Belphegora focused once again, blocking the stream of fire coming from that bastard Vlugh’s Ability. She didn’t care about how it worked, why it was used in such an unusual way, or that it was Vlugh using it.
Actually, that last part was very important to her.
Belial - and Ben for that matter - were far too lenient on the humans. In fact, throughout the entire hive, Belphegora thought that Beatrice was the only one who truly understood. Humans are nothing more than tools, vessels to serve at Mother’s command.
And an interesting point of study. For all that Belphegora despised them, they were fascinating creatures. It was just that, now that Mother was here and growing the hive, the humans were a thing of the past. They provided an interesting starting point, but it was time to rest as a species.
She blocked another stream of fire. This battle was a perfect encapsulation of everything Belphegora believed. The swarm was one, coordinating perfectly. Although she herself sometimes gave direction, and though Belial made a decision or two, every bee here was one within the hive.
Bullets that came too close to a warrior found themselves screeching to a halt as Belphegora exerted more of her Mind. Simultaneously, she blocked another stream of fire and used an Ability she was working on to manipulate the emotions of the closest humans. She could do all these things at once, while the humans could only charge forward foolishly, shoot guns fruitlessly, or use their own Abilities in desperation.
The large human attempted to destroy the Linkers once again, and Belphegora scoffed. Those three were the ultimate harbingers of their fates. If enough of the random humans fell to the swarm, she would be able to dedicate enough resources to kill them herself.
“Lady Belphegora, stay strong.”
She didn’t deign her brother’s comment with a response, and yet she felt him smirk. He was staying out of sight, firing into the cloud of smoke and incapacitating human after human. Though, Belphegora did notice that fewer humans fell with each of his volleys. So those new bullets of his weren’t endless? Unfortunate. Though that wasn’t the only reason his attacks were becoming less effective.
She had to give them this; the humans could adapt. They lacked our superior coordination and precision, but each individual human was gradually finding cover, creating protection, or otherwise stabilizing against our offensive. No matter.
The swarm’s surprise attack had resulted in dozens of dead or incapacitated humans, and Belphegora watched as the bees proved their mettle. The various warriors successfully dodged attacks and stung the humans. Bend was especially competent, his brute strength allowing him to hold back several charging humans at once. She noticed that their Minds were not particularly strong, but they were still more powerful than the humans sniveling on the other side of this Rotor shaft.
“Belphegora!”
Oh? Belphegora glanced to the side where that bastard Yelah was struggling to her feet. How could they hope to compete? Our bees were capable of taking the humans’ things and turning them into a weapon capable of bringing them to their knees. And that was before Mother deigned to accelerate Beau’s research!
The human said something that Belphegora chose to ignore. Her time was more valuable than entertaining whatever the bastard human had to say. If she chose to attack, so be it. Belphegora would answer in kind. Or, rather, she would finally stop delaying the inevitable and Link Yelah.
Because she and her friends were the only humans Mother had specifically instructed to leave alive, no matter what.
A sense of dread descended on Belphegora, and she tried her best to concentrate, but in the next heartbeat, a pair of bullets struck a warrior, killing it instantly. Instantly she knew what had happened: a pair of humans who had a high level of danger had finally arrived in the city center. Bennet was screaming apologies, but nothing he could say would reduce Belphegora’s newly sparked rage.
That was, of course, because Bennet was not at fault whatsoever. It was all the fault of the humans.
In any case, she looked to where the human pair were hiding. They had the sense not to charge in, but were instead staying concealed in the shadows of the buildings at the edge of the city center. Belphegora wouldn’t say that she underestimated humans, rather considering them a true threat. However, some humans did surprise her.
She instructed the swarm to play defensively for a moment as she focused her attention on the human pair. The sensation she felt when an illusion appeared poked at her Mind as she smirked. Now all she had to do-
Another pair of bullets tore through the body of a warrior, the one who had lost its wings against Grehn’s attack. Too fast. Too accurate! Why were her illusions not working?
