“At what point will you stop making stupid decisions?” Liv’s boss asks again as she pants, her lungs about ready to burst out of her chest, ragged breaths choking from her throat as she sprints at full tilt.

“Just shut up… And… wheeze… Tell me how close they’re gettin!” Liv demands, her feet skidding against the most floor as the loud buzzing gets closer and closer to her. As it turns out, a minute could hurt more than she could ever imagine. According to her boss, while she was asleep, a swarm of bugs had found her within minutes of her slumping, and they certainly weren't happy about the blatant murder of their friends. One thing leads to another, and she's waking up with a bug with a maw filled with sharp teeth right before her face. Luckily, Liv was quick to the jump. They’re dangerous, but a gauntleted fist to the face seems to be enough to put one down. Unfortunately, that left another dozen flying at her at full speed. To add insult to the extensive amount of injuries she’s suffered, the open area she was in led to more caves that split off into, shocker, more caves which led to, shocker, more caves.

“10 yards away, attack coming from the back.” Her boss warns, causing Liv to duck. A moment later, an orange, sizzling mass of magma mixed with whatever mucus the demon bugs have flies over her head, arcing down to slap onto the floor. It begins to sizzle immediately, melting through the stone floor and down nearly a foot before finally cooling.

Liv spares a glance back, looking at the new demon types. Among the buzzing bugs are larger, fatter ones. Instead of any type of sharp leg, it has opted to spec entirely into flight, its wings twice the size of its sleeker counterparts. Instead of two of the large, bulbous sacks, it only has one on the top of its head. It wears a large grin, a row of sharp teeth lining its mouth. The leftmost one’s head sack’s liquid level has fallen a considerable bit. It would have to recharge now.

“Aight, I think I gotta plan,” Liv pants out, turning to face forward again. These caves looked to be more durable than the last one she was in with far less outcroppings of stalactites and stalagmites, but she could still try to incinerate them one by one. “But im gonna need ya to heal me right after-”

“I cannot do that.” Her boss cuts her off, causing her eyes to bug out.

“WHADDYA YA MEAN YOU CAN’T?” She shouts, glaring at the gauntlets with indignation.

“I can't infinitely heal you, Liv. I only have so much energy. I, at most, can do three a day. If our situation becomes dire, I can heal you a final time at the loss of my own consciousness until you yourself rest..” Her boss explains as Liv comes to an intersection. She bolts down the leftmost one as she’s been doing for each and every one. When she used to dig tunnels, she liked to just make one to the left of the other one.

“You couldn’ta said anythin’... I dunno… ANYTIME BEFORE THIS?” She shouts, narrowly dodging another glob of magma/mucus.

“I did.” It replies.

“When?” She asks incredulously.

“When you sat down a few minutes ago.” It answers. Said answer causes Liv’s eyes to widen further as the realization dawns over her. She tries to take a deep breath to calm herself, but can’t due to her breakneck pace.

“Ya mean when I was… Asleep?” She probes, her teeth gritted.

“Well… I suppose you were at the current moment, but I had told you not to do that. In the end, it seems like that would be your mistake-.”

Liv’s boss is interrupted as Liv lets out a yell of frustration, slamming her hand into one of the rare stalactites that crop this particular caves ceiling. She proceeds to whirl around and hurl said stalactite forward with all her might. The stone soars through the air before striking true, tearing into one of more bulbous demons flitting about the air. It tears through its head sack, flinging the magma mixed mucus in every direction– mostly into its adjacent brethren. The searing liquid seeps into the collective group as the leftmost demon descends to the floor, landing with a wet slap. Its group doesn’t fare much better, the three closest demons' wings sizzling to nothing, causing them to fall to the floor, yelping and screeching as the liquid burns into their flesh. Liv looks on, her jaw slacking in shock as she looks at the destruction she wrought.

“Ain’t no way…” She mutters, gawking at the demons slowly dying on the floor. She doesn’t get to stay in place for much longer as a glob of magma comes for her head, barely dodging in time as she bolts back down the cave. The rest of the demons seem entirely unperturbed by the loss in their numbers, their wings humming in a horrid harmony, buzzing ever closer as Liv runs. She needs a strategy, and she would need one now. The stalactite was a good idea, but the damn demons were smarter than they looked. They had spread out in a wider net, rendering the old strategy mute. She would need a wider attack, but an explosion would force her to take more injuries, injuries she couldn't afford to take. She racks her brain for answers, trying to force a strategy to form-.

CRUNCH

Her planning is interrupted as she looks back, seeing one of the smaller stalagmites crushed under her boot. Unlike the last caves, these ones weren't as sharp, allowing her thick boots to crush them with a relative ease. As she looks at the smaller chunks, an idea pops in her mind, her brain whirring with the inklings of a plan.

“Yeah… I reckon that could work.” She mutters under her breath, pieces clicking into place as she scans the floor.

Liv begins to run even faster, faster than she thought she could go just a few minutes ago, pushing all she has into this dead sprint.. Her legs pump as she comes to another branching path. Liv wasn’t knowledgeable on a lot of things. But tunnels? She could do tunnels.

Doing a quick check over, she could see the right path began to narrow as it went on while the leftmost one did not, meaning it was probably the path forward. Naturally, Liv picked the right path.

“Liv? You’re going down the wrong path-.” Her boss starts before it’s interrupted by her voice, broken between pants.

“I… Know it ain’t the right path. Just… Trust…. What I cooked up.” She says, looking back. About eight yards away. It’ll cut it close, but she believes in her plan.

