“We might be in just a little bit of trouble,” Arslan said while sitting down on the wax, squeezing his two fingers together.

“You think?” Mandilyn mocked him while pacing around the island.

“To be completely honest, we aren’t in that bad of a situation,” Arslan reasoned.

“Between being actively hunted by that guardian bee and this, what did you call it? Impress bee?”

“Empress,” Arslan corrected.

“Right, empress. Between those two, yeah I totally guess that it isn’t all that bad.” She sighed and patted her rabbit ears, trying to relieve as much stress as possible.

Arslan got up from his seated spot. He rubbed his very sticky hands together. “Anyway, I came up with a plan already.”

She let go of her ears allowing them to shoot right back up to their original position. “You do?” she asked.

“Adventurers fight with their brains. Getting out of problems is a major part of the job,” He stated, pulling out his dagger. “But, I can’t guarantee a one-hundred percent success on this.” He stuck out his hand in front of her. “So, I’m going to need you to follow everything I say without hesitation.”

She placed her hand over the top his and nodded, “You created me, I’m technically your slave,” she smirked, finding humor in the joke. “I have to do what you say.”

“That’s the spirit,” he chuckled. He pulled his hand away then pressed the tip of the blade to his palm. “What I’m about to do is called, blood rune-ing.” He winced in pain as blood poured from his hand. Mandilyn cringed as he continued to do self-harm. “It allows for more...aggressive spells.”

“And it will help us in this situation?”

“Well yes, but probably make it even worse.”

“...how much worse?”

“I could blow my arm off for starters. If I don’t relieve the amount of pressure or design the sigils accurately enough, then there is the risk that I might even lose too much blood and pass out before even using it.”

Mandilyn stared at him with a high amount of uncertainty in her eyes and said, “I… trust you?”

“Good, because this is insanely stupid.” He rolled his cloak’s sleeves up and began carving three of the same designs into his arm for magic venting. Unreal amounts of blood poured from the wounds, the quantity was nearly unbelievable.

“Alright,” he said, finishing the last cut. “I’m a little dizzy, so I’m going to need you to be quick.” He took aim with his palm, pointing at the empress bee. “When I knock that bitch down, I want you to ignore everything but her. Got it?” Mandilyn nodded. “Good,” he stated.

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The bleeding signs on his arms began to glow hot red with magic, one by one they lit up until they reached the center rune on his hand. He let out a burst of lightning-fast fireballs, almost like they were being fired from a gun.

The bursts impacted all around the empress. Cells around her exploded with violent force, workers around her vaporized. Fortunately for her the spell wasn’t very accurate and missed her entirely; unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to and just like the plan she lost her grip as the cells underneath her began to lose their structural integrity. She began plummeting to the sea of honey. Each one of her lesser children began swarming in a frenzy not knowing what was going on.

Mandilyn sprung into the air with her glaive, she was going to meet the bee in the middle of its fall, it was too big for her to penetrate, but with the momentum it was falling at, she could more than likely get it to go deeper and cause more damage.

“Now!” Arslan yelled signifying the initiation of the plan. Mandilyn flew in the air, the empress was just a few feet away, a few more seconds of falling and she’d be there.

And that’s where the plan began falling apart. The empress’ children organized quicker than they should’ve. They grabbed onto their leader and with the help of their wings, slowed her descent until they started to raise her again. The empress rectified her self and used her wings to keep herself hovering. The sound and pressure of her wings forced Mandilyn to fall even faster until she hit the wax, where she ducked and rolled to prevent damage to her legs.

“Unfair!” She yelled now face to face with a very angry monarch.

Suddenly, the bee guardian broke through the ceiling in a fiery ball. The flaming bee struck like a meteor into the empress. The transferred force sent her careening into the sea of honey. Upon impact, the honey created a wave that traveled far past the wax island.

Standing on the body of the empress was none other than Avelyn. She held the giant head of the guardian in one hand and her axe in the other. “Missed me, Bucktooth?!” she shouted while throwing the head into the golden ocean.

“Wha-” Mandilyn started to say but was cut off by the empress’ wings violently vibrating, trying to get her out of the sticky mess.

Avelyn walked the length of the empress’ back to the front of her head. Finding a suitable spot on the forehead, she brought the axe down splitting the carapace and anything beneath in half. All the bees in the immediate vicinity started to go into anarchy, they flew into walls and each other, some even stopped to attack each other.

“Where-...How did you find us?” Mandilyn asked.

Avelyn sat down on the corpse just above the split and pointed up, “I felt explosions. And broke the floor until I got here.”

Mandilyn rolled her eyes. “Of course you did that.”

Avelyn pushed the hair out from in front of her left eye and pointed in Mandilyn’s direction. “What happened to him?”

“Who?” She turned her head around to see Arslan passed out on the island, his arm generating a small pool of blood. Her eyes went wide and she yelled in shock. “Oh no!” She rushed over to Arslan’s side. “We gotta get him out of here!”

Avelyn slid down the bee’s face and jumped onto the island and smirked, “Easy.” She threw him over one side of her shoulder and started walking, however, she stopped when she noticed that Mandilyn wasn’t moving, but instead digging through his dropped bag.

“Are you coming?”

Mandilyn shook her head, “Arslan would probably be pissed if we had to come back down here for materials, go on ahead.” She then pulled out a knife and sighed, no matter how many times she’d done this would prepare her for the next.