When the Nerlian and Cernlian army finally reached positions the hive’s allies held, Regina almost missed it. There was no line on the ground, no specific moment where they crossed it, just a quickly increasing trickle of fighters moving across where you would draw a line on a map, more or less.

Of course, they had set up a defensive line. Ditches, palisades, outposts, and roving drones. The enemy army was screened by light infantry and skirmishers, which made it past the first line but stopped at the main palisade. Some of them must have slipped past, there was no way around that, but their real troops didn’t.

They had guessed more or less correctly, Regina noted with a breath of relief. The enemy were heading roughly where they had thought they would. They had already made some pushes elsewhere, but now they were concentrating their forces and clearly preparing to punch through and march on quickly. Their speed meant they could have still swerved around and taken another fort, but not like this.

Now it’s starting, Ben muttered as she reached out to him. This will heat up until they push through the line.

I’m guessing we’re not going to stop them, Regina replied, raising an eyebrow.

Ben would have snorted if they’d actually been talking in person. No. That was never in the cards, my Queen. We don’t even want to, not really. She felt him move some of his attention through the psychic link, checking on what drones’ eyes saw. This is only the first step of the dance.

The hive was already moving. They hadn’t stopped moving since the enemy raids first started. Now, Janis was in the air, accompanied by Dan, already heading towards the new target. Regina brushed her mind against hers quickly, checking that everything was going fine. Then she moved on to check on the rest.

The border between Whitor’s earldom and the eastern reaches of Lyns’ march, where the king had currently been moving, was decided by a natural line of hills and a dry riverbed that had the ground rapidly sink into something like a chasm just past the crown of a hill. There was a thick forest covering the gentler slopes of the hills, and several spots where the riverbed meandered away from an incline or had been partly filled up, leading to more even ground.

The highest point on Whitor’s side was crowned by an old fort dating from before the founding of Cernlia, built in wood, which had been partly remodeled since then and recently expanded a bit. Most of Whitor’s forces that had been close enough to be pulled in were gathered here, as well as some War Drones. The enemy army was clearly planning to use one of the roads heading north, which passed by the hill it sat on but crossed the border in a stretch of relatively flat, open ground, where the river must have once flown broad and shallow and had since been filled with some silt and gravel. The earth in those parts was loose, Regina knew, something her drones had found both good and bad in preparing defenses.

She was barely able to focus on the other things she was supposed to be doing while she waited for the real battle to start. It took a lot longer than she thought, although at this point, she really should have known better. Though, to be fair, she’d never been in a situation quite like this before. The hive was fighting on the defensive again, but against a human army instead of a gnomish expedition - one that was considerably larger, as well - and it would be their first major clash, if you didn’t count them steamrolling some of the remaining soldiers in Nerlia.

Their advance in that country itself had also stalled a bit, although Regina wasn’t worried about that. Ben had been meaning to slow their pace anyway, to keep them able to intervene back here if it was necessary. It would give their enemies time to scramble some forces in the heartlands of Nerlia, but that was a risk they’d have to take, and knowing where the main Nerlian army was and where it was moving made that easier. Now they could consolidate their hold on the territory they’d just taken, and with the reinforcements sent towards Janis and the enemy army, that was enough of a challenge on its own. At the moment, Regina kept herself busy building a mental map of their forces in relation to population centers and popular sentiment in Nerlia’s border regions, until she got a nudge from Ben and turned her attention back to the current hotspot.

The humans had formed up into what she assumed was proper battle order for them. The first lines started marching, moving at a deceptively quick pace across the dirt road — until the front ranks blew up in a curtain of smoke and thunder.

“They couldn’t think it was that easy, right?” Regina muttered.

“They were just throwing bodies at it,” Max answered with a hint of scorn in his voice. “Trying to feel out what we might have done, I’m guessing.”

Regina glanced at him and nodded. She’d retreated to her rooms to watch the battle in peace, and he was leaning against the wall by the door. She wasn’t surprised that he was watching it as well through the psychic link. Most people in the hive who weren’t currently busy probably were.

The Cernlians and Nerlians - she still had trouble telling their soldiers apart since they didn’t have the decency to wear proper uniforms - kept advancing. More of them were blown up by the buried charges, and while she could see their vanguard falter, they kept on going. Impressive discipline, she noted. Under the circumstances.

Of course, the hive hadn’t had the time or even planned to mine the road that thoroughly, so soon enough it was mostly cleared. Some of the mines were caught by soliders’ Skills, and some simply withstood them, probably by using Class Skills as well. The companies, or whatever terms they used, that they’d sent out were still noticeably smaller. Behind them, the rest of the army got a move on as well.

That was, of course, when they started coming under fire.

The majority of it was actual arrow fire, most of them not really on fire. These were shot mostly by Whitor’s soldiers. Regina would have started while the vanguard was halfway through the buried explosives, but range was an issue and their commanders on the ground didn’t want the human soldiers too close to the enemy. Besides, this way more of them were in a position to be hit.

Regina kept an eye on the casualties as the real fighting started. Well, it was still skirmishing. The attackers appeared to have some specialists, with suitable Classes, in the front to handle that. Unfortunately, they couldn’t really do the same. Whitor didn’t have enough people for that kind of specialization. Of course, the Hive worked pretty differently, anyway. Shooters and a few magic-users, more Witches than Attendants, were raining projectiles and Spells down on the advancing human fighters, accompanied by arrows from Whitor’s men. Most of those had bows, even if they weren’t proper archers. But volume of fire had a quality of its own in this situation.

