Two enormous, winged insects, both level five, lifted into the air with an angry whine of flapping wings. Smaller bugs, like sparks of light, swirled around them in blue orbits.

The bugs themselves had four wings—two in the front and two more at the back. It gave them the appearance of mating dragonflies, but with far too many legs.

"Ew, they're flying centipedes," Nia said, and raised her blowgun to her lips. The weapon was a strange little device, like a dozen straws taped in a bundle with a tiny crank on the side. One longer tube extended from the middle and, apparently, out the back, because she had no trouble blowing into it.

*Thwap thwap thwap thwap.*

A stream of darts tore through the cloud of insects, including one of the larger creatures. Two of its wings were shredded, and it fell to the ground, only to spring up again and charge them on hundreds of tiny legs.

"Ah, that's worse, that's worse!" Nia cried.

Gambit lunged forward, swinging his razor sword at the charging monster. His blade cut deep and took almost half its hit points. The other bug circled and came swooping in. Daniel shot an arrow at it and missed. Rick had readied himself as the one still flying swooped in toward Gambit's back. He hit it with Force Wave and sent it tumbling away.

"Nia, focus the flying one!" Rick shouted. "Daniel, shoot the one on the ground!"

It was hard to say which of the monsters was a more difficult target, but Nia's Gatling blowgun would be more effective on the flier. Gambit was still slashing at the one on the ground and missing as it dodged back and forth.

The swarm of blue sparks-- their light made it impossible to tell if they were tinier versions of the same bugs-- came swirling in all around him. Rick cast Protection. The translucent bubble blasted them away. The small creatures did little to damage the shield as they bounced off, like black mosquitoes swarming the bug zapper on an Alabama porch. He wished for a moment that his shield spell did damage; burning through all those bugs at once would have been amazing.

Nia shattering first one wing and then another of the flying insect. It spiraled down and crashed into the ground. “I got it!” she hooted.

As it fell, Daniel skewered it with an arrow and dodged backward. The swarming smaller bugs accompanying it came for him. Rick was ready with a Force Wave that blasted through their cloud and sent it swirling away. Many of the sparks took damage, raining from the air as a shower of blue meteors.

The newly-downed centi-wing came scurrying back. Nia dodged behind Daniel as the centi-wing charged both of them.

Only to run straight into one of Daniel's traps.

One moment, a patch of the ground held nothing but an orange icon, and the next, short spikes cut down from spears shot up as tar splattered the ground. The centi-wing, slowed by the tar and skewered in place by the spikes, was immediately peppered with darts and arrows that pinned it to the ground then killed it.

Gambit was still struggling with his opponent. The centi-wing, though mostly out of hit points, was very fast on the ground as it skittered back and forth, dodging his razor strokes. Rick hit him with a well-timed Protect that stopped a many-limbed attack and knocked the centi-wing back again. It recovered, but seemed daze, and Gambit finally struck a glancing blow that sliced off a a couple dozen legs and slowed it. Arrows, darts, and a sword stroke finished it off. All the while, Rick topped off his team with Soothing Mist and watched for more enemies to emerge.

"Ha ha!" Gambit yelled, and Rick felt the flush of power wash over him from the battle shout.

"You should lead with the shout. It's no good after we win."

Gambit had the grace to look embarrassed. "Oh, right. Sorry."

The corpses of the centi-wings gave up several depleted levistone shards.

Daniel held one up to the light and squinted at it. It glowed a faint blue. "These might be useful. Can we get more of them?"

There were a dozen or so more debris piles scattered around the atrium at the base of the crystal, where it had crushed the deck below, as well as piled against the huge links of chain that were draped across the room.

"Heck yeah, I’m up for that,” Gambit said, and then looked to Rick, who nodded.

"Right. One pile at a time if we can. We don't want to get swarmed."

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Nia shuddered. "We're going to get swarmed either way."

"Okay, we don't want to get swarmed too badly then," Rick clarified. They moved over to the side of the gigantic crystal and chose one pile of scraps, dirt, old bits of broken furniture, and plenty of unidentifiable detritus.

It looked the same as the one they had just disturbed. Gambit obligingly shouted just as Rick poked one piece of the debris with a hesitant toe. This time, three of the centi-wings exploded upward, two like they had just fought and one that was labelled "Centi-wing Sentinel" by the system.

The sentinel was larger and had almost twice the health pool. It was also level seven. While the two normal centi-wings swooped in, the Sentinel flew slightly higher, hovering over the battlefield.

"Nia, bring down the Sentinel!" Rick called, as a casting bar appeared over the bug's head.

[Sound the Alarm.]

"Nia?!"

Daniel had already deployed another trap and was shooting at one of the normal centi-wings. Gambit rushed forward, slashing at the other. Rick was ready with a Force Wave but couldn't decide which to target. He didn't want to spoil the aim of his party members. Nia's darts went wide. She called out, "I need to reload!"

