Hello.
Welcome to the chapter 3 of this commission! Just to clarify each chapter counts as a separate commission.
Thanks once again to SHE Super Heroine Encyclopedia for commissioning this work.
On that note, they want lemons and limes in the future, so I'm making Bell 18 years old.
Danmachi is the property of Fujino Omori.
"Talking"
'Thinking'
Different POV narration
Spells and chants
Chapter 3: Queen Bee
"This would be a great time for a firebolt." Bell growled out as he tried to grab one of the torches from their packs to light it.
"I don't think this is time for a joke." Lily whined, making sure to keep her cutesy voice despite the urge to go full sarcastic. All the while her eyes were sweeping around, watching the shadows creep closer and closer to them.
"I wasn't trying to be funny." Bell said exasperatedly. "Just moaning about what could have been." He finally got out one of the torches and handed it to Lily to light while he kept his knife ready. At the same time, he considered trying out the spell he did have. Problem was, he wasn't even sure what they were facing or if Rosty could even do anything. Assuming Rosty was the one who answered, considering what she said before. Better the woman you know than the one you don't…or something like that.
"Focus Bell." He muttered to himself. Soon after the torch was burning, giving them more light to work with. Unfortunately, it did not eliminate the shadows as they had hoped. It did however reveal the nature of their enemy.
"These must be War Shadows!" Lilly exclaimed upon seeing this.
"War whats?" Bell questioned as they backed further away with him constantly sweeping his head from side to side looking out for attacks.
"War Shadows. Creatures that are mostly shadows. The only time you can even touch them is when they attack." Lilly clarified, making sure to not mention that she once ditched some adventurers to the mercy of a couple of War Shadows, getting a decent profit from it. Though judging from the way they were surrounded it was hard to tell the numbers and retreat was most definitely not an option.
"So, light doesn't hurt them?" Bell asked bewildered, shaking the torch back and forth as if it would somehow push the shadows back. "But all the stories I remember say that light kept the dark from engulfing everything!"
"Pretty sure that was just the moral of a bunch of stories." Lilly groaned. "That or some horror story about the dark."
"Well is there anything we can do besides wait for them to make the first move?" Bell pleaded, his voice having a winy edge to it.
"No." Lilly replied curtly, really holding back from breaking character and retorting to his stupidity.
At that very moment a dark limb that seemed semi-tangible jumped out of the walls with fingers as sharp as any blade. Bale caught sight of the attack and deflected it with his own blade. This left him open to another attack, this one from below at an angle. Bell was unable to react, only saved from injury by Lilly's timely shove. He managed to stay on his feet and see the arms melt back into the shadows from which they came.
"Thanks for the save Lilly." He panted out, his stamina being burned away by the physical task of defending and keeping his eye out as well as the palpable tension that came from being surrounded.
"I'm just glad you're ok Bell-sama." She squeaked, failing to mention that she had intended to push him into the attack instead of out of it.
Their conversation was cut short as another set of limbs and bladed fingertips lunged off the walls and floor towards the duo. This time Bell was able to deflect all the attacks, including the third and fourth ones that aimed at his blind spots.
"I…" he panted. "I don't know how much longer I'll last."
"At this rate they'll have us surrounded, and we still don't know how many there are!" panic was setting in for Lilly, and it was completely real! As far as she could tell there were no openings for her to make a getaway.
"Damn it!" Bell nearly shouted in frustration. "Doesn't look like I have any choice here." He grumbled as he held out his hand.
"Bell, what are you-"
"Summon!"
This time the response was almost immediate, much to Bell's relief. Though that changed to concern once he realized the glow coming out of the floor was not the same ice that brought in Rosty, which probably meant that it was someone else. If it weren't for the fact that he needed his hands free to defend himself, he would have crossed his fingers and started praying to Hestia for a good roll.
The glow changed into a bright gold light that poured out of the floor…and started to spin and do loops around the room? Bell's confusion was lifted as the lights spun closer to him, allowing him to see that they were in fact thousands of tiny balls of light moving so fast and uniformly that it seemed like one moving beam of light. Soon, the beads of light spun around a single spot, forming a sphere of sorts. It seemed to compress before expanding for a second, then exploding releasing so much light that Bell and Lily were almost blinded.
When they regained their vision, they were met by a rather interesting sight. The new arrival was also female like Rosty but seemed older since she was taller and more…curvy. That was where the familiarity ended. Everything else about her was strange and foreign, in a rather exotic and attractive way Bell had to admit. While her face was beautifully structured with nice brown hair, her eyes were insect like. Her arms and legs had a black and yellow stripe pattern that looked less like clothes and more like part of her actual skin. On top of that, she had 4 arms! Not to mention the giant insect wings coming out of her back and the giant bee-like part coming out of her but!
