## Chapter 316 – The Great Bee Uprising
“Definitely… I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Cloudy said, stroking her chin as she surveyed the jungle area.
Her eyes held considerable interest, her personality, which was always drawn to new and unseen things, clearly piqued by the sight.
“Katt. Let’s go in.”
Of course, we would go in.
Winia had said it was okay too.
We came to the jungle to investigate the truth about the killer hornets. Honestly, I was sick of jungles by now, but with Alaune gone, there didn’t seem to be much to fear.
—Buzzz! Buzzzzz!
“Gyaaaaaaaak!!!”
No, judging by the scream coming from beside me, there was definitely reason to be afraid.
—Buzzzzzzz!!!
Even before arriving at the jungle, we had witnessed giant hornets attacking several times along the long, outstretched road.
They were a different size from the Abyss Poison Bugs I had seen before.
These hornets, almost as big as large dogs, were injecting poison needles into the adventurers heading for the jungle, then tearing them to pieces with four or five of them clinging on, carrying the fragments away.
The scene was so shocking that we could only gape at the insane spectacle. The information that killer hornets were rampant and killing people turned out to be true.
No wonder the merchants were racking their brains.
Well, we were fine, but some seemingly inexperienced young adventurers were being killed in real-time.
Even low-level monsters like goblins cautiously crawled out because of the blood splattering everywhere, but they too were caught by the hornets and instantly torn into pieces, becoming green meat dumplings.
Like chlorella.
—Buzzz! Buzzzzz!!
The aerial rights had already been seized.
There were no more birds in the sky. The only things flying around were giant killer hornets.
Such a scene was prevalent from the road to the front yard of the jungle where we were now.
This seemed like a pretty serious problem.
If those bastards’ numbers exploded, formed an army, and attacked a city, it wouldn’t be so fun.
“Kkeuhaaaak!!”
Hearing another scream, I saw three adventurers engaged in a bloody battle with a swarm of hornets over there.
“You son of a bitch!”
“Behind you! Watch your back!”
The adventurers were smashing the heads of the attacking hornets with axes, but their armor was weak, so they were stabbed in the back with poison needles and collapsed, screaming as if the sky had shattered.
“Kuhuk!”
The poison was quite effective.
With that final scream, the man who had been stabbed in the back collapsed.
“Damn it!”
—Thwack!
The other two adventurers, consumed by rage, smashed the hornet that had injected the poison needle. It was a bit late, but still a quick response.
The hornets themselves weren’t that strong, but the tricky part was that they flew around with their comrades and attacked freely. It would be difficult for rookies to deal with.
—Buzzzzzzz!!!
In the end, the battle ended with three hornets and one adventurer dead. The two surviving hornets fled towards the jungle.
“Damn it all!”
Fortunately, they had repelled the hornets, so the corpse wasn’t taken by them.
No, rather, that was unfortunate.
The two survivors cut off the hornets’ heads and simultaneously rummaged through the dead adventurer’s belongings. Then, they cursed and ran away.
Using their companion’s death was exactly what adventurers were, and they thoroughly displayed that despicable nature.
It was truly a scene that showed the turbidity of the human world in a nutshell.
The most surprising thing was that Cloudy seemed to find it very amusing. She covered her mouth with her hand and chuckled, patting my shoulder.
…She really was a woman with unique sensibilities.
More than that, those guys would probably have a hard time making a living as adventurers in the city after their companion died.
As I was worrying about that, the guy who I thought was dead suddenly jumped up.
“What the fuck?”
Was the hornet’s sting not a deadly poison, but simply a paralyzing needle? It was a real mess. He realized that his belongings had been stolen and shouted loudly, looking around.
But his companions-turned-thieves had long since disappeared.
Giving up on everything, he trudged along, only to encounter more hornets that had returned, and he fled in a panic. The hornets chased after him relentlessly.
“Hehehe.”
It was such a typical adventurer skit that even I couldn’t help but laugh like Cloudy. Winia also chuckled, calling them stupid bastards.
The killer hornets had brought great laughter to our family.
“Hehehe. You’re such an idiot, Blackie. Aren’t you?”
“Hehehe. They’re real dumbasses.”
“Blackie used to be like that back in the day.”
“Damn it.”
Thinking about it, Winia was just a bad-tempered woman who enjoyed seeing weak people suffer.
That’s why I like her.
“Still, they’re really gross. Blackie’s dick is cute, but bugs are just gross.”
“Why are you bringing up my dick all of a sudden?”
“Just because.”
Winia, who had been showing a lot of obsession with that part of me lately, playfully tapped my lower body. Cloudy chimed in.
“Hehehe, Katt isn’t cute, he’s more like majestic. Isn’t that great?”
“I guess so. But he just looks cute to me.”
If you keep saying things like that, I’m going to get an erection.
Cloudy looked around again and said.
“Isn’t it interesting? Such big bees. Even Sand Hornets weren’t that big.”
“What are Sand Hornets?”
“Bees that live in the desert. They often flew in to attack oasis villages. They were quite delicious, so I remember grilling them every time I caught them.”
“Such grotesque food.”
It seemed that the oasis villages in the desert where Cloudy lived were like the neighborhood pushovers.
Anyway, we entered the jungle following her words. As soon as we entered, familiar bushes and vines greeted me, but I wasn’t afraid anymore.
Alaune Slayer, that is, Archfiend Kim Katt, was no longer afraid of the jungle.
—Buzzz! Buzzz!
No sooner had I thought that than the killer hornets clinging to the tree in front of us warned us with intense wing flapping.
It was as if the jungle itself had become the hornets’ home, with them clinging to everything here and there.
