Blood Shaper

Chapter Twenty-three

“From the left!” Alice called out, and Kay spun to face the newest threat.

Another group of massive hornets with angular carapaces flew at the group, cutting pincers spread wide. An arrow suddenly sprouted out of the eye of one of the hornets, and it dropped to the ground. The others spread out and began attacking the adventurers below them.

One hornet came directly at Kay. With one hand supporting the blade he slammed his sword into the gap of the creatures maw, preventing it from biting down on him. With a flick of some of his fingers, he sent a sphere of blood slamming into its head. As it’s carapace cracked from the blow, it jerked back and let out a keening shriek that sent Kay staggering back a few steps. The hornet charged back at him and Kay used the incoming momentum to impale the monster straight through.

The creature’s body wouldn’t come off the sword, so he tossed it down with a curse. To his right, Korz was getting harried by three of the hornets as he used his shield to keep them off of Alice. Kay sprinted closer, blood from his enchanted flask pooling around his hands as he ran. When he got within range he flicked his wrist and a whip cut into the closest monsters wings. It let out a pained cry as it dropped down, and the other two hornets spun to face what they thought was the more dangerous opponent.

Korz took the opportunity he was given and drove the blade of his axe into the thorax of one of the hornets. With the nearest threat reduced to one, they quickly killed the remaining monster.

Taking in the rest of the battle, Kay saw a small group of the hornets dead on the ground, each with an arrow in one of their eyes. Some distance away, Eduard danced between trees as he gained enough distance to take a shot at the hornet chasing him. Off to the side Verndan stabbed the last hornet he was facing with his sear, bisecting the creature.

The group hurried to help Eduard, but slowed as they watched him hit yet another shot into the eye of the hornet, killing it instantly.

“Anyone hurt?” Verndan asked everyone, his cat-like ears twitching as he glanced around the area.

Everyone except Eduard gave negative responses.

Eduard showed his arm, which had a small gash on it. “One of them caught me before I could dodge. It’s not deep though.”

“Here.” Kay made a small cut on his own arm and started pushing some of his blood into Eduard. Then with Alice’s help he bandaged up Eduard’s wound. “That should get the regeneration started.”

“Thanks. I know it’s not the same as a full healer, but having even a little bit of healing is a relief.” He patted Kay on the shoulder while the rest of the party nodded in agreement.

“Happy to help.”

After their initial meeting, Kay had run into the unnamed party again at the Adventurer’s Guild, looking for good jobs. They had been unable to afford or find a Party Forming item, so technically they were just an unnamed group of adventurers. In reality, everyone called you a party even if you weren’t a Party. In English a lot of the things said that had to do with the System sounded weird to Kay. There were a lot of System related terms in Sha’ken were different words, while Kay only had capitalization to rely on in English.

Along with needing to save up for Party Forming items, they were also saving as much as they could in order to purchase upgrades for their party members. For certain skills you could hire someone with level twenty or higher in that skill to teach you the basics, and they were saving up to afford to be taught certain skills. Alice had a support class that let her use limited buffs at her current tier, and she wanted to get training in healing skills in order to become a better supporter. Eduard and Verndan didn’t need to purchase any skills, but Korz was saving for some kind of taunt skill in order to make himself a better tank.

Alice was a tier two Apprentice Enhancement Mage, with two buff spells, one that increased strength slightly, and one that made your aim slightly better. She was aiming for a class that combined healing with support, or two classes, one for each. It all depended on what kind of path she could unlock for herself.

Eduard didn’t know what his path was going to be yet. He was a tier two Apprentice Archer (Shortbow), and had learned archery from his mother, who was an accomplished hunter back home. He wasn’t sure what kind of path he wanted to take, except for wanting to focus on archery.

Verndan used a large spear with a large almost triangular spearhead, and was a tier three Spearman. He wanted to include some form of magic into his path in the future, but wasn’t entirely sure what kind. He just knew he wanted more variety in his abilities.

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Finally Korz was both a tier three Axeman (One Handed) and a tier two Shield User. Kay was more and more learning to keep his thoughts to himself, but inwardly he thought Shield User was a dumb name for a class. Korz was the party’s tank, and was aiming for one of those kinds of classes. He had no real preference of which kind, just that he got one.

Kay felt kind of bad. They had all volunteered their classes and what kind of path they were focusing on. Kay couldn’t, even if he trusted them. They had all understood, but he still felt guilty about it.

“Don’t worry.” Verndan had told him, “We understand. You’ve got a tier five as your personal mentor. It’s pretty obvious you’ve got something special going on with your class. We won’t hold it against you if you can’t share.”

Kay still felt bad though.

He had started going out for jobs with their party when they’d randomly run into him, and they’d kept doing it after a successful outing. They didn’t team up for every job, but there were as many that they did together as there weren’t.