The Sound the Alarm cast bar was nearly full, so Rick unleashed his Force Wave on the Sentinel, who was moving slower than the others while it cast. The spell hit the bug and sent it tumbling through the air. It recovered a moment later, but its cast bar had vanished. Successful interrupt, Rick thought to himself, grinning. He still had the raid caller skills. Interrupting casts on demand was a critical skill for a professional raider.

Gambit cried in triumph as he chopped down into his opponent. His cut sliced it in half; the two ends continued flapping their wings and spun around to attack him.

"No fair, no fair!" Gambit called as he backed up quickly, waving his sword to fend them off.

Rick knocked one of them away with a Force Wave and then threw Protection on Gambit as the blue sparks swarmed him.

Daniel had gotten an arrow into the other normal centi-wing, but it continued swooping through the air with the arrow dangling from its abdomen—thorax—whatever.

"The big one’s too high!" Nia called. “I can’t hit it!”

Sure enough, the Sentinel had lifted up even higher and once again started its cast of [Sound the Alarm.]

"Daniel, switch targets with Nia!" Rick called.

Daniel was slow to switch, and Rick shouted, "The high one! The Sentinel! Daniel, shoot the Sentinel!"

Its cast bar was half done. It was in range of his Force Wave, but only barely, so he wasn't sure if he would hit. Nia's stream of darts brought down the other almost immediately, and Gambit's triumphant cry signaled he had defeated one of the two halves that were attacking him.

The Sentinel's cast was almost complete. Rick was just about to try his Force Wave when Daniel hit it with an arrow. The Sentinel staggered in the air, and the soldier followed up his first shot with two more.

Now the Sentinel was starting to drop. Rick let go with a Force Wave that knocked the wounded bug from the sky. It fell end over end and slammed into the ground, immediately struggling to get up. It was wounded and slow. Two more of Daniel's arrows finished it off. Gambit was still fighting the final half of a bug, and Nia had kited the other normal centi-wing through Daniel's trap. That centi-wing now lay dead, covered in tar, pierced with blowgun darts, and stuck through with spikes. Both Nia and Gambit were getting swarmed by blue sparks. Nia had less health, so Rick hit her with Protection and threw a Soothing Mist on Gambit.

The Mongolian fighter was having some success swatting the bugs out of the air with the flat of his wide square razor sword, swinging it wildly about like a drunken cricketer. The blue sparks of tiny bugs bounced off of Nia's shell and fell, dying. The Sentinel had no accompanying cloud of blue sparks; a few moments later, the battle was won.

Gambit stood panting. "That one that split in half wasn't fair! I almost had the hang of them!"

"Maybe you should just aim for one end or the other," Daniel commented.

Gambit threw him a glare. "It's hard enough hitting them at all," he grumbled.

"Are we ready for more?" Rick said after Daniel looted the corpses and debris pile, grinning and muttering to himself excitedly.

"Okay," Nia replied and the others chimed in agreement.

There weren’t any other small piles nearby. The closest one was much larger.

"Do we risk that one, or should we keep looking?" Gambit asked.

Rick eyed the pile and the area around it. There weren’t any others in the atrium exit area.

"I think we should risk it. We would have to pass it to get to any more piles, and we might trigger it anyway and have insects behind us."

"They’re not really insects. They have far too many—" Nia started. The rest of them stared at her. She stopped. “Oh, sorry. I’m an invertebrate zoologist. Never mind. They’re evil alien bugs, we can agree on that."

They moved toward the large pile. Rick motioned for everyone to stop before they got close.

"If it’s like the others, I expect it will spawn several targets. So we need to have a plan.” He turned and considered his team. “Daniel, you’re to take out any sentinels if you can. If there’s more than one, alternate between them and keep the casts interrupted. We don’t know what Sound the Alarm does, but it can’t be good for us."

Daniel nodded. "I’ll try."

"Gambit, I want you to lead off with your shout to give us all that buff," Rick continued. "Nia, go for the regular ones, but only bring down one at a time. Gambit, when Nia brings one down, you’re to focus on that one hard and fast and get it dead. Then she’ll bring down another. Nia, try not to bring down two or more at a time. I think they’ll be worse on the ground if we can’t get rid of them quickly."

Rick looked around, and everyone was nodding. They understood their roles. "And above all," he said, "don’t get distracted—not by ones attacking you or by the little guys. I’ll keep you healed up and use my shield to get the little ones off you as quick as I can. But if you let them distract you, this will all take longer. Daniel, if you can’t hit one that’s about to complete its cast, call for help, and Nia or I will try to interrupt it. Nia, if you bring down another one while Gambit’s busy, yell it out, and we’ll see what we can do to keep it distracted until he can take it down." Rick racked his brain but couldn’t think of any more advice. "Okay, let’s get ’em."

Gambit took the lead and they moved forward. A moment later, the pile of debris disgorged a fresh centi-wing.

Only this one was huge.