."