The hive pulsed like a diseased heart, and then the nightmare poured out. A roiling black-and-yellow tide of wings and stingers erupted into the air, and Brett’s stomach dropped. We can’t kill all of them. We can’t…

  “Oh crap! Josh! fallback!” The shout tore from his throat before he’d even thought it, and his hands were already blazing with heat. He hurled firebolts as fast as his fingers could form the spell, each shot bursting with a hiss and crackle. The swarm was so dense he barely needed to aim, when he missed one target, the bolt still seared into another. Every hit ended in a spray of ash and smoke, wasps dropping from the air with smouldering wings.

  To his right, Perberos loosed arrow after arrow, each one vanishing into the writhing mass of insects. Josh had fallen back a few paces… then, to Brett’s horror, surged forward again. He smashed into the swarm like a wall of steel, his shield crunching chitin and hurling bugs aside. His sword flashed, hacking into any wasp foolish enough to come within reach.

  Brett kept his firebolts hammering into the flanks, trying to keep the swarm off Josh’s back, but there were too many. For every wasp he burned from the sky, two more darted into the gap. The ground around Josh was littered with twitching, broken bodies, but more poured in relentlessly.

  A scream ripped through the chaos from Josh. Brett’s gut twisted as he saw a wasp the size of a dog clamped onto the back of Josh’s leg, its stinger buried deep into muscle. Another slammed into his back, driving its stinger into his armour before falling away with an arrow buried in its abdomen.

  Brett gritted his teeth, tracking the one on Josh’s leg, but his hands froze. His aim wasn’t steady enough, one bad shot and he’d hit Josh instead. So he kept firing into the left flank, spitting flames until his hands throbbed from the heat. Each shot took another wasp from the sky, but Josh’s health bar was still draining like water through a sieve.

  Only seconds had passed since Josh had charged the mass of wasps, and panic clawed into Brett’s stomach, genuine fear that his friend may die. He turned toward Caistina, ready to shout for her to save him but stopped when he saw her glance sharply toward Carcan. The elven healer stood firm, chanting, her staff levelled at Josh. The gem at its tip blazed green, spilling a misty light over him. Brett watched in relief as the health bar steadied, then began to rise.

  Josh straightened under the healing glow. Brett thought he heard Josh mumble something, followed by a defiant laugh, before his friend drove forward again, shield first, slamming into the swarm like a battering ram. His blade lashed out in deadly arcs, scattering wasps in sprays of ichor and wing fragments.

  Brett glanced over to Carcan, seeing that she was chanting to herself again. The strange, melodic syllables carried a steady rhythm, like the hum of a distant drumbeat, and for some reason it filled him with a renewed sense of focus. His grip on his staff tightened as confidence welled up in his chest. Turning back to the wasps, he forced himself to ignore the burn in his arms from repeated casting and pushed on.

  A large chunk of his mana was gone, he could feel the hollowness creeping into his limbs but he judged it might still be enough to finish off the last of the swarm. If more of the creatures appeared, however, they’d be in trouble.

  Several more firebolts later, the air reeked of what smelt like singed hair and ash. The once-chaotic swarm was now only a ragged few, buzzing erratically. Brett’s accuracy began to slip; fatigue made the world blur at the edges. He slowed his casting, drawing in longer breaths, taking time to aim before letting the next bolt fly. One more wasp fell with a sharp crackle of flame, tumbling into the growing pile of bodies littering the ground.

  Then, abruptly, the surviving wasps broke off from their attack on Josh. They buzzed a high-pitched retreat, darting back toward the hive. The sudden quiet was almost deafening. Brett’s eyes tracked the carnage, dozens of creatures lay scattered around Josh, their bodies a grotesque mix of arrow-pierced wings, charred carapaces, sword-gouged thoraxes or shield flattened bodies..

  “Whew… that was close.” The words slipped from Brett’s lips before he even realised he’d spoken. His relief was short-lived, Josh froze for a moment, swayed, then stumbled backwards, landing hard on his rear with a grunt.

  “Josh!” Brett sprinted over, heart hammering. He grabbed his friend’s shoulder, feeling the heat radiating off him. “Are you ok!?”

