“Formation 2-1-2!” A voice that sounded an awful lot like Alpha’s rang out across the water.

“Oh, so they got formations now?” Bugz asked for the benefit of her fans watching along on the livestream. The flood of gifts appearing in her chat window acted as a visual laugh track.

She turned her canoe to face the oncoming attack. She could see the horde splitting into two roughly even groups, each circling along the shore in opposite directions, one to the south and one to the north. Of course Alpha is coming back for more. A never-ending hunger.

Bugz opened a screen to quickly show a video about Alpha’s backstory for the benefit of her followers. Alpha’s first clan had bullied him and, just like the runt of the litter, the experience soured him. You could see the resentment on his face in the video as he endured taunts and insults. Then the action cut to a replay of Alpha following his clan into battle. They were trusting him to protect their flank, but instead, he slaughtered each and every one of them. Alpha pillaged their weapons and resources. Bugz paused the video and zoomed in on the charred remains of his former clanmates, their faces frozen in horror at his treachery. She skipped ahead of the short work Alpha had made of the other clan they’d battled that day and watched the climax of the clip. Alpha, still unharmed in this playback, and spurred on by virtual adrenaline, slowly cut his own face with a hunting knife, leaving himself with his signature scar.

Bugz snapped the video window shut to face this scarred warrior and the clan that was not a clan.

CHAPTER 18

Feng battled to keep up with the crowd of centurions, marines, and orcs rushing to Bugz’s southern flank.

“Lock and load!” came the order over their voice communication system.

Feng pumped the action on a super-charged shotgun, boarded a speedboat—one of fifty that launched from this shore—and headed for the armada of sturgeon surrounding a single birchbark canoe in the middle of the lake.

Another fifty speedboats and Zodiacs launched from the north shore.

Feng watched Bugz’s livestream through his heads-up display. He heard her speak.

“Are these guys serious?” Bugz asked her fans. “Splitting up into two? Making each of their groups weaker? Just like Custer at Little Bighorn.”

Feng muted her feed as Bugz knelt down in her canoe. Suddenly, the sturgeon submerged themselves in the black water, darting away with shocking speed.

Seconds later the first sturgeon tore through the waters directly in front of Feng’s speedboat. The monstrous bottom-feeder rammed the boat so hard Feng and the other five Clan:LESS warriors riding in it were launched airborne and fell in to the lake. Sturgeon now rammed Clan:LESS boats left and right, pitching dozens upon dozens of soldiers into the churning waters around them.