The shadowy man read his book, lost in thought. Deviants were a threat to the cohesion of a collective. For all he could remember, that had always been true. But he cannot further demoralize her now, he would have to deal with me later.

"What's wrong?" He asked her, still reading.

"My... daughters... are... late..." The Queen stared at her chamber entrance. "Do you think... the humans... found-"

"No, they're fine." He interrupted. "It must be the increasing human presence. Monsters, especially the ones easy to hunt, are migrating away. Your daughters are taking longer because there's less prey to go around."

"I... see."

"Are you sure you're really going to wait for them? You could just use your telepathy now, to urge all your children to evacuate. Are you really going to risk the lives you value so much, just to save just a little more?"

She remained silent for a moment. "I... remember every single one of them..."

"Every... single one... I built... piece by piece... that's why... I can't... I can't leave any of them... they are all... perfect... so... please understand..."

He sighed.

"Fine. Keep most of your daughters to guard the hive, while the rest will scout for humans. We need to know what to expect-"

"I cannot! They will die! No! No!"

He looked at her with pity. The inherent fear of all polymorphs towards humans, for some only urging cautiousness, others unbridled terror. He thought that if that god didn't toy with their instincts, they would've been the perfect tool for him to shatter this world.

"No... no... no..." She mumbled to herself.

"What's wrong?"

"I told... them... all... to stay..." She began to claw her face with her scythes. "The unique one... left the territory... out... of... my… range..."

He cursed to himself. He wished he never gave her the choice to spare me.

"I... have to save... her." She began to head out.

"Stop where you are. Leave her."

"She... I cannot... she is..."

"Order one of your daughters to chase her down. You are the Queen, you cannot do everything by yourself. What do you think will happen if you leave everyone here?

"I... I will... do as you say..."

...

How could I help it? I really wanted to see those talking creatures again. To speak to them like I did to Mother. Would they have reacted like her too? I would never know unless I reach them. That is why, my scythe was lodged into the mouth of one of my sisters.

In the middle of the wilderness, after I left my home, this sister of mine was ordered to follow me and stood in my way in an attempt to bring me back. I had no choice, this one had to die. Her eyes were emotionless, just like most compound eyed creatures, yet there was a strange warmth that I knew was there. I ignored the feeling, and bit her head with my fangs, crushing through her carapace, and deep into its fleshy inside. I ripped her core out.

A hunt to offer to Mother perhaps? No, she wouldn't want to see the beating heart of her daughter. So I devoured it instead. I didn't want her to dislike me after all. She didn’t have to know about this.

I felt the strange electrical feeling again, for a moment I was numb, then the next it was gone. My body had changed again, but I couldn't tell how.

I marched east, the direction I last met the strange creatures.

The forest was quiet as it had been before. No monsters seen anywhere. I believed that this was a good sign, that I was coming closer to them. But then I noticed a collapsed scypede, head sliced open and without a core, along with many other corpses of my siblings.

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I crawled closer, and nudged one of them with a scythe.

No movement.

Suddenly, I saw something shine between the branches far away. It approached me with immense speed, I dodged just in time. A wooden sword cut the air and lodged itself into the ground. I felt its impact on the soil vibrating in my legs.

A human in a hooded cloak appeared and pulled the sword off the ground. And in an instant, she was in front of me, the sword somehow became a club. She swung it down at me, and it suddenly turned into a blur. I recoiled, reducing the impact. But it struck with terrifying strength, causing a massive cobweb shaped crack on my head, and an exposed monster core.

Before she could do anything worse to me, I unleashed a green flash of light. But when I looked, she was already far away in safety. I didn't know how she could move so fast. This quickness is beyond any monster I've ever fought.

Were all of those strange creatures like that? Was this reason all the other monsters had gone?

