Domination

She woke to the now already familiar rumbling. It was like the early stages of the earthquake, when you could hear what was to come, when you could feel it in your bones. Her bed was large, lavishly draped with the finest cloth spun in the colors of gold and red. She groaned; her muscles still sore from the yesterday’s training session. Reyla’s mother had taken her training seriously, and even though Reyla knew that she was holding herself back significantly, it didn’t mean that she couldn’t bring the pain.

Reyla stretched her muscles for a bit, with her stats her soreness wasn’t going to last for long. She finished cleaning up and dressing just as a servant walked in with breakfast. Reyla grimaced as she realized that she had to have slept in. Because no one came to wake up, she assumed that her mother’s orders were to let her sleep. Reyla wasn’t about to argue with that, she had spent the last couple of months training daily, with barely a moment’s rest. She finished her breakfast and then walked out of her room. The wooden walls gave the building a comfy feeling, which she appreciated. Inside, she could almost imagine that she was somewhere else, forget what awaited outside. Only not really, because the faint rumbling never stopped.

She stopped in front of the main door and took a deep breath, then opened it and stepped out of the wooden mansion and into the grove. Trees with gold and red leaves curved above her and all around her, arranged in an orderly fashion. The ground was paved with white stone, and indicated paths leading in three main directions. She saw Ornn family servants walking around, doing their tasks. They barely stopped to bow to her as they passed, but she didn’t begrudge them that, she knew that they were busy.

The rumbling was louder outside, but it was still being cushioned by the trees and the nature around her. She walked down one of the paths, and soon there were no more branches above her, and she could see the blue sky stretching in all directions all around her. Two towers stood nearby, grown out of four pieces of wood spinning around each other. She saw large balistas on top of them, with two guards manning them. She knew that there were two more on the other two towers on the other side of the grove behind her, and that the mansion itself had three more, as well as a bunch of other defenses and powerful arrays. The mansion was woven from wood, just like the towers and the rest of the buildings in this grove. It was father Ender’s doing, of course. She knew because of that, that the wood was probably stronger than some metals, and it would also have a lot of other interesting properties. As she walked, she couldn’t help but get the sense that every piece of nature around her was placed with a purpose, even though she didn’t quite understand what that purpose could be.

She reached a clearing, and saw the small training yard in front of her, a lot smaller than the places she usually trained in. There were a few wooden practice dummies, grown from the ground and with arrays attached to them. There was no one training at the moment, but Reyla did spot Emyris—her brother, standing at the edge of the yard, leaned over the wooden railing that grew out of the ground as well.

He was looking at something below, and then she heard a loud roar. Quickly she made her way to him and came to a stop next to him with her hands on the railing, looking down. The clouds reached up, almost as if to touch the flying palace she was on; she could see the ground through the openings. The dark ground looked as if it was constantly waving, which in a way was true. Every part that she could see was covered with monsters, all moving in the same direction. And then there was the noise, the roars, and screeches, the sound of thundering hooves, paws, and feet. It filled the air, rumbling and unending. She didn’t know if she would ever grow used to it.

She glanced around, seeing the other flying palaces around them. The big families flew theirs nearby, but there was one that captured the eye immediately. The largest palace was in the middle of the formation, looking like a fortress made of black stone. Towers surrounded the diamond shaped platform that was held in the air by a thick cluster of dark gray Storm Cloud Essence. Compared to the Royal flying palace, the Ornn family one was almost a quarter smaller, and looked more like a flying forest with a wooden palace in the middle surrounded by a garden. Not that that meant it wasn’t as defensible as stone. Most of the defensive and offensive capabilities of the flying palaces came from arrays.

Around the palaces flew the formations of cloud ships, smaller and ready to defend the palaces if there was a need.

A roar came again, and Reyla looked around, trying to find the source.

“What is happening?” She asked her brother.

Emyris was looking around just like her, but he answered. “We encountered the apex monster of this territory. Vargar is doing his thing.”

Reyla blinked at that, then intensified her search. She had missed the other fights, mostly because they tended to happen at the front of the Great Swarm, while the palaces usually kept to the back. She opened her mouth to ask him if he knew where Vargar was when the question became moot.

