“Perhaps the bear can be attacked in this state. There are still twenty-three warriors remaining; they may perish, but they are prepared to sacrifice themselves as necessary.”


    “I don’t disagree, Bedivere, but Mother’s knowledge shows that the bear has already breached uncharted territory. We know of three types, and yet this new one is not within the realm of our knowledge. Sending just one warrior may not be enough.”


    Bedivere and Beatrice continued ruminating, while I panicked. Well, panic is a strong word, but I was certainly feeling strong emotions. Our predicaments were one thing; the bear was highly unusual, and though it may have been a coincidence, its sudden appearance lent credence to the fernens’ superstitions. Not to mention the stalemate conversation happening in between the electric crystals. But what really scared me was the expectant look on all the bees’ faces. Bedivere and Beatrice were discussing strategy, but every so often they glanced at me as if I’d give an answer at any moment. Every warrior and worker present had their heads on a swivel, looking between the two big-brained leaders and my sorry self cradled in Bedivere’s arms.


    Something suddenly gave me pause. The looks my bees were giving me, they didn’t feel quite right. I knew how expectations felt by this point, and they made me uncomfortable, sure, but discomfort wasn’t what I felt. What flowed through me was fear. Unfortunately, the Link made everything clear. Their expectations weren’t for me to come up with an answer. The expectation was for me to ensure Queen’s safety.


    They weren’t looking at me at all; they were looking straight through me.


    “If it becomes clear that there’s a time limit, send one of the warriors to attack the bear. Every time the bear changes to a new type, send a warrior to attack it to test the waters,” I said.


    “Brute force? I suppose it is the easiest option.”


    My order went through, and the bees relaxed a bit, but the bear hadn’t moved since it transformed. Hopefully, that meant we had some time before we needed to sacrifice more bees than necessary. It also gave me some time to deal with Vlugh.


    “I will do my best to figure out this version of the bear’s puzzle. Wish me luck. Please be ready to activate our Mind as needed.”


    Same here, Queen. Same here. Even if your control isn’t as amazing. With that, I turned my attention to the crystals, and Beelzebub’s annoyed ‘interrogation.’ Such a thing was certainly not her strong suit, but she was the only one Vlugh would cooperate with, much to Beatrice’s chagrin. Well, other than Ben, but our reasons for holding him back were already clear. However, things were a going a bit less smoothly than I would’ve liked. Our complete and utter shock was definitely palpable as Beelzebub, ever calm and level-headed, was on the verge of stabbing Vlugh in his other eye.


    “Beelzebub please, violence will not convince him to come clean.”


    “You’re probably right, Elofan. I think I’ll do it anyway. Probably make me feel better.”


    Honestly, the entire situation was beyond strange. Vlugh’s little hidey-hole was a makeshift earthen shelter he’d created in between a trio of the electric crystals that were slightly close together, a move Beatrice suspected was to discourage us from approaching him, consider our - most importantly, my - aversion to electricity. Despite the cramped space, Elofan and Beelzebub fit comfortably, but all three were close enough together for the barest movement to result in a punctured heart. Strangest of all, Beelzebub was talking to Elofan through Vlugh. Yup. Vlugh still had a Linker attached to the nape of his neck, so I could speak through him and seemingly control him as I pleased, but clearly he’d bypassed the Link as needed. I wasn’t privy to all his thoughts, and as I now knew, I couldn’t control his every move. I knew, because I’d tried making him smash his head against a rock, but now that he had been exposed, he no longer had to hide his ability to resist the Link. So, he was Linked, but he could just ignore the Link’s effects if he felt like it. And despite that, he was still acting as a mouthpiece. So he was silent, but also talking.


    “Don’t worry, Vlugh. I won’t kill ya. I’ll just use my Ability on you, only a tiny bit. Just enough to make you drain your Mind and stress you out for days until the life drains out of you. Should be fun! So just get Linked, idiot.”


    “…”


    Vlugh’s continued silence spoke volumes. He was willing to undergo Beelzebub’s scarily excessive torture just to prevent us from learning his secrets. Either that, or his brain was just broken. But if threats of torture didn’t work, what would? Promise of reward? Some other form of positive reinforcement? A more powerful Link? What in the world did I need to do?


    “By Mom’s stinger, just answer me, man! I don’t have time for your stupid games. This is a waste of time. Distracting Mom from saving Mom is unforgivable, you know?”


    Without warning, Vlugh’s head jerked up.


    “Saving?”


    “Yeah dude! Some weird bear is causing problems, so spill already. I need to go help.”


    Vlugh put his hand on his chin, and his one good eye glazed over. Notably, the tender part of his head where Meyara’s bullet had exited throbbed as he sat deep in thought. It was kinda gross, and even though he was mostly healed, that still seemed to happen. Maybe it was just me, or my bees, who would notice such a thing, but it was highly distracting.


