The Bee Dungeon

Chapter 376 - Rally the Bee-fense

After the mortals left or drowned, the undine zipped around the room she now had to herself. She let herself go, giggling as she melded into the water of the chaotic currents, letting them pull her, push her, and spin her around as they pleased. Neither crushing pressure nor extreme darkness was any barrier to her, a being of water and mana. Even the mana storm itself was no danger to her, she drank in its Water mana whenever it came her way, basking in the raw power passing through her.

She hadn’t been sure what her dungeon master intended when he pulled her out of the water, but she quite enjoyed this room he eventually brought her to. To the point that she wondered why he had not implemented one of his own.

But her leisure time was at its end, her dungeon master was calling for her once more. She rolled her eyes but started making her way to the shortcut she entered the room through nonetheless.

As she did, she passed through the center of the room, where the mana storm was at its most intense. She paused, staring a swirling vortex of Water and Dark mana. Her face slowly curled into a grin.

She held out her hands in front of her, smashed them together, and began rubbing them like she was rolling dough into a ball. A bright sphere of glowing Water mana appeared between her hands, she gave it a pat and then tossed it into the mana storm.

A little vortex formed around the sphere as its dense mana immediately attracted the volatile storm, then a moment later in vanished as the Dark mana joined in as well.

The undine covered her mouth and giggled to herself, then swam off to see what task the dungeon master had for her this time.

Belissar clenched his fists. The ambush by the Bog-dwelling bees and flower monsters had failed, many swimming bees were killed. The oldest and strongest venomous slime rose nearly died with them and Frelis put herself at risk trying to save it.

But he forced himself to focus. The bees knew the risks and still insisted on trying to fight. Until Starami was stopped, Belissar couldn’t hold them back.

And now, the critical moment approached. After the undine had battered Starami’s forces in the Abyssal Trench and the true dragon had fallen to the assassin’s venom, Wardmaster Varilold decided it was time to face the Tower Lord directly. Dungeon Master Nenavann would personally join the battle when Starami reached the Muddy Seabed, where he could fight the Tower Lord at an advantage and with the help of his monsters, including the undine.

A suggestion by the pixies made Belissar realize he could, in fact, move the Abyssal Trench ahead of Starami since there were no invaders left inside of it, but the alliance ultimately decided against it. The Muddy Seabed lacked the Abyssal Trench's deadly environment and the raw power of a mana storm...but that meant that Nenavann could fight without needing to protect himself from the room and could bring more of his forces to the battle.

And crucially...so could Belissar and the rest of the Compact. Ever since Belissar raised the depth of the Muddy Seabed until sunlight reached the bottom, a pocket of air appeared in the room above the water. A sky over the surface of the water...one that the bee army could fight in as well as in any land-based room. The Muddy Seabed was thus the room where both Nenavann and Belissar could bring their full might to bear, together. They kept the room right after the mana storm Fairy Grove so that Starami would not be able to retreat to terrain more favorable to his forces...and since Starami was already moving through said Fairy Grove, the fight would be upon them soon.

Belissar moved the miracle lighthouse feature to the Muddy Seabed, as well as a Treasure Chest Full of Bees feature that he filled with honeycomb from the swimming bees. Belissar then turned his attention to the bee army as they made their final preparations.

The entire bee army now hovered before the shortcut wall. Urubran, Chief Rohsuak, and the Third of the Sixth gathered before them, while the Third of Sixth’s hive spread out among the bee army. The three disciples of Fire took one final swig of burning mana honey and burst into flames.

Chief Rohsuak gave herself to the fire, creating the largest and hottest blaze she possibly could. Urubran took charge, using all his skill as a dungeon master and innately magical fair folk to weave the raw inferno into a coherent spell. The Third of the Sixth hovered in the center of the storm, acting as a conduit to pass the flames to her children and to the hive of hives.

An inferno burst out of each of the Third of the Sixth’s bees, engulfing the entire bee army at once. Every bee in the bee army burst into flames as the inferno passed over them, like the fire coating Chief Rohsuak had taught the Third of the Sixth. The spell didn’t stop there though, a moment later the flames condensed down on each bee, forming a tight barrier around them. Each bee was now left with a subtle red shine. The infernos around Chief Rohsuak, the Third of the Sixth, and the Third of the Sixth’s hive all died down, sucked into the barriers around the bee army.

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Urubran smiled.

“There, that should last them a while, even against dragonfire.”

Chief Rohsuak stared at the bee army with wide eyes.

“Remarkable. I’ve never known fire to be so...obedient, so compressed. Your precision is incredible.”

Urubran chuckled.

