— Chapter 10 —
This had to be the biggest and most important day in all of Luna's life, and she very much doubted that any other day would ever reach the significance of this one. If she lives it through of course.
Her companions appeared for the most part ready for a battle. Mostly because Pineapple wasn't looking very eager and even appeared rather guilty, and Heliconian let out a scaredy yelp as so many dragons approached them.
And Luna was as ready as she'd ever be.
She raised her talons and began to fire out golden silk at a quick rate towards whatever target she could hit, starting to ensnare talons and wings. At her sides she saw as the rest of the Flamesilks were doing the same thing and making the enemy approach harder. Using the burning types would be too risky right now considering how huddled together her group is and just how many foes there are.
"Ohoho, now this is more like it! The other skirmishes were funny to watch, but now THIS will be some good action!" A voice spoke up from off to the side, Wasp quickly glanced that way and so did many of the possessed dragons, which meant Luna could throw a quick look to the side.
And just sitting there with an excited and eager expression was a purple Silkwing with blue dots scattered around, eyes completely white and unblinking.
"Don't you dare interrupt this climactic moment," Cottonmouth hissed from the large Leafwing's body.
"As if I'd want to! So now stop looking at me and fight, c'mon!" The Silkwing said, hitting the ground with a talon.
After that random interruption, the battle just casually resumed. Right away to start it looked like Lynx was going to be a valuable key player. Expertly maneuvering herself and delivering swift strikes with sharp serrated claws and sharp spiky tail, while also dropping other dragons to the ground with well aimed icy breath to the wings and such. She dodged to the side of a white-eyed dragon and then forcefully slammed her tail onto their snout, sending them tumbling backwards and with a broken nose.
At the same time, there were several darts flying around each few seconds and instantly knocking out whatever dragon they landed on. These shots came from Cricket, who was desperately loading her blowgun and firing as fast as she could. And from thin air in many different spots, signaling that Pineapple was putting in work.
A spear was quickly coming her way and Luna ducked below it, the spear clanking against the ground. Thinking fast she threw some silk at it to snatch it then she spun around slightly as fast as she could. Her quick turn made it so the spear smashed its side against the head of a Hivewing and made it fall down to the ground.
As the battle was starting to spread out a little, Danaid was the first one to start using Blaze Silk, throwing short strands at a quick rate to stick it on as many dragons as possible, the following grunts in pain showing that it was being quite damaging. By one of the sides there was Heliconian, who had managed to snatch a shield to defend herself behind it and slam it on a few dragons.
Close to that spot, Moon and Qibli were fighting close to each other, the Sandwing with expertise against two dragons at the same time, and being firebreathers was an excellent way to keep their opponents at bay by threatening by throwing puffs of fire and short bursts, although Qibli did end up outright burning a Hivewing's front talons and making them scream in pain, which he took advantage of by throwing one good hit while it was off guard, throwing that one over to the other dragon he was fighting.
Moon wasn't doing too well, she was facing off against a Silkwing that was giving her trouble by throwing a lot of silk, and that forced her to stay on the evasive side while occasionally throwing some plumes of fire when there was too much coming her way.
However, she got a chance to strike back as Clearwing threw some silk of his own towards that Silkwing, ensnaring and pulling at one of their legs and almost causing them to stumble, so Moon took that chance and tackled them down.
"So! Are you related to Clearsight?" Clearwing just casually asked while he was close to Moon and helping her with some incoming dragons.
"Is this truly the time?" Moon asked with a worried tone.
"Probably not," Clearwing admitted.
And while this interaction happened, there was a duo of dragons that was absolutely wrecking havoc around, namely Tsunami and Sundew. Their aggression was unmatched, jaws were closing in whatever they could reach, claws swiping left and right, and in Tsunami's case, her powerful tail was smashing dragons back and hurling them against each other.
As she fought in the middle of everything, Sundew threw a short defiant glare at Cottonmouth, the larger Leafwing noticing it and gritting their teeth before actually taking flight and swooping down into the battle, attempting to ram Sundew who just leaped to the side.
"Perhaps we've been too passive when it came to you, far too kind. Clearly the only way to get you to do anything is your way, violently!" Cottonmouth shouted, looming closer to Sundew. Several possessed dragons nearby suddenly moved differently for a moment and then they made space around by moving away before they acted like they did before under Wasp's control.
