Before Zane left, he went up to Mook, who was floating about in the mud-pools, eyes closed, about as happy as a Rhino could get.
The young Rhino looked up and shook off some mud when he came over.
"I've got a favor to ask," he said. Mook perked up.
***
So it was that he and Mook went off on their adventure.
The Scourge Hive was last seen in the Question-Mark Woods, and as of Guri's last gander, they were still there wreaking havoc.
Like the rest of the Wilderness, it was a mass of broken-up earthen chunks, strung together. Here it was by vines and roots. A thick mist suffused the wood wherever you went. The paths were winding as all hells, and the tree branches curved like question marks. It was quite easy to get lose your way. Not least because the mists tried to get at your soul in a subtle, sleepy way. Unless your soul shields were strong, you might go in circles, lost forever.
But some of its mystique, its magic, was broken.
These woods had been disturbed. It looked like a tornado had run through the place, plowing a grisly path.
The trees to either side of its path had bark that was bloated and rotten. Bright purple splotches lay splattered all over the dirt, still sizzling.
He knelt down and inspected a branch. It was swollen up with Corruption. It had to be their work.
He and Mook followed the trail. It was eerily quiet all the way through, and soon they saw why.
It wasn't long before they came across one on the side of the road.
𝔾𝕠𝕝𝕕𝕓𝕒𝕔𝕜 𝔸𝕡𝕖
𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟝𝟡𝟙
The ape might've been impressive once. But now they could hardly tell what animal it was. It was as though it had undergone the most severe allergic reaction known to nature. A garish purple lumpy puffiness bulged all over it, stretching its flesh near breaking.
The beast was whimpering. So much poison had been injected into its body, it couldn't even twitch. The only things that could move were its eyes.
Zane got a sense of its life force. It was just on the verge of death. It was the only beast like that they came across—a flock of three-eyed crows was littered on the sides of the path. A pack of giant werewolves, so blown up with venom they were melting inside their own skin. Their faces were frozen with terror.
He put them out of their miseries, brow furrowed.
This was one nasty Monster.
A few more miles, and a low buzzing started filtering through the branches. It had a nails-on-chalkboard feeling, something that'd rub any living being the wrong way.
Even Mook gave a little nervous tail-swish. The sound seemed to strike him at his core.
They got to a high bluff, and there the mists parted down a wide lane—driven apart. And he saw them.
A dark purple-green swarm, the colors of radioactive waste. They seemed to be claiming new victims. Screeches and howls rang out—the beasts of the woods, fighting the good fight. But that buzzing drowned them all.
Zane took a good look and nodded. It was time.
Shaman Guri had told him they made a lot of use of the Astral Plane. They latched onto beings with lots of Vitality. Most Titan Rhinos were like that, and it seemed to drive them into a rage.
They'd put a few Rhinos in the healers' wards already.
When Zane reached out, he got the impression of a mind like a great fog, vast yet scattered.
He cast his gaze out west. There, running up against the woods, was a line of bleached white hills. They were called the Bone Hills. It was thought they'd once belonged to an ancient mastodon. But over the ages, winds and rivers and ice-falls and battles had hollowed it out, carved tunnels deep into it. But it was still quite resilient, to have lasted this long. Tough stuff.
It'd do.
"I'll get things set up," he told Mook.
There was a pause. Mook's eyes narrowed in concentration. Then—
"Okay," said Mook.
The Rhino seemed proud of himself. Words were coming a lot faster these days.
With a horn-bump, they were off.
***
Zane stood in the mouth of a cave. There he closed his eyes and summoned memories of battle.
The fight with the Forbidden One was still fresh. He remembered matching it step for step, fighting with all he had, throwing it through mountain peaks…
He started to smile.
At the same time, a bloody light started rushing down his body. His Vitality started to surge.
And not far off, he felt that vast mind go still.
His Vitality only grew; his breathing grew heavier. And it was like a thousand thousand little dots locked onto him.
The hivemind began to shift.
His eyes snapped open.
It was coming.
He bounded deep into the cave. A mile, two, so far only a dim suggestion of daylight remained. At its end was a vast cavern lit only by mana crystals. A dead end.
He turned and readied his Axes.
It wasn't long before the Hive poured in. A flood of diseased purple and too-bright green—each bee bloated to the size of a bird. They were close enough now he could make out their pixel-like eyes, their stingers like spearheads.
