Baisha, Sino, and Cen pressed onward, slaying plunder crocs as they navigated the marsh toward solid ground. Based on the airship's trajectory, Yu Yan's landing coordinates lay to the north.
The marsh was dotted with mangrove-like groves, their roots bathed in crystalline streams. Closer to land, the trees grew denser, their towering forms weaving a verdant curtain that choked out visibility.
"No more crocs around," Cen noted, checking her dashboard's point tally. "Those last ones were decent points."
"Small fry," Sino said. "B-grade, A-grade, S-grade, 2S-grade—the point gaps widen with each tier. We need high-grade targets. Crocs are endless, but 2S-grades? Kill one, and it's gone."
Sino carved a path with his blade, slicing through dangling vines that hung like a woven net. His chain-blade flashed, clearing a straight trail through the tangled growth.
"You sure this is the way?" Cen asked, nose wrinkling. "Something feels off."
The forest seemed to close in, a green cage dimming the light. Sunrays fractured through layered leaves, casting speckled shadows on massive roots.
"Don't doubt my navigation," Sino said, smirking. "Trees in natural settings lean south for sunlight, sparser north. See?" He slashed a trunk, inspecting its rings. "South side's looser, north tighter… but something's wrong."
They were circling, trapped by the mangroves.
Baisha spoke up. "Anyone smell that?"
"What?" Cen sniffed. "Since earlier, yeah—something sticky, damp, foul."
"It's from the water," Baisha said, eyeing a thick tree, its roots submerged in teal depths. She aimed her lance and fired two explosive rounds. The blast sent water skyward, revealing the lakebed: fragmented bones, fresh and reeking, entwined in black roots.
"Croc bones," Sino said, frowning. "These trees can strangle them?"
"Then why's it been so quiet?" Cen asked.
"Maybe they're nocturnal," Baisha mused, glancing at the faint sunlight. "Mutants tied to night cycles."
Cen's mouth twitched. "We should get out of here."
A rustling echoed from the forest's depths.
Baisha whipped her lance toward a shadowed corner, firing twice. A faint sizzle answered, followed by a chorus of skittering from all directions.
Giant red ants—blood ants—emerged from the foliage, their scythe-like mandibles glinting. Black eyes locked on the cadets, their jaws clacking ominously.
"Blood ants!" Sino grinned, raising his blade. A-grade, but their hive always housed an S-grade queen.
The ants paused, then launched, springing from branches. Cen shifted Rainbow Rain to arc-blade mode, hurling it like a spinning disc, slicing a semicircle of ants. Behind her, Sino's chain-blade whirled, decapitating three ants with a shrieking gust.
Headless ants collapsed, their kin trampling and devouring them in seconds.
"Hold them off—I'm after the queen," Baisha said, scaling a tree. She swept her lance, repelling clustering ants, then ignited her mech's thrusters. Six radiant wings flared, lifting her skyward. Shoulder-mounted cannons locked on, unleashing a barrage that rained charred ant corpses.
She vaulted through the canopy, tracing the ants' path to a towering tree. There, a massive hive loomed—black clay and white secretions formed irregular spheres, riddled with twisting tunnels.
Baisha eyed the hive's countless openings. Too many to search.
Below, the hive straddled two conjoined giant trees. She narrowed her eyes, channeling mental energy into her lance. Its tip ignited with pulsing blue flames. In a blinding flash, her mech streaked like a meteor, striking the trees' midsection. Blue-white fire erupted, incinerating bark and branches into ash that swirled skyward.
The trees collapsed, the hive crumbling into the water.
The ant swarm froze, then went berserk, surging toward their ruined home.
Cen impaled two ants with her arc-blade, slicing them apart, then switched to bow mode, firing flame arrows into a dense cluster. "Her Highness found the hive. We need to move."
She and Sino fought through ants, leaping to Baisha's position, marked by rising smoke and the heat of burning branches. They arrived as Baisha pinned the queen, her lance buried in its massive abdomen. A piercing wail erupted, and a wild mental surge rippled outward, churning the water into misty barriers.
Baisha stood firm, her lance unwavering. Her mech's wings flared, cannons shearing off the queen's wings, grounding it. "Want the kill?" she called to Sino and Cen.
"No need," Sino said. "Your prey, Your Highness."
