Regina paced, up and down by the entrance to the tunnels, in tight arcs. It was probably a good thing that she had already taken the same steps several times by now, because all of her attention was somewhere else.

She’d debated it for a moment, but with Ben’s advice, she’d decided to call Dan and Zoe up here to make their stand against the Delvers rather than have them stay underground. She didn’t want to split her drones into three or even more groups for their pursuers to pick off.

Of course, she’d still sent some of the War Drones down there to make sure that Ace and Ada managed to reach the surface, and was now intently watching what happened.

The three new War Drones lunged at the Delvers, managing to arrest their momentum. One of the men even stumbled into the rocky tunnel wall. The others made short work of the drones, but it allowed the two Scouts to keep running and escape them.

Regina grimaced and winced as she felt the three War Drones dying shortly after one another. She’d already lost too many today. Then she withdrew her mind from the link and focused on her own body and her actual surroundings.

“Here they come,” she warned the drones with her. Ben took a step forward as if to shield her.

Then she caught sight of Ada and Ace. The two Scouts put on one last burst of speed and stumbled out of the tunnel entrance. They immediately veered to the side, and Dan and Zoe stepped up to close the gap, while Ben arranged the War Drones with curt words and gestures.

Regina glanced at her Scouts. Looking into their minds, she could tell they were exhausted, but also thrilled to have made it out. You did well, she whispered to them. Gather your strength. This wasn’t over yet.

It took longer than she thought. Maybe the humans had decided to slow down and regroup, accepting that they wouldn’t be able to catch up to the Scouts this quickly. Regina wished she still had eyes on the group. She’d seen that there were only three humans when her War Drones attacked last, but didn’t know how far behind the other man was. Then she finally caught the scent of them heading up, heard their footsteps and saw the dark shapes coming. Four of them, after all.

Regina was tempted to order the attack before they realized what was up. The humans were obviously on their guard, though, and besides, she still didn’t know how high leveled they all were. Plus, she figured she should probably make some effort to protect the truce, at least. Even if them attacking members of her hive unprovoked made her want to tear their limbs off and put their heads on pikes as warnings to whoever might try something similar.

“Humans,” she greeted them just as they stepped out of the tunnel. “You have attacked my people unprovoked. Stand down and throw down your weapons, and we will sort this out peacefully.”

She saw their leader’s eyes dart around. He was clearly surprised by the drones now surrounding them and the entrance to the tunnels.

Ada and Ace straightened up and stepped forward to join the Warriors. Regina only had the pair of Scouts and the three Warriors along with six War Drones here. But she’d sent out a call to any other nearby drones as soon as she realized what was happening, and Tim and a few others were on their way. If she managed to stall the Delvers just a little, they would be here soon. Still, the hive already outnumbered the humans.

“We will not surrender our weapons to monsterbloods,” their leader spat. “By what right do you accost us like this?”

“We, accost you? You’re the ones who attacked us. Now surrender.”

The Delvers exchanged looks. Regina could tell that the woman and the younger man were doubtful and would probably prefer this to be resolved without violence. But the leader was still blustering, even if he hadn’t attacked yet. Maybe he felt less sure than he acted, being outnumbered like this.

“Your drones intruded into territory they had no right to be,” he declared. “We simply acted accordingly. And this area, as well, is claimed by the kingdom of Cernlia. We have permission to be here, which I doubt you do.”

Regina cocked her head. There was something else here. After a moment, she realized what. Faint sounds reached her ears from deeper in the tunnels. There are more of them!

She quickly dove into the psychic connection to her hive to check on the other drones. Tim, Tia and a few other drones were coming. About two dozen War Drones. Max had been out, in the opposite direction from the hive. He was hurrying as fast as he could, but he wouldn’t be able to reach them quickly.

“Why is this territory supposedly a place you have more right to be?” she asked. At the same time, she silently alerted the others and told them to prepare, but not to let anything show. “The tunnels don’t seem to belong to anyone except perhaps the monsters living in them, or the elves whose forest this is.”

The man, Lions according to the System, sneered. “You simply show how little you understand of the world, as expected from a savage monsterblood.”

Regina tensed up, hearing the sounds of incoming footsteps grow louder. “I ask you for the last time, Delvers, will you surrender or not?”

“No,” the leader and the cloth-armored man spat together.

They raised their weapons at the same time as the drones did. Regina took a step backward and gathered her mana. She was glad she had a mostly full mana pool for this. Then the fight started, with Zoe Charging straight at the weakest of the humans. Dan followed a heartbeat behind.

The earth shook as one of the humans used a Class Skill. A second later, more people rushed out of the entrance. They had barely stepped into the light before Ben and half of the present War Drones jumped them.

Regina exhaled and let mana flow out with it. A large Firebolt exploded out of her palm. She’d aimed the trajectory of the attack carefully to make sure no drone would be in its path.

Her bolt caught two of the reinforcing humans. It threw one of them off her feet and made the light armor of the second one smolder. Ben and the other drones capitalized on this opportunity. Regina saw his strike push right past the blade a human had raised in defense as he and the other warriors activated their strength-boosting Skill.

The fight only got more chaotic from there. Regina did her best to stay back and out of range of the Delvers’ attacks. They seemed to be too hard-pressed to rally and push for her, luckily enough. Regina threw one more Firebolt, then switched to Magic Missiles. She didn’t want to risk hitting one of her own drones. Fire was, unfortunately, not very friendly to anyone.

