The jungle closed around Gamma again.
Within an hour of leaving the place where they had reunited, the six of them had settled back into the rhythm they had followed before the ground beneath the Verdant Maneater had collapsed.
Lucian took point.
David moved several steps behind him with Castiel nearby. Nyra watched the left side of their formation while Mira and June covered the right and rear.
They were moving southeast.
According to Lucian's navigation display, another hour or two should bring them close to the route they had been following before the Maneater had drawn them away.
After that, they could continue their original sweep east through H-09.
At least that was the plan.
David stepped over a root stretching across the jungle floor.
Castiel stepped over it immediately behind him.
David kept walking.
Thirty seconds later, he glanced back.
Castiel was still there.
David faced forward again.
Another minute passed.
He looked back.
Castiel raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Then stop looking at me."
David smiled.
"I was going to tell you the same thing."
Castiel stared at him.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Sure."
David continued walking.
Castiel followed.
June, several yards behind them, leaned toward Mira.
"He's been doing that for an hour."
Mira glanced toward Castiel.
"I noticed."
"Every thirty seconds."
"I noticed that too."
June nodded thoughtfully.
"Think we should tell him David survived?"
Castiel didn't turn around.
"I can hear you."
June smiled.
"Good. Saves me the walk."
David laughed.
Castiel shook his head.
For the first time since the collapse, the sound didn't feel forced.
The jungle still presented the same dangers it had before.
Every shadow beneath the enormous trees could conceal a creature.
Every thick cluster of vegetation could hide movement.
But something about Gamma had changed.
They were talking again.
June was making jokes.
Mira was responding to them.
Nyra occasionally smiled.
Even Castiel's usual dry remarks had begun returning.
David hadn't realized how much he'd missed it.
Then Lucian raised his fist.
Everyone stopped.
The change was immediate.
Weapons remained folded, but hands moved toward them.
David scanned the jungle.
Nothing moved.
Nyra looked toward Lucian.
"What is it?"
Lucian pointed down.
"Terrain."
David approached.
The ground ahead sloped downward into a shallow depression where rainwater had collected beneath the trees.
Mud covered most of it.
Lucian stepped carefully down the slope.
David followed.
At first he saw nothing unusual.
Then Lucian moved aside.
David stopped.
A massive depression had been pressed into the mud.
Not random.
Not erosion.
A footprint.
David stared.
He knew that shape.
Nyra came down beside him.
Her eyes widened.
"Is that..."
"Yeah."
Castiel approached from behind.
"The tracks."
June and Mira joined them.
June looked down into the enormous print.
Then across it.
Then back at David.
"I was having such a good day."
Mira looked at him.
"You complained about the jungle for most of it."
"That was recreational complaining."
June pointed toward the footprint.
"This is legitimate."
Lucian crouched beside the track.
The impression was enormous.
Far larger than anything Gamma had encountered since entering H-09.
Four deep forward impressions marked where heavy digits had driven into the mud, with a wider rear pad sunk several inches beneath the surface.
Water had begun gathering inside it.
David crouched beside Lucian.
Before the Maneater encounter, Gamma had been following prints just like these.
The trail had been difficult to maintain.
Old tracks.
Broken vegetation.
Occasional signs of something enormous moving through the sector.
They had never found the creature responsible.
Then the Maneater had changed everything.
David touched the mud near the edge.
Soft.
Recently disturbed.
Lucian did the same.
"Fresh."
Castiel looked toward the jungle ahead.
"How fresh?"
Lucian examined the water inside the impression.
"Recent."
June crouched on the opposite side.
"That's scientific."
Lucian ignored him.
"The edges haven't started collapsing yet."
David looked at the surrounding vegetation.
A fern beside the track had been crushed.
Its broken stalk still glistened with moisture.
He touched it.
"This hasn't been down long."
Nyra scanned the trees.
"So whatever made these..."
"Passed through recently," David finished.
Nobody spoke for a moment.
The mission returned to the front of everyone's mind.
Gamma had not been sent into H-09 to explore ruins.
They had not been sent to fight one Verdant Maneater.
Their objective was much larger.
**Remove the hostile beasts from Sector H-09.**
And whatever had made these tracks was still here.
Lucian stood.
"Spread out. Find the next print."
Gamma separated without needing further instruction.
Mira moved right.
Nyra went left.
David and Castiel continued forward while June circled the muddy depression.
It didn't take long.
"Here."
