Karimere knew the sound instantly. They had no warning because the birth of a Worldmother had depolarized every sensor in a twenty kilometer radius.

“The swarms have come.” Azona said calmly.

“With this much arcane, I’m surprised it took this long.” Lilithana added.

Swarms are attracted to dense arcane. It was genetically programmed into them by whoever sent them Endrala so they naturally sought out power sources. This had caused hell in the war because the swarms would seek out any mecrotech, which was in every home at that point.

Attrition had bred some of the seeking effect out of them, but large events would still attract them. Karimere had moved two thousand soldiers to Red Rock after Gessil’s battle. They were lucky a swarm had not come there.

Azona arcane jumped to the roof of a building. She overshot a bit and staggered a bit she landed. Karimere flew as the others jumped up as well. Everyone except Azona changed to battle gear.

“A scorcher?!” Jade said as she looked down the runway.

“And it’s not alone.” Zhaan said.

A five meter tall, ten meter long, glossy blue beetle was bashing its way through the three meter wall as dozens of anterra flowed around it. This area would normally have patrols but they had been pulled back for the meeting.

“Shall we mark our renewed alliance with the blood of the swarm?” Azona eyed Karimere with a smile.

“Gladly!” Karimere morphed into a susneran and fell to her knees, putting her palms on the roof. Tiny arcane sigils embedded in her skin allowed her to cast different patterns of wards with just a thought. She sent out a trace of arcane that split at the end of the runway. She covered the area between the forest and the wall with wards. Every anterra that touched the purple field fell to pieces.

Azona said something to Klaus and Demeter but it was drowned out by the roar of the scorcher beetle as it sprayed angry fire into the sky. It broke free from the wall and raced towards them.

As the scorcher passed the tree line, the treants closed the gap to form a line against the anterra.

“Keep your wards going Rimmer.” Azona said. “My people will wall them in. Zhaan and Lili, help with the scorcher. Attack when I do.”

They took up position beside her and readied to attack.

When in treefolk territory, a dryad usually made a link with a Worldtree and commanded their troops. The Mecromancers operated as support and shock troops. Treefolk were always willing to take the brunt of the attack and would risk everything to rescue a downed Mecromancer. Karimere had no problem taking orders from Azona. It was a good test of her leadership abilities.

Being called Rimmer meant that Azona probably had the memories of Jade, which meant she had Klaus’ memories as well. Having that much knowledge in the hands of others was a risk, but this was a Worldmother. No, she was the only Worldmother. She had to survive.

The massive blue beetle raced down the runway making the ground tremble.

Karimere watched as Azona’s right side glowed crimson while her left glowed deep green. “A dual user.” Karimere said breathlessly.

Azona held her right palm out with her left palm locked behind it. She sang magical notes as the scorcher reached the end of the runway. A beam of crimson energy left her palm with a spiral of deep green around it. She hit the beast in the middle of its face with a sustained beam.

“A magma drill…” Karimere said. Endralans had developed a mecrotech magma drill during the war, but it was never deployed. It was too big for a dreadnaught and the power requirements would drain a city in a couple seconds. Hers wasn’t nearly as big as the turret version, but it was still impressive. This new Worldmother was less than a day old and she was probably the strongest arcane user Karimere had ever seen. How damn powerful is Jade?

Azona’s attack was strong, but it lacked focus and widened as it went. The bug’s thick armor was glowing and bubbling as the force of the attack stopped it fully. It screeched and sprayed a thick torrent of chemical and magical fire in front of it. With practice Azona could probably cut a scorcher in half.

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After a fraction of a second of surprise, Zhaan lashed out with bursts of ice lance at the beast’s mouth building up layers of thick ice. This cut off further fire attacks.

“Don’t hit me.” Lilithana said as she arcane jumped to the beast. She landed on its back and locked her feet to it with arcane powered boots that had metal claws to dig into bug hide. Her black cloak billowed as her scythe grew in size and length. She swung it under the beast’s neck. With the consuming blackness of her jagged arcane, she strained, and pulled, and finally wedged her blade into the seam of the scorchers neck. She jumped off one side and spun the tip of her scythe inside the soft flesh of its neck. The mass of the head pulled away the mostly severed head.

Azona focused her magma-drill on the exposed flesh of the body. It boiled and steamed, but little else.

Even headless the massive body was still dangerous as it stumbled around blindly.

Zhaan hit the top joint of a leg with a couple ice blasts, freezing it.

Lilithana followed up by shattering it with her scythe.

