The Bee Dungeon
POBee 284.1 - Bee-fying the Heat

The Third of the Fourth took charge of the Lava Field forces as the Third of the Sixth withdrew to the Bog. Though, without the Third of the Sixth’s hive, the Lava Field forces were purely the Third of the Fourth’s children. With their numbers thus reduced and no blessing of the Queen of All Fire to boost them, they were no longer expected to hold this room.

But the Third of the Fourth would fight regardless. A battle in the Lava Field was precisely the reason she had evolved into a burning bee in the first place. Though her efforts now turned in other directions than fighting invaders, she could not help but admit she was pleased she would be able to do her original job at least once before the Third of the Sixth’s hive surpassed hers entirely.

And her skills would be needed once more. They were to fight a delaying action, to distract and hold the invaders so that the room itself could claim as many of them as possible. They would need to be engaged with the enemy but not end up entangled with them. This battle would require a careful balancing act and constant adaptation to the circumstances, not least of which because they were facing a type of enemy they had never encountered before and so needed a queen and a hive with the experience to stay flexible. The Third of the Fourth would be the first battle meadow queen to engage them, thus it was up to her to determine how the soldier bee army needed to adapt.

So, the Third of the Fourth resolved herself for the fight of her life.

“Here they come!”

The Third of the Fourth danced a salute in response to the King’s warning. Soon after, the invader arrived: a swarm of creatures not unlike wingless bees. Ants, those that sought honey and arrived in even greater numbers than a hive. Her instincts whispered to her, but these shades were far too large for the bees’ innate method of blowing them away with their wings. Maybe the Fourth of the Seven could pull that off with her big wings, but she was not fighting here.

In any case, the queens raised in the battle meadow had far more methods than their built in instincts. The Third of the Fourth waited as the invaders poured out into the Lava Field, seemingly unhindered by the searing heat or choking ash. The room rumbled as the mini-volcano at the far end came to life. She heard a roar that rattled through her whole body as a burning boulder launched into the sky, blazing up and above her waiting army.

The boulder streaked down, but fell off target to the side of the entrance. The invaders had spread out though, so the boulder struck some of them nonetheless. The shades didn’t even react as the boulder crashed down and crushed several squads worth at once. The boulder then exploded, showering the area with flames and pieces of rock. The flames didn’t bother the ants even when struck directly…but the pieces of rock did.

And now that the volcano’s effectiveness was proven, the Third of the Fourth ordered her hive into the fray. Her sprayer squads opened with a volley while the soldier squads set up their dives. The ant shades hissed as the burning venom sprayed over them and retaliated with their own flaming globs. As she feared, the shades could resist her hive’s burning venom like the flames, though at least the toxic components still had some effect. Still, she ordered her sprayers back out of range.

Even if her hives’ venom didn’t work, their stingers would. So, she sent in the first soldier squad, targeting a smaller group of invaders that had been separated from the others by the mini-volcano’s boulder. The ants took note and began to launch their attacks, forcing the soldiers to take evasive action and break off their attack. The next squad was also warded off and the next. Sadly, as the hive of hives didn’t intend to stop the shades in this room outright, her hive didn’t have many of the small King-thing’s magic armor, so most of her soldiers were still relying purely on evasion.

The Third of the Fourth buzzed her wings as a fourth squad failed to close the distance. This…was a problem. Previous enemies had a gap between their attacks: wolf shades couldn’t use their breath attacks continuously and spiky salamanders had to regrow their spines between volleys. These shades, however, came in such numbers that they could cover for each other and create a continuous attack. Her soldiers trained to break off their approaches when countered and then dive in once the attack was over…but in this case, the attack never stopped. The soldiers would never get close enough to sting.

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Worse still, the rest of the shades filled the gap left by the boulder and joined with the isolated group. Now, the amount of globs being tossed in the air was too great, the soldiers couldn’t even start to approach. The Third of the Fourth pulled her soldiers back and considered the problem while they waited for the next boulder.

