Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire

I hoped to hear good news from Bloodimina in a couple of weeks. I *expected* to hear good news from Bloodimina in a month.

I got neither. It was bad news all the way around, and they came both after two weeks, and after four.

Although the initial defeat of their armies broke the spirit of Vardish soldiers along with their backs, those who survived kept stubbornly resisting Gresch's and Bloodimina's advancement.

Worse, they adapted to our tactics. The Vardish soldiers began wearing helmets (often hastily self-made ones) that had visors to protect their eyes from fire and stingers. They also now often carried around hand grenades. They were primitive things, just clay shells filled with gunpowder—but if one exploded in a swarm of bees, it could kill them all at once.

Those were truly devastating weapons, and if their explosions were any easier to time, Bloodimina's army would have suffered terrible losses. Thankfully, they usually exploded way past (and below) their intended targets. Or in the hands of the soldier who was about to throw this grenade.

This was why these grenades weren't used against us earlier—but now Vardish people in Eastern Expanse Reach got desperate.

The grenades alone wouldn't have stopped Bloodimina, though. By the time her message reached me (since it traveled first with a dragon, then with a telepathic chain, it took several days), it was accompanied by another one.

In it, Bloodimina reported that spreading out her soldiers worked well enough as a counter to any explosions.

She also reported that because of all the fighting with the sick people and pests that carried illnesses, there were a lot of people falling sick in her and Gresch's armies. More of them than there were people who could share immunizing antibodies to heal them.

I wasn't sure we had enough.

By now, an entire year-and-some after I saved these stupid lizard-birds (which grew to the size of entire hives, so it was great that they were cared for by humans in Krisha village) spawned their first offspring.

Each female bird only laid one egg, and there were 19 females… At least the birds didn't need pairs to mate.

It was an incredibly slow growth of numbers for my liking, but it was growth. And adult dodos were already giving us a lot of their immunizing blood.

Meanwhile, the young dodos had imprinted on chosen bee trainers. In the future, they could probably be used for labor, but for now, they were mostly useless. I didn't take their blood to not slow down or stunt their growth.

All that blood from the dodos was spread and used all over the Empire. With each month, there was a new strain of a sickness that we needed defense against. It was the same for humans and their share of dodos.

In conclusion…

I sent reinforcements to the Eastern Expanse Reach—soldiers who carried in them the antibodies that they could share with others—but there wasn't going to be enough of them.

Sadly, the creation of antibiotics was running in the same hurdle as the creation of plastic—lack of resources. Adviser Tabletina's people have been running tests on various strains of mold and other plants for months and months now, but still didn't discover something that killed germs as effectively as penicillin.

Our swift advance in the Eastern Expanse Reach slowed to a crawl and finally stopped completely when Bloodimina and Gresch's armies were dealt their first serious blow.

Not in a fight, at least.

In an attempt to stop them, the Vardish army set fire on an entire living mountain forest. It was supposed to be a trap for the Naregan army, but Agent Bees discovered the enemy plans in time.

Our soldiers avoided the trap itself, but because of the dry weather, the fire spread wider than anyone could've expected and cut off our logistical lines by literally burning a bridge behind our army.

Bloodimina and Gresch were cut off from the Bee Empire and Naregan Kingdom and forced to forage. And all there was forage from had all just burned, including the few nearest villages.

'But we won't have a problem with food by the time you hear this message, Father,' the telepath read for me the last part of Bloodimina's report. 'Fire forced a lot of beasts to flee together with us, and now they are hungrier than ever. We are attacked constantly, and there's plenty of game for both us and humans to eat. I expect it to run out, but we are advancing past the burned parts to the nearest Vardish city. Our army will risk catching more illnesses, but there definitely will be supplies we need there. Humans will just have to give them to us.'

What incredible optimism!

Not only did my girls (and humans) have to run away from the biggest fire they saw in their lives and then forced to forage for their own food on almost enemy territory, they were also constantly attacked by hungry wildlife… And Bloodimina still told me not to worry!

Even Adviser Bloodhero was impressed by this after I shared with her the report.

"She has a truly indomitable spirit. If her soldiers have just a small part of it, they will definitely succeed no matter what!" Bloodimina said proudly. "As for the supply line, by the time our reply reaches Bloodimina, I'm sure it will be fixed already. The humans will fix the bridge or find another way to cross that river."

"Definitely. Still, Bloodimina and Gresch will face more resistance in this city—both from humans and from wildlife. I fear they might be forced to besiege this place, and with how deep they are in Eastern Expanse Reach, they won't have the resources for it." I let out a long breath. "How are our firearms going?"

Bloodhero's eyes sparkled.

"Oh, there aren't enough of the new good ones for the *entire army*… Just 20 thousand by the last count. Should I send them with the next supplies? We can even pack them on dragons… It will be worth their time!"

"Yes. Do it!"