Azona picked up quickly and focus on another leg which glowed, then popped, with the heat of the boiling flesh.

Zhaan and Lilithana got the other four legs leaving the bug body immobile and twitching.

Azona stopped her attack, held her knees and gasped for air.

Fighting a swarm is a test of endurance. Karimere could dice a scorcher to pieces with a thought, but it would cost her. The goal was to kill as many enemies with as little power as possible. Karimere was most efficiently deployed against smaller ground foes because she could kill them by the hundreds. That freed up others to battle the larger bugs.

Karimere said, “Pace yourself. Fire in bursts. Like Zhaan. Or use a more efficient attack.”

“I can do it. I know I can.” Azona panted.

“Push your limits in training.” Karimere said as she continued her ward work, “We live and they die. That is the goal of battle. If you collapse, someone has to stop fighting to rescue you.”

“Yes. I understand.” Azona nodded. “Klaus still has trouble with that thinking sometimes.”

“Don’t worry. We should have the anterra contained soon.” Karimere said. She sent a signal for their backup to attack. Cinder had been out of commission so they had to make do with who was available.

A spiked metal ball of crimson fell from the sky onto the heart of the swarm. It rolled through the gap in the wall collecting victims and mass and it did. It was completely insane to bring Kytheras to what was, hopefully, a diplomatic mission. But the obstinate golem was perfect to fight a swarm.

A droning buzz announced the arrival of the cloud of murder hornets. They descended on the unaware battle form dryads that were chasing any anterra that breached past the defensive line. Dozens fell with horrible screams before they could flee to the cover of the tree line.

Karimere thought it strange dryads were there at all. Dryads usually used vine magic and shield wards. They should never be fighting anterra, in the open, with their claws.

Treants were good on an exposed front line. Their hide was too hard for murder hornets to pierce with their stingers and any hornet stupid enough to close on a treant was quickly swatted down.

The situation at the wall was containable, if they stayed focused on it, but murder hornets never did convenient things like ‘cooperate with plans’.

Zhaan said. “Get Azona into the hanger. I will cover you.” She blasted a hornet with her ice sending it falling to the ground to be torn apart by battle dryads.

Lilithana jumped through the flying swarm, extending her scythe and swinging wide, slicing hornets to pieces.

Karimere wished she had a few more pieces to move around this board as she grabbed Azona.

“I can fight.” Azona said as she straightened up and took a deep breath. “I will be more careful.”

“We can’t lose you.” Karimere said.

“No, we can’t. Cover me.” Azona fell on her hands and knees and chanted. Deep green traces went out across the forest that sprang up as dozens of vines coated in deep green energy shot up out of the canopy.

It was a combination of treefolk vine magic and Jade’s grabbing wards. It was fine work, and much more energy efficient than the magma-drill.

A hornet screeched as it was grabbed and burned in half by the green energy, then another, and more. The swarm was being battered by the mecromancers and vines but they kept coming.

Karimere morphed to an aerial and darted from hornet to hornet, slicing heads off with a touch. Murder hornets are fast but they have nothing on an ancient, arcane-powered, aerial, goddess. They were just managing to hold off the air assault, but the occasional glance towards the wall told her that the ground defenses were faltering as another treant fell to the swarm.

A dome of yellow energy throbbed inside the base of the Worldtree. It turned any unfortunate murder hornets that neared into aerosolized organs.

It looks like Rezu is protected. Karimere thought.

A growing group of dryads were standing in front of Azona, with their arms out, singing, to create a faint, yellow, energy shield. It wasn’t nearly as big or strong or complete as the other one but it was holding against the stray hornet until someone could wrap it with vines or claw it down.

A murder hornet raced in, alone, from the rear, towards Azona.

Karimere flew hard and caught it only a few meters from its victim. It’s head rolled into her legs.

“We have to hold!” Azona said. “We cannot lose the wall!”

“We cannot fight forever either. We need an extraction plan.” Karimere said.

“The swarm is interfering with my travel spells. We hold or we die.”

A cyan blur raced past them and off the rooftop with the cheerful scream of Jade driving it.

“You sent Jade into battle on a ramdart?!”

“Klaus is with her.” Azona gasped.

Klaus was just as proficient as Rezu on a Ramdart. With Jade driving, they should be functional. Karimere didn’t like it, but it was a great move tactically. Besides, there was no time to argue. Every second she was talking was a second she wasn’t killing enemies.

Karimere nodded and went back to work.