Devourer

Chapter 85: The Terror Unseen

Captain Jeris marched alongside his men, he could feel the blisters on the bottom of his feet. The metal parts of his armour jabbed against the leather parts and it chaffed painfully against his now raw skin. But he felt no unhappiness in his heart, though the conscripts in his small army were clearly unhappy he didn’t care. The ravens came a few days ago, the newly formed Averlonian Empire has launched their counter invasion after soundly defeating the Prince’s army in the field. The town of Tritis has fallen, Averlin has declared for their Elysians brothers and sisters, and more importantly the Elysian Wardens have taken the town of Emelis with an amphibious assault. The Tralis southern fleet has been sunk to the bottom of the Southern Expanse giving the Elysians complete naval superiority in the region.

The Tralis fleet stood no chance against the Warden’s old empire era ships. Those ships had enchanted mithril hulls that were impervious to almost all attacks. Their enchanted ballistas and spell cannons out ranged anything the Tralis fleet had and it could fire far more accurately.

Captain Jeris was now part of the force that was sent to liberate Emelis. With Tritis now under Elysian control in the west of Berylis and with control of the east by holding Emelis, Berylis would be essentially surrounded. It would be trivially easy for the Elysians to starve them out and cut off Sergeant Jeris and his comrades from Tralis. The population of Beralis was also growing increasingly hostile towards his comrades. So if they see an opening, open rebellion is a real possibility.

In fact this was also why his commander had pulled almost all of the forces of the capital. The plan was to retake Emelis and link up with the garrison in Berylis and hold out in the hopes that the Averlonian Empire’s army would be defeated. It was better than fighting an all out rebellion in the middle of a war where they have been cut off from the homeland. Yes they would still be cut off if the rebellion succeeds but at least with the Wardens gone from the rear, the forces of Berylis would still have a retreat route and the army could plunder the countryside to sustain itself. The Averlonian Empire would not have the forces to seriously commit to a two front war so chances are the bulk of the enemy forces would focus on the capital.

So by taking back Emelis it would give the Tralis forces that were trapped in Beralis room to manoeuvre and force the Averlonian Empire to commit forces to contain them in the east. Which will pull forces from the main battle at the capital. The Great Beast of the Elysian Woods was only one beast, chances are it would be at the capital. So they would only need to contend with the Elysian forces. Jeris had no doubt the commanders at the capital were already coordinating with the adventurer’s guild to combat the Great Beast. The adventurer guilds were traditionally expected to stay out of human versus human conflicts. But they were now dealing with an ancient monster so this changed things significantly.

Captain Jeris looked up at his army then his vision went white and he heard shouts and screams. Then his eyes widened as he saw this ball of white fire consume an entire section of the marching line. Then he heard more booms as more fireballs appeared around them, mercifully the area where Captain Jeris was spared from the fire.

“ABOVE US!” Captain Jeris heard someone shout in panic and when he looked up he felt his blood turn to ice. He saw a dozen phoenixes circling them, firing fireballs down onto the column of soldiers.

Then he saw a white phoenix dive down and a white light began glowing from its mouth. Captain Jeris could see the column of soldiers scattering in fear at the sight of the diving beast. Then he saw a white beam appear from its maw as it fired along the column turning hundreds of men to ash in a single sweep. Then he saw the beam shift angle and began moving towards him, instinctively he dived to the side and he felt the searing heat from behind. He screamed as he felt his exposed skin blistered from the heat. Then he realised he felt a searing heat on his back he looked over his shoulder to see his backpack had caught fire.

Jeris yelped as he scrambled to try and get the backpack off his back. He struggled as he felt the shoulder joints of his armour creak from stiffness, the heat must have warped the steel slightly. Finally he managed to detach the backpack and he rolled away to see it burning in the grass. Jeris scanned the area around him to see his men screaming in terror as the phoenixes continued to strafe and bombard the small army.

