I never really cared for reconnaissance, that's usually Dad's whole schtick. It took a good twenty minutes or so to climb up to this rock face, and the caverns on the way weren't particularly bustling with any sort of activity, but it looks like my two day trek was worth it. I take a seat on the edge of the cliff, and took out the mono-scope my old man gave me to begin surveying the mound about half a mile away. As usual, he called it. This spot is perfect.

I can see lots of activity from here. From far away it looks like any other base in the Atmosian mountain chain, but through the scope I can see some figures moving in and out of alcoves near the base at an almost algorithmic pace. The moment one maneuvered out of site, another one would come into view. I draw a glyph of my own for amplification, and weave a sign for heat into the design. My view becomes more focused on the moving figures, and thanks to the glyph I added, I can see their heat signatures through the scope. That's where things started to get interesting, once I did that the workers I was spying on got much harder to see.

"Hm, freaky..."

I rip the two pronged pendant off of my necklace and add some magis to it. My bident takes form and twirl it as I hop off of the edge of the rock face. I feel a slight ringing in my ear as I fall. Once I reach a decent speed I stop spinning the bident and thrust it straight forward, "Eis!" The moisture in the air takes shape around me and hardens like a malleable bridge at my feet. I stick the landing and begin skating down the slope of ice mid-conjuration. Once I'm at a decent cruising angle, I make a coaster-sized window of frost and see my father's face waiting within the reflection. From the looks of his backdrop, I'd say he's in his study back home. His hair looks like my sisters if she had brushed it using baloons. On top of looking completely dishelved, I swear the bags under his dull green eyes could carry groceries. All the stuff happening with my sister in Arcton must be really getting to him.

"What's goin' on Dad?" I managed to keep the smirk from forming, already knowing what this conversation is going to be about.

"Son, what part of 'reconnaissance' did you not fully comprehend? I picked out the perfect vantage point for you to survey the area and keep tabs on their activities. We're supposed to work together and formulate a plan of attack like we discussed!"

"Sue me for taking a little initiative with the process." I retort as I make the ice slope descend for a landing not too far from the mountain base. "You said it yourself before you sent me out, whatever preemptive measure we can take for Alina, we're taking them. The more time I waste documenting what's going on in this place, the less time I have to muck up whatever else the enemy is cooking up. I also don't understand why we don't just grab her back from Arcton." I finish sliding and take cover behind a nearby boulder, glancing at my mini ice window to see if my father actually had an explanation for me this time. I see him avoiding eye-contact and scoff at myself for even trying to get a straight answer from him.

"Good talk, Dad. Get some sleep"

"Grey, we-"

I mist the the window, effectively ending our discussion.

I turn my attention to the activities I observed through my scope earlier, the figures that continue to hustle in and out of the chambers of the mountain hadn't slowed down a bit. From what I can see they're stacking spears into carts. So they're getting ready for a fight obviously. I try to move closer to get a closer look at the workers, the way that their bodies don't give off any heat has my head spinning. I gotta know what's up with that. I sneak closer and closer, and as I home in on the site, I realize these weirdos are so hyper-focused on their task that they don't seem that they could even be bothered enough to notice me.

That just makes this easier. I take the butt end of my bident and stake it in the ground, focusing on the wheels of one of the carts racked with spears. I channel magis into the earth beneath the cart and conjure enough ice to create a slick slope just underneath the cart and in its surrounding area, and ease up on the incline as soon as I notice movement. The cart begins to roll its way downhill after another spear is added to it. It takes a few moments for them to register whats going on, but the chain of workers realize that their cache is rolling away and begin to give chase to it.

Interesting as it is, these reactions are bothering me. It's not like just one of them is realizing that something's amiss and then trying to fix it. Like thirty of these guys come rushing after the cart all in the same instant that one had turned around and saw the discrepancy. Theres a chance that they are extremely highly trained as a unit, but the way that the entire flick of them flipped their switch like that simultaneously makes me think otherwise. I mull over the possibility of that being a big issue once I get inside, and decide to take my chances anyway.

I make a break for the entryway now that I've kited everyone away and geta couple hundred feet inside before I hear some noise and decide to slow down and peek from around the corner towards the source. The source of the noise was some more workershuddled around a mass of adamantine. They look completely locked while they chip away at rocks and grind them against the adamantine to forge more crude weapons. They're busy enough that I can finally get a decent look at them. I've never seen people like this before, they've got this crazy tight fitting iridescent armor from head to toe. I haven't noticed any sort of communication between them either, no words, no gestures. As menial as the tasks I've witnessed have been, these guys all move with absolute certainty of what they have to do next and how it fits with the actions of the next person.

