Emily barely had time to process what was happening before the beast was upon them.

  Her heart pounded as the massive armadillo, now curled into a metallic sphere, its plated shell locking into place with a deafening clunk. Then, it launched forward, accelerating like a cannonball fired from the depths of the swamp. The ground shook under the force of its momentum, leaves and debris kicking up in a chaotic storm behind it.

  “WATCHOUT!” Emily yelled.

  The colossal creature barreled straight for the mana shield, a runaway train with no brakes.

  Emily dove to one side and Dexter the other. Quinn, with no time to move, gritted his teeth and planted his feet. The shield flared brighter as he reinforced it, the translucent barrier pulsing in sync with his mana flow.

  Then impact.

  The moment the rolling titan struck the shield, the force sent a thunderous shockwave rippling outward. The energy field bent inward, buckling under the pressure, its glow flickering wildly.

  Then Quinn flew.

  The shield, still active, went with him, sending him hurtling backward like a launched ragdoll. He barely registered the sudden flight before slamming into the thick trunk of a cypress tree, the impact forcing the air from his lungs.

  “QUINN!” Emily’s voice cracked.

  The shield collapsed.

  With nothing holding them back, the swarm of beetles surged forward, their tiny bodies flickering between dimensions as they streaked toward them like living bullets.

  Emily and Dexter dove for cover, barely avoiding the first wave. Trees behind them were shredded in an instant, the beetles slicing clean through bark like high-speed drills.

  Dexter hit the ground, rolled, then popped up on one knee. “YUP. I KNEW IT. I HATE BULLET BEETLES.” Dexter threw up a mana shield behind him preparing for the second wave.

  Emily was already moving, with Dexter in tow. She grabbed Quinn’s arm and hauled him up. “Are you okay?”

  Quinn let out a pained grunt, rubbing his back. “Define ‘okay.’ That thing hits like a freight train.”

  A deep, rumbling growl cut through the chaos.

  The armadillo uncurled, shaking off debris, fixing its tiny but terrifying gaze on them. It snorted, the mana in its body pulsing like a charging reactor.

  Emily’s brain kicked into overdrive. “We need a plan.”

  Dexter nodded. “Retreat?”

  “Retreat.” Quinn agreed without hesitation.

  The three of them bolted, tearing through the swamp, dodging trees and vaulting over roots.

  Dexter launches large drones to confuse the titan and lead it in the wrong direction.

  The armadillo let out a deep chuff, then rolled again, surging after the drones with terrifying momentum.

  The beetles followed, streaking through the air in a swarm of glowing, phased-out projectiles.

  Dexter, breathless, panted, “This is the worst version of a nature documentary, ever.”

  The trio skidded to a halt, pressing themselves against the thick, gnarled trunk of an ancient cypress tree, its moss-draped branches swaying from the shockwaves of their pursuer’s charge. The distant rumble of rolling destruction didn’t stop. If anything, it was getting louder.

  Emily sucked in a breath. “We need a way to stop both the beetles and that gigantic armadillo…” she paused, looking at Dexter. “Garmadillo? Gargantidillo? Maybe Mega-Madillo?"

  “I like your enthusiasm,” Deter said appraisingly. “But I was thinking more of Rollmageddon, Shellnado, or Obliteroll’.” He paused. “Actually, once that thing starts rolling, it doesn’t stop, now I’m thinking it's definitely in the Juggernaught family, so maybe Juggernillo. But kudos on the brand names. I’m liking your style.”

  “Seriously you two, you have to name it right now?” Quinn asked, still healing himself.

  Dexter leaned out from behind the tree, just long enough to watch a cluster of the glowing beetles flicker through a log, leaving perfectly round holes in their wake. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Good point.”

  Quinn was bent over still catching his breath. “Alright. What do we know? 1 - The bullet beetles are using magnetic fields and special mana to phase, right? And 2 - They can’t phase through our mana shields. That means—”

  “We disrupt the magnetic field and use our mana shields to contain them. But how? ” Emily finished trying to hurry the obvious along.

  Dexter snapped his fingers. “Alright! Here me out.”

  “This never ends well when he starts a sentence like that,” Quinn said half jokingly to Emily.

  “Do you have a better plan?” Emily asked Quinn.

  “Go ahead Dexter, let’s hear it,” Quinn conceded.

  “First off, we have to stop the Juggernillo or we won’t be able to handle the beetles. Once we do that, we do your plan for the beetles. Obviously we use drones as electromagnetic disruptors.” He tapped his bracer, already adjusting settings. “If I reconfigure the drones emitters, I could generate a massive magnetic pulse, think of it like the bass in music. I’ll alternate the rhythm of the pulse so they can’t easily adapt. Then, and this is the cool part, we all combine our mana shields into one like we did when we first learned how to control mana. We create a dome over the entire area and we slowly shrink the shield to capture them in a small secluded space. If we have to, we can keep shrinking it and squish them all into a bug pulp. These creatures could be the end of the human race if they get free. We may not have the option to capture these ones. And besides, I hate bugs. I’m good with extermination.”