That exact job was to harvest some Princess Honey from a supposed nest somewhere in the northern forests. The fact that they were running into Knight Hornets meant there definitely was a hive nearby.

Princess Bees are a species of monster bees the size of large dogs. Although they’re much larger than your standard bee, they have very little in the way of defenses. They are delicate creatures that can’t move very quickly, hence their name, although in a world of magic and Classes, most princesses are actually quite dangerous. Princess Bees manage to survive in a hostile world by having a symbiotic relationship with Knight Hornets. Knight Hornets are even larger than Princess Bees, and their angular carapaces are almost as tough as metal. They work together quite nicely, with Knight Hornets providing defense from various enemies, and the Princess Bees making large nests for both species to live in, along with producing their honey which serves as both a food source to young Knight Hornets, and as a lure to bring in the meatier prey that adult Knight Hornets enjoy.

Kay helped keep watch as Alice and Verndan looked over the monster corpses to see if anything was worth keeping.

“These are just young ones used as scouts.” Verndan said as he stood up. “They aren’t worth our time to harvest anything.”

“The young ones are tier two equivalents right?” Kay asked as they started walking away. “What level are the older ones at? Do we need to be worried?”

“Those ones,” Verndan pointed back over his shoulder, “Just barely made it to adulthood and then got sent out to the outer edges to fight anything that came by. The ones closer in will be older, more experienced, and more dangerous. But they’re also less likely to attack us.”

“Why’s that?” Kay asked skeptically.

“Because we aren’t a real threat to the hive. We couldn’t do enough damage to make it worth the time of the stronger hornets to attack us. They’ll save their strength for more powerful enemies, and we’ll leave with some honey. Don’t worry about it. We’ve done runs like this before and we’ve been fine.”

“Alright...”

They walked further into the forest, the trees growing larger as they went. This particular forest north of Tumbling Rapids was known for the large variety of hardwood trees that grew deeper in, making it a prime location for lumber, and for creatures that liked big trees for one reason or another. Like forming giant bee hives in their branches.

The massive brown-yellow hive was shaped like a massive cylinder at the bottom where it touched the ground and it branched out into bulging, twisting shapes that connected to the trees around it, holding it in place. The hive was at least two or three hundred feet tall, and at it’s thinnest points no less than ten feet around. The hive spread across dozens of huge trees, making the entire hive as big as an office building. Princess Bees, small fragile looking things with thin bodies and limbs, fled from the party as they were spotted walking into the area. They flew up to the top of the hive, entering it through small openings, and the heads of humongous Knight Hornets appeared to stare at them. Each head was twice the size of those of the previous hornets, and their multifaceted eyes gleamed as they stared down at the group.

“Move slowly, don’t attack the bees, and we’ll be fine.” Verndan muttered as he started slowly walking closer to the hive. “They keep a reservoir of honey near the bottom so people or creatures like us who are just after honey can get some and leave.”

Kay followed along, keeping to one side of the group. “Are they intelligent?”

“They aren’t people, if that’s what you’re asking, but they’re considered smart for monsters.”

The group made it to the edge of the hive, and Kurt and Verndan pulled large liquid resistant bags off of their belts. These were quite similar to Kay’s bag for hauling body parts around, but they had special nozzles sewn into them to make transporting liquids easier. With everyone else standing guard, Korz used his axe to chop a spout in the side of the hive, where honey started to flow out of. He filled up the two bags and the party started slowly backing up out of the small clearing, keeping an eye out for any of the monsters getting particularly aggressive.

They made it to the edge of the clearing when a cracking noise started coming from the middle of the massive hive. Everyone glanced up to see cracks forming on the outside of the waxy surface.

“Run!” Verndan shouted as he started sprinting away from the hive.

Kay and the others followed after him, the cracking noise getting louder and louder as something gigantic began to push its way out of the hive. A deafening crashing noise rumbled around them as they ran. There was a moment of silence, and then a horrendous shrill shriek rang out through the forest.

Eduard stumbled, tripped on a root and managed to recover by rolling back up to his feet. “What the fuck is that!?”

“Knight Hornet Queen!” Verndan shouted. “When a hive has too many members, bees and other creatures like that will split, with a younger queen leaving to start a new hive! Knight Hornet Queens and Princess Bee Queens will leave together!”

“So there’s a fucking gigantic hornet queen that may or may not be flying this way?” Eduard shouted back.

“It’s possible!” Verndan ducked under a branch. “But it’s more likely that we’ll run into a mature Knight Hornet hunting for food!”

A heavy buzzing noise started picking up from behind them.

“Like that one! Keep running! They won’t go too far from the two queens, so we just need to get some distance!”

The buzzing got louder as they ran, and Kay glanced back to see the giant hornet dashing between trees as it gained on them.

“That thing is the size of a bear!” Korz screamed.

“And it’s catching up!” Alice added.

