The hornets directly around Adama exploded in a cloud of gore and dust, the green sword energy emanating from Hearthblade in a dome. The stingers themselves weren’t blades, but the closest one still emitted their own echoes of Adama’s lethal song. In the blink of an eye, a large portion of the monsters were dead or crippled, sending the remaining bugs into a frenzy.
The Hive, however, was unphased. It had begun pumping out more hornets at a rapid pace even before he thinned the herd, and now it began to target him directly. It twisted to take aim at the adventurer and pulsed with more activity. The hanging black structure spewed a reddish yellow liquid in wide spurts, tracking Adama as he moved away. If he let himself get hit, the viscous liquid would stick to the swordsman and drastically slow his movement. Surviving the next few seconds depended entirely on Adama’s footwork, as taking one of those shots directly would be a death sentence. Even as he dodged, though, the disgusting substance pooled on the floor, limiting his movement.
Adama didn’t take all this lying down, and he struck back with several full powered Rippling Swords, aimed at the source of his woes. The Deadly Hornets swooped to intercept his magic, placing their own bodies between the magic and their mother. Even as the spells carved through them, the Hive spawned more hornets to replace the losses. These new recruits swooped in on the adventurer, determined to smother him by force of numbers.
Adama was a blur, streaking across the battlefield in a hectic sprint, his blade alive in his hands as it sang through the air. He carved through the horde as a spinning tornado of death, but there were too many of them coming from every angle. A narrow shift of his hips sent enemies sailing past him but opened him up to more bugs on another flank. Adama felt the impact as a trio of spears drove into his back with a dull thwackthwackthwack. He stumbled forward but caught his balance quickly enough to kill another set of monsters swooping behind him. Miraculously, Tim was only bruised by the strikes, and he continued his march across the room at breakneck pace.
His cloak had saved his life. The Minotaur’s hide was thick, but even it wasn’t good enough to fully stop the mighty strikes of the Deadly Hornets. It was enough to diminish their sting, however, which caused them to lack the strength to pierce his remaining armor. From the front, Tim was invincible, with any monster foolish enough to oppose him head on either diced in pieces or adroitly dodged. From the rear, he had protection, and this combination allowed him to close the gap with the Hive. When he was nearly right under the enemy, Adama let loose on the ceiling fixture with a blaze of green light, barking out his spells as quickly as he could. The sentries tried to body block, but at this range it wasn’t enough. Several of his spells slipped through, and even weakened they were enough to open bloody lines in the midnight skin of the twisted, monstrous apparatus.
The Hive screamed, its high-pitched cries causing Adama’s teeth to vibrate. It began spewing that hateful liquid in a broad area below where it hung, forcing the swordsman to leap backward to avoid the trap. He was pursued by the hornets that remained, and they chased him further away from their wounded mother. Adama fought to thin the herd as he circled the Hive in search of another opportunity. Nothing was forthcoming, as the Hive was smart enough to shoot out more liquid when he threatened to get too close. The upside of that was that the more it focused on keeping him away, the less it was able to spawn its brood. Adama was slowly whittling away at the total number of Hornets in the room, forcing them to give their lives in defense of their mother whenever possible.
Slowly was the operative word in that sentence. Time seemed to be on the swordsman’s side, as the more he chipped away at the horde, the more he would be able to hurt its source. But he was a man, not a machine. Already, he had been running and fighting at full tilt for ages, and his enemy remained numerous and belligerent. The minutes ticked by as Adama pushed his Spirit Healing to its limit, trying to recover as much magic as he could while cutting through the enemy with more Rippling Swords. It was never enough, and he felt his reserves dip below half as the time dragged onward.
On top of all that, he needed to remain constantly focused. A minor slipup, the slightest lapse in judgement, could end his life. His dragon hide cloak couldn’t take those stingers directly, and he needed to work constantly to keep from being stabbed at the wrong angle. Adama wouldn’t win the battle of attrition, and he wasn’t sure he would even be able to try. Eyes flitting around to track the swarming targets, his mind worked furiously under the pressure. Another Endless Sword was his best option, but the Hive knew that too. For another few heartbeats, they continued their macabre dance within the rocky cylinder, Adama certain that the Hive was watching him as closely as he was it. He was whittling the field as much as possible as he waited for the right opportunity.
In between breaths, Tim’s focused frown lightened just a little. Eyes flashing, he began his magic:
“Hear the song of a faraway land…”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Like it was waiting for this exact moment, the Hive began creating its brood at an even more rapid pace. Body undulating hideously, it began spitting out monsters in a stream that shifted and honed in on the lone warrior at rapid speed. He couldn't use his Rippling sword while chanting, so he was forced to cut them down the old fashioned way. Adama’s sword whirred ever faster, the white blade a flashing wheel that grinded through the opposition, outlined in the green of his imminent magic. It wasn’t enough, and he felt himself be struck, once, twice, thrice, and four times in his vulnerable back. Each impact threatened to knock him fatally off balance or disrupt his chant, and it was all he could do to juggle everything.
Even as he neared the last line of his magic, the bulk of the Hive’s reinforcements dove towards his front, and he realized he couldn’t stop them all. Spitting out the words at rapid speed, he was just a beat slow, the bristling wall of spearheads gleaming as they closed in on his heart. Then, a chant finished:
“Rock of Ages!”
