The more this war continued, the more Regina realized that it was going to be both shorter and longer than she’d thought. The actual, military ‘decision’, as Bianorn had called it, would probably not take that long, actually. That didn’t mean more time wouldn’t pass until the fighting ended, though.

To be fair, it hadn’t exactly dragged on for very long yet. In fact, the war was probably still in its beginning phase, objectively. It had only been a matter of days.

Either way, she was still getting more reinforcements with every day that passed. They weren’t at a point yet where these new drones actually made a significant impact on their numbers fighting the war, though - the casualties they were taking soaked them up easily. That probably meant their levels were dropping on average. Although the surviving Swarm Drones did level up quite rapidly. Regina was confident that soon, that would actually help give the hive stronger hatchling Swarm Drones, since they started at a higher level because of her Ability Swarm Strength. Plus, she’d discovered that Evolved sapient Swarm Drones still counted towards that level, too. Of course, given the hordes of new, weak Swarm Drones the hive was hatching, that number would never get too high.

Her sapient drones were also leveling up, though. More of them had reached the third Tier than ever before, and Tim was actually bumping up against the limit of her own level. Even though she’d reached level 46 only a short time after she’d gained her last level-up and her newest Ability.

That was why she almost dropped the (explosive and dangerous) container she’d just filled using Conjuration when she saw another level-up notification after only a few days of fighting in the mountains.

You have leveled up

Regina carefully put down her latest creation and took off the protective clothing she’d taken to wearing, then walked back to the hive while she considered the next System screen.

You may select a Spell. You can use a Spellbook, learn a Spell from a teacher or other source of information, or pick one from the list below: Spark, Magic Missile, Fireball, Basic Conjuration, Greater Heal, Water Manipulation, Magic Armor, Heat Vision, Expand Senses, Physical Augmentation, Earth Manipulation, Haste, Fire Manipulation, Air Manipulation, Freeze, Water Breathing, Purify

Regina smiled as she looked at it. It had been a while since she’d seen this list, and she wished she could pick more than one option. This time, however, she didn’t spend long thinking about it. There really only was one choice.

Regina hovered her mental awareness over Basic Conjuration, which promptly morphed into Conjuration. She paused, considering it for a moment, before she shrugged and moved to look at the other options. Regina spent a short while playing around with the screen, looking at other Spells, but in the end, she knew what she needed to do. And wanted, for that matter.

She picked the Spell, watching as it dissolved into a shower of sparks. It felt like the knowledge in her head shifted just slightly. Just ‘Conjuration’, no other adjective, she mused. I started with the Lesser Basic version. I wonder if anyone ever got Greater Conjuration?

Well, she was definitely going to try. Regina was looking forward to finding out everything she could do with this version of the Spell, an even better one would be awesome.

Unfortunately, she could already tell that it would take a while. Conjuration was without a doubt the most complex Spell she’d learned, or that she’d ever heard of. Not surprising, considering its power to change the physical world. Regina had no idea how it fit with the principles of matter-energy equivalence or the conservation of energy. Assuming that was even still a thing with magic. And she wasn’t a physicist, so her understanding of those fundamental principles was shaky at best.

She was almost too caught up in her thoughts to realize someone was calling her. Regina blinked and looked around. “Mia? What’s up?”

Mia stepped closer. She looked like she’d just come from her workshop, and she was carrying what looked like a bucket of gray goo with her.

“My Queen!” she greeted her, sounding cheerful. “We just got a new substance from the Production Drones.” She glanced down at it, wrinkled her nose and shrugged. “Well, so far it seems like only really high-level ones can make it, but we do have a few of those now.”

Regina peered into the bucket. “Sounds interesting. What does it do? I assume you ran some tests?”

Mia nodded. “Well, I was going to do most of the tests now, but we figured out a few things already. For once, I’m pretty sure this is very inflammable. Or — what’s the word, combustible maybe?” She shrugged again. “The point is, this burns pretty well, and I think there’s a lot of energy stored up in it. We haven’t measured heat output or energy content yet, but I’d say it’s probably more efficient than wood. Maybe even coal or oil. And that’s just as regular fuel.”

Regina smiled. That sounded useful. “How easily flammable is it, though?” she asked, reminding herself of the potential dangers. “You called it combustible?”

“Not all that much,” Mia responded with a slight smile. “I wouldn’t shake it around near an open fire, but it’s not going to catch fire just from getting jostled a bit. I hope, anyway.” She paused. “What I really want to try is if we can get it to, well, combust more than burn. It seems to be compressible, and …”

“I get it.” Regina grinned and sent her a mental clap on the shoulder. “Good work, as usual, Mia.”

Then she paused and thought for a moment. She was about to head inside, but on the other hand, this would be a nice opportunity to do some hands-on work and spend some time with Mia. She hadn’t seen much of her recently. “You know what, let’s go and test it right now.”

