The Bee Dungeon

PONon-Bee 377.1 - The Hive of Hives Strikes Back

Belissar had been keeping an eye on what the bees were doing, so he made most of his spell bees into breeze bees, which Tarwantrad supported with Air attribute flowers and pollen. The spell bees thus swarmed towards the big ball of bees trying to descend through the gale. Being made of magic, they were not blown away by the physical winds, so they quickly caught up and flew to the front, where the bumblebee wall was resisting the wind. The spell bees formed up ahead of the bumblebees and then melded into the Air barrier created by the Fourth of the Seventh’s hive, strengthening it with their own mana. Other spell bees joined the wings created by the hive of the fallen, adding their own mana and wind to push the bees forward.

The bees noticed Belissar helping them. A surge of mana rose within the bee ball as the bees redoubled their efforts, which further compounded when Niobee’s mana arrived to empower them.

Then another wave arrived, this one from the dancers and drone-dancers of the hive of hives, who had all joined in on Niobee’s mana dance. Next, little flashes of light started appearing rapidly across the front of the Air barrier. Small little guardian angel bee workers revealed themselves, previously hidden in the bumblebees’ fuzz. Unknownst to even the hive of hives, the guardian angel queen had ordered her workers to accompany the bee army and to protect it as they were able. They now began to create little barriers of light to help block the incoming gales. Their numbers and mana were little as their hive was still young, so their barriers were few, small, and shattered almost immediately in the gale...but every light barrier that broke sapped just a little bit of strength from the wind.

The entire Tower was joining together for this effort, from its keeper and conduit to the smallest and youngest defenders. And so, the bee formation began to pick up speed and dive through the gale...flying straight towards the Tower Guard in the sky.

Renoros couldn’t help but notice the massive burst of mana above him. He looked up...and found a huge mass of insect monsters blocking him from the sun and headed straight his way. He frowned and stirred up his mana, intending to strengthen the gale spell into a barrage of wind blades that would cut through the incoming monsters.

But at that moment, the flames wrapping around him intensified. Worse still, precise steams of fire spun around the bottom of his cyclone shield, trying to create a warm updraft that would let the Fire mana infiltrate his spell. He glanced back at his opponent and found the fey grinning at him.

“Where do you think you’re looking? It’s dangerous to leave a fire unattended.”

Renoros scowled. He still hadn’t recovered from taking a room wide explosion to the face in the last assault and he had to spend a bunch of his mana in both the undersea room and the poisonous swamp. He just didn’t have the reserves to deal with the fey and the monsters at the same time.

So, he glanced behind himself.

“Hunger take it, where are the rest of you?!”

He shouted at the Tower Guards who had been ordered to follow him...but he found no one there when he glanced behind himself. His voice fell and his eyes widened.

The wyvern riders never made it out of the water. The flying fey archers had taken advantage of the Fire mage’s distraction and repositioned themselves to barrage the Tower Guards and dragonkin trying to get airborne, shooting down any that made it out of the water with a hail of arrows. The Tower Guards had also come under attack by monster fish of some sort and were now struggling to even get out of the water at all, under assault from both above and below.

They would not be assisting Renoros anytime soon. Neither would Lord Starami nor Ansari and Klinpidas, as they were all engaged with the enemy Tower Lord and elites.

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Renoros was alone...and his might was insufficient to deal with all the enemies coming his way. His face started to pale as he took stock of his situation.

With no other choice, he withdrew the gale spell. He focused all of his mana upon his cyclone shield and began to form wind blades within it, that way he could focus his full might on a single defense that could resist both the flames and the monsters simultaneously. He’d have to weather the storm of monsters and hope the fey would drop his attack when they arrived, then try to get the drop on the fey once he pushed the monsters back. The insects might have pushed through the gale with numbers, but linking together wouldn’t save them from his wind blades. He just had to slice through the Air barrier they had created and then they’d be like wheat before a scythe...

The insects flew close, their barrier came into contact with his own. Spell insects made of mana leapt in front of the blades in his cyclone, absorbing them as best they could, but they could not defeat Renoros in Air magic. He’d quickly strip away the barrier and begin slicing through the monsters themselves...

“DON’T YOU DARE!”

“Ugh!”

Just before the insects reached his cyclone barrier, the hidden fey witch launched another mental attack...but this one was far stronger than the paltry attempt she had made earlier. Renoros flinched from the sheer impact hitting his mental defenses...and that was all the fey needed.Contrary to Renoros’ expectations, the Fire fey didn’t stop his attack when the insect monsters arrived. The flames roared and rushed through his cyclone barrier the moment his focus broke, consuming his Air mana to stoke themselves further. Renoros had no choice, he cut off his cyclone spell lest he feed his mana into the flames. He’d have to rely on his dragon coat to protect him while he recast his spell. At the very least, though, he’d have the consolation of countless insect monsters burning in the flames cast by their callous masters...

Until he noticed the insect swarm flying straight through the fire unharmed. His eyes widened as the insects crashed into him with far more force than should have been possible given their weight. They spread out across his dragon coat, heedless of the roaring flames, and began to attack. Insects with stingers slammed their abdomens into spell scales, insects with blades on their legs and behinds slashed away at his spell wings, insects with big fangs bit and twisted. There were even insect mages, creating spell stingers made of Fire and Lightning to strike at his mana directly.

Individually, they barely did anything, bouncing off his dragon coat’s scales. But...there were a great many of them...and their mana seemed to accumulate on top of his own, eating away at his dragon coat bit by bit.

All while the fey’s flames continued to burn.

Renoros quickly realized his depleted mana reserves wouldn’t hold. He tried to beat his dragon coat wings and blow the insects away, but they were heavier than expected and seemed to stick to his dragon coat. He slashed at them with his claws, but he couldn’t reach most of them...and anytime his claws approached one of the big furry ones, the fey witch would attack him again, making him flinch and forcing him to spend even more mana shoring up his mental defenses. Every time he knocked an insect away, a dozen more would take its place. Every time he killed one, it would glow and strike his coat with even greater strength before it died, taking more of his mana than any insect monster its size should have been capable of.

He tried to fly away and take some distance, but the insects clinging to his wings got in the way, while the Air spell insects moved to absorb his wind with their bodies. He moved far slower than he wanted...too slow to move out range of the Fire fey.

Then, suddenly some of the insects on the back of his dragon coat stopped and flew away. But before Renoros could question it, bigger insect monsters with much larger stingers and much more mana dove down and struck the cleared area at great speed.

And Renoros watched with horror as the stingers of mere insect monsters breached the exterior of his dragon coat. More insect monsters landed on the breeches and stuck their abdomens to the wounds...then began to spray poison directly into the coat.

The flames, as well, began to pour into the breeches...and could now start consuming his Air mana dragon coat from within.

Soon, the cracks in his dragon coat widened and insect monsters began to crawl inside. Renoros couldn’t use his mana to stop them, the flames were consuming anything he unleashed, so he drew his sword and began to strike at them directly. He cut down one, then two, then a dozen, but the cracks in his coat grew ever wider, letting more and more come in from all directions...

“Gah!”

And then he felt a sharp pain on his back as one of the insects managed to land on his back and slip its stinger between a gap in his armor. Not a moment later, he felt a powerful poison spreading from the wound...

His eyes began to quiver as he recalled the fate of Lindkontas the Dragonblood and the true dragon, both felled by powerful poisons from unseen foes.

Like the poison now spreading through his blood...