Chapter 49: Long Live Her Majesty the Queen (03)

"Sniff sniff... There's a smell coming from here!"

The canine anthropoids were tracking a scent, each moving in different directions.

With the help of Mollang and Shuru, tracking the scent from clothes and undergarments Ban had used, they were relentless in their pursuit.

Unlike being carried away by the wasp, the military dogs and the magical knight rescue squads had to move on the ground, thus they faced considerable difficulty passing through the spider forest...

'At first, the spiders were hostile, but did they retreat when Dane stepped forward?'

Levin saw the giant spiders retreating in recognition of Dane and wondered what had happened, but Dane told him to ask Ban for details, without giving away anything himself.

Thanks to this, they were able to cut straight through the spider forest, but the rescue squad from the magical knight order... and two military dogs had to stop chasing Ban's trail after discovering a forest where every creature had been hunted and killed.

"What on earth is happening?"

Levin, Dane, and Jake, seeing the mountains in the distance not as real mountains but as a gigantic wasp nest, had no choice but to halt their advance.

"That's like... thousands of..."

Realizing it wasn't something the three knights and two military dogs could handle, Levin immediately opened a communicator to contact the magical knight order.

"Requesting long-range magical bombardment. Coordinates are..."

"What if Ban gets caught in it?"

Dane's cautious question made Levin open his mouth reluctantly.

"If that many wasps come out, who knows what damage they'll do to the capital... then a knight must be sacrificed."

"Hmm... But if Ban is inside..."

While Dane was worried, Jake comforted him by patting his shoulder.

"Don't worry. Ban isn't someone who'd die even if you tried to kill him."

There were still 30 minutes left until the royal magic artillery could perform a large-scale bombardment.

* * *

I knew I was doomed to die the moment the stinger was pulled out.

But still...

I couldn't just stand by and watch such a scene unfold before my eyes.

Whoosh!

Sliding at the entrance of the tilted hive, I reduced my speed and nearly rolled down the surface, scraping it as I descended.

Phut!

In a situation that required braking midway, I activated the mana sword to slow down, cutting through any wasps or larvae that emerged due to the disturbance, quickly reaching the ground.

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Groan!

Clenching my teeth against the pain that seemed to crack my ankles, I had to keep moving despite the excessive operation of the mana circuits causing blood to rise to my throat.

"No..."

It was hopeless.

From the body of the bee girl, now split at the waist, honey and sticky blood were flowing out, and despite attempts to cover the wounds as before, it was now impossible to administer first aid since the spine was completely severed.

The impact of falling to the ground had completely crumpled one antenna, and the previously intact one had snapped off, leaving only the bent one that seemed to still sense me as the bee girl's face turned towards me.

"It's okay. Just catch your breath for a moment..."

Gulp...

The honey that had filled her throat now leaked out, mixed with copious amounts of red blood, unlike before.

Although insects don't succumb to shock from bleeding like humans, staying like this meant a slow death, and there was visibly no way to recover her now.

"If you're a worker bee, why didn't you just gather a lot of honey instead of coming then..."

My hand trembled as I held hers, feeling through the small hand that the bee girl was rapidly dying.

It wasn't just the faint heartbeat mixed with insect characteristics, but the touch of a life's light dimming and dying.

Whoosh!

The high heat of the mana sword cleanly split the hive's wall, igniting embers.

Thud!

A heavy landing and the chilling sound of flesh being torn came from behind me.

Chew, chew...

The wasp had started to chew on the legs of the bee girl, which it had previously halved.

Seeing the bee girl's leg in the wasp's mouth and the scars on her thigh, I dropped her hand and gripped the mana sword.

Vroom-

Thud! Thump!!

Simultaneously, numerous wasps escaped from the hive, stirred by the chaos I had caused, and I was quickly surrounded by them within seconds.

"Ha."

I had hidden for days to avoid this situation.

Not attempting escape, using the mana sword, sharing tight spaces where we slept and ate together, all to avoid such a dire situation.

But... still...

By staying passive in such circumstances just because I didn't want to be in danger...

Wouldn't that make me not just unknighthly, but less than human?

Screeeeech!!

"Magic Knight Trainee, Ban."

