Pulse of the Hollow Deep

The warning still echoed in Emric's HUD.

[Advisory: Do not engage alone]

[Target Class: Tier-D]

[Entity Proximity: 620 meters—closing]

He stood in the rain-slicked corridor of what once was an underground loading dock, staring at the trembling ceiling above. Dust flaked from support beams. Far-off, rhythmic pulses thudded through the ground like a second heartbeat.

He holstered his ruined knife. He was almost bare, no rifle, no spark charge. Just a static mine and the last of his willpower.

"Great," he muttered. "Guess we're testing what's left of me."

He pushed forward.

The tunnel bent downward, dipping into older infrastructure—untouched by most initiates. The walls thickened, no longer metal but a hybrid synth-stone laced with failed construction nodes. Emric ducked beneath a hanging cabling and descended.

Fungus glowed faint violet along the floor.

[Sensor Feed: Active Pulse Distortion Detected]

Resonance Feedback: Clarity 67%]

His HUD buzzed—unable to resolve the exact target. Whatever it was, it scrambled more than just drone feeds. It bled interference.

A wet scrape echoed.

Then another.

Emric dropped into a crouch and slowed his breathing.

He edged into an old transit platform—half-flooded, broken glass everywhere. The mist here was thicker and warped.

Then he saw it.

Far end of the terminal. Bent in the dark like a thing that shouldn't exist.

A massive, four-limbed entity—with distorted proportions and two skulls fused at the jaw. One screamed silently. The other watched. From its back grew an asymmetrical lattice of spines that pulsed with deep red light.

[Class: Tier-D – Hollow Apex Variant]

[Designation: Dirgemaw]

The thing twitched as if sniffing through dimensions.

Emric's skin went cold.

Then—movement behind him.

He spun, pulse flaring—but didn't fire.

Someone stood at the edge of the stairs, breathing hard. But eyes flashing under the glow of ambient nethra. The new arrival stepped into faint light, revealing pale blond hair, a high-collared jacket half-burnt on the shoulder—and a face Emric hadn't seen since the third hour.

Malric Dane.

Emric's eyes widened.

"…You, huh?" Emric muttered.

Malric glanced sideways. "you walked away."

Emric didn't argue. Instead, he studied the Dirgemaw's pathing.

"The team's failure had already started the moment you chose to hide your awakening."

They stood in a moment of silence, watching the creature shift through the broken platform. Its twin jaws opened—pulsewaves bent the air like heat shimmer.

"…How did you hide your awakening?" Emric asked, eyes still on the creature.

Malric didn't answer right away. "You should have already figured that out by now."

The Obscurant class had abilities that couldn't fit inside a box. Most were unique gifts that couldn't be measured which made them very dangerous at times and very meek at other times. If you were to add the resonance glyph carved into his palm that signified his elite status— as someone that also awakened a talent, it was pretty obvious.

"We're not ready to fight that thing," Malric said.

"No. But we can stop it from reaching the upper quadrant. If it climbs… it wont be pretty up there."

Malric inhaled through his nose. "Bait and bleed?"

"Delay and control." Emric's mind was already calculating. "There's a power shunt line twenty meters down—if I can reroute a surge through the tram rails, it'll cause a chain reaction."

"You want to trap it?"

"No. I want to slow it until someone better armed gets here."

Malric stared at him. "You're serious."

"Look at it," Emric said.

The Dirgemaw's shadow passed through a broken floodlight—its body flickering like static. Reality bent around it. Too many limbs. Too many eyes.

Malric exhaled. "I can suppress its resonance field… maybe five seconds. Long enough to land a hit."

"Then we don't waste it."

Their eyes met.

"On your signal," Malric said, glyph flaring.

Emric checked his mine, loosened his shoulder, and leaned into the gloom.

"Three…"

"Two…"

"One."

He sprinted left—Malric right.

The Dirgemaw shrieked.

Reality trembled.

And the hunt began.

The shriek was like a rupture in space. Emric felt it to his spine.

The Dirgemaw lunged—an impossible blur of mass and angles, limbs scraping over stone and shattering rail casings. Malric's glyph pulsed as he raised both hands, palms outward.

A dome of silence slammed down over the creature—muted its pulse and collapsed its field.

Emric took the moment.

He slid across the slick floor, jammed the static mine into the rail's core junction, and kicked off toward the next cover. The creature twisted mid-lurch, its twin skulls screaming noiselessly against the suppression field.