  Josh looked up, and to Brett’s surprise, started to laugh. “Haha, yeah, I’m fine. That was… a bit scary for a moment there! But Carcan really saved my bacon. Quick, help me up I need to go say thank you.”

  Brett tried to brace his legs and haul him to his feet, but Josh was too heavy to budge. His big friend chuckled again before pushing himself upright with a wince.

  “Have you seen how many we killed?” Josh grinned, his face still flushed from the fight.

  “No,” Brett said, still half-angry, half-relieved, “I was too busy worrying about you to stop and count them, you big idiot.”

  Josh clapped him on the shoulder. “Oh, don’t be grumpy. I was fine, it just stung a bit, that’s all. Check your system.”

  Brett blinked, then glanced at the shimmering blue notification hovering at the bottom of his vision.

  [Congratulations, your party has slain Level 1 Giant Wasp × 37!]

  His jaw dropped. “Holy crap… that was a lot of them.”

  The pair walked back over to the rest of their party, who had retreated to the bush line. Josh went straight over to Carcan to thank her for healing him, but she waved him off with a shy smile, insisting it was nothing.

  Caistina stood waiting for them, her staff held loosely in her hand, eyes flicking between the group. “Alright,” she said, smiling faintly. “That went well enough. No one’s half-dead, and no limbs are missing, that’s always a plus. But let’s talk about it. If you could do it again, what would you do differently?”

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  The group exchanged uncertain glances, each waiting for someone else to speak.

  Brett cleared his throat. “I guess… I’d like to have an area spell. Something to hit more than one monster at a time, or at least slow them down. I didn’t like seeing Josh surrounded like that. I’ll admit I panicked, especially when he cried out.”

  “Hey, I didn’t cry out,” Josh said with a frown. “That was a manly grunt.”

  The group laughed, but Caistina didn’t let the moment slip past. She turned to Brett. “You handled yourself well, but you need to control that panic. A mage who loses focus is just a target. Work on speed, yes, but not at the cost of precision. The right spell, well-timed, could’ve broken their swarm earlier.”

  Perberos, still chuckling, eventually added, “I could’ve done a better job scouting. Maybe we could’ve set up an ambush, though the terrain wasn’t great. We might’ve used the trees to keep them from outflanking Josh.”

  “Good observation,” Caistina said. “You stayed calm under pressure, but you were too reactive. An archer’s strength is shaping the fight before it starts. Don’t just look for enemies, look for ways to control their movement. Next time, I want you thinking about bottlenecks before the arrows start flying.”

  She shifted her gaze to Josh. “And you, your defence was solid, but you were overcommitted. You held your ground when you should have shifted your position to make it harder for them to surround you. Don’t give swarmers their advantage.”

  Josh gave a small nod, the edge of his grin fading.

  “All in all,” Caistina continued, “you were lucky. These were swarm-type monsters, individually weak, but dangerous together. You stayed on your feet, you supported each other, and you survived. But don’t mistake that for a flawless victory.”

  Her tone softened as she glanced at Carcan. “You pushed yourself hard with your healing, and it kept Josh fighting. That was good work. But you miscast twice, burned mana you couldn’t afford to lose. You need to slow your casting under pressure.”

  Carcan looked down. “I… I panicked.”

  “Which is normal,” Caistina said firmly, “but practice is what stops it from costing lives.”

  Brett checked his mana, grimacing. “I’ve got barely any left. I’ll need to meditate before we do anything else.”

  “I need to meditate too,” Carcan admitted. “Used about a third healing Josh… and wasted some with those miscasts.”

  Josh looked between them, brow raised. “Miscast? Didn’t know that was a thing.”

  Perberos leaned close to his sister and muttered, “You rush it, that’s why.” Then, to the group: “I’m fine. Just need to gather my arrows and repair them if I can.”

  Josh gave a small shrug. “I’m alright. Carcan’s magic did the trick, and the burning feeling’s almost gone.”

  “Good,” Caistina said, scanning the group. “Here’s the plan, magic users, meditate and refill your mana. Perberos, Josh, you’re on recovery duty. Gather the arrows, collect the poison sacs from the wasps, and check for anything worth salvaging. Now that the swarm’s holed up with the queen, they won’t come out unless you poke the nest. We’ll deal with it when everyone’s ready.”

