“I don’t want to die!” Joy protested, but followed the Swordswoman as she moved with the group.
“No, but sometimes you can fool me into thinking you do,” Brianna retorted. “Like when you attacked the demon!”
“I didn’t know what else to do,” Joy said, hopping over a log while keeping watch.
“This isn’t the best time for this,” Stella said, her tone dry as she glanced at Joy. “Just try to be safer, Joy. I’d rather none of us woke up back in Irador later today.”
“Huh? But why would we—” Joy began, and stopped as her mind caught up, and she realized what Stella was saying. They hadn’t changed their resurrection point to Bearton, since they’d be going back to Irador anyway, so she blushed and nodded. “Oh, right.”
Cora didn’t speak, and the others fell silent as they got moving more quickly. Joy had noticed that most of them couldn’t talk as easily while they were moving fast, and she always wondered why, but hadn’t asked yet. She never seemed to breathe as hard as they did, which she found curious.
As they moved, she noticed the pheromones from ahead of them. They weren’t pheromones from the hive, by and large, though there were some from apis somewhere up ahead. These were ones she didn’t like, which tasted wrong. She frowned, noticing that there were fewer plants on the ground, almost like the jungle floor had been scoured clean recently.
“Ants ahead!” an apis chirped above them, an arrow on her bowstring.
“Hells,” an adventurer nearby muttered, shifting his grip on his flail, and Joy glanced at him curiously, wondering why his skin was so much paler than normal.
A pair of apis darted out of the trees ahead of them, and Joy perked up, recognizing their pheromones now, and realizing they were the ones the attendant had sent to the hive. The two flew past the other apis and to the attendant, speaking to her softly and quickly, and the attendant listened, then nodded.
“The queen has allowed us to help you, Guildmaster. If we lose half our numbers, we’re to retreat to the hive,” the attendant said, looking down at Abigail as the group of adventurers slowed, and Joy followed suit. “How would you like us to help?”
“Wonderful!” Abigail said, and Joy saw the relief on her face as the human dabbed at the sweat on her forehead with a cloth, continuing. “If you can back us up when we attack, that would be best, as well as helping keep an escape route open. We don’t have enough people to attack them and to open a gap in the ants if they swarm us.”
“Right!” the attendant said, looking at the apis as she nodded. “You heard her!”
“I saw some people in black over there,” an apis who’d been waiting said, pointing ahead and to their right. “We saw them when coming to meet you.”
“Ah, they must not have known the best route there,” Abigail said, and glanced around as she added, “Now might be a good time to take your stamina potions, and I’d suggest getting out one of the ones to make you stronger.”
Joy nodded, reaching down to pull out the stamina potion at the same time as the others. She looked at the amber vial dubiously, since it smelled nothing like honey, and popped the cork while the others opened and drank their own. The smell that wafted out of the vial didn’t smell too bad to Joy, mostly like some of the plants she remembered gathering nectar from, with several she didn’t recognize, and she decided to go ahead and take a drink. That was a mistake.
The foul taste caused Joy to gag, and her stomach heaved as it quite firmly made her aware that the mouthful tasted terrible and didn’t belong in it. Still, Joy knew that she was supposed to drink it, so she ignored her stomach and forced herself to swallow, tears seeping from her eyes as she did so.
The taste faded slightly after swallowing, but her stomach didn’t stop twisting as Joy gasped and shuddered, her wings vibrating behind her unhappily as she blinked the tears away. A sensation of warmth washed out over her, filling Joy with even more energy than she was used to, but compared to the taste… she shuddered.
“Joy, are you alright?” Cora asked, looking at Joy in concern.
Joy gave a weak smile in return, putting the cork back in the vial and putting it away, which bought a little time for her stomach to settle a bit more. If she talked immediately, she wasn’t sure what would happen. Only when she was certain she could talk safely did she speak.
“That was horrible. I never want to drink one again, ever,” Joy replied weakly, glancing up at the other apis as she added, “If you’re ever offered a stamina potion, don’t take it. Unless you have to.”
