The Bee Dungeon

Yellow and black covered the sky, with the occasional purple. Flowers swayed in the wind generated by rapidly beating wings. The soldier bee army assembled into its formations and squadrons, deploying around the Tower entrance. A handful of mad honey soldiers joined their ranks, ready to fight alongside their sisters.

The worker bees retreated to their hives. There they assembled into formations of their own, ready to fly out should the worst come to pass. The queens stood at the entrances, trying to see the soldiers in the distance as best they could.

A roaring flame crackled at the front of the Apiary. Several squads of soldiers stood nearby, their legs already holding the loops of their ropes. They would be ready to light their torches and fly at a moment’s notice.

Belissar stood next to them with his woodcutting axe beside him. Niobee hovered nearby.

Attempt expansion purification? Estimated purification strength: small.

Belissar took a deep breath and then spoke, sending his intentions to all of his bees.

“Here we go.”

Expansion purification attempt commencing.

At this point, the flow of the Tower’s mana had faded into the background for Belissar, but it was still there. It permeated every inch of the Tower and beyond. Trace amounts of the mana flowed through the surrounding area, condensing again as it came into contact with the Hunger at the edges.

But now, Belissar clearly felt that flow once again. His body began to heat up as the Tower’s mana burned, the flows growing rapid and intense. It began to pour into the surrounding area, racing across the fields and trees and past the camp of the bear folk. Then, it hit the edge, where the Hunger awaited.

Belissar shivered as the cold of the Hunger responded in kind, creeping back along the trails of mana. As it approached the center, the gates of the Tower swung open once more.

“Everyone, get ready! Here it comes!”

The Hunger soon grew visible at the edges of the gate, an amorphous black mist spreading across the empty air. Soon, it covered the entrance entirely, appearing as it had when Belissar had first opened the gate.

And then a high-pitched screen cut through the air. Belissar winced as the noise stabbed into his mind. Soon, something began to emerge from the mist...

But it was not a paw. Not this time.

Belissar’s eyes widened as the shade began to emerge from the top of the gate rather than the bottom. A long beak longer than Belissar’s arm came first, with sharp teeth sticking out from both top and bottom. A big head emerged next, with five glowing red eyes arranged in a tight circle right in the center. Two wings spread out across the length of the gateway, and small bolts of black lightning leapt across the shade’s body. Razor sharp claws that appeared more like daggers tipped its feet. The shade beat its wings, remaining aloft as it hovered above the ground. It opened its beak, revealing rows and rows of teeth, and then let out another high-pitched screech.

Expansion purification begun. Remaining hostiles: 1

Belissar felt a chill go down his spine. He couldn’t help but shout.

“Watch out! It can fly!”

Unfortunately, he was a bit too late. The first squad of soldiers began diving the moment the shade began to take shape, but they had been positioned for a target on the ground, and had not reached full speed by the time they reached the shade. The shade swung its wings and pulled its body back and the bees passed right before it.

It snapped its jaws and the first bee of the day fell. Belissar gritted his teeth.

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The rest of the soldiers reacted immediately. Several close squads began to fly in while the rest pulled up. The close squads couldn’t gain the speed for an attack dive, and instead ran interference for the first squad. They flew in but prepared to take evasive action once the shade turned its attention toward them. In the meantime, the rest of the bees tried to gain altitude and set up for higher-speed dives.

The shade snapped at the bees around it, but now that the nimble bees were focused on dodging they managed to evade its beak. Two of them even managed to get behind the shade and stung its back. The shade screeched again.

Belissar held his breath as the close bees danced around the shade, while two squads of the further bees began to dive. It seemed that beyond their initial surprise, the bees were still faring well. The shade might be able to fly, but its large size meant it couldn’t outmaneuver the agile bees in close combat. It snapped its jaws again, but bit only air as the target soldier suddenly changed direction, and then yet another bee landed a sting on its back.

But then, the shade looked up into the sky and saw the bees above, including the two squads on approach. It lifted its wings up as high as they would go and then pushed off. The wind from its wings blew away the closest bees, which spun in the air as they tried to right themselves.

It shot up towards the bees overhead with frightening speed. The bees in its path began to scatter, but the diving squads weren’t so fortunate. The shade slammed into them as they tried to kill their momentum and turn away, snapping up two of them in its jaws. One perished immediately.

But not the second.

The second began to glow and continued moving despite being impaled by the shade’s teeth. She channeled her mana into her stinger and drove it into the shade’s shoulder. A moment later the glow around her body faded, and she, too, was torn apart, leaving her stinger imbedded in the shade’s shoulder. The shade screeched again.

The rest of the bees began to fly around the shade, trying to encircle it. But the shade beat its wings and shot into the sky faster than any of the soldiers could follow. Its eyes glowed as it looked down on the bees climbing after it, then tucked in its wings as it twisted its body. It began a dive even faster than its climb. Again, the bees were forced to scatter. Two more bees failed to do so and ended up in the shade’s jaw. It bit down on them and then swung its beak to toss them away before any survivors could strike again.

The other bees tried to entrap it once more but the shade was climbing again before they could catch it. It began to prepare itself for another dive.

Belissar’s heart leapt to his throat as his grip on his axe tightened. They were losing. His Tower had nothing to deal with a flying foe that could outrun the bees. There was nothing but clear, open skies up above. His mind raced as he tried to think of something to do, but nothing came to mind. As a human on the ground, he was helpless against a flying enemy. He had no ranged weapons to even attempt to help. No bows, no javelins, not even a sling.

He stared at his hand and gritted his teeth. Maybe, if he had learned magic successfully, he could have done something. But he had not. So, he had no choice but to hope that his bees could find a solution.

One of the soldier bees began to dance and the others saluted. The bees rearranged themselves as the shade began to dive once more. And as the shade approached...the bees collapsed together, as close as they could fly. They did not scatter, but instead flew towards the shade and its beak.

The shade could not pull out of its dive at this point, so it dove forward instead. It chomped down with its beak and this time three soldiers were caught in its jaws.

But at the same time, five more right next to them were not caught, and instead crashed into the shade. One was struck by the side of the shade’s beak and knocked away. Another was blown down by the shade’s wing. But the other three landed on the shade’s back and belly, and immediately stung their stingers into it.

The shade screeched. And this time, the bees didn’t bother flying away. They clung to the shade and stung it over and over again. The shade reached down and snapped up the one on its belly with its beak but she responded by just stinging the bottom of the shade’s head. It screeched and released her, though she tumbled from the air due to her wounds.

And, of course, the rest of the bees were not idle in the midst of all this.

The shade had come to a stop as it tried to deal with the bees clinging to it. The other bees began flying towards it at maximum speed. The shade could not even remove the two bees on its back. If more bees could begin piling on, they could overwhelm it. They could bring it down.

They could win.

Belissar held his breath.

And the air began to crackle.

Black lightning began to surge and coat the shade. It struck the bees on its back and soon they fell off of it, smoke and lightning clinging to their bodies. The shade then spread its wings wide and screeched as loud as it could. A wave of the black lightning surged out in all directions. The closest bees were struck, either falling from the sky or twitching in the air. The rest were forced to fall back.

And the shade didn’t miss that chance.

Even before Belissar could react to the horror before his eyes, the shade beat its wings. And this time, it did not fly up.

No, this time, it flew forward. It shot through the sky away from the cloud of soldier bees.

And straight towards the door to the Apiary.

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