It was the three of us together that traversed the tunnel. Our eyes easily adjusted to the dark. Me and the spear roach took the front, while the lady roach watched the back while carrying an electric crossbow. I held my sword tightly in my hands. Even if I carried my crossbow, I had lost my arrows, so it would just be a hindrance.

The floor was made of naturally formed obsidian. The walls were covered in webs and small spiders. The tunnel was in a slightly downwards slope, but not enough for anybody to slip down.

None of us were afraid. We hurried through the linear tunnel without looking back. We were sure the king had to be somewhere. As we moved further, we saw some torches flicker on the sides.

Eventually, we came upon a large room full of webs and gold trinkets. It must have been a secret stash of treasure that the king hoarded. But we didn't care about any of the treasure. We just wanted to fulfill the Queen's wishes. And the three of us found the king. He was tied up in a ball of webs with only his dirty face out in the open. His jeweled crown was added alongside the rest of the treasure. A couple of dwarven soldiers laid on the ground with small spiders eating at their corpses. Their bodies were killed very recently. There was also a bronze giant broken down into pieces covered in webs along the corner, but it was rusted and looked to have been there for a long time.

It was strange. The three of us couldn't tell whether the king was alive or not. The king was captured or killed, but not by us. A drip of green saliva dropped from above.

We all looked up to see a giant spider resting atop a layer of webs. It quickly jumped down at us, but we all dodged back. The monster was big, but nowhere near as terrifying as the spider I faced outside of the spawning pool.

"More food? Did Mother Arachnid send me a buffet and appetizers, today," the spider screeched, "I haven't seen dwarves come through here for a long time. Now, there are some succulent insects to join them."

The lady roach aimed her crossbow at the spider, while the spear roach readied his spear for a thrust. I aimed my crossbow and held my weapon tightly.

The spear roach said to me and the lady roach, "Looks like this spider got to the king, first. We don't need to fight this battle."

Those two began to walk slowly backwards not interested in the fight. But I didn't. The mission was clear.

"No," I shouted to the the other two, "We can't leave letting this spider take the kill. We were ordered to take his head. Those were the commands of the Queen. And more importantly, I won't let this creature steal a kill meant for the Queen!"

The lady roach replied, "Well, the king isn't dead. Not yet, anyways. I can see a feint amount of breath entering into him. He's weak and paralyzed, but not dead."

"You can tell?" I asked.

She nodded her head with a gentle smile. I couldn't tell, but I believed her. There was no reason to lie. And I planned on fighting this spider, anyways. If this creature had killed the king, then I'd kill the creature for interfering with the Queen's orders.

I charged forward with no fear. And the spear roach followed. The lady roach stood back and aimed the electric crossbow towards the spider. Compared to the spider I fought shortly after I was born, this one was far less threatening. But that didn't mean it was dangerous.

It screeched while fighting me and the spear roach. As a bolt of lightning shot at the spider's abdomen, it cried out in pain. The cry was like music to my ears, but the spider wasn't finished yet. It shot out webs from it's behind towards the lady roach. Fortunately, she could easily see them coming and jumped around making it harder to it her. Even as she was in the air, she fired her crossbow with extreme accuracy either aiming at the head or it's abdomen without hitting either of us. She continued shooting with a gleeful smile.

The spear roach continued to thrust his weapon into the spider while also dodging whenever it would try to attack him.

I went underneath the spider and began stabbing it on it's underside. I was already covered in blood of both dwarves and roaches, but now I could add spider to the list.

However, as I continued stabbed, I became overconfident. The spider grabbed my with it's mouth and chomped hard on my legs. I felt an intense pain, but ignored it completely as my mind was only concerned with finishing what the Queen wanted. I took my blade and started stabbed it's eyes. It let go of my legs leaving behind a scar, but I gripped the monster by it's fangs and held on. Stab. Stab. Stab. So much blood came out of the spider, but I didn't mind getting more dirty. The spear roach cut off the spider's legs as I blinded it.

