Chapter 249: If they don’t care about me, I can’t lure them away just by fighting

Chapter 249: Chapter 249: If they don’t care about me, I can’t lure them away just by fighting

Swanly stopped.

A ripple.

Then another.

Three Hollowmaws emerged from beneath the submerged stones.

Their armored backs were almost invisible under the dark water.

The first lunged.

Swanly jumped backward.

Its mouth snapped shut around empty water.

She fired.

The arrow struck its armored head.

Ricocheted.

The creature charged again.

Swanly spun against the tunnel wall.

Her feet slipped.

She nearly fell.

One claw hooked the side of her calf.

Pain flashed.

"FUCK!"

She fired three arrows straight down.

Two struck the creature’s open mouth.

The third punched through the softer joint beneath its skull.

It convulsed.

Black fluid spread through the water.

+12 POINTS.

The other two immediately turned toward the blood.

Swanly watched.

Her own.

The creature’s.

They did not seem to care which.

They were scavengers.

Blood meant food.

Movement meant prey.

She smiled slowly.

"Oh, you’re greedy."

YES.

"Like somebody I know."

UNNECESSARY COMMENT.

Swanly drew a knife across her already damaged sleeve, soaking the cloth in Hollowmaw blood.

She threw it toward the far wall.

Splash!

Both creatures spun.

Rushed the sound.

Swanly jumped onto the raised stone ledge.

Draw.

Release.

Two arrows.

Two open mouths.

Two corpses.

+24 POINTS.

Swanly looked at her balance.

"I’m getting rich."

YOU ARE RECOVERING LOSSES.

"LET ME ENJOY SOMETHING!"

The System’s wings fluttered irritably.

Swanly ran deeper.

The tunnel narrowed.

The walls began changing.

Old black stone gave way to something pale and ribbed.

Not quite bone.

Not quite root.

She touched one section.

Warm.

Her ears flattened.

"System?"

ANCIENT BIOLOGICAL SUPPORT STRUCTURE.

"Living?"

A pause.

PARTIALLY.

Swanly pulled her hand away.

"Absolutely hate that."

The ground pulsed.

THOOM.

She stumbled.

Every root around her shivered.

Far ahead, dozens of Hollowmaws stopped moving.

Their heads turned in the same direction.

Deeper.

Toward the Heart.

Swanly’s stomach sank.

"They heard it."

YES.

The creatures started running.

Not toward Swanly.

Past her.

She suddenly understood something worse.

"They’re not even trying to eat me anymore."

THE HEART SIGNAL IS OVERRIDING THEIR NORMAL FEEDING BEHAVIOR.

Swanly’s eyes widened.

"If they don’t care about me, I can’t lure them away just by fighting."

CORRECT.

"Then what are we supposed to..."

The System opened the underground map.

Twenty-three moving signals ahead.

More behind.

All converging toward the same feeding junction.

Swanly swore.

Then sprinted.

Her tail flew behind her.

She jumped over a collapsed beam.

Duck.

Slide.

A Hollowmaw rushed across the wall ahead.

Swanly fired without stopping.

Arrow through its open mouth.

Dead.

Another passed above.

She leapt against the opposite wall, twisted in midair and fired two arrows upward.

Both struck the underside.

It dropped behind her.

+24 POINTS.

A third came directly toward her.

She jumped.

One foot landed briefly on its armored back.

She pushed off and backflipped over its snapping mouth, her tail flicking to keep her from striking the low ceiling.

She landed badly.

Pain flashed through her ankle.

But she stayed upright.

The Hollowmaw spun.

Swanly had already drawn.

Three arrows punched into the soft tissue beneath its neck.

It collapsed.

She barely slowed.

TIME REMAINING: 21 MINUTES, 09 SECONDS.

Swanly ran harder.

Aboveground, her family was still alive.

The System showed her the small life-sign indicators linked to her emergency family scan.

Five cubs.

Two mates.

All active.

For now.

Kael’s signal remained near the collapsed section.

Soren’s enormous body still supported the ruined foundation.

Swanly swallowed.

"Hold on."

She did not know whether she was talking to herself or them.

"Just hold on."

A Hollowmaw landed directly in front of her.

She jumped back.

Another dropped behind her.

