“Give me your honey, bees! It shall be mine!” Bug screams as her bladed limbs cut down giant fuzzy bumble bees, cutting through one after another as they fly at her with stinger poised to try and run her through.
Pollen, bee fluff, and bug guts (Not Bug's) go flying in every direction as she wades her way through the swarm of buzzing bumblers. Cutting her way through dozens of bees, each one big enough for her to ride, their small wings somehow carrying their massive bodies despite logic saying it shouldn't bee possible, Bug finally sets foot on the entrance to the hive, a war cry on her lips as she dives into its depths like a raider breaching a castle’s defenses and seeking to empty it vaults of all its valuables.
…
Off to the side, Hannah and the others watch dumbstruck as they watch Bug breech the hive of honey combed walls constructed on the side of one of the many colossal trees. The hive is easily large enough to be considered a fort and could house hundreds of human soldiers within its yellow walls.
“She does realize that we could just sneak in and get the honey, right?” A befuddled Max asks, his common sense forged by years of adventurer work being blown away by what he is witnessing.
“I don’t think she does… Or she just doesn’t care and really wants that honey…” Jakub responds, looking equally perplexed.
…
“Come at me!!!” Bug screams as she slices through another fluffy bee, her little feet splashing through honey and bee guts, kicking aside parts of broken bee with every step.
As she delves deeper into the hive, the concentration of bees increases as they fight to keep her from getting any deeper, pilling up their bodies to physically block her passage, vibrating their bodies threateningly.
Bug doesn’t stop as she throws herself into the horde, ducking under a pair of gnashing mandibles before slicing upwards, bisecting a bee before slashing to both sides and removing the legs from two more. Spinning like a bladed ball of death, Bug cuts her way through with reckless abandon, trusting her reflexes and small size to keep her safe as she dodges stingers and vicious bites by a hair’s breadth, her heightened Dexterity stat putting in the work as her body moves with precision and grace.
Slaughtering the last of the guards, Bug breaks through into the deepest chamber where she finds a giant bee. The thing surprisingly has a crown of horns growing from its head, and an extra pair of bladed limbs growing from its front like a pair of arms.
Buzzing violently at Bug, the monstrous bee clacks it mandibles angrily and charges at the intruder.
“Rahhhhh!” Bug roars back as she moves to meet it in the center of the chamber, their bladed limbs clashing with clangs of sharpened bone and scale against hardened chitin.
Slashing out to try and remove a limb, Bug is surprised as the thing is smart enough to dodge back, avoiding the slash when the other smaller bees would have just taken it without a thought.
Pushing the assault, Bug charges forward and locks blades, getting pushed back as the bee hits her with a mighty blow. Dodging out of the way of a downward swing, Bug goes in for the kill as the bee’s blade is stuck in the floor of the hive.
“Your honey is mine!” Bug screams.
“Nn!”
Bug aborts the attack as the bee turns it head towards her, mouth wide open and gurgling. A moment later, just as Bug jumps aside, a stream of sticky orange liquid sprays out of the bee’s mouth, splashing on the floor before quickly hardening in place.
Bug can’t help but to smile, her adrenalin pumping as she jumps back in to clash with the giant bee, a laugh on her lips as blade meets blade. As she fights an opponent that isn’t instantly taken out by a single attack or a dagger to the back. As she gets to face an enemy head on, rather than hiding behind a wall of minions or relying on tricks and traps. For once, she gets to have a real fight.
“Come at me, bee! Hahahahaha!”
----------------------------------------
Hannah and the others have entered the hive through the front entrance, grimacing as they step over scattered parts of bee carcasses and scattered guts. Off to one side, some of the walls have been wrecked, debris scattered everywhere, a pair of bees desperately trying to free another from under the rubble. When they manage to finally pull it free, the injured bee lets out a last couple weak buzzes, before falling to its side, going still as it falls into its final sleep…
Hannah watches the mourning bees with interest, but is pulled away by Sam as they head deeper into the hive. Further in, they can here as blades clash, and as the little Bug laughs like a berserker let loose.
