Looming from Above

Pride and stubbornness were perfectly good things in Marcus's book, as long as they don't get you killed.

And being too prideful to run away from a losing battle that would almost surely get you killed was a special kind of idiocy.

In the last few days, his forces didn't achieve any significative victory. The humanoid patrols were always on their guard against potential attacks, and their size had grown. The few battles that the drones had fought were either pyrrhic victories or total defeats, and even with Marcus literally shitting out eggs all day the lost drones couldn't be replaced quickly enough.

So, in the end, Marcus had no choice but to admit that he was only delaying the inevitable. He had greatly underestimated the humanoids' numbers and strength and it was only a matter of time before they discovered the cave and killed him.

So the only sensible thing to do right now was to organize an escape plan.

Thanks to the tunnels that the drones had dug simply getting away from the cave was simple enough, but then where could he go? He needed a shelter, and a big one to boot if he wanted to build another hive. So, in order to find a suitable place, he resumed his explorations through the flying drones.

For this mission, he would use a new breed of flying drones: they were still similar to the original dragonfly/lizard hybrids, but they were much larger, with big wings that allowed them to fly at an incredible speed, probably faster than the gargoyles. As for their defenses, they had both venomous fangs and a stinger at the end of their tail, plus the ability to spit poison. They were also strong enough to pick and lift considerable weights, since Marcus wanted them to take back any prey with particularly useful abilities worth absorbing.

Originally these drones were supposed to fight against the gargoyles, but at this point Marcus was simply trying to gain time and avoided any major confrontation, using hit and run tactics to keep the gremlins on edge and distracted while he organized his escape, so these valuable drones were better used for exploration.

There were ten of those new flying drones, and Marcus sent them in three groups: three of them would go east, three south and four west. He didn't bothered sending any of them north since they would almost surely be spotted by the gargoyles in that direction.

Those drones were very autonomous, capable of hunting by themself and procure their own food, so they could simply keep exploring for as long as it was needed.

Through their eyes, Marcus saw the territory that surrounded him: going east, the hills continued for a few dozens of kilometers, before they gave place to a series of lakes, marshes and swamps. Certainly not a good place to build a hive.

To the south, the hill continued for a bit longer before they disappeared in a huge, forest covered plain that extended as far as the drones' eyes could see. The forest was made up of gigantic trees, even taller than giant sequoias, whose shadows keep the ground dark even in the middle of the day.

This place was certainly interesting, but it seemed even more dangerous than the hills: Marcus lost 2 drones, which were caught in huge webs set between trees and devoured by some particularly scary looking spiders the size of small horses.

After a quick glance at one of those arachnids through the eyes of a dying drone, Marcus had said "NOPE!" and made the last surviving drone come back.

Finally, to the west the hills continued for many kilometers. The territory was pretty similar to the one he was in: steep hills covered by woods, bushes and rocks. There were certainly many places to hide in that direction, and the drones had already spotted what looked like a few caves.

But it was during the second day of exploration that Marcus finally found a perfect place: the drones were flying well above the trees when they spotted something on top of a hill north.

Curious about it, Marcus had them flying in that direction and when they were close enough he finally realized that it was some sort of ruins. He had the drones approach it carefully, remembering the bad surprise he had with the humanoids in the tower, but the place seemed completely deserted, apart for a few birds and small animals that quickly ran away.

Most of the buildings were in ruins and covered by lush vegetation, but a couple of them were still standing. One of them looked like a big church, while the other was a big rectangular three floors building with an inner garden, now covered in wild bushes, with a well at the center of it.

The drones stayed up in the air for a while, searching for eventual dangers, but after a while they flew lower to get a better look.

The buildings were little more than walls at this point, as all of the wooden parts had long rotted away and the ceilings had caved in, but there were various stairs leading underground, suggesting the presence of wide cellars. The well was too covered in vegetation to see the bottom, but one of the drones dropped a stone in it, which after a few seconds made a splashing sound, indicating that there was still water in it.

Marcus, observing the place through the eyes of his minions, quickly evaluated the pro and cons of it. Although it was a very visible area and not really far enough from the humanoids to be completely safe, it was also easy to defend, it had a water supply and probably an underground area in which he could build his hive.

All things considered, it was the best option for a new shelter if Marcus needed to run away from the caves he was in.

Satisfied, Marcus ordered one of the digger drones to dig a tunnel towards those ruins, while also commanding the scout drones to come back.

"Good. At least now I know a place I can run to should those fucking gremlins find my hive." he thought, allowing himself to relax a bit "Still, a bit too close to them for comfort, but with a tiny bit of luck I should be able to stay hidden in there long enough to prepare an army big enough to wipe those dirty little bastards off the map!"

He smiled while thinking this, but then this smile slowly drained from his face as he realized that he'd have to personally give birth to the whole army by himself.

"Oh fuck no!" he thought with horror "That's gonna be the end of me! The ultimate cooch destruction!"

He shuddered, trying to think about an alternative solution, but he was suddenly distracted by some feedback coming from the scout drones returning from the ruins.

He immediately focused on it, seeing through the eyes of his minions, taking direct control...

