Some time had passed since Silver grew, and the glade was now filled with the hum of bees moving between the flowers. Faerie danced and fluttered to and fro throughout the glade, singing to her many blossoms as she would each morning, seemingly without a care. Recently, the blossoms that blanketed the inner edge of the Thornwall had been changing from their pristine white to contain more and more crimson, entire stretches of the wall were now without a white blossom anywhere to be seen.
As Faerie ventured closer to the Thornwall, she caught wind of a disturbance happening outside. Flying up and over to see what was going on in the forest, she looked past the vines and down towards the glade’s newest protectors, the Enchanting Vineblossoms. These vibrant flowers wafted out an enchanting aroma that would draw in predators and incapacitate them, before their vines would quietly draw them down beneath the soil to feast upon. While Faerie was mostly ignorant as to the grisly nature of these beautiful flowers, she did know they were here to keep her garden safe, and sang to them her gratitude.
Seeing how rapidly the Vineblossoms were growing in the area, Faerie was somewhat excited at the thought of her garden expanding. Without any hesitation, Faerie rushed off to fly around the perimeter ensuring her new guardians were faring well on all sides of her glade. Observing the situation with a touch of anxiety, Faerie noticed that the Enchanting Vineblossoms hadn’t been effective against all would-be invaders of her garden. In several places, there were patches of destruction leading right up to the base of the Thornwall where the still-fresh corpses of large predators could be seen still poking out of the soil. In a number of places, some creatures had seemingly attempted to pass above the Thornwall, only to be bisected by some invisibly thin threads spanning between various trees.
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As she looked outwards, another group of creatures rushed towards her glade, lead by a pack of giant centipedes. Faerie let out a dismayed cry as she saw the centipedes ripping through the flowers and vines, heading for the Thornwall. In direct response to the creatures approach, a loud buzzing came from behind and above as a squadron of Queen’s soldiers came swooping down to engage the approaching swarm. Several centipedes launched themselves airborne to intercept the bees, only to find their numbers being cut down by more of the invisible threads as they flew through the air. A few of their number managed to reach the bees intact, only for the soldiers to strike them down immediately with their scythelike forelimbs as still more bees descended towards the ground like valkyries, reaping the lives of the invaders.
Faerie watched in alarm as the battle continued, unsure of what to do. Not being a creature of violence, she found the entire situation quite frightening, and was wishing for Queen and Arachne to be by her side at the moment. The instant the thought crossed her mind, Arachne inexplicably stepped out of a nearby shadow, and a high pitched hum rang through the air as Queen raced over like a bolt of lightning. Rather than bearing their usual appearances, Arachne’s form, while still mostly humanoid, was covered in black chitinous armor to which shadows seemed to cling, and she held a deadly blade in one hand reminiscent of a fang. Queen, meanwhile, was covered from head to toe in black and gold plating that shone with a metallic lustre, and carried her majestic spear ready to do battle at any moment.
As her bees continued fighting off the encroaching centipedes, Queen looked further afield for more enemies, and spotted another wave approaching. With a determined chirp and a resolute gaze, Queen shot forward to engage the new enemies, several soldiers trailing in her wake. As Queen headed towards a snake easily ten times her size, she lofted her spear before throwing it directly at one of the snake’s eyes. Although the snake recoiled from the approaching spear, attempting to dodge, the spear corrected its flight, following after the snake and impaling itself deep within the beast’s right eyeball.
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HISS~
The snake spat and hissed in agony, thrashing as it suffered while Queen and her soldiers approached. While maintaining a distance from the snake, Queen reached her hand towards the spear, making a grasping motion, then twisted her wrist and drew her hand back, only for the spear to follow her motions, increasing the agony and panic felt by the snake. While Queen’s spear was quite venomous, the snake possessed a natural resistance to such things, and although it wasn’t wholly unaffected by her venom, it was not nearly enough to finish the thing off. Whilst Queen was now the snake’s foremost target, her soldiers flanked the wounded creature and struck from several angles with their scythes and stings, leaving several less severe wounds across its scaly hide.
Enraged and in pain, the snake reared its head up and back, prepared to strike down it’s foes as they darted to and fro, keeping to the beast’s blind spots. Its one remaining eye narrowed as it caught some motion to the left and it suddenly sprung forward, striking down a soldier in a single blow. As soon as it lunged, Queen dived low and launched her spear again, aiming for the snake’s jaw. At the moment the snake struck her soldier, Queen’s spear punctured the snake’s throat and pierced directly into its brain, striking the beast down for good. There was no joy on Queen’s face despite her victory, having sacrificed one of her subordinates to bring down the enemy. Instead her eyes burned with determination as she searched for the next invader she would bring down.
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Elsewhere on the battlefield, Arachne appeared and vanished like a wisp of smoke, hopping from one enemy to the next. She would strike with her blade, rendering enemies immobile or bind and slice them with her invisible threads. Any time Arachne encountered a significantly larger foe she would climb upon it and bite into its flesh, making an odd gulping noise briefly and then moving on to repeat the process.
Not long after the wounds of these beasts would begin to writhe and the afflicted creatures would howl in madness, scratching at their own skin before finally falling to the ground with their bodies continuing to churn. When the last spark of life left their eyes, a wave of baby spiderlings would erupt forth from beneath the skin and pour from orifices, spreading across the battlefield in search of more prey to sate their hunger.
Before long the wave of invaders was driven back by Queen’s valiant efforts and Arachne’s nightmarish attacks, while Faerie remained by the Thornwall looking pale and upset by the destruction the invaders brought with them. Shortly after her fight concluded, Arachne appeared at Faerie’s side once again, having returned to her beautiful, fully white appearance; no longer the vicious killing machine that slaughtered her way across the battlefield. She embraced Faerie tightly, who was still quite shaken, and they made their way back to the lotus in the spring to rest.
Despite their exertions, not all the residents of the glade returned within to relax. Queen took it upon herself to increase the number of her soldiers patrolling outside of the Thornwall in the hopes that regardless of what might approach, she and her soldiers could deal with it before it could further upset Faerie and the peaceful home they had all come to enjoy.