World of Alvarra: Rise of the Vampire Lord

The two lines of ants and termites clashed with the full force of a tsunami. Both sides tried to get to the other, even if it meant literally clambering over their comrades in front of them. To the point that in some places, the line would be four to five layers deep of moving bodies and biting mandibles. Sometimes the weight was too much and those on the bottom would be crushed, yet they fought, biting and tearing all the way as they died.

Giant bombardier beetles on the fairy's side took position and aimed their rears towards the termites. These weren’t your common bombardier beetles, but larger, a full foot tall, with strange spikes and swirls on their backs. They were accompanied by four fairies, one to massage the stomach and the organs to ease the beatle. One to feed the beatle a special slurry of chemicals. And the last two to create a spell formation right over the rear of the beetle.

The Beatles fired, their normally greenish corrosive changed into a bluish one, and as it passed through the spell formation, it picked up speed and power. It landed amongst the termites, exploding in a strange bluish liquid fire, practically melting anyone to goop who was unlucky enough to be too close to where it landed, with the splash radius dousing anyone else that didn’t become immediate goop. Burning them and melting parts of them, catching fire if they were not careful.

An old method of warfare, replaced by spell cannons for their reliability, but still used sometimes for their sheer demolishing shock value and large explosion radius. Dozens of such beetles were firing right now, bathing the battlefield in blue plumes of liquid death. If it weren't for their upkeep and their slow firing rate, they probably wouldn’t have been so easily replaced by their cannon counterpart and there would be far more of them now.

Whole sections of the termite army fled, being chased by the ants who now in a battle frenzy, charged without thinking. As they followed the fleeing, they were set upon a hidden line of enemy bombardier beetles. Not as powerful without the aid of fairies, they still covered the charging ants in green corrosiveness, killing many. But this did not deter them, the ants continued to charge, only for them to run right into another group of ants…

The wasp horde had taken slaves from the many conquered hives they came across, and with the threat of violence to their queens, these ants were forced to fight against their will. These new enemies made the allied assault pause, but their insect-kin commanders ordered them forward again, lest they lose momentum.

But it was not to be, for the slave's ants that were now charging them, had bomb mites on their bodies. A rare breed of mites that some ant colonies worked to breed for defense and to open new mining tunnels. Now, these mites were clinging onto the slave ants, charging the allied lines and exploding themselves all over the place.

The pause became a complete halt, as the allies became confused as to what to do, charging would create massive casualties, which would open them up to an attack, and fleeing would do the same. In the end, they were forced to fire their beetles on the slaves, risking friendly fire, or face a potential route.

The air force was also called in, sting throwers, a special bee variant, came into to play, larger than their counterparts, they flew and hovered over the battlefield, firing their stingers over and over again into the horde of slaves, trying to aim for the ones with the bomb mites specifically, in the hopes of saving as much of their comrades as possible.

But the wasp horde seemed to have been waiting for this. Many flies then appeared out of nowhere, probably in hiding, they swarmed the sting throwers, bomb mites stuck to their bodies, and blew themselves out together.

Half the allied air to ground force was destroyed in the massive counterattack. Commanders called for reinforcements and three fairy airships answered. They flew out of their hiding spot, well aware they lost the advantage of surprise. But also painfully aware of what could happen without proper air superiority.

Proper air screening was now in place, as bees and zappers took defensive positions surrounding the ships. The other half of the sting throwers that were in reserve came into play. Though it was sad to see so many sting throwers die, if that was all the flies that the horde had to offer, then they were safe from such an attack again, at least for this battle.

The wasps and the hornets now seemed finally content to come out in force, as to the termites who now pushed the slaves from behind forward for an all-out assault, their numbers far more than predicted.

But this did not deter the allied forces, they moved in, now calling all reserves, as the growing climatic battle formed around them.

Lyn was finally called forward, and she shot into the air from her hiding place like a comet, charging the wasps and hornets and doing her best to kill or cripple as many as she could get away without getting to hurt. For she definitely wanted to make it back home in one piece.

