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BD - Chapter 207 - New Friend-Bees?
🕑 Added 2024-12-10 20:05:00 +0000 UTCBelissar froze and stood still as a flood of challenger blessed messages filled his vision. A quick glance with his tower sight showed him the Tyhgak’s squad all cheering and playing around with mana wrapping around spears and arrows, while that one karnuq smith was kneeling before the Shrine of Bees with tears in his eyes.
“Huh.”
Belissar tilted his head. With Hirkolos also receiving his own blessing, five people had received blessings today. Just enough to reach a goal Belissar had largely forgotten about.
Mission: Help ten challengers receive full blessings completed!
Reward: Rare Bee-type monster choice
Belissar slowly began to smile. He scarcely stopped himself from opening the choice then and there. Only his desire to share the choice with his bees and advisers held him back, he couldn’t help but look forward to their reactions. Tarwantrad would be ecstatic.
However, such things would have to wait, and not only for the convenience of the post-purification celebrations. At that moment, Belissar received an urgent message from the karnuq and bees watching the border with the sigmaka…
***
“You wish to form an alliance?”
Second Queen Berbiya nodded in response to Chief Rohsuak’s question. The two were sitting a table set up just beyond the rot cap field, with Fourth Queen Pezuya and Metsaitti sitting next to their charges, and a soldier bee standing on the table itself.
“We have considered your warnings about the invader that assaulted your Sacred Den. King Ratuatapi has decided he cannot stand idly by while you, our neighbors, are threatened. We are willing to lend you our aid should those invaders return.”
Chief Rohsuak smiled.
“No doubt the Tower Keeper will be pleased to hear it. And you hope the we will reciprocate?”
Second Queen Berbiya made a small smile as well.
“Indeed. King Ratuatapi hopes that we both will stand together against anyone seeking to threaten us. He also hopes that his warriors will be permitted to challenge your Sacred Den.”
Chief Rohsuak glanced over at Fourth Queen Pezuya.
“I will have to confirm with the Tower Keeper, but I believe he will be agreeable to that, provided your warriors make sure not to harm any of the tower’s residents.”
Fourth Queen Pezuya scrunched up her face but nodded in the end.
“We will do as the Tower Keeper wishes.”
Chief Rohsuak and Second Queen Berbiya then discussed some further details before breaking to report to their respective authorities.
***
Belissar nodded repeatedly with a smile as Chief Rohsuak reported.
“That’s great!”
Belissar paused his nodding, however, as Chief Rohsuak furrowed her brow.
“…that’s good, right? Is something the matter?”
Chief Rohsuak sighed and shook her head.
“No, you are right, this is a good development overall. I…don’t wish to damper your spirits, Tower Keeper, but I do feel I must warn you that a leader must consider every offer from all aspects, even if a good one.”
Belissar frowned.
“What do you mean?”
Chief Rohsuak crossed her arms.
“In this case, the sigmaka are offering to help you with your enemies, but in return they want you to help with theirs. Are you willing to send your forces to fight enemies that haven’t attacked your tower yet?”
Belissar was about to respond when he paused and started to imagine that sort of situation.
“Maybe? Hm…”
The sigmaka…well, he didn’t really know the sigmaka all that well when it came down to it. Besides their initial talks, Belissar hadn’t interacted much with them. If they ended up fighting another group that Belissar didn’t know, was he willing to send the bees and the karnuq into danger to help?
“Hm, could we just agree to help each other if the Tower Lords attack? Maybe the Hunger, but not people we don’t know?”
Chief Rohsuak nodded with a smile.
“That’s possible. It will depend on if the sigmaka are willing to agree to a limited arrangement, but I will relay your preferences to them.”
Belissar let out a sigh. Dealing with the sigmaka was always so complicated. Still, it was great that they were willing to help against the Tower Lords. Complicated situation or not, he couldn’t help a small smile. Perhaps his Tower wouldn’t have to face ten thousand Tower Guards on its own after all.
***
As the sigmaka walked home, Second Queen Berbiya glanced at Fourth Queen Pezuya. The fourth queen rolled her eyes.
“Out with it, Berbiya, you clearly want to ask me something.”
Berbiya decided to take that opportunity.
“Why did you support me on this?”
Pezuya huffed.
“Besides the chance to put Penaseconza in her place, you mean?”
