Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire

Five days later, I was flying on Woe over the stretching scenery of yet another living mountain forest. Nine more black dragons, all carrying 200 bees in total, were flying behind Woe in triangular formation.

For these five days, forests, fields and occasional rivers, all incredibly clear from the height of a dragon's flight, were most of what I've seen. I never thought that there would be so many of them…

Human settlements and roads were just motes of dust in comparison.

Now our target should be near, and I hoped we weren't too late.

The flight that should've taken from three to four days took five because a weaker dragon from the flock grew tired and ill from all the flying. Woe, the leader of this flock (as it was the boldest, the oldest, and the most loved by bees), refused to fly until its friend got the rest it needed.

Admittedly, all dragons needed some rest, and I ordered us to take it. But as a result, the road took even longer, and the supplies we took for the flight were stretched thin.

We still had enough for a couple of days, but we will need to make camp, hunt and forage before we start searching. Although Dalmanrach gave us the location where to search for dodos, we first had to find it among these fields and forests.

I also had the location of Farini's friend, local noble Tamsha ma Hamatsk. Finding him was going to be an easier task, but somewhat off-course.

For now, I gave our formation the order to land in a clearing that looked suitable for a camp. Of course, what looked like a clearing from the sky was actually a dense forest when the dragons landed, but this just meant there was more prey for the hunters.

However…

As soon as dragons set their feet on the ground and stopped flapping their wings, we were immediately greeted… too warmly.

"Oh Father, there are so many enemies!.. What a fight this will be!" Malevolence gasped near me. This Lieutenant (again) Beemarine, was a leader of my ground forces on this operation. In a moment, her shock ended, and she shouted, "All squads—stop gaping at these bastards and prepare your weapons! Dismount! Breathers, create a perimeter!"

On my other side, my loyal bodyguard leader Destroyer raised her spear and hammer.

"Bodyguards, get ready!"

The Warriors and Commandos in my team cheered. There were a hundred of each, about half and half morphotyped and chaotically evolved.

And all around us were dozens, perhaps hundreds, of insects flying in the hot and humid air. The annoying life that was so thoroughly eradicated in the Bee Empire and its surroundings, and which even humans tried to get rid of (although with less success) was thriving there.

Countless gnats, flies, ants, and spiders were in the air and on the ground. At the same time, the trees looked either dying or ready to curl their leaves and box all insects who dare to approach on their heads. Not literally, but they sure looked much more bright and full of vigor than usual.

The descent of ten dragons had flattened a bunch of trees and the flapping of their wings had thrown the insects away, creating a sphere of free space around a hundred meters in radius.

I looked around us, scanning the insects with the system's sight.

They were, as I expected, all evolved. Much less so than near the Bee Empire, but still. They all had at least a couple of new genes, often more, and a lot of them focused on propagation and better metabolism.

I felt relieved for a moment when I realized that most of these insects weren't hostile to bees. By their attributes and talents, they were still mostly regular flies, gnats, and so on.

But then, there were also ants who already looked at us hungrily, and spiders, and other predators! Although they mostly hunted all the other insects, as soon as my group arrived, we became the prey, too.

"Prepare for a fight, girls!" I declared, raising my spear. "If this place is like that, flying elsewhere won't help us. We will clear this area and establish a beachhead! Then, we will continue our mission! For the Empire!"

"FOR THE EMPIRE!" my girls shouted, giving our dragons a jolt.

"Dragon riders, tell the dragons that they can eat anything they can catch! These things aren't poisonous," I declared, looking over the insects once more. "Yes! They all can be food!"

This caused even more cheers and some pleased growls when the dragon riders translated these thoughts to the dragons.

In the next second, the massive free-for-all continued.

The flying insects dispersed over the free space over our heads, and the ground insects began to investigate our presence.

After the bees dismounted, including myself, a group of Warriors with breathing-stuff (fire, acid or poison—take your pick) genes spread around the formation.

They were the first bastion of defense, releasing clouds of fire and gases that were extremely effective in keeping anything flying at bay!

At the same time, the dragons took off from the ground again, but didn't go far—they flew around, freely eating whatever they could catch. Although many insects have evolved to be more agile and dodge better, there were still enough of them.

And black dragons were fast and precise beasts! Their jaws snatched flies so neatly that almost no blood spilled outside their mouths.

But despite these two groups, there were still enough insects that in no time at all, a Beemarine had to smash an ant's head to prevent it from attacking one of the breathers from the side.

Then, a grasshopper–a creature with a disturbingly lean body and incredibly long legs–swooped from above, trying to bite off a Commando's head. Another Commando has skewered the insect with her spear.

I saw a Warrior Ant crawling from a cloud of smoke created by a fire-breather and pointed at her with my stinger… and shot it!