"Amby, get away!" I shouted, flying closer.
Ignoring me, Ambrosia raised her sting-bearing tail and struck the hornet right into the unbruised eye.
Her stinger was smooth and long, just like Ambrosia's tail was longer than mine or that of worker bees. It slid easily into the hornet, taking more than a half of her health.
〔Health〕: 7 / 31
The monster screamed and twitched, shaking off a few bees. Ambrosia darted away from the hornet's snapping teeth and stung her into another eye.
〔Health〕: 0 / 31
With the last convulsion, the hornet stopped moving.
Ambrosia flew back, shook off blood from her stinger, and landed next to me. She was breathing slightly faster, but otherwise, looked like nothing special had happened.
"This one is done. And so are the other ones, as far as I can see, Nectus."
The bees that were holding onto the hornet began standing up. Many of them barely stood on their feet because of wounds or exhaustion. Some couldn't stand at all.
But they all were smiling, cheering, and clapping each other's shoulders.
I choked on air, swallowed, and pointed four angry fingers at Ambrosia.
"Amby! Amby, you filthy hypocrite! Telling me to stay away and then doing something so risky! What if the hornet bit your head off?"
Ambrosia shook her head.
"You said it yourself—someone had to finish the hornet before she freed herself. There wasn't much time. I fear that if I hesitated, or wasted time ordering another bee to act in my stead, the hornet would've freed herself again." She smiled at me with quiet dignity and self-assurance. "The risks were calculated."
I staggered back, gaping at her.
"Calculated?! You still don't know how simple division works! Ugh, we don't have time for this. There can still come more!"
I flew upward to see the battlefield better, leaving Ambrosia behind.
The trapped hornets were immediately visible.
There were so many bees in the hornet balls that it was impossible for outer layers to tell whether the hornet was dead already. Even bees whose stamina was reduced to 0 couldn't get themselves free easily at this point.
I let them be for now and looked outside instead.
There was no sight of more hornets. To see better, I flew closer to the entrance.
While we fought, the sun peeked out from the horizon. Beautiful orange light spread over the sky, partially blocked by all the pillar mountains in the area. I paused, taking the sight in, then looked left and right.
There were no hornets—only a gray column of smoke peeking between the distant pillar mountains.
The direction it was coming from was the same direction as the hornets' nest.
I gasped.
It *had* to be the hornets' nest burning! This meant that Commando Bees, even if they were killed by hornets, fulfilled their mission.
This meant that as long as we survived this day, we were saved!
A wide smile appeared on my face.
〔Homeland Protector〕: increases stamina, strength of the bearer and all allies in the line of sight by 10% on owned territory, by 20% in sight of owned settlements, and by 30% in sight of the capital settlement.
I laughed a little and dashed back inside.
"Does this mean we fully won? I bet it does. We won! WE WON!"
The air was thick with the scents of blood and hornet pheromones, our losses were—I didn't want to think about it—but the bees inside the hive began echoing me.
"We! Won! We! Won! WE! WON!"
The hornet balls began falling apart, revealing dead monsters inside, and with them—many dead bees. But the survivors weren't deterred by the deaths of their sisters by hugging each other and laughing.
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
I paused, looking around for the source of the faint sound.
Thump, thump, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.
The thumping was getting louder and louder, definitely coming from the outside. Bees paused their celebrations and listened to it, too.
"Everybody! Get away from the entrance!" Ambrosia shouted suddenly. "Nectus!"
The bees dashed inside as the thumping grew louder and louder. Soon even our hive cave began shaking. There was stone dust falling from the ceiling.
"What's going on?!" I asked, landing next to Ambrosia.
She bit her lip.
"I feel like more hunters might come after the scent of our blood. This might be one of them."
There was a sound of incredibly loud sniffing from the outside.
I froze as images of larger bee predators came to my mind. Could we be attacked by one of them now? An even worse monster, maybe an actual dragon?!
'As if hornets weren't enough!'
Suddenly, the light went out. The entire entrance became overshadowed by a dark silhouette, leaving almost no light to see. With it came a wave of stench so disgusting, I wanted to gag.
Then, an absolutely gigantic clawed limb went inside.
It was so massive that it didn't fit through the entrance and broke pieces of stone off the cave walls as it tried to force its way.
Only the creature's claws—each the size of a truck—got inside, trampling the living and dead bees alike.
Then a second limb appeared. With its claws, the giant beast tried to widen the hive entrance more, breaking off more stone with an awful noise.
Its head moved closer, and I saw a single round eye, enormous and glassy like a lake. An animal's eye.