I don’t think I ever realized how stealthy some of the elves could be.

They practically walked right up to me right after I finished my meal. I never saw them coming. These must be the best of the best, so it kind of makes sense, but it’s a lesson in humility. At least I didn’t jump too bad when they startled me.

“Oops, sorry Manto.”

“Geez man! how do you do that?”

“I taught you right? Silhouette, movement, and exposure.”

“Wait, Anthus?”

It took me a second to recognize the man in front of me. Anthus stood in front of me wearing that annoying grin that people have when they startle you. I hadn’t recognized him without the ridiculous hat he always wore.

“You too? Is the hat all anyone ever sees?”

“Yeah.”

“Basically.”

“You haven’t noticed how people seem to look at the hat instead of making eye contact when they talk to you?”

Anthus looked at us with an injured look. After a second everyone laughed. Eventually we settled down and they looked to me for an update. I gave them a quick summary on my little stunts.

They weren’t exactly the greatest audience. Or maybe I’m just not the greatest storyteller...

Everybody was quite happy to hear the the calvary was reduced to well equipped foot soldiers. The elves weren’t particularly scared of them, but not having to worry about the enemy being too mobile is nice. The elves are relying on guerrilla tactics, so slowing down the enemy as much as we can beforehand is vital.

The forest is a terrible place for a cavalry charge, but the knights could potentially outmaneuver us during our attacks. With how few attackers we have, being flanked would be absolutely lethal. I’m not convinced those horses could have kept up with most of these guys though. They move through these trees like flying squirrels.

Next on the agenda was what we had planned. I basically knew what we were doing from the meeting the other day. The bees would swarm for a bit, then the archers would take targets of opportunity. We would switch back and forth, forcing the mages to choose between wide range defenses, defending the commanders, or counterattacking.

No mages meant that the Macedonian army would have to rely on shields and armor to block our arrows. Maybe a normal bowman might have trouble piercing thicker armor, but these were the archers of Honeywood forest. The arrows were scary fast and punched through steel like nobody's business. Honestly I’d bet that even rifles don’t have the same penetration and that the projectile speeds aren’t that much different.

Every single one of them has a composite bow that Brokkr made. He bragged about it for days when he first designed the prototype. The arrows are nasty bodkin designs as well. Mundane armor doesn’t stand a chance.

There’s no need to worry about them doing their job. My job is far from over yet though. The soldiers aren’t going to just sit there and let us take potshots at them. When they try to chase us there’s a good chance that some of them will separate from the mass. That’ll give me another opportunity to strut my stuff.

I’ve been preparing a trick for dealing with groups of weaklings, the problem is that it isn’t super lethal. I don’t know how useful it will be if that mercenary looking guy shows up.

I asked about the mercenary fellow, and it turns out even Alexander didn’t know about his presence. I’m no sketch artist, but I can make a decent attempt using my color changing and shape shifting. I never got a close look, but I’m confident that this is fairly accurate.

“Hey, does this look familiar?”

I bent a wing with the picture of the mercenary on it. The man’s shark-like eyes and odd facial structure stood out, with a wide bridged nose. The way his face was built emphasized his wide mouth and large eyes. He looked odd, like he wasn’t completely human anymore. I’d heard rumors that people started to look a little odd when they got stronger but this was the first time I’d seen it for myself.

“That… No, I don’t recognize him.”

“Not a clue, sorry.”

“This guy, you said he’s a mercenary? What weapons does he use?”

One of the other elves narrowed his eyes as he looked at the picture.

“I didn’t see for sure, but he had two sheaths on his back, looked like recurved swords or kukris.”

The elf grunted.

“Yeah, I was afraid of that. I’m almost certain that’s Vortex Mun-gi. He’s a mercenary that has become very famous recently. Apparently he’s from a far off country and wandered over here. His ability is the real deal, and he’s famous for being a fight junkie.”

A couple of the elves swore quietly. Anthus gave an pained smile.

“Man, how much did they have to pay to hire somebody like this?”

“The better question is: why would anyone willingly work for Macedor?”

“His homeland is supposed to be half a continent away, I doubt he truly understands how messed up the country is."

“Honestly, they probably just paid him enough cash. He is a mercenary after all.”