Now it was Berbiya’s turn to roll her eyes.
“You don’t like me any better than you do her. I wouldn’t expect you, of all people, to want to ally with the Sacred Den you wanted to attack, not even for that purpose.”
Pezuya let out a deep, exasperated sigh.
“It’s my job, Berbiya, to protect our king and our people by eliminating anything that threatens them. I thought to eliminate a potential threat while we still had the opportunity to do so, but we discovered it too late. The Sacred Den was already too powerful for us to deal with, not unless all our people took up arms and paid a price in blood we cannot afford.”
Pezuya stopped and turned to look Berbiya in the eye.
“So if an invader arrives who can threaten the Sacred Den? We will have absolutely no hope of resisting someone that powerful. They will then be able to do anything they want to us.”
She let out a sigh and slumped her shoulders.
“At least this way, we’ll have the chance to train some of our warriors, so that maybe we might have some ability to protect ourselves. And make ourselves even more dependent on the goodwill of a Sacred Den master, but what choice do we have? As it is, I cannot defend us even against the threats we know, much less any greater ones that might appear.”
Berbiya did not respond at first, letting Pezuya’s words hang in the air.
“Perhaps…if all goes well, you will not have to do so alone.”
Pezuya scoffed, but did not object. The two walked the rest of the way home in silence, lost in their own thoughts.
***
Since Chief Rohsuak wouldn’t meet the sigmaka again today, Belissar put them out of his mind. Not that he could focus on much else besides the choice lingering at the edge of his perception. He hardly paid attention to the daily purification, and barely managed to wait through the celebration.
But now, finally, he was gathered with the queens and the karnuq. Tarwantrad had regretfully declined to join them as she had a prior commitment, but strongly requested Belissar let her know about the new bees as soon as possible.
Tarwantrad or no, though, Belissar smiled as he glanced around.
“We have a reward from the God of Bees, everyone.”
The bees broke out into happy dances while Metsaitti’s and even Chief Rohsuak’s eyes widened a bit. Belissar finally got to open the reward.
Please select a monster:
- Monster Bee Dancer (Rarity: Rare, Type: Bee)
- Monster Bee Berserker (Rarity: Epic, Type: Bee)
- Monster Bee Assassin (Rarity: Rare, Type: Bee)
Belissar smiled at the sight of all rare options and even an epic…until he realized he could only pick one of them. He took a deep breath as he launched in to them.
Monster Bee Dancer was a repeat but he was glad to see it again. He still wasn’t entirely sure what they did, but a bee type that made all other bees better could be a solid choice. Depending on what the other two were, that was.
Monster Bee Berserker
Vitality: Average
Strength: Below Average
Speed: Average
Magic: Small
Defense: Minimal
Resistance: Minimal
Special: Above Average
Notable Skills: Poison Sting, Death Blow, Swarm Rage, Fatal Regeneration, Brood Offspring
Evolves From: Monster Bee Soldier and evolutions
Description: A monster bee soldier evolution. This bee shows no mercy or restraint to enemies of the hive. Upon taking damage or seeing a fellow member of hive take damage, the bee will launch into a rage that will only end when the offender has perished, boosting its strength and the potency of its venom.
Should this bee suffer fatal damage before the enemy has fallen, it will expend everything it has to ensure the enemy’s demise. The bee will burn all its mana and lifeforce powering an immense regeneration that will keep it temporarily active after death and restore missing body parts even from complete destruction. It will use this regeneration to repeatedly sting and rip itself apart, leaving as many stingers to continue pumping venom into its foe as its mana can regenerate. Every blow conducted during this rampage will become a death blow.
Belissar pursed his lips as he looked over the preview. The berserker was a bit larger than a lancer, but where the lancer was sleek and focused the berserker was bulky and thorny. Its chitin was jagged and angular, with sharp edges and points all over its body. Its stinger was heavily barbed with wicked hooks, made specifically to get caught in a foe. It also had huge, serrated mandibles and even its legs had sharp claws. This was bee made for battle.
On the one hand, this was also a bee made to die. It took a bee’s fatal sting to a new level and would only show its true power in its final moments. But on the other hand, what a power that was. This was without a doubt the most powerful individual bee monster Belissar had seen thus far.
