Chapter 145: I Tricked an Elite Matriarch Into Leaving Her Colony

The first juvenile surfaced nearly four hundred meters from the quarry, bursting through a dry embankment in an explosion of dirt.

It didn’t attack.

It ran.

Another appeared shortly afterward, followed by two more.

Maelor watched with a mixture of relief and concern.

"They’re moving the young out of the core."

"That’s what we wanted," Raven said.

"Yes. But it also means the Matriarch believes the threat is real."

Raven looked toward the ground.

"Better."

"I’m not sure you understand how the word ’better’ works."

"I do. We just use different definitions."

The juveniles disappeared toward a network of secondary caves to the south.

Then the adults began surfacing.

There weren’t many at first. Three emerged, then two more, forming an irregular line between the colony exits and the quarry.

Guards.

Raven didn’t want to fight them.

Not yet.

He activated one of the false routes.

Several small charges detonated along a side slope, not powerful enough to injure the Burrowers but strong enough to send vibrations through the ground.

The adults turned toward the disturbance.

Two followed it.

Three stayed behind.

Raven noted that.

The Matriarch was deploying guards.

Interesting.

The plan was working underground.

Aboveground, another part of it was beginning to move too.

Roland had been stationed on the western side of Kharad for exactly one reason: Keller Ridge still had people in town, and Raven expected them to run once the Burrower operation began.

If they fled, Roland was supposed to follow.

If they carried records, he was supposed to take those first.

Raven had deliberately left that problem in his hands.

A few minutes after the first adults surfaced, shouting rose from the western edge of the settlement.

Not because of monsters.

Because of people.

Raven turned toward the sound.

From their elevated position above the quarry, he could see a wagon racing along one of Kharad’s western roads far too quickly for anyone interested in appearing innocent.

Two horses pulled it.

Four men rode aboard.

A large crate covered by canvas occupied most of the rear.

Then Roland emerged from a side street on horseback behind them.

He had found Keller Ridge.

Valeria saw it too.

"They’re running."

"With something they care about," Raven said.

The wagon took a corner.

One of the men twisted around and fired a crossbow.

Roland leaned aside, and the bolt passed over his shoulder.

Raven’s body reacted before his judgment did.

He could intervene.

The rifle still didn’t exist, but Burst Step, Kinetic Acceleration, and the right route could get him close enough.

He could leave the quarry, intercept the wagon, secure the documents, then return.

It would be faster if he helped.

Safer for Roland.

More certain.

Then Predation reacted beneath his feet.

[High-Capacity Pressure Chamber Approaching Surface Route.]

The Matriarch.

Now.

Raven looked back toward the western road.

Roland was still chasing the wagon.

That was his assignment.

The Matriarch was Raven’s.

Trying to control both would mean doing exactly what he had decided not to do.

Valeria watched the conflict cross his face.

"You can go."

Raven didn’t answer immediately.

Roland was competent. He had survived enough with them to prove that.

More importantly, Raven had given him that responsibility because he believed Roland could handle it.

Leaving now would turn delegation into theater.

"No."

Valeria raised her eyebrows slightly.

"No?"

"Roland handles it."

Another crossbow bolt came from the wagon.

Roland changed angle and kept pursuing.

"You’re sure?"

Raven looked at Valeria.

"I wouldn’t have given him the job if I didn’t believe he could do it."

That seemed to surprise her.

Raven noticed the difference too.

He didn’t have time to think about it.

The ground trembled.

Maelor shouted from the lower quarry.

"Large movement!"

Raven turned.

Stone lifted almost a hundred meters from the center of the quarry.

It didn’t erupt immediately.

A crack appeared first.

Then another.

The ground began to sink.

The three remaining adult Burrowers retreated.

That mattered.

They weren’t surrounding the area.

They were making space.

Pressure tightened inside Raven’s ears.

"Everyone back."

Maelor was already moving.

Sila climbed toward a higher terrace.

Valeria remained beside Raven.

"How far?"

"I don’t know."

"Useful."

Raven backed away fifteen meters.

The ground exploded.

The Matriarch emerged from beneath Kharad as though the mountain itself had spat her out.

Her forelimbs appeared first.

Massive.