Her boss goes silent. Even if she wanted her to turn back, she couldn’t. Liv manages to squeak out another dodge of mucus, the ball slamming into the floor in front of her as she rapidly, weakly, knocks her gauntleted hand against her chest 3 times in quick succession, the fault lines in her gauntleted hand glowing softly with a dull, orange light. She shivers as she does, a cold chill running across her body. Her feet slam into the floor, kicking up weak stalagmites in the process, her hands deftly plucking each one, the demons getting closer by the minute.

“Here goes nothin'.” She mutters to herself as she slides to a stop as she turns, determination burning in her eyes. The demons approach, opening their mouths, showing off their pointed, jagged teeth. She crushes one of her broken stalagmites between her fingers, feeling the stone give way in her grip. She gives it a quick shake before throwing them out with all her might.

BOOM

An explosion rips from her hand, sending the rock pieces flying like shotgun pellets. The demons, unfortunately for them, don't have time to react as it rips through them like a grenade, riddling their bullets with hundreds of small holes. In a macabre harmony, they each thump to the floor one by one, the buzzing coming to an end with each splat. Their bodies twitch before going limp, orange blood pouring forth from wounds the size of quarters peppering their body.

“Ha… Gottem.” Liv mutters, taking a knee, panting heavily. She had done it, but it had taken a lot out of her. Her legs felt like jelly, her lugs practically set ablaze with the way they burned, her breathing more heaving than anything. Before she can fall on her butt, her boss’ voice rings out, cutting through her thoughts.

“While I would endorse rest in any other scenario, I would recommend moving forward in this scenario. Those demons,” It mentally points at the bugs, still twitching on the floor. Strangely… They haven’t faded yet, “Found and kept you within their sight. They can find you, somehow. If my theory holds up, it's best to get out as quickly as possible before they send more.”

Liv nods slowly, wincing as she begins to walk again. Her legs ache with every step, her knees shaking with every step. She continues on the path, returning to the intersection. Yet again, Liv goes down the leftmost path and, yet again, it seems to work out. Along the way, Liv scoops up any large rock she can find, sliding it into her pockets until they resemble a squirrel carrying a load of nuts. Being prepared was good, right?

“It was an ingenious idea.” Her boss’s voice rings through her head, causing her eyebrow to cock.

“Eh?” She responds, confusion evident in her tone.

“The rock. It was an intelligent thought. Good job.” They respond before going silent again. Liv smiles, a real one

“Thanks, boss.” She says, sliding her hands into her pockets. She continues forward, out of the right tunnel and back into the leftmost tunnel. Picking up stones on the way, she tosses one from hand to hand, the stone pleasantly tinking against the metal of her gauntlets. While she’d been here for a bit, just over five hours, she believed she would be out of here soon.

That assumption turned out to be completely false as, another three hours later, she’s still walking blindly through the long tunnels of the Strata's caverns. Every single time, no matter what, the right path always seemed to be the one furthest to the left. As she continued on, the caves began to curve, their length shortened, the clearings more numerous, the heat growing further and further. She thought she might’ve been going in a circle, but she realized halfway through that it was, instead, a spiral. Hopefully, this would mean she would be done with this whole ordeal soon. She had collected so many stones at this point, her pockets began to bulge out. Luckily, or unluckily, she had no shortage of creatures to use them on, endless groups of demons attacking mindlessly.

With Liv’s new strategy, every demon she encountered was blown to bits, ripped apart by crushed rock flying at the speed of a bullet no matter the type. Their tendency to group up ending up to their detriment as their kin became living bombs. Liv thought she should give a name to both types to distinguish them in case she needed to call them out. Her boss insisted on naming them after their “phenotypic traits”, but Liv ended up just calling the small ones “Slicers” and the fat ones “Spitters”. After all, that’s what they did. Why over complicate it?

Eventually, the two reach a final clearing, a large opening before their eyes. In front of them lies a massive pool of magma bubbling, sending noxious fumes up into the sky. The ceiling is wider at the top than it is the bottom; though, it's hard to tell due to the massive hive that fills most of the nearly mile tall ceiling, holes abounding from its surface. From the ceiling, accompanying the hive, hang massive stalactites quadruple the size of Liv at their smallest, the largest ones being far, far bigger. Strangely, it seems empty, no Slicers or Spitters flying around. Instead, a single platform floats in the middle of the magma pool, thirty yards long in width and length. A myriad of small platforms lead to it, almost like stepping stones. Liv takes one look at it before pointing it out.

“I reckon that’s where the Main Demon nonsense is gonna happen, yeah?” She asks.

“If I had to guess, that would certainly be it,” It says, its voice deadpan once more as it continues, “It certainly has the feel of it, and the terrain advantage.”

“Don’t like the terrain, that’s for sure.” Liv adds with a frown on her face.

“The terrain is not ideal.”

“I reckon it's worse than “not ideal”.”

“If you’d like to compare similes for the word not ideal, we may. Unfortunately, I don't believe you can kill this demon with your grammatical lexicon.” Her boss says.

“...Huh?” Liv tilts her head, her eyebrows furrowing.

“Exactly.” Her boss says, still impassive; yet, he still, somehow, manages to sound smug as he speaks, “I believe it wise to charge an explosion before you go in.”

Liv grumbles as she jabs the wall three times before taking the path toward the center platform. One, two, three, four, and onward until she makes the final jump, landing with a gentle thump. The parkour was easier than she expected… But she guesses it isn’t the final challenge. She looks around, taking a tentative step forward.

“SKREEEE!”

A loud screech booms from above Liv, causing her to jump back. From the hive, a few hundred yards up, descends a sleek figure who cuts through the air like a bullet, crashing into the platform as a cloud of dust plumes into the air like a mushroom. Liv blocks, the gust of air and dust blowing over her like a storm. As it passes, she finally gets a good look at her opponent, her adversary becoming clear.

For there to be a hive.

There has to be a Queen.