Chapter 56:The folly of insects
In my hazy vision, the light of the glowing mushrooms mixes into bands that seem to ebb and flow like the Aurora in my soul. Then I wipe the sleep out of my eyes and shake myself awake.
I open my menus only to be assaulted by walls and walls of text and event notifications.
*Event notice: The Heatseekers have joined the event.
*Event notice: The Underworld hunters have joined the event.
*Event notice: The Iron hammers have joined the event.
*Event notice: The Blazehounds have joined the event.
*Event notice: The treasure seekers have joined the event.
*Event notice: Miraii of swords has joined the event.
…
The wall of notifications is several pages long, each an entry of a group or an individual who has entered the forest for fame and fortune.
I sigh and close the window. The nests and the groups of bugs were already bad but throw the adventurers and armies into the mix? As Sairal said, things will only keep getting worse until the whole event blows over.
At least they won’t stay long in the outskirts of the forest, hopefully moving deeper to the centre of Luxia where the monsters and resources are abundant.
I open the event timer and shoot up in shock. Evolving took two days? I dash up the stairs and peel back the canvas of moss that covers the entrance. In two days a lot can happen. Cave crawlers might’ve grown in strength once more or perhaps one of the battalions that belongs to Zulis took a detour and decided to wipe out all minor threats to have free reign.
My heart almost beats out of my chest as the moss is torn away in front of my eyes. I stare up at Sairal’s tree and see it still standing in all its glory. I peer at the walls not far in the distance and see that they, unlike the tree, are a shadow of their former selves. The once-healthy vines are old and weathered. The prickly thorns now sag to the ground like the drooping branches of a willow tree.
Insects constantly race up the battlements, some reaching the walkway before being thrown off by the mushroom guardians.
I bound their way, starting to circulate Stamina through my body for all the skills I might need. Sairal comes into view, his arm a blur as arrows rain down in front of the walls. A breeze of frost hits me a few steps later. At least they are still alive. Though they seem to be in quite a pickle.
Sairal freezes and turns to me, an arrow strung in his bow, eyes narrowed. I raise my hand and call out to him.
He lowers his bow and waves towards me before resuming to fire arrows in the masses that must be beyond the walls.
In record time I climb up the battlements, feeling the vines give way under my weight. One of the vines snaps and I lose my grip. I hiss and lunge for another and heave myself up to the wall.
“Good to have you back Green,” Sairal says without looking at me. He fires another arrow into the horde of Cave crawlers streaming towards the bastion. “You must have picked an evolution with an outstanding skill. When it took effect only (G) grades and higher could damage the battlements.”
I look over the walls at the torn-up front. Entire swaths of bindweed vines have been ripped away by the cave crawlers over the course of my evolution. The skill, strong it might be, clearly wasn’t enough to keep them off.
“Thanks,” I reply and stare at the world beyond the walls.
What was a muddy landscape before I evolved has turned into a green wasteland of death. Insect blood lays thick on the ground for hundreds of metres around the bastion. Spikes of ice jut out at odd angles, freezing any weak Cave crawler that wanders past.
Beyond the immediate vicinity, vast swarms of Cave crawlers stream over the land, dragging back any and all scraps of biomass. A large team of them is slowly dismantling a dead Cave crawler that is bigger than a house. Even further away, kilometres in the distance, nests stand. Most of them haven’t been fully constructed but it is an insult to what once was.
And in that ocean of brown and now monster insides stands the tree, still unbending and unbreaking.
“Can you repair the walls? Your skill helped but it didn’t do anything to the lack of nourishment.”
Absentmindedly I nod, not knowing where to look. Sairal pauses next to me, long enough to notice that I’m still looking beyond the battlements. “Oh that large Cave crawler?” he says putting his bow into his Spatial Pocket. He points at the behemoth as if it needs any pointing out. “A feisty one, I say. Cobalt had quite a bad time taking the thing on. She doesn’t want to admit it, but even she has her limits.”
I turn to him, “She took that on? Alone?”
“No. I needed to use a few arrows dipped in special spores. However, it is a warning to what’s to come. Where one of those large bugs is, there are always more.”
I shiver, imagining a dozen of those things lumber towards the walls. Even two of them might be a problem.
I kneel and press my hands into the battlements. Stamina flees me. The vines around me swell to their former glory beneath my feet, slowly carrying my Resources away from me as the vines spread out. The entire wall rises like a cake in an oven and the oncoming horde of insects falters for a moment as the battlements suddenly look a lot more intimidating.
