Chapter 35: Chapter 35

 Kai tightened her grip around the small bone javelin and glared at the moth that had landed in the big street of the first floors. Her daughters were all with her under the second floor while the drones were hiding everywhere on the first floor.

They were so close to dawn and had nearly lived through another night without a moth landing inside the hive and attacking them. Maybe a quarter of an hour more and the damn thing would have flown back to its nest, but now it had enough time to make the hive suffer. 

Kai could have really done without this, especially because in two to three days the first wooden spears that Caro was crafting would be done and delivered to the hive. The girl had a knack for woodworking and with the occasional help of the other three things were proceeding quite quickly.

Now though, it wasn‘t enough to hunt the game of the hive, no, the moths seemed to want blood again and Kai was determined to let them bleed. Her daughters had been crafting these short javelins the last day for just this purpose as well as a few spikes that were in the smaller streets, placed with the intent of damaging the insects wings.

The giant moth kept still, only moving its mandibles and antenna slightly as if it was trying to find something. Kai's theory of it being unsure was proved to be right when the insect cocked its head slightly. The movement looked slightly off for an insect like a moth, but she had other problems at the moment.

Another agonizingly long moment went by and Kai bit her lip. If the moth wasn't sure what it was searching for here then maybe they could wait out the time until the sun was out enough for the thing to fly away.

The insect made a low keening sound and began to scratch around at the silk floor with its long legs. The sound alone had nearly given Kai a heart attack, but the way the moth scratched around on the floor with all of its legs was even creepier. There wasn't any rhythm or sense to the action and watching the legs was really disorienting.

The next moment Kai learned that disorientation was also the intent of the movement when one of the drones close to the insect hissed in agitation. The moth instantly focused on the poor thing and the drone, realizing its mistake, made itself as small as possible. 

Kai could only curse in her mind, so much for waiting this out.

The moth started racing towards the drone and the small animal turned around in response, trying to get away into one of the sidestreets. Kai was very thankful for that, because the moth would hopefully follow it, giving her and her daughters a chance to attack.

The insect started to beat its wings and moved even faster than before however and Kai had to change her plans. Staying still and hidden wouldn't help anymore so she ordered the drones to fight back while trying to stay alive. The 24 drones currently in the hive instantly left their positions behind or in rooms, creating a lot more targets for the moth and began to surround the beast.

The moth stopped beating its wings at the new input its ears were giving it, but didn't stop chasing its current target. The drone had no chance of getting away and wouldn't even be able to reach the street just ahead of itself, so Kai ordered it to stop immediately and attack. It might be able to do something this way.

The insect wasn't quite ready for the change in behavior and had to use its wings to stop its forward momentum. As a result the drone ended up just underneath the moth's massive body and out of the range of any of the dangerous limps. It immediately got on its hind legs and bit into the insects belly, making the thing scream in pain. The other drones were ready to follow whatever happened next and Kai and her daughters began to move into positions that would allow them to throw their javelins.

The moth chittered in agitation and let itself fall onto the ground, smashing the drone underneath its heavy body. Kai could hear the drones bones breaking and tried not to cringe in response. While she could live with the drones dying, she wasn't used to the sound of death yet and hopefully didn't have to get used to it in the future, not that she really saw that happening.

The other swarm drones took the current position of the moth as weakness and attacked together. The insect was able to react to them however and smacked the first wave of them away. The drones flew a few meters, but none of them were highly injured or dead and they were able to run back once they had gotten back up. The other drones stopped their attack and began to circle the insect while hissing at it.

The moth tried to get up, only for the small Antanoid to attack immediately, forcing it to defend itself. The insect had to abandon its plan to get up and lashed out at the drones again. They were ready for the attack this time however and most of them were able to jump back in time.

The same thing repeated itself a few times and the moth's movement became more and more hectic. Kai watched it all from behind, trying to find any weak points besides the wings. The insect was constantly moving them, so it was hard to hit them and she was currently behind it, so she couldn't aim for the head. 

On its next try the moth nearly got up and one of Kai's daughters threw her javelin with all her power at the beast. The sharpened bone hit the middle leg of the moth and buried itself in the flesh, but didn't manage to penetrate fully. The moth let out a scream in response and the girl that had thrown its weapon ran away to hide herself somewhere safely. 

