The Bee Dungeon

Chapter 373 - Mo-Bee-lizing for Battle

Meanwhile, a pixie and a bee were hard at work. The aggressive one was stabbing into the big flying lizard thing over and over, looking more like she was trying to dig a hole than fight a battle.

“Why won’t this stupid lizard die?! This isn’t even fun or dangerous anymore! It’s just work!”

The digging monster bee assassin knew why: there weren’t enough bees. The big flying lizard-thing was too big and its mana too strong for a single bee, even an assassin like her and even with the aggressive one’s help. But she had already told the aggressive one that, so instead of dancing a reply she just focused on recovering her mana and replenishing her venom.

Unlike the aggressive one, the digging assassin bee wasn’t bothered by her inability to kill the big flying lizard thing. She was but one bee in the hive and the hive of hives beyond that, she knew that if she couldn’t sting an enemy alone, there would be more bees to help her later. Her job, then, was to weaken the big flying lizard thing as much as possible so that it couldn’t hurt as many of her sisters when they decided to help her sting it.

Since she knew she couldn’t produce enough venom to overcome the enemy alone, she had adjusted her focus. She was instead concentrating as much of her mana as she could into her venom, until it could take no more, and only then would sting. She found doing it that way made her venom last a lot longer before the big flying lizard purged it. And each time she did it, she adjusted how she imbued the mana, allowing her to squeeze just a tiny bit more into each sting.

She could only hope she picked the right method to weaken the big flying lizard thing...because it had just decided to dive. The digging assassin bee buzzed her wings and crawled back over to the gap in the big flying lizard thing’s chitin.

“Enemy attacking King’s realm, need sting more now!”

The aggressive one glanced towards the direction they were flying, narrowed her eyes, and nodded.

“Ugh, we’re out of time. All right then, one more push. I don’t think we’re going to kill it in time, so we’ll just have to hope that someone down there has the mettle to fight this thing directly.”

The digging assassin bee replied by giving the big flying lizard thing another sting. Her sisters, her hive, her queen, and King himself were all in danger now. Time would soon tell if the digging assassin had managed to help them...

Belissar and his allies made their preparations, starting with Belissar rearranging the order of his defense rooms. Since Starami was going all-in, they decided to move the battle Fairy Grove to the end of the defenses, where they would use its miracle lighthouse and the wards prepared within it to make their final stand.

The new order of defense rooms was the Hall of Purification, the Abyssal Trench and its side Flower Meadow for prisoners, the battle Lava Field, the battle Bog, the Fairy Grove with the mana storm, the Muddy Seabed, the new Sparkling Desert, the Tornado Plains, and then the battle Fairy Grove. They decided to skip the Dirt Tunnels this time; while there were some dangerous traps there now, Starami’s forces clearly had the means to dig tunnels through and make camps in the Underway, so Belissar and his allies couldn’t expect the Dirt Tunnels to delay them much. Worse still, without any innate hazards, the room might provide Starami’s forces a relatively safe place to rest and regroup. Wardmaster Varilold judged it was better to deny the Tower Lord any room he could make use of than to hope the tunnel’s traps might do some damage.

The hope was that the other rooms would not be so hospitable. The Lava Field’s mini-volcano would throw boulders at the Tower Guard gathering on the other side of the Abyssal Trench and push them to keep moving, while the rest of the room would at least be uncomfortable for any person or monster that wasn’t Fire-aligned. Next would come the Bog specifically for its vaporous hemlock that the pixies would spread across the room, forcing the Tower Guard not to stay there for long.

They hoped that those two rooms, with a bit of assistance by the fair folk, would lead Starami’s army to advance recklessly into the Fairy Grove with the mana storm, where they would take further casualties. The Muddy Seabed would come after to give them no dry land to rest upon and put further pressure on their Water-aligned guards. The Sparkling Desert that would come after would also be a poor place to rest.

