An arrow hits her scales. Fifty ants die. A flame stops meters away from her form. The trees crunch down on rodents like animalistic jaws. Trebuchets send stones flying towards her wings, but the wind itself beats the projectiles away. Her roars freeze the ants under herself in fear, leaving them as easy prey to be crushed under her body as she lands. This is how it’s always been. Slaughtering ants, waiting for the three or so competent ones to show up so she can squash them into a gruesome paste and finally send the rest of the worthless things fleeing in despair for the next half decade or so.

It was annoying that this time it only lasted some ten years and spare. Her own instincts were tingling with the wrongness of the attack, but for now she needed to focus. This was a new strategy, she had to admit. Usually they kept the magic capable humans of all kinds away from immediate combat, yet every so often a spell would hit her. She’d try to focus on the ones chanting, but all humans around were speaking nonsense prayers or fake spells while running, so it was impossible to differentiate them like that.

Her tails splatters blood over the field, after which she breathes out boiling mist that cooks a couple dozen humans alive. It was a tedious thing, but it had to be done. If only she could, she would use this opportunity to take more territory and push her wards forward, but it was hard to annex the faithful mortals, and it was dangerous to become too visible.

Is this truly what I should focus on? Well, what else can I think of? My children are rushing home, so they will be safe. I will not allow any of these bipedal animals to take even five steps into the forest, so all I can do is to focus and erase the pests.

Even so, it was much easier said than done. They were being quite witty for a bunch of lowly peasants ruled by fear. It looked like they were headless chicken, but still she needed to use something strong to catch more than four at once. This was inefficient. And to top it all off, she needed to keep a sensory spell active, otherwise they could sneak by with their invisibility. This was why she hated humans. Crafty little things made all sorts of hideous imitations of their magic, if only to reach a fragment of a dragon’s glorious power.

More corpses, more apathy. These creatures aren’t even good food. These things are barely worth her attention. And yet here she is, wasting days' worth of gathered mana on them. Hours of killing will pile up. It might take well into the night to be finally rid of their infestation.

But for a moment her attention is drawn somewhere else. Her eye burns and she looks through her home. Her eldest came back, finally. He looks tired, his scales show he is starved for mana, but he’s still clinging onto his toy. No matter. Everyone is inside, and they’re taking refuge in the temple. It is better like that. They shoul-

Her eyes widen as wrong lightning digs through her defenses, into her scales, ripping off a few from her back. Her eyes scan everything and she notices the seven men spread out but shining with the sickening leftovers of borrowed power. They can sprinkle gold on mortals to make them seem like magic users, but divinity is hard to fake, especially the divinity clinging to a mortal’s body after such a strong prayer. They truly look like decent but common soldiers. They might seem formidable among these pitiful men, and certainly much braver to come to such a mission in spite of their higher positions, but what good is the bravado of serving a war goddess when you have to face the true rulers of this world? The devourers of stagnant divinities?

Those men find themselves impaled on freshly grown wood, flowers blooming from that wasted flesh. They are desperate, if they are throwing away their faithful, but the mere fact that the gods can intervene with such ease now is enough to become a worry. She takes back to the skies, aiming for as much altitude as is feasible, then plunges. The wind she causes as she dives without a spell to manipulate the air is enough to send men flying and tumbling, drawing terrified screams from people that somehow still don’t run from this.

Ah, no, there’s quite a few running, but they are killed for the act. Uncivilized filth… whispers her mind as her jaws open, nature mana dancing to the whims of her breathshaper, before pouring outwards in a vibrant cloud of green particles. Dread washes over the battlefield as it is covered in color, for everyone understood their fate. Flowers, weeds, just about any form of plant matter grew from the living corpses of the humans. The lucky ones died quickly. The unlucky ones might survive for weeks, stuck as half plant statues, having to feel the bark scraping their flesh, the roots of beautiful flowers spreading throughout their brains. Yet this was the best way to clear away a chunk of the invading army.

Annoyingly, it was far from enough. There were so many pests and with so many burrows protected by invisibility spells… They were trying to exhaust her. They were hoping to have more bodies than she had mana. They were making a grave mistake if they thought this would be enough. Her river was not too far from here, and while it was hardly an oasis of mana, as most of it remained around her lake, it was enough to take some of the strain. She had options if things became troublesome, after all the beasts here were used enough to slaughter. A simple spell, even if costly because of the range, would be enough to direct all of them at the mortals, exhausting them while she could rest a while. Of course, that was something she will need to set up for… maybe half a day from now.

