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

Squad member’s body

me…” The screams of the Black Scorpion Squad member

raised in desperation, was gnawed by the

are those bugs? Where did they come

Did that person just get devoured

unfolding events, they just witnessed a Black Scorpion Squad member suddenly fall from the tree, devoured by a

the tree. This

members who had climbed the tree to harvest revitalberries

hand!

There are bugs

“Captain! Save me!”

and pleaded, writhing on the ground in agony. After all, the pain of being devoured by countless

and he urgently directed his two trusted aides

off

within minutes. With no time to devise a better plan, he had to act quickly to save

with knives rushed forward to sever

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

of just a few seconds would have resulted in the entire squad meeting the same

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

limited resources, they were fortunate to have ample

these strange poisonous bugs come from?” the bald,

it ends up getting infected. I suspect these strange