Belissar watched as eight lancer bees climbed high into the sky. They then angled themselves so that their stingers were facing down, and then began beating their wings in the other direction. They fell from the sky like arrows from a bow, plunging down as fast as they could. In but a moment, they struck and plunged their stingers deep into the ground.
Belissar crossed his arms and grunted. This was what he said he was waiting for, and indeed the lancers seem quite powerful. They were far larger than any other bee, even the bumblebee queens. They were even as larger or larger than the mini-shades that the karnuq challengers faced. He guessed they could match any shade he’d seen before…most likely. They might have trouble hitting a cat or bird shade depending on how fast it was moving. But anything they did hit would likely not survive…or at least not emerge unscathed.
And yet, he couldn’t rid himself of that last, lingering anxiety. Every expansion purification shade was a shade he had never seen before, so who knew what this next one would do? Would it be another shade that could defeat everything he could throw at it?
But he shook his head and forced himself to uncross his arms. The fact was he didn’t know, and couldn’t. His bees and his Tower had reached the point he had wanted, so there was nothing for it but to trust in them now. He turned to Niobee and the Firstborn and nodded.
“Well done, I wasn’t expecting you to evolve these until later so, um, nice work. We’ll go ahead and fight an expansion purification then, let’s tell everyone to prepare. Now…um…do your best.”
Belissar was about to warn the Firstborn that this would be a shade they had never seen before and to be careful…but he decided against it. The Flower Meadow queens were the experts at this point and had seen more than enough new shades to know that would be the case. So, he decided just to trust them to know what to do.
The Firstborn danced a solemn salute dance and flew off to the Bee Barracks, while Niobee flew off to inform the Orchard and Apiary bees. Belissar himself went to speak with the karnuq and let them know as well.
He hoped they wouldn’t need Chief Rohsuak’s help this time, but he was going to make sure they had were ready for anything.
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Later on in the day, everyone finished their preparations. The soldier bee army was arranged in front of the first floor Flower Meadow’s entrance, while Beero and her wounded lightning bees stood on top of their platform. Chief Rohsuak and the karnuq were waiting by the Bee Barracks, with Chief Rohsuak standing next to a couple mana honeycomb trays delivered by the Apiary queens. The Second of the Sixth, the medicinal queen, had brought most of her hive and was waiting on standby with medicinal honey.
Belissar had even removed the bees’ secret tunnel that linked the Bee Barracks to the Tower exit in the first floor Dirt Tunnels. He didn’t think a shade would find it, and the bees should be able to handle anything small enough to fit in it, but he didn’t want to leave anything to chance. Anything he could do to ensure the bees’ safety, he did.
He considered deploying the new digging soldiers to the Dirt Tunnels but decided against it. There were only a handful of them at the moment and he somewhat doubted this purification could be handled by a single squad of soldier bees. Likewise, the burning, sedative, and bumblebee queens were still limited to workers at the moment, so wouldn’t be participating except in emergencies. The slime flower had also not spawned any slimes yet. Belissar was curious about that but now was not the time to think on it.
For the time had come to launch the purification.
“Everyone ready?”
The bees and karnuq alike all saluted in their fashion. Belissar took a deep breath.
Attempt expansion purification? Estimated purification strength: small+.
“Ok, here we go.”
He confirmed, and once again the Tower’s mana lit up, and the doors swung open as the Tower’s might poured out to confront the Hunger once more.
Expansion purification attempt commencing.
As would its defenders. Without missing a beat, the Hunger crawled up the Tower’s mana to the gateway. Even though he was expecting it this time, Belissar still couldn’t help a shiver. The Hunger wasted no time in coalescing. The shade was low to the ground this time, shorter than the turtle-shade had been, though wide enough around to match the wolf-shades despite its short legs. It had a smooth head with blazing orbs for eyes and a toothless set of jaws. It wiggled its body as it crawled on smooth, squat legs. Belissar, to his surprise, recognized the shape of the creature immediately. It was a salamander, no different than any other save for its enormous size relative to those Belissar knew. It didn’t have any spikes or wings or extra fangs and claws. It didn’t have an extra limbs or even an extra set of eyes.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
But that did not mean it was normal. The mist of the Hunger surrounding it swirled and and flowed with far greater speed than with the other shades. It flickered and lashed in ephemeral tongues. It appeared like…fire. As if black flames wrapped every inch of the shade’s body. It even made the appropriate crackling noise.
