Chapter 66: My Rifle Needs the Queen’s Organ Intact[

[Author’s note: Sorry for the interruption; I just wanted to say that the previous Chapter has been corrected. I hadn’t realized I had uploaded a duplicate Chapter—my apologies, and thanks for reading my novel. See you later.]

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The smoke started an hour later.

Raven had not decided to attack the queen.

He had decided to gather information.

There was a difference.

According to him.

Valeria disagreed, but helped anyway.

The three of them prepared small piles of damp material away from the main structure. Nothing large enough to sustain an actual fire. Green leaves, rotting wood, wet fibers, and a thin layer of dry material underneath.

Raven ignited the first one with Ember Spark.

An orange flame the size of two fingers caught on the fibers.

Then disappeared beneath the damp leaves.

The smoke started slowly.

Gray.

Thick.

He repeated the process at the second point.

Then the third.

They did not feed the fires too much.

The wind did the rest.

Smoke began sliding between the roots until it reached one of the external conduits.

It entered.

For almost a full minute, nothing happened.

Then everything changed.

The sound of the nest rose all at once.

A collective buzz rolled through the trees.

Dozens of workers poured out through the lower entrances.

Raven watched from cover.

"Don’t move."

Valeria didn’t answer.

She didn’t need to.

The first wasps searched for the source.

The next ones carried white larvae.

Interesting.

The smoke did not only trigger a defensive response.

It triggered an evacuation.

The Soldiers appeared afterward.

Five.

Then seven.

They split up.

Three toward the first smoke point.

Two toward the second.

Two remained near the main entrance.

Raven memorized the response.

"It worked."

Roland whispered,

"So far."

One Soldier descended too close to the first fire.

Raven did not attack.

He needed to observe.

The creature struck the pile with its legs and used its wings to scatter the material. Several workers helped.

It was not human intelligence.

But it was coordination.

Valeria spoke very quietly.

"They can put it out."

"Yes."

"Then if we do this again, we’ll need sustained smoke."

Raven looked at her.

She paused.

"What?"

"You said ’again.’"

"I’m picking up your bad habits."

Raven returned his attention to the nest.

The wasps had partially emptied two tunnels.

The defense shifted.

One side entrance was left almost completely without Soldiers.

Exactly as he had expected.

If they wanted to enter...

No.

Not yet.

FORGE reacted again.

The Queen’s signature had moved.

Closer.

Raven focused.

«Arc Needle Queen signature repositioned.

Estimated distance reduced.

Royal Spark Organ signal stability: HIGH.»

"She’s moving."

Valeria frowned.

"The queen?"

"Yes."

Roland looked toward the central tree.

"She may be relocating eggs."

The smoke had disturbed the interior.

That forced the target to change position.

Useful.

Raven watched a large cavity about halfway up the trunk.

Workers began emerging.

Not flying.

Backing out.

As though they were clearing space.

Then two Soldiers appeared.

Larger than the previous ones.

Level Eighteen was not the only thing approaching.

A deep sound came from inside.

The same one they had heard while retreating the previous day.

It did not sound like buzzing.

It was too low.

A vibration traveled through bark and branches.

The workers responded.

Hundreds of wings changed rhythm at the same time.

Raven understood.

The queen did not need to come out and fight.

The entire nest was an extension of her body.

Valeria looked toward the opening.

"Raven."

"I see it."

The antennae appeared first.

Long.

Black.

Then a head much wider than those of the workers.

The creature emerged slowly.

It was not several yards long.

It did not need to be.

It was roughly the size of a large dog, with an enormous abdomen protected by black and blue plates. Four folded wings trembled along both sides of its body. Electrical lines ran across its entire underside like glowing blood vessels.

More importantly:

Raven could see exactly what area FORGE was marking.

Lower abdomen.

Deep.

Protected.

The organ he needed.

«Arc Needle Queen

Level: 18

Rank: Awakened

Trait: "High-Density Impulse Spark"

Royal Spark Organ Integrity: 100%

WARNING

Project-compatible organ located within central abdominal cavity.

Damage exceeding 15% to lower abdomen may reduce Harvest viability below required threshold.

Recommended Kill Zones:

Head

Upper Thorax

Cervical Neural Junction

AVOID:

Lower Thorax

Abdomen

Mana-Conduction Channels»

Raven read it carefully.

Normally, he aimed for center mass.

The largest available target.

Destroy organs.

Break the spine.

Pierce whatever gave him the highest probability of ending the fight quickly.

FORGE had just removed nearly all of those options.

Valeria kept watching the Queen.

"You can’t touch the abdomen."

Raven turned his head slightly.

"How do you know?"

"Your expression."

"Useful."

"I’ve had practice."

The queen extended her wings.

The sound alone stirred leaves around the opening.

Around her, dozens of workers took flight.

Then Soldiers.

Roland spoke very slowly.

"We need to leave."

Raven agreed.

That was probably the strangest part.

"Yes."

Valeria looked at him.

"Immediately?"

"Immediately."

They extinguished all three smoke points before retreating.

No leaving active fire behind.

No starting a wildfire that might later follow them.

