Han flicked his wrist. "Wrong."
His dagger tore through the space between them, slashing open yellow flesh. "This is not where I die." Not giving her the chance to react, his other dagger tore in as well.
Her blood was cold upon his fingers; it gushed out in slow dollops like dripping honey.
"What... have you done?" Queen Beelaques whispered. With a flick of her finger, Han was sent hurling backwards.
His ribs cracked as he slammed against solid ground, knocking air and blood out of his lungs.
A sharp pain in his back made his vision blurry. Still, he could see the stars still watching him from above.
And they looked disappointed.
"Witness, your false whisperer," he heard Beelaques announce. "Witness how he sullies our ritual."
'Ritual? What, do they think this is? A game?' Han thought, rolling over onto his stomach. His eyes scanned the surrounding flower bed for his daggers; however, his blurred vision made it hard to see.
Queen Beelaques scoffed. "Even now your favour is evident," she said.
'Who is she talking to?'
"This is not how things are done."
Han found the daggers. Slowly, he got to his feet; breathing laboured and back pulsing.
Queen Beelaques was staring at the sky with her hands stretched open. She stood so that her wound would face directly to the sky. It seemed she was showing it off. But even then, her skin was quickly suturing itself back together.
Han's mind began to process something in the background. He did not yet have all the pieces, but he could already see the outlines of a puzzle.
Why would an entity as strong as Beelaques expose her wound to the Hive like some sort of child?
"Oi, Bee," Han shouted. If the queen bee was going to kill him, it would've done so in the first few seconds of their encounter. It definitely seemed capable of doing that just now atleast.
"What ritual?" he asked. "I mean, what are you really here to do?"
Queen Beelaques's mouth twisted at his question.
"Ah, did my calling you a bee hurt your feelings?" Han asked, letting out a weak laugh. However, it devolved into a fit of coughs before he could get his point across. "Fuck," he groaned, rubbing his back.
Queen Beelaques disappeared from view.
In a flash, she was right in front of him.
Then the world became a blur. A sharp breeze, and the flapping of his tattered school blazer was all he could hear as the sky sped towards him.
When everything finally slowed down, he was hundreds of meters in the air. So far up that the ground beneath looked like a golden ocean.
"Heed me, false whisperer," Beelaques said, squeezing Han's throat.
His vision began to dim as she spoke, and despite his best efforts at swinging and stabbing her in the face, her grip did not lessen.
"Were this a contest of might, I would've crushed you long ago," she said.
"Make not the mistake of conversing with me again. Insolent thing," she added.
With a flick of her wrist, Han was sent hurling towards the ground. The air rushing past him muffled his hearing and blew his vision.
He closed his eyes.
"Now summon your kin, and let us prove ourselves."
The rushing air came to an immediate halt.
Han opened his eyes.
He was safely on the ground, with Beelaques standing in a strange posture a few meters in front of him.
"Oh, ever-shout, collective order, grant unto me, my chosen vessels," she whispered. And a moment later, wisps of golden energy erupted from her forehead, forming a hexagonal crown akin to Han's.
She pointed at the ground, and a zap of energy shot from her crown.
The ground rumbled slightly as three mounds of dirt began to form.
Han's breath caught in his throat once he noticed a bloody stump emerging from one of them.
"No," he whispered.
The decapitated bodies of his party members rose from the ground. Chul, Jen, and Nolan, however, a strange yellow fungus had infected patches of their skin. Having eaten honeycomb wounds into pale, bloody flesh.
Hot acid burned Han's throat; it took everything he had to swallow it back down.
Beelaques smiled as she caressed Chul's chest. She seemed satisfied by the look on Han's face.
"Chul," he whispered, grief choking his words.
However, his sadness was a fleeting one, turning to anger just as fast.
He studied her pose and copied it exactly. "Oh, ever-shout, collective order, grant unto me, my chosen vessels," he whispered, before pointing at the ground as well.
The golden energy on his crown shot out in front of him. And from the ground, the corpses of four mutated bees emerged. He recognised them by the shape of they're stingers; one shaped like a curved lance, and three like needle-thin greatswords.
『[X4] Fallen creatures have been summoned to your hive.』
'The bees we defeated.'
Instantly, his mind was overwhelmed by a strange pressure. It felt as if his brain were being squeezed in from all four sides at once.
His eyes rolled back at the sudden shift; vomit frothing from his mouth.
『Warning! Intelligence and health stats are inadequate for current summons!』
『Recalculating...』
『[X2] Fallen creatures have been discharged to the void.』
When Han's vision returned, two of his summons had disappeared, and Beelaques was staring at him in disgust.
"This battle will bring me no honour," she spat. "Let us be quick with it."
With a wave of her fingers, Nolan and Chul disappeared from view.
'Buccaneer,' Han thought, instantly recognising the purpled blur the skill left behind.
Han turned around, or at least he wanted to, when something strange hijacked his thoughts.
Both his bees charged behind him. And a loud thumppp echoed after.
He turned around slowly.
Chul and Nolan's corpses had been impaled right through the chest by the bees' stingers. Though he should've been happy at this, he felt no victory in seeing his old friend's body used as a doll.
'Rest now,' he thought.
However, Chul's corpse raised its arm, and from its palm a ball of fire began to form.
"Fuck!"
He covered his face, realizing that the blast was too close to dodge. But just like before, something strange hijacked his thoughts, and the bee that had attacked Nolan tanked the damage.
When he removed his hands from his face Nolan and Chul were gone.
"Perhaps this fight shall bring me some honour," Beelaques said.
"I will give you the burial rights of a proper drone."
Before Han could say anything; "Queen's Gaze."