In less than a minute I’m splayed out on the walkway, heaving while my crown of leaves unfurls to catch all the sunlight. The difference between a peak grade and the bottom of the next grade is usually only a few skills. In some instances that single skill can change everything, but Hold the Walls isn’t like that. It's strong and it’ll become stronger over time. But it isn’t as strong as Grand Fireball or something like that. What I need are levels. A lot of them.
I lean over the railing of vines and stare at the nests on the surface. They’ll do.
A gust of freezing wind buffets me and Cobalt jumps onto the walls, gracefully landing next to me. “Mandrake Green,” she says. Her mandibles are opened in a smile, though, as she watches the still-oncoming horde of bugs that smile quickly melts off her face. “It is good to have you back. I hope that your class will aid us in the coming days?”
I nod at her and stand up. I forgot how bad it feels to have an almost empty Stamina pool. “I picked something good. Something we need.”
“Excellent,” she says. The smile returns as she glares at the hives. “When you have revitalized the walls, we will leave the bastion for levels.”
Sairal frowns but doesn’t say anything.
“I think that will take a while, though.”
“Perhaps,” Cobalt agrees. “As long as the pests come in these numbers, I will not be bored on my circuits along the walls.” She reaches her hand above her head. Mists swirls around it and a shard of ice grows in the air. The coleoptera grabs it out of the air and hurls it at an Elite that thought it was out of range. The shard of ice pierces the insect’s head, straight between the eyes.
I gape at her as she claps her hands together, seemingly more than pleased.
“I was only gone for two days…”
Sairal shrugs, “In war that can be a long time.”
***
After the initial joy of my evolution and the looming threat of getting overwhelmed hanging above our collective heads, we quickly went back to work. For me, that meant the painfully dull process of pushing every point of Stamina I generated into the walls.
Funnily, the more the walls came back alive, the less willing the Cave crawlers seemed to throw themselves against our defences. For the event, It was a generally peaceful day.
Even the next was relatively calm, allowing me to catch up on my work. And soon enough, Cobalt was dragging me through the mud towards the hives.
“Honestly, can’t this wait? It’s evening and I don’t want to be out in the dark. Those monsters from the second layer still come out at night…”
Cobalt waves me off, “We will be back before that. Having you earn levels is something that cannot wait.”
I fold my arms over each other, keeping the wince off my face as I step into something that isn’t mud. “Why though? I know the bugs keep growing stronger but we are doing fine, especially now that the walls are healthy.”
She shakes her head, “It is only a matter of time, Mandrake Green. You have seen the event notices. What happens if a team of humans destroys a part of the walls? The insects are strong enough to take advantage of such weaknesses now that their generals are on the surface.”
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My arms fall to my side, “I guess you’re right.”
“Indeed.” We walk in silence before she continues again, “I have also desired to slay one or two of their queens in the past days.”
“That’s bloodthirsty coming from you.”
She halts her steps and gazes at me. “Do you not desire the same thing?”
I turn to the hives that loom in the distance. They sprout and grow like mold, creeping over the land day by day. “Yeah,” I finally say. “I’m really starting to hate these bugs. There is no end to them.”
“You are incorrect. There is an end to them. An ending I will be a part of,” acid drips off her words and the temperature lowers by several degrees.
We reach the first hive and are immediately besieged by the insects. My skills humm through my body as they fall to pieces.
Together, we blast through the walls of the hive. I let my vines spread through the hallways and navigate through the byzantine maze with Cobalt on my side.
We argue over small things, debating how to best kill a species as numerous as the Cave crawlers in a world with magic. I tell her about curse magic that can spread from monster to monster and poisons that might accumulate in their queens. Since the Cave crawlers eat their dead, it must be a viable option to kill their strongest queens in the deeper layers of the Depths.
Cobalt says that the Queens, unlike their soldiers, are highly intelligent, and able to sense poison in food. We don’t know much about the magic part since both of us are relatively new to this world, and we don’t even have magic unlocked. Instead relying on Stamina and what the System had decided are bodily functions of our species.
Almost accidentally we stumble upon the queen’s chamber. Her large form takes up most of the room. Her abdomen is painfully swollen, her skin pressing outwards as the bulbous eggs stream out of her. Her upper body tiny; a mere afterthought.
[Queen of the Nest] lvl 35/40 (F)
Somehow her level doesn’t scare me. High level she may be, her stats far above mine, but most of it is spent on keeping her from collapsing under her own weight. Her larger Resource pools must be dedicated to spawning brood from a combination of forged biomass and mana.
