54 I told you Danny

Using Ash's strings they slowly dissected the slices of the snake, eventually finding a fist sized white core speckled with purple dots. Lily sighed as she looked at the core "it would be so much easier if summer hadn't died, she could explain the core to us."

"That's a mind type core, the purple is usually associated with demonic beings, somewhere along the line this snake has a demon for an ancestor." Ash spoke rather calmly. She shrugged at Lily's questioning look. "Demonic beasts need the cores of others to advance as well, as the spider queen I needed the knowledge to advance not only myself but my colony. "

Lily nodded as she placed the core into her pocket. "Do you know the other random information as well? If it will cause mutations or whatever?"

"I don't know about mutations, but that core should strengthen you illusions."

They left the core behind as they proceeded to walk further into the swamp, each step they took was filled with danger, worried they would find another of those snakes that could hide itself with illusions. Fortunately they did not encounter another one, but their progress was slowed by their extreme caution.

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In the distance another squad was similarly advancing through the swamp. The group was filled with lycans, led by a girl that looked more dead than alive. She was short, not even reaching 5 foot, and her long blond hair seemed to be cakes with mud and blood. In her left had she carried a long spear. She oozed an aura of undeath.

The wolves were filled with resent as they followed this undead woman, her scent offending their delicate noses. However Mistress Nykia had commanded that they follow this woman, claiming she was her apostle. Beside her a rather large man walked, he stood half a foot taller than the lycans, who were known for their massive size. Half of his face was gone, and he had no left arm. Chunks of his flesh were missing, and maggots could be seen crawling around the festering wounds.

These two were servants of Mistress Nykia, much higher up the food chain then the lowest of her servants, the lycans. Inside the wolves lamented, they had been demented, no longer even side characters, but merely extras used to fill word count. They were bodies to be thrown away for a little extra gore.

One of the wolves growled in protest at their treatment, but that's as far as he went. If he rebelled it would lead to the destruction of his family, and if the mistress was in a bad mood his entire clan could be eliminated.

The giant undead man looked back at wolf, his decaying face sneering at the wolf. His raspy voice echoed through the dense forest. "That outburst has earned you the place of vanguard for the group. If you're lucky you will die, and perhaps Mistress Nykia will raise you as she did us. But I wouldn't count on it."

"Enough Brutus" the blond woman spoke "we are here to deal with the followers of that decrepit goddess Lucia, do not torment the lesser beings. "

"Yes lady Knight. As you command."

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Ash looked forward, the next area of the swamp was filled with decaying trees. There were large swarms of mosquitoes buzzing through the area. A plan started to form in her mind, and she quickly consulted with Lily. After listening to the plan Lily thought for a moment before nodding.

Lily cast an illusion on Ash turning her invisible as she approached the trees. Lily sat there and watched for what seemed to be a very long time, in her eyes she could see Ash clearly, her actions brought a smile to her face.

An untold amount of time later Ash reappeared by Lily's side, her work had been done, and it was now Lily's turn to take action. She walked towards the trees at a normal pace, she was not hurried, nor did she walk slow. She left Ash standing back hundreds of feet from the trees. Ash acted like a deterrent for the mosquitoes, which would go against their plan. Lily's role in this was bait. And to be bait she had to lure the mosquitos towards them.

When she had reached within 20 feet of the tree line the mosquitos had sensed her presence. A roaring buzz could be heard as hundreds of the giant insects rushed towards her location. Contrary to what you would expect she was not swarmed, the mosquitoes charged at her, falling to the ground sliced into small cubes. Blood could be seen dripping from the air, ending you looked closely you could see tiny little threads suspended between the trees.

Ash had went with her instinct, using her years of practice to make an enormous web, that encompassed all of the outer trees. Her web was not sticky like a spiders web however. Her web was sharp and poisonous. The mosquitoes had rushed to their deaths when they charged Lily, unwittingly falling into their trap.

The ground was littered with several small green orbs. The cores oozed poison essence. Ash smiled looking at the small cores. "These cores are useless to me. However if I can find their queen, her core will bring me great benefits."

"Any idea where we can find the queen?" Lily asked

"More than likely towards the center of the swamp, not the very middle, the ruler of this swamp is most definitely not a little insect, but she should be around there, after all she is an apex predator. "

"So what do you think the ruler of the swamp is? A snake?"

"No a snake would be too simple. I'm guessing that there are lizard men further in, more than likely the chieftain is the strongest creature in the swamp."

"Lizard man would be interesting, though having intelligent enemies would be dangerous. "

Ash laughed . "Lizard man intelligent? That's an oxymoron. Let's just hope we don't run into any wisps. If Dark was alive they would be a great boon for him, legend says that they are creatures of death, and even feast on the blood of their victims. But they are nasty little creatures, and serve no one. They have very high intelligence and like to trick their opponents, and their fiery bodies are their biggest weapon, capable of shooting fire balls that can incinerate their foes."

"Why would you even bring them up? Haven't you ever watched a horror movie? The moment you bring up something bad, that bad thing becomes your destiny."

Ash paused, looking confused for a moment as she asked. "What's a horror movie?"