You get a snapped neck! And you get a snapped neck! Everyone gets a snapped neck!
This was boring.
I never thought I would get bored of using psychic powers, but here I was. Hours of doing the same task out of necessity was highly effective at sucking the joy out of the action. Dead vultures littered the forest, making it seem like a black, feathery blanket covered the landscape.
“I don’t see more birds appearing, everyone,” Ben shouted. That was great news. It had taken ages for the swarm to begin thinning, and every time a vulture died, it felt like five took its place. If Ben’s fantastic vision confirmed that the flock was finally starting to falter, then I wouldn’t complain.
Another dozen vultures fell from the sky. This whole situation was incredibly annoying. The vultures had finally figured out we were attacking them, so they set up their own ambush with a big army. But what was the point? They sure tired us out, but if they overwhelmed us further or tried harder to attack our tiny group, then they might’ve done more damage. At this point, they were just throwing bodies at us.
[Tapped Mind: 80%/82.3775%]
As I concentrated again, another dozen vultures died. Hm? One of the vultures I attacked looked strange. Wait, was it looking at m-
______
I jolted.
What the hell? What happened to the forest? One moment I was busy massacring the vulture swarm; the next, I was sitting in an empty white void beside a giant bee.
Wait, what?
“Huh? Where are we? Where are the children?” I jolted. Again.
“Er, Queen? Is that you?” This time it was the bee’s turn to jolt.
“…Enno? You look odd.”
Wow, thanks. You flatter me. I took a look at myself.
I was smoke. Whatever I could see of my body was formless and wispy, with no discernible features. I take my sarcasm back, Queen. I do look weird. She, on the other hand, looked better than ever. Or at least she was actually visible for once. I had never bothered to look at my bee body before, but I assumed it looked something like Queen’s ghostly avatar I was staring at.
She was an ordinary bee.
Well, compared to others I had seen. The workers I had created all had strange visual quirks, but Queen just looked like a bee from Earth. Sure, our body was gigantic in comparison, but it was interesting to see how normal she looked despite her own personality.
“Indeed. You are both exceedingly odd.”
We both spun at the sudden intrusion. The breathy voice echoed around the void until a black dot appeared on the horizon. The dot expanded, growing into a veritable black hole until it suddenly morphed into the shape of a vulture.
The Vulch.
Beck was right. Seeing him in Ben’s thoughts just wasn’t the same as seeing him in person. His presence held a weight, like a black hole trying to consume me. In contrast, his heavily scarred face and milky white eye pushed, trying to crush my spirit.
“You can speak? Good. Maybe I can convince you to go the hell away,” I said. Vulch grumbled at my words, shaking his head.
“After what you have done to my children? Unacceptable,” Vulch said, slowly moving closer, “Imagine my alarm when my children suddenly begin disappearing, and I immediately find a curious little spy in our midst.”
So this was a war for vengeance. Not good. Not only did that mean that the vultures would likely not stop attacking until the hive was destroyed, but Vulch was completely correct. I grimaced. How many vultures had I killed until the beginning of the war?
“I apologize for the loss of your children, but I am not repentant. We were threatened to give up our precious food.”
“I see. Regrettable.”
Vulch finally reached us, suddenly cocking his head.
“Indeed, it is odd that you understand me. What are you? I have not encountered another creature as adept at using Mind as yourselves. I can recognize the insect, but the wispy smoke is a mystery.”
“We’re kinda stuck together. She’s Queen, a bee, and I’m Enno.”
“Enno? I do not recognize that creature. Is it… a name?”
“Yup. I’m actually a human.”
A milky orb filled my vision. My stomach dropped, fear filling my body.
“HUMAN? DIE.”
My head seriously hurts. Stop hurting my head!
Vulch stood right in front of my face. My head kept alternating between hurting a lot and only hurting a little. I pushed with all my might, forcing the Vulch away. Time to end this.
