Lan was drenched from head to toe in blood, but no matter how he moved, he couldn't get it off. It stuck like glue to his robe, smelling like petrol. The blood was an almost neon blue, coating him like paint.

"Shit! What's going to happen?" Lan yelled, running over to the ant's corpse and pulling off one of its legs.

Archie had his jaw clenched tightly, his face as a mask of fury, "God damnit! Of course! Of fucking course!"

The ants were swarming them like locusts. A wave of black so thick they couldn't even see the ground between the tightly packed ants. The ants clicked their mandibles as they skittered across the floor, the sound growing louder and louder as they neared.

Archie threw himself at a nearby ant, using his sabre with pinpoint accuracy to take out its legs and kill it. Lan felt like he was watching a surgeon using a scalpel rather than a boy with a sabre. The way Archie used the sabre was frighteningly precise and calculated.

He could only imagine just how many times Archie had swung that sabre to be able to use it with such proficiency and robotic precision.

When Archie finished killing the ant, he took a deep breath. Then, after shaking his head silently, he turned his back on the oncoming horde of ants facing the team.

"Here's the situation. Ants release a pheromone when they die. This pheromone tells other ants, 'Hey, I'm dead,' And then those ants take the corpse to the graveyard,"

"Does tha-"Lan started to say.

"Shut up! No talking till I'm finished." Archie yelled. "Once these ants are taken to the graveyard, they will be buried. The pheromone is in their blood… So, that's where you two will be going," Archie finished, glaring at Thea and Lan.

"This is your fault, Archie!" Thea shouted.

"Yeah, you didn't tell us not to do it!" Lan snapped.

Archie looked to the heavens again, taking a deep breath before continuing to talk, "Well, it's too late now. So, here's what's going to happen: We will stay and fight through the horde. While you two need to take care of the crypt keeper."

The horde was almost upon them. The clicking had become deafening. Lan wanted to ask more, he wanted to know what the crypt keeper was, but he didn't have time to ask.

Archie turned to face the oncoming flood of ants, his hand tightening around the sabre.

David hefted his enormous club onto his shoulder, his face stone cold as he stared down the ants.

George remained quiet. A large metal cone hung from his waist and his hands. He held two daggers that glittered in the golden glow from the moss.

The ants crashed into them like a wave, the group quickly being swallowed by countless bodies. On the ground, the bodies of the ants disappeared. They were swept away by their compatriots to the graveyard, along with Lan and Thea.

At the moment the ants arrived, the dungeon officially began.

Alert: Dungeon trial – The Queen

Challenge - Kill the ant queen and her brood

Time limit – None

Reward – Dependent on performance and number of participants

Participants - 5

Clinging onto one of the corpses, Lan's knuckles were white. He had never felt so tense in all his life. And the only thing that eased his mood a little was seeing Thea on the ant next to him. Her face was sheet white, and he could see her muttering either prayers or curses… Maybe both.

The swarm quickly swallowed the other three. Disappearing beneath hundreds of black shells that seemed to want to smother them with sheer numbers.

The last thing Lan saw before being carried through a tunnel was David's huge figure carrying George and Archie towards the lake.

"Lan," Thea hissed as they were carried through the winding tunnel. It was wide enough for a few of the horse-sized ants to walk side by side in, and that strange golden moss clung to the ceiling, providing meagre light with which to see their claustrophobic surroundings.

"Yeah, what's up?" Lan whispered, careful not to raise his voice too loud, in case he attracted some unwanted attention.

"Do you feel like Archie doesn't like us?"

Lan closed his eyes, trying to figure out why that even mattered right now. "No, I don't think he does," Was what he finally said.

"Good." Thea growled, "Because I really, really don't like him,"

The tunnel wound and snaked through the earth, the only constant being that they were going down. They were carried for what seemed like hours down into the earth, the light from the moss changing colour the deeper they went.

The gold gradually dyed blue, the same neon colour as the ants' blood. Casting the tunnel in a strange, almost alien, glow.

Eventually, the ants carried them out of the tunnel and into a vast cavern completely blanketed in moss. The ceiling, the cave walls, the ground, all of it was smothered by the blue moss.

Just ahead of Lan and Thea, an ant dropped another ant's body onto the ground at the edge of the moss. It sank into the fungus, like quicksand, disappearing in mere seconds.

"Oh, no." Lan muttered, "We need to get the hell out of here!"

"I'm way ahead of you!" Thea shouted, jumping off the back of her ant and landing in the tunnel.

