*(mood song: "Ben E. King - Stand By Me")

The tunnel was luckily quiet as they transversed it, the majority of the elders could just crouch in the tight tunnel, except for Timberly that had to walk on her hands and knees.

The mutants at the front and the soldiers and bots at the back were the only ones able to walk freely in the small tunnel.

After thirty minutes like that, they finally could see the end, as the mutants were standing in front of what appeared to be the skeletons of two mutant octopeople, at least a head taller than the current mutants at the front.

Erik looked thoughtfully at the door past the skeletons, and then crouched beside one skeleton, seeing one of the ribs was fractured: "they appear to have been heavily injured and probably bled to death here, so... what do we do now?"

Timberly: "I'm not gonna crawl back that narrow tunnel, not a chance! whatever it is at the other side... we will just crush it!"

Erik looked at the others: "we could be in danger, should we vote?"

Rose: "I don't detect any living beings at the other side, so... don't worry too much"

Erik: "well... it doesn't need to be alive to kill, but yeah... let's just send a bot"

Everyone agreed and they retreated a bit back the tunnel, as they squeezed a bot to the front and observed as it opened the door.

Nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be happening as the bot crossed to the other side, while everyone observed its video feed.

The other side looked almost the same as the tunnel albeit almost twice as big, with a layer of mud three times thicker, and with four tunnels leading in different directions.

Amanda: "everything seems safe commander"

Erik: "Rose, which tunnel is it?"

Rose: "well, if the tunnels were straight... then the second or third tunnel, but we have no way of knowing that" and shrugged.

Erik: "well... then which is the quietest?"

Rose: "a moment..." the bot stopped for a moment and spun back and forth between the two tunnels "there's sounds coming from the second tunnel, but the third seems silent"

Erik: "good, that means the third tunnel is safe then"

Shana: "predators wait in silence... so... it could be a trap too..."

Erik: "...well, its better than nothing, at least they won't be expecting us" he patted his weapon "and these they won't expect for sure~"

And so they all carefully exited the door and followed the bot along the third tunnel. The carved stone walls around them were full of algae and filtering animals, giving a weak lighting to the tunnel as they walked and swam through it, their helmets lights reflecting in the somewhat refective steam pipes at the top.

As they had walked for half an hour a change occurred, as they started to see holes on the tunnel walls the size of basketballs.

Erik: "Rose, are they empty?"

Rose: "about that... there's good and bad news, so-"

Erik: "the good one's first please"

Rose shrugged: "the good news is that there seems to be nothing to worry for now-"

Erik: "and the bad news?"

Rose: "...yeah those holes ain't empty at all, they are full of seemingly small baby blind crab pupae..., and where there are babies... there's parents... or a queen..."

Erik: "...but crab men don't reproduce like that, right? how can this be..."

Rose: "they eat spider fish and that weird mushroom juice, so maybe they got the trait from them?, i don't know, but remember that the names are just for your convinience, but you shouldn't expect species to remain unchanged on the ARK, or to resemble species on your planet... remember that Erik, they ain't technically crabs"

Erik nodded: "...let's just cross this place quickly..." they kept advancing, and Erik's skin coldly sweated as he saw the thousands of holes "we are gonna need more soldiers if a colony like this decides to attack us..."

Rose put a hand over his shoulder: "don't worry, I have an idea for that hehehe~"

Erik raised an eyebrow: "what is it?"

Rose: "it's fine, you will see in due time"

Erik: "...okay..."

They continued walking and finally reached the end of the tunnel, a big cavern also full of holes, with also some glowing mushrooms on the walls.

Erik: "...let's go back-" before he could answer though *BANG! BANG! BANG!* the sound of muffled shots on the water came from the back as a warrior octoperson came in front of Erik.

Soldier: "Fifth Elder! crabs are ambushing our rear! they came out of the ground, and killed three old mutants and injured two scouts!"

Erik: "what is their condition?"

Soldier: "the wounds ain't deep thanks to the armor, but they will take some weeks to recover, carrying them will slow us down..."

Erik: "what about the enemy?"

