The scout creature fell, finally, after what felt like an eternity of combat.

Karathra stood over its corpse, breathing hard, her axe dripping with ichor that smelled like rotting meat. Around her, the other masters were in similar states, exhausted and wounded, but alive.

The answering roars from the other scouts had grown closer during the fight, but now they'd stopped. Karathra couldn't decide if that was good or bad.

"It's not dead," Lady Pelica observed. She'd moved closer during the final moments of the battle, though she still hadn't participated. "Look."

Karathra looked. The creature's flesh was moving, twitching, slowly beginning to knit back together. Even with the massive damage they'd inflicted, after Hrothgar had literally torn one of its arms off, the thing was regenerating.

"How do we kill it permanently?"

"You can't. Not without destroying its connection to the main colony." Lady Pelica pointed toward the rocky hills ahead. "That's where we need to go. The Hive Fiend's core is there, somewhere. Destroy that, and all the scouts die with it."

"Then let's move before this thing wakes up."

They pushed forward into the Fiendish monster's territory. After resting, they finally crossed the swamp and then they pushed forward.

The landscape grew increasingly alien as they advanced. The rocks were covered in a thin layer of organic material, something between fungus and flesh that pulsed with a slow, rhythmic beat.

Occasionally, they passed structures that might have been natural formations or might have been built, it was impossible to tell where the environment ended and the creature began.

"The Hive Fiend is a colony organism," Lady Pelica explained as they walked. "It started as a single creature, but it evolved. Or was corrupted, maybe both. Now it's more like a living environment than a single being. Everything here is part of it."

"Including the ground we're walking on?" Ashclaw asked nervously.

"Possibly. The Fiend extends its influence gradually. The deeper you go into its territory, the more everything becomes an extension of its body."

Drakira had donned the Veil of the Unseen and ranged ahead, scouting their path. She returned now, materializing from nothing with a report.

"There's a valley ahead. The organic growth is thickest there and I couldn't see the bottom through all the... material. I think that's where the main body is."

Karathra nodded. "Then that's where we go. We'll do with a simple formation, Hrothgar and I take point. Ashclaw, Brakthar, cover our flanks. Zargoth, Rukar, stay in the center and conserve your strength. Drakira, keep scouting but don't go too far ahead. Lady Pelica..."

She trailed off, not sure what to say. The enchanter had made it clear she would participate when she chose, not when ordered.

Lady Pelica smiled. "I'll watch your backs. Don't worry. When the time comes, I'll act."

It wasn't reassuring, but it was all Karathra was going to get.

They descended into the valley.

The organic material grew thicker as they went, the ground becoming soft and yielding beneath their feet. The air changed too, becoming humid and heavy, saturated with a smell that was equal parts sweetness and decay.

"This is disgusting," Zargoth muttered. He was trying not to touch anything, which was becoming increasingly difficult as the walls of the valley pressed closer.

"Stay focused," Karathra ordered. "We're here to fight, not to complain."

Then Drakira appeared again, and her expression made Karathra's stomach drop when she saw her.

"The Fiendish monster," she said. "I found it. But it's... it's not what I expected."

"Show us."

They followed Drakira to a ledge overlooking the heart of the valley. What Karathra saw there stole her breath.

The Hive Fiend wasn't a creature but an ecosystem.

The valley floor was covered in a writhing mass of flesh, hundreds of feet across. Individual organisms rose from it like trees in a forest, some humanoid, some bestial, some completely unidentifiable.

They moved in constant, purposeless motion, merging with each other and separating again, fused and divided bodies, again and again.

At the center of it all, surrounded by the thickest concentration of creatures, was a pulsing mass of tissue roughly the size of a house. It glowed faintly with inner light, and Karathra could see blood vessels or something like blood vessels spreading from it throughout the entire colony.

"The core," Lady Pelica said. "If we destroy that, and the entire Hive Fiend dies. Everything you see here will collapse."

"How are we supposed to reach it?" Brakthar asked. His voice was steady, but Karathra could hear the edge of fear beneath it. "There must be thousands of creatures between us and that thing."

"Tens of thousands, probably." Lady Pelica's tone was conversational. "Each one individually weaker than what you fought before, but together? They'll overwhelm you through sheer numbers."

"Then what do we do?"

Karathra studied the valley, her mind working. The Chief would have a plan. The Chief would see an angle they were missing. But the Chief wasn't here. She had to think like him, didn't she? A bitter smile covered her face.

"Drakira," she said slowly. "How close can you get with the Veil?"

Drakira understood immediately. "You want me to reach the core alone? While invisible?"

"Can you do it?"

"The Veil drains stamina and with the Blood searching Armour...I'd have maybe ten minutes before it fails. If the core is heavily guarded, if I can't reach it in time..."

"Then you die," Karathra finished. "I know but I'm not ordering you. I'm asking if you will."

Drakira was quiet for a long moment. Below them, the Hive Fiend continued its endless dance, oblivious to their presence.

Then she squared her shoulders, her body trembling slightly. She forced an expressionless face. "I'll try. But I'll need a distraction. Something to draw the creatures' attention while I slip through."

Karathra smiled grimly. "Leave that to us."

She turned to the others and began to outline her plan. It was simple, brutal, and likely to get most of them killed. But it was also the only option they had.

They were going to war against a living mountain.

And they were going to win, or die trying. But they would rather win. For the chief.

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