Chapter 425 - Bee-vining Sufficient Munitions

Belissar was currently hovering over the Second Third of the First, bouncing as his leg refused to stay still.

“Is your zom-bee ok?! That was some sort of infection or parasite, right?!”

The Second Third of the First buzzed her wings.

“Was. Zom-bee ok, infection died. But dangerous, so zom-bees staying away from mushroom and infected zom-bee.”

Belissar nodded as quickly as he could.

“Yes, of course. Do what you need to keep them safe.”

He really wanted to give her permission to pull the zom-bees out…but he and the hive of hives really needed eyes inside the corrupted room. Besides…this was precisely what the zom-bees were for. They couldn’t be hurt like a normal bee, indeed, the infection itself failed upon entering the zom-bees’ body.

But the former beekeeper couldn’t help but panic at the sight of a bee afflicted by a visible infection. His mind was spiraling, trying to figure out how to protect the Second Third of the First’s hive…before remembering that he was no mundane beekeeper anymore and the Second Third of the First’s hive were no mundane honeybees. He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

In the end, the zom-bee wasn’t actually infected, something about her undead body and mana disagreed with the Hunger’s parasite. Moreover, the Second Third of the First could simply keep the zom-bee away from the hive until they were sure the infection was gone, so there was no risk of it spreading to the rest of her bees. The Second Third of the First could even repair any damage to the zom-bee once they were sure it was safe. The zom-bee had fulfilled its role and then some, Belissar was very, very glad they hadn’t tried sending living bees into the room.

Belissar shook his head, he really needed to stay calmer. In any case, things had worked out. The Hunger had revealed a trap on a bee that could survive it…and, moreover, said trap didn’t work on the zombie rabbits at all.

“It looks like the rabbits are fine, so let’s continue. Just keep the zom-bees a bit further back, and lets make sure no living bees go inside the room. Ah, we might need to clean the rabbits before we use them again?”

The Second Third of the First danced the negative.

“Cutes damaged, can’t pull sled now, will tell to attack until die.”

Belissar nodded as the Second Third of the First sent the rabbits her command. The damaged undead hopped or, in the case of one that had lost its back legs, crawled, to the nearest mushroom and began gnawing on it.

Despite the initial scare, the effort continued uninterrupted. More undead rabbits carried more sleds with more bombs, clearing more and more of the forest. They reached a second giant mushroom, this time, the rabbits didn’t attempt to flee, staying right by the mushroom until the bomb went off. The Second Third of the First had decided she’d rather lose them then risk them infecting the hive of hives.

The night went on, until the sun began to rise. Neither Belissar nor the Second Third of the First went to sleep, though fortunately the Tower kept Belissar alert, while their allies implemented shifts so they could all get the rest they needed.

By morning, though, they ran into a problem: the Silver Host was running out of bombs. Duke Turuhave had been aware of the possibility he’d be cut off from the land of the fair…but had not expected a purification of this length, so did not have the supplies for an extended campaign. And since any bomb that used Fire mana was off the table, the Silver Host’s supply was limited to begin with. By morning, they were transitioning over to Juosiutik’s bombs…after a quick test to ensure combusting orchid powder wouldn’t trigger the Hunger’s trap.

The one observing warden and the warriors of the Silver Host that happened to be familiar with wards were still able to help, though, by setting up trigger wards for Juosiutik’s bombs. For a while, an assembly line formed in the Apothecary’s Hut. Karnuq and soldier bees worked to grind down dried combusting orchid into powder while silver elves engraved wards onto pots. The spiderkin children were helping by putting the pots onto rabbit sleds and using their webs to secure them in place along side monster bee trappers.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

But, unfortunatey, Juosiutik’s supply of combusting orchids wasn’t endless either. Belissar hadn’t really started to grow them in bulk yet, so Juosiutik only had what the Apothecary’s Hut could provide and the hut had many other types of flowers to grow. At this point, they’d run out of bombs before they finished clearing the room…especially with the occasional shade assault that would destroy a sled or even a few when they first appeared.

There was a potential solution. The wardens had used exploding ward traps in Belissar’s Tower before, the observing warden knew how to make them and the silver elves could help too. But when they tried it, they ran into another problem. The exploding wards were specifically designed to trigger when any part of them was corrupted, which worked well when the Hunger was on the attack. But when trying to attack a corrupted room…the wards exploded before the rabbits reached their targets.

