Tim panted, shaking his head to try and dislodge some twigs that seemed to have somehow gotten stuck on his head. He reached out to wipe them away, then extended a hand to stabilize himself as he jumped across a boulder and slid down a scree-lined path. Then he was bounding forward again, choosing his footfalls as carefully as possible on the somewhat treacherous slope. He was almost there.

Using the psychic link, he could feel the gathered drones. They were still trickling in, formed in small bands and parties, or small hordes for the larger groups of Swarm Drones. They weren’t all in one spot even now, but close enough that they could move together to reach the same goal without waiting for each other for too long.

He felt the subtle sensation of his Queen’s attention settling in behind his eyes, and Tim smiled slightly as he continued on. He’d learned not to let that distract him, although he liked the occasional reminders of her presence. He’d already gone quite a long time without seeing her in person - or at least longer than before, even if it wasn’t that long objectively - but at least they could talk over the psychic link. At the moment, though, he made himself focus on the mission she’d given him, working with Ben and the others.

The fight in the mountains had raged on for a while now, although it felt longer than it really had. Tim knew that the other parts of the gnomish army were also bogged down, although they were slowly getting closer to the hive’s main base. But the army here in the mountains, originally two columns of the army the gnomes had sent out, had suffered heavy attrition. Even with some reinforcements getting through, it had shrunk a lot. Maybe enough that they could deal with it decisively now.

Besides, they needed to take care of it, so they could help to deal with the other army nearing the hive. Hitting it in the back would be good, especially if they could manage a real pincer maneuver. But they needed to make sure the gnomes weren’t in a position to attack their own force’s back, too.

Finally, Tim reached his current destination. Tia and a few other drones, accompanied by two of the elf ‘mercenaries’, had set up a small camp on a hill in the shadow of a larger mountain. It offered a decent view of the area, while still being sheltered. Enough Winged Drones were circling overhead to make sure that the gnomes shouldn’t send any spotters to see what they were up to.

“Cutting it a little close, aren’t you, Tim?” Tia asked.

Tim shrugged as he came to a stop beside her, still breathing hard. “I decided to check on one of the outposts personally one more time,” he explained, letting her know wordlessly that he understood that he should have hurried.

“Let’s go, then,” Ceneilis said. “If all of your Hive drones are ready, Sir Tim?”

Tim nodded. He didn’t need to look at the drones to know they were, and he’d been checking the positions of every drone around them. “I’m setting them into motion right now,” he stated, giving mental commands to that effect.

Then, as the group started moving, he focused on the others and checked on them. Zoe was currently in charge of another group of drones, one of the bigger ones they’d put together so far. It was her job to attack a major gnomish outpost, one they’d seen even before the start of this war, although it was a bit out of the way of the recent battles. They needed to make sure to cut off all avenues of retreat or paths for reinforcements, though. Ina had a similar job, attacking another gnomish outpost.

Most of the Hive’s Swarm Drones were using the tunnels they’d dug throughout this region of the mountains by now. Many of the Winged Drones gathered in the sky, higher up than usual, to make it harder for the gnomes to spot any details about them.

Since the beginning, but especially recently, the Hive had put quite a bit of effort into neutralizing the gnomish fliers. They were the only real threats to the Winged Drones and to one of the Hive’s favorite tactics, after all. This had forced the gnomes to be more cautious about employing them, which let the drones operate more freely. A vicious cycle, from their perspective. Tim was a bit amused at the thought. Either way, it limited their ability to oppose his Hive.

The small horde accompanying his makeshift ‘command group’ moved in silence, the War Drones all instructed to keep quiet. It wasn’t possible to stay completely silent like this, but at least they weren’t announcing their presence loudly.

Something else the drones had paid special attention to was the gnomish army’s supply lines. It wasn’t that far from the gnomes’ home, so they got some supplies through despite the Hive’s efforts to hinder them. And it probably helped that they could send convoys from several different locations. But the Hive had used their Winged Drones’ reconnaissance capabilities to map out likely routes and bases where the gnomes would store the supplies temporarily, as well as their general procedures.

Baron Neralt had even gone with a sizeable escort to check out a few places where they suspected the gnomes had dug tunnels. His Class Skills allowed him to have a pretty good sense of the earth in his surroundings, so he was able to confirm the locations after the Winged Drones’ eyes suggested possible spots where the gnomes might have put entrances and exits.

