Chapter 238: ROOFS! STORAGE PLATFORMS! GET CHILDREN UP FIRST!

Brea’s scream split the night.

“RAKU!”

The pale fingers in the crack snapped forward.

Brea barely had time to recoil.

A gray-white hand shot through the loosened stones and wrapped around her ankle.

Her scream changed.

“GET IT OFF!”

The arm pulled.

Brea hit the ground so hard her teeth cracked together.

The guard beside her lunged, caught both her wrists, and was nearly dragged down with her.

“What the fuck is that?!”

Another hand appeared.

Then another.

Then five.

Thin, corpse-pale arms shoved between stones where no body could possibly fit.

They bent wrong.

Elbows twisting backward.

Fingers searching.

Claws scraping stone.

SCRRRRKK.

Vida’s mate stumbled away from the ruined anchor.

“I didn’t…”

The ground beneath him moved.

His face went white.

“No.”

A hand exploded from the dirt.

It caught his calf.

He screamed.

Then Ironwood woke.

Not slowly.

All at once.

The settlement erupted with screams.

A female burst from a shelter clutching her child.

“THE FLOOR!”

Inside the shelter behind her, fingers punched through packed earth.

Another scream.

A sleeping male was dragged from his hide before his mate could grab him.

His nails carved bloody lines through the ground.

“HELP ME!”

The hand jerked.

His shoulder came out with a sickening pop.

His scream became animal.

Raku came charging down the path, crocodile tail lashing so violently it cracked against a post.

“ALARMS!”

A horn sounded.

Then another.

Then ten voices.

“GROUND!”

“THEY’RE COMING THROUGH THE GROUND!”

“GET THE CUBS UP!”

Swanly woke to the System screaming directly into her face.

WARNING.

WARNING.

WARNING.

Her eyes snapped open.

“What?!”

TERRITORIAL DEFENSE RESPONSE ACTIVATED.

Outside, something screamed.

Not human.

Not beast.

Wet.

Deep.

Swanly bolted upright.

Soren was already moving.

His silver eyes had gone completely cold.

Kael came off the sleeping hide in one smooth panther-fast motion, black ears flat against his hair.

“Mama!”

Kairo grabbed Eira.

Nilo scooped Sira before the baby could crawl toward the shelter entrance.

Miko stood frozen.

Another hand burst through the floor.

Right between them.

Swanly screamed.

“BACK!”

Kael transformed before the thing could grab anyone.

Black fur swallowed his body.

A massive panther crashed down on the arm.

CRUNCH.

Bone or root or whatever the thing was snapped.

Black fluid sprayed across the dirt.

Miko screamed.

Eira hissed.

Sira started crying.

Not fake crying.

Real crying.

That sound nearly tore Swanly apart.

“Come here!”

She snatched both girls into her arms.

Kairo grabbed Miko.

Nilo pressed against Swanly’s side.

Kael stood over them, fur lifted, lips peeled from enormous teeth.

Soren looked toward the floor.

“System,” Swanly hissed. “WHAT IS THIS?”

The tiny fairy’s face had lost all humor.

FALSE BOUNDARY ENTRY TRIGGERED AN ANCIENT DEFENSIVE LAYER.

“What?”

THE SLEEPING CREATURE DID NOT WAKE.

Another scream outside.

Swanly almost laughed from pure hysteria.

“Oh, wonderful!”

A DIFFERENT ORGANISM DID.

“THAT IS NOT BETTER!”

The System spun a golden map open.

Red points bloomed beneath Ironwood.

Too many.

Swanly’s stomach dropped.

“What are they?”

BURIED WARDERS.

The ground shook.

THEY WERE DESIGNED TO ATTACK BREACH POINTS FROM BELOW. FALSE ENTRY CONFUSED THE RECOGNITION PATTERN. THEY ARE NOW RESPONDING TO MOVEMENT THROUGH THE SOIL.

“So how do we stop them?!”

REDUCE GROUND VIBRATION. RAISE PEOPLE OFF EARTH. WOOD. STONE PLATFORMS. ROOFS. ANYTHING NOT DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO SOFT GROUND.

Swanly’s eyes widened.

They already had raised platforms.

Because of Heart Fever.

“Anything else?”

WOOD ASH. BITTER RESIN. SALT. PACK THE ACTIVE CRACKS. THEY REJECT HIGH ALKALINE ASH AND STRONG RESIN.

Natural resources.

Ironwood had all three.

Swanly looked at Soren.

“Raised platforms! Get everyone off the dirt! Ash, salt, bitter tree resin into every crack!”

Soren did not ask how she knew.

He turned toward the entrance.