“Okay,” the nearest apis agreed, and Cora looked at Joy in confusion.
“What are you talking about? It’s just a stamina potion. It doesn’t taste good, I’ll admit, but it isn’t that bad… is it?” Cora asked, looking at Joy like she’d grown another head.
“I’d rather get hit by the mean lady with the sword again,” Joy replied bluntly.
Cora’s eyes went wide, and Stella choked, then demanded, “You’d rather nearly get killed than drink a stamina potion?”
“I didn’t say that! I said I’d rather get hit by her again,” Joy corrected, blushing a little at the incredulous looks she was getting. “It tasted terrible!”
“You apis are insane,” a nearby elven man said, looking at her in confusion.
“Leave her alone. It isn’t like she was saying you couldn’t—” Brianna began, but she was interrupted.
“Army ants!” Abigail called out, and everyone’s attention snapped forward.
The ants were nothing like the giant ants that Joy had seen back in the Flower Forest. The ones she’d seen were shorter than these, perhaps three feet long and with black carapaces, and a blunt, sturdy frame. They were also deadly enough in swarms, but few bees had ever tried to fight ants, since they tended to prefer different food sources. These were larger, with spindly bodies, mottled red carapaces, and truly enormous mandibles by comparison. Joy instantly decided she didn’t like them, as a few dozen of the ants swarmed toward them and Cora skidded to a stop.
“Ice Blast!” Cora snapped, pointing her staff at the nearest group of ants, and the gem flashed blue as a bolt lashed out and exploded, slowing the ants down as their legs were covered in ice.
Brianna reached the ants first, and she let out a soft grunt as she cut clean through the head of one of them, while in the corner of Joy’s vision she saw other adventurers destroying the snapping, swarming ants.
“Stab!” Joy said, thrusting hard at another ant which had just opened its mouth, and her rapier lanced in through its mouth and out the back of its head. She recoiled as it tried to snap at her anyway, barely getting her wrist out of reach before the mandibles snapped shut on her rapier. It didn’t get a good grip, fortunately, so she danced backward, pulling the weapon free as her eyes went wide. “Bad ant!”
Stella stepped up next to her and brought her mace down on the ant’s head, shattering its exoskeleton and slamming it into the dirt. The human spoke, her tone slightly breathless. “Precision isn’t as good against these, Joy! Let us handle them, and save your energy for the soldiers!”
“Oh, okay!” Joy said, and fell back a few more steps, wincing as she saw the adventurers tearing through the ants. A few apis were helping, she noticed, but mostly those with spears.
“Maybe what they really need are hammers,” Joy muttered, restlessly shifting from foot to foot, then her eyes brightened as she saw the thin legs of an ant, and whipped her rapier around to cut a joint.
It didn’t do much to slow the ant down, but that was why she started cutting more legs. It was something she could do to help.
Chapter 41
“Gah!” Egan cried out, even as the crackle of electricity blasted through his body. The dwarf staggered backward, jagged black marks across half his face and an arm limp as he fell to a knee, gasping.
“Dammit, Ovlin!” Damaris barked, cutting down another ant, then booted its body into some of the others that were approaching.
“On it!” Ovli
n replied, turning away from the fight and toward Egan as she added, “Moderate Healing!”
A white glow surrounded the dark elf’s hand, then rippled out over Egan, and his injuries began to rapidly recover.
They’d cut their way to where the seal was hidden, and Damaris really wished that they had time to approach it carefully, as the location would have been defensible against almost anything other than what they were dealing with. The stone cliffs to either side were relatively sheer, and usually she’d be happy to have an obvious bottleneck, but the ants didn’t care that it was mostly vertical. Most of them came down the throat of the ravine, but a large number were also coming down the sides, which made defending themselves difficult.
The entrance to the seal was well-hidden, to the point that Damaris wouldn’t have found it without the directions from the adventurer guild’s notes, with several hidden buttons on the cliffside. Unfortunately, the notes hadn’t explained how to open it without setting off the lightning trap, which was why Egan had been injured.
