Belissar watched as the denizens of his Tower prepared themselves for another fight. The burning soldiers gathered by the shortcut to the new Lava Field, the soldier bee army assembled in the sky of the battle meadow. Beero and her battlecasters practiced their dances while bumblebees helped the wounded soldiers to their platforms. The Second of the Sixth arrived early this time, leading the first medicinal soldiers Belissar had ever seen. They hung around at the rear of the soldier bee army rather than integrating into it. The karnuq arrived as well, setting their new shields down in a wall of iron before the battle meadow’s entrance.
With everything ready, Belissar triggered the daily purification.
Just a minute or two later, a bird shade tried to hop over a pit, got doused by the Sticky Honey Trap aimed over it, and fell down inside. Belissar shrugged.
“Fell into a pit again, everyone.”
The bees danced among themselves and this time it was the burning soldier squad that flew into the Dirt Tunnels with the digging soldiers leading the way. The burning hives had been growing all the while and raising more and more soldiers, including a sprayer. The sprayer stopped just before the pit and unleashed her Fire mana-imbued toxic spray.
The entire pit burst into flames as the Fire mana toxins contacted the mana rich honey. And just like that, the purification was over.
After the usual celebration, Belissar gathered with the queens and karnuq leaders once again. He had more than enough DP for another shop purchase. Beyond that, however, they had started gathering after every daily purification even when he didn’t have a purchase to make, just so that everyone could touch base and have a chance to speak.
“How’s everyone doing? Anything we should talk about?”
Chief Rohsuak nodded to Belissar’s surprise. Once he finished jumping, he nodded to her.
Monster Leafcutter Bee
Notable Skills: Poison Sting, Bite
Description: A leafcutter bee that has accumulated enough Nature mana to become something more. Its sharp leafcutting mandibles can deliver painful, if small, bites in addition to its stings.
Another non-hive bee like the carpenters, from what Belissar could tell. This one was also about the same size as the monster bees. He did know from the existence of lumber bees that non-hive bees could have their own evolutions, but it would take time and effort to grow them to that point assuming this species even had a follow-up evolution. So, Belissar thought it best to consider this bee as it was. Maybe cutting leaves would let them help the karnuq with harvesting, but it was clear they weren’t going to fight on the frontlines anytime soon. Their small size and presumably smaller numbers would prevent that.
Much unlike the other options.
Notable Skills: Stinger Shot, Death Blow, Chitin Growth, Brood Offspring
Evolves From: Monster Bee Sprayer
Description: This monster bee sprayer has reverted back to a stinger, with a twist. It uses a combination of powerful muscles and volatile chemicals to launch a detachable stinger from its body, allowing it to sting from afar. It is capable of regrowing its stingers unlike regular bees and has the ability to regrow damage to its chitin as a side effect.
In addition to existing monster bee sprayers evolving, a few monster bee soldiers may be born as archers, though this requires notably more resources from the hive.
Now this was a solid choice for battle. The monster bee archer was even larger than the soldier bees, though it was closer to them than the lancers. It had an enlarged abdomen compared to its head and torso terminating in a straight and narrow stinger that reminded Belissar of the spiky salamander’s spines. Beyond that, it had larger wings than usual and its chitin was a bit thicker than the sprayers relative to its size.
Belissar didn’t even need to imagine its use. This bee would let them fight like the spiky salamander had, bombarding a foe with stingers from afar. Whereas the sprayers only doused a foe with poison, archers would stab right into them, dealing physical damage as well as delivering their poison inside the enemy’s body. The next step along the route opened by sprayers.
The last choice was a repeat that had appeared a few times now, the monster bee captains. Belissar wasn’t entirely sure how necessary they would be, however, given that the queens didn’t seem to have an issue coordinating their hives with the help of communers. Well, the description did say they would also buff soldier bees, so maybe they’d make the whole army stronger? That could be powerful as soldier bees were still the most numerous in the army by far, but would it outweigh the ability to sting foes from a distance?
Belissar once again turned the question over to the others. The battle meadow queens were having an intense dance off with one another when they noticed Belissar’s attention. They had one final round of dances before the Second First of the First flew back towards him.
“Archers, captains, both good! Archers strong, captains help coordinate.”
Belissar nodded at that, though the opinion merely matched his own and so didn’t necessarily help him decide. He turned to the Fourth of the Seventh and the First of the Fifth. The Fourth of the Seventh was just zipping around happily and saying “both!” so he chuckled and focused on the First of the Fifth.
“Firstborn should decide, both bees good for army.”