Siege (1/2)

A man's heavy, labored breathing can be heard in the reeking halls. A lone man can be seen leaning his back against a wall as he slides to the ground wearily. His beard had long grown gnarly and ragged, and his eyes have taken on a wild, bloodthirsty look.

"Uuhhhh…," Haalfrin groans painfully, "Is it over…?". There is no answer; even Dakka's spirit is too tired to reply properly.

Despite not being physically wounded, constantly running around, killing with an increasingly mindless fervor, and getting less and less sleep for the past 6 years certainly had some effect on him.

As Haalfrin is on the verge of passing out, he hears sticky footsteps on the blood splattered floor coming towards him. Fearing an enemy ambush, he leaps to his feet with his weapon ready. "Why didn't the Wills alert me?" he wonders. "Some sort of new trick the Queen came up with?"

Alas, it is no Ant coming towards him. Instead, a small, brown skinned figure enters the torchlight, revealing Freyya's worried face. Feeling relief, Haalfrin slumps back against the wall. "Where've you been, Freyya?"

Instead of answering, the Crow goddess looks at him with a worry and sighs, "I'm sorry. This war seems to have taken its toll on you."

She then steps forward and helps Haalfrin back to the ground, where he can rest. "To answer your question," she starts talking, "I was heavily reprimanded by the Death King for Contracting you before I even claimed your soul. He very strictly warned me to not interfere with your life anymore."

"Oh…," Haalfrin sighs, "I'm sorry about that."

"Don't be," she shrugs, "Contracting you at that time was more my choice than yours."

Frowning, the Crow goddess reaches forward and touches his long, unkempt beard as she says, "With the Ant Queen taking a break, I figured I wouldn't mess anything up if I finally came to visit you."

"Thanks for showing up," Haalfrin smiles wearily. He then looks down at her hand, which is still touching his beard. "I'm sorry I didn't have time to shave…," he says softly as he struggles to stay awake. "I know… you hate beards."

Finally, the corner of Freyya's cheeks twitch as she suppresses a laugh. "Yeah," she softly responds, "You make it sound like I hate the way they way they look!" She shakes her head, "Honestly, I actually think short, well-kept beards are handsome looking. However, they really itch my face when I kiss you."

This finally makes Haalfrin laugh. "That… explains why you only made me shave it… after our first night together."

As Haalfrin finally sets his bottom on the ground with Freyya's help, she asks in concern, "Do you want some cake."

"Not… this time…," Haalfrin croaks. "I just want to sleep."

"Go to sleep then," Freyya gently lays his head against the wall.

"Will you still be here when I wake up?" he asks.

Freyya looks around. "You have that barrier trapping the Death Aura inside. I'll still be here."

Indeed, as a Death Reaper, she's summoned by fresh Death Aura, and she's dismissed from the mortal world as the Death Aura naturally dissipates. With the Aura here (thanks to Haalfrin's barrier) being unable to dissipate, her avatar really is stuck here.

Knowing she has some time here, Freyya looks around at the bloody halls, then at the ankle deep blood her husband is sleeping in, as if he's used to it.

Frowning in pity, the girl starts using her magic to push away the blood from around his body, and she sets up small barriers to keep the stench away from him.

After he'd gone through 6 years of a bloody hell, the least she could do is make his sleep comfortable.

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Realizing that the basement maze is sort of off limits to her Ants now, the Queen switches her tempo in this war completely. Instead of trying to smoke the man out and catch him directly, she realizes that the best she can do for now is make sure he doesn't escape from the maze.

Plus, realizing how strategically he had chosen his battleground before, the Queen starts modifying the environment around her to make things as advantageous as possible for herself.

"With both the dragon slayer and his dragon spirit," the Queen thinks, "mobility is always on their side. Trying to find him in that maze was way too hard. Even if I knew the general direction, I could never catch him."

"Hmm…," she pensively ponders, "How am I going to win?" She looks around her. "Well, I did learn a few things from how the dragon slayer fights; he made his own position as defensible as possible. By fighting on the terrain most suitable for himself, he was able to turn the odds in his favor." She smiles. "I'll just do the same thing… but how?"

After thinking about it, the Queen slowly comes up with factors to consider, and she mentally sorts it all out between pros and cons.

"First," she thinks, "I know very well that the steel spirits fare best in tight spaces, where they can condense their firepower very tightly. Sure, I was sort of able to counter this by making tight walls with my own Ants. However, the enemy still achieves their purpose by slowing down my Ants…

She thinks harder. "With my Ant walls and their steel spirit walls cancelling each other out, it's me, the dragon slayer, and the dragon spirit who really only factor into the battle."

She frowns at this next thought. "While the enemy has TWO powerhouses to smash through my Ants and recover ground, my children only have me. Despite me being more powerful than both of them, they still get more kills than me. That, coupled with the traps they're using, has given them the absolute advantage in the halls underneath the city."

Breathing in deeply, the Queen ponders, "What kind of terrain would give MY children the best advantage?" She looks at the open city, then at the lake of blood below the floating fortress. "My children vastly outnumber the enemy. Lots of open ground would suit us best."

She then frowns. "Wait, the steel spirits can fly. Wouldn't it be pretty bad to give them free access to the sky by waiting in the open streets?"

Finally, realization dawns on her. "Ah," she realizes, "I know what to do now. I'll need time, though."

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In order to get herself the time to modify her environment and make a defensible position for herself, the Queen tries her best to make sure her enemy doesn't escape. She personally waits by one of the only exits to the maze while disguised as one of her own soldiers so that she can act as a deterrence for any fleeing enemy forces.

They'll certainly be more reluctant to leave if they don't know where she is!

In the Queen's mind, she (correctly) assumes that the dragon slayer won't want to leave the maze, where he's at his most powerful. He'll be willing to wait things out – at least for a while.

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And so, the Queen's army rapidly starts digging into the side of the mountain, as well as beneath. In order to cross the lake of her children's own blood, she has her children link together to form long bridges. Since their bodies are very buoyant, this works pretty well.

Then, she has her children who've crossed the lake start dig into the mountain a little, then make a sharp turn straight down. Once they get their tunnel below the lake of blood, she has them branch out and make many splitting tunnels.

After a wide and complicated cave network is carved beneath the cavern floor the blood lake is filling up, the Queen orders a few of her children to cave in the top of the tunnel – allowing the blood lake to start draining away.

Once the lake is gone, the Queen pauses a moment to feel her power. "Just as I thought," she smiles, "Since I can always feel my mana, I've always been able to feel the blood lake below me."

By having her children carve long tunnels which branch out like veins throughout the land, she's effectively spread her blood (and the mana within) across the entire land. Even if her children aren't enough to keep an eye on EVERYTHING within this black barrier, the Queen has effectively extended her reach way farther.

Another advantage is that since the blood lake is now gone, she's free to have her children fulfill the next stage of her plan.

Next, the Queen addresses her horde of children. "You have your next order. Dig up the land outside the mountain; get all the hills and ravines and flatten them; take the excess dirt and carry them into this cavern the city is floating in. I want this all filled up.

This next task is going to take several years at least, so the Queen has to keep her enemy occupied at least. With his steel spirits reporting to him, there's no way the man will be unaware of what she's doing. He'll try to stop her.