They managed to keep the humans off-balance and prevent them from linking up and forming a good defense. It helped that none of them seemed to have real magic at their disposal. A few of the Delvers would beat any of them in melee, but the hive warriors made sure not to take them on one on one.

Casualties mounted, though. Four of her War Drones were quickly taken out of the fight, one with a lethal wound. Ben got a nasty scratch across his side and suffered a broken arm trying to parry an enhanced strike from a Delver. Ace and Ada accumulated minor wounds, but they were good at dodging. But then one of the human warriors pushed Zoe back with his shield, hitting her hard enough to send her flying until she hit a tree.

Slowly but surely, the momentum was turning. Regina gritted her teeth and intensified her efforts. She was the trump card her people had, and she wouldn’t let them down.

Then a new figure streaked out of the trees, striking at Lions’ back. Regina didn’t need to look at him to recognize Tim. He roared, a war cry that was taken up by the other drones. They all started pushing harder.

Another human trickled out of the cave entrance, then another. Regina spent a few precious moments deliberating whether she could block it off. But her Conjuration wasn’t suited for that, and she didn’t have the focus to spare to figure something out. She needed to keep fighting.

Her mana was getting dangerously low. She hefted her polearm, which she’d taken from a human guard so long ago, and stepped forward. A strike found its way between a human rogue’s defenses, occupied as she was by two War Drones. The human managed to twist around and save herself from a fatal injury, but the cut still bled deeply.

Regina put all of her strength into her weapon, pushing her back as she pulled it out and swept it around, attacking another warrior. He managed to block it with his shield, but then Zoe swiped at his legs and he stumbled. Tim capitalized on the opportunity, jumping at him and sticking a knife between the plates of his armor under his armpit.

Regina took a moment to glance around and take stock. War Drones were trickling in, as quickly as they could move. She still had numerical superiority, even if her drones’ levels were lower on average.

The woman in Lions’ party suddenly started glowing slightly. Regina swallowed a curse. That looked like an Ability activation. The light seemed to leapfrog to her party. Lions straightened up as the blood flowing from his back stopped, and he advanced on Ace, pushing him back.

Regina grimaced, but didn’t hesitate. She stepped forward, thrusting her weapon at the human, sending a nudge to Ace at the same time. The Scout reacted, backing away as Regina bought him the chance.

Lions’ ax swept down on her, and Regina barely got out of the way. She tried to parry his follow-up strike with her polearm. It crashed against her arm like an unstoppable wave, pushing her weapon out of the way and sending a shudder up through her arm.

But the human was unable to follow up on it, as Ben and a War Drone attacked him from both sides. It gave Regina a moment to tap into her mana, and she quickly formed a Magic Missile, thrusting her hand out and letting it explode into his face.

Lions cried out and fell to his knees, were he rolled and came back to his feet, swaying slightly. Regina stumbled back a step, breathing hard. She looked around to make sure no one else was going to attack her. Then she noticed a notification in the corner of her vision.

You have leveled up

Regina blinked, then jumped forward. She saw that her drones had gotten the upper hand now. A few War Drones lay dead on the ground, but so did a few humans. Regina hurried to Ben and put a hand on his shoulder, sending some of her remaining mana into him to heal him.

Then she stepped towards Lions again, flaring her wings as she stabbed her polearm into the ground, its smaller blade just a centimeter from his head. The drones had battered him down until he crouched on his knees, bleeding in several places. He looked up and their eyes met.

Her second thrust ended it, the tip of her weapon sinking into his eye and skull.

Regina turned away, pulling out her weapon, then went to the side of the woman she’d noticed before, from his original party. She was on the ground, too, but she wasn’t currently fighting anyone, and was reaching for the sword she had dropped.

Regina kicked it away and stepped onto the Delver’s hand. She panned her gaze across the battle. “Give no quarter.”

She hadn’t spoken very loudly, but she knew every drone heard her. The humans fought furiously, but they had already lost. The drones now had overwhelming numbers and made short work of them.

She didn’t see anyone trying to surrender. Whether that was because the Delvers had heard her or because it was just the way they were, she didn’t know, and at the moment, she didn’t particularly care. She only needed one person to interrogate.

Regina realized her face had pulled into a snarl and smoothed it out. She watched the battle end and her enemies die, though. She was crushing pests, and at the moment, she would have liked to have more of them here so that she could keep crushing. But it was these people who had provoked her wrath, their own ends. Delvers. I wish I knew what their deal was. This is not going to be without repercussions.

Regina shook her head. She glanced at Tim, who’d stepped up beside her, and nodded towards the human woman still lying by her feet. “Secure that one.”

Then she stepped away. She took a deep breath, parsing the scent of blood and battle and the forest beyond, then frowned.

I leveled up. Shouldn’t I have gotten something?

“My Queen,” Tim murmured after a moment. She turned her head and saw he was looking at her. Specifically, his eyes were glued to her back. Then he met her eyes. “Your wings came in. Are they finally functional?”

Regina blinked. Right. Her wings.

She moved muscles she hadn’t before, and stretched. A slight breeze blew past her as her wings flapped. She saw that they were bigger than she had expected, and almost entirely transparent, but supported by a delicate lattice that was darker.

Let’s find out. Regina bent her knees, then jumped as high as she could. She moved her wings on instinct, and they flapped, sending air under her. She felt a faint shift in her mana as some of it began to flow. Regina started falling, but her wings flapped again, and she never quite touched the ground before they carried her upwards again.

She couldn’t help the grin on her face as she started ascending, making her way through the air.