Board & Conquest: A Godly LitRPG

The skies buzzed with activity.

“Mistress, mistress, more bugs!” Soumis called out upon spotting them. Victoire looked to her left and quickly noticed a group of Brood-type wasps the size of eagles flying in a small squadron. The creature charged towards the heart of the jungle in a V-formation faster than the wind.

“Fire in the hole,” Victoire ordered, her dragon mount roaring and unleashing a torrent of fire in their direction.

The Brood wasps quickly retaliated by firing poisonous stingers aimed straight at Victoire in an attempt to dismount her. Flames consumed them long before they reached her, then incinerated one of the wasps. The rest quickly retreated back towards the horizon upon realizing they were outmatched.

In fact, they ran far too easily…

“Victory!” Soumis boasted as he prepared to give chase, only for Victoire to reel him in. “Mistress?”

“They’re baiting us,” Victoire said. “They’re trying to lure us away from the perimeter.”

“Agreed,” her god replied through telepathy. “Do not give pursuit. Fire from afar.”

Victoire had Soumis unleash fireballs at long range without following the swarm. They quickly dispersed rather than return upon realizing their ruse had fallen through, though she knew they would in time, and in greater numbers.

Victoire had been keeping watch over the area around Thoon’s ship for hours, during which she and Soumis had to fend off six Brood groups, not counting this one. That was twice yesterday’s number, and she suspected more attacks would follow in the coming night. Thankfully, she saw Jarlack and his wyvern crew approaching from the east to take up the watch.

“We’ll take over from here, Lass,” the giant said when his mount crossed paths with Soumis. “You may rest easy!”

“You’re here early, Jarlack,” Victoire mused. “Doing some overtime?”

“Well, got a third mouth to feed and a fourth on the way!” Jarlack gave her a crooked smile. “Still up to be the new pup’s godmother?”

“Always.” Of course, Victoire knew that Jarlack had picked her up for the task because she wouldn’t ask for a fee like giants usually did for the ‘honor,’ but she didn’t mind. Jarlack had already chosen Lord Wepwawet as the first child’s godfather since the title was rather appropriate.

“And I intend to set the girl straight so she grows into a responsible young woman!” Lord Wepwawet commented through telepathy. “Spoiling a giant never ends well, especially these ones.”

“C-can Soumis become a Dragonfather too?” her mount eagerly asked. “A spoiled newborn minion is like having the most demanding of mistresses…”

“Sure, I can put you on the waiting list for the third, since I still have a freebie to try to get a boy!” Jarlack replied eagerly. “Anyway, gotta earn my keep! See you on the next shift!”

Victoire wished Jarlack luck and had Soumis fly back to Thoon’s lair. The newly awakened lunarians—a small commune of roughly two dozen members—had already unearthed most of their ship. The pyramidal-shaped machine pointed to the sky and the moon from which it came, ready to take off once ready. A few select Champions, like Jasper, carried the blackstone chunks required for the repairs from other settlements nearby without using the same route twice in order to avoid discovery.

The newly awakened lunarians were quite the respectful, ascetic lot, alternating between repairing their ship, meditation, playing strategy games, and reading what literature the Champions brought to them. Thoon had explained that lunarians had a physical need for constant intellectual stimulation when not in hibernation, especially without slaves to mentally dominate. They were obsessively clean on top of that, as if they had a subconscious desire to organize their environment. It made them quite the efficient workers, if stressful to deal with sometimes.

Victoire quickly spotted Thoon near the entrance threshold in the company of Zhang, the ‘naga sifu’ who had fought by her side during the Hastur Incursion, and a blue spider the size of a dog. The creature had eight red eyes, two on each side and four at the center in a lozenge formation, its legs holding a tea cup while it sipped the liquid with its mandibles. It was quite the surreal sight.

“Young Victoire, young Soumis,” Zhang greeted her once she stepped down from her mount. “Come join us. We were about to begin a round of guided meditation before young Crafty’s mission.”

“Maybe another time,” Victoire replied, not being too much into meditation. “I would love a cup of tea, though.”

“You seem concerned,” Thoon said. Even with the crown shielding Victoire’s mind, the lunarian seemed almost supernaturally aware of others’ emotions.

“The nearby Brood hive is sending more and more scouts our way,” Victoire warned the lunarian. “They know we’re trying to keep this area off limits, which increases their curiosity. They’ll keep sending more creatures to investigate.”

