~~~~~~~~(14:20 AM)~~~~~~~~

They had been ready to go minutes now.

The only reason they lingered around was due to the pressure of what they were about to walk into. The outcome of the upcoming battle wasn’t going to determine whether they lived or died, though such could be said for future battles, this battle would let them see where they stood….survival wise.

So the strike team, as Leo had begun to call everyone to lighten up the mood, was double and even triple-checking all their equipment mostly just to stall for time. But the more they did so the more they found some fault in the straps or weapons which had begun to put everyone on edge so the teacher decided to have them stop.

“Ok I know everyone is on edge and don’t know how to cope with all the stress, but we need to get it together. We got a good start so far, stop rechecking everything so much.”Mrs.Stillwater cried amongst the mass of chatter that was the room.

To her voice, everyone stopped their fidgeting the best they could and gathered around,” ok the plan is simple, we aren’t going into the room at first,” began Mrs.Stillwater,” we will stay inside the stairwell and let them come to us. If the big one comes we spray it with both Liquid nitrogen and Flame throwers. But there is a change that beetles might still be able to come in as they can climb the ceiling, so those people not fighting against the big beetle would have to deal with this.” After a few seconds, she asked if there was any question, prompting everyone to shake their heads.

Mrs.Stillwater wasn't sure if they had understood what she had said, half of them seemed out of it, and too focused and fidgeting with their equipment to care. She wasn’t sure if they would make it out without any casualties, but she knew that they needed to do this to survive.

“Ok then, everyone! Go wait by the stairs, we will leave soon,” she said, waving them off.

To that, the teens all did as they were told. Niko marched on close to his group, they were going to be at the front of it all, getting up close and personal to the blasted beetle. “Hey Zane,” began Niko,” how do you think we’ll do?” he asked.

Zane looked at him for a bit, his expression and eyes were unreadable as he thought about it. Shifting the liquid nitrogen tank on his back a little he finally responded,'' honestly? I don’t know. The small ones are easy-ish to handle, their carapace---” “Chitin!” Leo interjected,”--Whatever man Chitin, Carapace Same thing.”

“Hell no, Chitin is specific to invertebrates, while Carapace is just for turtles,” replied Leo

To what he had said Richy looked at him with a raised eyebrow, clearly saying ‘are you stupid’,” No your wrong, Chitin is a complex polysaccharide--- “Poly wah…” asked Leo, but Richy went on ignoring him, “basically a polymer of N-acetylglucosamine.” “Hold on!” began Leo,” your just throwing words out right!”, “ It can be found in the exoskeletons of arthropods and cell walls of fungi. A carapace is a hard protective covering of bone or chitin, so indeed carapace is the right word for it, but I guess it can also be called Chitin.”

Once Richy finished Leo stood a little confused. He got the gist of it, but some of the more complex words. His expression caused those who heard the conversation to laugh.

“Ok…Anyways, as I was saying before, the beetle’s are Easy-ish to handle, their Carapace isn’t that strong, any one of us can cause a lot of damage to them, but the problem is the big beetle, thing, creature, whatever you want to call it. That one is a lot stronger, or at least seems to be. There is no way to tell until we fight it.”

“I see what you mean Zane, there is still a chance that the things Carapace is just as weak or maybe slightly stronger than the rest. What I’m really worried about is the blades on its whiskers, things beneath its head, those look like a real problem.” continued Ranzer.

The group continued to talk amounts themselves as they reached the staircase and stopped. A few other people joined in as well to ask what the big beetle looked like. As the student talked amongst themselves, Mrs.Stillwater and Mr.Val were having a conversation as well.

“------ do this, they are too scared. I worried some of them would die if we attempt this.” Mrs.Stillwater whispered.

“I know, but what am I supposed to tell you. You know just as well as me that the army isn’t coming, if they were they would have damned been here already. I doubt they know we are even here. Even if they did and were coming, we don’t know how long.” Mr.Vall Whispered back, still hard at work making more Molotovs to keep him distracted.

“I know that, but maybe we should just sit this one out, we can keep eating the vine-like you have been doing, and maybe hunt a few beetles a day to keep fed while we wait for-----” “Bad Idea,” interrupted Mr.Val,” you said it yourself, we are likely in a Hive and a hive continues to grow unless the queen dies. This means we could be overrun by beetles if the military doesn't come, let's not even talk about going outside and escaping the school, it’s probably much worse out there. So we should get to Velysium hall where we can cook up a plan to take out the queen and save ourselves. If the children don’t start fighting they won’t survive. It’s hard to say this, but the death of their friend will have to push them to be stronger and strive to protect one another.”

To his word, Mrs.Stillwater stiffened with her visage soon full of distress. She didn’t want things to go this way, but she had no choice. All of what Mr.Val said were things she had already thought about, but the thought of one of the students she was responsible for dying for the other to survive didn't seem right to her. It might have been her job talking and the fact that she didn’t want to be responsible for their death in the case society got its sh*t together again, which she hoped for, but still….

Taking a deep breath and sighing heavily she turned and left, quickly returning to the false atmosphere that gave the impression that everything was fine and under control. She had been trying to keep up the act so as to not alert the student, but it was starting to wear her down. She doubted she could hold it for much longer.

As she left the classroom and walked towards the staircase with a smile on her face, the Idle chatter and fooling around gradually came to an end as everyone's attention got back to the task at hand. The fidgeting had started again amongst the more nervous teens, even worse than before.

Once Mrs.Stillwater arrived in front of the group where the people with the liquid nitrogen and Flamethrowers were, she motioned for everyone to follow and descended the staircase. The entire group followed, some stopping for a second to decide if they really should be going before they push forward by those behind them.