Luna wanted to go and aid Sundew against such a threat, but there were far too many dragons on the way, but she still tried to at least get closer to that area.
She narrowly dodged a wrist stinger coming her way, almost grazing her scales, and already another Hivewing was coming with stingers at the ready. She thought fast and as she jumped to the side, she snatched one of the talons of the first Hivewing she dodged and pulled at them to bring their stinger over to the second Hivewing, and she successfully did so, the dragon that got stung on the side immediately getting paralyzed.
She spotted Fritillary going absolutely crazy on a Hivewing's head. He had managed to snatch a spear and kept smacking the other dragon with its handle even when they were already down to prevent them from getting up, and every smack was punctuated by an insult.
"Dimwit! Faker! Liar! Admiral's favorite dragon! False queen! Monarch was better! OBVIOUSLY, NOBODY HAS EVER LOVED YOU!"
At the same time, not everything was going super perfectly for Luna's group either, a blow dart had suddenly appeared from nowhere and was directed at Wasp, but she had moved several Silkwing with upright antennae that must've been following Pineapple, and used them to block the shot so one of them fell asleep instead.
But of course, being outright targeted by someone had to put Wasp on edge, and now there were so many Silkwings purely focusing on pinpointing the Rainwing's location. Heliconian and Cacao were helping by ensnaring and trapping a few of these dragons with their own silk, but with their numbers and capabilities of their antennae, several strands were fired and Pineapple let out a startled gasp as a bundle of silk seemingly closed onto nothing.
"Pineapple!" Luna shouted, worried for her Pyrrhian friend. And her shout caught the attention of the others.
Several dragons were starting to swarm towards that spot, spears or stingers raised as they were ready to stab the Rainwing. But Qibli suddenly leaped from the side and released a lot of fire to make these dragons step back as many got burned. And at the same time, Tsunami roared and began to beat up whoever approached the trapped dragon, her tail causing mayhem wherever it landed.
However, a Silkwing brandishing a spear and a Hivewing with wrist-stingers at the ready took off, attempting to get Pineapple from above while Qibli and Tsunami had to fight off against several foes on the ground.
In a panic, Luna quickly tried to stop them. She was some distance away with other dragons in the middle, so she began to throw silk up to the air in an attempt to catch them. She got the Hivewing, which immediately plummeted to the ground, but Wasp was making the Silkwing weave around now and making it a tough target.
Qibli shot up to the air, trying to intercept the incoming dragon, but he actually got pushed off to the side by a sudden twirl of the spear, hitting him on the side of the head with significant force and pushing him aside, all the while they still descended upon Pineapple.
"NO!" Luna exclaimed in panic.
Things were really looking extremely dire there, and the Rainwing was just seconds away from being impaled and most likely killed. Luna tried again to aim and fire some silk, but it wasn't looking good
But suddenly, something that looked liquid and of a black color was seemingly shot from the spot where the Rainwing was while the Silkwing was still at a close-medium distance, hitting them straight on the chest with a sizzling sound, making the Silkwing, and every single other possessed dragon alongside Wasp herself scream in absolute pain.
And just like last time, it felt incredibly unsettling to Luna, hearing dozens of dragons just screaming in unison like that, and she was very certain that this time it was even louder and more painful. And now she realized what the others meant by "Rainwing magic" as she saw the Silkwing drop to the ground with their whole chest scales melting off and revealing the insides, making her quickly look away.
The connection between the Hivemind and Wasp had been cut off at the moment, the Hivewing staggering backwards with an angered trust as she brought a talon towards her chest despite not being the one that actually got hurt.
It would go well with that other melted off part on her side though, Luna thought bitterly as she glared at the queen.
At around the same time, maybe with them getting distracted by the sudden commotion, Sundew had managed to land a good hit, clawing right at their snout and drawing blood from the larger Leafwing, who stepped back and spat to the side, glaring with cold white eyes.
"Bah! Such pitiful display of control, Wasp. The battle's barely begun, and you already lost control, AGAIN?" Cottonmouth snarled.
"These dragons have strange, painful abilities. Even you would be affected by them," Wasp replied with a grunt.
