Hercules quickly made his way to the fight, bypassing the guards blockade and ran right up to the enemy. He lowered his head to open up his horns and put his horns around the neck of the creature. Then slammed his head up as hard as he could causing the spikes between the horns to dig into the skin making it very hard, but not impossible, to escape from them.

All of this happened so fast that the furry creature and everyone else at the scene had no time to react. The guard captain was the first to regain his senses.

“Wh- who are you?” He shouted. Then he noticed what was happening. The beast had finally stopped moving.

It’s vulnerable! He thought to himself.

“All units charge!” He commanded his guards.

Quickly all the surviving guards crawled up on the beast, completely covering it in bodies. Even it’s long naked tail had several guards biting down on it.

However, the damage was minimal. It’s tough fur was too strong to bite through.

“Damn, still no good. It’s that tough fur, if only we could remove it…

Ah, of course.” He said quietly to himself.

He had gotten an idea and ran up close to the beast to test it. Grabbing hold on just one single straw of hair with his mandibles he pulled with all his might and succeeded in pulling it out.

“It works.” He exclaimed happily, feeling like they had a fighting chance for the first time.

“All units, focus on removing one single straw of hair from the fur at time. When an opening has been created try biting down on the skin.” The guard captain ordered.

The guards got to work and pulled out several hairs. The pain from it woke the beast up from it’s stunned state. It had been completely stunned by the sudden appearance of the large beetle creature that suddenly had clamped down on his neck with two spiked horns.

Anger? No, it was uncontrollable rage. Revenge for his loved ones. Pain from his wounds. Many emotions went through his mind, but was that all? No, there was something else too. Something he hadn’t felt in a long time. Fear. Not from the little guards, but from the beetle creature that was only about half his size but he could still feel that it was stronger than him. The spikes hadn’t pierced very far into the skin but he still couldn’t lift up his head or move his body at all.

He repeatedly stomped his feet shaking of a few guards and crushing some of them under his feet. His tail started to constantly swing back and forth, throwing off the ones biting on it with such a force that they got stuck in the walls and keeping the guards away from the sensitive areas on the rear part of his body.

With his leg, now free off the guards, he started scratching the armor of Hercules. It was quite effective, as only a few second later the death grip on his neck loosened.

The guard captain that had been watching the events unfold suddenly felt his heart sink again. Most of the guards were knocked off the beast again, but a few kept on pulling out the hairs one by one, but when he saw the horns slightly raise from the neck he knew it was only a matter of time before it was free again. It won't fall for the same trick again.

The beast decided it was enough and forcefully ripped his body free from Hercules. It caused some damage on his neck and blood was dripping constantly but overall this was better than being stuck.

Hercules was surprised when he suddenly felt something kick and scratch him, enough to make him lose focus and relax his head a bit. It didn’t take long until the beast had ripped himself free from his horns.

Hercules was getting worried. He had hoped that the guards could have finished it off while he held it in place. It was a surprise attack that won’t succeed again.

I can’t retreat so the only way is forward. Hercules thought to himself.

He rushed forward trying to clamp on with the horns again but this time the beast easily avoided them. As it passed by Hercules it smacked him in the head several times with his tail. The damage was light but it caused him to see double for a few seconds. After shaking his head to regain focus, he could no longer see where the beast was.

Suddenly he felt a great force hitting him in the side, knocking him over, leaving his weaker armored underside wide open. A heavy object was pressing on him. He could not see what it was, thanks to his very rigid head and neck area. A fatal flaw in his design had been discovered.

However it was easy to guess what had happened. The beast had knocked him over and then climbed up on him.

*Screech* *Screech*. The beast gave a loud, harsh, piercing cry... It’s victory over the last real threat was imminent and soon he would fight and kill the Queen.

Hercules started to panic and waved around with his legs wildly to try and knock the beast back. What he got was extreme pain in one of his lower legs. After a crunching sound he could no longer feel his foot.

The guard captain that had been watching, decided it was enough. He couldn’t stand this brave and most likely newborn, and what he assumed to be, high class member of the Swarm to die this easily. To prevent the loss of a higher class is worth almost any amount of the lower class.

“All units. Highest priority. Defend the beetle and kill this beast at all costs.” He gave the command. All units is exactly all units. Even the weak helpers and feeders would join in on this battle.

As the pheromone command reached their sensors they charged, not caring if they lived or died.

The beast was suddenly under attack for all sides. Even above as they climbed the tunnel walls to drop down on him. There were surprisingly still two guards left on his body this whole time pulling out hair and exposing the skin. When they got the command they started biting with all the force they could muster. No, more than that. They would bite so hard their mandibles would crack. At the highest priority command they would go into a frenzy, surpassing their normal body limits and destroying their own bodies in return.

The beast was startled. They didn’t show this behavior before. He got off Hercules and quickly dealt with the newcomers. They were much smaller and weaker than him so they were normally no problems. However now, even the smallest Helpers were able to rip out a hair from his fur. Of course the extreme nature of such an action was enough to cripple the Helper for life. The guards could now bite through the skin and cause him to bleed. The Feeders stuck down their tube straws into the open wounds caused by the guards and started sucking the blood.

The guard captain was watching their suicide attacks and decided to join the fight seriously for the first time.

He climbed up on the back and started biting down on the tail, only a little bit away from where the tail meets the body. He easily bit through all the way to the bone but he couldn’t get through it. It was too hard… unless he also was prepared to break his body.

Hah, how can I be any worse than my men? If we don’t win now, we are doomed anyway.

With that thought, he mustered all his power into his mandibles and bit down hard.

A crunching sound could be heard and a fountain of blood spurted out of the small stump that was left. He had lost both mandibles, crumbling to pieces, but it was worth it.

The explosion of pain and sudden lack of the tail that the beast used to balance, temperature regulation and defence of his back caused him to panic and stumble into a wall, incidentally crushing several of his enemies at the same time.

He had been so busy with the small fries that he forgot about the guard captain. They had swarmed all over, especially in his face preventing him from moving much. He had to use his front legs to swipe them away.

*Screeeeeech!!*

A loud, harsh, piercing cry was heard. The beast had been foolish. Completely sure of his victory he had relaxed his guard. He had suffered a major injury now and lost a great deal of blood.

No, it can’t end like this… he had to get out.

About this time Hercules had been turned over with the help of the guards and was now blocking the way to the exit. Everyone else was blocking the tunnel towards the Queen.

There was a third tunnel and the beast ran as fast as he could towards it. It was a newer tunnel so he didn’t know where it went but he didn’t care. All he had to was get away for now, if need be he could always dig himself out when he had recovered some of his strenght. Whether they would follow him or not, didn’t matter to him. He was too fast and unless they all moved together he could easily kill them.

Little did he know, that the tunnel he choose to follow was the way to the royal sleeping chambers.

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