Announcementenjoy the chapter.“JUST HOW MANY ARE THERE!” Penn cried as Sally gave her another rvae.

  “You said you wanted to get a closer look. Well, nothing is as close as this!” I joked. She gred at me like a devil. To be fair, it has been a lot of work dealing with the conga line of rvae that is coming out of me. One after another, like buses. As for me well-

  “Just how many did you make?!>

  “Around 60, bear with it!”

  “Another one!”

  Penn screamed as she was given another rvae sally. Watching These two scramble around is great entertainment. What was I saying? Oh yeah! Giving birth is surprisingly rexing. There was little to no pain, and the rvae just popped out of me with no drama. I guess it helps that my body was made for this. My contractions were barely noticeable, just a tingling in my stomach.

  Sally and Penn moved like a well-oiled machine, removing the rvae from my snatch and pcing them in the clearing where they were tended by the nurses. All in all, it took a good hour to give birth to All 60 of my babies. Leaving them both exhausted and me feeling surprisingly energised.

  “I could go for another round!”

  “DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT” They both yelled. I gave a small chuckle as I stood up from the area Sally had made for me. It was a small part of the clearing made of soft fabrics and animal pelts. It was pretty comfortable, and it made birthing them a lot easier.

  
  *sqwieee, sqwieeee*

  I looked down To the ground to see a stray rvae wriggling towards me.

   I picked him up and stroked his back. I looked around for a nurse, but they had all disappeared.

  < They must have gone underground.>

  I cupped him against my chest and moved him down into the nursery/food storage section of the hive. Inside the room was a buzz with nurses working overtime tending to all the rvae. A cacophony of squeals from the rvae filled the air as they called for food.

  

  I pced him in the middle, where one of the nurses quickly swooped him up.

  

   The nurse nodded, returning back to its duties of feeding and tending to the children. I quickly went to one of the nurses and started giving him a hand feeding the children

  

  < I'll help. You are overwhelmed, and besides, I need to burn off this excess energy>

  And help I did. Over the coming days, I tended to the rvae with the nurses. Watching them, feeding them and cleaning them when needed. For the first time in a while, I felt like a hive queen, watching her hive develop and grow into a formidable force. And before I knew it, the baby rvae I looked after grew into strong adults.

  The first ones to mature were the combat units, which added 30 new combat units to our ranks, increasing the number of combat units to around 60. The force was now big enough to be an effective fighting force, so I put them to work, ciming territory in the north where the mana beasts were located. This was a good call on my part because we were haemorrhaging food even with what they eat being reduced by my ability. Since their birth, our food stores have decreased by an entire quarter. Thankfully, The meat they got from their missions into the north helped stem the bleeding, but we had to get on top of the food quickly, or we would all starve to death. Thankfully for me, all the workers matured around about the same time, giving us around 80 or so workers to work with. Azuura pounced on this immediately and started construction on a rge project under our home. Which I was standing in now.

  

  

   I said, putting my hand against the thick waxy wall holding back lord knows how much dirt. Azuura and the other workers had constructed a massive underground tunnel below our current hive, which was connected by a reinforced tunnel that led back to the old hive. This room itself was truly impressive. The ceiling was 24 meters high and around 500 square meters in area, or around the size 2 tennis courts put together. It’s a marvel they could build this in such a short time. If it took 80 of them to build this within 3 days, then what would double, triple or quadruple that do. My body shook at the thought. Just how big could I go with a thou-

  

  

  He let out a deep sigh. < As I was saying, The starter hive is something we can use as a stepping gor when we start construction on an actual hive.>

  

  He shook his head.

  

  

  

  His head twisted in curiosity.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Azuura nodded. < I'll get to work straight away on the hatchery. In the meantime, can I ask you to do something>

  I raised an eyebrow.

  

  I let out a sigh. I'm not surprised they are struggling. Really, Apollinaris always took the time to set up the mushroom patches for the hive, making sure they grew quickly.

  < I'll speak to her.>

  

  we both went our separate ways. He walked towards a group of workers in the corner and me up into the older parts of the hive using the new tunnel. The tunnel came out into the old food room. At some point, I pn to destroy this entire area up here and create a new hive entrance, but that’s something for ter. As for now, well, It's been a while since I've spoken to my other half.