That was their most distinctive feature. In it, he sensed the power of two Monstrous Bones, spread through the lot of them. Not just any Bones—two 100,000-year-old Bones, all concentrated in those gleaming points…
That poison had incapacitated even peak Minor God Rhinos.
He wasn't keen on being at the other end of those things. But there was nothing for it.
They dripped tar as they came, melting holes in the floor. They all looked about the same to him, and there had to be tens of thousands of them. Trying to find a queen in there could be a bit of a mess.
He could see why the other animals had panicked.
These bees zipped and zoomed and jerked. The buzzing was so loud it was as though it got into his skull; he could hardly hear his own thoughts—just that hideous buzz rattling, reverberating, crashing everywhere… hidden in that sound was an assault on the soul.
He let it wash over him, pass through him. A crimson shield flared over his soul, and all that buzzing came to nothing.
The hive fanned out, looming over him, blotting out the exit. Blotting out half the cavern, it felt like. And he knew they'd all come through.
Thousands and thousands of eyes peered down at him. Each of those fat bodies began to shiver…
Then there came a rumbling from all the way behind. He grinned.
The light was cutting off behind them.
Half the bees swerved.
That was the sound of Mook, rolling up the biggest boulder the Rhino could find, blocking off the entrance.
The swarm swirled back, and he felt a surge of anger crash through it. It knew it'd been tricked; the buzzing pierced louder.
But now there was no running. No bird tricks. They were stuck here with him.
Two deities came into this cave. Only one would go out.
Let's make this quick, thought Zane.
His Chains exploded with Flare.
***
The problem, as he saw it, was that the queen was quite good at disguising itself. It was impossible to single out.
But maybe he didn't have to.
This seemed like a problem he could solve quite easily with a good deal of raw firepower.
He pulled—and his Axes took to the air.
Before he'd even gotten through half a spin, the Hive dive-bombed him as one.
The buzzing grew to a fevered pitch; the swarm swirled into a tornado mass, faster and faster, gleaming stingers primed—and dropped right over him.
He was ready for this. Zane was quite confident his body was more robust than those beasts he'd seen. He could take their best shot. It was a plan he'd used time and time again.
The Hive crashed down in a maddened spiral; he roared a challenge at it.
Then a thousand spears drilled deep into his flesh and shot him full of that dense Corruption poison.
Instantly numbness bloomed up his arms. That poison stained his muscles, a pitch-black ink in the Astral Plane…
He was deep in the thick of it now. He could feel his muscles, his skin swelling up already where they'd drilled. Every sense was bombarded—sight, sound, even feeling were thrown in utter chaos; pain shot through in every which way, like he was thrust in some demented storm.
But he set his jaw, and shut it out of the one place that mattered.
There was a space in his mind at the core of him—a cold, hard place, and that was where he drew his focus now. A place he swore no pain, no blow, could get to.
He powered through that first revolution.
One.
The Flares picked up in earnest now.
A low roar was growing in the chamber, a dim undertone slowly rising—and a few bees in that great mass began to roast.
His Asura fought that black wave. Fought to bring life to deadening flesh—and though he felt like he was wading through a storm of thorns, a certainty was building in his heart.
His arms felt much heavier all of a sudden, much number. His chest did, too—he could feel his face puffing up, his eyes, taking out a portion of his sight. But his Solar Storm was coming to life, and every bee that golden river crashed through exploded in a brilliant blast.
Things were still going to plan.
Then he felt a shock ripple through that hive-mind. A realization.
And a huge chunk of bees began to pull back.
He frowned.
No—that wasn't quite right—they were swerving. Coming back around…
Pain lanced up his right arm.
They were coming at his wrist. His biceps. Swelling just that one body part with their poisons—then the rest of the hive dive-bombed again and tore that arm wide open.
Instantly the limb began swelling; he felt a huge mass of blackness under the skin, fighting his Bloodline.
He groaned between clenched teeth.
These things were smarter than he gave them credit for. They'd realized he could only keep it going with two arms.
They wanted to force him to let go.
He roared, clenched his fist, and refused. Firmed a white-knuckled grip. But they swarmed him, relentless. His arm felt heavier and heavier… halfway through the second revolution, his axe began to drift—then flag.
He tried forcing through a third, drawing on sheer force of will. But some chunk of his arm had stopped listening to him, which was something of an annoyance.
The Solar Storm began to sputter; it was growing clear to Zane that it wouldn't hold.
Which left him down an arm, in a trap of his own making.
Unless he did something, and fast.