They moved west, using trees and roots to break line of sight.

Behind them, the buzzing continued.

No swarm came after them.

Good.

The experiment had not escalated beyond control.

Yet.

They stopped nearly half a mile later.

Roland leaned against a rock.

"Please tell me we’re going back for another mature worker and then leaving."

Raven opened FORGE.

The worker organ remained preserved inside its container.

Good integrity.

Excellent stability.

Insufficient output.

The queen solved the problem almost perfectly.

Ninety-seven percent compatibility.

One organ instead of compensating with several weaker components.

Fewer connections.

Fewer failure points.

Simpler architecture.

A better weapon.

Raven hated how obvious the choice was.

Valeria sat across from him.

"You’re going to do it."

Raven looked at the map.

"Probably."

Roland let his head fall back.

"The Level Eighteen isn’t the problem."

"No."

"It’s the hundreds surrounding her."

"Yes."

"I’m glad we agree."

Raven began drawing.

Not the rifle.

The nest.

Three external tunnels.

Four main entrances they had observed.

Wind direction.

Soldier concentrations.

Evacuation behavior under smoke.

Response time.

Queen movement.

Valeria leaned forward.

"What are you thinking?"

"We don’t fight the swarm."

"I would strongly prefer that."

"We move it."

Raven marked the southern side.

"The smoke forced workers to evacuate larvae and Soldiers to investigate. If we create enough pressure in two sections without threatening the entire nest, we can make them concentrate their defense wherever we want."

Roland followed the markings.

"And leave another route less protected."

"Exactly."

"For us to enter."

"Yes."

Valeria studied Raven.

"You said you weren’t going inside."

Raven kept drawing.

"Yesterday, I didn’t need to."

She smiled.

"There you are."

Raven ignored the comment.

"Once inside, we don’t stay. We find the Queen, kill her fast, extract the organ, and leave before the colony can reorganize."

Roland pointed at the drawing.

"You skipped the part where several hundred insects disagree."

"Valeria controls the chokepoints."

She raised one finger.

"For a limited time."

"How long?"

"If you want me to kill everything that comes through, minutes. If I only create blood barriers, threads, and force the wasps through narrow spaces, much longer."

"Enough."

"Maybe."

"Roland stays outside."

Roland looked relieved.

Raven continued.

"You prepare secondary smoke and collapse the tunnel behind us if the swarm gets inside."

The relief disappeared.

"Naturally."

Valeria pointed toward the queen’s approximate chamber.

"And exactly how are you planning to kill her without damaging the abdomen?"

Raven left the tip of the pen resting against the paper.

That was the hardest part.

Head.

Upper thorax.

Cervical neural junction.

Small targets.

On a flying creature surrounded by guards.

Normally, he would use Kinetic Acceleration through center mass or let Valeria perforate it with multiple blood lances.

Either option could destroy the organ.

He needed control.

Close range.

Again.

The rifle existed precisely so he could stop solving every important problem at a distance where the enemy could bite him.

Raven looked at the container holding the worker organ.

Zero point eight percent.

Still.

An absurdly small number between him and a weapon capable of changing that.

"The head," he said.

Valeria looked at him.

"That’s your entire plan?"

"No. That’s where I’m going to kill her."

"And the rest?"

Raven folded the map.

"Tomorrow."

Roland closed his eyes.

"I knew you were going to say that."

Raven looked back toward the direction of the nest.

FORGE opened one final notification.

«PROJECT: PROTOTYPE RIFLE

Completion: 0.8%

Candidate Activation Component:

Mature Worker "Impulse Spark" — REJECTED: Insufficient Output

Optimal local source detected:

Arc Needle Queen "High-Density Impulse Spark"

Estimated Compatibility: 97%

Required Harvest Integrity: 85%

Acquisition recommended.»

Raven read the last line.

"At least the system agrees."

Valeria leaned toward him.

"Does the system also have to crawl inside with us?"

Raven closed the interface.

"Apparently not."

"Then its opinion carries considerably less weight."

Roland laughed.

Raven looked once more toward the enormous trees of Sablewood.

They had come for a wasp.

He had killed one.

It wasn’t good enough.

The next target was a queen protected by an entire colony, and FORGE had just informed him that he could not even use the easiest parts of her body as targets.

Raven slung the backpack over his shoulder.

"We need more wet wood."

Valeria stood.

"For smoke?"

"A lot of smoke."

"How much?"

Raven looked toward the nest.

"Enough to convince several hundred wasps that they have a more important problem than us."

Roland sighed.

"And if they decide we’re the more important problem?"

Raven started walking.

"Then the plan was badly designed."

Valeria followed him.

"Was that supposed to be the reassuring answer?"

"No."

Raven looked over his shoulder.

"The reassuring part is that we’ll find out quickly."

Valeria was silent for a moment.

Then she laughed.

Somewhere deep within Sablewood, the low vibration of the Arc Needle Queen rolled through the trees again.

Tomorrow, Raven would enter her nest.

And for the first time since arriving in Veyr, the hard part would not be killing the monster.

It would be killing it correctly.