The Bee Dungeon

Now that the honey had arrived, Belissar turned his attention back to the shade, trying to determine how long they had left to prepare.

It seemed they would have…quite a while. The turtle shade had barely passed the first section of the Dirt Tunnels…and had taken a wrong turn to boot. Belissar kept everyone updated as the turtle slowly reached the dead end and turned around.

And then, not so promptly proceeded down another wrong turn. And then another. And another…

Soon, the karnuq had begun to sit or even lie down around the field. Chief Rohsuak was just staring at the mana honeycomb tray in her hands. The soldier bees still maintained their formations, but their wings beat at a slower place as they simply hovered in place. Belissar was mostly pacing about. On the one hand, more time to prepare was useful. On the other hand, Belissar could not calm down with the shade present and the feeling of the Hunger crashing against the Tower’s mana.

He glanced over to Chief Rohsuak and then began to rub his chin.

“Sacred Den Master? Do you need something?”

Belissar shook his head.

“No, it’s just…you’re going to use fire, right?”

Chief Rohsuak nodded. Belissar then crossed his arms.

“Ah, that would be wise.”

Belissar began to add a second stretch of flower-less dirt across the Flower Meadow, this one in the middle of the room. And then a third, closer to the entrance. Anything he could do to keep a possible brush fire away from the Bee Barracks…and to give himself something to do in the meantime.

But then, finally, the shade approached the final stretch. Belissar’s eyes narrowed.

“Here it comes.”

Metsaitti rose to his feet and barked a command to the karnuq hunters, who began to assemble once more. They escorted Chief Rohsuak close to the entrance of the Flower Meadow. The plan was still to let the bee army make the first attempt, but if the bees either could not bring the shade down or could not do so with acceptable casualties, then Chief Rohsuak would strike with her magic.

And if that failed?

Then the bees and karnuq hunters would have to do what was necessary. Belissar’s chest tightened at that thought.

Soon, the shade lumbered past the final corner into the straight hallway at the end of the Dirt Tunnels. A Sticky Honey Trap activated, spraying mad honey all over the shade. The shade simply pulled its head back into its shell. Most of the honey covered the shell, where it did nothing. Some got onto the ground and the shade’s feet, but with the shade’s strength it could pull through the honey’s grip on the floor. And since it was already moving slowly and carefully, the extra effort didn’t slow it down in the slightest.

It then crossed over the final Pit Trap in the Dirt Tunnels and a few minutes later, stepped out into the light of the Flower Meadow.

The queen in command immediately danced the attack.

Several squads of sprayers surrounded the shade and unleashed their toxic sprays. The shade, as with the Sticky Honey Trap, pulled its head back into its shell. The spray covered its back, but the shade didn’t seem to mind. It continued to march forward even as the toxins bathed its shell, without so much as a growl.

But the queen noticed it protect its head. She ordered a squad of sprayers to target the hole in its shell and they flew down to ground level, heading towards the shade.

The shade extended its head just to the edge of its shell and opened its beak. A cloud of black mist surged forward. The sprayers were still out of their own range, so they had plenty of the time to evade. But the mist had forced them to break off their own attack.

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The queen recalled the sprayers and ordered the soldier bees in next. They began to dive down towards the shade, targeting the gaps in the spikes on its back. But as they did, the spikes began to sway about, a shifting sea of deadly points that kept closing the gaps. The soldier bees were forced to break off to avoid impaling themselves.

One squad went for the tail on the shade’s back. The tail was swinging about, complicating their approach, but the center section was both free of spikes and moving more slowly than the tip, so a couple of the bees were able to land on it. They thrust their stingers down…and then stopped. They had barely got the tips into the shade, not deep enough to make a noticeable wound, nor to inject their venom. They still tried, but the venom just poured down the side of the shade’s hide.

