Chapter 387: Dragonslayer's Bee-ward |
The celebrations went on into the evening. The beastkin and fair folk continued celebrating even after most of the bees returned to their hives for the night. Belissar eventually excused himself as it seemed the festivities would go on for the entire night.
He made his way back over to the memorial now that he could visit alone, with only Niobee accompanying him. He placing his hand on one of the pillars recording fallen bees, tracing the list of the Firstborn’s casualties. Bee carvings flew across the pillar to his hand, tapping their antennae against his fingertips like bees did to each other in their hives. He looked back up into the sky where the ephemeral bees had flown away.
This day had been a good reminder, reaffirming what he already knew. As far as the bees and the God of Bees were concerned, individual bee deaths were not a bad thing. They might even be a good thing when necessary, the God of Light had rewarded him for a bee making its way to her realm, so apparently the gods might benefit from welcoming souls to their afterlives. So long as the hive endured and continued to grow, the loss of any single bee was not in vain.
Before, Belissar had accepted it. Now, after all he had seen, after he was able to feel the hive of hives’ true feelings during a memorial, he could truly believe it in his heart. The hive of hives was proud to have defeated the hive burners, the price they paid was considered worthwhile for the victory achieved. Belissar could only be proud of them too, through their willingness to cooperate and sacrifice themselves, the hive of hives defeated veteran Tower Guards many times stronger than themselves.
Belissar would still never spend bee lives frivolously. He would still do his utmost to save every bee that he could. That much was just a part of who he was that would never change. But Belissar would also not deny them that which they desired. From now on, he wouldn’t just save bee lives at all costs, he’d at least ask himself if the sacrifice would be worthwhile to the bees. If the bees chose to give themselves for the good of their hives, then he would honor their resolve and make their sacrifice count.
So, Belissar reoriented his perspective on many things. One example that quickly came to mind was the new immortals. Belissar had to admit he had been slightly disappointed when he found out the hive of hives couldn’t make the entire bee army into immortals and spare the entire Tower from any further bee deaths. He knew from the start that was unlikely to happen, but part of him couldn’t help but dream of a day when none of his bees ever needed to die. But he had shaken off that disappointment before the bees could notice it. It was unnecessary, bee death was not such a terrible thing that Belissar should eliminate it entirely even if he could have. If the God of Bees benefited from welcoming fallen bees to her realm, it might even have been a bad thing to stop all bees from dying.
So, he was no longer disappointed whatsoever. Because immortals wouldn’t just be a way to save individual bees. They would be a tool to support the hive of hives and the Tower, just like any other monster bee type he had or could have picked. It’d be up to Belissar and the hive of hives to figure out how best to use them, not just to save bee lives, but to help the Tower grow as much as possible. Because that, ultimately, was the best way to protect his bees.
And Belissar would let nothing hurt his bees, not even his own desire to protect them.
The next morning, Belissar spoke with Chief Rohsuak after his morning routine and an early morning purification. She reported to him that the silver elves offered to supply food for the captive Tower Guards as an apology for how they had treated him earlier. Belissar was more than happy to accept that, with the silver elves covering the short term needs and the green elves helping him start some farms for the long term, the food situation was handled. He’d just have to coordinate with the green elves later in case he needed to add more rooms for the farms.
Well, technically it was the dragonslayer bee that received half of the corpse. Belissar and Chief Rohsuak went over to the digging bee’s hive to inform her of as much and see what she wanted to do with it.
The dragonslayer giantkiller bee immediately knew what she wanted to do.
“Ok! Will give to queen mother!”
The Fourth of the Fifth, her queen mother, responded right away.
“Will give to King!”
Belissar chuckled and shook his head.
“Thank you, both of you. Is there anything I could give either of you as a reward for this?”
The dragonslayer bee’s antennae twitched.
“Don’t need anything! King is best king!”
The Fourth of the Fifth danced much the same.
“Assassin evolved! Amazing, incredible! Already rewarded!”
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Belissar rubbed his chin. The evolution was amazing, but he felt like he wanted to give them a reward of his own, especially for the assassin that managed to bring down a true dragon.
Then, it came to him. His eyes widened as he realized what he could do.
“How about a name?”
The dragonslayer bee froze, dancing slowly.
“Name? Like Beero? Frelis?”
Belissar nodded and she burst out into a maximum speed happy dance.
“Amazing! Incredible! King is best king!”
Belissar grinned, then settled to start thinking of names.
“How about…Vinoi the Dragonslayer?”
The newly named bee tried to fly even faster as she repeated her “Amazing, incredible!” dance. Belissar happily nodded.
“Vinoi it is, then. Thank you, Vinoi, for protecting the Tower from a true dragon. You are the amazing, incredible one.”
Belissar considered what to do with the true dragon and came up with an idea. Before he could act on it, though, he had to speak with the owner of the other half. So, he, Chief Rohsuak, and Vinoi the Dragonslayer made their way to the pixie’s Apiary room.
There, he found pixies flying into the room, giggling and dancing as they extracted honeycomb from the room’s built-in beehouse features. Now that the battle with Starami was over, the pixies were starting to build their own homes right around the rows of beehouses, taking full advantage of the room Belissar had offered them.
Belissar left them to it and moved off to the side, where the Royal Pixie Guard was training. Even before he saw them, he heard loud, vicious cackling, followed by a ripping noise and then the clatter of wood falling to the ground.