    “Very well,” he said. “I’ll tell you what I can.”


    “Uh. Enno?”


    Great. Fantastic. Let me guess, ghost bugs are crawling out of the ground and are trying to eat you guys.


    “Well, yes. You would know that already. So what exactly am I supposed to do about strange ghost bugs crawling out of the ground and eating our Minds?”


    Queen’s concerns were, unfortunately, far more pressing than Vlugh hesitating to explain how the hell he could resist the Link. After waiting for some time, the bear had waggled its oddly long claws, and everything shifted. The ground rumbled until ghostly, unidentifiable bugs crawled from slowly yawning holes and flew at us in a rage not unlike Beelzebub’s own.


    Now, I wasn’t sure what the Bear god was up to in this world, but as far as I knew, there were no bears on Earth who were bug necromancers.


    One of the warriors had already rushed the bear as soon as the bugs began appearing, to no avail. Before our poor warrior even reached the bear, hundreds of the tiny bugs appeared on the bee, seemingly from thin air. The warrior’s husk of a body was still curled up, dead on the ground. One detail was quickly revealed, though. The bugs, now fat from draining the warrior’s Mind, were easy prey for the bear. Using its long claws like skewers, it gathered dozens of bugs at a time and munched on them like chips. Part of this game was clear: don’t let the bugs eat your Mind, or else the bear will eat them in turn. No doubt the bear was growing stronger with each bit of Mind it consumed, too.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    “I know what we must do. We must overfeed the bear by providing as much Mind as possible to the bugs. With how powerful our Mind is, along with the Valkybees for insurance, surely it will not be able to handle our power and will lose the game.”


    …Queen. Have you been watching kid’s tv shows from my memory? Because That is exactly what happens every time this sort of power gets introduced.


    “…It does seem to work quite often.”


    Yeah, it’s the easiest answer, because this sort of power is unfairly strong in a vacuum. But in this case, its part of a game, one with rules and conditions for both parties. If a limit doesn’t exist for this bear to eat our Minds, then we’re basically just powering it up to screw us over. We don’t have a ton of info, but based on the first game, they’re not very fair for the bear’s enemy. In this case, us. At the same time, though, they’re still winnable for said enemy. I think there’s a solution within the game’s rules we just don’t know yet.


    “It is all well and good to imagine some sort of clean solution, but it just so happens that you are not the one with bugs crawling up your legs.”


    Queen tried to keep her voice in check, but the panic was creeping in. Eruptions of bugs exploded from the ground, their numbers overwhelming despite their size. Ironic, considering what we were. They weren’t any kind of bug I could recognize, but they seemed like a combination between beetles and ants and mosquitoes. Even our bees weren’t safe from the onslaught as the bugs flew towards them, a swarm chasing a swarm. Enfla and Follo worked efficiently and immediately, squashing bugs with their Minds from a distance, but the numbers were too great. Soon we would be overrun.


    Of course, it was all quite ironic. If there was anything that knew how to fight with numbers, it was bees.


    We got to work. While we figured out how to win the game once and for all, the least we could do was crush as many bugs as possible and prevent our Mind from being drained. The Valkybees brought us all together, lifting the fernen into the air above the warriors. We created a tight formation, with Queen surrounded by the Valkybees and fernen, while the warriors formed a cone opened downwards, ensuring the bugs would be funneled to one place. Belphegora took control of the warriors in full, using her superior Mind to control them and blow any stray bugs away, opening Belial’s resources to focus entirely on destroying as many bugs as possible. The fernen got the message, allowing themselves to be suspended by Belphegora as they took on the role of exterminators. Then there was Queen. Queen and I.


    “Perhaps we simply need to destroy all the bugs? Or survive for a certain amount of time?”


    Both are definitely possible, but risky to rely on. If neither of those are the win condition, and the bear’s Ability doesn’t require a ton of Mind to use consistently, even we would become exhausted. Eventually. Whatever this type of bear is, it’s not something I know about, but if it follows the logic of the bear safety rhyme, then there must be some sort of basic method that can be used to ‘deal with’ this type of bear.


    “It seems odd. If there are no entomancer bears in your world, why the bugs?”


    No, no, there weren’t bears that control bugs. At least, not as of my untimely departure. In that case, there must have been some clue the bear’s actions could provide, something to show its weakness or its strength. It was also trying to win the game, after all.


    “Is it? It seems quite content to sit back and watch us struggle at the moment. Even with such menacing-looking claws. How terrible! Imagine claws like those poking holes in our poor hive. Wait. That might be it.”


    Queen realized it just as I did. The bear wasn’t attacking or anything, just looking up at our grouped up troops and munching on the indistinct insects that came near. And if I knew anything about bears in my world, it was that they tended to be predators. But what kind of bear would need such wicked-looking knives for claws? Maybe they had another purpose other than shredding flesh. Like disturbing the homes of their prey. Prey that it ate in droves.


