The Bee Dungeon

PONon-Bee 376.1 - The Tower Lord Strikes

Starami growled as he pushed through a bush with mana-imbued knives for leaves, getting all sorts of non-threatening but painful cuts. This forest had been...vexing. One squad of Tower Guards was swallowed when a pit in the ground opened up underneath them. Another was scattered when a concentration of mana exploded in their midst. Another suddenly fell asleep and were left where they lay. Yet another had fallen into a deep pond full of extremely strong alcohol and were stumbling around even now.

Starami’s forces, human and monster alike, all possessed great vitality and resilience as befitted dragonkin, so the casualties were relatively light all things regardless. They resisted direct harm fairly well and could regenerate most wounds with ease. But, by the gods was this storm aggravating. Worst of all was knowing they had the power to shut down these threats with a simple dragon coat...and being unable to use that power for fear of the mana storm. Most of the casualties they had suffered had been when Tower Guards or monsters slipped and tried to use their mana to defend themselves.

They brought upon themselves far worse things than minor cuts or excessively strong drink.

The only consolation was that apparently the fey feared this room as well and offered no obvious resistance...assuming the torment suffered was not secretly their doing...so the army was able to press on. Though, this forest apparently had powerful concentrations of mana spread across it, Starami had to circle around them. The results when Tower Guards wandered close to one were...unpleasant. Even Starami himself did not fancy trying to resist that much wild mana without the use of his own spells.

But now, finally, the end was in sight...assuming this wasn’t another illusion door. Starami tempered his expectations while a scout attempted to step through.

The scout immediately started drowning and had to fall back.

Starami narrowed his eyes.

“Take a breath and go again.”

The scout scowled but Starami silenced him with a look. The scout did as ordered. Starami watched through his eyes as the scout emerged underwater, quickly forming a dragon coat around himself.

Yet another underwater room...but Starami had already noted that the scout wasn’t immediately killed, so this one was not as dangerous as the first. Starami also noted that he could see through the water, the sun shone overhead so the water was not particularly deep. There might even be surface or sky above if he was lucky. Likewise, the water was not packed to the brim with volatile mana, so the fey Tower Lord had not somehow afforded a third mana storm. His army would be able to traverse this room with ease.

And that was good enough for Starami. Not wanting to stay in a mana storm even a single moment more than necessary, he ordered the army forward. They all took a deep breath and plunged into the water.

But as they formed dragon coats around themselves, they were greeted by an all-too-familiar voice, a woman’s laugh ringing clear through the depths. Ansari growled.

“It’s the water spirit again!”

Starami now noticed a powerful concentration of Water mana further in the room...but it was focused in one place this time, rather than flooding all around them. He narrowed his eyes.

“But it does not have a mana storm here. Ansari, deal with it. All swimmers go with him. Everyone else, make for the surface. The spirit is not alone.”

Ansari had already formed his sea-dragon coat, a powerful flick of its tail sent him speeding towards the mana concentration in the depths. Water-aligned Tower Guards formed their own coats and followed after him, along with what few Water-aligned monsters Starami had. Meanwhile, he and the rest of his army swam up towards the surface. Now that he focused, he felt mana signatures all across the room, far more than he had encountered in any room without a mana storm thus far.

It seemed the fey were making a stand in this place. And that meant...now was the time to unleash his remaining might upon them.

He broke the surface...and was immediately greeted by a hail of arrows. Fey archers floated up in the sky far above the surface and were taking aim at his troops at leisure. A cloud of insect monsters buzzed all around the fey, covering the sky in black and yellow with hints of purples and reds.

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The arrows bounced off Starami’s dragon coat, but his Tower Guard and monsters were not so resilient. Starami took a deep breath and prepared to unleash his dragonfire in the fey’s direction...but then he sensed powerful mana on the surface and found a huge wave of water was careening towards him. He was forced to breathe his fire towards the wave, creating a huge blast of steam as he carved an opening for his army.

The steam blocked his physical vision, but the eyes of a dragon were well-attuned to mana. In the distance, he found a second powerful concentration of water mana riding the surface of the water, equal or superior to the water spirit below and shaped like a man. As the steam started to dissipate, he caught sight of the signature...and found a flesh and blood body with the pointed ears of the fey. He narrowed his eyes.

