Monster in the Tunnels (1/2)
The Queen knows very well that attacking the dragon slayer and his new army is suicidal. So, her forces end up having to retreat underground… deep into the caves they had spent years carving.
In fact, it's these maze like caves that is the only reason her swarm isn't hunted to extinction during this time.
Whenever the Arkin chase the Ants into the tunnels, they always find that the underground network splits off in the most confusing ways. What's even worse is that the Ants keep on collapsing tunnels or digging new ones so that the Arkin don't know where to find them.
The Arkin try to combat this by using various detection spells, but for reasons unknown to them, they're unable to sense the Ants.
This is entirely because the Queen strategically has her Ants enter hibernation while they're not on the move; with them frozen in time, they don't let out any heat, and all their Aura completely vanishes.
Thus, this stage of the war has evolved into a one sided hunt, where the Arkin keep on thinking of new ways to track down the Ants, while the Ants think of new ways to hide themselves.
The only reason the Queen doesn't give up on fighting these unstoppable Arkin is purely out of greed. The first time the Queen killed and ate one, tears streamed down her cheeks as she cried in joy. It has been... so long since she has tasted real meat that the something broken in her spirit healed in that moment.
... Other than that, she realized that they gave her about half as much mana as a dragon.
With thousands of these "strange, pointy eared people", the Queen can't help but anticipate how powerful she could grow if at ate them all.
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For many years, the Queen tries and fails to make this battle work… but it's all useless. She can only be in one place at a time, yet the Arkin are everywhere – mercilessly slaughtering her children.
In the end, the Queen realizes that with how heavy her losses are, she's better off giving up all of her territory and simply not resummoning any of her Children.
Thus, one by one, her children's numbers dwindle. They drop from many millions to thousands… then to hundreds.
This is no loss for the Queen, since she knows full well by now that her children's mana is contained in their blood, and that the blood is seeping into the earth – ready to be used by her when the time is right.
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When the Arkin notice that the Ants are growing fewer and fewer, they actually think the Queen is on the verge of defeat. So, eager to finally end this war, the Arkin spend several months trying to find her…
… but when they DO find her, they surround her on all sides and charge her at once.
They learn that day that the Queen hasn't diminished one bit.
Over half of the Arkin are wiped out before they can escape. Even Haalfrin barely escapes with his life.
In the entire war thus far, this has been the Queen's biggest victory. With this one battle, she's MORE than made up for all the losses she's taken.
Still, the Queen isn't confident she can trick them into converging on her again.
Thus, they're at a stalemate once again… except this time, the Arkin are surrounding all the known entrances to her tunnels network beneath the mountain and plains. From then on, the entire underground becomes the Queen's territory.
For all these decades to come, the Ant Queen is like a phantom lurking beneath their feet; the Arkin are never quite sure where she is.
During all this time, the Arkin end up only leaving a skeleton crew behind to keep watch over the Threshold while the rest go back to the Death Realm.
… Though every now and then, the Arkin will gather together and make expeditions into the Queen's tunnels.
Of course, the purpose of these trips isn't to kill the Queen; it's to make her wear her mana down.
They do this by stealthily trying to find her, then launching a surprise attack in the dark before retreating again.
In any other circumstance, having such consistent sneak attacks on the Queen wouldn't work since she normally has many guards to keep watch. However, not wanting to give any more Death Aura to the enemy, she's completely alone.
Sure, her magic pendent is showing that the dragon slayer's numbers are remaining the same… but her numbers are getting smaller.
Unfortunately for the Arkin, they're completely ignorant of her Yiir power, which lets her children passively regenerate mana while they're still alive.
Hence, to mitigate the loss of mana, the Queen submerges hundreds of thousands of her children in the underground rivers of blood that had been collecting all these years. Then, she has them enter stasis.
With no need to eat, breathe, or sleep while in stasis, as well as being completely undetectable, the Queen can safely forget about them.
Then, when the enemy shows up to try wearing her down, she tries her best to scare them off before she uses too much mana.
The only times when she DOES lose mana is when the pointy eared monsters are extra aggressive and get lucky with their sneak attacks.
Still, over many more years to come, the Queen is keeping careful watch over the energy levels with her pendent.
Eventually, some unhappy truth becomes clear to her.
"Tch," she clicks her mandibles. "At this rate, it may take… a really long time, but I will lose my power. Exactly how long? I don't know. Just really long."
Obviously, the Queen can't calculate that since she doesn't know any math.
"Still, I'll probably have time to advance my Dra Name. I've been feeling the Name start to light up funny in my Soul Realm, so I should be getting close, right?"
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About 2 years later, the Queen finally advances her Dra Name.
Before, her Dra Name simply allowed her to use the collective mana of all her Ants. Now that she's Advanced it, however, she's gained the ability to make her children have a limited version of her own power.
Now, some of her children are able to use the mana of any Ant within a certain proximity. These "captain Ants" (the Arkin eventually come to call them) are essentially stronger the more of their comrades are nearby.
After gaining this new power, the Queen immediately realizes the implications of this power, as well as the strategic uses for it.
"Hmm…," the Queen muses, "My chosen children will be more powerful the more of their sisters are nearby… That means that I'll need large, open spaces. Working in a 3 dimensional space works great too, since being above and below counts just as well as side by side."