  Emily turned to Quinn. “Could your Biomancy help with this somehow? If you sync up with the environment, could you mess with the magnetic resonance or interfere with their neuropathways?"

  Quinn considered, then nodded slowly. “Possibly, but I’d need a boost. Something just feels different with these critters. It's like they are off frequency when I try to read them. There might be too much interference from the difference.”

  Emily looked up as if addressing Sim. “Sim, can you give us anything?”

  Sim’s voice came through calm, but measured. “I’ve been scanning the tree since you arrived. It’s… unique. The mana signatures coming from it are unlike anything I’ve seen before.”

  Dexter raised an eyebrow. “Define ‘unique.’”

  There was a pause before Sim answered. “I believe this tree is a natural mana well.”

  Quinn’s gaze sharpened. “Meaning?”

  Sim continued, “It’s a source of raw mana, generated directly from the planet itself. Instead of a leak—where mana seeps uncontrollably into the world—this is different. This is a wellspring. A pure, self-sustaining font of mana. But, the mana is different.”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  A heavy silence settled over them.

  Emily exhaled. “So, we’re staring at one of the rarest phenomena in existence, and me without my lab equipment.” She smiled.

  Dexter let out a low whistle. “Guess that explains the infestation.”

  “That could explain the difference I’m sensing in the beetles.” Quinn folded his arms. “If this tree is producing mana at this level, we need to figure out exactly what it truly is.

  Then the ground shook. Not a subtle tremor. A full-on, trees-swaying, swamp-water-rippling quake.

  Dexter peered around the tree just in time to see the armadillo launch itself forward again, its enormous shell gleaming like a boulder of polished steel. It obliterated every tree in its path, shredding trunks into splinters as it barreled right at them.

  Dexter’s eyes went wide. “Oh, COME ON. We were almost ready. RUN!”

  They took off running as best they could through the marshy wetlands.

  They turned as the armadillo barreled toward them. “We need to split up,’ Emily yelled. I’ll distract Roly Polly here and you two come up with a way to stop it.”

  Dexter and Quinn hid behind a tree as Emily started yelling so it would follow her.

  “Roly Poly wasn’t even an option, she knows it's a Juggernillo,” Dexter scoffed.

  Quinn exhaled sharply. “Focus, Dex. We need to control its movement. I have an idea. Cover me.” He didn’t hesitate—dropping to one knee, he pressed both palms into the damp earth, channeling Biomancy into the network of roots beneath them.

  A deep rumble resonated through the ground.

  Massive roots twisted and coiled, tunneling beneath the soil, shaping into a very deep pit. The terrain shuddered and gave way, the hole widening, a tangled web of thick roots reinforcing its walls.

  Quinn opened his system chat.

  Quinn: “Emily, lead it back this direction and blink step over the pit I just created.”

  Emily started turning back in a wide circle. She drew an arrow, channeling mana into the shaft until crackling arcs of electricity danced along its surface. The air snapped with energy as she pulled back the bowstring and released.

  The arrow streaked through the air, striking the armadillo with a thunderous jolt. Sparks flared, racing across its shell in jagged tendrils. The beast let out a guttural roar as it unrolled. Its momentum stuttering for the briefest second before its beady, rage-filled eyes locked onto her.

  Emily smiled. “That’s right. Come and get me, you big marble.”

  She pivoted, blink-stepping just out of reach each time the armadillo lunged, leading it straight toward the pit. The ground trembled as the rolling colossus thundered after her, picking up speed with each revolution.

  And then—the earth gave way beneath it.

  With a deafening CRASH, the armadillo plummeted into the pit, slamming into the bottom with a ground-shaking impact that sent loose dirt, swamp water and debris flying in all directions.

  The moment the armadillo slammed into the pit, it immediately went into overdrive, claws raking deep gouges into the dirt walls, muscles flexing beneath its mana-infused shell as it struggled to climb free.

  “Not happening,” Quinn muttered, already moving.

  He thrust both arms forward, his Biomancy surging into the earth. The roots lining the pit lurched to life, thick vines twisting like serpents, lunging toward the trapped beast. They coiled around its limbs, tightening with each thrash, anchoring it firmly to the ground.

  The armadillo bellowed, a deep, guttural sound that sent a vibration through the pit walls, but the more it fought, the tighter the roots wound. And a lattice of large roots formed a cage over the top.