“Hannah, you weren’t lying about those Body Mages. Are they all battle maniacs like this?”
“All that I have read about. Which honestly isn’t very many.”
Sam comments, “I would like to see her on a battlefield, maybe she would be willing to join us in the next war?”
“You’re not seriously planning on doing mercenary work again, are you?” Max asks as he is shaking his head.
“Hey, the pay is good, and you get to keep the loot of whoever you kill. Monsters or humans, they all die the same under my axe” Sam says with a shrug.
As Jakub is fishing some bottles out of his pack, he says, “Well you can count me out. I still regret signing up last time. That scar on my chest still hurts just thinking about that damn siege battle.”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Sam receives some bottles from him and laughs, “Hahaha, yeah, that fight was shit. But I don’t see you complaining when you show that scar off to catch yourself some cuties. How was it you got that scar again? From fighting against the enemy’s captain? Or no wait, was it that eight-foot-tall knight?”
Max cuts in, “Last I heard, it was from an ambush where he fought off five men single handedly! His daggers flashing faster than the eye can see, reaping a life with every strike! Hahahaha!”
“Hah, hah, hah, so I like to exaggerate a little. Ladies love a good story; they don’t care if it is actually true or not.”
“How did you actually get it?” Hannah asks curiously as she is filling jars with honey.
“Oh, well, I uh….” He stutters as he tries to answer.
Sam cuts in and answers for him. “Dumbass tripped during the battle and got cut on a rake that someone left laying out. Looks like a scar from a sword strike though, so he likes to pretend he’s hot shit.”
Jakub just blushes as he refuses to comment, holding a jar in the honey under, long after it has been filled to the brim.
Hannah tries to reassure him by pulling up her sleeve. “It’s ok, I got this scar from tripping and cutting my arm on a loose nail when I was a kid.”
He just looks over at the tiny little scar and say, “Thanks… but it’s not quite the same…”
“Well, it used to be a lot bigger, but as I got older, the scar got smaller.” Hannah tries to reassure him.
Sam and Max are just giggling as they fill their jars, glad to be filling their packs with more stuff that can be sold for some good money. Hell, even without the bounty, just from the loot in their packs, they are already guaranteed a good payday.
As they go to keep making fun of Jakub, the noise of battle starts to get louder and louder, the hive shaking a bit as crashing noises fill the halls.
Sam quickly pulls Hannah closer to her just as one of the back walls of the room they are in collapses, a part of the floor exploding in a shower of honeycomb as a truly massive queen bee comes thrashing through like a rampaging bull.
The queen bee looks to be heavily injured and is missing a leg, a great gash on the side of its head where half of its eyes used to be.
Riding on its back is a cackling Bug, holding on tight to the rampaging thing as it crashes through another wall in a desperate bid to rid itself of its passenger. Slicing off a buzzing wing, Bug screams out, “Hahahahaha, it will take more than that! Fight harder! Hahahahaha!!!”
The two of them go crashing away from the gawking adventurers, tearing through a wall of the hive and breaking out into the outside world, the artificial light of the Dungeon streaming through the brand-new window into the hive.
Watching the two of them, they see as the queen bee tries to take flight, but can’t as she is missing half her wings. Instead, the two of them go crashing down to the forest floor below, disappearing from view. The last thing they can hear is Bug cackling like a mad woman riding a bull, laughing her ass off as she rides the poor queen away.
“Uhm… Let’s hurry up here so we can catch up with her.” Max says.
Jakub comments, “I hope she doesn’t break it too badly, queen bee parts are worth a lot, right?”
“Mhm…”
…
Crashing down to the forest floor, Bug is flung from the back of the bee, hitting the ground hard and rolling to her feet. Looking down at her top right arm, she finds it to be broken, but she can’t help but to smile.
‘Lvl 18 Giant Queen Bee. Queen of the hive. A mini boss of the Dungeon.
“Become Weapon!” Bug yells out through a smile full of sharp teeth.