In the moment of truth, a translucent barrier shimmered into existence in a dome over Adama’s head. Those deadly lances struck the magic in a plongplongplong of the world’s deadliest rain landing on its toughest roof. A spiderweb of cracks slithered all over the overtaxed barrier, the magic stretched thin under the lethal onslaught. It didn’t have another second before it collapsed. Luckily, Adama didn’t need a second. His grin redoubled as he triumphantly called out:
“Endless Sword”
The wave of insect bodies positively exploded as the echoes rang out once again. Deadly Hornets were slaughtered en masse, and the Hive shrieked angrily again. On the other side of the field, a silver haired girl stared fearfully at Adama as she pointed a sapphire tipped staff at the surrounded swordsman. Her eyes sparkled the same robin’s egg blue as the gem on her staff as they focused on her defensive magic with a determination that outweighed her fear. Behind her stood a large dark-skinned man holding a tower shield of the same stygian color. He used a mace to squash what few bugs remained in their area to threaten the cornered adventurers.
Opening now created, Adama fired off a deluge of Rippling Swords, determined to carve off a chunk of his nemesis. There weren’t enough hornets left to stop him, and more weeping gashes opened up on the surface of the beast. When it screamed for the third time, Adama knew that he had won. The Hive seemed spent now, pumping out reinforcements at half the speed it had been at the beginning of the fight. The monster’s resources were not so unlimited, it seemed, and its most recent exertions had left it depleted. Rivers of dark red flowed down the surface of the Floor Boss of the 24th floor, and victory was in sight. Then, the Hive got desperate.
Adama knew that things weren’t right when his Rippling Sword landed on the surface of the beast untouched. It gouged a ravine deeper than any of its cousins beforehand, with no hornets to stop it, but the Bloody Hive didn’t let out a peep. Instantly recognizing that something was wrong, Adama’s head whipped around to follow the new path of the horde. As one, the bugs had abandoned their attack on Adama and streaked off towards the exposed duo. The girl seemed on the verge of a Mind Down, and she didn’t have the presence of mind to run back to cover. Her companion was moving towards her, but he clearly wasn’t built for speed. He couldn’t reach her in time to bring them both back to safety. She didn’t have the energy or the time for another spell.
Eyes narrowed down to a slit, Adama shot off to defend them, firing off magic at light speed. He abandoned his chant, opting to kill the bugs as quickly as possible, sword blurring even faster. He beat feet to interpose himself between the duo and the bugs, getting there just in time to prevent them from being overwhelmed. Adama stood his ground, blade tracing irregular patterns at it cut through the waning dregs of the insect swarm, narrowly keeping the others out of danger. At that point, however, he was hit with the Hive’s final gambit.
A torrent of reddish yellow liquid collided with the defending swordsman mere moments after he arrived on the scene. The Hive had anticipated his movements and shot the attack right in the place it expected Adama to go. The plan had worked out, and the stultifying liquid landed right on target, drenching the adventurer. Adama had noticed the attack, transparent as it was, but he couldn’t afford to dodge while also protecting the others. The sticky fluid clung to his body and hindered his movements, but it was too little too late in Adama’s eyes. The hornet population had been thinned to the extreme, and it wasn’t enough to kill him even while he was limited. Even as he defended the duo, he sent Rippling Swords towards the Hive, carving off more bloody chunks. In response, the Hive sprung the second half of its trap.
Wriggling just as it had before, the Hive began pumping out enemies at an increased rate, gasping out everything it had remaining to take advantage of Adama’s temporary weakness. The world slowed as the swordsman assessed the new development. It was better than even odds that he could survive this new challenge, as the Hive was clearly running on fumes, but it was less likely that all three of them would make it out alive. Thinking fast, he whipped a mana potion out of the pouch on his belt and flicked it over his shoulder. As the new enemies closed in, Adama fought them off valiantly, hoping to that his new friends had understood his point. He was gratified to hear the girl chanting once again, and he knew that another one of those domes would give him time to get free and finish this fight. Things were getting messier and messier as Tim fought with all his might to break free of the trap and fend off this final problem. After a brutal handful of seconds, she was finally finished:
“Cornerstone!”
In a single, suspended moment, Adama registered some confusion. That wasn’t the final line of her normal chant. With a great rumble, a deep purple-and-grey boulder flew right over his head. It howled through the air as the rock smashed through a small sea of hornets and collided with the battered Hive. The creature let out a long, feeble scream, its blood watering the fertile grasses below. Seizing his chance, Adama finally broke through the trap he was held in and hurtled toward the heavily wounded Boss. The remaining hornets barely numbered a half dozen, but they swooped down in a last desperate effort to protect their queen.
Bracing his legs, Adama gave an enormous leap, hurtling through the air at the few defenders that remained. The hornets were startled and tried to adjust, but it was too late. The swordsman flew behind one of them and struck out with his legs, shooting off the monster and towards another enemy. Each bug was squashed as Adama leapt upwards, monster by monster. His final jump sent him hurtling up and beyond the body of the Hive, towards the creature’s stem. With a flash of white, the connection was cut, sending the Hive down to the ground with an enormous CRASH that echoed throughout the chamber. It sat there unmoving. The last of its minions had been crushed.
The fight was over.