Mist clung to the jungle like wet silk. Every step sent clouds of glowing spores swirling up from the moss, turning the air into a shimmering haze. Towering ferns with leaves like ship sails leaned inward, closing behind them as if the forest were swallowing the group whole. Even Kong, massive and sure-footed, slowed to a cautious lope, knuckles sinking into soil that pulsed faintly with green light.
Lin moved just behind the great ape, his new human body still feeling strange. His hands flexed without claws now, but a faint blue glow traced his veins, his senses sharper than they'd ever been in his old human skin. The hum of Skull Island was in his bones. Every vibration told him the same thing: this place was awake, watching.
His system's voice whispered in the back of his skull, calm but relentless:
> [Human Function Active – 46:12:48 Remaining]
[Energy Output Stable at 42%. Control Level: High.]
He exhaled. "Two days to play human," he muttered under his breath. "Let's hope that's enough to not die in this hellhole."
Behind him, the Aegis survivors trudged in a nervous line, weapons up. Keller kept her eyes on her handheld scanner, its screen glitching under the heavy Titan interference. "Nothing's reading correctly," she whispered. "It's like the whole island is a jamming field."
Muk'Tahl, the Guardian, moved ahead of Kong like a living siege engine, tusks parting the undergrowth. Its stone-carved shell vibrated with low rumbles, communicating with the unseen island network. Lin caught fragments of meaning—"safe path," "test," "watchers"—but nothing clear.
Kong tilted his head now and then, sniffing the air, amber eyes flicking at movements in the trees. The giant ape was restless, and that made Lin's gut clench. If Kong was nervous, things were bad.
A branch cracked somewhere up ahead. Not big, not like a Titan, but heavy enough to make the ground quiver.
Keller's voice was a whisper. "Please tell me that's not another Guardian."
Lin cocked his head, senses reaching out. He didn't feel a Titan-level presence—no mountain-size heartbeat. This was smaller. Faster. And hungrier.
> [Unknown Lifeforms Detected – Subterranean Origin]
[Classification: Titanic Arthropod Juveniles]
[Recommendation: Defensive Posture.]
"F—k," Lin muttered. "We've got company."
The jungle ahead stirred. Vines trembled. Something crawled out from under a mound of moss—a shape like an ant but as long as a bus, its exoskeleton black with iridescent green streaks. Its mandibles clicked, each snap like a gunshot. Four compound eyes glowed faintly red in the gloom.
Behind it, two more emerged, their bodies lower, moving with a disturbingly synchronized gait. Their antennae twitched, tasting the air. The smell hit next—acidic, sweet, like rotting fruit mixed with battery acid.
Keller's face went pale. "Those… those aren't in any file either."
Lin's system fed him a whisper of data:
> [Drones of Ancient Matriarch – "Formica Rex"]
[Purpose: Foraging / Defense / Testing Intruders.]
"They're scouts," Lin said quietly. "And we're on their grocery list."
One of the drones raised its head and let out a screech like tearing metal. The other two echoed it. In perfect unison they scuttled forward, claws gouging furrows in the glowing soil.
Kong bared his teeth and pounded his chest once, the sound a boom that made the trees tremble. Muk'Tahl rumbled low, its tusks lowering. The air turned electric.
Lin stepped forward, raising his hands. "We don't have to—"
The lead drone lunged.
Kong moved first, swatting it sideways with one massive hand. The ant-thing hit a tree the size of a tower, splintering it, but landed on all six legs hissing, its mandibles dripping a milky acid that hissed where it touched the ground.
The second and third drones darted around Kong with insectile speed, aiming straight for the humans at the back.
"Scatter!" Keller yelled.
Lin's new human muscles responded faster than thought. He blurred forward, Resonance sparking around his arms like blue fire. He grabbed one drone's mandible mid-strike and twisted, flipping the creature onto its back. It screeched, legs thrashing, acid spraying onto nearby ferns and turning them to steaming sludge.
The second drone lunged at Keller. She raised her rifle but it jammed with a click.
"Move!" Lin roared, diving between her and the ant. He slammed a palm glowing with Resonance into its forehead. The pulse blasted through its skull like a shockwave. It staggered back, antennae thrashing.
Kong grabbed the first drone by its thorax and crushed it like an aluminum can, tossing the twitching body into the trees. Muk'Tahl gored the third with a tusk, lifting it clear off the ground and slamming it down so hard the earth cracked.
But even dying, the drones hissed a strange rhythm—a clicking pattern that made Lin's skin crawl. A signal.
More clicks echoed deeper in the jungle. Fainter. Then louder. Like a chorus waking up underground.
Lin's system chimed:
> [Warning: Additional Juveniles Approaching]
[Source: Subterranean Tunnel Network Beneath Island.]
[Matriarch Signature: Dormant. Estimated emergence – Indeterminate.]
"Holy sh*t," Lin whispered. "That was the appetizer."
The ground beneath their feet vibrated. Tiny holes popped open in the glowing soil, spilling out clouds of steam. The scent of acid intensified.
