Mar was watching the intruding group of humans with great curiosity. They had managed to withstand the automatic bug strikes which had caused the Swarm to take interest. At first, they had not understood why they had been able to avoid being infected, but upon further inspection, the cause became obvious as the fragments reported that they were being pushed away by a dome of wind.
This had been the third time that Mar had encountered someone using magic against them, so they had consulted their available memories to learn more. Sadly, they did not have much from their human collection beyond the identities of most of the intruders. Knowing that the leader of the region was within their grasp had changed the situation again, as dominating him would give the Swarm a lot of valuable insights.
And yet, the attackers had been able to resist their first genuine attempt at infecting them as they had managed to counter the distracting monsters and avoid the tunneling swarm of insects. It was this conflict that altered the main priority of the Swarm. As it had felt something quite interesting when the Cat Creature poured the burning cold liquid into the earth. A spark had raced through the entire Swarm along with the pain of having so many units die in a single instant.
There was a power in that creature, something that both unnerved and fascinated Mar in equal measure. So they spent the time after the initial skirmish just observing it from afar. It looked almost like a human except it had cat ears protruding from its head and a long tail coming out of its backside. Yet there was no fur of note and just bare skin. None of her memories could indicate that any such creature was from the area except for this specific specimen.
"What is that...power inside of it?"
Mar could sense almost akin to the static of a tv radiating out from the creature as they reached out to sense it. It felt similar to one of their own abilities...almost like the feeling of The Swarms own Interface. They would make it theirs.
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Baron Heraclius had seen many things in his life and for a large portion of it he had been battling. Monsters and Man alike had been his prey, but he would admit that this particular expedition was becoming taxing. The unseen threat that had lodged itself in his forest had been launching a series of small skirmishes against the group. One swarm of rapid squirrels and mice had ambushed the group after just a couple of minutes after the first skirmish, then later they had been bombarded by birds who were just heavy enough to get through the wind dome, and these two particular ambushes had repeated themselves three times since the initial attempt.
Then there had been the traps, insects hidden within tree hollows, webbing placed like a trip wire to make one fall face first into an ant hill, and other similar tricks that weren't worth noting. It was obvious what the mysterious monster was doing, it had much more resources to spend than the small team and was seemingly content to slowly grind at their reserves with expendable servants until it would come for them itself.
"Argh! We are going to have to find it soon or start the retreat, and I am sure it will make the trip out of the forest a hellish affair."
Crabs the Adventurer spoke up as he crushed a rat with his club after exclaiming as it tried to bite through his left boot. He snorted and looked with the clear intent to see how the others would react. Heraclius gritted his teeth and decided to not respond to the complaint as he had heard similar from various individuals in the group for the last couple of hours.
One of the reasons that he didn't reply was that he honestly was not as confident as he had initially been. This foe was far cleverer than most monsters and that worried Heraclius. An hour or so ago the group had discovered that it had poisoned a nearby stream using a similar toxin to those spores, and then a frog had jumped out of the stream as they had walked past it and squirted an acidic poison at them. The little critter was fast and rather than leaving itself exposed it just dove back into the water after having struck three of the hunters with its poison.
This enemy relied far too much on misdirection and deception for his liking. Heraclius could already imagine what it would be like trying to hunt it down, it would most likely have multiple exists, decoy nests, and of course a veritable army of thralls ready and willing to lay down their lives for it. Killing the beast now would still be the best option as anything else would give it more time to expand its reach and then possibly attacking Hor or his own fortress.
An army of dominated monsters being sent out to lay waste to the country side would be an absolute disaster and it would combine the worst of both monster attacks and a conventional invasion. Unlike an invading army there could be no negotiations or clemency from a foe like this, and unlike a monster attack it would be a persistant and coordinated assault on the entire population. Rather than a simple wild beast running rampant and killing scores of people.
"Halt!"
One of the Woodsmen at the edge of the wind dome shouted as he spun around with his eyes wide open in terror. He pointed back in the direction he had been looking before saying.
"Th-there is an army of them coming for us! Not a small force like before but a much larger for group than that. I am not sure what it is sending but there are a lot of them."
"Damn, we are not going to be able to outrun monsters in a forest. Our best option is to retreat to a location of our choosing and make a stand."
Heraclius began to glance around while actively thinking back to consider the best possible location.
"We can't allow them to surround us, The trees are going to be to our detriment so we can't rely on them for cover, it might have sent more squirrels after us."
Elarma cursed while gritting her teeth and the group began retreating with every member of the expedition looking for a suitable location to make a stand. Through the whirling of the wind dome they could soon hear the shaking trees and cracking of broken twigs and crushed leaves coming closer and closer to them.
Heraclius managed to lead them back to a large boulder just in time for set up a proper formation. It was one of those venerable stones that in old days would have served as a place of sacrifice and stories, a mossy hunk of rock capable of shielding a weary traveller from the elements. Before any of the Woodsmen could say anything, then Heraclius hoisted them up to the top of the rock.
"Stay here and fire down at the backlines of the enemy. DO NOT FIRE INTO THE MELEE!"
He then turned to glance at the remaining people here and let his instincts and experience take over.
"Light tamers you will take the flanks while my men hold the front. It is your job to ensure that nobody breaks us from the side or come from behind the stone to get us. Elarma you will keep spores out of the way and maintain the dome, aid with whatever magic tricks you can. Mariam you will serve as a linebreaker. You do not have the reach to fight like we do so you will be the one we use to break the formation of the minions. single out targets and rip them apart. Lobster-"
"It's Crabs"
"I do not give a single flying s-, focus on using your ballroom fencing for something useful. Strike at where our formation seems to be weakening and be ready to suddenly move to a different point. And you-"
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Heraclius turned to point at Listig who grinned at him as for a moment he was lost for words.
