The operation of freeing another slave city and hitting an enemy Dungeon was planned around the consideration that the entire thing was a trap. The situation was complicated by the fact that, most probably, Vestargo's slaves would try to flee the moment they spotted the ships of the Royal Navy. The operation was risky and no one could predict how it would unfold. Additionally, no one could guess how many slave cities were hidden in the Ancient Forest or how losing them would influence Vestargo and his war effort. One thing was certain, however, and it wasn't a good thing at all. Vestargo was violating the Geneva Conventions and was still using enslaved women as expendable, living incubators. However, we had no contact with Vespids or Vestargo, so the most important part of throwing an accusation into his face was in jeopardy. Fortunately, that was something to figure out after the current mission. I was in favour of simply broadcasting a message through the external speakers of our Navy vessels and being done with it. However, what consequences would the Akkadians draw from this unprecedented violation of the law?

Our choices were limited. Burn more of his forest and accidentally kill innocent people we couldn't detect? We couldn't throw more soldiers at rescue because I simply wasn't going to send my Mortals to die in vain. We couldn't use overwhelming power because there was nothing we could realistically spare. So, for the time being, it was better to keep it to ourselves that we knew. In the meantime, the Guardsmen Corps were intensely preparing for an anticipated attack on Westwood.

"I want to send the Praetorians who normally protect me to guard my sister," Lavender announced from the doors with a very sour expression. "In turn, I promise to stay in the Palace until they return."

I raised my head to look at her in stunned silence but my gaze shifted between her and the plans on my desk. My expression must have been particularly dumb since she cheered and walked towards me.

"I asked my sister to come to Avalon but she doesn't want to leave her people." Lavender sighed heavily. "I... I understand her but I can't just leave her like that. She will give birth soon and yet she stubbornly refuses to come to Avalon."

"In terms of sending your Praetorians to protect her, it's out of the question. It doesn't matter if you promise to stay in the Palace, I can't reduce your defenders. However, sending another Praetorian company to protect Calicarpa is one of many solutions we are preparing in order to bolster Westwood's defences. I am going to sneak a Titan into the city so placing even a few Praetorian companies isn't a huge problem." I rubbed the back of my head. "But you do understand that we aren't sure Westwood is even going to be attacked in the first place?"

"I know..." She sighed. "... Sort of."

"We are increasing the security level of Westwood but any other place in Everlight is as prone to attack as Kirin's Dungeon," I said and let her think about it. She slowly deflated and leaned on the table.

"It's just..." She looked at me with guilt mixed with resignation. "I'm worried about her, Theon. She's my little sister... Just waiting for a disaster to strike...It just feels wrong."

"I know, my Dear." I patted her soft hair. "I know that my assumptions sound serious but I don't like to take avoidable threats lightly. Sending a large army to attack any Dungeon in Everlight is pointless due to the distance such forces have to cover. Attacking O'llina of Starfall Fortress and Simon of Skybound Fortress proved to be futile. If I were him, I would try to strike a target well behind the frontlines in an attempt to disrupt enemy lines."

"But he's not you, Theon." Lavender looked at the maps and projections in front of us. "That is the thing that bothers me..."

"What is it?"

"He accepted the Geneva Conventions but I don't believe he thinks like us." She said slowly. "He is abiding by the Conventions in the most literal way. It's almost like he thinks it only applies to our people. He isn't acknowledging all people are protected by it and no amount of explaining is going to change that. I think... I think that he might be observing you."

I blinked a few times as I contemplated what she said and then furrowed my brows as I explored the idea. It made sense.

"Do you believe that he planted the slaves so we would find them?" I asked her with growing curiosity.

"More or less..." She slowly nodded. "I was worried about it so I looked through the reports. So far we have never found as much as a slave's corpse. He always managed to take them and our forces were only able to recover items used by his slaves. Until now. Why?"

I didn't particularly like where obvious conclusions led but I used the intercom and asked Luna, Aoi, Freya, and Tia to join us. When they joined, I briefed them about Lavender's observations. They argued for a moment, with only Freya sitting silently with a grim expression. She looked through the various reports and very slowly shook her head as she read them.

"I think that he is uncertain about what might push you into unleashing, once again, the kind of destruction you displayed after the deaths of Lilly and Iris, Theon." Lavender pointed out once everyone calmed down. "As far as he knows, following the letter of the Convention is one thing but violating its spirit would end in annoying you as well. He doesn't understand many concepts and I believe that he is terrified of how quickly your army is advancing. I can't tell from the Dungeons, but some concepts were hard for them to comprehend and they had people to help. I had a few problems grasping many of the theories and techniques you brought from your world so I can only imagine how someone like Vestargo is in panic right now. He must have been terrified by the destruction our Navy wrought upon his forest. In just a few moments, the massive trees that needed centuries to grow were turned into ashes."