With Belial’s help, she saw that the pair of humans were, in fact, attempting to destroy the illusions which appeared only in their own Minds. However, when they fired, the bullets swerved and targeted the swarm directly. This time, Belphegora was ready and stopped the bullets, but it took a noticeably greater amount of Mind to slow the bullets those two shot. The assessment of their danger wasn’t for nothing, then.
As Belphegora’s focus on those two intensified, the swarm could not afford to be as careless, and the number of humans they continuously felled dropped from the dozens to the tens, then even lower.
Despite herself, Belphegora felt a faint smile begin to creep onto her face, a trait she sadly shared with her sister.
Humans were so fascinating.
__________
I saw Belphegora’s attention shift almost completely to the two mercs with the wacky tracking bullets, and I gulped. My view of the battle from Bennet’s eyes was painting a picture I still wasn’t sure how to interpret. The swarm was incredibly effective, and even once the mercenaries had begun to stabilize a bit, tons of them were simply unable to deal with the bees.
But they were beginning to stabilize. Even without all the humans who couldn’t fight anymore, the mercs still outnumbered us at least 3 to 1. Of course, there were unusual elements in the mix on both sides. Although there were only about forty warriors, Belphegora and Belial alone counted for like twenty-plus warriors each. Well, twenty ordinary warriors. There were stand-outs like Bend in there too.
But on the side of the mercs, they just had way more powerful individuals on average. Yelah’s team, the two gunslingers in the shadows, along with several other actually strong mercenaries. Not to mention Jill Yemonto and other unknown variables.
Fuck. This was why I had bolstered the warrior’s forces tenfold compared to the four I had originally sent in the advance force. Our bees were certainly odd, but ultimately our strength came in the form of reliable, rapid population growth. And being outnumbered took away our primary advantage.
Hence the surprise swarm strategy. Their advantage had actually fallen to 3-1 from even worse odds, so I wouldn’t say the effort was a failure.
But as I watched - no, felt - a third warrior die, my confidence continued to plummet.
“Focus. Mourn after the battle is done. Look, the Linkers have begun to take control of some humans. Bend is proving himself to be a strong individual, and the Valkybees are showing that even the more powerful mercenaries are incapable of dealing with our most powerful yet inexperienced combatants.”
How are you doing it, Queen? The only bees we’ve ever lost were drones, not even warriors. All their memories, I could feel them. Their hopes, their thoughts, their desires. Everything.
Even the names they liked, the ones they hoped I would gift to them one day.
“I… I care much for my bees. As much as you. Even before I met you, I cared for my hive. But that is unusual. Every worker, every warrior, they are all technically expendable. Only queens are valuable. But I didn’t see things the way others did. And I suppose being us amplified those feelings. All that is to say, get your head in the damn game! We MUST focus and mourn later!”
I was beginning to realize Queen was probably right more often than I cared to admit. Right. I had to focus. I started as I saw something in Bennet’s vision, which was definitely what I needed to get my head in the game. The number of humans fighting in the square had already fallen to just under one hundred, but the two things I saw might threaten to change the balance.
Jill Yemonto finally arrived at the battle. And so had Oyonshe.
_________
Shit. With her arrival, the mercenaries didn’t only get a boost in power, but in morale. She hadn’t gotten close to my swarm yet, but it had already been pushed back somewhat.
If I had fingernails to chew on, they wouldn’t exist. All I had was DAMN tree branches to spin around. Instead, all I could do was watch the battle turn in the humans’ favor. Well, just watching wasn’t actually an option. There was a certain simpleton I had to deal with, someone who wasn’t going to just potentially turn the tide of this battle, but of my entire Operation.
“Good job neutralizing those two, Belphegora. I need you to do something for me. Belial, ensure Jill Yemonto doesn’t get too close to the swarm; Bedivere has theorized that her Ability has some strict requirements, so just make sure she doesn’t get too close while not attacking her directly. Belphegora, you’re going to have to split off from the swarm slightly. Those two mercenaries you just Linked are going with you to intercept Yoho.”