Nothing happened. What? I had tried to vaporize the Vulch, but he stood firm.
“Monster. Your Mind is unrefined. I can easily divert your attacks in your exhausted state.”
“Oh yeah? So kill me if it’s so easy.”
“He cannot. We are at a stalemate. Our combined power is too overwhelming for him to successfully attack, but our powerful attacks are too clumsy to destroy him.”
Skill issue, then? Not good. I had been afraid of this exact situation when I heard from Beck how powerful the Vulch was, but I didn’t think he would be able to deflect my attacks. Although to be fair, I also hadn’t been expecting to be in some white void. The hell was up with this place anyways?
This was worse than I imagined. I thought the Vulch would be intelligent, but this was a bit much. His thoughts felt similar to Queen’s, emotion given form. The workers and Beatrice felt different from them. Were intelligent creatures born without human influence special in some way?
I had to stall for time. If I could gather information about where I was or our situation, then it should be possible for me to brute force my way out. It wasn’t an ideal solution, but brute force was the only tool available to me.
Thankfully, I could talk and plan at the same time.
“Hold on. It’s not what you think. I’m not a human from here; I didn’t attack the forest.” Judging from Vulch’s reaction, I could assume he was in a similar situation as Queen. Displaced by the human attack. Hopefully, I could take advantage of that.
“And? Humans are humans. Indeed, killing as many as possible is a noble venture.”
“Did the humans destroy your family?” It was a bit risky, but if I could get the Vulch to act purely on emotion, then maybe I could slowly absorb important information.
“They tried. A common reason among many others to despise those monsters,” he turned to Queen, “I can tell from your scars, insect. The humans destroyed your family as well.”
“…They did. I have no love for humans, either. But… Enno is a…strange case.”
Good stuff, Queen! Maybe if I’m abnormal enough in his view, this guy won’t immediately try to kill me!
“Even so. Despite not destroying my family in the forest attack, this human has still killed my children. Indeed, your own family has proven itself to be a threat to mine, and the carrion of this forest will not last forever. If the humans truly intended to destroy my family, we cannot leave the forest.”
There was a lot to expose here. It would be invaluable if this guy had information about this world’s situation. I needed to soften him up a bit more.
“You keep complaining that we’ve been killing your family, but you’re the one throwing bodies at us. Why put their lives at risk if you care for them so much?”
He glared at me. “It is not a decision I took lightly. Indeed, you have been regularly ambushing and killing stray children. I was unaware of your power, so the losses in this particular battle have been catastrophic.”
“So then, why stay?”
“Why leave? There is plentiful food and no humans in sight. Indeed, all the predators have either died or fled, and the mossy creatures refuse to enter.”
“But you originally said it was because of humans. Are there some nearby? Is it because they targeted you specifically that the forest was destroyed?”
Vulch looked at me pointedly, then at Queen. “I suppose you are a young insect. Indeed, the humans are everywhere. A large gathering is quite close by. Our only good option would be to head toward the mountains, but the mossy creatures are in that direction. Indeed, they are far less terrifying, but they have been on edge since the attack,” he shrugged, “As for whether we were the humans’ target? It is impossible to know. I had assumed that was the case, but I have begun to doubt myself.”
“Even if you have doubts, I struggle to believe you couldn’t fight off the humans. With a Mind as powerful as yours, maybe you specifically were their target?”
“That… No. No, I highly doubt that is the case. Indeed, I am unusually talented in using my Mind, but you prove that such a phenomenon is not impossible. In fact, your Mind is far more powerful than my own. It is difficult to maintain this connection in the first place. I must say, I felt considerable panic when you attempted to destroy me, but your inexperience was your downfall.”
Bingo! That last speech told me plenty. The key was that our location had something to do with a Mind link that the Vulch had created when I attacked him. All I needed to do was break free of this link and be done with him.
“Listen, Vulch. We are in a similar situation. Would it not be possible for us to come to an agreement? We do not need to continue shedding blood.”