“THAT’S RIGHT! FEAR ME, MORTALS AND IMMORTALS BOTH! I WILL NOW STRIKE YOU DOWN WITH THE STRENGTH OF MY BLADE! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Once Belissar got close enough to see what was happening, he found the Royal Pixie Guard gathered up around Captain Karpakynne. The captain was floating in front of human-sized training dummies, several of which were in pieces on the ground. The pixie herself was in at her usual small size, wielding the tiny lance of the Order of Hive and Stinger. But when she swung it, mana came out and formed a dragon’s claw bigger than both Karpakynne and her spear that then sliced straight through one of the training dummies. Captain Karpakynne then threw her head back and cackled once more, while the Royal Pixie Guard clapped and giggled.
Captain Karpakynne then turned to see Belissar and company approaching and made a huge grin.
“Tower Keeper Belissar! And my dragon-slaying companion! Welcome, welcome! I was just teaching these pathetic worms the value of good, old-fashioned blades and steel! Only a warrior who’s willing to put her life on the line and fight steel to claw can bring down a dragon like I did! Only through facing a dragon head on with blood and courage can they achieve a power as I have!”
Vinoi’s antennae twitched about as she danced.
“But didn’t sting lizard-thing’s head? Hid and stung belly?”
All of the Royal Pixie Guard turned to stare at Captain Karpakynne. She averted her gaze.
“We…uh…fought its mana and senses head on! Risking our lives by competing with its great power!”
One of the Royal Pixie Guard narrowed her eyes.
“So, you just used stealth and glamours like we all do? Like you’re always complaining about us doing? And then you had the bee sting it with poison?”
Captain Karpakynne scowled and waved her spear around.
“What are you all doing just hovering around, you lazy bums?! Playtime’s over, go do drills until you know which way the pointy end goes! No one gets to ride a lancer bee until I’m satisfied you can sting like one!”
Captain Karpakynne clicked her tongue and shook her head.
“Sorry about that, Tower Keeper. These lazy bums just take any chance they can get to play around. Now, how can I help you?”
Belissar raised an eyebrow, given that it had appeared Captain Karpakynne had been the one playing around, but it wasn’t his business so he didn’t comment on it.
“Actually, I wanted to ask you about the dragon. I’m wondering if Hesfalle can raise it so we can use it to defend the Tower next time. Vinoi here, that’s her new name by the way, already agreed, so it’s up to you.”
Captain Karpakynne’s eyes sparkled, while her voice went dead serious.
“If, and only if, I get to ride it into battle. Me and Vinoi, the dragonslaying dragon knight pair, riding the very dragon we defeated! Let’s do it, let’s do it!”
Captain Karpakynne wasted no time sending an extremely urgent message to Hesfalle. Hesfalle, upon learning of what was going on, rushed over as quickly as she could, as excited as Captain Karpakynne about the idea. Hesfalle now stood in front of the true dragon corpse, one hand on its snout with the other holding her book. Belissar, Vinoi, and Captain Karpakynne watched with bated breath.
And then…Hesfalle sighed.
“I’m sorry Belissar, but it appears the dragon was satisfied with his death.”
Belissar’s face fell.
“So, you can’t raise it?”
Hesfalle shook her head.
“I could, but I would just be animating the corpse with my mana like a puppet. He wouldn’t be anywhere near as powerful as he was in life. Worse still…”
She looked at the last page of her book, which now had a picture of a dragon being stung by a bee and stabbed by a pixie.
“He freely gave up his remaining mana to his slayers. There is little left lingering in his corpse, besides that innate to the flesh and bones themselves. He would be dramatically weaker as an undead than he was in life. And, well, I would prefer not to disturb a body that was satisfied with its life and death. I think it will be better to use the corpse for its resources, that’s what the dragon would have wanted instead.”
Captain Karpakynne floated to the ground and then fell on her hands and knees.
“No…the dragonslaying dragon knight pair…it’s all gone…”
Vinoi, however, kept flying and dancing.
“King already has flying lizard thing?”
Captain Karpakynne suddenly shot up, her eyes widening.
“Wait, that’s right! Tower Keeper, you have that light dragon, right? Right?!”
Belissar blinked.
“Yes? Well, if you can convince him to let you ride him. He wasn’t the most friendly…”
Captain Karpakynne’s face hardened.
“I’ll convince him, if it’s the last thing I do! The dragonslaying dragon riders will fly into battle yet!”
Belissar shook his head.
“Well, just don’t bother him too much, he’s still a baby. Then…what should we do with the corpse?”
Hesfalle chuckled.
“Belissar, it’s a true dragon corpse. What can’t you do with it? Its bones and scales can be forged into power weapons and armor, I’m surprised Tamosmed isn’t here begging you for them now. Every part of it can be used or ground down into potent ingredients for use in any number of fields. Alchemy, enchanting, spell-craft, warding, you name it. Plus, the flesh and blood are packed to the brim with mana. Other dragons would eat it and grow stronger…”
Belissar’s eyes widened.
“Dragons can grow stronger by eating the flesh and blood?”
Hesfalle nodded.
“Most monsters would be able to, I’d suspect. We could too, theoretically, though you’d have to process the meat to make it safe…”
Belissar started to grin.
“So…how about butcher or bloodsucking bees?”