That guy wouldn’t be allowed to fuck up my plans anymore. But… his goal did give me an idea. With only a faint buzz of confirmation, Belphegora slowly floated in the direction of the Rotor, disguising her intentions. On the other hand, the two sharpshooters, now firmly under my control, moved to vault over the shaft. They would be the ones to stop Yoho. And Belphegora?
She had some emotions to manipulate.
As I put the new plan in motion, Abilities and bullets tore through the air, killing another warrior and injuring two. I even saw Bend wrestling with a woman who rivaled Grehn in size, only to have one of his arms ripped off. Another warrior luckily came in for support, bringing the merc down, but Bend was one of the stronger warriors I had. Losing an arm, especially for the physically focused Bend, was certainly not ideal. It was hard to watch. Very hard. But hopefully the swarm wouldn’t be in as much danger anymore very very soon.
“So you guys are the monsters supposedly attacking? Cute!”
I heard the voice through Belial and instantly went on full guard. And not a moment too soon. As I concentrated, moving the swarm with both their own strength and my Mind, a small explosion blew a crater in the ground of the city center. Belial saw the man clad fully in white leaning over a rooftop, and fired, making the man take cover. That was one of the scary-strong mercenaries I had seen before. I recognized him from Toh’s memories. One of the Yemonto Co. elites. But why had he been fighting against the side Yemonto Co. was officially on?
Apparently, he was just some crazy loner. So yeah.
All of that didn’t matter, besides whatever knowledge I could glean about his capabilities. I knew Belial could keep him busy, but he would need to put all his focus on the merc to actually take him down. Something he couldn’t afford to do while Jill Yemonto was making steady progress towards the swarm.
My swarm was playing too defensively, and the mercs were really starting to press us now. Luckily, Yoho’s little idea gave us an opening to redirect. Now the defensive position of the swarm actually served as a distraction.
I watched through Bennet eye’s as Yoho fell the ground, yelling in pain. Probably on account of the bullets in his legs. At the same time, I looked at the Fighters. When the Rotor fell, they had been even worse off than the mercenaries. Way more people died to the explosion, way more didn’t move fast enough to avoid getting crushed.
And pretty much everyone was crying.
“Everyone! Lend your ears,” a boy suddenly shouted. A boy called Oyonshe. “Why did this happen?! What are we supposed to do now?! Give up? No! Listen over the sounds of your tears. Even now, the forces of the City Lord continue to battle, intent on keeping us down. If the valiant warriors currently keeping them busy fall, what then? What then?! We will be next! WE! MUST! FIGHT!”
The next part would be a display of force. Mind force. Or something like that. We needed the militia to do something, anything at all. Even if they just temporarily distracted the mercenaries, that would be more than enough, so I had all the pieces set in motion. Yoho had been trying to inform the militia about us, which gave me an idea: why didn’t we just do that same thing? Sort of. With Oyonshe’s Ability that intensified the intent of his words, combined with Belphegora’s emotion manipulation, and finally with Beck’s… whatever it was they were doing, I was confident that we could set something in motion.
And I was right! Many of the Fighters stopped crying as the power of two strong bees and the image of an eager young man washed over them, bringing them one step closer. I made sure that the two sharpshooter mercenaries waited until Yoho got Linked before sending them off to guard the Fighters from the shadows. Couldn’t have some mad merc deciding that the City Lord’s wishes extended to killing the defenseless civilians.
Huh. Huh huh huh. Something clicked in my head when Yoho got Linked. Thinking of the City Lord must’ve done something in my subconscious or something, because a conversation he had earlier suddenly became very important. A conversation that turned Jill Yemonto into ultra-important target number 1.
“I understand everything Yoho, there is no need to explain further. No, we will not warn the City Lord, he is safe in his hiding place. Until I am sure of the correct action to take, we will not contact him. Yes, I know it is a risk, but as one of the few people who knows where he is, I will not make a hasty decision.”
