A few days had passed since the Sovereign Swarm began to consume and infect the Forest of Halla. They had rapidly added 200 animal zombies and 3000 insects and arachnids to their growing horde. 10 whole trees had been converted into Whip-Tendril Trees, the flexibility of sinew and fungi added to the sturdy wood, so the Swarm now had passive defenders standing guard over its growing territory within the forest. The forest floor had been mostly scoured clean of grass and similar plantlife to serve as biomass. As long as the roots remained to merge with the Fungal-Floral network then it hardly mattered to them that the floor now seemed barren and empty. Said network was busily working on overtaking and replacing the natural Mycorrhizal network.
The discovery that the forest seemed to communicate through this network was a revelation for the Swarm. It was perhaps a slow and not exactly efficient form of communication compared to the perfection that was the Sovereign Swarms own methods. But it gave them some new ideas after they discovered that trees could use this network to share nutrients. Conceptually that could add a lot of interesting possibilities to the future tactics that they could employ.
Furthermore, they had also discovered the strange memories stored in plants which seemed less vivid than the memories of animals, and yet they too were fascinating. The Swarm had been indulging in the memories of its absorbed units more and more as the days had passed, it now knew what it was like to be a Deer, a young tree, a Ladybird, and so many more beings and their collective experiences filled the Swarm. Filled them so much in fact that they had discovered that it had become difficult to access specific memories or the memories of a specific creature. It required more and more effort to comprehend the existence of an individual, and the effort required had distracted the Swarm from its present circumstances more than once.
Why the memories held such interest to them was still a mystery, sometimes they provoked curious responses or recollections from deep within their mind. References or thoughts that frankly they had no framework to comprehend or conceive of. Like the idea of a spoken language was something that Swarm realized came from none of the existing sources of memory that it had. Even the time as a Conquest Seed did not contain any such concepts. Metaphysical self-exploration was not exactly the strong suit of the Swarm.
"Wait! There it was again, how do we know of that concept?"
The Swarm came to a halt as it once again stumbled on a concept that it should not have known about or even begun to conceive of. It tried to dedicate some subordinate Fragment minds towards exploring that recess of memory, but sadly they were all focused on keeping the bodies of the Units alive and...breathing. So it fell to the greater collective to investigate that thread. They stopped as they almost felt something akin to reproach from some of the Fragments.
Most of the Fragment Minds were not able to form concepts such as opinions in their mind, but collectively when organized into groups they could form something akin to the greater collective of the Sovereign Swarm. Specifically, the mental representation of Bee Group 1-40 spoke up.
"We are being distracted, without the oversight of the collective then Biomass accumulation and conversion, as well as the overall infection rate, falls with 30%."
"This is important, we are having uninvited thoughts and memories polluting the greater whole. We are the only ones here capable of investigating such concepts. Follow through with your instructions and your output should match acceptable parameters."
The Bee-Collective bent before the superior will of the majority and refocused their efforts towards the tasks assigned to them. Talking to themselves seemed strangely uncomfortable to the Swarm for no reason that they could properly discern. The fragments and their lesser collectives were just a part of them after all, they weren't truly unique or individual in the sense that she was.
"There! It happened again!"
The Swarm erupted into mental activity as another mental concept intruded into the harmony of the collective mindscape. This time. This time they would be able to discover something, of that they were certain. Like a rocket blasting off into space, the primary collective "raced" towards where it had sensed that thought originating from. And once again it was stopped, but this time by an external interruption rather than an internal one.
A Fungal Zombie Fawn had been killed. This was a new experience for the Swarm as the first death of a unit reverberated through the mindscape like a funeral choir. A single fragment mind had died! Something had wounded the Sovereign Swarm, something had taken a life from its communion. All thoughts of the mysterious mental deviations faded as the collective focused on that which had harmed it. It had a sparrow zombie in the area and it looked down at the creature devouring the fawn. A large bear with thorns and bramble growing out from its purple-tinted black fur was busily sinking its teeth into the dead unit.
"Vengeance!"
All of the minds screamed it collectively as they absorbed the image of this attacker eating one of their own.
"Bee Groups 1 through 6, encircle and attack the beast!"
Buzzing filled the air as the nearest combat effective units were called from their biomass conversion duties to attend to this...this violator. It took less than a minute for the Swarms vengeance to arrive and begin their assault upon the bear. They channeled Infection into the Bees and unleashed them upon the surprised Bear with all the fury that 3000 bees could muster. It barely had time to cover its eyes with its paws before it was riddled with holes from all of the stingers penetrating it.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
The Swarm noted that several of the bees had been injured by the natural layer of thorns surrounding the Briar Bear, but that shouldn't matter as it would soon either be dead or become part of them.