Even the mandibles, a Cave crawler's main assets, are short and stubby as if she doesn’t need them for tearing up foe and food. Everything is served on a silver platter to her, so why would she need to lift a finger? Why spend feats on that, or pick an evolution that doesn’t help her as much with bearing her children?
While the room is mostly filled by her, other Cave crawlers wander about. Workers pick up the eggs that spew out of her gaster, taking them to one of the many brood chambers in the hive. Large soldiers, their carapaces gleaming like metal, gaze around the many entrances for anything irregular.
In a split second Cobalt moves next to me, evoking shock and anger from the pests. Cold winds flow into the room dropping the temperature below the freezing point. The moist air in the hive freezes and snowflakes begin to fall.
Her fist punts into one of the soldier’s brains, dropping the monster to the ground. It doesn’t get up. I jump into the fray and rend my claws on a carapace. Sparks fly into the air and the screech of metal on metal thrums through the room. I narrow my eyes and vines wrap around the monster's feet, trapping it in place. I slide under the snapping mandibles and stab the monster in its vulnerable stomach.
When I crawl out from the fallen foe, Cobalt is already ripping the last head off a soldier gazing at the queen. Her stubby mandibles come together in low thuds that reverberate through the nest unnaturally. Calling for her children in the hive.
The blue beetle clenches her fists and turns to me, “Block as many entrances as you can with bindweed to keep the workers out.”
The dots connect and I rush off. There are dozens if not a hundred tunnels that lead to the throne room. I begin at the largest, letting bindweed sprout in the mouth of the entrance. In a matter of seconds, the strands weave into a complex mesh and I sprint towards the next entrance.
I circle the room as Cobalt lumbers to the queen who has not been sitting idle. Golden walls of light spring up around the room. One blinks into existence before Cobalt who doesn’t take a second to slam her fist through it.
The magic breaks like a mirror and shards fall to the ground. The temperature in the room drops further and the leaves on my head shiver and roll up further. I turn my focus back to the entrances. Already more of the pests are streaming towards the centre of the hive, heeding the queen’s cry for help.
My claws wrench apart a (G) grade and I block another entrance. Something moves in the corner of my vision and I duck to the ground just in time for it to only shave away some of my crown, instead of cutting my head straight off. I blink at the glowing projectile of light that has perforated the wall. Uh, I might need to reassess how dangerous that queen is.
I turn back looking at the brawl taking place in the middle of the room. Cave crawlers stream out of the open entrances, only to be cut apart by glowing barriers or shards of ice. The walls of light continue to be erected and broken between the two, increasing in frequency until it sounds like entire buildings are toppling over behind me.
I’m forced to dodge errand spikes of ice and glowing shards of barriers while fighting the weaker pests and sealing off the remaining entrances. Absentmindedly, I scold myself for ever thinking this would be easy.
I round the room, the tunnels filling up with bindweed in my wake and turn back to the brawl. The few Cave crawlers that managed to get in have either been cut apart by the barriers or frozen solid by the billowing winds in the room.
The queen screams in rage and fires barrier magic at the bindweed seals. The bolt is intercepted by a spike of ice and her attention is forced back onto Cobalt. A spear of ice is thrown towards the queen's abdomen, slamming through two barriers before crashing into hunks of ice on the third.
Open mouth, I gape at the fight. The insect brawl in the depths was one thing but this? I thought that this evolution, while focused on defence, still allowed me to have a leg up on my competition. Though, I can’t compete with this!
I breathe in, feeling one of my skills pull Stamina out of the air to fill my diminished Resources back up. You can only panic so many times before even this becomes a habit. I’m the wall bearer, unrivalled in my own territory. So, why not make this room mine to begin with?
I let the bindweed spread out from me. Like a virus, it spreads over the ground and crawls into every corner, uncaring of the snow and glowing barriers in the air. A few of the vines near Cobalt and I pull them back, afraid that I might trip her up.
I stare at the queen while figuring out my next move. Pieces of her have been torn away by the hail of ice. Especially her gaster is badly affected. The thinly stretched skin is cut open, allowing the wriggling eggs to flow out. At the end of her gaster, more of the pale, almost translucent eggs pour out of her. It’s like she can’t stop it, her body forced to produce the eggs endlessly.
A smile grows on my face as I see an opportunity to give Cobalt an extra edge.
