Maxine made sure she was still in her shadow queen form before she returned to the city, but she didn't go looking for Sandra. She went looking for Elder Miyan since she was technically in charge of the students from Seton Academy. It didn't take Maxine long to find her. She was hovering roughly one thousand feet above Aziel Kelborn.

Maxine flew up to her and said, "Elder Miyan, I'm just letting you know that I've brought my own reinforcements." Elder Miyan looked surprised for a split second, but regained her calm.

"Oh? And pray tell, what kind of reinforcements could you possibly bring?" Elder Miyan asked.

"A hive that I've tamed," Maxine replied and before she realized what was going on, Elder Miyan had her by the throat.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" Elder Miyan roared, "A hive, even a young one, can never be trusted! I don't care what kind of measures you've taken to ensure it's obedience. They will always find a way to kill you to be free of your control!"

"Says you," Maxine growled as she grabbed Elder Miyan's wrist to prop herself up, "I claimed her as my own before she gained self-awareness and she has already accepted me as her mother. I refuse to allow anyone to hurt her!"

"I don't care. Kill it," Elder Miyan ordered Maxine coldly.

"I'm not your student, so you can't order me to do shit," Maxine said as she transformed into her battleform and pressed her claws against Elder Miyan's arm, "Do not threaten her or me again or we will find out just how effective my venom is against an immortal."

Elder Miyan glared at Maxine. It seemed like this stalemate lasted for hours when in truth it lasted mere seconds. "Fine, but if you can't control that thing, I will kill it. Then, I will kill you."

"Fair enough," Maxine responded fearlessly. Elder Miyan released Maxine and Maxine retracted her claws before both of them distanced themselves from each other. Oddly, Elder Miyan immediately checked her arm for any scratches. I don't think my venom could hurt her anyways, so why the hell is she checking for any wounds? Could my venom have some lasting effects even on powerful cultivators?

[Mother! Are you alright?!] Kerrigan asked in a panic via spiritual sense, [I will kill that bitch!]

[NO!] Maxine said swiftly before calming down, [You will just be proving her right that you are the monster she thinks you are.] 

[But she hurt you!] Kerrigan said angrily.

[No, she didn't,] Maxine claimed, [She just over reacted to your presence here. She didn't actually choke me.]

[Don't lie to me, mother. There is extensive bruising on your back with lingering traces of immortal level mana, which perfectly matches with Elder Miyan. I discovered this when I hugged you earlier. I just didn't know who did it until now,] Kerrigan retorted.

Maxine sighed and answered, [That's true, but I still don't want you to attack her. She could grind both of us into dust with minimal effort. Also, she clearly didn't mean me any real harm. It's actually harder for her to beat me without causing serious injury than it would be to simply kill me due to the difference in our strength. So, please, keep your anger in check. It's not only your life in the balance, but mine as well if you act on your anger. Do you understand?]

[Yes, mother. I understand, but I still don't like her,] Kerrigan said grumpily.

[I know, sweetie. I don't like her either, but we best put up with her,] Maxine said soothingly, [She's only acting like that due to her desire to protect her students.]

[Alright, mother,] Kerrigan said. 

[Good. Just be sure not to use too many of your warriors in any attack. It would leave you vunerable to a counter attack and I don't want you to get hurt because of it,] Maxine advised. I never knew when an idiot like Aziel will lead a sneak attack. Although honestly, it would be the perfect excuse to kill him.

[I know that much mother. I've fought against enough beast hordes to learn proper strategy,] Kerrigan replied, [I lost more than half of my warriors because of a mistake in the past and I've learned to properly prepare before any offensive.]

[Good. By the way, why do you keep calling them your warriors instead of your children?] Maxine asked, [It's been bothering me this whole time.]

[Because I don't consider them as my children. I will only consider them as such if they gain self-awareness,] Kerrigan explained, [None of them have achieved that thus far, but I'm hopeful that one of my bodyguards will gain that soon. One in particular is showing signs of independant thought.] Now, I feel way less guilty about asking her to help defend the city. 

[I see, but still, use tactics that will maximize their survival,] Maxine said.

[I already intended to,] Kerrigan said proudly.

[Good. Now I have a few things to take care of and afterwards, I'll come see you. I have a lot of lost time to make up for.] Maxine said.

