Her Majesty’s Swarm - Volume 1 - Chapter 7

Meatballs 

While I oversaw the conquest of Leen, my Ripper Swarms rushed the northern and southern regions of the Kingdom. The formula for each assault was the same: the Digger Swarms would destroy the gates, leaving the militia incapable of handling the Ripper Swarms flooding into the city. 

The Swarm had hoisted their banner of bloodshed, made clear their mantra of massacre, and swiftly set about their slaughter. 

Veni, vidi, vici. 

The Ripper Swarms had torn through soldiers and townsfolk alike without a hint of mercy, and the Worker Swarms had gathered all the corpses in one place. Now there was only one thing left to do. 

“All right. Time to make some meatballs,” I told the Worker Swarms. 

“Meatballs, Your Majesty?” replied one of them. 

“Yep. You did that in the game, right? You turned the enemy troops and worker units into meatballs. It’s easier to carry them to the Fertilization Furnace that way, and they take up less storage space.” 

“You desire for us to make prey orbs? Understood. We will begin shortly.” 

“Thanks!” 

Evidently, the Worker Swarms understood my request. They attended to the bodies, turning them into mincemeat with their claws and scythes. The victims’ clothes and armor clung to the final product due to the Worker Swarms’ adhesive saliva. 

Among the corpses were the tailor and the butchers I frequented. I felt nothing in particular toward their deaths, however. This was war, and it was only natural for the other side to have casualties. 

Was this a Swarm-like line of thought? Was my consciousness now completely controlled by the collective? Had I been dominated by the will of a savage species that saw all others as prey to be devoured? 

No. Not at all. The tailor and butchers had made the decision to demonize the elves, calling them barbarians... and far worse. It was because of their unreasonable hatred and preposterous gossip that the Kingdom of Maluk had gathered an army to slaughter the elves in the first place. 

They had started this war. I merely met their hostility in kind. 

I was certain that had I left the soldiers and innocents alone and allowed them to live in peace, it would not have been long before they would attack the elves again—or perhaps even us. 

While I was lost in thought, the Worker Swarms continued making mincemeat. Once they were finished, they divided it up and wrapped it up into neat, round meatballs. The Worker Swarms had called them prey orbs, so that was probably the more correct term to use. It didn’t really matter though, did it? 

“What would you have us do next, Your Majesty?” 

“Put two-thirds of them into the new Fertilization Furnaces. You finished building them, right?” 

“Yes, construction is complete.” 

The Kingdom of Maluk was annoyingly large, and going back to our base in the tunnels every time would take far too long. Speed was paramount for rushes. 

In this regard, the Arachnea was the ideal faction for this sort of strategy. Ripper Swarm production was cheap and fast, which meant it was possible to amass a large army early in the game. That said, the early game was the only time the Ripper Swarms were viable. They were short-lived units that could easily be defeated by upgraded units in the late game. 

The Kingdom of Maluk was large, and our current number of Swarms wasn’t enough to cover it all. I intended to destroy everything down to the smallest village, which would require far more significant numbers. To that end, I decided to set up forward operating bases that would function as headquarters on the field. 

These were small support structures that functioned as miniature bases, or hives of a sort. They were built around the Fertilization Furnaces, which produced the Swarms, and were also equipped with flesh depositories for storing resources. 

We set up one such FOB with the bare minimum of what we’d need right in Leen’s central square. We would use this place to produce more Swarms to send out on the front lines. 

I wouldn’t normally have gone to this much trouble for an ordinary Ripper Swarm rush. Those required you to gamble everything on speed, in a manner of speaking. But the enemy had the potential to withstand the rush this time, so I had to be extra cautious. The enemy had walls, for example, and they could summon powerful beings like that angel. 

Speaking of which, I swear I know that that angel from somewhere. I definitely remember killing an angel like that at some point... Oh well. 

