Drip-Fed

Path of Responsibility 9 – Combat, Banter, Bees

“You know what I have been wondering?” Reysha carefully peeked her head around the corner. The Aimed Whisper Skill allowed her to talk without alerting the enemies around the corner.

It was a luxury the rest of them did not have. Her question went unanswered, as they instead reacted to her hand signs. ‘Three monsters, right side,’ she spelled out with a few gestures. The clicking of pointy feet on hard ground soon confirmed her assessment. The insects had noticed the light.

Korith weighed her hammer with both hands. Her thoughts went to a quiet background noise, the rushing of blood in her ears rising to the surface. She was no berserker, but every frontliner, no matter the Class, knew the value of amping oneself up before charging into battle.

Adrenaline flowing, the Warrior charged. She rushed past the sharp corner and straight towards the opposite wall. The insects lacked the necessary faculties to be confused by that tactic, they simply went on the offensive.

They were larger than their cousins in the outer layer of the Dungeon, almost the size of a pony each. Spikes of hardened chitin protruded from their backs, creating yet another layer of protection for the already sturdy monsters.

Sturdiness was of little aid when they fell for the diversion. Korith leapt for the wall, bouncing off the slanted surface with ease. She swung her hammer sideways, forcing the monsters to back away in unison. They backed right into Reysha and Apexus, who had followed the Warrior with mild delay.

Rogue and Monk descended on the same enemy. With a leap, the heavy hulk of a humanoid chimera landed on the back of the monster. Slammed to the ground, it squirmed beneath him, stunned for just long enough that Reysha could swing one of her swords at it. The weapon was True Silver, like the rest of her extensive armament, and cut a trench into the neck of the monster. Immediately after, she grabbed the underside of a mandible with her left hand.

Even with the bodysuit covering her, the bulging veins of the demon arm were visible. Unholy strength fuelled her, allowing her to rip the head of the creature upwards with enough force to snap the weakened neck fully.

Apexus leapt to the side just in time to escape the vengeful mandibles of one of the two remaining monsters. While they were every bit as reliant on pheromones as their counterparts, these inner layer monsters were a bit better at communicating. The Monk was still learning the signals in detail, but he had encountered this one before. It was the sour scent of martyrdom. The Lanaan insect before him was going to delay them with its life while the other creature attempted to deal with Korith.

An underestimation of the kobold on many levels. Completely in her element, the Warrior ducked and weaved through the hail of bites directed her way. The flow of her Ki filled dense muscles with steady strength. The Warrior Control was the base of every Warrior’s toolset, a Skill dedicated primarily to using base self-empowerment techniques constantly. A Warrior always had to be at 110%, to use their Martial Arts not for anything flashy like other Classes, but to be a reliable force on the battlefield.

That being said, there was nothing stopping a Warrior from changing things up.

Korith let her speed drop in the short room between two attacks, then sent mana surging through her muscle fibres. Her small figure allowed the mana to concentrate in a denser manner than in averagely sized or tall people.

The monster bit down again, only to be overpowered and outpaced by the shortstack. Her hammer smacked against the side of the monster’s face, cracking the chitin beneath the leathery skin. She released the weapon while the momentum was still strong, gripped the lower jaw of the maw behind the mandibles and tore down. A moment later, the creature’s tongue dangled in the air, without a cavity to rest in.

Gurgling, the monster attempted its best to continue fighting with mandibles and front legs. Confident in her armour, Korith let her arm get caught. It was half of the grip she secured, before firing up another wave of Muscle Strengthening.

The world of the monster spun. One moment it stood, the next it was slammed down on its back. Korith hastily retrieved her hammer, which had fallen to the floor nearby. She raised it high, while the creature attempted to flip back around. It failed to do so before the hammer came down on the exposed roof of its mouth.

“Impressive,” Apexus complimented her. He and Reysha had taken the third monster out in the meantime.

“It’s, uhm, it’s what I do?” Korith answered, her thoughts slowly crawling back in. “Glad to be of frontline service.”

“An exceptional service that none but you could render with such reliability in this party,” Aclysia complimented. The metal fairy had observed the fight from the rear, keeping a lookout for any reinforcements or emergencies. As with most smooth fights, it meant that she had played no part in it. A reserve was a vital part of any flexible strategy.

“T-thanks!” Korith responded to the compliment.

“We will take a minute,” Apexus said and picked up a conveniently sized chunk of splattered skull from the floor. He devoured it whole, while keeping a view in either direction. “What were you wondering, Reysha?”

“Whether someone would remember I said that right before a fight,” Reysha answered with a smirk. “No, but actually, I was wondering – if you compare the tastes of these things, what do you think about?”

Apexus tilted his head. “I do not catch your meaning?”

Reysha ripped a lower leg segment off one of the monsters. “’Like these giant ass insects, right? I think they taste like lobster. What would you compare them to?”

“Why would I compare?” the Monk continued to be confused. “It tastes like itself. Insect meat steeped in magic.”

“Sometimes I am reminded that you’re not human at all,” Reysha drawled. “Us species spawned with a Spark like to talk about food.”

“I like to eat food,” Apexus answered and shoved another piece of meat in his mouth. “Was that amusing?” he asked.

Aclysia had raised a hand to her mouth, to elegantly hide a little giggle.  “It was a remarkably pure and simple retort that evoked memories of our early days, darling.”

“Cute as he was, I much prefer this,” Reysha said between chomps of squishy fibres. “I like the tentacles as much as the other two women in the room, but fuck me, I do like men more than monsters. Hope that doesn’t sound rude, big guy.”

“My form was always fluid, I am happy my current iteration is pleasing to you,” the humanoid chimera underlined his words with a simple smile.

