Interstellar: Return of the Villain
Chapter 216: A Nightmarish Zoo

Chapter 216: A Nightmarish Zoo

Marty slowed as he passed Lyra. "Tried to show Wolf up, huh? How’d that work out for ya?" He snickered, clearly enjoying himself.

Lyra, unbothered, gave him no response, her eyes scanning the area.

Flying beside her, Bruce gave her a grateful nod. "Thanks for saving my ass earlier, ma’am." His tone was sincere, a rare moment of respect from the usually sarcastic soldier.

"Hmm," Lyra acknowledged with a simple nod before they moved through the dense, decaying forest.

Up ahead, Marty’s voice rang out again. "Hey, Bruce! Keep up, or we’ll leave you behind!"

Bruce shot Lyra an apologetic glance and sped forward to rejoin the others.

Despite the signal that Ivo had crashed nearby, their search through the murky, foul woods proved to be more complicated than expected.

Drones combed the area, but instead of Ivo, they kept finding more frenzied, genetically modified beasts roaming the forest.

It was as if the entire area had become a nightmarish zoo of experiments gone wrong.

The deeper they ventured, the worse the stench of decay became. Even Lyra, whose senses were heightened, had to slip on a filter mask to suppress the overpowering odor.

As they advanced, her superpower flickered—a strange, tingling sensation, a warning she had learned not to ignore. Something was off.

"Movement up ahead!" a soldier called out, causing the squad to rush forward in unison.

Lyra’s instincts screamed at her to be cautious. She hurried to warn Wolf. "We should be careful—"

But Wolf silenced her with an icy glare. "I said FOLLOW orders," he growled, dismissing her concern without a second thought.

Biting her tongue, Lyra stayed silent as the squad pressed onward.

They soon rounded a dense cluster of trees, and what they found stopped them cold.

Emerging from the shadows were towering, humanoid creatures—nearly three meters tall.

At first, they resembled humans, but upon closer inspection, it became horrifyingly clear that they were anything but.

Their bodies were elongated, with brick-red, segmented tails making up half their length.

Thick hind legs supported their grotesque forms, which were equipped with four muscular arms.

Topping off their disturbing appearance were long antennae, twitching atop their heads.

Despite their monstrous appearance, the creatures wore lab coats—ripped and tattered, but unmistakably the garb of researchers.

Beneath their grotesque forms, traces of humanity still lingered.

Men, women, even children. Whatever they had once been, they were now something else entirely.

"Is this some kind of Therianthropy superpower?" someone muttered nervously, the question hanging heavy in the air.

Wolf was undeterred by the grotesque sight. He stepped forward, his voice cold and authoritative.

He was about to find answers when, the creatures dropped the massive metal crates they had been carrying.

Their mouths split open with a sickening crack, revealing oversized mandibles that gleamed with a razor-sharp sheen.

In an instant, one of the creatures lunged at a nearby soldier, its mandibles snapping shut around his head.

The gut-wrenching crunch of bone and flesh echoed through the forest, triggering a wave of panic.

"Retreat!" someone shouted as soldiers scrambled, trying to gain altitude on their hoverboards. But their efforts were futile.

The ant-like creatures possessed astonishing leaping abilities, springing into the air like coiled springs and dragging soldiers back down to the ground, ripping into them with terrifying speed and ferocity.

Even seasoned fighters like Marty, with his Therianthropy powers, and Rowena, who wielded immense force abilities, were struggling to fend off the brutal assault.

The soldiers quickly realized the grim truth: they were in a fight for survival—kill or be killed.

The Legion of Nebulae hesitated, unsure whether they were fighting former humans, while the Special Forces wasted no time. Their blades flashed as they slashed through the ant-people, cleaving them in two with ruthless efficiency.

But the battle was far from over. A haunting rustling sound began to grow louder, like the grinding of stone against stone.

The squad’s eyes darted around as they realized the full scope of their predicament—the trees, the ground, everywhere—they were surrounded by these monstrous ant-people.

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of them, all clacking their massive mandibles in unison, producing a nightmarish, rhythmic sound that crawled beneath the skin.

And then came the venom.

The larger ant-creatures, towering over the rest, suddenly began spewing jets of acidic fluid from their mouths.

The sickening hiss of acid striking flesh filled the air as the corrosive substance melted through armor, flesh, and bone alike.

Agonized screams pierced the battlefield as soldiers writhed in pain, their bodies dissolving where the acid had made contact.

Wolf’s teeth clenched as he unleashed his power, his fists igniting with a roaring inferno.

A massive lion-shaped flame surged ahead, carving out a narrow escape route through the swarming ant-people.

"Retreat!" he shouted as he blasted apart the approaching enemies.

Marty moved quickly, his Therianthropy abilities enhancing his agility. He hoisted Bruce, who was barely conscious, along with another teammate who had collapsed.

"Let’s go!" Marty urged, his voice filled with urgency.

Bruce weakly shook his head, barely able to form words. "Leave us... don’t risk it, Marty," he croaked.

"Shut up!" Marty snapped, pushing through the pain and exhaustion. But his progress was slow with the weight of his comrades dragging him down.

Thick streams of acid rained down from the sky, and Marty, burdened by the others, was hit directly.

The searing pain was unbearable as the corrosive substance ate through his armor, burning into his skin. But he refused to abandon his teammates, even as the situation became more dire.

Despite their desperate retreat, the ant-people pursued them relentlessly, faster than anyone anticipated.

The soldiers’ hoverboards had been destroyed in the chaos, and they soon found themselves surrounded.

Thinking quickly, one of their Geokinesis teammates raised a stone platform beneath them, providing a temporary refuge from the horde below.

But the situation was grim. The ant-people, disturbingly intelligent, began spitting acid onto the stone platform. Their corrosive saliva slowly ate through the platform as they tried to climb up the sides.

The air was thick with tension as cracks started forming under the assault.

"What the hell are these things?" Marty panted as he carefully lay down Bruce and the other wounded. Panic gripped his chest as he checked their pulses. "They need treatment now!"