Whether the enemy came out to greet us or we marched upon them, we just needed to stomp them out. The Ripper Swarms would reduce everything to mincemeat and transform the ground they walked on into a hellish sea of blood. 

“All Fertilization Furnaces, produce Ripper Swarms.” 

I’d considered producing some mid-tier units instead, but decided to focus on Ripper Swarms for now. They were the fastest-moving units I had, with the Digger Swarms being the second. Mixing in slower units now would just drag everyone else down, and we already weren’t going as fast as we should have. 

As I mentioned, speed was imperative for rushes. I had to swiftly snuff out the enemy before they had time to deal with us. 

“The bases to the north and south are completed, and they’re currently mass-producing Ripper Swarms. Soon there will be a hundred thousand of them... If I were playing this on my PC, it’d probably overheat and shut down.” 

The Ripper Swarms had also defeated the northern and southern armies, devouring their inhabitants to further bolster their forces. My consciousness was now linked with over 100,000 individual Swarms, and I could feel their blips in the collective consciousness crawling all over my brain. 

“The Ripper Swarms are to set off in groups of fifty as soon as they’re completed. Attack them in waves. We’re going to teach them how frightening a Ripper Swarm rush can be. Show them how you devour everything in your path and topple even so-called impregnable fortresses.” 

The collective consciousness sure is convenient. I didn’t have to lift a finger; my orders were instantaneous, just like they were when I played the game. It allowed me to observe everything as if from above, which helped me come up with the best possible strategies. 

“Sérignan, come with me to the front lines. I’m going to need you to grind some levels.” 

“Yes, Your Majesty. But wouldn’t it be better if you stayed behind, where it’s safe?” 

Hmm. She had a point. I wasn’t much use on the front lines of battle. If anything, I would probably get in the way. The Arachnea’s units were the brawn while the queen was the brains. 

“Still, I’ll go. I want to see what I’ve done with my own two eyes.” 

I decided to go after all. I had to bear witness to what I had wrought. Seeing things through the collective consciousness wouldn’t be enough. 

“If that is your will, I will guard you with my life.” 

“I’m counting on that.” 

The front lines would likely be littered with corpses. Those would then be carried off to a forward operating base, where they would be made into meatballs that would give birth to more Ripper Swarms. 

What would I think when I saw that? Would I regret my actions? Would I pity them? Would the responsibility of it all weigh deeply upon my conscience? 

Impossible. Somehow, I knew none of that would happen. 

“Let us go, then, Your Majesty.” 

I walked on alongside my grotesque, adorable insects. I had promised them I would guide them to victory. Regret, mercy, and moral responsibility had no place in my heart. If anything weighed on me, it was the fear that I might not be able to guide them properly. 

Will the Arachnea be able to win under my leadership? 

No, there’s no sense in asking; I’ll prove I can do it. If anyone can, it’s me, so I’ll pull it off. No matter how much blood I’ll need to spill. My losing would mean the annihilation of these little ones that adore me so much, after all. 

“Sérignan, I’m not going to lose. I’ll prove that I can win this, no matter what or who I’m up against.” 

“Yes, Your Majesty. And we will follow you wherever you go.” 

And so we left for the front lines, our hearts swelling with resolution. 

“Aaargh! Can someone explain what in blazes is going on?!” 

King Ivan II was fuming during a meeting with his councilmen in the royal palace in Siglia. The king thought they had sent their troops on a simple errand to do away with the elves and Nyrnal’s advance forces. He had even granted permission to use an excessive force of 15,000 men for the job. 

Additionally, Omari had already started talking about the celebrations they’d have to hold for their victory in a few weeks. 

But soon enough, their high spirits had been crushed. 

First, they had lost all contact with the Eastern Garrison, and it was speculated that their troops had been completely wiped out. 15,000 men, gone. It also seemed that they had been so swiftly, thoroughly defeated that not a single one of them had had time to write home about it. 