Lan followed suit, and they stood quietly beside each other, staring at the ants behind them. The tunnel was filled with hundreds of ants, and they all seemed intent on carrying Lan the final few yards to the moss.

An ant skittered towards Thea, and she lashed out, her hand breaking its exoskeleton like an eggshell. It fell to the ground limply, and Thea grinned, pulling her hand from its head.

Suddenly, an Ant rushed forward, picking up the corpse and running to the cavern, depositing the body into the moss. Seeing the body sink into the moss, Lan shuddered. The moss dragged the body down like a sea monster would a sinking ship. And when it was done, no sign of its victim remained.

Another ant came forward, and Lan held up the chitinous leg he had grabbed earlier. He swung it like a baseball bat, using the barbed feet as a hook to pry open the ant's armour before stabbing it with the leg.

This time, all hell broke loose.

Tens of ants rushed forward, jostling and fighting over the body. The remaining hundred or so ants swarmed towards Thea and Lan, clicking their mandibles in a deafening cacophony.

Thea was the first to move.

She raised her hands like she was conducting an orchestra, and the dead ant's blood was pulled from its body, hovering above the creature formlessly.

"Wow…" Lan muttered, watching the neon blue liquid hover in the air. 'So, this is magic, it's… Beautiful,'

With a flick of her fingers, the blood rushed towards her, covering her body like armour. And then she ran towards the nearest ant, moving like she had been given a shot of adrenaline.

The armour was formless, flowing over her like a liquid as she moved. When she jumped, it shifted to support that. When she punched, it reinforced her fist. Whatever she did, the armour helped.

Lan watched in awe as she ripped an ant in half, its blood being siphoned from its body and into her armour.

Sadly, he didn't have time to watch the show. Ants were swarming him from all directions, and he needed to move.

Bending down, he picked up a rock and threw it with pinpoint accuracy through an ant's eye, killing it instantly. He ran over, ripping off two of its legs, using them to attack other ants while they still dripped with blood... neon blood.

Something clicked with Lan, and he froze, putting the pieces together in his mind like a jigsaw puzzle.

"Thea!" He shouted over the din.

"What is it!?" She yelled back, ploughing through the ants in her blood armour.

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"Can you control blood? Is that your skill?" He yelled.

"No shit Sherlock, what's your point?"

"Instead of fighting them, throw blood on the ants! Then they'll fight each other!" Lan shouted, crushing the head of an ant with a heavy stomp.

Thea paused mid-swing, realisation dawning on her face. "You're right!" She shouted, a wicked grin spreading across her face.

"Protect me while I do this," She instructed, running over to Lan at a blistering speed.

"I'll try," Lan muttered, holding up his two ant legs glumly.

Thea began moving her hands again. They gracefully weaved invisible patterns in the air, dancing a beautiful, unknowable dance.

The blood on her body shifted like a magnet was pulling on it. It rose towards her head and then above it, congealing into a vast spinning ball of neon blood above her head. The sphere spun like a planet, collecting more blood from the ants Lan killed.

And he sure as hell was killing a lot of ants.

Lan felt like he was juggling plates. An ant would rush up, and he would fend it off, or kill it, just for another to take its place. And then another, and another, and another. It was never-ending; they wouldn't stop.

More and more ants kept pouring into the tunnel from above, forcing Lan and Thea backwards. They were slowly nearing the mossy cavern that could only be the graveyard, and Lan's heart began to tighten.

"Thea!" He yelled, bashing an ant away with another ant's body.

"Almost!" She screamed, her eyes bloodshot from the strain, her teeth clenched, and her jaw set.

Lan redoubled his efforts. He tore off a segment of a dead ant's exoskeleton and used it as a shield, battering back the crushing mandibles that never stopped snapping at him.

Behind them, more and more corpses were being carried into the cavern, quickly disappearing beneath the moss. Or it was quick… At first.

As though the moss couldn't keep up, it gradually slowed down. The bodies disappeared slower and slower each time, giving Lan a chance to glimpse what looked like a root shoot up and wrap around a corpse, dragging it beneath the moss.

'Is that the crypt keeper?' he wondered quietly, his face white.

"Ready!" Thea yelled.

It was all Lan could do to duck.

And then it rained blood.

A never-ending cascade of neon blue fell like torrential rain, covering every inch of the tunnel for hundreds of metres. It stained everything. The ants froze, painted by the blood of the brethren.

One by one, they started to click, staring at each other in a mix of confusion and unwillingness. But their instincts kicked in, and as one, they moved.

They could smell the pheromone on all the ants around them, but most importantly, they could smell it on themselves. Deep within them, a primal instinct as old as their very species commanded that they go to the graveyard.