  I found a quiet pce in the hive, sat down and closed my eyes. I accessed the weave and started looking for one royal fly. One royal fly who was very, very far away…

  ********

  Apollinaris pov:

  

  Several ice cubes brushed against my skin, removing tiny amounts of the pain. It was a good idea to take an ice bath to ease my pain. Seriously, this training regimen I'm on is no joke. Who knew Andre was such a sve driver?

  I Sank into the water and was assaulted with the sounds of dozens of ice cubes colliding with my body. At the same time, my vision blurred, making the world look like it had been tie-dyed. Before I could get out of the water, several lenses shifted in my eyes, and the blurriness instantly disappeared. I'll have to thank Diva for these eyes sometimes. They are so useful!

  

  Diva? Wants to speak with me??? Is she back already? My head shot out of the water instantly. I looked around for her but was only met with one solitary royal fly.

  

   Suddenly, The fly’s body began to shake wildly like it was having some sort of seizure.

  

   the fly yelled in what sounded like Divas voice. < It's been a while since I've done this, sorry little one, I think I was quite rough> Diva's voice echoed from the fly like she was right next to me.

  

  < It's an old ability, well 2 abilities I have. Hive link and Royal Mouthpiece using them both at once allows me to see and speak to you from afar>

  

  I went back into the ice water to help ease my pain. The fly nded on the edge of the bathtub, making sure to avoid the water droplets.

  
  

  

  < It's fine. We repelled them quickly, however…. One of the combat units died. It was my fault.>

  

  

  <…okay, as long as you feel fine, we’ll talk ter. Is there anything I can do to help you? or is this just a catch-up?>

  

  Hmmm, I think I know where they are probably going wrong.

  < Sounds like you haven't got the right building blocks for the mushrooms. Tell me exactly what they did>

  Diva went into detail, telling me the size of the room and its dimensions. The hive must grow massively there if it needs to be that big.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  The fly suddenly started shaking again as I assumed Diva left its body.

  

   The fly sounded absolutely exhausted. I'll have to speak to her about how exhausting that is for our kids. I told the fly to get some rest in my bedroom as I sunk back into the water. Now I can get back to my reeeeaax-

  

  I lept out of the bathtub in a fsh just in time to see several rge sharp icicles form where I was.

  “BREAK TIMES OVER!” I looked towards the window just in time to see a torrent of water head towards me. My fist pnted itself into the ground, causing green mana to illuminate the bathroom and a wall of vines to erupt in front of me.

  The water jet hit the vines with a loud thud, as the attack was defeated easily.

  “Good defence, Apollinaris; however, have you forgotten where you are?”

  I looked around and noticed the floor was covered in water.

  “SHIT!”

  I Leapt off the ground just in time to dodge more icicles that Andre summoned at my feet.

  “You got lucky there. Next time, you might not get so lucky. Always pay attention to the battlefield you’re standing on” The icicles melted and formed into a watery shape of Andre.

  “You're paying for the damages to the bathroom, you know that, right?”

  “oh? You want me to pay? Make me.” The shape solidified into andre holding a water trident. A smirk appeared on my face as two rge Bdes of mana shot out of my arms.

  “It would be my pleasure”

  I charged towards him, Bdes ready to kill. This time, for sure!

  ******

  I headed out of the underground hive and back up into the clearing. apolliaris says we need corpses, and a lot of them, but where can we get so many corpses in such a short amount of time?

  

  A loud buzz filled the air as one of the spitters came in to nd. I've been using them as aerial scouts. They are not great at it, but they will suffice for now.

  

  

  

  < It's as you suspect; we think several Alphas are leading this rge pack.>

  

  

  At first gnce, we outnumber them, but let's not get too hasty. Several alphas working together make no sense unless there is another one in charge. However, for this to happen just when we need a whole bunch of bodies, I guess Lady Fortune is on my side today.

  

  I closed my eyes, accessed the hive weave, and linked myself to all the surrounding children.

  

  I turned around and headed back down into the cave. The outcome of this fight will be very different. I will make sure of it.

  I headed towards the prison cells where my two captives were waiting. I have 3 days; let's beef up our forces a little. And I know exactly the units I need to make this fight a cakewalk.