Ronin drove his toe spikes into the tree bark, which, despite its crystallin appearance from a distance, looked, felt, and acted very much like any other tree’s he’d ever interacted with. His small team had been at the practice for hours now, happy to take advantage of the time dilation to get in as many runs as possible. During that time, they’d all made several modifications to their bodies. Ronin’s were all geared towards maintaining his footing while climbing and moving around the tree. His body was already covered in carapace for protection, so it had been easy to just think of it as armor and modify it some more.

He dug the short, downwardly curved spikes on his knees and the one from his left elbow, into the bark to balance his position. So, his right arm could bring the stubby rifle to bear on an approaching wasp. The air rifle was called a PCP 1.0 and only held five rounds. The heavy, bluninch andhad a diameter of an inch, and hadn’t failed to penetrate the carapace of whatever he’d shot with it yet. With the relatively quiet hiss of depressurizing gas, the slug left the rifle and slammed into the helicopter sized yellow and orange wasp. Sending it from the air in a twitching tumble.

“Way to go, White flame.” Elyria said, from where she fluttered above him as he manually cycled in a fresh round. “You’ve successfully alerted them to our position.” She wasn’t wrong, Ronin noticed with a silent curse. A small swarm of five or six of the monstrous insects were now heading straight for them, the droning of their wings also reminding Ronin of a helicopter. Clipping the stubby rifle back onto his harness, Ronin climbed for all he was worth. If they had to take on that many at once, he needed to reach a branch where he could stand up.

“Never mind,” Elyria said as she continued to fly over his head. “Five has covered for your screw up… again.” Glancing over his shoulder, Ronin saw that two of the wasps were missing, and a third was already falling out of formation to tumble down the tree. The remaining three buzzed away, deciding this prey wasn’t worth the cost.

“Seems so,” he called back as they continued upward. That had been their pattern up till now. Gunner would start the climb first, getting well into the tree and hiding before Ronin started his own climb. Elyria would cover him from the air and let him know if he was coming up on a group of the tree monsters he couldn’t see from his vantage.

“Aphid nymphs around the next branch,” Elyria called down to him from where she was now scouting ahead. “Looks like a range of first to fourth instars, but there are no adults, and I only count twenty of them. You should be able to handle this lot easily enough.” Ronin let out a groan at her incessant use of unfamiliar terminology.

“Which one of the twenty odd species up here are those again?” He asked as he climbed towards the branch in question. Ronin loved learning new things, and he thought he recognized some of the monsters from earth’s old books on gardening he’d seen a few times, but he wasn’t an expert on them by any means. So, when Elyria started dropping her herbology knowledge like this, as if everyone knew exactly what she was talking about, he got a little frustrated.

“There aren’t twenty different species up here, White flame.” She said with an exaggerated sigh. “There are only three species; aphids, ladybugs, and wasps… or at least some giant variants of those insects.” She lectured, flying back to hover over his head. She’d done some heavy restructuring of her wings to allow for that. Now, she had two pairs of them, and they were remarkably similar to those found in dragonflies. With a protective shell that covered them while on the ground she’d called an elytrum. She’d changed how some of her musculature in her torso worked to make it possible, but it was mostly covered by her clothes, so it wasn’t overly discernible.

“Then why do I see so many different kinds of bugs flying, crawling, or squelching their way across the branches and leaves then?” Ronin asked with irritation.

“Because, White flame, the wasps and the ladybugs lay eggs, which hatch into larva. Then they pupate, before turning into their adult form. While the aphids lay eggs that go through molts, as they grow. These molting stages are called instars. The aphids also reproduce asexually, but depending on the season, they can also reproduce with male and female pairings… and some of them have wings during those seasons, while other adults don’t… so as you can clearly see, there are only three species. They just look different as they grow up.”