“Vulch…? In any case, I refuse,” he smirked, “Indeed, I believe you would agree with me if you manage to leave this link. On that note, have you collected enough information, human?”
Huh? Shit, was he onto us?
“I am no fool. Indeed, it is obvious that one would need information to escape this situation. If you were a less intelligent opponent, I would not need to resort to such tactics, but you are clearly dangerous. Indeed, revealing just enough information to keep your attention was a simple matter.”
“Queen, we have to leave now.” This entire thing had been a trap, a distraction.
“Humans are so predictable, believing so strongly in their own superiority. I still do not understand how you creatures control the world.”
Hive… Help…
Beck? That was definitely Beck’s voice. I frantically looked around, searching for the source of the melodious sound. Wait. Instead of looking, I reached out with my Mind, feeling the depths of the white void. A faint buzzing appeared in the distance, a tiny yellow dot, and I realized our exit had appeared.
“Hold on tight, Queen. We’re getting out of here.” I latched onto the buzzing sound and Queen’s arm, pulling with all my might.
“Apologies, insect- no, Queen. If it is any comfort, I will do my best to free you of your unfortunate fate with the human. Indeed, if doing so requires killing your body, then so be it.”
The buzzing grew louder as we sped away from the dark creature. I glared back at the monster. As we got sucked toward the buzzing, the white void shrank until it looked like a beady, white eye.
_______
My head got bonked by a tree.
“Ow, what the fuck?”
“Finally! Mother, I am glad to see you conscious again!”
Beatrice? Huh? Instead of a white void, all I saw were gray and black blurs. I realized that I was speeding through the forest, being dragged along with the workers. The black blurs were actually vultures that were chasing us through the air.
“What’s going on? Where are we?”
“Some time has passed since you became unconscious. We held off the army of vultures as long as possible but got overwhelmed, so we had no choice but to run.”
Exactly how long had I been out? Not important. Despite the sharp pain in my head, I concentrated on killing as many vultures pursuers as possible.
“Everyone, Mother is awake! Help thin out the attackers!” The others quickly responded to Beatrice’s command, wildly shooting spikes and rocks at the crowd of advancing birds. The workers were in a sorry state, covered in scratches, acid burns, and cuts. I winced. My body wasn’t faring much better.
As a dozen vultures had their necks snapped, their falling bodies filled my vision.
These were Vulch’s family. The more I killed, the more he would seek revenge. I stared guiltily at the worker bees and their wounds. This was my fault. If I hadn’t killed the vultures unnecessarily, then they wouldn’t have had to go through this.
“They threatened us. We had no choice.”
“Even so. That incident told us that they were intelligent, at least to some degree. I could have scared them away or something. If I’m so powerful, why couldn’t I just figure out a way to chase them off?”
No response.
As we sped towards the river, I could feel something was off. Beck hadn’t spoken since the Vulch’s trap.
We came upon a site of carnage.
Piles of dead vultures littered the riverbank, some staining the water with blood. Chunks of burned wood were scattered around, and a ball of dirt floated by itself in the air.
No. NO. The tree was completely gone, broken to pieces. Beck, Belle, and the egg were nowhere in sight. I frantically searched, killing any vultures that got close.
“Mother! The ball!”
Beatrice was hovering near the entrance to the food storage ball, the rest of the workers seemingly taking shelter inside. I sped towards the thing and threw myself into the shielded ball.
To my relief, the three children that had been left behind were huddled together in the food storage. Beck and Belle had injuries similar to the other workers, nasty acid burns covering Beck’s face and a grisly gash across Belle’s back.
The warrior. The egg. A deep wound marred the otherwise smooth surface of the egg. Slime leaked out of the wound, staining the bed of meat bright orange.
Fuck. FUCK! I howled an ugly sound that drowned out the screeching of the swarming vultures. Vulch was right. I wouldn’t accept an end to this bloodshed.
This war was far from over.