It was powerful enough that Belissar felt compelled to consider it even despite its self-fatal tendencies. This could be a powerful defender for his tower, and in the case where such a powerful defender was required, bees would likely die if he didn’t have something like the berserkers. If he could steel himself to raise berserkers, every berserker that fell might save many more of their sisters if they took an invader with them.
Still, Belissar did not like the idea of bees born to die, or encouraging them to do so. He could not help but pause.
Well, he had one more option to consider first.
Monster Bee Assassin
Vitality: Minimal
Strength: Small
Speed: Average+
Magic: Minor
Defense: Minimal
Resistance: Minimal
Special: Below Average
Notable Skills: Poison Sting, Concentrate Poison, Analyze Weakness, Death Blow, Brood Offspring
Evolves From: Monster Bee Soldier
Description: A monster bee soldier evolution. This bee aims for maximum damage with a single sting. It carefully observes its prey with mana-imbued sight, seeking out weak points and blind spots. Once it has determined an ideal location to sting, it concentrates its venom, heightening its potency beyond other soldier types, so that even a single sting may prove deadly. Its stinger is also capable of stabbing deep to strike at vital points within, or puncturing holes through defenses that cannot be fully avoided.
It avoids open confrontation if at all possible as it is quite fragile, though its speed and innate death blow mean it can still be dangerous even if caught.
Belissar crossed his arms as he looked over the assassin. It was actually a bit smaller than a normal soldier, with darker and duller coloring that didn’t stand out as much. It had an enlarged abdomen for its size with a long and thin stinger, almost like a cross between a lancer’s and a medicinal bee’s. It had unusually large eyes as well that seemed to glow faintly with mana. It, perhaps, didn’t paint as intimidating a picture as a lancer or archer, much less a berserker.
But perhaps that was the point? Apparently, they were supposed to try and attack enemies from a blindspot with a deadly poison. That would go along nicely with the Enhanced Toxins perk he had just taken, not to mention the new toxic bees. A toxic assassin that could concentrate its already deadly venom that was then enhanced by the perk sounded extremely dangerous indeed.
So, the question was…which of these powerful options would be best for his Tower?
Belissar took a deep breath…
Author’s Note:
Hey, the non-bees finally did something truly amazing! They got us more bees! King was right to keep them around after all!
And now King just has to decide which bees to take! It definitely won’t be a long, difficult decision, right?
Anyways!
Which bee shall Belissar pick? What do the bees think of the options? Which is best for the hive of hives? Tune in next time, to find out!
Comments
Darius Sanguna
Soldiers and Workers are the the basic types that any hive will have without any upgrades.
Presten
I agree with Darius Sanguna that The Berserker is a trap. For all the reasons they mention yes, but more importantly in resources. How many soldiers and dancers could be raised for the same amount of resources that enormous target would take? And completely divorced from the rational, The Berserker would be a thematic betrayal to the story. These would be bees who's largest defining feature is their death throes. Belissar specifically avoids deaths when he can, that's why the Bee army is an Army, with Soldiers not Warriors. A Berserker does not have a place in a well organized Army.
Tsorov
Didn't we already have Bumblebee soldiers? I thought I remembered that being a thing. And @Darius, thats what the Apiary hives are for, now that the Honey production has gotten a boost
AEgamer1
To specify, I have not fully decided which types are available to the bumblebees or not. Any specialized types would be expensive if available, though.
J S
Probably gonna be the assassin.
AEgamer1
To clarify, the hives currently use normal worker bees for scouting. Except for the Fourth of the Seventh, who uses herself.
Fernando Oliveira
Thanks for the chapter. Loved it. So new bee choices. The dancer are a great boost to everyone. The berserkers sounds like great last resorts, but if things get bad enough that they're needed something has gone horribly wrong. The assassins sound like the best option purely on combat. They'd probably be more effective against humanoids but they'd still hurt the shades. A toxic assassin would be deadly. But we probably won't see one any time soon, are we getting any lancer varieties soon? How about the gardeners, how are the different varieties of Gardners settling in? And how's the world tree? I'm guessing no change, lol.