Her eye warmed up again, and this time she saw her oldest leading the humans away..? All but the beastly one were being taken outside of the temple. Already she saw how her children made their nest more enticing, sprinkling riches on the way towards it, after stripping it bare of the most valuable things. That was smart and tricky… Well, her eldest had wits beyond his days, so although another reason to bring her pride, it was something she was not overly surprised by. She already saw him use traps and plans to kill things that were too troublesome to stomp down with might.

Ah, how she wanted to embrace them now… They almost had their affinity engraved in their hearts and could handle her presence much better than before. She would soon be able to just hold them for days on end, play with them, teach them endlessly about the greatness of the blood that flows through their veins, the birthright they hold over this world, the beauty they could find if they were to search for it, the dreams they could follow if only they did not make her mistakes.

How much time has passed? How quickly does it move? How many wounds have slipped past her defenses for a reason or another? How much blood stains the fields? How many tried to run to her forest to hide, only to find themselves crushed by the trees or stepping on needles of grass? It is all so exhausting… Foolish beings, oh how I wish they would just stop trying to retake these lands. They were neglecting them, yet the second I claimed them, endless bloodshed began.

DANGER

Her eyes unfocused in the middle of her forming another spell, all of her attention being ripped away by the sight of humans, capable ones, reaching her child’s pets. She saw blood, death and her son violently overexerting himself to rescue the surviving ones. Of course the filth would kill their own. Who knows what pathetic, self righteous excuses they threw out before her child ruined their chance for more cruelty.

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She needed to go home. All but one of the invaders wielded magic, they would be able to reach the temple… They could hurt her spawn. It was all unacceptable, so she focused back to the outside world and focused her magic into a singular spell. The winds picked up, the sky darkened and torrential rain with drops the size of fists took over, pelting the humans below until they were all bloodied and bruised, swamped by mud and overall unable to even be an annoyance anymore. All of them were dead. Or at least, all the ones that came here, because the ones that attacked her children did not come on this front. They must have snuck in through the other routes, maybe even getting the help of her towns.

With gritted teeth she began flying back, only to hear screeching. Veils of distorted light broke apart as a flock of wyverns took to the skies, bombarding her with breath attacks and competent spells. They had inched forward when she noticed the invaders, or else she has no idea how these things got so close without her noticing. They were small, but not tiny. They trained the lessers well, but well trained beasts are still beasts. And all beasts fear dragons.

A loud roar struck like thunder, mind mana weaving freely into the sound then slamming into the enemies. The riders wore carefully molded and engraved metals, an armor that might give to pure force before it let any sort of magic through, but she didn’t care for them. Her spell was not meant for the elite of humanity, but for the shame of her kin.

One of the flying lizards stopped just before attempting to claw at her undefended flank when the roar hit it. Its sudden hesitation, stopping in place, trying to run away before the collar around its neck reasserted itself was enough for her tails to swipe, bisecting it and its rider. Two other pairs found themselves too close when the steeds froze in momentary fear, which caused them to be impaled and sent tumbling down. A concentrated beam of water handled another handful of the creatures, but by then she took a few hits back.

Her children were fighting. Her children were hurting. Yet here she was, failing to swat bugs from the sky. Failing to stomp down the ants. She was gathering superficial damage and exhaustion… She could push through if she truly strained, but how many centuries had it been since she last gave it her all? Could she even do that anymore?

A spear embeds itself in her side, a wyvern latches on and continuously slashes at her, magic keeps pelting her side, her eye shows a horrifying scene and finally she has enough. Her children are being pushed back by the humans and their numbers. Even the pets were fighting back…

She roars and unleashes her mana in a wave around herself. For a moment the wyverns stop altogether, not even hovering or flying away. They just stop, before the laws of the world reassert themselves, pulling them to the ground. She pushes herself, using a similar spell to her mate’s, causing her form to slide through the air while her pursuers just barely catch themselves. For a moment she looks back through her wards. It’s… only her eldest and the beast? Where could the others have gone!? She roars in desperation, but fails to pick up any more speed. This was her limit.

