Erlea bobbed in the clouds as she stared out at the fading sun. It had been over an hour since she flew off, but she was no closer to finding any solution beyond what Tira and Gral suggested. She had to abandon her lover if she wanted to save the world; she knew it in her mind but her heart wanted to her lash out.
She wiped the dried tears from her eyes and looked down. The clouds inches underneath her, giving only flashes over the zones around her. At her feet was the water zone with the sandbar cutting it in half. From her vantage point, she could see there was only one obvious way across it and the others were not even close to it. Instead, they were crossing over along one of the zone's edges.
“Damn the System,” she muttered. Gral was right. Tira was right. But, it didn't matter if Miere accepted it or not, Erlea struggled with the idea of abandoning her lover. And, if she did, then she may be coming back to a shell of a Honningbie who could never find relief for the rest of her life.
Leaning to the side, she buzzed her wings and shot back down toward her friends. Her Barrier glowed as the sandbar came into focus.
Then she saw the monster. It was huge, a squid-like creature with flaming tentacles in the middle of the sandbar. It lashed out at Gral and Billie as it beat the great. Gouts of flames burst up whenever the tentacle struck the ground.
“Damn!” she swore as she plummeted down, dropping to accelerate until the world blurred around her. And then right before she hit the water's surface, she pulled up and skimmed along it. A spray of water shot out in a long tail as she looked for Miere among the battle.
The Honningbie was cowering well away from the fight, but a group of fish-like humanoids were sneaking up behind her. They had nets and spears as they worked their way along the sandy ground.
Erlea reconfigured her attack just as she reached the beach. Holding her hands out, she pumped her energy into a single blast.
The golden energy exploded out from her hands, spreading out into beam a hundred feet across. The air shook violently as the energy cut through the sandbar and blasted through the approaching fish men. It continued into the waters on the other side, flash boiling millions of gallons of water in an instant and leaving the bottom of the waters exposed to the sun.
Miere spun around and let out a scream, but there was nothing but coils of energy rising up from the destroyed sandbar. Nothing threatened her anymore.
Erlea slammed into the ground near her lover. The ground smoked from the power of her blast as she strode through it. Her eyes looked for threats, but only the massive tentacle beast further down the sands remained standing. With a sigh of relief, she focused on her lover.
Miere cringed and sobbed, spinning around as she looked around frantically before she rushed over to Erlea. Her body was hot as she hugged her tightly. “I'm sorry.”
Erlea hugged her back, feeling how delicate her lover was. She couldn't take the creatures sneaking up on her any more than the beast that challenged the others. It was like the rats and goblins, they were more than enough for Erlea then but she had evolved beyond.
In that moment, Erlea knew in her heart that she couldn't let Miere go any further than Monefuck. It would be crueler to take her along and have the Honningbie struggle to keep up than to be left with Gral where they could forge some sort of life… if that was possible.
Miere stiffened in Erlea's grip.
Erlea sighed and kissed her.
“I'm sorry,” whispered Miere. “You did your best, you really did.”
A pang of sadness ran through Erlea's senses. Miere knew what was about to happen. She forced a smile on her face and kissed her again. “I will never be sorry, my love. You were the light of my life and my joy. You brought me more than I could imagine. I just wish I could have given you more.”
“I could have stayed.”
“Why didn't you?”
“It would end the same.” Miere closed her eyes and her wings flapped slowly. “I didn't realize it then, I thought I could somehow push through, but I can't. I'm… scared of being scared, and tired. I'm holding you back and we both know it, don't we?”
Erlea nodded.
“Get me to the city. Let Gral have me. He will be there.”
“And when it ends?”
Miere's wings buzzed. “Come see me. Lead me to a new home if we can. If we can't, then do what you can.”
Erlea smiled and kissed her first love.
“I love you, my queen.”
With a grin, Erlea shook her head. “I'm not a swollen body squeezing eggs out of my cunts.”
Miere giggled. “Fine, my warrior bee. I love you with my heart and I will never stop.”
A boom shook the ground. Erlea looked up to see that the tentacled creature had somehow doubled its attacks and it was thrashing on the ground in bursts of flame and smoke. Gral was staggered as he parried blows while Billie attacked. Tira was not visible, but her illusions made her impossible to see in most fights.
Erlea started to power up an attack but the fight was too chaotic. After a moment, she remembered she had a secondary set of powers. Digging into her bag, she pulled out one of the glowing crystals and held it in front of her. Channeling her endurance into it, she activated the summoning stone.
A cobalt-blue horse appeared in front of her. It pawed the ground with powerful claws and dipped its head to reveal a saber-like horn on its brow. In her mind, she could feel it asking for orders.
“Kill the tentacle creature,” she said.
Energy sucked out of her as the horse spun on its heels and charged into battle. The sand beneath its feet turned bright blue as it raced into battle. The air rippled from magic before it plunged into the smoke.
Erlea swayed from the expenditure. Energy blasts were far easier to summon but they were also difficult to shoot into melee. She steeled herself and reconfirmed her attack for a zero-endurance RKA before striding forward to join the battle. Her Barrier shimmered around her but then cracked without enough power to keep it up.
She swore to herself and promised to spend more points on Endurance next time. She was consuming far more energy than before.
“Look out, Erlea!”
She spun around for Miere but her lover was pointing to the side. With a sinking sensation, she continued to her spin to see more of the fish-like creatures crawling out of the water. The lead ones had nets attached to some sort of harpoon.
Merrie lifted her hand and fired twice, vaporizing the scaly creatures, but she couldn't stop the second rank from firing their weapons at her. She tried to shoot the nets as they spiraled open as they approached. They were weighted along the rims.
“Damn the—”
They slammed into her chest and face, digging into her soft tits before the edges swung back around her wings and crushed them against her back. The weights finished wrapping around her body before then stuck tight to her body.
A wave of intense lust and helplessness crashed into her as she tried to move. Claustrophobia and desire fuzzed her mind and blurred her vision. Her killing spell fizzled as she fell back into the sand.
The last thing she saw was Miere flying straight up in fear, barely dodging a net.