“Ok, here we go.”
The King gave his command. The First of the Fourth felt the entire world shift at his word. It filled her with heat and power, spurring her to action. And she knew why, as she felt a cold chill creeping along.
This was it. She fixed her eyes upon the entrance, not looking away for even a second.
Something dark began to coalesce around the Tower’s entrance...above the ground. The First of the Fourth began dancing immediately, sending her meaning along her mana to her children at the front.
“Air attack!”
The King had warned her to be ready for anything and the First of the Fourth had taken his words to heart. His wisdom was clear as the enemy immediately defied their expectations. But the soldiers and queens both had learned the lessons of their defeat well. They knew now it was possible for an enemy to appear higher up. The soldiers trained and drilled for that exact occurrence and with the First of the Fourth’s quick command immediately reorganized for an aerial foe. Some squads moved closer to the ground to cover that angle, while a group of sprayers moved into range above the incoming invader. The rest of the soldiers began to move as well. No longer did they hover in place, holding a static formation around the enemy. Instead, they began to zig zag through the air in constant movement, with random stops and dives and turns to prevent an enemy from tracking their trajectory. They would not wait for the enemy to strike but begin their evasion before the attack approached.
A moment later, a screech rang through the First of the Fourth’s body, far louder than she had anticipated from the stories. Her body trembled as her eyes beheld the enemy. A bird, much like the one who had broken through their army, now flapped in the air. It was far smaller than the original had been, comparable to the difference between the daily wolf-shades and the very first. But the First of the Fourth would not let its size fool her. She knew that this was a foe that could quickly escape her grasp if she made a single mistake.
She would not let it have the chance.
The moment the shade appeared, the sprayers launched their attack, coating the bird in toxins. The shade screeched at them and flapped its wings, but the sprayers had already melted back into the swirling mass of bees in constant motion and the shade lost track of them. A second sprayer squad jumped out of the mass and launched their attack as well. The shade attempted to dodge and got out of the immediate path of the attack, though some of the toxin still impacted it as the sprays spread out.
The shade then shot into the formation of bees all around it, its sharp beak opened wide. But it had many targets to keep track of and the bees only had one. The bees it had aimed for had already adjusted their course. The bees heading towards it, on the other hand, spun around and thrust their stingers forward, plunging into the shade’s back. The shade screeched and snapped at them, but they had already retreated back. It flapped its wing and surged towards them but they had dropped down and evaded once more.
The battle continued in that fashion. The shade would fly forward, but the bees’ random and shifting motions kept it from overtaking them with its speed. It seemed as though their plan would work.
But the First of the Fourth kept her eyes on the shade and noticed a problem. The shade kept flying in the same direction, and the bees had to keep shifting their formation to keep it contained. But the bees were still ultimately slower than the shade and flew even slower on account of their evasive maneuvers. The number of bees around and ahead of the shade was actually growing lighter as the other side of the formation fell behind. She ordered the ones in the back to abandon random evasion and prioritize speed, but it would still take time for them to catch up.
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And then came a mistake.
Lightning began to crackle around the shade. The First of the Fourth and her soldiers were on the lookout for that and immediately evaded. A small cone of lightning erupted from the shade’s beak and struck nothing but air. However, the formation around the shade had already grown light from its movement, so the sudden evasion left a clear gap. The shade’s glowing red eyes narrowed and it flapped its wings, rushing towards that gap.
The bees reacted immediately. A squad of soldiers dove towards it while a squad of nearby sprayers unleashed their attack. But the two squads had not coordinated and the soldiers passed right in front of the sprayers. They were doused by the toxic spray, which thus did not hit the shade. The soldiers themselves had a bit of resistance to the toxins and so weren’t in immediate danger, but the sudden spray through them off course and drenched their wings, slowing their flight. As a result, neither the soldiers nor the spray reached the shade before it had escaped the formation entirely.
Once again, the shade was free and clear to head towards the hives and the King waiting beyond.
Or was it?
As the shade flew forward, another hive’s worth of soldiers took up positions ahead of it. The shade veered to the side but a second hive was already moving there. It stopped and flew straight up, but it could see a third hive already climbing and now turning to dive towards it. Yet another hive plugged the other flank while the soldiers it had escaped came up from behind.
The First of the Fourth was not about to let their army fail in the same way as before. Even as the first formation had started to thin out, she ordered the reserved forces to move. She built the same containment only on a much larger scale, forming new containment formations in every direction the shade could go. It would not move without a new containment wrapping around it.
The First of the Fourth had to admit she had questioned the Firstborn’s organization of the army. If their army had proven too weak to bring the enemy down before it could escape, how would making the force actually fighting weaker help things? But now she could see the benefit. With the majority of the army not engaged in the fight, she was free to move out as she pleased, and so could set a trap for the shade when it escaped the first formation.
The shade glanced around but found no gaps to exploit. It began to gather its lightning again but the First of the Fourth moved first. She ordered the sprayer squads forward and had them attack. Toxins sprayed onto the shade from all directions. She held her soldiers in reserve for now, wary of the sprayers hitting their own side. But it was working out. If the shade remained still, the sprayers would continue to bombard it. If it tried to break through, the soldiers would move to meet it.
It turned out that would not be necessary.
The shade squawked but its voice was weak now. Lightning crackled across it but never gathered into another blow. The toxins and stings it had already received were taking hold even as the sprayers laid on more and more. It began to wobble...then to dip...and soon its wings were not beating fast enough to keep it aloft. It plunged towards the ground.
The bees below cleared out of its path while dealing it additional stings along the way, but that was unnecessary. The shade was no longer attempting to attack them. Black mist began to disperse off of it and it vanished into a fading cloud even before it hit the ground.
The First of the Fourth stared for a moment until she heard the King’s mighty voice.
“Looks like you got it, great job everyone!”
She stood still and then burst into a dance, flying about as fast as she could.
That...was amazing! Her first battle and they had come out on top! The very enemy that had defeated them had now been laid low, without once laying its beak upon even a single bee! She had faced the dangers that the First Dynasty had flown against and come out on top.
Well, not exactly. She had been there for the second purification and saw the shade that had brought destruction to the First Dynasty. This shade could fly and move fast, but it did not match the sheer power that first enemy brought, nor did it match its larger version that had defeated them. But still, her first battle had been a victory and the army proved it could contain a flying invader.
It was a good start. And if the First of the Fourth had anything to say about it, it would only be the beginning.