I realized my light was dimming, so I unleashed a blast of flames from my maw as it disappeared. I predicted correctly and caught her in the middle of the air. About to be covered in fire, she turned her club into a giant wooden fan and pushed the fire out of the way. She landed with a kick on my face, forcing my head to the ground. She threw the burning wooden fan on my body, which slowly shaped itself around me to keep me restrained. Her boot kept my face on the ground.

She realized her cloak caught fire, so she threw it away, revealing her face, and her look at me of disgust. She took a pebble from a pouch, and threw it down at me.

As it fell towards me, it suddenly shined, and in an instant, it sped up to invisibility, colliding on the segment connecting my head and body, shattering the armor on it and exposing the softer flesh and muscles.

She took another pebble. My mouth sparked, getting ready to blast fire.

As she was about to throw it down at me, to finally break me in half. I suddenly jerked my head forward, bringing her foot off balance and causing her to throw the rock off mark. It collided on my back, shattering the armor and turning the flesh into mush and paralyzing half my body, but I was still in one piece.

I unleashed fire once again, but this time infused with my power.

Green flames engulfed me as it bounced off the ground I was stuck on. She jumped off before being burnt, but without her immense speed by magic she tumbled down and tripped, landing on her back.

In my desperateness to survive. I tore every working muscle in my body as I used all the strength I had to snap the wooden prison keeping me down. Cracks and splinters on the wood. I pushed, unrelenting, until I broke off. with the remnants of my failing body covered in dimming green flames.

I threw myself at her.

She pulled out a flintlock pistol from her belt and fired at one of my scythe-arms. I clumsily landed on her, pushing her to the ground. She smacked my other scythe with the gun and let it go as it shaped itself around my arm's joint. I tried to use my other scythe, but it was limp from the gunshot wound on the elbow.

My other arm snapped as the wooden gun formed to bend it unnaturally. I thrusted forwards with my last weapon left, my fangs.

She suddenly kicked me, bringing my bite only a thumb away from her face. I tried to throw my limp scythe at her, but she pulled out a knife and stabbed it by the shoulder before pushing me back. I bent to bring my working legs forward. They crawled onto her and like countless knives, stabbed into her lower body, and legs. She cried out in pain as she fell back down.

I lunged with my mouth-pincers again.

She threw her wrists in the way to keep my fangs in place. Her heart was rapidly thumping. she used all the strength she had, but my bite was slowly closing in. The dimming green fire on me began to die out.

She grit her teeth, and began to push my mouth-pincers away. I placed more self-destructive force on my mouth to counter, but then she suddenly pushed my fangs up and let go. My pincers shut closed with dangerous force and cracked.

She quickly stabbed my under-head several times with her knife, disabling my left pincer, before lodging the knife on the other, forcing it in place. She pulled my head down and forced a fist down the exposed crack on my head. Her hand was on my core. I rammed my head onto her chest, more of my muscles tearing itself apart. I felt her pull on it. I smashed my head on her over and over again, yet the core began to rip from my head. The nerves of my body connecting to it began to cut off. I coughed a spark... just a little more time, and she would burn.

Just… a little… more…

Then she pulled it out, ripping the core out of my body. My body went limp, dead, but my legs remained stuck into her. She placed the core between her teeth, before biting. She bit so hard it hurt for her.

My core cracked. With the last remaining strength she had, she was going to bring me down. The cracks increased... I felt my soul leaking out. I was going to die.

She realized something on me and stopped. “Just… a little… more..." She struggled to mutter to herself.

The green fires on my carapace died out, and with it the anti-magic. Suddenly, a white light covered her, she dropped my core to the ground, and she disappeared, teleported to safety, leaving nothing but her blood stained clothes and equipment, and my brutalized corpse.

My dangerously damaged core rolled on the ground. Without my eyes, the world was dark. Without my body, I could feel no sensation. I only had my thoughts to accompany me.

And the only thoughts that were in my mind during that moment.

Was the sense of awe.

Polymorphs do not bleed. She was not a monster, and yet she was stronger.

I wondered if I could be as strong as her.

I wish I got the chance to talk to her.

...