Once again, the aftermath of a battle seemed to take longer than the actual battle itself. After its conclusion, Regina rested, trying to recover her mana, and healed as many of her drones and allies as she could. Several of them had died. Not her sapient drones, thankfully, but a few humans. Meanwhile, the other drones and humans dealt with the remnant of the enemy army. They were particularly interested in the enemy leadership.

“Several of them fled, unfortunately,” Baron Neralt reported when Regina finally joined him on the field outside the village. He looked a bit harried, but also satisfied. She hadn’t seen him smile this much in a while.

“Are we pursuing them?” she asked, looking from him to Ada. She and the other senior drones had come to escort her, except for Mia, who was coordinating the rest of the drones.

“Of course,” he replied with a nod toward Ada. “However, the knights and nobles I am concerned about have high levels, and I doubt we will be able to catch them.” He still smiled. “That is not going to matter as much as it might have, however, since we have the earl himself!”

Regina raised an eyebrow. “I thought Earl Whitor was in the third Tier,” she said uncertainly. They hadn’t even been sure whether he was with the army.

“He is,” Neralt confirmed. “But it seems he was taken out quite early in the attack. Apparently, he was caught in an explosion. He must have been wounded quite severely, in any case, he has still not regained consciousness.”

Regina frowned. “I’ll take a look myself later. I’m afraid I’m basically dry on mana right now.”

“Of course, Milady. In the meantime, I do think we have everything handled. Commander Anuis has been as efficient as always. I believe we haven’t found anything else to be concerned about, right, Ada?”

The scout shook her head. “Like Neralt said, many of them are fleeing. We’re catching some of them, but there’s no way we’re getting all of the common soldiers, never mind the leaders.”

“Alright,” Regina said. “I guess trying to overpower them with the Winged Drones wouldn’t be a good idea.” They, unfortunately, had few of them left, after the battle. At least without counting those still with the others further south.

“You should rest and recover your strength, Regina,” Max advised. “As soon as this is sorted out, there will be lots of things to do.”

She shot him a look, but didn’t argue. Even if she would prefer him not to put it like that in front of others, he wasn’t wrong. “Okay, I’ll let you get back to it. Update me on your progress, please.” Then something else occurred to her and she smiled. “Actually, that might get easier soon.”

They looked a bit confused, but no one asked what she meant. Instead, the meeting broke up. Regina walked to the edge of the village. Gazing out at the ruins of the defenses they had planned and built, she sighed.

The sun had risen at some point. The battle must have taken longer than it felt like, or maybe they really had waited for hours before the assault. She’d also lost track of time when she was trying to heal the injured in and around the castle, but it could easily have been several hours. In the morning’s light, she got a good look at the village. Its houses were definitely worse for wear after the last few months they’d had.

Regina shook her head and sat on the remains of a section of the palisade, a post at a convenient height for sitting. Then she focused on the System and the notification she’d been waiting to read.

You may now select your fifth Class Skill. Please choose one of the following: Inner Hive Strength: Your central Hive is vital. Your current limit for sapient and inducted Hive members will be increased by half, and it will further increase at higher Tiers. Sapient drones will be born at a level corresponding to a fifth of the average of their type (rounded down). Psychic Focus: Your path is one of the mind. Your psychic link of your Hive will be strengthened, it will be more resistant to potential harm and its range will increase. You will gain greater facility at sensing minds near you. At higher levels of mastery, the ability to project your mind and senses through the link will be increased. Queen’s Wings: Your mind and soul need a strong body. Your body will be strengthened. Flight will be easier and drain less mana. The functioning of all of your organs will be improved to various degrees. This will also improve your processing speed. At higher levels of mastery, your wings will be further improved and even able to fly without draining mana.

Regina frowned thoughtfully as she read through it. She had expected Psychic Focus and was relieved to see the option appearing again. The other two sounded interesting. Inner Hive Strength was like a counterpart to Swarm Strength, which she already had, but it seemed obviously weaker. It didn’t offer any increases to stat points, and had a factor of a fifth instead of a third.

