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I leaped back as a monster lunged at me, its claws raking at my face.

One side of its body was blackened, and the smell of charred flesh clung to it as it came at me, ruined jaws snapping.

I slashed at its chest, cutting a gash straight to the bone, but the corpse didn’t pause or slow down.

I stabbed it in the leg, but the injury had no effect.

It kept pursuing me, snapping and clawing, until Raithe’s sword came slashing down to cut off its head. Only then did it finally collapse.

“This is endless.” Halek hurled one of his fire spheres into a trio of reanimated corpses, sending a burst of flame into the

air. Thankfully, fire still affected the undead, burning their withered flesh and turning it to ash. “How are we supposed

to keep fighting things that won’t stay dead?”

“We have to stop Vahn.”

The words were out of my mouth before I could think about them. Craning my neck, I peered up at the monstrous abomination,

at the blood mage perched atop its skull, and clenched my fists. “Vahn is the one controlling everything,” I said. “If we

stop him, we stop the army.”

“We have to bring down that abomination first,” Raithe muttered, also gazing up at the blood mage and the monstrous winged

creature overhead. His jaw tightened, and he glanced at Kysa, still scything through groups of undead with Rhyne. “Kysa!”

he called. “Does your clan have anything that can deal with a creature that large?”

“Perhaps!” Kysa’s voice sounded strained as Rhyne swept his head around and battered aside a cluster of undead. “But I cannot

leave the lore keeper and the hive mother unprotected.”

“Go, Kysa Tal’Rahhe.” The hive mother appeared, the lore keeper and a pair of warriors at her side. “The Fateless girl is right. We cannot fight an army that will not die. The blood mage must be stopped, before our entire clan is destroyed.”

“We are not defenseless,” the lore keeper went on, “and the clan must come first. Take the strangers and stop the blood mage.

Put an end to this foul magic, and send the Deathless King the message that the Scarab Clan will never submit!”

“As you wish, Lore Keeper, Hive Mother.” Kysa did not sound pleased with that decision, but she would not disobey, either.

Glancing at us, she gave a short nod. “Follow me, then. The ballistae are on the other side of camp. Rhyne...” Whirling

him around, she raised her spear and swept it forward. “Clear a path!”

Rhyne bellowed and charged forward. Howling corpses flung themselves at him, only to bounce off his carapace or be knocked

aside. Halek, Raithe, and I followed as the rock beetle plowed his way through the camp, chaos raging around us. I looked

back once and saw a horde of undead swarming the central hut, leaping atop the roof and tearing at the walls. I couldn’t see

the lore keeper or the hive mother, and I hoped we hadn’t just abandoned them to die.

We fought our way through pandemonium, cutting down the undead that lunged into our path. Screams and howls echoed around

us as Scarab Clan warriors fought back the rising hordes. But there were fewer of them now, and the undead seemed endless.

I saw a trio tearing at the dirt beside one of the huts, ripping through clay and earth with their claws as if trying to unearth

whatever was buried beneath. Suddenly, there was a crack, and a gout of yellow fluid arced into the air. The undead kept diggingfrantically

at the hole, and the ground beneath them shuddered.

With a rumble, the earth rose up and fell away as a monstrous beetle lurched up out of the dirt, carrying a pair of huts on its back like they weighed nothing at all.

Dark and shiny, it dwarfed even Rhyne. My mouth dropped open, a ripple of awe going through me as the huge beetle emerged from the ground.

Shaking its head, which looked comically small against its bulk, the giant insect lurched away from the monsters that still clung to it, barely missing another hut as it lumbered past.

I dodged a corpse that pounced at me from the side, avoiding the raking claws by a hair’s breadth. Beside me, Halek gave a

defiant shout as he sent a pair of monsters reeling back, their bodies entirely on fire. “That’s it, I’ve got one left!” he

called, ducking a sword blow aimed at his skull. “Figured I should save it for that big important moment. No, no, monster,

stay back. Iylvahn, help!”

Raithe whirled and beheaded the monster as Halek scrambled around him. But the Fatechaser didn’t see the pair of undead charging

him from behind. Even as I shouted a warning, the massive curved horn of a rock beetle slammed into the monsters, impaling

and lifting both into the air, before flinging them away. Rhyne loomed above us, his rider spearing a monster through the

skull before kicking it aside.