Everyone seemed to be focusing on trivial matters, but it was pretty obvious from their faces that they were just avoiding the elephant in the room. It looks like it’s up to me to solve things.

“I’ll take him on.”

They paused and looked at me. Some of them probably had been hoping for me to volunteer, but only because there wasn’t any better options. They didn’t bother pretending to talk me out of it or ask me if I was sure. This was a war; it was going to get messy.

We got ready. The scouts watched the army shift over and form up at the entrance to the forest. They were using the main road. They didn’t have much of a choice; if they wanted to make decent progress they needed proper room to walk.

Even with the wide road they were forced to change their formation into a long column. It let them stay nice and orderly, but made them vulnerable to ambushes. Normally an army would use the more mobile troops to intercept any ambushes, but all their horses had been mysteriously decapitated last night.

Ain’t I a stinker?

The soldiers were pulling out some odd looking objects. They looked a lot like flares but when lit they only spilled out smoke. That would be the repellant then. It’s a clever tool, but when the bees and I have taken an antidote it’s just thin smoke.

The bees will be attacking first. The strategy everyone agreed one was to attack the front of the army. The swarm would sweep over, stinging as they went. The panicking troops at the front would add to the chaos in the rear. There was no way they wouldn’t panic either.

Bees were one of the most common fears. I would call it a phobia, but that’s only for irrational levels of fear. Fearing bees is very rational. It’s not fearing bees that's irrational. Well, either that or it makes you a beekeeper.

The buzzing in the forest was strangely muted. I doubt the Macedorians noticed, but to someone who lived here, it was odd. Those soldiers might find it comforting, but for me and the elves, it was ominous.

The troops marched under the shadows of the trees. As soon as the last man entered the forest, the air changed. That missing buzzing returned with a vengeance.

A great swirling cloud of bees began to blot out the heavens. The individual bees flew through the air. Each bee was large, slightly larger than a man’s thumb. Their stingers were horrifying needles that could pierce thin leather or thick cloth easily. They were unnaturally agile, and much faster than people might guess. Just one was a nightmare that could mortally injure a man with a single sting to a vital spot like the throat. Spread throughout the forest there were an incredible number of nests full of these nightmares.

The repellant meant that the Empress couldn’t bring the full weight of the swarm upon the enemy, but even the tiniest fraction of those countless millions would still devastate the enemy troops.

The murmuring of the nervous troops was drowned out by that omnipresent humming. They stood firm though, right up until the swarm hit the frontlines. Then the screaming started.

Some of them flailed about, swinging their shields around. Some dove to the ground. Some actually drew their weapons and tried to slash at the swarm. Many of the mages tried to cast spells.

Lots of the soldiers were injured by the bees. Some were hurt by their own fellows in the chaos. Many of these guys were veterans. I can hardly imagine the entire army being made of new recruits… It didn’t matter though, they had no experience with this kind of terror.

The bees didn’t stick around, too many mages were getting spells off. I saw plenty of shield spells and a few fireballs. The fireballs could burn off the wings even at low power and it takes a lot of mass to get through shields. The bees simply weren’t going to be effective anymore.

Of course, shields that widespread weren’t as tough as they needed to be to stop arrows…

We were still going to wait a bit. The goal was make make the magic casters useless, so there was no need to hurry. We could let them hold up the shield for as long as they pleased, it would just make things easier later on. Plus I needed to build up tension in my trump card.

One thing that bothered me after the kidnapping incident was my lack of ranged options. I could move fast and hit hard, but back then I was forced to knock over trees and put myself in a very vulnerable position to attack. It had taken me awhile, but I managed to cover that weakness somewhat.

At first I planned to get a crossbow or something, but then I encountered a funny little weed.

There are plenty like it, even on earth. Plants that can fire their seeds have an edge at spreading. They weren’t weapons, but the idea was inspiring. With my shapeshifting I believed I could eventually reverse engineer the concept, if not the design.

I twisted my spines into hollow cones and grew an oddly shaped spring within the center. Using my shapeshifting to build up tension was a little awkward at first, but eventually I got the hang of it. Once I built up enough tension I just needed to make the base of the cone thinner and thinner until it snapped, letting the springs send the cones flying.

