“This is ridiculous!” Van thought as he ran with all his might. “We just dealt with a horde of insects not that long ago! How in the world is there already another one ready to go!?”

The group, alongside the alraunes and their followers, ran as fast as they could to Van’s fort. Many of the shadow wolves dying because Van would order them to turn back to slow down the approaching insects. Many of the leshies, green mounds, and treants also would periodically turn to sacrifice themselves to slow down the horde chasing after them.

By the time they reached the gates of the fort, all the leshies were gone, and so were all the green mounds and treants… forcing what few water nymphs they saved to run on land… what few mandrakes were left… were being carried by the alraunes and flower sprites.

As what was left of the group ran through the gates, the insect horde tried to follow but instead crashed into the newly enchanted walls and mana barrier that prevented known enemies from going in. Van was half afraid that what few of those he was able to save from the meadow would also crash into the barrier, but thankfully with some effort on his part and using his new connection to them, he was able to allow them through without problem.

As the gate closed behind them, he could hear Isa yelling orders to fire and the twang of bows releasing arrows. Relieved, the group stood there panting from their mad dash through the forest, taking the time given to recover their stamina.

Kella then came from the side after giving a few more orders to a soldier and sending her off. She then scanned the group and then the alraunes with confusion before turning to address Van.

“What the hells happened out there!?” looking a bit cross. “I asked you just to scout out the area, not bring back a horde of insects!” she yelled. Despite that, Van knew it was mostly theater and that she was actually very worried about them and what happened.

Van then did his best to explain everything that transpired, about the attack on the meadow on them by the alraunes, followed by the attack by the insect horde, then the chase back towards the fort.

Kella, looked towards the alraunes and their group with a glare, but as Van explained, her attention turned back to him to make sure she didn’t miss out any important tidbit of information.

“And Luna? How is she doing?” Kella asked with concern, looking towards the person in question still strapped on Rosy’s back.

“She’s… still asleep… It seems the combination of that disorienting scream and all that sleeping powder did a number on her. I don’t know when she will wake up.” Van said worriedly.

“We… um… can fix that, if you would let us…” the lead alraune said, making Van and the rest of the group look towards her.

Van frowned, he didn’t want her anywhere near his wife after what happened. But didn’t sense any duplicity in her intentions. So with some hesitation, he allowed her near Luna.

Thanking Van for the opportunity to prove her goodwill, the alraune moved over to Luna where she was gently placed down for her convenience, and with a simple tap on the forehead, Luna woke up with a start.

“Huh!? Wha-!? What happened!?” Luna said, shooting straight up. “Ugh… my head…” she moaned, rubbing her fingers on her temples, then blinked, noticing she was surrounded by everyone plus a few new faces. “What’s going on?”

Agnès rushed and hugged her, happy that Luna was okay, to which Luna awkwardly and still confused returned the hug, not sure what was going on, but not going to turn down a hug from her wife.

Sadly the moment couldn’t last, the insects were now right at the gate and they were doing their best to bash through the mana barrier that protected the fort. Their angry buzzing, deafening, and Isa was doing her best to order her troops to fire down as many of the flying ones as possible. But many of the troops were quickly becoming disheartened due to the huge swarm covering the sky in front of them.

Van turned his head to the wall and back to the group. “Sorry to interrupt but we have to do something about that right now. Luna, why don’t you go to the infirmary tent for now, the rest of us will deal with the horde,” he said, already getting his weapons and magic ready.

“Oh no you don’t, I may not know what’s going on right at this moment, but I’m not going to let you all fight without me,” Luna said, getting up. “Besides… I feel fine, actually… I feel great! Like I had a good night's sleep!” rolling her arms and doing a little hop to show how much energy she was feeling.

Van gave a glance towards the lead alraune, wondering how effective that sleep powder was. But then quickly ignored her and addressed Luna. “well… if you are sure… but if you start feeling tired all of a sudden, or dizzy, or anything at all, I can trust you to pull back… right?” he asked seriously.

Luna stopped her goofing off and nodded in turn. “I know… don’t worry, I won’t get in the way,” she said, fully aware of what Van meant. She had no plans to get in the group's way should something happen.

After that, the group headed their way towards the top of the wall to get a better look at what they were dealing with, and it wasn’t pretty. There were double, if not more insects that they had to deal with than last time, and this time there were many flying types as well, their stingers at the ready and many trying to claw their way through the barrier.

“It won’t be long until they break their way through…” Kella said, looking concerned at the cracks that began to show on the barrier.

