“Seems we’re safer than I thought.”
“They’re meant to destroy castle walls. If they had more than one, it would be one story, but there’s little they can accomplish with a single one.” Given that, Eickstedt wondered why that had gone to the trouble of bringing one all the way out here. That was when a new shadow appeared overhead. It landed right in the middle of their fort along with the snapping sound of breaking wood. The next second, a loud buzzing filled the air.
A few of the bandits realized what it was and began to scream. “B-bees! It’s beeeeees!”
Even Seghers and Eickstedt were frozen. The bees’ nest had been inside the barrel that had smashed into their fort, and now, the bees swarmed into a black mass that began to attack those around them in anger. In a single moment, the surroundings became a vision of hell.
“Ow! I-it hurts!”
“Somebody save me!”
They swung their blades but to no avail. Nor was their leather armor of any use against the bees that engulfed their whole bodies. They were stung in their faces, and a burning pain ran through their exposed arms and feet. A man’s legs had become their prey, and he collapsed on the ground with a scream. Some of his comrades approached to help, but that only led to them falling victims to the bees as well. They writhed around on the ground.
These bandits had no qualms about taking human life, but they now ran around in a panic, flinging aside their weapons as they dashed about. The walls they had built to protect them had become their cage.
“H-how could this…?”
Neither Seghers nor Eickstedt could think of a way to deal with the sudden change in the situation before them. Still in a daze, they noticed the swarm of bees approaching them. Their faces contorted in fear before they could even grasp their situation.
“There’s no point in leaving any. Let’s throw them all in,” directed Werner.
“What a shame,” responded Schünzel. “Honey is quite the delicacy.” He signaled to those manning the catapult. Their faces were stretched taut into grimaces as they put the buzzing barrel into place.
The soldiers operated the catapult as if they just wanted to get the bees away from them as soon as possible. With that, a new barrel was flung right into the center of the bandits’ fence. They felt like they could hear their screams all the way from where they stood, but that may have just been a trick of the wind in their ears. With the barrels full of beehives now far away, the soldiers let out a sigh of relief.
“I’ve never heard of launching beehives before,” muttered Holzdeppe in exaggeration.
“You haven’t?” Werner was surprised. In his old world, even corpses had been thrown over town walls to spread diseases. From his perspective, he wasn’t doing anything quite so strange. He quickly dismissed it, realizing it was probably not a method of choice in this world that so valued personal valor.
Still, the adventurers who had taken on the quest to put those beehives in barrels had the right to complain. Even seasoned mercenaries like Goecke’s men wore forced smiles. They surely sympathized with the adventurers.
It should be noted that even honeybees could sting. The Japanese honeybees of Werner’s old world were quite docile and rarely attacked humans, but even they would use their stingers to protect their hives. To Werner, the honeybees of this world seemed quite aggressive, but that may have been influenced by his bias that things of this world were invariably belligerent.
“I didn’t know that smoking hives could keep the bees docile.”
“I had only heard about it myself. It seems that the smoke doesn’t kill them.”
In exact terms, he had only seen it on a beehive extermination special on television during his past life. Even so, it was quite a dangerous task. But this world had potions and healing magic. There was no denying that he had an odd conviction that adventurers couldn’t be killed by beestings.
“If the entire hive is put in the barrel, the rest of the bees will return to be with the queen. All that’s left is to put the cover on when it grows dark.”
“I doubt that’s really all there is to it.”
Werner was relieved to see that things worked out nicely despite his vague recollection of the process. He turned back to watch the fence the bandits had built. Schünzel had simply tried to ignore it. Werner himself knew that his tactics weren’t very befitting of a noble, but he didn’t need another reminder of that, so he decided to change the subject.
“I didn’t realize preparing catapults required so much time.”
“I think the fact the soldiers are new to it is contributing to that.”
They couldn’t expect accuracy with a target the size of a human. It was also quite heavy and, depending on the size of the cart and the terrain, moving it could prove a difficult task. Preparing the projectiles also took time. Even when making allowances for the fact that this was the first time any of the soldiers had operated a catapult, Werner’s honest impression was that while it seemed cool, catapults were difficult to use.
While Werner quietly surmised that it would be better to use ones that were fixed in place, the bandits had opened the gate and begun to descend the hill.
“Prepare the crossbows.”
“Crossbows ready!”
“Shoot!”
There was no need for Werner’s orders, as Neurath was on the front line and had already ordered them to shoot at the fleeing bandits. The bolts formed a curtain, and Werner watched the bandits fall as he commanded torches to be prepared.
“Cleaning up after this is going to be tough.”
“I wonder if there will be any honey left.”
“If there is, you’re welcome to have it.”
They had no choice but to burn the bees. That would likely take more time than dealing with the bandits, but as long as Werner’s men were vigilant, they wouldn’t suffer any losses. Werner commanded the nearby soldiers to stay on high alert. Then, he decided that while waiting for the bees to tire themselves out, he would turn his thoughts to matters ahead. Rather than the bandits which were all but destroyed, Werner was more concerned about how to compensate the villages that had been their victims.
A few hours later, they entered the bandits’ base to eradicate the bees. They took a few survivors as their prisoners.