I Stopped Simping and the Heroines Lost Their Minds

The cracks spread through the stone floor beneath Felix and Chloe with a sharp, violent hiss.

"Left! Move left!" Arthur shouted, tracking the fracturing rock.

Felix didn’t hesitate or look down to verify the threat. He grabbed Chloe with one arm, hauled her out of the collapse zone, and threw his entire weight behind his shield. The floor where they had just been standing caved in completely, and a smaller burrower burst upward through the jagged opening.

Felix caught its first frantic strike on his shield, his boots sliding backward against the stone.

Across the chamber, Leon stepped directly into the path of the main crystal burrower. He drew its attention away from the partially blocked exit, forcing the massive creature to turn toward the open floor. Alicia moved seamlessly beside him, darting in to attack the burrower’s segmented legs whenever Leon forced it to shift its weight.

Emily saw Felix struggling and started to sprint directly across the center of the chamber to help him.

"Emily, the wall!" Arthur ordered, pointing rapidly to the perimeter. "It’ll catch you from the side!"

Emily saw the massive main burrower thrashing near her path. She adjusted instantly, abandoning the straight line and hugging the outer wall to circle the hazard.

Near the broken floor, the smaller burrower lunged at Felix again.

Its body was roughly the size of a large hunting dog, covered in uneven, jagged crystal across its head and back, with short, powerful limbs built for tearing through solid rock. Felix couldn’t safely drop his guard to kill it while keeping Chloe protected behind him, so he absorbed the impact, angled his shield, and cleanly redirected the creature’s charge.

The burrower slammed headfirst into an abandoned, rusted ore cart. The collision overturned the heavy iron cart, briefly pinning the creature beneath one of the massive wheels.

Emily reached them just as Felix pulled his shield clear. She didn’t hesitate. She stepped over the cart and drove her fist into the exposed section behind the creature’s head. The blow crushed it against the overturned wheel.

A heavy scraping sound echoed from the hole in the floor. A second small burrower began climbing up the crumbled stone.

"The fighting is kicking up too much dust!" Chloe warned, her voice muffled behind her cloth mask.

She didn’t stay hidden and wait for rescue. She grabbed the satchels containing the recovered records, the foreman’s ledger, and the sealed samples, dragging them safely behind a thick stone loading wall. Once the evidence was secured, she returned behind Felix’s shield.

The second burrower cleared the hole and turned toward the movement behind the loading wall.

Felix stepped into its path, catching its snapping jaws on the face of his shield. The creature thrashed, trying to slip around his guard, but Chloe stepped up and drove the heavy iron base of her medical staff hard against its flank. The simple force strike pinned the creature long enough for Felix to pivot, driving the burrower hard against the stone wall.

The impact rolled the creature upward, leaving its softer underside exposed. Emily drove one final punch into the exposed underside, crushing the creature against the wall.

In the center of the chamber, the main burrower was tearing the floor apart.

It was massively armored, its front and upper body covered in overlapping, thick crystal plates. Its rear joints had slightly thinner protection, requiring flexibility for its segmented legs to move.

Arthur drew Whisperwind and fired one standard arrow directly into the creature’s broad shoulder.

The impact cracked the outer surface of the crystal, but the arrow failed to penetrate the thick plate.

Emily saw the fractured armor from across the room. She wound up her right arm, preparing to cross the chamber and shatter the weakened plate.

"Wait!" Arthur shouted.

Emily stopped. Arthur pointed sharply upward. The cracked plate was positioned directly beneath one of the chamber’s heavily damaged support columns. A full-strength, concussive punch to that exact spot would bring the ruined ceiling crashing down on all of them.

"Hit it lower!" Arthur ordered.

Leon kept the creature focused on him. The burrower repeatedly slammed its heavy, crystal-plated head and front limbs into the ground, sending loose shards of stone rocketing across the chamber. Leon couldn’t hold it in one place through strength alone; he had to keep moving, parrying glancing blows and forcing the beast to pivot.

As the creature spun to track Leon, Arthur noticed something. Every sharp, sudden turn caused the overlapping plates near its hindquarters to shift, briefly exposing a narrow, vulnerable seam behind its left rear joint.

"Alicia! Left rear joint!" Arthur called out.

Arthur raised Whisperwind and released a Mirage Shot toward the opposite wall.

The false arrow struck against the burrower’s other flank. The creature whipped around toward the impact, exposing its rear joint to Alicia.

The sudden turn exposed the rear joint perfectly. Alicia surged forward, driving her blade precisely into the narrow gap between the two crystal plates. She didn’t try to sever the massive leg; she simply twisted her blade, prying the seam open far enough to expose the softer, unprotected tissue beneath the armor.

Leon attacked the front, striking its face to force the creature to keep turning, preventing it from curling backward to crush Alicia.

Emily sprinted in and struck the damaged joint.

The outer crystal plate split with a deafening crack.

Crystal fragments sprayed across Alicia’s side. She flinched and raised one arm, but the burrower’s rear leg lashed toward her before she could check whether anything had pierced her coat.

Before she could strike it a second time, the creature shrieked and lashed its rear leg backward, forcing Emily and Alicia to dive apart to avoid being crushed.

The opening was there, but it was still incredibly narrow, and the shifting plates clamped shut over the exposed tissue every time the creature planted its leg on the stone.