Belphegora focused once again, blocking the stream of fire coming from that bastard Vlugh’s Ability. She didn’t care about how it worked, why it was used in such an unusual way, or that it was Vlugh using it.
Actually, that last part was very important to her.
Belial - and Ben for that matter - were far too lenient on the humans. In fact, throughout the entire hive, Belphegora thought that Beatrice was the only one who truly understood. Humans are nothing more than tools, vessels to serve at Mother’s command.
And an interesting point of study. For all that Belphegora despised them, they were fascinating creatures. It was just that, now that Mother was here and growing the hive, the humans were a thing of the past. They provided an interesting starting point, but it was time to rest as a species.
She blocked another stream of fire. This battle was a perfect encapsulation of everything Belphegora believed. The swarm was one, coordinating perfectly. Although she herself sometimes gave direction, and though Belial made a decision or two, every bee here was one within the hive.
Bullets that came too close to a warrior found themselves screeching to a halt as Belphegora exerted more of her Mind. Simultaneously, she blocked another stream of fire and used an Ability she was working on to manipulate the emotions of the closest humans. She could do all these things at once, while the humans could only charge forward foolishly, shoot guns fruitlessly, or use their own Abilities in desperation.
The large human attempted to destroy the Linkers once again, and Belphegora scoffed. Those three were the ultimate harbingers of their fates. If enough of the random humans fell to the swarm, she would be able to dedicate enough resources to kill them herself.
“Lady Belphegora, stay strong.”
She didn’t deign her brother’s comment with a response, and yet she felt him smirk. He was staying out of sight, firing into the cloud of smoke and incapacitating human after human. Though, Belphegora did notice that fewer humans fell with each of his volleys. So those new bullets of his weren’t endless? Unfortunate. Though that wasn’t the only reason his attacks were becoming less effective.
She had to give them this; the humans could adapt. They lacked our superior coordination and precision, but each individual human was gradually finding cover, creating protection, or otherwise stabilizing against our offensive. No matter.
The swarm’s surprise attack had resulted in dozens of dead or incapacitated humans, and Belphegora watched as the bees proved their mettle. The various warriors successfully dodged attacks and stung the humans. Bend was especially competent, his brute strength allowing him to hold back several charging humans at once. She noticed that their Minds were not particularly strong, but they were still more powerful than the humans sniveling on the other side of this Rotor shaft.
“Belphegora!”
Oh? Belphegora glanced to the side where that bastard Yelah was struggling to her feet. How could they hope to compete? Our bees were capable of taking the humans’ things and turning them into a weapon capable of bringing them to their knees. And that was before Mother deigned to accelerate Beau’s research!
The human said something that Belphegora chose to ignore. Her time was more valuable than entertaining whatever the bastard human had to say. If she chose to attack, so be it. Belphegora would answer in kind. Or, rather, she would finally stop delaying the inevitable and Link Yelah.
Because she and her friends were the only humans Mother had specifically instructed to leave alive, no matter what.
A sense of dread descended on Belphegora, and she tried her best to concentrate, but in the next heartbeat, a pair of bullets struck a warrior, killing it instantly. Instantly she knew what had happened: a pair of humans who had a high level of danger had finally arrived in the city center. Bennet was screaming apologies, but nothing he could say would reduce Belphegora’s newly sparked rage.
That was, of course, because Bennet was not at fault whatsoever. It was all the fault of the humans.
In any case, she looked to where the human pair were hiding. They had the sense not to charge in, but were instead staying concealed in the shadows of the buildings at the edge of the city center. Belphegora wouldn’t say that she underestimated humans, rather considering them a true threat. However, some humans did surprise her.
She instructed the swarm to play defensively for a moment as she focused her attention on the human pair. The sensation she felt when an illusion appeared poked at her Mind as she smirked. Now all she had to do-
Another pair of bullets tore through the body of a warrior, the one who had lost its wings against Grehn’s attack. Too fast. Too accurate! Why were her illusions not working?