~~~~~~~~~

Mrs.Stillwater had made the mistake of coming with high heels, a tight-fitting skirt, and a blouse the day the calamity hit. She was thankful for the lab safety rules prompting her to have a change of clothes when attending a lab. If she had to fight in high heels and the blasted skirt she had been wearing she was sure she would have died without the help of the beetles.

The sneakers she had on made little noise as she did her best to descend without making too much noise. Her process was in vain since the nervous teens could not keep their weapons and items in check. Table shields were clacking august weapons, people were bumping into each other causing loud rustles, sometimes pushing each other into the walls. Mrs.Stillwater wasn’t sure if the sound they made just seemed loud because of the adrenaline starting to pump through her veins or the fact that she was worried the beetle could hear it…..she decided to attribute it to both.

“Will y'all stop making so much noise!” she hissed as softly as she could, stopping everyone in their tracks,” we don’t need to let the beetles know we are coming. At least try to be quiet when coming down the stairs.” After watching them a second more, she resumed their descent, this time with much less noise than before.

When they reached the bottom the caved-in door was visible to everyone. Huge straight chips of wood and splinters were splayed across the floor chaotically. The only reason the door hadn’t fallen was the metal bar that separated the door’s left and right openings.

The scene did nothing to calm down the students as many wondered what would happen to them if that big beetle was to ram them straight on. The conclusion would be worse than the state of the bent metal bar which had held more than they even would.

“Ok, this is it everyone.” whispered Mrs.Stillwater,” those with the shields get in front quickly, Liquid Nitrogen and Flame thrower team right behind them. The rest of you to the side, if any of the beetles get past you deal with it.” Everyone followed the instructions as best they could, still, they were clumsy on their feet as many dropped their weapons as they made their way to their post, but no one to blame them, they had been teenagers taking everything for granted up until a week ago and not a soldier.

While they did that, Mrs.Stillwater watched the outside beyond the cracks in the caved-in door. The Beetle they had to take in was indeed twice as big as the others and looked a lot more deadly. “The number of the beetles and the….corpse mound definitely decreased,” said Niko who was watching near her.

“Thank god,” Leo said, earning nods of relief from everyone else.

“Are they moving their food away?” asked Callie

“Maybe -----” began Mrs.Stillwater before catching herself when one of the smaller beetles came and dropped the human torso onto the mound. She along with everyone else forced the vomit back down and pulled away from the door,” Nevermind. We could have waited if they were leaving and take the area before they come back but it looks like we are going to have to push them away,” Niko’s group nodded and left for their post.

2 students stayed by the door ready to open it. Mrs.Stillwater calmed herself down again and had everyone light the molotovs and prepare to throw.

“On 0 you boys open the door!” She said as the tension in the stairwell grew, people started to shift uncontrollably as they tried to not be nervous. Granted there were also the slightly crazy ones who were excited at the development taking it as an RPG game coming to life. It wasn’t that they weren’t sticking to reality, it was just their way of coping with the stress.

