The Mothership slid through one of the Hive’s many outer openings, a gap wide enough to swallow three ships side by side, chitin walls closing slowly behind them like a throat finishing a swallow.

The galaxy map on Logan’s display flickered and rebuilt itself entirely.

Where it had shown open space a moment earlier, it now unfolded into something closer to a cross-section of a living body, tunnels and chambers branching in every direction at once, some paths doubling back on themselves, others dropping straight down into darkness the map didn’t even try to render properly. Deep at the center of it all, a single red dot pulsed steady and patient.

```

[ Hive Mother Filburn Queen detected. Distance: unknown. ]

```

’There it is.’ Logan’s eyes lingered on the dot a moment longer than strictly necessary. ’The whole reason any of us are even here.’

The only victory condition of this game—Eliminating the Filburn Queen.

The tunnel widened out around them a few minutes later into something that stole the breath right out of him.

It wasn’t a tunnel anymore. It was a world.

Bioluminescent fungus the size of buildings clustered along walls that stretched up out of sight, glowing in shades of blue and violet that had no business existing under a sky that wasn’t a sky at all.

Rivers of something thick and faintly glowing wound between outcroppings of pale, coral-like growth, and creatures Logan had never seen a name for grazed along the banks in herds, utterly indifferent to the Mothership drifting past overhead. Somewhere far off, something massive called out in a low, resonant tone that made the whole chamber’s air pressure shift.

An entire ecosystem, folded up inside something that was itself alive.

"Scan," Logan said, quiet, still half-caught in looking at the place.

```

[ Scan Pulse complete. ]

[ 6 players detected within range. ]

```

Two markers sat closer than the rest, clustered near a structure jutting up out of the fungal treeline that looked deliberately built rather than grown, dark stone instead of chitin.

"That one first." Logan pointed. "Looks like a proper chamber. Might be guarding something."

The structure turned out to be exactly that, a wide domed chamber sunk into the Hive’s own inner wall, and something considerably larger than anything they’d fought outside was already waiting inside it by the time they landed.

```

[ Skitterqueen Vessel ]

Level: 40 | Tier-4 | Epic

-- Stats --

HP: 90,000 / 90,000

MP: 60,000 / 60,000

Attack: 700

Speed: 1,500

Constitution: 900

Arcane: 600

```

It moved before Logan even finished reading the panel, a blur of segmented legs and chitin plates crossing the chamber floor faster than anything its size should have managed.

Brood Call!

A dozen smaller Skitterlings tore free from egg sacs lining the chamber walls, all of them converging on Logan at once while the Vessel itself circled wide, clearly content to let its own speed and numbers do the actual work.

Blade Veil Counter!

The veil caught the first wave of Skitterlings clean, and the counter’s buff carried straight into Grimlord’s Blade the instant the Vessel came back around for a real strike.

Frostfire Edge!

The cut caught it across two of its six legs, frost locking the joints solid before flame finished the job, and for the first time since the fight started, the Vessel actually slowed down.

It tried one more Brood Call anyway, panic clearly setting in.

Grim Devouring Slash!

The ethereal edge tore through the fresh wave of Skitterlings and the Vessel’s own flank in the same motion, halving whatever speed and menace it had left in a single pass.

```

[ Skitterqueen Vessel HP: 11% ]

```

Grim Harvest!

It dropped where it stood, and the chamber went quiet except for the low hiss of frost still melting off Logan’s own blade.

[ You have eliminated a level 40 Epic-rank Field Boss, Skitterqueen Vessel. +5000 Tower Points. ]

’Nice. I should start thinking about creating three masterpiece spacecraft I’ll extract after winning this.’

The dome nearby cracked open along its ceiling a moment later, sunlight that wasn’t sunlight pouring through as a hidden compartment revealed itself, packed with resources and a scattering of gear Logan didn’t recognize at a glance.

’Potions, items, and raw resources.’

But all of them were at Epic-rank and lower, serving as conversions for his Tier points if he won this game.

He’d barely started collecting the loot when the second marker on his display started moving fast, straight toward his own position.

The man who stepped into the chamber a minute later was a human. Aura sharp and icy, with frost visible curling around his fingers.

```

[ Dorian Wrathe ]

Class: Frostbound Executioner (Legendary)

Talent: Void-Kissed Frost (Legendary)

```

"Leon Flanke." He said the name flat, no theatrics to it. "I am only dual Legendary spec. But I’ve defeated people with Mythic spec before. Let’s see if I can add you to the list."

He didn’t wait for a response.

A spike of ice tore free of his outstretched hand, threaded through with sickly purple veins, faster than anything Logan had seen out of a Legendary-spec all match.

"Boss!"

"Master!"

Billy and Solveig moved at the same time, but they realised they were not fast enough.

Logan moved to clear it and realized, in the same instant, that he wasn’t going to make it in time.

The icicle punched straight through the plating of his own Mythic-rank armor like it wasn’t even there.

’Huh?!’ Logan was surprised, feeling the grasp of death around his heart.

The icicle buried itself deep into the meat of his shoulder a hair’s width from where his chest actually started.

Pain lit up white behind his eyes.

```

[ Epic-rank Relic activated. ]

[ Last Breath Catalyst: 100% Speed Bonus for 5 seconds. ]

```

The Epic-rank relic he got granted him a 100% Speed bonus for 5 seconds if he got injured. And the moment he got injured, it triggered, allowing him to escape this deathly attack.

Everything slowed down around him, the way it only ever did when his own body sped up past what his eyes were used to processing.

He swung on pure instinct, Grimlord’s Blade cutting a wide arc through empty air.

Reaper’s Stride!

The swing carried him ten meters in the same motion the blade completed, and he came out the other side of the blink standing directly behind Dorian, who hadn’t even finished registering that his own attack had connected.

The blade went into his stomach before he could turn around.

"Surrender," Logan said, quiet, right next to his ear, "or you’ll die with your insides burning and freezing at the same time."

"Pretty sick Relic you got there." Dorian smiled, blood dripping through his lips as he spoke. "We’ll have another fight later."

’Surrender.’

Logan released a breath, heart pounding.

"That was a close call, boss." Billy rolled his eyes.

"A very fast attack." Solveig narrowed his eyes. "It was dangerous."

"Yeah. That one attack had synergetic power of at least three or four skills." Logan nodded as he touched the wound.

The frost was still inside his body, slowly spreading towards his heart.

He grabbed an Epic-rank Healing Potion from the loot he just got, and chugged it.

The potion’s effect cleansed the frost effect and recovered the wound completely.

"Alright, let’s continue. We’ll head deeper and eliminate all players and bosses on the way."

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