Then, the king and his council started receiving reports from all over of grotesque monstrosities attacking their towns and villages. The enemy had apparently overwhelmed militia and soldiers alike with unimaginable numbers. Not a single report of a victory arrived at the palace. 

“What is going on in my Kingdom, Odevski?!” 

“Erm, I’m afraid I don’t know, milord. Nothing is clear at the moment,” Omari replied nervously. “Most of the men we sent to investigate haven’t returned, and those who did make it back are too afraid to speak of what they saw.” 

“Are you saying the Nyrnals launched a full-blown invasion? Do they intend to stake a claim in our land?” 

As soon as the council had learned of the Eastern Garrison’s defeat, they had sent out a search party. Astonishingly, the search party, composed of a few elite soldiers from Maluk’s military, had nearly been wiped out themselves. The few survivors who had returned were crippled by their terror, and only managed to mutter deliriously about insects. 

“No, according to Nyrnal’s diplomats, the Empire isn’t part of this,” said Slava. “Their ambassador denies any involvement. And from what our intelligence division tells us, their army truly has not mobilized.” 

The Empire of Nyrnal insisted it had nothing to do with this strange string of events. According to them, they had no men stationed in the forest and hadn’t conspired with any elves to destroy the Knights of Saint Augustine. They had nothing to do with the chaos going on throughout the Kingdom, either. 

In fact, Nyrnal’s ambassador was outraged by the accusations. He claimed they were a terrible insult to diplomacy, and an offensive attempt by the Kingdom to push responsibility for their problems onto the Empire. 

“Then who is attacking us? Who else is capable of such savage invasions?” 

“We do not know, milord.” 

No one could answer him. 

“How is it possible that our enemy has come this far and we don’t even know who they are?! Our country has never known such failure! What reports we do have say that the enemy has already concluded their takeover of the loess mountains, and are pushing further ahead.” 

The loess mountain range extended slightly to the west of the Kingdom’s center. It was a steep area containing several narrow roads that served as the Kingdom of Maluk’s supply routes during emergencies. 

It was tight terrain, and the roads came to a bottleneck—the only exit on the mountainside. This geography provided the Kingdom with an excellent western line of defense, as it prevented enemies from marching through the mountains in large numbers; sporadic or straggling troops could easily be picked off with a few of the Kingdom’s soldiers. The fewer the enemy troops, the easier a counterattack would be later on. 

However, the mountain range had already fallen into enemy hands. No one knew how, but the few soldiers from Maluk who had escaped the mountains had been hunted down and killed by enemy hordes. 

Yes, this was the Arachnea queen’s wave attack in effect. The Kingdom’s soldiers had tried to block their path at the bottleneck, but the Digger Swarms destroyed the ground beneath them. After that, the onslaught of Ripper Swarms decimated the remaining soldiers. 

The Swarm had truly crashed down upon them like a series of surging waves. Their exoskeletons deflected arrows, rendering bows useless. However, ballistas and attack spells implemented from the fortresses had proven effective against the Ripper Swarms. The loess mountains had been littered with the pierced and charred corpses of Ripper Swarms that had fallen victim to the humans’ weapons... but the bodies of soldiers who’d been swept away in the black tidal wave far outnumbered them. 

Her tactics were undeniably fearsome. 

The defensive line of the loess mountains had been crushed by a massive Ripper Swarm rush. Not only had the Swarm overrun the mountains, but they had also built a new forward operating base there. The soldiers were reduced to meatballs placed in flesh depositories or loaded into the Fertilization Furnace to produce more Ripper Swarms. 

“How are we supposed to stop them?!” 

“Thankfully, we still have a point to hold them back... the Aryl River. We will strike at the enemy as they try to cross the Aryl,” said Omari. 

The Aryl River flowed west of the loess mountains. It started in the Aryl-Yel Lake, then flowed south through the Kingdom of Maluk. The river was the Kingdom’s second line of defense after the loess mountain range. No matter who the enemy was, they would be defenseless for a time when crossing a river. Those precious moments of vulnerability were when the Maluk military tended to strike. 

