The dark tunnel spread out into many webbed passages, but thanks to his heightened instincts and dark vision, Nikolai barely slowed. The walls were slick, pulsing with veins of bioluminescent fungus. Shadows twisted around every corner. The stench grew thicker with each step… rotting meat, sour milk and the strange mineral tang of mutant ichor.

Behind him, Leona’s voice echoed, clipped and tense.

“Fan out, cover the rear. Watch the ceiling.”

The maids moved with brutal discipline, boots crunching over carapace and bone.

Nikolai didn’t wait. The pulse in the walls was like a drum in his chest, drawing him deeper. He ducked under a curtain of mucous strands, scraping his jacket against the rock. Something scuttled overhead, legs clicking against stone, but he ignored it.

If it wanted a piece, it could come down and ask.

A mutant burst from the side tunnel, jaws gaping. Nikolai rammed his fist down its throat as bone cracked. He yanked free, causing the monster to spit blood and broken teeth. “Nice hit!”

Another came—this one with wings, buzzing like a broken blender. Leona shot it out of the air, the silver round bursting its head like a grape.

“Don’t get cocky.”

“Wasn’t planning on it.” He pressed on, boots squelching.

The passage widened, then descended into hell again.

A sinkhole opened beneath his feet. He slid, boots skidding through slime, and landed hard. The air down here was hot and damp.

Something wet and thick slapped against his cheek. He wiped it away, vision clearing just in time to see dozens of smaller mutants peeling themselves from the walls, each with too many eyes and chattering mouths.

He grinned. “This is the kind of fight I wanted”

He rolled his shoulders, knuckles popping. “Come on, then.”

The maids regrouped above, forming a firing line. Leona vaulted beside him, shotgun out, hair catching the faint glow from the walls. She looked at him, eyes flashing. “You good?”

“Better than ever.”

The mutant swarm charged.

Nikolai and the maids rushed forward, meeting them head-on. Claws, bone and flesh, he welcomed all of it, as the silver and golden flashes followed the song of silver bullets tearing through the gloom and slaughtering the mutants.

He noticed something massive shifting deeper in the tunnels—a pressure, a presence, patient and old.

And it was waiting for him.

The mutants came in a tide—skittering, scraping, shrieking as they spilt from cracks and holes in the cavern walls. Nikolai let himself sink into the violence. His fists split skulls as his boot snapped a spine. He focused only on each threat, every rush of movement in the gloom.

A flash of orange hair—Leona moved at his side, her shotgun barking. Silver buckshot tore through a cluster of winged things, spraying ichor and broken limbs across the floor. The smell burned his nose.

Maids kept their formation behind, sweeping with rifles, picking off anything that broke free. They moved with speed, ruthlessness, and control. He could hear their breathing, see the way their uniforms already clung slick with sweat and mutant gore.

One mutant far bigger than the rest, a centipede with a skull-face. Lunged from above, jaws open wide. Nikolai grabbed it mid-air and slammed it down so hard the stone cracked. It convulsed once, then went limp.

But the deeper they fought, the stranger the tunnel felt.

Something was wrong with the air—a weight pressing down on Nikolai’s shoulders, on his mind. Every breath tasted metallic, bitter. The fungus on the walls pulsed faster, almost in time with his heartbeat.

Leona swore under her breath, brushing green ichor from her cheek. “It’s getting worse. Smells like acid down here.”

Nikolai didn’t answer. He just kept going, eyes narrowed. The tunnel curved, snaking deeper. The chittering and shrieking faded, replaced by a slow, wet drag—a sound that set his teeth on edge.

The passage opened suddenly into a vast, low chamber. The ceiling was lost in shadow, threads of bioluminescent fungus forming a web above their heads. All around, half-eaten mutant corpses lay stacked in heaps, some still twitching.

At the far end, something shifted. A scale, the colour of dried blood scraped against stone. A massive and slow serpentine shape curled around the chamber’s heart.

Nikolai’s instincts screamed that this thing was different

He gestured for silence, crouching low. Leona and the maids fanned out behind, each step measured, every gun ready.

The scales rippled again. One enormous golden eye opened, slitted and cold. The beast’s head rose—jaw twisted, horns jutting from a skull ringed with spines. Venom dripped in thick ropes from its mouth, burning holes in the floor.

It stared at Nikolai.

He felt the hunger behind that gaze; it was a predator—patient, deliberate

The Mutated Basilisk had noticed him.

***

For a heartbeat, nobody moved. Even the mutants in the shadows fell silent, cowed by the thing curled at the centre of its nest.

Leona’s squad held position, rifles aimed but hands trembling. Silver rounds or not, they’d never faced something like this.

