Undeserved Reputation

Xander closed the stone door while we're still in the queen's chamber. ''If we kill the queen first, the worker bees will have nothing to protect,'' he said.

Ian and Casey didn't wait to join him either, the three of them attacked the red queen together. Or this was what they were supposed to do before the yellow queen prevented them.

''Wha- what the heck? I thought queens weren't combat type creatures?'' Ian said.

''They aren't,'' Casey said and took a position to meet the yellow queen's counterattack, but the yellow queen stood there, doing nothing.

''It's not fighting us, it's just protecting its baby,'' I said while listening to the yellow queen's desires. ''My daughter... future queen... the hive will be evolved thanks to my beautiful red daughter... have to protect... my hive...''

Clearly, the yellow queen wasn't attacking, it was just standing between the red queen and warriors. For a while, the only sound in the chamber was the buzz of the two queens flapping their wings. ''So first we gotta get her out of the way,'' Casey said finally.

The stone door opened with a thud and a worker bee entered the chamber. Since I was closest to the door, I pulled my short blade and stabbed it in the worker bee.

Worker bees were smaller than warrior bees and their stings were non-toxic. Still, you wouldn't want a hundred of them attacking you at the same time. Black sticky blood splashed on my hand, but I had no time to clean. I headed to the open stone door.

Before I closed the stone door, I saw three more worker bees flying towards the queen's chamber. I was able to close the door just in time, so they hit the stone door. The stone door was a primitive model with no lock or handle, so I lean against the door that the bees cannot open it.

If there were only one or two, I was sure I would be able to handle it, but with every second that passed, there were another buzzing noise and a little more thrust from the other side of the door. I turned my head to see how the others were doing.

The yellow queen had several cuts and bruises with black blood dripping from it, but the red queen hadn't received a single scratch and was continuing her telepathic call. ''Come... protect me...''

Casey and Xander were attacking the yellow queen, but a flying creature was not an easy target. Although the queen didn't fight back, she was rarely getting damaged. Obviously, she was smarter than warrior bees who only knew how to do a suicide attack.

Ian, on the other hand, was not attacking the yellow queen with the others. He was trying to get close to the red queen, unnoticed. He was almost behind the red queen, and he lifted up a long thin sword that glowed with a cold light. The sword was like the katanas in eastern culture and it definitely had a spell.

Ian muttered a word I couldn't hear, and the katana's ominous glow grew stronger, then made a slashing motion toward the red queen. She managed to escape, probably only thanks to an instinct that warned her seconds before. She was still injured, though not fatal.

''Mom!!'' I heard the red queen's cry in my mind. The yellow queen flew in no time to meet Ian's second attack instead of her daughter.

This was the worst damage the red queen has ever received for so long. Black blood was dripping from the wound that cut across her body, and one of its antennae was frozen. The katana had to have some kind of ice spell. I silently congratulated Ian.

When Xander and Casey realized what Ian was trying to do, they joined him. One of them distracted the yellow queen while the other two attacked the red, the yellow queen had to be a shield to protect her daughter. It was a slow but working plan.

A loud banging noise from the other side of the stone door echoed in the chamber, and I couldn't stop myself from taking a step forward. Bees stopped pushing the stone door from the other side for a few seconds, and then the door was pushed hard with the sound of banging again. They must have started collaborating.

I gritted my teeth, ''I can't hold the door anymore,'' I said.

''Hold on,'' Casey said without looking at me. The door was pushed hard once again and one of the smallest worker bees entered the chamber.

''I'm coming, hang on,'' Ian stopped attacking the queens and headed to the stone door. He put both hands on the door and pushed hardly, I was leaning against the door and his hands were above my head. My forehead barely reached his chin, he was quite tall, for a pureblood human. It could have been a pretty romantic scene under different conditions.

''Move away from the door when I say three, I'll cast some kind of seal spell,'' he said. Spell? So he really could have descended from a fairy bloodline. I immediately nodded. ''One, two, three, go!''

The door was behind me, Ian was in front of me. I did the only thing I could do and move away from the door to hug Ian. Of course, I could go left or right, but I took the opportunity to drink a few drops of energy. Ian's skin didn't burn me like Xander and his taste... was different.

I felt an icy chill behind me and turned to check. The stone door and stone wall were completely frozen, it was no longer possible for bees to open the door. ''So...'' I said, ''You can call ice?''

Ian laughed nervously, ''Yeah, any stamina potion left?'' He asked. I shook my head. Ian sighed and rubbed his forehead, ''I spent more than I expected. Better go back to town as soon as possible,'' he said. He had no idea how right he was.

''Do you two have an intention to join us?'' Casey asked angrily as the red queen dodged her.

''Honestly, no, I prefer to save my stamina for repairing the seal when they open the door.'' We heard a loud noise from the other side of the door and the ice cracked a bit. ''I don't think the seal will hold them for long,'' Ian said.

''You sissies, come here and fight'' Xander said.

''I admit, call me a sissy if you want,'' I said and crouched on the ground. Every drop of my energy was precious and I didn't have a chance to waste it chasing a stupid bee.

''Glad you noticed,'' The fox said. ''Why don't you try to enchant the bee? That would make your job easier.''