“Personally, kinda glad I missed the slime phase…” Korith admitted. She had seen him reduced to what he had been back in Chimerion, when he had sacrificed much of his biomass to get the cure for her poison. She had found it interesting, but she could not see herself being sexually attracted to that. It was too lacking in height and muscles.

“You’re a simple size queen,” Reysha pointed out.

“I am a normal kobold, thank you very much!” she pushed back.

“You are-“ Reysha’s left ear turned.

“Something is coming,” Apexus stated.

The constant buzzing sound soon filled the entire corridor. ‘Sounds a bit like Reysha’s toy…’ the comedic thought crossed through Korith’s mind, before the reality of what they were actually hearing dawned on her and the others.

Bees.

The swarm of blue-striped insects peeled out of the darkness as a dense tide. The bees were larger than their mundane counterparts, reaching the length of an index finger. Individually, such a lack of size would have been assuring, but in a massive swarm like that it was terrifying.

Apexus took just a moment’s stock of the situation before he made the call. “Run!”

The entire party turned back to the corridor they had come from. Aclysia launched two Sunlight Bolts into the swarm as she hovered backwards. Each attack turned a ball of bees into scorched husks, but the holes were filled by more of their kin in an instant. Aclysia turned, to fly at full speed. Her companion prism continued to fire lasers into the crowd at steady intervals.

Following the pheromone scent he had left, Apexus led the party down the trail they had walked so far. They had rested at a healing fountain two days prior. If they aimed straight for that location, they could get there within an hour at most. Running an hour while being chased by bees was possible. Apexus was running his mind for another solution.

Their toolkit was not well suited for encounters like this. They lacked proper area damage tools. Apexus had not yet learned Ki Explosion or the Scattering Hand. Warriors and Rogues were single-targeted by their nature. Aclysia was the best they had and even she had no proper area damage spell.

A glaring weakness that he was now aware of and that they would have to fix after they got out of this.

The swarm continued to chase them. For the moment, they were keeping their distance, but it was only a matter of time until Reysha’s stamina ran out. They needed a solution or an advantageous position.

Apexus ran with his head half turned, one eye focusing on the path ahead, the other on the swarm behind. The glow of his nails and Aclysia’s Illumni orb were all that parted the darkness. He could not even make out the true extent of the swarm – not until the prism hovering by Aclysia’s shoulder shot another autonomous beam.

The mass of bees stretched on for metres into the corridor. All of it moved in unison after them and the bees clumped together in front of the beam. An odd behaviour for a swarm, except in one circumstance. ‘They have something to protect,’ Apexus realized. “There is a queen in there!”

“Ya sure?” Reysha shouted.

“Certain enough,” the humanoid chimera answered. “We will turn after the next corner. Korith and I will draw their attention. Aclysia, Reysha, you need to find and target it.”

“Affirmative,” Aclysia answered. She had her doubts about her adequacy. A vital task given meant she had no time to consider those doubts.

“Let’s do it!”

“Korith, Reysha, take your mutagens!” Apexus instructed.

Doing so mid run was slightly awkward, but they managed. The effects kicked in quickly and the swarm of bees buzzed even more angrily, matching the signal scent now coming off from Korith and Apexus. The humanoid chimera mimicked it manually, trying to overpower the senses of the eusocial monsters completely.

The bend in the path came. “Now!” Apexus shouted and threw himself into the swarm.

Korith followed suit. Both of them could do little more than flail their arms around and even that they quickly ceased doing. They focused all they had in keeping up their Ironskin, covering the entirety of their epidermis with Ki that prevented the stingers of the bees from piercing them. Even though that worked, the relentless swarm soon covered them, crawling under clothes and armour.

Aclysia suppressed her panic at the sight. It took mere seconds for the people she knew and loved to be turned into humanoid figures, surface crawling with insects. All of the little monsters on her darlings meant fewer monsters in the air though.

“There!” Reysha shouted. The tiger woman snapped forwards, making it through the swarm at a rapid speed. Her own mutagen created a scent that shouted ‘LET ME THROUGH!’ at the bees. It was as if she was surrounded by wind pressure, pushing the bees aside as she made her way to the heart of the swarm.

The queen bee was slightly larger than the rest and fuzzy compared to the smooth bodies of its kin. Strikingly, its eyes were of a bright purple colour, which flared into an even greater intensity once it realized that the redhead was coming straight at it. A wave of psychic power slammed into the Rogue.

The paralysis spell caught Reysha completely off-guard. Locked in mid-motion, the remaining momentum caused her to topple and fall painfully on her side. A wave went through the buzzing of the swarm, an order by the queen to descend on the squishy target no matter what the pheromones said.

Aclysia weaved her spell. Mana flowed from her palm. Invisible streaks of power, put into a spin by the curl of her half-closed hand. It looked as if she was gripping an intangible object – and that object manifested in a flash of golden light. Critical mass reached, the Solar Lance was launched a moment later, thrown like a javelin. The metal fairy had little faith in her aim. It did not matter if she used a projectile of sufficient power.

The Solar Lance sliced and scorched its way through the swarm, then turned the psychic bee queen itself into nothing but ash. A high-pitched screech filled the air for three seconds, causing a massive headache in all four members of the Inevitable party. That was the worst of it for them. For the other bees, the death scream of the queen was the end. All of the bees simultaneously turned into husks, dropping where they crawled or flew.

“That went better than expected,” Apexus admitted. He had thought they would have to continue running from a disorganized swarm afterwards.

“Speak for yourself,” Reysha hissed, rubbing her cheek. “I got stung twice… urgh, it’s already swelling…”

“We will move back to the Healing Fountain for now,” Apexus decided. Aclysia was not good at detoxifying and having painfully swelling stings would be distracting to Reysha. They did not need that when they were exploring so hostile an environment.

So, they went back to the Fountain to proceed the next day.