Once again, the Queen's decision to fight in complex tunnels is reinforced… except this time, with this Advanced Dra Name, her children might actually be able to hold their own against the pointy ears without her help…
"No," the Queen shakes her head as she huddles in her tunnel – careful to not get too excited. She's learned through hard experience that the enemy is able to read spiritual auras, and since emotions show on your spirit Aura, she becomes easier to detect when she's excited.
So, after spending a few seconds to suppress her anticipation, she calmly thinks, "I shouldn't get too eager to show off my new ability – especially when I'm too inexperienced with using it."
Looking up at where she knows the Threshold is, the Queen frowns solemnly as she thinks about the times she's made makeshift bombs by hatching eggs too close together. "My powers have a lot of strange uses and strategic nuances. I need to UNDERSTAND my new Dra power as much as possible before I reveal it. I want the enemy to have as little time as possible to come up with a counter strategy.
…And the Queen KNOWS her enemy WILL find a way to counter her new ability; she's fought them for long enough to at least respect their tenacity and competence.
Still, despite her unerring faith in her enemy, she knows she can afford to spend a long time practicing her abilities and training, since her slide towards defeat is about as fast as a continent drifting on a planet's surface – inevitable, but too slow to notice.
Ten years later, the Queen finishes honing her Advanced Dra ability. Before, her Captain Ants were only able to borrow the mana from their sisters within 10 feet of themselves. However, after 10 years spent practicing her control over her own Names, the Queen was able to extend the distance to 1,000 feet.
Now… all that's left is to patiently wait for the right moment.
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"Have fun on your hunt today, Haalfrin," Freyya waves at the soldier as he trudges off to war.
"Sure, I'll be back soon."
Haalfrin's daily "hunt" mostly consists of him patrolling the dark tunnels, looking for any clue of the Queen.
If it were anyone else, they'd have assumed the Queen is cowering for her life right now and trying to preserve her mana. It certainly appears that way, but Haalfrin and Kaalhyme are constantly wary that she's planning something. Plus, she's still currently stronger than them all on an individual level, so Haalfrin is always careful to not get caught by her personally. If he's dead, then no one will be there to resummon the Arkin.
Once Haalfrin gets down to the tunnels, he sees one of the Arkin holding a piece of paper. "Report," the commander orders his subordinate.
The Arkin soldier looks down and starts flipping through his small stack of papers. "We've mapped out the entire tunnel network; we've also marked all the spots where the walls are thin between tunnels, where she's likely to open up new passageways. We've also highlighted all the paths that loop around – convenient tunnels she's likely to collapse."
"Good," Haalfrin says as he takes the papers and hands them to Kaalhyme. "With this, we should be able to hunt the Queen down more often. Make sure to keep our map updated."
As Kaalhyme is flipping through the papers, he looks up and asks, "Did you guys mark the path the Queen has been taking?"
"Yeah, we were at first," the soldier responds, "but it's so random we eventually stopped. She's just going everywhere."
"Hmm…," Kaalhyme nods. In his mind, the Queen is simply trying to be unpredictable to avoid being caught.
"All right," Kaalhyme suddenly starts talking, "I think it's time we start collapsing the tunnels. Since we know the layout now, we can herd her towards the Threshold's cavern. Once she has nowhere to go, we can bombard her with the mana cannons until she's dead."
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After that, the Arkin start surgically removing tunnels the Queen may have otherwise fled to. Then, they keep harassing her and sneak attacking her to prod her into keeping on the move. Since the Queen doesn't have her forces occupying the whole maze, she doesn't have infinity eyes everywhere; hence, she (theoretically) is being guided in a certain direction without her knowing.
Still, in the middle of the Arkin's operation, the Queen suddenly starts going ballistic – rampaging through the tunnels and aggressively hunting her attackers down.
This, however, doesn't worry Haalfrin and Kaalhyme. "She's definitely realized what we're doing now," Haalfrin remarks. "She's getting desperate."
"That means we need to tighten the noose," Kaalhyme adds. "We have to send in more forces to prevent her from forcefully tunneling away. She can still summon her army, and she'll be able to dig a lot faster with them."
And so, several thousand more Arkin are sent into the tunnels in order to hasten collapsing the tunnels, as well as scout for any unusual movements.
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Honestly, the Arkin and Haalfrin all assumed the Queen would pull out some crazy new strategy in order to keep herself in the tunnels. However, she's eventually forced out of her home turf successfully.
Then, the Queen stands all alone below the floating Threshold.
All of it seemed too easy… which is making Haalfrin nervous.
Still, as he watches her from up above, he sees her summon her army with desperate feelings in her spiritual Aura. It really appears that she doesn't have a plan, but that she's rather lashing out with whatever weapon is available, even if she knows it won't work.
Sure enough, her Ants pile up in huge mounds as they try to reach the bottom of the fortress again.
This move didn't work last time, so why would it work this time? Yup. The mana cannons are blasting apart the Ants' makeshift ladders.
Then, Haalfrin sees the Ants link themselves into nets and start to scale the side of the fortress – much the same way as last time they stormed the Threshold.
"Going with whatever works?" Haalfrin mutters before shaking his head.
"Yeah," Kaalhyme adds, "why would the Queen think this tactic was going to work this time? She's not fighting humans anymore; she's fighting Arkin."
"Maybe we overestimated her?" Haalfrin suggests, "Maybe she doesn't have a plan? No… Best not to assume that."