Hornet Invasion

"Get everyone into the church!" You revert your polymorph, immediately launching yourself into the air to see a cloud of hornets approaching the town. Shit. I really need an AoE spell! You regret not grabbing your sword as you send off Light bolts into the fray. Noting a hornet coming straight for you, you grab its black chitinous lance, pushing yourself against it to rip the weapon from its grip. The hornet goes flying off as you strain your shoulder, but the lance is yours, ready to use against the swarm.

You swoop into the invaders, striking thrice as many as those that hit you, not including the recompense you shoot at the latter. With each hit you deal, a hornet falls, but an innumerable amount replace the fallen. You swoop and swerve, turning back into town and deciding to reroute your efforts on ensuring people can get to safety. You sweep through the main thoroughfare, spotting a handful of fighters repelling the invasion.

"Keep moving!" Camilla carves through another hornet with the queen's sword, bisecting it. "Everyone into the church!" She leads Eve and Kara into the center of town, hugging the buildings to prevent excess blind spots. She continues leading the pair and a handful of others to the church, knowing Gilford will be able to protect Kara while she goes and saves more civilians.

Kara's carrying an armful of weapons wrapped in a fur for transportation, for whomever in the church can fight. She keeps herself between her girlfriend of a day and the goblin that she'd just started to befriend. It's heart-racing, but she knows Cammy will keep her safe.

Eve's nervous. Not only did she just recently rediscover the fact that humans will probably hate her, but she's out here in only a fur dress with nothing to conceal her identity in a human town. She catches a glimpse of her chief as she looses another arrow guided by her magic, piercing through two hornets in a line before thunking into a third, with only the last one still flying. This is for the chief...

Garth limps to the church as he looses another crossbow bolt into the fray. "Aye, Gilford! Jus' like ol' times, eh?"

The priest raises a radiant shield against an insectoid ****. "That's not a good thing, Garth!" A handful of people run past the pair and into the stone walls of the church. "Everyone into the church!"

Garth finishes reloading his large crossbow and fires again. "'ow many ya think ther are?"

"Too many to fight off on our own..." Gilford thinks to the 'nephilim' that had approached him twice, considering whether or not it might be worth asking for his help. "Let's hope Camilla and the others can make their way here, soon."

"We don' 'ave the manpo'er for this, even if the entire town took up arms!" A black-feathered blur rushes by. "Wha' the blazes was tha'?"

Gilford gulps. "Maybe our only hope of getting out of this..."

You land, taking a breath. "There's so many..." Out of the corner of your eye, you spot two hornets lifting people off the ground. "No you don't!" You launch a Light bolt, killing one immediately, and then launch yourself toward the second, stabbing it swiftly. You narrowly grab the damsel in distress before she hits the ground, letting her down a bit more softly nearby. "Get to the church!" You fly off, almost immediately stabbing into another hornet.

"Gilford! We brought reinforcements!" Camilla and the others rush to Gilford's side. "This is Eve, she's here to help."

Gilford's gaze momentarily flicks to the goblin as he furrows his brow, but he shakes his head, instead continuing the process he began of shielding the entrance from invaders. "If she doesn't mean harm, Ramel's light won't harm her in turn."

"We also brought weapons!" Kara groans, rushing past the group as quickly as she can to bring her load inside.

Camilla starts trotting away. "I'm going to rescue as many people as I can!"

"I'll give cover!" Eve rushes after her, pulling an arrow from a nearby corpse and firing it just as quickly.

"Was tha' a goblin?"

"Yes, Garth. I imagine she's here with one of our other new 'friends'. What is this world coming to, where every monster thinks they can be a hero?"

"Get to the church!" You set down another civilian after rescuing them from the clutches of a hornet. You've had varying reactions from the ones you've saved, from outright terrified to hesitantly thankful. This one starts screaming and running for their life, which you've unfortunately gotten used to. "Par for the course..." You take a breath before launching yourself into the air again. You quickly spot another captive flailing against their kidnapper. Flying over to the hornet, you quickly dispatch of it with a Light bolt before swooping down to catch the falling individual. "Don't worry, I'm gonna set you down gently." The man screams as you descend, setting him on the ground without touching the ground yourself. As you ascend again, a lucky hornet hits you from behind, knocking you to the ground.