Kai had ordered her daughters to do that as long as she wasn't in immediate danger herself. She hadn't been able to get them to promise not to come and sacrifice themselves for her fully, but this was an arrangement she could live with. She just had to stay safe herself.

Blood began to leak from the wound, but it wasn't enough to make Kai believe something vital had been hit.

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The moth chittered angrily and ripped out some of the silk floor with its mandibles. Then it began to beat its wings once more in an effort to get up and maybe even get away. 

Kai looked at the sky. It was already getting quite bright and most of the moths had to be starting to return to wherever they go during the day in the next few minutes. She turned towards the intruder again with a grim expression. The moth had chosen the wrong time to attack and she wouldn't let it go. Kai would make sure of that by making the wings a priority target for the drones, because they were quite obviously a weak point of the hell moths.

Some of the drones managed to evade the next swipe from the moth's leg and got onto its body, starting to rip into the flesh ferociously while trying to climb towards the wings. The moth managed to get up in return however and turned towards some of the drones, ignoring those that were hanging on its side. The insect opened its mouth and screamed pain inducingly loud.

Kai nearly fell forward and looked around disoriented. Her ears were ringing like hell and the drones that had been in front of the moth were off even worse. A few had completely fallen to the ground and the rest were only barely able to keep standing with shaking legs. Ember and Lena were leaning against a room to keep standing and slowly retreated.

The moth surged forward into the weakened drones and ripped through multiple of them in a moment. The ones hanging on the insects side were trying to climb upwards, having managed to stay there during the screech and attempted to get to the wings with meager success.

Kai clicked her mandibles together in agitation. This was enough holding back and if the drones didn't manage to get to the wings then it was up to her and her daughters. 

She opened her mouth and screamed, hoping that Brian would manage things. "Target the wings and fucking shoot!!" Not very queenly of her, but surely nobody would be offended by that in a situation like this.

Kai activated the enhancement spell with the help of Brian, aimed the small javelin and threw it towards the moth with as much force as she could. The projectile flew through the air with a whining sound and impacted the moth's side near its belly. A split second later the javelin came out of the insect’s belly around 15 cm away from where it had entered, before it penetrated the silk floor and blood began to leak from the wound with increasing intensity.

The moth stopped its rampage through the drones that had already ended more than half a dozen lifes and made itself a target for the other javelins that followed Kai's one after another. 

Watching around 20 of the projectiles fly through the air towards their target was pretty damn impressive for some reason and Kai couldn't help herself but grin slightly. This was like in some kind of movie in her opinion.

Most of the javelins hit the moth somewhere in its side while a few missed their target by a small margin. Two however went straight through the wings of the moth, leaving holes in them and one hit the moths head just behind the moths eye. Going by the blood that the insect was crying afterwards though, the eye had still been damaged in some way.

The now spiked moth screamed in pain, turning around randomly and disorienting the entire hive as a result. Even the drones that had still been hanging onto the thing let go and fell to the ground. Blood was wetting the fur of the moth more and more and started to fall to the ground, especially the eye and belly wound were leaking the thick liquid of life in large amounts.

The animal didn't stop screaming and began to beat its wings in panic, making a whistling sound due to the holes. It didn't manage to get off the ground immediately though and started to run back towards where it had come from, leaving behind a red trail on the floor. Then it jumped upwards and managed to keep itself steadily in the air for a moment, still screaming the life out of its body.

The moth didn't manage to stay airborne however and began to slowly fall rightwards, frantically trying to stay away from the ground. The force the wings movement created was too much though and originating from the wounds they were ripped apart.

Kai held her ears closed and watched as the insect fell to the ground with a dull thump a bit away from the hive. The damn thing had earned that.

The moths tried to get up and failed before it began to drag itself away from the hive. Its screaming got weaker and weaker, until it stopped entirely. The heavily injured animal let out one last high pitched keening sound and then stopped moving entirely.

Kai let out a sigh of relief only to get suprised by the enraged screaming that came from everywhere out of the forest and continued on for a few minutes. Her hopes of getting away with killing the moth got entirely shattered when another one arrived and circled the hive ones before it flew northwards.

Maybe she had just started her first war without ever wanting to.

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