Mira's voice came from ahead.
Everyone converged on her position.
Another footprint.
Then another.
The trail continued east.
Lucian checked his navigation display.
David watched his expression.
"What?"
Lucian rotated the map toward them.
"The tracks are almost following our original route."
June looked at the display.
"Of course they are."
Nyra glanced at him.
"Problem?"
"I was hoping the giant mysterious creature had developed an interest in somewhere we're not going."
Castiel stepped past him.
"No such luck."
June sighed.
"Story of my life."
They followed the tracks.
At first, the trail was easy.
The creature's weight had driven enormous impressions into every patch of soft earth.
Where the ground became harder, they followed broken branches and crushed vegetation.
The farther they traveled, the clearer the signs became.
Whatever they were following was enormous.
A tree nearly three feet across had been knocked sideways.
Not cut.
Not clawed apart.
Simply pushed until its roots tore from the ground.
David stopped beside it.
He placed one hand against the exposed trunk.
"Didn't even go around."
Castiel studied the trail.
"Why would it?"
David looked toward him.
Castiel nodded toward the destruction ahead.
"Nothing here can make it."
That thought stayed with David.
They continued.
An hour later, the jungle changed.
Not physically.
The same towering trees surrounded them.
The same vines hung from the canopy.
The same humid air pressed against their skin.
But the sounds were different.
David noticed first.
He raised his hand.
Gamma stopped.
June looked around.
"What?"
David listened.
Birdlike calls echoed high above them.
Insects buzzed through the undergrowth.
Leaves rustled in the wind.
Normal.
But something was missing.
Nyra realized it.
"We haven't seen any beasts."
Lucian looked around.
She was right.
They had seen native wildlife.
Small winged animals moving between trees.
A long-legged herbivore that had disappeared when it noticed them.
Tiny creatures darting through the undergrowth.
But none of the hostile beasts they had been encountering throughout H-09.
No Blue-tier predators.
No packs.
Nothing.
Mira looked toward the enormous trail.
"They're avoiding it."
David stared east.
"Maybe."
June folded his baton out just enough for the handle to lock into his palm.
"I don't like 'maybe.'"
Castiel looked at him.
"You don't like anything."
"Not true."
June thought.
"I like food."
Mira walked past him.
"Keep moving."
June looked toward David.
"See what I deal with?"
David smiled and followed.
The trail continued.
Soon they found the first real sign of violence.
Lucian stopped so abruptly David nearly walked into him.
Something lay beneath the trees ahead.
Large.
Motionless.
David moved around Lucian.
A beast lay on its side among the vegetation.
Blue markings ran along its thick hide.
Its body was nearly twelve feet long.
One side of its torso had been crushed.
Not torn apart.
Crushed.
Its ribs had collapsed inward beneath an enormous impact.
Nyra approached carefully.
"Blue-tier."
David nodded.
Castiel examined the surrounding ground.
"No feeding marks."
Lucian crouched near the body.
"It wasn't hunted."
June looked at the crushed torso.
"Then what happened?"
David's eyes moved toward the giant tracks continuing past the corpse.
"It got in the way."
Silence.
June looked at the footprint.
Then the dead creature.
"Right."
He unfolded the rest of his baton.
The energy core hummed softly.
"I'm done making fun of the footprints."
Castiel looked at him.
"That lasted longer than expected."
Gamma continued.
The farther east they traveled, the more obvious the creature's dominance became.
They found claw marks cut high into the trunk of an enormous tree.
Not random scratches.
Four parallel grooves.
Each one deep enough for David to place his fingers inside.
Nyra stood beneath them and looked up.
"They're almost ten feet above the ground."
June slowly raised his eyes.
"Please tell me it climbed the tree."
Nobody answered.
"Great."
They found another resting place farther ahead.
Vegetation flattened across an area large enough to hold their entire squad.
A deep impression marked where something enormous had lain against the earth.
Lucian crouched.
"Recent."
David examined the tracks leaving it.
The creature had continued east.
Still moving.
Still ahead of them.
They picked up the pace.
Hours passed.
The terrain gradually began rising.
Rock appeared between the roots.
The trees became more widely spaced.
Through occasional breaks in the vegetation, David caught glimpses of distant ridges.
Lucian checked their position again.
"We're getting close to the eastern side of H-09."
Nyra looked toward the tracks.
"And it's still heading that way."
"Yeah."
David stared ahead.
