POBee 436.1 - Amazing, Incredible Victor-Bee!

With the lifting of the siege came the return of daily purifications. As the first purification assigned to the bees approached, the First of the Fourth sent a dance through the hive of hives.

“Can command battle? Want fight enemies, like Firstborn!”

The First of the Fourth shared the bee army’s part of the Beecity with the Firstborn, so the queen herself flew over a moment later. The Firstborn did not look to the First of the Fourth, but to her soldier bees. The soldier bees danced a salute. The Firstborn returned it, then sent her own mana dance to the hives.

“First of the Fourth ready, have no objections.”

With that, it was settled. The First of the Fourth assembled the bee army in the shortcut Orchard, hovering at their head. Watching the shortcut ahead of her, ready to charge through at a moment’s notice.

“Ok, here it comes! It’s a bird shade this time!”

She waited only for King to declare the start of the battle and which opponent she would face, then charged her way through! Her soldiers and the bee army scrambled after her, but the First of the Fourth would not be delayed! For the first time in her life, she would fight in battle! Not just through the eyes of her children, but with her own chitin and stinger!

The soldiers of her hive charged after her, but none could catch her with her mana flooding her wings! She arrived first into the Dirt Tunnels, the enemy had not even left the entrance cavern before she met it.

There, she beheld the enemy with her own eyes. A small little bird shade, a pale shadow of the one that the mighty King had brought down alongside Beero and the Firstborn. Yet, it was still bigger than her, with a beak that could easily slice her body in half. The shade heard her buzzing and turned her way, letting out a screech and flying straight towards her.

But she was the First Queen of the First Dynasty of the Fourth Spawner, an army queen of King’s Realm and the hive of hives! Moreover, she was the queen who delighted most in battle! She had watched with rapt attention every time her soldiers had gone to fight, her hive often came to a halt as the queen turned all her focus elsewhere. She had seen them clash with bird shades many times before, she could imagine such battles in complete detail through memory alone.

So, she moved without hesitation, speeding up her wings with her mana and dodging like her soldiers would. She waited until the last moment before making her move, just barely flying up and beyond the bird’s beak. She tried to cling to the bird’s back so that she could sting it like Beero had…

The effort nearly tore her legs off as the bird rushed past her. She was saved only because she had not gotten a good grip and slipped off before her legs’ chitin gave out. Even still, she was sent tumbling through the air, taking a moment to right herself.

In the meantime, the bird shade reached the end of the cavern and turned, banking around to make another pass at her. And the First of the Fourth’s tumble had sent her in the shade’s direction, so she was already moving in the shade’s direction as it began another charge.

This time, she dodged a moment earlier…and it was well she did, because the shade angled upward at the last moment. If she had dodged at the same time as before, it would have caught her. But the First of the Fourth had given up on clinging to the bird’s back and instead took some distance. This time, she redirected her mana to her stinger and thrust her abdomen forward. A mana stinger took shape and shot beyond the reach of her body, stabbing into the shade’s back as it passed her by.

The First of the Fourth resisted the urge to dance as the shade shrieked. She had struck a blow to an enemy of the hive of hives!

At that point, her soldiers arrived, very angry and intent on swarming around her. But she commanded them back, if only by pointing out that balling up around her would prevent her from dodging the shade’s attacks. The soldiers instead took up a formation around her and the First of the Fourth knew her time dancing with the shade alone was over.

But she desired to fight alongside her children as well, so she was not discouraged. Instead, she duly fell back, joining the formation in the upper rear. Her children took the front line in her stead as the shade came around for another attack.

They dodged as easily as she did, then the second wave dove down ahead of the shade. Instead of flying past to the edge of the cavern, the shade was forced to slow down, trying to turn to evade the wall of stingers ahead.

The First of the Fourth saw her moment. She had chosen this place in the formation for this very instance. She and the soldiers around her began their dives as soon as the shade started slowing down. They reached their top speed right when the shade stopped, for a brief moment, as it reversed its momentum.

This time, the First of the Fourth’s physical stinger struck true, imbued with all the mana she could muster, and pierced deep into the shade’s body. Her children joined her and stung the shade all around, ensuring it could not retaliate against her. The shade screeched, but it lacked the lightning of its larger kin. It could do nothing against her or her hive.

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Once the shade dispersed, the First of the Fourth let go the dance that had been building within her from the start of the fight.

“Amazing, incredible! Battle, amazing, incredible!”

The First of the Fourth’s mana surged through her hive, reaching each of her children. Including one child who was not present at the battlefield. Once upon a time, Frelis might have despaired for her queen mother to fight without her, being unable to join in while the most important member of the hive put herself at risk.

Right now, though, Frelis was tending to her flower. She couldn’t join the battle until her flower regrew anyways…and, moreover, she needed to heal her flower before she would dare. Her flower had gotten hurt because of her desire to fight, so she would not do so again until she was sure her flower was ok.

