Benjamin Vryce

The red spiral tower looked considerably different from the blue king’s tower. That one had been tall and spindly, winding its way up with narrow corridors and small window openings. This tower was built very much the opposite, it was short and stocky with wide open entrances.

After they arrived, the team found a small hive building to hide in and observe from. It looked like Benjamin had misunderstood these buildings. He had assumed the Hive had made all of the buildings, from what the Erlking had explained to him. Having been here a while now and watching how they lived, he had come to realize that the pill bug beasts had made most of the oddly shaped and short buildings. The Hive themselves only constructed the towers they lived in.

The trip here had been largely uneventful, thanks mostly to the speed they were traveling at and the wolves’ keen senses. He was sure at least once, that Honor had detoured around a salamander, it wouldn’t have surprised him to know that it had happened several times. In another situation, he would have wanted to fight the beasts for their essence. They were on a deadline now though, so avoiding trouble was best for the time being.

He sat with Grace, watching the tower from the building’s small entrance. The structure they occupied was empty of life and looked like it had been for a while. The reasoning for that was likely related to what was happening now, the reds were harvesting massive amounts of food. Red soldiers flew to and from the squat tower constantly, dropping off gory bits of meat and leaving again.

“I wonder why they are gathering so much food.” Benjamin mused aloud, “When they killed the blues that first time we saw them, they didn’t even look at the salamander meat.” He said.

Grace didn’t reply right away, she looked deep in thought. The pair were practically alone, sitting where they were by the entrance. Jade had plopped down by the wall and promptly entered her void space. Benjamin had thought just how exposed diving into their minds like that left their bodies. He had determined that he wouldn’t do it anymore without at least one of his summons on guard over him.

That’s where the last party member was, since he dismissed the wolves. Stomper was at the other entrance to this hive building, keeping watch for attackers sneaking up on them from behind. The fighter didn’t mind guard duty, but also didn’t see ‘the point in watching a bunch of bugs flying in and out of their colony’ as he had put it.

“Grace thinks that killing the blue king and all the reds who came to take advantage of the attack, has this Hive faction on edge.” She said, “It looks to Grace like they are preparing for a siege.”

That could be a problem. If the reds were ready for them, it would make taking them over without a hard-fought battle almost impossible. Maybe waiting for day wasn’t the best option after all, if they were ready for an attack waiting would just let them all gather together in one place.

He turned the ideas around in his head for a while, watching the comings and goings of the reds. There were more of them than the blues, and they were bigger and stronger looking as well. There weren’t as many of them as he had hoped for though, he was starting to think he had already killed the bulk of their forces in their raid on the blues.

There was nothing for it, he was going to have to attack now. If they waited, the reds would be bunkered down and ready, but if he attacked now at least some of them would be out hunting. He pondered on the best way to approach this type of fight. Eventually settling on the same basic strategy, they had used before.

“Alright guys, change of plans.” He said, jostling Jade back to reality and calling Stomper over. “We are going to have to attack now, here’s what I’ve got in mind.” He explained his ideas and reasoning to the group. Jade took a little more convincing but, in the end, came around as well.

* * *

Jade Benz

Jade sighed, as she walked into the open area under the red bug’s twisting tower. Why did she have to play bait? Tik and Tok flanked her on either side, and she could see the wolves trotting around her in wide circles. She couldn’t see them, but knew there were a double handful of big ass bugs crawling around as well.

Why the hell did Vice get all the summons? This was such bullshit, all she had were the ogres. She had to admit she preferred the ogres to any of the bugs Vice had, but still, options were nice weren’t they? So here she was, out in the open, ready to be swarmed by red bugs. The worst part about it though, she wasn’t supposed to kill any of them.

‘Go out there, and let them gut you. Maybe hide behind your pink shield thingy, if you’re scared.’ Is what he had said to her…ok maybe he had worded it a little differently, but that was the gist of it. He was going to sneak in with his goblins, while she got pounded on. Well, while her ogres got pounded on anyway. She was going to be under her force shield.

“Hey ugly ass,” she called up to the tower. “I read on a toilet stall I could find a good time at the reds tower, that true?” she continued to yell, saying whatever came to mind. “Because I just left the blue’s place, and let me tell ya, they didn’t have shit going on.”

The bugs were starting to pay attention, gathering up and buzzing around her position. They seemed a little hesitant to engage her though, perhaps she didn’t seem threatening enough. That thought ticked her off a little, who were these pricks to not take her seriously? Raising her essence pistol, she fired off a round into the swarm.

She clipped one of the circling bug’s wings, purely by chance. She hadn’t even been aiming, yet the red was sent into a spin as one of its wings quit working properly, and crashed into the ground with a crunch. Whatever was holding the bugs back was gone after that, they swarmed all over her and her boys.

