"The game has changed."

Mar spoke to Estiella as she floated before her in their divine realm. The souls of the fallen worshipers of Mar had scurried to hide in the bee-hive like buildings that had started appearing over time, slowly replacing the townhouses and farmsteads that Old Yoss had littered his space with. It had been only moments since Mar had resumed full control over the Swarm and they sensed all that had taken place around their units.

"Two of our armies have been broken, one was routed in Argoush and the other was annihilated utterly. I only remember...lightning, we will start consulting the memories stored in us to see what that might be. Undead are marching from the city and they are coming to do battle with us and they are the worst option for us to fight. We will reorient our strategic goals, this war on the world is simply for me to level up sufficiently. My greed for Subjects has been...premature."

The Sovereign Swarm sent an order down to their General, and the scattered armies of the Antmite General continued the work that had been done when the Swarm had rampaged. Towns, Villages, and Hamlets were to be swallowed whole by the hunger of the Swarm. Subjects could always come later during phase two, now was the time for expansion.

"Why is an undead army the worst option for us?"

Estiella asked while looking at the conjured "screen" Mar had started to use to better organize their thoughts. The little pixie floated before it as millions of flickering perspectives moved in and out of view as Mar tried to absorb and understand all that had happened in the time they had been trapped. Even to her, an aspect of the interface, it was an incomprehensible jumble of data.

"Aside from the fact that we can't usurp such an army for our own designs? Easy, unlike an army of individuals an army of the undead does not suffer from any of their usual drawbacks. While weak on a tactical level, they have superior operational capabilities compared to a regular force."

"Operational capabilities?"

"Warfare is not as simple as something determined by individual battles. The real crux of it all is to achieve one's strategic objectives. Winning battles is ideally part of that, but one can make do without a perfect record. Where our forces shine is not on the tactical level, as we saw in Argoush an army containing powerful individuals can hold off our onslaught of Units due to their superior power and equipment."

Mar let their screen replay images of the battle before having the word Tactics appear in glowing crimson letters on it, then with a flick of their hand the word changed to Operations.

"Where we shine is in regards to operations. If tactics is how an army fights in individual battles, operational thinking is about making an army travel to the battles. Logistics and coordination. We are superior to any collective of individuals in this, from the tiniest insect to my Avatars. Any army of mine will move with perfect coordination and with almost no resource issues. Workers can and will turn any organic matter into Biomass for all of the army to consume, prayers sustain their bodies too in part, and all in my swarm have a lesser need for sustenance than regular beings."

"No unnecessary wagon trains, no needless servants, camp followers, or similar drains on the army resources. And all must obey orders."

Estiella smiled as she grasped it and filled out the blanks before Mar could continue their lecture. They were channeling the Antmite General and their personality shifted accordingly as they explained.

"Strategy takes the larger concerns into account, the greater objectives in a war and what lies behind it. We do not have the squabbles of individuals or inflexible minds. A collective like ours is infinitely adaptable provided we have enough perspective."

Mar couldn't help but let some pride go into their voice as they explained what was self evident to them, channeling as much of their vaunted General as they could without him warping the main mind too much.

"Undead is the worst foe we can fight. They aren't perfectly coordinated, but in turn they are even more resource-efficient than we are...and a singular will unites them, which makes infighting and betrayal unlikely. Such a force can check one or more of our armies, especially since what the surviving Units remember is seeing multiple individuals of note boosting this force."

Estiella while new to warfare was not without useful suggestions herself, which she soon proved as a wicked grin appeared on her little face as she hovered closer to Mar's ear and whispered.

"I may have some ideas to help with that particular problem then."

----------------------------------------

Queen Meath was not having a good time of it. After her arrival in the Unyielding Mountains, where SMBET12 had found some promising ore veins, she had hoped that the operation would lead to her becoming the most prominent of all the Avatars. She would spawn legions without number, take the mountains, and provide enough ore to fuel all of the various civic schemes that Sovereign Swarm wanted to enact.

After that who could then have doubted her primacy among her peers? Nasi was an overconfident fool and he had died in the Dungeon due to his overconfidence, he would be back soon enough. But he would always have the reputation for being the first Avatar to die. She could just picture his insolent little face as he would stew on his failure in the void between Fragments, waiting for his corporeal body to be reconstituted within the Fungal-Floral Network.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Old Yoss was...warped, memories of concepts from Earth had warped zie's soul as well as zie's gender identity. Not that Mar cared about that, but other aspects had affected zim as an entirely different cultural paradigm merged with zie's own past beliefs and perspective. Why else would an ex-farming deity suddenly decide to style zimself as a Vizir like zie was apart of some Arabian Nights inspired culture in a fantasy book?