Kong grunted, glancing at Lin as if asking silently: fight or flee?
Lin's spines prickled under his skin. He wanted to roar, but in this form it came out a low growl. "We need cover," he said. "Now."
Muk'Tahl rumbled a string of stone-thoughts Lin barely grasped—"follow, safe path, hive"—and turned sharply off the trail, smashing through a wall of roots.
Kong followed without hesitation, grabbing one more drone and flinging it behind them like a toy. The humans scrambled after, Keller dragging a soldier whose arm had been splashed with acid.
Lin brought up the rear, glancing back. Dozens of faint red glows winked in the underbrush—eyes, mandibles, antennae—closing in.
He pushed a Resonance pulse out like sonar. The tunnels below were a maze, teeming with movement, the deeper layers throbbing with a single colossal heartbeat. The Queen. Still far below but stirring.
His system whispered:
> [Human Function Active – 45:55:04 Remaining]
[Note: Form Stable. Titan Energy Signature Suppressed.]
"Good," he muttered. "Last thing we need is Mama Ant thinking I'm dessert."
Muk'Tahl led them to a sunken stone causeway half-buried under vines. Glowing runes pulsed along its sides, forming an archway that descended into a canyon choked with mist. The Guardian stomped down the steps like it owned the place.
Kong hesitated at the top, sniffing, then followed. Lin ushered the humans after him.
The clicking behind them grew louder. Red glows flickered between the trees, closer now.
They reached the canyon floor—a narrow strip of black sand along a glowing river that hissed like acid. Giant roots crossed overhead like ribs. The runes here were brighter, casting ghost-light on the water.
Lin's system flashed a warning:
> [Drones Closing – 200m. Estimated Contact: 30 Seconds.]
He turned to Kong. "Hold them here?"
Kong's amber eyes narrowed. He pounded his chest once.
Muk'Tahl planted its tusks into the sand, runes on its shell flaring. A low rumble rolled through the canyon like a drumbeat.
The first wave of drones poured into the canyon—ten this time, each the size of a truck, mandibles clacking in eerie synchrony. Their movements were jerky but purposeful, like a single organism with many bodies.
Lin stepped forward, Resonance igniting his arms like blue plasma. His voice was a low snarl. "Round two."
Kong charged with a roar that shook loose dust from the canyon walls. He met the first drone with an uppercut that launched it into the air. Muk'Tahl swung a tusk like a scythe, cleaving two at once.
Lin darted between them, striking with precision instead of brute force. In his human form the Resonance felt like a scalpel instead of a hammer. He slammed pulses into joints, antennae, eyes—disabling rather than obliterating.
Acid splashed, sizzling against stone. Soldiers fired rail rounds, sparks dancing off exoskeletons. Keller barked orders, voice steady even as her hands shook.
The drones fought without fear, swarming, mandibles snapping. One leapt at Lin's back; he spun, catching it by the throat and shoving a pulse straight through its skull. It collapsed, twitching.
Another got close enough to spray acid at Kong. The giant ape roared, shielding his face with one arm, then crushed the ant underfoot.
Still more poured in.
Lin's system pulsed:
> [Human Function Active – 45:48:59 Remaining]
[Energy at 38%. Recommend Conservation.]
"Working on it!" Lin snapped.
He looked past the fight to the deeper jungle. Through the haze he saw massive tunnels in the canyon walls—perfectly round, lined with slick black resin. They pulsed faintly, like throats breathing.
And from deep within, a low, rolling tremor—like the growl of a sleeping planet.
His stomach dropped. That wasn't a roar. That was the Queen's heartbeat.
The drones suddenly froze mid-attack. All at once their antennae pointed inward, toward the tunnels. They clicked a new pattern, sharper, urgent. Then, as if on cue, they turned and scuttled back into the tunnels, vanishing like a retreating tide.
Silence crashed down, broken only by the hiss of the river.
Lin lowered his glowing hands, panting. "What… the hell?"
Keller wiped sweat from her brow. "Did we… win?"
Muk'Tahl rumbled, tusks lowering. Lin caught fragments of meaning—"not win," "called back," "matriarch listening."
He swallowed. "They weren't scared of us. They were summoned."
Kong grunted low, glancing at the tunnels. His fists clenched.
Lin's system whispered:
> [Matriarch Status: Dormant – 88% Probability of Awakening if Disturbed.]
Lin blew out a shaky breath. "Let's try not to disturb her, yeah?"
Muk'Tahl turned and began walking deeper along the glowing river, toward the heart of the island. Kong followed, glancing back once at Lin, then at the humans.
Lin flexed his human fingers, feeling the faint glow under his skin, the timer ticking in the corner of his mind.
> [Human Function Active – 45:43:17 Remaining]
He muttered, "Two days. Two f—king days."
Then he stepped after Kong and Muk'Tahl, into the misty canyon, leaving the tunnels—and the heartbeat of the Queen—behind them for now.
Above, unseen, something vast shifted deep under the island, its antennae brushing ancient stone, sensing the intruders who had survived its children.