Her Majesty’s Swarm - Volume 1 - Chapter 6

The Battle of Leen 

The Kingdom of Maluk’s forces gathered in the town of Leen. Because of the army that was garrisoned there, the town was bursting with chaos. The high-ranking officers secured the inns, gathered up provisions, and hastily ran in and out of shops, ensuring the army wanted for nothing. 

“What’s your take on this war?” Gran Ginzbel asked his colleague as they sat down for drinks at the tavern. Gran was the commander of the first regiment’s third battalion, while his companion led the first battalion. 

Gran was a man in his mid-thirties, making him a bit old to serve as commander of a battalion in this world. He’d always proved his worth in training, however. The reason for his late promotion was likely his tendency to speak too frankly and too often. He had left his wife of five years and his adorable three-year-old daughter behind in the capital in order to come to Leen. 

“Strange war if I ever saw one,” replied the other man with a sour expression. “Hard to believe the elves wiped out the Knights of Saint Augustine. Their captain was capable of summoning the angel, you know? How did a couple of knife-ears stand up to the Kingdom’s strongest knights and an angel?” 

The Knights of Saint Augustine were famous for their martial might. When the southern countries had invaded with an army of 30,000, the knights had stopped them with mere hundreds and pushed them all the way back to the Themel River. The children of Maluk relished tales of these knights and their acts of heroism. 

“So you think the elves ambushed them?” Gran asked. 

“Nah, the higher-ups are thinking Nyrnal might have an advance force hiding in the forest. The elves’ forest would give them a way into our territory without crossing the Themel, after all.” 

The other commander wet his finger with wine, then used it to draw a crude map of the continent on their table. With the elven forest in the center, he demonstrated how the Empire’s forces could get into Maluk’s territory without going through the river. 

“Nyrnal’s Imperial Army, eh? I hear they’re all pretty strong. They unified the five countries of the south into one empire in just four years, after all. They definitely sound scarier than the elves.” 

“I’d be careful of the elves, too. They’re crafty bastards that like to set up traps designed to catch humans. And once they catch someone, they cut off their ears and nose, poke out their eyes, strip off their skin, and eat them. Getting caught by the elves is the one way I’d never want to die.” 

Almost all rumors surrounding the elves were these sorts of dangerously tall tales. No one sought to confirm their validity, of course. Few humans came in contact with the elves, but they still spread those rumors because they felt the elves had turned away from the God of Light, choosing to instead worship the gods of the forest. Because of that, people were willing to believe the elves were capable of just about anything else. 

Whenever children went missing near the forest, the elves were the first to be suspected. Not wolves, not bears, but the elves. And every time, the Kingdom would send out a force to suppress them, burning down a village as a lesson. The elves would then hide deeper in the forest out of fear, making contact with them even more difficult and the rumors all the more outrageous. 

Elves ate humans. Elves sacrificed virgin maidens they’d stolen away to their gods. Elves were reincarnations of criminals. There were more hateful, superstitious rumors about the elves than one could count. 

“But we’re under General Chernov, huh? I’m kind of worried he might make us do something pointless. Rumor has it he’s really anxious to get promoted to marshal, so he pushes his men pretty damn hard. Some even call him Chernov the Murderer.” 

“Yeah? I always took him for a calm, collected sort of fellow. He always knows just how to be considerate of his men.” 

The fact that they didn’t have to camp outside and instead got to sleep in warm beds was due to the hard work and insight of Chernov and his military staff. The rank-and-file soldiers had to camp out in tents, of course, but the officers themselves would spend their nights in comfortable inns and establishments. 

The same could be said of their meals. Thanks to the supply officers’ efforts, they could eat fresh meat and vegetables. The soldiers were grateful that they didn’t have to subsist on the usual hard bread and jerky doled out on the battlefield. 

“But still, not knowing who we’re up against is eerie. Sure would like to know if it was the elves or Nyrnal’s men who wiped out the Knights of Saint Augustine.” 

“Agreed,” Gran said, nodding. “Knowing our enemy would change how we engage them, after all. If it’s the Nyrnals, we’ll have to rely on the troops to keep them busy. If it’s the elves, we’ll have to evade traps and crush them with sheer force.” 

“Hope it’s the elves, personally.” 

