The Forest of Halla woke to a new predator among the trees, a monster forged to topple worlds rampaged through the woods without mercy or reprieve. Hundreds of Bees flew in formations spread throughout the woods, stinging every animal they could find to infect them. A gigantic spider smashed its way through the trees to hunt down larger beasts and trap them in its webs. After trapping deer, hunting dogs, and similar creatures it just left them alone after they had been stung by bees.

Under the soil, there was an entire war of its own, albeit a slow one. A strange network of roots and fungi with the ability to stretch and move like an animal's muscle actively worked to wrap itself around the roots of the nearest trees and plants. At first, it went slowly as the network engaged the nearest roots in "combat". The roots released proteins meant to protect them from parasitical infections, but it was like fanning with a leaf against a storm. The adaptive hybrid organism swept through the roots and infected them, at which point it found the Mycorrhizal network of the Forest.

And then the rampage just stopped, just as the forest itself felt the worry of what was now living in it. Fungal threads stopped sinking into the Mycorrhizal network, bee squads clustered up on tree branches and the Juggernaut spider paced between its catches. In the meantime, the Sovereign Swarm convened with themselves.

"We must conserve our energy, we have to be calmer."

When the Sovereign Swarm had first started their rampage in the forest, the Units had tried to infect everything with wild abandon. Individual straws of grass, squirrels, and mushrooms alike were attacked without any discernment. However, they discovered that this was inefficient as far as tactics went. The Swarm came to the conclusion that this was inefficient and they figured out a new strategy. Have the animals infect the other animals, and leave the Fungal-Floral network to infect the plants and fungi through their roots.

"Thankfully, we have not lost any units in this effort. We were right to avoid fighting any of the animals, simply infecting them has been enough. Waiting is all we have to do until they become part of us."

The Swarm Toxin had proven to be a slow if effective toxin that seemed to take more time with larger animals than with the smaller lifeforms. It had been observed by the Swarm that several of the mice and squirrels that they had initially infected, were now curled up in their respective dens as the toxin converted their flesh. The grass that had been initially infected just became part of the Fungal-Floral network, so they were curious about what would happen to the critters.

* Units Added: Fungal Zombie(3)(Common)

* Lifeforms infected in combat become Fungal Zombies. All of their natural instincts and cognizance are suppressed and replaced with the base programming of lesser Swarm Units. Pain receptors are destroyed and remnants of their memories pass through the Swarm Mind.

As the notification blurred past their vision the Swarm could feel it as their mind was expanded and divided. Memories of passing between branches while searching for food, giving birth in the comforting darkness of the den, being chased by predators, and just the general fear and anxiety of being prey. All of these things flowed through the communal mind like a tidal wave and they lapped it up. He was a squirrel, no she was a mouse, they were both and that little lizard that was infected.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

It took the Swarm a while to adjust to the deliciousness of having the Swarm expand and it could feel that, unlike their first units, these Fungal Zombies produced energy. Tiny and barely perceptible motes of energy passed through the fragment minds controlling the animals and into the collective "pool".

"Ahhhh, that is it. We must consume more biomass to replenish our energies, in addition to what we gain from the infected."

It hit the Swarm as they felt the memory of the lizard eating a fat beetle, the same principle should apply and thankfully, the Swarm possessed the means to do just that. The Swarm had early enough discovered that its chief limitation was that it couldn't control the Swarm down at the individual level while also actively wielding the rest of the Swarm. It could, however, give orders and have the fragment minds controlling the individual units and have them do the work of moving the wider swarm.

"Bee Groups 1 through 37 focus on converting biomass and feeding the remainder of the swarm. Do not uproot anything, consume dead biological matter and superficial amounts from plants."

The Sovereign Swarm ordered the vast majority of the Bee Groups, each one being segmented into exactly 500 bees each. While it focused its attention on the newest additions to the Swarm. Only their sensory inputs were the priority for them and it trusted the subordinate fragments to handle the wider Swarm for the time being. Feeling their paws on the ground/tree/rock, the beatings of their hearts, and of course the cornucopia of sights, sounds, and smells that came with their strong senses.

For reasons unbeknownst to them, they were surprised by the fact that each of the Fungal Zombies was alive. Weakened after the ravaging of having the Swarm toxin fight against their bodies natural defenders, but still alive and kicking. Weren't Zombies meant to be dead? Or undead rather? This intrusive thought distracted the Swarm for a second before they began to order the Zombies to consume to help replenish their ravaged bodies. With this close of an inspection, the Swarm casually discovered that the Squirrel Zombie had a slight bone defect, which it casually corrected by instinctively using the side benefit of their Adaptive trait. The weakened bones of the Squirrel were reinforced using minute concentrations of iron drawn from the bloodstream of the Squirrel, combined with a sudden latticework of fungal growth stretching through the flesh and enveloping each bone.

This was the solution it came up with after first attempting to replace the entire bone structure with metal, but it found that its ability to alter these converted units was more...limited than with the original units. If they felt like they could completely restructure any one of the Honey Bees at the most fundamental level, yet with the Zombies, they could only do relatively minor alterations. New abilities or complete restructuring seemed to be beyond them at the moment.

Further exploration of the topic was interrupted as the hours it spent reworking the Squirrel had passed like a blur, and with it that time suddenly it could feel more waves of memories flowing over them. More and more Zombies were added to the network and the Swarm collectively laughed in ecstasy as it felt their mind divide itself and expand as more life was added to the glorious communion of the Swarm.