While the enemy tried to cross, the Kingdom’s soldiers would shower them with attacks from the opposite bank. If the enemy did manage to land, the soldiers would charge them before they had time to organize. That way, the enemy forces would crumble at their most vulnerable and die on the Aryl’s banks. The invasion would be stopped before it could truly begin. 

“A battle along the Aryl, you say? Gather our forces, then. This battle will be a decisive one. Gather all the men who were split up between our strongholds and bring them together for this battle. Can you do that, Omari?” 

“Of course. I’ve already told some of our men that the Aryl is to be defended. We have a great deal of men stationed at every bridge. It will be a difficult battle, but this also gives us the highest chance of emerging victorious.” 

The enemy’s identity was still unknown, but the Kingdom of Maluk had decided to hold a defensive battle along the banks of the Aryl River. Would such a plan work, given that they didn’t know who the enemy was? Whatever the outcome, this was their only option. The sad truth was that should the enemy break through the river, the capital would be right before their eyes. Failure here would spell doom for the Kingdom of Maluk. 

“Set off immediately, then. Stop the enemy at the Aryl River, no matter what.” 

“As you wish, Your Majesty. I will begin preparations at once.” 

And with that, the war council drew to a close. 

“Father!” 

As Ivan II left the large meeting room, bereft of concern and anxiety, he was greeted by his little Elizabeta. She wasn’t allowed to join the war meeting, so she had patiently waited outside. 

“Father, did we stop the invasion? I am so very afraid... If the enemies are allies of the elves, they may eat humans, too!” 

“Everything will be all right. We’ve just discussed a plan to stop the invasion, and it will succeed. We’ll use the might of all our forces to stop these villains, and you will have nothing more to fear. That’s as certain as the sunrise at dawn, my dear.” 

Even young Elizabeta had heard of the coming invasion. The enemy had swiftly defeated the 15,000 soldiers of the Eastern Garrison and kept on marching, and their second division had just taken the loess mountains. 

It was a tyrannical invasion, to be sure. The ladies-in-waiting were already grieving, certain of their doom, and the noblewomen spoke of where they might flee with trembling voices. Those who couldn’t fight had no choice but to wait in fear of the invasion. 

“I hope so. There is so much terror and sorrow in the court,” Elizabeta said, on the verge of tears. “Many have brothers, fathers, husbands, and sons who set out to fight and never returned. One can only imagine what those barbarians did to them...” 

“Rest easy, darling. We will not be defeated. Stefan will also be on the front lines, so do pray for his safe return. The people of the Kingdom should all pray for their loved ones at a time like this.” 

“Yes, Father. I’m sure he will be fine, and return to us alive and well. I, too, shall pray for his safety in battle.” 

Stefan Stroganoff was a descendant of a long-running house of dukes, and related by blood to the royal family. Being a princess, Elizabeta had been promised to him at the age of eight, and their engagement was met with countless blessings from the people. Elizabeta herself was excited for the day she would wed Stefan. In just two more years, she would be deemed old enough to marry him, and the two of them would be on their way to starting a happy family. 

Having a duke marry a royal would further solidify the Kingdom’s politics. Domestic affairs would stabilize, and the country would be able to divert attention to external affairs—namely, trade and relations with the Nyrnal Empire. 

But Stefan was already considered an adult and head of a duke’s household, so his duties as a noble demanded he take to the battlefield. Even if they had been married, he would likely have left Elizabeta at his estate and gone to fight anyway. 

Elizabeta prayed to the God of Light time and again, begging for Him to protect Stefan. She wished that her beloved would return to her safe and sound, and that the two could wed with blessings from the citizens and the God of Light Himself. At the moment, nothing mattered to her more. 

“The battle will begin soon. Let victory be on our side.” 

“Yes. Please win this war, Father.” 

Yet no one could tell who would emerge victorious.