You roll over, using your wings to push yourself up to meet the hornet assaulting you. You narrowly deflect its lance before kicking the insect back, disarming it. Your exhaustion begins kicking in, as before you can finish it off, the hornet tackles you back to the ground, its antenna quivering. You push it off, but as you stand, it seems more hornets are zeroing in on your position, even abandoning their weapons and shields to fly faster. You launch yourself into the air and the hornets begin tailing you, gathering a thicker and thicker swarm behind you as you fly around. Well, if it draws them away from the people...

The swarm doesn't seem to be getting any thinner as Camilla and Eve escort another group of people to the church. "The North Path is evacuated. How are things here?"

Sweat drips down the side of Gilford's face. "Better than expected, but I can't spare a moment to heal any of the injured."

"Leave it to me. I've learned a few things since the last time we fought together. Eve," the captain glances at the empty quiver on the goblin's back.

"Don't worry about me. I'll keep escorting people back here." The black-haired blur dashes off.

The brunette rushes inside the crowded building, quickly finding Kara bandaging a man's leg. "Kara, status!"

The blond beams as she spots her girlfriend approaching. "Nothing life-threatening. Mostly fractures, I think, since a lot of these people were nearly captured. Apparently your boyfriend is quite the rescuer."

Camilla feels an odd twinge in her pants. "Is now really the time for that?" She places her hands over the bandaged area of the man between them, focusing on her faltering healing magic. A faint, occasionally flickering glow emanates from them as she pours her energy into the spell.

"It's always time to tease you, Cammy." She leans over and pecks her girlfriend on the lips. "And it seems like it's helping more than anything."

Returning her briefly dazed gaze to her healing hands, the glow is brighter, more consistent. Camilla shares a look with Kara, softly smiling.

"You really don't give up, do you?" You shake off another bug that's attempted to grapple you to the ground as you fly around Riverbend. The hornets seem to be more interested in you than the citizens right now, and you have to peel off much less often to rescue a straggling human from their waspy captor. However, you now have a several-hundred-strong swarm focusing all their attention on you as you try your best to swerve past those that are joining that swarm from the front.

You head down the South Path, where you think the largest number of loose hornets remain. The first priority is to get people away from the fight. Or in this case, the fight away from the people. You don't get far before another handful of hornets try to tackle you into the mob. You dive toward the ground and out of their way, only to have them swerve to join the growing swarm. You're actually not going as fast as you could, since Pure Land is boosting your speed and stamina, but having them seem capable of catching you seems to keep the swarm together.

With her borrowed bow slung against her back, Eve slinks along the southern part of town. She ducks around a corner as a hornet flies by, taking the long way around the building as she rushes to find more people. There don't seem to be many humans left, but it's still better to check where she can, while she can. She's already feeling a heat in her loins as she reaches the end of the road. She stops to take a breath, her mind drifting to the thought of her chief pinning her to the ground and - she shakes her head. Now isn't the time. Chief is counting on her.

She slaps her own face to return her focus to the task at hand. She gazes upwards, spotting her chief leading a bunch of the hornets around in the sky above Riverbend. She pulls out her bow and attempts to ready an arrow, but remembers she's run out. She curses herself, wishing she had... "...another arrow..." She flexes her fingers. With another look toward the rapidly moving swarm, Eve draws her bow, as if she had nocked an arrow. "...invisible arrow..." The goblin feels a burst of air around her, concentrated on her bow. She releases the drawstring, and moments later, one of the hornets falls short, and seemingly dead, to the ground.

You've seemingly gathered as many hornets as you can into this massive swarm. Confident in that, you turn to begin leading them away from town, only to be surprised when a particularly speedy hornet latches onto your wing. It wraps all of its legs around, quickly causing you to descend. You try to shake it off, but the damage is done, as you've slowed enough for another hornet to grab onto your other wing, then one grabs your leg. Pretty soon, you're bombarded with hornets. Their own wings keep you aloft, but more and more hornets add into the aerial dogpile, enough where you can't even see a foot in front of your face.

You're not being crushed, or bitten. They just seem to be holding you in place as they buzz. You keep trying to push them off, but any not latched onto you are firmly latched onto each other.