She considered the option for a while, but finally decided she could go without it. Meeting the Hive limit was definitely not a problem for her currently, and at the rate she was leveling, it wouldn’t be for quite some time, either. Besides, she was hopeful that a similar but better option might come along in time. It also didn’t have a ‘higher mastery’ element like other choices usually had.

Psychic Focus called to her. Her ability to communicate with and coordinate her drones was arguably one of her biggest strengths, and the potential for communication and information transfer inherent in the psychic link was huge. This choice had already appeared twice, and she didn’t want to pass on it. The benefits it offered were too tempting. Besides, the mention of ‘potential harm’ concerned her. It could just be something intrinsic, like mental illness, though that would be bad enough. She hadn’t yet encountered anything that could do psychic damage, magical or otherwise, but she wanted to be prepared to defend against it, if the possibility existed.

The last option was also interesting, but went in a very different direction. Getting stronger would be nice, but Regina didn’t feel like it was the best choice. Her real strength was in her hive and her magic, and this didn’t seem to help either. Except for the increased processing thing, maybe. But in the end, she didn’t think that gamble would be worth it, compared to the alternative.

So, she took a deep breath and tapped the second option. Like usual, the screen dissolved in a shower of sparks, and Regina braced herself for a change to her psychic connection or even her mind.

Once again, it was pretty subtle, but she could immediately tell that something was different. It felt like there was a new weight to the psychic link, the presence of it in her mind clearer. She could shut it off, perhaps more completely than before, but she could also bring it, and the drones’ minds, into sharper focus.

Tentatively, she reached out and focused on Max’s mind. I think I understand now what you meant, he immediately told her, his mental voice as clear as it had ever been. I think all of us felt that.

Interesting, Regina noted. They hadn’t when she’d gotten Enhanced Telepathy, so perhaps this Ability was more focused on the psychic link and the drones themselves instead of just her own abilities. Do you have an easier time contacting others?

I’ll test it and let you know what I find out.

It had made Regina curious about what all might have changed, though. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to center herself, before she cast her mind out further.

It took her a while to find her new range. She discovered a few Winged Drones she hadn’t been able to reach previously but now could, and sent them flying further south and veering off at various angles to try and get a handle on her radius.

She also found a few drones that had been left in a village at the northern part of the Relains March, apparently the first one the army had reached. There was another village some distance further away, but there didn’t seem to be any drones there currently. Regina sent two Winged Drones in that direction. The main part of the army had already moved past her range, which told her it hadn’t grown too significantly.

As best as she could figure, her radius had been increased by about a fourth to a fifth. That was nice, but not groundbreaking. Still, if the growth scaled with her level, it would come in useful.

Regina deliberated for a moment, then resolved to find pen and paper and write a message to Tim and the others. If nothing else, they deserved to know how things had gone here. She was also curious if they had felt the change in the link. If they had, she probably owed them an explanation.

Once she had sent a high-level unevolved Winged Drone off with the letter, accompanied by two others as protection for good measure, Regina went to find the leader of the enemy army and the other prisoners they’d taken.

The others had quartered many of the wounded in several big, partly open tents outside the village proper, probably to have more room. She suspected the tents themselves were raided from the enemy army, too. Once Regina stepped inside, she realized they were surprisingly warm, even though it was night outside. Well, it was still warm enough at this time of the year that it never really got too cold even at night, anyway.

Seeing the number of wounded brought home the scale of the battle. Most of them seemed to be from the enemy army. At least, she certainly hoped so. They had all kinds of gruesome injuries, and even knowing that high-level, advanced healing Skills or Spells could actually regrow limbs didn’t help make the sight more palatable. At least they used alcohol to disinfect wounds and tools.

