He dashed through the encroaching Aarthriin drones, a storm of whirling blades, a blur of motion. With his perception of the world increased temporarily through Spirit Overflow, he twisted under heavy blows and crushing bites, the enhanced state allowing him to fully utilize his powerful attributes in a manner that seemed preternatural. He pierced his blades through the gaps between the insectile creatures’ chitinous plates, sending necrotic poison rushing into their bodies. Mindless as they were, the Aarthriin drones continued to throw themselves at him despite the damage taken by their internal organs. Though they did not die immediately, they were doomed to do so in the following few minutes.

Despite his efforts, a number of blows managed to land due to the sheer mass of enemies. Yet, once again, his enhanced perception allowed him to react in an almost prescient fashion, granting him the ability to shift his weight in such a way as to avoid most of the damage while letting his high Vitality take care of the rest.

Alongside him, unrestricted by the same Boon limitations that Dharen found himself under, the Nulzan were employing a variety of abilities. Many of them had acquired new Boons following the previous battle, and were quite eager to utilize them. Despite the overwhelming number of drones, a large gap existed between the Awakened and Unawakened. Though the differences can partly be mitigated by the inherent strength of a monster’s bloodline, the presence of Boons could make up for much.

Rising from the many corpses came a multitude of Aarthriin apparitions - ghostly mockeries of the remains that they spawned from. Dharen shifted his gaze behind him for a moment, catching a glimpse of the concentrating young Nulzan - a far cry from the bleeding and broken state that he had been in only recently. He had made great strides in the previous days, throwing himself into battle with fervor and dedication. He had even earned a name - Ekzel.

The spirits rose from their respective corpses, each biting at the nearest Aarthriin with their own crushing mandibles. The air resounded with a snapping sound as the dead exacted a toll on the living, crushing their former comrades’ limbs with their ferocity. After the single attack, Ekzel stepped back, a haggard look crossing his countenance. The apparitions disappeared in turn.

Others utilized their own Boons to varying degrees of effect. Poisonous auras coated blades, darkness shrouded figures, and more. 

A slaughter ensued.

The initial wave of otherwise-powerful Aarthriin drones were massacred in droves, collapsing underneath the power of the newly-strengthened Nulzan alongside Dharen’s Spirit Overflow state.

Gradually, Dharen began to feel his perception of time slow, shifting back to something resembling normalcy as his Spirit returned to normal levels. The majority of his fear source had long since disappeared; all that remained now was the low, constant fear of battle, that which enhanced reflexes and woke the mind. While it was enough to grant him some measure of advantage, it couldn’t compare to the state that he could reach when fear filled the air.

He beat a retreat, clambering past the collected bodies of drones that had begun to layer the cavern floor, before recovering his warhammer once more.

A heavier rumbling had begun to emanate from the drone-filled tunnels, the scattered knocking of chitinous limbs against stones forming a recurring drum beat that overpowered what had come before.

From three of the larger tunnels came new creatures; while clearly Aarthriin in origin, they were heavily modified with a single idea. War.

While the Aarthriin drones had only their crushing mandibles and heavy bodies with which to fight, these new monsters were designed for battle.

They crawled forwards on eight sharp, pronged limbs. Eyeless, they sniffed the air, letting out a shriek as they turned their attention towards Dharen and his allies. The creatures pierced the cave floor with the urgency of their passage, leaving shallow divots in their wake. Their upper body was shaped in a more humanoid fashion, overlapping plates of white chitin forming over the chest and abdomen. Two pincer-like arms were held before them, bending back from the shoulder joint. The head was flattened and elongated, a hammerhead shape that was likely highly resistant to blunt trauma. As if that was not enough, the bottom half of the creature tapered off into a mutant-scorpion like appearance. It split into three separate tails, each bent forward and possessing sharp and deadly blades.

