Alright. It didn’t actually say I got bitch slapped. But, in all fairness, I did. Straight up.
The black chiton-coated hand spun around with the bee’s exclamation as if to punctuate the statement. Basically it hit me hard as fuck. Flying birdies and fireworks spun in my vision as I stumbled back from the blow. A flash of a red bar only three quarters full bloomed in the darkness of my vision and let me know that I was nothing short of squishy. Bracing myself, I fought to collect my thoughts while locking my wiggly stem legs to avoid a total collapse. My vision returned a moment later to give me at least some relief.
The gaseous snake casting had been successfully interrupted, dispersing the spell and allowing for the berry boy’s retaliation. Fogwarth came in with his classic combo; a charge followed by and upward arc of his sword. Simultaneously, Ak through a ball of frost-fire before firing off two rapid arrows, all three moves cracking against the mage bee’s chest at once. The battering of projectiles set the bee off-balance enough for Foggy’s combo to deliver the finishing blow.
The white pus gushed out like pushing leftover white gravy from a plastic sandwich bag. The mage bee twitched once, twice, then let out a final groan as the notification pinged.
[Your party has slain an Imperial Warlock Wasp - Hex Caster - Level 20. You are awarded 292 experience points]
There was no time to enjoy the message since Fogwen almost surely needed backup by now. Luckily for her I already had the rose-hips ready, and not much longer on the sunflower canon. I turned back, a bit dazed but sword held at the ready, and I prepared to cast the entangling bush.
Until I saw Fogwen walking down towards us, the big brown guy laying in the dirt impaled by a dozen glowing, dissipating spears.
I cocked a grin at her. “Well, looks like the princess has some bite after all.”
She shoved by me as if I were a pesky mutt, ignored me as she faced the wounded and tired Fogwarth. I stumbled aside, but was careful not to fall and roll away; I didn’t need that humiliation after being bitch-slapped right across my berry cheek. Fogwarth didn’t bother removing his helmet once she reached him, only nodding his greeting as she eyed him up and down.
“Where were you, brother?” She scolded. She prodded at his chest with an extended finger, poking his armor as if to accentuate her point. “Do you have the faintest idea what has happened in your absence?”
Fogwarth shook his head. “I was simply completing the mission I received from father! Nothing more and nothing less. Why, you should have witnessed the battle that we endured, dear sister! Our very lives were on the line!”
“Oh, yes? Had a splendid battle, did you?” The frustration lingered on Fogwen’s face. “Well, while you were out having your fun we have been at war with Icaraz! Even now they raid our farms and pillage our towns!”
“Fun?” I chimed in with a sour expression and tone. I could see the discomfort visible on Ak as it stood there silently. “Lady, you got some nerve coming over here and berating us. You got any idea what we had to do? The losses we’ve had? We were only doing our job over here. We barely made it out alive! Have a little fucking decency.”
“Excuse me?” Fogwen spun back around and stared down her nose at me like a sniper. “You may have had losses, but the entire kingdom will be lost shortly! Our people are being brutalized and made into slaves! You may have arms and legs now, but do not preach your usefulness and accomplishments to me, little berry.”
Fogwen gave me a final withering stare then moved on back to Fogwarth. I felt the rage boiling in my berry, visions of Daiki’s battle and of our final moments with Ix throbbing painfully in my mind. But, I let it go. What did she know anyway? Nothing.
“Come,” she said, waving him on then moving up the hill, toward the captured farmers and children. “We make for the castle, and we pray we are not too late.”
She approached the captives, and with a quick summoning of spears she pierced their locks and broke their chains. Some, such as the children and lesser mutilated farmers, embarrassed one another and let out sighs of relief. Others… others remained frozen. The deadpan looks mirroring their scars and severed wings.
“Follow us,” Fogwen commanded the captives, while ushering the rest of us forward.
With Fogwen bringing up the front, the captives standing between her, Fogwarth, Ak and I stayed at the rear with weapons clutched and ready. We moved at a steady pace, careful to allow breaks to the injured, and eventually made it up to a rise in the path that gave us more visibility through the underbrush.
All we could focus on was the billowing mounds of black smoke that rose from all around us. Everything was smoldering.
The path Fogwen had chosen was not the same we had used to come south, and veered off track to the East a bit as if to circle around the main castle and town. The underbrush was thick here, and on multiple occasions we had to hack through the thick overhang with our pearl and obsidian blades.
After a while we came across a small blockade contingent of Mothric guards who were defending some more of the farmland citizens. They seemed to be held up in some kind of short spire that apparently used to be a patrol barracks and matched three others that spread out in the corner outskirts of the Mothric countryside. I would have questioned what the point was, since flying should have made the need for these resting outposts redundant, however given the current situation I guess they seemed pretty useful. The tower itself didn’t seem made to hold more than a dozen guards at once, and with easily triple that amount in just the local townsfolk they had started taking to keeping some outside and some inside, changing at intervals throughout the day.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
It wasn’t a perfect plan, but then again getting invaded by an army of bees probably wasn’t in the plans to begin with.
