"Wh-what is this!?"
One moment, they were completely surrounded; the next, nearly forty Sword Bees at their rear were obliterated in an instant.
No, it wasn't just a disappearance—it was an incineration.
Above all else, the voice and figure that emerged from the smoke were far too familiar to the party's leader.
"Rei-san!?"
Rei nodded in response, and the group—two people and one beast—approached from behind. This was, of course, Rei, Elena, and Seto. Only Iero abstained from flying, remaining perched firmly on Elena's left shoulder.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were heading for B4F?"
"Oh, just a bit of business," Rei replied casually.
Despite being boxed in by Sword Bees on the front, left, and right, Rei spoke as if he hadn't a care in the world, his Death Scythe held at the ready.
At the sight of him, the leader felt a wave of absolute security wash over him. It was a sense of relief identical to what he felt when standing near his own mentor, Big Bro Bosk.
"Business? Well, whatever the reason, you saved our lives, Rei-san. I never dreamed the Sword Bees would coordinate an ambush like this."
"I bet. These aren't your typical Sword Bees. Or rather, the one leading them is far from normal."
"Not normal?"
"Yeah. They're being led by a boss much larger than the rest—a Queen Bee. You ever heard of them?"
Rei glanced back, asking the question while implicitly trusting Seto to guard their rear. Since there were outsiders present, Seto couldn't use its more conspicuous skills. Instead, the Gryphon moved toward the remaining swarm to engage them with raw physical power. Seto didn't seem to notice the adventurers staring in a daze as it stalked past them.
"A Queen Bee? No, I'm afraid I've never heard of such a thing. Hey, does anyone know anything?" the leader called out to his party.
"Ah, I've heard the name before," the Thief man replied, his daggers held ready. He kept his eyes on the swarm, prepared for an attack at any moment.
Strangely, the Sword Bees didn't move, despite the humans talking openly in front of them. In truth, they couldn't move. The swarm had been certain they had given Rei's group the slip before doubling back to prey on the other adventurers. Now that Rei and the others had reappeared so effortlessly, they were paralyzed with shock.
Even the Queen Bee, hovering at the back of the swarm with her wings buzzing, glared at Rei. As was typical for insect-type monsters, her compound eyes showed no emotion, yet the frantic vibration of her wings betrayed an obvious irritation to anyone watching.
Faced with an opponent capable of slaughtering her swarm with ease, the Queen Bee considered retreating. However, seeing how they had tracked her down despite the distance she had put between them, she realized that running would be futile. She decided her best chance was to fight here, using the weaker adventurers as a distraction.
The Queen Bee's fatal mistake was her overconfidence in her own power and her tunnel vision regarding the strength of Rei and his companions. While the combat potential of Rei, Elena, and Seto was indeed overwhelming, the six adventurers she had targeted were no slouches either. They were veterans who usually operated on much deeper floors; they possessed more than enough skill to conquer B3F with ease.
In the end, even a Queen was still just the Queen of the E-Rank Sword Bees.
"Kikikikiki!"
With a sharp buzz of her wings, she issued her commands: Target the men first. Use the distractions to the fullest.
Following her lead, the Sword Bees launched an all-out assault. Countless stingers and the sword-like protrusions on their abdomens swept toward the men.
"What's with these bugs? You think we're the easy targets? Don't underestimate us!"
With a roar, the leader swung his sword with blinding speed.
One flash, two, three. His blade carved through the air, leaving several bisected Sword Bees in its wake.
"Hoh..."
Watching from nearby, Rei let out a small sound of genuine admiration. After their brief encounter the previous day, he hadn't expected them to be this capable. Behind the leader, the rest of the party—wielding spears, daggers, bows, longswords, and a battle axe—began systematically tearing through the Sword Bees.
Though they had been caught off guard by the sudden ambush, once they found their rhythm, the E-Rank monsters were no match for them. The enemy numbers began to plummet.
However...
"This is going to get tedious," Rei muttered as he swung the Death Scythe, cleaving several more bees in half.
While the enemies weren't individually strong and the adventurers currently held the advantage, the sheer scale of the swarm was the problem.
(There are just too many of them. In that case... it's better to take out the Queen Bee giving the orders rather than swatting every single minion.)
Since the Queen had been his target from the start, Rei scanned the area. He knew that for her to give such precise commands, she had to be somewhere with a clear view of the battlefield. Yet, all he could see were the standard 30cm-long Sword Bees.
(Tch. Did I scare her off too much during our first run-in? I didn't think she'd be this tactical. And though they're just bees, I didn't expect the minions to be so willing to throw their lives away to shield her. That makes finding her difficult...)
With his own vision obscured by the swarm, Rei turned to one of his few remaining options. He confirmed the adventurers were holding their own and then called out to the Gryphon guarding their rear.
"Seto, find the Queen!"
"Guruuu? ...Guruuu!"
