The Bee Dungeon

Belissar wanted nothing more than to take Niobee’s old queen, show her around, and then build her a nice beehouse…but there was a lot to do to clean up the battle. The most important of which was…to address the casualties.

The three soldiers felled by the lead Tower Guard were only the beginning. With how many opponents they faced and how coordinated the enemy way, the soldiers couldn’t keep up the perfect evasion and rotation they relied on. Soldiers were caught by stray swords and spears, or the wild swings of the wyverns’ tails and claws. Fireballs and lighting bolts and blades of wind cut though their formations when not blocked by the bumblebee soldiers. The bumblebee soldiers themselves had all survived but had taken good hits in the process.

The Second of the Sixth led her medicinal hive as they swarmed across the field, with the Fourth of the Seventh’s soldiers helping them carry trays of medicinal mana honey. The injured were assembled and fed honey as the medicinal bees injected healing compound directly into their wounds. Those who had lost wings were already being welcomed by Beero and her team.

And, those who could not be saved were gathered together for Belissar to carry to the Memorial.

As for Belissar himself…

His face fell as the worker bees curled up in his hand. To his horror, he realized that the bees that had stung the Tower Lord’s son were mundane honeybees, likely from the old queen’s hive. And that meant…they were subject to the normal rules of honeybees…including the loss of their stingers when they attacked larger foes. Belissar did his very best to help them with mana and medicinal honey…but these were normal bees. They possessed no mana of their own, so providing them with more didn’t help much. And the medicinal honey was not enough to handle that level of damage.

His shoulders drooped as he let out a sigh, then began to gather the fallen bees to carry with the others. There was nothing else he could do for them…save for this. He swore he would give their queen a wonderful home, so that their sacrifice would not have been in vain. The bees died, but the hive endured. Such was the way of things outside of his Tower.

But within his Tower, he had a say in how things went. And he would do his utmost to make this sort of sacrifice a relic of the past for all bees who dwelt here.

So came his next order of business. Now that the injured had been stabilized and the dead accounted for, Belissar made his way over to Chief Rohsuak and the karnuq. They were currently gathering the dead humans and wyverns and laying them out. They removed the saddles and packs from the wyverns, as well as any packs or weapons from the humans, and laid it all by the respective corpse.

Chief Rohsuak was breathing heavily but still managed to give a salute. Belissar nodded at her and then turned to Metsaitti, who was coordinating the karnuq’s efforts.

“I’m…guessing we have to deal with all this?”

Metsaitti nodded.

“What would you like us to do, Sacred Den Master?”

Belissar wasn’t in the mood for his usual questioning. Honestly, he didn’t care what he was supposed to do with these bodies. He just wanted them dealt with and gone.

“I guess I’ll try to absorb them, unless you had plans?”

Metsaitti just gave a salute.

“As you will, Sacred Den Master.”

Belissar gave a grunt and stepped forward.

Absorb lesser wyvern corpse? Samples: 0/3

Belissar waved a hand to confirm instead of speaking.

Sufficient samples gathered. Lesser Wyvern Spawner is now available!

Belissar sighed. Well, he guessed that was something. A spawner for a new monster. A non-bee monster that would likely be prohibitively expensive even if he wanted them around. Right now, he didn’t really, even if he could afford them.

Place Lesser Wyvern Spawner? Upkeep: 150 mana (300 due to Blessing of Bees)

But he definitely couldn’t, so he wasn’t even going to waste time thinking about that.

And then…he turned to look at the human corpses and frowned. He really didn’t want to do this, to be honest. But at this point, he didn’t care. These men had burned his home and come to burn another. They had killed his bees. He would do anything he needed to prevent that from ever happening again.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

So, he took a step forward and lifted his hand.

And then titled his head. Nothing happened. No messages appeared, no offers to absorb the corpses. He even bent down and touched one of them, but the Tower still didn’t respond. Belissar shrugged.

Well, he didn’t really want to absorb or summon people, to be honest. So, if the Tower didn’t want to either, he didn’t mind.

“Ok, got what I needed. You can do…whatever you want with the rest.”

Metsaitti blinked.

“What of their possessions, Sacred Den Master?”

Belissar shrugged again.

“I guess let me know if you find anything especially useful and share anything that would help the bees. Otherwise, you can have it.”

Metsaitti nodded.

“Thank you for your generosity, Sacred Den Master. And…what of the bodies? The ones that resemble…us.”

Belissar sighed.

“How do you normally get rid of bodies? Of…enemies, I guess.”

Metsaitti’s expression softened. He stepped forward and placed a hand on Belissar’s shoulder. Belissar looked up at the tall karnuq man, the weight of the hand heavy and warm on his shoulder.

