I helplessly waited for the battle to arrive. Seeing the world through Eva’s senses, I seemingly flew alongside Jarh but lacked any control. That was not a pleasant sensation. Regardless of my comfort, my various monsters and pixie soldiers were ready to go on the offensive. We could not bring any constructs outside my domain, but our reduced numbers won’t stop us. Everyone itched to attack for once. Anything less than victory isn’t an option.

Eva commanded two hundred natural-born ubees, three Queen’s guard, Orsa, Batoor, Eikooc, Akeldama, and forty-four other colrums. Jarh lead Finn, sixty pixie soldiers, and the dozen pixie elites. However, for all their strength, I worried. Much of the success of the previous battles hinged on traps, strategy, and overwhelming numbers. Now the enemy held the home advantage. Furthermore, besides advising Eva there’s nothing I can do. This powerlessness was already driving me crazy.

As they traveled farther, the forest slowly turned into marshland. The trees changed species, growing shorter and thinner, the ground became increasingly muddy, water pooled, and the air grew muggy. The flying troops and colrums were not affected negatively by this change. The colrums moved more fluidly through the water than on land. Their webbed appendages and frog-like nature thrived in the water. Orsa, on the other hand, struggled. Boars do not make the best swimmers. Batoor certainly didn’t help matters because he sat on top of her head, further weighing her down. The flighty, air-touched mongager did not enjoy muddying his coat.

Regardless, Orsa trudged on. Soon, an invisible barrier was passed. They had entered the enemy dungeon’s domain. It would sense their presence and attack shortly. The countdown began. The longer they dawdled the more traps and constructs would be prepared for them.

“Strike quickly and viciously. They may have brought the war to us, but today we finish it!” Jarh shouted. With various roars of our own, we marched forward.

“Eva, could you scout ahead with your ubees?” I sent to her.

Silently obliging, all the ubees darted ahead. Zipping through the foliage, we soon came across the first signs of the enemy. Compared to the monsters sent to attack, the constructs and monsters living in the dungeon widely varied. Nearly every creature normally found in a marsh was present, from frogs, turtles, beavers, birds, squirrels, and raccoons. However, the more concerning denizens included colrums, mud-touched beavers, snakes, and a few allicondas. The allicondas especially troubled me, their bodies similar to an anaconda but extremely muscled with armored jaws similar to an alligator.

Farther into the domain, the beavers built moderate walls out of mud and sticks. Additionally, the colrums embedded spears into the mud walls. While not the most impressive looking fortress, it would still be effective. Trying to charge into that would be devastating to our forces. It gave defenders the height advantage and climbing the slippery mud while avoiding spears would be troublesome. We needed a plan.

“Alright, let's go back and warn the others.”

Eva and all the ubees returned to the others who still moved forward. As Eva described the defenses, I finished forming my strategy. We stood no chance at a frontal attack. Instead, I decided we should split into three teams lead by Eva, Finn, and Jarh. Eva worked as my mouthpiece as I explained my plan.

Jarh would lead the bulk of their forces into a frontal attack. But not to break through enemy lines. Using water and earth colrums they could make mud barricades similar to the ones we faced. Then, they would poke, retreat, and generally seem threatening. Meanwhile, Finn would take our most mobile troops to sneak attack individuals and sow chaos on the outskirts. In this turmoil, Eva, the elite pixies, and a few colrums would try to head straight for the enemy core and hopefully end the battle early.

Once everyone understood the strategy, Jarh’s team continued forward. Orsa and twenty-eight normal colrums charged. But before reaching the walls, they stopped. Instead, they held the line. This confused the enemy as their opponents simply stood just out of range. Occasionally, a colrum on either side would attempt a thrust forward, but each side mostly growled at each other.

Without ranged combatants, the fighting largely stagnated. However, behind our lines, several earth and water colrums quickly constructed a mud fortress of our own. As the enemy colrums grew bolder, Jarh ordered a fighting retreat to our newly constructed defenses. Seeing withdrawal as weakness, our foes lacked the intelligence to see it as bait. I couldn’t believe the stupidity of the dungeon until I recalled Finn’s words from several rotations ago, how young dungeons were excessively aggressive and driven by instinct.

So the enemy moved forward, away from their defenses, to attack Jarh’s troops who now stood on their own mud barricade. From there the skirmish truly began.

At the same time Jarh engaged the main oppositional force, Finn’s team split to the right. Two hundred ubees and sixty pixies soared, an earth-touched monkey leapt through the trees, and a furious Batoor darted along. Ubees and pixies darted around, blinding or at least irritating any opponents they came across. They never spent the time to fully finish anyone off, instead moving onto the next target. The monkey slung rocks at allicondas, who primarily used vibrations to see, confusing the beasts.

Pandemonium ruled.

Once enough chaos had been inflicted, Eva’s squad moved out. The ubee Queen’s Guard flanked Eva in the sky, whereas Eikooc and Akeldama led the mad dash on the ground. Enemy constructs and monsters alike fell to the deadly duo. Using water magic in a swamp, Eikooc’s waves easily nudged his victims into the path of his spear. Calling blood to him, any small wound near Akeldama quickly lead to exsanguination. The stolen blood was quickly returned in the form of hardened into javelins striking new targets.

