Chapter 427 - Bee-lazing Assault

The purification settled into a routine from that point on. The Hunger occasionally threw assault shades at the spell bees and spell wasps, but all that cost Belissar was time. No shade the corrupted room formed was as powerful as the first catkin shade, so the Silver Host and the trap field Bog were easily able to stop any assaults against the rest of the Tower.

Belissar waited for a change in the Hunger’s strategy…but none came. He expressed his doubts to Finnakynne, but she pointed out that the mushrooms had traps for both his Fire-wielding karnuq and for his bee army. At the level of purifications his Tower was facing, the Hunger probably didn’t have much room for anything more. It simply hadn’t been prepared for Belissar to employ armies of undead, summoning spells, and elven warriors.

If he hadn’t had those options…the karnuq would have taken damage from the poisonous mist and any attempt to burn it away would have backfired immensely. Belissar probably would have deployed the bee army then, since he had bees that were more resistant to poison…and then it would have been bees who first approached the big mushrooms, where they would have been infected by the clump attack. He’d have had no choice but to have his defenders try to power through the damage as best they could, as no one defender would be immune to all of the dangers of the corrupted room.

With all that, Finnakynne proposed it would be strange if the mushrooms also had contingencies for undead or summons, which Belissar hadn’t used in major purifications yet. Belissar was happy to agree.

And so time went on. A few days passed as Belissar and his allies carried on their work, pushing through the room. They found that the mushrooms also started to regrow if they slowed down too much, so the undead rabbits went back to work gnawing on new mushrooms while the summoned bees and wasps bombed the full grown ones. The Hunger cycled through the shades Belissar had seen and even combined different shades into groups, but the Silver Host handled them nonetheless. Over time, the Hunger sent fewer and fewer shades with longer periods of time between them, until it seemed to stop entirely.

At this point, most of the room was clear. There was only one big mushroom left and its surrounding grove of mushroom stalks. The Hunger hadn’t sent out an assault shade in over a day and the mist had receded from much of the room, though Belissar was still keeping the living away from the room for safety’s sake.

Belissar gathered with his council to review the situation.

“I think we can clear it with one final push, so let’s finish this. Let’s deploy all of Juosiutik’s and the Silver Host’s bombs that we’ve been saving.”

Chief Rohsuak and Duke Turuhave both agreed. They were about to begin deploying…when Belissar started receiving a frantic dance from the Second Third of the First.

“King! Enemy attacking! Is cat-King thing again!”

Belissar’s eyes widened. He whipped his Tower sight over to the zom-bees in the corrupted room and found a new catkin shade pouncing in and out of the mist, cutting down summoned wasps and undead rabbits alike. The catkin even targeted one of the zom-bees, the slower undead worker couldn’t move out of the way and was cut in half through her thorax. Belissar gasped…but then noticed that the zom-bee was still alive, as he could still see through her eyes, and her front half had now successfully flown away.

He now understood why they hadn’t seen any shades lately. He turned to his council with a grim expression.

“The Hunger is attacking with another catkin shade, I think this is its last stand.”

Duke Turuhave gave a resolute salute.

“Then we will strike it down like the first.”

Belissar nodded.

“I’ll get the stingless bees and trappers ready to help.”

The bees and their allies prepared their formations while the Second Third of the First pulled her undead back. The catkin shade, however, did not follow them, instead remaining in the mist. Belissar waited for it to begin its assault…and waited…and waited…

After an hour of waiting, Belissar frowned.

“I’m…not sure it’s coming. The Tower still hasn’t said an assault has started yet.”

Duke Turuhave frowned.

“That’s strange, the other shades didn’t wait this long.”

Belissar shook his head.

“No, they only waited for a few more of them to form before they…”

Belissar’s eyes opened as wide as they could go.

“…they waited for several shades each before starting an assault.”

Duke Turuhave’s eyebrow twitched.