"Just...do something useful and don't get in the way."
"Aye aye Captain"
The strange being threw a mock salute and then there was no more time to act as the enemy exploded out of from the trees and rushed at the party barely managed to form up with Heraclius at the center of the front line.
"GIVE THEM HELL!"
And then the battle was joined.
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Mar was learning a lot from observing these humans in action. They along with their collectives had deviced and experimented with a myriad of approaches and techniques, and yet this force had managed to beat them all. But now Mar was done with the charade and as such had called a force of 50 soldiers along with some interesting trump cards in case they failed to break the foe.
It was fascinating to watch how they had reacted to the incoming assault, by first retreating to another location entirely and then preparing before the force hit them. Baron Heraclius had ordered them without reserve and with that they had barely managed to get into place in time before the soldiers arrived.
She could only marvel at the effectiveness of her Units as they crashed into the shield line like a truck made out chitin and metal. And then they felt annoyance as the line of the enemy held despite the superior numbers that had been thrown at them. Spears and shields held the group from being slaughtered as the primary weight of the assault fell on front of the group. It took only Mar a moment to realize that front was where the enemy were strongest, or at least the most able to hold of the soldiers.
Now, the flanks on the other hand that was another matter entirely. Their weapons were ineffective against the hardened chitin of their soldiers, and with that in mind Mar extended an order to the collective to alter the configuration of the attack pattern and put more weight on the sides. The annoying archers on the rocks were dealt with similarly by directing a few birds to harry them from above. In time a soldier or two could be sent jumping up on the stone to deal with them, but first there were experimentation to be done on this bunch.
Then something caught their attention as the cat adventurer jumped lithely up on the stone and spun around with a... was that a super soaker?
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Crabs immediately spotted the issue as the horde of chitinous beasts hit the party like a tidal wave. The Light Tamers were useless and conventional long swords were not suited for this foe. He had to aid them multiple times as the swords either bounced of the hardened chitin or got stuck in the spongy layer protecting the underbellies of the creatures.
He had to spin around and first help one side and then the other as the vast numbers of the creatures slowly pushed the group further and further back up against the rock. Up above him he faintly noticed that Listig was laughing while spraying acid down at the backlines of the monsters. Horrific shrieks and the sound of shizzling acid joined the cacophany of the battle, and this almost distracted him until Elarma shouted.
"Crabs! They are breaking through"
It took him only a split second to see what was happening, the left flank would collapse as Henry was impaled by one of the metal tipped legs of the creature as the ones engaging his group had risen up to "fence" with him and his teammate almost in a centaur like fashion.
"Bless me!"
Crabs shouted as he dove forward to give relief to the flank and he could feel Elarma applying her Blessing of the Winds to him. As he dashed over to help he withdrew his primary weapon, a bone sabre made out of a wyvern femur. With sabre and club in hand he practically shoved Henry aside and took his place, the magic of the winds wrapped themselves around him and Crabs allowed his mind only to focus on what were in front of him.
The monsters on this side were all bent backwards to fight using four of their legs as something akin to swords, while they on the other flank were staying down with all eight legs on the ground. That was all the thought Crabs allowed himself to have before he joined in and let the winds aid his movement.
He had trained all of his life to be a fencer and it was not usually the most fitting combat style to fight monsters, but in this moment it could finally come to its full worth. With the power of the wind backing him up he almost moved akin to a blur as he channeled mana through the bones in his hand and he put a whirling wall of defense.
The enemy had numbers and limbs on him but Crabs had experience, training, and magic on them. Each of them lashed out at him with blinding speed and with great precision, but each strike was deflected either by using his short club or with almost gentle taps of the rapier. His only goal was to buy time, each moment that passed would allow Henry to heal himself and retake his place on the flank.
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Elarma had seen Crabs go all out only a few times before and it never failed to impress her when it did, and this time was more awe inspiring than most due to the circumstances. She knew that she should focus on the battle at large but it was simply too distracting for her to not pay attention to his stand.
Crabs moved like a blur as the wind aided his movements and he formed almost a defensive wall of whirling bones as he worked to fend of each attack from the insects. Despite having multiple limbs striking almost simultaneously he somehow managed to deflect each blow all the while laying in the occasional cut to their spongy underbellies with his rapier. Elarma could sense the nectroic energies being channeled through his weapon and into the flesh of the enemy.
And when they started to fall that was when Crabs moved from a defensive approach into an offensive one. He drew even more on her blessing as he started to move even faster as he fought the bugs. It looked almost impossible as he seemed to be everywhere at once, he was in front of them, beside them, and behind them as he unleashed a barrage of quick cuts and light thrusts on the bugs which they were unable to fend of. When they went high, he went low and he could switch his approach too quickly for the creatures to react.
Unlike a traditional Swordsman, Crabs didn't actually have to do noticeable amount of damage to a finish of his opponents, all he had do was leave cuts and the necrotic mana coursing through his bone weapons would flow through them and to do the job for him. So while his sabre couldn't do much in the terms meaningful harm to the creatures, it could leave shallow cuts that served as channels for necrotic mana.
His onslaught couldn't last forever, but it didn't need to. All he needed was buy enough time for Henry to heal himself and retake his position before the blessing subsided. Elarma was vaguely aware of the man as he applied a healing tincture to his stab wound and she gestured to where Crabs acted as a one man vanguard. Henry nodded irritably and grimaced before he rose up and rushed over to rejoin the fray.
Crabs then fell back to give Henry room and to avoid being exposed once the blessing left him, he darted back as the wind buffeted him out of the way and Elarma let the blessing disappate. The man collapsed to the ground like a puppet whos strings had been cut, but he would be on his feet again soon enough. It would be a hard battle, but they could fend of this force, Elarma knew it.
And the first humans appeared.
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