The Bee Dungeon

PONon-Bee 375.4 - Bee-ciding Your Fate

The true dragon dragged himself over to the nearest lava river then laid down on the volcanic rock, basking in the heat while he still could. His former master told him to rest and heal up...but the dragon knew better. He knew there would be no recovery. He knew that soon...he was going to die.

It was only natural. He had grown sick and weak and thus had been abandoned, left behind. The isolated and infirm was the ideal target for a hunter, the enemy would come for him soon. He was now the weak link, as humiliating as it was to acknowledge. He would have no chance to recover.

But if his foes thought that he was powerless, they were in for a surprise. The dragon closed his eyes...and focused all of his attention on the mana pits on his snout, perceiving the flows of magic as only a dragon could. He knew the enemy must have powerful stealth since they had dealt him such a blow without alerting him, sight would be no help here. But the enemy had made a mistake and the dragon would now use it.

He felt the poison ravaging his body...the poison that was filled to the absolute brim with his enemy’s mana. He now attuned his senses to that mana and kept watch, searching for any disturbance in the mana around him.

Soon, he found one. A very subtle disturbance, more a gap in his senses than something he could perceive, and that tried to encourage him to pass it over. But with all his focus on his mana pits he could tell that it bore the same signs as the mana within his body. There was no mistaking it.

The dragon’s eyes shot open and he let out a puff of smoke charged with his mana. His mana mixed with the enemy’s and then the air distorted, revealing a tiny winged human and a swarm of insects. The dragon rose to his feet, pushing with his front legs to reach his full height and loom down over the enemy.

The tiny human blinked.

“Oh. Well then...girls, looks like we’re flying into the jaws of death after all!”

The tiny human hoisted her tiny spear, while the insects buzzed and flew straight towards him. The dragon snorted and let just the tiniest taste of his fire, sending a ball of flame to block the path of the insects. It dissipated before it reached them, but they halted their advance nonetheless. The dragon then opened his mouth, letting his flames light up his throat...before slowly closing his maw and staring at the tiny human.

The tiny human blinked again.

“Ok...point taken. Hang on a second girls, I think it has something to say?”

The dragon then lifted one of his front legs and extended a single claw, pointing at the tiny human in the manner he had often seen humans do. He then pointed it at one of the tiny insects. The human and the insect whose mana flooded his veins.

The tiny human tilted her head.

“Do you...want to fight just the two of us?”

The dragon did not respond but instead laid back down on the ground to try and enjoy the heat while he could. The tiny human frowned.

“...do you want just the two of us to kill you?”

The dragon growled...but closed his eyes and made no further moves. He heard the tiny human sigh.

“...so no epic final battle after all. Ugh, fine. Come on assassin, it’s back to work for the two of us then. The rest of you...I don’t know, just watch for now. Get ready to fight if it eats us or something.”

The tiny human and tiny insect flew over to the dragon’s side, climbing onto a dented scale. The dragon opened his eyes just a bit to peek at them when the two started to sting him. So that was how they did it. The tiny human used magic to hide them so the tiny insect could sting him over and over.

A cowardly way to fight, a method for opponents too weak to possibly challenge him directly. Even now, he could barely feel the tiny insect’s stings...from the tiny drops of venom it was injecting, it must have been stinging him for days.

But...the two of them had dared to strike against a dragon, alone, to defend their nest against overwhelming might. And though they were cowardly in their means, it was true the tiny human’s deceptions had slipped past his senses, while the tiny insect’s perseverance had overpowered the strength of both his mana and his body. That counted for something.

This was an utterly humiliating defeat, one that deprived the dragon of the chance to demonstrate his power. All he got to do was burn a couple of weak undead and an empty fort and then he was brought down by foes he never even saw, foes he could have burned to ash had they faced him openly. But...at the very least, he would be brought down by those who had defeated him, not by some swarm of weaklings. He would suffer no one else to take advantage of the weakness these two inflicted upon him.

And, in the end, he had still demonstrated his power. He showed the tiny human and tiny insect that he could have destroyed them and all they had brought against him if he wished. Through his might, he took control of the situation and decided his own fate, to fall only at the claws he chose to acknowledge.

That was an end he could accept. He closed his eyes for the last time and stopped his mana from trying to fight the venom any longer. Instead, he took the last of his mana and wrapped it around the tiny human and the tiny insect. Cowardly or not, the two had managed to bring down a dragon alone. He would acknowledge that, in the way only a dragon could...

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Elsewhere, a wyvern roared and pushed through the air, snapping down on an Air drake’s neck. It had lost its rider just a moment earlier and was rampaging in response, biting down on the target of its ire with reckless abandon. All around it, more Air drakes bit at its legs and wings. It had left the formation and gotten itself surrounded, it would soon join its rider.

If not for the wave of fire that set the drakes ablaze. A dragon swooped in with one of the commanders of the Dragon Banner Army on its back. The commander sent out another flare of fire that wrapped around the wyvern.

“Calm yourself! You will have your revenge but only if we fight together!”

The commander’s power snapped the wyvern out of its rage, if barely. The wyvern growled but followed the commander’s dragon back to the main army.

