“Status report.” Campbell said, lowering his hand. No remnant of his power remained, discharged in its entirety upon the swarm of Mitovampyria.

“Fine.” Lyra said, swinging the spear over her shoulder as she walked back into the main cavern proper. “No injuries to report.”

Tirus worked his shoulder, cracking his knuckles and nodding. “Tired, but they didn’t get me. Alex did good work.”

Pain shot through Alex’s forearm. Whether time-based or due to the death of the monster, the mysterious effect that numbed his arm dissipated. A reflexive test assured him that he could again channel power through it, but that did nothing for the remnant pain of the injury itself.

“I got bit.” Alex said, wincing on a fresh wave of pain. “Only once. Cut my power off, somehow.”

Campbell nodded, walking over and taking Alex’s forearm in hand. Trained eyes inspected the bleeding wound, six identical puncture marks in the skin, and he traced a finger along the edges. Alex seethed at the contact, irritating the open wound, and Campbell hummed.

“Not as bad as it looks. Alera?” he said.

The older woman marched over, bow grasped tightly in her hands as he looked around them frowning.

“They’re still out there. The remnants.” she said.

“We’ll deal with that later. I need you to heal Alex.”

Alera nodded. She stepped up to Alex, taking his forearm out of Campbell’s grasp, and inspected the wound herself. Her eyes narrowed after a moment.

“I was right.” she said.

“About what?” Alex said.

“Never encountered these ones before, but this,” she pointed at the wound. “Is something I’ve read about. Some species of natural Rulers can inject their energy into your body, disrupting the flow of power. Could you channel?”

“Not through that arm, no. It stole all of the energy I had built up already.”

“Energy vampires. Damn.” Campbell swore, shaking his head.

“Hold tight, kid.” Alera said.

Alex watched as concentration flickered across her face, the tell-tale sign that someone was drawing upon their power. She placed a palm over Alex’s wound, taking a deep breath, and the sharp wave of pain relaxed almost immediately. Alex blinked.

“What are you doing?” he said.

“Don’t talk to me.” Alera replied, grasping his forearm tightly. “I need to concentrate.”

“Let her work, Alex.” Campbell said, gesturing for the squad to regroup. As one, they all moved over to surround them, eyes peeled for the emergence of any lingering threats. They hadn’t managed to kill every monster flooding their tunnel, and Alex suspected that might be the same for the eastern tunnel as well. He’d be surprised if any escaped the sergeant’s wrath, what with the incredibly destructive lightning that had surged from his fingertips. The thought still filled him with wonder.

“Everyone alright? Good.” Campbell said, swivelling his head across the squad. His gaze finally landed on Alex.

“Hm. A learning opportunity, then. Private, what conclusions have you drawn about the threat?”

Alex’s eyebrows rose. Campbell was asking him? He paused. This must be a test, his opportunity to prove that he could be useful to the unit even at a lower rank. It made sense that evaluating monsters in the field would be a necessary skill to possess for extermination missions, unless everyone else had crammed encyclopaedias into their brains, but that seemed unlikely. He bit his bottom lip as he ruminated over Campbell’s prompt.

“Well… there were a lot of them. Small, compared to the Feirwolf. Their wings made them hard to hit in the air, and they can obviously communicate… somehow.” Alex’s brow furrowed. “They have to be Bronze-ranked. They died in one swing of my sword.”

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Campbell nodded. “Good. You’ll not be aware, but we classify monsters. In this case, I’d call them ‘Swarm’ types. Swarmers usually follow a simple rule - they’re individually weak, but there’s a lot of them. That one you were dealing with was actually Silver-rank.”

Alex thought on that for a moment, then accepted it. The final monster seemed slightly faster than the few he’d dispatched, and it would make sense that a stronger variety could slip past Lyra and Tirus.

“Other than that, uh, the Ruler technique they used. The moment it bit me, I lost every bit of energy built up in my forearm, and couldn’t channel anything down that arm anymore. Like it had turned to stone, except… not the kind of stone I can imbue. If that makes sense.”

“Indeed. As Alera said, monsters have natural affinities of their own. From that, we can conclude that Mitovampyria are natural Rulers - they interfered with the energy inside of your body to prevent you from using it against them.”