This could be his moment. A man with mana that powerful could very well be the fey’s Tower Lord. Everything would make sense if he was: the powerful water rooms and mana storms, the frequency of Water monsters including a water spirit on par with a dragon, the relative lack of the insect monsters the Tower’s exterior promised. Perhaps the insects were a diversion, a deception, or perhaps a legacy of a previous Tower Lord conquered by the fey. Perhaps the God of Water was the true patron of the Tower.

If so...then Starami could win this war here and now. If he could defeat and capture the Tower Lord, then this doomed assault still had hope after all.

And even if that man was not the Tower Lord... he had to be defeated regardless.

Starami beat the wings of his dragon coat, propelling himself out of the water and zipping across the surface in one motion.

“Renoros, take the fliers and clear the skies! Klinpidas, everyone else, with me! The fey dare to stand before us, we will crush them here and now!”

Ansari rushed through the depths as the water spirit cackled. Tendrils of dense water and rapid undersea currents all lashed towards him and the Tower Guards following him. Tower Guards were blown away by the currents and caught up in tendrils that wrapped around their dragon coats...but Ansari twisted and curled his serpentine dragon coat to slip through. Without a mana storm flooding his senses, he could track the Water mana the spirit threw at him with ease...and even when a current blocked his path he broke through it. His dragon coat pierced through the Water mana, letting it flow down its scales without slowing him down at all.

He had the Blessing of the Sea Dragon, the ruler of the waves. Without a mana storm to empower it, he feared no water, nor the spirit controlling it. And now, he had found it.

The spirit came into view. Her transparent body may have been nigh invisible in the water, but her mana shone bright and clear to his dragon-blessed senses. Ansari swung the tail of his dragon coat in powerful arcs, propelling him through the water like an arrow shot from a bow. He did not attempt to use Water magic that the spirit might steal from him, instead pushing himself forward with raw physical strength.

Tendrils of water lashed against him, powerful currents were compressed into jets that pierced like spears, bubbles appeared ahead of him that exploded when touched, but Ansari’s dragon coat pushed through them all, his mana repairing any damage to the coat before it could reach his body. He raced straight towards the water spirit, roaring as he opened the jaws of his dragon coat.

He knew that at this distance, he would reach the spirit long before his mana gave out.

The water spirit’s smile faded as its magic failed to stop him. Ansari gave it no time to think, with final flick of his coat tail, he lunged for the spirit and chomped down with spell dragon fangs that could slice through mana as easily as flesh...

Renoros the Dragonwing burst out of the water, creating a spherical cyclone around him that blew both water and arrows away from him. All around him, wyvern riders tried to help their mounts get airborn despite damp wings. Renoros left them behind and shot into the sky, if they couldn’t fly on their own then they’d have to wait for him to stop the archers himself.

He kept up the cyclone as the wings of his dragon coat pushed him up into the sky, letting the powerful wind redirect any arrows even before they struck his coat. The fey arrows lacked the mana to pierce through his defense, Renoros soared towards them unopposed.

The insect swarm buzzed and moved to block his path, but Renoros laughed. He swung his wings and created a powerful gale. The fey, clearly using magic to fly, managed to endure it, but the insects and their tiny wings were all blown away. Forget being a threat to a dragon like him, those mere insects couldn’t even approach him in the first place. He could ignore them entirely and they could do nothing about it.

And now the fey were completely exposed, an obvious fate for those who thought they could rely on trickery and insects in the face of power. Renoros grinned and charged, they were most foolish to challenge an Air dragon for control of the skies...

And so, Starami’s army advanced in both sea and sky. All the while, Lord Starami himself charged towards the potential Tower Lord. A powerful fey swordsman swooped down from the sky, but Klinpidas the Dragonblade intercepted him with spell dragon wings on his back and his dragonfang blade in hand. The two began an aerial duel which took them out of Starami’s path...allowing him to fly straight towards his target.

And with every beat of his wings, hope began to rise in Starami’s heart. Despite everything, despite losing his dragon and his elites, despite being separated from his army, despite being cut off by the spiderkin, despite being battered by mana storms, despite suffering every trick the fey could throw at him, despite the being smote by the gods themselves...Starami might yet win.