The drones zipped through the dark tunnels like mechanical specters, guided by Reinhard’s ATAK system. They hugged the ceilings, their small rotors humming faintly—masked by the ever-present cttering of Verminthar tools and the hiss of steam from crude forges. Their thermal and visual feeds reyed real-time data to Reinhard’s HUD, the flickering images painting a grim picture.

  What he saw made his gut tighten.

  There were four more nests spread beneath Stonewatch—one near each edge of the city, and one directly beneath the central districts. The nest Reinhard had already devastated was the rgest, clearly a logistical hub, its tunnels feeding the others. He could see workers moving supplies along crude pulley systems and carts, shifting weapons, armor, and netherstone to the other nests.

  But the other four were different.

  Each of them had a web of green, pulsating veins running along their walls, branching into side chambers like the roots of a cancerous tree. Faint, unnatural energy radiated from them. Reinhard’s jaw clenched as he commanded his drones to follow the veins, delving deeper into the veins’ source.

  The drones drifted through narrow passages, weaving past distracted Verminthar overseers and borers. What they found in the depths made Reinhard’s blood run cold—massive stockpiles of Netherstone. The votile, glowing substance was stacked in crude containment racks, bound in metal braces engraved with dark runes to contain its unstable nature.

  Before he could process what he was seeing, his screen fred white—a sudden blinding fsh from all four nests.

  One Minute Earlier

  Ghorvak exhaled slowly, his amber eyes narrowing as he gazed across the tunnel chamber. His warriors were ready—hidden beneath the earth, their weapons sharpened, their bloodlust barely contained. But this battle would not begin with brute force. This was his hunt. His trap.

  He turned his gaze to the Nethersmith at his side, the twisted Verminthar craftsman, its fur singed, mechanical limbs twitching from exposure to Netherstone radiation. The creature twitched nervously beneath the general’s stare.

  “Are your preparations complete?” Ghorvak’s voice was low, but it carried the weight of command—a predator’s growl before the strike.

  The Nethersmith jerked upright, tail shing, his voice a frantic squeak as he clutched a crude staff etched with runes of detonation. “YeS-Yes! Ready-Ready!”

  Ghorvak’s nostrils fred. He gripped the hilt of his scimitar, fingers tight, his eyes gleaming with both calcution and bloodlust. This was the moment. The first stone to start the avanche.

  He raised his hand—then brought it down like a bde.

  “Begin.”

  The Nethersmith scurried backward, barking commands to his kin. The order rippled outward, carried on crude spell echoes—ancient, chittering magic carried along tunnels and veins connecting the nests beneath Stonewatch. The pulse spread like wildfire—one word embedded in the crude spell matrices beneath the city: Ignite.

  Above the City

  A heartbeat ter, the ground erupted.

  Four massive green fshes lit up Stonewatch, each followed by a cataclysmic explosion. The detonation sites—the western trade district, the northern residential quarter, the eastern outskirts near the forest line, and the very heart of the city—became epicenters of destruction.

  The western explosion tore apart the trade routes and warehouses, sending splintered carts and crates into the sky, while entire rows of buildings colpsed inward, forming a jagged sinkhole that devoured everything around it.

  The northern district—where homes stood tightly packed—was reduced to rubble in an instant. Tiled rooftops shattered into shards, and streets split open, swallowing entire families into the depths below. The wails of civilians pierced the air, mixing with the grinding colpse of stone and timber.

  The eastern bst, closest to the forest’s edge, ruptured the city wall itself, leaving a jagged breach wide enough for an army. Smoke billowed into the trees, masking the advancing Thrakar warbands under Ghorvak’s command, who had been waiting for this exact moment. Beastmen surged forward, their eyes glinting with bloodlust as they poured through the smoke-choked breach—spears raised, axes glinting, war horns bellowing through the woods like the calls of ancient predators.

  But it was the central explosion that struck the hardest.

  Right in the heart of Stonewatch, the bst consumed a bustling square, reducing it to a crater. Fires spread rapidly, licking up the sides of stone towers and market stalls, turning the city’s core into a vision of hell. Knights and city guards were flung from their posts, while mages scrambled to summon barriers to protect the wounded.

  Aboveground, panic spread like wildfire—civilians screamed, guards struggled to regain control, and the city’s bells rang out a desperate arm. But beneath the surface, in the tunnels, the true assault had begun.

  Reinhard’s HUD Recovered

  The white fre faded, Reinhard’s vision clearing just in time to see the aftermath through the drone feeds. Fires bloomed above, debris falling into the tunnels like hail. The nests below roared to life, Verminthar soldiers scrambling into formation, and the pulsing veins of Netherstone glowed brighter, as if feeding off the carnage above.