[I await you eagerly, mother,] Kerrigan said happily.

[I'll see you soon,] Maxine said lovingly before she felt Kerrigan retract her spiritual sense.

Maxine smiled for a moment before finding some shadows to warp back to the hospital basement. Next she spread out her spiritual sense to find a very secluded spot in the surrounding forests. It didn't take her long to find one and created a portal to it. However once she was there, she still felt this wasn't sufficient and used her energies to dig down. 

A few hundred feet of dirt and rock would act as a perfect means to mask any explosion of essence, mana or ki from her body. Once she was satisfied at the depth, she widened out a spot, so she could fit four of her shadow wolves along with herself. Well, this is about as good of a testing ground as I can make. Now, let's just add one shadow wolf at a time.

Maxine activated her essence armor and added a shadow wolf. A wolf ears and tail sprouted out of her essence armor along with a thick layer of fur on her forearms and calves. Well, my wolf essence armor hasn't changed any. Here goes nothing. After adding another shadow wolf to her essence armor, she didn't notice any physical changes, but she could feel a surge of strength. Unfortunately, it's energy drain was noticably larger. She quickly added two shadow wolves one after the other, and she felt overhwelming might flood her viens. She felt like she could fight Elder Miyan by herself and win with this strength. This surge of strength lasted all of ten seconds before her shadow wolves automatically detatched from her essence armor and she collapsed onto her hands and knees panting. Well, that was a waste of time. I didn't realize it would drain me that quickly. I thought I would have a minute of time to use it at a minimum. Well, that short usage time just means I can only use it for just one massively powerful attack. Otherwise, it can't be used at all. Now, do I have any other things I want to try out before I leave? Hmm, I might as well train my basic blade skills. Afterall, the basics are the foundations of my techniques and I really, really, really do not want to try mastering my full hydra form right now. I don't like loosing control like that.

Maxine withdrew her twighlight iron blades from her dimensional ring and began practicing the twenty eight forms of the Ying Yang Blades technique. As she practiced the forms, she felt like she was doing something wrong, but she couldn't figure out what. All she could do was continue performing the various forms, but the feeling grew stronger as she continued. 

It took her several repetitions to realize what it was. She was using the motions more for attack than defense and adjusted her movements slightly to correct it. After performing a few more forms, she was hit with a realization. My Hydra's Assault techinque is based off of the Ying Yang Blades. If I only focus on the attack portion, I'm leaving out the defense portion of the technique. That's why it doesn't feel complete when I use it! But how do I fix it? Hydras are purely offensive beings, so I should just launch a flurry of strikes at every attack that my enemy launches at me while simultaneously attacking their body. That would definitely fit the behavior of a hydra. 

Maxine practiced Hydra's Assault via image training against a skilled opponent. She used a flurry of attacks to defend against whichever side was being attacked and used the other arm to counter-attack. It worked beautifully, but it required more focus than the previous version of her new technique. It will have to do. Now, I better go see Kerrigan as soon as I recover. She's probably wondering where I am. She meditated to recover her strength and had regained enough of it to travel after an hour. 

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Maxine created a portal to just outside of the city and flew towards Kerrigan's hive. On the way there, she noticed a few four-horned kanzils in the forests below. What are they doing out here? Don't tell me they detected it when I brought Kerrigan and her hive through a portal. Well, if they did, they will get a big surprise. I'm willing to bet that Kerrigan already knows that they are there. Still, I think I should bring it up with her just in case. 

She changed direction in a place that the four-horned kanzils could see and flew in that direction for some time before redirecting to Kerrigan's hive. It took her a few minutes to finally reach Kerrigan's hive due to her detour.

When she arrived, Kerrigan flew out of her hive with her bodyguards. "Welcome back, mother," Kerrigan said respectfully, "I didn't expect you to come back quite so quickly."

"It just gives us more time to spend with each other," Maxine said.

"That it does, mother," Kerrigan said happily as she settled on the ground and in moments, her drones assembled a simple table with chairs around it, "Please, sit."

Maxine sat down at the table before she asked, "Did you know about those four-horned kanzil scouts?"

"Yes, I noticed thirteen different groups an hour ago. My warriors are setting up ambushes as we speak. None of them will return to report of my existence," Kerrigan said and she perked up, "But it warms my heart knowing that you worry for me, mother."