"Your theory is very likely to be true, Lav." Luna's eyes narrowed as she looked through her notes.

"Many times he has mirrored the actions of our military. His Arachnes are trying to mimic Legion's formations and battle tactics. His swarms are employing complicated evasive manoeuvres to get closer to our ships." Tia pointed out as she crossed her arms with a somber expression.

"He is learning." Freya finally said. "But we might not understand what exactly he is seeing and how he interprets things he sees. Lavender is right in that matter. Vestargo has never before faced a foe like you, Theon."

"So let's say that Lavender is right and Vestargo wants to watch and learn. He gave me two targets, presumably, so I had to pick one of them."

"Why do you think he is not accounting for you to attack them both?" Lavender asked with curiosity in her voice.

I fell silent with an open mouth ready to explain but I hesitated. In fact, why not? We were using the momentum supported by the mobility of my airships.

"In any campaign, you must prepare sufficient forces to achieve the goals of any move you make." Tia calmly explained. "A general who attacks without a solid plan, intelligence reports, logistics, and sufficient reinforcements will lose nine of ten times. That one chance where they are successful is basically luck, albeit luck always plays a significant role during war."

"Yes, but that is true for Mortals, Tia." Freya slowly shook her head in denial. "Dungeons have always thrown their forces at each other until one of them was defeated. It was Theon who merged both mentalities into what is now known as the Arcadian Doctrine. No one thought about using the Navy as a mobile artillery platform to inflict devastating attacks on an enemy. You are flexible with your approach to war and even I, who should share your knowledge about Earth and its conflicts, am often surprised. Vestargo is absolutely lost."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Lavender might be correct. I assumed that Vestargo was similar to us. But that is a fatal mistake." I stopped with my hand hanging in the air. "I don't mean the general similarities but something much deeper."

They gave a long stare.

"What do you mean?" Freya asked quietly not to disrupt my chain of thoughts.

"I resemble a Human." I slowly said. "Freya, a Dwarfess, Demesne, a Wolfkin, Kirin looks like an Elf, and Ceallach a Human. We are anthropogenic. Our way of thinking is fairly similar and understandable by other anthropogenic beings."

"Close enough, I guess." Luna nodded in confirmation.

"Now look at our denizens. I'm using undead monsters but, despite that, they are still anthropomorphic: Skeletons, Vampires, even my Slimes are Human-shaped. Freya's denizens are mostly Dwarf-shaped Korreds, and the rest of them are inspired by Norse mythology. Demesne, despite using mainly wolves, her core resembled a young Wolfkin woman even before we met. Currently, all the Dungeons in Arcadia have Legion spawners. It's not just a simple choice of spawners but something deeper. The way and how we think shape what we are." I slowly vocalised my thoughts. "It's not particularly groundbreaking but, I must admit, I considered Vestargo as another human. Someone whom I could relate to even if I despise them."

Their eyes slowly went wide as the realization hit them.

"I thought more about him not understanding you and how everything you have displayed, so far, is different from what the people of Nilmerthis have done. But, what you are saying makes so much sense." Lavender dropped deeper into her soft chair.

"Hmmm... According to your theory, Vestargo might be a totally different being?" Tia asked and her tail curled distressingly. "He might be a bug?"

"Yes." I nodded and I slowly rubbed my chin. "He has always acted literally toward what he said. When he promised not to attack our forces evacuating Natica for the entire day, his bugs waited, exactly, an entire day. He was always literal. I thought he was malicious but what if he doesn't understand concepts that are natural to us?"

I smiled as some of Vestargo's actions suddenly became clear to me.

"Indeed, his actions are akin to a bee swarm protecting its hive. Or... Maybe more toward angry wasps trying to chase off attackers." Lavender thoughtfully said.

"I was surprised by his ferocity and the attempts to overwhelm our forces with sheer numbers..." Luna slowly nodded.

"Yes..." Aoi slowly nodded with her hands crossed in front of her. "It was actually a valid tactic to defeat a superior foe... But what if his attacks weren't calculated or even planned on that basis? What if he simply attacked us instinctively?"

Tia was looking through the reports with a growing smile. After a few moments, she nodded with satisfaction and sat more comfortably in her chair.

"If we trace back and analyse all his attacks, it becomes clear that he never used any other strategy other than a frontal attack or waiting in ambush," Tia said and furrowed her brows in what seemed to be confusion. "I understand the swarm frontal attack as something natural to insects, especially wasps and hornets. But ambush strategies?"

"Mantises are ambush predators, Tia." Lavender pointed out with a shrug. "And we know that Vestargo uses them as heavy troops."

"There were parasitic wasps back on Earth... The ones that laid their eggs on spiders, Theon." Freya fidgeted uncomfortably.