Arthur needed a better angle. He began moving rapidly toward a broken, elevated loading platform near the far wall to gain a clearer line of sight on the joint.

He didn’t hear the scratching until he was already on the wood.

A third smaller burrower had been climbing the stone supports directly beneath the platform. It burst through the rotten floorboards, its jaws clamping violently onto the heavy canvas sleeve of Arthur’s jacket near his left elbow.

The creature jerked its head, dragging Arthur hard toward the broken edge of the platform.

Instead of fighting a losing tug-of-war while holding his bow, Arthur let Whisperwind hang from its shoulder strap. His right hand went to his hip, drawing his field dagger. He drove the blade into the creature’s jaw joint.

The sudden pain made the burrower loosen its grip.

Arthur didn’t stay close to finish the creature. He twisted through the loosened hold, ripped his sleeve free, and threw himself backward before the burrower could catch him again.

The creature lunged at him again, jaws snapping empty air.

Arthur triggered Shadow Step. He dissolved into smoke, reappearing instantly in the deep shadow cast behind the main, towering burrower.

He solidified in a low crouch, his right hand snapping Whisperwind off his shoulder in a fluid redraw. The bracer stopped his wrist from folding during the abrupt redraw. His shoulder still began to rise, and Arthur forced it down before settling the shot.

From directly behind the main burrower, Arthur finally had a clear, unobstructed view of the seam Alicia had opened.

"The seam!" Arthur shouted over the noise.

Alicia darted in, striking the exact same joint again, her blade sliding perfectly into the groove and widening the split.

Emily waited for the exact fraction of a second when the creature planted its massive leg on the stone. She stepped inside its reach and drove a brutal punch into the damaged crystal plate.

The armor shattered completely, exposing a wide patch of vulnerable tissue.

Arthur released his draw.

The arrow drove deep into the exposed seam.

The burrower shrieked and tried to turn toward Arthur, but Leon charged from the front and drove his shoulder and blade against its head. The creature stumbled backward, placing its full weight on the injured leg.

The damaged joint folded.

Alicia cut through the exposed tissue while Emily struck the shattered plate one final time. The leg gave way, and the massive creature crashed onto its side.

Leon stepped over the thrashing limbs and drove his blade cleanly through the exposed, unarmored underside of its neck, pinning it to the stone. The creature shuddered once and went still.

Across the chamber, the smaller burrower recoiled when the main creature collapsed. It scrambled away from Arthur and tried to disappear into the hole beneath the platform.

Arthur drew a second arrow and shot it cleanly before it could disappear into the stone.

"Get out!" Arthur yelled, looking up.

The chamber was still coming apart. The broken wall continued dropping heavy stones, and the structural cracks in the floor were rapidly spreading toward the loading wall.

Chloe checked everyone as they fell back toward the exit. She caught Alicia’s arm before they reached the blocked passage.

A jagged crystal shard was lodged in the outside of her upper arm.

"Behind Felix," Chloe ordered.

Felix raised his shield beneath one of the intact supports while Chloe pulled Alicia into the temporary cover.

"I can keep moving with it," Alicia said, glancing at the falling dust.

"And I’m not healing over foreign material."

Chloe pulled the shard free, flushed the cut, and closed the torn flesh with healing magic. The entire treatment took only seconds.

She pushed Alicia toward the exit. "Now move."

Arthur checked the partially blocked retreat passage. The ceiling was groaning, but the path was still usable if they cleared the rubble. Leon and Emily shoved the largest stone blocks aside, opening a narrow gap.

Felix hoisted the heavy record case containing the ledger and freight permits. Chloe secured the satchel holding the sealed creature and dust samples.

Arthur kept his eyes locked on the cracked ceiling, guiding the team carefully along the left side of the passage where the wooden supports remained intact. They navigated the debris quickly, the sounds of the collapsing lower chamber echoing loudly behind them.

They reached the surface yard and kept walking until they were safely away from the quarry entrances.

Only after Chloe gave the all-clear did everyone pull down their cloth masks, breathing in the cool surface air.

Emily dropped heavily onto a smooth stone block and looked back at the dark, silent quarry.

"The guild contract specifically used the phrase ’limited field survey,’" Emily complained, wiping sweat from her forehead. "I don’t remember it mentioning a nest."

Felix adjusted his glasses. He carefully checked the leather record case, ensuring the latches were still secure and the documents were safe, before finally looking down to check his own torn sleeve.

Leon noticed the priority. "Felix, did you really just confirm that the paperwork survived before confirming that you survived?"

Felix looked up, entirely serious. "My survival is already visually apparent, Leon. The structural integrity of five-year-old parchment is much more delicate."

Arthur lowered his bow, looking back toward the ruined entrance. Leon stepped up beside him.

"Your route calls kept us from being trapped when the floor collapsed," Leon acknowledged quietly.

Arthur looked at the frontline commander. "And you kept the main creature away from Chloe and the evidence."

As Chloe finished checking the closed skin on Alicia’s arm, a familiar, clear chime sounded in Arthur’s vision.

Before he could open his interface, a second chime echoed from Emily’s direction.

Then Felix’s.

Then Chloe’s, Leon’s, and Alicia’s.

Six separate interfaces chimed across the ruined surface yard. Arthur opened his status window.

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