Chapter 423 - Dangerous Bee-cisions

In the morning, Belissar and Niobee gathered with Duke Turuhave, Chief Rohsuak, Finnakynne, the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter, and the Second Third of the First to discuss purifying the corrupted room, now that they knew new shades would defend it if the mushrooms couldn’t. The Second Third of the First sent her zom-bees to fly through the room in the meantime and scout for any new shades. The Second Third of the First was a little confused at the meeting, though.

“Can still send cutes? Will tell cutes fight enemies?”

Belissar considered that. It was true that the undead rabbits didn’t attempt to fight back last time, they just kept gnawing the mushrooms while the salamanders bombarded them. Maybe they could’ve fought back themselves?

“Is that ok? You lost a bunch of them, right?”

The Second Third of the First’s antennae twitched about.

“Is fine? Cutes evil. Also, think can heal, even if dead. Instincts say should find bodies.”

Belissar blinked.

“You can heal them…even if they’re dead?”

It was Finnakynne who answered.

“Necromancers, Beely. They make undead from corpses, so if their undead become corpses they can just make them undead again. It’s why Hesfalle still talks to me, honestly, my pranks on her dungeon were more of a…inconvenience, at worse.”

Duke Turuhave nodded.

“It’s the primary advantage of a necromancer. You either have to deal with the necromancer, or else you have to take the time and trouble to completely destroy every single body. Otherwise, you will drown in an endless wave.”

Belissar smiled. An endless wave sounded good, since it would be on their side. And, to be honest, it would be convenient to keep using the Second Third of the First’s undead. If assault shades first had to deal with undead rabbits within the corrupted room, then the rest of the Tower would always have forewarning of incoming assaults. There wasn’t a downside, now that he thought about it.

He was about to give the Second Third of the First permission to resume her undead assault…when she began buzzing her wings and extending her stinger.

“Evil! Betrayers! Knew cutes were evil!”

Belissar quickly turned his attention over to the zom-bee scouts, assuming they had found something…and was treated to the sight of the undead rabbits killed by the salamanders walking once more.

Except…now they were made of Hunger and had glowing red lights for their eyes. They were hopping up and down, trying to bite the zom-bees overhead.

“The Hunger…turned the undead rabbits into shades?”

Duke Turuhave grimaced.

“I should have expected that. The dusk elves failed to hold back the Hunger as well. They wouldn’t have if the Hunger couldn’t deal with undead. Still…the Tower’s protection didn’t extend to them?”

Finnakynne’s expression turned dark.

“Turuhave, the Hunger can even corrupt a dungeon if the dungeon gets overwhelmed. We’re dealing with a room of Beely’s Tower that has been corrupted itself. I think the Second Third of the First’s undead were protected by the Tower…but then we left the corpses in a corrupted room for hours…”

Duke Turuhave sighed.

“Then…we cannot rely on the undead. Not unless we can recover the bodies that fall, otherwise we are just feeding the Hunger.”

Chief Rohsuak rubbed her chin.

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“Not necessarily.”

Belissar turned to her.

“You have an idea?”

Chief Rohsuak smiled.

“The same as yesterday. The undead can still make progress for us so long as they do more damage than a single rabbit shade can do to us. So, all we have to do is make sure they do sufficient damage. And Juosiutik has been working on ways to do just that.”

***

The group discussed delivery methods for Juosiutik’s fire pots before deciding on the undead. They still weren’t sure they could protect the living against the toxic Hunger mist in the room, so that would be the last resort. Beeswax golems were a viable alternative, but there was only one the bees weren’t using at the moment. Plus…if things went wrong, they’d rather the Hunger get another rabbit than a golem…

So, the plan was to have the undead carry Juosiutik’s fire radish pots…and newer, more explosive versions she had been working on.

Which led to the current scene before Belissar, in an empty area in front of Juosiutik’s home.

Two undead rabbits were trying to wrap their front paws around a pot…one that was currently filled with plain old water for safety. They twisted and turned. One rabbit managed to tilt itself over and fell to the ground, knocking over the pot in the process.