“Ah…you think it’s going to wait for several of those catkin before it attacks? That would be a greater challenge then we’ve seen thus far, at the very least.”

Belissar crossed his arms.

“Do you think you can handle it? I can get the whole bee army ready to fight, or we could use one of the dangerous rooms.”

Duke Turuhave considered that, but Chief Rohsuak spoke up before he replied.

“Actually, Tower Keeper, I have an alternative idea.”

Belissar gave her a nod and she began.

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“At this point, the mist no longer covers the entire room, correct? And the shade itself seems to be staying within it, defending the last of the corruption. In that case…I say we don’t give the Hunger any more time. Let’s take the fight to it and defeat it while there’s only one catkin shade. As you said, let’s make one last push and finish this.”

Belissar frowned.

“But, it’s still dangerous for the silver elves to fight in a corrupted room, right?”

Duke Turuhave grimaced.

“It…would likely be unwise to expose ourselves to the corruption directly, especially in the final hour.”

Chief Rohsuak pointed to herself.

“Tower Keeper, have you forgotten? You have other defenders besides the Silver Host…such as me. I will lead the karnuq with full blessings, with the help of your bees I believe we can handle a single catkin shade.”

Belissar tilted his head.

“What about the mist?”

Chief Rohsuak grinned.

“I’m going to use it against the Hunger. When the mist covered the whole room, it was a problem I could not avoid. Now that it’s restricted to one area? If the shade wants to hide there, then that will be its grave.”

Belissar considered that. Chief Rohsuak did seem very confident and she had defeated purifications practically by herself before. Belissar hummed to himself for a moment before furrowing his brow.

“…it’d be dangerous. And the bees can’t get too close to the big mushroom, explosions and stuff can blow those mist clumps further away. We could send the zom-bees and spell bees, but if you want help from the stingless bees or the rest of the bee army, we’ll need a way to protect them. First of the Fifth’s First Daughter, what does the hive of hives think?”

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter already seemed to have an answer and began dancing immediately.

“Fourth of the Seventh’s hive can help! Can make wind, blow clumps away!”

She paused for a moment as her antennae glowed.

“Also, gardeners say flowers will help, make wasps to block clumps. Seventh Sister says can use mobile hive, bees can hide inside! Also thinks slime bees can help, maybe honey-slime can block clumps?”

Belissar rubbed his chin.

“Good ideas…then, maybe we can deploy a squad or two. If we have some stingless sprayers wait inside a golem, maybe with some slime bees and breeze bees supporting…will that be enough for the karnuq if the catkin comes out to attack?”

Belissar directed the last question towards Chief Rohsuak. She smiled at him, bearing her teeth.

“To be honest, Tower Keeper, I’m not planning to need any help at all. Anything the bees can provide will be plenty. I’ll accept responsibility it goes wrong.”

Slowly, Belissar started to nod.

“Ok, I’d rather not deal with multiple catkin shades. Let’s do this.”

Chief Rohsuak marched into the room leading Metsaitii, Noigakkuq, Tyhgak and his squad, and any other karnuq with a full blessing minus Paisijik, since her bees couldn’t come along. Accompanying them was a group of breeze bees, a small swarm of spell wasps and spell bees, and the First of the Fifth’s Seventh Daughter’s spare beeswax golem with honey-slime blocking all of its entrances. A squad of stingless sprayers hid inside, to be protected until they were needed. If they were needed.

They marched through the corrupted room. The mushrooms and the mist had been cleared out save for the area near the Tower’s entrance, but the room itself had not been restored. Instead of a mystical forest, the group traveled through a barren wasteland, the ground still blackened and slightly oily from the Hunger’s corruption, and full of craters from all of the explosions over the past few days.. Both the mana and the air of the room hung heavy upon them, each breath tickled her throat and made her want to sneeze. More than one of the karnuq hunters actually did, especially Noigakkuq.