With Belial’s help, she saw that the pair of humans were, in fact, attempting to destroy the illusions which appeared only in their own Minds. However, when they fired, the bullets swerved and targeted the swarm directly. This time, Belphegora was ready and stopped the bullets, but it took a noticeably greater amount of Mind to slow the bullets those two shot. The assessment of their danger wasn’t for nothing, then.
As Belphegora’s focus on those two intensified, the swarm could not afford to be as careless, and the number of humans they continuously felled dropped from the dozens to the tens, then even lower.
Despite herself, Belphegora felt a faint smile begin to creep onto her face, a trait she sadly shared with her sister.
Humans were so fascinating.
__________
I saw Belphegora’s attention shift almost completely to the two mercs with the wacky tracking bullets, and I gulped. My view of the battle from Bennet’s eyes was painting a picture I still wasn’t sure how to interpret. The swarm was incredibly effective, and even once the mercenaries had begun to stabilize a bit, tons of them were simply unable to deal with the bees.
But they were beginning to stabilize. Even without all the humans who couldn’t fight anymore, the mercs still outnumbered us at least 3 to 1. Of course, there were unusual elements in the mix on both sides. Although there were only about forty warriors, Belphegora and Belial alone counted for like twenty-plus warriors each. Well, twenty ordinary warriors. There were stand-outs like Bend in there too.
But on the side of the mercs, they just had way more powerful individuals on average. Yelah’s team, the two gunslingers in the shadows, along with several other actually strong mercenaries. Not to mention Jill Yemonto and other unknown variables.
Fuck. This was why I had bolstered the warrior’s forces tenfold compared to the four I had originally sent in the advance force. Our bees were certainly odd, but ultimately our strength came in the form of reliable, rapid population growth. And being outnumbered took away our primary advantage.
Hence the surprise swarm strategy. Their advantage had actually fallen to 3-1 from even worse odds, so I wouldn’t say the effort was a failure.
But as I watched - no, felt - a third warrior die, my confidence continued to plummet.
“Focus. Mourn after the battle is done. Look, the Linkers have begun to take control of some humans. Bend is proving himself to be a strong individual, and the Valkybees are showing that even the more powerful mercenaries are incapable of dealing with our most powerful yet inexperienced combatants.”
How are you doing it, Queen? The only bees we’ve ever lost were drones, not even warriors. All their memories, I could feel them. Their hopes, their thoughts, their desires. Everything.
Even the names they liked, the ones they hoped I would gift to them one day.
“I… I care much for my bees. As much as you. Even before I met you, I cared for my hive. But that is unusual. Every worker, every warrior, they are all technically expendable. Only queens are valuable. But I didn’t see things the way others did. And I suppose being us amplified those feelings. All that is to say, get your head in the damn game! We MUST focus and mourn later!”
I was beginning to realize Queen was probably right more often than I cared to admit. Right. I had to focus. I started as I saw something in Bennet’s vision, which was definitely what I needed to get my head in the game. The number of humans fighting in the square had already fallen to just under one hundred, but the two things I saw might threaten to change the balance.
Jill Yemonto finally arrived at the battle. And so had Oyonshe.
_________
Shit. With her arrival, the mercenaries didn’t only get a boost in power, but in morale. She hadn’t gotten close to my swarm yet, but it had already been pushed back somewhat.
If I had fingernails to chew on, they wouldn’t exist. All I had was DAMN tree branches to spin around. Instead, all I could do was watch the battle turn in the humans’ favor. Well, just watching wasn’t actually an option. There was a certain simpleton I had to deal with, someone who wasn’t going to just potentially turn the tide of this battle, but of my entire Operation.
“Good job neutralizing those two, Belphegora. I need you to do something for me. Belial, ensure Jill Yemonto doesn’t get too close to the swarm; Bedivere has theorized that her Ability has some strict requirements, so just make sure she doesn’t get too close while not attacking her directly. Belphegora, you’re going to have to split off from the swarm slightly. Those two mercenaries you just Linked are going with you to intercept Yoho.”