Belissar gulped. If he was seeing what he thought he was seeing, Chief Rohsuak might not be able to help this time.
Expansion purification begun. Remaining hostiles: 1
The shade let out a roar and then began scrambling across the ground. Black flames were left in its trail, appearing to scorch the very dirt as the Hunger spread where the flames burned. Belissar held his breath as the shade approached the first Pit Trap. If they were lucky, maybe it would fall in…though he might not be able to set this shade on fire even if it did.
But he wouldn’t find out. Upon stepping into the Pit, the shade just placed its feet on the walls…and stuck right to them. It thus crawled along the walls over the pit without slowing down. It seemed they would have to fight after all…
Belissar began to confer with Chief Rohsuak, Metsaitti, and the bees as the shade made its way through the Dirt Tunnels. It was faster than the turtle shade…but slower than all the rest that had come before it, so they had plenty of time. Chief Rohsuak stated she had burned Fire typed creatures in the past, so it wasn’t guaranteed it would be immune to her…but that was in her prime, and always took a lot out of her even back then. Her latest blessing from the God of Fire aside, she couldn’t state with confidence that she’d be able to deal with this shade. So, it might be up to his bees to handle it.
Belissar wasn’t sure if they could. He wasn’t sure how powerful those flames were in general; the first floor Dirt Tunnels didn’t have much flammable material in it so they had no baseline. At least, not until the shade passed by one of the wall-mounted Sticky Honey Traps. The shade was not moving fast enough to escape the flow of honey and so was caught dead on.
The honey caught fire and began to burn before it even touched the shade. Some of the honey managed to splatter on its body, causing it to growl, but was quickly burned away. The shade was only slowed down for a moment…and showed no signs of intoxication from the loaded maddening honey as it continued through the Dirt Tunnels.
Belissar was not encouraged by this turn of events.
Eventually, the shade made its way to the final stretch. As it neared the exit to the tunnels, a squad of sprayers took up positions and launched their attack across the entire tunnel. Once again, even their venom started to burn in the air as it approached the shade. And since they sprayed less and less thick fluid than the Sticky Honey Traps, none of it managed to hit the shade proper.
And then the shade responded by unleashing an attack of its own. It opened its mouth and a clone of black flames filled the tunnel. The sprayers were forced to flee at maximum speed as the fire burst from the tunnel, setting the Flower Meadow beyond ablaze. A brush fire started up and was soon spreading across the first quarter of the Flower Meadow.
The Flower Meadow queens were all gathered together. Since each queen could order her soldiers through her communers now, they all worked together to command the soldier bee army during battle, with one queen appointed to make overall decisions. They all danced their commands and all the sprayers in the army pulled back. The soldiers bees moved forward in their place.
Soon, the shade stepped out into Flower Meadow itself, wading into the burning flowers without pause. A squad of soldier bees attempted an attack run and managed to push through the smoke, their new fire resistance proving invaluable. But it was fire resistance, not immunity, so once the bees approached the shade its own flames began to assault them. The soldier bees did not immediately burn or catch fire, but pulled back as they realized the danger.
The Flower Meadow queen in charge for today, the First of the Fourth, turned towards Belissar and began to dance.
“Soldiers can’t reach without taking losses. Want to send lancers but might get hurt. Can?”
Belissar frowned as he watched the shade crawl through the burning Flower Meadow. So, the soldiers couldn’t approach and the sprayers’ attack couldn’t make it through the flames. There was still Beero’s lightning bees they could try. But that was risky as well since the shade could breathe fire at a distance. If the wooden platform caught fire, Beero and the others would not have much time to even flee, much less pull off their lightning dance.
“Do you think the lancers will survive?”
The First of the Fourth didn’t hesitate.
“Should, bigger and faster than soldiers so should hit enemy before hurt too bad.”
Belissar took a deep breath. The lancers might not die, but they’d certainly be hurt diving right into fire like that. It would probably be safer to see if Beero and the others could hit the shade with lightning first.
Or…would it? Belissar considered the fire breath attack, how far and how quickly it had moved. If the shade sent it directly towards the top of the wooden platform…could Beero and the others really finish their dance before then? If not, would the soldier bees even be able to evacuate them before the fire hit?
It seemed either way, his bees were going to have to brave the flames if they wanted to take this shade down…