“2” Muscles stiffen, the ones holding the liquid nitrogen and flamethrowers found their palms sweaty. “1” somebody farted from the stress, but no one cared their minds were too hyper-focused on the task at hand and stressed to worry about a natural function of someone's body.

“0!” The doors swung outwards cracking and breaking as Moltovs immediately came out flying. Mrs.Stillwater was relieved someone hadn’t dropped one within their groups and hadn’t overshot and hit the door frame instead, getting glass shards all over them along with fire.

The beetle all paused as the doors swung open, disturned by its loud noise, then all hell broke loose within their ranks as the glass tubes shattered and let their contents spill all over the floor. The fire spread rapidly across the chemical substance, even catching onto the blood. Multiple beetles fled as soon as their feelers were burned when they tried to touch the fire, while a lot of them quickly gathered the food mound into their belly to take away. Still, though, 20 normal beetles and the Big one had all begun their charge towards the door.

“Shield wielders, move back, do not try to stop that thing from impacting head-on, it's too big to pass through the door, let the door frame stop it, and then push it back!”

She didn’t need to tell them twice before they moved back right as the big Beetle crashed into the door frame sending pieces of it flying onto them. Though it could not get it, a few more impacts like that would grind a hole big enough to decimate them.

“SRAAAHAHHAAH!” the beetle screeched, causing a good deal of fear within them. A lot of people were already trying to flee but those people rooted in fear around did not allow for that, only those at the back had any leeway in doing so.

“Push it back!” screamed Mrs.Stillwater, snapping the shield wielders back into action. They ramed their table shield into it to push it back, careful not to get their head snapped off from its snapping mandibles, but it sure as hell had no trouble keeping up with them. Still, as they got it further away more and more of the shield wielders came out to help push it out.

“Okay Spray it now before its friends join it!” To the teacher’s words, Zane's team let their weapons loose when the shield wielders got back. While they still stood slightly behind the shield wielders, there were gaps made for them to stray from the creature.

Both kinds of throwers had been aimed at its drooling mouth of teeth, a terrifying sight, but the throwers worked wonders. The Big beetle lurched back, flipping itself upside down as it screeched much louder than before in pain, its legs flailing wildly, hitting the part of shield wielder so hard they were knocked back to those behind them with definite bruises on their arms and shoulders. As it rolled itself away, crushing half of its friends in the process.

“YESSS!!!”

The sight brought much satisfaction to the group as they began to think they now had a chance at winning the fight. Either way, they didn’t continue spraying the big Beetle hoping it just died from that as the smaller ones came upon them with screeching war cries, with few leaving to take care of the big beetle only to get crushed too.

Those with Spears took the place of the sprayers, as the normal beetles came upon them. As their number was only 8, they were dealt with quickly, pushing them back with the shield as the spears stabbed their heads, most of the time losing the spears in the process when the beetles pulled back and died. Their feelers were the most troublesome as they tried to warp around them as much as possible. Before all 8 could die though a group of nearly 30 beetles sporadically came into the area from the hallways. The easy fight had just gotten harder. Quickly they formed up outside the cramped stairwell using everyone anywhere they were needed.

The big Beetle had stopped moving, which was a godsend and was dead, but they still had to deal with a large number of beetles in front of them. Despite their good begging some light injuries were already starting to appear as the group switched between people, with the more injured ones and those who were tired going to the back.

It was during that move that disaster struck, Luise, a brunette with large round glasses, got her leg grabbed by a slightly bigger than normal beetle’s feeler. The beetle pulled back pushing the beetles behind it as Luise fell back within seconds.

“AHHH!” She screams at the top of her long as people behind her held on to her arm and pulled her back, or at least they tried.

“Someone cut that thing!” Richy Shouted as he desperately tried to keep his friend from reaching a horrible end. The scene happening on their side of the battle was affecting the others who were getting distracted, at some point beetle rammed a shield wielders enough to cause him to fall back. If Troy, a member of Zanes Martial arts club, hadn’t had the mind to spray his flamethrower right then and there their formation would have been destroyed.

“Focus!” Mrs.Stillwater Cried left her position from the fighting to another student as he made her way to the tug of war with a beetle that seemed all too eager to drag Luise away as she screamed loud enough to wake the dead, with others around it, preventing people from setting her free.