Fire hornets took to the sky, a variant of hornet that could use some magic, forcing themselves to burn their bodies up and fired flaming stingers which Lyn was forced to dodge. But this was met with a swarm of dragonflies, or ‘dragon insects’, who were normally masters of the sky, they took care of the fire hornets. But sadly since they had their hands full with the fire hornets, they could not help fight the other problems until they were dealt with.

Lyn flew in, zipping from one wasp to another. She fought for what felt like hours, her armor slowly being covered in bug guts. As she fought, she began to get worried as to why she had yet to see any lightning wasps but hoped that was due to the beating they received a few days before and not because of something nefarious.

Faster and faster she fought, trying to kill as many as quickly as possible, sometimes discharging and all-around electrical attack, dropping groups of wasps out of the air. The only issues she had were the few wasp insect-kin she had to fight. But they did not hold a candle to Xenith. So they wound up dead on the ground, joining the growing pile of corpses.

The battle continued, both sides losing tens of thousands, but more always came in to plunge up the holes. By the time it was over, both sides had had enough and over a hundred thousand had died on both sides. A truce was enacted to help collect the dead so they wouldn’t get in the way of the next battle.

In the end, Lyn realized that was just how insect wars worked, even if you lose a few hundred thousand, if you have enough allies and good logistical support, you could replace the losses easily.

She hoped though, that she did not have to go back to war again, and in fact, looked forward to when her master and his father finally decided to go back home. Which was bad for her, because last she heard, Alvaroz decided to stay another week. Which meant that she had at least another week of war.

Something she wasn’t sure her heart could handle…

---

Lyn could finally take a break. After another week of fighting, and earning herself a few merits on the battlefield, she earned a few nicknames and some recognition from her allies. Which meant that she could go back to see her master and relax for a bit. Perhaps even show off as well.

During her time off, she was introduced to an old fairy friend of Evergreen’s. A butterfly insect-kin who offered thirty butterfly insect-kin engineers for the spell cannons they had, to help with the war effort.

It was nice to sit down, relax and get to know a few people. Lyn even went out of her way to pick Xenith’s brain from time to time. Learning what she can, and getting to know her more as a person than a foe.

Evergreen had also during this time, become the official aid to Lyn, since Lyn was usually so busy with war that she didn’t have much time to run her hive. With the help of Evergreen, Lyn was able to somehow manage both war and her hive.

Finally, the day she was waiting for came, and she went to show off all she accomplished to her master. Only for it to turn out that he was in fact, leaving that day! This, of course, kind of presented a problem, Lyn did not want to leave the war as it was, but then again it was slowing down as well, as both sides were slowly coming to the realization that a forest-wide war was something far more than just a simple battle here or there.

So after a quick discussion, and some debate with her peers. She sent the message out to all her people and a few of the allies as well. To send a few of their potential heirs to her, in case anything were to happen to them during the war.

Some felt like she was a coward, but few accepted for what it was, and rather, wanted to use this opportunity to finally see the truth of her claims for themselves and who this vaunted master of hers was.

With that done, what was supposed to be a few thousand, turned into a few tens of thousands, as many hives wished for insurance in case things went south. Lyn’s sister, the young queen, Anya, the black princess, and even Xenith was brought with her, though that last one was still under guard.

She knew she probably had some explaining to do, but hopefully, it wouldn’t be anytime soon. Playing her usual, sometimes ditzy self, she was able to get all the bugs inside Van no problem. Much to his clear disgust of having so many bugs inside him.

When all was said and done, she entered him and prepared to set up her little queendom. Somewhat excited, somewhat nervous. But prepared to be the best queen she could be.

---

Lyn groaned. “This… this is a different kind of battlefield…” she mumbled to herself.

“Come on now, it's not that bad,” Evergreen said, rolling her eyes. “If anything… it's kind of annoying how quickly you get what I teach you… not that I'm complaining exactly…”

Since entering Van’s soul realm, Lyn was put to the job of managing everything, apparently… She had to do the paperwork to decide who lived where and why, who was neighbors with whom, and what would be gathered or grown to help support all the hives. In fact, just thinking about it gave her a headache.