The smile Mia showed her in return convinced Regina she’d made the right decision. Mia didn’t quite skip or bounce to the open-air experimental space they’d cordoned off, but she had a bit more energy in her steps.

The two of them spent a while working on the new material, and then a few other things. Regina took the opportunity to do some preliminary tests with her newly upgraded Spell, although she still focused more on Mia’s discovery and work. It seemed promising for the hive’s usual tactics.

After that, Mia moved on to a meeting she’d arranged with some of the other senior Workers, those who were still at the main base, and Regina continued on to her rooms. She made a detour to check on the eggs.

Those were housed in a series of chambers close to her own space, both for convenience and just because it put them close to the center of the big building complex, providing additional protection. By now, they had several rooms dedicated to eggs and hatchlings, as well as a rotation of drones to look in on them and take care of any who just hatched. It was probably odd, at least to any stranger who might see it. Regina had grown more or less used to it, though. She had to admit that the Hivekind way of doing things had quite a few advantages.

After adding some more eggs to the pile and washing up quickly, Regina returned to the room she’d turned into an office and reluctantly sat down to do some paperwork. That was one consequence of the war she wouldn’t have anticipated. Previously, the hive hadn’t exactly seen much need for paperwork.

But the elves and other people clearly liked to put some things in writing, and they did have a point. Regina had also taken the opportunity to push for a bit more of that among her hive. Sure, they had the psychic link, but putting some things to paper didn’t hurt. Well, unless it got into the wrong hands, but she didn’t worry much about the gnomes getting to any accounts here in the base.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Marquis Lyns had actually complied with her request — it would be impolitic to call it a ‘demand’, after all — and officially denounced the gnomes’ actions as well as levered an embargo against them. She still wasn’t sure if he or his allies had actually had any trade with the Confederation, but it didn’t seem to be on a very large scale, if so. Clearly, he was smart enough not to piss off his main financier if he didn’t absolutely have to. Now, anyway.

Regina glanced at a few notes from elven commanders and politicians and noted the quality of their paper. It was still better than what the hive produced at Forest’s Haunt. The gap was closing, though, and they were getting better. They weren’t making paper on a large scale yet, because the hive didn’t really need to, but they could probably get there if they wanted to, relatively quickly. The next step would be the ability to make books on a large scale. I really want that, Regina admitted to herself, idly fingering a sheet detailing the hive’s food supplies. Having paper freely available again is nice, something I didn’t realize I was missing this much. It’s not electronic data, but it’s something. And once I’m able to actually make books cheaply … Well, I still need to decide what to put in them, but it will open up quite a few options.

She shook her head. Hopefully, Galatea would drop by at some point. Even if not, Regina could definitely get by on her own.

In the meantime, she still had a war to fight. Regina put down the sheet she’d just finished and leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes.

Max was currently visiting the drones involved in fighting the gnomes. Regina had wanted to go herself, but he’d been very much against it. Considering they’d probably tried to kill her once already, Regina had to acknowledge that he had a point. That hadn’t stopped her from sending him instead, though. She was very well protected here, and he was still one of their strongest members and a perfect proxy to send in her stead. Plus, it served him right. I mean, it does him good to spend some time away from me once in a while, she corrected herself with a grin.

Tim was still with the drones fighting in the mountains, making gradual but steady progress. It might not seem like that to an outside observer, but Regina tracked the gnomes’ status and how many soldiers they sent and lost, so she considered it to be going well. Sure, she’d lost quite a few Swarm Drones in the skirmishes they’d fought, but that was the cost she’d accepted from the beginning. Conversely, while she couldn’t say much about their levels, by her estimates of their numbers, the gnomes had lost at least forty percent of the forces they’d originally sent against the fortress. And that didn’t consider that they seemed to have already sent some replacements to the most heavily hit units.

Max, in contrast, was now with the other main detachment the hive had set up. Well, it wasn’t really a single detachment, since the drones were still pretty scattered, but they’d organized themselves accordingly. Their job was to deal with the forces the gnomes hadn’t sent to attack the fortress, and hadn’t gotten bogged down in the mountains the same way. They’d only just started to clash, but it seemed to be going well so far.

The gnomes were making their way out of the mountains and through the foothills, then across the plains towards the hive’s territory. Or that was the plan, Regina assumed. The hive had deliberately let them put a bit of distance between them and the first army before they started seriously harassing them.

One of the benefits of the psychic link was that anything one group of drones learned, the rest did as well. Basically, the drones that were now going up against these gnomes could use the experience their fellows had already gathered fighting the others. Thus, they already knew which attack patterns worked best, how the gnomes tended to react to ambushes according to their doctrine, and which abilities seemed common among their soldiers. Regina didn’t doubt the gnomes also had means of communication, but it couldn’t compare to the hive’s.