Soldier: "...they came out on the thousands, but retreated back onto the ground after we started using explosive ammunition..."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Erik: "retreat back soldier! tell the rear to keep their weapons loaded and avoid swimming near the tunnel entrances"

The soldier saluted: "yes mam!" and quickly swam back.

Erik then mumbled to himself: "...they know..., somehow they know... this is gonna be annoying.."

Rose: "the crabs? aren't you giving them too much credit?"

Erik: "who's naive now Rose? I don't know how, but they knew how we had killed the first ones, we need to be more ruthless then..." Erik stood pensive for a moment "you said there were young ones on those holes right?"

Rose: "huh? yes why?..." she smiled "that might work indeed"

Erik: "Yeah, if we block the tunnel and use some of the poison we are carrying, we should be able to poison those young just enough to die slowly as they scream for help, then we just need some motion detecting triggers for some explosives... a lure and a trap, simple"

Rose: "it will cut our retreat route though"

Erik: "yeah, that's why we won't stay to see the results, just set it and let's keep going, that should keep them distracted"

Rose nodded: "alright, on it"

Twenty minutes later, the explosives had been set and the tunnel entrance blocked with a thick layer of rubble and mud.

They had left four poison launchers inside, spewing super concentrated lethal poisons, including maitotoxin, botulinum toxin, and other's extracted from the octopeople and poison snails, along with hallucination mushrooms... a double edged sword like concoction all in all, as not even the breathing masks would be able to stop it completely, even capable of incapacitating highly poisonous beings as the octopeople.

Erik: "he~ no one can win against science, science always wins~"

Rose: "Erik..."

Erik frowned: "what?"

Rose: "well, we are surrounded too, this cave seems to be an ambush..."

Erik's face smiled wickedly: "it's fine~" he turned around and yelled at a nearby octopeople hunter "bring my equipment!"

Hunter: "yes Fifth Elder!"

Rose: "oh, what is it?"

Erik: " well... it's nothing much, just a little something I made hehehe, jajajaja JUAJAJAJAJA!" laughing loudly by himself.

A soldier then came carrying a sack: "here Fifth Elder!"

Erik grabbed it with a nod as the soldier retreated back, and took twelve small spherical drones the size of football balls, and a cylinder with a strap of twenty other things.

Rose: "is that... my drones and a rocket launcher?"

Erik: "yeah, those crabs see by sound right? well the drones have speakers, I designed them to act as bait, as for the launcher... well it's nothing new, just a smaller version of a soviet VA-111 Shkval torpedo launcher, they will have nothing to do against this~"

Rose: "hoh... you did come prepared..."

Erik: "well, It's just a hobby, now wait here..."

Erik activated the drones and they floated to corners of the cavern, while he walked to the center of the cavern by himself.

Meanwhile, as if accepting the challenge, something emerged from the floor in the middle of the cave, a gigantic crabman the size of a big tank, and with a black carapace stronger than one... stood there... looking at Erik eerily with an eyeless face, as thousands of other crabs emerged from the holes in the cavern walls.

Erik: "bring it on!"

---

Meanwhile, in the shadow claw tribe, a competition was happening, the queen had called for the best soldier's among the crabmen.

In the shadow claw tribe's plaza now stood thousands of crabmen of all shapes and sizes, waiting expectantly as their queen walked to a podium installed in front of the palace, observing them from above.

Queen Erika(Rose): "Welcome my people! today we will have a competition!... the twelve strongest warriors of you all will have the honor of..." *clack! clack!* she clacked her chainsaw pincers "to get upgrades like these!"

The crowd murmured in awe for a moment, and then a great ovation started *ERIKA! ERIKA! ERIKA! WE SALUTE THE QUEEN!*.

Queen Erika(Rose): "I'm glad you are all excited about it..., THERE WILL BE FOUR TRIALS!, with three winners in each, the first test shall be tracking down a beast we will release in the tunnels!, the second test will be a race, the third will be a shooting contest, and finally a brawl tournament" she pointed to the right, and Khroom's sister appeared, now with chainsaw pincers and wearing a suit of power armor and a rifle "and to judge the winner... we have Khrana, Khrom's sister and the new leader of the royal guards!"

