Establishing authority

While Chloe enjoyed the authority her power brought her inside her tent, an entirely different scene unfolded within the hive.

The green Hatchery Pool was filled with nutrient fluid. Green eggs slowly floated up from its bottom, nourished by the fluid as they gradually grew into eggs half a person tall.

Tentacles grew from the fleshy walls surrounding the hive. The huge tentacles scooped the fully grown eggs out of the Hatchery Pool and arranged them neatly on the Creep nearby.

The hatching process was astonishingly efficient, and soon the previously empty Creep was covered in Zergling eggs. Some of the first eggs had already begun to hatch. A Zergling's sharp mouth quickly opened a hole in its egg, and it slowly crawled out. Its newly hatched carapace was still relatively soft, and its bone blades had yet to finish growing.

Hunger gnawed at the Zergling's digestive organs, and it instinctively began chewing on its egg, sucking up the remaining fluid inside. Even after finishing it, the Zergling was not satisfied. At that moment, the Swarm network connected to its brain and directed it to the edge of the Hatchery Pool to lap up the nutrient fluid.

By the time the Zergling had eaten its fill, its entire carapace had turned black and become exceptionally hard. The bone blades on its arms had finished growing, and a single glance made it clear that they were weapons of astonishing lethality.

As the Zerglings hatched one after another, the hive grew lively, filled with the endless sounds of shells breaking, screeches, and feeding.

The Swarm network also grew lively as large numbers of Zerglings connected to it. They felt joy at their own birth, craved food out of hunger, and, upon learning that they were combat creatures, felt excited about the battles they might face.

All these emotions reached Chloe through the Swarm network. Once a hundred Zerglings had hatched, she immediately ordered, "Swarm, come to me."

Upon receiving the order, the hive instantly fell silent. The Zerglings formed ranks like an army and raced toward the human camp outside the hive.

The human camp was still rudimentary, with wooden walls and gates, and its crude watchtowers could only hold one or two sentries.

When a sentry saw large numbers of unknown Zerg pouring out of the hive, he froze in shock. He carefully rubbed his eyes, his face instantly contorting with terror.

Once he saw clearly that the Swarm was racing toward the camp, he spun around so violently that he tripped himself. Lying on the ground, the sentry shouted in a trembling voice, "A monster horde... over by the Monster Lair! A huge number of monsters are coming at us!"

The sentry's cries soon spread throughout the camp. The dozens of knights inside ran out of their tents, their faces just as terrified as his.

They were outnumbered, and many were wounded. On top of that, they had recently fought alongside the Swarm and knew its terrifying combat prowess all too well.

Fear and despair spread among the knights. They all looked frantically toward the center of the camp, where the princess's tent stood.

At that moment, Chloe stood majestically at the entrance to her tent, the corners of her mouth slightly raised as she gazed beyond the camp toward the hive.

Ymir, who had gone to fetch someone, hurried over and stopped several meters in front of her, looking meek and deferential, as though he wanted to speak but hesitated.

Chloe merely cast a sidelong glance at Ymir. She knew what he wanted to ask, but she did not want to answer just yet.

The Zerglings soon reached the camp's perimeter. To carry out Chloe's order, some of them leaped over the camp's crude wooden walls.

Some of the bolder knights drew their longswords and pointed them at these terrifying monsters they had never seen before. But no one dared attack first, because more and more Zerglings were jumping inside, their enormous numbers leaving the knights afraid to make any rash move.

The Zerglings paid no attention to these fully armed knights and instead raced straight toward the center of camp. Jumping over the wooden walls was inefficient, after all, and many impatient Zerglings swung their bone blades at the camp gates. Soon, the wooden gates were reduced to splinters.

With the final obstacle smashed, more Zerglings charged into the camp through the gates. At the sight, some of the more timid knights dropped their longswords in fear and crouched on the ground with their hands over their heads.

Soon, all one hundred Zerglings had gathered around Chloe's tent. Of her few knight guards, all but two had fled, and those two were trembling so badly that they could barely hold their two-handed swords steady. Ymir quietly stepped behind the princess.

Ignoring the reactions of those around her, Chloe raised her head and walked proudly out, passing her guards to stand before the Zerglings.

Then a scene unfolded that shocked every human knight: the terrifying, powerful monsters all lowered themselves into half crouches and bowed their heads, as though declaring their submission to Chloe.

At that moment, Chloe's figure seemed as imposing as a queen's in the knights' eyes, and her prestige reached its peak. From then on, her every word, every action, and every breath would fill these knights with awe.

Over the next few days, Chloe had the knights accompany the Swarm on hunts, with the knights serving only as guides.

With the giant worm as a warning, Chloe did not want to risk venturing too deep into Death Forest again, and her knights were all familiar with the routes leading toward its outskirts.

After all, this was their route out of the forest. The scout knights had already surveyed and marked it, and knew something of the nearby monster territories and herds of wild beasts. Hunting in this direction would be somewhat more efficient than in other directions.

That day, Ymir hid off to one side, watching the Zerglings hunt an Earth Bear.

Whenever the Knight Order encountered a monster of this caliber, they chose to give it a wide berth. Even with the aid of mages and high-ranking knights, killing such a monster would cost them ten casualties.

Now the Earth Bear was covered in blood, approaching death under the Zerglings' encirclement.

The Earth Bear could not understand it either. The corpses of two of these strange monsters already lay at its feet, so why did the rest show no fear and continue risking their lives to fight it? To survive, it could only fight with everything it had.

A Zergling recklessly charged forward, and the Earth Bear immediately seized the chance to bite down on its body. The Zergling's carapace could not withstand a bite of such power, and its body was about to be bitten in half.

It seized the opportunity to drive the pair of bone blades on its forearms precisely into the Earth Bear's eyes. Blinded, the Earth Bear opened its mouth and began howling in pain and fear.

The other Zerglings seized the opportunity and swarmed it. Under their deft slashes, the Earth Bear soon had its leg tendons severed and collapsed to the ground. With its eyes gone and its mobility lost, countless bone blades took the Earth Bear's life in a matter of seconds.

Ymir shuddered in his hiding place nearby. No matter how many times he watched the Swarm's ferocious way of hunting, it always frightened him.