[Surge Build: 47%]

Malric dropped low, drawing a twin-pronged obsidian blade from his belt. He moved with eerie precision. The Obscurant class wasn't built for open combat and Malric was untrained—but Malric had his talent and it was a control type talent. Even that extended to his body.

After observing for the majority of the gauntlet, he had learned enough. He slashed across one of the spined limbs, leaving a shallow, glowing gash.

The Dirgemaw retaliated instantly. Its tail—a barbed tendril of bone and flickering red light—lashed sideways.

Malric barely evaded it, his resonance shield flaring against the impact shock.

"It's adapting fast!" he called.

"Then slow it down faster," Emric snapped, ducking a flung shard of debris. He rolled into a maintenance alcove, pried open a scorched console, and yanked a live cable loose.

[Surge Build: 82%]

He jammed the line into the exposed shunt grid.

The rail beneath the Dirgemaw sparked.

A low hum vibrated the entire platform.

"Malric—get clear!"

Malric drew on his glyph, controlling the ambient energy behind him—it flashed blue as it detonated into a fog burst, cloaking his escape. He vanished from sight.

Emric triggered the mine.

Discharge!

A chain of thunder cracked through the tram rails, erupting in a vertical pulse that caught the Dirgemaw dead center. It screamed—truly screamed this time—as its limbs convulsed and its spine-lattice overloaded.

[Direct Hit: Stun Window – 4.3 seconds]

Emric didn't hesitate.

He ran forward and leapt onto its back, driving the broken end of his spark-knife into the junction between skulls.

The blade flared blue.

But the creature rolled violently—slamming Emric into a support beam. His breath whooshed out. He tumbled hard, sparks coming from his sync band.

[Impact Registered: Armor Integrity – 24%]

Malric returned—morphing the ambient energy into a cloud that folded the creature's vision. Illusions flickered, false targets circling it.

"NOW!" he shouted.

Emric blinked as blood surged to his feet, sprinting down the length of the rail.

He vaulted the debris, ducked a tail swipe, and plunged the spark-knife in again—deeper.

This time, the blade held.

The Dirgemaw bucked once.

Then it collapsed, spasming with residual resonance flickers. Both skulls lolled open, empty now.

[+10 Points: Emric Vale]

[+10 Points: Malric Dane]

[Critical Threat Contained – Clearance Confirmed]

[Phase Sync Update – Emergency Response Teams En Route]

Emric fell to his knees, panting. His body felt hollowed out, a mess of bruises and adrenaline.

Malric stood beside the carcass, his blade dripping pale red light.

"Well," he muttered. "That was overkill."

"I never though we'll go ahead and kill it" Emric gasped.

They sat in silence as the rail floor cooled, steam rising from broken plates.

Emric glanced over at Malric. "I guess there are different rules for Tier-D class, seeing as we shared the points."

Malric laughed "Don't tell me you wanted to hug all the glory to yourself."

Emric laughed along.

Malric continued, voice lower. "You fight like someone with nothing left to lose."

Emric's smiled sheepishly. "That's just the way I am."

"You're wasted on the Cognivore path," Malric said, getting to his feet. "But you're dangerous as you are."

Emric forced himself up. "We should move before more variants come sniffing."

Malric nodded. "You go first. I'll trail and suppress residual flares."

They parted without ceremony—just a brief moment of recognition between two.

[HUD Update – Phase Two: Final Countdown Initiated | 02:03:22 Remaining]

Rankings – Emric Vale

F-tier Kills: 97

E-tier Kills: 25

D-tier Assist (Confirmed)

Total Points: 232

Current Rank: #31

..

Rankings – Malric Dane

F-tier Kills: 73

E-tier Kills: 27

D-tier Assist (Confirmed)

Total Points: 218

Current Rank: #38

-----

Sector Uplink Station – 15 Minutes Later

Emric reached a sealed uplink hatch, one of the few stable extraction zones still functional.

A trio of Initiates had taken shelter there—Kestrel included. She raised an eyebrow at the blood and grime streaked across his face.

"Have a fun walk?"

Emric collapsed beside the wall. "Met an old friend and also killed a nightmare. You?"

"Shot a tunnel full of Echo Spitters but ran out of ammo."

He smiled, eyes flickering to the sky-feed on the HUD wall.

Less than two hours left.

Phase Two was nearly over.