Isa gave another command to fire another volley, but they had already run low on their armor-piercing arrows so the damage was negligible, barely making a dent in the thousands of enemies before them. Isa then turned to Van and Kella, “hope you two have a plan, because we really need one. The barrier won’t last much longer, and we are running out of arrows that can do any real damage.”

Van turned to Agnès. “Agnès, do you think you can handle this?”

Agnès looked at the horde of insects, both on the ground and flying above. “I don’t think I can take on all of them… I spent a lot already before… plus the fighting we did against the mandrakes and all that running…”

Van understood. “Alright, just take care of the airborne threats then, we’ll take care of the rest.”

Agnès nodded and brought out her staff. With a few murmurs and chants, she created a huge ball of fire above her which exploded into thousands of pieces and flew towards the flying insects in a storm of flaming rain. If rain went upwards instead of down…

The sky exploded and a good chunk of the flying threats were dealt with. What few remained were damaged and or confused about what just happened. Agnès for her part looked tired, but satisfied, happy she was able to play her part, but also wishing she dealt a little more damage.

“Isa, you can take care of the rest, right?” Van asked.

Isa nodded and began to order her archers to start picking off the few remaining flying insects that were left before they regrouped.

“That just leaves the rest of them…” Van thought, looking at the still very real threat of thousands of giant bugs at their doorstep. “I wish I had a large-scale attack like Agnès does, that would be very helpful right about now…”

He then turned to Kella. “Any ideas on how to deal with this?”

Kella watched over the battlefield with a keen eye, taking everything in and trying to form a battle plan. Looking around her as well to see what was available and what can and cannot be used.

“I think our best bet, for now, is to just let Isa deal with the flying bugs first and then focus on the ground ones.” Kella finally said. “If we had made our ballistas and catapults in time, we could have used them, but unfortunately they are still not ready… if we had a mage corp, we could have bombarded them with magic, but the only real mages around here are you, Gwen, and Agnès…”

Van sighed. “And even if we had ballista and catapults ready, we would still have to spend the time necessary to enchant them to make their usefulness worthwhile. Otherwise, they would do nothing but fire mundane attacks that hardly do anything…”

“Just another thing I have to deal with…” He grumbled to himself.

“If I may make a suggestion…” Kella began, "you could just fire whatever you want, and deal whatever damage you can, even a little bit is helpful. At this rate, they will break through the barrier by the time Isa finishes with the airborne threat. Perhaps we should create a little break in the barrier for them to flow through, funnel them if you will, and attack them while they are passing through the choke point?” she suggested.

“Hmm…” Van thought about that… it would make it easier if their enemies just funneled themselves towards their doom… “alright…” nodding in agreement. “Let's do that.”

After that Van, and Gwen who was called over started on shaping the barrier to allow a small hole to funnel the insects through. There was some worry that they might grow wise to their plans, but there didn’t seem to be any commander-type insect leading them, so they probably had nothing to worry about.

As Van and Gwen were ready to open the hole, Kella gave the orders for the troops to prepare for battle on the wall. Already foreseeing that, no matter how good the choke point, many bugs will still be able to rush the walls. So she prepared for that by placing more troops in the areas that were most likely to be attacked.

“Alright Van, ready when you are,” Kella said, as the last troops took their place.

Van nodded, then gave another nod to Gwen, the two of them then created a break in the barrier. Hundreds of bugs then tried to swarm through it at the same time, sometimes trapping themselves on each other.

Kella, ordered the troops to prepare javelins, then gave the order to throw, spearing dozens of bugs in the choke point. She then ordered them to do it again, and again, soon there was a small mound of corpses that the bugs in the back were forced to deal with just to get in the front.

“Soldiers! Prepare for battle!” Kella yelled, as the last of the javelins were thrown, then she herself took a position on the wall that would meet with the most bugs trying to rush over it. To which the bugs did. They spilled over the small mound of their fellow brethren to rush the wall, using their insect-like strength to clamber onto it and climb up it easily. Or mostly easily if it weren’t for the fact that Van and Kella already saw something like this coming and greased the walls to prevent the bugs from just walking over it.

The bugs seemed surprised by the fact that as they tried to get at the troops at the top, they would slide back towards the bottom, sometimes taking a few of their comrades along the way. Despite that, a few bugs did manage to get to the top and were swiftly dealt with by Kella and the rest of the troops who were ready for them.