Baisha nodded, obliterating the queen's hearts with surgical precision. The queen stilled, and the frenzied ants froze, their antennae twitching aimlessly before retreating into the forest like a receding tide.
In time, a new queen would rise.
Baisha sheathed her lance, eyeing the corpse. "Shame. A blood ant queen's heart is prime material."
Fresh hearts were potent but needed refining within three days—impossible here. To ensure the kill, she'd destroyed them all.
"Chase the stragglers?" Cen asked. "They're easy pickings now."
"Let's leave this grove," Baisha said. "Something's off here."
She prodded the queen's corpse, uncovering seeds with faint green sprouts. Sino frowned. "Ant symbiotes?"
"What kind of plant?" Baisha asked.
Sino shook his head. "Not botanists. We'd need them grown to tell."
"Take a few?" Baisha suggested. "I've got a hunch these are tied to the grove."
If so, the forest was feeding on something—siphoning life from mutants.
"Parasitic mutants aren't rare, but they control hosts subtly, staying hidden," Sino said gravely. "If this grove is the mutant, feeding on energy, its scale is monstrous."
A forest devouring S-grade queens and crocs? Its amassed power was unthinkable.
Cen froze the seeds with ice arrows. Baisha exited her mech, using the stolen toolbox to craft a box from the queen's chitin, sealing the seeds inside with care to avoid contact.
They trekked under blazing sun, escaping the maze-like grove after an hour, reaching shore to rendezvous with Yu Yan. Sino recounted their morning, and Yu Yan blinked. "That commotion was you?"
"What'd you face?" Cen asked. "Any S-grades?"
Yu Yan led them to a pristine beach, pointing to his haul: two giant mutant conchs, a gray octopus, two man-sized crabs, and mutant starfish.
The trio stared.
"Not high-grade, but…" Cen swallowed, eyeing a crab's massive claw. "Looks like a seafood buffet."
"Don't," Sino said. "Unpurified mutants aren't edible. Let's find real food."
Cen deflated.
They split to forage. Sino found coconuts, Cen gathered edible kelp and mussels, Baisha collected dew and a cat-eye snail, and Yu Yan's bear construct hauled in two half-dead black bream.
Sino built a stone stove, using coconut shells as bowls for a seafood stew. Cen tasted it and winced. "We grill next time. This stew's… cursed."
Baisha eyed the greenish broth. "Seconded."
"It's not that bad," Sino protested, sniffing it and falling silent.
Yu Yan, unfazed, downed his bowl. The others, grimacing, forced theirs down.
Later, Baisha checked the seed box. The ice held; the seeds were dormant. The team moved inland to a vast plain beneath mountains, its grasses trampled, skies patrolled by B-grade mutant birds too high for Cen's arrows.
Sino studied scoured slopes. "This place has been ransacked."
"Ransacked?" Cen scoffed. "More like locusts hit it. Who could strip a plain like this?"
"Dozens, at least," Yu Yan said warily. "Who has that pull?"
"Xizhou," Sino said. Tianquan shunned cliques, Dongluo was too lax, and Nanmi's Ji Ya preferred solo work. Only Xizhou's disciplined packs fit.
They'd need half a day to avoid Xizhou, risking direct competition otherwise. Cresting a hill, they spotted Xizhou's beast-shaped mechs hunting in tight units of four or five. A pack of silver wolf mechs cornered an S-grade silver-horned rhino, their blitzkrieg strikes relentless, goading the beast's rage while dodging its charges.
As the rhino faltered, the lead wolf leapt, its jaws sparking purple lightning. It bit the rhino's neck, unleashing a thunderous blast. Blood mist sprayed, and the rhino fell.
The wolves, precise and lethal, aided other units next.
"Xizhou's securing plenty of spots," Cen said. "But how do they split kills in teams?"
"It's their way," Sino said. "Some sacrifice points to boost key players onto the leaderboard—for main team command."
Command required a main team slot.
Kaisin Grez, in his wolf mech, glanced their way. A packmate asked, "Tianquan's here. Pull back?"
"Why?" Kaisin sneered. "It's a fair hunt. If they want prey, let them fight for it!"
His words barely settled when a packmate shouted, "They're charging us!"
Kaisin's face stiffened. "Hold formation! Guard the prey—they won't steal our kills!"