That guy wouldn’t be allowed to fuck up my plans anymore. But… his goal did give me an idea. With only a faint buzz of confirmation, Belphegora slowly floated in the direction of the Rotor, disguising her intentions. On the other hand, the two sharpshooters, now firmly under my control, moved to vault over the shaft. They would be the ones to stop Yoho. And Belphegora?
She had some emotions to manipulate.
As I put the new plan in motion, Abilities and bullets tore through the air, killing another warrior and injuring two. I even saw Bend wrestling with a woman who rivaled Grehn in size, only to have one of his arms ripped off. Another warrior luckily came in for support, bringing the merc down, but Bend was one of the stronger warriors I had. Losing an arm, especially for the physically focused Bend, was certainly not ideal. It was hard to watch. Very hard. But hopefully the swarm wouldn’t be in as much danger anymore very very soon.
“So you guys are the monsters supposedly attacking? Cute!”
I heard the voice through Belial and instantly went on full guard. And not a moment too soon. As I concentrated, moving the swarm with both their own strength and my Mind, a small explosion blew a crater in the ground of the city center. Belial saw the man clad fully in white leaning over a rooftop, and fired, making the man take cover. That was one of the scary-strong mercenaries I had seen before. I recognized him from Toh’s memories. One of the Yemonto Co. elites. But why had he been fighting against the side Yemonto Co. was officially on?
Apparently, he was just some crazy loner. So yeah.
All of that didn’t matter, besides whatever knowledge I could glean about his capabilities. I knew Belial could keep him busy, but he would need to put all his focus on the merc to actually take him down. Something he couldn’t afford to do while Jill Yemonto was making steady progress towards the swarm.
My swarm was playing too defensively, and the mercs were really starting to press us now. Luckily, Yoho’s little idea gave us an opening to redirect. Now the defensive position of the swarm actually served as a distraction.
I watched through Bennet eye’s as Yoho fell the ground, yelling in pain. Probably on account of the bullets in his legs. At the same time, I looked at the Fighters. When the Rotor fell, they had been even worse off than the mercenaries. Way more people died to the explosion, way more didn’t move fast enough to avoid getting crushed.
And pretty much everyone was crying.
“Everyone! Lend your ears,” a boy suddenly shouted. A boy called Oyonshe. “Why did this happen?! What are we supposed to do now?! Give up? No! Listen over the sounds of your tears. Even now, the forces of the City Lord continue to battle, intent on keeping us down. If the valiant warriors currently keeping them busy fall, what then? What then?! We will be next! WE! MUST! FIGHT!”
The next part would be a display of force. Mind force. Or something like that. We needed the militia to do something, anything at all. Even if they just temporarily distracted the mercenaries, that would be more than enough, so I had all the pieces set in motion. Yoho had been trying to inform the militia about us, which gave me an idea: why didn’t we just do that same thing? Sort of. With Oyonshe’s Ability that intensified the intent of his words, combined with Belphegora’s emotion manipulation, and finally with Beck’s… whatever it was they were doing, I was confident that we could set something in motion.
And I was right! Many of the Fighters stopped crying as the power of two strong bees and the image of an eager young man washed over them, bringing them one step closer. I made sure that the two sharpshooter mercenaries waited until Yoho got Linked before sending them off to guard the Fighters from the shadows. Couldn’t have some mad merc deciding that the City Lord’s wishes extended to killing the defenseless civilians.
Huh. Huh huh huh. Something clicked in my head when Yoho got Linked. Thinking of the City Lord must’ve done something in my subconscious or something, because a conversation he had earlier suddenly became very important. A conversation that turned Jill Yemonto into ultra-important target number 1.
“I understand everything Yoho, there is no need to explain further. No, we will not warn the City Lord, he is safe in his hiding place. Until I am sure of the correct action to take, we will not contact him. Yes, I know it is a risk, but as one of the few people who knows where he is, I will not make a hasty decision.”