The first complication came when Eva’s squad encountered a massive water-touched alliconda. Easily the length and thickness of a tree, the monster blocked their path and spears barely chipped its scaly hide. Given time, Eva’s squad’s overwhelming numbers would certainly win. However, I knew they could not afford to waste any time.

“Have Eikooc and two air colrums stall it, we need to keep moving towards the core,” I solemnly sent to Eva. Whoever I sent to fight it likely would not survive. I hated that I needed to choose at all.

After relaying my orders, the aforementioned charged forward. Eva and the rest attempted to flank around to the side.

However, the alliconda did not want to let them pass. Completely ignoring the three colrums attacking it, the massive monster rushed Eva’s squad. Seconds before reaching them, Eikooc skated across the surface of the swamp water, his magic propelling him forward, and leapt into the air. For a moment he seemed to pause in midair and time slowed down, spear gripped in his claws and raised above his head for a powerful strike.

A bloodthirsty growl. Downward thrust. The spear lodged in the alliconda’s neck. It lurched up in pain, Eikooc twisted his new handhold and the alliconda followed, it’s head jerking back and away from Eva’s party.

“Mrrgrrllgr!” Eikooc viciously roared at his unwilling mount, spittle flying from his razor-sharp grin as he twisted the spear further into the alliconda.

I was about to urge Eva onward, to not waste this opportunity, when she turned her back on him and continued flying. Moments later I heard thunderous crashes, breaking wood, and a wet, crunching sound. A lone colrum’s pain-filled warble. With no way to know who was injured, I forced my attention away from the sounds. Orders would lead to the deaths, it was inevitable. But...a part of me broke off and stayed behind with my creations that I callously sacrificed.

Another one I lost, another one I failed.

The battle would wait for no one though. Before long, more enemies appeared, a half dozen water-touched colrums. This time one blood colrum and our last two air colrums broke off without needing any orders. Another retreat. More rushing towards the core. A few weaker constructs were eliminated on the way. Akeldama barely slowed down to dispatch them.

Finally, we reached the core location. A large island of mud, fallen trees, and debris stacked rose before us. An air of malice and energy emanated from the habitat.

A small ripple was the only warning before a massive alliconda launched out of the water. Eva was caught off guard and I stared through her eyes as the massive jaws neared. A split second away from death, one of her Queen’s guard shoved her out of the way. The creature’s jaws were not even fully closed around her guard when Eva struck back.

Enraged at the loss of one of her dearest subjects, she stabbed her horn into the creature’s eye. A wet squish synchronized with the crunching death of her guard. With a hiss, the alliconda jolted back and dislodged her from its eye. Eva was flung through the air.

The rest did not stay motionless in the meantime. Akeldama and the two other blood colrums managed to score a few gashes on its exposed underbelly. The dozen elite pixies also inflicted a few cuts into its vulnerable snout.

After the initial blows, the alliconda retreated a few clicks and wearily eyed us. Motionless, neither side wanted to make the next move. At least, until the creature's wounds suddenly started spurting blood. In response to the blood magic trying to weaken it, the alliconda shot out a spray of mud. The quick projectile struck a colrum, slamming him into a tree behind him. The force collapsed his chest cavity and he slumped down, dead before he could react.

The fight burst into action, each viciously trying to tear into each other. With its massive size and coating itself in a second skin of mud magic, the alliconda completely ignored the pixies and ubees unless they came too close to its face. Only Akeldama and the other remaining blood colrum stood a chance of harming it. Without Eva luckily blinding one eye in the beginning, they would have died in moments. Still, they were losing the fight. So far they managed to dodge its blows, but two colrums could not dodge forever.

“Eva, we need to take out the core. Send in the pixie elites.”

“Understood, Mother. Pixies! Get the core while we stall it.”

Then she did something that would’ve stopped my heart if I had one. The next moment the alliconda committed its momentum, she and her remaining guards suicidally charged forward. A passenger in her body, I couldn’t do a thing but watch. The first guard approached it’s right, still functioning, eye. Only to be met with jaws taking his life. Immediately after, the last guard stabbed into its wounded eye, his approach unnoticed until then.

Letting out an enraged hiss, the alliconda swung its head against a tree to crush the guard. Momentarily stunned due to its actions, Eva darted forward and once again sunk her horn into its eye.

“I’m sorry, Mother,” Eva whispered.

Simultaneously, a large shattering crack rang throughout the swamp and a massive wave of energy burst out.

The alliconda shot a gush of mud at its face and Eva. Everything went black. Suddenly, I was back at my core. My consciousness no longer with Eva. Pain shot through me. The connection being forcibly ripped hurt, but not nearly as bad as the loss of Eva.

She was my first creation, her hive had been integral to nearly every action since I created her. But more importantly...she was my friend.

My energy grew more turbulent with my emotions, the carefully stored energy within my core threatening to tear me out from the inside. Blackness crept into my vision. I welcomed it and fell into darkness.