What the Sovereign Swarm was unaware of was the nature of this particular foe. A Briar Bear was a Medium-Ranked monster and unlike a lot of monsters, it was almost completely immune to all forms of toxins, diseases, and infections. They were just excreted from it as a form of natural sap released from the bramble that wove itself through its flesh. The second factor that made Briar Bears so fearsome to fight was that similar to certain other monsters, they regenerated alarmingly quickly even from what should be lethal injuries.
So as the Swarm celebrated their first true victory after having attacked the Fawn-murderer, they were then silenced as before the eyes of the entire collection of bees. The Briar Bear rose as the wounds littering its body closed and it glanced balefully at the bees. In reply to that, the Swarm unleashed as many toxic clouds as they could reasonably muster, blanketing the entire section of the woods in toxic spores meant to kill rather than infect this time.
It only took a moment to surmise that this had almost no effect as the Swarm heard the Bear roar in response and rise up to bat away at the bees hovering low enough to be reached. The swarm concluded that the Juggernaut Spider was too far away to effectively deal with the Bear, therefore, they quickly agreed to recall the Bee swarm and send in the more combat-ready Zombies. As it seemed to be little that they could do against this foe.
The bees flew away as the Swarm began sorting through appropriate Zombies that were nearby and in a few moments they had composed a proper strike team that should hopefully counter the bear. A small pack of 4 wolves, a proud and powerful buck, and a lesser monster known as a Copper-Scale Constrictor were sent after it. The Sparrow Zombie was kept on duty to follow the Bear while the new strike group collective was given the task to ensure the destruction of the Bear.
After 10 minutes the Zombies found their quarry that was now busily bathing in a large stream. The Bear had dragged the fawn carcass with it and also added some newly caught salmon to the bounty of food it already possessed. It did not even have a chance to react to the strange hunting party that had been sent after it before it was rammed by the Buck while the wolves spread out to surround it. As far as battles went it was a rather humiliating one for the Sovereign Swarm as they watched their team face off against the Briar Bear and be outclassed almost immediately.
The Buck had charged the Bear and quite deftly knocked it into the stream again, but the slipper and uneven footing of a river was not an ideal place for a hooved animal to fight on. And that was before you factored in its less than nimble state as a Zombie. Its horns could barely make a scratch in the monster and it had no issue with knocking the animal off its feet and into the water, as the Bear struck it with a mighty blow to its side.
As for the Wolves, they didn't try to attack it with a frontal charge but instead, they sank their teeth into the back legs of their opponent. The Bear twisted itself deftly out of their grip and just as quickly ended one of them by crushing its skull with a single bite. It was becoming apparent to the Swarm that their zombies did not react with the same grace and speed as their unzombified counterparts did. For all that the Swarm contained all of their experiences within them, they did not have the instincts of a wolf or a buck, and that made their combat potential more limited.
The Constrictor surged out from the water to try and buy the Wolves time to retreat and attack from a different angle. Its metallic scales did resist the thorns of the Briar Bear, but the lesser monster was sadly not strong enough to do any meaningful damage to the behemoth. So, the Bear did not even bother to address the serpent coiled around its neck and chest while it chased down another wolf and broke its neck with a single strike of its paws. The Buck on its end had finally managed to stand up downstream and was charging upstream to try and attack the Bear again, seemingly unimpeded by the broken ribs on its right flank.
With the Buck returning to the fight the Wolves resumed their attacks with more vigor, but ultimately with not much more of an effect on the situation. As the animals surrounded the Bear it suddenly tensed and showered all of them with an explosion of thorns in all directions, as it channeled the little magic it had into sending the thorns flying. The Constrictor was the only survivor of that final attack and the Swarm came to a snap decision after watching the battle.
"Make the Constrictor retreat, keep the sparrow near the monster. This isn't over."
The Sovereign Swarm promised as the serpentine zombie dropped into the water and quickly swam downstream and away from the bear. She felt the sting of death as 5 fragments had perished in the attempt to bring the Bear to justice, and they did not want to feel that again. That Bears time would come...just like the entire forest and the rest of this reality. With that thought in mind, the Sovereign Swarm returned their focus to the task at hand as the Briar Bear walked back onto the bank of the stream and resumed eating its bounty.