"You weren't sure that I would be, right?" Maxine asked, "I can understand why though. I practically abandoned you on Earth. Something that my own father did to me. It was unfair to you and I'm sorry for that. But I really didn't have much choice about that. I wanted to stay on Earth, but if I had, everyone I cared about would've probably died."

"I know that, mother. Grandmother and grandfather explained it to me very thoroughly," Kerrigan replied, "If they hadn't, I would probably hate you." I need to thank those two when I see them next. 

"I still wish I could've been there when you became self-aware," Maxine said remorsefully.

"I know, mother," Kerrigan said.

"By the way, why didn't your grandmother name you?" Maxine asked.

"Because I didn't want her to. I wanted to be named by you," Kerrigan said, "Any name given by another would have no meaning to me and I know it's a tradition of earthlings to be named by their parents."

"I see," Maxine said, "It must've been hard on you to wait so long."

"It was," Kerrigan admitted, "But now I no longer have to." 

Maxine smiled at Kerrigan and felt killing intent for a brief moment coming from just behind her. "It seems we have company. Did you let that one get this close intentionally?" Maxine asked.

"No, that one managed to slip through," Kerrigan said with a hint of anger in her tone, "I can't believe my drones were so careless."

"It really doesn't matter," Maxine said while keeping her tone calm, "We just need to take care of them personally." Without any kind of external warning, she jumped out of her chair and charged at the spot she felt the killing intent coming from. 

Instantly, she saw a red humaniod turn around and flee quite quickly. Unforutnately for the four-horned kanzil, Maxine was far faster. She caught up with him in a matter of seconds and landed on the ground infront of him. While he was distracted, she created dozens of shadow tendrils to bind him up. 

However, Maxine found out that he was a she and she was dressed like a man. This female was the only one of her species that Maxine found that was actually wearing a full shirt and had something stuffed in her pants to make it seem like she had a masculine bulg. This female four-horned kanzil even bound her breasts to complete the image that she was a male. Interesting. She clearly doesn't want to be seen as a woman. I can understand that part. She doesn't want to be raped.. Perhaps, she's different and if she's open to it, I can offer her a way out.

"Do what you will to me. I won't reveal anything," the female four-horned kanzil spoke in Alliance common using an effeminate male voice. Wow, she clearly has had a lot of practice at this.

"I could always strip you down and return you to your friends," Maxine bluffed and saw fear cross the young females face, "But that would be against my principles. Anyways, I know why you are here. You're just scouting out a strange energy spike right?"

"Go to hell!" the young female four-horned kanzil roared.

"You're making this harder than it needs to be," Maxine chided her, "Can you at least tell me your name? I can't just keep saying 'hey, you' or prisoner to get your attention."

"Shemna," the young female four-horned kanzil stated after a few moments of silence.

"Well, Shemna, I can't let you return to your people. So what should I do with you?" Maxine asked no one in particular, "I guess I could imprison you, but I'm not sure how well that will work." Maxine checked Shemna's cultivation and it was at silver rank 1. 

"So, you won't torture or kill me?" Shemna asked in confusion, "I thought your race was one that loved to finish off their opponents."

"Humans tend to fight, but we definitely do not enjoy it. But you're right. They do tend to torture and kill prisoners to avoid the difficulty of keeping them caged when they are too powerful," Maxine said sourly as she revealed her ears, "But as you can see, I'm not a human. I thought my pointy ears and silver grey skin was enough of a hint that I wasn't. Elves, such as myself, tend to imprison our enemies or kill them on the spot when we can't imprison them. We generally don't like to see other beings suffer."

"You sound like a bunch of cowardly weaklings," Shemna said mockingly. 

"Perhaps, but there is another reason that I'm keeping you alive. And that's to keep my daughter company when I'm not around," Maxine said and she saw a confident smile on Shenma's face, "I wouldn't smile if I were you. She's adopted and an insectiod"

"You.. you mean that thing is your daughter?!" Shemna asked in a fearful voice.

"Indeed and it's time we returned to her," Maxine said with a cold smile as she started walking back while dragging Shemna behind her using shadow tendrils.