One of the vines, as thin as I can make it, slithers over the ground towards the growing pile of eggs. It wraps around one of them and slowly retreats. I grab it off the ground, frowning at the mucus that still clings to the egg, not even laid minutes ago.
Mandrake Scream is channeled in my throat. I don’t need to freeze the queen, only catch her attention for a second. At a low volume, it thrums through the chamber. Surprised that I survived the stray attacks, the queen turns towards me and sees me holding one of her eggs.
“Look at this,” I say as I manipulate my body. My claws grow longer and pierce through the thin membrane of the egg.
White and pearlescent fluids leak out and drip to the ground.
The queen, mother of said egg, roars. Her heavy form bulldozes towards me. She uses her stomach to jump towards me in tiny hops like a seal, Only the entire ground quakes under her weight. The stretchy material the hives are built from bends in odd ways as she moves.
A stubby arm reaches out, thin nails ready to pluck me off the ground, and throw me up into the air only to be crushed to mush by her mandibles.
Cobalt laughs boisterously and winter arrives. Snow descends like a weighted blanket. Shards of ice form behind her back and follow her command. Each of them lances into the queen’s weak backside, freezing parts of her body.
The queen whirls around at her, unsure of which intruder she should focus on. Cobalt decides for her and dashes towards the giant insect. She leaps up in the air and lands on the queen’s gaster. She continues to run over the queen, closing in on her face.
Barriers flicker on around her, pushing back the snow. Cobalt is halted in her tracks, unable to break five barriers laid onto each other.
With her attention elsewhere, the bindweed that has spread to all the corners of the room comes alive. Like a trap, the vines wrap around the Queen catching her by surprise once more and halting her movements for a second.
I grin, pushing more stamina into the skill. The bindweed thickens and flourishes. Her arms are tied down to her side. The green vines slither up her side and wrap around her neck like a noose. They travel further upwards and muzzle her mandibles.
Her arms reach for the bindweed but she was never meant to reach that far, always having workers to tend to her every need.
I step back, content with pinning her down. Never, can I take down something like that alone. But with the glaring weaknesses the queens on the surface have, it only is a matter of time.
Their hives are barely built. Their spawn too young to properly defend their home. Their numbers too small to drown us. Queens aren’t made to fight for themselves, a glaring flaw in a failing species.
Cobalt smashes through the golden barriers and pummels the queen’s face. She rips off one antenna and screams in savage joy.
I let her have the kill, pushing most of my strength into the bindings. I’m forced to keep the weaklings away until she is done with beating the monster to death.
The queen, weak as she is, still has higher stats. Her health is likely double that of mine, maybe even more. With that said, It took Cobalt only a bit over ten minutes to end her.
I push away the notifications for later and walk over to Cobalt who’s standing on the queen’s gaster in victory. I point to one of the holes in the hive their fight caused, “The sun is setting. We need to go.”
She follows my finger and sighs, “Very well. It is sad that we cannot clean up the rest of the hive.”
We walk out of one entrance and kill all the bugs we come across, “We can always do it tomorrow.”
***
They watched as the Queenslayers left their home. The normal ones only felt rage towards them. How dare they? How dare they kill mother? Complex thought beyond the orders given by the Kings and Queens was difficult for most. But for some? Some had the capability to be independent. Be it a higher intelligence from a rare evolution, chance, or perhaps even a life lived before their spawning.
They, the Elites as they became known to some, came in many shapes and sizes. Some with greater size or tougher carapaces, received from dining on the rare metals of the Depths and others stronger by achieving rare feats, watched the Queenslayers leave.
They were too late, the tunnels from the deeper hives where the Underworld truly began too long. The different queens they served were too hesitant to send their valuable soldiers and generals to the surface. But there was war to be made, biomass to be harvested and items from the Event store to be bought.
The Elites were uncertain of what to do. And then the general spoke to them, her mandibles clicking together. While her size was small, barely bigger than a common (H) grade worker, she commanded them all.
What she told them, if anyone could understand the chittering language of the Cave crawlers was simple in nature, if not in sound; “Follow them,” she said. Her mandibles clacked together angrily as the two Queenslayers marched away under the setting sun, taking their ruthless joy out on her weaker family members.
“Follow them,” she repeated to the Elites. “I want to know where they are going.”
The Cave crawlers cast their spells, hiding them even from the monsters that lurked in the night realms and followed in their wake. She wouldn’t attack them today. She would bide her time and strike at the right moment, just like the Third Queen told her to.
The death of a queen, even a terribly weak one, should not go unpunished.