Two shapes blew through the clouds far in the distance, one was a monster that she had never seen before, and had trouble identifying. It was long and serpentine, without any legs or arms, it had six wings spread out over its long sinuous body. The wings were covered in feathers that gleamed as if they were made out of red metal, while the body was green. The head of the monster was elongated and snake-like, with large fangs clearly visible even from this distance. A small group of cloud ships was nearby, which helped her get an idea of the scale of the monster. Those cloud ships were all just shy of fifty meters long, and the monster looked like it could swallow one of them whole. It was at least five times the size, but it was hard to tell since its long body was constantly coiling through the air. It roared and even from the distance Reyla could feel the power of it.

She removed her filters and took a look at the monster, seeing its name.

Zavazcoatl: Sovereign of Clouds (Tier 16)

She nearly shuddered at what she read. It was a monster that could do some real damage, even to the palaces. It was an amphiptere variant, and incredibly powerful. But she didn’t worry, because just behind it came another monster, a dragon. His body was thicker, and he had arms and legs, the top of his back and tail was covered in gleaming silver spikes, while the rest of him was protected by black scales. His wings were pierced through white clouds, leaving trails behind him as he soared after his opponent. The dragon’s head was large, with two horns curving backward from the top of his head, in his mouth wicked teeth were sharp and gleaming. He wasn’t as long as the other monster, his tail a bit shorter, but there was no question that the dragon was bigger.

On his neck a large collar blazed with light, an array that allowed them to control him, and through him the Great Swarm.

Vargar: Scourge of the Sands (Tier 18)

She watched as the dragon took a deep breath and then a plume of silver fire exploded forward. It hit the other monster in its long tail, melting through scale and bone. The screech from the amphiptere shook the air itself, and it beat its wings then made a sharp turn, heading straight down toward the dragon.

Its wings started to shine and then it twisted and pointed them at the dragon. Six beams of deep crimson pierced the sky, heading toward Vargar.

The dragon’s horns glowed silver and then the six beams hit a dome of silver light surrounding the dragon.

“Shit,” Emyris said and grabbed Reyla pulling her a step back. She saw the six beams hit the shield and then deflect in different directions. Two of the beams cut through the formation of the cloud ships near the battle, cutting three of them in half with ease. Three others deflected up into the sky, but one was deflected in the direction of the palaces.

She saw the red beam the size of a house hit the Royal palace, its shield array blazing with light. Her ears were filled with noise and her eyes with red light. She was forced to close her eyes and cover her ears, but after a few seconds it stopped, and she blinked her eyes open.

The Royal palace was still there, and she released a sigh of relief. Her parents were there at the moment, she knew that it would take more than a single attack from a monster like that to break through the shield array on the flying palaces, but she couldn’t help her worry.

Her eyes searched the sky for the battle of the two titans, and quickly she found them just as they clashed into each other. The force of it blew the clouds around them away, and sent a shockwave spreading through the air. Reyla saw the surviving cloud ships flying away, putting some more distance between the fight. She knew that they were unlikely to interfere, Vargar wining on his own would have the effect they desired, having help would undermine their goal.

She saw the amphiptere coiling its body around Vargar as the dragon raked its scales with his claws ripping open flesh. His jaw opened and bit down on the amphiptere’s neck just as it tried to bite him. The two tumbled through the air, struggling in a match that left Reyla in awe. Blood fell beneath them like rain, and their growls and yelp of pain overpowered all other sounds.

She saw a flash of silver and one of the amphiptere’s red wings was burned off, a big piece of it fell down toward the ground. The dragon roared, a silver field blasted around him and the amphiptere was forced to release him, its body uncoiling itself from around the dragon.

It tried to get away, but Vargar was on its tail, hunting the injured monster. His big wings sending him forward in the blasts that tore through the air. He caught up and then grabbed hold of the amphiptere’s body from above with his claws, his mouth closing around the nape of the amphiptere’s neck. The struggle began again, and Reyla was so engrossed in watching the two monsters fight that she completely missed another person arriving to stand next to them.

“What do you think the outcome will be?”

Reyla nearly jumped when she heard the voice from her right side, and her head swiveled to see her oldest sister, Vanessa standing next to her and looking at the battle in the distance.

Reyla exchanged a look with Emrys and then answered.

“Vargar will win,” she said.

Vanessa gave her a look, and Reyla grimaced as she realized that she had given the wrong answer.

“That outcome was never in doubt,” Vanessa said, in her haughty tone. Mother had put Vanessa in charge of the palace when she and her fathers weren’t around, but she also put her in charge of Reyla’s and Emrys’ education. Or rather teaching them how to properly apply their martial power and to know how to read situations and anticipate events.

Emrys cleared his throat and then gave his answer. “I don’t think that the amphiptere will submit, I think that it will fight to the death.”