"Yes... Oh, fuck..." My eyes widened in a shock of realisation. "Vespids are fucking parasitic wasps!"

Luna, Lavender, and Tia looked at our disgusted expressions with a visible lack of understanding. It was Lavender who reluctantly shook her head and decided to ask. "I've never heard about parasitic wasps so I can safely assume they shouldn't exist in Nilmerthis or at least in Aderon. What are they?"

"Essentially, they are wasps and do wasp things, I guess... Until it's time to reproduce." I started explaining with a sour expression and I knew they had already connected the dots by their sickly expressions. "As you already guessed, they hunt for a host for their egg. Like Freya said, in our previous world it was a spider. The wasp finds its target and pretends to fall into its trap. Then it stings the spider and, once it's paralysed, the wasp lays an egg on it and flies away. The venom keeps the spider still for about ten minutes, and the spider resumes its spider things. After a few days, the horror starts for the spider. Once the larvae hatches, it devours the host alive."

"There are many types of parasitic wasps. Some of them laid their eggs on a host, while others inside the host..." Freya added with a disgusted shudder.

"Like Vespids..." Lavender trembled as well. "What a repulsive and evil species."

Tia looked as if she was about to puke. She was pale when she spoke. "While I have a feeling the origin of their disgusting behaviour is important, we stray further from a more important observation Theon made. The nature of Vestargo."

Luna, Freya, and finally Lavender looked at her with similarly pale faces.

"What does it change if Vestargo is more like a bug than a humanoid race?" I asked loudly which snapped them from the nightmarish musings about Vespids. "Straight off the bat, I can crush any predictions we made about his anticipated movements. If he sees his forest as his hive, he might not even understand why the people are attacking him every time he wants to expand it."

"It's possible..." Luna agreed with disgust. "But that is never going to excuse him!"

Lavender, Freya, and Tia nodded with conviction which only made me chuckle.

"There is no excuse for what he has done. I will execute him and exterminate all Vespids." I shook my head as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. "The thing is that we must prepare for when we inevitably lose our momentum. Now we know, for sure, that many attempts to destroy Vestargo failed not because he was a superior strategist but because everyone who attacked him made wrong assumptions. He isn't fighting like another Dungeon or a Mortal because he is vastly different and he might not even understand the concept of war. For him, it might be another struggle for the survival of his hive."

"We can test it..." Lavender reluctantly proposed looking at the maps. "If he thinks like an attacked hive, he is only concentrating his troops where we are advancing."

"Precisely..." I nodded in agreement. "However, we will do it when we save another group of people."

•••

Rhys was walking along the line of his soldiers and he could feel his wrath boiling. However, his wrath was boiling inside, honed by decades of being kept suppressed. He had trained himself to never let it take over but it was there, lurking in the dark corners of his soul, and Rhys, himself, provided it plenty of room for simmering. But this time was different. He was one of a few Arcadians who saw the rescued High Elves and met them in person. Rhys was horrified by the state they were kept by Vestargo and his cursed minions. Most of the rescued High Elves were girls the age of his daughter. He could see Alanis' face in their faces, now curious and full of hope. As a father, he couldn't tolerate the existence of Vespids or Vestargo any longer.

Fortunately, the Emperor's plans for Aderon did not involve the prolonged existence of Vestargo.

"Drop in five minutes." The focused voice of Blackbeard sounded in the compartment.

"All right people." Rhys slowly nodded as he closed his grip around the haft of his glaive, which was encased in lightning. "You know the situation from the briefing. However, there are a few last-minute changes to our plans. First of all, our RoE has changed. Before you engage anything in combat, ensure it's hostile rather than simply bug-shaped. The Emperor suspects there is a different kind of trap from what we initially thought. Instead of simple bait, this might be a test of whether we adhere to the Geneva Conventions."

The soldiers looked at him confused but he kept the full reasoning to himself for now. It was counterproductive to tell soldiers about everything right now, so half a truth was good enough.

"Second, we are securing the people the hard way. So no Stun, no Sleep spell, no Paralysis." That caused a collective groan. He gave them a few seconds and raised his hand. "Fortunately for you, the third change will explain the second one so listen up. We are closing up the no-pass barrier outside the city that will be deployed from the ships. You heard it right. We are going to be the doors."

"What about the bugs inside the city, Sir?" The Marine Captain asked and, without his helmet, Rhys wouldn't have known his name. The Sentinel Network was awfully convenient.

"They are getting the non-combatant treatment if they stay docile. However, once we are teleported, we are herding them into cages." He replied and noticed some of them realised something. "Yes. Some of you already noticed, not bad. We won't be participating in the attack on the enemy Dungeon as it was previously planned. The situation has changed a lot."

"Drop in one minute!" The speakers barked shortly and Rhys closed his helmet.

"Prepare for the battle boys!"

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