“At worst, they might have joined forces and we’ll have to face them both.” 

The two kept on chattering, their lips loosened by the sweet wine. 

“Let’s pray to God that’s not the case, then. May the God of Light grant us His protection!” the first battalion’s commander shouted, picking up his glass with a clumsy, sweeping gesture. 

“Right you are.” Gran smiled bitterly and raised his glass. “May the God of Light grant us His protection!” 

Gran didn’t believe in God’s power all that much. He’d never seen the angels, and he had grown up in a village so poor that if God did exist, He had certainly forsaken it. He wasn’t convinced that the God of Light would pull through for them in the worst-case scenario. 

Yet even he felt pressed to pray to God this time. And desperately, at that. 

The bell rang out at three in the morning, before dawn had risen. 

“What is it?” 

General Chernov, leader of the entire Eastern Garrison, rose from his bed and consulted his staff officers to get a grasp on the situation. 

“Right, well, the alarm was sounded because one of Leen’s gates is under attack. The fighting is still ongoing; the town militia is engaging the enemy.” 

“The gates are under attack?! Why leave this to the town militia, then?! Should an economic center like Leen fall, it could be a fatal blow to the Kingdom! Send our forces in at once and push back the assault!” 

“Y-Yes, sir!” 

At General Chernov’s orders, the officers took off. 

The gate in question was to the east. The first battalion was swiftly deployed to meet the enemy—the same one led by Gran’s friend from the tavern. His unit had been the first to reach the eastern gate. 

However... 

“What in God’s name... is this?” 

Where the ground near the gate should have been was a great, gaping hole. And from within that hole, sharp fangs gouged into the militia fighting desperately to protect their town and dragged them down into the earth. The militiamen frantically tried to resist, firing off their crossbows and longbows, but the monsters hiding in the hole swiftly evaded their projectiles. 

The first battalion’s commander couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It was as though they had charged headlong into a nightmare. 

“Hey, you there!” shouted a man who looked to be the militia’s leader. “If you stand there, they’ll bite your head off! Get up to the gate or climb up a building, hurry!” 

“You heard the man! Go up, up I say! On the double!” The first battalion’s commander had begun barking orders to his men, but he was a moment too late. 

Fangs burst out from the ground, sunk into his men, and pulled them into the depths below. Even the sounds of their screams were ripped downward with unrelenting force. 

The other soldiers could only cry out in terror as they cowered in place. Even though they had seen that staying on the ground was dangerous, their fear choked their judgment, forcing them to act irrationally. 

Humans so often suffered this affliction; however illogical, their primal instincts would dominate their behavior. Even as the fear pumped their veins full of adrenaline, some soldiers were rendered completely incapable of moving. 

“Hurry up, come on! At this rate, we’ll be picked off like flies!” the commander called out. 

A few brave soldiers who managed to suppress their terror, hurriedly clambering up nearby walls and buildings. The commander then swiftly ran to the walls, climbing up to the gate in order to better understand their situation. 

“What’s going on?!” he asked. 

“These monsters have been attacking us from the ground for a while now!” answered the captain of the militia. “We can’t do a thing!” 

“So these beasts are the enemy?” 

The captain had a very bad feeling. The monsters attacking from underfoot were frightening enough, but his intuition told him there must’ve been another threat at play here. 

“Oh, God! More monsters are coming! A... A swarm of monsters is approaching the gates! There’re so many of them, I can’t count them all!” 

The commander’s gut had been right on the money. While the militia and first battalion were being ambushed from underground, a large force of monsters was approaching from the east. They looked like a cross between a spider, a scorpion, and an ant. Whatever they were, though, they were marching toward the eastern gate in multitudes. 

They covered the earth and advanced in organized columns. There wasn’t any military force around them capable of subduing this many enemy troops. The 15,000 men dispatched from the Kingdom of Maluk wouldn’t be nearly enough to push back this monstrous tidal wave. Once the commander realized that, he was so shaken with fear that he briefly forgot everything else. 

“The monsters are destroying the gate!” 

The monsters from underground had regrouped before the gate and were now attacking it. They too looked like a cross of several insects rolled into one, except each of their fangs was the length of a human arm. They were using these massive fangs to bite at the gate’s bolts, gradually wearing them down. 

