For the second time, Anaya found herself in an unknown location. The cocoon unraveling at her feet, darkness all around her.
Air humid, carrying with it heavy scents of honey.
Honey? she thought.
Taking another breath to make sure her she was smelling right.
The smell of honey making her realize how hungry she was, a hunger she had been ignoring.
The chaos having thrown the thought of food to the back of her mind.
The sweet air, an unwelcome reminder.
The darkness broke as Anaya activated her skill.
Ding!
Crude Night Vision skill
Class: Dark
Effect: Improve vision in low light by 2%
: +40% effective
: 10 mana cost per minute
The notification made her realize she had less than 6 minutes of vision. The job increasing the effectiveness of the skill but the cost increasing too.
She looked around, the dark cavern a lot more visible. Her vision still adjusting, the last of the darkness slowly fading.
The far wall resisting, still dark, her eyesight not good enough to pierce through.
She shifted to her left, staff already in hand as she saw movement from the corner of her eye, a red shimmer barreling towards her.
Her instincts saved her, years of self defense kicking in.
The staff found purchase on the forehead of a bee, or what she assumed was a bee, if a bee was about 30 times the size of a typical honey bee, the size of a basketball.
The hit barely registered as it hovered in the air, looking at her. With its compound eyes, she was not entirely sure. The eye line was hard to determine.
It hovered for a bit longer, then suddenly moved backwards, an astounding speed she could barely track.
The glowing abdomen she had just noticed slowly loosing its light.
It flew towards the back wall, setting itself. The fading light shone on what she realized were appendages. Now visible as their shift to let to let the bee through announced their presence.
She looked at the wall with suspicion, the heavy darkness unnatural as she could barely pierce through it.
She had falsely assumed it was her limited vision, but now she thought otherwise.
The cavern was now heavy with an unpleasant pressure, fear growing as she suddenly felt eyes on her.
Suddenly, light bloomed from above. The cavern was now entirely visible.
The sting and glare as the light nearly blinded her, her eyes fighting to adjust to sudden intensity. A gasp escaped her as she saw the cavern’s inhabitants.
Throughout the cavern, surrounding her in every direction, was an army of humanoid bees. Their eyes reflecting the light, the cavern now a multitude of colors. The scene mesmerizing.
The beauty fading as she now saw the true reality, an army ready for battle. The gap that had opened when the bee attacked now finally closing. Realizing she had been dealing with one of the smaller bees.
The army arranged in an obvious system.
The front of the army occupied by the largest and most common clade, black bulky humanoid bees whom carried large shields with two arms and hammers with the two other arms.
At the feet of the black bees were the smaller bees she had dealt with, all the same size but in various colors.
The army had four lines behind the black bees.
Each line seemingly made for a particular job should a clash occur.
The tip of Anaya’s staff shaking, the pressure exerted by the army shaking her in her boots. The thought of fighting died then and there as she saw little to no chance of using violence to get out of this one. She would be pummeled to the death by the massive hammers.
The air heavy with tension. Not a single sound heard in the cavern as the soldiers stood still as statues, their weapons pointed towards, ready to attack.
The sudden snap of the of the cocoon unfurling echoed throughout the cavern.
At the back of the line, she saw five bees flinch, their movement pronounced in the still cavern. About the size of grown elf, each of the bees had a skinny humanoid frame with large green bulbous abdomen.
Their collective flinch accompanied by the other bees surrounding them to turn stiff, stiffer than the rest of the army.
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She watched in trepidation as the group of four surrounding the each of the bulbous bees slowly inched in closer, their formation growing tighter.
Two brown bees with large frames and small abdomen had hexagon tower shields set in front and in the back of a bulbous bee. To the left and and right, a pair of smaller framed red bees, each wielding two swords and two spears, swords already drawn. The bees carried themselves with a grace only visible on them, martial intent heavy around them.
The protection detail on the bulbous bees made her wonder why they needed it, what was so important about them?.
Still shaking she caught the antennae of a smaller silver humanoid bee twitching. The bee suddenly clicked its mandibles softly and a wave of clicks followed. The army responding to the silver bee.
The echo of clicks faded and then a shift in the army occurred.
To the right of her, more movement made her turn, coming face to face with a gold bee. It looked her up and down, head slowly moving as if examining her.
It moved closer.
Anaya took a step back, stepping on the remnants of the cocoon, another crack echoing through the cave.
It seemed the soft grass was drying up
The golden bee moved closer and she raised her foot to move backwards again.
A flinch of the antennae and bee came to a stop.
She set her foot down, crushing more of the grass in the process.
A flinch from the silver bee and the golden bee took a step back.
She saw the army behind the golden bee shift and open up a path leading out of the cavern into a dimly lit tunnel.
The golden bee ushered with its hands in the direction of the opening.
Anaya looked at the bees face and what she could only perceive as impatience was planted on the bee.
The rapid twitches of the antennae when she raised her leg backwards made Anaya stop.
The bee came to a still as it saw Anaya stop.
It motioned once more and she got the gist of what it was trying to communicate. She was being told to go in the direction of the opening.
The army of bees lining the way to the tunnel made her very hesitant. She was not about to go through that.
The attempt at communication, made her crippling fear start to fade. Why were they not attacking her?. It was a literal army, and she was all alone. There was nothing on her person that would make an army do what it was doing, she was missing something.
Her foot came down and the flinching golden bee made her understand the situation. They wanted the grass.
She looked down to her feet and saw the match her once more. Understanding filled her mind.
Slowly she bent downwards and picked remnant cocoon.
Now a dark green dried up blanket on the floor. She saw pieces of the grass break off and slowly fade into nothingness as she held it.
She was standing on something extraordinary and that her time was limited. She immediately stepped of the blanket and started furling the grass into a ball, all while keeping eye contact with the golden bee.
She stood and took out her sword, the tense air had slowly dissipated rushing back in as every bee in the cavern stood at full attention, ready to move at a moments notice. The silver bee twitched and the army calmed down immediately. She turned to the sword, the name having come to mind.
She hoped that her idea would work. She remembered the feeling in her eyes as she activated night-vision and repeated the process. With a swoosh, the sword lit, an orange flame on the surface of the sky blue blade.
She noticed the red anode on the pommel, its rotating speed slowing as she reduced the amount of mana channeled to the sword, its heat too intense.
The sword now with a gentle orange flame atop its blade.
She looked at the golden bee, her intent clear. She moved the sword closer to the ball of grass and the golden bee moved backwards, all arms raised.
She pointed towards the gap with the flaming sword, motioning for the army to move further apart, making the opening bigger.
She turned towards towards the silver bee, repeating the motion.
With too human a sigh, the bee waved its arm and the army moved further apart.
With slow steps, she moved towards the opening, flaming sword in hand, her idea actually working. She got to the space between armies and with a gulp moved through, the army still.
Anaya breathed a sigh of relief when all that was behind was the tunnel. She turned to the cavern and saw the silver bee break off from the rest of the army, flying towards her. She had not seen any wings on the bees and the lack of a buzz sound felt unnatural to her as it came closer and closer.