The Bee Dungeon

Belissar put his internal conflict aside. First and foremost, he had to see what everyone else thought of the options first. As usual, he turned the question to the bees.

The First of the Fifth conferred with the Apiary bees, but they had few dances this time.

“Dancers might help with hive? Bees sound good for army, should ask Firstborn!”

The Fourth of the Seventh was apparently in the middle of evolving, so the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter spoke for the Apiary.

“Dancers are communer evolution? Could help scouts!”

Belissar nodded to acknowledge them and then turned to the battle meadow queens. Today, it was their turn to have an intense dance-off as they debated the merits of the three options. The Firstborn, however, noticed Belissar’s attention on them and tried to summarize the viewpoints.

“All bees good. Dancers help existing bees. Berserkers make soldier army stronger, make sure bees don’t die without fight. Assassins good for ambushes, find way around defense. Makes one sting dangerous if bees can’t sting more.”

The first digging queen, the Fourth of the Fifth, also flew forward to dance this time.

“Assassins good for tunnels, digging bees! Can sting from underground!”

“Karnuq queen is berserker? Want to be like!”

Belissar’s eyes widened and he turned to the karnuq.

“That’s a good point, you were a blazing berserker, right, Chief Rohsuak? Do you know anything about berserkers?”

Metsaitti grinned. Chief Rohsuak rolled her eyes with a chuckle.

“A berserker believes that the best defense is a good offense. They devote everything to ferocious, all-out attacks meant to overwhelm the enemy, and so minimize the need for defense. They’re excellent when you’re ready to commit to the enemy’s defeat and don’t plan to stop attacking until either you or the enemy is spent.”

She then rubbed her chin and turned to the Third of the Sixth.

“Please note, though, that for me Blazing Berserker was just a nickname for the aggressive style I used in my youth. A monster with berserker in the name will be far more intense. If all you wish is for bees to imitate my powers, I can assist with that without a dedicated species. So, I would say if you choose the berserkers, choose them for their ferocity, strength, and contempt of death, not because of my title.”

Belissar nodded at that. If he recalled, the Third of the Sixth was supposed to work with Chief Rohsuak previously. She had been busy, though, setting up her hive, especially after Belissar created the Lava Field for her, while Chief Rohsuak had to both help the karnuq set up and deal with the sigmaka. It sounded like it was time to revisit that idea now, though.

Still, that left Belissar with a difficult choice, as there were bees that preferred each of the three options. First things first, though, Belissar needed to stop running away.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. And then, he resolved to pick berserkers if he determined they were the best option. His dislike of that option was purely personal, and he knew it didn’t make sense. He had soldier bees that were apparently disappointed not to be injured enough to join the hive of the fallen. He had the Memorial which specifically buffed bees about to die, a feature he received from the God of Bees herself. Even Tarwantrad, who seemed to love bees as much as he, apparently had bee predators in her own dungeon.

He could not avoid bee death forever and might even increase it if he was excessive in his attempts to do so. Even a mundane beekeeper had to be comfortable with bee death. He saw dead bees all the time, he had to help clear out the dead when disaster struck a hive, and Mrs. Imkomos even taught him to personally euthanize an old queen when necessary, so that the hive could raise a new one and remain healthy. He was ever grateful his monster bees seemed far more resilient and he still intended to minimize sacrifice wherever possible. But still, he could not decline an option as powerful as this solely because of his own desire to avoid bee casualties. Ɍ�

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So, he steeled himself, and then attempted to look at these choices with as objective an eye as he could manage, to pick the one that would be best for his Tower as a whole, regardless of how he felt about it. He imagined each one being raised by the hives, working and training with the hives and the karnuq each day, and fighting both shades and Tower Guards. He imagined different types that the different queens might raise, and how they would fight in different rooms. How they would work on their own and how they would work with the rest of the bee army, the karnuq, and the flowers he had and would receive.

He made his choice.

Monster Bee Assassin now available! Monster Bee Soldiers may now evolve into Monster Bee Assassins!

When he thought about the Tower as a whole, he felt that assassins fit into it better than berserkers. An issue with the Dirt Tunnels was that, until recently, there weren’t enough digging soldiers to fight effectively on their own where the rest of the soldier bee army couldn’t support them. The shades were allowed to pass through the entire room before any of his defenders intervened, because they couldn’t do enough to justify the danger. Even recently, the digging soldiers had only managed to distract the enemy.

