The Overgrim Slash arrived too quickly, and it was unstoppable.

The barrier that sprang up around the enemy Mothership meant nothing, because it wasn’t a living thing at all.

Overgrim Slash ignored the first non-living obstacle in its path, passing through without losing any power.

’What?!’ Tur’Ni Sian’s whole body went rigid with shock. He’d seen this slash before, more than once. But never once had he seen it clash against something non-living. Only against the bugs. Living things, every time. So he didn’t know it would ignore the barrier.

In the last possible moment, he threw up a barrier of his own, and his Mythic units barely got their arms up in time to defend.

But this was a Level 10 Overgrim Slash now. Its damage had climbed from 500% all the way to 1000%!

’Devour!’ Tur’Ni Sian ground his teeth, forcing his own barrier to keep pace with it.

His two Mythic units weren’t nearly so lucky. Their defensive skills came up too late, and whatever quick guard they’d managed lasted less than a full second.

The slash passed straight through them, breaking apart into three separate pieces as it went, one absorbed and devoured by Tur’Ni Sian’s own barrier, the other two tearing clean through everything standing in their way.

Right then, his whole field of vision toward Logan’s ship filled with a wall of incoming fire, projectiles of every size and color screaming through space straight at him.

’What?!’

His eyes went wide with something close to horror.

Every single one of those attacks carried the same power behind them as a Mythic unit’s attack!

’How is this possible?!’

He simply hadn’t been able to see it through all the smoke and residual energy from the earlier clash and explosion. Nine more Mythic-rank Spacecraft stood in humanoid form on Logan’s own deck, weapon systems already active, and they’d all unleashed their strongest skills at once.

With nearly everything he had gone except for one useless Normal-rank spacecraft, Tur’Ni Sian watched the incoming wall of fire with nothing left but helplessness in his eyes.

His signature tactic, stealth, ambush, self-destructive explosions, the one that had won him this exact fight more times than he could count, had failed him for the first time.

’Eight Spacecraft.’ He ground the thought out even as it closed in. ’If just two more had survived intact before detonating, I would have won this.’

With unwillingness burning in his chest and a spark of something closer to a promise of revenge, he stared straight at Logan in that last moment, committing his face to memory.

’Surrender.’

```

[ Congratulations. You have defeated Player Tur’Ni Sian. +35 Tower Points. ]

```

---

"Time to use FTL Drive. Stop 500 kilometers before the hive."

"Understood." The ship answered and entered a wormhole shortly.

The Hive filled most of the sky by the time Logan arrived, five hundred kilometers still separating his own Mothership from it.

Close enough to see the thing. Far enough to still have options.

’Good spot to work from.’

He turned to the newest additions to his roster, ten Mythic-rank Spacecraft standing in a loose formation across the deck, none of them tested in anything beyond the last fight’s chaos.

"Pair up. I want eyes on the approach from every direction."

They split into fives without needing further instruction, peeling off toward the Hive in coordinated formations that already looked more disciplined than anything Tur’Ni Sian’s fleet had managed.

One of them held back as Logan wanted to use one of its talents.

```

[ Threshold Void Anchor ]

Rank: Mythic

Talent:

—> Twin Rift Passage - Can open two linked, temporary portals at chosen locations, allowing instant transit of anything, including a full Mothership, between them for a limited duration.

```

Logan grinned at the readout. "Perfect. Open one here."

A ring of dark light unfolded in the space just off his own bow, wide enough to swallow the Mothership whole.

"And the other one behind the Hive. A thousand kilometers out, on the far side."

The Anchor split itself in two without complaint, one half staying put beside Logan’s own ship, the other streaking off toward the Hive and vanishing around its curve a few minutes later. A second ring bloomed to life on the far side, linked invisibly to the first.

’Whenever I need to be on the other side of that thing instantly, I can.’ Logan filed the thought away for later. ’For now, though.’

He looked out at the empty space between his position and the Hive itself.

Every player left in this match had the exact same objective sitting in front of them, sooner or later. They’d all have to come this way eventually, whether they wanted to fight through the Hive itself or just pass close enough to scout it.

’Might as well let them come to me.’

The first three hours proved the plan out better than he’d expected.

A pair of Motherships wandered too close together an hour in, clearly hunting the same easy Tower Points he was, and his scouts flagged both before either one even noticed they’d been spotted. Neither put up much of a fight once Billy and Solveig made a visit to them.

Two separate waves of Hive Swarm broke off from the main body and drifted into his patrol range not long after, drawn by whatever the Hive used to sense a concentration of players sitting this close to it. Both waves went the same way as everything else had today. They just gave more Tower Points to Logan to increase his army.

A third player tried running the moment his Mythical spacecraft caught sight of him, and didn’t make it more than ten kilometres before Grim Lock and Reaper’s Stride closed the gap for good.

```

[ Total Tower Points earned: 12,240 ]

```

Logan looked at the number and didn’t hesitate.

’Let’s put all of it to work.’

He opened the Summoning Circle and spent every last point of it in one motion, a hundred and twenty cards rolling out across the deck in a wave that would have looked absurd to anyone who hadn’t already watched him do this a dozen times over.

```

[ 36x Normal merged into 18x Uncommon ]

[ 60x Uncommon merged into 30x Rare ]

[ 60x Rare merged into 30x Epic ]

[ 41x Epic merged into 20x Legendary, 1x Epic remaining ]

[ 21x Legendary merged into 10x Mythic, 1x Legendary remaining ]

```

Ten more Mythic-rank Spacecraft settled onto the deck, bringing the total roster to something that would have sounded impossible to him a week ago.

He didn’t get long to enjoy it.

"Master." One of his scouting pairs pinged in from the far edge of his patrol range, urgency threading through the report. "You should see this."

The feed came through a moment later, and Logan’s grin faded fast the more of it he actually watched.

Twenty separate Mothership signatures, moving in a single coordinated formation, cutting a straight line toward his own position. Each ship had over a hundred Spacecraft hovering above and below.

"Boss, they are gangsters." Billy blinked. "They came as a gang, and want to beat you."

"If they are gangsters, then we are monsters." Solveig snorted.

Word had gotten out. Somebody’s scout had caught sight of a player quietly eliminating everyone unlucky enough to wander too close to the Hive, and twenty different Motherships had apparently decided the smartest move left in this match was banding together and removing that problem directly.

Logan looked at the approaching formation, then down at his own roster, twenty Mythic-rank Spacecraft now standing ready across the deck alongside Billy and Solveig both.

A slow grin found its way back onto his face.

’Well.’ He rolled his shoulders once. ’Guess it’s my turn to be the bait that actually bites back.’

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