Nikolai forced himself to breathe slowly, eyes locked on the beast. Its body coiled tighter, muscle shifting under rotten scales. A heavy, reptilian tongue flicked out, tasting the blood and gunpowder in the air.

He could see now—the Basilisk’s hide wasn’t just mutated. It fused with the corpses of its prey. Bits of armour, ragged skulls, broken limbs—all half-sunken into its flesh, like the monster had outgrown its skin a dozen times.

Something cold and electric ran down his spine.

Nikolai grinned, teeth flashing in the half-dark.

The Basilisk hissed, scales rattling. Its bulk uncoiled, blocking every exit. Venom fumed from its fangs, burning streaks into the rock. He almost welcomed the fear for a second—his blood running hot, his skin prickling with excitement.

“Eyes down!” he snapped. “Don’t look at it. Go for the neck and tail.”

The maids shifted, eyes wide, following orders by instinct more than sense.

Leona racked her shotgun, staring at the monster’s feet. “How do you plan on killing that?”

Nikolai’s only answer was a laugh—reckless, wild, precisely what the beast wanted to hear.

He charged, claws ready, boots pounding across bone and muck.

The Basilisk struck, mouth gaping, venom spraying in twin arcs.

The battle for the nest had begun.

***

Nikolai glanced left as the Basilisk’s venom splashed where he’d stood. The stone smoked and popped. A single drop hissed through the barrel of an abandoned rifle, eating metal like sugar in acid.

He lunged low, claws out, aiming for the underbelly. The Basilisk coiled with unnatural speed, its tail sweeping wide. Nikolai threw himself over it, crouching on a greasy, corpse-littered stone.

Leona’s shotgun roared as the silver buckshot hammered into the creature’s flank, punching holes in the fused armour. One maid tossed a flashbang into the gloom—the chamber flared white, shadows flinching.

The Basilisk saw through the glare. It didn’t blink. The maids split up, firing in tight bursts, keeping distance. Silver rounds hit the mutant’s scales, some generated, though most bounced off.

The beast twisted, lashing out. Its tail smashed into a support column. Stone rained from above, dust choking the air. Nikolai felt the world tighten, every nerve burning. He saw the weak spot beneath the jaw—pale, soft, wet with venom.

Nikolai surged forward, leaping onto the Basilisk’s side. Ichor sprayed his arms, burning even through his clothes. He ignored it, driving his claws into the pale flesh. The Basilisk thrashed, smashing him against the wall, but he held on, teeth bared.

“Leona! The tail, now!”

Leona and two maids rushed in, laying fire along the spine. The Basilisk roared—a deep, chest-shaking sound. It whipped around, jaws snapping. A maid screamed, pinned under its coils.

Nikolai slammed his fist into the wound again, digging deeper. The Basilisk’s blood smoked in the air, acid-hot. His vision blurred.

A shadow shifted at the far edge of the chamber.

The Basilisk shrieked, rearing up.

It was angry!

***

Nikolai faced off with the furious beast, its black scales shining with brilliance as it held so he roared before he pushed through the burning pain and faced the monster again.

He drove his claws deeper, hooking the pulsing vein beneath the jaw. Hot, caustic blood sprayed his face, blinding one eye. The Basilisk spasmed, tail slamming into Leona, sending her sprawling.

“Keep firing!” he barked.

The maids obeyed, pouring round after round into the creature’s body. Silver flashed, gunfire echoing in the chamber.

The pinned maid clawed for breath, her eyes rolling.

The monster writhed, desperate, smashing Nikolai against the stone. Spots danced in his vision. He held on.

Leona stood up, hair tangled, blood staining her lips. She braced her shotgun, aimed for the ragged gash beneath the jaw, and fired point-blank. The shell hit home, blowing scales and bone apart.

The Basilisk convulsed, shrieking so loud the fungus on the ceiling burst with light. Venom and gore poured out in streams, splashing across Nikolai’s chest. He let go at last, dropping to his knees, sucking in tainted air.

The Basilisk toppled, shuddered, and went still. Its single golden eye dimmed until it turned black.

The chamber fell quiet.

And silence pressed down with weight.

Nikolai wiped blood from his mouth, his vision swimming. The maids checked each other, battered but alive. Leona lowered her shotgun, meeting his gaze with a hard, satisfied grin.

Before they could breathe, something stirred at the edge of the chamber, a colossal silhouette dragging itself free from bone and muck, eyes glowing like embers.

Nikolai spat blood, forcing himself upright.

“Round two,” he muttered, voice low.

The next nightmare had arrived.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep