This forest is huge.

I’m a fast flyer and a fast runner. At my current strength I could outrun most cars on the street easily and I’m even a bit faster in the air. Even so, it takes me over a day to get to the edge of the forest.

Well, chasing down that skein of geese and eating one of them while flying probably wasn’t great for my rate of progress. But who cares, I was hungry.

The moon was out, and it’ll be close to full when the war starts. That’s good news for the elves, since aside from the better light for night attacks, the beastmasters of Honeywood forest raise lunatic wolves. Somebody on the enemy’s side was definitely an idiot for letting that slip through the planning.

Lunatic wolves are mythic beasts with a weird trait. Their power level actually fluctuates with the phases of the moon. During the new moon they are ‘weak’ ...although that was only relative. As the moon waxes towards full they get stronger and stronger. Eventually on the full moon they are so powerful that I wouldn’t be confident of beating a pack of them. Actually, I should be able to win, but they are so nuts that I can't say for sure. The full moon males them a bit more aggressive as well, although that might just be because of how freaking unstoppable they became.

Once the moon starts waning they will weaken till, on the new moon, they are barely more powerful than normal wolves. That isn’t a huge problem, even normal wolves can survive pretty well. Plus the lunatic wolves do most of their hunting when the moon is close to full. If it wasn’t for how slowly they reproduced they would probably be everywhere.

The fact that Macedor’s army was doing its invading at this time meant that the elves’ spymaster, Alexander, had been very busy. He had seemed quite confident and it would be just like him to use misinformation to trick the enemy.

As soon as the enemy entered the forest they would have their flanks torn apart by slavering super wolves. The elves couldn’t afford to raise a ton of them, but even a few would make a huge difference.

The edge of the forest was in sight. I still had a lot of flying to do, but seeing this milestone was pretty reassuring. I wasn’t tired, but flying nonstop was mentally draining.

The edge of the forest was pretty distinct. It ended quite abruptly, like the edge of a garden. Past the forest was scrub brush and long grass. It was quite picturesque, although I liked the forest better. The plains were nice, but it just didn’t have the same ...vibrancy.

I guess that isn’t a fair comparison, this place doesn’t have mother bees.

When I passed the edge of the forest I immediately hit an updraft. I was pushed into the air so suddenly it shocked me. Now below me was the almost endless prairie.

The breeze made waves in the grass, and I was reminded once again of the ocean. Compared to the rough waves from the crowns of trees these were more like gentle ripples. The air smelled differently as well. The Honeywood forest always smelled like flowers, fruit, and a hint of that tree smell that reminds me of essential oil. The prairie smells clean, maybe? It wasn’t bad either way.

The air current feels different over the prairie. There were a surprising amount of thermals over the prairie. It was really easy to get altitude if I wanted to. The thermals were like a natural elevator for flying creatures like me. I’m not a meteorologist so I don’t know why I didn’t find that many in the forest.

The plains looked empty at first glance, but if I looked closely there was a lot of life here. Lot of little birds, small rodents, snakes and lizards were fluttering, scampering, slithering, and skittering around. There were coyotes and hawks about too, hunting down the little critters.

It was nice to watch. I had gained a real appreciation for nature over the years. Although a huge chunk of that was appreciating how nature tastes…

I flew up much higher. As long as I was at a high enough altitude I would be able to spot the army without them identifying me. Plus the view was incredible.

I did eventually manage to spot them, they were still a massive distance off. Their path had left a vague line of trampled grass far in the distance. If my vision wasn’t so keen and their numbers weren’t so great I wouldn’t have a chance of spotting them from this far out.

I sped up a bit, they were making better progress than expected. I wanted to make a couple attacks before they reached the forest and setting up a proper ambush took time.

It would be a while before they had any chance of spotting me. It wasn’t like I was an army several thousand strong. Still, I had a very distinctive silhouette, so I couldn’t just fly over and attack.

The best bet would be to circle around. The vast majority wouldn’t be looking up, and the few that were would be more likely to keep their eyes forward. People subconsciously ignore certain directions if they ‘know’ where the enemy is.

I would swoop down on them from behind. As long as I kept out of their forward view and up high enough I shouldn’t be spotted. If they had to stare into the sun to see me that was just a bonus.

Before I got to close I flew as high as I could. The air was cold and thin. It was a shame there wasn’t anything like an altimeter to tell me how high I was, ‘Cause I bet I was pretty high up.

I shrank down a bit too, Shrinking down to less than a speck from the perspective of even the best eyes on the ground. Just to make sure, I turned my exoskeleton a mildly reflective sky blue.

Once I was in position I changed my exoskeleton a bit more. This time I did my best to become as aerodynamic as possible. My face formed a sharp arrowhead, my legs tucked into the new grooves in my exoskeleton, and my arms became air-cutting blades.

Then I grew to full size, folded my wings, and fell from the sky.

I was like a metal dart dropped from space. My sharp profile sliced through the air with almost no resistance. Gravity was pulling me down to the earth like it wanted me to punch a hole through the planet. I was so incredibly high at the beginning, and I was falling faster and faster with each passing second. It seemed to take a lifetime as the army beneath me grew larger and larger.

When I hit terminal velocity the sound of my body cutting through the air began to make a shrieking noise. It might alert the enemies, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

If I wasn’t careful I would slam straight into the ground. I was already going so fast that I didn’t have confidence in my already ridiculous reaction time. My goal was to open my wing and soar just over the head of the crowd. Then I just had to lower my arms and I would become a living scythe. It was a simple plan, but if I opened my wings too early I would be an easy target for the powerhouses. If I opened my wings too late I would be digging my own grave with my face.