    “Belphegora. Belial. Please assist us in depriving the bear of its meal. Belphegora shall contain them, and Belial will guide them into her grasp. I will ensure they cannot continue to emerge from their holes.”


    Without so much as a question, the Valkybees immediately began following orders. As if she were wrapping them up in a paper bag made of nothing, bundles of the insects suddenly became unable to fly very far, contained by Belphegora’s Mind. While I hadn’t commanded it, she seemed content to ‘accidentally’ kill most of the bugs that approached her, sweeping them along with any living bugs into her mental net. Meanwhile, with the support of the warriors, some acting as bait and some moving the funnel, Belial pushed waves of bugs towards Belphegora’s waiting arms like an invisible broom and accompanying magic dustpan. Alive or dead, it probably didn’t matter. Killing the bugs en masse would probably - eventually - give the same result, but their corpses weren’t disappearing, so the containment was a crucial step. And if we were right about the aim of the game, then the bear would grow increasingly less picky about where to find its next meal. Our other job was even more important: making sure no more bugs would be flying around.


    With a wave of Queen’s hand, we conjured several thin barriers and slammed them onto the ground, giving the bear quite the startle based on how it stumbled. The bugs were small and weak, and even despite their numbers, they couldn’t destroy our Mind barriers. The amount of force was pretty good, though. It made me a bit jealous. Numbers were supposed to be our advantage! Not that there was much that could be done. Not my fault at all. Sure, I was the one laying the eggs, but it was entirely the world’s fault for limiting me with Mind. Just another reason to figure out how to make a queen egg.


    Despite my momentary wandering, the barriers held, and the enemy swarm had thinned considerably. And despite her desire not to show outward emotion, Queen’s mouth curled into a triumphant grin as the bear below began to flail and roar, its attack waning. If it was reacting this way, it must have meant we were right on the money guessing this game’s trick. Starving out the bear was the right choice. Plus, flying meant it couldn’t attack us so easily. Win win!


    Belial and Belphegora’s stamina was quite fresh all things considered. Their Minds were potent enough to deal with the remaining swarm, and good thing too. There were enough bug holes and enough bugs to actually make me strain my resources a bit, and it was taking a good chunk of my Mind to keep them closed. And the number was ticking up. Slowly, but it was, probably thanks to the sheer volume of bugs that kept appearing and trying to break out.  Hopefully this part of the game would end soon. Thankfully, though, it seemed like the bug holes, as part of the game, didn’t allow the bugs to burrow around the barriers, or we would’ve really been screwed.


    Enfla and Follo weren’t the greatest of help, but they contributed to defense at least. And thanks to them, our warriors were only a little exhausted. Unfortunately, some of the insects had still gotten through, so we weren’t without damage. It ocurred to me we had no clue how many rounds this game could actually go now. How many types of bear could it cycle through? Could it keep the game going indefinitely? This round alone hadn’t physically injured the warriors, but having their Minds nibbled at was a drain on their stamina. The Valkybees and Queen, and likely the fernen, were fine for now, but there was no telling how far we would be pushed. When I expected only three types of bears I was confident, now a seed of worry was growing.


    The bear’s rampage continued, even tried scratching and slashing at the barriers, to no avail. When it realized the futility of its actions, it glanced at us before moving to eat the bugs while they still swarmed. Eventually, though, it would be forced to eat the dead bugs. Sucks for you.


    “….Mind…! Goodness….strong…me.”


    …What. A soft voice reached Queen’s ears, hints of words between the bear’s frightful roars, barely audible over the sounds. In fact, they shouldn’t have been audible at all, considering how far away the bear was and how soft the voice was. Queen’s head spun on a swivel, and I almost had to remind her not to hurt her new human neck. I peered through the eyes of all the present bees, but I saw neither hide nor hair of a woman near the bear. Whoever was speaking must be hiding nearby.


    “…! …try…stupid…stupid…dumb….stupid…”


    A completely different voice interspersed with a bizarre hooting and clacking sounds suddenly rang out, and I was starting to think we were getting pranked rather than attacked. The second voice was coming from further away, closer to a pile of rocks, and I was forced to face the facts. Well, technically I could try ignoring them, but Queen was keen to slap me with a dose of reality.


    “The woman’s voice is coming from the bear. I’m sure of it.”


    Looking down at the bear, who was now scavenging for dead bugs on the ground, desperately turning over the soil and sticking its snout in the dirt, the pieces floated around in my head, still too few to click together. Either bears in this world were even stranger than I thought, or something else was afoot. This time, when the bear hung its head in defeat and the teddy bear appeared to - hopefully - pronounce us victorious, I was less cocky. Not because I thought we’d lose, no way. We were going to crush this bear. No, now I was questioning why were being attacked at all.