Grace

Grace didn’t like the plan. In fact, she was very much opposed to it. Not the plan itself maybe, but her part in it for sure. She had been partnered up with jade and Ice. The three of them, plus the two ogres and Honor, had been working together all day. The sun was close to setting now, so hopefully this nightmare would end soon.

“What is the point of this plan anyway?” Jade asked, as they hid inside a now empty tower. Its occupants had been recently dispatched, and their shells cracked open. They had then been spread out over the area surrounding the spindly little tower, the wolves had led them to that morning.

“Grace has already told you, Benjamin said to spread out the bugs. When the blue Hive come out to eat, Benjamin and Stomper will enter the tower to find the monarchs. Grace and Jade are to watch out for Hive of different colors and keep them from killing the blue ones.” She said for perhaps the hundred and third time.

“No Grace, that’s THE plan,” Jade said. “I asked what the POINT of the plan was. Why bother drawing them out, they’re shrimps. The blue ones are barely bigger than you. How do we know that they will come out at all for some smashed bugs? Why does Vice wanna go in alone with the Viking? Why don’t we just kill them all?” she continued in a tirade.

“Grace doesn’t know, she just does what Benjamin asks of her.” She said. She actually did know, but she wasn’t supposed to tell Jade.

It had been a long day, since they had split up that morning. Benjamin and Stomper had separated themselves to wait for nightfall, while the girls set the trap. Benjamin thought that once the sun set, the blue Hive wouldn’t be able to keep themselves from the food, if what they had seen last night was any indication. She could already see them looking out at it, from the small tower windows.

He wanted to clear the nest out so that he could sneak in and get the pattern of the blue Hive leader. He might be able to control the Hive that way, if not, well they were ‘small fry’ as Jade said. Ice was here to make sure Jade stayed on task, worst case she was to kill the woman. Grace hoped it didn’t come to that, the bugs were hard to kill without the ogres.

“Yea yea that’s what you keep saying…so, what did you think about Vice’s little confession last night eh?” Jade asked, changing the subject.

Grace blushed darkly, glaring at the taller woman.

“Grace doesn’t know what you mean.” She said hotly. She had overheard the conversation last night, and she had felt Benjamin stroking her hair. Her heart had pounded so hard that she just knew he would feel it, but he didn’t seem to notice as he talked to Jade about her.

“Oh, come on now girlie. I saw you open your eyes. Besides your face is so green right now, I know you heard him.” Jade continued to goad her.

“Grace didn’t…Grace was…its none of your business anyway. Why don’t you tell Grace something about you instead?” She said, grasping at any change of topic she could.

“You wanna know who I like?” Jade asked with a wicked grin. “Well girlie, the options are pretty limited around here, Tik and Tok are sweet but have you SEEN how big those boys are? They would break me in half.”

“Grace hasn’t…” she started to say.

“Then there’s the Viking. He does know how to swing that axe of his, I suppose. I don’t know though; he is a little on the small side for me”

“Please, Grace doesn’t…” she tried again.

“That just leaves Vice. Now he really is something isn’t he? I mean, maybe. It seems like you don’t have any interest in…”

“NO, Grace has interest. You can’t have him…oh look” she said pointing out at the small tower. “The blue Hive are coming out, be quite and get ready.” She said with relief.

“Whatever you say girlie,” Jade said. A sadistic smirk on her face, that Grace really didn’t like. Night had fallen while they were talking, and the Hive were starting to move. Grace readied her bow, giving a silent wish to the Lord Erlking, to watch over Benjamin and Stomper. Glancing over to Jade, she added an extra wish for herself.

* * *

Benjamin Vryce

Benjamin crouched low behind an abandoned Hive building, with Stomper at his side. He had planned the raid out as best he could, and now all he could do was wait. The sun was setting and the girls had set the bait, he hoped this worked. Idly, he wondered how Grace and Jade were getting along.

He had wanted to bring the goblin girl, but her skills didn’t lend themselves to confined tunnels. He thought they were going to have to do a lot of climbing to. No, it was best to leave her outside where she could do the most good.

He was going to have more backup though. He hadn’t mentioned it, wanting to keep a few things from Jade, but he would be summoning his four dire squirrels as soon as he was inside. Climbing these walls shouldn’t be an issue for the agile beasts, and they should easily be a match for the small Hive.

As the sun finally dipped out of sight, he heard the thumping noise of wings. The blue Hive were swarming down from their tower in droves. He didn’t understand their hunger at first, there were pill bug beasts everywhere around here. Then he experimented some with the blue Hive bodies they had, and the pill bug corpses. He figured the little Hive weren’t strong enough to pierce the bug’s armor.

