Maxwell was watching his domain wandering how to start a conversation with his first seemingly sentient creation. Though the fact it kept repeating the same destroy enemies of the hive thing over and over again started to cast doubt over just how sentient it really was. Though he hoped it was just a perk of this particular creature rather than the whole species, hopefully the next one that his new undead hive spawned would be far more talkative.
He was interrupted from his thoughts on how and when he might get his future ambassador as he needed one sooner rather than later by his god giving him a warning. "Beware, my young ruler, those to your south have called for a grand hunt; prepare as best you can." Phabium said in a faint whisper, his voice being carried by the winds.
"Whats a grand hunt?!" Maxwell yelled to himself, wondering what that could mean. Before he remembered some of the lore on the game he used to play that did had some basis in actual folklore, which was that fairy folk could go hunting, but instead of just a regular hunt, they were mystical events and were more akin to natural disasters to anyone who was the target of such a hunt.
"Crap, I'm the target." Maxwell said simply to himself as he realized that he was in a very precarious situation and he needed to get his defenses in order immediately if he wanted to withstand what was coming for him. So he immediately went about getting his forces in order to defend against the fairy threat heading his way.
Using his connection to all the citizens of his smog-covered realm, he first ordered his smog-grass centipedes to pull back from his borders and instead had them wait a bit further in so they could charge at the fairs if they broke through his smog wall. As after giving his order to his smog grass centipedes, he began pulling smog from the center sky of his realm and pushing it towards the bottom of his smog wall's.
Once the lower parts of the smog wall were several inches thick, he condensed it, turning the smog at the bottom of his walls into an actually hard material that the fairies would have to break through the now solid wall to enter his domain. After that was finished, he made sure to have all of his smog grass spiders lay in wait in the patches of black grass that spring up randomly in his kingdom.
So with his last order given, all his citizens, or minions, as others would call them, were in place and ready for the great hunt that was coming for him. Though on that thought on whether his undead were minions or citizens, he began to think deeply about while waiting for the fey to attack.
As he was undead ruler, he wasn't sure there was much of a difference considering the only one among his undead that could even go against him possibly seemed to only want to destroy his enemies. Maxwell thought as he watched the hybrid zombie go on and on again about destroying enemies of the hive, though now he began to wonder. Since the hive building appeared, did the hive the hybrid undead spoke of refer to him or the building?
Maxwell was sure it spoke of the hive before the hive building existed, which means it could mean it could talk about destroying his enemies. Though when the more literal undead hive appeared, it might have switched to anything that threatened the literal hive. If anyone among Maxwell's undead happened to be rather intelligent, they might have asked him if having a philosophical reason through about what exactly it's undead hybrids meant by time was a good use of time.
Luckily for Maxwell, there was no such intelligent undead among his kingdom at that moment, and it was not like he had anything better to do. As it was, all the preparations Maxwell could make had already been done, so all he could do was pass the time until the day came for him. As if to answer the call, the fey proceeded to burst down his now solid smog wall.
"What the hell?" Maxwell said as he gazed at the six-inch tall pixie with its small horde of smaller fairies, all of which were covered in grass armor. " Charge!!!" Maxwell felt as the smog grass centipedes somehow expressed but not said as they charged at the creepy green pixies that were in his domain. The smaller pixies had a weird look of happy serenity, where everything was fine no matter what was done to them.
As the smog centipedes were about to meet the pixies somehow transmitting back to Maxwell the feeling of anticipation as they were somehow sure they were going to pin all of them on the sharp tips of grass that made up their backs. Then Maxwell watched in horror as his centipedes were destroyed as their leaf spiked backs were systematically trimmed and their core was pierced, which Maxwell didn't even know they had.
Then the horde of murderous pixies began their march forward towards the hive of the undeath, the only building between them and Maxwell. He wasn't sure how the hive could even slow them down, as it took so long for it to produce a single chimera, so there was no way hit could produce enough force to stop the invading fay. As Maxwell was thinking about the utter uselessness of the undead hive for the defense of his kingdom, a screen suddenly appeared in front of him.
To say Maxwell was surprised by what the screen was telling him was an understatement, as he had not been that long ago deciding whether his first chimera zombie, apparently named Bunet, was actually sentient. Now it turns out not only is Bunet sentient, but she can apparently take command of his undead hive.
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Though he didn't even know his undead could take command of his building to begin with. Though he was more than fine with it as Bunet taking command of the undead hive had unlocked two zombie types that were easier to create from what he was guessing as the hive was suddenly pumping them out nonstop.
Though it was a good thing Bunet's command had unlocked new undead to send into the fight, how Bunet went about commanding those undead left slot to be desired. As Bunet quickly showed, she thought more like a hornet than a butterfly by having all the undead under command swarm and try to sting all the invading fairies to death.
Though Maxwell had to admit there weren't any other options he was aware of as the invading Green pixies seemed to be self-hypnotized, and so the zombie butterfly's hypnotizing ability was rendered useless, leaving Bunet to relay on the zombie hornet's painting ability. Though if he were being honest, this desire of Bunet to swarm was probably more due to her aggressive nature than any real strategic desire.