Juosiutik frowned.

“I hate to say it, Belissar, but I don’t think those rabbits can carry a pot.”

Belissar hesitated to agree out loud, though inwardly he shared the concern. He didn’t want to affect the Second Third of the First’s confidence.

The bee herself had no such qualms, though, and buzzed.

“Traitor cutes useless and evil.”

Belissar shook his head.

“They’re…trying their best…”

“Can help, can help!”

Belissar blinked at the sudden interruption and turned to find one of the spiderkin children, the one he had seen helping Juosiutik before. One of the few spiderkin boys now that Belissar got a closer look at him. Juosiutik smiled down at him.

“Oh? How do you want to help, Eighth Brother?”

Eighth Brother bobbed his head up and down.

“Can use webs! Like Fourth of the Seventh’s trappers, will tie pot to the meats! Just like how the bees carry them!”

Belissar’s eyes widened. Ah…that was the obvious solution, wasn’t it? The bees didn’t carry pots with their legs either. Everyone agreed, so Eighth Brother quickly spun some webs and connected them between the rabbits and the pot. The rabbits then started to hop and stumble their way forward, dragging the pot along…rolling it along the ground, making it clatter when one of the rabbits accidentally hopped too high and yanked it up a bit.

“Is…that safe?”

Juosiutik shook her head.

“No, no it’s not. At least not with explosives. But it’s an easy fix, we can just use a cart or a sled.”

It was easy enough for Juosiutik to arrange for a small sled. Two undead rabbits were now tied to the front and pulling it along, with the pot secured with webs. The pot thus stayed in place even when the rabbits stumbled or hopped and jostled the sled. Belissar smiled. This seemed like it would work…

Juosiutik then tilted her head.

“Ok, they can carry the pot…but how are they going to break it open?”

Ah…there was that part too. The bees normally just dropped the pots…because they could fly…and the rabbits couldn’t…

The Second Third of the First seemed to notice the problem as well.

“Could use soldier bees? Is fine if become zom-bees.”

Belissar shook his head. They had had this discussion before, at the start of this. His answer was still the same.

“I appreciate the offer, Second Third of the First. But…if something goes wrong…I’d really rather not give the Hunger soldier bees.”

Which meant they need to figure out how the undead rabbits would break a pot once it got where it needed to go…

***

There was a lot of brainstorming, experiments, and frustration. But, eventually, finally, as the day grew late, they managed to come up with something that might work. They built a small tower out of thin pieces of wood on top of the sled, securing it all in place with webs. When the sled got where it needed to go, the rabbits could then chew through the webs and the thin wood of the tower, eventually causing it to fall over. They had to make sure the pot was thin enough and the tower tall enough for that to work, but at the very least, it could work…occasionally…if everything went right…and if the thin, unstable tower didn’t fall over on the way there…

…Belissar was not entirely optimistic at this point, but since they had an option that could potentially work, they decided to give it a try. So they, moved to the shortcut room, tied some rabbits to a sled, and carefully, very carefully, placed an actual potion on top of the sled’s tower. They were using one of Juosiutik’s first fire pots for this attempt, the ones that just had a sliver of fire radish tied to a pot full of mana honey…because those tended not to explode as violently if something went wrong. Then everyone backed up to a safe distance and the Second Third of the First gave the rabbits the order to move.

Belissar jumped as the sled lurched, but the rabbits managed to make it through a shortcut before it could fall over. They exited out into the Bog, right next to the entrance of the corrupted room, and hopped their way inside. Zom-bees hovered around the other side of the entrance in the corrupted room…also at a safe distance…to see what would happen.

The undead rabbits managed to make it into the corrupted room without the pot falling over. Juosiutik and Eighth Brother cheered when Belissar relayed the news…

Then the rabbits reached the mist around the mushrooms. The mist lit it up once it touched the fire radish sliver…and then the entire sled exploded, pot, sled, rabbits, and all.