Camilla wipes her brow. Healing people is exhausting... She leans back, unsure if she can continue.

"Are you doing okay?" Kara sets a hand on the brunette's shoulder. "You can take a break if you want."

"No, I..." the captain sighs, "you're right. I don't think I'm good enough at this to keep going." She stands. "I'm going to head back out." It's weird, almost like a different kind of exhaustion from using my mana... "I should still be able to help with fighting off the remaining hornets."

Kara grabs her girlfriend's hand. "No you aren't! You're already exhausted and shouldn't push yourself!"

Camilla tightens the shield on her arm. "Kara, I have to do something. We've got untrained men out there with nothing but swords and spears. Garth and Gilford will only be able to help them so much." She stares Kara in the eye. "I'll be fine. I promise." With a chaste kiss, she runs off, drawing her sword as she dashes through the magical barrier Gilford had manifested.

The heat is getting to you. They just keep buzzing and buzzing, and it's even getting harder to breathe. It also smells...odd. It's a weird thing to focus on when you're getting smothered by people-sized hornets, but you can't help but notice as the buzzing seems to become more and more intense. You don't know how long you spend struggling, but the heat and lack of air begins getting to you.

This can't be it, right? There's nothing I can do. I already used Oversight today, I don't think Cap has a ranged attack, Eve can't have many arrows left... You shake your head. I have to have something I can do, right? Too many hornets for elemental bolts to take care of in any reasonable manner. Recompense is the same, but even worse since they're not attacking me. Polymorph? It wouldn't really do me much good. I need to do something, though! I can't be beaten by a bunch of overgrown bugs! You bang your fist against one of the hornets, cracking its exoskeleton. I won't be beaten by these grubs!

You scream in frustration, slowly sending dark bolts to whittle down the swarm. As you do, you feel the swarm tighten around you. You feel your bones cracking under the pressure as you gradually eliminate hornets. "Agh!" You flail about, feeling a burst of air from behind you. You take a sweet, fresh breath, feeling much more energized all of a sudden.

Eve stops, her lewd thoughts distracting her. She has to tear her free hand away from her nethers to keep focus on the massive sphere of hornets in front of her. She had witnessed the swarm succeed in catching her chief, and in between thoughts of his dick inside her, worried about him. She didn't know how much mana she had left, but she lined up another invisible arrow anyway, further enhancing it with her elemental arrow spell. Air surged around her, sending her braided hair and fur dress into a flurry.

I need to do this for Chief...'s cock... She relaxes a bit as her mind goes into fantasy, accidentally launching her arrow prematurely. A hole carves itself through the edge of the sphere as she curses herself. She doesn't even catch a glimpse of her chief as she descends into a poorly-timed masturbation session.

Camilla races toward the giant swarm on the south side of town, wondering how she could even help without her bow. Her question would soon be answered, as the sphere starts bulging, sending hornets flying (and not with their wings) in various directions. As she approaches the swarm, the entire thing seems to burst, a strange, four-legged black beast landing a few dozen feet away. The beast's tail has a curved blade that carves through the nearby hornets. It stands, much like a lithe bear would, and crushes one of the hornets that tries to tackle it from the front.

The bugs keep going after it though, grappling it from every direction. The nearby hornets seem to be avoiding Camilla, and purposefully targeting the beast. Camilla doesn't know what to make of the situation, stopping and standing there for a moment before getting her bearings. That...can't be Dusk, can it?

You mindlessly rampage through the street, ripping hornets limb from limb with your bare hands. Many of them have retrieved their lances and occasionally stab you, but the wounds are superficial, at best. Even more are still intent on grappling you into another dogpile, but you're quicker now, able to rip them off of you just as fast as they attach themselves. Each time you tear one away from you, you toss it into another hard enough that you can hear their skeletons crack from the impact. At one point you stop throwing them around and just grab one and start swinging it as a weapon. It doesn't last long, but it feels good to do so.

You're not sure how long you go on for, but between swinging around a mutilated hornet and using dark bolts, you eventually find yourself without any more hornets to kill. Taking deep breaths, you spot a handful of hornets flying off, but you're too exhausted to go after them, instead opting to take a nice...long...nap...in the dirt...