Chapter 83: Will You Bee Mine?
Belissar sat in the Apiary farmhouse after celebrating the bee army’s latest victory. He rubbed his chin as he let the silence of the night waft over him. Niobee watched him from the table but made no noise, not wanting to interrupt his thoughts. Eventually he nodded and then made a light sigh.
This incident decided things for him, he was going to conduct another expansion purification sooner rather than later. The boar-shade was really easy for his bees to take down without losses…but that was because it had been outside the Tower. If it had been during a purification? Sure, the boar couldn’t actually hit any of the bees, but its sheer bulk and resilience meant the bees couldn’t actually stop it from moving around, and it lasted a long time before their venom noticeably affected it. If it had been assaulting the Tower, it could have made a break for the Flower Meadow exit and likely would have reached it before the bee army brought it down. It, therefore, could have done major damage to the Bee Barracks, the Orchard, or the Apiary before perishing. It may even have been able to reach the core if it made a straight run for it.
Well, they probably would have been able to lure it into a Pit Trap and the boar seemed to charge whatever attacked it so it probably would have worked out, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that the Hunger continuously changed its approach…and was not limited to the contained purifications Belissar could conduct at his leisure. The Hunger was at war with his Tower and would do everything in its power to slip past his defenses, both within and outside of purifications. Belissar had, perhaps, gotten a bit too comfortable with the Hunger thanks to the recent string of successful purifications. It was good for him to remember that the Hunger was not a passive threat.
As such, while it didn’t mean that he should rush, it would be wise of him not to neglect his Tower’s growth. More expansion meant more options. New bees, new rooms, new features, and new flowers that could all provide tools to deal with whatever the next shade turned out to be. And more territory purified meant more ground for a shade to cover before it could reach the karnuq or the Tower, should one attack from the outside once more.
Belissar still wanted to do everything he could to put the odds in his bees’ favor and avoid casualties. But, ultimately, he knew he could trust them to get it done. And so, he would.
Now resolved, Belissar headed off to bed. Tomorrow could be a busy day.
The next day, Belissar and Niobee gathered the queens at the Orchard’s Shrine of Bees, as close to a midpoint of the Tower as he could arrange. He took a deep breath as the queens hovered around him, waiting for his words.
“I am planning to conduct another expansion purification.”
The queens paused, before bursting into salute dances. The Flower Meadow queens affirmed they were ready to fight. The Apiary queens promised donations of honey, particularly the medicinal queen. Belissar smiled a little before continuing.