The Queen's step backward rippled through the battlefield like a shockwave. Scarabs roared louder, their drums pounding as if they had cracked the sky itself. Centipedes slammed their bodies into the dirt, each strike shaking the ground beneath her claws. Glowbeetles filled the canopy with blinding light, their pulses steady and measured, guiding the rhythm of the fight.
Buzz stared at her, chest heaving, his blood still dripping onto the soil. For the first time he had seen her yield ground. The golden certainty in her eyes had shifted, just enough to show she understood what it meant to be resisted. He felt the pain in every joint, the burning in his torn wing, but also the surge of something else, something he hadn't allowed himself in too long.
"We can move her," he said, his voice ragged but clear.