Seto swatted a Sword Bee out of the air and gave a sharp cry. Kicking off the floor and walls, the Gryphon utilized a Triangle Jump to sail over the heads of the adventurers. It plunged directly into the thickest part of the swarm, blowing away nearly 30 Sword Bees before landing near Rei and sniffing the air.
Though Sword Bees were largely devoid of emotion, the sheer presence of the predator seemed to make them falter. In that split second of hesitation, Seto caught the Queen Bee's scent coming from the right side of the crossroads and lunged toward it.
"Gururururururuuu!"
Seto roared and leaped again. Kicking off the ground, then one wall, then the opposite wall, and finally the ceiling—using its wings to adjust its trajectory mid-flight—the Gryphon moved like a high-speed ping-pong ball.
"Kikikikikiki!"
Realizing Seto was closing in, the Queen Bee buzzed her wings frantically to command her guards while simultaneously firing a barrage of Wind Blades.
The invisible blades of wind raced toward Seto. Naturally, the Sword Bees in the way were shredded, but the Queen's commanded minions didn't flinch, throwing themselves into Seto's path without regard for their lives.
"Guruluuu!"
Noticing the incoming Wind Blades by the way the nearby bees were being sliced, Seto flapped its wings to force a change in orbit. It kicked off the wall one last time and finally reached its target.
"Kikikikiki!"
Seeing that escape was impossible, the Queen Bee buzzed an intimidation cry while unleashing more Wind Blades and thrusting her poison stinger forward.
"Guruuu!"
Even as the invisible blades closed in, Seto charged ahead. It didn't rely on sight alone; it used hearing, smell, and a sharpened sixth sense to weave through the attack. When the density of the Wind Blades became inescapable, Seto utilized its Size Change skill. Shrinking its body length to about 1m, it slipped through the narrow gaps in the wind.
Fortunately, the adventurers were far too busy with the endless swarm to notice the Gryphon's sudden change in size. They were veterans, but they lacked the monstrous perception of Rei or Elena. For them, just holding the line was a full-time job.
The Queen Bee, however, saw it all. Her absolute density of Wind Blades had been bypassed. She had been poised to drive her poison stinger into a shredded corpse; that moment of shocked realization became her undoing.
"Gururururururuuu!"
With a triumphant roar, Seto returned to its full 2m size mid-air and swung its forepaw. Bolstered by the Gryphon's natural power and the effect of the Bracelet of Herculean Strength, the strike was far more than a 1m-long monster could endure.
The eagle claws pulverized the abdomen and the poison stinger. The force of the impact sent the Queen's body spinning, her head snapping downward. Seto's other paw followed up mercilessly. In the next instant, the Queen Bee's head was crushed as thoroughly as her abdomen.
"Gurururururuuu!"
Seto stood over the scattered remains of the Queen Bee corpse and let out a victory roar.
As if on cue, the Sword Bees still attacking the party froze. A second later, they scattered in all directions, flying away as fast as their wings could carry them.
The humans simply watched them go. The adventurers were far too exhausted to pursue, and Rei and Elena saw no reason to slaughter the stragglers. Rei's only interest had been the Queen Bee Magic Stone.
"Phew... I am exhausted!" one of the men yelled, sliding down to lean against the dungeon wall.
The rest of the party followed suit, resting or taking turns drinking from a canteen provided by the porter.
"Hey, get up! We need to harvest the magic stones and the proof of subjugation parts before we rest!"
"Ehh... Big Brother, give us a minute..."
"Stop whining! Big Bro Bosk always says to never let your guard down in the dungeon! Get to work!"
The leader barked his orders, then turned his gaze toward Rei's group.
"Um... thank you for saving us. About the... loot distribution..."
He spoke hesitantly. Rei exchanged a look with Elena and gave a small nod.
"Tell you what. You can keep all the Sword Bees. We only want the Queen Bee."
"What!? No, that's too much! We can't rip off the person who saved our lives. We're happy to hand over the Queen since you're the one who killed her, but for us to take everything else..."
"Don't worry about it. We're in this dungeon to find specific magic items and magic stones from rare monsters. We've already got Sword Bee stones from earlier, so we don't really need more. We're not exactly strapped for cash, either."
"But still..."
Rei decided that arguing further would be a waste of time. Privately, however, his estimation of the man had gone up. There were easily a hundred Sword Bee corpses lying around—likely more. Most adventurers would have tried to hoard every single one. To offer a fair split to a savior showed a commendable level of integrity.
Still, Rei had no desire to spend hours dismantling common bees, and he didn't feel like cluttering his Misty Ring with a hundred carcasses just to process them later. He had simply weighed the profit against the effort.
With a slight shrug, Rei stowed the intact parts of the Queen Bee corpse into his Misty Ring. Leaving the protesting leader behind, he walked away with Elena, Seto, and Iero.