“By order of the Aegis Covenant, you are coming with me.”
Tevos pushed himself upright, a shard of rusted metal pricking his palm. He ignored the sting. The woman stood like a statue carved from midnight stone, her weapon humming a low, predatory tune. He took in the sleek lines of her armor, the intricate filigree on her gauntlets, the way her jade-green eyes glittered with an almost inhuman clarity. This wasn’t some low-tier enforcer; this was a problem. A very expensive, very well-trained problem.
“Aegis Covenant, huh?” Tevos’s voice, though raspy from the dust, carried a familiar, irreverent lilt. He dusted off his grimy trousers, his gaze sweeping over her, lingering on the polished dur-steel plates. “That’s a pricey uniform for a little trip to the scrap heaps. And that blade… Jade Kiss, right? Heard they cost a fortune to attune.”
Zala’s expression remained flat, unimpressed. “You talk too much, junk-rat. And you’re mistaken if you think flattery will earn you a softer cage.”
“Flattery?” Tevos scoffed, leaning against a tower of crushed compressors. “Just an honest appraisal. I’m a man who appreciates good craftsmanship, even when it’s pointed at my throat. What’s your name, by the way? You know, for the interrogation records. Don’t want to be rude when they’re asking who hauled me in.”
“My name is irrelevant,” she stated, her voice like honed glass. “You have a choice: walk, or be dragged. Either way, you come.” She took a single, measured step forward, the Jade Kiss rising slightly.
“Now, now, let’s not be hasty,” Tevos said, holding up a hand, though he didn’t move. His mind raced, calculating angles, assessing her gear, the terrain, the scattered mites beginning to coalesce around him again. “You’ve clearly put in the hours, climbed the ranks, probably sacrificed a decade of your life just to get that shiny badge. All for what? To fetch a lowly junker from the First Ring? Seems like a waste of talent. A waste of *resources*.” He gestured broadly at the surrounding wreckage, his personal kingdom.
“I follow orders,” Zala countered, her grip tightening on her weapon. “And your ‘resources’ are scrap. You’ve caused a significant energy spike, scavenger. High command wants to know why.”
“Scrap, you say?” Tevos’s grin widened, showing a flash of grime-stained teeth. “My dear, you’re looking at the future of resource management. This isn’t just scrap. This is *potential*. And right now, all that potential… it answers to me.” He subtly flexed his fingers, a silent command rippling through the awakening swarm. Thousands of tiny red eyes, like scattered embers, pulsed around the periphery.
Zala glanced at the creeping rust-colored tide. “An impressive parlor trick. But it won’t save you from a High-Rank Hunter.”
“Maybe not,” Tevos conceded, shrugging. “But it could make you rich. Think about it. You’re a sharp one. You see the value in things. The Aegis Covenant offers you what, prestige? A steady paycheck? I’m offering you a cut of a burgeoning empire. This entire wasteland, every piece of ferrous, every circuit, every cog… it’s all my territory now. And there’s more where this came from. Imagine what we could *build*.” He paused, letting the words hang in the air, watching for any flicker of interest in her stoic face. There was none. “You bring me in, you get a pat on the head. You work with me, you get to reshape the Obolith. Your choice.”
Zala let out a short, humorless laugh. “Your ‘empire’ is built on rust-eaters and delusions of grandeur. I’m not interested in playing king of the garbage heap, rat. Last chance.” She raised the Jade Kiss, its emerald glow intensifying, casting her stark silhouette against the perpetual gloom of the First Ring.
Tevos sighed dramatically. “Alright, alright, since you asked so nicely.” His eyes, however, held no resignation. Instead, a spark of mischievous cunning ignited within them. “Swarmlings! Objective: *Descent*!”
The command, transmitted through the nascent network of his skill, wasn’t complex, but its execution was chillingly precise. The plating beneath Zala’s feet, previously a stable, if uneven, mosaic of compressed metal and debris, began to shift. It wasn't a landslide, nor an explosion. It was an orchestrated dismantling. Thousands of chitinous drones, moving with uncanny synchronization, swarmed over and under the junk, their mandibles gnawing, their claws prying. Pieces of corroded piping, shattered engine blocks, and ancient reinforced girders were systematically pulled apart, creating a widening hole with astonishing speed. The metal groaned, screeched, and then began to fall away into a dark, echoing void.
Zala stiffened, a flicker of raw disbelief breaking through her composure. The speed of the collapse was unnatural, too targeted to be random. She instinctively tried to leap back, but the ground was already dissolving. A massive, rusted-out utility grate, hidden beneath layers of discarded plating, was revealed beneath the crumbling earth. It was a forgotten entrance, likely to the Obolith’s vast, interweaving sewer systems, now exposed and gaping.
[Skill: Primal Command has achieved a notable feat of coordinated environmental manipulation!]
[New Sub-skill Unlocked: [Structural Deconstruction (Minor)]]
Her footing gave way. With a snarl of frustration, Zala plunged downwards, the Jade Kiss flaring as she struggled to brace herself against the falling debris. Tevos watched her disappear, a genuine, triumphant smirk spreading across his face.
“See you around, Aegis!” he called down into the darkness, his voice echoing. He didn’t wait for a reply. “Swarm! Objective: *Advance*! Destination: *Obolith Proper*!”
The swarm responded instantly, forming a living bridge, a flowing carpet of chitin and rust that flowed over the lip of the newly formed crater and down into the darkness, a tide of hungry, chittering life. Tevos followed, descending into the damp, echoing tunnels beneath the First Ring, leaving Zala recovering in the dusty, rapidly reforming sinkhole.
***
“You lost him?” Praetor Venn’s voice was a low, dangerous growl, cutting through the comms like a rusty blade. Zala stood amidst the still-settling dust, her boots planted firmly on what remained of the floor plates, her face rigid.
“He created a sinkhole,” Zala reported, her voice tight with suppressed anger. “An organized, tactical collapse. His creatures… they disassembled the ground beneath me. He used an old sewer access point.”
“Tactical collapse?” Venn’s incredulity was almost as cutting as his anger. “With *vermin*? Zala, you are a Prodigy-Class Hunter. Your file states you can dismantle a Glint-Scale in under three seconds.”
“He’s not a Glint-Scale, Praetor,” she snapped, her jaw working. “And his skill isn’t what we believed. It’s… something else. He used it to escape into the sub-levels. I’m tracking his energy signature now, but it’s fragmented.”
There was a moment of charged silence on the line. Then, Venn’s voice returned, colder, sharper. “This complicates things, Zala. Significantly. The energy signature from his initial awakening was not localized. The Crimson Hand picked it up. They’re already mobilizing their own retrieval teams. We have confirmed sightings of their blood-trackers entering the First Ring sub-levels.”
Zala’s stomach clenched. The Crimson Hand. Brutal, ruthless, and without Aegis's pretense of civility. If they got their hands on Tevos and whatever strange skill he possessed, it would be a disaster.
“I’ll move faster,” she vowed, already scanning the remaining debris for a clearer path into the depths. “I’ll get him.”
“You will, Zala,” Venn said, his tone devoid of warmth. “His skill is a threat to the balance. If you can’t retrieve him, eliminate him.”