“These bugs are awful,” Soumis complained. “Soumis can’t eat them without having indigestion, they don’t make good minions, and they keep trying to steal his lunch!”

“They are most troubling creatures, I will agree,” Zhang said. “I used to believe all beasts had a place in the natural order, but I cannot see this Brood as anything else but evil incarnate. These creatures are smarter than most monsters, but driven entirely by the instinct to spread and reproduce with no forethought.”

“They will likely drive themselves to extinction should they run out of hosts to parasitize,” Thoon noted. “My own brainjackers cannot penetrate their outer shells either, and telepathic attacks are ineffective. We would be hard-pressed to repel a head-on attack.”

“True… the Brood would be highly effective at wiping out lunarians too…” Victoire stroked her chin. “This feels intentional.”

“If what you said is true, then these ‘Titans’ seek the extermination of all life. I would assume this includes my brethren.” Thoon’s only eye blinked a few times. Victoire had gathered that it was body language that showed confusion. “I find it hard to fathom that the Overmind would let itself be so easily deceived by this Beelzebub, no matter what gifts he may have given in return for this alliance.”

“We should be able to learn more soon, should our current infiltration plan succeed, but I fear we won’t be able to keep this place’s existence a secret for much longer,” Victoire warned. “If the Brood and lunarians can coordinate, as we suspect them to be able to, it’s only a matter of time before the enemy learns of this place. It’ll only take one undetected hive drone to report its existence.”

Thoon pondered her words before answering. “Our ship possesses defensive weapons that can repel creatures like the Brood, but the Overmind will likely send warships should it learn of our existence. Our Kinhood’s knowledge and technology is too great a danger to them.”

“We’ll prepare for a siege should it come to it,” Lord Wepwawet whispered in Victoire’s mind, with Thoon raising his head upon eavesdropping. “In the meantime, discretion is key.”

Victoire nodded and then turned to the spider, who would have the most difficult task ahead. “Crafty, is it? I don’t think I’ve ever heard your name before today.”

“I wouldn’t be doing my job well if you did, ma’am,” the spider replied in an articulated variant of the Shadazar language. A blackstone ring glittered on one of his many legs. “I used dark elf catspaws back when I worked as a spy for hire for Shadazar’s noble houses. I was so good at pitting them against each other that Mr. Anansi gave me the title of Crafty, the Craftier Spider, when we signed that exclusive Champion employment contract.”

“He’s some sort of Spider-Jarlack,” Lord Wepwawet said, “but cheaper and poisonous.”

“And… how did a sentient, talking spider end up becoming a spy for hire?” Victoire raised an eyebrow. “Actually, how can you talk at all?”

“Can’t say, ma’am. My mysterious backstory is part of my professional mystique.”

“Fair enough. Are you ready?”

“Always.” Crafty scratched his left mandible. “I’m so very nervous, though. I’ve never traveled so far away on a mission.”

“Empty your mind, young spider,” Zhang suggested. “Remember our breathing exercises.”

“I have not been able to sense your mental presence, so the ring should protect you from telepathic detection,” Thoon reassured the spider. “My kind relies too much on its telepathy, and I do not think the Overmind will expect an infiltration of Lune. Surprise will be on your side.”

“Only our god’s Panopticon could pierce through your invisibility effect too, or so I’m told,” Victoire added. “I doubt Beelzebub will have a copy of it, so you should be fine so long as you stick to observation.”

“If this ‘Citystep’ ability of yours works, I could lead an assault on the Gravitational Engine the Overmind uses to bring down the blackstone bombardments,” Thoon said. “At least the one on Lune.”

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That was the part that bothered Victoire the most. “So it is confirmed? There’s another such device on the other moon?”

“The calculations your astronomers shared with us would point that way. The moons are moving too fast towards each other.” Thoon slurped the tea through his own mandibles. “Destroying one of the generators will weaken the blackstone bombardments, but won’t stop them, and the smaller moon has neither a lighthouse to access it, nor a city you could teleport to.”

“So we’ll need ships.” Victoire sighed. “Quite the difficult proposition.”

“Soumis could fly there,” Soumis said. “Mistress Victoire would have to hold her breath, though.”

“Soumis, don’t be ridic–” Victoire held her breath. “On second thought, I’m not going to question that.”

She had seen dragons do too many stupid things to tempt fate again.