Belissar held his breath as the Hunger coalesced, waiting to see which shade they would have to face this time. A heavy leg stepped out from the mass of the Hunger, digging deeply into the dirt, while a massive beak snapped at the air. Belissar narrowed his eyes.
They would be facing a turtle shade today…and not the small ones that always fell into pits. This was a full-sized turtle shade, the same one that had been immune to everything the bee army had thrown at it previously. The one that didn’t go down until Chief Rohsuak had intervened personally.
Belissar relayed as much to his defenders. Chief Rohsuak straightened herself.
“Should I prepare to fight, Tower Keeper?”
Belissar stopped himself from answering immediately, thought for a moment, and slowly nodded.
“Get ready, just in case. But…we’ll let the traps and the bees try first. This is a test if we can face something daily and it won’t be good for you to fight every day, right?”
Chief Rohsuak’s face contorted, but she ultimately sighed.
“No…I suppose it wouldn’t. I am sorry, Tower Keeper.”
The First of the Fifth’s hive brought swirled mana honey for Chief Rohsuak, but she held off on eating it just yet. In the meantime, the bees arranged their defenses while the turtle shade lumbered through the Dirt Tunnels. As before, it simply climbed across the Pit Traps using its bulk, while the Sticky Honey Traps splashed harmlessly against its shell.
As they always intended to. The battle meadow queens had informed the Fourth of the Fifth that soldier stingers wouldn’t penetrate a turtle shade’s hide with anything less than a full-speed dive, and the digging soldiers in the tunnels would never reach full-speed. All they intended to do was draw the turtle shade’s attention.
Because, in the meantime, the digging assassin quietly burrowed through the ground underneath the turtle shade. She popped out her head and looked over the shade’s bottom with her mana-filled eyes. She then climbed back down, spun around, and gripped the sides of the little tunnel she had dug. Once the shade passed over her, she pushed off the sides of her tunnel and thrust her abdomen up and above.
Her thin stinger managed to slip between a gap in two plates on the turtle shade’s bottom that she had identified. She quickly pulled back and dove underground before the shade could retaliate, but she needn’t have bothered. The shade didn’t even seem to notice it had been stung.
The digging bees all retreated and the shade lumbered on. It came to the candle tunnel and plodded forward without a care. The candles burnt maddening wax this time, so the turtle wasn’t particularly harmed…at first. About three quarters of the way through, the shade’s head began to sway back and forth…
It started to snarl and snap and then launched its breath attack across the tunnel. Its head was shaking and the breath went all over the place, only managing to disable one of the candles in the tunnel. The shade growled and threw its body against the side of the tunnel, crashing into the wall with its spikes. But its feet closest to the wall slipped and it dipped down towards that side. It tried to right itself, but its spikes dug deep into the dirt and it was having trouble getting its grip.
As it was trying to pull itself off the wall and stand back up, its legs suddenly locked into their current positions and stopped moving. The shade plopped down to the ground and stopped moving entirely.
Belissar blinked several times as he tried to figure out what happened…before remembering the Venom-Poison Mixtures perk. It seemed that the toxins in maddening honey indeed counted as a flower poison…and thus formed a potent mix with the digging assassin bee’s venom.
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The assassin bee moved in once more towards the helpless shade. She flew right up to the shade’s head and it failed to respond besides a light growl. She stung it directly in one of its glowing eyes.
It took a few minutes more, but eventually the shade succumbed to the deadly toxins.
Small+ Purification completed!
And so, the bees and traps of the Dirt Tunnels alone defeated the impenetrable turtle shade…with zero casualties. A big grin broke out on Belissar’s face.
Buzzing erupted as the bees began celebratory dances. Chief Rohsuak smiled…though she kept glancing at the swirled honey she hadn’t eaten. The Tower had come far indeed since that first emergency purification.
And with victory came rewards.
