120: Guerrilla War (Patreon)

NOTE: From now on, major holidays will be observed.

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The days blurred by as the Spear’s Edge conquered Aranya Forest, a little at a time. Vir’s strategy worked like a wonder, and the party grew more proficient with each squad crushed.

Their tactics had become so smooth that no words were even necessary. Upon finding a squad, they’d move into formation and act more like different parts of a single body, rather than four individuals.

And since they took out the entire scouting squad, the Matron never heard from her scouts. Which meant she couldn’t adapt to their tactics.

They’d even begun timing themselves. At first, it took fifteen minutes to take down a squad. Then twelve, then ten. They’d brought it down to merely seven minutes when they’d hunted all the scouts to extinction. Or at least, the vast majority of them; it was difficult to say if there were any stragglers in a forest as large as Aranya.

Even Neel had gotten better at corralling their enemies, distracting them while the others worked.

To avoid ambush, they erected a half dozen bases all around the forest after they’d killed off most of the scouts. While supplies had run out, they decided to press on, rather than to return to Avi for resupply. Haymi’s Splash orbs kept their throats wet, and the Forest provided a bounty of wild edibles to eat, leaving them able to conduct raids throughout the day.

As Vir had suspected, the Matron had been using her workers and Hunter-Gatherers to find new prey, in place of her scouts. They couldn’t hope to compete with their better-equipped brethren, but they had far more numbers.

Until Spear’s Edge started targeting the workers. Vir had felt that without her workers, the Matron couldn’t consume enough nutrients to reproduce new offspring. While they hadn’t confirmed that, it did seem like it took the Matron more time to create workers and scouts than it did to kill them.

The workers stood no chance; even Neel managed to take down several. There was always a danger of running into a Hunter-Gatherer patrol, but thanks to Prana Vision, Vir always skirted around the warriors, targeting only the vulnerable ant-like workers.

Unfortunately, the Matron had adapted to this strategy soon after. She’d begun surrounding her workers with Hunter-Gatherers, making their raids far more difficult. What’s worse, unless they killed off both the workers and the hunters, the matron would learn of their tactics and adapt.

They’d avoided that until now… but only barely. Raiding at least a dozen enemies—half of which were usually the durable Hunter-Gatherers—was no easy feat.

But by building several bases around the forest and alternating between them, they’d avoided a counterattack, allowing them to raid with impunity, as they were doing now.

“Vason!” Tia shouted.

“On it! Over here, you lumbering louts!” he cried, activating Bulwark.

Three of the Hunter-Gatherers who protected the dozen workers immediately focused on him and Tia. Initially, they’d all go after the biggest threat, but after Spear’s Edge had annihilated a few worker squads this way, the Matron wised up. Now, half defended the workers while the other half engaged the threat.

Even so, that left gaps in their coverage, allowing Haymi and Vir snuck around from behind.

The dense foliage made hiding easy, even during the day, and without the superior senses of their scout brethren, the workers were completely blindsided when Vir and Haymi reaved into them, roasting and slicing them apart.

Vir flew like a wraith, lunging to another worker—which resembled oversized ants—immediately after decapitating the previous one.

Haymi supported him with her Arc spells. Every crack of thunder signaled the death of another hapless worker. Unlike their scout cousins, workers were easily killed, either via magic or with a blade.

Neel pounced on another and chomped its head, gnawing on it until the thing died.

Surrounded by fingers of Haymi’s lightning and with his blade speed augmented by her magic, Vir felt invulnerable. Hunters lashed at him, hurling their venom, but the lumbering beasts were far too slow to catch him.

Vir kicked off the ground, somersaulting in midair to land on the carapace of a Hunter before Leaping off, spearing his blade through the nearest worker before his foe even knew what hit it. He left behind him a trail of death and decapitated ant heads.

Haymi was more vulnerable, so she retreated, firing spells from a safe distance.

In just moments, all the workers were just corpses littering the ground. And soon, their warrior brethren would join them.

Vir Leaped into the nearest Hunter-Gatherer. Occupied with Vason and Tia as it was, his attack went unnoticed.

The Prana Bladed seric katar penetrated deeply into its armor where it was thinnest, but even that spot was too far for his katar. After having killed a dozen of these beasts, he knew what it took to kill them. Vir withdrew his blade and pierced the armor again, and again, carving out a bit at a time.

Only then did he go for the kill, driving his weapon into the hole he’d just gouged. The Hunter spasmed for a moment, then crumpled to the ground.

While Hunters were deadly and durable, unlike their Matron, they didn’t seem to be especially smart. Nor did they adapt to situations gracefully. Vir knew what would happen next, having used the same trick on them before.

