IMPERIUM INSECTUM

Sally advanced forward towards the wolves.

< Mother, are you sure this will work?>

The royal fly landed on her shoulder.

<I know it will. We are stronger now than ever before, and besides, I’m a lot more different than what I was a few days ago. We won’t lose here>

Sally continued sneaking through the forest. <Ahead, turn right>

<it’s so weird hearing your voice come from a royal fly>

<Focus Sally the enemy could be-> *Rustle*

The sound came just ahead of us. Just where we thought they were. We had been keeping tabs on their location over the last 3 days as I bolstered my army and made some last-minute preparations.

<You ready?>

<Always have been mother.>

Her eyes focused, and her muscles tightened as she listened up ahead. She was like a cat ready to pounce.

<Whenever you’re rea->

Before I even knew what happened, Sally pounced forward and took a mana beast to the ground. The beast howled and yelped as Sally wrestled the animal to the ground with ease. Sally struck the creature several times, leaving large scratches and gouges in its filthy hide.

<Ease off a little, Sally. We need him alive, remember.>

She eased off just enough for the animal to break away and get some distance. The beast was covered in cuts from Sally’s attack.

<come on, ya big stupid wolf. Do it!>

The beast growled at us as it took a few steps back, threw its head back, and released an ear-raping howl into the sky. A few moments later, another howl came, and another soon dozens of howls could be heard through the forest.

<Good, they’ve got your scent. You know what to do from here, Sally.>

She nodded as she took off into the woods, followed by the wolf. I disconnected my link from the royal fly and found myself back in my “Command bunker.” The bunker was a small area dug out by the worker at the rear of the main force. Close enough for me to intervene if needed but still safe.

“I'm guessing from that howling that the first part of your plan was a success.”

I nodded. “You plan to get involved in this pen?”

She shook her head as she leaned against one of the combat units. “Observing is why I'm here. I want to see how you all fight, if you don’t mind. The data I gather will be useful for me and you, of course.”

“How?”

“Weapons diva, for you and your children…. You'll see, I already have some ideas.”

I gave her a look before leaving the bunker to go to where Azuura was. He was overlooking the battleground that we had prepared.

<we could've made it larger, mother….>

<No, it's fine, given the time you had, I'm amazed you managed to make it so big> One of the key strategies of the combat units is their ability to encircle and swarm. However, the terrain we are in doesn’t allow us to do that easily. There are too many trees blocking our way. So, the simple solution. Remove the trees. Over the past 3 days, a small portion of workers and I have spent hours of our lives cutting down trees to create a perfectly flat, clear piece of land that will make the battle a lot easier

<And besides. This isn't our only advantage. We have another.> Azuura and I looked up to the sky to see a raging swarm of spitters. 90 of them to be, in fact, costing me almost half the biomass I have stockpilled.

< It's make or break here, azuura. We have to win. Or I'll doubt we’ll make it to next week.> The food situation has gotten much worse over these few days, which has not been helped by my adding more to the hive, but what can I do? The situation is hit altogether. To secure more food, I need to shrink our food supply. The benefits of [frugal feeding], whilst noticeable, have been completely outmatched by the increase in our numbers. To the point that to make sure that all our forces are ready, I've had to skip all my meals for the past 3 days. But it has been worth it, even though my stomach says otherwise.

I looked behind me to the army of combat units, ready and eager to burst out of the tree line and out into the battlefield for a fight. They’ve been waiting for this day eagerly, and I can't blame them. I have as well.

<They’ll be here soon>

The sounds of dozens of mandibles chattering with anticipation rang throughout the forest. The spitters flew low and hid amongst the treetops as we continued to wait. Soon, noises started to come from the far end of the battlefield. The noise grew louder and more refined, turning from noise to the sounds of hundreds of stampeding wolves.

<READY!>

At the instant those words left my mouth, the entire hive changed. Everyone focussed on the task ahead. The hive weave that was earlier was filled with noise from all my children fell silent. Everyone was ready

Suddenly, Sally burst through the opposing treeline, and a few seconds later, an army of mana beasts followed behind.

