While Mar had diverted a small percentage of their flying insectile forces to hunt down and infect as many humans as possible without venturing too far from the forest. It was time for Mar to remove the remaining threats in the forest so that the Swarm could be safe while going for the human town. The Briar Bear was only the first of many potential threats that Mar had become aware of, the countless memories that lay in the back of their network revealed several other monsters that infested the woods. Acidic bees, a wingless wyvern, packs of forest gargoyles, magical ants and wasps who built far larger hives than their mundane counterparts, and other monsters besides these.
Mar had absorbed much in their time as the Sovereign Swarm, and while they did not remember much from before they came to this reality. They were keenly aware of how one should treat competitors. Rather than letting them persist or slowly try to secretly acquire them like some rival corporation. One should topple and undercut them at every turn, starve them out and subjugate them. So before Mar could fully dedicate themselves to the world outside of the forest of their birth, they needed assurances that nothing in their birthplace could challenge them.
A hundred of their newly created soldiers along with the Juggernaut spider and two swarm champions was sent out to deal with the perceived issues. First the Briar Bear then they would systematically eliminate each of the larger threats that they could reach in the forest. The Antmite-General Collective was ordered to raise their armies and begin sending them toward the threats that they could face. First the acidic bees and then the magical ants and wasps would be next.
With that done Mar could focus on the more personal issues that plagued the Swarm. She...no they...no he, well the issues surrounding memory and identity was the ones in focus. Having the memories and experiences of millions of insects, thousands of animals, and one human in addition to the memories that Mar had from before becoming the Sovereign Swarm. Was causing issues in the mental faculties of the Swarm, Mar caught themselves using references to things that they had no actual knowledge of. They felt nostalgic for things that shouldn't provoke a response and mixed up their pronouns when referring to themselves.
Even this new name that they had adopted came from somewhere. Somewhere before the flames that were rightfully the first thing that they could remember. The fire that had forged Mar into being was the obstacle to unlocking the secrets contained in the very back of their mind. But that was not the only issue plaguing them. Memories from all of the lives that the Swarm had consumed were becoming a distraction, not only in the sense that Mar indulged by reminiscing, but also that they began to affect them.
The collectives were also a potential issue. Unlike Mar they were transcient, unstable, and built for singular purposes. They were not built to see the greater picture and the larger collectives became a more prominent part of Mar's being. Antmite-General and the Fungal-Floral-Bee collective were the largest collectives in the Swarm. If one were decreased then the priorities of the remainder would become the dominant one. Antmite-General was a collective built and forged for war, all that they had known was conflict and the horrific dirge of dying fragments. The Network and Bees were made for logistics and contagion, all that they cared for were spreading the hive and generating biomass without issue.
Mar was built out of every fragment mind in the Swarm, but they were also more than the sum of their parts. An entity built out of every fragment, every memory, and with the freedom of mind to switch priorities and grow. If the collectives were not carefully managed then Mar could become similar to them, a creature dominated by simple and hyperfocused desires and priorities. A prisoner to the raving jailers within their own mind. The Sovereign Swarm could not let themselves be ruled by such things.
That was one of the reasons that it had ordered Ant-Mite General to attack the greater threats. Its numbers would be depleted while a potential threat to the Swarm would fall. In the meantime, Mar would lessen the threat of the Network collective becoming dominant, first by shaving off the bee fragments and adding them together with tree fragments and the birds. This collective would have a specific purpose and that would be to deal with the logistics of the Swarm, Mar had felt that some of the Fungal Zombies had grown weaker. Weakness could not be permitted and the Swarm had to be improved.
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Logistics-Collective immediately began their investigations, which freed up Mar to observe the activities of their monster hunting squad. This revenge had been in the works for some time and Mar did not want to be distracted when it came.
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The forest trembled as the small army rushed through, the Juggernaut Spider was in the front followed by the 100 soldiers that had been created by the Swarm. Despite being such a large force they moved remarkably silently through the woods, as the arachnid and the semi-insectile creatures were built to move relatively silently in contrast to their weight and size. An ecosystem was slow to adapt to sudden changes and the presence of the Sovereign Swarm in the forest was certainly a sudden one. But the beings that inhabited it had started to learn to avoid the territory claimed by it. So the only way to get more animals and insects to become part of the Swarm was through expansion and these raiding parties.
A single infected sparrow had been used to watch the Briar Bear for several days since it had clashed with the Sovereign Swarm. Mar had learned much about it through these observations. They knew where it slept, what it fed on, how it fought, and that it had cubs of their own. It appeared that these younger specimen of the species did not develop the thorns and brambles of the adults until they had grown, which presented the Swarm with an opportunity after the mother had been handled.
The bear did not stand a chance as the small army suddenly was upon it. Webbing spat from the Juggernaut spider along with the sheer numbers of the soldiers brought the bear down and it was quickly neutralized. However, it had been very deliberately not killed by the Squad as Mar had plans for this enemy. Two of the soldiers caught the young bear cubs and promptly infected them before the Juggernaut webbed them up alongside their mother.
When the battle had been finished the Swarm stationed a group of 10 soldiers to stay while the remainder of the Squad continued their hunt. The maimed and broken bear could regenerate similar to what the Swarm was now capable of. So, it could potentially free itself if Mar was inattentive. So far only three different methods had been able to defeat their infection. First, the Briar Bear had somehow been able to purge itself of the Swarm Toxin, then the ants and termites had been able to smell the infection and purge their own, and lastly the human cunning woman had been able to use magics and natural remedies to defeat their infection.
Mar had found ways to overcome the second method of combating their infection, the third method required more observation and knowledge to fully understand. The entire bredth of experiences that came from the old cunning woman had only just now started to be sorted by Mar, and it was incredibly difficult not to be lost in the memories contained among the pieces of vital information. But now the Swarm had ample time and a subject to understand how to combat the first method.
After all, Mar needed to have assurances before they accelerated their plans. So as the Briar Bear lay on the forest floor and meekly struggled against the webs binding it in place. One of the soldiers stepped forwards and cut a wound in the side of the bear. Then it spat water into the bleeding sore so that the last pieces could enter the play.
Mar had recently added several interesting parasites to the Swarm, like the decapitator fly worms that lived inside of ants. It had been relatively simple to adjust some of the worms so that they could be used to observe the inner workings of a body. So they were used for that purpose now as they began swimming and digging through the flesh of the bear. Mar felt almost like she smiled as they began ordering the soldiers to repeatedly infect the bear while he watched to see how it fought against the Swarm Toxin. It would not be allowed to die before Mar had learned...everything that it could about its defenses. The clearing was soon filled with the muffled screams of the Briar Bear as it began to undergo the experiments that Mar desired to see fulfilled.