Starami’s army, if it made it that far, would then be offered a breather...in the form of the Tornado room. A risky place to stay if they decided to spend time there recovering from the prior rooms...especially since the fair folk apparently knew ways of encouraging storms to form...

Then, finally, anyone who made it past all of that would be confronted by the full force of the alliance in the battle Fairy Grove, where Wardmaster Varilold had repaired the wards and Tarwantrad stood ready to use them once more. Alongside her would be the bee army, all the karnuq hunters, and all the warriors the Compact and the sigmaka had not deployed elsewhere. Belissar didn’t ask the infant light dragon to join this time, but the dragon had followed the Firstborn and the monster bee knights and so ended up on the potential battlefield anyways.

The Circle stood ready as well, Hesfalle and Lomedys were prepared to join the fray alongside Tarwantrad and Finnakynne...and soon more Circle masters joined them.

First, Urubran arrived...with his arms crossed and a frown on his face as he came to greet Belissar.

“Belissar, do you know why I’m upset?”

Belissar knew.

“Because I made another dragonvein room instead of the volcano one?”

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Urubran threw his hands up in the air.

“Because you made another dragonvein room instead of the volcano! Belissar! Why?! Why did you go and make another dragonvein room first, when you KNOW I’ve been waiting for you to get the mana for the first one!”

Belissar glanced down.

“...sorry. I wanted the Aurora Forest so I could spawn the light dragon for the fight. And, um, I promised not to make the volcano without you and you weren’t there...”

Urubran opened his mouth...but then paused.

“Ugh, that’s true...ok, fine! I’ll forgive you this time, but you have to make the dragonvein volcano as your next room, ok?! Now, where is Chief Rohsuak and the Third of the Sixth? I want to compare our Fire spells before the battle starts.”

Belissar had a bee lead Urubran to his Fire defenders, then turned to greet his next guest. He ended up staring and blinking repeatedly.

Tamosmed had returned...with a group of five towering golems marching behind him, all made of silver-colored metal and carrying weapons made of the same. Tamosmed gave him a big smile.

“Hi Belissar, sorry I’ve been away. I had to arrange a few things...but I’m glad to announce the black elves are now fully on your side and will hold nothing back for this battle.”

Belissar stared up at the golems.

“So...those aren’t silver, are they?”

Tamosmed grinned and shook his head.

“No, no they are not. These are mithril golems, the last in existence. At least, the last for now. I hope that, in the future, you, your bees, and my people will be able to build many, many more.”

Belissar just nodded silently as he observed the golems. They certainly looked impressive, made with such detail they looked more like sculptures than weapons of war. No two were alike, each with different shapes, sizes, features, and weapons...but each was filled to the brim with mana.

Tamosmed went to coordinate the deployment of the golems, while Belissar waited for his final guest. The Tower Guard were arriving on the surface, so he really hoped Nenavann would arrive soon. They had put the Lava Fields in front of the Bog specifically to buy Nenavann time to arrive, hopefully with some monsters that could make use of the swampy terrain.

But just as Belissar was getting worried the battle would begin without the Circle master, the leaves of the nexus door swirled, expanding the size of the spinning circle. Nenavann stepped through holding his hand up...and several big spheres of water came along, floating above him. Fish much larger than any Belissar had ever seen...and with far more teeth...swam in circles within the spheres, while giant turtles and toads and slimes all crawled along the ground behind Nenavann.

Nenavann led the procession to Belissar and then bowed his head.

“Sorry I’m late, Belissar. I had hoped to bring more, but I never considered moving my monsters out of my dungeon and had some trouble with the larger ones. Unfortunately, we are out of time, so I had to give up on bringing those.”

Belissar shook his head. Larger ones? Nenavann had brought fish bigger than an adult karnuq so Belissar wondered what Nenavann considered larger.

“No, this is great. Thank you for the help, Nenavann.”