Then Jeris felt the ground beneath him shift. He stiffened as he looked down just in time to feel the ground beneath him cave in. He screamed as he plunged downward. He landed hard on packed earth, he looked around panicked and he screamed again as he saw a white monster pounce at him. It was this strange creature with four legs and a pair of arms tipped with bone blades. It was completely white and had two eyes on each side of its elongated head. He felt himself topple over and the creature’s blades sank into his shoulder. Jeris cried out in pain and fear as he saw the beast open its maw. He felt its razor sharp fangs close around his throat, the flesh gave way and then the mouth pulled away. Jeris gurgled as he felt his vision tunnel, he couldn’t breathe and he felt a warm wetness at his chest. Then darkness…

Azatherine landed in the middle of the blood soaked battlefield as the ground erupted in front of her revealing one of the newest queens to the Hive. She was named Niandra, one of the second generation queens that were designed based on the modified template of the first generation queens that made up the initial hive. The new queens were sent out to deal with the Tralis reinforcements flooding towards the capital.

They were all untested, the older queens all had battle experience and had spilt blood in the past. The blood spilt was Zariman blood, a civilisation that was far more accustomed to fighting the hive creatures. Azatherine could sense the feeling of inadequacy within the younger queens and also a desperate desire to prove themselves to their King, to validate their existence and purpose. Their king had confidence in their abilities because they were of his design. The King does not make shoddy work, his designs outclass anything the other queens could create. From what Azatherine could comprehend with her limited understanding of Flesh Crafting, the King’s designs spun essence on a much smaller scale, allowing for far more precise fine tuning. This difference led to several orders of magnitudes of difference in terms of efficiency for his creations as compared to those done by the queens of the broods.

“Well fought Mistress.” Niandra said as she bowed her white head.

Azatherine examined her body, seeing her engorged snake-like tail, six arms, mandibled jaw and pair of almost reptilian eyes on either side of her long armoured head. In simple terms the Queen also known as the Broodmother template was largely based on the King’s own physiology. Of course being moulded and created based on the inherent efficiencies of a species as powerful as the Firstborn was a source of great pride for the Queens.

“As did you, I will report back on your excellent performance.” Azatherine said with a nod and Niandra bowed low again and Azatherine sensed a thrill of happiness radiating out into the Hive from Niandra.

Then Azatherin heard the King speak into the hive.

Well done you two…

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Rafara smiled internally as she spurred her brood to begin the assault, their target was the column of marching soldiers that came from this pathetic nation’s northern border. There was a kind of competition going on. Rafara’s brood was working with the brood of her sister queen Rafanda. They were created together by their king and now it was a competition to see who could outperform the other.

Rafara was on the eastern flank while Rafanda was on the western flank. The objective and directive was simple. Kill most of the humans and leave a few alive to run to Tralis to spread the word.

By doing this it would lessen the likelihood of a surrender from the Tralis royal family but the King knew surrender was impossible. So he has decided on an illustrative show to those pathetic humans what would happen if they should choose to resist after the conquest is complete. The human spies have indicated that the Tralis government has turned every able bodied man into a militia force. She had even heard from her sisters some rather amusing news. Apparently they didn’t have enough weapons to arm the militia so some of them are armed with crude wooden spears, shields and farming implements.

If steel and unenchanted mithril could just barely kill the weakest soldiers in the Hive what chance did these crude weapons have?

Well regardless there was a job to do now and Rafara would not fail. She commanded the brood to emerge from below and immediately her soldiers reported stunned shock. The army was static and had not yet completely panicked. She then ordered more soldiers to emerge and intensify the assault, if she can make the most of this moment of shock she can reduce her own casualties. Her twin Rafanda had opted for a far more aggressive tactic and it was beginning to show some of its fruits. Rafara got reports that the soldiers were beginning to rout towards her side of the battlefield.

Seeing this opportunity to outdo her twin Rafara unburrowed all her ranged Harrier Hounds and ordered them to fire into the mass of fleeing soldiers with impunity. The spines flew and the soldiers were cut down in droves. Then she sent more soldiers up to corral the Tralis soldiers back towards the main column intending to sandwich and slaughter them.

