The Bee Dungeon

The First of the Fifth gradually began to speed up as she flew back to her hive. Once she arrived, her workers swarmed around her. A thousand dances asked if she was ok, and what had happened as nearly all her hive now gathered around her.

Soon, she began to dance. Her workers gave her room so that they all could watch.

“We…are not most favored hive.”

Thousands of wings began to buzz as the workers processed her shocking statement, but the First of the Fifth continued.

“But not because we failed. King…loves all bees. King favors all bees. Good hive or bad hive doesn’t matter. He favors all.”

The workers fell silent. All eyes fixed upon her, waiting for their queen. For she had decided what to do.

“So…we will still be best hive! We will work hardest, make most and best honey! We will help King most! And we will be most loving! We will help other bees most too!”

Yes, the First of the Fifth had decided. She apparently could not earn the King’s favor by putting herself forward and above the others. So, instead, she would grow closer to the King in another way. She would follow after his example and become his ideal bee! She, too, would love all bees, she would love them the most! She would be the most loving queen! And then she would be the queen closest to the King, practically his shadow! Maybe he’d even love her more for it!

She had once again found the path to his favor!

And so, the First of the Fifth returned to work. She reorganized the foragers and the honey makers, for she still would not compromise on the quality of her offerings to the King. But…she also arranged for something new. A portion of her workers would be sent to each of the hives of the Apiary, as well as to her daughter. She would visit and learn more about each of the other queens around her. Never again would she let her daughter starve because of her own ignorance. Nor would she allow any of the King’s bees to remain neglected, not anymore.

The Apiary queens would be quite confused at the sudden visitors…

The First Queen of the First Dynasty of the Third Spawner, the first of her line, watched as squads of new soldiers gathered up in the air. It was her turn to command and at first, she intended to follow in the Firstborn and the First of the Second’s example. But, as the King would have it, it was the army itself that would change today. A brand-new type of soldier had appeared, and now it would be her job to integrate them into the army. For now, she wanted to see what they could do, so she gathered them into their own squad and had them join the training. They weren’t much different than other soldiers during the normal maneuvers, they were a bit faster but otherwise acted like any other. But now would come the key moment to determining their use.

It was their turn in the attack rotation, and they dove down towards the bee acting as a target. But, curiously, they curled up and pointed their abdomens forward far earlier than the other soldiers, while they were still a ways away from the target.

And then…streams of liquid began to spray out of their abdomens, quickly spreading out into cones of toxins that reached about a dozen soldier bee-lengths away. The target bee quickly flew back and away from the sudden assault.

The First of the Third stared at the liquid as it splattered on the ground. She knew from her instincts what these soldiers were capable of, but now she saw it in action for the first time. Her mind began to race. So, these soldiers could sting from a distance. She quickly began to dance to one of her soldiers.

“That range…same size as invader tail?”

The soldier replied.

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“No, longer.”

“So…invader can’t reach?”

The soldier paused for a moment before dancing.

“Claws, teeth, tail, no. Mist, yes.”

The First of the Third pondered what this would mean as a second squad of sprayers started an attack run…

After getting the flame radishes set up, Belissar then clear a ring of dirt around the Flower Meadow hives, Shrine, and Memorial. He would still need to dig a ditch for defensive purposes, but clearing the intended ditch path of flowers would both make it easier to do so later, as well as provide some protection against a sudden brush fire. ȒÅƝỒ฿ÊⱾ

At this point though, the cooldown for minor purifications was coming to a close. With the shorter cooldown, the timing was moving forward each day, and was currently ready just around midday. For a brief moment, Belissar wondered if he should keep doing them whenever they were ready, or if he should stick to one a day at a common time. But for now, he shrugged and made his way over to where the soldier bee army was training. There was no point in delaying if they were ready.

The queen in charge of the army flew down and saluted to him. He nodded back.

“Ready for a minor purification?”

The queen immediately danced her confirmation. Belissar nodded again.

“Ok, I’ll prepare and then start it up as soon as we’re both ready, then.”

Belissar made a quick trip back to the Apiary while the soldier bee army redeployed to the Tower entrance. There, he reached into the fire radish pot he left at the campsite. He carefully cut off a small piece of one of the radishes. He paused for a moment before turning to Niobee, flying around him as normal.

“Hey Niobee, could you help me test something? It, um, might hurt.”

“Yes! Not problem!”

Belissar nodded and took a deep breath before holding out the fire radish piece.

“Can you, um, try to pick this up? Be careful not to let any mana or honey touch it, or it might catch fire. And let me know right away if it hurts.”

“Ok!”

Niobee flew over. She wrapped her hind legs around the fire radish sliver, using the hairs of her pollen baskets to help hold it in place. She then took off, hovering in the air.

“Can carry! Not hurt!”

Belissar exhaled his breath and nodded.

“Ok, good. Could you gather the Apiary soldiers, then? I’d like to show them this.”

“Ok!”

A short while later, Belissar was standing in the Orchard, just in front of the entrance to the Flower Meadow. The Apiary soldiers hovered around him, one of them carrying a fire radish sliver. The soldier bee army, meanwhile, was assembled at the entrance to the Tower.

“Ok, here we go.”

Belissar triggered the minor purification and once again a small wolf-shade coalesced at the entrance. A squad of bees dove down towards it…but pulled up long before they reached it. Belissar tilted his head at this, but soon discovered why. The squad was composed of sprayers, and they unleashed their toxic attack. The shade was coated in the venom, and then began to roar. It jumped and pounced and swung its tail, but the sprayers were far away and only needed to fly a little higher to remain entirely out of its reach. They didn’t even need to break away after their attack.

They apparently needed a bit of time before they could attack again, but a second squad of sprayers took their place and attacked as well. The shade jumped out of the way, however, and most of the toxic liquids splashed against the ground. The shade took a deep breath and then retaliated with its own black mist attack.

However, the sprayers were mostly evolved from former soldiers and so already knew what to do. They dispersed with practiced efficiency, and with the additional distance between them and the breath attack it was all too easy for them to evade. The black mist dissipated into the air without touching a single bee.

The first squad was then ready again. This time, one bee attacked on its own, causing the shade to dodge. The other bees of the squad then sprayed the shade once it was in motion and couldn’t adjust its course. It roared as it was again doused in toxins.

The second squad attempted this as well. This time, the shade didn’t dodge the first attack, so the others went off course. It still took one attack’s worth in the process, however.

At this point, though, the shade began to wobble. It had been doused with over a dozen soldier bee’s worth of venom at this point, and many of the sprayers evolved from mad honey soldiers and their venom had the same intoxicating effects. The shade stumbled and fell onto the ground, and so could not evade any more of the attacks.

It did not take long before the shade dispersed entirely.

All hostiles defeated. Purification successful.

Belissar blinked. That was easy. Well, to be fair, the regular soldier bees could handle a minor purification shade like that in the same way, but in this case the bees never even gave the shade a chance to attack them. He turned to the Apiary soldier bee.

“Um, sorry, looks like we’re not going to use that after all. Maybe next time?”

The soldier bees just saluted and then Belissar retrieved the flame radish slivers. As he did, he started to wonder.

Fire radishes that could set the pits ablaze far more easily than a torch. Sprayers that could take down a shade from a distance. And the bees themselves seemed better and better at this. Maybe it was time to consider the minor+ purifications?

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