Nenavann lifted his head and smiled. Belissar’s attention was drawn to one of the spheres, one that appeared completely empty. But though he couldn’t see anything inside it but water, he could feel the raw mana emanating from it even without his mana sight. He heard a woman’s giggle come from the sphere. Nenavann explained once he notices Belissar’s line of sight.

“She’s an undine, a water spirit, and one of my most powerful monsters. With her help, I believe I can match the Tower Lord, perhaps even if he brings his dragon. And...besides the kraken, she’s one of the few living things I believe can survive in an abyssal mana storm.”

The water within the sphere swirled and a darker blue mass formed into the shape of a woman made of water. She crossed her arms and pouted at Nenavann but then gave Belissar a smile. He began to feel drawn towards the water and subconscious began reaching a hand for it...but then Niobee buzzed and Nenavann cleared his throat. Just like that, the urge he had to touch the water was gone. The undine just covered her mouth and giggled again.

Nenavann shook his head.

“I better get everyone into place before the battle begins. Let’s defend our homes together today, Belissar.”

Belissar smiled back.

“Yes, let’s.”

Captain Auschias marched at the head of the army as they stepped out onto the surface, an unreadable look on his face. Beside him stood Beroura and Germistis along with their fellow Tower Guards, behind him followed the survivors from the supply camp. He arranged the army so that the Tower Guard was alone in the front and the monsters were all in the rear. His explanation for Starami’s Claw, to the small extent they cared about the details of the deployment, was that for the sake of an all-out assault, Lord Starami would probably send the younger Tower Guards in first while leaving the weaker monsters as a rear guard against the spiderkin. This would keep his elites, all the most experienced, most powerful, and most loyal Tower Guards in the center, where they could stay fresh and ready to confront the main force of the fey.

He needn’t have bothered, Starami’s Claw was busy preparing themselves for battle. Everyone knew it would be them, Lord Starami, and the most powerful of his monsters that would win or lose this battle. Everyone else existed just to buy them space and time, to die so that their lord might succeed. The details of how they died were not important so long as Lord Starami achieved victory in the end.

Such was Captain Auschias’ understanding of his lord. He had a brief glimmer of hope when the spiderkin attacked and he rushed up to the main camp, fully intending to organize a response. Perhaps...Lord Starami might lead them against the vicious subhumans, a fight the Tower Guard had long prepared for. And then, with the siege broken and their supplies gone, Lord Starami might abandon his designs on the fey tower and lead them all back home. It was the wise thing to do, given how this assault had gone and with an enemy force of unknown strength now striking from the rear...not to mention matter of the gods. Had Lord Starami done so, Captain Auschias would have stood by his lord’s side and left it to the Conclave to judge his actions.

But Lord Starami had instead ordered an all-out assault on the Tower. He left Captain Kamchitis to die without a word, sending the reinforcements Captain Auschias had prepared against the fey instead. Captain Auschias supposed he shouldn’t be surprised, Lord Starami had not even acknowledged Lindkontas the Dragonblood’s death, why would he care about anyone else’s?

And now Lord Starami was sending them all to their deaths. Captain Auschias had been at the strategy meetings...he knew there was no plan yet to deal with the deadly water room or the defenses that had killed Lindkontas and driven off the rest of Starami’s Claw. The only way this assault would proceed would be through blood...and it would have to proceed without delay. They no longer had the supplies to take things slowly.

Not one of the Tower Guard around him was apt to survive. Captain Auschias himself was not strong enough to survive this. Even Starami’s Claw itself was not safe in this Tower. It would be one thing if they were dying to do their duty, to give their lives for the sake of humanity and the gods. But instead, they would all die trying to conquer a Tower supported by many gods, including the God of Light herself, for a Tower Lord that had rebelled against the Conclave, the High Council, and the gods.

Germistis, Beroura, and the Tower Guards around him halted in front of the gates to the fey Tower, then turned to look at him.

“Orders, captain?”

Captain Auschias took one last, deep breath before giving his command...