But if they had assassins?

A single assassin sting was dangerous. If the digging hives raised even a single assassin, they might take out a shade or a Tower Guard with a single sting to the foot. The battle could end in the Tower’s first room.

That then applied to every room in the Tower. A single chromatic assassin, or an assassin led by a chromatic bee, could stalk the Fairy Grove and sting an invader while they were confused. A burning assassin could use the distraction of smoke, ash, lava, and flaming boulders from the mini-volcano to sting in the Lava Field. And if he managed to make a water room with the vapor hemlock? Then assassin bees could hide in the already poisonous mist.

There was the question, too, of assassin bees concentrating the venom of different bee types. How would toxic, maddening, or sedating assassins work? Would a burning assassin’s venom burn even hotter, or a shocking assassin’s turn into lightning? A question made all the more intriguing by the thought of what flowers he might receive from the Circle.

Likewise, assassins could easily fit in with the rest of his Tower’s defenders. They could join the soldier bee army with ease, slotting right into the soldier bee squad rotations, or hiding like the digging soldiers did against the spiky salamander. They could hide amongst the karnuq to sting alongside the karnuq’s spears. They might even be able to hide inside the new wax golems according to the golems’ description.

And then there was the whole mana-sight finding weaknesses. Belissar wasn’t sure how that worked…but couldn’t they tell the other bees what they saw? In fact, couldn’t the queens see whatever they saw thanks to the communers? If that’s how it worked…then the assassins could also make the whole army more effective by telling the other bees where to sting.

In contrast, the dancers made everything better, but Belissar still wasn’t sure how much better. He wondered if he was missing something, but he felt he couldn’t justify gambling on that vague description when the other two options were so powerful. This was a rare choice he received for completing a mission from the God of Bees, he had to make the most of it.

Then what about berserkers? There was no doubt they were powerful and the raw power they brought would serve the soldier bee army well. But, what Chief Rohsuak said stuck out in his mind. Berserkers were to be employed when he was ready to commit to the enemy’s defeat, to have the bees start a ferocious assault that would not end until the enemy was defeated. When he tried to imagine what that would mean for a purification…he guessed that meant he wouldn’t deploy berserkers until the last second. They would have to watch the shade and let either the other bees, the karnuq, or the new wax golems probe it to determine what sort of defenses and special attacks it had. Only once they were confident in bringing the enemy down could he deploy the berserkers, lest he send them something like the mass breath, lightning, or spine attacks previous shades had demonstrated.

Well, he guessed he could also send the berserkers in first, since their death rampage would let them survive any special attacks long enough to deal damage back along with revealing what the enemy could do. But that would mean guaranteeing the death of powerful, evolved bees before he knew if they were truly needed or not. New resolutions or not, that was more sacrifice than Belissar could bring himself to make.

So, berserkers would mostly be an option of last resort, when Belissar was either confident in defeating the enemy, or if the enemy was too strong for anything else. The bee army or the karnuq would still have to face the enemy on their own before then, whereas assassins gave opportunities to defeat invaders before the battle got to that stage at all.

Besides, his Tower had golems, bumblebees, and shield-bearing karnuq when they needed bulk; had lancers, archers, battlecasters, and Chief Rohsuak when they needed power; and had the Memorial’s buff and bees’ death blow skills when sacrifice was unavoidable. The berserkers were powerful indeed…but the bee army already had greater potential for sacrificial rampages than Belissar was employing.

And, ultimately, even if Belissar would do what he had to in an emergency, he still intended to do all he could to prevent a battle from ever reaching that point.

So, Belissar made his choice, still somewhat uncertain if he had let his emotions get the best of him or not, but at least convinced he had considered the options. The bees, at least, had no such doubts.

“Amazing, incredible, King is best king!”

The Fourth of the Fifth immediately began a happy dance, soon joined by the Third of the Sixth and then the rest of the queens. Belissar chuckled and allowed himself to smile. Whether or not he had made the right choice, he’d just have to make the best of it, and ensure his decisions went as well as the bees believed.