Before she got there though, with a burst of sudden strength the slightly larger beetle pulled back hard enough to drag those holding her, as they lost their grip on Luise, she was flung into the air far from their position and crashed onto one of the fallen lounge chair knocking the wind out of her as she passed out.

“Nooo!!” Richy Screamed as his spear struck home into the beetle that had thrown his friend. That same beetle died that very instance.

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“Move the hell back all of you!” Zane cried with his sprayer up, he hadn’t been able to do much before since they were blocking him from attacking, as soon as they did, he blasted the gathering beetles who had noticed the commotion, with the other soon joining in. The beetle stepped back and ran as many of them burned.

“AHHHH!!!” A shrill scream erupted from where Luise was causing them to look over. TO their horror a Beetle had stabbed its sharp legs into her sides and was in the process of strangling her. Luise Luise half gagged and screamed as tears flowed from her eyes.

As the Beetle scattered from the flames and Liquid nitrogen Richy ran for Luise with a spear at ready, the scared little boy from before completely gone as determination arose. However, he was too focused and didn’t see a beetle as it lunged for him, Lifting his spear in a futile attempt to block his previous determination shattered as he saw death coming from him. However the other wouldn’t allow that.

Ranzer, who had seen the beetle coming long before Richy, appeared out of nowhere, with a sizable group of people behind him, tackled the thing from the side, and just began punching. “Wacha standing there for! Go!” he screams as he wrestles with the beetle.

Richy didn’t need him to tell him twice as he ran with others behind him. Luise’s eyes had rolled to the back of her head when Richy punched it away, breaking his knuckles when he forgot he had a spear. The beetle screeched and let go of her, pulling a bloody sharp leg away from Luise’s side. Niko, Loe, Callie, Ranzer, Zane, Ria, a few of the other people, and shield wielders took care of the approaching beetles, dread setting in as another group of 20 normal beetles changed in, followed by another damned Big beetle.

F*cks could be here all across the battlefield as the big beetle decided that their small group was a better target than the one by the door and charged.

Mrs.Stillwater slid in rapidly dropping to all fours next to Luise where Richy was desperately trying to keep her wound from bleeding. Luise had woken up again and was crying in pain. Mrs.Stillwater quickly cut Luise’s shirt where the wound was and began to apply first aid….as best she could.

“How long is that going to take!” Asked Zane.

“We can’t move her! It will make it worse!” replied Mrs.Stillwater.

“We're gonna have to, we can’t hold off that thing! If we don’t we are all dead!” Said Loe after kicking a beetle in the jaw, promptly breaking its teeth.

The big beetle was getting closer when they tried to move Luise with the little Mrs.Stillwater had done to stop the bleeding. Most of the smaller beetles had been dealt with at this point and were all rushing away. Since the sprayers were no longer trying to conserve what was very much the last of their fuel all of them had been taken care of.

Essentially there were beetle corpses everywhere as they finally burned to death after running around frantically. The Molotovs at the beginning had long since been finished yet the fire still reigned in many portions of the room.

Everyone jumped the heck away when the big beetle plowed on through the corpse of beetles they had slain. Ranzer had taken Luise in the princess' carry and rushed back to the stairwell, some surviving beetle getting dealt with by Mrs.Stillwater, Richy, and those that were escorting them.

Jumping on the floor wasn’t the best. First, a portion of it was still on fire, and second, there was blood and guts from multiple species all over it. When they got up they found a mixture of red, blue, yellow, and purple blood all over their clothes and faces, mixed with bits of guts from which every poor soul and damned creatures the beetles had gutted. This caused nearly everyone to vomit, there was no way they could hold it in after that, even if there was practically nothing in their stomachs, stomach acid and vine paste were now added to the mess on the floor.

Saif Bolton, A guy with a flamethrower was doing his best to stand wiping the gore from his face and the vomit from his mouth, sadly he didn't notice when the Big beetle charged him from behind.

“Saif Look out!” cried Zane, but he was too late as he watched as one of his club members got ramed by the beetle's horn on the back. The big beetle’s horn impaled the gas tank along with Saif as the tank exploded, taking a chunk of the beetle's head with it. If Saif could have survived that, the beetle’s momentum didn’t stop when it got its head blown up and died, but continued until its body gave out crushing what remained of Saif’s Body after the explosion leaving a trail of red and blue gore as it skidded to a stop far from them.

“No!” Zane said, as fell to his knees and hands and began punching the ground.