“We did not always have the luxury to decide. But when we did…we burned them as we would any other. We always felt that the flames of the God of Fire were preferable to the Hunger’s corruption.”

Chief Rohsuak stepped forward at that point.

“If I may…our rites were developed in our time serving a Sacred Den of Fire. Perhaps it would be best if you came up with something related to the God of Bees?”

Belissar frowned and rubbed his chin.

“…I’m not sure what dead bodies have to do with bees, though?”

Chief Rohsuak thought for a second before turning to look down the field, in the direction of the Bee Barracks.

“Why not bury them beneath the ground, to nourish the flowers?”

Belissar furrowed his brow…but then his face loosened. Not only was burial the norm back home…but the idea of nourishing the ground, and turning all this death into new flowers to support new bees. He nodded.

“That’s a good idea. Um…if I remember, those flowers by the Memorial like death, right? Maybe we should bury them under there.”

Chief Rohsuak nodded. Metsaitti stepped back and saluted.

“As you will, Sacred Den Master.”

Belissar nodded back.

“Right.”

And then walked off. Now, all that was left to do was to gather the fallen and arrange for the memorial service. Belissar’s eyes moistened.

But his heart felt just a little less heavy.

The queen was sitting on her worker’s back as her worker hovered around the Hive-Builder. What few of her other workers remained hovered around her, buzzing nervously at all the bees from other hives around them. The much larger bees all of which held more mana than even her worker used to…though her worker had grown dramatically since they had been separated. The queen herself stuck close to her worker, for there was absolutely zero chance she could contend with even one of these mighty hives.

And she stood completely still as she watched those mighty bees, those magical giants she couldn’t imagined existed in this world, as they saluted and deferred to her worker. Her worker would dance commands and then the giants would set off to obey.

The queen was utterly confused. Why would these monstrous hives follow a single worker who lacked a queen, much less a hive? Unless her worker had joined one of their hives…but then why wasn’t her worker working along with them?

It was confusing, but it seemed for the moment that as long as she stayed close to her worker, she would not be attacked as a robbing intruder. She turned her attention, instead, to the Hive-Builder. And as she watched him, she could not help but tap a dance on her worker’s back.

“Worker, what Hive-Builder doing?”

“Gathering bees! Will carry to Memorial!”

The queen was even more confused. None of those words made sense to her. And why would the Hive-Builder carry fallen workers? They had died in an excellent location, far away from any hives that she could see where the risk of disease and decay spreading would be minimal. So why would the Hive-Builder move them?

Her confusion only grew as the Hive-Builder carried the fallen bees, from her hive as well as the native ones, to what she recognized as one of his hives, surrounded by stone pillars. And then he put them inside?!

“Worker! What Hive-Builder doing?! Dead bees will cause disease! Should carry away from hive, not back inside!”

Her worker, however, showed no signs of concern.

“No bees live in that hive, is for dead.”

That did not answer the queen’s questions.

“A hive…without bees? For dead?”

Her worker confirmed.

“King honors bees that died for hive of hives.”

The queen’s dance steps grew ever more unsteady.

“Honor? What that?”

Her worker hovered in place for a moment before beginning her reply.

“King…loves bees. Doesn’t like when bees die. Likes to thank bees when they do.”

The queen…didn’t understand. But her worker said no more, and she was too confused to figure out what else to ask. So, she simply watched from her worker’s back. She watched as the bear-humans carried and buried the evil humans in the ground near the beehouse, while the King gently placed each fallen bee inside the house.

The King then bowed his head, with water running down his face.

“Thank you, for your sacrifice. Thanks to you all, we stopped the Tower Lords. We did not let them burn our home. I will not forget you.”

The queen’s mind went blank as she saw the stone pillars begin to move. The images of bees carved into their side began to move and dance. They told her of bees that had flown into battle. They told her of entire hives that had perished stopping monsters she couldn’t comprehend. Of bees who had thrown themselves into pits of fire to ensure their hives’ enemies perished. Of bees stuck down by beak and lightning from birds that could wield the very elements.

And then, the most surprising of all.

The carved bee images turned to her. They began a dance of gratitude.

“Outsider queen’s hive, three thousand one hundred and twenty-six worker bees. Gave their lives ensuring the enemy leader’s demise.”

They…were thanking…her? They counted every one of her workers who had stung the evil human queen?

The queen had no idea how to respond. And while her mind attempted to work, her worker began to dance. A slow, graceful dance, one that the queen had never seen before. All around her, the monstrous giants began to dance as well, following her worker’s steps.

She didn’t know what was happening. But somehow, she felt something stir within her torso as she contemplated these things. It seemed her worker and the Hive-Builder had changed greatly in their time apart.

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