The earl was easy to find. He, too, had lost a hand; his forearm turned into a ragged stump about halfway between the elbow and where the wrist should have been. Regina didn’t need to look at it to know her Basic Heal couldn’t cure that. He was also pale and she could tell just as easily that he’d lost a lot of blood. There was a bandage across his head, indicating a head wound, though it had been cleaned and there was no blood. Otherwise, he seemed fine. He must have worn armor that had been stripped off him along with any padding, and he was currently shirtless. Maybe they’d already healed some smaller injuries. He was still breathing, and breathing regularly, as well.

Alain Whitor — Level ? Gentleman Knight

Regina looked at the healer hovering nearby. Probably one from the earl’s own army, given the way a few of Neralt’s men were watching him, their weapons ready. She nodded at him, then took the unconscious man’s hand and tried to send her mana into his body. She’d been practicing that part, basically a diagnostic component of the Spell, and she quickly realized what she was seeing. Mana was already trying to repair his arm, and it would probably regrow in about a week or so at this rate. He’d also suffered slight brain damage, nothing too bad, and his body was already hard at work on that. She suspected that he had a relatively high Con stat, considering how well it seemed to deal with the recent blood loss and everything.

Not that the situation couldn’t be improved. She sent some of her own mana into him, carefully providing a little stimulation, draining the bit of excess liquid, and shoring up the rest. This was the sort of work that required subtlety rather than raw power.

“I’m going to wake him up now,” she said, still focused on her patient. Without waiting for a response, she poured a bit more mana into him.

The man coughed and jerked as he awoke. His healer - an actual level 30 Healer, Regina noted - was there immediately, giving him some water to drink, and giving Regina a scathing look, though he didn’t utter any complaints.

She stepped back and examined the rest of the wounded, giving the earl a minute to gather himself. She could spare the time, after all. A short time later, Neralt rushed into the tent. He slowed down as he entered and made his way to join her.

“Neralt,” a still raspy voice pulled her attention back to Earl Whitor. “So, you are the ones who captured me.”

When she turned back, she found his attention was fixed on her. He looked remarkably clear-eyed.

“Earl Whitor, I presume,” Regina said pleasantly, ignoring the fact that she saw his name in a System notification. “I’m not sure exactly who captured you, though I and my people were definitely the ones who defeated you, with help from some allies.”

He seemed to want to scoff, or maybe laugh, but ended up coughing instead. “I see,” he finally said after a moment. “Hive Queen Regina. You’re … smaller than I expected.”

Regina chuckled. “You know, that’s actually the first time someone said that. I expect it won’t be the last.”

He smiled weakly. “I assume this means I won’t be turned into a meal for monsters, then?”

“Certainly not,” Neralt said.

Regina smiled again. She was pretty sure the question hadn’t been entirely serious, and didn’t let it bother her. “Of course not, Earl. I’m not sure what you might have heard, but we’re civilized around here.” She paused for a beat. “Besides, you’re much more useful to us alive.”

“So I would think,” he said drily, or at least as drily as he could in his current condition. He is taking all of this rather well.

“Where did you hear about us, pray tell?” she asked.

He hesitated for a moment and glanced at the Healer. For the first time, he looked like a man who’d just lost a hand, a major battle and his freedom. “I am a loyal subject of the king,” he finally said.

Regina nodded slowly. That wasn’t much of an answer to her question, but at the same time, it was an answer.

“I suppose the king must be quite concerned about Lyns’ little rebellion,” she commented, still keeping her tone light. “How rude of him to pull us into it. Oh well. I assure you, you will be well treated here. Trust the baron’s honor if you don’t trust mine.”

“We’re acquainted,” Neralt put in, looking at the Earl with an assessing gaze.

“Good. Then I’ll leave you to rest, for now. I’m sure we’ll talk again regularly.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” her prisoner answered with a small smile that only seemed a little strained.

That one was definitely more dangerous than her southern neighbor, Regina reflected, regardless of their respective titles. I suppose fortune might have indeed favored me this time. She smiled slightly. The political situation might be getting more interesting.