"Ah you think so? Then allow us to prove you wrong. Our pain resilience is much better as we've been longer at this. We'll take over for this, but in exchange… We want you to step forward as well. Can't have you just sit on the throne while we do Everything," Cottonmouth said now.
Wasp glared at them with a hateful stare, and even Luna was impressed. They'd make Wasp actively fight? Why would they do that? Just to make Wasp pull her weight? A test of loyalty? Or… Maybe by this point, they didn't care that much about Wasp herself or her own control.
"In such an important moment, when we're truly dealing with our only real opposition, you were unable to maintain the reigns and now I need to take charge in your stead, so I highly recommend you to not be an ungrateful lizard and fight at your best by yourself, to truly see what you're worth."
"Because 50 years controlling this kingdom is not enough proof for you?" Wasp stated coldly.
"One hundred times less than our lifetime control, not impressed. Now go!"
All the other dragons that were just possessed before looked confused, many in pain and shock, while several stared at the Pyrrhians and Sundew. The one who's chest melted off was writhing on the ground and screaming in pain.
And then all these sounds stopped the moment that Cottonmouth took a step forward, all these dragons once more gaining white eyes, even the one that Pineapple attacked.. Cottonmouth's Leafwing immediately had an expression of discomfort and grinding its teeth, but apparently if they were focused on this, even that burning pain wasn't fully taking off their control.
Luna looked around, during this minute it appeared that her friends had taken this minute for a very short breather to regain some energy, and Lynx had dashed over to the captured Rainwing and quickly sliced off the silk with her super sharp claws. Pineapple was visible and looked extremely guilty and mortified now, Qibli very quickly giving him some reassuring pats on the side before focusing on the enemies.
If Wasp's hive mind was like tactical lightning bolts with accurate movements while a part of the controlled dragons were hanging back at a time, Cottonmouth's control was like a thunderstorm that was ready to sweep the place with absolutely every single dragon around taking action.
Luna had to immediately start running around and dodging as something was happening in every inch of this room, silk, spears, stingers and acid being a threat every second. A large Silkwing appeared at her side and tried to slam down its talons on her, with Luna trying to dodge away but she still ended with some cuts on her side as she hissed at the Silkwing, quickly entangling their talons together with silk to drop them to the ground.
Cottonmouth was back to facing off against Sundew, likely taking her constant refusal as something personal by now, given that they weren't bringing other possessed dragons alongside them. Sundew was fighting with speed and aggression, keeping the offensive with quick movements and circling around them.
The larger Leafwing meanwhile was more on the defensive with more decisive and powerful blows wherever they had an opening, white eyes narrowed in focus while they kept receiving more and more claw and bite marks around.
But the most notable thing now was of course, the fact that Wasp has joined the fight.
She looked dead serious, she appeared very angry at their group for revolting and fighting back, and she looked really mad at Cottonmouth for a second with a very cold glare before she took flight.
"Aaaand Wasp is finally doing SOMETHING and fighting by herself! Is the so-called queen as strong as she supports? Considering she mostly sits on a throne and uses someone else's plant powers, it's to be seen!" The voice of the odd possessed Silkwing from earlier announced, with a quick glance it was obvious that it was looking excited.
Apparently, Wasp already had decided on a target before even starting, because she took off, moved her tail stinger for a second, and then not even a moment later she had fired a splash of green acid that went straight to Pineapple down below, who still looked distracted and mortified momentarily and reacted a little too late to dodge, getting splashed on a thigh and slightly on his lower body, making him let out a pained sound. But at least Wasp's acid wasn't as horrible as Pineapple's own, even though it still left nasty burns.
Tsunami let out an angry roar and flew up to the throne room's ceiling to confront the queen, and she had picked up a spear before leaving, which was smart considering just how many natural weapons are on Wasp's body. The Seawing had several cuts around her body and was bleeding in several spots, including from one of her gills, but she still looked as determined as always.
Wasp dodged the first change, and immediately tried to sting Tsunami with her extremely dangerous tail, but Tsunami swerved just in time to the side, and used her own turn to quickly slam her tail down on Wasp's side, and based on the following sound, that cracked at least a bone or two.