The hornet let out a screech, not as loud as the Queen’s, but still piercing. It rose up higher and higher as it cut to one side, then it dashed downward, its mandibles outstretched.

It flew directly over Kay, the wind from it’s beating wings pushing him to the ground, and he watched as Korz reached out and grabbed the back of Verndan’s armor. With one hard yank he threw Verndan to the side and the hornet’s massive jaws flew right through where Verndan’s neck would have been.

“Shit!” Kay forced himself back to his feet and fumbled for his sword hilt.

“Dammit, we’re going to have to fight!” Verndan shouted as he too pushed himself back up.

The massive Knight Hornet flew up into the air and threw itself into another diving attack.

Kay hastily drew his sword as the hornet dive bombed the party. He ran to one side to spread out the potential targets, and he saw the others do the same.

“Eduard, aim for it’s eyes!” Verndan shouted. “Kay, if you can, try and get it’s wings! It’ll be easier to kill if we can ground it!”

Alice ran off to hide behind a tree, her hands glowing as she gestured at Kay and Eduard.

Kay felt his eyesight sharpen as Alice buffed him, and he began to gather blood into a series of pointed needle shapes, waiting for a good moment.

The bee dived again aiming at Korz this time, who managed to impose his shield between his body and the gnashing mandibles of the monster.

As it hovered in place for a brief moment, an arrow sprouted out of one of it’s eyes. It shrieked in pain, but it’s larger size and tougher body meant it wasn’t an instant kill like the same attack on it’s younger siblings. But the instant of hesitation was enough for Kay to send his blood needles flying at the hornet’s buzzing wings. The needles spread like a shotgun blast, most of them bouncing off the creature’s armored carapace, but some of them tore holes in it’s less protected wings. It shrieked again and took off straight up.

“Good, again!” Verndan shouted, and another arrow slammed into it’s head. Each of the compound eyes were a hands width wide, making them easier targets for Eduard, but the very nature of those eyes meant that a single arrow wasn’t enough to blind it.

The Knight Hornet let out another screech, then it vanished as it flew out of sight.

“It’s not leaving.” Korz warned them, his ears twitching.

The party restlessly watched the area, waiting for it to return.

The thrumming noise of it’s wings grew in volume as it got closer. Kay saw a flash of movement from his right and dove to the ground. The mandibles slashed across his back, cutting through the armor and leaving a jagged gash in his flesh.

He cursed as he rolled himself back up. “Fuck! It got me but I’m okay!” He called out as he concentrated on his magical senses. His range for detecting blood was small, but it would hopefully be enough to prevent it killing him.

Korz shouted and Kay turned and watched as he slammed into Eduard’s side, pushing him out of the way as the hornet suddenly dove almost straight down from the sky/ Korz and the hornet crashed into the ground, throwing up dirt and plant matter everywhere.

Kay and Verndan turned and sprinted at the creature as it slowly pulled itself up. Kay threw a fist full of blood at the monster, forming it into blades that shot at it’s wings. With his right hand he swung his sword, leaving small cuts in the hornet’s side. His blade couldn’t cut deep enough with the strength of one hand swinging it.

The creature screamed as Verndan thrust his spear into it’s eye and more arrows appeared in the other as Eduard pulled himself to his feet and started firing.

The high pitched blast of sound made Kay stumble, and the creature spun to slash at Verndan with more speed than he would have thought possible. The cat beastkin managed to hold off it’s attacks by blocking with his spear shaft, and Kay took the opportunity as he raised his sword high in both hands, aiming for one of the Knight Hornet’s middle legs.

The edge of his blade passed right through one of the joints as he brought his sword down, and the creature screamed in pain again as it staggered.

It attempted to fly upwards and escape the attacks the party were hitting it with, but as it’s wings began to beat another arrow hit it, this time hitting it right in its wing joints. It listed sideways and slammed down to the ground after half of its flight potential was destroyed. It attempted to push itself back up, but the party gave it no time. Kay slashed at it with two handed blows as arrows and Verndan’s spear punched into it’s body over and over. Out of the corner of his eye Kay watched as Korz rose up from the small crater the Knight Hornet’s impact had caused and began to viciously hack at the monster’s neck with his axe.

The hornet began to twitch and jerk as they attacked it, until a few moments later it fell still.

Kay stared at the body of the giant hornet, panting. Movement to the side jerked him out of his trance and he saw Korz slowly stepping away from the monster.

“Anyone injured?” Kay called out, glancing at the others.

“I’m going to be covered in bruises in a few hours.” Korz replied, “But I’m not bleeding anywhere.”

“I am.” Eduard said as he scanned through the air above them. “But do we have time to wait around? There could be more.”

“I don’t hear anything…” Alice cautiously replied. Her statement was immediately invalidated as they heard the sounds of more buzzing. “Run!”

They took off, sprinting through the trees once more.