The Hive had carefully moved forces into position, and now that the signal was given, groups of Swarm Drones, occasionally led directly by a sapient drone, moved on those tunnel entrances, to seize them and cut the gnomes off. They’d left most of them unguarded, presumably trusting in secrecy rather than attracting attention with visible guards — and to be fair, the gnomes had done a really good job in concealing most of them. And they couldn’t have known about the baron’s Skills. Tim suspected even Marquis Lyns didn’t know.

Well, they might not have caught every tunnel or location of interest, even so, but he didn’t worry about that. Letting a few of their targets escape would be unfortunate, but hardly a catastrophic failure.

Good luck, Max told him silently.

Tim smiled faintly. You too, he sent back.

Before Tim’s group reached their goal, the attack started. They’d planned to synchronize things as much as possible, but there was some wiggle room in the plan. And since the gnomes didn’t have the kind of communications the Hive did, any warning would come too late for many of them, if not all. While he walked, Tim watched silently, switching through a few different Swarm Drones, as they attacked their assigned targets.

This was the first time the Hive had launched a general offensive, especially across such a large front, and he planned for it to be decisive.

He stayed with Tia, Bianorn and a few others as they walked, forming a small command group. While he could look through other drones’ eyes, there was something to be said for doing it this way and being present if he was needed. Taking a deep breath, Tim prepared mentally, then opened his mind and dove into the psychic link, trying to reach as many drones as possible. For the Hive, he whispered to them, and activated Rally. He felt his own stats increase, the walk suddenly seeming to become even easier and his gear lighter.

In the distance, maybe a kilometer or so away, the sound of screams and shouts started. It carried oddly through the mountainous terrain, bouncing and echoing off walls of rock. Tim and the drones with him sped up a little.

He let the others around him worry about their surroundings and concentrated on the psychic link, watching the course of the battle. Assuming you could call it a single battle. The gnomes still weren’t concentrated in only one position, so the hive’s forces had to split up, too, to crush them. Winged Drones wheeled overhead, a few of them darting from one base to another group as Gale and the other sapient commanders moved them. Tim followed mental steps he’d practiced and focused on the battlefield, letting it coalesce into his mind’s eye as a coherent picture. This was something the Keepers had prepared, like a strategic map that reflected the information other members of the Hive currently saw. It allowed him to get a good overview of what was happening.

Ace, take your unit and move east, he said over the psychic link. The gnomes at the second target in your grid are trying to break out to the northeast, and I’m not confident the War Drones can hold them.

On it, Ace replied. And for the first position?

They should be able to handle it, but I’ll send Kit with a few others to be sure.

Tim almost forgot his surroundings, letting his body move on autopilot, as he guided drones around the battlefield like a general with miniatures on a map. By and large, the gnomes reacted as he’d anticipated. They hadn’t expected such an attack in force, especially not seemingly everywhere at once, that much was obvious. Tim smiled faintly. The drones were fighting well.

Unfortunately, it didn’t all go their own way. That was why he and his companions were here, instead of just watching from a comfortable base somewhere.

The gnomes still had some elites left, mostly because they were careful about committing them, and probably also because those were just harder to kill. They’d cost the Hive a lot of drones, overall. And now, in the few positions they were gathered, they threatened to completely break the Hive’s attack.

“I’m sending Janis in with our trump cards,” Tim warned the others, aloud for their friends’ benefit. “Get ready to fight.” Then he switched to the psychic link and relayed his instructions to Janis.

He couldn’t resist watching as the biggest gnomish unit which put up the most resistance fought. They had pulled back to a reasonably defensive position on a hill, marked on one side by an almost sheer cliff face. But that became their undoing, as, a minute after he passed the order, a sudden gust of hurricane-level wind swept down from the cliff. Some of them stumbled and almost lost their footing. By the time they recovered, Volance was standing in their midst.

“Oh, pardon the interruption,” she said, grinning with what almost looked like hunger. “I heard there was a pest extermination drive.”

One of the gnomish elites, a fighter covered in plate armor, shouted a warcry and charged her. Before he even reached the elemental, the earth parted, almost splitting the hill in two and launching him off his feet. Another form coalesced from it, chuckling merrily.

Eterrame — Level ? Earth Elemental

Tim only kept his attention on them long enough to watch the beginning of the fight, before he turned his focus to threats that were a little closer. The elementals had that one handled, but there were a few more spots where gnomish elites were making a difference.