The observing warden frowned after a third attempted, when he tried to strengthen the ward and delay its corruption.

“I am sorry, Tower Keeper, but if that didn’t work, then my mana simply cannot resist the Hunger long enough to pull this off.”

Belissar shook his head.

“Thanks for trying, anyways. I guess we’re back to rabbits chewing on the mushrooms, unless we can think of something else…”

The warden sighed.

“If only some of your sworn defenders or monster knew wardcraft. Dungeon-blessed mana might last longer. I could attempt to teach them…but it would take a while. Longer than we’d like to resolve this situation.”

Belissar froze.

“Hey, Niobee…wasn’t Beero and First Dronecaster trying to learn wards at some point?”

Niobee took off from his head to zip around in a happy dance.

“Learned! Taught workers, too!”

A smile grew on Belissar’s face. Just a few moments later, Beero and First Dronecaster led the workers of the hive of the fallen and landed before him and the warden. Beero then had them demonstrate, the workers began to build honeycomb into a particular pattern. Once they were finished, the honeycomb pattern started to glow.

The observing warden had a blank, unfocused look in his eyes.

“…bees are making functional wards. Bees less than a year old have learned the basics of wardcraft. I studied and practiced for years before I was allowed to construct a fully functional ward…”

Belissar decided not to respond to that.

“So, can you teach them the exploding ward?”

The warden’s eyes refocused…slightly.

“Their ward patterns are different from ours but…yes, I think I can. The exploding ward is a simple one, a defective mana storage ward really. They seem to have a mana storage pattern, so it should be possible for them to adapt it.”

Belissar grinned…while the warden’s eyes lost their focus again.

Just a few hours later, Beero, First Dronecaster, and her workers were completing a ward. The spiderkin then put it on a sled with the Second Third of the First’s cutes, who took it into the corrupted room. Beero watched through the hive of hives as the cutes took it into the Hunger, knocked it off the sled, and left.

The mana of the fallen resisted the Hunger for a while, but apparently even the hive of hives’ mana could not endure the enemy forever. The edges of the glowing honeycomb began to turn black…and then the honeycomb exploded.

And King…smiled.

“It worked! And it didn’t explode immediately!”

The fair one who had taught them started muttering to himself, something about babies modifying their own ward language. Beero wasn’t really paying attention, because she was busy doing a happy dance with First Dronecaster and the workers.

Long ago had King instructed them to learn wards. Now, he had called upon them to use what they had learned to protect the hive of hives…and they had succeeded. King smiled upon them as they danced.

“Great work Beero, First Dronecaster, hive of the fallen. Can you start making more of those now?”

Beero’s happy dance came to an abrupt halt.

“…can’t. Workers out of mana, need recover first.”

But King just kept smiling at them.

“That’s fine, let them rest and make them as you can. Is there anything they need? Mana honey, maybe?”

Beero slowly danced a confirmation.

“Yes, honey helps.”

King then reached out his hand and his vast mana began to stir. A spell honeycomb formed above his palm, creating a pool of mana honey on top of it, then held it out towards the workers.

“Here, drink as much as you want!”

Beero froze. She remembered…she remembered that day when she had managed to fight once more. When she had leapt from the Memorial pillars and dove upon an enemy and when that enemy’s lightning had sealed her fate.

When she had been saved…after King offered her honey from his own hand, made by his own mana. The same honey he now offered to the workers.

The workers turned to her. In a daze, she began a drifting dance.

“Go, drink. King says, so do…hive of fallen.”

The workers danced their salutes and flew over to King’s hand, drinking from his palm. Beero turned to her side.

“First Dronecaster too.”

He started to dance a refusal, but Beero sent a firm wave of mana towards him and he reluctantly obeyed. He needed to take part in this. Beero needed him and all the workers to take part in this.

First Dronecaster and the workers had expended their mana in defense of the hive. That effort had been acknowledged by King and he was now replenishing their mana from his own hand. The same exact thing he did when Beero had become the first bee of the fallen.

Even though they had not lost their wings…King had declared these bees were bees of the fallen. And so, Beero would as well.