Becoming a Monster-Chapter 349: Doubt in Her Reign

Pandora’s roots were different from before. They were stronger, faster, more durable.

More importantly, she was no longer bound by the spiritual rules bestowed upon her, rules granted by dryads that once prevented her from absorbing the life essence of living creatures.

The beast-like bees fought back fervently. Their limbs were being tethered by multiple roots. They thrashed, roaring as they tried to pull free.

Roots were broken apart, clawed and torn through with the creature’s jaws. Their size and strength were too much for an individual root.

However, for each root destroyed, five more took their place.

Their leader saw this, even as it was fighting for its own escape. It fared a lot better than the others as it quickly learned from their mistakes. It avoided every root that it could, whether it was an illusion or a real one, it treated them all the same.

It ducked, zig-zagged, flying in erratic movements that confused the immature tree. It relied on its instincts as a fighter to avoid the roots as best as it could. Yet it could tell, the roots were leaving less and less space to maneuver each time.

Its hands moved quickly, deflecting and swiping at the roots it needed to. Multiple times it was tricked by an illusion, but it never put in enough effort that would interrupt its flow.

It was surviving...but for how long?

Its antennae began to move. It was then that it began to panic.

Its attention went to its subordinates after being alerted by its Queen that something was wrong.

Why were they giving up?

The once rampaging beast who fought like delirious savages had lost the drive that they once had. Their bodies twitched, but the movement wasn’t from an attempt to break free.

Their bodies were embedded with roots. Roots that threaded through their carapaces, burrowing into the joints of their exoskeletons, and grounded onto the soil that sprouted even smaller, thinner roots that splintered and began to slowly pulse with its ominous glow.

The leader was smart, as the first of its kind, its instincts were built to adapt, overcome, and to gather intel to allow the Queen to create an even more perfect soldier.

It understood what was happening to its soldiers, they were becoming nutrients to the tree.

How did it come to this? No one, not even their Queen was aware of the tree’s capability to fend them off on its own.

It was then that the leader understood why there were so few guards. The tree alone was an army. Within its domain, it was a sovereign.

Its soldiers no longer mattered, their sacrifices weren’t in vain. The leader had gained important knowledge, and more importantly, that knowledge was transferred to their Queen.

Again... again it was about to fail its mission, but this time too, it had provided insight that would help their colony grow.

And one day, they could eventually take down the ruler of the other half, bestowing their Queen with her rightful title.

The leader’s gaze hardened, not in despair, but cold acceptance. It will brave this shame with honor. If the Queen desires, it will also offer its body to atone for its repeated failure. Maybe with its body, it could be the catalyst for the perfect soldier that their colony needed.

Just as its Queen had done to create the perfect ruler. freeweɓnøvel~com

But now, it still needed to survive, and needed the other leaders to survive with it.

As it struggled to escape, a root finally was able to wrap around its ankle, only to be cut off immediately. It was then the leader realized that the tree wasn’t merely chasing where it had been. The tree was learning. It needed to get away before even running away was impossible to do.

Its wings hummed loudly as it shot up. With the tree’s roots coming from the ground, its best and only chance to get away was to reach past the clearing of the trees.

It rocketed upwards, its arms tucked in tight to prevent as much air resistance as possible. Every instinct screamed to go higher, faster.

The canopy was closed. Just a few more meters. Light poured down from the gap above, and freedom flickered through the leaves.

It was then that it saw that gap closing. The branches of the trees bent towards it, the leaves lengthening, closing the gap. Even the surrounding trees were against it.

In this moment, the leader was beginning to fear the tree that it had been sent to kill.

Its best bet was to avoid the branches stretching towards it. Who knew whether even the branches of the neighboring trees contained the same siphoning effects under the tree’s influence?

This was the first time it wasn’t willing to gain more knowledge.

But behind it was the ever-present roots that denied logic. The roots were still following behind it, pursuing it as if their reach had no limits. If it took a detour now, its chances of escape were slim.

It had to take the chance. Its speed didn’t slow down, in fact, it found the strength to push itself even further. Shooting straight toward the extending branches that attempted to block its path, it crossed its arms over its face, bracing for impact.

When it was ready to put up a fight, to overpower the blockade in its way, its body phased right through the foliage. It pierced through, embraced by the sun’s warmth that never felt so clear before.

But it didn’t stop; it wasn’t allowed to bask in the relief of surviving. Its antennae moved with new orders.

Without looking back, its body moved. It may have left the other general, but even the Queen didn’t believe that one could be saved. But there was still the chance to save the other.

Save...

The hybrid didn’t understand. It remembered clearly, the serpent’s cry before it left. The creature was injured before the fight even started. The outcome should’ve been clear.

But then, from the communication of their hive mind, it understood the reason for its failure. False serpents had appeared during the fight. Roots and branches that weren’t real had interfered with their actions.

It wasn’t fighting the serpent alone. The tree was helping it.

The hybrid hesitated to enter back into the forest. Just how much of it was under the tree’s influence? And if the tree was so strong, just how powerful was the creature that was considered its king?

Still, the hybrid dove. Through narrowing gaps, between twisting branches. It felt the tree’s attention shift, momentarily focusing on it. As if welcoming it back.

If fear was the cause of its hesitation, fear now spurred it to prepare to face off against the tree again. It had to retrieve the other elite general at all costs.

Now more than ever their colony needed to gain the strength to resist such an enemy. They couldn’t afford to lose any of their generals. They were more than warriors, they were protectors. They were the colony’s foundation for the future, and right now, their queen’s reign was cracking.

Yet as it descended, its antennae buzzed with new information regarding the general it was forced to desert. It was losing.

The original hybrid didn’t consider the information as news. It had already braced itself for that outcome. The tree was too powerful. Although the third general’s strength was overwhelming, enough that the roots shouldn’t have been able to hold it down, it didn’t believe that the general could escape without flight. It would only be overwhelmed by the tree’s numbers.

But midflight, it faltered. Its belief in their race as a whole was beginning to crumble. The information it received next had begun to break down its reality.

Their general, the one who was created with the purpose for combat wasn’t losing to the tree, but to the creature whose aura was even weaker than its own.

_________________

When Pandora was fighting her battle, Dummy, alongside the two golems and Eve’s two servants were clashing with the strongest general.

The general led the charge. With its opponent in sight, the power in its strides created steep imprints of its feet in the ground. The ground trembled under the force, and yet none of its opponents gave an inch.

It was at this time the golems were syncing with Noah.

The golem covered in slime was prepared to intercept the general’s charge on Noah’s mental command. But moments before it moved, Dummy recklessly lunged forward.

Dummy ran showing no intention of diving into pure combat. His arms outstretched, and his mouth was slightly agape, fantasizing about the taste of the creatures whose aura spiked its senses.

The general met him without slowing.

There was a clash, but there wasn’t a stalemate. The general slammed Dummy into the ground, preparing to pummel its opponent until nothing was left.

But as it prepared to follow through, something unexpected happened.

It felt sharp pain in three different sections of its body.

Two in the locations where Dummy grabbed it, while the last was the biggest shot of pain of them all.

It looked down and saw a mouth gaping from Dummy’s stomach, its jawlines stretching into a hungry maw that had latched onto its leg. The general’s exoskeleton was being torn away by the grinding of oversized, uneven rows of teeth.

The general staggered back half a step. Not from the injury, its body could take that.

But because its enemy’s body was transforming into one of their own species.

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