Published at 21st of February 2026 6:24 am

Chapter 336: Hornet Assassin

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Thryss deposited him in a waiting room, one she told him was near to the Throne room, and said she would inform the Queen.

She cautioned him to be wary. The guards here were her own and would watch over him, but any Highspawn would be able to send them away. He was able to place some drones around, keeping watch. After that all he could do was wait.

And so it was that Nicolai was standing, still and silent like a statue, his impatience tightly bottled, when the resin wall shifted.

There was something inside, pressing out.

He was instantly on the move. The M99 spat from the Big Mouth and into his hands, aiming at the wall.

Its me, came whispered ripples.

Nicolai kept the M99 ready. Serrin?

The wall shifted oddly. Feeling at it with his Soul Sense he felt something spiritual. A strange kind of connection, one which was rippling. A hand poked through, then another, pulled it wider, and the ripples increased. Moving quickly, Nicolai spread his Soul Sense and used the Cloak, worked to dampen those ripples as much as possible.

The opening in the wall firmed and Serrin blinked at him from somewhere else.

How are you in the wall? Nicolai asked, uncomprehending. It was a thick wall. Hed checked.

This is just something I can do. Dont tell my mother! Are you okay? I followed you and Thryss for a time, when you went to the Ripper. I wanted to stick close in case something happened, but you moved too fast. By the time Id gotten past the guards, you were on the way out. I felt signs of combat!

He nodded. I understand your concerns regarding the Ripper, now. Hes dangerous, but I managed to come out okay. He tilted his head. You are able to sneak around, using whatever this is? His curiosity about whatever Serrin was doing burned like a bonfire, but he took care none of that leaked out. Hed discover what was behind this secret in time.

Yes, without this I doubt Id even be alive today. There are many who have sought my death.

Immediately Nicolai realised this was a useful opportunity. He took a few pacing steps, head bent as though in deep thought. Its good youve come. There is a difficult task I need completed. I was going to handle it myself, but you might be capable.

What is it? Im ready!

So eager. Nicolai smiled. Do you think you could get, unseen, into Sytheras rooms?

###

He hadnt been waiting much longer when the Queen found him. He saw her coming down the corridor via drones. The guards stiffened as she approached. She passed between them, thrust the door open. Jabbed a few terse ripples at the guards and they hurried away. Then she stood across from him.

You saw, she began with no preamble, that one of the Highspawn has gone to alert the Empress. Nicolai nodded. You are to go She paused, rubbed irritably at the mark on her forehead. Solve the problem. Understand?

Nicolai considered. I understand, but that was hours ago, and he flew fast. Even with the Symbiotes youve given me, its unlikely Ill catch up. If I can, it will take me days or even weeks of travel, hundreds of Oma crystals.

She nodded. I will place upon you a temporary Art that will greatly speed you.

What followed was five minutes of Ritual preparation. His modules carefully recorded everything. She performed the preparations and the Ritual itself with absent-minded mastery, using some Symbiotes to draw solid, glowing lines in the air, then activating various Symbiotes to empower them. He could feel the Oma burning in her, was buffeted by the ripples pouring out. This was power and he hungered for it. He stood perfectly still in the sphere of glowing lines she drew, until it all pulsed at once and fell into him.

It was as if hed been granted new mental muscles. Using them, he rose off the ground, levitating effortlessly. Similar to the Pegasi ring but far stronger.

The Queen focused for a moment, then spat. A wasp came buzzing from her mouth. It was albino, white banded with black, and shone with spiritual light. This is able to track the location of the Highspawn, she said. You may command it via Soul Sense. Understood?

Yes. He latched onto the wasp with his Soul Sense, quickly getting a feeling for it. A kind of spiritual tool, simple to control.

Good. Once youre done, come back here and I will have another job for you. She gestured and a wall opened, a tunnel appearing. He could see moonlight at the far end. It will close behind you, but tap the wall and it will open again.

By the time he looked back, the door was closing behind her. Nicolai stared at the doorway for a moment, the mask of attentive obedience that his body language and Soul had emanated falling away, features forming into a frown.

Hunting another of the Highspawn was the last thing he wanted to do. He needed to return to his base to check on the Assembler and Legal. His main concern was the Scoundrels. They knew the location of his base and there was no telling when they might choose to attack again. The Blood Hunters should only spawn around him, but the Scoundrels had other means of tracking position. If they knew he was away, they might choose to visit his base. Still, his life came first; if he disobeyed or failed the Queen nowbefore hed established himself as irreplaceablethere was no telling what shed do.

He opened the door to the corridor and his drones returned to roost on their hooks. He seized the albino wasp from the air, holding it in his hand as he turned toward the hole. With the temporary flying Art, he flipped horizontal and arrowed through the tunnel. He drew to a smooth halt just shy of the exit and used his Soul Sense to peer around.