The commander frowned. He understood the wyvern’s anger all too well, he wanted nothing more than to let the beast rampage on behalf of its fallen companion. But every last soldier and dragonkin of the Dragon Banner Army was precious, a bulwark needed to defend humanity, the commander would not let even a single one fall beyond what was necessary to hold the line. The general would have done no less, so neither would he.

All around him, wyverns roared and men shouted. Wyvern riders thrust lancers and threw fireballs at each other and at flying drakes all around them. Down below, Tower Guards linked their shields and formed a wall of fire as hordes of kobolds and drakes attempted to break their line. The traitors had launched an all-out assault against the Dragon Banner Army.

The commander himself quickly pulled back...and just in the nick of time, as a frost breath engulfed his previous position. The traitorous High Councilor Stadvolous and his true dragons were stalking the battlefield, waiting for the Dragon Banner Army’s elites to expose themselves...a pair of those dragons came rushing for him now. The commander charged a Fire lance with so much mana it nearly burst in his hand, then launched it at the closest dragon. The dragon blocked the attack with another frost breath, but the commander used the opportunity to retreat back into the Dragon Banner Army’s aerial formation. The dragons did not pursue.

Still, the commander grimaced. His fatigue was building and his mana was running low, each time he flew out of line his reactions were just a bit slower, his spells just a bit weaker, and the enemy’s attacks came just a bit closer. He knew that if this kept up, it was only a matter of time before someone in the Dragon Banner Army slipped up. If any of the elites fell, Stadvolous’s own elites and true dragons would rampage unchecked. If any part of the rank and file’s line broke, the elites would be forced to expose themselves to attack. They couldn’t keep this up for much longer...

“Hold just a while longer, I’ve nearly arrived.”

And just like that, the commander’s despair vanished. He looked around, every wyvern rider of the Dragon Banner Army around him shook off their fear and fatigue, their faces set in steely determination.

Soon, their general would return...and then the traitors would learn what the Dragon Banner Army could really do.

What the commander did not know was that, technically, General Rippotis had already arrived. He and his escorts now hovered high above the battlefield, even above the wyverns and drakes battling in the skies. The bees helpfully created a nice updraft to let them all soar up high, while the Pixie Queen kept them hidden from any detection. General Rippotis told his army he was enroute solely so that they wouldn’t tip off Stadvolous while he made his final preparations to intervene.

General Rippotis sat on his dragon, munching on a big piece of mana-packed honeycomb and washing it down with the energizing potion the Tower Keeper had gifted him. He wanted his mana reserves fully topped off for this, he’d only get one chance to catch Stadvolous unaware and he planned to make it count.

Queen Vanieskon then flew in front of him, with her pixies and some of the Tower Keeper’s bees, mainly soldiers and assassins, gathered behind her.

“It seems like you’re just about ready, so I’ll be going then.”

General Rippotis raised an eyebrow.

“Where to?”

She smiled that predatory smile that made the general regret bringing her along.

“Where do you think, general? While you take command of your army, I shall throw our enemies into chaos. You do wish to win this battle decisively, do you not?”

General Rippotis frowned.

“If you’re going behind the enemy’s lines, I can’t guarantee your safety. Precision is not my army’s greatest strength. At minimum, wait for my attack.”

Queen Vanieskon smirked and fluttered her eyelashes at him.

“Why, General Rippotis, are you concerned for me? How sweet of you.”

General Rippotis narrowed his eyes.

“Risk yourself as you please, but don’t let the Tower Keeper’s bees get hurt. I will not subject him to further loss if I can help it.”

Queen Vanieskon covered her mouth and made a dainty giggle.

“Then you had best watch your aim. Come, my guard, and bees of Tower Keeper Belissar. Let us deal with the enemies of both your sovereigns.”

The bees happily danced a salute, then the Pixie Queen and all with her vanished from view. General Rippotis had an immensely bad feeling about letting her out of his sight...but he shook it off.

Right now, he had a battle to win. He looked at the monster communer.

“You had best take off now, it’s about to get hot.”

The communer danced a salute and flew back to the beeswax golem in Raklasi’s claws. The breeze and nomadic bees remaining inside it surrounded the construct with Air mana, then Raklasi let it go. The Air mana let the mobile hive stay aloft and fly to a safe distance from the dragon.

General Rippotis then took a deep breath, flooding his body with mana. His proximity to his own Tower and the mana from the honeycomb caused his mana to blaze within him. Raklasi growled and stirred up his own mana in sync, their mana combined and began to heat up the area around them. Soon, they both burst into flames, becoming a second sun in the sky, yet still unseen thanks to the Pixie Queen’s mischief.

General Rippotis slowly turned his gaze down, taking in the sight of his Dragon Banner Army, the men, woman, and dragonkin he had all raised from youth under assault by their own people. He thought of Stadvolous, making smug smiles in the High Council as he lied to Rippotis and Heigiosa’s faces about the state of the Conclave. He thought of Tower Keeper Belissar, his village burning at the hands of those who were obligated to protect him. He thought of Heigiosa, watching the City of Light come under siege for the first time in a thousand years. He thought of Konilias, who he had trusted with his own life even as the man schemed to betray him.

He scowled and let the heat of his anger stoke the flames all around him. Recent events had required him to keep his emotions in check...but now it was time for the General of the Dragon Banner Army and Tower Lord of the God of Fire to let loose his wrath.