The Hunters engaged with Tia and Vason turned around to face the new threat presented by Vir and Haymi. And in doing so, earned themselves an Ember spell to their rumps, along with Vason and Tia’s sharpened blades.

Vir backed away, which caused the Hunters to turn back to Tia. Then he and Haymi moved in again, firing spells and digging into their carapaces.

All the while, Neel ran around them, sewing confusion.

One by one, they were whittled down until there was just one left. With the combined might of Spear’s Edge focused on one enemy, the poor Hunter had no chance.

The first couple of encounters had resulted in injuries, but after learning the optimal strategy, the party hadn’t taken a single hit after.

Or at least, that should have been the case.

“How many more do you reckon there are?” Vason asked, wiping the sweat from his brow as he eyed the remaining beast.

“At least a few dozen more,” Vir replied. “We’re getting close, but we’re not—!?”

But when Vir took a moment to scan the area, he froze.

“What is it?” Tia asked, drawing her spear.

“We’re… we’ve been surrounded?” Vir said in disbelief. “How?”

Granted, Vir hadn’t been paying attention to the forest while he was engaged in combat, but still. It hadn’t been that long since they’d engaged this group. Certainly not enough time to lay an ambush.

Which means the Matron planned this. She planned this encounter with the hunters and the workers.

“How many of them?”

“Fifteen—No! Twenty Hunters. And. Oh, no…”

“What?”

All color drained from Vir’s face. Hidden behind shrubs was a figure that blazed brightly to Prana Vision. A Hunter that was far larger than other hunters.

He’d seen that signature before. Pure Ash, as black as the prana in his own body.

“I think the Matron’s here.”

“We run!” Tia commanded.

“Where? Apramor just said we’re surrounded!” Vason shot back.

“Apramor, is there an opening in their encirclement? Or a weak spot? Anything we can exploit?” Tia asked in desperation.

Vir scanned their surroundings. He doubted the Matron would make a mistake like that… but, in fact, he did find an opening. Two, in fact. It was possible that it was a trap. Either that, or the Matron had simply lost too many Hunters to encircle them completely.

But whatever it was, the party had little choice. Their window shrunk with each passing moment as the Matron’s noose grew tighter and tighter.

“I think we have a chance! Follow me. Quickly!” Vir shouted, running for the weak point nearest them.

Running was a generous word for what it was. Vir half-stumbled, half-dove through dense foliage, using his katar to cut through vines, shrubs, and branches in his way. Of them all, Neel was the most dextrous, often running ahead, thinking it was some kind of game.

The noose continued to close. At this rate, they wouldn’t make it.

“I’m going ahead,” Vir announced. While it was trivial for him to escape any ambush so long as hard shadows were present, the same didn’t hold true for the rest of them.

But that also meant he could escape the encirclement and attack their enemies from behind, giving Spear’s Edge an advantage.

Vir sunk into the realm of shadows and analyzed his options. It was currently daytime, and while the dense forest let little light through, the shadows were just soft enough to make them useless for Dance.

As such, there were only a handful of exits available. Vir picked a location at the edge of his range. His feet had only just touched the ground when he activated Leap and charged at the back of the nearest Hunter-Gatherer.

Taken entirely by surprise, the beast struggled to defend itself against Vir’s Prana Blade katar. Even without Prana Blade, his blade was seric—sharp, and durable enough to hold that edge. Then he had Haymi’s Enhance Speed orb, and on top of all of that, Prana Blade.

Vir doubted there was anything he couldn’t cut through with this combination. With superhuman movements, Vir’s blade blurred, slicing into the Ash Beast’s carapace, and dicing it apart.

When Spear’s Edge arrived, the poor beast’s fate was sealed. Arc, Water Dart, and Ember shot out, gouging deep into the wound Vir had created. Without its armor to protect it, the spells dug deep, mortally wounding the beast.

It froze for a moment before collapsing in a sprawl of bladed limbs.

“Nice work, Apramor!” Tia said, slapping Vir’s shoulder. “Are we clear, now?”

Vir nodded. “Should be… Wait.”

“More enemies?”

“No… I don’t see the Matron anymore.”

“Think she retreated?” Vason asked.

“I…” Just when Vir was about to agree, some primal instinct rugged him to look up. Whether it was Ekanai or Shardul, or just his own innate combat senses, it saved his life.

Because above them all, distributing its immense weight across several boughs, was the Brood Matron herself. In the blink of an eye, she dropped upon them.

Vir’s blood ran cold.

Right on top of Tia.

“Tia dodge! NOW!”