Please select a reward:
- Treasure Chest (Rarity: Common, Type: Resource)
Belissar smiled. Seeing features from other choices appear in the daily rewards was an encouraging sign…though in the end he just chose mana again. With all the new flowers and rooms and features, he definitely needed as much mana as he could get.
In any case, this was quite the successful day. Belissar was still somewhat concerned about daily small+ purifications as there were many types of powerful shades that might appear…but he now believed his Tower could handle it. And that meant his Tower would continue growing faster than ever, exactly what he needed.
The next morning, Tamosmed marched through the forest of Viryaskog bright and early. He glanced down at the satchel at his belt and shook his head. Of course, those Hunger-touched metal mana flowers that, under normal circumstances, refused to stay away from the ore veins would be nowhere to be found once Tamosmed actually wanted them for something. But now, finally, he had found enough for Belissar to absorb. Now, finally, they could make some progress towards the salvation of his people.
So, he marched right on up to Tarwantrad’s dungeon…only for a pair of armed green elves to bar his way.
“Stop right there, Dungeon Master Tamosmed.”
“What is the meaning of this?”
One of the green elves pulled out a scroll.
“By order of the signatories of the Compact, you are forbidden from any exchange with Tower Keeper Belissar until the arbitration has concluded.”
“We’ve been over this, the Compact has nothing to say on the matter. Now, move.”
“I’m afraid it’s a bit more complicated this time, Dungeon Master Tamosmed.”
Tamosmed glanced up as a new voice entered the conversation and found Henilett descending from above. He glared at her.
“Really now? Weren’t you the one who drove off my father in the first place.”
Henilett made a sly smile, which did not improve Tamosmed’s move.
“That was that and this is this. You, Dungeon Master Tamosmed, Forgemaster Ughlarer is no longer contesting whether or not black elf traditions have weight under the Compact, that much is true. However…at this point, Tower Keeper Belissar is a full signatory of the Compact, the Forgemaster’s peer in its eyes. And the Compact does have quite a few terms and stipulations regarding conflict resolution between fellow signatories. The forgemaster has submitted a request for arbitration between himself and Tower Keeper Belissar and the other signatories of the Compact have accepted his request.”
She then gave him a wink.
“Including Dungeon Master Nenavann and Tower Keeper Belissar themselves. We must insist, therefore, that you cease your exchanges with Tower Keeper Belissar until the arbitration is settled.”
Tamosmed paused for a moment, then let out a deep sigh.
“You know we don’t have time for this, right?”
Henilett placed the back of her hand against her forehead and sighed dramatically.
“Indeed, we do not. How terrible it is that politics have interfered with the new signatories’ defense. Why, the wardmaster is beside herself. I believe she would have interfered, had my queen not mollified her with that gift of flowers to the Tower Keeper…”
Tamosmed closed his eyes as a vein bulged on his forehead at Henilett’s mocking display…but then he paused and his eyes shot open. He rolled his eyes even as he reached into his satchel.
“Oh, fine then. So…Queen Vanieskon had these flowers all along, is that it? And you couldn’t have told me before I got here? You don’t care if these two overhear?”
Henilett just kept smiling. Since she didn’t respond, Tamosmed glanced at the green elf guards. Both of them immediately started shaking their heads.
“I didn’t hear nothing. Do you know what happened the last time I got into a fight with Tarwantrad?”
The other guard snickered.
“Mana-charged poison ivy in his pants. He couldn’t sit down for weeks. There’s not a man or woman here who’d get in-between Tarwantrad and flowers after that. We’re only here because Dungeon Master Nenavann promised he’d speak with her and protect us if necessary.”
Tamosmed sighed and shook his head.
“Well, as long as the Tower Keeper can get to work on these, then I’ll stay quiet. But I hope this arbitration won’t take too long, that wasn’t the only thing I was doing for the Tower Keeper and those humans coming for him won’t wait for the Compact’s Hunger-bitten politics.”
Henilett kept smiling.
“Oh, it won’t. It won’t take long at all, I can promise you that.”