Darius Sanguna
The Assassins are just all around better. They don't just have an absolutely devastating single strike attack that in most cases will likely be a one-hit kill. But they also have an inherent ability to find weak spots on an enemy or enemy type, on top of being stealthy by nature. They're essentially extra deadly scouts that can provide the army with an information advantage and if necessary launch decapitation strikes against an enemy force. Second best is the dancer as pure support. The Berserker is just a trap, sure they have massive damage potential, but they're likely weak against armor and probably even more expensive than lancers. So given their limited usefulness due to their suicidal nature, their actual value isn't all that great, especially against multiple targets. They well and truly are a last ditch effort. Personally I'd love to see Knight-Bees as evolution of Lancers. Even bigger, heavy chitin plate, bladed mandibles and legs and a stinger that puts steel to shame. And from there you can go to Mage Knights and Champions. The former developing the Knights into a magic direction, while the Champions improve upon everything that is good about the Knights and make them even bigger, potentially human sized. Though they'd both at least be legendary evolutions.
Michael Grover
Hmm trying to remember if the scouts are a bee type or random bees sent to scout. As that or mage would be the overlap. The hocks on the beeserkers could be used to help carry loads easier. You have points. But I still feel he needs a fail safe option.
Touch
Didn’t they already use bumble bee for tanking? Though fair, berserker isn’t bad, but consider bumblebee and assassin have uses when not fight a bit more i lean on assassin
Michael Grover
You miss the point that the assassin is just a refined toxic bee Lancer. Just with mana sight. Mana seems to be something that van be learned in time as I do believe a few have something similar to it already. The beeserkers on the other hand. Have a skill unlike any other bee has. The resurrection to finish off its killer. Is unlike any other skill. Plus the rage skill that it has is seen as a strong special vs the assassin special is seen as weak.
Michael Grover
I think the mana sight is being seen more valuable then it is. He already has a few mana lines of easy to hurt bees with support skills. He is lacking in last stand final defense type skills. Also the Assasin from his own words on it. Sounds like a mix of a toxic bee and a Lancer. So in a way he already can make a version of it minus the mana sight.
Darius Sanguna
@Tsorov the evolution is only for the monster bees, not the other species of bees. So no bumblebee berserker.
Drakenclaw
Support for the support bee! Let the dance off begin!
Darius Sanguna
Berserkers would probably have a hard time against heavily armored targets, any damage against them being more incidental in nature. Assassins on the other hand have the innate ability to detect weak points, which they can then communicate to other Bees. They are also more stealthy and are thus great scouts. So on top of being able to deliver devastating strikes, they also potentially provide an intelligence advantage.
mly85lc
Since there 10 blessed members on tower, would it not make reason to have whole villages wield celebrations. Whit honey mead and all. Oh and since all gods have ask for mead delivery form MC, how about having him sit back and have Veredees hive/floor queens delivery one for God of bees. Chief can delivery fire god. And Flower one can deliver for flower god.
Tsorov
And, while they have the final blow ability, even if they don't use it they are stonger than normal soldiers. Bellissar could only make Bumblebees into Berserker, they are already bigger, so another evolution will get them another strength and hight boost. They also function already as the de facto tanks of the bee army, so they already get hurt and a bigger, more armoured body will only help them in that role
Touch
Yeah no, no way he’s choosing anything other than assassin with the mana sight
Bryan
Yeah, I don't know why I even wrote that. My D&D brain demanded hyper-specificity for no reason.
The furry in your walls in your walls
I vote for the magnificent menacing bee-ssassin!
AEgamer1
Damaging the hive would be perceived as innately threatening to her sisters and trigger the rage.
Helios6754
The assassin bee sounds perfect, though maybe the dancer could be good too
Durphymcbob
Thanks for the chapter! hmmm, The beeserkers are basically just above average soilders with an extremely powerful last stand abilty, which could be useful as a last ditch effort having a more general stronger soilder is always better But the Assassians do seem like they would be perferct for the fairy grove rooms, and other generic defenmse rooms shades and enemys have to come thru before they get to the battle meadow, they seem perfect for the hit and run tactics for the few squads in those rooms. Plus they with a few communers they could find the weakness and tell rest of the Hive of hives it as well.
Michael Grover
As much as the assassin bee sound perfect for his fighting style. I feel the berserker and it's line is what he needs. He rightly pointed out that it is a last line type of defender. And the very looks of it may put off some attackers.
Black Esper
Please no Beeserkers. Dancing bees for more support would bee cool. Or the beesassin?
Bryan
Does this mean the berserker doesn't Rage if a hive takes damage?
