The army was flying over the rocky ground and sparse forest when the forward scouts returned, saying there were hornets ahead—but only a couple of them.
"Keep advancing, but be ready to fight," I ordered.
Soon, we saw each other, and even *those* murderous creatures had a pause at the sheer amount of their opponents.
However, they weren't called "murder hornets" for being peace-loving, cautious, or smart.
They were called this because they were 7 meters tall beasts with jaws that could bite off a bee's head in a snap. I wished we were in our home territory so my bees could make use of my "Homeland Protector" title.
"They are attacking!" someone shouted ahead of us.
True—the hornets were closing the distance with incredible speed.
"Bolas at the ready! Be ready to fight them off! Don't charge and don't break the line!" Bloodimina shouted, and her personal drummer switched the rhythm from the marching to the defensive one.
Thum-thum! Thum-thum! Thum-thum!
"Their usual tactics against individual bees is to just fly over and snatch them, no?" I asked, watching the hornets' movements. "They won't engage in a prolonged fight."
"I trained all these Warriors to fight against hornets specifically. They know not to let even a single one escape!"
The hornets slowed down a couple dozen meters away from the edge of the army and paused, as if considering. They were too far for the system to show me their statuses, but I remembered them.
In terms of base stats, hornets weren't much different from bees. Their primary advantages were a larger size (which wasn't a stat, but definitely mattered), and their high defense—somewhere around 40-50.
And their massive teeth, of course. They also had "Flight II", which meant they were much faster.
After a second, one of the hornets got brave enough to charge.
It moved with the speed of a yellow-and-black lightning, opening its jaws to decapitate the unlucky bee the hornet chose as her target.
But her squad, and her hundred, were close by.
"THROW!!" A Lieutenant Warrior shouted, and a rain of bolas flew at the hornet. Although individual bolas weren't even big enough to entangle it, a hundred of them created a net full of rocks, which was enough that even a hornet had a pause.
She slowed down, clawing at the bolas and shaking them off. That moment was all the Warrior Bees needed to surround her.
While several bravely faced the hornet, a dozen got behind her. Free from the bolas again, the hornet clawed at the targets right in front of her.
Each of her blows was powerful enough to throw one or even two bees aside, but they deftly blocked the worst of it with the handles of their hammers. The rest was mostly absorbed by their armor.
And while the hornet was distracted, other Warrior Bees charged, slamming their hammers at the hornet's wings.
She let out a series of loud, pained clicks as she fell; the height wasn't high enough that the fall killed the hornet by itself, but the Warrior Bees were close by to finish her. If they won't smash her skull, their spare spears would pierce the hornet's brain through the eyes.
Close to this fight, the other hornet was being dealt with in the same efficient manner; I could only applaud Bloodimina's and Bloodhero's training efforts.
"Amazing job!" I shouted, hoping that at least some bees would hear me.
There were plenty of them around us right now. Although ahead of us, hundreds of Warriors were still fighting off hornets as they came around, the back line was resting so they could replace their tired sisters and cousins later.
"There are more incoming," a Commando Bee appeared near me, saluting. "A few."
Bloodimina turned to me, waiting for orders. I grinned at her.
"Prepare for a full-out defense. The pheromones of the dead hornets will attract more of their kin… Let's plant our army here for now and destroy as many of those bitches as we can! The more we kill here, the fewer will fight us later—and this open place is perfect for surrounding them."
"Yes, Father! It will be good for us." Bloodimina grinned back ferociously.
Then I noticed the hornet reinforcements. At first, they were just three dots in the sky, but that soon changed.
Unlike the first hornets, who followed their typical hunting pattern, these three immediately went for their fallen sisters—but got surrounded and killed just like them.
By this point, even more hornets approached us as their pheromones spread farther and farther. Five, seven, a dozen—but there were enough bees and space for each of them.
The hornets' instinct to help their fallen sisters only led them to our trap!
Thirty minutes later, there were twenty dead hornets on the ground, and three dozen wounded bees. Only five of them needed serious medical attention—the rest just had bruises and scrapes.
Our overwhelming might was leaving even hornets no chance! Unless we flew into their nest, that is.
However, after the first moments of excitement, the fight became… kinda boring. I sighed, glancing at the sky around and wondering if someone else might want to attack us.
"Should we make a camp for you, Father? You will get tired from watching and your health might decline!" my Sergeant Beemarine bodyguard, Destroyer, said.
Next to her, the other 9 Beemarines, with stoic but eager faces, reached for their packs of supplies.
'Yeah, they are *really* taking my protection seriously… But they *are* right.'
"Yes, let's sit here. We will fight off the attacking hornets until they stop attacking and we can move forward! Commander Bloodimina, send a couple squads of Commandos to scout the hornet's nest closer—I want to know if they decide to charge all together, and if there are many of them inside."
"Yes, Father! I will give orders at once."
In minutes, a messenger flew to the Chief Commando Bee, and several teams of scouts slunk away from the army to reach the hornet nest.
'Perhaps the hornets will be stupid enough to all die in this fight before we will even have to start a proper siege? This would surely save us all a lot of time and effort!'