Moving like zombies, the ants' steps were robotic and stilted. As they quietly walked into the graveyard of their own volition. In their mind, an ant could only give off that pheromone if it was dead, and since they could smell it on themselves, they must be dead.

Some tried to fight back, trying to stop themselves and beat back their instincts. But it was no use. They trudged into the cavern one by one, slowly sinking beneath the moss.

Lan watched in awe as they walked to their deaths, unable to understand how their minds worked.

"I didn't expect it to work that well…" Thea murmured, watching the funeral precession with a slack jaw.

"Neither did I," Lan watched as more and more ants stepped onto the moss.

"Hey, that one isn't sinking," Thea pointed to the nearest ant. It had just stepped onto the moss, and there was no reaction. Even the ant itself looked rather bemused by the situation, as though it couldn't understand why it hadn't sunk beneath the moss yet.

"That one isn't sinking either," Lan pointed at another ant that was similarly standing on top of the moss.

"Maybe it's full…" Thea said absentmindedly.

"The graveyard?"

"No, the crypt keeper,"

Lan looked out at the moss, imagining what lay beneath it. "Archie told us to kill it… Right?"

"Be my guest. I'm not going onto that weird moss," Thea said with a frown.

"Who knows… Maybe it will come out if even more corpses go on there," Lan thought this might work. If anything, the crypt keeper, whatever it was, might come out to see where all the bodies were coming from.

"But where are we going to get even more bodies from? Every ant that was in the tunnel is already…" Thea froze mid-sentence.

An ear-splitting scream thundered down the tunnel and crashed into them like lightning. It was loud and violent, leaving them winded after just hearing the noise that was like a punch to the gut.

The tunnel started to rumble in the silence that followed, and she could hear the clicking again. It rushed towards them like a tidal wave, heralding death. She could only imagine how many ants would be needed to make such a noise.

***

The ants were endless in number, swarming David, George and Archie in wave after deadly wave.

They were slowly pushed back to the lake, both Archie and David slick with sweat. Time After Time, David brought his club down in the head of an ant, crushing it like the bug it was.

Time after time, Archie ran his sabre through an ant's eye or a chink in its armour.

Countless ants fell but more still attacked. Whenever they killed one, two more took their place, and they quickly began to feel desperate.

"George! We could really use some help here!" Archie yelled over the din, his sabre drenched in neon blue.

"I know you're strong, but we need you to do more than wave those daggers about right now. I can tell that isn't your real talent!"

George paused mid-swing, his face thoughtful. He closed his eyes, and his face took on a serene quality as though he were above the carnage surrounding him.

Finally, he opened them again, nodding.

Their backs were against the lake, already standing ankle-deep in the water. The ants couldn't swim, so they only had to focus on attacks from the front, but they were crumbling under pressure.

Reaching into his pockets, George brought out four rubbery balls, handing two to Archie and David each. He gestured to their ears, and the pair tentatively placed the plugs into their ears.

The noise of the fighting vanished. In fact, all noise disappeared. And Absolute silence settled over David and Archie.

George gestured behind him, and they walked deeper into the water, creating distance between them and George.

Finally, While the ants surged forwards, a wave of black shells and clicking mandibles poured down upon them. George opened his mouth...

And screamed.

***

When George was seven, he lived in a gated district north of the B-Rank building. He felt like he was growing up inside a fairy tale. Magicians and superheroes lived in the same street as he did, and his parents could do magic with the flick of a finger.

Ever since he could remember, George was curious. His mind would wander, asking his parents inexplicable questions that even mighty pathfinders like them struggled to answer.

He loved exploring the magical world he lived in, dreaming up adventures where he became a hero on the bridge. Together, he and his friends whiled away countless hours with nothing more than their imaginations.

Not all was perfect, of course. His parents spent most of their time on the bridge, as leaving the bridge was dangerous for pathfinders. Only outside the bridge can they die permanently, and many take advantage of this.

George peered out the balcony window on one of the long nights he spent home alone. He craned his neck, trying to see the top of the bridge as he always did. But as was always the case, it was impossible.

The bridge had no top. There was no end.

For his fifth birthday, he had asked for a telescope. Using it, he hoped to peek at the end of the bridge, but it simply disappeared into the sky, continuing forever into the stars.

And on that night, as he peered up at the endless majesty above him, George chanced upon the most beautiful sound he had ever heard.

It was like a choir of angels were singing just for him.

The beautiful song drifted through the night air like smoke on a breeze, finding its way to him.

