The battle was intense as a few dozen puppets flooded toward us. Although I wasn’t making a huge commotion, the sounds of battle still reached the immediate vicinity, attracting more reinforcements.

I was forced to fight beside Umara since she was the one maintaining the sound mitigation field. I could maneuver or run like I was used to doing while fighting, which made me a bit anxious.

But I quickly found solace in the skills of my allies. Particularly, it was Heubert who brought me great reassurance. He seemed to always have an eye on his backline, constantly protecting us if anything got too close. So I never had to worry about being jumped on by three or four puppets.

As for Tana, she was wreaking havoc around Heubert, maintaining a close distance but dashing in all directions as she slaughtered locusts.

And with the support of my team, I was able to put in some work.

My killing speed was even faster than Tana’s. I could kill a locust in a single shot, and it only took a minute or so to clear the skies of anything with wings. After that, I leveled my sights and killed anything around us.

But this was where my aim was stressed. With Tana dashing everyone, there was risk of hitting her unlike Heubert who staid relatively still. In fact, over the course of the battle there were a few times where I almost hit her as our targets coincidentally aligned.

It taught me to double check my shots, but hesitation could also result in a delayed shot, and if Tana dashed over in that short time frame, then things could turn for the worst.

It was a mix between being aware of my allies’ positions and predicting their next moves. I had to read Tana’s movements and work around them, because that was my job as a ranged fighter, not the other way around.

So my killing speed slowed, but by that time, the small army had been cleared.

It was then that the sound isolation spell went down. Around us were nothing but bloody corpses resembling locusts.

I tilted my head while stepping over one.

“Curious how these puppets have blood…”

“Alright, let’s keep moving.”

Heubert motioned us along, and we formed up before traveling deeper into the Hive.

Between fights, my only job was staying quiet. Tana and Heubert would take care of any small groups we encountered and Umara would take out any airborne targets. So for the most part, I was simply being escorted to the next major battle. It was an interesting experience.

And we had two more major battles, both of which I acted as our most powerful turret. Tana was second only to me, and not by much. She killed incredibly fast, only limited by her speed. And once I had taken out all airborne locusts, my killing speed would slow below hers.

We were incredibly efficient. We had probably killed a few hundred in only an hour and traveled through nearly half the Hive. Our progress continued at a fast pace, though I wondered how the other groups were doing. There was no leaderboard to track progress.

When we finally went through half of our time, we seemed to enter the core of the Hive.

It was a tall dome with hundreds of pores across its walls. Each pore contained either a locust or what looked like eggs.

And in the center of the dome was what looked like the Queen of the Hive. She was massive with a huge crown of bone and two large mandibles that chittered frequently.

But her torso was attached to a large organic mass on the ground. It looked like a nest, so the quick assumption was that she couldn’t move as she pleased.

We saw all of this from outside the entrance to this dome, and it was clear that we couldn’t simply walk in and do as we pleased. We would easily get swarmed, and no amount of tanking on Heubert’s part could protect Umara and I from that.

So we backed off and formed a plan.

“We need to funnel them, keep them from surrounding us and gradually taking them out.”

I called upon my knowledge of gaming tactics from my old life as I gave that piece of advice. And they all nodded.

“Yea, that seemed to be the best course of action. But, where can we funnel them?”

“There’s plenty of walls outside the dome.”

“True, but they won’t simply walk over to us.”

“Well…”

I smiled a bit and looked down at my rifle. The others smiled.

“Right, we have you for that. Alright, let’s get into position. John, you no longer need to be quiet.”

“Yes ma’am.”

I chuckled a bit as we retreated to a set of walls that would act as a natural funnel.

Once in place, I stepped out, taking aim.

Over my iron sights, I could see the queen deep within the huge dome. It was frequently swarmed by locusts, and its figure within my sights was small from being a distance away.

With an exhale, I pulled the trigger.

*BANG*

My bullet sailed, and immediately after firing, I could see the queen recoil from the shot.

After that, its gaze rested on my. I had hit its crown, which didn’t seem to do much of anything.

*SCREECH!*

It let out a scream, causing me to turn tail and run back behind Heubert.

“I pissed it off!”

“We can see that! Just start killing them! Heubert, I’ll block them with you! Umara, prepare crowd control!”

“Roger!”

With her hands spread, Umara began preparing some more complex spells, her mouth uttering a foreign language as lights flashed around her.

Tana and Heubert took position at the choke point, while I kept my eye on the sky. Air neutrality was what I secured first and foremost.

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And without suspense, the hundreds of locusts within the dome began to swarm out.

I didn’t hesitate to fire as many rounds as I could. With each bullet, I would either miss or ouright kill a locust. I would say my accuracy could be rated 7 out of 10 shots. Which for flying locusts was rather good.

And there were plenty of flying locusts. But still not nearly as many as those crawlers.

Tana and Heubert were quickly jumped on, but before they could be overwhelmed, Umara finished her spell.

Her eyes opened while the light of the complex spell before her flashed with brilliance.

“Corrosion!”

She snapped clapped her hands, and the spell dissipated.

At that moment, an orb of some dark substance appeared amidst the attacking hordes. It rapidly grew into a ball of acidic green slime before suddenly compressing and exploding.

It released waves of not only corrosive gas, but heinous smelling and awfully sticky slime.

It covered two third of the locusts, even many in the air, dragging them down as their wings were corroded.

And with most of the locusts slowed down, Tana and Heubert had a far easier time keeping them away from us. My accuracy also went up, poking dozens out of the sky with rapid shots.

But sheer numbers wasn’t all the Hive offered.

Suddenly, we heard some distinct roars. Three large beetles emerged at that moment, armored and pissed off.

I quickly released a test shot.”

*BANG*

*Ting!*

The bullet richocheted off their armor. With a frown, I empowered another shot with a large chunk of Psyka before aiming just under its head.