“Do you require a weapon?” Kysa asked, glaring down at Halek. Her voice hovered on the edge of exasperation. “How does one

go into battle so ill-prepared? Had I known you were unarmed, I would have suggested you stay behind with the hive mother.”

“I’m not that ill-prepared.” Halek shook his head, reached into his jacket, and pulled a blade I hadn’t known he had into the open.

Like the rest of his gear, it was something I hadn’t seen before; a short, straight weapon that was bladed on both sides, not curved at all.

Grimacing, the Fatechaser gave it a couple of swings.

“I can fight the traditional way if I have to—aagh!” He jerked back as an undead lunged at his face, jaws snapping.

“I just don’t like being that close. No, get away, monster!

” He slashed wildly as the thing attacked again, and managed to strike it in the neck through seeming blind luck.

“Let’s get this over with, so I don’t have to be this close to these things ever again. ”

“Quickly, then.” Kysa whirled Rhyne around, taking out another undead as she did. “We are almost there.”

We fought our way through the outskirts of the village as the battle continued to rage around us. Rock beetles droned through

the air or plowed into combat, though the numbers of the horde were starting to wear them down. I saw a warrior dragged off

his mount by a horde of undead and buried under stabbing blades and ripping claws. Several more were tearing into yet another

house beetle, digging at the ground until they found the insect buried beneath the earth. With a cascade of rock and dirt,

the huge beetle surged upward, crushing bodies underfoot as it fled. I looked up and saw Vahn still standing astride the abomination,

watching everything play out with flat, emotionless eyes.

“Here.” Kysa led us behind a rise, out of sight of the battle raging in the village. Two large, bulky structures stood covered

with sheets of canvas. Kysa leaped down from Rhyne, grabbed the cloth, and tore it free, uncovering what lay beneath.

I blinked. It looked like a monstrous crossbow, twice as long as a man, attached to the shell of a beetle half buried in the earth. The iron bolts lying next to it were about ten feet long, barbed, and tipped with a lethal point.

“What in the Void are those?” Halek wondered, gaping at the massive spikes. “What were you all hunting, thunder titans?”

“In the past, these have been used for war with the other clans,” Kysa explained as the rest of us stared at the huge weapon

in awe. “But we’ve been at peace since the treaty was put into place. Now we use them to hunt the giant scorpions that sometimes

threaten our territories.” She thumped the wood of the ballista with a grim smile. “They can punch through the carapace of

a scorpion at five hundred paces. Hopefully, they can do the same to a flying abomination. Stand back a moment,” she ordered,

and raised her spear. “I need to wake them up.”

She brought the butt of the spear down, striking part of the exposed shell and sending a hollow thump reverberating through

the ground. With the first two thumps, nothing happened, but on the third, the earth under our feet shifted. An enormous black-and-red

beetle crawled up from the ground, short antennae waving sleepily as it stared at us.

“All right, it’s up.” Kysa took a step back and gestured to the trio of enormous bolts on the ground. “Help me load it, quickly!”

Together, we hefted one of the huge iron shafts and slotted it into the weapon.

Halek and Raithe turned the winch at the rear of the weapon, drawing the cable back with a heavy grinding sound.

The beetle stood placidly through the whole process, even with the screams and howls of battle echoing over the rise.

It made me wonder if the beetles were trained well enough that they could ignore the battle around them, or if they simply couldn’t hear it.

“All right.” Kysa nodded as Halek gave the winch a final crank, locking it in place. “It’s ready.” She stared up at the huge

abomination, still beating its wings in a slow, rhythmic pattern overhead as Vahn watched the chaos below. “Let’s kill that

thing.”

Using her spear, Kysa poked and prodded the insect in the shell until it turned, slowly and laboriously, to face the abomination.

Once she got it into position, she raced around to the back, aiming the shaft up at the target.

“I don’t know if it has the height, but we’ll try. Raithe,” she said, and pointed at the lever. The iylvahn immediately grabbed

it in both hands. “Hold,” Kysa muttered, one eye closed as she watched the abomination. “Come on, turn, you monster. Turn.

Look at us.”

As if it heard her, the abomination’s head turned, its body lazily shifting in the air. For just a moment, I felt Vahn’s gaze,

finding me through the chaos, and a flash of rage as he realized what was happening.

“Now!” called Kysa, and Raithe pulled the lever. There was a deafening snap as the ballista hurled the iron bolt into the

air toward the abomination. It flew straight and true, but instead of striking the abomination in the chest, it pierced the