During the day they had seen a few other Hive flying around overhead. There was a green version and another blue variant. They were both closer in size to the red ones from last night, much bigger than these blue ones. They were also armored better, the plates being thicker and uniform in design. While the blue Hive had thinner patch work armor, likely from weaker insects.

Benjamin’s best guess, was that one or both of the blue Hive’s monarchs were dead. If the original, blue Hive were gone then the subsequent generations would be smaller and weaker. That was a lot of guess work, coupled with what the Erlking had let slip. He just hoped that both original monarchs weren’t dead. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to get a pattern for them and he would have wasted the day.

He shook his head; he couldn’t know anything for sure until he got inside. He looked around, there were a few dozen of the small Hive on the ground eating the broken bug bodies. He hadn’t heard any wing beats in a while, so this was as good a chance as any. Motioning to Stomper, he set off on a low sprint for the tower.

Once he arrived, he placed his back to the wall and bent low, looping his hands together. As Stomper reached him and stepped into his cupped hands, he lifted him up to the first window. The goblin scrambled inside, and Benjamin turned and leapt up after him. Once inside he had to practically crawl. These tunnels were much smaller than the other towers he had been in. Maybe this Hive had done that to keep the bigger factions out.

Reaching inside himself he pulled on the four lines that connected to his squirrels. The mastiff sized tree climbers materialized next to him, not drawing much at all from his essence core. That surprised him a little when he thought about it, he had grown so much since he first got here. Back then even calling Silver out had been a drain on him.

“Alright guys,” he said in a hushed voice. “It’s only a guess, but I think the blue monarch will be at the top of this tower.” Assuming there is still a monarch, he couldn’t help adding silently. “We gotta get up there as fast as possible, while the rank and file are outside eating. Try not to kill any of those. If you see a big one with gold banding though, kill it, no hesitation.” He finished, motioning for the squirrels to be about it. He let them go first because he knew they would be faster than him or Stomper. Sure enough, the words were barely out of his mouth and they were gone, bushy tails disappearing down the tunnel.

What followed was a slow, grueling climb. He had to crawl through a lot of it. Many of the vertical shafts were so sheer, he ended up bracing his arms and legs to either side and shimmying his way up them. He couldn’t deny feeling very much like a ninja as he did. At least there weren’t any Hive around as they climbed, he would have hated having to fight them in these close confines.

Eventually, they reached a vertical shaft that went up much further than the ones before had. Benjamin could hear the battle screams of squirrels, and the thumping of insectoid wings. it sounded like the fight had already begun. He just hoped he would get there in time to be of use.

As he began the long climb, he felt one of the squirrels die. Followed almost instantly by another. He started to panic when a third followed. There was only one squirrel left up there, and remembering his own fight against the beasts he knew they were fierce. He stopped his climb and resummoned them in the tunnel, he nearly lost his footing when they appeared above him.

It seemed a flat surface was preferred for summoning, as they didn’t have a grip on the walls right away. He managed to catch them thankfully, and sent them back up to continue the fight. As he made his way up the hundred-yard climb he was forced to stop and resummon them again. Whatever was up there was vicious, it gave him hope that it was an original, and thus a patterned, Hive.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he came to an opening. Grasping the lip with both hands, he hauled himself into the room. Reaching back in to pull Stomper up after him, before looking around. It wasn’t a large space, but seemed massive after the small confines of the tunnel system.

It looked to be a nursery. A few small Hive with larger proportioned abdomens, huddled near the back wall surrounded by eggs. Standing between the females and the squirrels was a blue Hive, easily twice the size of the rest he had seen so far. Golden bands wrapped its chest and forelimbs, proving this was the blue monarch. It was holding off the squirrel attacks with relative ease. That was a miracle in Benjamin’s eyes, when he saw just how battered the Hive monarch was.

It was covered with old and badly healed battle scars. It was missing a wing, and one of its multifaceted eyes had been gouged out. There was a myriad of healed slashes that had punctured through its thickly armored carapace. The worst injury by far, however, was the crumpled up and twisted abdomen.

Benjamin finally understood why the blue Hive were so small and weak when they still had a living monarch. It had lost the ability to reproduce, and since it could no longer fly it had been reduced to guarding the nest, that produced its ever-weakening offspring. The way this monster fought; Benjamin wouldn’t have been surprised to find out it ruled one of the massive skyscraper sized Hives before its injury.

It was almost a shame he had to kill it. At least if all went well, he would be bringing it back soon. Benjamin smirked at that thought, he was getting a little ahead of himself. He wouldn’t be doing anything if he didn’t defeat the battle-scarred Hive first. A feat easier said than done. That fact was made more evident, as he watched the brute bisect a squirrel with a single slash.