Distraction and Troubling News

"[Shadow Maw!]" Lucas cried out. He could have used any of his gravity base techniques, but he wanted to test his entire arsenal while in this training. 

As soon as he activated his technique what little light in the tunnel got bright as most of the shadows converged together around the Tunneler. The Shadows covered from the top of the of the tunnel to the bottom. In an instant the shadows took on the form of a toothy maw and moved from the tunnel towards the alien. Like the mantis staling the cicada only to be struck by the oriole from behind.

The [Shadow Maw] bite down hard and fast! The shadow teeth pierced the Tunneler's durable carapaces cleanly biting it in half. The Tunneler died instantly. Lucas had to use his abnormal strength to pry the Tunneler's powerful jaws off of him. As soon as he did he had noticed Xylon had caught up to him and was about to help. 

Xylon was once again amazed by Lucas's skills. He not only witnessed his control of gravity, a fire that could burn even water and now darkness or shadows. Even though Lucas only showed off those skills he was sure he had more up his sleeve.

What Xylon had failed to notice was how strong Lucas was. How a human barely in the Foundation realm could combat a Core Foundation realms strength. He would have instantly knew Lucas he more tricks up his sleeve. 

With the two freed up to help Zyra and Kaelon they moved in to support. 

Kaelon and Zyra maintained their combat rhythm and trusted their team mates to fend off the Tunneler's and then regroup up. Their trust in Lucas and Xylon were not missed placed. Now with all 4 of them back together they discussed another plan. Plus with the addition of Lucas and Xylons' help they managed to push back the Kompies more. 

"Xylon can you continue to make another tunnel" Zyra asked while using [Psionic Dissonance] to keep the Kompies distracted. 

"I. Can." He bubbled. "Where. To?"

"Anywhere, but here" Kaelon said with an exhausted breath. "I can only keep spewing acid for a few more minutes. We need to have a real camp hidden away. Anyone have earth powers?"

All eyes were on Lucas. He smiled awkwardly and spoke. "Ah sorry. I don't have any runes like that."

"Fine then" Zyra frustratedly said. "Xylon dig a tunnel as quickly as you can and try to use your bubbles or water to dampen the sound waves so Tunneler's can't find us."

"Got. It."

"Kaelon you help Xylon with the tunnel. Lucas and I will draw the Kompies away and sneak back to you two." Just as Kaelon agreed Zyra placed a hand on his shoulder and left a dark mark made out of shadow. "I'll be able to follow the trail you guys make. Make sure the new base is hidden."

The two nodded their head and ran towards the back of the tunnel and began to dig. The decided to dig at a 60 degree angle upwards. Hopefully going in a much different direction their new home won't be found as easily. While they were digging Zyra and Lucas fought and discussed their game plan. 

Lucas focused on using his gravity based techniques to keep the Kompies back and would kill them with [Gravity Crush]. Zyra decided to use more shadow based techniques since her Psionic based ones required more mana.

"The game plan is simple" Zyra spoke calmly between each each blast of shadow she threw. "We are going to push through the Kompie swarm and lead them away from here. The more noise we make the better. We'll have to watch out for the Protectors. They'll start to wake up when the Kompies can't handling something. That'll be our chance to flee and hide. The Kompies will leave us alone and the Protectors will come."

Lucas nodded his head and asked to be the main attacker. Zyra agreed and let him unleash his power on to the Kompies. Lucas raised his left hand as Zyra stepped back giving him some room to attack. He conjured many [Gravity Blade] techniques creating a whirlwind of blades down the tunnel. Dozens of the [Gravity Blade]'s flew down the tunnel slicing everything they touched into pieces. 

He began to take steps forward while still conjuring his [Gravity Blade]'s. He was clearing the Kompie swarm in seconds. Zyra was impressed with his work, but planned to take out the bigger Xeomorph's when they show up. As they walked to the end of the tunnel, back into the previous larger room with many other tunnels.

"Which way" Lucas asked while casually stepping over the diced up corpses of the Kompies.