The view outside the Hornet Hive showed slave bugs moving across the torn earth below, but nothing nearby. Meaning, there could be any number of invisible Hornet guards about.

Normally, he would now have engaged the Lurker Symbiote and wrapped himself in his poncho. Instead he focused on the five Symbiotes which together formed the Hornet Cloak Art. On the Queens order, hed been given the upgraded set (one of the five Symbiotes was non-standard and would allow for additional functions), which could be activated in two ways. Method one would allow others using the same Cloaking Art to see him. Method two would hide him from everyone, but he would still be able to see those with the standard set.

His eyes drifted closed, Soul and Oma pouring through the Symbiotes. He felt their various Arts, brought them to the edge of activation and held them there. He twined the Arts together, going off feel. He had no real understanding of how this particular weaving worked. The Spectral Claw had been differentit had been simple to combine the various Finger Symbiotes, their Arts had wanted to weave together, had a kind of magnetic pull on one another. Once hed formed a Hand from the Fingers to act as the base, the Claw had been reasonably simple to fashion. Plus, hed seen Jian doing it, and Threat Analysis had reverse engineered the ripples.

The Cloak, by nature, didnt release ripples, and the Arts didnt naturally combine. This particular weaving of Arts was likely something Hornets were taught upon first being given the Symbiotes, but no one had bothered to teach him.

He didnt mind. In fact, he was glad. He enjoyed the challenge.

After a few minutes of careful trial and error, the Arts slotted together. The same effect as hed experienced before, when the Queen shared the Art with him.

The world around took on a slight wateriness. Sounds and ripples were dimmed. Hed activated it the standard way, and would be visible as a purple shape to other Hornets.

He cancelled the Art, and went back to work. This time he managed faster, finding the other way to weave it. A slight difference and the Art formed around him, almost the same.But now, he knew he was hidden from Hornets, too.

He chose his direction, mentally depressed the Flying Art like a cars accelerator, and his stomach dropped as he was spat out from the Hive, flashing into the cool night air. The tunnel exited low to the torn ground and he skimmed over it, weaving between trains of slave bugs. Through Soul Sense he saw the purple shapes of Cloaked Hornet guards hovering abovethe upgraded set was clearly meant for those favoured by the Queen, giving them an advantage over typical Hornets.

Nicolai burrowed beneath the cover of trees and twined through them, the jungle a green blur around him. Though the Queens temporary Art was very fast, it made surprisingly small ripples. He felt he could activate it at its max and the Cloak would still be able to conceal it. Once hed gained enough distance he rose above the treeline, slowed to a stop and peered around.

This planet had a moon, one larger than Earths, and it shone big and full in the sky above. The storm was gone as though it had never been, not even a cloud in the sky, and the moon shone unblemished.

For a moment, he and the Modules just sucked in the sights. The great Hive and its towers behind him. The endless jungle glowing silver in the moonlight. A blanket of stars above.

Then he released the albino wasp from his clenched fist. Connecting to it by Soul Sense, he directed it to find the target. It pulled on his Soul Sense tendril, and he let it shift the tendril around until it was pointing at an angle.

He formed his body into a tight aerodynamic shape, arms pressed to his side, horizontal in the air, head tilted down in line with the rest of his body, and finally squeezed the Art right to the maximum. The air screamed around him. Threat Analysis estimated his speed at 110 miles per hour. He engaged his skinsuits neck supports; a series of locking mechanisms built into the helmet and neck parts of the suit. These were meant to automatically come online in the event the suit detected he was in some kind of high-speed collision or suffered severe trauma. In this case, he engaged it himself, because otherwise the force of wind blasting his head was a constant strain on his neck.

He used the skinsuits cameras on the top of his head to view forward. They were quite high quality, as all the skinsuit cameras were, though not on the level of his bionic eye.

Surprisingly, the albino wasp the Queen had given him to track the Highspawn was able to keep up with his speed. It seemed to be somehow linked to his Soul Sense, and he had the impression that so linked it would stay with him no matter how fast he went. Thus, it ranged ahead of him and he felt its pull towards the distance, towards the Highspawn it was tracking. Based on what he felt, the Highspawn was very distant.

While flying, he busied himself weaving Arts. First he found the Wing Symbiotes and spent some time working out how to weave them into the combined Art. With its activation, faint spiritual wings appeared on his back, and his speed increased further still. Approximately 140 miles per hour.

With that his Oma consumption also rose, to the point where he was absorbing multiple crystals a minute. The Queens temporary Art cost quite a lot of Oma, and the Wings pushed the cost up even further. He kept it up regardless. If his base remained his then he still possessed an Oma mine. Time was a far more precious commodity than crystals. As to the ripples, the Wings made more than the Queens Art, and he was now at the max of what the Cloak could hide.

Following that he focused on his various other Symbiotes.

