The Bee Dungeon

After making a campfire site and confirming all the defenses were in place, Belissar returned to the Apiary to retrieve his woodcutting tools, then walked down to the Orchard. He went ahead and created a wood tree resource node. A spot on the ground began to glow. The light then rose into the air and began to take shape. Suddenly, a fully grown poplar tree had appeared in front of Belissar. It was relatively short, only a bit higher than himself, and just thick enough to be useful. At this point, he had expected such a feat from the Tower, so he immediately got to work without much thought.

He stepped forward and reached out for the tree, which was glowing slightly like the other resource node plants, signifying it was ready for harvesting. Belissar wondered if it might...somehow pop out of the ground but the tree didn’t respond to his touch. It seemed the Tower wouldn’t cheat to that extent. Belissar shrugged and hefted his axe to do things the normal way.

The tree grew a bit brighter as he swung the axe towards it. Belissar blinked as he felt mana flash and then his axe cut much deeper into the tree than he had anticipated. He moved to the other side to continue his work, but he barely needed to bother. It took all of three swings for the tree to fall.

Unfortunately for him, fall was all it did. The tree still remained in a solid piece, with the branches and all still attached, and the wood still wet as far as he could tell. It seemed the Tower’s assistance was limited to the felling only. Belissar sighed, and then got to work. He guessed he would be making a simple log house. He might need a few more wood nodes in that case. Well, he’d probably need them anyways, but he’d see how quickly he could process each tree before deciding.

Belissar continued to work until it was time for the next purification. He wiped the sweat off his brow and then turned to Niobee.

“Hey Niobee, can you let the Flower Meadow queens know it’s just about time? I’m going to go get the fire started, and then we’ll begin.”

“Ok!”

As Niobee flew off, Belissar returned to the Apiary. He grabbed his firebow and some of the drier firewood. He found the Apiary soldier bees and asked them to come with him. They gathered their torches and carried them after him by their ropes.

It didn’t take long for him to arrive at the end of the Orchard and soon had a fire going there. The Apiary soldiers took up positions by the fire and handed Belissar the torch.

The soldiers saluted and then Belissar checked in on the Flower Meadow with the Tower sight. He found the soldier bee army prepared and ready, with even one of the queens at its head. Belissar paused a bit at that but shook his head. The bees knew what they were doing and valued their queens even more than he did, so if a queen felt it was worth the risk to participate in the battle, then he wouldn’t complain.

He sent all the bees a message asking if they were ready. He was treated to the sight of the entire soldier bee army performing a salute dance in sync. He took a deep breath and went to activate the purification.

Please select a purification strength:

- Minor (Cooldown: 16 hours)

- Minor+ (Cooldown: 24 hours)

Belissar blinked. That was certainly new. He could apparently now select the strength of the minor purifications? And...the cooldown of the minor purifications had gone down to about...something less than a day. In their place, he could also conduct a minor+ purification with the regular one day cooldown.

Belissar rubbed his chin and furrowed his brow. If he had to guess...it was probably because his Tower grew? Well, that would make sense. The area the Tower was purifying had increased, so it probably had to deal with more Hunger than before, so it would be natural for the purifications to increase in strength or frequency too, right?

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Belissar shrugged. The mysteries of the Tower’s function were beyond him. And so too was the minor+ purification. Last time, that had meant two small wolf-shades, but Belissar did not want to test that today. The bees hadn’t had a chance to prepare themselves for that, and it would take some time before the new monsters, rooms, and perks Belissar had selected would have an impact. He figured he would at least wait for some sprayers before attempting anything tougher.

So, for today, the choices were irrelevant. He would go with the usual minor purification, and simply note that he could start it earlier tomorrow if he wanted to.

He went ahead and made his choice and shivered as he felt the chill of the Hunger once again.

The Firstborn flew towards the entrance and began arranging her army. This was it. The first battle she would be leading directly. It was to be a minor skirmish but that was no major comfort. Even a minor skirmish could result in casualties if they made a mistake, which was worse since a perfect victory was expected in such an engagement. So, if the Firstborn made a mistake, she could end up making the army perform worse, and so take damage when it was not supposed to. In a way, that was more concerning than a battle with larger and unknown stakes.

But the Firstborn was resolved and believed in her soldiers. If all else failed, she would leave to them the task they had accomplished time and time again. It was her own efforts that were at risk here. If she could not bring about victory in small and proven conditions, she could not possibly do so when all was on the line. So, she set about her task with all the efforts she could muster.

She moved her own children into position while keeping the rest of the soldier bee army further back. Part of this was practical reality. Her mana link only extended to her own children, and so the benefits of her command only applied to them. When commanding the armies of her compatriots, her orders were no quicker than those of the soldiers themselves. But, on the other hand, it was also an intentional decision by the Firstborn. The instinct of the bees was to swarm their opponent with overwhelming force, bringing down beasts thousands of times their size with thousands of stings in turn. The latest purification, however, had revealed the weakness of this approach. The entire soldier bee army had deployed to encircle the shade; as a result, once the shade had escaped that encirclement it had escaped the entire army, and there were no soldiers left to bar its path.

The soldiers had partially learned this lesson in the first minor purification and had adopted encirclement formations for that very reason, but the Firstborn had realized they needed to apply the principle on a larger scale. She was not only going to hold back some soldiers from the immediate attack, but hold back entire hives worth of them, separated completely from the battle. A second army that could start a new fight should the first one fail or fall back to defend the hives and the King before a successful enemy arrived. Plus, since the second army would not be actively engaged in the fight, the lesser speed of her commands to them would not be an issue. And if they need to fall back to the hives, their own queens could assume command of them.

That was the idea, at least. The soldiers were uncomfortable at the idea of holding back the majority of their strength. The Firstborn could not claim she was entirely confident in the idea either. But...her soldiers engaged the enemy in rotating squads already, so reducing their numbers shouldn’t reduce their overall effectiveness here. And, ultimately, they had failed once already with the old way of doing things. Even the most hesitant soldier agreed that something needed to change.

And now came the moment of truth. The dark power held back by the might of the King coalesced once again. Once more, an invader blackened the land of the King with its foul presence.

The Firstborn gave the command and her soldiers engaged. The reserve soldiers all around her began to sway in the air, continuously extending and retracting their stingers. She didn’t need a familial mana link to them to understand their current feelings, but she held her ground.

Again and again squads of her soldiers dove down upon the shade. However, their encirclement was noticeably lighter than usual, the natural consequence of holding back most of the army. The shade made a run for it, attempting to break out and fight on the move.

But the Firstborn saw it tense and identified its intentions. She immediately commanded her forces in response. And so, the soldiers did not panic when it suddenly began sprinting, but simply matched its movement in disciplined flight. They responded instantly to their queen’s command, even when they as individuals had not yet noticed the shade’s latest move. Even soldier bees flying away after an attack run that couldn’t see the shade at all now knew where to fly thanks to her command.

As a result, the encirclement moved in perfect sync with the shade. No matter how many sudden stops, twists, and turns it attempted, the bees kept it in check. Squads continued their attack runs all the while, their stings mounting up on the shade.

Soon, it began to slow down. Soon after that, it fell to the ground, and then faded away. The Firstborn stared for a moment before her wings began to slow and she slowly descended from the air.

They...had won. It had worked. She held back the majority of the army and still they were able to succeed...and without a single sacrifice.

She quietly landed on the ground even as the soldiers began to dance and celebrate. There may be hope for her hive yet.

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