CHAPTER 20: CHAPTER 20: COUNTER ATTACKS

The Queen’s step backward rippled through the battlefield like a shockwave. Scarabs roared louder, their drums pounding as if they had cracked the sky itself. Centipedes slammed their bodies into the dirt, each strike shaking the ground beneath her claws. Glowbeetles filled the canopy with blinding light, their pulses steady and measured, guiding the rhythm of the fight.

Buzz stared at her, chest heaving, his blood still dripping onto the soil. For the first time he had seen her yield ground. The golden certainty in her eyes had shifted, just enough to show she understood what it meant to be resisted. He felt the pain in every joint, the burning in his torn wing, but also the surge of something else, something he hadn’t allowed himself in too long.

"We can move her," he said, his voice ragged but clear.

Zza pressed against his side, still holding him upright with her silk-stained claws. Her breath came fast, her body shaking, but her eyes locked onto his. "Then we keep moving her. Step by step."

The Queen screamed, a sound that was neither voice nor breath but the raw tearing of silence. Drones poured into the clearing again, endless bodies rushing to drown the resistance. Scarabs answered with their drums, Centipedes with their coils, Glowbeetles with their glow. The Weaver Elder dropped new threads across the chaos, stitching the factions together into something whole.

Buzz and Zza forced themselves forward. Every step hurt, every wound screamed, yet they moved. When drones closed in, he struck with his claws and she cut them down with silk. When his strength faltered, she steadied him. When her silk failed, he stood in front of her and took the blow.

The Queen pushed forward, golden light blazing, wings cutting through silk and shell alike. Each move still carried the weight of inevitability. Yet with every strike she gave, the army bent and came back together, woven tighter, louder, brighter.

Buzz felt it in his chest. They were not surviving anymore. They were fighting.

The Queen’s claw swept down again, catching the edge of a Scarab drum and shattering it in one strike. The Scarab stumbled, but another rushed forward, beating its own shell to carry the rhythm. Centipedes surged to fill the gap, Glowbeetles signaled new positions, the Elder spun threads that bound the wound in the formation before it could bleed wider.

Zza’s hand tightened around his. Her voice was hoarse, but steady. "She isn’t untouchable."

Buzz bared his mandibles. "Then we prove it."

Together they lunged forward, slipping into the chaos at the Queen’s feet. Drones swarmed them, claws raking, jaws snapping, but Buzz ripped through them with everything left in his body. Zza’s silk bound their limbs, yanked them back into the tide where Centipedes crushed them under coils. Scarabs struck with their claws in time with her threads, Glowbeetles seared the gaps with light, and the army pressed in harder.

The Queen reared back again, wings flaring, golden glow spilling across the clearing. Instead of breaking, the coalition roared louder. The sound carried into the canopy, carried into the soil, carried into the cracks of her silence.

Buzz lifted his head, blood streaking his shell. "She can bleed. We just have to make her do it."

Zza nodded, silk trembling in her claws. "Then we crawl until she does."

The Queen’s certainty wavered again. The army surged forward. The tide had begun to turn.

---

The sound of the coalition swelled until it filled the clearing. Scarabs pounded their drums, Centipedes slammed the ground in rhythm, Glowbeetles pulsed their light like stars burning in a storm. Threads of silk stitched the chaos into one body, the Elder weaving faster than the Queen could tear. For a heartbeat the field belonged to them.

The Queen’s wings opened. Golden light burst across the canopy, drowning the glow, swallowing the rhythm. Her scream tore through the air, not heard with ears but felt in the chest, deep and sharp, as if every heart was cracking in unison.

The Scarabs faltered first. Their claws slowed, their drums slipped out of time. One by one they staggered, the rhythm breaking apart. Centipedes recoiled under the wave, their coils splitting, leaving gaps that drones poured through. Glowbeetles dimmed as the Queen’s light pressed them down, their signals stuttering into chaos.

Buzz gritted his teeth, forcing his legs to hold as the weight of silence crashed into him. His shell trembled under the pressure, his breath came ragged, and for a moment the world blurred at the edges.

Zza cried out beside him. Her silk snapped mid-flight, her hands shaking as she tried to spin more. The threads slipped from her claws, vanishing into the dust before they reached their mark. She pressed her head down, her body bowing under the Queen’s glare.

The Queen stepped forward, dragging silence with her. Drones swarmed in her shadow, clawing, snapping, tearing into Centipedes and Scarabs as if the tide had flipped in a single breath.

Buzz staggered into the path of a drone, claws lashing out. He crushed it into the dirt, but two more leapt on him. Their mandibles sank into his side, tearing at already open wounds. He roared and ripped them away, his claws slick with blood, his knees almost giving out.

"Buzz!" Zza’s voice cracked, raw with panic. She wrapped silk around his arm, yanking him free before another drone could pin him down. Her body shook as she held him upright, her claws slipping against his shell. "Stay with me. Please."

He gasped for air, vision fading in and out. "I’m still here."

The Queen’s eyes glowed brighter. She raised her claw and swept it across the field. Centipedes shattered under the strike, their bodies twisting into the soil. Scarabs flew backward, drums splintering on impact. Glowbeetles burst in flashes of dying light, their glow scattering like falling sparks.

The rhythm collapsed. The formation broke.

Zza’s threads whipped out again, frantic, binding wounds, pulling Scarabs back to their feet, tying Centipede segments together just long enough to drag them from the front line. Her body sagged with the effort, but she didn’t stop. She refused.

Buzz leaned into her, his claws digging trenches in the dirt as he dragged himself forward. His voice was low, ragged, but steady. "She wants us broken. That’s why she hit so hard. That’s why she keeps looking at us."

Zza’s eyes met his, filled with exhaustion and fire. "Then she hasn’t broken us yet."

The Queen loomed above them, wings glowing, claws dripping with the blood of their allies. Her voice fell heavy across the field. "I could crush you now. I will crush you now."

Buzz coughed, blood running down his chest. He forced a grin, jagged and wild. "Then try it."

Zza’s threads wrapped around his arm again, pulling tight. "And we’ll crawl right back into your path."

The Queen’s silence deepened, pressing harder. The coalition bent under it, bodies scattered, rhythm lost. The line was one breath away from snapping.