“Archers, ready your bows! Don’t let them get through!” shouted the commander. 

At his order, arrows were fired at the monsters, but their lustrous black armor deflected most arrows. Arrows that sunk into their joints or compound eyes, however, did seem to have an effect... The wounded monsters went berserk. 

Any beast hurt by an arrow started thrashing on the spot, ripping any unlucky men in its vicinity to shreds. They would even ram the walls with their bodies, the impact sending soldiers tumbling down into the frenzied fangs below. 

“Stop! Hold your fire! You’ll get the the men up there killed!” 

“But, sir, there’s a large army of insects marching upon us!” 

Not only were giant bugs destroying the gates, but an immense force of insects was approaching them from afar. The rustling of countless insectile footsteps echoed disturbingly in the soldiers’ ears and caused the earth to rumble beneath their feet. 

The situation was desperate. 

“They’ve destroyed the gate!” someone cried out. 

“Shit, shit, shit! What the hell are these things?!” 

At last, the last bits of the bolts were broken off, and the gate swung open. 

“Could these monsters have killed the Knights of Saint Augustine?” 

“They came from the forest. We couldn’t stop them. They really must be the ones...” 

As the soldiers’ morale plummeted, their hands stopped moving, save for the quivers of fear. 

“Well, keep shooting them, unless you want to end up in their bellies! Shoot , I say!” 

The first battalion’s commander alone fought to maintain his men’s spirits and keep up the offensive. However, the army of monsters ruthlessly stormed through the broken gate and began scaling the walls. One soldier after another was devoured. No... Not devoured. They were simply torn apart, as if the monsters were children fighting over a toy. 

“You damned monsters! Monsteeers!” 

The commander swung his sword, desperately trying to knock the creatures away... but it was all in vain. 

Before he knew it, his subordinates had all been wiped out, and he was surrounded by six of the giant insects. 

“Ahaha... hahaha...” 

He dropped his sword, his expression dyed over with despair. Within seconds, he was hacked to pieces. 

Now that the enemy had broken through Leen’s defenses, nothing could stop them from flooding into the town. 

“Fall back! Retreat! We can’t beat them here!” 

The Kingdom of Maluk’s army had tried combatting the insects pouring into Leen for an hour, but their efforts were all for naught. 

Swords couldn’t penetrate the monsters’ hard exoskeletons, which also deflected arrows. That aside, there were thousands—no, tens of thousands of them. The Eastern Garrison boasted 15,000 men, but they couldn’t hope to stand up to this many fearsome, organized creatures. 

The insect army pushed down on Leen with their numbers, ripping through everything in their path with their fangs and scythes. The streets were littered with the mangled corpses of soldiers, but the monsters paid them no heed as they rushed toward the town’s center. 

“Retreat?! Where the hell do they expect us to run?!” Gran cried out, appalled. 

He had taken to the battlefield personally, sword in hand, just as the order to fall back had arrived. No matter where they went, they would be surrounded by bugs in all directions. 

“Commander, the west gate is open!” his adjutant said. “We should head there straightaway!” 

“Yes, all right. But before we do, we’ve got to do something about these monsters!” Gran said, cutting away a flock of them with his claymore. Regular longswords and arrows couldn’t get through the bugs’ natural armor, but heavier weapons like halberds and claymores were capable of chopping through it. 

“Any soldiers with halberds and claymores, cleave a way open! Let’s go!” he shouted. 

“Understood, sir!” 

Thus, they made for the western gate. Screams were rising from all corners of the town. The insects made no distinction between soldiers and townsfolk, preying on whoever they encountered. Gran was certain that somewhere among them, he heard the barmaid from last night’s tavern excursion shrieking in terror. 

But as things stood, Gran and his men didn’t have the time to save Leen’s innocent citizens. Staying alive was the most they could manage. No matter how many screams and pleas for help reached their ears, they had to ignore them and reach the western gate. 

Gran felt he had to survive this and live to see tomorrow. For the sake of the beloved wife and daughter he’d sworn to protect, he had to escape from this nightmare alive. To that end, he could not save anyone but himself. As he repeated this mantra in his mind, Gran continued to run for his life. 