“I’m sending Ada and a few others south,” he told the others with him, “to take care of an outpost to our northeast. There’s another one close by, the one we discussed before. The gnomes are making a stand there.”

“Then let’s go break them up,” Tia said, smiling.

“You stay here,” Tim cut her off. “Fortify this position to give us a place to retreat if someone gets wounded. The rest of you, come with me.”

They’d learned that throwing hordes of weak Swarm Drones at elites could be effective, but only up to a point. Some had Skills, magic or gear that made dealing with swarming enemies easier, and Tim didn’t want to pay the price that taking them down like that would take. For those types — which were common among the gnomes’ surviving elites for obvious reasons — countering them with strong fighters of their own was the best move.

The gnomes had managed to get into something like a proper formation and were holding out pretty well against the War Drones and occasional Winged Drone air strike. There had to be several mages in the group, judging from the magical shields they used to fend off the bombardment. They were even pushing the drones back.

Then Tim and his group arrived to tilt the scales again. They’d taken a harder path, but everyone in this party was relatively high level and had decent physical stats, so that wasn’t a problem. The fight was taking place on a reasonably even stretch of ground, but it was situated atop a moderate incline, which they now hurried up. A bit of loose scree tumbled down, but the sounds were swallowed by the fighting up above.

Tim paused for a moment, checking that everyone had caught up, then took a deep breath. Unfortunately, he couldn’t use Queen’s Charge, since he’d used that Skill recently, but they still had other buffs. He gave them a nod, then activated one of his older Skills and charged at the gnomes.

The fight quickly devolved into chaos. Tim managed to get one armored fighter from the side before he realized what was happening, then had to dodge some kind of enhanced shot from another gnome. By this point, Ceneilis and the others were among the gnomes as well, fighting a furious melee.

Then someone blasted Ceneilis back, sending the elf flying to crash into a rock. Tim whirled to face them, recognizing the high-level mage who’d attacked his Hive Queen last time. He didn’t hesitate, but jumped forward, blade ready.

Unfortunately, the mage - an Archmage of the Elements, according to the System - seemed to sense his charge. He flickered and vanished, reappearing a moment later on another small boulder a few meters away, outside the thick of the fighting.

Tim made his way towards him, carefully this time, dodging attacks from other fighters as he went. He couldn’t afford to leave that guy free to concentrate on the others. With part of his attention, Tim also focused on the psychic link, sensing the positions and intentions of the drones around him.

The mage, Petiaken, turned and threw a massive fireball at Bianorn, who was fighting what looked like a spellblade of some kind. He couldn’t dodge in time, but a War Drone stumbled into the path of the Spell, going up in flames but saving the elf’s life.

Tim cursed and directed three nearby War Drones to charge the enemy mage. They’d just finished off an opponent of their own, and now turned to attack him. He knew they wouldn’t win, but the drones could buy them a bit of time. Then Tim had to dodge to the side as a lance struck where he’d just been.

He crouched, dodging another strike, and struck with his blade-arm. The gnomish warrior blocked his attack with his shield, but Tim’s sword swept low, catching his lower legs and creating an opening. His other blade-arm shot out and pierced the gnome’s chainmail under the armpit.

By the time he turned back around, the archmage had just finished off two of the War Drones and was cutting into the third with a blade of ice.

Tim picked up the lance from his defeated opponent and threw it. It bounced off a faintly glowing blue sheen around the mage, clearly a Mage Armor Spell, but the armor shattered under the attack. He grinned and took a step back.

Tim could see the gnomish mage wonder why he retreated, before his head whipped up. He wasn’t fast enough, though. Thor dove out of the sky, and Ken, seated on the other drone, unleashed a Fireball of his own.

Petiaken raised a hand, clearly trying to ward it off, but he didn’t manage to cast whatever Spell he attempted in time. Tim saw some flickering in the air, but then the Fireball exploded, bright enough that he had to blink against the glare. It didn’t leave much behind.

Tim smiled, sensing Ken’s satisfaction at the successful kill. Even if he could have brought down the other mage himself, he might have let Ken handle it, anyway. He had been a bit skeptical, but being allowed to participate in the war, fighting back against the gnomes, seemed to do the younger drone a lot of good.

Great work, he sent him, then turned around. They still had work to do. Even if it was mostly cleanup, seeing the state of their enemies.