You get a snapped neck! And you get a snapped neck! Everyone gets a snapped neck!
This was boring.
I never thought I would get bored of using psychic powers, but here I was. Hours of doing the same task out of necessity was highly effective at sucking the joy out of the action. Dead vultures littered the forest, making it seem like a black, feathery blanket covered the landscape.
“I don’t see more birds appearing, everyone,” Ben shouted. That was great news. It had taken ages for the swarm to begin thinning, and every time a vulture died, it felt like five took its place. If Ben’s fantastic vision confirmed that the flock was finally starting to falter, then I wouldn’t complain.
Another dozen vultures fell from the sky. This whole situation was incredibly annoying. The vultures had finally figured out we were attacking them, so they set up their own ambush with a big army. But what was the point? They sure tired us out, but if they overwhelmed us further or tried harder to attack our tiny group, then they might’ve done more damage. At this point, they were just throwing bodies at us.
[Tapped Mind: 80%/82.3775%]
As I concentrated again, another dozen vultures died. Hm? One of the vultures I attacked looked strange. Wait, was it looking at m-
______
I jolted.
What the hell? What happened to the forest? One moment I was busy massacring the vulture swarm; the next, I was sitting in an empty white void beside a giant bee.
Wait, what?
“Huh? Where are we? Where are the children?” I jolted. Again.
“Er, Queen? Is that you?” This time it was the bee’s turn to jolt.
“…Enno? You look odd.”
Wow, thanks. You flatter me. I took a look at myself.
I was smoke. Whatever I could see of my body was formless and wispy, with no discernible features. I take my sarcasm back, Queen. I do look weird. She, on the other hand, looked better than ever. Or at least she was actually visible for once. I had never bothered to look at my bee body before, but I assumed it looked something like Queen’s ghostly avatar I was staring at.
She was an ordinary bee.
Well, compared to others I had seen. The workers I had created all had strange visual quirks, but Queen just looked like a bee from Earth. Sure, our body was gigantic in comparison, but it was interesting to see how normal she looked despite her own personality.
“Indeed. You are both exceedingly odd.”
We both spun at the sudden intrusion. The breathy voice echoed around the void until a black dot appeared on the horizon. The dot expanded, growing into a veritable black hole until it suddenly morphed into the shape of a vulture.
The Vulch.
Beck was right. Seeing him in Ben’s thoughts just wasn’t the same as seeing him in person. His presence held a weight, like a black hole trying to consume me. In contrast, his heavily scarred face and milky white eye pushed, trying to crush my spirit.
“You can speak? Good. Maybe I can convince you to go the hell away,” I said. Vulch grumbled at my words, shaking his head.
“After what you have done to my children? Unacceptable,” Vulch said, slowly moving closer, “Imagine my alarm when my children suddenly begin disappearing, and I immediately find a curious little spy in our midst.”
So this was a war for vengeance. Not good. Not only did that mean that the vultures would likely not stop attacking until the hive was destroyed, but Vulch was completely correct. I grimaced. How many vultures had I killed until the beginning of the war?
“I apologize for the loss of your children, but I am not repentant. We were threatened to give up our precious food.”
“I see. Regrettable.”
Vulch finally reached us, suddenly cocking his head.
“Indeed, it is odd that you understand me. What are you? I have not encountered another creature as adept at using Mind as yourselves. I can recognize the insect, but the wispy smoke is a mystery.”
“We’re kinda stuck together. She’s Queen, a bee, and I’m Enno.”
“Enno? I do not recognize that creature. Is it… a name?”
“Yup. I’m actually a human.”
A milky orb filled my vision. My stomach dropped, fear filling my body.
“HUMAN? DIE.”
My head seriously hurts. Stop hurting my head!
Vulch stood right in front of my face. My head kept alternating between hurting a lot and only hurting a little. I pushed with all my might, forcing the Vulch away. Time to end this.