*BANG*

*Roar!*

This time, the bullet sunk into its body, causing the beast to recoil in pain. But it didn’t seem to do that much other than slow it down.

“Just clear out the fodder! Then we can focus on the big ones!”

Tana shouted, and my sights left the beetles.

I shot with more haste, doing my best to kill as many of the locusts.

As the beetles marched forward, Umara seemed to recover from the big spell and spoke to me.

“John, how’s your energy?”

“I still got plenty. Why?”

“...I’m going to be sparing to save energy for the big ones. Can you compensate?”

“I’m shooting as fast as I can right now. If you feel that’s enough, then go ahead and rest.”

I spoke while pulling the trigger and slinging the lever action of the rifle.

And Umara seemed to deem my effort sufficient as she took a back seat, keeping an eye out but not casting any spells.

Since most of the locusts could be killed with one shot, I didn’t have to spend that much energy even after killing as many as I did. Ammo took a shockingly small amount of Psyka to summon, and my communion with the spirits gradually took Psyka away over time. It was very efficient, and with my practice in the Trenches, my stamina in combat was rather exceptional. Of course, that was until tough enemies came around, in which case I got tired very fast.

But if it was just fodder like this, I could go all day.

I let loose shots with frightening speed, impressing even myself. You could only shoot so fast with a lever action, after all. And reloading took some time as well.

Thankfully, the corrosion spell combined with my speed made quick work of the flying bugs. With that, Tana and Heubert only had to stave off the crawlers.

Which they did well, until the big ones arrived.

The beetles came with oppressive strength. To my shock, Heubert directly fought them, taking their massive blows head on. But him and his shield managed to block them without retreat.

But that was only one. Tana harassed the other two, keeping their eyes on her. And I focused on killing any remaining crawlers until there were none left.

It was perhaps 20 minutes into the battle that only the big beetles remained. It was then that Umara came back, shouting out to Tana.

“Weakness!”

“Their underbelly! And their backside! Other than their face, that’s it!”

“Alright!”

Umara took the information, and their exchange taught me a bit about what seemed like standard protocol during battles.

She then turned to me.

“Can you shoot any of their weakpoints?”

“Not really their underbelly. If I could get behind them, I could shoot them in the back. But we gotta get out of this funnel first.”

“Sure. Tana! Heubert! Push out of the choke! John will loop around behind them!”

“Got it!”

“Hah!”

Heubert acknowledged with a roar. Then, he hoisted his shield and charged towward his beetle.

The bug was blown out of the funnel, and he looped around. In panic, the big followed him, creating a big gap in space.

Tana also pulled one away, but the other turned toward Umara and I.

She shouted.

“I’ll distract it! Now go!”

She cast some fire spells with those words, burning the face of the beetle. At the same time, I sprinted off toward the gap in the funnel.

I entered the large area between the walls and the dome, circling around while evading the beetles that were occupied with their prey.

And my first target was the beetle on Umara. She couldn’t last long, so I got around it and focused.

I didn’t have to go far, and since I was already close, my weapon of choice was easy.

A double barrel shotgun was the normal choice, but after spending some more time cultivation and probing my third star, I had found a more powerful spirit.

A quadruple barrel shotgun, with a thick body that made it seem more like a cannon. All four shots could be fired at once, not that I would ever try such a thing.

With that weapon, I charged behind the beetle harassing Umara. And I quickly spotted its weakness, a fleshy backside that was relatively unprotected compared to its armored front.

I took aim, and waited for the bug to steady before pressing one of the two triggers down fully. A signifiant portion of my Psyka left with the slugs.

*BANG BANG*

Two shots rang out in rapid succession, and the backside of the beetle was torn asunder. Blood sprayed everywhere, but I wasn’t finished.

I let off the other two shots after I steadied the weapon.

*BANG BANG*

Another two, and even more gore than before. This time, the beetle couldn’t seem to handle it as it rapidly weakened while trying to spin around.

I backed away as blood poured out of the puppet. But with its front turned toward me, Umara had a clear shot.

“Explode!”

She cast a quick spell, and a shard of ice was created. It gouged into the beetle’s body before exploding into fragments, destroying the bug from the inside.

It collapsed only moments after. I nodded to Umara from across the corpse before running off.

After that, I went on to help Tana while Umara worked with Heubert to ease some of the pressure.

Tana had already done some damage herself that weakened the beetle, and with my help, it rapidly fell.

The other was the same way. Heubert ended his adversary while sinking his blade into its neck.

With that, all three armored soldiers were killed.

But it wasn’t easy.

My empowered shotgun took a lot out of me. Tana and Heubert had to wrestle with those beetles alone, while Umara cast a huge area spell that slowed or killed much of the locust swarm.

We were all spent, but there was still one enemy left. We truged toward the now empty dome. The queen had yet to leave her nest, though I wasn’t sure if she could. Her body seemed attached to it.

But before we could enter, Heubert stopped us.

“Hang on.”

We all looked at him before looking at the queen.

She was gazing at us with hostility, but she was quiet. She seemed to be waiting for us to come to her.

“...Its a trap.”

“Probably. What do we do then?”

Tana asked, but then they all turned to me.

I looked back at them weirdly.

“You want me to kill it?”

“Can you? Getting close could be dangerous.”

“I can also help.”

Umara stepped up beside me. Seeing her, I just shrugged.

“I’ll try, but that armor might be a pain. Hey, see if you can’t burn the nest she’s attached to while I shoot.”

“Sure.”

Umara nodded and started casting, even though she seemed exhausted.

And I exchanged the quad shotgun for a rifle, taking aim at the stationary target.

Unlike the shotgun, I didn’t have a fancy variant rifle. I made a mental note to go digging more for one later.