Honestly, Bell had mixed feelings of attraction and fear. On the one hand, she was definitely beautiful and had an air of maturity to her that out shined Hestia's attempts and looking mature, not to mention the exotic nature of her appearance. On the other hand, however, the way she was looking at him and Lilly, which was unnerving as is due to her bug eyes, gave him the impression that she was judging him for some reason. After a moment of uncomfortable scrutiny, during which no War Shadow attacked (most likely due to their own surprise at her sudden appearance), a smile crossed her face.
"Greetings royal candidate." She said in a voice that was…buzz-like? He could hear her clearly, but it was almost as if there was a rough background echo for everything she said. "Pleased to make your acquaintance. You may call me Queen." A smirk crossed her face. "I look forward to seeing you prove yourself to me."
Her words were interrupted by shadowy limbs striking out, aiming for the new target, their knives getting close before Bell could even shout a warning. However, his concern was unneeded as all 4 of them were easily caught and trapped in the woman's hands, and two of them came from behind her meaning she did it without even looking.
"Shame it had to be under such circumstances." She sighed, finally acknowledging the situation they were in. "But I suppose it can't be helped." With that she yanked the limbs in front of her face. "I shall make you insolent creatures pay for ruining the moment."
Her expression became one of absolute focus, as she pulled hard on the arms. At first it seemed like nothing was happening, only for the actual bodies of the War-shadows to be pulled out of the ground, removing the unnatural darkness that surrounded the adventurers earlier. Bell was expecting some formless creatures so he was surprised at how sharp they were. It was as if the shadow of some tall elliptical shaped humanoid creature had somehow pulled its own feet away and started walking by itself. The only real difference was that the hands had only three claw-like fingers and the heads were adorned with some sort of three-pronged crest with one of them having larger than the others making it most likely the leader of the group.
"So glad you could finally join us." Queen said sarcastically with a bit of annoyance thrown in. "Now kindly leave and never return. If you refuse, I will make you comply with my decree." The War-shadows responded by raising their free hands, ready to strike. "Very well then." This time, Queen wore a malicious grin accompanying the dark tone of her voice.
Before any of the monsters could even bring their arms down, the insectoid woman lifted them off the ground by several feet and slammed them right back down so hard it was hard to tell if it was the ground cracking or the beasts. She released three of them, grabbed the last one by the shoulders with all 4 of her arms, and started pulling. Even when grunting and exerting herself, Bell had to admit she was stunning. Somehow the sight of her ripping the War-shadow in half, sending black-ish blood flying everywhere before it disintegrated into smoke dropping a magic stone, did not take away from it at all. The two remaining peons seemed to have recovered and changed at her from opposite sides. Without even turning her head, she pierced their body with two hands each. Then, something started travelling down her arms, into their bodies, quickly filling them, making them bulge out everywhere before exploding everywhere. In the middle of the blood and smoke Bell realized that it was swarms of bees the kill them from the inside out. However, the leader was still left, but he was nowhere to be found. All of a sudden, it sprung out from behind Queen, both hands ready to rip her apart. Apparently, it failed to realize that she had a huge stinger, so all it got for its effort was a giant hole in its chest before finally vanishing, leaving nothing both a magic stone slightly larger than the others.
For a moment there was nothing but silence. Bell and Lilly were just so dumbstruck by what happened they could not produce any sound from their mouth. As for Queen, she just stood there as if she was waiting for something be it another ambush or for some sort of response from her summoner and his companion. After nearly 5 minutes, she could not wait anymore.
"I take it you were impressed with that minor display?" She asked, her expression one of amusement. "I do apologize for not demonstrating my true power, but these creatures were so weak that disposing of them proved no challenge even when holding back."
"Um," Bell practically squeaked out. "If you say so." He tried to hide his own embarrassment at the fact that he could not do anything himself, yet this was a walk in the park to her! Was it just him, or were all women in his life stronger than him! There was already Aiz and Ryuu, who could scare the crap out of a man with words alone, the owner of the Hostess of Fertility was a huge woman who could probably snap him like a twig, and even though she had no powers Hestia was still a goddess so technically her true power was bound to surpass his. On top of that, it seems all the summons would be women with exotic body types and crazy magic! How was he supposed to get a girlfriend if he's always the damsel in distress!
All of these thoughts running through his head, combined with the stress of the entire ambush itself, drove his mind crazy, meant only one thing. Bell falling to the ground face first, the pain of the impact itself keeping him conscious.
"This day has been long enough as is." He groaned out. "would it be wrong to hope that nothing else happens today?"
"As long as you keep me by your side," Queen answered in her buzzing voice, a smirk on her face, "You need not worry about danger."
"What the hell!" Lilly shouted, getting both of their attention and making Bell realize she was no longer next to him. In fact, before he had fallen over, she had already moved towards the magic stones left behind by the War Shadows, a certain glint in her eyes. That was extinguished the moment she picked up the spoils only to find them...lacking.
