The bees flew in fast and hard. These were clearly different from the first batch. They still looked like yellow and black striped naked women, but they were taller (a good six feet), more muscular, their breasts firm bubbles on their chest like over-inflated bags of silicone rather than anything natural. Their hair was black with two tall twitching antennae emerging from its thick waves. Their eyes were multifaceted and utterly inhuman. And instead of mouths, thick proboscises hung down like diminutive elephant trunks.

I barely have time to down a potion of Mysticism before I have two of them assailing me. I don't even bother with Wail. The first group seemed to be resistant to it. Maybe they don't hear in the same way most beings do.

They immediately start tearing into us. It may have only been my imagination, but they seem twice as strong as the worker bee-girls. I even heard Bronte cry out in pain as one gouged deep grooves across the arm she held it up for protection. The only good thing is they huddle in close together, making more of them take damage from my dance.

But with two attacking me, I'm getting my butt kicked. Three rounds in and I have less than 10 Life Force points. I'm just thinking I'll have to switch to my life exchange attack, when a ghastly retching noise fills the air. The bee-girls attacking Bronte and Kerda both expel a gush of honey. The viscous fluid erupts from them and pours out in a long torrent. It doesn't even make sense that they could hold so much inside their bodies. It spews out all over my friends, thick and gooey and glistening with a golden hue.

The smell is wonderfully sweet, and I begin to get aroused. I remember it's supposed to be an aphrodisiac. If the odor is effecting me, then I'm not sure what will happen to those covered in it.

Bronte and Kerda fall to they ground, their bodies writhing. They make mewling sounds of pleasure. A bee-girl falls on Bronte and two drop onto Kerda. From their proboscises long black tongues emerge. They're almost like vines or tentacles with hair-like tendrils extending from the main trunk every inch or so. The bees quickly get to work lapping the honey back up, running their alien tongues all over the two girls' bodies. I really have no idea what the hell is happening, but my party members aren't fighting it. Heck, they're practically begging for the attention.

Morgan screams, "Oh God, no! Bronte, no!" They seem to waiver from their healing job, obviously wanting to go and help their sibling.

While I'm distracted, one of the bee-girls I'm fighting, jabs me with her stinger. A get my saving-throw, but my Life Force is down to 1. I luck out with a critical and get a huge boost of life back from the life steal, but I'm not going to last long at this rate. I'm down to one spell and I'm over-matched. I'd ask for help, but with both Kerda and Bronte totally... er... incapacitated, every one else is just hanging on.

But to my relief, without asking, Morgan gives me an assist with a bit of extra healing, and Vladimir breaks from his position of safety and switches from his blow-dart to his dagger to give me a hand. But he only gets a couple of hits in before one of my foes expels honey all of him. Astra get coated at the same time.

It's only me and Morgan still standing. The only good thing is that just one bee-girl is still fighting. The others are too busy with their licking and lapping back up their honey. I down another Mysticism potion and quickly drain the remaining life from my opponent.

One down.

The rest are doing something very wrong to all of my friends but nobody seems to be complaining. The scene should be grotesque: these monsters violating every inch of their skin with those bizarre icky tongues. But with all the sticky, slimy honey and the voluptuous naked bodies of the bees rolling themselves over and pressing themselves against the feminine bodies of my friends, its decidedly erotic. It doesn't help that lewd moans of pleasure escaped my incapacitated party members as the bee-girls roll on top of them and violated them with their tongues.

A brief twinge of jealousy passes over me. Why have none of these bees tried to coat me in honey? I shake off the thought. This isn't something I should want. This is all kinds of wrong.

To get a better idea of what's happening, I ask the system what the bees are up to.

Harvesting: Once the Apis-occisor has coated its target in honey and incapacitated them, they will re-ingest the honey, while at the same time, harvesting the Life Force of their victim through the sexual energies they release. The Apis-occisor will repeat this process over and over until the victim is drained of all life. The process is slow but painless. In fact, due to the ecstasy created from the honey and the stimulation from the creature's tongue, the victim is unlikely fight the process except for in the brief few seconds of mental clarity following an orgasm. 

There's more but I don't have time to read it, I need to help. But who do I help first? I decided on Vladimir since he came to my aid and wouldn't be in this... um... position if he hadn't. Plus, he has death curse on him already.

With the last of my magic pool, I reach out and pull a chunk of Life Force from his attacker. Astra burst out in a loud scream of orgasm. The sound itself makes my knees week as it expresses such depths of pleasure and release. But afterwards, she seems to recover from the spell and lashes out at the bee-girl on her with her dagger.