Vanessa tilted her head, then turned her eyes back to the fight. “It will submit,” she said.

Reyla blinked and tried to think of a reason why she thought that. Vargar had fought apex monsters in every territory the swarm passed through that had one. Either to the death or until submission. The monster the submitted entered the Great Swarm, and a monster that didn’t die. In case of death, not all of the monsters in the territory would submit, instead some would run away in smaller swarms. Though in the case of a submission all the monsters under the submitted monster would enter the swarm.

The Great Swarm had been unleashed, or rather nudged into a direction. From the far south of the Great Empire’s territory, they had traveled all around their borders, absorbing more and more monsters on their way. But the time of the Return was upon them, the Empire was marching to war. Reyla glanced right, looking back at the end of the swarm, and then far in the distance she saw what looked like another swarm. She knew that it wasn’t, the tiny specks in the air were cloud ships, and the tiny shapes on the ground were massive walking engines and fortresses, the armies of the Empire, the armies of the Orders. She didn’t even know how many troops they were sending, but she knew that it was most of what the Empire had. The armies were following behind the Great Swarm, ready to sweep through the core once the Swarm causes chaos, once it depletes the enemy armies. She saw explosions at the front lines, small and short bright lights. She knew that it was the army fighting the stragglers from the swarm. During fights like this one, Vargar’s control on the swarm slipped and stragglers tried to move in all directions. But it was only a tiny amount, the Great Swarm was so big now, its momentum built up, that even without Vargar the swarm would continue heading forward until it encountered something that broke it.

The air shook again, and the flying palace they were one trembled. Reyla looked back at the battle somewhat fearful. She knew why they had moved forward, in case that Vargar couldn’t handle a monster. They did not have the time to suborn another monster of his might, which meant that they couldn’t risk losing him. The palaces and the cloud ships were there so that they could interfere.

But from what Reyla could see the dragon had everything under control.

Then, the battle suddenly ended. The dragon and amphiptere separated and silence filled the sky, even the ground and the rumbling seemed to still. The two monsters hovered in the air across from each other. The amphiptere glared at the dragon whose silver eyes glared back, its body was covered in blood and missing one wing, and then it bowed its head. A moment later Vargar opened his jaws and a plume of silver fire split the sky above him. The roar of monsters on the ground grew steadily until it was deafening. In the distance, Reyla could see flying flocks of lesser wyrms and other flying monsters moving through the air aggressively. Vargar closed his mouth, and then unleashed a roar that thundered over the roars of the other monsters.

Reyla knew that now the other monsters in this territory would join the swarm, that the amphiptere would join as well. The Great Swarm will grow, as it had since the moment, they had started their march.

“How did you know?” Emrys asked once the noise had settled.

Vanessa looked at Vargar as he flew in the distance, becoming smaller and smaller as he moved toward the front of the swarm—the amphiptere following behind him.

“That monster was a sovereign. Monster’s that have titles as well as names are special. Their names mean more than just an identification of a type. It was a ruler; it knew that it was over matched between Vargar and us. There was no point in it dying. Monsters of that power level are smart, whether they have the animal instincts and cunning or something greater. They are not to be underestimated. But their names can tell you more about them and what you can expect. Some might be as or smarter as some of us,” Vanessa answered. “Try to remember that for the future.”

Reyla nodded, she had seen many different types of monsters so far, but she had to admit that she had never given it much thought. There seemed to be more that she needed to learn.

Without saying another word, Vanessa turned and left Reyla and Emrys alone.

“Could’ve said bye at least,” he muttered.

Reyla glared at him.

“What?”

“She can probably hear you.”

“Let her hear,” Emrys said. “We are her siblings, not her servants.”

Reyla grimaced, but she had to admit that he was right. Mother’s… family gathering, had changed many things in the family. But it was obviously hard for the older ones to care for those that they hadn’t had many interactions with. Her parents were obviously trying to change things by putting them all together, but… it was going to take a long time for that to happen.

They had already been traveling for months, and they had a few months more to go before they reached the Golden Coast on the Settled Territories Frontier. But everything that the Empire had worked for was close to coming to fruition. And Reyla still didn’t know how she felt about that. In reality, her thoughts didn’t matter at all, so she tried not to dwell on them. She sighed and turned around, pulling her spear out of her storage and getting ready for some more training. Mother might not be there, but Reyla still wanted to train regardless.

She glanced back at her brother and raised an eyebrow. “Coming?”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said.

They walked to the training yard and settled across from each other for a short spar.