Their mouths, similar to the drones, split into crushing mandibles that could snap with force strong enough to shatter bone. Just above, a single crystal stood in place of their missing eyes. One that he recognized, though he did not need to. The monsters pulsated with the beginnings of an aura of Suffering, a promise of what was soon to come.

Like the Wrath-Aarthriin that had come before, they were consumed by their nature, paying no mind to the suffering they inflicted upon their allies. 

After all, suffering was inevitable.

Seeing the fast-approaching Sufferers pushing through the death-filled cavern, Dharen prepared himself.

“I will take the one on the right. The rest of you, hold back the others.”

The hunters agreed, and began their defense. As the left-most scorpion-like Sufferer pushed through the array of corpses before it, Aarthriin apparitions began to appear courtesy of Ekzel. They snapped at the passing monster viciously, leaving open wounds before fading away once more. It reacted viciously to the injurious blows, swinging wide with a sharp pincered limb, shearing through the bodies that surrounded it. For the moment, it was distracted in its charge, shifting its attention to attacking the corpses around it.

In the center, the defending Nulzan had taken a more direct approach. They spread slightly so as to not allow the charging monster to simply trample them with its weight. It rushed in, all snapping limbs and stabbing tails. Though the spread formation of the Nulzan prevented the vast majority of potential damage, a single bladed tail caught its target. The blade pierced through the Nulzan hunter’s thick skin, ripping its way out of his back, twisting viciously as it released. The hunter let out an agony-filled scream, the sounds of his suffering bouncing back and forth, echoing across the cavern walls.

To their side, Dharen heard an agonized scream echo out. He instinctively sucked inwards, his recent heavy reliance on Feast of Terror making the action second nature. The dying Nulzan’s pain-filled fear coalesced, pouring outwards in an overflow of miasma. He consumed it greedily, knowing that he would need the bolstering aid soon. He would not throw such things away, regardless of the truth that it came from the sacrifices of his allies. From loss, would come strength. And from strength, would come triumph.

As time began to slow, he let out a Warcry. The Nulzan would need its effects, as would he. And against such enemies, he was certain that a lack of fear would not be a stifling issue. They were built for war, built to suffer and to inflict suffering in turn. 

Dharen was becoming more and more convinced that the Aarthriin Queen possessed an ability that allowed her to manufacture Awakened creatures. It was likely relatively costly; otherwise, the entire colony would be composed of the Awakened Aarthriin. He was beginning to suspect that the mindless, emotionless drones and their emotionally unstable counterparts were simply two sides of the same coin. It was as if any ability to feel emotion had been ripped away from the drones, before each individual emotion was split apart and used to fill a specifically altered Aarthriin with overwhelming intensity.

Fortunately, the altered Aarthriin that they had thus far encountered were not highly leveled; one and all, they possessed only one or two Boons. Still, their forms felt designed for their likely abilities - making them formidable despite their low leveled Seeds.

He shuddered to think of how strong the Queen might be, with such a source of Awakened within her colony. Though each low-leveled soulseed provided very little progress at the higher levels, being able to artificially create them was a horrendously powerful ability. He had little doubt the Queen would have qualms about consuming the soulseeds her own to grow in power; even the Nulzan grew from the deaths of their fellow Awakened hunters, in fact. It was simply the way of the world. He knew that humans would do so as well, were the option available to them.

It was likely only the Aarthriin species’ preference for the underground that had saved the jungle from their rule; they rarely broke onto the surface, preferring to make their home in the ground below.

He felt his veins course with power, his Warcry boosting his already-high attributes to a greater degree. His muscles cried out, begging to be used.

Fear continued to empower him as another Nulzan cried out in pain, sharpening his mind even further. His Spirit filled past where it had been a few moments prior, overtaking its levels prior to his utilization of Warcry. He did not look in the scream’s direction, for he knew what he would find there. Instead, he focused on his target, preparing himself for the battle to come as Spirit continued to flood him.

The Aarthriin Sufferer had been built for war. But then again, nowadays, Dharen was as well.