Something bothered him.
"Why?"
Castiel glanced at him.
"What?"
"The trail."
David pointed.
"It wasn't moving in a straight line before."
Lucian checked the map.
David was right.
The old tracks they had followed days earlier had wandered across H-09.
North.
East.
South.
Sometimes circling back.
But the fresh trail was different.
It had become increasingly direct.
East.
Almost as though the creature had somewhere specific it wanted to be.
June looked toward the rising terrain.
"Maybe it knows we're following it."
Nyra glanced at him.
"That's comforting."
"I try."
Mira stopped.
"Quiet."
Gamma froze.
This time David heard it immediately.
A sound.
Distant.
Low.
So low he almost mistook it for wind moving through the trees.
Then it came again.
A deep resonance rolled through the jungle.
David felt it in his chest.
June's expression changed.
"That wasn't thunder."
"No," Lucian said.
Another sound followed.
Closer.
A guttural rumble that seemed to travel through the earth itself.
Castiel slowly drew his Shadow Sword.
Dark energy moved along its edge.
Nyra unfolded both Wind Crest Swords.
Blue energy ignited.
Mira's Twin Blades snapped into her hands.
June's baton extended fully.
Lucian drew the Bloodcrest Blade.
David's Claw Gauntlets unfolded over his hands.
Six weapons.
Six cadets.
One formation.
Lucian looked toward the trail.
"Slow."
They advanced.
The terrain rose more sharply.
The jungle thinned.
Ahead, sunlight broke through the canopy.
David smelled stone.
Damp earth.
Something else.
Musky.
Heavy.
Animal.
The giant tracks crossed a rocky shelf.
Gamma followed.
Beyond it, the jungle opened into a wide basin surrounded by steep stone formations.
David stopped at the edge.
The basin was enormous.
Trees grew along its sides, but the center had been torn apart.
Broken trunks lay scattered across the ground.
Deep tracks covered the mud.
Sections of exposed stone bore long gouges.
June stepped beside David.
"I don't suppose those were already there."
"No."
Lucian pointed.
"Tracks converge there."
Across the basin, the prints led toward a massive formation of dark stone rising from the jungle.
At its base—
An opening.
A cave.
Large enough that Gamma could have walked through it three abreast without ducking.
The ground outside was covered in enormous footprints.
Old.
New.
Dozens of them.
David stared.
They hadn't merely found another place the creature had passed through.
They had found where it lived.
Castiel stepped beside him.
"So that's where you've been."
June looked at the cave.
Then at David.
Then back at the cave.
"No."
Nobody moved.
June shook his head.
"Absolutely not."
Mira looked at him.
"We haven't said anything."
"You were going to."
Lucian lowered his voice.
"Formation."
June sighed.
"Of course."
Gamma spread out.
David moved forward.
Ten feet.
Twenty.
Nothing.
The cave remained black.
Thirty.
A low sound came from inside.
Everyone stopped.
David felt the vibration through his boots.
Dust shifted across the stone near the entrance.
June whispered:
"I would like to formally apologize for every bad thing I've ever said about caves."
Castiel glanced toward him.
"You'd need more time."
"Not helping."
Another rumble came from the darkness.
Closer.
David raised his gauntlets.
Something moved inside.
Large.
Very large.
Two faint points appeared deep within the cave.
Eyes.
They opened.
David's entire body tightened.
The eyes rose.
Higher.
Higher still.
Something scraped against stone.
A massive silhouette shifted within the darkness.
Nyra whispered:
"That's what made the tracks."
David didn't answer.
He already knew.
A huge forelimb stepped into the light.
Claws sank into the earth.
Then another.
The creature remained mostly concealed within the cave.
But what little David could see was enough.
Armor.
Muscle.
Claws.
Size.
Far more size than he'd expected.
June stared upward.
"Oh."
The creature moved closer.
June took one slow step backward.
"Oh, that's bad."
A deep growl rolled out of the cave.
The entire basin seemed to answer.
David lowered his stance.
Castiel raised his sword.
Lucian tightened his grip on the Bloodcrest Blade.
Nyra's twin weapons hummed.
Mira shifted right.
June stopped retreating.
His baton rose.
The creature stepped toward the light.
And Gamma finally understood why every hostile beast in this part of H-09 had disappeared.
They hadn't abandoned the territory.
They were afraid of what lived inside it.
The Legendary Apex took another step from the darkness.
And opened its eyes.