The Worker Bees, thanks to the special skill bestowed upon them by the Queen Bee, possessed a shared visual consciousness that allowed them to see through the eyes of their fellow colony members.
Because of this, they had quickly discovered Val’s location when he was fighting the Worker Bee patrolling the forest and quickly reached him.
They had witnessed him ruthlessly kill one of their own and were now infuriated, seeking to tear him to pieces at any cost.
“Well, this is a sticky situation.” Val smirked, “But I’m not the kind to get stung even once.” He raised his sword, looking at it with eyes glittering with anticipation. “Let’s paint the town red, shall we, Aquarius?”
The sword hummed in response, putting a slight smile on Val’s face.
“Rage, Aquarius!” Val called out, swinging his sword in a wide horizontal arc. The blade of Aquarius ignited with a crimson glow, and as he swung it, a slim arc of red energy erupted from the body of the sword.
This arc was not ordinary, it was a manifestation of concentrated and pressurized blood. Its nature was akin to a high-pressure water jet – slim, but incredibly sharp, with the capacity to slice through even the toughest of metals. 𝚘𝓋𝔩xt.𝑐𝒐𝚖
Whoosh!
The scarlet arc cut through the air, heading straight for the swarm of bees. Those at the forefront of the formation were unable to react in time, meeting their ends as the deadly arc sliced them cleanly into halves from their midsections. The bees further behind managed to swerve away from the lethal arc, barely avoiding a similar fate. But their eyes were wide with terror, understanding the threat that faced them.
[Ding! Congratulations, host! You’ve killed 10 Level 20-25 worker bees. You gained 2300 EXP!]
Val was undeniably a formidable opponent, and the sheer display of his power had instilled fear in the hearts of the worker bees. However, their queen, blinded by her rage and desire for vengeance, was unable to see past her fury. In her wrath, she issued a command for a collective attack on Val, the source of her ire.
Heeding their queen’s command, the worker bees swiftly dispersed, flitting around to encircle Val from all directions before swooping towards him from all sides, attempting to overwhelm him with sheer numbers.
This tactical movement wasn’t lost on Val, who was impressed by the Queen Bee’s strategic move.
Val watched the scene plan out with an impressed look on his face. He had to give it to the Queen; she was intelligent enough to quickly develop a strategy to counter his crimson arc even while seething with anger. He began to wonder if killing her would grant him a core of wisdom. But first, he needed to overcome her worker bees.
“15 against 1, huh? That’s hardly fair.”
Val then broke into a sardonic grin.
“I hate being wronged. So let’s level the playing field, shall we?”
Val’s nonchalant smile sparked a sense of foreboding in the Queen Bee.
She could sense something was about to happen, something she might not be able to control.
Panic rising in her, she ordered her workers to hasten their attack.
But it was already too late!
“Descend,” Val commanded, his voice calm and steady.
Immediately, the space around him distorted like ripples in a pond as if reality itself was bending to his will. Fourteen level 2 and one level 0 undead minions stepped out of the spatial distortions, standing by their master’s side, awaiting his order.
The dynamics of the fight had drastically changed. The once overwhelming force of bees now faced an army of undead, their numbers matching!
The sudden appearance of the horrifying undead startled the worker bees so much that they stopped closing in on Val and instead began to fly away. It was the first time they were seeing creatures that seemed to have crawled out of their graves, leaving them perplexed, afraid, and unwilling to follow their queen’s order.
As if sensing their collective shock, Val’s smirk broadened, a glint of ruthlessness flashing in his eyes.
“Attack them with the nightmarish aura skill. Do not let a single one fly away!” Val commanded his minions verbally. Though he did share a psychic connection with his undead minions, it required a degree of focus that Val preferred to reserve for more critical moments. Moreover, revealing this trump card prematurely was not in his game plan. He wanted to save it until it was truly necessary as then he would catch his enemies off guard.
Following his command, the undead immediately activated their nightmarish aura skill, which enabled them to control the evil air emanating from their very being and swirling around them like a protective barrier. The 14 level 2 undead simultaneously raised their hand and their nightmarish aura was like an all-consuming darkness that seemed to swallow the very light around it as it surged upwards like tidal waves and struck the worker bees. Hallucinations of horrific intensity immediately seized the bees – vivid, terrifying images of their wings being brutally torn off, then of being dropped into searing hot oil, cooked alive by the undead haunted their senses, overthrowing their conscious and causing absolute terror to grip them.
The utterly disturbing experience left them paralyzed, their wings ceasing to flap.
As a result, their flight came to a staggering halt, and they began plummeting to the ground, where the undead lurked.
Val grinned as he saw that he was close to securing victory. However, the Queen Bee would not let her workers be defeated so easily.
The Queen Bee let out a high-pitched, distressing noise that echoed throughout the dungeon.
This noise seem to contain an unnatural power as the worker bees snapped out of their nightmare-induced stupor when it reached their antennas. Jerked back into reality, they saw that they were about to crash to their death and immediately began to flap their wings with all their strength. They managed to regain flight and didn’t crash into the ground, but they were dangerously close to the undead waiting below.
In other words, they’ve entered their attack range!