So despite zie being cunning, Meath felt she had the edge on zim as zie was too busy trying to reconcile all the changes zie had undergone. Meath was superior and with a proper accomplishment under her belt she would soon take her place as the most dominant force within the Swarm.

There was only one problem, the mossheads. Or rather the Loira as she had learned that they were called. These "cousins" of humanity were far more than the half-remembered folktales that the Sovereign Swarm had contained and based their understanding of them on. The two species were related, the Loira were just...larger, stronger, faster, and far more durable than any human could be. And they knew nature well, somehow they had sensed the Swarm coming and they fought for every meter of territory within the mountains.

Unlike human civilizations, the Loira knew how to fight against plagues and swarms of insects and birds raining toxic spores down on them. Their shamans called on the wind and the power of the land to halt the advance and spread of the Swarm. Every plant infected was a hard-fought victory as Meath had to direct intense amounts of effort to even convert something as easy as moss and grass. Their superior bodies made them capable of fighting Soldiers and monsters transformed into Fungal Zombies and even Swarm Champions on an even foot. Worst was that even animals were seeking shelter among the Loira so turning the fauna against them, which had been a tried and true Swarm strategy since the beginning...well it was not working out.

Even so Meath would probably have been able to beat back the Loira raiding parties and the defensive squads doing guerilla warfare, her spawn could replenish far faster than the Loira after all. No there was an issue...or rather there were four issues that kept the Swarm from waltzing into the mountains like they did elsewhere in the world. First, was the weaponry of the Loira. Most of them were armed with what seemed to be primitive wooden arrows and spears, made out of a strange...moldy looking wood type at that. Yet each strike was death, or at least almost certain death. As the tree contained diseases and toxins so potent that even the superior biology and adaptable nature of the Sovereign Swarm could not easily fend them off.

Second, were the army of lesser ice and light elementals who came down to fight, lending their strength to the Loira and using their innate magic to rain down havoc on the forces of the Swarm. Fire and heat the Swarm could mostly resist by now, but blinding light? Cold? Those were still effective, and while the newer generations of Units seemed to slowly adapt to these conditions. It was not fast enough for Meath's needs.

Third, were monsters or werebears of some kind. Enormous semi-bipedal bears who were stronger than any Unit that Meath had at her disposal and who even seemed to possess some strange mystical abilities of their own. She had seen these shapeshifting entities come during night or the day and they were akin to the greatest of Subjects in combat. Meath had tried to deal with these foes herself.

Like a fighter jet of another world, Queen Meath had risen up into the sky over the Unyielding Mountains and she had tried rain down devastation with missiles, bombs, and other forms of artillery growing inside of her sizeable frame. She had calculated that wiping out these foes here would offset whatever loss the devastation of the flora and fauna would suffer due to her onslaught.

But it was at that time the fourth shield of the Loira had appeared. A Great Shaman, equivalent to an Archmage in their magics had taken the field and called on her vast power. Shamans were not like Mages who imitated singular magical beings and fueled their spells with their own reservoirs of energy, nor were they more broad generalists like Witches who still owned their own magic. Shamans called on the power of many beings; spirits, elementals, the honored dead, monsters, and even just from the souls of plants and animals. Giving the magic of others shape into spells and rituals, and the Great Shamans of the Loira could beat even a great magical being like Ysandra the Dryad.

This one was apparently called "Helga the Stoneshaper" and it was an apt name as she had lifted up the very stones and soil of the mountain to shield her people from the artillery onslaught. Meath and her had been in a firefight for twenty minutes before she sent the Avatar of the Swarm flying away to safety, after she had exhausted all of her hoarded weaponry.

It was while she was regrouping in her command base after the Swarm had gone berserk that she felt it. Seismic shifts were going through the landscape of Fragments as hundreds of thousands of Units were sacrificed to create more Avatars. The haughty bee-queen paled as she felt the added presences that could rival her own filling up the mindscape of the Swarm at large. In moments she went from having a single canny competitor and an inferior one to having four more Avatars to compete with for power. Her mandibles snapped a log as she felt the other presences join her, in both shock...and anger.