Cat and Mouse (2/2)
"Hmm…," the Queen clicks, "When are these enchanted weapons going to run out of mana? I've waited several hours by now, but they don't look like they're stopping. Unlike the traps and munition, these weapon's aren't fixed in space, so they can't have a Time Resetting spell on them; they can't just be full of mana constantly, right?!"
Ever so slowly, the Queen starts to realize that something is seriously wrong; whatever it is, her instincts are telling her that if she doesn't change what she's doing that she'll eventually die!
So, she sits down and tries to tap into her racial connection with the Spirit World; she IS a Rehkin, after all.
Still, as she tries reaching her spirit into that other realm, she nearly blacks out from the pain. Ever since she can remember, she's experienced excruciating pain whenever she's tried to use conventional Spirit Magic; she only realized that something must be wrong with her after she met other Rehkin and saw them use these spells so naturally.
Even still, the Queen has a strong will to live, so she closes her eyes and reaches out with her Spirit Sight...
Once the Queen turns on her Spirit Sight, she sees a thick black Aura lingering like a cold whisper in your ears. She sees that whenever her Ants die that they release more black Aura.
This much by itself wouldn't have been remarkable to the Queen; however, she realizes that the black Aura is slowly drifting… somewhere.
She look up and sees the Death Aura all congregating on the ceiling. The Aura is so thick up there that it appears to swirl around menacingly as it all gets sucked into what looks like a black hole.
Seeing… SOMETHING feeding on the Aura sends chills down the Queen's spine.
Only now does she realize that the enemy is some sort of monster that feeds off of death; with her Ants pointlessly getting killed everywhere, this monster on the ceiling is only getting stronger.
"Sh#t!" she curses.
Then, she stands up and clicks at her children, "Stay away from the enchanted weapons while they're in a narrow hall; they can kill you too easily while they have the confined spaces; only engage them in open space."
She narrows her eyes as she heads into the twisting Fortress tunnels. "I'll take care of them myself."
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As the Queen goes down the halls, she notices that all the floating weapons seem to know where she is, and they're constantly avoiding her.
So, the Queen reluctantly sends many Ant squads in separate directions. Then, she hides in one of the squads to disguise her location.
This way, she can sneak up on the enemy and rip them apart with her huge strength.
Surprisingly, the Queen senses abundant Spiritual energy inside these weapons. Out of curiosity, she has her Ants devour a few. After all, her Fel Name lets her children devour the mana pools of whatever they eat.
"Heh," the Queen smirks, "These enchanted weapons are even more nutritious than one of those human soldiers! I must have them all!"
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"General!" one of the Wills frantically reports, "the enemy soldiers have learned how to devour our mana pools, even though we don't have any flesh to eat!"
"This is bad!" Kaalhyme growls. "If the Ants can replenish their mana by defeating us, then this defeats the whole purpose of killing countless Ants and slowly growing the Commander's power."
Indeed, what's the point in collective so much Death Aura for the master when the Queen is also growing?
After experiencing his initial disappointment, Kaalhyme quickly gets over it and nods to the scout reporting to him. "This only changes a few things for us; we just have to make sure that we're harvesting more Death Aura from them than the Boss Ant is getting mana from us. BE EXTRA CAREFUL TO NOT GET DEFEATED!"
"Yes boss!"
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Several more hours pass by, and General Kaalhyme is noticing another set of difficulties.
"Commander Haalfrin's ally – this FISCO – said he'd be supplying us with more steel bodies. However, we can't expect these reinforcements on such short notice. I expect we'll have to wait at least a week for us to get the first shipment… though that's being optimistic. If I'm being realistic, I'd say a month or two."
Kaalhyme winces just thinking about it. "We probably don't even have a week."
Indeed, the main problem right now is that with the Queen constantly poking at their defenses and chasing them around the fortress, their steel bodies are constantly getting destroyed beyond repair.
To compensate for this loss of bodies, Kaalhyme starts spreading his forces out even thinner – sending them to every far corner of the fortress and forcing the Queen to spend more time running around and less time fighting.