"No! Don't let her lay any eggs inside of me! I will tell you anything you want to know! Just keep her away from me!" Shemna screamed in pure panic as her voice became completely feminine. Wow, I wasn't expecting a reaction that strong. I guess that removes the chance she could keep Kerrigan company. And what is that part about laying eggs in her about? Do they have a insectiod race among the evil races that does that sort of thing? Maxine ignored Shemna's screams of panic and brought her before Kerrigan.

"Oh? A four-horned kanzil? That one sounds like it's a female. What is the purpose of you bringing her here?" Kerrigan asked in english.

"I wanted you to have someone else to talk to, but I didn't realize she would be this terrified of you," Maxine replied and saw that Shemna had fainted once she saw Kerrigan.

"That is a problem, but I can use her for another purpose," Kerrigan said calmly, "I can analyze her blood after drawing it and extrapolate a more human appearance. Although, I may traumatize her in the process."

"Restrain her and keep her unconscious. I will bring her to the people from Seton Academy afterwards," Maxine advised, "How long would it take you to analyze her blood?" 

"A few days, but I only need to draw her blood once to analyze it completely," Kerrigan replied and asked hopefully, "Are you staying here, tonight?"

"Yes, I will. I just need to construct a small cottage," Maxine replied with a small smile, "Your hive isn't the best place for me to sleep. You millions of drones and warriors will make enough noise to make sleeping difficult."

"Mother, my chambers are very quiet. I sound-proofed them when Silky complained about the noise," Kerrian said with a hint of amusement.

"Oh, in that case, I wouldn't mind checking it out," Maxine said.

"This way, mother," Kerrigan said as she took flight. Maxine grabbed Shemna by the ankle and followed Kerrigan. 

While she followed Kerrigan, Maxine noticed how little noise Kerrigan's wings made while she flew. That's an interesting adaptation. I wonder which insect she got that from. 

It only took them a few moments to reach Kerrigan's hive and Maxine grew increasingly nervous as she saw the countless insects crawling inside so densely she couldn't see the walls, floor or ceiling. None of them touched her, but it still made her skin crawl. She kept telling herself that they wouldn't attack her, but it didn't make any difference. Thankfully they reached an empty chamber in Kerrigan's hive before Maxine had a panic attack.

The room was illuminated by a strange orb hanging from the ceiling. The walls had the hexagon shapes of individual honey combs and were a golden yellow. In this chamber, she saw a table, couch, and arranged throughout it. She also saw what she thought was a kitchen just through a opening to her left. However she was surprised and delighted to find that she couldn't hear the countless insects inside of it.

"You're right. I can't hear your drones at all," Maxine commented and asked, "Is that a kitchen over there? Do you even need that?"

"Technically, no. I only need honey to sustain myself and my numberous drons and warriors. But I enjoy a homemade meal," Kerrigan replied, "Silky made me a few meals before and they were delicious. But I don't know how to cook myself. She didn't have enough time to teach me, but the replicator she purchased recreates the meals she's made quite nicely."

"A replicator? I've never heard of that thing," Maxine said, "Can it make anything?"

"Only things it has scanned and recorded before," Kerrigan answered, "It has most of Earth's vegetables and meats programmed into it, but it can't seem to replicate chocolate that well for some reason. It doesn't taste right."

"That's strange, but I can work with that," Maxine said, "Would you like me to make you something?"

"YES!" Kerrigan said excitedly, but she quickly calmed down to say, "I mean. Yes, please."

Maxine chuckled lightly and asked, "Alright then. How does lo mein sound?"

"That sounds wonderful," Kerrigan said happily, "Silky made that for me before, but she said yours was better."

"Alright, I will start working on it then," Maxine said as she walked to the kitchen, "You can join me if you want to learn how to make it yourself and I will make a few other things so you can record them on that machine of yours."

"Coming, mother," Kerrigan said as she followed Maxine into the kitchen.

"Good. Now show me how to use this thing," Maxine said as she pointed at what she assumed was the replicator. After this cooking session, I need to get some shut eye in that comfortable looking bed Kerrigan has. It looks way more comfortable than that bed Decaan had me sleep in before. Spending the night here should make Kerrigan happy. As for the four-horned kanzils, they will probably their attack sometime tomorrow morning. That doesn't leave me any time to experiment with anything.