An Understated Dominance by Marina Vittori

A Black Scorpion Squad member was perched on the tree. He plucked the first revitalberry and reached for the second.

Suddenly, his arm spasmed involuntarily in response to the sharp sting. Upon closer inspection, he noticed a red bug on his palm, roughly the size of an ant.

The red bug tore through his skin with razor-sharp mandibles and burrowed into his flesh. Panic surged as he tried to swat it away, but his efforts proved futile.

In a matter of moments, the red bug had embedded itself deep into his arm, gnawing at his flesh while laying eggs.

The intense pain forced the Black Scorpion Squad member to scream, and he fell from the tree. His arm rapidly decayed, swarming with countless red bugs, creating a nightmarish scene.

“Help! Somebody, please help!” The Black Scorpion Squad member cried out in distress, writhing on the ground.

His body seemed to wither before their eyes as if he were turning into a desiccated corpse.

In a heartbeat, the once-muscular man transformed into a skeletal figure with wrinkles etched across his shrunken form.

“What the heck?”

The crowd, witnessing this horrifying spectacle, gasped collectively.

What seemed like a healthy person just moments ago was now teetering on the brink of death, his dried-up appearance implying that his blood had been sucked dry.

“Look at his hand!”

An observant onlooker pointed out the Black Scorpion Squad member’s arm, which was now entirely rotten, with visible bones and a surge of red bugs crawling between flesh and bone. The bugs were reproducing at an alarming rate, continuously hatching new ones.

red bugs laid eggs in batches, ranging from dozens to hundreds. As they fed more on flesh and blood, their

body was overtaken by the

me…” The screams of the Black Scorpion Squad member

remaining hand, raised in desperation, was gnawed by the relentless red bugs. In a matter of minutes, the once-living

earth are those bugs? Where did they come

my goodness! Did that person just get devoured like

by the horrific scene, trembled in fear. With no understanding of the unfolding events, they just witnessed a Black Scorpion Squad member suddenly fall from

another squad member suffered a similar fate, falling from the tree. This grim

the squad members who had climbed the tree to harvest

My hand! My

There are bugs inside my

“Captain! Save me!”

members cried and pleaded, writhing on the ground in agony. After all, the pain

he urgently directed his two

off

that those infected would turn into skeletons within minutes. With no time to devise a better plan, he had to

he and his two aides armed with knives rushed forward to sever

bones behind. As they observed the horde of red bugs, Garrett and his aides couldn’t shake off the

just a few seconds would have resulted in the entire

those wounds and stop their bleeding!” Grace quickly took charge, directing her team to care for the

were fortunate to have

strange poisonous bugs come from?” the

revitalberries!” she asserted firmly. “Anyone who touches it ends up getting infected. I suspect these strange berries