28GUERRILLA WAR
The days blurred by as Spear’s Edge steadily conquered Aranya Forest, one bit at a time. Vir’s strategy worked like a wonder, and the party grew more proficient with each enemy squad crushed.
Their tactics had become so smooth that words were no longer necessary between them. Upon finding a squad, they’d move into formation and act more like different parts of a single body, rather than four individuals.
This was the feeling Vir had sought his whole life. To be a part of a greater whole. To be on the inside, rather than an outsider looking in.
Since they took out the entire scouting squad every time, 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 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. 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 skirted around the warriors, targeting only the vulnerable ant-like workers.
Unfortunately, the Matron 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. 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 a 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 would defend the workers while the other half engaged the threat.
Even so, that left gaps in their coverage, allowing Haymi and Vir to sneak around from behind.
The dense foliage made hiding easy, even during the day. 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 ant-like worker—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. He’d then Leap 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 corpses littering the ground. And soon, their warrior brethren would join them.
Vir Leaped to 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 it out a bit at a time.
Only then did he go for the kill, driving his weapon into the gouged hole. The hunter spasmed, then crumpled to the ground.
While hunters were deadly and durable, they didn’t seem especially smart—unlike the Matron. 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, sowing confusion amidst their ranks.
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 stood 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—!” 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 its peers.
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.