Then his body changed.

White scales flashed.

His spine lengthened.

The shelter suddenly became too small.

Swanly dragged the cubs backward as Soren transformed into his enormous white snake form.

His body poured out through the doorway.

Massive.

Silent.

Terrifying.

The ground hands recoiled from the impact of his tail.

Then Soren moved.

Fast.

Impossibly fast for something that large.

His tail smashed three pale arms flat against the path.

CRACK.

Black fluid splattered the wall.

Raku roared:

“YOU HEARD HER! MOVE!”

Tovan immediately caught on.

“ROOFS! STORAGE PLATFORMS! GET CHILDREN UP FIRST!”

Tilla came running with Tavi clutched against her chest.

“MAMA!”

A hand burst beside her.

Mora slammed into it shoulder-first.

The bear female caught the wrist in both hands and ripped.

The entire arm came free.

It writhed in her grip.

Mora stared at it.

“Disgusting.”

Then beat another hand with the first one.

Raku actually stopped for half a second.

Mora shouted:

“WHY ARE YOU LOOKING?!”

He went back to work.

Swanly wanted to run.

Every instinct screamed at her to put the girls down somewhere safe and go help.

Then Sira buried her face in Swanly’s neck.

“Mama…”

Eira’s tiny fingers clenched her clothing.

Nilo pressed into her hip.

Kairo was trying not to look scared.

Miko failed entirely.

His eyes were wet.

Swanly stopped.

No.

Not this time.

She crouched and pulled all five close.

“I’m staying.”

Kairo looked up.

“Mama?”

“I’m staying with you.”

Another crash outside.

Miko grabbed her waist.

“Are they coming in?”

“They might.”

His lip trembled.

Swanly kissed his forehead.

“Then I fight them here.”

Eira looked toward the floor.

“Bad.”

“Yes, baby.”

Sira sniffled.

“Bad.”

Swanly hugged them tighter.

“But they don’t get you.”

Her fox ears flattened.

Her tail wrapped around as many little bodies as it could.

“Not while I’m breathing.”

Outside, Ironwood became war.

Nahla stood on a raised stone ledge directing injured people.

“DO NOT WALK BAREFOOT!”

Sari threw ash into an open crack.

The hand inside recoiled so violently it tore two fingers off against the stone.

“It works!”

“MORE ASH!”

Tilla dragged baskets toward the platforms while Tavi clung to her back.

Nerin stood on a roof edge, one hand gripping his bleeding antler.

“THERE!”

He pointed.

“UNDER THE EASTERN SHELTER!”

Kael launched.

The black panther hit the ground exactly as three hands erupted.

His claws shredded the first.

His jaws caught the second at the wrist.

He did not bite infected.

But these were not infected.

He tore.

The third grabbed his foreleg.

Kael snarled.

Raku’s crocodile tail slammed down and crushed it.

They looked at each other once.

No words.

Back to fighting.

Near the western trench, Brea was still screaming.

The hand around her ankle had been joined by another around her waist.

Then another caught her hair.

It pulled.

Her scalp split.

Blood ran down her face.

“NO!”

The guard hacked at one wrist.

It did nothing.

Brea twisted.

Hyena instinct took over.

She snarled, rolled onto her side, and bit.

Hard.

Her teeth sank into the pale flesh.

Black blood flooded her mouth.

She spat violently.

The thing tightened around her ribs.

Something cracked.

Brea screamed.

Then laughed.

A horrible, broken hyena laugh born from terror and fury.

“You want me?”

She grabbed a stone.

“COME GET ME!”

She smashed the hand holding her hair.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Two fingers broke.

She ripped herself sideways.

Skin tore from her ankle.

She got free.

Barely.

She crawled backward, bleeding from the scalp, ankle, mouth.

Alive.

And outside the boundary, Veyra watched everything she had helped cause.

Her wings trembled.

Then she moved.

One step.

Two.

Ready to fly.

Tharek’s massive hand dropped onto her shoulder.

She froze.

His Ground-Hoof body loomed behind her.

“You stay.”

Veyra turned.

“Let go.”

“No.”

“You cannot command me.”

His grip tightened.

“I can prevent you from fleeing.”

Her face changed.

“I did not…”

A shadow dropped from the sky.

Six wings opened.

Azren landed hard enough to scatter dirt.

No smile.

No lazy posture.

No fruit.

Nothing playful.

His pale-violet eyes moved from Veyra…

to the broken anchor…

to the chaos inside Ironwood.

Then back to her.

Veyra stopped breathing.

Azren stepped closer.

His voice was terrifyingly quiet.

“What did you do?”