“Ok, Elyria.” Ronin said with a sigh, “so, what one of the three species and twenty odd stages of growth am I about to climb into?” It was a moot point really, considering he had been climbing over the lip of said branch as he asked the question. “Oh, so it’s the little black ones.” He said, answering his own question.

The branch was covered in a wriggling mass of black bugs. The smallest were the size of a house cat, and they grew from there to dog sized. The largest ones he’d seen were the size of a pony, thankfully there weren’t any of those present. Not that these guys were all that dangerous. They ate the sap from the tree and provided sustenance for the tree’s actual defenders.

“I told you exactly what they were, White flame.” Elyria said with a huff as she landed beside him and pulled her own air rifle from her harness. “How is ‘little black ones’ a better descriptive term than aphid nymphs?... Well, get too it, White flame.” She said with an imperious gesture at the dog sized black bugs.

“What, not going to help?” Ronin asked with a scoff as he waded into their midst, swinging his kanabo in controlled arcs. He’d been learning just how hard he had to swing to knock the insects from the branches. It was a balance, he wanted to keep his momentum up through the swing yet didn’t want to go flying off the branch himself.

“You know I’ve only got so much ammunition in this, fascinating yet primitive, weapon.” She said with her own smirk, patting the PCP .50, the gun had much more range than Ronin’s, but with half the bullet diameter. “Better to save it for the big threats and leave the ‘little ones’ for you to clean up… This is your chosen role after all, the team’s front man, or tank as you called it, right?” Ronin didn’t even bother with a reply as he methodically swept the branch of the immature aphids.

They could have gone around, these particular insects didn’t move that fast, and weren’t really a threat to them. Still, this was training. They’d already decided to take every opportunity to familiarize themselves with the trees and their inhabitants, so they wouldn’t make any costly mistakes when they made it to earth. Here, they could still die, but a dropped weapon or insufficient ammunition stores weren’t deadly mistakes since they could just climb down and start over.

“Understood,” Ronin said as he finished sweeping the branch clear. “Though, you really need to get a melee weapon, just in case… yes, I know you can just fly away if you get surrounded, and… Yes, I know you are limited on carrying capacity due to your wing’s limitations. But seriously, what happens if I get in over my head and need help, or your wings break? Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it… an old saying from my planet,” he added with a smirk.

“Pretty sure every species has a saying that means about the same thing, White flame.” Elyria said, “but I’ll think about it. Not many weapons small enough for me to carry can pierce the armor on the ladybirds or the wasps, and the aphids really aren’t dangerous enough to worry about. So, I don’t really know what weapon I should carry.” She admitted with a shrug.

“Understandable,” Ronin said. “Still, think about it… come on, let's go. Gunner is probably halfway to the flowers and fruits by now. I’d hate to arrive to find she’d gathered a dozen seeds again before we even…”

“Watch out,” Elyria said urgently, cutting Ronin off midsentence. He pivoted around, as she raised her gun to shoulder level and fired behind him. He heard the bass thrumming of wings a split second before he was bowled to the ground. The pressure soon lifted as he Fought for breath and struggled to his feet.

Whirling around, he saw the car sized ladybug that had landed on him. It dropped the aphid body it had been munching on when Elyria’s first shot connected. Pivoting with surprising speed it charged straight for her. That was what had given Ronin the time to get up, but now he was left scrambling to catch up. Ronin reached behind him, only to find his rifle had come loose during the fall, and he’d dropped his kanabo when he’d been hit.

Cursing, Ronin charged forward barehanded. The beetle had almost reached Elyria before he’d gotten up, and she didn’t have a weapon. After several steps and a strong leap, he got his fingers into the crack where the ladybugs forewings, or elytra as Elyria called them, hadn’t closed all the way from its landing. His blunted finger claws dug deeply into the still folding hind wings, and he ripped at them desperately. Not able to see Elyria from behind the beetle, he wasn’t sure if he’d gotten to it before it got to her. So, instead of worrying or trying to see, he just tore into the colorful monster with abandon, clawing his way into the orange goop that its lifted wing casing couldn’t protect.