And right now, Frelis wasn’t sure the flower ever would be. Her flower had…ungrown, for lack of a better description. The small roots and shoots that had sprouted from its core pulled back into the ground and hadn’t regrown. Frelis was deeply concerned, she only avoided full panic because she could still feel her flower and knew it was still alive. Its mana only seemed to grow, yet the flower itself would not and Frelis didn’t know why, not even with the Queen of All Flowers’ blessing or her own gardener instincts.

Still, she was spending every moment she could feeding as much mana and nutrients to her flower’s core as she could find. She even asked the First of the Fifth’s Seventh Daughter for some honey-slime, seeing as it was similar to her slime rose’s own sap, despite knowing the Seventh Daughter’s hive was doing something for King. She couldn’t help herself, she had to make sure her flower was ok.

So, as her queen mother went off to battle, Frelis was standing on the ground where her flower’s core was buried, feeding it her mana once more.

“Battle, amazing, incredible!”

A wave of her queen-mother’s mana washed over her, calling her to join the battle. Frelis spared a brief moment to see what was happening and found her queen-mother victorious. She danced one loop of celebration for her queen-mother’s victory before returning to her work. As much as she wanted to, she could not declare battle to be amazing and incredible while her flower still suffered.

Her mana, however, had been connected to her flower’s core when her queen-mother’s mana hit. So, the wave of mana surged down through the connection and washed over the slime rose’s core underground. Unbeknownst to Frelis, the core pulsed once with light before returning to its apparent slumber…

The Firstborn’s First Daughter, meanwhile, had taken a different path that day. She approached her queen-mother with her antennae drooping, but she approached nonetheless. Her current path was…unthinkable, but she had to try. Even if meant betraying everything her queen-mother stood for, everything she herself had been born to do.

“Queen-mother…”

“Hi First Daughter! What need?”

Her queen-mother’s happy greeting only made her antennae droop further…but she was the daughter of the Firstborn. If she could not commit to her path, then she did not deserve to be called as such.

“Queen-mother, have…request. Can hive…not join battle today? Have something need soldiers do…”

Her danced died as she wilted under her queen-mother’s gaze. Apparently, that was as far as she could go. She had all sorts of arguments prepared…but in the end, it was all she could do to dance her request. She found herself unable to do anything more but await her queen-mother’s verdict, for the most insolent request a daughter of the army ever could make…

“Ok! Let know if need help.”

The First Daughter could only stare for a bit, then stumbled.

“O-Ok? Queen-mother sure?! Really ok not fight today?! That what queen-mother raised for?!”

She stopped her frantic dance as her queen-mother’s antennae touched her own, bathing her in soothing pheromones.

“Is ok. In hive of hives, all bees find own job, not always job raised for. Drones raised for one job, but now have many. Own hive once had many jobs, now can focus on one thanks to hive of hives. If First Daughter thinks better do something else, then try do. Trust First Daughter. And today’s fight not hard, don’t need full army. If need, will call First Daughter. Until then, do what think best!”

Unfortunately, the First Daughter couldn’t do what she thought was best for a bit, because she grew overwhelmed, and stayed while her queen-mother soothed her for longer than she’d have liked…

Eventually, though she calmed down and returned to her hive, full of purpose and resolve. Her queen-mother had not only given her permission, but her blessing, so now the First Daughter could focus entirely on making it worked.

She thus rallied her forces, calling all the warriors she had raised away from the bee army and back to her side. Her army of mostly soldiers, a handful of sprayers, and two lancers and an archer to supplement them now gathered before her and then she led them forth.

They made their way to the Beyond, to the entrance of King’s realm, where the King’s allies gathered. There, they found the skunk-King things, preparing to fight before the gods. The Firstborn’s First Daughter dove down towards them and one of the skunk-King things approached her.

“Hello, can we help you? Does Tower Keeper Belissar have word for the sigmaka?”

Normally, the First Daughter couldn’t understand the skunk-King things’ buzzing. Fortunately, the fair King-things cast a spell on any skunk-King things that visited King’s realm, so somehow she knew what dance the buzzing was supposed to mean, and they could interpret her dances in turn. She thus danced the negative.

“No, here join. Want fight before gods too, can teach?”

The skunk-King thing blinked.

“A monster does? Uh…”

He glanced around, but none of the other skunk-King things said anything. Eventually, he shrugged.

“Well, sure then? We’ll…show you what we do, I guess? Here. We take one of these jars of honeydew, then protect it as we challenge the traps and Hunger so that we can deliver it to…well, the bees…”

The First Daughter nearly stopped flying for a moment. So, skunk-King thing soldiers were delivering nectar to the hive…but through battle, instead of foraging? This was a way for soldiers to forage, but by doing what they were raised to do?

The First Daughter had to wonder why the entire bee army wasn’t doing this. But since they hadn’t…she would be the first. Her path was turning out correct after all.