''Their desires too raw for me to be involved. They act under the leadership of the most primitive instincts,'' I said.

''Not the worker bees, idiot. I mean the red queen. She is an intermediate level beast and a queen, after all. If anyone of the bees is able to feel jealous or greedy, she is,'' The fox said.

I watched as Xander and Casey chasing the queens, and closed my eyes to remove the barrier I built so that my brain, which is still human, wouldn't be overload because of succubus ability. I felt my mind shatter with the same thought from a thousand different minds, ''Save the queen!!''

Immediately I turned off the skill as I can and took a deep breath, ''I can't,'' I said to the fox. ''There are just too many of them.''

''Try,'' It said. I heard the ice cracking that sealed the stone door, Ian put his hands on the door and tried to fix it. ''Focus on the red queen and ignore everything else,'' The fox said.

I took a deep breath and started to weave an imaginary web that would keep the idea of ''save the queen'' out of my mind. When I thought the web was strong enough, I started using the desires of heart skill again. I still felt pressure, but it wasn't painful, and it was definitely much better than before.

Focusing on the red queen wasn't hard, it was a beast with low intelligence. For the first time in my life, I was hoping my opponent would have higher intelligence so that she could have a desire for me to use and deceive her. You can't seduce a dog to betray its owner, but you could seduce a human in countless ways. Money, women, status...

The red queen probably had nothing to do with money or women. But maybe... ''Protect me... the queen... the queen of the hive... no... not my mom... I'm the queen...'' Yeah, that'd, maybe. Didn't countless kings and queens give their last breaths in the hands of their children who wanted their place?

I made a thought and placed it into the red queen's heart, ''I'll be... will be the queen... but first... my mother... current queen... must be eliminated... for me to be queen... must be... eliminated...''

It wasn't the most logical thing to do, but bees weren't the smartest demonic creatures either. I repeated this in the bee's mind until no else idea was left. I told her what she should do, and she did it as I said.

I heard the ice seal had completely destroyed and Ian built it again. The red queen threw herself in the way of Casey's attack, but her mother welcomed the attack to protect her daughter. ''For my hive... for my daughter...'' were her last thoughts.

Tragically, the red queen couldn't last more than a minute without her mother's protection. Casey let out a laugh as she crushed the red queen's head under her feet. ''The first intermediate level dungeon the guild has cleared! By my team!''

''This wasn't an intermediate level dungeon, there were only seven intermediate level beasts. It was an evolving before we interrupted,'' Xander said.

''So what?'' Casey snapped one of the red queen's antenna and eyed it admiringly. ''We have an intermediate level boss corpse, didn't we?''

I remembered a recipe that includes queen bee antenna that I read in the Succubus handbook. It could be used to strengthen mental abilities. I wonder could I persuade them to give me all of the antennas? I don't think so.

As Casey and Xander plundered the corpses, I started looking for pollen and honey in the room. One of the walls of the room was just like normal bee honeycombs, but a lot bigger. I started stuffing pollen and honey into wooden boxes I borrowed from the guild.

The boxes had no space spell, so I had to carry everything in my bag with all their weight. Casey and Ian also stopped fiddling with the bodies of the queens and got at the honeycombs. We were packing everything we could carry in bags.

''Eat some honey,'' The fox said. ''Free stamina doesn't hurt.'' I did as it said.

''What about worker bees?'' Xander asked.

''Since there is no one to command them anymore, they do nothing. One of them will evolve into a queen, or a queen will come from another hive, or they will go to another hive,'' Casey said.

''So let's get out of here,'' Xander said and we headed to the stone door.

''We can't,'' Ian said. ''I'm out of mana, I can't unfreeze the ice.''

Casey frowned and open her mouth to say something but before she did that, the ice seal has begun to thaw. I could feel the mana coming from the other side of the door. Xander and Casey took a defensive position and waited for the door to open without saying anything.

The door opened and a young woman stepped into the queen's chamber. She was tall and blue-eyed, she had the beauty of fairies that hurts your eyes to look at them.

''Ina,'' Ian said. ''You're late.''

''You were supposed to stall them!'' Ina said.

''What the he-'' Xander's words were interrupted when Ina looked into his eyes. Ian was looking into Casey's eyes, then he turned to me.

Memories started flowing into my mind. Hermes saying 'I will give the quest a team of four...' Xander saying 'I'm Xander, he's Ian and the beauty is Ina, they are siblings, Ian pretends to be cool but he's actually...' Ina was making a fire in the camp saying 'Ice demons are pretty sensitive to heat...'

''Ah, Ina,'' Casey said. ''Glad you have enough mana to unfreeze seal. You spent a large amount of mana in the fight. I don't know what we would have done without you.''

''You're welcome,'' Ina said and smiled and we headed for the exit. Suddenly I felt a headache, and I leaned against the wall so as not to fall.

''Are you okay?'' Ian asked in an anxious voice.

''Yeah,'' I said. ''I'm out of stamina.'' Ina handed me a blue liquid. ''What the hell just happened, did they put the memories in my mind?'' I asked inside my mind.

''No,'' the fox said. ''They freed the memories they sealed.''

''What? Wait, were you aware of that?'' I asked. The fox nodded. ''Why didn't you tell me?''

''Why would I do that?''