“Well, when you’re a green elf kid who wants to learn Fire magic in a forest, you learn quickly not to let the fire go where everyone else doesn't want it. Or you get in serious trouble.”

Chief Rohsuak joined Urubran’s laugh at that.

Meanwhile, Metsaitti and Fourth Queen Pezuya took the most powerful of the karnuq and sigmaka warriors and joined a formation of fair folk, primarily the armored elves of the Silver host, but also including the green elf rangers, the golems of the black elves, and Curuhaxa’s dusk elves. Silver elf quartermasters, green elf herbalist, and dusk elf witches began handing out water-breathing potions to the formation so that they could march with Nenavann’s monsters.

A second formation stood apart from the main body, this one comprised entirely of the fair folk’s warriors. Giggling pixies flew over the formation, showering the entire formation in glowing pixie dust. Soon, armored silver elves began to float into the sky as the flight enchantment took hold, ready to join the bee army in the skies. Leading this formation was the black elf with a bunch of swords, Belissar had been informed he was called the sword saint. Belissar didn’t know what that meant but was assured the black elf was the strongest individual combatant the fair folk had, so he was glad for the help.

Belissar was also deeply interested in that enchantment for the karnuq, but since the karnuq had no experience with flying, they would have to stay on the seafloor for this battle. Their contribution to the aerial battle would be limited to Paisijik, who would fly on a wyvern along with the soldier bees raised by the hive she took care of, the First of the Ninth’s. Hirkolos arrived to join her after getting the surrendered Tower Guards settled under Sehfitis’s watch.

From the Circle, while only Nenavann had brought monsters from his dungeon, Hesfalle, Lomedys, and Urubran all volunteered to join the battle directly, while Finnakynne was riding Bumbly as always...and currently putting every defensive enchantment she knew on the bumblebee soldiers. Tamosmed would be controlling the golems, but would avoid direct combat as he admitted he was more of a craftsman than a warrior. Tarwantrad was notably absent...as she had been dragged kicking and screaming to the battle Fairy Grove by Wardmaster Varilold, who wanted to prepare that room as a fallback should the battle turn against them.

She was only convinced because Belissar would be joining her. He also wanted to join the battle directly now that he had the new bee armor prepared for him by Tamosmed and the pixies...but he already knew the hive of hives would be firmly against it. So, he would stand with Tarwantrad and Wardmaster Varilold on the final line of defense, the three of them would join the fight if and only if all other defenses failed.

And joining the three of them would be the light dragon hatchling. The hatchling had been loathe to separate from the Firstborn and, perhaps surprisingly, still intended to fight at first, despite being scared of the Tower Guard. But Belissar did not want to send the baby dragon into an extremely dangerous fight, not until it had a chance to grow stronger and maybe train to fight with the bee army. So, he ordered the light dragon to guard him and the final line of defense. If the battle went well, the hatchling would be safe...and if it didn’t, no one would be, so Belissar would need all the help he could get.

With their preparations complete, the bee army and all their allies moved in the Muddy Seabed, taking up their positions both in the sky and in the water. Now, all that was left was to wait for Starami to make it through the mana storm Fairy Grove.

Belissar took a deep breath, narrowing his eyes as he turned his attention back to the invaders. Lord Starami. The man who Belissar had once called lord. The man responsible for everything that had happened in Belissar’s life before becoming a Tower Keeper himself. The man who had denied Belissar’s parents medicine, who had taught him countless lies about the Towers and the gods, who had taken tribute after tribute from his village. Who had Belissar’s village burned to the ground and who then pursued Belissar to the very ends of the world, first by sending his son, then by coming himself, persisting even the gods themselves opposed him. Who had slain Belissar’s bees in his relentless attacks.

The man responsible for nearly every bad thing that had ever happened to Belissar. Hive Burner, the bees called him. Belissar found that title appropriate.

Belissar took a deep breath. When he had negotiated with General Rippotis, Belissar had prepared himself to make peace with the man who had brought him so much pain. He was prepared to live with the knowledge that Starami would persist, because venting his own anger towards the man was not worth the lives of the bees that would be lost doing so. As the karnuq had given up their anger towards the spiderkin children, as the fair folk had given up their anger towards General Rippotis, as the bees had accepted bearkin, skunk-kin, and spiderkin, so too would Belissar let his anger towards Starami go unsated.

But Starami himself had other ideas. Starami insisted on hurting him even though Belissar wanted nothing more than to be left alone. He had rejected peace, it was no longer necessary or even possible for Belissar to offer it. Now there was only one thing left to do.

Now Belissar’s mana buzzed, for it would all end today. Soon, if all went well, then by the resolve of his bees, the might of his allies, and the will of the gods, Starami would never burn another hive ever again.