Looking at the bee girl hanging above, drying her wings, I forced myself to look away.

"I'll kill all the wasps."

Screech!

The piercing noise hurt my ears as the wasps charged.

Unlike the bee girl, the wasps had arms, legs, and backs made of exoskeletons, and even their faces, potential weak points, were protected by armored helmets, leaving no easy targets.

Even the abdomen, appearing soft, had enough defense to stop the bee girl's stinger from fully penetrating.

'So what!'

My body had stiffened from crouching for days.

Poisoned and forcing my body to move, my mana was depleted.

But my mind was working sharply, and I aimed precisely at the joint of the wasp's tail as I swung the mana sword.

Whoosh!

No bodily fluids came out.

The blade of the mana sword, emitting high heat and pressure, would've cooked any blood that appeared, and it was so hot it caused the wasps' wings to curl from the heat.

From every direction, even from above, the wasps attacked, but as I emitted intense heat with the mana sword, causing burns to my arms, the wasps couldn't approach, and I charged at any enemy in my path, incinerating them.

Roar!

Whether it was a thick exoskeleton or a human-sized body, nothing remained after being sliced by the mana sword.

Even if a human would survive with severe burns, the wasps' bodies, lightweight and with hard shells but extremely vulnerable to heat, were instantly incinerated upon contact with the mana sword.

4, 8, 17, 23, 28.

In a matter of seconds, nearly thirty wasps had swarmed around me and died from combustion, and I ran forward, swinging my sword.

Crack!

Screech!!

But just as my sword was about to slice through a wasp, the hive floor beneath me began to tear open.

"Cough!"

Unstable footing caused my mana sword strike to narrowly miss the wasp.

"Damn!"

Calculating to incinerate all approaching wasps with one final slash, I had used up all my mana, so when the strike missed, I was left mana-drained.

But already unbalanced, I was effectively handing the next attack over to the wasp as the heat from the mana sword dissipated and the wasp's tail pierced my left arm.

'Before the poison spreads...!'

I aimed the mana sword heatedly at the wasp's face, intending to unleash the blade...

Pssht-!

But I was out of mana.

Without enough mana to manifest the blade of the mana sword, instead, the mana circuits backfired, causing blood to surge up my throat, and I inadvertently exposed myself to attack.

The wasp, seizing the opportunity, opened its helmet's mouth to slash at my neck.

Thud!

"Cough...!"

I concentrated the remaining mana in my right arm to block the wasp's jaws from chewing through my neck, but as I pulled out all the stops, the protective mana quickly depleted, leaving deep wounds as flesh and muscle were torn, exposing bone.

"Grunt...!!"

Despite its smaller size, the soft body of the bee girl had enough power to split a waist.

Raising my right arm to protect my neck had spared me from instant decapitation, but it resulted in both arms being injured, rendering them immobile.

Crunch...

The wasp's jaws tightened like a hook digging into my neck.

Simultaneously, the wasp raised its tail to stab me in the eye, aiming to kill.

"Cough!"

Ducking, the wasp's tail grazed my ear and pierced the hive's wall, and it quickly retracted its tail to aim at my face again.

'This bastard...!'

It seemed to be enjoying playing with its prey.

Looking at the wasp's jaws that could pierce to the bone and the eyes beyond that mocked me, I spat out my last words.

"Die."

Thump!

I kicked up at the abdomen of the wasp that had come close.

With my mana depleted, overheated to the point of no longer being able to emit any output, it was difficult to burn this wasp to death with the mana sword, and this had been my target from the start.

Crack...!

The bee girl's stinger, half-buried, dug into the wasp's abdomen, and in pain, the wasp unwittingly opened its jaws, releasing me.

Wham!

With a spin, I delivered a back kick to the stinger embedded in the abdomen, driving it further in. The small stinger pierced right through the wasp's abdominal muscles.

But it was still not enough.

"Aaaargh!"

My right arm moved.

Thwock!!

That should be enough.

Enduring the pain of my neck being nearly severed, I gave up on detoxifying and packed the last of my mana into the stinger. The bee girl's stinger received my mana and spiraled, tearing through the wasp's body and embedding itself in the hive.

I had returned the favor to the wasp that had split the bee girl's waist.