< it looks like she was able to grab all of them, including the alphas.>

Among the mana beasts were 4 that were much larger than the rest. I watched as Sally charged towards us. Despite the Mongolian horde of beasts behind her, she looked calm, happy even.

<Any second now….> I waited a few more moments until she got to the halfway point on the battlefield.

<NOW!> Instantly, all the spitters flew up and into the battlefield. Before the beasts could realise what was happening, a hail of green corrosive venom flew towards their faces. One of the beasts looked up just in time for the venom to splash in its face, taking off its fur and melting the flesh and meat underneath. The same sight repeated itself among the beasts. Guttoral Howls of pain echoed across the forest as the wolves came screeching to a halt, causing all the wolves behind them to charge into and trample over them.

<FOCUS FIRE AT THE REAR. STOP ANY RETREATING!>

Instantly, the hail of venom moved towards the back, killing and maiming all the beasts. Howling filled the air as a large amount of them screamed in pain.

<Mother!> Sally skidded to a stop in front of me.

<Well done. Take a short rest I'll need you soon.> She nodded and went to the bunker

I turned my attention back to the beasts. They were still reeling from the assault, but some of them were trying to fight back. One of the mana beast furs grew a bright yellow as a bolt of lightning shot out towards the spitters. Thankfully, they all managed to disperse in time. The spitters returned fire with even more voracious anger, targetting any of the mana beasts trying to use magic

<Keep the attack up. Don’t relent. Target any that are trying to use mana.>

The unrelentless storm of burning caustic venom kept raining onto the beasts. Some of them tried to escape but ended up falling over their own dead and injured kin. Chaos was well and truly sewn into the ranks of the mana beasts, making it the perfect time to start phase 2. A single order echoed through the weave aimed towards the combat units.

<Charge.>

Like a race dog that heard a starting gun, they took off towards the beasts. I walked towards the bunker where Sally was waiting for me.

<Sally, are you rested?>

<Yes, mother. Where should my blades be pointed> Her blades shot out her arms, dripping with venom.

< I need you to go on to the field. The alphas are still alive. Kill them, and we end this.>

< I'll order the combat units to keep the weaker ones off you. Don’t underestimate them. They almost killed me once….>

She nodded and took off to join the fight with the combat units. I closed my eyes and activated my hive link slowly; my vision blurred and twisted until I was facing the mangled face of a mana beast. The combat unit jumped backwards as it easily dodged a swing from the creature.

<Mother?!>

<Ignore me! Focus!>

The combat unit dodged to the side, causing the creature to fall flat on his face. Instantly, my child lept forward and clamped its mandibles around one of its arms. The beast howled as it tried to escape when suddenly 3, more combat units pounced into the fight, grabbing all 4 of its limbs. They all started pulling backwards. The beast screamed and howled as blood spewed from its joints, and the meat holding its body began to tear until

*RIIIIIIPPPPPPP* its torso flopped to the ground lifelessly as the combat units dropped their arms onto the ground and resumed the fight. I caught brief glimpses of the same sight happening everywhere as slowly the group of mana beasts shrunk. Were almost there I can feel it no where is the alpha

“RUAAAAGHHHHAHAAAAAA!!”

 

<Follow that roar!>

The combat unit darted across the field to where one of the alphas was, and whoo boy, he was a big boy. He thrashed around left and right, trying to shake off the combat units clamped onto his fur. Good, keeping him occupied like this makes it easier for Sally to-

<GET OF HIM ALL OF YOU!> I screamed through the combat unit as the creature's fur turned bright red, and suddenly, a burst of flame erupted around him, sending a few of the combat units flying backwards. Dammit! These bastards are always tricky. I gave the order to the spitter to rain hell onto the alpha, and soon, ungodly caustic rain landed on the creature. It tried to escape, but no matter where it went, the assault of caustic acid followed. The smell of burning flesh tainted the air as the combat units charged towards the alpha. All the surrounding units focused on him charging in and latching their pincers into his meat and tearing chunks out of him over and over. The overwhelming swarm dropped the alpha to the ground, but it didn’t stop as he kept thrashing, trying to get over the mountains of combat units on top of him. Blood drenched the forest floor as his movements got weaker and weaker until, finally, he perished

<That’s one where are the others.>

I looked around the battlefield and noticed that all the remaining uninjured mana beasts ran back into the forest.

