Benjamin Vryce

Benjamin watched the two halves of his dire squirrel drop to the floor and fade away. It appeared again in his void space at nearly the same time. He didn’t bother summoning it again though. As he watched, the remaining three dire squirrels were similarly dispatched. Looking over the Hive monarch, Benjamin couldn’t see any signs that they had injured it at all.

“What do you think, Stomper?” he asked, as the mantis ruler turned to face him. It didn’t move away from the females and their eggs, merely turned in his direction. As if daring him to attack.

“Well chief, I understand why they call this thing a monarch now. It’s impressive as hell.” The goblin fighter replied.

Benjamin glanced over at the axe wielding goblin, wondering how he had misunderstood the question that badly. Deciding it didn’t matter, Benjamin thought on his options. He could summon everything he had, and swarm it with bodies. Or, he could charge it and hope that Stomper could catch it off guard while he battled it out.

He was itching to race in and pit himself against this foe, to see who was stronger. He wanted to prove to the monarch and to himself that he was the better warrior. Unfortunately, he didn’t know that he was and he couldn’t afford to die here. He had to complete the mission. With a sigh, he began summoning the squirrels, the two wolves not on the field below, and the ants. The room was full to bursting with bodies now, Benjamin didn’t like it but it had to be done.

“Get ready. Once the others have him distracted, we will take him apart.” He said to Stomper, who looked just as unhappy as he felt. The fighter seemed to grasp his reasoning though because he nodded his head in understanding. The monarch seemed to understand what was going to happen too, but it never backed down. As they came on, it stood its ground and waited for them. Benjamin had to respect the monarch for its courage, even as he knew it would cost him.

* * *

Grace

She heard it when the tower battle began in earnest. Everyone below could hear, there was shouting, growling, and pained yelps coming from the tower. Around two dozen of the feeding Hive stopped eating and looked up. The others were so lost in their meals that they didn’t care what was going on above them.

The twenty or so Hive that had stopped feasting took off into the air, Grace noted that they were the biggest and best equipped of the bunch. That lined up with what Benjamin had said might happen. Once the bigger ones had lifted off, Grace raised her bow.

Her first arrow took a feeding Hive in the abdomen. Her second hit another in the midsection. She didn’t waste time or get fancy with her shooting. She just aimed for center of mass and fired off shot after shot at the still grounded blue Hive members.

“What are you doing?” Jade asked from beside her, looking shocked. It was understandable, Benjamin hadn’t told her all his plans and contingency plans.

“Benjamin said any who ignore the battle are too far gone. That Grace should wound them, too attract in other Hive factions.” She said, abbreviating what he had told her. He hadn’t known anything for sure but he shared a lot of his suspicions with her.

“I don’t get it.” Jade said, as Grace continued to shoot into the feeding Hive. “He was all like ‘don’t do anything stupid Jade.’ Now, here you are killing the damn things. Just like I wanted to do in the first place.”

“Grace will handle this part, you just wait until another Hive faction shows up. Then kill them, as long as you don’t kill the blue ones up there.” She pointed at the ones flying overhead. “You can kill anything else that comes.” She said, continuing to shoot.

“Um…I mean, ok?” Jade said, not sounding confident.

The Hive she had wounded were screaming, it was barely audible to her but Ice and Honor were whimpering. The Hive that had flown towards the tower when the battle started had slowed, looking back down at their wounded brethren. They didn’t seem to know what to do, so they hovered in place for a moment.

The red Hive faction arrived during that moment of indecision. Grace thought she counted fifty of them at least. Turning her bow upwards she sighted in on the larger mantis creatures and fired. It looked like half of the new arrivals were targeting those in the air, while the rest were dropping down to finish those on the ground.

“What are you waiting for?” Grace asked Jade, “Tell Tok to hit the ones in the air, and have Tik start killing the ones on the ground.”

The woman looked pained for a moment, as if she didn’t know what to say. Then she turned to Grace and said in a rush.

“Ya see, the boys can’t tell the difference between red and blue. We tried this before, there was this room and these dials…” she trailed off awkwardly.

Grace just looked at her in stunned silence for a moment. She hadn’t thought the ogres were color blind, or too stupid to tell the difference.

“Focus on the ground then, they can kill everything down there. Grace will handle the sky.” With those words she focused her full attention on shooting down the red Hive, before they could kill the slightly larger and loyal blue Hive members.

Jade grumbled from beside her for a moment, obviously not happy at having been left in the dark on the plan. Eventually she pointed out at the frenzy of feasting and killing and said.

“You heard the girlie. Boys, get to killing.” It was all she had to say, Tik took off like a shot from his place beside her. Tok stayed put, but started throwing rocks from the metal mesh bags at his waist. It sounded silly to Grace, rocks as a weapon. Until she watched the first rock impact a red Hive that had just cleaved the head from a blue one’s shoulders.

It exploded. There wasn’t another word for it, the rock caught it in the upper torso and went right through. The hardened exoskeleton cracking like dried wood, as the bright orange fluid within splattered everywhere. The next rock connected with a blue Hive, still ravenously eating the guts from a pill bug beast. It was thoroughly pulverized.

