The Queen had a chamber all to herself. Her wings laid back and a dozen white elongated eggs laid around her as she chomped down on the food brought by her workers.
I slipped around her, to get out of the stream of kanegs moving in and out, and drew the handle of my new blade.
Here goes nothing, I thought. Lour.
My blade formed, luckily more quietly than a lightsaber, and noted that while it seemed to give me light, none of the kanegs responded.
I knew I’d have to get out of here the moment I killed the queen, but I felt uneasy leaving these eggs. I know they said the odds of an egg holding a queen were low, but I couldn’t risk it. I took my blade and tried it against the first egg. The blade passed through the shell without any sign of its passage, and with a quick cut, the larva inside was done. I circled the room, taking care of the eggs, then turned to the queen who continued to eat. She must have eaten a hundred pounds of meat and food while I circled, and I could easily see how such a mindless hunger could cause problems.
Luckily, the queen was mostly laid down, eating while resting her body, which kept her head within my reach. I needed to end her, but I wanted it to be quick. Not only was that humane, but it would be less risky that way. My heart raced as I took my place near her head. I took my blade in both my hands and chopped right through her head.
The queen dropped to the ground unmoving.
I quickly stepped back as a chitter rose from the kanegs. They began to swarm and I had to slip further out, hugging the walls as the kanegs swarmed to protect their slain queen. I found the path confusing and the twisting turning tunnels were erratic and unpredictable. This time I didn’t have a stream of food-bearing kanegs to follow.
A keening squeal began to echo through the hive as I reached the upper levels and the ground began to shake. I looked at the thin tunnels I was in and realized if they were swarming out, I would never be able to dodge them fast enough here. I ran, praying that the air cushion would be enough to keep me hidden. Quickly, the kanegs were filling the tunnels behind me, and as I broke into the open air the first kaneg was right behind me. I had no option and leaped from the top of the structure. It was way too high to survive if I just hit the ground.
I was able to land on a ledge about a third of the way down, my boots cushioning my landing, and I jumped again and again.
My hand went to my radio to contact Mavrin, only to realize… shit… there were no radios here. I started to run again. How in fuck was I supposed to contact Mavrin?
I remembered the moment I had focused on my connection to Amura and I had been able to see through her eyes.
I looked around hoping I would be safe enough for a moment. I looked down at my bonding sigil and picked through the bonds until I found the shifting chain of Mavrin’s band. I concentrated on it as hard as I could.
A second later, with a jerk, my concentration was interrupted and I was yanked skyward. Looking up, I was clasped safely in the talons of Mavrin’s hiersver. A circle of blue ruins circled the hiersver’s head, floating and circling.
“Master! Were you successful?!” Mavrin called down from the back of the great bird.
“The queen is dead!” I confirmed.
“That is amazing!” She called in exaltation.
The hiersver set me down a short way away and allowed me to move to its back for the rest of the ride back to Maelgrum as the sun set.
The welcome party in the stable was on pins and needles until I slipped off the hiersver’s back and with a grin declared. “The queen is dead.”
We celebrated that night, and where the Wild Elves had been very conservative with their food, simple dishes, and nothing I’d call extravagant, we feasted in celebration. There were delicious roasted meats, rich breaded dishes, and some amazing sweet and sour dishes. I was only grumpy that, just like the Wood Elves, the Wild Elves did not seem to drink or even have alcohol available.
There was dancing and music as the Wild Elves played thin reed pipes, harps, something like a guitar, and drums. Luckily for me, I wasn’t asked to dance and most of the dancing was maidens performing independent dances as me and my household watched and appreciated the skill on display.
The energy was high even as we retired to our bedroom, and I caught Flendrier’s hand and pulled her in for a kiss once the curtain fell. Several matrons gave an encouraging ‘whoop’ as I continued to kiss her and gave her a squeeze. Flendrier couldn’t strip fast enough for the rest of the matrons and neither could I, so they helped us strip. Flendrier had been on an energy high already and it shifted into arousal very quickly.
