As I went up the gates, the dwarves continued firing downwards. They couldn't risk firing their large crossbows in fear of destroying the gate, so it was going a lot easier. I became very hot being crowded near all of these roaches. It became hotter and hotter. Then, suddenly, holes came out of the gate as lava began flowing out. The dwarves at the top also began dumping metal barrels filled with oil and lava down at us. I could smell the burnt flesh of roaches. The exoskeleton of roaches are capable to withstanding the heat, but they can't last forever. I watched as roaches were lit ablaze and falling from such heights. If the fire didn't kill them, the fall would.

I kept going as more roaches in front of me cried out in pain. Even when we were so close, there were so many bodies. Some of them stuck to the walls melting in the lava. But as soon as the first roach made it up, he began to take away their attention. More and more went up the gates. Eventually, I made it. I took out my crossbow and began firing arrows at the other dwarves. It felt so strange seeing their blood. For the moment, it felt euphoric. We were beginning to win. I made my way inside of the fortress alongside the other roaches. More bronze giants and dwarves outfitted in bronze armor held their ground.

They fired more bolts of lightning, but there were too many of us. No matter how many they killed, there was just another wave ready to fight. I fired my crossbow at the dwarves, but there was so much chaos happening that I couldn't tell if I was hitting them. But as more of the roaches died, I was still alive, and that was what mattered. I lived to serve the Queen. Death was the enemy. The dwarves who resisted were the enemy.

As the battle raged on, the roaches hit a stand-still right at the entrance of the throne room. It wasn't against the dwarven soldiers or their giants, but something that I couldn't say. It was humanoid, but looked almost like a spider. It had so many arms. It looked like it was made out of bronze and gold. It had a mask covering a face, but I could tell that it breathed. It's chest puffed in and out.

"You monsters will not get to the king. Run away while you still can, little bugs," he said.

It wasn't like those bronze giants. This was something else. It was like they took a dwarf and removed his arms and legs. Then, they replaced it with metal limbs and bronze armor. But that didn't scare me or the other roaches.

"For the Queen!" one of the roaches yelled.

And with that, we all began yelling it. Even myself. I felt like we couldn't lose, now.

"For the Queen!"

The roaches and I charged head first without any fear. And suddenly out of each arm, a bolt of lightning fired out. I only managed to escape by being covered by another one of my kind who rushed to kill the creature first.

But none of us would stop. As soon as the bronze dwarf was fighting against the hordes of roaches, I had an idea. It was focused on fighting in the front, so I chose to go around him. He hadn't noticed me. I was just a small roach like any other.

The bronze dwarf was handling the roaches quite well. I saw some roaches who looked to be different than the rest.

One was large and carried an axe. He began to pound at the creature with all of his strength. He even staggered the bronze beast. Another carried a couple of daggers and started striking at the creature's joints, but to no effect.

I crawled around him until I got behind him. As I was about to take out a sword and stab his neck from behind, I heard a soothing voice.

"Get the dwarven king Therjadon," the voice said elegantly. And immediately I realized who it was. It was the voice of the Queen. I don't know how, but it seemed like she was connected to my eyes and thoughts. I had never realized that before, but now I knew that the Queen must have a piece of herself inside all of us. Suddenly, more bronze giants came out from the sides and began to close down on the army of roaches.

The Queen continued, "Ignore the contraptions. Get the king and take his head."

And just like that, I followed her orders without question. I saw that the creature was fighting the roaches without even trying, but I was sure that the Queen knew what was best. I sneaked inside the throne room, but to my surprise, the king wasn't there. He wasn't on his throne. It was a large, extravagant room made entirely of gold and bronze.

There were two guards. One a dwarf in heavy bronze armor carrying a halberd. Another was some kind of bronze giant carrying a spear, but this time, it was the same size as any humanoid.

"Damn, roaches," the dwarf said.

"Pest control required," the bronze spear-creature said in a monotone voice, "Weapon settings set to kill."

I prepared myself for a fight as the two charged at me. So much adrenaline came. I wasn't surrounded by my other fellow roaches. I was alone, but I felt the Queen with me. And if she had ordered me to go forward to kill the king, then I was sure that I could do it. I took my blade and began to face the two royal guards.

The battle was intense, but I had unexpected company. An arrow came flying from one of the corners. However, the arrow wasn't aimed at me. It flew right past me and straight into the dwarf's eye instantly killing him.

There was another roach in the room with me. More specifically, the roach had the same orders. And even more to my surprise, this roach was a female which wasn't impossible, but rare

She smiled while aiming her crossbow.

"Easy shot," she commented as she fired another arrow at the spear-creature. Unfortunately, this one wasn't very effective. It instantly knocked the arrow away.

Then, another roach came through the door carrying a spear and crossbow. However, the crossbow he held was one of the dwarves' electric crossbows. He threw it to the lady roach.

"Here," he said, "It'll work better than your current one."

"Thanks," she said as she grabbed the electric crossbow.

Now, the creature was outnumbered. Nonetheless, it still put up a fight. It was athletic and fought without tiring. It picked up it's fallen dwarf's halberd and fought with both weapons with ease.

Later, I would know of what those two roaches preferred to be called, but at the moment, I just called the two roaches, spear roach and lady roach.

As I fought side-by-side with spear roach, the bronze being kicked me away and disarmed the spear roach. As the lady roach fired a bolt of lightning at the creature, it dodged almost immediately. Then, it lifted it's spear and was about to bring it down to the roach that helped me.

But I was quick. Before the spear hit him, my blade got in between them. I had no plans of letting a roach die if I could do something about it. Then, as the creature was distracted by me, lady roach fired another bolt of lightning. This time before it could dodge, I grabbed it's arm and pulled it towards the it. I didn't think anything of it, but when the bolt struck the creature, lightning started flowing into me, as well. We both got ourselves shocked to the other two's surprise. But it was over. It said one last thing before it fell to the ground, "Systems failing. Overloaded core. Initiating emergency shutdown..."

It was done, but my whole body still felt the pain of being electrocuted.

The spear roach told me to sit down. He began to spit out a pouch from his mouth. He was grateful to me for saving his life.

"Easy. Let me put some ointment on your burns," he said as he quickly patched me up.

The lady roach came over and said, "Let's go. We have orders to kill the king and bring his head."

I nodded my head in agreement.

"You're right. We need to finish what the Queen ordered. If the Queen wants the king dead, then she shall have it," I said, "There must be some way where he escaped. He couldn't have left towards the front lines, so there must be some other way to leave."

So, the three of us looked around the room for where the king could have been. I had noticed a slight breeze coming from under the throne. I began pushing the throne. It was heavy, so the other two helped me.

"Damn. This is more of a job for Viking," lady roach complained, although I didn't know what that meant.

But with the three of us, we were able to push through it. There was an open hatch underneath the throne. And so, the three of us dropped down and followed the barely lit opening. The three of us dashed forward knowing that King Therjadon of the dwarves had a head start.