As scared as Ves was of the giant insects or drones, the voice called them. She couldn’t help but feel at least a little relieved to have the added protection. After all, she had zero confidence in her ability to fight with such a shoddy weapon and her non-dominant arm to boot.

By the end of the day, she was mostly used to them. Though the closer she looked at them, the stranger they seemed. For one, they didn’t have a mouth as far as Ves could tell. She asked the parasite in her head, but they were as confused as she was. At first, she also thought they had no eyes, but she did eventually find a discolored spot on what she assumed to be the head, which the parasite thought were eyes. Still, how they actually could see with them, neither Ves nor the voice had any idea.

The most important thing about them, which Ves only realized later that night, was that they didn’t sleep. The drones could stand watch and protect her.

‘Wake up’

“Five more minutes…”

‘Ves!!’

Groggy and feeling a sense of déjà vu, Ves opened her eyes.

‘Ves! Get up!’

“What’s wro-”

A roar piercing through the forest told Ves all she needed to know. Leaping to her feet, she quickly saw the problem. They were under attack. It was a land drake, wingless beasts that honestly looked more like a giant lizard with horns. Twenty feet long, covered head to toe in scales that left them armored like a knight.

All around the drake were the drones, carefully trying to draw the beast’s attention and keep it away from Ves. Best as Ves could tell, any damage they caused was superficial at best, even if it looked painful.

‘What do we do? Should we run? I don’t know if the drones can win.’

Ves could feel her parasite’s panic, and it wasn’t without good reason. Looking off to the side, she could see that one of the drones was already dead.  

“Not sure if that’s a good idea”. Drakes were tenacious, refusing to ever abandon the pursuit of their prey. She had even heard stories of people who thought they had escaped, only for the drake to show up days or even weeks later. So no, running was not an option. If she and the drones couldn’t kill it now, she knew she would stand no chance if it found her alone in the future.  

Looking around on the ground, she found the spear she had made the day before. She had no hopes that it could pierce the drake’s scales any better than the drones, but she had to try.

‘Are you sure about this?’ The voice asked as she cautiously approached the drake with her spear at the ready.

Was she sure? Not in the slightest, but dying while fighting sounded better than dying in an ambush after weeks of looking over her shoulder. “Wish me luck.”

With the remaining drones distracting the drake, Ves thrusted her spear into the beast’s side with all the meager strength she could muster with her left arm. 

It did nothing.

The spear just slid across the drake’s scales without leaving a scratch. She wasn’t even sure the drake felt it, as it gave no reaction to her strike. It even made her spearhead loosen, forcing her to tighten the knot with her teeth as she tried to stay clear of the drake’s tail, snapping around like a whip each time it turned.

Void-cursed beast had to have some sort of weak spot. The issue was that Ves was no fighter and so far wasn’t even useful enough to serve as a distraction. All the while, the drones were taking a beating. Enough so that she was unsure if any of them would survive even if they won. It was time to change her approach.

Its face and eyes had to be a weak spot. That was if she was willing to get close to a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. With no better ideas, Ves closed in towards the drake a second time. With one of the drones slicing a shallow but nonetheless painful-looking wound, Ves saw her opening. With a shout, she lunged forward, aiming straight at the beast’s eye. It was close, a near hit, but at the last second, the drake saw her and lifted its front into the air to dodge the attack.

As Ves began to curse her foul luck, she noticed something. On the drake's underside, the scales were a lighter color, and they even looked softer. That flashed back a memory, one containing a hint of how they might just have a chance to beat this thing. Distracted Ves didn’t see the drake swipe at her until it was too late. By little more than dumb luck, she managed to block the attack with her spear. Unfortunately, that did little to prevent the force of the blow itself from sending her toppling across the ground before slamming into a tree.

It hurt, it really hurt, but somehow what was it? Ves was certain that any blow that sent her flying like that should have broken a bone. At least cracked them. Yet somehow, at worst, she felt she would have a nasty bruise in a few hours. Ves thought it was a safe guess that the parasite was the cause, but if it was making her more durable, who was she to complain? She could still move, and now she had a plan.

“Attack its belly! The scales should be weaker there!” The memory Ves had was from a few years back. Her master had caught a lesser drake on a hunt, and Ves was made to clean the corpse. While much smaller than a land drake, around the size of a goat, they still had thick scales. Thick enough that Ves’s knife could only pierce it on its underside.

‘Understood, I’ll tell the drones!’

“I’ll give them an opening!”

They could do this. She had to believe that. If they could win this, maybe, just maybe, she could find a way to make a new life out here. It would be hard, but she would be free. But first this beast had to die.

Despite the protest of her battered body, she charged. Spear out, ready to thrust, she aimed for its eye a second time. For the second time, the drake dodged, and this time it was pissed. Rearing its torso into the air, the drake prepared to pounce and trample Ves. There was no escape.

For the drake that was.

As soon as the drake reared itself into the air, the drones struck. With its belly exposed, they dove in and went for the kill. Within a few heartbeats, the drake was dead, its insides ripped to shreds, spilling out, coating the forest floor in a thick layer of gore.

Battered and exhausted, Ves dropped to her knees as the spear gently fell away from her grip. She did it. They did it. The drake was dead, and they had won. For the first time in her life, Ves was able to stand up and defend herself. It may have been a simple beast, but still, she won. It felt amazing. Unfortunately, the battle wasn’t without losses. Upon its death, the drake toppled over onto several of the already badly injured drones, crushing them. There was only one left.  

Not one to waste a meal, Ves dusted herself off and walked towards the dead beast. Before she could take even a few steps, a gale of wind raced through the area as the trees shuddered. The force alone nearly slammed Ves to the ground. By the time she scrambled back to her feet, it was already over. She caught only the briefest glimpse of something green, almost like the forest itself, as whatever it was skimmed the tops of the trees as it flew overhead and deeper into the forest.

The only large flying beasts she knew of that frequented this part of the woods were griffons, but they were smaller than the wolves. This creature was massive, many times the size of a griffon. And somehow she only noticed it when it left. Had it been there the whole time, hiding amongst the trees, watching her? It was a terrifying thought, and Ves, for one, didn’t want to stick around in case it came back. Forced to abandon the kill, Ves and the remaining drone fled.