Though despite the numbers and aggressive swarm tactics of Bunet, it didn't matter as the horde of insects were cut down, and it especially didn't help that the huge pixie seemed to be making a game of how many it could cut in half each time it swung its huge spear. So far the maximum the huge pixie had managed was a dozen at one time. So it didn't surprise Maxwell that the swarm of undead insects were soon enough destroyed.
Though we'll Maxwell wasn't surprised Bunet was seeing red and about to charge in."No, hold position and observe." Maxwell ordered Bunet, not wanting to lose his only commander to a fruitless suicide charge, though Bunet obeyed; she didn't agree with the sentiment and kept promising death to the green pixies as they passed her by.
With his smog centipedes and the surprise defense by his undead hive having been defeated, that left his smog spiders laying in ambush to hopefully push the pixies great hunt. He watched as the spiders let them pass one by one, the spiders relying on some inherent instinct they had gained from being their forms being based around spiders to know to let the pixies pass to a certain point so they could get them at the right moment.
Once they did, it was as if some secret hidden trigger was tripped, causing all the hidden smog grass spiders to launch at once. Maxwell watched as his spiders leaped at the invading pixies and how disastrous it turned out the lucky ones weren't trying to attack the big one or anyone near him as they were cut in half while they were still in the sky. The rest of his smog spiders didn't do any better as they were dodged by the pixies as they continued to move while in that creepy smiley state of theirs before cutting down all the smog spiders that had tried to ambush them.
Maxwell just sat there shocked as his last and final force of minions was wiped out without any effort at all. So with no other option left, Maxwell activated his weapon, which was his ace in the hole and his lady hope. So a whirlwind began to build up inside of Maxwell. Leaves were picked up and shredded within the maelstrom. The ghost images of the leaves that were shredded were born within the dark wind. Once it had reached its height, Maxwell opened his mouth and released his TORNADO OF GHOSTLY LEAVES upon the pixies that were closing in on him.
He watched as the pixies stopped before his mighty ghostly tornado as it made its way toward them. Maxwell finally began to feel the tension begin to recede from him as he finally saw something of his give the invading Green pixies pause and thought finally that the invading Grand Hunt would be pushed back.
That is until the big green pixie put the war horn that it hadn't done anything with since it entered Maxwell's domain to its lips and proceeded to blow one really long note that sounded like a really strange wind chime. Then Maxwell watched in shock as bells made out of grass suddenly appeared around his ghostly tornado, stopping it dead in its tracks. Maxwell began to feel as the bells chimed his ghostly tornado weaken.
Maxwell, seeing the somehow perfect counter that the big pixie had for his ghostly tornado, tried to feed it with more wind as he began to release more necrotic wind to try and overpower the bells, but the big pixie just kept blowing his war horn, adding more bells to the ones flooding and draining his ghostly tornado of its strength.
Soon enough, it was too much, and his ghostly tornado was nothing more than a cold breeze in the wind. Then he watched as the big pixie closed in on her, watching helpless as all his tricks had been played and all his forces had been defeated. Now Maxwell was forced to watch as the first force to come for him would take him.
"No,no, no,no,no." Maxwell said to himself the feeling of his failure crushing him as he watched the big pixie ready his spear for the final blow. " No! I refuse to be destroyed by someone talking a casual fucking stroll." Maxwell said, gathering all his sadness and rage, pushing all that raw negative emotion into one final act of necromantic magic.
The act of necrotic might cause the constant stream of black smog that had been flowing from Maxwell eye sockets that he had forgotten about in his panic to stop flowing. Instead, they formed into two giant serpents similar in every way physically but vastly different in intent. The two serpents immediately attacked the big pixie, engaging in a ferocious battle while Maxwell did everything he could to maintain the two serpents.
One of the serpents hissed and attacked with an unending ferocity as they tried their damndest to sink their fangs into the big pixie. The other serpent, though, was filled with venom that kept leaking from it. It attacked less like it wanted to rip into the big pixie like its comrade but more like it wanted to bury the big pixie in a pool of corrosive acid.
The two serpents kept shifting positions, confusing the big pixie they were fighting as each head would seemingly suddenly change its fighting style without reason. Though this was only because the Serpents were more smog than any physical substance, which was what allowed them to switch places so much.
Finally, the more aggressive serpent breached the defenses of the big pixie by destroying its spear with its corrusive fangd before biting the big pixie, filling it with the serpent's specific brand of venom. Though the serpent's own aggressive nature caused it to send the big pixie flying with a jerk of its head, allowing the big pixie to be saved by its smaller fellows and carried out of Maxwell's domain.
Through the big pixies defeat and the green pixies fellowing retreat, Maxwell had won, though with devastating results as his domain was devastated. Though Maxwell had only one thing to say. "See Phabium, I win. I am a good ruler." Maxwell whispered to the god who had saved him from the unending void before fainting from having to maintain his great dual serpent spell for so long, bringing an end to Maxwell's first defense of his domain.