She had an idea when she thought about the spiky salamander. The hive of hives had similar difficulties and they had ultimately resolved it by having the hive of the fallen and the lancers attack at the same time, creating two different threats so that one would make it through. And just in time, another boulder landed on the edge of the invaders, separating another group from the swarm. This time, the Third of the Fourth ordered two squads to dive simultaneously and from different directions. She also gave them orders to press on if the number of attacks was reasonably light. She suspected they would have to accept some hits to close the difference, but hoped that her burning soldiers could resist the flaming globs just like the ant shades resisted her sprayers.

Her soldiers complied and began their dives. Again, the ants began to attack…but their volleys were split, each ant aiming towards whichever bee was closest. One squad was having trouble evading and so broke off their attack, but the other judged the danger as acceptable and pressed on. One soldier took a glob to the torso…but as the Third of the Fourth had hoped the flames didn’t bother her. They didn’t even stop her dive.

The squad finally reached their targets and thrust their stingers down. Their stingers broke through the misty carapace of the shades with ease, impaling them entirely. The ants in question dispersed into mist almost immediately.

Their comrades, though, immediately turned to attack the soldier bees, snapping at them with their mandibles. Fortunately, the soldiers were well used to making quick retreats, so managed to pull out with only a nip or two on their legs. Still, the Third of the Fourth took note. The soldiers would need to stay light and airborne, especially if they attacked a larger group of the ants. Fortunately, the shades’ defenses were quite weak this time, a full speed dive was not required to defeat them.

And so, the Third of the Fourth’s hive began its defense. She had sprayers and soldiers in reserve posture and make feint dives towards the main body of the swarm, forcing them to stop their march and counterattack. Meanwhile, she made actual assaults on smaller groups of shade whenever a boulder managed to isolate them. All the while, she relayed her hive’s experiences to the hive of hives, hoping that the other battlemeadow queens would be able to prepare their own soldiers ahead of time.

Further opportunities arose when the swarm reached one of the lava rivers. The ants were not bothered by the heat of the lava either and were apparently light enough to stand right on top of it…but that also meant they were light enough to be pulled away by the lava’s current. The ants responded to this by locking their bodies together, forming a bridge that the others could crawl over.

The Third of the Fourth took the opportunity to attack in greater force, hitting the bridges as they were forming and the ants couldn’t respond well. She slowed their advance to a crawl, buying even more time for the volcano to do its work. One of the boulders even struck the start of an ant bridge, causing the rest of it to flow away in a now free-floating ant raft. The bees were able to pick it apart at leisure.

Still, the advance pressed on. More and more shades poured into the room and it became harder to isolate sufficiently small groups. Her hive was not without losses either. Several bees had taken serious injuries on their legs when they pulled out too slowly, a few had even lost feet or legs entirely. And while the globs of fire couldn’t burn her bees…the liquid fueling the flames could cause trouble if it splashed onto their wings and interfered with their flight. A few of her soldiers learned that the hard way mid-dive, falling right into the midst of the ants. Some were rescued and pulled away by their squads. Two had not been so lucky.

As the shades made their way across the room, the Third of the Fourth was increasingly pushed to rely on feints rather than true attacks. Her hive alone just didn’t have the numbers to do anything more. One of her communers began to glow and dance.

“Hive of hives ready in next room. Queen mother and hive can join whenever.”

But she had done enough. She had bought the hive of hives enough time to prepare the real defense. She had exposed the holes in the soldier bees’ tactics and determined some countermeasures. She had taken the measure of the enemy so the bee army proper would experience no surprises.

Her first true battle as a burning bee had been a success. Her evolution had served the hive of hives after all.

And so, once her feints were no longer appreciably delaying the swarm and it began to approach the mini-volcano itself, she gave the order to pull back. She and her soldiers held their antennae high as they flew to rejoin their battle meadow sisters once more.