With spikes and claws growing in length, her broken arm audibly snaps back into place, returning to its pristine state. With her Pain Tolerance skill and all the adrenaline pumping through her system, Bug hardly feels it as her arm is mended and her body becomes a bed of spikes, her horns growing out to become a demonic looking crown of spiky thorns, her teeth becoming sharpened and serrated, ready to carve into flesh.
With her top two arms transforming into bladed whips and her lower set being adorned with foot long claws, Bug gets down low and laughs at her enemy, her Death core singing in her gut as her magic starts to spill out into the world around her, darkening the air, withering nearby plants, and leaving everything with a light layer of biting frost.
Finally! Real proof that I am getting stronger!!! Those things on the first floor would NEVER be able to face this. Even the humans would have trouble facing this thing's blades! I’m getting stronger. I’m going to keep getting stronger! I’m going to make sweets with honey!!!
“Hahahahahahahaaaaa!!!” Laughing her heart out and a smile breaking across her face, Bug sprints forward, keeping so low to the ground that she is practically running on four limbs like a rat, her wings bellowing behind her, still disguised as a cloak in case she is being watched, as her topmost arms are poised to strike like the stinger of a scorpion.
The queen bee charges to meets her, stumbling forward with her damaged limbs and buzzing with her remaining wings.
Bug dodges to the side, avoiding a spray of sticky fluids, not stopping in her advance as she draws closer and closer.
The queen swipes low and Bug jumps over it, twisting in the air to avoid a biting pair of mandibles as she moves towards the queen’s blind side. Situated under the queen’s body, Bug moves to attack her legs, but is forced back as a meter long stinger flies her way, stabbing repeatedly to try and chase her out from under the queen legs as it scutters and moves about.
Bobbing and weaving, Bug dances as she avoids getting crushed by giant limbs or ran through by the stinger, parrying aside the poison-soaked thing with the flat of her blade as she spins to the side and further in.
Lashing out with her claws, Bug slashes through the queen’s thorax, causing it to hiss in pain as thick ichor spills out from the jagged wounds.
Sensing her chance to strike as the queen bee reels back in pain, Bug jumps straight up and swings her bladed top limbs, her sword like limbs slicing through the body of the queen in two lines before spinning in the air and cutting two more of its legs, separating them at the joint.
The queen falls to the side as Bug lands, diving to the side to get out from under the giant body as it falls.
With a loud crash, the queen bee falls to the ground, sending up plums of dirt into the air in a cloud of dust.
Watching as the dust settles, Bug looks on as the queen twitches and kicks its legs.
Bug smiles a cruel smile full of sharp teeth as she stalks forward, a bladed limb raised and ready to finish the job.
“I win, your honey is mine!”
Avoiding one last desperate bite, Bug stabs forward and buries her blade into the head of the queen bee, twisting and turning it before violently pulling it out.
The queen finally collapses, a last few kicks left in its legs before it finally goes still.
//Killed Lvl 18 Giant Queen Bee – 210 exp gained!
//Congratulations! You leveled-up a Skill!
//Claw Fighting Lvl 1 is now Lvl 2!
//Congratulations! You leveled-up a Skill!
//Sword Fighting Lvl 1 is now Lvl 2!
//Congratulation! You leveled-up a Skill!
//Fist Fighting Lvl 2 is now Lvl 3!
…
Yessssssss! Three skills leveled-up! I wasn’t using a sword though, so I guess my blade arms count as swords and claws at the same time then? Amazing, so that means I am taking advantage of three skills when I fight like this.
Looking at the dead bee, Bug can’t help but be thankful. Part of her wants to turn it into an Undead, or to sell it for points, but the humans would ask questions if it disappeared. Plus, it would feel a bit, disrespectful…
Looking back towards the hive, Bug catches sight of the others as they are climbing out, Hannah is waving to her, a jar of honey held up in the air for Bug to see.
Reverting from her combat form, Bug stretches and moves her body as her spikes and weaponized limbs shift back to normal.
That was fun, now to try making my own very own sweets!