Ronin lost himself in his mad frenzy, tearing past the hard exoskeleton and soon was trapped inside the car-sized monster’s body. Finding himself trapped in the carapace contained pond of goop that served the ladybug for organs, brought Ronin back to his senses, and finding that his enemy wasn’t moving anymore, he climbed back out.

“What was that?” Elyria asked once his head emerged from the beetle’s body. “I got the kill shot on my second round. So, what did you go swimming around in a dead ladybug’s guts for?” Ronin could tell she was fighting not to laugh, a fight she wasn’t trying all that hard to win it seemed. “Ha-ha, Really White flame, what were you thinking? Ladybird blood is toxic, remember the yellow orange goop they excreted from their knees last time, which smelled really bad?... yea, you’re swimming in it right now. I mean really, what were you thinking?”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Unfortunately, Ronin was all too aware of how bad he smelled. Climbing out of the dead beetle, he just wiped himself down as good as he could with his hands. When he’d finished getting most of it off himself, he gathered up his pre-charged pneumatic rifle, or PCP, his kanabo, and without a backward look headed further up the tree.

He did his best to ignore her pestering behind him. How could he admit to her now he’d acted like that, because he was worried about her. Especially now, with her laughing at him the way she was, he couldn’t fathom why he cared if she’d been eaten alive. The only nice thing she’d done for him since exiting his pocket world had been to stop threatening to kill him every other conversation. Would it really be so bad if she’d been eaten?

“Come on, Gunner’s waiting for us.” He said over his shoulder, already climbing again.

* * *

Lily

Lily watched Staz disappear through the gates, from the swaying vantage of the camera harness still being held in K3’s hands. It seemed to her like he’d been frozen with shock every bit as much as Lily herself had. Since, he didn’t move again until a javelin landed in the ground inches from his feet. After that, it was like he woke up again and sprang into motion.

“Come on lazy bones,” he said as he scooped the barely conscious Unyielding oak into his arm. The motion jostled the camera, making Lily feel sick. Since, she couldn’t just close her eyes and wait for the sensation to pass. What she was able to pick up, whenever the camera got stuck between K3 and Unyielding oak’s still form, was the kaldarr running at full tilt down winding and twisting alleys. Eventually coming to a stop, he jumped into a set of cellar doors that looked to have rotted away, decades ago.

“Aaahhh,” Unyielding oak grunted at the impact, but Lily could tell she was trying to be as quiet as possible. “Damned brute, have some respect for your elders.” She said in a voice barely above a whisper.

“Hehe, who say’s you’re older than me?” K3 asked her as he looked out the open doors, eyes at street level. “I was well into my sixth decade and passed my prime when my troop was sent to round up slaves in my lord’s valley. Don’t let this perfect body fool you, before lord Ronin took me in and fixed me up, I was on the decline.” K3 had led the troops who’d attacked her husband’s people? Lily hadn’t known that.

“Six decades, ha.” Unyielding oak said with a pained chuckle. “I’m past my one hundred fortieth decade boy, and I’m barely middle aged… though I think I’m the oldest member of my clan to make it to lord Ronin’s side.” She added, her voice going bleak.

“Don’t think about it too much,” K3 told her as he dropped back down and started to put the harness on. “The boss did everything he could for both our peoples, and several others besides…” He trailed off with a pained groan as he finished putting the harness on. “Think about something else, we’ve only got a few minutes before we need to move, or the whole plan could fall apart.”

“Yea, two old warriors, battered up and half dead are going to make the difference. What we need is to get that giant blue kaldarr back in here. I’ve little doubt he could single handedly seize this city… though, I’ll admit I’m feeling much better after drinking that flask.” Unyielding oak admitted, flexing her arms.