Zyra looked around and decided to pick the original tunnel. "We'll be heading back from where we started and possibly going the other direction as well. It'll be good to get some type of map made."

"And you can do that from your memory?"

"Easily. Now lets go." She started to walk towards where they started their training. Lucas was impressed by Zyra's ability to mentally map out the tunnels. Even if he was walking in a straight line, with some twits and turns here and there, he would end up lost in the hive. Which was the main point of the hive.

After a handful of minutes they entered the large where where they fought off the Spikers. The wasn't a single corpse or drop of blood anywhere. It was as though they never existed in the first place.

While Lucas was looking around the room confused Zyra spoke up answering the question in his head. "That's the Kompies for you. Like I said, they are the cleaners of the Hive. They eat any and everything they come across. Even other Kompie swarms." 

"Are you serious? They ate all the Spikers here? There were thousands if no hundred of thousands of them. Also do they really just eat other swarms. Wouldn't they just combine?"

Zyra crouched down touching the dirt and sand that was the ground. Using a special type of [Shadow Sense] and [Psionic Echo] commination. Once she found what she wanted she channeled mana into this special technique. To Lucas's surprise the entire area around them was covered in a 1 inch shadow. From the darkness shadows of Spiker corpses and thousands of Kompies rose up. 

It was almost like a movie scene. A large Kompie swarm feasting on the Spiker corpses. After a minute of watching another, just as large, swarm of Kompies arrived. Both Lucas and Zyra tilted their head as the scene unfolded before their eyes. 

Once of the Kompies, one with 2 tiny arms, stepped out of the second swarm and approached the first swarm. Before the first swarm could attack the one with arms began to move its mouth like it was speaking. Unfortunately for the [Psionic Shadow Echo] technique it couldn't petrary sounds only movement. They didn't know what was happening, but when the solo Kompie stopped speaking the other swarm merged with the first and moved as one.

The two watched in shock and horror as the swarm had become a horde. This enormous horde of Kompies was little more then triple the size of the Kompie swarm they had just fought. They watched for over 10 minutes straight as the now horde of Kompies moved as one and towards a tunnel the group had no used yet. 

"This isn't good" Zyra said solemnly. "This is very bad. I've never seen Kompies do something like this. They are bred and metaphorically programmed to attack anything that isn't their birth swarm, including other Kompie swarms. It's a way of self population control. A swarm that large to become a horde is unthinkable!"

Lucas nodded in agreement. He wasn't too sure why something like this would be an issue, but he did know one thing. That horde was incredibly large, it was in the tunnels with them and it would come to bite them on the ass. 

____________________________

Outside the training room the Sponsors of 4 Disciples watched how Lucas and Zyra would take the news. This wasn't something they threw in to the training as a way to keep their Disciples on their feet. On a distant planet where the CIA were fighting the Xeomorphs they found an empty hive! This has never happened before. They had found evidence of Kompies, and other Xeomorphs, killing both the Egg Carrier and the Queen and her guard. 

It was a slaughter. In the main chamber with the Queen and her guard, who were all at the Liquifying realm at the time, were found dead. Around them were millions of Xeomorphs. It was a war of attraction. 

This training exercise isn't only for their Disciple's on this planet, but many others. The Sponsors were restricted from the training since the planet the training was based on was too weak to house their power. They would end up breaking the planet if they used even a minuscule amount of their power. 

So they had to use the next best thing, their Disciples. Their goal was not only to test them, but if they could uncover some truth behind why the Hive ate itself. There were hundreds of Disciples taking this test across the entire universe. Surely one or more groups would find out what happened.

Thankfully for the 4 in this room watching, their luck has finally turned. 

__________________

"So are we going to face the Kompie horde?" Lucas asked while looking towards the direction where the horde went. 

Zyra shook her head "nah. We won't go that way. I don't want to run into that horde with only the two of us. We should do some scouting and see if there are other Kompie swarms before we head back towards the others. Let's head another direction and check for more Xeomorphs."