Then three more crawled down the walls.

Surrounded.

Swanly slowly exhaled.

"Okay."

She summoned a pistol into her left hand.

The familiar weight made her expression change.

Modern steel.

Old world.

She had used this kind of weapon when living humans were worse than the infected.

The magazine was not unlimited.

The System bow was.

Bullets cost points to replace or had to come from her remaining supplies.

But there were moments when a firearm was simply faster.

Five Hollowmaws.

Narrow passage.

Not enough room for her bow at full draw.

Swanly raised the pistol.

The first creature lunged.

BANG!

The bullet struck inside its open mouth.

Its head snapped backward.

BANG!

Another.

A third creature charged low.

Swanly jumped aside.

It clipped her boot.

She slammed into stone.

Fired again.

BANG!

The shot cracked against armor.

The creature kept coming.

"Come on!"

She shoved the pistol beneath its open jaw.

BANG!

Black fluid exploded across her hand.

Dead.

+12 POINTS.

Something struck her from behind.

Swanly fell.

A hooked claw tore across her thigh.

She screamed.

The pistol skidded into the water.

"FUCK!"

The Hollowmaw lowered its head.

Swanly drove a boot into its mouth.

Teeth scraped the sole.

Her boot began tearing.

The creature pushed.

She bent her leg.

Waited until its mouth opened wider.

A short blade appeared in her hand.

She stabbed upward.

The Hollowmaw convulsed.

But another was already crawling over it.

Swanly rolled.

The second snapped its jaws around the dead creature’s leg.

Crunch.

Swanly froze.

It was eating its own kind.

Of course it was.

She jumped backward and summoned her bow.

Three arrows appeared.

The creature lifted its head.

Release.

One arrow smashed into the mouth.

Another entered the softer neck.

The third drove deeper through the first wound.

The Hollowmaw fell.

Swanly scrambled upright.

Her breath shook.

TIME REMAINING: 17 MINUTES, 32 SECONDS.

She looked at the System.

"How many?"

SEVENTEEN CONFIRMED ELIMINATIONS SINCE DESCENT.

Swanly wiped blood from her chin.

"Feels like a hundred."

THERE ARE MORE THAN A HUNDRED IN THE NETWORK.

She stared.

The fairy looked back.

Swanly slowly closed her eyes.

"I hate this place."

She retrieved her pistol from the water.

The weapon’s action had jammed with grit.

She cleared it while backing away from the bodies, then checked the remaining rounds.

Five.

"Lovely."

She stored it.

The bow returned.

She kept moving.

The passage eventually widened into an enormous underground chamber.

Swanly stopped dead.

"Oh."

The ceiling disappeared into darkness.

Ancient pillars rose from a black lake.

Thick pale roots crossed overhead.

Some were as wide as tree trunks.

Others pulsed faintly beneath translucent skin.

And far across the chamber, a massive tunnel led downward.

Toward the Heart.

Hollowmaws poured across the walls.

Dozens.

Their hooked limbs scraped stone in a continuous rattling sound.

Swanly’s fox ears flattened painfully.

The noise was everywhere.

The System illuminated the nearest pillar.

ORIGINAL FEEDING JUNCTION LOCATED.

A small circular hollow sat inside the pillar.

Just large enough for the Root-Seal device.

Swanly stared.

"So I put it there?"

YES.

"And then?"

ACTIVATION WILL HARDEN THE CONNECTING ROOT-SHAFT AND SEAL THE PASSAGE.

"Then let’s do it!"

NOT YET.

Swanly froze.

"What?"

The System highlighted the Hollowmaws.

THIRTY-NINE ORGANISMS ARE ALREADY INSIDE THE MAIN FEEDING SECTION. SEALING NOW WOULD TRAP THEM ON THE HEART’S SIDE.

Swanly felt cold all over.

She looked toward the lower tunnel.

Thirty-nine.

Already past the junction.

Already heading for the Heart.

Her hands trembled.

"So even if I close it..."

THEY WILL CONTINUE TO THE HEART.

"Then what the fuck am I supposed to do?!"

The System opened another map.

A side chamber appeared to Swanly’s left.

Enormous.

An old basalt hollow separated from the living root network by thick natural stone.

POSSIBLE CONTAINMENT ZONE.