"These are at least half the size they should be!" She yelled, her ears and tail popping up in agitation. She held out the one in her hand as an example. "These things are no bigger than the ones you'd get from a monster on the first or second floor. These are Floor 6 monsters. They should drop a much bigger stone!" Just when Lilly thought she had gotten a good haul this happened!
"Maybe these guys were weak?" Bell suggested, though the very idea that he needed help with the weaker individuals of this species made him apprehensive for the older and stronger ones while also increasing his self-loathing over still needing help in that scenario.
"Oh, that's just what's left after deducting my summoning fee." Queen interjected calmly, looking almost bored.
"Your fee?" Bell questioned, not liking the sound of that.
"It requires mana to keep me here of course." Queen scoffed. "None of us can stay here without it nor would we be willing to."
"What does that have to do with the stones?!" Lilly almost growled.
"Any monster we kill, we take half their magical energy. So obviously the stones they drop would be smaller." She replied.
"Isn't there another way to pay the mana cost?" Bell asked nervously, seeing the look on Lilly's face and wanting to avoid needless argument.
"I suppose you could use your own mana." Queen answered, one of her hands propping her chin up in thought.
"Then-"
"However," Queen cut him off. "With your current capacity, one of us would last only 3 minutes, assuming a small fight. If we have to exert our true power then maybe 1." Bell's face fell back to the ground. "Even if you were to increase your mana reserves, through training and diligence, you would not be able to keep us here for long." She let out what sounded like a sigh. "In the end, you'd only be able to have our services for a short while then pass out due to mana exhaustion." She turned her head to the side and added, under her breath, "I suppose I can't be too picky with the candidate for my king."
Hearing the negatives of the alternative method and the outright dismissal of being able to use it caused Bell to face plant into the ground again.
Lilly on the other hand...
"What makes you think we'll need you again!" She shouted, her cheeks red with frustration and anger.
"Is that anyway to speak to the one who saved your life?"
"We would have been fine! And we would have gotten a bigger profit!"
"I'll be sure to leave that on the tombstone over your empty grave."
The two glared at each other with such intensity that Bell was worried they'd start a fire. He knew he needed to jump in and stop this quickly.
"All that matters right now is that she saved us." Bell said, pulling himself to his feet. "Sure, we didn't get as much as you'd expect, but we got something instead of dying or losing all our stuff."
Lilly was forced to concede the point. However, ...
"Can you at least send her back now that the danger has passed?" she asked in a growl.
"Actually..." Bell said nervously. "I think we should keep her around for a while." In response to the look of shock and betrayal on her face he quickly started explaining himself. "We're still exhausted and we've got more ground to cover. With her around there'll actually be two of us fighting," the inadvertent reminder of Lilly's position as a supporter made her flinch, something that was noticed by Queen and not Bell, "and we'll be able to kill more monsters, and even go into the more difficult areas of these floors. Overall, we should get a bigger profit." Lilly seemed to be considering it, but wasn't totally convinced. So, Bell came up with another idea. "I could save the spell for some of the lower floors. No need to get help for the first few."
"Well..." Lilly hesitated, reexamining Queen and considering the battle prowess she displayed earlier. And she could supposedly do even better. Plus, it seemed the cost came out of monsters she killed with her own hands so...
"Fine." She sighed. "She can stick around and you can use that spell again." Then she mumbled under her breath. "This better be worth it."
"That's great." Bell sighed in relief. He turned to Queen and smiled. "I hope you don't mind accompanying us for the rest of the day."
"Not at all." She smiled. "I relish the opportunity to evaluate you up close." She licked her lips. "And personal."
"O-ok then." Bell stuttered in embarrassment. "Let's get out stuff and make sure everything is in order before we head out." With that he headed back towards their campsite, leaving the two females alone.
Lilly eyed the 4-armed insectoid woman a bit longer before letting out a huff and started following Bell. However, Queen whispered as she passed her.
"How long do you think you can continue this charade?"
Lilly spun on the spot, eyes wide and hands on her hidden knife, ready to attack. Yet she was unable to do so. Queen just stared at her with those compound eyes, a small smirk on her face. She wouldn't say anything. Lilly could not explain how she knew this, she just did. Regardless of what ever happened, this woman had no real need to interfere, for now.
Slowly putting her hands away, she went back towards the campsite, her steps a bit rushed.
She needed to act quickly before things got out of hand.
Okay.
This chapter was brought to you by my pa_tr_eo_n. To find me, just search for Composcreator on the site or enter pa_tr_eo_ / Composcreator. Just get rid of the underscore and put an actual period. The ff site won't let me type up the whole word or URL.
That's it for now. Please Favorite, Follow, and Review. But most of all, thank you for reading!