Candy

“That’s right! That’s all you can fucking do! DIE!!” Candy yelled, her wasp-like wings humming as she hovered in the air above the scene. She turned her hands in a twisting motion, controlling the fire she had created to force the rampaging train to make turn after turn until the corpse-eating beetles, the necroshields, finally caught up to it, covering every inch of it as they began to rip apart the undead monstrosity’s flesh.

“Is this really worth your time?” said a mutated stag beetle lieutenant by the name of Cavish’m as he flew up beside Candy, to whom he had been assigned. “Using the great powers the Phiilon has bestowed upon you to squash a pathetic hell-cursed creation?”

“Do you think you’ll end up any better than that trash if we don’t take this base? The same way those children are devouring that fucking thing, the Phiilon will devour you, piece by piece, bite by bite, until there is nothing left of you or your family,” Candy seethed. “There is no turning back now. We must kill every fucking little bastard here!”

Cavish’m just hovered there for a second. “I think you should calm—”

Candy flew over as she grabbed both of the stag beetle’s wings, tugging hard enough that Cavish’m would understand she could rip them off and send him tumbling down to splatter on the ground.

“TELL ME TO CALM DOWN, AND I WILL RIP YOU LIMB FROM LIMB AND FEED YOU TO THE LOWELIEST FUCKING MAGGOT I CAN FIND!” Candy yelled into Cavish’m’s face, the saliva from her mouth splattering across his compound eyes.

“I’m sorry if my words have offended you.” Cavish’m’s dull, monotone reply showed that, while he was sorry he had angered her, he didn’t seem to have any regret for his actions at all— as if he were ambivalent to the whole matter. Frustrated and annoyed that she couldn’t break his spirit, Candy used her hold on his wings to throw him dozens of feet away, sending him tumbling through the air momentarily until he was finally able to recover and return, his wings buzzing as he hovered near her.

“How about the rest of the harvest? How many bodies did we salvage to feed the nest’s young?” Candy asked, exasperated with the emotionless, robot-like insect she was stuck with. “How many cores can we make from their corpses?”

“It is disappointing to say. The harvest was incredibly . . . small compared to early expectations. While the higher-ups may be unhappy with this, at least we did not have to sacrifice any of our pupae in the battle, as all the significant foes were disposed of, and we still managed to accomplish our primary goal of extracting cores from defeated hell-cursed and clearing territory around our breeding grounds without losses. The leaders won’t be able to blame us for the lack of prey when they were the ones who chose this base to attack.”

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“But . . . FUCK! They’re not going to give me any rewards either! Those fucking backstabbing humans are taking what is mine and still making my life fucking harder!” Candy raged and cursed before she pulled out Dave’s lighter so she could feel the cold metal against her hand and remember why she was there as her annoyingly calm subordinate began talking.

“The choice of when to attack was made with the knowledge of how long it should have taken for any force, even a human one, to destroy a hell-cursed outpost. That it happened so quickly was because the intel was incorrect,” Cavish’m explained, his voice grating on Candy’s ears. “It also appears that the majority of the hell-cursed army had already left before even the human’s battle began.”

“They were gone?! They weren’t even fucking here?! No wonder I didn’t get a chance to show off the modifications I’ve gotten, but . . . that also means that, if I want my reward still, then I need to find out where they are . . . and you’re going to tell me how to do that, right now,” Candy demanded of Cavish’m.

The large mandibles on Cavish’m’s face pulled apart, revealing the insides of his mouth temporarily before they came back together in a snap. “Of course,” he replied, flying away.

Candy followed after him. A moment later they were in front of the corpse of a dead hulk, staring at a large mutated flea. The soccer-ball-sized creature was curled up on the corpse of the hulk, its mouthparts draining the blood and fluid from what was left of the creature. The once muscular monster looked like a shriveled old man now, its muscles broken down and its skin wrinkly and desiccated.

At the call of its name, the flea-like creature detached itself from the hulk, and its head rose like that of a dog who had been called by its master. It made chittering noises with its sharp mouth part, and Cavish’m responded. The two had some conversation in their insect language, and though Candy thought she might have recognized a few of the words, having heard them before at the main base, she couldn’t be sure. “English! Why can’t your kind ever just talk in English so that I can understand?”

Cavish’m turned and bowed his head. “My apologies. Vinnagh doesn’t speak any of this world's languages, but he says that he will be more than happy to find where the rest of the hell-cursed army has vanished to . . . if you’ll be so kind as to let him eat double the portion his rank would normally allow before he leaves.”

Candy snapped Dave’s lighter shut as she heard the terms. She didn’t care one way or another about what the creature ate. All she cared about was the fact that this uppity little creature was delaying her success even further—delaying her next reward. She shivered in anticipation at the thought of her next upgrade and her next trip down euphoria lane with Dave. She brought her mind back to the moment with an effort of will, anger returning at the thought of any delay. “It dares to negotiate with me?”

“Indeed, as is the way of all our kind. We are not slaves. If you want them to do more than their duties require, you must pay more than the rank affords,” Cavish’m replied as his mandibles extended and snapped back yet again.

“Fuck.” Candy gritted her teeth, flicking open the lighter once more. The flames flared, a sinuous, thin flame curling around her hand. “Fine. Pay the little bastard whatever he wants, but tell it that if it doesn’t get me results, I’m going to burn it alive, inch by inch, until it’s nothing but a fat, dry husk of remains.”

“I will of course convey the urgency of your demands,” Cavish’m said before relaying something to the flea. The flea, bouncing up and down, stretched its mandibles in the same manner as Cavish’m before lifting the massive hell-cursed body up, despite its tiny size, and jumping off and away from Candy.