  Without waiting for agreement, she crouched beside one of the dissolving dead wasps and picked up small, translucent sac that had been left behind. It filled with a cloudy green fluid that caught the light. “These,” she said, holding it up, “are poison sacs. Always pick them up after a fight. Alchemists pay well for fresh venom, it’s used in antidotes, paralytics, even certain mana potions.”

  Josh blinked. “Wait… people drink this stuff?”

  Perberos, busy wiping his sword clean, scowled. “Why would anyone want that in their body?”

  “Because,” Caistina replied, tone as even as if she were explaining how to tie a bootlace, “properly processed, it’s harmless. Some venoms actually boost a potion’s potency or act as magical catalysts. Raw, it’ll kill you. Refined, it can save a life… or end one, depending on who’s buying.” She picked out the sac with the same casual efficiency. “So, start collecting. Think of it as looting, just… messier.”

  Josh sighed, crouching reluctantly beside another corpse. “Messy’s one word for it,” he muttered, tugging at some left chitin over with a grimace.

  The group dispersed to their tasks, the forest settling into an uneasy quiet as each of them worked, the air still faintly carrying the sting of venom and the weight of Caistina’s matter-of-fact lesson.

  —--

  The party spent nearly an hour either meditating or picking through the loot left behind by the swarm. When Brett finally opened his eyes, he found the others already watching him, mid-conversation.

  “Welcome back, sleepyhead,” Josh said with a grin. “Wasn’t sure if you’d dozed off. We picked everything clean, poison sacs, some wings, carapace fragments, even got some coins. Not bad, all things considered.”

  “I managed to repair most of my arrows too,” Perberos added, holding one up for inspection. “Lost a few, but that’s to be expected. Hopefully after today I can invest in something better than this cheap fletching.”

  Brett smiled faintly. The elf was finally warming up to them, though his sister still kept mostly to herself. He cleared his throat. “So, shall we get on with clearing this area? Maybe we can move on to the ridge after.”

  The group nodded and rose from their spot behind the bushes.

  Perberos leaned in, outlining his plan. “I think it would be a good idea if Brett burns the hive from a distance. We stay back, pick off anything that comes out. When the queen shows herself, we hammer her with ranged fire, then Josh moves in and we flank.”

  “That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Brett said. “If I move up a bit, I can hit it from multiple angles. I’ll spread the shots to keep the fire moving.”

  Everyone nodded, agreeing with the plan.

  They pushed forward through the undergrowth until Brett had a clear line of sight. Josh took a step ahead, acting as a guard while Brett began channeling his magic. He reminded himself to slow down, no rushing, no sloppy casting. Now that he knew miscasting was a risk, he wasn’t about to waste precious mana.

  The hive loomed ahead, sprawling across several dead trees like a grotesque fishing net made of paper maché. Brett’s first firebolt struck the center, the dry surface igniting instantly. He followed it with four more, spaced wide to spread the flames.

  The furious buzzing began almost at once. The hive rocked violently, and pale, writhing blobs tumbled from within, larvae were dropping out of the hive around where the fires had taken hold, Brett realized. He sent two more firebolts into the inferno before stepping back, the flames now devouring the structure.

  The first wasp broke free with a piercing screech, only to be dropped mid-flight by Perberos’s arrow. More followed, each meeting the same fate, split by an arrow or engulfed by Brett’s fire.

  Then the hive shuddered, cracked, and split apart. The queen erupted from within, her massive body framed by the firelight. Her chitin gleamed obsidian-black, streaked with pulsing yellow veins. The elongated thorax and armoured plating made her look like something built for war, not nature. Her wings, membranous and broad, beat the air with a deep, ominous hum, though flames still licked at their edges. Jagged mandibles flexed, catching the light, and a barbed stinger dripped a corrosive toxin that hissed when it struck the burning ground.

  Brett’s stomach tightened, how had something that size stayed hidden?

  The queen landed heavily, the impact sending tremors through the scorched earth. The queen looked at the party, shrieking in their direction and surged forward, forgoing her wings to barrel toward them with terrifying speed.

  The party sprang into action.

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