Ambrosia had gone to sleep a while ago, and only I was sitting near the hive entrance, clutching my personal hammer. Unable to sleep, unable to just lie still for five minutes.
Around me, sitting or lying on the floor, were several hundred Foremen Bees—our guards.
Most of them weren't guarding much at the moment, but that just meant I had to stare outside harder.
The sky lightened with the first hints of sunrise, when amid calls of night insects and mysterious monsters, I heard the approaching drone of wings.
I shot to my feet.
'Please, please, please, let that be my daughters… Please, please, please…'
Soon, I saw two dark dots in the sky.
'Just two? Where is the rest? Where?'
The dots became larger—too large. At this distance, I could recognize their silhouettes.
'Oh, no.'
"Wake up! Wake up, everybody!" I shouted. "Wake the hive—we are under attack!"
Foremen Bees rose to their feet one by one. Deeper inside the hive, bees poked their heads out of their honeycomb cells.
"Prepare to defend the hive!" I shouted. "Bring me the candles! And my bone armor!"
The hive became a whirlwind of activity. Soon, more Foremen Bees and Warrior Bees gathered around the entrance.
There were so many of them that half of the bees clung to the nearest walls, because the floor space was packed. The only free space was next to me, left out of respect.
The pair of hornets got close to the hive. I could see blood on their claws and near their mouths.
〔Hornet〕
〔Health〕: 30 / 31
〔Stamina〕: 21 / 29
〔Hornet〕
〔Health〕: 31 / 31
〔Stamina〕: 20 / 29
My stomach sank.
The Commando Bees must've failed their mission. Now angry hornet scouts came after us. They will attract other hornets with their pheromones, and we will be doomed!
'No! Don't give up just yet, Nectus. Maybe the hornet hive is burning as we speak. Keep fighting, you never know how things will turn out!'
I grabbed my hammer tightly. With a titanic effort of will, I focused on the present and only the present.
"Stay inside the hive, everybody!" I gave a command. "Attack only if the hornets enter! Surround them at all sides, pin them down, choke them!"
"Yes, Father!" bees shouted all around me.
As if they understood our speech, the hornets paused near the entrance. Sadly, it was big enough for them to enter freely.
One hornet let out a series of soft clicking sounds. If that was speech, it wasn't in the bee language.
More and more bees gathered at my side. A Craftsman Bee brought several candles in jugs and my bone armor, which I hurriedly put on.
During this time, the hornets hovered near the entrance. As if daring a bee to attack first.
"Father," a Queen Attendant suddenly appeared next to me. "Father, you must hide with the Queen. It will be too dangerous here."
I shook my head.
"What? No, no, no! It will be dangerous *everywhere* if we don't deal with this! How am I going to give you commander bonuses in combat if I'm not *commanding*?"
"Father, what are you talking about?"
I coughed.
"Yeah, I don't think there *are* commander bonuses. Still. Go to your Queen—make sure *she* is safe. I will just stay over there…"
I flew farther away from the entrance, to not be the first one to fight.
As if triggered by my escape, the first hornet finally moved in.
She flew inside the hive, spreading the cloying scent of her attack pheromones, and grabbed the nearest bee before anyone could stop her.
"Attack!" a Chief Foreman shouted. "Pin them! KILL THEM!"
The beating of thousands of wings and battlecries of thousand bees drowned out all sound, but I still saw the hornet bite off the unlucky bee's head. Before death, she tried to sting the monster—but her stinger couldn't pierce the hornet's chitin.
Then, several hundred bees hid the hornet from my sight.
Like I ordered, instead of pointlessly swinging their hammers, the bees tried to pin the hornet down with their weight.
Even a 7-meter-tall monster could only lift so many bees at once!
And for a moment, I thought they succeeded—until the second hornet moved to help.
Mouths of bees opened in screams which I didn't hear when the hornet's claws and teeth tore them into pieces. Blood poured like rain.
And all this was happening only two dozen meters away from me.
'Oh god, I *really* want to have a mental breakdown, right *now*.'
Just one more thing I couldn't afford to have.
The first hornet was still pinned down, but the bees around the second one were too distracted and separated to do the same with her. Hundreds of bees just flew around in dumb panic.
It's like all the intelligence I've gifted them had evaporated in an instant.
I dashed toward them, gathering their attention.
"You! Yes, you! Wake up! Focus on the second hornet!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. "Keep her away from the first one! Distract them!"
I saw consciousness flash through the bees' eyes.
Not all these bees were Foremen Bees—at least half of them were just Foragers. But right now, it didn't matter.
"Yes, Father!"
"Chaaaarge!"
The wave of bees flew past me, charging at the second hornet. The first one was fighting off the bees pinning her.
Underneath them was a steadily growing mountain of corpses—a future reason for me to not sleep ever again.
Of course, it didn't give still living bees even a pause. They grabbed the second hornet, covering her with their bodies. Those who could reach them tried to hit her weak spots—the wings—with their hammers.
I was never more proud of them.
"YES! We can win! Shove fingers into their noses and break their teeth in! Choke them to death!"
I couldn't see the hornets' stats through all the bees, but now both hornets were fully balled in. It wasn't a death with heat, but… it looked like they were still on the direct way to the afterlife.
A minute passed, and there was less and less movement from both balls.
'The hornets inside are probably dead already. Which means… We won?'
More buzzing from the outside was my answer. Three more hornet-shaped dots.
"Oh, fuck, no!"