Hera ripped open a cocoon in rage. The forcibly hatched drone was utterly different from the older ones. It had a more humanoid stance with more human appendages. It had massive wings that reached the bottom of its calves. Four arms, two normal ones and two vestigial ones that hung close to its body. A segmented and long spear-like tail appendage came from the lower half and wrapped itself around it. The chitin was not yet fully developed and was transparent. It shared the same oral structure as Scarpha, only its mandibles when closed formed a full helmet.

“Perfect, are they not?” Scarpha said descending from the ceiling of the brood chamber right behind Hera.

“You messed with their evolution,”

Scarpha silently moved around to Hera’s front. “I made them perfect. I guided them to be like us.”

“They’ll take too long to grow.”

Scarpha placed a hand on the soft armor of the exposed elf hybrid. It squirmed from the sudden touch as the newborn couldn’t even see yet. “The previous brood was frail, weak, disposable. I made these stronger. I made the hive stronger.”

“The hive was strong enough with just us.” She began to hiss out, but she saw a very familiar magical signature, and it was very close. She left the brood chamber in a matter of seconds.

As she raced out she looked around for the source of the signal, what she found was Orcs directing elves into holding pins, taking them to the spawning grounds. She deduced that the smell had to originate from outside of the hive.

~^~

Rinae, Amalia, Elizabeth, and Mateo stood in the middle of a clearing.

Mateo pulled his horse next to Elizabeth to speak to her. “I’m glad that we have a chance against the other creatures now, but I have a bad feeling about this.”

Elizabeth nodded. “The feelings mutual.” She looked towards Amalia and Rinae. The two stood side by side, Rinae was tall enough to stand almost head to head with the horse that Amalia rode on, which in itself was considered abnormally big for its species. “Just how can she trust being so close to that thing?”

Mateo shrugged. “That’ll be for the historians to decipher.”

In a matter of seconds, they were surrounded by glowing eyes illuminating in the darkness of the treeline, hundreds maybe even a couple thousand. This number made the group that attacked Beka look like a scouting party in comparison. There were even types that they’ve never encountered before. Mateo put his hand on his sword. “They certainly repopulate fast.”

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“Everybody off your horses!” Yelled Amalia.

Elizabeth and Mateo looked at each other, both were reluctant to follow this order but ultimately did. “This confirms it; Lady Amalia has lost her mind.”

Elizabeth was the last to climb off the horse. “I guess we have too if we’re following her orders.”

The first to appear from the tree line was Hera behind her was Scarpha and a few of the newly hatched spawn, these were the first batch and had their armor grown in.

“Sister!” Hera yelled. “You remain alive?”

“I am very much alive!” She said

Scarpha also appeared from the shadows. “And you brought hosts?”

Rinae walked forward to meet her two sisters and looked over her shoulder. “Not them,” She hissed out, “We have bigger prey.”

Hera perked up at this news. “Bigger prey? Sister, what can you mean?”

Rinae walked towards the newborn swarmlings. They were just a little shorter than her. Their magical signatures told her that they’d give her a decent fight.

“Gather the hive; we feed on a dragon.” Rinae’s wings flared outward. “Bring those three too.” She took off bringing the two elite castes with her.

Hera looked perplexed. “Three?” she looked back to the group of humans. “I only see two.”

Scarpha danced around Hera. “Having eyes is quite useful.” She then climbed onto the backs of one of the more flight capable of the drones. Hera glared at the group before also climbing on one. The sky began to blacken with the numbers that rose up. A few came back down. Landing in front of Mateo, Elizabeth, and Amalia.

Mateo drew his sword. However, the drone did not back down. The influence Rinae had over a single drone was astonishing. Her presence even quelled the aggression they showed to one another.

“Mateo!” Amalia shouted.

He looked over to her and back at the drone that was slowly approaching. He was reluctant and distrustful of the so-called allies. They had absolutely no reason to keep any of them alive anymore. Rinae was twice as strong as when he last saw her; the hive was expanding unbound, no matter how they saw it, Rinae had no use for them. Elizabeth put a hand on his own. He sighed. “Fine.” He sheathed his blade.

One of the drones grappled Elizabeth and flew, another for Amalia. But the last one was different in the way it held him, it grabbed his legs and took to the skies.

~^~

The flight wasn’t long, only lasting about six hours. The swarm cloud hovered over a desert. Amalia was the first to land then Hera and Scarpha. The swarm all lowering at the same time created a pseudo-sandstorm that ended as quickly as it came. The drones released each of the humans.

Mateo lifted himself from being face forward into the sand. He stood on his feet patting the sand off his robes. He looked around just about every drone between him, Amalia and Elizabeth they all just stood there looking north. “Lady Amalia. Where are we?”

Amalia who was dropped next to him spoke. “The Saharii Desert.”

Amalia unsheathed her sword. A roar in the distance was enough to get her to stand on guard.

“Was that a…” Elizabeth began but was interrupted by the roar echoing again. A black spec in the sky soared high above them.

“...A dragon.” Finished Mateo. A third roar came out, and so did a second dragon, a breeding pair. Rinae, Several hundred drones, and her elite pack took the flight to engage first.