Rafara could sense some displeasure from her twin Rafanda as she realised she had just delivered the enemy into Rafara’s waiting arms. Rafara sent a teasing jab at her twin through the Hive mind and she got a disgruntled shove in response. Feeling a little bad she ordered her soldiers to begin corralling them towards Rafanda’s forces. Her twin naturally jumped at the opportunity and ordered her forces to begin tearing into the humans with glee and reckless abandon.

The battle was rather short in less than twenty minutes thousands were dead due to the efficiency and ferocity of the assault. Rafara spotted some of the soldiers had escaped and she told Rafanda to let them go. Those would be the escapees, they seemed healthy enough and would do just fine. There were about a dozen of them, which means at least some of them should get to Tralis assuming most of them die from exposure.

Rafanda sent back a happier affirmative, her mood improving thanks to Rafara sending some prey to her twin. In the back of Rafara’s mind she recognised that perhaps this was a good experience. Her twin Rafanda was more aggressive than her in personality while Rafara was more cautious. Thus perhaps, it would be better if they played to that dynamic, Rafanda would lead the charge and Rafara would try to land precise and devastating follow up strikes.

Sharing this idea with her twin, Rafara received clear agreement from Rafanda. The battle was ending now and now it was just a matter of draggin the bodies back underground to replenish and swell their broods. Rafara proposed to Rafanda that though Rafara had killed more prey this time, if they were to attempt this division of labour in the future perhaps it would be better if Rafanda took more resources to swell her front line.

Rafanda readily agreed and replied that she was just about to suggest the same thing. Playful competition aside, both of the twins knew that their first priority was accomplishing the orders of their king. If anything this little game they played amongst themselves was fruitful, they learned some valuable things about cooperating.

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“You seem to be in a good mood.” Cecilia said as she put her glass of wine down.

I looked up from my book as the two of us sat in the town square. I could tell every house had someone peeking out of the windows as they watched me and Cecilia. The streets were covered in random holes that my hive had used to emerge and also to drag the corpses of the fallen to be repurposed.

I could smell the fear wafting out from the houses as quietly weeping mothers peered out at the two of us. There were no human guards around us but we were surrounded by invisible adjutantas so Cecilia’s safety was secure.

“The other attacks went exactly to plan, the queens learned quite a bit. Some things I expected them to learn, some things not so much… but the surprise is welcome.” I replied.

It wasn’t exactly night yet but there wasn’t enough time for the army to leave for the capital and make any reasonable progress. Even if we moved out now, we would get only a few kilometres down the road. Might as well let the humans rest up in a slightly more hospitable location. The orders were simple, anything they wanted from this town had to be paid for. Any looters and thieves would be hung. The message we wanted to send to these townspeople and all of Voleria was that we had rules. We liked order but we had no problem resorting to chaos and slaughter if it was deemed necessary. In peace we are orderly and civilised but when the violence begins there is no army more brutal than mine.

A simple carrot and a simple stick. Fall in line and you will live safe and happy. Defy me and there won’t even be a body to bury. A simple message for simple minds, I am sure these imbeciles can understand this. If they don’t even get this hint I’m going to start putting up signs. I even have this like a crier beast being prototyped. It was basically this weird dog thing that ran around on the streets repeating phrases like some biological recording machine. Cecilia said that would be a little on the nose and perhaps a little crude. Then again it’s always good to be prepared.

“I assume the battles made the queens learn something useful?” Cecilia asked.

“Yes, in fact, I had a feeling that loosening the leash was a good idea. The increased initiative and autonomy lends some advantages. I will need to fine tune it a little, perhaps on a case by case basis… maybe I should let Legiana help me with it…” I replied.

“You are a strange one friend, if someone told me a year ago that a Hive leader played rather loose with his Hive I would have called the person a lunatic.” Cecilia said with a light laugh as she swirled her wine glass.

“Yet here we are.” I replied with a smirk.

“And yet here we are…” Cecilia said as she raised her glass in my direction.

“Besides who knows what is strange and isn’t? How many other Hive leaders do you know?” I asked with a grin.

“Hopefully you remain the only one as far as Hive leaders go.” Cecilia replied dryly.

“Hey, it's not that bad if we run into one…” I said as my smile widened maliciously.

As long as the number returns to one soon after….

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