The large Hivewing retaliated, stretching her talons towards Tsunami and trying repeatedly to jab her with any of the stingers to incapacitate the blue dragon. Tsunami so far was doing a good job at dodging these stingers, but they came very close each time.
But things would change when Tsunami's eyes went wide as one of the wrist stingers didn't quite fully jab her, but still grazed her from the side, and that must've been enough for some of the paralyzing toxin to get through as her body moved more slowly and numbly and began to go down.
Wasp quickly started to dive right after from above, tail raised and ready to sting Tsunami and either give her whole being to the Othermind or just kill her, her tail was coming down on Tsunami…
The queen let out a loud pained grunt as her tail got stopped mid swing, looking back she saw how her tail got wrapped up by Blaze Silk, which came from Danaid's wrists, the old Flamesilk struggling hard to pull Wasp down, who was pulling against her and moving the stinger around, throwing splashes of acid that narrowly missed.
But this was enough to distract her and allow Tsunami to touch the ground at least. And meanwhile another strand of blaze silk was suddenly shot upwards not far off from Danaid as Cacao fired his own silk as well. With Wasp being partly restrained by the tail that landed and now both were pulling down on the queen while burning her at the same time.
After some tense moments, the two Silkwings pulled the Hivewing off the air and onto the ground with a rather hard slam, which Wasp tried to lessen by flapping her wings, but clearly it still did some damage.
Wasp stood up and slashed at the burning silk with a wrist-stinger, which must have been an uncomfortable sensation for her based on her face, but she still cut it loose to free herself.
She dashed at the duo of Flamesilks, her body clearly in a more fit state than the dragons that were stuck in a cave for decades. Danaid and Cacao stepped back and tried to stop her with more silk, but Wasp dodged the incoming strands, aimed her tail forward to shoot green acid, causing them to split up as they had to each move to a side. And then she made a quick leap towards Danaid.
Luna, who was currently fighting alongside a pair of dragons alongside Moon, felt her heart skip a beat as the bright orange Silkwing got pinned down to the ground, head raised higher by one of Wasp's talons, and not even a second later so nobody can do anything, she stung her on the chest with a wrist-stinger.
Danaid immediately became paralyzed with her wide eyed, scared expression, the last thing that left her mouth being a startled gasp as she looked up to Wasp, who… Hasn't finished yet.
Not pulling the stinger off the dragon's chest, Wasp suddenly moved it up through her neck in a quick slicing motion.
Wasp slit Danaid's throat, and whatever small hints of movement there might have been in her paralyzed body just stopped completely, her face permanently stuck in the same expression of fear and shock.
Luna wanted to believe this wasn't real, but it had been done. She'd seen plenty of unfair things in her life, from school to all around the Hive. But this? For the first time she saw in person how Wasp murdered a member from her tribe. And it was cheerful, energetic for her age, Danaid
"So for the first death during this battle, Wasp has taken down an old lady, extremely impressive!" The possessed Silkwing said with clear sarcasm.
Luna heard a yell coming from the side, Pierid had just managed to fend off a dragon that was attacking him, and was staring at the lifeless corpse of the dragon he'd worked with for decades, even if they might've bickered plenty.
Pierid threw forward two long strands of Blaze Silk at Wasp, but due to his previous yell, that literally just warned her beforehand and gave her time to react to the incoming silk. She moved sideways to dodge it, and with a flick of her tail, threw a stream of green acid that landed straight on Pierid's face.
The Silkwing screamed in pain and terror, and brought his talons over to his face out of instinct, which made things even worse since the acid touched the talons as well now. He staggered back, stumbling upon many of the possessed dragons who just looked at him with a sinister smirk.
And meanwhile, Wasp had quickly reached over to him, tail raised, and then she pierced her stinger through the top of his skull and reached the brain. Pierid fell to the ground and died instantly.
Luna felt sick just from seeing this, within the matter of a single minute she had seen two Silkwings go through horrible deaths while Wasp looked completely unbothered and just moved onto the next dragon.
Lynx threw a cold blast of Frostbreath straight to Wasp, and it hit the moving Hivewing's tail, with the queen scowling in pain as her tail seemingly went numb and unmoving, taking away one of her weapons.
