Chapter 396: Don't Bee Spooked! |
After his meeting with King Taranskare, Belissar began to make preparations for the next day’s expansion. First things first, he reorganized his defensive rooms…which were still in the order he used against Starami.
Belissar now reset them for use in daily purifications. When he was done, his Tower went as follows:
The first floor held the battle Dirt Tunnels, the battle Bog, the Tornado Plains, the Sparkling Desert, the battle Lava Field, and the battle Flower Meadow, all one after the other.
The second floor held the Muddy Seabed, the Fairy Grove with a mana storm, the Hall of Purifying Light, the Abyssal Trench with the Farm off to the side where it would hopefully remain unnoticed, and then the battle Fairy Grove that now had the miracle lighthouse and the wards Tarwantrad or Belissar could use to cast big spells.
The experimental cold Flower Meadow was moved to the third floor, otherwise all other floors remained unchanged. The third floor held the aforementioned cold Flower Meadow, the Lava Field and Bog for bees, the Floating Islands, and a Lava Field that was pouring lava into a Dirt Tunnels as another experiment.
The fourth floor still had the karnuq’s Flower Meadow, Orchard, and Dirt Tunnels, plus three empty room slots. Belissar would have to ask the karnuq if they wanted anything new now that he had more room options. Maybe they’d want a Farm, or their own hunting room?
The fifth floor held the shortcut Orchard, the Fairy Grove for bees, the Apothecary’s Hut, the butcher bee’s hunting Flower Meadow, the Flower Meadow they were trying to turn into a Death room, and the Dragonvein Aurora Forest.
The sixth floor held the Fairy Grove with the nexus door, as well as the Apiary loaned to the pixies. There were still four unused room slots on the floor, though Belissar would probably end up giving at least one to the green elves soon. He was saving the rest for now, in case more of the fair folk wanted any.
The seventh and final floor held the Apiary, the Dirt Tunnels for the bees, the bumblebee meadow with the Heart of the Forest, Belissar’s Beecity, and the memorial Flower Meadow, plus one empty room slot.
The Dirt Tunnels would take up its original role of delaying shades and buying Belissar and his forces time to decide how to approach whatever the Hunger threw at them, so the exact order of the rooms may change based on what they saw. Still, Belissar did hope to deploy the Sparkling Desert and Tornado Plains early this time to see what they could do.
With the rooms reset, it would just be a matter of seeing what the Hunger had in store for them next. But this time, Belissar was confident the Tower would be able to handle it. He managed to sleep surprisingly well, even with the looming fight…
***
The next day, Belissar, Niobee, the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter, and his other allies gathered in the nexus door room. Wardmaster Varilold had set up some clairvoyance wards while Belissar had communer bees so that everyone could keep track of what was going on. Duke Turuhave of the silver elves arrived with a contingent of warriors, as well as scouts who would try to observe the shades firsthand. Chief Rohsuak was present, though she had brought a big axe made of red metal and was clearly ready to fight. Tarwantrad had come as well, ready to cast another big spell if needed, while Finnakynne was with the bumblebee soldiers as usual.
The bee army, the karnuq hunters, the Royal Pixie Guard, and the battle wardens all formed up in the shortcut Orchard, waiting to deploy on Belissar’s orders.
With everyone ready and assembled, Belissar trigged the purification.
Attempt expansion purification? Estimated purification strength: below average.
Expansion purification attempt commencing.
The gates of the Tower flung open once more. A huge mass of the Hunger formed, larger than any shade Belissar had seen yet. It began to coalesce in several places, then the shades began to march out.
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Yes, march. These shades did not crawl on many legs, but walked on two. Black, bony legs dug into the dirt, rib cages ended in sharpened tips. Red lights glowed in empty eye sockets, while thin arms held swords, spears, and bows.
The Hunger had sent a mockery of human skeletons this time. And like other shades, the skeletons had been mutated. Some had three or four limbs, each carrying a a weapon. Some had two or even three skulls on their necks, red eyes facing in every direction. The weapons themselves were not wood or iron but masses of the Hunger. Swords had teeth and claws for an edge, a spear wobbled on a tendril that swung its tip around, a club had a skull instead of stone at the end of it.
Oh, and the skeletons appeared to be on fire, coated in the Hunger’s black flames.
Expansion purification begun. Wave 1 begun. Remaining hostiles: 10. Total remaining waves: 2.
Wardmaster Varilold crossed her arms as she evaluated the incoming shades.
“Burning skeletons, huh? It seems the Hunger has finally gotten tired of your bees’ stingers. Venom doesn’t work well on undead to begin with and skeletons don’t even have flesh to inject.”