For a long moment, he was stunned. Transfixed by the ethereal beauty of the song, he couldn't help but stand at the window and listen.

His mind was cleansed of all worries and fears by the melody. The terror of his parents never returning from the bridge was no more. The song had smothered it.

And when the song finally ended, and his worries and fears rushed back in to fill the gap it left, George felt sadder than he ever had before.

He felt like he had lost a little piece of himself when the melody left, an important piece. A piece He could not live without.

Frantically, he leapt onto the balcony and grabbed the drainpipe, shimmying down it like a monkey.

Halfway down, his hands slipped, and he fell hard, his knee bruising badly on the fake grass in his garden.

Everything here was fake, from the majestic trees to the dirt they grew from. No one who lived here had time to mind their gardens. Some spent years, even decades, on the bridge and couldn't afford to bother about things like plants.

Picking himself off the ground, he scampered to the garden fence and, using a tower of precariously balanced plant pots. He managed to clamber over the fence.

Rolling out onto the street, George was breathless, but that didn't stop him from running. He ran for all he was worth, his mind clouded with the desperate desire to hear that song again. If he could listen to it one more time… He would do anything.

Eventually, George arrived at a small pond in the middle of their communal park. Plastic trees swayed and fluttered in the night breeze while robotic birds and insects chirped.

It was a beautiful place at a glance, but when one looked closer, it became creepy and unnatural. Its beauty marred by the fakeness of it all.

But when George arrived at the park, he couldn't help but stare, slack-jawed at the otherworldly beauty of the scene. It was like someone had plucked the perfect painting from the mind of the world's best painter. There were no flaws. None.

Beside the pond sat the most beautiful woman George had ever even imagined. He was so young that he didn't know what love was, but instantly, he knew he felt it when he saw her.

Her raven black hair seemed to dance in the night sky, her pristine white robe almost glowed, and her teeth were like perfectly cut ivory, blindingly white and flawless.

And her smile was… Addicting.

When she smiled at him, a little boy with a bleeding knee and bright eyes, he knew he would never be able to forget this moment.

"Wh-"He tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come.

"Oh, dear…" The woman laughed, raising a finger and drawing George forward.

Wind rushed up and carried him to her side, where his mind froze up. What should he say? What even could he say?

"Your poor knee," The woman tutted, her hand glowing gently as she swept it across his leg.

He was too spellbound to even notice that the cut had closed without leaving a trace of its existence. He would die before he took his eyes off her.

"What's your name, sweetheart?" The woman asked, her voice sweet like honey.

"G-George," He stuttered. Words caught in his throat, his tongue like lead.

She effortlessly lifted him onto her knee, smiling softly.

"What a pretty name. You can call me Lori,"

"It's nice to meet you, Miss Lori," George managed to squeeze out, unable to look away from her perfect face.

"Did you hear my singing, George?" She asked him, her eyes sparkling like gemstones.

"I-I did. It was amazing," The song was still reverberating through his mind, its beauty immaculate.

She looked up at the sky, her gaze travelling along the length of the endless bridge and seeming to see further than George could, even with his telescope.

"To think…" She muttered, her voice barely a whisper, "When I returned here after so long, I would find another reason to stay,"

"Are… Are you leaving?" George asked, aghast. If she left, he would never hear that melody again.

She smiled softly at him, "Not anymore,"

From then on, George learned to sing.

Lori only appeared during the night and was always at that park. At first, she sang, and he listened, letting the music wash over him. But soon enough, he joined her in song.

It came as naturally to him as breathing, and before long, he would sing whenever he got the chance.

He mourned whenever he was accepted into an academy, for there were fewer chances for him to sing and make music. The classes only taught fighting and killing, not what really mattered to him.

But nevertheless, he paid attention. He never let his mind wander. He knew that he would step onto the bridge one day. And when that day came, he couldn't let Lori down.

***

The scream left George's mouth and rushed towards the ants in a wave. A hurricane was unleashed, throwing water and ants into the air like ragdolls… or regular ants.

A sonic boom shattered the very air itself, and a cone of sound and air pressure shredded every ant in its path like they were made from cardboard.

Neon blood rained down on every remaining ant, the raindrops hitting the ground the only sound in the ensuing silence.

Even through the earplugs, Archie and David winced at the sheer volume of the noise. It seemed to pierce right through their eardrums and into their very soul.

Amidst the falling chunks of flesh and blood, George stood alone, his figure sad.

'How can I sing…?' He wondered, watching the sheer carnage his voice had caused, "When I am like this…"