“I agree, but Staz isn’t a kaldarr.” K3 said with a shake of his helmetless head. “I’m not sure what he is exactly, but I no longer doubt he’s one of my lord’s people. I’ve never met anyone who could heal like that, even the boss couldn’t have survived that much damage.”

“He was something else,” Unyielding oak agreed. “Hope he doesn’t die out there… So, while I’ve got you here. I’ve always been curious, why did you join the White flame? I’ve heard stories from some of those old humans, who survived the attack on their village. I just can’t see your people switching sides like that.” K3 leaned back with a grunt at the question, unknowingly shifting the camera angle away from Unyielding oak’s face and pointing it out into the street above their heads.

“A few reasons,” he said at last. “I didn’t participate in the initial attack. I was coordinating the assault from the rear, but when I learned there was resistance, I entered the walled village myself. It was actually me who shot the White flame back then. Thought I’d killed him for sure, but he survived… and his people… My brothers and I get a lot of respect for our size and strength. But they were something else entirely. All the modifications the boss has, with two or three times the body mass behind it. they went through my men like a hot bullet burns through paper.” He went silent for a moment before continuing.

“When we’d finally put the pair of them down, we thought we’d won the fight. That’s when Owl Two and Five arrived. Owl Five captured two of our dropships and destroyed the other three, before going down into the town to hunt us, like rats in a cage. And Owl Two, don’t let his love of research fool you, that man is as crazy in battle as any I’ve seen. When they captured me, I thought I was a goner. They had me, one of my sergeants and two standard ground troops.

When they injected the nanites into my system, and the pain hit, I thought it was some vile form of torture, I’d have to endure until I finally expired. Instead, I got younger, stronger, better than I ever was before. Me, and the two standard soldiers. They didn’t select my Sargent for a reason, I didn’t learn for some time. Later I discovered they’d chosen us at random, and renamed us K1, K2 and K3. I’ve followed my lord ever since.” Unyielding oak grunted from beside him, Lily couldn’t see her, but imagined she was looking at him with incredulity.

“That’s it?” She asked, sounding just as unbelieving as Lily felt. “They captured you, tortured you, selected three of you at random to make stronger… Hell, they didn’t even name you, just giving you a number and a designation letter that I assume stands for kaldarr… why in the sweet forest mother’s name would you follow him after that... What was your name before all this happened, anyway?” Lily perked her ears up at the question, she’d wondered about that too for some time.

“…It’s hard to explain,” K3 said with a camera jostling shrug. “I know they gave us some sort of loyalty medication… the same thing we gave the locust queen. Who should currently be eating drones around the edges of the largest swarms, and building up an army of her own… But I don’t feel compelled. I want to serve, and I’ve seen enough other people, yourself included, who’ve sworn to him without the medication. So, I think I would have wanted to serve, even without it. As for my men, they serve mainly to avoid manual labor, and because I was their leader before. As for my old name, it doesn’t matter. I’ll never use it again. K3 is who I am now, and it’s a name that has gained respect at my lord’s side. What about you?” He asked the elf, turning the question around. “What made you swear to the boss?”

“Me?” Unyielding oak asked rhetorically, as she shifted around with muffled grunts, Lily could plainly hear. “Well, when that bitchy moon elf showed up to try and get us to leave our ancestral home… let’s just say when it turned out she was right, I didn’t take it well.” Lily thought that was the understatement of a lifetime, a sentiment K3 must have shared because he chuckled tiredly.

“Yes, believe me I know,” The wood elf said. “I had to be hard, when the locusts started eating away at our eras old forest home. If I hadn’t, none of us would have survived. But I think I got a little too hard. I pushed so much that only the very strongest of us made it to the honeycomb… or they died propping up their weaker kin, who made it there to eat up all our food...” Even now, Lily heard her voice harden at the memory.