I let out a sigh when I realize that my old man might have been right about keeping my distance. I figured that once I managed to infiltrate this place, I could do some sneaking around, grab some intel, maybe mess some stuff up and take my leave. But I'm getting a bad vibe from this crowd, and what's more, I can't listen to anything unless someone actually speaks! I'm starting to think I should cut my losses before I get caught up in this heap, and just report back to my father, but I hear the grinding stop. I look around, one of the armored laborers was staring my way. So much for slipping away unnoticed.

He's on the small side, and they don't speak, maybe I can take care of this quick and keep it moving. They draw a short weapon that looks something like a stone cleaver and start lumbering after me with a clumsy stride, swinging their weapon wildly. I side-step a wide swing and crack him over the head with the shaft of my bident. They slump over and twitch on the floor.

I think about how I definitely went overkill on my aggressor. That lasts only for a second because what I thought was a cheap, gaudy helmet, didn't just buckle under the weight of my strike, but it cracked like an organic shell. My eyes widen as I see the layer directly beneath the shell is surging with gooey fluids and the body beneath begins to flail about. I kneel down and inspect the armor, unbelievable. "You gotta be kidding me... fuckin' bugmen?!" I exclaim under my breath.

I do what I can to keep my cool with the revelation, it kind of explains the behavior if they all work with a singular directive. That means there's a queen or something right? I never liked bugs as a kid so I'm not too well versed in how they work. My skin goes cold as I come to think, of the way they have been operating up until this point. I take off my earrings and clench them in my fist as I funnel magis into them. Just like I thought, more of these monstrosities were coming in droves from the entrance I came from. They knew the moment I took one of them out.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Hive mind, huh?"

I thrust the forked end of my bident into the ground, and two corresponding spikes of ice jet forth from the earth in front of the group. A couple of them get reamed and others fumble to get around them. I opt for a second cast, with a more deliberate framework and conjure several spikes from wall to wall up to about twenty feet ahead of me. Walling the path off with a grid of ice. That should hold while I bust my way out of here.

I watch as the drones start trying to smash their way through the bars. They're not too effective, but I give them ten minutes at most. I toss my charged accessories in front of me, and hope for the best that I'll have some better options soon. The twin L-shaped piercings dance around each other until I shout the command word, "Dowse!". On command, the earrings point in several directions along the ground, before beginning to twirl around one another after forming a V-shape and disappearing into the earth ahead of me. Time to find an exit.

As I dash through the trying to make sense of where I'm going without giving away my position again, I run what I just witnessed through my head. If one I take one of these things out, then the rest are alerted. Obvious as that is there's no way of telling to what degree that information is shared. Best case they know someone's missing, worst case they have shared sense that relay my position. That could get me trapped like a rat quicker than I realize. I dispatched one fairly quickly, but for all I know it was a phone, and the degree of motor control they have could vary from bug-man to bug-man. There's way too many variable to consider in terms of what they're capable of, and what's more, it looks like they've been crafting these crude weapons for a while here. The most likely conclusion? Invasion force? Invasion force! Sheesh... That's not issue though, just gotta find the leader and put em' down. Hope for a domino effect.

Great assessment and plans Grey! Break!

With a hazy sense of direction I continue to move throughout the mound. From what I can tell I've been moving upward, and the faint feedback I'm getting from my diviner charms tells me that I'm getting pretty far away from them. They shouldn't have to burrow that deep in this region. That's the whole reason Dad was comfortable sending me out here alone. I reach a stretch of a hall that is more open than what I've encountered so far. There's no slope, and the floor's surface is practically paved it's so smooth. I stop running, for the first time in a couple of days I can feel a hint of magis in the area that isn't my own. Also, up until this point of the burrow there has been some elementary level rune work that kept the place lit well enough, but now that I've arrived a this tier there's none. The path ahead of me has gone completely dark.

I sidestep on reflexively as something chitters by my ear with alarming speed. I close my eyes and funnel a light load of magis into them like my sister taught me. I open my eyes to an imposing form waiting at the other end of the hall, the magis running through their system gives them a dull green flow through the use of my makeshift lenses. I see several ball shapes floating about it as well, probably one of the things that just whizzed by me. I crunching sound hits my ears before a monotonous an hollow voice drifts across the hallway.

"You've trespassedon the hive of Chitis Ferros Strauss. A transgression that is met with one of two fates, be it death or assimilation."

Timed with the utterance of the last word, a beefier looking drone burst from the wall behind me. Its right side had an extra arm that resembled the leg an insect sharpened to a point that made it closer to a lance. Honestly kind of cool if it wasn't so disgusting. I take a second to process the situation and take in a deep breath. The air here is a little damp and smells moldy, but outside of the odor these conditions are perfect. With the flick of a my left wrist I conjure a new staff, identical in design to my bident, and plant it into the ground. The moisture on the walls in the air of the cove begin to crystalize as I pump about a third of my magis reserves into a delayed cast from the copy staff. I then raise my bident over my head and assume a lunging stance.