Of course, it couldn’t last. The attackers were tightly packed on the road but also passed it quickly. Their vanguard, freshly reinforced, charged up the hill towards the positions of the Hive and their allies. At a silent order from Ben, most of them had already started retreating.

They’d kept War Drones manning the fort’s fortifications and the rather improvised defensive line they had set up behind and to the sides of it. That would spare the casualties for Whitor’s forces. Unfortunately, the drones were also generally less suited to holding a palisade. They were individually weaker, although having a wall helped, and just didn’t react as flexibly.

Regina breathed out sharply, watching as an entire section of that wall collapsed. Some kind of Spell from the Nerlians, she decided after a moment. It was like a small, localized implosion. I’d love to learn that one. Then she shook her head and focused on the battle at large.

The breach in the wall was quickly filled with enemy soldiers, and they pushed through and established a beachhead. Another breach quickly followed, letting soldiers pour into the fort’s interior. They paid for it, in corpses scattered across the floor and filling up the ditch at the sides, but they took it.

Clearly, the enemy commanders had decided they could take the hit and to just storm the defenses. It was probably the right call; they had superior numbers and somewhere they needed, or at least wanted, to be in a hurry.

A swarm of Winged Drones descended slightly lower, dropping their payloads on the enemy soldiers. Regina gritted her teeth as she felt the cost that demanded, drones dying in large swathes. There’s a difference between fighting some adventurer parties or scattered garrison forces and a proper army, she acknowledged to herself. The attackers had too many strong fighters with Skills or magic for ranged fighting, even shooting upwards. And they couldn’t have the drones drop bombs from too far of because it would lessen their precision and heighten the risk of friendly fire and would also give the attackers more time to raise shields against them.

Regina sighed. These armies had been fighting for months, and come from another war before that. She’d hoped they’d have bled most of their higher-level fighters and elites dry. But then, she supposed they’d have had people leveling up for all of that time, too. It probably hadn’t quite evened out, and soldiers shooting up in levels after battles wouldn’t have the experience of decades-older veterans, but she still didn’t like the impression she got of their army’s strength.

The flying drones’ main job was to cover the retreat of their other forces, and that, at least, they managed. More or less, anyway. Too many of her drones were still caught by the human attackers, although at least most of Whitor’s men managed to get away. Regina grit her teeth and tried to still her restless twitching as she watched. They’d given orders for the drones to cover the sapient soldiers even at the cost of their own lives, so that much was as expected. It didn’t make her like watching it any more.

Eventually, the humans had taken the fort and most of the defensive barricade. The main one, anyway. Regina cocked her head, waiting silently. A minute later, having given them just enough time to settle a little, Janis passed the order over the psychic link and the buried charges detonated.

Of course they’d mined the fort. They’d never seriously intended to hold it against the enemy army - with those numbers, it would have been stupid to try - so they would do as much damage as they could. It would also leave the way open for Lyns’ army if and when he came up behind them. Assuming the enemy didn’t stop to re-fortify it. Which they might, Regina considered, quickly looking through several different drones’ eyes.

They hadn’t done as much damage as they hoped. The hive hadn’t relied on a single large explosion, but distributed charges throughout the structures. Some of them must have been neutralized. Perhaps a Skill that formed some kind of defensive barricade cushioning them from the ground, or a use of magic. Most of the fort was either toppled or falling down, though.

“What do you think?” she asked Max quietly, looking away from the view in her mind’s eye for a moment.

He shrugged, still appearing relaxed. “They’re a little better than I expected,” he acknowledged. “But they’ve had some time to prepare and plan, and their weaknesses will become more apparent over a longer campaign.” His eyes flickered to her. “Our biggest advantages are logistic and strategical,” he explained. “At the moment, we’re not really built for a straight-up fight. Not without, you know …”

Regina nodded. “Things I’d rather not,” she said. She didn’t ask him about his opinion regarding her decision to limit themselves. She didn’t need to, and she was pretty sure he wouldn’t give her a straight answer, anyway.

“They’re reorganizing,” Max said.

Regina returned her focus to the battle, and had to agree. “Then now would be a good time to hit them, wouldn’t it?” she said quietly.

Before she even had the time to voice that suggestion over the psychic link, they were already in motion. A flock of Winged Drones, now reinforced a little, came for another pass overhead; slightly higher this time, reducing casualties. The rocks and explosives they dropped finished demolishing the fort pretty well, but although they also carved furrows into the attacking army’s ranks, it didn’t come close to shattering it. There were just too many of them.

Then another small group of flying drones descended from the sky. Regina held her breath as she watched. The humans had brought elites to the forefront, to buffer the damage and try to bring down as many Winged Drones as they could. Now Janis and Dan, riding the strongest Mounts they’d been able to scrape up, dropped towards them, accompanied by the hive’s own elites.

They swerved just before they would have passed directly over the remains of the fort, passing to the side and keeping some altitude. Janis sent down a quick series of Firebolts, then made the flames still consuming the wood of the palisades roar and explode outwards with Fire Manipulation. A moment later, she added Wind Manipulation to make them spread even further. Regina was impressed at the effect, Janis had really done some training.

I wish I could be there myself, Regina thought, but quickly shook that thought off. It was weaker than it might have been a few months ago. Perhaps she was getting used to this. Instead, she focused fully on the fight, where several elites had just started rising into the air to meet Janis and the others.

She itched to dive deeper into the psychic link, but held herself back. Meddling now would not help. Janis had this in hand. And, Regina had to admit, she was looking forward to her trouncing these people.