“Anyway, I’d given up all hope until lord Ronin appeared, with his flying ship and his guns. I’d thought myself a great warrior… until I saw him slaughter locust drones by the literal thousand, with you by his side. After that, I wanted to follow him because of his ruthlessness. It validated for me what I’d done to my own people… When I found out just how soft he was… I almost turned away.” She sounded regretful now, and Lily felt for the, much, older woman. She’d been taken in by the White flame’s brutality as well and been shocked at his gentle nature when the fighting ended.

“Yet, when he killed over one hundred decenters… and took in all the kids I’d abandoned both in the same day… I realized I could still be as unyielding as the oak, without losing who I’d been before. That’s what won my loyalty. Because, like it or not, after this battle's casualties… my race is in the hands of those children now. The children I threw away and lord Ronin picked up.” Lily nearly teared up at that, feeling closer to the elven woman than at any time in the past.

“Well, them and a slew of hybrid goblin kids.” K3 said, ruining the mood. Lily wondered if he’d gone too far when a blow to his arm shook the cameras.

“Way to bring down a good speech.” Unyielding oak said, though she didn’t sound as angry as Lily would have expected. “Honestly, I don’t know how to feel about those experiments. But the kids aren’t being mistreated, and I’ve raised animals for centuries. Without a larger pool of breeding partners, my race is doomed in a few generations anyway. Not sure this is the answer I’d have decided on, but…” Lily had to imagine the shrug, because she couldn’t see it. After that, the pair sat in silence for almost five minutes.

“How you feeling?” K3 asked eventually, rising to his feet.

“Starving,” Unyielding oak answered getting to her own feet. “But I’ll make it, the worst of my injuries have closed up. let’s go finish capturing this city before Hunter sits on the throne and turns this into a goblin only paradise.” K3 chuckled at the joke and hauled himself out of the basement. Reaching back, he lifted Unyielding oak out behind him.

“Let’s go then, we make for the castle, we don’t stop for anything unless we absolutely have too, agreed?” He got a nod and an ‘agreed’ in reply and they set off.

Lily could see much better this time around, thanks to the cameras being attached to K3’s armor. What she saw wasn’t what she’d hoped to see. There were hobgoblins everywhere. She hadn’t realized there were so many, since they’d been picking them off from the surroundings for weeks. They’d walled off a section of the mine and had them all safely locked inside. She didn’t know how many of them they’d captured, but she did know that they’d all been implanted with sexual and aggression inhibitors to keep them calm until the threat Eric posed had been eliminated.

“Where are all the goblins?” Unyielding oak asked the question Lily had been wondering about herself.

“I don’t know,” K3 said without ever slowing down. “But we’d better hurry, I’ve really got a bad feeling.” They picked up their pace, running at full speed towards the castle. Lily realized there was a problem for sure, when they rounded a bend and found themselves facing an army of hobs. Who rushed the pair as soon as they’d cleared the alley.

“Get out of there, get out of there, get out of there…” Lily repeated over and over as she watched the battle unfold. She couldn’t see Unyielding oak for much of the fighting, but when the elf crossed the camera’s field of vision, she looked as if she’d been transformed into a whirlwind of blades. The dagger she held in each hand flashed out, seemingly independent of one another. They kissed the throats, eyes, underarms and behind the knees of one hobgoblin after another. Bringing them down like wheat to the scythe.

K3 was, if anything, even more brutal. He laid about him with his giant shield, a slab of metal so thick and heavy that Lily couldn’t even lift it. With each swing, he broke the bones of his attackers. Moving around his elven companion and providing her cover as she continued to sweep death through the hobs. Lily wanted to get her hopes up, but she knew there were just too many of them. As was inevitable, eventually, Unyielding oak slipped.

Lily didn’t see what happened, K3 had his back to her at the time. When the camera was next pointed her way, however, she’d been dogpiled under the weight of a dozen foes. K3 tried to save her, but the attempt only hastened his own defeat. Lily watched as the camera’s feed was blocked out, in a tide of yellow green bodies and yellow orange hair.