Nothing happened. What? I had tried to vaporize the Vulch, but he stood firm.
“Monster. Your Mind is unrefined. I can easily divert your attacks in your exhausted state.”
“Oh yeah? So kill me if it’s so easy.”
“He cannot. We are at a stalemate. Our combined power is too overwhelming for him to successfully attack, but our powerful attacks are too clumsy to destroy him.”
Skill issue, then? Not good. I had been afraid of this exact situation when I heard from Beck how powerful the Vulch was, but I didn’t think he would be able to deflect my attacks. Although to be fair, I also hadn’t been expecting to be in some white void. The hell was up with this place anyways?
This was worse than I imagined. I thought the Vulch would be intelligent, but this was a bit much. His thoughts felt similar to Queen’s, emotion given form. The workers and Beatrice felt different from them. Were intelligent creatures born without human influence special in some way?
I had to stall for time. If I could gather information about where I was or our situation, then it should be possible for me to brute force my way out. It wasn’t an ideal solution, but brute force was the only tool available to me.
Thankfully, I could talk and plan at the same time.
“Hold on. It’s not what you think. I’m not a human from here; I didn’t attack the forest.” Judging from Vulch’s reaction, I could assume he was in a similar situation as Queen. Displaced by the human attack. Hopefully, I could take advantage of that.
“And? Humans are humans. Indeed, killing as many as possible is a noble venture.”
“Did the humans destroy your family?” It was a bit risky, but if I could get the Vulch to act purely on emotion, then maybe I could slowly absorb important information.
“They tried. A common reason among many others to despise those monsters,” he turned to Queen, “I can tell from your scars, insect. The humans destroyed your family as well.”
“…They did. I have no love for humans, either. But… Enno is a…strange case.”
Good stuff, Queen! Maybe if I’m abnormal enough in his view, this guy won’t immediately try to kill me!
“Even so. Despite not destroying my family in the forest attack, this human has still killed my children. Indeed, your own family has proven itself to be a threat to mine, and the carrion of this forest will not last forever. If the humans truly intended to destroy my family, we cannot leave the forest.”
There was a lot to expose here. It would be invaluable if this guy had information about this world’s situation. I needed to soften him up a bit more.
“You keep complaining that we’ve been killing your family, but you’re the one throwing bodies at us. Why put their lives at risk if you care for them so much?”
He glared at me. “It is not a decision I took lightly. Indeed, you have been regularly ambushing and killing stray children. I was unaware of your power, so the losses in this particular battle have been catastrophic.”
“So then, why stay?”
“Why leave? There is plentiful food and no humans in sight. Indeed, all the predators have either died or fled, and the mossy creatures refuse to enter.”
“But you originally said it was because of humans. Are there some nearby? Is it because they targeted you specifically that the forest was destroyed?”
Vulch looked at me pointedly, then at Queen. “I suppose you are a young insect. Indeed, the humans are everywhere. A large gathering is quite close by. Our only good option would be to head toward the mountains, but the mossy creatures are in that direction. Indeed, they are far less terrifying, but they have been on edge since the attack,” he shrugged, “As for whether we were the humans’ target? It is impossible to know. I had assumed that was the case, but I have begun to doubt myself.”
“Even if you have doubts, I struggle to believe you couldn’t fight off the humans. With a Mind as powerful as yours, maybe you specifically were their target?”
“That… No. No, I highly doubt that is the case. Indeed, I am unusually talented in using my Mind, but you prove that such a phenomenon is not impossible. In fact, your Mind is far more powerful than my own. It is difficult to maintain this connection in the first place. I must say, I felt considerable panic when you attempted to destroy me, but your inexperience was your downfall.”
Bingo! That last speech told me plenty. The key was that our location had something to do with a Mind link that the Vulch had created when I attacked him. All I needed to do was break free of this link and be done with him.
“Listen, Vulch. We are in a similar situation. Would it not be possible for us to come to an agreement? We do not need to continue shedding blood.”