It was fried from the numerous electric shocks, and bled all over.

It gave out one final cry, until stopping. And when it was dead, I stabbed a few more time to make sure. And soon as I was, I no longer felt the satisfaction of fighting it.

My leg was scratched, but my exoskeleton protected me.

Now, that the fight was over, the lady roach shot a bolt of lighting at the webs holding the dwarf king. He fell to the ground, but he was still alive. The webs were undone, but the mission wasn't over.

"You want to do the honors," the spear roach said to me.

I held my sword and put it against his throat with the full intention of cutting his head. I would have done it without a second thought, but then a voice came to us.

"Halt," the Queen said, "Do not cut off his head. Bring him to the others out front alive and unspoiled."

As the three of us heard her orders, we carried him like baggage and made out way back the way we came.

As soon as we got out of the throne room, there were already a lot of roaches waiting. The bronze creature with many arms was torn to pieces by the onslaught of roaches. A big roach wielding an axe was carrying it head around like a trophy.

When the king was regaining his senses and feeling, he opened his eyes. And he was greeted by the hordes of bloodthirsty roaches including myself.

And when he realized what was happening, he was frozen in fear as yellow and black eyes stared back at him. The spear roach and I held him down to his knees while the lady roach stayed a couple of inches behind him with her crossbow aimed at his head in case he tried to resist. We all waited as the Queen instructed us. He was scuffed up, but not "unspoiled".

One of the generals came forward. He wore a large bird skull as a helmet. His eyes and face were shrouded in an unusual mist of darkness. He wore a cloak full of talismans made of bone. He stretched out his long, bony fingers and caressed the dwarf king's cheek. He may not have been anything that I could recognize, but I could tell that he worked for the Queen. Just by being near him, I knew that he was a general for the Queen's army.

The king was sweating, yet shook as well.

The general said, "He's afraid of us..."

We were silent for a couple of seconds, and then the general yelled happily, "He's afraid!"

All of the roaches cheered in joy. Even myself. We all lifted our weapons high to our glorious victory.

"Glory to the Queen!" I yelled, and everybody followed.

"Glory to the Queen! Glory to the Queen! For the Queen! For the Queen's Empire!" every roach shouted. The cries and chants of victory echoed throughout the chambers and reached to the outside with ease. Thousands of roaches still stood strong. It was a victory - the dwarves were now a part of our empire.

A couple of roaches began to drag him outside. He resisted, but it was useless. The generals watched as the roaches took him to the top of the gate. One of the necromancer generals conjured a spike made of bones underneath the king and impaled him. The spike went straight through out of his mouth. We all cheered while he was writhing in pain.

As the celebration continued, I walked over the fallen dwarves without feeling any sorrow or pity for them. I might have been afraid at the beginning, but by the end of the battle, I felt a surge of pleasure come over me. I smiled knowing that I was able to serve the Queen.

But then I saw the millions of dead roaches. I didn't cry for them, but I felt like their deaths were useless. I have learned that the best way to serve the Queen is by being alive. These roaches weren't fortunate enough to be able to serve her. I thought of Brother and how he was immediately destroyed when the battle started. He was always so kind to me, and I mourned for him. But I knew that his death could have been avoided. He could have been alive to fight for the Queen if we had planned the siege properly. And if the bolt of lightning was only a few inches away from Brother, it could have hit me instead. Then, I wouldn't have been able to get all of this glory.

I thought that there could have been an easier way to win with less loss of life. If we were able to scout the outside of the mountain and find an alternate route inside, then our losses wouldn't have been so great. But the battle was over. There was no need to think about it for now. I just wanted to relax. I lost track of the lady roach and spear roach, but I was sure that I would see them again.

And I was sure of one more thing. I was certain that the Queen's Empire would never fall.

The cry ringed in my ears, and I welcomed it, "Glory to the Queen!"