Reyline nocked the metal string onto the bow and the black spiral rune appeared in his right eye.
*CHI*
The metal string turned into a ray of golden light and was released from the bow.
*Dang*
The two Cloud Bees were charging toward Reyline, trying to attack him with the stingers. The metal string penetrated one of the bees’ abdomen easily.
For some reason, the bees’ force shields failed to stop Reyline’s strike.
The other bee increased its speed and shot two stingers toward Reyline.
*CHI*
Another golden metal string penetrated the bee’s body.
*BAM*
The two Cloud Bees fell onto the deck, still struggling.
Reyline grunted. He held his right shoulder tight as his face turned pale. If he had not leaned to the left after seeing the stingers flying to him, his chest would’ve been penetrated just like the two dead wizards.
Several thin layers of white frost were expanding from his wound but Reyline stopped them right away with blue electric pulses.
"Are you alright?!" Angele ran to Reyline quickly.
Reyline’s cousin, Robin, created a white flame over her palm and tried to apply it to the wound.
*CHI*
The flame did nothing to it at all. Worse thing was, the white frost was beginning to climb up her hand.
"So that’s the Cloud Bee’s poison? Let me help him!" An old man with goatee stepped forward. He created some light green smoke by rubbing his hands and applied it onto Reyline’s shoulder.
*CHI*
It sounded like meat being grilled.
Reyline’s face turned pale, showing how it must be a painful experience. Angele could see the sweat dripping down his chin.
The expanding white frost was finally under control.
Angele tapped on the amulet with his left hand.
The barriers around the three airships were activated again within seconds.
He turned around and walked to the Cloud Bees that had already stopped moving. Several wizards had already gathered around the bees and started observing. No one was smiling. It seemed that they encountered some trouble.
Hikari stood up as she saw Angele walking toward them.
"Not good," She spoke in a deep tone, "I checked the bees’ bodies with several other wizards. Their mentality and body are very strong. Their energy barriers are stronger than the ones used by the average wizards. I think we can all agree that they’re strong fighters. After all, they just took out two of our members."
"Their only weakness is the intelligence and the way they initiate the attack," a female wizard added.
"Based on the result of the fight, our team can handle a maximum number of 20 Cloud Bees. However, there will be at least 50 Cloud Bees in their patrol team…"
"We need to figure out a way to hide our airships from them." Angele shook his head.
"That’s impossible. They will detect us easily with their compound eyes." Another female wizard joined the conversation. It was Coach, who was part of Perry’s crew. She was initially interested in Angele before the competition, but her interest in him was replaced by fear after the fight.
"The best way to fight them is by using close combat skills but it’ll be hard for us to dodge their stingers." Baron walked to Angele. "Reyline said that the Cloud Bees’ barriers were only strong against ranged attacks."
"How’s his condition?"
"Not a big problem. The wizard named Daren is good at treating wounds like that. The poison has stopped spreading after the dead muscle tissues were cleaned out," Baron answered in a low voice. "However, Daren said that he did not bring enough materials to the airship. He can only cure two more wounded wizards."
Angele nodded and gritted his teeth.
"When will he recover from the injury?"
"At least 15 days. The wound is fine, but the stinger damaged his nervous system. It’ll take some time."
"That’s worse than I expected…" Angele rubbed his temples. "I want to increase the airships’ speed since the barriers will be able to protect us for some time. We must change our plan. I don’t want to spend the energy on the offensive matrix. We need to hurry, or else we’ll just die to the Cloud Bees…"
"Master Angele! Come here, please! Hurry!" A voice came from behind.
Angele turned around quickly and saw a young male wizard with a pyramid-shaped red crystal in hand. He was staring at the crystal with a serious expression on his face.
"What happened?!" Angele walked to the wizard and looked at the crystal.
Images were shifting on the surface of the crystal.
A large swarm of Cloud Bees was flying over the sea of trees. They were rushing to a certain direction at full speed.
"What the hell?" Angele was surprised. There were more than 100 Cloud Bees in the group. His heart almost stopped for a second.