All too soon the moment came and I snapped open my wings. I tilted them slowly, taking a curve rather than trying to make a sharp turn. The strain on my wings was immense. It felt like they were going to come off while the g-forces crushed me. The shrieking of the wind became a banshee’s death wail. Then I hit the edge of their formation.

It was horrifying.

All I had to do was hold my arms out and down. I had shapeshifted the hardest and sharpest blades I could on the front of my claws. I would soar over their heads and hold my blades at neck level.

The impact of flesh on my claws felt more like I was trailing fingers through water. With my compound eyes I could easily see the carnage behind me. Heads and blood were flying in the air. My analogy of a scythe was turning out to be horribly accurate.

The sprays of blood spilled outward like the wake from a speedboat. People were screaming, but nobody ahead of me reacted in time. The ...resistance slowed me down enough that I was forced to flap my wings again. The shrieking from air resistance quieted down but the screaming from soldiers showered in their neighbor’s blood replaced it.

I carved a long, bloody line through their ranks and escaped by flying low over the prairie. I don’t know if anyone dangerous spotted me, but they weren’t fast enough to respond if they did. I shrank down once more and flew out of sight.

That worked amazingly.

It was brutal, there was no way they’re all going to be as comfortable invading anymore. I have no clue how many I killed in one sweep but it must have been a lot. Well over a hundred died easily. I’m betting the people next to the decapitated buddies aren’t going to be sleeping anytime soon either.

There’s nothing like shock and awe for using psychological warefare and conventional warfare at the same time.

There was enough time in the day to do it one more time. I needed to get some altitude and get set up for another shot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was supposed to be easy.

We had everything; numbers, weapons, horses, and the trump card. They had no chance; they couldn’t field as many soldiers and their bees would be crippled by our repellent. It would be easy. That’s what the general said in his stupid speech anyways.

Nobody said anything about invisible scythes decaptating hundreds of men in a single sweep.

I’m just an ordinary soldier. My job is simple; follow orders, collect my paycheck, and go home. The glorious leader pays his men well, so it was a good enough job. A tiny, suicidal part of my mind whispered that that the glorious leader only treated his soldiers well so they wouldn’t join in any revolts, but I’m not dumb enough to think about that too much.

Still, it wasn’t like anybody disagreed with the general’s assessment. The only reason Macedor hadn’t conquered the forest years ago was because of the bees. Now that we didn’t have to worry about that we were guaranteed to sweep through them.

That was how it was supposed to go, but we were attacked, if you can call it that, days away from the forest.

We were walking along, nothing in sight for miles, when Julijan turned to me.

“Do you hear that?”

I tried to get him to quiet down, we didn’t want to get punished for undisciplined behavior. He turned forward, but he kept trying to whisper at me about some stupid noise. Other people started doing it too.

Then I heard it.

It was getting steadily louder, a hellish scream that seemed to come from everywhere at once. It was like a wraith was screaming at us from the netherworld. Even the sergeant looked nervous, he kept snapping orders at us.

Then that horrible scream suddenly became ten times louder. It was horrible, it felt like a curse. The sergeant turned to yell at us but he was sweating and scared too.

He barely started yelling when Julijan’s head flew into the air and practically landed in my arms.

He didn’t see it coming, none of us did. I don’t think he even noticed when he was killed. He still had that worried and confused look on his face. He wasn’t the only one. There was this bloody line at an angle through our formation where some devil had cut the heads of hundreds of our soldiers. I was covered in blood that fountained out of the victims nearest me.

It had been a panic after that. People were screaming and huddled against the ground. The horses were panicking, and many of them threw their riders. It took us hours before we managed to get organized and start marching properly again.

It happened two more times after that.

When the shriek started again most everyone tried to spot its source. After whatever that was took over a hundred more heads I must have heard a dozen different claims as to what it was. People claimed it was a living blade, a demon, a flash of blue wind, or even death itself.

I felt like I was going to vomit. I was lucky the second attack never hit near me, but I still saw the spray of blood and flying heads farther up the formation. Julijan’s blood had dried on my clothes and skin as well; it wasn’t like I could take a bath…

The sun was going to set soon. We were going to have to camp out. I actually found myself hoping we would march through the night. Maybe this invisible reaper couldn’t follow us into the trees?

The third shriek made everyone panic. The big names accompanying us were the only ones that didn’t dive for the ground. I pushed as low as I could, huddled against the dirt. It felt like hiding under the covers as a child.

Everyone could hear the screams as the shriek swept past. I didn’t want to get up. I wish I could burrow into the earth like the gophers around here to escape the shriek. Do they feel the same way when hawks fly over?

The backs of many more had been slashed open. Cowering and huddling against the ground did nothing. They simply died slower. As we recovered I noticed a few of my fellow soldiers still crouching in the grass or crawling away. Deserters.

Normally reporting them would be the best option. It came with rewards, helped prevent being labeled as a conspirator, and kept your family safe. This time I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I just couldn’t blame them. Besides, I hadn’t heard from my family since they had been picked up by the special police years ago.

It had made me sad and angry, but if I had shown any of that I would have been next. So I bottled it all up and ignored it. If these men were so scared or even brave enough to use this opportunity to defect then I would wish them luck.

The sun was setting soon. Would the shriek attack at night? If it did I might be the next to flee.

We were almost at the forest though, once we reached the forest we would be safe.