Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 281

Chapter 281: Spiders have no legs
“Father!” Redsting called out for me. “We got a telepathic message—I must gather forces and fly out to help fight off another group of enemies before it reaches the border.”

And she turned to fly off, as if thinking that I wouldn’t want to participate or at least watch. I flew right after her, of course!

“I will inspire the soldiers and see what besides the mantises tries to kill you now, Redsting,” I said.

‘Fights like these are too low for Father. He should be fighting the most massive beasts of the forests,’ Redsting thought, loudly enough that I picked it (almost) by accident.

Aloud, though, she just squared her jaw.

“As you say, Father.”

We didn’t fly right to the battle site—as Redsting said, she had to gather her forces first. Most bees in this camp were regular Workers without the most basic telepathy or without it entirely; there were only a few telepathic Beemarines and Beehounds for communication.

So instead of sending direct messages to her reserve forces, Redsting had to fly to them herself and gather them personally.

Despite being such an ineffective method, it took very little time. Redsting only had to say, “There’s an attack!” and everybody gathered their hammers and spears, put whatever armor they had (dragonscale or metal armor if they were lucky, hide-and-bone armor if they were less lucky), and flew out in neat formations.

Watching this filled me with a lot of pride and satisfaction. My girls were so well-trained! So organized!

Soon, a squadron of five hundred soldiers, led by Redsting, flew out. Their battle spirit, which was already high, reached the sky itself when they saw I was going to lead them to battle.

We flew with a relaxed speed of ‘Flight I’—which, for most bees in the formation, was the fastest they could fly, especially with all their equipment. At this speed, it took us almost half an hour to actually reach the designation!

Thankfully, the warning was sent to us way ahead. When Redsting stopped suddenly, I didn’t even see the enemy at first.

Then they appeared below—spiders. At first, I didn’t recognize them with how well they blended with the reddish grass and brown shadows.

Each of them was only as big as a bee, crawling on the ground on their eight powerful arms. While their upper part looked almost human-like, their lower (or back) part, where instead of legs were just a massive abdomen-like tail and more arms, was plain disgusting.

At least the thick brown, black, and gray fur they were covered in hid some of their ugliness.

What was unusual for spiders, they traveled in a group of at least a couple hundred creatures. This way, they reminded me of migrating herds… Surely they were traveling in search of new prey—us.

I squinted, checking out their statuses, but couldn’t make out anything from this distance.

So I watched how Redsting organized the defenders to sit on nearby trees in rows. I kept close to her, but didn’t interfere with established procedures.

The spiders slowed down as their multitudes of eyes noticed us. This was when I could see their statuses at last.

〔Spider〕

〔Health〕: 21 / 21

〔Stamina〕: 13 / 16

〔Species〕: Tan Jumping Spider

And below that was another damned scroll of abilities.

Enhanced Agility V, Enhanced Defense III, Enhanced Intelligence III, Claws II, Venomous Bite, Increased Venom Potency III, Acid Bite, Increased Acid Potency XIII, Sharp Teeth IV, Improved Jumping V (MAX), Camouflage III, Precision Targeting, Danger-Averse Reflexes, Increased Fertility VI, Faster Youth Development IV, Cooperation, Pack Tactics, Advanced Pack Tactics…

‘Wait, *acid* bite? It looks like since everybody evolves venom immunity, someone decided to spec into acid. Ha-ha, joke on them—bees have about the same amount of protection against either. Too little, too little of it!’

The relatively high intelligence of these spiders was much worse.

“Prepare to be jumped at, Redsting!” I warned. “Those are jumping spiders!”

She nodded.

“Thank you, Father. We know their kind, Father. Ready for enemy jumps, soldiers! They can jump, but we can still fly!”

Redsting raised her spear and fell silent. The soldiers were silent, too.

Even the wind stopped blowing at this moment… The only sounds were those of the spiders’ footsteps. Or should I have called them arm-steps?

They slowed down a little, then they began spreading around in a semicircle, as if to surround our group.

These spiders really had impressive tactics for insects.

As I thought about this, the first of them jumped. Despite looking clumsy, their arms launched the spider into the air like a cannonball!

With only a fraction of a second of delay, the entire horde lunged into the air, seemingly to bury the entire front row under their bodies!

The bees flew into the air to meet them on equal standing, instead of being pinned below. Redsting and myself, who hanged farther back, were unaffected—but we flew up, too, anyway.

Better maneuverability.

“Stab them! Smash them!” I shouted. “They have weak defenses!”

Not that they needed my command. They evaded the enemy attacks with elegance—then, when the spiders were defenseless in the air or right after landing, struck them with joyful battlecries.

The spiders tried to cover the failed attacks of their comrades by timing so that some of them happened after a larger delay, but Redsting’s soldiers also had comrades to watch their backs.

There were also about twice as many of us as there were spiders.

Soon, the spiders’ first attack was crushed, with only a few unfortunate bees suffering wounds. But nobody was dead.

The acid from spiders’ bites sizzled on the armor of many more bees, though.

Meanwhile, the spiders were leaving in disarray, leaving behind several dozen of their wounded and dead.

“Yes! They will learn to search for food elsewhere. Soldiers, help the wounded and start gathering the corpses. The spiders’ meat is chewy, but it will be in a soup!”

I grinned.

“If every fight is as easy here as this one, I have nothing to worry about, Chief Redsting. Alright, you—”

I paused when I saw her freeze. Another telepathic message?

“There’s another enemy approaching a position in our zone of control!”