—Swish.
Of course, not only hornets but also other adventurers were entering the jungle in groups.
Roughly twenty people. There were about six or seven parties.
With people rushing in as a group, even the killer hornets didn’t dare to attack rashly. Anyway, the adventurer parties seemed to be planning to go on different routes, splitting up as soon as they entered and heading into the depths of the jungle.
“Katt. Let’s go deeper. There are a lot of interesting plants.”
“Alright. Let’s go then.”
We also started moving forward, avoiding the other adventurers.
As people moved in groups, the hornets clinging to the trees flew up into the sky. Perhaps they were going to alert their nest of the humans’ intrusion.
“It’s so humid. And there are so many bugs. It would suck to get bitten by a mosquito on my chest.”
As we walked, Winia, who was exposing her upper chest, sighed.
Come to think of it, Winia had been sticking to a fashion of wearing robes that exposed her upper chest, a wide-brimmed hat, and a cape lately.
It would certainly be difficult to wear such clothes in the jungle.
“Well, then you should have worn something else.”
“What?”
At those words, Winia glared at me.
“Blackie, do you know why I only wear these kinds of clothes these days?”
…Hmm?
Confidence in her chest?
Or because they’re too big and stuffy?
“It’s because Blackie likes them. Pay some attention, okay?”
That was shocking!
“Th, that can’t be! I’m sorry! I’ll chase away all the mosquitoes!”
“Hehehe. Yeah, do that.”
I immediately drew my sword and slashed at the air, blowing away the flying bugs. Winia, smiling mischievously, egged me on to do more, so I performed a sword dance on the spot.
“Hmm… Should I change my clothes too?”
As I was doing that, Cloudy said, looking at her attire.
Cloudy was wearing tight-fitting leather clothes of a black color that covered her entire body, with a jacket on top. She had attached leather armor to parts of her body to enhance her defense, and wore a cape over it.
It was the perfect outfit for her image and fighting style.
“Katt. Should I change into that bikini armor we saw last time?”
“Hehehe. There’s no need for that, Cloudy. You look beautiful in anything.”
“Oh my.”
It was a kind thing to say, but could I really make her wear something like that?
No, but really, if you walk around the streets, you can see some women wearing quite provocative outfits. Some of them were even female warriors walking around with just bikini armor and a cape.
Of course, there were also cases of men walking around in just their underwear, like Kim Katt in the arena or the paladins of the Holy Light Cross Society.
It was an incomprehensible culture along with martial artists.
I think wearing such unique clothes is probably a way of showing off one’s skills. Even in Earth’s history, ancient warriors showed off by painting their bodies and wearing feathered clothes.
—Rustle.
In that way, I moved while protecting Winia and looking around.
—Twitch, twitch.
Cloudy’s ears twitched from time to time, catching various sounds.
But in fact, Cloudy was good at catching sounds in wide spaces, but she didn’t seem to be able to actively use her hearing in such a dense forest.
Perhaps because her hearing was trained in the desert, her stats were slightly lower in terrain full of greenery.
“Ah, Blackie, that way.”
Rather, Winia was better at finding the direction.
She could roughly estimate where to go just by looking at the terrain. So, in the end, it turned out that we were moving according to Winia’s command.
Strangely, the monsters that had been overflowing in the jungle like last time were hardly visible. Even the cries that had been heard from all directions had long been replaced by the sound of hornets’ wings.
The sky also only showed hornets flying around.
Had the hornets ruined the jungle ecosystem?
If so, the hornets that had completely devoured the jungle might overflow and threaten not only the outer terrain but also the city.
Of course, this problem hadn’t yet come to the fore, so the atmosphere was more about gradual relief rather than complete extermination.
Just by looking at it, I had a feeling that if some time passed and the mages did some research, a jungle subjugation force would be organized.
It smelled like things would go to hell if it was too late.
—Crunch.
After walking for a long time, we happened to encounter other adventurers.
There were six of them in total… It wasn’t yet determined that they were robbers. Hoping that there wouldn’t be a conflict, I put my hand on the hilt of my sword and greeted them, and they also accepted the greeting and disappeared as if running away.
As expected, having a mage in the party made them immune to robbery.
—Buzzzzzzz!!!
Instead, hornets soon flew in.
We silently prepared for battle.
Cloudy took a stance and Winia chanted a spell.
—Fire Bolt.
The fireballs that shot out from the end of her staff instantly stretched out and struck the bodies of the killer hornets that were adorning the sky.
—Crack!
—Boom!
With a direct hit, a small explosion occurred, and the hornets with their insides burned fell powerlessly to the ground. There were six of them. Truly a mage’s accuracy and power.
In that short moment, she had finished chanting, accurately captured the target, fired multiple Fire Bolts, and hit them all.
“Practical Sword Technique!!!”
What followed was the work of me and Cloudy.
Although they boasted a size comparable to large dogs, they couldn’t withstand my swordsmanship.
I immediately used the stance of Mount Tai Pressing Down and vertically struck down with my sword, and the hornet caught in it was cut in half.
“Oh… Look at this.”
Admiration seeped through my fingertips.
This was the first time I had used it since changing my sword, but the new claymore felt as if I had been using it since I was a child.
Above all, the increased length and weight added even more power to my swordsmanship.
I didn’t know I could cut so cleanly.
—Swoosh!
I immediately twisted my wrist and performed a diagonal upward slash, cutting down the hornet that was aiming for the side.
The attack went in very cleanly compared to the force I put in. The feel was very good. Feeling the worth of changing my sword, I cut down the flying hornets.
