Reach For the Skies (1/2)
The vast plains beneath the Hall of Valor appear obscured and clouded, as if a thick blanket of mist had shrouded the land. In reality, the constant explosions hitting the dry ground had stirred up so much dust that the entire battlefield is hidden from view.
Still, the Arkin don't really have to aim very well, since no matter where they point the cannons, there are Ants to hit.
Just to be sure that her catapults are safe from the demons' cannons, the Queen had prepared many metal slabs enchanted with strong durability spells. She then has her Captain Ants pour their mana into these makeshift shields.
Due to the poor quality of the material, each metal slab can only take a few cannon hits before it's broken, and the catapult behind it is completely obliterated.
Haalfrin himself sees that the catapults are slinging little sacks full of unhatched eggs. You'd think this wouldn't work very well, since getting a few Ants on the walls won't mean very much with the Arkin being so much stronger than them.
However, it's precisely because Haalfrin knows how smart the Queen is that he realizes she has some sort of plan at work. Because of his unwavering faith in her intelligence, his instincts tell him that something terrible is going to happen if a single Ant egg gets to the top.
Luckily, the acting general atop the walls has already ordered the cannons to focus fire on the catapults.
Just to be sure, Haalfrin himself flies down and smashes apart any catapults that are being loaded up and about to fire.
All while their attention is diverted, the Queen has her children make another ramp out of themselves as they futilely reach for the top.
Now, the Ants have tried this strategy countless times before in their attempts to take the Hall of Valor, but it's seeing much more success, now that the cannons aren't focused solely on them.
While all this is going on, the Queen is trying, futilely, to hit Haalfrin with her spells. She even kills herself over and over again just so she can revive in some place he's not looking and attempt to sneak attack him.
Sure, she could shield her catapults with her mana shield and help her army out, but she knows deep down that taking the demons' summoner is the most important thing she could do.
She may not be able to hit the man (since he CAN fly faster than the speed of sound), but she does at least prevent him from disrupting her catapults too much.
And so, a tragic and bloody scene plays out beneath the fortress. Countless limbs are torn from the Ants' bodies, and cries of agony echo across the ashy plains. In the place directly below the demons' castle, the blood runs so deep that many Ants drown in it.
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One thing Haalfrin notices throughout the battle is that the Queen is… killing herself? Yes, she's done it enough times that it would be strange for him to not have caught her in the act.
He's not quite sure what she's doing, but it becomes clear that she's learned to move her soul around and replace any of her Ants at will.
This… it's scary enough that thinking about it feels uncomfortable.
Still, as he flies around ands slaughters Ants, his actions become so methodical that he enters a sort of meditation.
Yes… her ability to revive HERSELF will drastically change the way she fights. Not only is she more mobile now, but it's very clear that she no longer has to take any measures to protect her own life.
No longer does she have to hang in the back and fire sporadically whenever she finds a rare moment of cover. Now, she can stand in the front and fire at will – completely neglecting any retaliation.
One really can't underestimate how big of a difference all of this is. Now, instead of a sneaky mana blast here and there, she is literally right in their faces 24/7.
Haalfrin thinks about things like this as he keeps killing Ants. Considering how he's spent the vast majority of his life in this war, thinking about strategy is one of the only things that can calm him down nowadays.
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After only a few minutes, the Queen grows tired of trying to hit Haalfrin, and she shifts her focus to defending her catapults.
With the Queen's added protection, the speed at which her catapults are completed slowly outpaces the speed that the cannons can destroy them.
After about half an hour, line after line of catapults are slowly completed, and the first volleys are shot up at the sky.
Of course, the Queen's goal is to get at least one of her Ants atop the walls so that she can revive into it, so the best way to do that is load the catapults up with jars full of unhatched eggs and launch them up at the sky.
The first few volleys are merely set off as a test to make sure the catapults are angled just right.
If the catapults aim to high, then the launched Ants will overshoot the fortress and fall to their deaths. If they go too low, then they'd splat on the walls or the castle's bottom; with the utterly smooth – unclimbable stone, her Ants would have nothing to hold onto, and they'd fall to their deaths anyway.
This "Haalfrin" seems to know what the Queen is trying to accomplish; he and his demons keep on shooting her eggs out of the sky in a desperate bid to keep them off their walls.
(Of course, the only reason the Arkin are able to accurately hit such small things out of the sky is because they've been improving their arcane technology over the years; they've made their mana cannons be extremely accurate and have automatic, predictive aiming.)
Realizing that just lobbing little jars full of eggs up at the sky fortress isn't going to work, the Queen realizes that she's going to have to get creative.
Within a few seconds after realizing this, she hops on the catapult nearest her and has her children launch HERSELF up there.
Under any other circumstance, what she's doing would be suicide. With her being able to only use one spell at a time, she can't use flight magic to land safely AND a mana shield to protect herself at the same time.
However, this is no longer a concern to her, now that she can revive endlessly through her children.
The first time she launches herself with a catapult, she realizes that her trajectory is a bit short, and that she won't even make it to the wall. In order to fix this, she uses a flight spell to lift herself a little higher.
This actually doesn't take very much mana from her, since she already has so much upward momentum to use for her spell.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of protection, the Queen is shot out of the sky by a mana cannon and reduced to a fiery puff of ashes.
No matter. She can just revive and try again.
Still… the least she could do to make things easier for herself is to have all of her other catapults load up live children as well, rather than eggs. That way, the demons' cannons will have more targets to aim at, and they won't all focus on her.
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Half an hour later, the Queen feels a little… bored inside. Given how excited her children are to be put in "flying contraptions" and launched into the sky, the Queen herself feels nothing – no excitement, no dread… nothing. The only thing she feels is the will to make it to the castle in the sky.
Just as the Queen is starting to get a little frustrated, she has a stroke of luck.
As she's flying through the air for the umpteenth time, she reacts out of instinct and erects a mana shield – just in time to block a direct hit from one of the cannons.
She then drops the shield the next second and keeps flying through the air.
The Ant Queen looks up at the rapidly approaching walls, and she drops her shield again in favor of using her flight magic.
This time, she uses her flight magic at the last second, and she lifts herself up onto the wall again. Of course, she has to shield herself again just before she sets her feet on the ground, so despite stumbling to the ground 5 feet below her, she's still safe from the defending Arkin atop the walls.
Once the Queen feels the hard stone beneath her body, she stands up and looks out over the wall – completely ignoring the Arkin who are furiously sending attacks at her back.
"Woah…," the Queen sighs with a rare moment of wonder. "I'm so high…"
She then cranes her neck to look behind herself, and she sees the demons start to back off with cautious looks on their faces.
It had taken the Queen thousands of years to reach the top of these walls. The least she could do was savor the moment… but these demons have to keep ruining it! They ruin everything!
The Queen suddenly whips her hand in one direction – scattering countless eggs across the walls and in the city proper. With that done, thousands of Ants begin spawning in the castle.