“Vulch…? In any case, I refuse,” he smirked, “Indeed, I believe you would agree with me if you manage to leave this link. On that note, have you collected enough information, human?”
Huh? Shit, was he onto us?
“I am no fool. Indeed, it is obvious that one would need information to escape this situation. If you were a less intelligent opponent, I would not need to resort to such tactics, but you are clearly dangerous. Indeed, revealing just enough information to keep your attention was a simple matter.”
“Queen, we have to leave now.” This entire thing had been a trap, a distraction.
“Humans are so predictable, believing so strongly in their own superiority. I still do not understand how you creatures control the world.”
Hive… Help…
Beck? That was definitely Beck’s voice. I frantically looked around, searching for the source of the melodious sound. Wait. Instead of looking, I reached out with my Mind, feeling the depths of the white void. A faint buzzing appeared in the distance, a tiny yellow dot, and I realized our exit had appeared.
“Hold on tight, Queen. We’re getting out of here.” I latched onto the buzzing sound and Queen’s arm, pulling with all my might.
“Apologies, insect- no, Queen. If it is any comfort, I will do my best to free you of your unfortunate fate with the human. Indeed, if doing so requires killing your body, then so be it.”
The buzzing grew louder as we sped away from the dark creature. I glared back at the monster. As we got sucked toward the buzzing, the white void shrank until it looked like a beady, white eye.
_______
My head got bonked by a tree.
“Ow, what the fuck?”
“Finally! Mother, I am glad to see you conscious again!”
Beatrice? Huh? Instead of a white void, all I saw were gray and black blurs. I realized that I was speeding through the forest, being dragged along with the workers. The black blurs were actually vultures that were chasing us through the air.
“What’s going on? Where are we?”
“Some time has passed since you became unconscious. We held off the army of vultures as long as possible but got overwhelmed, so we had no choice but to run.”
Exactly how long had I been out? Not important. Despite the sharp pain in my head, I concentrated on killing as many vultures pursuers as possible.
“Everyone, Mother is awake! Help thin out the attackers!” The others quickly responded to Beatrice’s command, wildly shooting spikes and rocks at the crowd of advancing birds. The workers were in a sorry state, covered in scratches, acid burns, and cuts. I winced. My body wasn’t faring much better.
As a dozen vultures had their necks snapped, their falling bodies filled my vision.
These were Vulch’s family. The more I killed, the more he would seek revenge. I stared guiltily at the worker bees and their wounds. This was my fault. If I hadn’t killed the vultures unnecessarily, then they wouldn’t have had to go through this.
“They threatened us. We had no choice.”
“Even so. That incident told us that they were intelligent, at least to some degree. I could have scared them away or something. If I’m so powerful, why couldn’t I just figure out a way to chase them off?”
No response.
As we sped towards the river, I could feel something was off. Beck hadn’t spoken since the Vulch’s trap.
We came upon a site of carnage.
Piles of dead vultures littered the riverbank, some staining the water with blood. Chunks of burned wood were scattered around, and a ball of dirt floated by itself in the air.
No. NO. The tree was completely gone, broken to pieces. Beck, Belle, and the egg were nowhere in sight. I frantically searched, killing any vultures that got close.
“Mother! The ball!”
Beatrice was hovering near the entrance to the food storage ball, the rest of the workers seemingly taking shelter inside. I sped towards the thing and threw myself into the shielded ball.
To my relief, the three children that had been left behind were huddled together in the food storage. Beck and Belle had injuries similar to the other workers, nasty acid burns covering Beck’s face and a grisly gash across Belle’s back.
The warrior. The egg. A deep wound marred the otherwise smooth surface of the egg. Slime leaked out of the wound, staining the bed of meat bright orange.
Fuck. FUCK! I howled an ugly sound that drowned out the screeching of the swarming vultures. Vulch was right. I wouldn’t accept an end to this bloodshed.
This war was far from over.