It sounded relatively simple, but in practice it was tricky. Even today I wasn’t able to hit a man sized target with dependable accuracy. At close range it was much more dependable, but I can lunge across those kinds of distances and have an enemy’s head off his body before they can blink. As long as I fired enough spikes at once it was dangerous though, even at the longer ranges where it was actually useful.

With how tight an army’s formation is, just spraying projectiles randomly is bound to get a few soldiers. A lot of military tactics in the past had taken advantage of this. Collecting a bunch of soldiers and having them fire en mass at the enemy is a time honored tradition. I was far from reaching the level of ‘blotting out the sun,’ but firing out a couple dozen small spikes was easy.

It would be best if I waited till after they dropped the shields. My projectiles aren’t much better than the bees when it comes to penetrating magical barriers. I never managed to master whatever those archers did to make their arrows punch through stuff so easily. They don’t give me a straight answer about it either; they just talk about weird, fanciful concepts.

If I hear another speech about planting one’s will into the arrow or the intent to pierce then I’m going to figure out how to grow hair just so I can tear it out in frustration.

The mages in the army were slowly lowering their shields. As far as they knew, the only threat out here were the bees. Even if they suspected that the elves were hiding nearby, they still had to lower their shields eventually. Being in a war, especially one with guerrilla warfare, stinks like that.

Most mages worth their salt can cast a shield incredibly fast. The problem is that no matter how fast they can make the symbols, they still lose out to the speed of an arrow. That’s why they usually get stuck in the middle of a bunch of men in heavy armor.

It isn’t going to be enough. Sometimes I feel like these elves could thread a needle from across a football field if they had a thin enough arrow. Shooting through the gaps between soldiers is as easy as pie to them. They may get several shots off too, especially since the mages might instinctively bring up the weaker, wide range anti-bee shields. I would only have time to fire a single shot. I can shapeshift fast, but not that fast.

The telltale glow of the barriers faded reluctantly. The shields disappeared but none of the soldiers relaxed. Plenty of them had been stung, and the rapid swelling turned the stings into lumps the size of tangerines on their skin. Healing salves had limited effect on the swelling, and it wouldn’t take long for those stung on the throat to suffocate.

There wasn’t time to try to treat them though. The elves let loose and a couple dozen mages died instantly as their skulls were pierced through by the arrows. Some of the arrows even passed completely through, spanging of a nearby helmet.

It worked better than I could have imagined.

I was a half second slower, but I shot the spikes into the enemy formation. Frankly, the results were underwhelming compared to the elves’ attack. I doubt I killed more than one or two soldiers. Meanwhile they had fired another volley. The soldiers were ready this time, so fewer mages died, but they still lost more than they could afford to this early on.

The whole army moved much more responsively. At least this sort of thing they were trained to deal with. Shields were raised as they pulled together with a clatter of armor. The gaps disappeared, save for the spaces for crossbows or spears to poke out. A glowing barrier, much brighter and thicker, formed around each group holding a living mage.

In seconds they went from a nervous crowd to a unified force. They were still scared and vulnerable, but all that training is so that soldiers respond the way they should even if they were losing control of their bowels.

A group of soldiers peeled away from the group and charged our position. They were skirmishers. Soldiers trained and equipped for speed. Crossbow bolts shot over their heads, peppering the source of the elves’ arrows.

The elves had retreated after their second volley. As far as they were considered any exchange was a losing one. They weren’t going to stick around to let the army hit back. I was still in position, but I wasn't worried. A few crossbow bolts ricocheted off my exoskeleton, but they barely even left a mark.

I wasn’t that scared of the skirmishers either. If they were dumb enough to stray too far away from the main force without reinforcements then the elves would take them apart. Even without the elves, I could probably take them. Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to get a chance.

Running over the skirmisher’s shoulders, Mun-gi shot towards me. He practically soared over the army as he approached my position. A pair of long kukris were held out like sweeping wings. His eyes were wide open and staring at me. The large, black irises meant that very little of his sclera was visible. It gave his eyes a shark-like appearance that enhanced the intimidation factor of that eager, bloodthirsty grin he was sporting.

I bulked up and leapt forward as well, preparing to clash with him. A pair of sickles and a pair of kukris slammed into one another as the fight began.