Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire
Chapter 415: Setting a fleet on fire

Chapter 415: Setting a fleet on fire

But this was probably the hardest time for the four kingdoms to not fall apart—not because of circumstances within them, but because of the situation in the Eastern Expanse Reach.

This situation—if you could call an ongoing war that—began a few days ago, when the Vardish fleet appeared near Eastern Expanse Reach’s shores, all according to the prophecy.

Forewarned, the teams of dragon riders carrying loads of oil-soaked wood flew toward the ships to set them on fire. It was, as I was told, not a quick skirmish, but a prolonged and a dangerous battle.

For a start, there were more Vardish ships than expected—an entire hundred. Some of them were small, but most had at least two decks: they towered above the water like entire mountains, to the astonishment of the bees who sent me these reports.

Some ships had wear and tear that showed that they went through a serious storm; according to the prophecies, it should’ve drowned them. But they were lucky enough to pull themselves by bootstraps until they reached EER.

The arsonist dragon riders weren’t deterred by that, of course. They attacked, and the Vardish seamen, who didn’t suspect that some dragons flying near their ships might be dangerous, paid dearly for that.

The fire was delivered to the biggest, most dangerous ships, and to the places from where the bees smelled gunpowder. 20 of the biggest Vardish ships were ignited in several places, and the crew couldn’t put the fires out before their gunpowder stores exploded.

Those ships sank so fast that almost nobody got away from them on lifeboats or just by swimming.

After this, the dragon riders went to ignite the other ships—their job wasn’t over until the entire fleet fell. Behind them was a conquered harbor with a small garrison, but massive strategic value!

My girls fought until the end for it, and they only needed one reason—”Father wants it”.

However, after the first ships were set on fire, the humans became more alert. They realized dragons were at fault and shot at them with their muskets and pistols. They even threw random items at dragons just to get them away.

The spirit of the bees was indomitable, but the same couldn’t be said about their dragons. Even the tamest ones didn’t want to be near swishing bullets, and some of them were actually shot by enemy marksmen.

Although several more ships were set on fire and put on the bottom of the sea, the dragon riders were forced to retreat and regroup.

To be more precise, the dragons flew away from the battle and the dragon riders had to do something about it!

Of course, each minute which the dragon riders spent regrouping, the Vardish fleet spent getting closer to the shore.

The leader of the shore main garrison, some human appointed by general Gresch in this position, prepared some defenses too. The harbor had a few dozen cannons, all of which were now pointing toward the sea. But it wasn’t enough to stop a fleet this large—that was why dragons were needed in the first place.

After a while, the dragon riders have pacified their beasts. Then the leader of the dragon force, Beemarine Stompskull, came up with a new plan of action.

By then, the fleet had traveled much closer to the harbor, but because the dragon riders flew out a while ahead, there was still time. The Vardish ships were too far to open fire on the harbor.

Deciding that the lives of her sisters were a small price to pay for the safety of the entire Bee Empire, Stompskull gave an incredibly risky order: a part of the dragon riders will make the dragons fly as close to the fleet as they can.

After the beasts would start protesting again, the bees would take as many oil bombs as they could from the dragons’ load and jump off their backs.

They would travel toward the ships on their own wings!

I didn’t need to be there myself to know what a dangerous plan this was. Humans wouldn’t be able to attack or even see the targets as tiny as bees from this distance. However, the sea itself was dangerous enough for a creature as tiny as a bee!

Despite all the efforts of humans to shoot down any wild sea dragon near the harbor, there were still some of them flying in the skies. The strange and deadly sea fishes were also watching from the ground below—could they jump out to snatch a bee out of the air?

But the most important problem was the weather. The sea had wild winds and high humidity. Each wave that crashed on ships’ hulls created thousands of water droplets, each of which could make a bee lose balance mid-flight and fall to her death into the water.

None of this made Stompskull or her subordinates hesitate. They cared not about their chances of surviving, but only about their chances of succeeding.

The dragon riders jumped off their dragons on the way of the fleet. They didn’t have to fly far, because the ships traveled toward them. They didn’t have to stay close to the dangerous water, because the skies were clear of dragons on that day.

But when the bees reached the ships, the merciless waves attacked them, taking dozens of lives. But this wasn’t the end of it! NovelFire

Inside the ships, the arsonist bees spat out fire from their mouths and threw oil bombs, trying to make more fire than humans could stop. But at the same time, they were attacked by insects that lived inside the ships and fed on humans!

These brave girls had to fight on both fronts. And between setting more things on fire and saving their lives by retreating, they always chose fire.

As a result, out of 2000 dragon riders (and 180 dragons), only a pitiful 340 bees have survived! 30 dragons were killed or wounded by bullets, too.

Beemarine Stompskull died, too.

But 40 more human ships were sent to the bottom of the ocean by the end. 40 ships…

Which meant that 40 more reached the harbor!