The whole area was silent after, with only the raging flames from the molotovs, the last of the beetles had been killed a minute before, allowing everyone to see what had happened. If it was luck or a tragedy, nobody knew.

Niko was the first to break the silence, he placed his hand on Zane and said,” let's go back and take care of our injuries” he said getting Zane as he cried. It was about the first time he had seen him do so, so heavily.

His group walked back to the main gathering where they passed a bunch of crying people. Along with Saif, after Luise got thrown, 2 more had been thrown and had not survived their fall. Everyone was crying or near to it, but they had to get on with the matter at hand.

There were a lot of people injured, but 13 had it badly, broken arms or legs with the bone sticking out, 3-degree burns from the fire that was closing in, heavy head injuries, and much more. There wasn’t a lot Mrs.Stillwater could do about it. She had already had people call those who had experience in first aid from the second floor but it still proved too much, they needed more supplies.

“Everyone!” Said Mrs.Stillwater, grabbing everyone's attention as she stood up. It was clear she had been crying it, she wasn’t even trying to hide her emotion anymore, she just wanted to wake up in her bed hoping it had all been just a big misunderstanding. But she knew it wasn’t. “We don’t have enough supplies, I need someone to go to the nurse’s office and get things there, any volunteers.”

Nobody said anything, there was no telling just how bad the rest of the school was compared to this area, they could run into another large group of beetles coming this way to fight them again, no way anyone was going there.

“I’ll go.” Said Niko with a sigh, relieving a lot of people

“Guess that means I’m going too.” join Leo picking himself off the floor and grabbing his spear.

“I’ll go as well, better than doing nothing,” said Ranzer

“Me too,” said Rai, intending to see what was left of the school.

Mrs.Stillwater nodded with tears in her eyes,” go, just grab everything and rush back here!” she said, signaling them to leave. As Mrs.Stillwater turned back to take care of the heavily injured student she called out for someone to get the flame extinguisher and take the spreading fire out. The blood from the beetle had been doing a good job putting them out but it was growing again, and the smell was atrocious.