"They’re coming for us. At this speed, we will encounter them by tomorrow afternoon. It’s the Cloud Bee’s hunting team and there are 128 of them!" the male wizard reported in a shaky tone.
*HA*
The wizards heard his words and gasped.
Angele pursed his lips and glanced around. There were 28 wizards on the deck but only several of them were good at fighting, and they could probably kill several Cloud Bees by themselves.
20 Cloud Bees would be fine, but it was impossible for them to win the fight against 128 of them.
Angele could kill around four Cloud Bees without getting hurt, but he needed to fully activate the signet and use petrification. If the Cloud Bees surrounded him and shot the stingers at the same time, his metal shield would have a hard time blocking all the attacks.
A Cloud Bee had a Stamina over 8 and Strength over 11. Their stingers were hard to dodge at the close distance and they had high resistance against ranged attacks. In addition to that, their high mentality increased their defense against the damage spells.
There were too many things to consider when fighting with the bees. Angele doubted that he could survive a rain of the bee stingers.
Cloud Bees were like a group of formal wizards that focused on one single damage spell. They were the master of that spell so the damage the spell could do was horrifying.
Angele considered the possibility of using the energy bombs, but the damage of the explosion would be greatly reduced by the Cloud Bees’ talent skills and energy shields. It would just be a waste of resources and energy.
"Master Angele! Another group of Cloud Bees is coming for us!" someone shouted.
"A group?! How many of them can you see?" Angele’s skull numbed.
"About…32…" The wizard replied in a shaky one.
"32?!" Two Cloud Bees had already killed two wizards and injured a team captain. Angele needed more time to figure out a viable plan.
The altitude of the airships was around 1,000 meters. Although it was possible for them to jump off the airship and land on the ground safely, there were countless mutated beasts in the mountains. Rumors had said that those beasts could kill a rank 2 wizard.
Angele hesitated, then he looked at Baron, Hikari, and the man in a black hood. They were already preparing for the incoming attack.
"Baron, Hikari, and you, stay with me. The rest of you, listen to me. Go to the railings and start putting up energy barriers once the defensive matrix is broken!" Angele walked to the main mast and shouted.
"We’re the only people that can actually kill the Cloud Bees, I think." He turned around and looked at the three. "Go help the wizards by the railings if they’re in trouble."
"There’s only so much I can do." The man in black hood pursed his lips.
"We live together, or we die together. The Cloud Bees will destroy the airships, but you can test your luck in the mountains if you want to." Angele shrugged.
"How long till they get here?" he asked the wizard who had detected the bees.
"12 minutes, master!" the man responded right away. "I have a question, master. Is our defensive matrix…still good?"
Angele shook his head slightly and looked at him. "The matrix can only protect for about one hour."
"Alright, get ready everyone!" He pointed at Reyline who was still lying on the floor. "Carry him down to the cabin first."
Wizards were selfish, but they were smart. No one questioned Angele’s decision. They quickly finished the tasks allotted to them and moved to their designated positions on the deck.
Only four people were still standing by the main mast.
Hikari returned to her room and carried a huge black pouch to the deck.
"That’s all the summoning potions I have. We need to summon them all right away."
"It won’t work. Elementals are much weaker than Cloud Bees. They’ll perish in the stingers within seconds." Angele shook his head.
He picked Reyline’s silver longbow from the floor and pulled the bowstring slightly.
‘An electric enchanted longbow. The electric arrows will do around 30 degrees of damage. I can use it shoot regular arrows, too.’ Angele checked the bow. He saw Baron putting on a pair of white gloves.
If Angele could fully activate the illusion signet, he could probably deal with more than ten Cloud Bees, but he decided not to take the chance until the last second. There were talented wizards on the airship and some of them could probably recognize Angele’s signet.
He needed to use everything else he knew to fight for his life.
Angele took a deep breath. He thought this would be the most difficult fight he would have to date ever since he became a formal wizard.
He raised his head as he heard the noise made by the bees’ wings. There were 36 tiny light dots flying toward the airship in front.