His armor felt too heavy, and he desired nothing more than to take it all off. But he feared that the insects would tear him to bits, which drove him to bear the burden of his armor. 

“Halt! Are you friend or foe? State your affiliation!” A high-ranking officer stopped their mad dash, trying to maintain control of the situation even in the swirling chaos. 

“First regiment’s third battalion! We were given orders to retreat!” 

“Retreat?! You intend to abandon Leen? To hand over a keystone of the Kingdom to these... these bugs ?! Your sin would stain the honor of Maluk’s military for years to come! Return to your station and fight! I will not allow you to retreat!” 

“But we were ordered to retreat!” Gran shouted at him. 

“And we gave no such order! General Chernov said that we’re to defend this town down to the last man standing! Now return to the front lines and—” 

At that moment, fangs exploded out from the earth and sank into the officer’s body. He was then dragged underground, leaving only the echoes of his scream behind. No one tried to save him. 

“We’re falling back. No way are we sticking around for a death sentence,” Gran said. 

The surviving third battalion soldiers nodded. 

Gran was no longer a soldier, but a man who had left the most important part of himself at home with his family. Same as the other soldiers, all he wanted to do was leave this hell behind. Courts-martial be damned. 

“Just a bit more to the gate, and then we can get out of this hellhole. We’re almost there.” 

However... 

“Trying to flee, are you?” 

The west gate was not open, as they had expected. Well, the doors were, but a great spiderweb blocked off the way, preventing anyone from coming or going. Several corpses were entangled in the thick strands. 

“Impossible...” Gran’s stomach dropped. 

“If you intend to pass through here, you will have to face me. I am the Bloody Knight Swarm Sérignan.” 

The one calling herself Sérignan had the lower half of an insect and the upper half of a beautiful woman. Her features were covered in armor as red as blood, and she held a black longsword in hand as she stood in Gran’s way. 

“We’ve got no choice... Force your way through, men! Archers, cover for us! Infantry, forward march!” 

Gran didn’t think of the woman before his eyes as a fellow human; she was the enemy. 

The infantrymen, clad in thick plate mail and armed with halberds and claymores, stepped forward, while the archers took aim at the woman—no, the monster calling herself Sérignan. 

“Attack!” 

The archers unleashed their arrows at once, marking the start of battle. 

“Pathetic.” 

Sérignan fired a shot of silk from her abdomen toward a building across the street, then used it to launch herself over. In so doing, she evaded the arrows that would have rained down upon her. 

“Let’s go!” 

Despite their determination, the infantry began to fall apart. 

“Gaaah!” 

Sérignan aimed her sword at the thin gaps in their helmets, crushing their eyeballs with deadly accuracy. 

“Don’t hesitate! Keep pushing!” 

Gran understood just how grievous the situation was, but he also knew they had to fight. If they ran, this monster of a woman would give chase and slay them all. Even if they could manage to shake her off, they had a whole army of monsters crowding the streets at their flank. Their only way forward was to get rid of Sérignan and break through to the outside. 

“I see. This is all humans can manage.” 

Three heavy infantry charged Sérignan at once. She stabbed two of them through the chest with the legs on her back, then swung her longsword at the third, slashing his throat. The men crumpled to the ground in pools of blood, where they lay still and unmoving. 

“Come at me, humans. I shall slay you all, and make you into feed that will birth my new comrades.” 

Sérignan advanced on Gran with her longsword in hand and the two legs on her back aimed in his direction. 

“Heavy infantry, switch to defense! Archers, keep shooting!” 

Gran realized the heavy infantry’s sluggish movements couldn’t keep up with Sérignan’s swift motions, so he ordered them to serve as a shield for the archers. 

“Too dull! Too weak! Too pathetic!” 

Countless arrows rained down upon the blood-red knight, but she knocked them all away with her tail and sword. Not a single one managed to scratch her. 

“This is impossible! We can’t fight this thing!” 

“Somebody, help!” 

Realizing that their attacks were futile, the archers panicked and began to flee. 

“Wait! That way’s crawling with bugs! You’ll get yourselves killed!” 

Gran tried to stop them, but his words fell on deaf ears. The fleeing archers were cornered by insects creeping out from the alleyways, and their bodies were promptly mutilated by scythes and fangs. The archers’ dying howls soon faded, until only an eerie silence remained. 