  Emily landed beside Quinn, bow still in hand, breath coming fast. “Nicely done.” Then with a flirtatious look in her eye, she said, “If we ever get a pool, you’re installing it.” She winked.

  Dexter’s fingers were flying over his bracer controls, his usual cocky smirk absent—replaced by sheer concentration. “Alright, kids,” he muttered under his breath. “Time to put science to work.”

  His drones whirred, hovering in formation around the tree. The beetles seem to always return to the tree as if it was the source of their power. Dexter fine-tuned the emitters. The machines pulsed, releasing a disruptive magnetic wave, the air around them humming with invisible static.

  “Disruptive electromagnetic field is live!” Dexter called out.

  The effect was instant. The beetles flickered erratically, their movements jerky and uncoordinated. Instead of smoothly phasing through the air, they staggered, glitching like corrupted code. A few collapsed entirely, their legs scrabbling at the ground, struggling to orient themselves.

  Emily’s enhanced eyesight tracked their reaction. “It’s working,” she confirmed, her fingers flexing around her bow. “Let’s move, we need that shield up,”

  They split up and formed a triangle around the tree about 100 yards out. Using their chat, they coordinated their mana shields and formed a dome. With the help of Dexter's drones, they maneuvered slowly toward the tree, shrinking the dome as they got closer. When the dome was just above the tree, the swarm of phased-out beetles flickering erratically as Dexter’s drones emitted their disruptive magnetic pulses. They were so close. Just a few more minutes and they could seal this nightmare away.

  All of a sudden, the ground started to tremble. The tree started to vibrate and the water rippled all around it. Then, right between Quinn and Dexter, and outside the shield, the swamp erupted.

  A geyser of mud, water, and writhing, segmented bodies exploded into the air, a grotesque monsoon of pale, translucent larvae with pulsing blue veins glowing like tangled threads of lightning. Thousands of them.

  Emily’s muscles locked as her mind screamed for action, but her body refused to obey, frozen in place by the horror before her. Not now. Not this.

  Quinn and Dexter were in the fallout zone, caught in the shadow of an unavoidable, unrelenting attack. No cover. No time to blink-step. No shield between them and the nightmare above.

  She saw Quinn’s eyes widen, not in panic, but understanding. A warrior’s clarity in the final moments before impact. His fingers twitched toward Biomancy, instinct pushing for a solution his body couldn’t deliver fast enough.

  Dexter was a blur of motion, hands flashing over his bracer, desperate to pull something—anything—from his arsenal. A shield, a disruption pulse, a miracle. But she knew, even before the thought fully formed, that he wouldn’t make it in time.

  They were about to die.

  Emily’s pulse pounded, a hammering rhythm that drowned out the world. Her vision narrowed, a tunnel of helplessness crushing inward, suffocating. She had fought, trained, bled for this team, and now—now, when it mattered most—she was powerless. She had never known helplessness like this.

  No. No. NO!

  Her world fractured. Time stretched into something unnatural, her perception warping under the weight of her own terror. She saw everything in excruciating clarity—each individual larva twisting midair, most already beginning to phasing out.

  From a depth she didn’t know existed, something inside her cracked open, a fissure deeper than muscle, deeper than mana, as if something inside her had been waiting for this moment, waiting for the precise instant when terror, fury, and absolute refusal to lose them could break it free.

  Immediately, she could feel the swamp. The mana in the air, in the ground, saturating the world around her like a presence she had never noticed but had always been there. It was not gentle. It was not controlled. It was raw and waiting to be taken.

  The pull was violent, a surge of ice through her veins, spreading outward in a wave of something beyond mana, beyond her. Cold stole her breath, only to be replaced by searing heat, burning through her limbs, branding itself into the fabric of her being.

  She reached for it. Clawed at it. Ripped it free.

  The scream that tore from her throat was more than sound. It was a demand. A refusal. A declaration that the universe itself would bow to her will.

  “NOOOOOOOOOO!”

  The world answered.

  A blinding white shockwave erupted from her chest, surging outward in an expanding dome of undiluted power. The swamp didn’t just go silent—it stopped. The air held still, the trees frozen in place, and for a fraction of a second, time itself hesitated.

  Every beetle, every larva, every phase-shifted creature, whether above ground or below, in the blast radius died instantly. Whatever force had allowed them to flicker between dimensions, to exist outside the rules of reality, was immediately severed.

  The shockwave vanished as fast as it came, leaving only silence.

  Emily collapsed to her knees, the world tilting as the last traces of strength drained from her limbs. Her body was empty, hollowed out, a vessel that had poured out everything it had and more. Her vision blurred, but she forced her head up, searching for them—Quinn. Dexter.

  They were alive. Safe.

  Her lips tried to form a smile, but her body had nothing left to give. Her vision blurred, then everything went black.

  Emily collapsed.