I almost took over, but I was pulled back and laid down so Flendreir could ride me. Flendrier guided my cock to her entrance and savored the sensation as she sunk my length into her depths. Her hymen was a blip of discomfort in the ocean of excitement and pleasure as she gave herself to me. She was just as amazing as all of her sister matrons had been, and I could never get enough. The feel of her sex was fabulous as she bumped and ground on my dick. I reached up and took her breasts in my hands and squeezed and teased. I was still amazed that I was given all these fantastic elves to have such amazing sex with and how they all watched enjoyed, and had no qualms with me fucking, sucking, and playing with the other’s bodies right in front of them. When I came, filling Flendreir with my sperm, the orgasm rippled through me to all the other matrons who were already on a high from the celebrations and once more, their second-hand orgasms bloomed through me to drive all of them to blissful reverberations.
In a pile of orgasmic bliss, we fell asleep.
The following morning, as we ate, we were joined by Opheira and Eaphra.
“Word of your exploits spreads on the plains.” Eaphra declared proudly. “The Orin, the Galar, and the Zelnir call for an enclave. In two days at the city of Shiavir, we will meet with them to hear their thoughts.”
“This is very good.” Opheira declared. “You have their attention. Your deeds speak louder than any words.”
“Let’s see if we can’t give them a reason to gape.” I declared with a grin.
While the two remaining hives were spread out enough that the hives wouldn’t clash, they were in the same general direction from Maelgrum. If I played my cards right, I could have both of the queens of the hives that needed to be exterminated dead before the Enclave.
Mavrin was much more comfortable as we flew to the second hive, but I did my best to avoid overconfidence. Overconfidence was death in situations like this. So when Mavrin cast her spell of invisibility on me and dropped me onto the second hive, I took a second to focus before I dove into the depths.
The second hive was easier to navigate as it had a hollow open central column and a spiraling path down to the depths of the hive, that the kanegs seemed to not use, preferring to simply climb straight up the sides of the central column instead. This combined with the fact that I now knew I could have my light blade drawn to light my path made this infiltration much easier. I descended quickly into the depths. It took me longer to locate the room with the queen, but with confidence about what should happen, I quickly dispatched the eggs and the queen fell just as easily.
As I slipped out, and hurried up the spiral I realized the one downside to this alternate path I had to the top. As I ascended, the kanegs that were racing to try and find whatever had harmed their queen quickly climbed up the walls and rapidly overcame me. By the time I reached the top, there was a swarm between me and the exit.
How do I get through? I wondered in frustration until I stopped and watched for a second. Like ants trying to find a creature attacking their home, the kanegs were just racing out and searching blindly. Looking down the column, I could see the kanegs would soon all be outside their hive. All I had to do to safely leave was wait.
As the last of the kanegs left the swarm and went searching, I was able to just walk out and with a moment of concentration, call to Mavrin to get picked up from the now deserted top of the kaneg hive.
“That seemed too easy.” I declared with suspicion. “If it was this easy, why haven’t the Wild Elves done this before?”
“It is not their way,” Mavrin stated with a shrug. “That and this was an absolute annihilation of the hive. Normally, they only wish to keep the hives’ population in check. This would be extreme to merely keep the populations in check.”
The final hive marked for annihilation soon rose over the horizon.
Again, I dropped into the hive and began my infiltration. Once again, I was creeping through the tunnels barely large enough to allow the kanegs to walk. Whenever two kanegs passed, they had to press low and climb over each other. This made it difficult to slip through the tunnels, but I managed.
Damn, what spec ops wouldn’t give for this back home, I mused.
I found a kaneg carrying what looked like a stripped-down hog of some kind and followed it. Unfortunately, it led me to what appeared to be a storeroom for food for the kanegs. Dry and dark, it was a decent place to stash their food, but the smell of rotting food told me the kanegs weren’t very intelligent about their stored food.
It took me another twenty minutes of wandering the depths of the hive to find the queen’s chamber. Quickly, I did my grim work and began making my escape. This time, I didn’t worry about racing to escape, but found a nock near enough to the entrance and waited for the swarm to pass.
“I wonder if we couldn’t try something like this against Kathra when the Respite is over,” I called to Mavrin as we returned.
“Master, the Shadow Elves are masters of assassination. It is more likely that they could sneak into our house and slay you in a like manner than them not having detection magic in place to find an invisible intruder.” Mavrin informed me.
Disappointed, but not surprised, we returned to inform everyone of our success. There were calls for another feast, but Opheira reined that in.
“We cannot be feasting every time Master Thomas surpasses expectations.” Opheira chastised. “Otherwise I feel we would soon be fat and reliant.”
There was some disappointment, but the younger elves submitted to the wisdom of the elder.