"My name's Grey Ferreri, an magian hunter, and you're my first big fish."

I focus magis in my feet right as the delayed cast pops off. A wall of ice raises behind me, ensuring that the lancer won'tget in my way. At that moment I thrust my bident forward, sending an array of frost bolt s towards Strauss. They freeze over the bug-like projectiles, clearing the path for me to smash straight through! I speed forward conjuring an ice pilar at my feet to give one last burst of speed before I collide with my target.

"It's been fun!" I gloat as the prongs of by bident make a direct hit with his fat neck. I thought about how cool it was going to feel to break it to the old man that I had already taken out a Strauss along with their whole bug army. That was all cut short when I realized that both prongs of the bident were flying in different directions in front of me, snapped from the head of my staff. That was probably the most force I could deliver in a single physical attack, the weight of the fact that it didn't even scratch this guys shell was compounded by the haymaker I received that sent me crashing into the floor behind where he stood.

"Guhah!"

I gasped for breath as I scrambled for distance into the dark.I could feel it, the way he was looking down on me, with no sense of urgency in his pursuit. I know I got cocky, but as I wheezed to regain my composure I couldn't help but fixate on how much I hated people who act like that. Being treated like an ant by a bug-man, the irony is almost too much.

I hammer the ground with my fist after stumbling over, I think that freak cracked something.

"It is pointless to resist lowborn, answer the call to become part of something greater." He approached as I backed myself into a corner.

I conjure one last ice wall to give myself some space between me and my would-be monarch. Through a few ragged breaths I manage to get out my last taunt.

"Actually that's okay, I was hoping to end this quickly back there, but I lucked out and don't have to stall for time much longer." The diviner charms whirr asthey drill their way to the surface and back to my hand. I place themback in each ear and sigh with relief as I feel the unused magis that I had charged them with replenish my reserves, even if only a little.

"All that hitting the ground and pretending to panic helped me map out the thinnest wall out of this place. I'm done here."

He stands in silence, calmly considering the information before he replies, "A somewhat commendable endeavor. However, even if you had a the remaining strength to somehow burst through barrier of my domain. I'm certain you do not have the strength to struggle your way through my armada. Lower this wall and fall with grace and dignity."

"Yeah sure."

I stab the butt of my staff, I guess both ends are the butt now... Into the wall and begin to chant an incantation so I don't have to use as much magis. I'm gonna need everything I've got so I can't be wasteful for the sake of convenience. The sound of rushing water begins to echo throughout the caverns. Strauss turns away and then back to me, "What is the meaning of this?!"

I shoosh him, "I'm trying to focus on my cast here, I'm not trying to get stuck here with you bozos. Also in the next life, if you get another crack at the whole, bug-man king thing? Try to do it in an area with less natural springs and aquifers. I only came in here because I was curious, this was damn easy."

Strauss finally realizes he lost before he even met me, and begins to try to punch his way into my ice wall. All six of his arms batter the frost with impressive force, after fifteen seconds or so the wall begins to crack.

"They weren't kidding when they said your family is on another level when it comes to manipulation of magis. I never would've thought achieving an inhuman form like this was possible. In any case, I hope you're proud of this mound because starting now, it doubles as your tomb."

"Gjof af gyoja, maurabu af is!"

As I finalize the incantation, the water at each orifice of the mound within my range of perception is frozen off, facilitating the rapid flood of the entire structure.Strauss in a blind rage manages to puncture my ice wall with a fist and water begins to leak through as he reaches towards me desperately to drown me with him instead of floating away.

" Farewell, EIS"

I thrust into the wall and cause an ice spike to burst through the side of the mound with my remaining strength. Using what I can of the construct, assisted by the moisture in the air I forge another slope to slide down to safety. As I slide down I witness water burst from the peak of the mound like a geyser before freezing up into a sick looking spire.

I enjoy the cool feeling of the slide on my back as I imagine the screwed up face of that Strauss guy in his last moments. I can't wait to take the rest of those jerks out before they make a move on my sister, that's the reason I've trained so hard and gotten my mastery to this point. If I can't smoke at least a few of them before they converge on her then it's all for nothing.

Reaching the end of my slide and hitting the ground with about 6% of my magis left, my old man pings me right on time.

"Grey your vitals! I received a premonition. What happened?!"

I take my frost mirror and angle it so that Dad can see my smug face as I give him a thumbs up along with the blown out portions of the mound that have ice protruding.

"Mission accomplished Dad, if you look closely in there you can actually peep a few bug-cicles."