Soon their target came into view, a black cloud of mist covering the front of the room. Metsaitti frowned.

“There it is. What’s your plan, Chief? Might be dangerous to approach while we can’t see the shade.”

Chief Rohsuak chuckled.

“Oh, we’re not going to approach. Here will do.”

Then the Blazing Berserker stepped forward and let her mana roar, bursting into flames. She held out her hands and began gathering the flames into a huge fireball.

“Metsaitti, help me, would you?”

Metsaitti nodded and unleashed his fire wings. Chief Rohsuak pulled his flames into her own, stoking them further. This time, she did not condense her spell down, but let it rage and grow as it wished. Red and orange flames scorched the ground as the fireball grew larger and larger, until the bees and karnuq with her began to move back from the heat.

Finally, Chief Rohsuak sent the fireball forth, making it stream up into the sky…

Then it fell down upon the entire misted area, a cloud of flame overlapping the cloud of Hunger. And as soon as the flames and mist met, both clouds exploded.

A string of explosions blended into a continuous crackling sound as more and more explosions rang out. The first layer of mist exploded into the first layer of fire, but Chief Rohsuak’s spell wasn’t done. She continued feeding more mana into the fire rain, bombarding the misted area with more and more fire and stripping away its mist layer by layer. Soon, the cap of the big mushroom emerged from the mist…and explosions started to take chunks out of it.

Chief Rohsuak hadn’t been exaggerating to the Tower Keeper. She truly did plan to handle this all on her own. When the mist covered most of the room, this would have been too dangerous. But with the mist contained in one place? Mist that exploded on contact with Fire wasn’t a threat, it was a gift.

As the Tower Keeper feared, the explosions hitting the big mushrooms started to fling clumps of mana out into the room, including towards their group. The breeze bees began creating a gust while the spell wasps and spell bees moved to cover them, but Chief Rohsuak had no intention of letting Belissar’s bees come to harm. She waved a hand and redirected some of the stream of fire, creating a wall of flames over the group. Clumps of mist hit the wall and exploded, but didn’t make it any further in.

Then they heard a hiss. The catkin shade burst out of the mist, claws extended as it raced towards the group. Apparently, it had had enough of waiting around.

But now it was exposed…and vulnerable.

Chief Rohsuak began condensing her fire into a new spell and nodded at the bees.

“Hunters, distract it if it gets close. Let the stingless bees get their attack off.”

Metsaitti hoisted his spear and stepped forward with the other karnuq, standing just behind the wall of fire. The stingless sprayers emerged from the beeswax golem, which then joined the line, honey-slime oozing out of it. The catkin shade sped forward and created claws of Hunger, cutting an opening into the wall of fire.

Metsaitti met it, but it was immediately clear he was outmatched. The catkin moved faster and its Hunger claws cut through Metsaitti’s fire stings with ease. Fortunately, Metsaitti was not alone, Tyghak and other karnuq spearmen jabbed at the catkin from behind Metsaitti while archers took shots where they could. The spell bees and spell wasps dove down at the shade as well, driving it off and taking hits in place of the karnuq.

The beeswax golem them lumbered forward. The catkin easily outpaced the golem and sliced off one of its arms at the elbow. But honey-slime from the arm dripped onto the shade’s own, more honey-slime oozed out of the golem and reconnected to that slime, then pulled. The shade jerked for just a moment.

And that was enough, as the stingless sprayers covered the area in wax and propolis. The shade tried to dodge, but still got clipped by the wide attack. It slowed down…and so was easily contained by the time the sprayers readied their second attack. That one didn’t miss and locked down the shade entirely.

All while Chief Rohsuak continued condensing down her spell, which was now a pure white ball of fire smaller than her palm. She leaned back, then lobbed it towards the shade.

The fireball hit the shade dead-center and covered it in pure white flames. The shade wailed and writhed, doing so for longer than any of the karnuq thought it could…but eventually it fell silent and faded away.