Van had been waiting for this moment, instead of firing his magic at the choke point as planned. He instead saved it so that he could use his magic to empower his troops and their equipment. With a few murmurs and some movement of his hands, he unleashed his power and let it flow into his soldiers, making them stronger and faster, as well as making their equipment sharp enough to pierce through the thick chitin-like armor of the bugs.

He valued his troops more than trying to kill a few bugs, and was prepared to use all his magic to make sure they stayed alive, leaving the bombardment of the choke point to Gwen, and then Isa when she finished off the last of the flying threats and focused back on the ground battle before them.

“Van… we have a problem…” Gwen said,

Van turned to look down to where Gwen was watching, and his eyes widened when he saw that some of the bugs had taken to eating their fallen comrades who somewhat blocked the way of the already pretty small choke point. Allowing more bugs to push through and surprising everyone by empowering the cannibals who consumed their brethren, or perhaps they just were putting themselves into a frenzy? Either way, they were more dangerous than before.

Van then refocused a bit, taking some of the mana he expanded on the troops and began firing towards the chokepoint. Spears of darkness shot out of his hands and skewered the bugs trying to get through, and then exploded outwards into spikes getting some of the surrounding enemies.

But the bugs just pushed through anyway, ignoring the casualties and rushing over the dead corpses of their former comrades. This could even be seen on the wall of the fort, where the bugs were using their dead allies as footholds to get closer to the top of the wall. What's worse, some bugs have taken to using their mandibles to try to pry the choke point larger, slowly cracking open a bigger hole to let more bugs through.

Van looked over to the other side of the barrier. There still were a few thousand of the fuckers left… “This is ridiculous…” he thought as he saw the still numerous enemies before him. “How can there be so many?”

He shook his head and forced himself to refocus on the task at hand. Taking a few mana potions, he started to bombard the choke point once more in order to kill as many of the bugs as possible.

“Kella! We are out of arrows!” Isa shouted, informing the commander of the situation.

“Tell them to grab a spear and take positions closest to the choke point!” Kella shouted, making sure that the troops that had to deal with the bugs so far had some aid.

Soon the battle dragged on and they were forced to wait for the bugs to try and clamber over the walls in order to deal with them using the spears and swords they had on hand. Van, Gwen, and Agnès threw everything they got at the chokepoint, killing bugs by the hundreds, but still more got through, far more than they planned.

Soon, the area before the wall was swarming with bugs trying to get at them, and the small hole was forcibly widened by them to allow more of their comrades through. They covered every inch of the ground as they tried to swarm their way over the walls and towards the delicious meals that lay within.

Van turned to Kella. “Kella! I think now is as good of a time as any!” he shouted over the sounds of battle. Kella nodded and screamed an order.

A series of explosions took the area before the wall, as dozens of landmines pre-planted beforehand went off. Van winced a little, remembering the hard work he put into making all of them, feeling like it was a bit of a waste. But if not now, then when? Either way, hundreds more bugs died in fiery explosions, their guts being flung each and every way.

But just as quickly the mines cleared the area out, did the bugs return to swarm over everything, uncaring for the sudden destruction that took so many of their ‘comrades’ lives before them. Almost as if they couldn’t care less, or were taken by a higher force that pushed them further. Then another series of explosions went off as the last of their mines were used. Putting another huge dent into the bug swarm.

“That's the last of the mines!” Isa shouted, taking her hands off the panel that controlled the mines that were just used.

Kella nodded. “Troops! Put on your masks!” she shouted. Many of the troops then took a quick step back away from the wall and put on gas masks. When Kella saw that, she gave out the next order. “Light it up!”

The wall that was greased was now lit on fire, burning the bugs that were still on it to death. The troops thankfully were protected from all the smoke and smog caused by the fire thanks to the gas masks they were wearing. The masks may have been considered a crude way to deal with smoke, but it was on sale for cheap by one of Anya’s merchant friends, so they bought a few…

This time the bugs seemed to pause for a bit before charging forward, most trying to go around the fire-drenched walls before them, splitting them up into smaller groups.

Van and the others then spent the next few hours, doing their best to wack every small group that tried to clamber over the wall, and when the fire went out, they had to deal with the full brunt of the swarm once more. Though thankfully, at a far smaller size.

By the time they had finished, they had only lost a few dozen troops at the cost of killing thousands of bugs… but it was still too high a cost for Van… not to mention the cost and time it took for the mines and the arrows and… well… just so much more…

As they cleaned up the mess, many were not relieved… After all… the rate of attacks… and their size… kept on increasing… making it hard for everyone to rest well that night...