As Niko and his squad left the Area, they along with everyone else failed to notice the first Big beetle’s legs twitch.

~~~~~~~~~~

Niko and the other 3 rush their way to the Nurses office while also looking at the destruction around them. Just like the second floor, much of the rooms and walls have holes in them from the beetles breaking through. The first floor had much fewer vines, in fact, none at all so it was easier to traverse, but there was a lot of blood and body parts from both humans and other creatures, though not as much as the carnage of the second floor.

Thankfully they met little to no beetle during the trek to the nurse’s office, it also helps that it was close to the area they wanted to make into their base. As they got closer to the Nurses office they could see more and more dead beetles, those of which had been killed recently and likely by human hand. It gave them hope that there was another group surviving somewhere around the area.

When they got to the nurse’s office, they were surprised to see an entire group of people staying there through the window of the door. Quickly they began Knocking to get their attention.

The group that had been minding their own business up until now nearly all jumped, most grabbing makeshift weapons next to them as they looked over.

From their perspective, there are 4 gore covered teenagers waving frantically for them to open the door, in this situation any sane person would have kept their barricades and not let them in, but when the 4 were recognized by more the half of the room, they promptly did their best to remove the barricades quickly.

When the door opened, they were dragged in, before it was closed…

“Niko!” Shout Neo was running in for a hug, only reel back and gag from the blood covering him,” the hell have you been swimming! You smell terrible!”

“Yeah we’ve been through a lot,” he said solemnly.

Questions were backed their way from multiple sides of the room until parts of the faculty came from the backroom in a panic. There was a sizable number of them, the nurse, the principal, Coach McConnel, the head of security and a follower of his, a bunch of janitors, the design teacher, the manufacturing teacher, the woodwork teacher, and much more.

“Who the hell opened the door! You were supposed to call us if anyone came!” Said Coach McConnel, a tall 50-year-old African American man who had been an ex-drill sergeant in the army and had retired to become a coach.

The noise that had escalated went down as everyone looked at him apologetically,” Sorry Coach, It was just Niko, Ria, Leo, and Ranzer came.” Came a soft voice from the side, as Heather emerged from the crowd of people who had blocked her from joining her friends.

“Heather!” Rai said with relief and rushed to hug her, completely forgetting the colorful gore all over her. Heather's face went a little green but she hugged her best friend anyway.

“Oh my gosh!” said Rai Realizing the mess she’d made,” I’m so sorry!” she said pulling away from Heather as sticky gore stretched in front of them before falling. Heather whimpered a little before fainting from the sight of so much blood and gore on her. Rai Caught her as silence carried throughout the room.

“So how did you guys get in that state?” Asked the Principal, Mrs.Salinas, as heather was taken away by the nurse.

“It's a long story, let's just say the fight from the second floor onwards was not desirable. bad up there.” said Niko, “ nearly all the classrooms are gone.” added Ranzer.

The reaction to that wasn’t as bad as when they had brought it to their class and Mrs.Stillwater’s. They grimace a little but most put it aside from now to ask a question that has been on their mind.

“About that, how the hell did you guys survive on the second floor? When this whole mess started the beetles mostly all appeared on the second floor, we thought no one survived apart from the people passing by to get to the first floor,” asked Mr.Perry, the design teacher, whose classroom was on the 4th floor.

Before they could answer, Coach McConnell asked a much more pressing question,” Wait for a second, how are you even here? Three stairwells were destroyed by beetles or stray tank fire from the military. The only remaining staircase leading to Velysium hall and that area is where that…..massive beetle is, how did you make it past that?”

To his words gasps went all around. In the beginning, they had tried to get to that area and defend it since it had a lot of useful materials, but the big beetle had prevented them from doing so since it practically massacred the people who had been running around the area in panic when the whole disaster happened.

“All the beetles are massive sir.” stupidly Leo answered.

Coach McConnell grunted,” Fine, the above-average beetle.”

“They're all above average too----” “LEO! Not the time!” screamed Coach McConnel

“Sorry…” began Leo,” it's just how I deal with stress, and you’re right it’s not the time, we need medicine and fast, people are dying over there.”

The Principal immediately went to the back to fetch the nurse and everyone now paid more attention to their gore-covered ground.

“I'm almost afraid to ask, but what happened? Did you guys attack that beetle?” Coach McConnell asked.

“No of course not,” said Loe, as the other 3 the came with him looked at him oddly, Coach McConnel raised his eyebrow, sometimes he found himself failing to understand how Leo’s mind functions all this time.

“We attack 2 giant beetles” Continued Leo. “They're dead too,” added Ranzer.

The group all reeled back in shock as more gasping omg's were thrown across. Those big beetles had been a menace to their group as well as the other one in the school. At this point the principal came back with the nurse, having overheard the conversation she was less than happy,” You what! Are you out of your minds!”

Niko had about enough of this back and forth, the more time they wasted more people laid back in Velysium Hall dying,“ Ok look, can we not do this right now, people are dying, we had broken arms and legs there, with many of us with some severe bleeding. We can talk more after, but can we please take care of the injured classmates first.”

The Principal managed to calm herself after that as the nurse asked for details on the injured and took as much stuff as she could to help. The Principal, Coach McConnel, and the head of school security, Mr.Wheeler, were all coming. The nurse did tell the group to pack up everything and move to that location with it if what she took wasn’t enough before they left for Velysium Hall.

~~~~~~~~~

When they arrived, after killing at least 5 wandering beetles on their way, they were shocked at they found them. Velysium Hall was not on fire anymore, with smoke only bellowing from where they had been unto fire extinguishing foam, adding on to the mess on the floor. Smoke was still thick up in the air, but Velysium Hall had high enough ceilings for them to stand without suffocating.

The dead beetles all over who were in various states of burned or slightly frozen with their broken bite everywhere were surprising, but the real kicker was the rodeo happening right before their eyes.

Zane was on top of one of the Giant beetles, who had, apparently, not been dead but unconscious from the pain. The right side of the beetle’s face was burned with its eyes more or less useless now. Zane had used that as an opportunity to get on top of it while the rest of them tried desperately to get close enough to attack it, but who the hell could when the giant beetle was like a wild horse or a bull when someone mounted it. Zane clung onto the creature's front horns as its bladed feeler attempted to kill him but were too short.

With the beetle busy trying to throw off Zane who was somehow still staying up as the thing failed about screeching blue blood from its mouth from its earlier wounds. The sprayer had surrounded the thing and was spraying liquid nitrogen and flames at its face when it tried to escape. The beetle was not happy and avoided the spray knowing just how much damage they could do it.