Sure, fewer weapons are lost whenever the Queen runs into them, but this has also made them more easily defeated by the common Ants; with the Will squads flying around in groups of 10 instead of 50, the common Ants are actually able to defeat them.
"We'll just have to take the loss and let the Ants feast on more mana for now," Kaalhyme concedes reluctantly. "Since the common Ants aren't strong enough to completely destroy our weapons, they can only take our mana by sucking on our immobilized blades. We only permanently lose a body when the Queen catches us."
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"Hmm….," the Queen mumbles thoughtfully as she strolls through the halls, "I should be glad that these juicy weapons are spreading out more, since it makes it easier for my children to defeat and eat them."
She narrows her eyes. "They only started doing this when I got involved in the fighting. That means that there's some intelligence controlling them." She looks up at where she knows the monster is hiding on the ceiling. "That one?"
Shaking her head, she thinks, "It doesn't matter for now. What I need to think about is WHY they suddenly changed to a less efficient strategy."
The Queen plops on the ground, leans comfortably on the wall, and thinks hard. "Hmm… The intelligence controlling them definitely knows by now that my children are sucking their mana away, which means they should have a very good reason to not get defeated by my children. However, since they're letting themselves get beaten and eaten by my children, then there must be something they're even more afraid of."
She smiles. "It's me. They're afraid of me because I can more easily destroy their weapons. My children, on the other hand, aren't physically strong enough to bend and break steel."
This must mean that the intelligent weapons don't have infinitely replenishing bodies.
"I'll have to use that to my advantage," she thinks.
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Minutes later, the Queen remotely looks at some of her children who just defeated an intelligent weapon. "My child…," she hisses an order, "Find a way to break that steel weapon."
Seconds pass.
"Mom!" a small voice protests, "it hurts my mouth! Ah! I'm bleeding!"
"Hmm…," the Queen considers before saying, "Rest the sword against a wall at a 45 degree angle. Transform into your two legged form to make gripping easier, then smash the blade with a rock. Do that until it snaps."
"Oh!" the Queen adds, "Also, have one of your sisters keep her mouth on the handle and constantly suck in mana, just in case the blade tries to come to life again."
"Got it mom! You're the best!"
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"…Seriously!?" If Kaalhyme had a living body right now, he'd be spitting blood in frustration. "How did the Ants figure it out so fast!?" He had been so careful before to not let the enemy seeing the blades come back to life this whole time!
"Whatever," he thinks, "I need to think of something FAST! We can't keep going like this!"
Since Kaalhyme has, by far, the strongest spiritual connection with the commander, he's able to at least send some scattered images to the man. It's not as good as being able to talk directly, but it's better than being completely silent!
So, Kaalhyme flies up to Haalfrin and shows many flashes of images to the man.
Despite this method of talking being vague and untrustworthy, Haalfrin does figure out what's happening. "Hm… I guess it's time for me to get involved."
Haalfrin looks down and notices the majority of the Ants are congregating at the bottom of the cavern, as well as the top of the city proper and the fortress walls; they seem to be avoiding the basement maze and the winding halls like the plague.
This is for good reason; the Wills have such a strong advantage in narrow halls that the Queen is reluctant to send her people down there without herself nearby.
"I understand," Haalfrin nods at Kaalhyme's spear. "Tell the troupes that we're retreating into the basement maze. Don't let anyone wander outside without my strict order!"
With the Master Key in hand, Haalfrin knows that it'll be much easier to avoid the Queen in the basement maze, since he'll be able to keep away from her in the randomly changing halls. Plus, his Wills will have the advantage of narrow hallways.
THEN, just to make sure the Queen gets complacent and doesn't send her children to die inside, he can retake the cannons pointing at the bottom of the fortress and bombard the Ants on the bottom, as well as utilize the other traps in the fortress.
Even if the Queen doesn't send anyone after him, he'll still get a steady stream of kills.