The process of weaving the Cloaking Art had caused a sudden realisation. Someone, at some point, had decided to see if those Symbiotes could work together, and experimented with weaving their Arts. That was it, there was no other secret to it.

Therefore, combination Arts just required trial and error with various Symbiotes. He wanted to see if there might be any combination Arts he was sitting on without realising.

He experimented with the Red Tendon Crickets and Wolf Bugs first. The Wolf Bugs were in his legs, and slightly increased their speed. The three Red Tendon Crickets were in his bionic armshoulder Node, elbow Node, hand Nodeand they did basically the same thing.

He was pleased and surprised when, after only a little experimentation, the three Red Tendon Cricket Arts all slid together into one. This combined Art was slightly stronger than the three running individually had been, used slightly less Oma, and required less mental concentration.

As to the Wolf Bugs, he tried for some time but saw no way to combine them. However, he and the Modules became convinced it was possible to create some kind of large combination Art, utilising the Brawler Symbiote, Red Tendon Crickets, and Wolf Bugs.

His attempts at weaving all of them together felt frustratingly close to success. The Arts were compatible, and if it worked he was sure it would speed and strengthen his whole body by a fair bit, but it just never took.

Cyberwarfare pointed out he was likely lacking symmetry. There were no Red Tendons in his right arm, so how could he create a full-body strengthening combination?

Here and there ripples brushed upon him, an irritating distraction. He knew what they signified. The Scoundrels tracking him. Whatever ripple-based detection method they used seemed to trump the Cloaking Art.

After travelling slightly over five hoursand burning over 600 Oma crystalsthe albino wasp began to release faint spiritual tingles. Through his connection to it, he sensed that he was just one mile away from the target. Nicolai immediately dove downwards until he reached the treetops. There he hunkered against the leafy crown of a tree and gazed ahead.

He zoomed in with his bionic eye, looking for the target. Nothing. However, through his connection to the wasp, he felt its total certainty that the target was directly ahead of him. In fact, according to what it was telling him, if he drew a line between where he currently floated and the wasp, then that line would continue through the air until it intersected the Highspawn

Through this, and assuming the albino wasp was accurate, he knew roughly where the Highspawn was. Alas, he couldnt see it because it had the same advanced Cloaking set he did. No handy purple glow to paint his target. Perhaps he couldve used the wasps sense to pull his M99 and start putting shots on it, but he seriously doubted the tracker was that accurate.

He didnt bother with thermal or other vision modes. Now equipped with his own Cloak, he was pretty sure the Art was doing something to prevent light and heat from radiating or reflecting off him, and it nullified any ripples or sounds he made.

But it didnt prevent sounds bouncing off of him. Based on that, it likely wouldnt stop ripples bouncing, either, meaning tracking methods like the Scoundrels used would probably still find him.

From a mile out, his suits radar and sonar wouldnt be able to detect the Highspawn. He needed to be a lot closer. Once he was within about 150 metres, sonar would be effective. Left to his own devices hed have come into range, pulled the M99, and shot it out the air. He doubted all the Highspawn would have the same protection Vorath had possessed, and even if it didhe was faster than it and thus wouldnt suffer from the problem hed faced chasing Vorath.

But he had to kill it with the Quiet Knife. Nicolai smiled at the Modules groans of annoyance. No job is ever simple, muttered Aiming. The Queen wouldve fit in at GRECKON.

No, if he wanted to kill this Hornet, hed need to work something else out. He conferred with the Modules, sinking into a quasi-Zero-Twelve state. After a few seconds they came up with a workable plan. Nicolai shot into motion once again.

He didnt move towards the Hornet, but sideways. After going some distance, he began to curve his course through the air.The wasp was shifting to his left as he passed by the Hornet. Analysing the Hornets position from different angles, Simulations were able to work out the exact direction in which the Hornet was moving.

After travelling for about twenty minutes and getting quite far ahead of the Hornetwhose speed he had estimated to be about forty miles per hourhe curved again until he was directly ahead of it, in the path it would take so long as it stuck to its current bearing.

Continuing ahead of it, he scanned the ground. After twenty minutes he saw a small clearing, and descended. There were no creatures there, but he paused while Threat Analysis examined the ripples. After only a few moments, it had found just what he needed. He looked in the direction where ripples indicated a Toothbearer, and then sent out a tight beam of spiritual emissions.

Similar to when hed narrowly beamed Killing Intent into the Scale Vipers cave, this time he sent out a sense of weakness and injury, searching for safety. The kind of emissions that a jungle creature might give off. Then, he rapidly removed his skinsuit and instead equipped a black robe and maskthe same hed used to disguise himself in the Auction House.

A few minutes later, a Toothbearer emerged. Big and dangerous, but only Tier 1.

Now with what he needed to stage the scene, Nicolai got to work.

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