They didn’t end in the narrow claws of a predator. They were broad shovels of bone and keratin designed to split stone and move earth.

Then came the head.

Wide, low, and covered in overlapping plates that ran from the snout along the spine.

The creature kept emerging.

Two meters.

Three.

Four.

Raven stopped comparing her to the adults he had already seen.

The Matriarch belonged to another category.

Her body stretched more than five meters from snout to the rear of the abdomen, broad and heavy, supported by six limbs rather than the four Raven had seen on the juveniles. The front four were built for excavation and stability, while the rear pair were shorter, thicker, and packed with muscle.

But the abdomen was what mattered.

It was swollen without being soft.

Armored.

Large lateral plates opened and closed slowly with every breath, revealing dark membranes threaded with mineralized veins.

FORGE reacted immediately.

[Blastback Matriarch — Estimated Level 33 — ELITE.]

[High-Capacity Pressure Chamber Confirmed.]

[Chamber Development: EXCEPTIONAL.]

[Estimated Prototype Rifle Compatibility: 98%.]

Ninety-eight percent.

Valeria read his expression.

"How much?"

"Ninety-eight."

"Naturally."

The Matriarch pulled herself completely free.

The entrance behind her partially collapsed.

Nearby adults released low vibrations.

She answered.

The sound was felt more than heard.

Raven studied her stance, limbs, plating, and breathing pattern.

He didn’t attack.

That wasn’t the plan.

They needed her farther from the colony first.

Maelor stood on the opposite terrace, holding the rope connected to their final artificial chamber.

Raven raised two fingers.

Wait.

The Matriarch lifted her head.

Her eyesight was poor.

That much was obvious.

But she felt everything.

A stone slipped from the quarry wall.

The creature turned immediately—not toward the sound itself, but toward the direction the vibration had traveled through the ground.

Precise.

Raven felt a flicker of interest.

Useful information.

Valeria whispered, "She’s looking for the rival colony."

"Yes."

"And she isn’t going to find one."

"That’s the idea."

"What happens when she realizes that?"

Raven never looked away.

"She’ll probably get angry."

"How fortunate."

Maelor saw the signal.

He pulled.

The third chamber discharged from the western exit.

WHUMP.

Vibration rolled through the ground.

The Matriarch reacted violently.

She turned her entire body and released a pressure signal so deep that Raven felt his still-healing ribs protest.

The adults answered.

Then they began moving west.

Perfect.

The Matriarch advanced after them.

One step.

Then another.

Then a third.

Enough to bring her completely into the center of the quarry.

Raven lowered his hand.

Maelor cut the secondary rope.

The small charges buried behind the Matriarch detonated.

Not against her.

Against the tunnel she had emerged from.

Rock collapsed.

The route wasn’t fully sealed.

But it became narrow.

The creature turned.

Too late.

Now she was separated.

Not completely from the colony.

But enough.

Valeria exhaled.

"It worked."

Raven watched the adults continuing toward the false front.

"The first half did."

The Matriarch lowered her head.

Predator’s Instinct changed.

Hostility.

No more confusion.

She knew something was wrong.

The plates along her abdomen began separating.

Slowly.

Valeria saw it.

"Is that the chamber?"

"Yes."

The membranes between the plates expanded, and the air around the creature began to change.

At first, Raven felt only a current.

Then the current became suction.

Dust, dry leaves, and small fragments of stone began sliding across the quarry floor toward the Matriarch.

Pressure built painfully inside Raven’s ears.

He swallowed.

It didn’t help.

The suction intensified.

Valeria took a step back.

"Raven."

The Matriarch opened the plates across her torso even farther.

The air inside the quarry was being pulled toward her.

Literally.

Raven felt each breath become harder to draw.

Sharp pain stabbed through both ears.

Maelor shouted something from the terrace.

Raven couldn’t hear him.

FORGE filled his vision.

[Pressure Accumulation Detected.]

[Chamber Saturation Rising Rapidly.]

[Projected Discharge Radius: DANGEROUS.]

The Matriarch drove all six limbs into the stone.

Her torso expanded.

Something popped inside Raven’s right ear.

Pain followed.

Then the creature stopped inhaling.

For a fraction of a second, the entire quarry became unnaturally still.

The final warning appeared.

[Pressure Release Imminent.]