Belissar frowned. He only knew of skeletons from stories, a type of undead used by evil necromancers. At least as far as the Tower Lords told him, Belissar had only met one necromancer so far and she hadn’t been evil at all. But as Wardmaster Varilold said, this was a bad opponent for his bees. How could they sting an enemy with no flesh? Should they send someone to get Hesfalle?
But his thoughts were interrupted as Chief Rohsuak began to laugh and hefted her axe.
“That’s perfect. Tower Keeper, would you mind letting me handle this?”
Belissar furrowed his brow.
“I don’t mind but…fire probably won’t work on them either, right?”
Chief Rohsuak made a grin that exposed all her teeth.
“But smashing will.”
Belissar blinked. Wardmaster Varilold nodded along.
“I’d imagine they’re using a lot of their power for the fire. As long as the karnuq can deal with that, the skeletons themselves shouldn’t be too strong. The karnuq should deal with them nicely.”
Belissar considered that, then gave Chief Rohsuak a nod.
“Ok, I’ll have the bee army on standby if you need help.”
Chief Rohsuak just smiled and then marched towards the nearest shortcut. Belissar decided to just wait and see if she could handle this. In the meantime, he looked through the bee army, considering what he’d do if Chief Rohsuak needed help…
***
Chief Rohsuak grabbed the karnuq hunters and had them swap out their spears for clubs and axes. While they were doing that, she went ahead and found her disciple.
“Third of the Sixth, you should come with us.”
The Third of the Sixth swayed about, her antennae twitching.
“Karnuq queen needs? But King says can’t sting new invaders? Also can’t use fire?”
Chief Rohsuak grinned.
“Oh, you won’t need to. You should just watch as we fight, see the different ways we can use fire.”
The Third of the Sixth picked up speed.
“Ok!”
By then, the karnuq hunters were ready, so Chief Rohsuak led them through the shortcut to the Dirt Tunnels. They marched until the Tower Keeper warned them the skeletons were just around the corner.
“All right, form up and make a shield wall!”
The karnuq hunters looked at her in surprise, but she just gave them a stern glare until they got into position. As much as the chief longed to throw herself into battle once more, she knew it wouldn’t be good for her people if she destroyed this entire wave herself. This was, for once, an important battle with foes the bee army wasn’t suited to dealing with. This was, therefore, a major opportunity for the karnuq to contribute to the Tower and to gain more experience against powerful foes. Chief Rohsuak would not deny them that opportunity…even if her arms itched to swing her axe.
Instead, she stirred up her mana and threw a fire cloak on the entire formation. She smiled as the mana leapt to her call, she did not even need to eat mana honey anymore. That was a bit of a shame, but still she relished in having her old power back. She was not even dizzy after casting the spell.
“Now, march!”
The karnuq stood together and turned the corner. Down the tunnel, the skeletons were attempting to get past one of the Tower Keeper’s pit traps. They fell down into it, but were then able to help each other climb up the other side, lifting each other up to reach the edge. The sticky honey trap combo-ed with the pit had drenched them in toxic honey…which slowed them down but otherwise had no ill-effect.
The skeletons reacted immediately once the karnuq came into view. Those with bows began to launch arrows coated in black flames. The karnuq were ready, though, and caught the attack on their shields. Chief Rohsuak’s fire coat easily blocked the black flames on the arrows.
“CHARGE!”
Chief Rohsuak ordered the karnuq forward. The hunters let out a roar and rushed down the hall, colliding with the skeletons. The skeletons seemed to based on humans, so the karnuq towered over them…and out-massed them by a sizable degree. The karnuq ended up pushing the ones who had climbed out of the pit back inside.
Chief Rohsuak frowned. At this rate, she wasn’t going to get to do anything.
Fortunately for her, though, some of the skeletons were still on the other side of the pit trap, including some of the archers. The other karnuq couldn’t reach them and they were still launching arrows, now close enough that they might pierce a shield. Chief Rohsuak…grinned.
“Out of the way!”
She pushed two karnuq aside as she stirred up her mana. Fire flooded into her veins, setting her whole body alight. Her body then used the heat and energy of the fire to strengthen itself, just like the new perk the Tower Keeper had chosen did. She pushed the strength into her legs and leapt across the pit trap, crashing into the skeletons on the other side.
She spun her axe around. Black flames licked at her, but did nothing in the face of her fire. Her axe smashed the skeletons, crushing spines into dust and sending bones clattering to the floor. She held up her axe for another swing…and found no skeletons left save those in the pit trap. She lowered her axe and let out a light chuckle.
It was truly good to be back.