< Mother, I was just about to kill that one!> We looked up just in time to see Sally slam into the ground in front of me. She threw 3 heads. Each of them was cleanly cut from the neck. You would think they didn’t cause her trouble from her demeanour, but her outfit says otherwise. Her maid outfit was torn and shredded, revealing parts of her skin to the world. Her hair was matted with blood and dirt, and her face had claw marks that were healing as we spoke. To the side of her was a crimson undulating orb of blood, which had a small tendril of blood connected to her body. Another new skill of hers? I'll have to check up with her soon.                        

<Good job Sally. Now it's time to secure the victory.>

I entered the weave and ushered a new set of commands

<The enemy is retreating. Do not let a single one of them escape alive!>

My order tore through the wave like a tsunami, sending all the combat units charging into the forest. The injuries they sustained made the mana beasts easy to track and eliminate, and soon, the forest floor was littered with the still-warm corpses of the mana beasts. And by sundown, the northern part of the forest fell silent as the final few mana beast were killed.

 

I had returned back to the main hive some time ago and had been watching as several squadrons of workers took off and landed, repeatedly bringing the corpses into the hive to be used for nutrients.

<Good news, Mother. Their bodies will be more than enough for us to start producing the mushrooms>

<is that so... that’s good azuura>

Azura twisted his head in confusion < Mother, are you.... is everything okay?>

I looked towards him. His face was plastered with concern. < I’m fine. Go help your brothers with the logistics> he gave me a concerned glance, but I shooed him away. For some reason, I feel so…. Weird about this victory.

“why the long face?”

I looked behind me to see Penn walking up to me, notebook in hand, as she scribbled something in the book.

“Oh, Penn. It’s nothing.”

She stopped scribbling and looked up towards me. “Are you sure? You usually  have a more arrogant accent on your face.”

“Arrogant?”

“Yeah, you walk and smile like you own the place.”

“That's because I do, Penn” She chuckled as she sat down next to me. “What's got you so down that you look like someone who has just lost a good friend.”

“Azuura and now you. Is it really that obvious?”

She nodded. “Very much so.”

“*sigh* I guess I can confide in you a little. For some reason, I don’t know why, but I feel empty after winning this battle. Usually, after my fights, I feel something. Whether it be happiness, anger, or sadness, However, this time, it’s just....nothing..”

“Hmmm.... I think I have an idea why, but please tell me about your fights.”

I told her about everything all my wins and all my losses. She listened with great interest, probably out of fascination with how I or the hive have fought in the past.

“Hmmm, my hypothesis is the reason you feel this way is that this is the 1^st time you’ve won a battle without any drama. You didn’t get injured; you didn’t nearly die. Hell, nobody died as far as I’m aware, and that’s the issue: you're so used to experiencing some sort of loss that when you don’t, it feels off. I’m sure that will change with time.”

“hmmm. What you say makes sense. Ill keep it in mind.”

“Cheer up. You should remember that the food situation should improve going forward; that should make you feel something, at least.”

I felt a smile creep onto my face. “I guess that is something to be happy about.”

“Yeah, and I got a good demonstration on how the alvearix fight. This data will be very useful.”

 I rolled my eyes. “how did it look for you anyway.”

“overall. It looked good. You used your aerial advantage very well, And that was the big deciding factor. If you had just stuck to the ground units well...”

“Well, what?”

“While being as polite as possible, your combat units are incredibly weak. If it had been just them alone, the mana beasts could have won. Their strength is their numbers. The more there are, the stronger they seem, but numbers can only get you so far. They are best when they are supporting something that can give a good punch, in this case, the spitters.”

I chuckled. “I was thinking the same thing….”      

 

 

 

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