The bee on Vladimir ignores me. So, instead of drinking my last Mysticism potion, I hold off and switch to my knife, plunging it between her wings. This gets it's attention. It turns from its prey and swipes its claws across my bare legs.

Bronte explodes in rapture next as a high-intensity orgasm wracks her body. But after a second, her sword lights up with a blue electrical glow, and she plunges into the the chest of her foe, slaying it.

Barely has the echo of Bronte's sensual moans faded, when Kerda's start. I've heard her orgasm sounds before but never so pure and primal. They send shivers up my spine (or rather, through my loins). With two quick stabs of her javelin, she ends one of the bee-girls on her. Bronte slams her electrified sword into the other severing several legs. Thick black ichor pump out of the stumps.

We're starting to make headway, but Astra is down again, covered in a new coat of honey.

Knowing me knife is my weakest attack, I take my last potion, regretting the loss. The bee-girl uses the reprieve from attack to turn her attention back to Vladimir, bring him to orgasm. When the moans and convulsions pass, his face still looks lust-addled, but he jabs his dagger onto the creature's gut.

Between the two of us, we manage to stab it until it's dead. Then, Vladimir retreats away from the melee.

Bronte's gets honeyed again. And Astra has just recovered from her second dose, when her enemy spews a third onto her. But it's not as plentiful, and Astra manages to resist it. I immediately run to her and help by pulling life out of the bee. The creature spins and rises, facing me. Lurid noises comes out of her and a gush of sticky fluid erupts from her abdomen, spraying all over me. It's not honey. I don't know what the heck it is. But I feel my own arousal stirring as the warm liquid splatters my skin.

Suddenly, I remember that stupid special skill I unlocked: Final Gasp. From it's description, I'm guessing this bee-girl is cumming on me until she dies. Dang! I hate this game!

Luckily, it only takes one more stroke of Astra's dagger to bring it down. Kerda manages to eliminate the last one a moment later.

We're done. Everyone looks exhausted. Most of us are covered in foreign substances. Some of us are teetering on the verge of death. Bronte is still writhing on the ground. Small pleading grunts come from her. "I need... I need... I need..."

Astra's collapsed on the ground near the bee she killed. "We have to help her. With that honey, you can't do anything until you cum."

Vladimir agrees, "She's right it's like a trance. She'll be totally helpless until someone gets her off."

Morgan, who manages to stay away of the fray and is still in good shape, says, "Well, don't look at me."

Kerda staggers toward Bronte. "I'll do it."

I feel as though I should object. I don't think it's jealousy over Kerda's affections this time, but the sense Bronte should choose for herself. But she can't choose, and they already have been intimate. So it makes sense. Besides if not her, who else?

We weakly stumble a little ways off to give them the semblance of privacy. But we're about twenty feet away in an open field, so really the only privacy they're getting is what the grass provides.

Astra says, "That was terrible. The whole time you know your slowly dying, but it feels so amazing and you just want more. It's like Vlad said about it being a trance. Once it breaks, you're confused too. You're not sure whether to kiss the monster or kill it. I almost think that if their faces weren't so hideous, they could lull you into accepting your own death in exchange for pleasure."

Morgan asks Astra, "So, what do we do next? Rest? I think we all need to rest?"

Astra says, "Yeah. We do. But lets get out of this meadow first. I don't want to be attacked by more of those bees while we sleep."

"Yes," Vladimir seconds, "Let's get the fuck out of this place."

It barely takes Kerda and Bronte any time at all. We hear her cries of ecstasy and shortly after, they come over to us.

We pick ourselves up and head across the field toward a small hill. It grows with our progress, rising up to a tall rounded peak. The mound and its surroundings are shrouded in trees. We enter the woodland and catch the sound of running water. We follow the noise to a stream emptying out into a large pond. We're all grateful for the chance to bath. And after the last couple of days we're not even self-conscious about seeing each other naked.

Well, not too self-conscious anyway. I feel anxious having my dress off until I'm submerged and hidden again. And I try to keep my eyes diverted from the others.

Kerda says, "Well, that wasn't what I was expecting from my fortune reading. I was hoping it would be a lot more recreational with honey poured out from jars and maybe a couple of you ladies taking care of me. Still, it wasn't an entirely unpleasant experience." Then to me, she says, "It was weird what that bee did to you before it died. None of the others did that."

"Yeah, strange," I say, trying to lie convincingly because there's no way I'm telling them about that passive skill. Then, with a dose of sarcasm a add, "Just my luck."

When we're done, Astra tells us, "Okay! Lets all switch off for eight hours and get our points back up. The entrance to the dungeon shouldn't be far. So, we'll need to be at full strength when we hit it."

There's a relief in knowing we're almost there. But I fear what we'll find inside it.