Damaris hesitated, then gritted her teeth and ordered. “Velk? Break it.”
“Sir?” Velk asked, barely pausing in his sweeping blows through the ants, as he’d practically built a barricade out of their bodies.
“Break the damned door. If your axe breaks, get one from someone else. Lord Alethus will replace it if he has to,” Damaris said, hesitating, then nodded as she added, “I’m going to thin this herd, so make it quick.”
A ripple of shock and reluctance crossed Velk’s face, and Damaris really couldn’t blame the orc. Velk treasured his weapons, and the idea of deliberately damaging them was anathema to him, but she knew he’d understand, no matter how much he hated to do it.
“Yes, sir,” Velk said grimly, and stepped back as Damaris adjusted her position to take his place, popping the lid off a stamina potion and downing it in a single fluid motion. Energy coursed through her, and behind her Velk spoke. “Everyone, stand back! Demonic Rage!”
Red light flickered across the ravine walls, and Damaris heard a roar, followed by a peal as metal struck stone once, twice, then three times. The sound of cracking stone was loud enough to hurt her ears, but with the living tide in front of her she didn’t dare turn away, instead drawing on her reserves, and she grinned at the ants as she spat out, “Hellfire Eruption!”
* * *
In the distance a column of dust and fire rippled through the air, and Joy flinched as she drove her rapier into the man’s side, leaving him open for Stella to hit him with her mace. The man crumpled with a gurgle, and Joy quickly bounded toward the woman that Brianna was fighting.
“What was that?” Joy asked, rolling through the grass and springing to her feet as she reversed her rapier and drove it into the woman’s armpit, while a rumble echoed through the jungle.
The apis was shocked at how the strength potion she’d drank made her feel. She was far stronger than she normally was, hitting enemies incredibly hard and fast, which had taken a few seconds to get used to. The only problem with it was that the potion had tasted just as bad as the stamina potion, though at least it was more useful to her. Not worth drinking, but useful.
They’d cut their way through the initial army ants, and now they were well into the territory the ants had cleared. The others didn’t seem to fully understand how terrible it was, but Joy could smell how virtually every flower and plant had been plundered, and how the creatures in the area had been killed as well. They’d also encountered the enemy soldiers, who’d spread out into a long line as they fought off more of the army ants from either side, and they’d taken ruthless advantage as they killed every ant and soldier in their path, the apis spreading out to keep a path open behind them. Joy was also impressed by just how many dead ants were scattered across the jungle floor, as there had to be well over a thousand dead that she could see right that moment. It made her worry about fighting the people they were here to stop. A tiny part of her was tempted to call them Skyfishers, if they were from Skyfish Valley.
“An attack skill or spell!” Cora called out from behind her, just after throwing a ball of lightning at a soldier ahead of them. Their team was leaping past another group of adventurers, which Joy knew would be leaping past them in turn. It gave them a chance to catch their breath after each battle. “Once you hit level twenty, you can learn some wide-area attacks, but they tend to eat a huge amount of mana, plus they tire you out.”
“Shut up and die, you damned—” an enemy soldier began, popping up from behind a bush, aiming a crossbow at Cora.
Joy lunged forward, but she wasn’t quite as fast as Brianna was. The redhead took two lightning steps forward and swung her sword, knocking the crossbow upward just as the man fired, causing the bolt to arc off into the jungle before the crossbow hit him in the face. Brianna took another step and brought her sword back down, cutting his arm clean off.
“Gah!” the man screamed, and Joy winced, jumping forward and stabbing the man in the throat.
“Sorry, can’t take prisoners! We’re in a hurry,” Joy said, recovering her weapon as she nodded at Brianna, who was surrounded by a red mist, just like Joy and Stella were. “That was amazing!”
“Lots of practice,” Brianna replied, nodding and smiling grimly as she tried to wipe some blood off her face, but instead smeared it around. “Lots of people try to shoot you when you’re a bit out of reach. They usually forget their weapon is closer.”