The soldiers let go and flew away from the tail so that another squad could attempt a diving attack. Most of them missed as the target was relatively thin, constantly moving, and covered by the shell’s spikes and the tail’s own on either end, leaving only a small stretch that the bees could attack safely. Others only managed glancing blows that failed to penetrate due to bad angles, bouncing off and away. The bees also targeted the legs but the gap between the shell and the ground was small and partially covered by the shell’s spikes, so none were able to make the full run.

One bee managed a direct hit on the tail and got her stinger maybe halfway into the shade. But the shade kept marching on without much response. If it had been damaged, it didn’t show any sign of it.

Belissar gulped. It was clear that the bees weren’t doing much to slow this shade down. Maybe they could hurt it through hits on the tail but it seemed like it would take a long time to bring it down that way. More likely the bees would have to adopt a riskier approach…and even that might not do much to the shade.

He turned to Chief Rohsuak. She nodded, then began breaking off chunks of mana honeycomb and pouring the honey into her mouth, causing her mana to flare. Belissar let the queen know to pull back the army and they immediately broke off their attack. The one bee who had managed an actual sting took a moment to pull her stinger back out, but she managed and flew off to rejoin the formation.

In the meantime, Chief Rohsuak drank more and more of the honey and her mana flared brighter and brighter. Belissar even felt the temperature begin to rise around her. The grey hair on her head began to turn red and spontaneously rose into the air, waving about like tongues of fire. Her eyes began to glow with red light and wisps of fire began to appear all around her. She soon set the tray down and wiped her mouth, grinning with a bright smile. She rose to her full height, straightening her back as she lifted a hand that burst into flames.

“Ah, I’ve missed this.”

The other karnuq watched her in awe as Belissar’s gaze was drawn to her as well. Metsaitti leaned over towards him.

“The chief was once called the Blazing Berserker. It’s been a while since we’ve seen her at full strength.”

Belissar just nodded as Chief Rohsuak stepped forward. The shade continued its slow and ponderous march, heedless of the karnuq woman approaching it ahead. But that changed as she began to stir up the mana now surging within her and cupped her hands in front of her.

“God of Fire, grant me your flames to burn my enemies. Let them perish in the blazing inferno!”

She barked the words with a growl as the mana burst into flames all around her. The flames began to flow down her arms and coalesced into a sphere between her hands. The sphere started large and red, but then began to condense down and change colors. It shrank to slightly large and yellow, then to medium and orange, then to small and blue, and finally into a tiny white sphere too bright to look at directly.

The shade very much noticed the mass concentration of mana ahead of it. It began to rush forward as quickly as its body would allow, which wasn’t very. It extended its head and took a deep breath, unleashing as large a cloud of mist as it could towards the growing threat. But the bee army did not remain idle and the queen ordered the sprayers to react. They unleashed a wall of toxic spray that collided with the black mist, killing its moment.

Chief Rohsuak then thrust her hands forward and the white sphere shot forward, leaving a trail of white fire in its wake. The shade pulled its head into its shell, but the sphere shot right into its neck hole before it could turn away.

The shade then explode into flames. Fire burst out of every opening in its shell, creating a pillar of white and blue flames that reached for the skies. The shade screeched like the sound of grinding metal as its tail and spikes flailed about. The flowers all around caught fire and a raging inferno surged across the field.

Chief Rohsuak then collapsed as the mana faded from her body. Metsaitti had already stepped closer to her and caught her before she fell.

“Thank…you…”

Her breathes were heavy and labored. Metsaitti began to take her away but she shook her head.

“Let me…see it through…to the end.”

Metsaitti slowly nodded and instead propped her up as best he could. Belissar, meanwhile, was staring wide-eyed. The inferno had grown such that the heat and the smoke had forced the soldier bee army to retreat. The shade was thrashing about as violently as it could, emitting as much black mist as possible, but nothing it did had any effect on the flames. Soon, it fell to the ground and black smoke began pouring out of its shell…until that, too, faded away and joined the smoke rising through the air.

Belissar was suddenly very glad the karnuq were on his side.

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