Jade had her force shield in place, but it wasn’t a perfect defense. She was still getting the occasional scythe blade, coming a little closer than she was comfortable with. The poor ogres had it worse though, Tok in particular. He wasn’t as well armored as his counterpart and was soon bleeding from a multitude of wounds.

She did her best to keep him healed, but it wasn’t easy to heal and maintain the shield. The wolves were helping keep the heat off them, a lot more then she had expected actually. They would run in and pounce on the reds that swarmed her, bearing them to the ground and distracting many others away from her, before darting off again. The bugs were mostly useless, attaching themselves to the Hive and holding on. They distracted them until a razor-sharp scythe arm took them apart.

Jade took the occasional pot shot with her essence pistol. She wasn’t using a full charge, just enough to make it sting and distract, but not enough to crack exoskeleton armor. She hoped that Vice didn’t take too long, if these assholes started cutting her up for real…all bets were off.

* * *

Benjamin Vryce

They moved as soon as the swarm descended on Jade. Benjamin didn’t think she would go off script on purpose, not this time at least, but he thought it was best not to risk it. He ran towards the Hive tower with Grace and Stomper, trailing behind him. He planned to summon the dire squirrels once he was inside but other than them, and the blue king, he had summoned everything he had to help Jade in the distraction. Well, everything but the dire boar.

He was pretty sure he could call it now with the essence reserves he had available. He just didn’t think he could keep it from rampaging if he left it alone with Jade. No, the boar was too costly and destructive to call out unless he really needed something smashed. He also really didn’t want Jade to know about the boar, he was beginning to trust her more, but having a backup plan capable of dealing with her ogres was appealing to him.

They entered the tower the same way they did the last one. With Benjamin boosting the others inside, before jumping in to join them. It seemed that since the Hive could all fly there was little point in ground accessibility to the tower. Once inside, again like before, he called his dire squirrels and sent them off to find the monarch or monarchs.

Benjamin had to fight the complacent feeling he got as they climbed the tower. Everything was so similar to the blues tower he was afraid he would be caught off guard when something unexpected happened. Not everything was the same though, there were the nest rooms.

In the blue king’s tower, there had only been eggs at the very top. They had been guarded fiercely by the king himself. Here though, there were egg rooms all over the place. They must have passed five of them already, guarded over by at least two reds each.

The reds on guard duty didn’t bother them, it seemed to Benjamin that as long as he stayed outside the egg room, they would leave them be. He assumed from what he was seeing that both monarchs were up there. That worried him, the blue king had been a terror on the battlefield, even wounded. Then again, he now had the blue king imprinted on his soul. The monarch would be helping him in this battle, hopefully that would tip the scales enough.

There were also food pantries, rooms dedicated to storing bloody bug bits. Those didn’t smell very good, but again none of the reds inside bothered them as they passed. They must be confident in their leaders, or given strict orders they couldn’t disobey. Otherwise, letting intruders move right on by without sounding an alarm just seemed insane.

When they reached the long climb up, he felt his dire squirrels die, all four within seconds of each other. He summoned them again, but kept them from rushing up. The worker ants he had left outside were all dead as well. So, he took a moment and thought of how he could best utilize his resources.

Eventually, he summoned the eight worker ants, and had them climb onto the dire squirrels backs. The house-cat sized insects didn’t seem to bother the mastiff sized squirrels. When he started the climb, he sent them up just ahead of himself and the goblins. They stayed just above them during the climb, providing cover.

When they finally reached the top, a trip that didn’t take long with as short as this tower was, he sent them in first. His thoughts were that they could keep the monarchs distracted while he climbed in. Even if they couldn’t, maybe the ants could buy a few extra seconds for them. It worked, barely, by the time the three of them had entered the room all the summons were dead.

When he caught a glimpse of the room, Benjamin understood why. There were indeed two monarchs present, along with half a dozen Hive bigger than the rank and file. One of the gold banded monarchs was the size of the blue king, and had only a few less scars. No major crippling injuries, just countless battle scars, new and old, covering its body.

The other monarch, was massive. Nearly twice the size of the blue king, who was himself bigger than the ordinary soldiers. This must be a queen, Benjamin thought, she would have to be that big to lay so many eggs. She was big too; the body shape was different and the limbs were longer but she was easily the size of an ogre.

“Grace, stay back and focus on the normal ones, Stomper you keep her safe.” He told the goblins as he called the blue king out of his void space. Checking what else was available, he saw that the wolves were the only combatants still alive down on the field. He summoned everything that he had available, including pulling Ice from below.

He sent a mental apology to Jade. That just left Honor and the two nameless wolves down there with her. He hoped she retreated to cover; he didn’t want her to die down there. He also didn’t want her to go on a murderous killing spree either. There wasn’t anything he could do about the blonde though; he was going to have his hands full with the red king and queen and their elite guard.