The mines the hive had made were pretty primitive, but they’d had enough opportunity to emplace them along likely routes the gnomes would take. The mountains would narrow those routes, but the softer ground and denser vegetation also made working with them easier here. Their strategy regarding digging tunnels needed a bit more adjustment, but Regina was confident they could still get a few good ambush spots or surprising sinkholes to stop the enemy’s supply wagons out of it.

You think they’re ready? she asked Max quietly.

He seemed a bit amused. I would hope so, Max replied. Via, we’re all set, right?

Of course, Via agreed. She’d accompanied Max, as well. Her Class wasn’t very suited to direct combat, but she was still one of the strongest mages in the hive, and her support would be invaluable.

Then let’s show them why they’re not jumpy enough yet, Max concluded with a grin.

The gnomes in the column currently stretching across the last offshoots of the mountains were obviously already nervous, and they looked like they’d all had less sleep than they’d have preferred. Regina had been watching them through her Winged Drones, and she could tell that the constant, irregular attacks the hive launched on them had been having an effect.

They might be able to beat them back, but they lost people every time. Their supply wagons were getting damaged or destroyed, which slowed their pace for repairs and to give them the opportunity to forage for food. And that was a risky proposition, since the drones liked pouncing on any party wandering too far from the main army. But what the gnomes probably didn’t realize was that this had also drawn their attention to the sky, and kept it fixed there. They were conditioned to expect attacks from above, and traps and mines from the ground around them.

Now, they would be faced with an actual ground assault for the first time.

Regina had decided there was no point in ‘pussyfooting around’, as Janis would say, with this, and they’d prepared an attack in force. Hiding this many drones so they wouldn’t be detected early by the gnomes was a challenge. But they’d chosen the time and place carefully.

Not only was the gnomish column stretched pretty far due to the terrain, but it was also close to a base the Hivekind had built, along with a few tunnels. They’d be using several in particular, which had entrances concealed in a thick patch of wood close to the pass the gnomes would have to go through. Their scouts had missed it, probably because the army wouldn’t be moving through here, anyway, and so there shouldn’t be any traps; and partly because they hadn’t wanted to tangle with an enraged Greater Mana Beast in the middle of its territory. Arcanis had played her part perfectly.

Now, at Max’s signal, the horde of drones got moving. Several warriors came along, as well, together with a few supporting mages, although they’d stay behind and not participate in the actual battle. They controlled the hordes of War Drones launching the attack, though. Silently, the drones ran through the tunnels and poured from their mouths into the forest, waiting briefly for enough of them to gather before the attack started. They scrambled up the steep sides of the ridge separating them from the gnomes, their ability to move on all fours helping greatly.

By now, the gnomes had raised the alarm, but it didn’t really matter. They were too strung out, caught too unprepared. The soldiers barely managed to get into anything resembling formation before the waves of drones crashed over them.

The battle was short but brutal, as was probably to be expected. The hive attacked in waves, using a formation the warriors under Max’s supervision had previously arranged, since Swarm Drones weren’t good at forming tactics on their own. They didn’t need to this time, however.

The ferocity of the hive’s attack clearly caught the gnomes off-balance. They thought they knew what to expect, and this wasn’t it. Soldiers who’d grown used to hunkering down and watching as stronger gnomes tried to shoot down flying drones now had to stand up and fight. The road wasn’t big enough for them to form up properly, and in the chaos, their officers struggled to maintain any kind of order.

Regina grinned to herself as she watched. Her drones were dying left and right, of course, but that was also a price she’d anticipated. As the battle progressed, her grin quickly faded and she took a deep breath, trying not to focus on the sensation of minds going dark in the psychic link.

Just as the gnomes were starting to reestablish control and strike back, the second attack hit. A swarm of Winged Drones crossed over their formation, tossing rocks and explosive charges. The gnomes’ line wavered and indented in several places as the attack ripped holes in their column.

A short while later, Ben said, We need to withdraw now.

Regina nodded and sent a feeling of acceptance, listening quietly as Max and Ben gave the orders to the others. He’d told her from the start that if they wanted to get more than a handful of drones back from this attack, they couldn’t allow the gnomes to get themselves together and start pursuing them in earnest. Retreat was always tricky, and even more so under these circumstances.

But the War Drones broke off right on cue and turned to flow back in good order. She knew their bloodthirsty ferocity must not have given the gnomes that impression, but they were far more disciplined than they appeared, just in a different way than human or gnomish soldiers. Under the commands of their sapient leaders, the War Drones withdrew neatly, without getting in each other’s way.

They left a lot of dead drones behind, but also enough dead gnomes that Regina didn’t need to count to tell it had ended in her hive’s favor. And as she watched the surviving soldiers through the eyes of departing Winged Drones, she could tell they must have shaken the gnomes quite a bit. The damage to their morale was probably worse than just their losses.