“Right,” Joy agreed, nodding and making certain to remember that. The other adventuring group raced past them toward the next group of soldiers, but Joy’s smile faded as she saw that the enemy soldiers were starting to fall back, opening a gap for the army ants to pour into, and she added, “That looks bad.”
“Yeah, it does,” Brianna agreed, and called out. “Guildmaster?”
“I see it! Everyone, pick up the pace!” Abigail said, rushing forward and raising her staff as streamers of fire swirled along its length. “I was hoping not to use this yet, but… Inferno Wave!”
Fire exploded out of the Guildmaster’s staff with such force that Joy couldn’t help flinching, but fortunately it wasn’t aimed at her. Instead it formed a wave of fire that surged and slammed down on the jungle floor ahead of them mercilessly while a second wave formed, then a third. Each wave went farther, scorching ants, trees, and Skyfishers alike. The smell of cooked soldiers made Joy’s nose wrinkle, and she shuddered, but headed forward into the gap, almost at a run. As she did, a thought occurred to her.
“Hey, you don’t eat them, do you?” Joy asked, nodding at one of the enemy bodies, and recoiled as a nearby ant exploded in a spray of ichor.
“What? No, of course not! That would be disgusting!” Brianna protested, almost tripping in her shock.
“Oh, good,” Joy said, letting out a breath of relief.
That possibility had definitely turned her stomach.
* * *
“Oh no. No, this is bad. This is…” Letha began, then fell silent as she looked around the resurrection chamber in horror. She almost wished that the Acolyte hadn’t come to get her when he’d noticed that something was wrong.
The chamber was like virtually any resurrection chamber she’d ever seen, even when she wasn’t in the Kingdoms of Darkness. Oh, the deities depicted along the ceiling were different, but the glowing green crystal above her was normal. So were the three dozen biers for the dead to resurrect on.
The reason for her horror was that every single bier was occupied by a soldier who was slowly reforming, magic flowing outward from the crystal to their bodies. One of them was Leah, one of the captains who’d accompanied Damaris, which would have been bad enough on its own, but then there were the dozens of glowing sparks orbiting the crystal, with more appearing with every passing moment. Each of those sparks was a soul who required resurrection, and it indicated a disaster like she could hardly believe.
“Corey, go get a runner. As soon as we have a report, we have to let Lord Alethus know that something has h
appened,” Letha said at last, her gaze settling on Leah again. If anyone could tell her what had happened, it was the captain.
“Yes, Your Holiness!” Corey said, bobbing his head, then turned and practically ran from the room.
Letha wished she could pace, but she didn’t want to make the other Priests and Acolytes even more nervous, so she forced herself to stand still as she murmured, “Leah, please hurry up. We need to know what’s happened.”
Chapter 42
“Door’s open!” Velk exclaimed, and Damaris let out a breath of relief, savagely cutting an ant in two as she fell back, glancing to the north.
She wasn’t certain what she’d heard, but it’d sounded like someone had destroyed a lot of ants, which was worrying. Plus, she was seeing movement from the soldiers holding the rear lines. That wasn’t a good sign.
Looking behind her, she winced at the sight of Velk’s axe. The haft was cracked, there were numerous nicks in the blade, and it was entirely too likely that it would break before long. The orc didn’t look happy, and Damaris couldn’t begrudge him that, not after he’d done what she asked him to.
The cliff face had been cracked open, and from inside she could see a blue-white glow, one that set her teeth on edge. It was a holy radiance, and ever since she’d become a Demonic Knight, those sort of places had been uncomfortable for her. She wanted to rush inside and finish the job, but she didn’t dare until she knew what was happening.
“Sir, we have trouble!” a man exclaimed as he approached, a little blood seeping from a gash in his armor on his right side, an injury which looked like it was from an ant to her. He’d come from the direction of their escape route, and looked panicked.
“Really? I never could have guessed,” Damaris replied sarcastically. “Report, soldier!”
Webs & Wards (Beesong Chronicles Book 2) Page 25