But Luna was feeling scared, Wasp had almost dealt with Tsunami, she killed Danaid, and Pierid… Wasp by herself was as much of a threat as Cottonmouth controlling multiple dragons at the same time, she could focus her whole mind on just killing them.
And with the mayhem caused by having so many dragons around and fighting, it was impossible for her to get a good look at the surroundings and see if anyone else might have gotten hurt or worse, killed, she'd heard some loud screams but wasn't able to discern their source.
She was scared for her tribe, and for her friends from nearly all other tribes, and she didn't want Wasp to hurt anyone else ever again.
The sky outside was mostly filled with clouds and there was a strong wind, clearly a storm will be due today. But there for a moment, the sun peered from a gap within the storm clouds to give off light to the dragons below.
And then she knew what she could do.
She hadn't actually used it beyond a single strand to test it back when she was in Pyrrhia. Her father had warned Luna about it during her short first stay at the factory, telling her about how powerful, taxing, and hard to control it was if it started any fires, and so she should never use it.
That single strand she'd tested once while outside of Jerboa's hut showed her how true it was, just bringing it out of a wrist was tiring, but right now that might just help out.
She raised her front talons and focused on her silk, feeling the power within her own body, the heat, the fire, she focused on the fire.
Her wrist let out a soft glow, which then intensified more and more, until with a burst of red and golden light, she released Sun Silk onto her talons, and even though it couldn't burn her, she could feel just how incredibly hot the two long strands were, as if she had actually taken a small piece from the sun itself and brought it down with her.
The glow called out the attention of Wasp and Cottonmouth, which meant that it also caught the attention of everyone fighting in the room. The tall Leafwing narrowed their white eyes, staring at this display with interest.
But on the other talon, Luna knew that she did not imagine it, for a short second she saw actual fear in the queen's face. The monarch would know what the Flamesilks were capable of doing, their powers were a blessing for her kingdom, but she would know that if they wanted they'd also be the greatest threat.
She signaled Lynx with a quick look to step back, she didn't want any of her friends to be caught by her own silk. The Icewing got it and quickly moved out of the way, her eyes perplexed by the shining strands.
Wielding the two strands on a talon each as if they were whips, she threw them forward while holding their ends, aiming for the evil tyrant.
Wasp moved in a hurry, dodging off to the left, but not getting fully out of the way in time. A sun whip touched one of her two right wings, and as if it was sticking to the sharpest of all blades, it cut through the whole wing in a second with that single motion.
The Hivewing let out a shocked yell as that happened, her torn wing not even bleeding, the heat having already cauterized during that second. Wasp gave a hateful glare to Luna with her cold eyes, and with three wings she began to fly to be able to maneuver more.
Luna whipped at the air, trying to catch the queen, who was still effective at flying even with the loss of a wing, but she managed to catch her long tail as she swerved, and the tool she'd been using to inject the Breath of Evil upon other dragons got immediately ripped off her body and fell to the ground.
Wasp let out a great roar that didn't show any power nor did it impose any fear besides showing her own, the queen was hurt, without a doubt far more than she'd ever been in her entire, twisted life.
She charged at Luna at great speed, diving down from the ceiling and heading straight for her with stingers pointing forward. Luna's eyes widened, knowing that she won't be able to get her front talons back on the ground and dodge the attack she'll certainly be stung either way, so she raised her weapons…
The queen suddenly stopped mid air, both Luna and Wasp looked back and spotted Heliconian, who looked terrified for her own life, pulling back the hardest she could onto a golden strand of silk that had latched itself around one of her hind legs.
Luna took that moment she was given, giving a last defiant glare to her "queen", she whipped forward in a closing motion, so when Wasp looked forward and back to her, all she could see were the two glowing strands aimed for her neck as she opened her mouth, but was given no time to make any other sound.
With a satisfying sound, Wasp's head fell from her body and rolled on the ground until it landed in front of the Silkwing who bested her. Wasp's final expression being one of hatred and fear, which Luna returned by looking down in tired triumph.
PART TWO
THE KING RISES
Author's Note: Well, here it is, Chapter 10 and the end of Queen Wasp. I hope this was good enough, I know she died for the end of act 1 of this story, but I want to think at least the way she goes down was more fulfilling than canon where she did nothing in the last book then got sent to jail off screen?