She looks, and looks, and sees why her eldest remained, his spell taking form. Wind, earth… and a spark granted by what remained of that unborn flame elemental. She could see that even the damnable things were more aggravated by the invaders than by her offspring. Her eldest is saved by the beast, taken to the water, rescued by being sent up to the top of her mountain. That she could reach. There she could save them.

Her eye bleeds. Most of her wards broke because of the explosion. It will take a while to recover the complex organ, but she didn’t care. Her spell weakens as she breathes a sigh of relief. They were safe and she could reach them. Once they were protected behind her, she could properly handle these worthless invaders. To think they would bring so many people, subjugated disappointments, and even send mercenaries to assassinate her children…

Her eyes widen as she sees a human figure rising from the water, behind her spawn. She roars, hoping against hope that they could understand the danger. She focuses so much on getting as good a view as possible of that enemy that she doesn’t notice the faint shimmering of invisibility breaking away behind her. She had eyes inside her cave and right at the edge of the forest, where she was fighting. She did not notice the men coming from the sides through the wilderness. She also did not notice the monsters they brought to do their dirty work.

The arrow larger than a tree flies through her flesh. It is made of the darkest metal, engraved with hate and curses, built like a piece of art to reject all magic and pierce through her flesh. No human made machine could throw this so far and with such accuracy. Her eyes focus on the thing that appeared after ruining its own protection with the abominable projectile. A horned giant, its single eye bearing two pupils that turn back into one. In its oddly proportioned hand it holds the remains of a bow bigger than any artillery piece, and still it gets up from its crouched position, starting to run at her with only an actual tree as a weapon.

The bastards and their slaves. Finally it came the time she was warned of. A century or so ago, her greatest ancestor told her in no uncertain terms that the empire would kill her if she remained weak or if she grew more visible.

“Do nothing or do everything, all else means death.” Those were the simple words of a being she had never even seen in its true might and shape. A being that was supposed to be family. Her own, personal, Great Lord.

She ruined it. By having children, she did something. Yet she hadn’t prepared for this. After years of peasants, of barely armed mortals, with maybe three notable mages every battle, she thought herself immortal. Yet here she lay, bloodied and bruised, missing two wings and a good chunk of her side, with a one-eyed giant she had never even seen before coming straight at her.

She was a disgrace. She would die a disgrace that couldn’t protect her children and died to a small nation on the single most mana starved continent of the world. The place where children came to play would be her grave… And yet… just a single powerful enemy, armed with a tree… that was prey! Mana rushes at the enemy and its weapon turns into a deadly prison. The tree grows inside its flesh, wrapping around its bones and then turning into a monument of grotesque death… And another giant slashes through the spell keeping it hidden, a vicious scythe just as disgusting as the arrow impales itself into her body, piercing so deep an air sack is hit. The monster dies to her tails, but she is already hurt… At least she can free herself of the thing constantly denying her mana.

She’s bleeding heavily, her air stopped flowing right, her wounds were made by disgusting things that pushed all mana out of their surroundings, making it all the harder to regenerate. It might cost her most of her nature and life mana to fully heal. Regeneration hated doing more than the bare minimum after all.

Was she going to die here? Was there another of these beasts ready to kill her? Maybe it remained hidden until her guard was down… Maybe she should check? Maybe… maybe she should give up. She can’t reach them anymore. A human followed them, to kill them… Maybe she should die for being such a useless mother to her brilliant children…

But then a soft thing reached her ears. It was faint, like a whisper, but it had so much emotion in it… it felt like warmth, like safety, like a love that sometimes hurts, like well of wisdom and the frustration of trying to change the flow of a river by hand. It was a single word, one that meant so much and yet, here, its most apt use would be… “Mom!”

Her child was calling for her.

She couldn’t give up.

That is why she raised herself and weaved a spell to fix all that was important, ignoring her wings altogether. She didn’t need to fly, she needed to cut her way through the enemies, and now that she knew her death was not acceptable, she let loose her own slice of reality. All the mana around reacted, drinking in her knowledge and ideas, becoming something more like her for a while. All mana including the very sensitive thing that kept so many of her enemies hidden.

She sees them now, the slaves that remain. No more giants are here to face her, but equally sad beings are. She sees the kin of the beastly woman, children of the elemental spirits, eyeless demons that are weeping as their mana is devoured by this dried up land. She also sees beasts, some with more mind than others, all monsters that were carefully molded into machines of war… And they’re standing between herself and her children.

With a roar she begins the slaughter. After all, she still had one plan left.