---
Smoke drifted through like funeral incense, curling around shattered pillars of bark and stone. The crater punched by Kai's arrival still glowed at its edges, molten droplets of earth hissing where they met cold subterranean air. All sound had paused, suspended in the stunned wake of a living meteor crashing through the roof of the Crimson Nest.
Kai stood motionless for a few seconds in the middle of the crater he had created, faint steam rising from his armored limbs. All around him, half a dozen bloated frogkin froze mid-step, stunned by his sudden appearance.
Frogs, once jeering, crouched in silence. Assassin-ants, bruised and blood-slick, froze mid-lunge. Only two figures dared move.