“Will you fight like a fool? Or will you surrender to your fate, and become our sustenance?” 

Sérignan walked up to Gran and the infantry, her sword at the ready. 

“Nobody’s going to just roll over and let you make them into mincemeat!” 

Gran steeled his resolve and ordered the remaining heavy infantry to attack Sérignan at once. However, Sérignan fired strings at the ground, which tangled themselves around the soldiers’ feet and tripped them up. Gran was the only one to break through, but she handily intercepted his slash. 

“Not yet!” 

Refusing to give up, Gran brought down his blade again. Right, right, left, up, right. He swung at her in every direction, but Sérignan’s swordsmanship was extraordinary. She deflected all of his attacks, not allowing a single one through. Then she struck back, cutting a deep gash into his right arm. 

“Dammit,” Gran cursed through gritted teeth. 

“Are you all right, sir?!” 

The infantry managed to disentangle themselves from the strings and hurried to his side. 

“Charge her!” he growled in response. “She can only handle three at a time! Any more than that and she should be in trouble!” 

“Yes, sir!” 

Five heavy infantry abided by his order, engaging her at once. 

“I can only handle three a time, you say?” 

Sérignan smirked mysteriously, bending her tail toward the heavy infantry. And as the five men lunged at her... 

“What?!” 

Gran couldn’t believe his eyes. 

Sérignan bound two of the infantry with her strings, then swiftly put down the remaining three with her sword and insectile legs. After that, she killed the two entangled infantry one after another in graceful, fluid motions. Blood danced through the air, and the flecks that flew onto her crimson carapace blended in perfectly. 

“Come, face me. You’re the last one left,” Sérignan declared, pointing her longsword at him. 

“You godforsaken hellspawn!” Gran shouted back, propping himself up on his sword. “The elves must have summoned you all with some kind of black magic!” 

“You think the elves summoned us? What utter nonsense! We were given life and flesh by none other than Her Majesty, the exalted Queen of the Arachnea! The elves did not summon us. The Arachnea are a superior civilization that greatly eclipses the elves!” 

“Arachnea? So that’s your country’s name... Why are you invading us?! Are you barbarians that know nothing of culture and humanity?!” Gran’s voice was tinged with pain. 

“How ridiculous. It was your people who attacked us first. You slaughtered our allies and thus spurred Her Majesty’s wrath. It was your actions that made our queen decide to wipe your wretched Kingdom off the face of the earth! Your country will be erased from this world. None of your people will survive. Such was Her Majesty’s decree. If you resent that, blame the Knights of Saint Augustine for attacking Baumfetter.” 

“So it was you who killed them after—” 

Before Gran could finish his sentence, Sérignan severed his head. The blood that spurted out gave her armor a deeper, darker luster. 

“Well done, Sérignan.” 

“Your Majesty!” 

The Arachnea’s queen approached Sérignan. She was clad in an elegant dress that made a striking contrast with the bloody, corpse-covered battlefield. 

“You talk too much, though. Just take out the foot soldiers; you don’t have to engage them in conversation. Sparing every one of your victims attention would just waste precious time.” 

“My apologies, Your Majesty!” Sérignan lowered her head, still keeping a watchful eye on the queen. 

“Eh, it’s fine. You were awesome, though. Just what I’d expect from my precious hero unit. I’ll raise you into the strongest Swarm in existence. And that’s why I can’t have you die on me, capisce?” The queen’s tone was gentle. 

“Yes, my queen,” Sérignan said, her eyes a bit teary. “I shall survive, no matter what may come.” 

“Oh come on, no crying. Are you a seasoned warrior or a little kid?” She patted Sérignan’s head. 

“Forgive me. I’m simply too grateful for your kind words.” 

“Listen, wipe your nose and go finish this battle. Once we’re done here, we’ll go to the next town, and the one after that. Then, we’ll storm their capital... Siglia.” 

“By your will, Your Majesty.” 

And so, the curtains were drawn on the Battle of Leen. The Eastern Garrison’s 15,000 men were wiped out, along with 150,000 of Leen’s citizens. 

Unfortunately for those who hoped the nightmare would end soon, the Arachnea queen’s Ripper Swarm rush was only just beginning.