Kieee!
An eagle soared through the skies, speeding along the crops as it opened its beak and swallowed dozens of locusts before curving in the air to arrive at a location beside the farm to spit out the dead locust corpses.
The eagle continued to attack the locusts swarming through the acres of farmland, killing them in droves nonstop as it mowed through them. Every flap of its wings slammed into at least a few locusts, swatting them dead.
"My Lord! At this rate, the entire harvest would be destroyed." A villager said in despair, watching months of their hard work go up in flames.
They were a group of eighteen villages, situated on an archipelago that was abundant with fertile soil, for these islands were actually located in a lake where more than three ginormous rivers intersected, forming a delta of sorts.
So, the quantity of freshwater here was limitless, not to mention the sheer vitality of life growing in the region. Of course, it was wrought with its fair share of concerns.
First were the frequent floods that plagued the region, not to mention disasters and diseases resulting from an outbreak of swarm insects like mosquitoes and locusts.
That was the reason that despite its abundance, no formidable power wished to set foot here. But of course, despite the challenges, there was Sturrala who dared to set foot here.
Currently, her eagle was killing the locusts in droves before piling them up in a corner. They were a precious resource of protein that she could use to feed her Eagle Basket. Moreover, she was long since prepared to take control of this region.
She wasn't just ambitious but also had the smarts necessary to fuel her ambition, just as the rest of her family.
"Be calm and bring me the ablest among the youth here," Sturrala said, watching the villagers hurry in response.
Within a minute, over fifty youths, thirty men, and twenty women assembled before her. Sturrala gazed at them, nodding in response before throwing a packet to each, "Run a lap through the fields and return here as quickly as possible. The locusts would chase after you. Remember to cover yourself with a couple of layers of clothes to avoid being injured."
She said with a commanding tone, "Just bring them here. I'll take care of the rest."
"Yes!" The youths nodded as they covered themselves with multiple layers of blankets before holding the packet to rush through the fields, doing as they were commanded.
Emanating from the packets was a fruity scent that worked wonders on the locusts. This was a medicine Sturrala had created using a team of researchers under her.
Currently, the group of researchers had already arrived at the location and set up shop there, providing her with the drugs necessary to do what she needed.
Bzzzz!
A gigantic cloud chased after the running youths that hurried towards her in alarm. The cloud was akin to a disaster, made up of billions of locusts, a power enough to wipe out an entire country's worth of farm produce.
"Run!" Sturrala said, watching the group of youths run past her, dropping the packets at her feet as they dived into their homes in a hurry. The cloud of locusts headed straight for her as she let out a calm smile, shouting right as the locusts were a few metres from her, "Now!
Boom!
Her Invoked Spirit flapped its wings, taking flight as multiple ropes seemed to be tied around its body. And at the end of the ropes were lids to large containers. There was shimmering coal within the containers, placed atop which were a large number of leaves.
There were dozens of such containers as the moment their lids were opened, intense smoke billowed out, seeping into the cloud of locusts, affecting them in a matter of seconds as they dropped down like flies.
When burned, the leaves released a narcotic substance that knocked out all the locusts that inhaled it.
Sturrala was prepared, covering her nose with a cloth as she gradually began to retreat, commanding her eagle to trigger the locusts to chase after it. And thereby, it led the group into the range of the smoke.
This way, a majority of the locusts formed a pile on the ground, showing no signs of waking up for at least a few hours.
Sturrala continued to use her eagle to round up and kill the rest of the locusts, for there was still a significant sum in the other islands that weren't lured here.
"We need to repeat the same in the other islands. Let's go." She motioned at the villagers, bringing the group of youths with her who carried the necessary materials and the containers.
In the meantime, the team of researchers hurriedly exited their shed, covered from head to toe as they began to look through the pile of locusts, capturing the egg-laying kind among them and any specially mutated ones that they chanced upon.
This was under Sturrala's orders. After all, she planned to rear the locusts into a food resource for the eagles, for it was the easiest to rear them. The locusts pretty much consumed anything. And as grass took the shortest time to grow in the largest numbers, it could be used to feed the locusts.
This would give multiple benefits to the archipelago, which was why Sturrala had brought an entire team of personnel with her, having already taken up command of the region, for she was the sole Invoker of the place.
Within a week, she rid the place of the locus problem, capturing more than enough of them to create a farm, having clipped the wings of all to prevent them from fleeing the place. Sturrala had been sending a portion of her wealth to this region in preparation for this for years now, so the nest to farm the locusts as a crop had already been built, including her domicile.
Following that, she convened all the talents of the eighteen villages settled in the archipelago, using the Inferior Invoker Crystals in her possession to turn them into Invokers.
She first created forty Invokers, planning to proceed with the rest after that. After all, they still required eagles for their cultivation, which had to be reared carefully from now. But thankfully, she had everything required to make that a reality, setting up a Clan in the archipelago.