  Ghorvak’s horde surged through the forest breach, their advance masked by the smoke and chaos. War horns and beastly roars echoed through the trees, growing louder with every passing second.

  Reinhard’s heart pounded as he barked a command into his mask. “Drones—mark priority threats. Track the breach. We need intel on their vanguard.”

  The drones veered off, sweeping along the tunnels and forest’s edge, capturing the first images of Ghorvak’s vanguard pushing into the city’s eastern quarter. Beastmen with crude weapons charged forward, but their formation was disciplined—too precise for mere savages. This was Ghorvak’s work.

  Reinhard gritted his teeth. “Mars—move. We’re not done yet.”

  The battle for Stonewatch had begun.

  The first wave of Thrakar beastmen poured through the eastern breach like a flood of living muscle and fury. Ghorvak’s warbands led the charge—hulking brutes with axes and cleavers, their horns gleaming in the sunlight, their bodies adorned with crude armor made from scavenged metal and bone. Snarling goat-headed raiders sprinted ahead, their curved bdes sshing through the first guards to meet them. A patrol of city watch barely had time to lower their spears before they were trampled underhoof, their blood soaking into the churned earth.

  The beastmen moved with a terrifying mix of brutality and precision, a hallmark of Ghorvak’s leadership. This was no frenzied horde; this was a spear thrust into Stonewatch’s side, aimed to shatter its defenses before they could fully rally.

  Vilgers and merchants who had fled toward the walls found themselves trapped.Screams echoed through the streets as beastmen descended upon them, hacking down the slow and dragging others into the woods. A mother shielded her child behind a cart—both cut down in a single sweep.A group of hunters tried to resist, their bows loosing arrows into the charging mass, but they were overwhelmed—their bodies left broken on the stone paths.

  From the West, the first Verminthar units emerged from the massive sinkhole Reinhard had previously crippled—but not destroyed.Cnrats swarmed up from the depths, chittering and screeching, their rusted bdes fshing in the daylight.Ratogres—massive, mutated brutes with bulging muscles and crude armor ptes—climbed from below, their heavy footfalls shaking the ground as they smashed aside debris and civilians alike.

  Near the northern and central craters, plumes of smoke mixed with unnatural green vapors, signaling the arrival of Netherstone Gunners—Verminthar marksmen wielding warped rifles powered by votile Netherstone cores. Each shot ripped through stone and flesh alike, the air crackling with dark energy with every trigger pull.

  Behind them came the Warlock Engineers, their robes stained with soot, chanting guttural incantations as they deployed crude devices powered by Netherstone—arcane turrets spewing beams of green energy, metallic constructs dragging carts filled with explosives, and cauldrons of toxic sludge tipped over into the streets, creating choking clouds of poisonous fog.

  Stonewatch Descends into Chaos

  Reinhard’s HUD fred with new warnings.The drone feeds became a tapestry of violence—civilians cut down, guards overwhelmed, entire blocks consumed by fire and smoke.A street colpsed into the tunnels below, swallowing screaming soldiers as cnrats leapt onto them with jagged bdes. A Ratoger tore a knight from his saddle, crushing the man’s skull against a wall before bellowing in triumph.

  The eastern forest breach was Ghorvak’s masterpiece—his forces pushing steadily toward the city center, while the Verminthar’s subterranean assault spread like a disease, gutting Stonewatch from below.

  Reinhard’s jaw tightened as the feed from his eastern drone flickered—capturing a fleeting glimpse of Ghorvak himself.The minotaur general stood tall amidst the carnage, his scimitar slick with blood, his eyes cold and calcuting.He directed his forces with short, sharp gestures, like a predator leading a pack—not wasting a single warrior, each thrust precise, each maneuver lethal.

  “Mars. We’re moving.”

  Reinhard’s voice was low, but his tone left no room for hesitation.

  He holstered his pistol, slung his rifle across his chest, and double-checked his gear. His body still ached from the earlier bst, but the pain was pushed aside—there was work to do.

  Mars gave a low, guttural growl, his fur bristling, eyes alert.

  They left the ruined workshop, making their way through the tunnels toward the nearest surface access point.The echoes of war above grew louder—screams, cshing metal, the unmistakable howl of a Thrakar war horn.

  Reinhard tapped his ATAK system, redirecting his drones.

  “Continue observation. Track the Beastman General. I need eyes on the Ratogres and Warlocks. Feed everything to my HUD. Prioritize artillery positions if they set up.”

  The drones obeyed, gliding above the battle, capturing the growing sughter below.

  Reinhard gritted his teeth.

  He was running out of time.

  If Stonewatch fell, his family—his entire life—would be next.