“Not just that. When it sucked the energy out of me, it backed up, and then…” he grimaced at the memory. “It split. Another monster crawled out of its back, ripping through the skin but somehow not hurting it?”

“Eurgh.” Tirus said, shaking his head. “That’s disgusting. I’m glad I missed it.”

“We saw the same.” Smither offered. “Didn’t get a bite on any of us, but one of the big bats split anyway.”

Alex narrowed his eyes. “So it isn’t just after they bite that they do it. I’m guessing it’s based on energy? Once they’ve gathered enough energy, they split into two. That’s why there’s so many of them.”

“Correct. Swarm-type monsters reproduce in many different ways, but converting energy into new monsters is a common one. This is just a particularly disturbing variety. Anything else?” Campbell said.

He thought deeply for a few seconds. After they’d escaped the chokepoint and Lyra’s defences, all of the monsters had released a shriek - a touch different in pitch to their usual noise, though similar enough that it had to be related. Add to that the idea that they’re natural Rulers, and…

Alex’s eyes widened.

“They can detect us. Not only where we are, but whoever’s channelling the most energy, as well.”

Corporal Sadir gave him a considering look, and Campbell’s eyebrows rose. He cocked his head.

“What makes you say that?” Campbell said.

“When they broke through, they all shrieked and turned to look at Tirus.” Alex said, gesturing toward the other man. “He was pretty concentrated on that evocation. I’m guessing it took a lot of energy?”

“It did.” Tirus said, lips thinning. “More than I liked, to be honest. But yeah, I was probably dishing out more power than anyone else on our tunnel. I noticed one of them lock-on to me.”

“That means they go for whoever is the strongest.” Alex said. “They’ll change their target if you get in the way, though.”

“Not necessarily the strongest, Alex.” Sadir said, grinning. “Just the most energy. They’re predators, and that shrieking is how they identify their next meal - given the option, would you take a juicy steak or an ear of corn?”

“Makes sense.” Alex said, thoughtful.

“Done.” Alera announced. “Good as new.”

Alex looked down at his arm, mouth falling open. The punctures had been replaced with fresh, smooth skin, looking as if nothing had ever happened in the first place. He flexed his wrist and his forearm responded exactly as he would expect, with no pain or discomfort, and no hindrance to his movements.

“How?” he asked.

“Life dyad. Earth and Water.” Alera said, shrugging. “Hard to channel, but we Rulers can use it to heal.”

“I didn’t even notice.” Alex said.

“That’s because they were distracting you.” Lyra huffed, flatly staring at him. “It’s an uncomfortable feeling when you’re aware of it. Be grateful.”

“Now, now, Lyra.” Campbell said, chuckling. “Let’s focus. We’re nowhere near done here.”

At that, the squad abandoned their jovial manner and straightened up. Alex instinctively followed their example, finding it much easier to muster the required composure after the life-or-death experience he’d just encountered. Perhaps this was what made a soldier - fighting for your life in deep, dark tunnels where nobody would ever find your corpse.

“Private Alex’s assessment is accurate. Our quarries are swarm-type energy vampire Rulers with interference and detection capabilities. If we allow a single monster to survive, the next unlucky sods will be back here in six months to root out the infestation anew. Tell me, squad, do we pass our problems onto other soldiers?”

“No, sir.” they responded in unison.

“Exactly. That leaves us with only one option, unfortunate as it might be.” Campbell said.

He gestured to the north, south, and eastern passages. “We’ll be here far, far too long if we try to comb through these tunnels as a group. I’m splitting the unit. From here on in, we’ll operate as individual cells in the same formations as before, tackling the tunnels you were assigned to guard. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Don’t forget, soldiers. This is only the third level. An old mine like this likely extends many fathoms into the earth, and we’ll have to clear the entire lot before we go home. Follow your tunnel wherever it may lead. If you encounter resistance beyond your abilities on a lower level, make your way back and regroup with another team. Don’t leave a single beasty alive.”

Alex nodded, and Tirus clapped a hand on his shoulder. Lyra looked over the pair with distaste before sighing loudly.

“Let’s go.”