Chapter 41: ANOMALY QUEST COMPLETE.
The Queen’s scream ripped through the nest. A sound like a thousand dying voices layered into one shriek. Rattling the webbed walls so hard that half-formed Eaters inside their sacs kicked and twitched in panic. The entire root system pulsed like an enraged heart.
"WHAT ARE YOU?! YOU ARE NOT ONE OF US!"
Fleshy strings shot from the walls, wet tendrils snapping toward Johnquis and Dancer like living spears. The floor heaved under their soles as roots bulged and split, trying to pin them down.
Johnquis swung his chain, slicing one, two but the webbing kept coming.
"Shit! Dancer, MOVE—"
But she wasn’t moving back. She was done backing down. A low, guttural hiss bled out from her throat, her pupils pinpricks of burning gold. One second she was wrapped in sticky strings, the next—
SNAP!
Her foot-blade slashed out in a blinding arc, carving through every fleshy cord in reach. The roots recoiled like butchered serpents. She rotated, heel flashing again, slicing the webbing off her shoulders, her arms, her throat. The last strands fell away in steaming ribbons.
Around them, the unformed Eaters shuddered inside their sacs. Some split open early, shrieking in half-formed voices, crawling toward them on boneless limbs.
Johnquis let out a harsh laugh. "Oh, come on! They’re not even cooked yet!"
His chain whipped out.