“What the hell, I thought you said that thing was dead!” Hiss Coach McConnell as the rest of the adults in their room took in the carnage in the room with shock, eyeing the corpse of the beetle similar to the one Zane was fighting, but with a blown-up head… They could see how they were fighting this thing now.

“It was when we left.” Said Leo.

“Clearly not!” shouted Coach McConnel.

Their group made it past the battle raging on as a spear wielder managed to get on top of the beetle with pure, only he had dropped his spear in doing so. The Big Beetle grew even angrier trying everything to shake him off.

“Rennard!” called Maya to the guy who had gotten on the beetle with Zane,” Catch!” and tossed him a spear. Rennard managed to catch the spear without falling off and getting trampled. He tried to hit the beetle, but its carapace was much too strong for the spear.

“Can’t get through this damned carapace! What do I do!” He cried out as he kept trying. It was Richy who answered as he beckoned Niko’s teams and New arrivals where the cries of pain of multiple students could be heard. “ Try the space where the carapaces overlap! In between them!” the injured people had gotten much worse, instead of the 13 heavily injured they left to get help, 17 greeted them.

“Got it, man!” Replied Rennard as he fiddled with the spear to find the location, nearly slipping off.

Seeing their concern about the added casualties Richy said,” it woke up out of nowhere and attacked, we heard it moving and when we’re scrambling to get away it got the other 4…..killed about 2 more.”

Hearing it for the first time they scrunched up their face, it wa-----

“SRAAAHACHCAHCKKKKK!!!”

Rennard managed to drive his spear deep within the beetle causing it to screech so loud it hurt their ears. It violently lurched forward, Zane who had a good place to grab, kept on, but Rennard fell straight off and onto the floor. As he tried to get up in pain he was dragged back by more students as the beetle’s leg slammed where he had been a moment ago causing Rennard to piss himself from fright, but thankfully his gore-covered clothes and the smell of blood masked it all.

“Damn, I’m going to help!” Said Coach McConnell charging in with Mr.Wheeler at his heel each dropping the medical supplies they came with and taking a makeshift spear. Niko, Ranzer, Leo, and Ria followed suit, while the others went to help out the injured.

Rennard had gotten back unto the beetle somehow while everyone else struggled to find the right time window. Then Niko comes over and jumps one no problem as well causing everyone to question if they are doing something wrong.

“Welcome!” Said Rennard,

They caught as many spears as they could and made the thing into a porcupine in due time. Coach McConnell and Mr.Wheeler were doing some damage too, they attacked the more open parts of the beetle which weren't covered by carapace on the beetle’s sides, mainly is posterior. The problem was the creature moved fast and its legs made it too dangerous to get too close.

A stream of flames found its way into the creature's mount again causing it to pull back in pain. Niko and Rennard were both thrown off, tumbling towards its head until they fell to the floor. The beetle stopped moving and was busy spitting and hacking out blood, Niko and Rennard who were now underneath the creature from its previous movements after they fell found a spot to kill it. The Beetle was well armored in the front and on the top, but the back and bottom were not as much. Niko and Rennard could see a light green abdomen of the beetle.

They knew what to do, Niko took off the beetle teeth on the PVC he was holding and handed it to Rennard as the Beetle began to move again. As it passed by their laying forms, they stabbed at its exposed abdomen with everything they had.

The cry of death that left the beetle was like never before, as it passed they tore open its abdomen with its momentum alone as guts and blue blood splashed over them.

The beetle swayed as if it was drunk for a while leaving a pile of its gut and dragging the attached intestines before collapsing.

Shouts of victory erupted as it was finally over. They had survived.

“No!! It's in my mouth, it's in my mouth!!!” cried Niko and Rennard as they emerged from the disgusting pile of blue beetle guts spitting out blue blood wiping the gore off their face, they were going to need a very extensive shower after this.

Ranzer laughed, and Zane who had been distracting the beetle as this time finally sat down and had a break, chucking too as he saw the two of them desperately try to get the taste from the tongue.

The group from the Nurse’s room arrived with everything, rolling some of the beds in as well, and were shocked by the carnage in the room.

All in all, they live.

Trivia ------

It was hard for the survivors to watch their classmates die. If any of them had been in their position, the same thing would have surely happened. The teens are now wondering what the hell this cruel world would have in store for them. Many are hoping they can protect each other after taking Velysium Hall. But we all know that isn't going to happen.