It pained us to do so, but we had to drop our own captives with them as well. With the castle already under attack we would have no other safe places to stuff these people, and it was too risky to take them along. However, what sucked worse was Fogwen trying to dump me off at the tower as well. The worst part of that is that I considered staying. After the mists it was painfully obvious that I wasn’t cut out for this. I felt hope actually bubble up inside when she made the decision to leave me with the guards until the capital was clear of the enemy.
If I wanted to survive I needed to… well, not do shit that’ll make me very dead. Fighting magical things twice my size on a regular basis was not the move.
Then I heard a voice bellow out over her, and I sank faster than a mob hit.
“I shall not stand for this! Sir berry is more than a capable companion. He is a staunch ally in the face of danger. Why, I would gamble on my life that sir berry would say this himself if he was not so stricken with the utter rudeness of your claim. A liability? It is the enemies we face who are the liability when they stare down the black blade of Barry! Juicy, tart, with just the right amount of bite, sir berry is as delectable as he is fearless! Icaraz shall crumble at the sight of his ripe robust rage!”
For fuck’s sake, Foggy. Couldn’t just let it slide? My stem shoulders slumped and I walked beside the others as we left the camp.
[Fogwen has been added to your party. As Fogwen has the highest average of evolution tier and level, Fogwen has assumed the role of party leader]
Ah, shit. That’s a new one, and yet another kick to the sweet grapes. I could already see the disapproving, mocking grin pull at her lips as we exited the guard tower and continued our way through the underbrush toward the dark castle.
The smoke rose around us from the endless acres of underbrush and farmland. Billowing pillars of swirling gray pouring into the sky above, nearly blotting out the sunlight altogether. The thickest of the fires seemed to be coming from the castle and town itself, pouring out from just behind our view of the castle. The path curled around further, taking us a long way through slowly thickening, unwalked trails that circled our destination. The closer we came the louder sounds of clashing steel and crackling embers echoed around us.
Our party walked with fervor. It was a pace I was not equipped to keep, so I often stumbled, fell, or rolled until they paused to allow me to catch up. Luckily I still had enough UV to fend off the [Hunger] debuff, but I had to routinely get them to hold on so I could relieve myself of the [Thirst] and [Tired] ones as well. Fogwen didn’t like it one bit, but fuck her. I needed all the advantages I could get going into whatever we would face next.
I took a moment to bring up my interface when we took another break, knowing it would be the last we would have as we approached.
[Name: Barry.
Title: None.
Race: Calypso Blueberry, Evolved: Calypso Brawler; Pantherathropy, tigris-strain.
Level: 5.
Class: Angiomancer.
Rarity: Error.
Equipment Level: 187]
Ah, yes. Same. No real change since I last checked. The mutagen still gave me some alarm. Since the only real mutagen I’ve seen has been mind-warping zombie mushroom infestations, I just could not begin to imagine whatever a [Panthersthropy, Tigris-strain] was would be anything better. Maybe it would attract tigers? Could mutagens be a good thing, like making the tigers think I’m one of them? It was a worthwhile question to ask, but most likely not worth asking when I’m already holding the group up.
I took another swig of a huge droplet hanging to an overhanging blade of grass while Fogwen just stared and stared and stared.
Next I wanted to check my experience progress. With any luck I’d gain a level soon and gain another ability point to get some more advantages under my belt; if I wore a belt would it be a belt or a necklace? Or a choker? Hmm.
[Level: 5
Current Experience Pool: 803/1250
Total Experience: 3437
[Experience Types Earned:
Quest: 0, 0%%
Labor: 0, 0%
Comfort: 0, 0%
Companion: 1383, 40.2%
Party: 621, 18.1%
Combat: 1433, 42.7%
Familiar: 0, 0%]
Well, I lost my 50% for the combat experience, but it seemed like that wouldn’t be a concern right now. I already had an evolution, and without the Oracle bee, Aspenoc, it wasn’t like I could figure out what’s next anyway. That’s a problem for future berry Barry. Present berry Barry was more focused on my current experience pool and how it still had a bit of climbing to go before I’d hit my next level. Ironically I would have killed for some tigers or something right about now. With Fogwen on our side, along with the new and improved Ak-Lok, I was sure we would be fine to take on a whole horde like we had before. Hell, even Foggy could probably wreck some ass still even with one useless arm.
I could feel Fogwen’s eyes digging into me. With a sigh I stood up and signaled that I was good to go, and we resumed our trip to what would probably be my berry death bed. Seeing that Fogwen clearly still had something she wanted to say regarding me, I decided to just let her have her jokes before we see what mess we were strolling into.
“Alright,” I said, barely keeping up with my stumpy little legs as we rounded a bend in the path. “Get it out of your system.”
Fogwen looked down at me, slightly losing her stressed and angry demeanor and fighting to regain it. “What? Me? Certainly I would do no such thing! I am a princess, after all. So it would be rather… let us say unbecoming of next to make meager comments about your low level, or how positively idiotic your evolution is, or that you still have the debuff you fought so hard to rid yourself of. No. That is not very princess-like, is it?”
“What? Back up. Hold on. Hold the phone. What?” I said, stopping in place. Fogwarth turned to usher me onward but I shushed him as I brought up my status screen. “Son of a bitch… son of a bitch!”
[Decay Timer: 108 Hours, 39 Minutes, 6 Seconds]