Lyn groaned once more. “Did Anya make sure to bring those soybean seeds I asked her about? I kinda forgot about them with everything going on.” going from face down on her desk to face up, leaning heavily on the chair.

“Yes… Anya did make sure to bring the seeds that you requested, though for the life of me I can’t understand why you would want something so… tasteless… it's very unlike you.” Evergreen said, wondering why Lyn was so obsessed with the plant.

Lyn grinned, her face still pointing skyward. “It's not for the taste that I want it, but for what it can become…” she then finally lowered her head to meet her gaze with Evergreen’s. “Though it will be some work, if soybeans are grown and processed, it can in fact become… drum roll please… protein powder!” she said excitedly, her smile widening.

Evergreen just gave Lyn a look.

“Hey now… none of that… It’s a good thing, I swear!” Lyn said defensively, under the scrutinizing gaze of Evergreen.

Evergreen quirked an eye and crossed her arms, expecting an answer.

“Okay… you see.” Lyn began her explanation. “Soybeans can be turned into protein powder. That alone might not make you think much of it right? But you would be wrong, for you see, though it can take some time to process, protein powder can be used as a substitute for Pollen! That’s why I’m so interested in it, it could change the way bees and zappers hives work! With the help of some ants perhaps, we can cultivate entire fields of the stuff, and with the help of some butterfly insect-kin, they can help with the processing! This could be revolutionary!” Lyn said her excitement getting the best of her.

Evergreen’s widened at that, and she immediately began to ask Lyn questions as to how she knows this and how sure she can be that this would work. All of which Lyn did her best to answer without letting it on where she got the information from, at least not yet. She kind of had to ask Ren if it was okay first.

But when all was said and done, Evergreen seemed just as excited as Lyn, and when told to Anya, well… Anya practically seemed to drool at the prospects of a potential pollen substitute, the only issue would be if it was worth the costs and expenses. Which Evergreen and Anya began to work out for themselves, much to Lyn’s relief.

After their discussion, Lyn went to the training yard, where she spent some time with an old fairy commander who had seen better days. She liked to, on her off time, train under this fairy, learning what she can to become a better fighter and potential leader, both on the field of battle and ordering groups of her followers. Discussing strategy and tactics when they weren’t sweating it out on the training ground.

Sometimes, though under watch, she even brought out Xenith to spar with, as she was still the strongest fighter she ever fought against. Xenith really enjoyed these bouts, as it gave her something to do and helped her work her body.

When that was done, it was back to learning from Evergreen, about managing her hive, then Anya about economics, Xenith was also a good teacher when it came to fighting. But when she was really tired of everything, she would sometimes sneak to Ren’s home to play a few vidya games and sometimes learn about the fascinating realm of quantum mechanics, alongside binging a few seasons of stuff on neatflix. And of course, the anime, the beautiful beautiful anime…

Slowly, things started to go into a routine, Lyn would train, study, play, and call it a day. Rinse and repeat. Of course, she also had to weigh in on some disputes that happened to a few of the hives that weren’t originally of Lyn’s group. But thankfully Evergreen helped out with those.

Lyn, in a way, spent her days leisurely. No threats of battle or war, and relaxing and taking a day off from her duties every so often. Which was only made better by the fact that she and Evergreen sometimes got to share the same bed.

Lyn still had a lot to learn, and a lot of hopes and goals she wanted to achieve. One of them was making a powerful hive here in her master's soul realm. Another was becoming more powerful so she could be more useful, as well as a better leader. Another was to bring Xenith to her side. And still, another was to make the thing she and Evergreen had more permanent, and finally have sex with her master, both to enjoy the experience and to gather some much need sperm that she promised.

Lyn had a lot of hopes and dreams, and a lot of expectations on her. But by her master, she was going to meet, achieve and surpass them all.

Varenes

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