The flying drones were high in the sky, high enough to be practically invisible from the ground. But their eyes, made to be able to notice faraway things, had no problem identifying the small figures moving on the ground.

It was a humanoid patrol, the largest the hive had ever seen. The trees were in the way so it wasn't possible to count them, but they seemed to be at least a thousand, and to make things worse is was exclusively composed of the stronger breeds of gremlins: the weaker, smaller and non-specialized gremlins that usually made up at least a third of their forces were completely absent.

The size and strength of this army would have been enough to make the hive mind panic, if it wasn't for a small detail: the gremlins weren't coming towards the hive. In fact, they were marching in the opposite direction, going north west. But why would they do that? Was there something else that was threatening them?

The hive mind hesitated a bit, wondering what to do, but then it ordered the four flying drones to follow the army from a safe distance.

If something required the gremlins to field an army of that size, it was probably better to try and discover what that something was.

After all, God only knew what kind of menaces were lurking in the forest...

"Ouch!" Felix cried, taking his boots off and starting massaging his feet "Dammit! I think I got blisters!"

Klara gave him an exasperated look. The group was taking a short rest, but only Felix and the other casters really needed it. The others could have easily kept on marching till sunset, but had decided to take their time, as an exhausted caster was an useless caster.

Still, the red haired boy was holding on well, considered his inexperience. He sure wasn't used to marching for days, but he didn't complain too much, despite his obvious pain.

Taking pity on him, the girl approached him and gave him a small jar.

"Take this." she said "It's an unguent. Rub it on your feet and the blisters should be gone in a few hours."

"Thank you Klara!" the boy said with gratitude, taking the jar "I knew I can rely on y..."

"Shut up!" she interrupted him "I'm still mad at you. You shouldn't be here. You should have stayed at home."

"We already talked about this." Felix sighed "I just want to help you..."

Without another word, Klara turned her back on him and left, getting to the edge of the clearing where the group was currently resting.

To be honest, she wasn't really that angry, just royally pissed. This expedition was dangerous, and she had her hands full just trying to stay alive and earning her pay. And now she had to watch over Felix too!

She appreciated that the boy was trying to help her, but by the gods he was doing it in the worst possible way.

It had been thirteen days since the group had departed from Brettholz. In the meantime, Klara had rescued her friend from quicksands, hidden ravines, poisonous animals and a particularly nasty snail that had tried to eat his brain.

The problem was that Felix, while capable of moving through the woods, was too curious and easily distracted: his mind always jumped at whatever picked his interest, and he often got almost separated from the group because he had stopped observing something he found interesting.

Since no one else really cared about the apprentice sorcerer, Klara had become his babysitter, and this just added to the work she had to do as a scout.

She arrived at the edge of the clearing and she leaned against a tree, resting a bit while observing the rest of the group.

At the center, on an old fallen tree, Felix and other two casters were resting. The young novice cleric, Bal, was even more exhausted than the apprentice sorcerer, but he held on by muttering prayers, while the sorcerer Joakim was much better off and was simply resting while watching the sky.

Near them, the knights were silently standing on guard. They all wore chainmails covered by heavy green cloaks and were so immobile that they could be mistaken for part of the forest. Klara was kinda happy to be accompanied by them. They had an aura of competence and lethality that made her feel safe.

The hunters were scattered randomly in the clearing, usually resting or standing on guard themself, while the Brightstone mercenaries were near the opposite edge of the clearing from Klara, staying by themself.

Zeno, the sorcerer accompanying the mercenaries, also remained close to them, but the others generally ignored his presence. He was by far the most exhausted of the casters, and was currently sitting on the ground with his back against a tree, apparently trying to make the most of this moment of rest.

Klara didn't trust the group, and she was very suspicious about Zeno: it was evident that man wasn't really part of the Brightswords nor an expert of campaigns, but he accompanied them nonetheless. Plus, she hadn't seen him with the Brightswords when they were in Oakfell, but he still felt familiar for some reason...

"Attention troopers!" the voice of Dagobert, the head of the expedition, echoed through the clearing, interrupting her thoughts "We are resuming the exploration right now! Get ready and be on your guard! We need three scouts ahead, plus some others to cover our flanks and rear! We are getting near our objective, so consider this a war zone!"

A war zone. Klara couldn't help but smile at the militaristic term, even though it wasn't exactly wrong. The Ashwood Hills were certainly a warzone, but the war that was happening there was a war for survival. Countless magic beasts and monsters fought every day, and she sure as hell didn't want to get caught in the crossfire.

They had reached the hills only two days ago, but the hunters had already found more threats in this time than in all the rest of the trip. Sometimes, they had to take some wide detour in order to avoid the territories of particularly nasty creatures that were a menace even for a well armed and numerous group like that.

A moment of distraction would almost surely mean death in this place... which was why Klara was so worried about Felix.

She looked at the sky, trying to gauge the weather for the next day. It was mostly clear, but she could see a mass of dark clouds on the horizon. Depending on the wind, they could have some heavy rain the next days.

She also noticed a small spot in the blue of the sky, some creature with bat like wings, but when she tried to get a better look it flew in front of the sun, becoming basically invisible, and so she dismissed it.

After all, she already had her hands full with worrying about what was on the ground.