Khrana saluted with her pincers: "we stand here today with only one purpose, to become stronger..., to ascend to a better place! in my case..." she looked at Khroom's statue with his tower shield in the middle of the plaza, a stoic expression on his face "in my case... I will honor my brother's sacrifice and follow his steps as the queen's pincer and shield!, but you all have yet to earn that privilege! today we are here to judge those worth it! prove your selves and obtain glory and power!"

*FOR GLORY! FOR POWER! FOR THE QUEEEEN!!!* The crowd cheered as the queen stepped forward once again.

Queen Erika(Rose): "Now we shall start the first test, you need to find three royal tunnelers released back into the tunnels, although if you manage to bring back a wild one that's fine too, they will become new additions to the royal stables, so you will be rewarded nonetheless even if the three winners have already been decided... now, with the rules already explained, the hunt starts in 3... 2... 1... GO!!!"

The crowd quickly exited the tribe, as they prepared for the hunt. The merchants were prepared too as they sold hunting equipment to those unprepared at the tribe's exits.

Khrana came close to the queen and asked: "my queen... do you think I could go to the upper city after this? I would like to see how Maktar and his family are doing"

Queen Erika(Rose): "of course, you will accompany the winners there and make sure they don't cause any trouble to our tribe understood?"

Khrana saluted: "yes my queen!" and proceeded to follow the crowd to make sure they didn't cheat.

Rose then noticed from the crowd Trebetuk, the previously rebel leader and his wife Alhona climbed the stairs and stood in front of her.

They bowed as Trebetuk talked first: "my queen you see... we would like to ask for a favor, I know you offered us the upgrades for free if we wanted them, but.... our daughter Thanya and her fiance Alkban insisted on earning them by themselves. But even then, as parents, we can't avoid worrying about their wellbeing so we were wondering if you could-"

Queen Erika(Rose) cut him off: "you wanna cheat?"

Alhona bowed elegantly again: "no no... we wouldn't dare to request such a thing of course..., we would just like to point out how important of a contribution we had to reach where we are now, and so we just ask for some help, I'm sure the queen will know of a way so-"

Queen Erika(Rose) cut her off too as she put a hand on their shoulders: "yeah, that's fine, I will arrange them meeting two sedated wild tunnelers, but meanwhile~" she circled around them and pointed at her palace "why don't you come in for a while, we could chat over some jelly cups if you like~"

Trebetuk became awkward: "well... we would be delighted, but you see, we are busy so- ugh"

But his wife Alhona elbowed his stomach and responded with an elegant smile: "we would be delighted my queen, but... if you could just allow me a moment to talk to my husband..."

Queen Erika(Rose) waved her hand as she walked to the palace: "that's fine, ask a guard when you are ready"

Once queen Erika was gone Trebetuk was the first to talk: "are you crazy?! didn't you see how she was looking at your body?! she might be a good ruler, but she's also an insatiable nympho, just see the old king Kretham, he's now nothing more than an unfeeling flesh bag after being constantly raped by anyone that feels like it, and that was her doing, she also bewitched my soldiers, you don't know what she can do so- ugh..."

Alhona elbowed him again: "honey... I know you are worrying but... this is the future of our daughter, and ours we are talking about, you might wanna stay here all your life to rot but... I wanna see it... remember when the queen's boss came to the village? I wanna see that place... we need to see it!"

Trebetuk: "but our dignity as- ugh stop it already"

Alhona: "hmph! who cares about such things at our age? we already have a successful daughter and she also checked your body, maybe it's you she wants? it's fine, you can just hump her until she's tired... huh? why is your face so pale?"

Trebetuk: "well... if she really checked me out she could end up humping ME instead of the other way around..."

Alhona: "Oh my, how does her body have... a cock too?"

Trebetuk: "no idea... they all did, probably something of the surface"

Alhona mumbled to herself "so full of wonders..." and then went silent and put a hand on her husband's shoulder: "dear husband... I'm sure you will manage, do it for me..., for our family... let's go!" dragging her husband with her.

Trebetuk: "w-wait! let's talk about it some more!"