Grace turned her attention back to the aerial battle, the blue Hive were getting slaughtered. She shot as many of the attackers as she could, but without assistance she couldn’t kill them all. Not before the blue Hive who had reacted to the battle cries were all destroyed anyway. When the blue Hive’s numbers were nearly cut in half, something changed.

Another hive flew out from the tower. It was a monster, twice the size of its fellows. It was even bigger than the attacking red Hive members. Grace looked it over as it appeared, what she saw shocked her. It was battle-scarred and disfigured. Missing an eye cluster, and had a crumpled abdomen. It flew just fine however, despite the damage.

Without wasting a second it darted directly towards the aerial combat. Scything into the attacking force like a whirlwind. Grace continued to fire, but she was largely in a supporting role now. The gold banded brute was doing the lion’s share of the killing.

Between the monarch in the sky, and the two ogres on the ground, nearly all the red hive were soon dead or fleeing. As they flew away, Grace turned to Honor and gave the wolf a nod. He nodded back before taking off after the fleeing red Hive members. The fight was effectively over, except for the cleanup.

* * *

Benjamin Vryce

Benjamin sat on the floor of the nursery room. He held his severed right leg to the stump with one hand, and held his guts inside his belly with the other. He was healing, slowly, but the monarch had really done a number on him. It shouldn’t have surprised him; the monarchs had been left here more than a thousand years ago, and they had been waging war on each other ever since.

It was a hard won victory, even though they had outnumbered it eighteen to one. The outcome had still been decided by a battle between himself and the monarch in the end. When he had finally pulled the pattern out of the dead king, he felt elated. Absorbing the pattern however, proved more difficult.

Discovering that the monarch was male he named him the blue king during the absorption process. The problem he found was the Hive had been wounded for so long, that the scars had imprinted themselves on its pattern. He had fought the damage, hoping to return the ruler to its former prime condition. In the end, he settled for focusing on re-growing its wing and letting the rest of the damage stand. He had attempted another change, but he wouldn’t know if it worked for a while.

The blue king, would likely never have any more offspring. Some of the damage had been repair, but whether it would be enough, he didn’t know. The monarch was going to be a devastatingly effective new addition to his team though. All that power didn’t come cheaply; between the pattern absorption the naming and wing regrowth, along with the summoning, his core was down by more than half. As he watched the red hive being massacred from his vantage on top of the tower, he knew the investment had been worth it.

He didn’t feel quite right through, his soul felt…stretched. It reminded him of when he had absorbed Silver, his soul hadn’t been prepared for the surge in essence. He shook the feeling off, it wasn’t that bad, and perhaps he was close to improving his core.

He looked at the large creation core, glowing softly between his feet. He hadn’t needed to use it to summon the blue king. He decided to hold onto it, in case he needed it later. He checked his core again, by the time the battle outside was over it would be full once more. The essence he was being funneled by his summons’ kills was considerable.

When he felt his wounds had closed enough for him to attempt the climb down he rose to his feet. He thought about recalling Stomper, he had died after burying his axe into the monarch’s torso, but figured he would save him the climb down and summon him on the ground.

The descent was, less than pleasant. His leg had reattached just fine, but each step was still painful. It was like it hadn’t attached quite right, and needed his using it to adjust for the mismatches. By the time he hit the ground everything seemed to be back to normal at least.

Coming out onto the slaughter fields he called his people. Grace and Ice came right away, Jade following behind. The woman was sulking something terrible. The blue king was still flying around, gathering up his remaining Hive members. Benjamin didn’t bother with the ogres, they were still smashing things.

“What the hell just happened here?” Jade was the first to speak. Arms folded and a scowl on her face.

“I captured the blue king, the monarch of this Hive faction. This should help give us the numbers for the next step.” He replied. Smiling at her wearily.

“OH? And what is the next step oh wise and fearless leader. He who shall do as he pleases without question?” she said sarcastically.

“Simple,” Benjamin said, pausing to summon Stomper back. He thanked the goblin for his help before returning to face Jade, “Honor is tracking the red Hive that fled. Once he finds their tower, we rest and recover for the remainder of the night. When the sun comes up and all the red hive are safely tucked away inside, we go in and take them out.” He said, grinning evilly.

He had to go over it a little better than that, she was still pissed about being left out of the loop. So, she insisted on being told more of the details, but in the end she agreed to his plans. Leaving him alone with Grace as she went off to find her ogres.

“You did great,” he told her. Looking around at the piles of dead Hive. “This never would have worked without you, thank you Grace.” He finished with a genuine smile. She blushed at his complement, turning away slightly.

“Grace was happy to help Benjamin in any way she could…and…she always will be.” She finished more quietly. Smiling shyly up at him in turn. It was his turn to blush and glance away, pleased but embarrassed.

They didn’t talk anymore after that. Just stood together in companionable silence. Watching as the blue king and what was left if his Hive, pillaged the equipment from the dead red Hive faction members. The fight had been intense, but the larger battle was only just beginning.