The Bee Dungeon

Belissar frowned as he watched the catkin shade. He relayed its movements and attacks to the hive of hives and his allies, he could hear the hive of hives discussing over the hivelink. They were debating how best to contain the shade and bring it down.

There would almost certainly be casualties. The catkin shade was fast, faster than a soldier bee in flight, and its claw blades could strike at a distance. The bees would almost certainly get hit and most of them would not survive the blow, unless the miracle lighthouse intervened. Belissar considered calling off the first probing attack, the smaller group of bees that was intended to draw out the shade’s special attacks. It seemed to him that they would simply perish without the shade needing to do anything different…

Then Duke Turuhave spoke up.

“Tower Keeper Belissar…would you let the Silver Host deploy against this foe?”

Belissar furrowed his brow as he turned to face the duke.

“That will be dangerous…”

Duke Turuhave nodded, then looked Belissar in the eye.

“It will, but from your descriptions I believe the Silver Host can handle this opponent. And…we failed to defend you when the Tower Lord attacked. We feared overly for our lives and fled before the enemy, even in the final battle we relied upon your forces to bleed on our behalf. Please, give us the chance to be your shield this time. Give us the chance to regain our courage. Let us defeat the enemy our own dungeon master let through and save your forces for later. You still have a corrupted room to clear.”

Belissar held the duke’s gaze…and the man seemed serious enough. Belissar slowly nodded back.

“If you’re sure. The next room is the Bog, but I could move them around if you’d prefer a different one?”

Duke Turuhave shook his head.

“The Bog will do fine. We’ll deploy now, let us know when the shade approaches.”

Belissar sent word to Chief Rohsuak and the bee army as Duke Turuhave marched to the Silver Host…but he had his forces remain on standby. They’d let the silver elves try first, but they’d be ready to intervene if the shade was more than the fair folk could handle alone.

In the meantime, the catkin shade raced through the Dirt Tunnels. The wards left by the fair folk triggered, creating stone walls to seal the shade on an incline while toxic honey poured down from above…but the shade’s claws cut through the stone wall before the honey hit the ground. Nothing in the Dirt Tunnels did more than slow the catkin down…barely.

Fortunately, there were enough twists and turns in the path to give the Silver Host time to deploy. Formations of elves in silver armor stood on the mud and puddles…the elves could apparently even walk on water with a bit of magic, so could stand in orderly lines even in the swamp. Their silver armor reflected the glow of the miracle lighthouse, surrounding each elf in a shimmering aura.

Soon, the catkin shade reached the end of the Dirt Tunnels and raced out into the Bog. The elves stood in the center of the room, but their sharp eyes locked onto the shade as soon as it stepped into the mud. Duke Turuhave drew his sword.

“Archers!”

Elven archers drew their bows in sync and unleashed a hail of arrows across the room. The shade’s glowing eyes narrowed and it swung its claws, sending out blades of Hunger to intercept the arrows. The elves had imbued the arrows with mana, some of them cut through the blades. One of them clipped the shade on the shoulder, though the arrow didn’t penetrate deep.

The catkin snarled and picked up speed, sprinting across the Bog. It began dodging and weaving from side to side, jumping and flipping over a deeper puddle in its path. The silver elves, however, kept their eyes upon it despite its speed and continued to shower the shade with their arrows.

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The shade took more arrows, its claw blades not enough to block all of them. Still, it seemed denser than previous shades, as the arrows didn’t penetrate deep and quickly fell out. Bits of Hunger misted from the wounds, but barely more than the shade’s natural foggy aura. Some of the silver elves began packing their arrows with more mana, making them glow, but the shade paid special attention to those. It always made sure to dodge them, or to focus its blades upon them, though it took more of the other arrows in exchange.

The shade eventually approached the elves. Duke Turuhave shouted a command and elves armed with spears and glaives stepped forward, while the archers fanned out to the sides. The shade snarled and bent low, bounding forward and all fours. It began swiping as it approached, sending out blades of Hunger once more.

The silver elf warriors worked as one, three of them crossing their glaives together to block the Hunger blade. Two spearmen shuffled to either side and stabbed at the shade, which snarled and leaped back…only to take another hail of arrows as soon as it was clear of the warriors.

The shade narrowed its eyes and tried to pounce on the silver elf warriors, but they stayed light on their feet and shifted out of the wave. The shade kept close to them, preventing the archers from attacking, but the warriors adjusted their formation accordingly. Spears and glaives struck at the shade from multiple angles and it failed to dodge them all. Meanwhile, the silver elves danced around the shade whenever it tried to pounce on them, abusing the fact that they could walk on top of water and mud.

Belissar blinked as he watched the silver elves dance right out of the way of a Hunger blade.

“They’re doing really well, huh?”

The warden who stayed with Belissar nodded his head.

“The silver elves know what they’re doing. We were mostly worried about the dragons and the numbers when the Tower Lord was attacking, but the Silver Host won’t lose to an enemy like this.”

Indeed, the Silver Host was rapidly accumulating damage on the shade. It was visibly leaking Hunger now from multiple places and growling at the adversaries it couldn’t reach.

And that’s when the shade changed tactics.

The shade was currently standing in a watery part of the swamp. Hunger leaking from its wounds pooled in the water around…and started to condense. Belissar noticed the Hunger gathering around the shade’s leg and his eyes widened.

“Watch out!”

He cried out via Tower message…but the silver elves were not his sworn defenders and could not hear his warning. The shade kicked and sent a splash of water up towards the silver elf warriors. The Hunger within the water spread out and then lingered in the air, forming a cloud that obscured the shade from view.

The shade pounced from within the fog. One of the silver elves was late to dodge and the catkin descended upon him. The shade knocked the elf into the murk and began clawing at him, carving rents into his silver armor.

The other silver elf warriors responded as quickly as they could, driving the shade off. But the catkin dove back into the cloud of Hunger…and then splashed up another from within it, expanding the obscured area. The elves grabbed their comrade and started backing away, wary of the danger now. The archers started peppering the mist with arrows, but the area was growing wider so they couldn’t focus their assault.

But, though the elves had missed Belissar’s warning, the bees had not.

The bee army, upon hearing Belissar exclaim something was going wrong, buzzed into action and sent reinforcements. Healing lancers from the Second of the Sixth raced into the Bog with more healing bees on their back. They flew over to the wounded elf, taking him from the other elves while the smaller healing bees immediately gave him healing stings. Meanwhile, reinforcements from the bee army flew overhead.

With the silver elves launching arrows all over, the soldiers, lancers, and glaivers couldn’t get in close. With the silver elf warriors up close, the sprayers and archers couldn’t risk hitting them. So, the bees had sent the bees they knew wouldn’t hurt or be hurt by the elves.

The stingless sprayer squad made its first appearance, joined by the monster bee trappers. They flew overhead of the growing cloud of Hunger mist and bathed the entire thing with their propolis and wax spray. The trappers worked together to make a big web, like the spiderkin children showed them, and dropped it down into the mist.

The first one missed, so they made another and tried a different area. This time the shade replied with blades of Hunger, flying out of the mist at random at it cut through the web.

And revealed its location to the silver elf archers, who immediately focused on the origin of the blades. The shade growled from within the Hunger cloud…but it didn’t seem to move. In the meantime, a silver elf mage completed a wind spell and blew away the Hunger cloud…revealing a catkin shade struggling to move as its body was drenched with propolis and wax.

The elven archers would not miss a near immobile opponent.

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