Ep 2: The Invader, Forest Shadows and Hornet Scout

The moonlight was slowly slanting over the western ridge, and bluish dawn fog was beginning to rise on the eastern horizon. The air in the forest became strangely cold and heavy. The song of the summer grass insects that had been chirping clearly all night between the tree branches suddenly stopped as if it were a lie, and even the breeze that gently passed through the bushes stopped as if it had frozen. It seemed as if the entire forest was holding its breath, oppressed by a great fear. The pungis and stag beetles that were devouring the sweet sap under the oak tree trunk hurriedly burrowed into the dirt hole in instinctive fear, and even the long-lived ox that was crawling on the bark of the tree curled its legs and pretended to be dead.

Behero instinctively stopped flying and hid behind the broad leaves of the oak tree. Ama, who was following behind, also stopped flapping her wings and came close to Behero's side. “Behero… Why did you stop? What’s going on?” “Shh, maybe. Be quiet. Put up your antennae and feel the air current.” At Behero's low and stern voice, Ama gasped and stretched out her antennae into the air. The vibration of the air touching the sensory hairs (sensilla) at the end of the antennae was unusual. It was not the natural air flow of the gentle creatures of the forest.

It was a horrifyingly cold and sharp wave of killing that a beast thirsting for blood emits just before it suffocates its prey. “This... what is that smell? A fishy smell like rusting metal... and the smell of rotten meat...?” “It’s a giant wasp. It’s also a scout dispatched from the northern fortress of the forest.” The behero's chin trembled with anger and tension. Food deud deuk! Kwagwagwagwa-! A dull, gigantic roar that shook the earth cut through the sky above the forest. A heavy, low-frequency flying sound 120 times per second. With the heavy and destructive sound of wings flapping like a helicopter propeller tearing the air, a huge beast appeared in the pitch-black darkness.

Longevity wasp scout. Five times the size of a bee! The massive body, measuring only 5 centimeters in length, was fully armed with a hard, dark red chitinous breastplate that did not reflect a single light. At the end of each of its six thick legs were vicious barbed hooks for tying down its prey, and in the center of its thick orange head, the red compound eyes of a merciless killer were flashing. The three single eyes embedded in the top of the head were precisely detecting the subtle body temperature and movements of the prey like a thermal imaging camera.

Perfect! Perfect! Crackling! A wasp scout was hovering and colliding with its huge jaws. A great evil like a steel battery that can tear off the bark of an oak tree in one go and even cut the thick shell of a dung beetle in two with a single knife. Every time our jaws collided, an eerie cracking sound mercilessly shattered the silence of the early morning forest. At the scout's feet, the crushed head of a large grasshopper that had just been hunted in the bushes was hanging. He munched on the entrails of the pulmuchi and swallowed them, rubbing his bloody chin on an oak leaf.

He then snatched a trembling ladybug hiding in a crevice in a bush, crushed its skin, chewed it up, and spit it out without hesitation. The scout circled slowly in the air, staring into the huge knot hole in the old oak tree where the bee kingdom was located. His thick antennae waved through the air, greedily capturing the scent of dense wildflower honey and the fresh protein of thousands of young larvae coming from inside the hive.

“I found it… a sweet golden warehouse… and soft chunks of protein….” A rough, hissing breath came out of the scout's mouth. He flapped his wings and landed heavily on the railing of the flight deck at the entrance to the hive in the old oak tree. thud-! The hexagonal wax wall at the entrance to the beehive shook precariously from the vibrations. The scout began rubbing the Van der Vecht's gland, located in the sixth abdomen at the end of the boat, against the grain of the oak tree. Chi-ik- chi-ik-! Along with an unpleasant friction sound, the red secretion of a highly toxic aggregation pheromone (Alarm & Marking Pheromone), which attracts an entire army of wasps to one place, was clearly painted on the entrance to the oak tree.

The acrid and horrendous chemical odor, a mixture of octanone, caproic acid, and highly toxic ester compounds, would spread at the speed of light on the dawn wind to the Wasp's main base several kilometers away. 'no… … ! If we allow that mark to be completed, our kingdom will be at an end!' The behero's heart pounded as if it would stop as he witnessed the scene from behind the leaves. Once that mark was completed, in less than thirty minutes, dozens of giant wasp slaughter units would rush into this forest. Tens of thousands of honey bees and larvae of the bee kingdom will be slaughtered overnight with their heads cut off, and their golden nest will be reduced to ruins covered in piles of corpses.

“Maybe, listen carefully. We need to interrupt him before he completely finishes marking.” “Behero, are you crazy?! That’s a monster! Our spit can’t even pierce its armor!” Ama trembled like an aspen and grabbed Behero's front legs. “I know. But if you run away from here, all 3,000 brothers and hundreds of young larvae in our hive will be annihilated. I will aim for its eyes and wing joints to distract it, and you will shake its antennae from behind to cut off its markings!”

“But… your life is in danger!” “My life is meaningless if I can’t protect the kingdom. Trust me!” Behero shook off Ama's hand, spun his wings explosively, kicked off behind the leaves, and flew out. “Stop, marauder!” Shuaaaaaaaa! The behero performed a steep, spinning flight that was the trademark of the 'Moonlight Search Squadron', and charged with its sharp needle aimed at the fine joint membrane of the scout's left wing joint. At the same time, perhaps, he also closed his eyes and mustered up the courage to fly in from the other side and dive towards the scout's antennae.

“Get out of my way, you sneaky thief!” Ama's sharp cry pierced the air. However, the gap in weight class was so overwhelming that it was cruel. The scout didn't even raise an eyebrow when he saw the two flying bees. “Where are the ridiculous swarms of flies hanging out?” The scout twisted his head like lightning and swung his front leg towards the flying Ama. Sigh! Ama fell headlong into the bushes, screaming desperately with one of her wings broken.

"maybe-!" Behero's eyes rolled over. He sharply changed his flight angle and tried to insert his needle right in front of the scout's compound eyes. However, the scout's thick and long middle leg struck the air like an iron whip. Whoa! The behero, who was hit squarely in the air, let out a harsh scream and was thrown mercilessly into the trunk of an oak tree. Kwadangtang! A sharp pain, as if one of the transparent wings on my back were being torn apart, paralyzed my entire body. The chest flight muscles twisted and clear fluid poured out of the mouth.

“Ugh…!” “Hahaha! That bug is struggling quite a bit.” The scout looked down arrogantly at the behero who had fallen to the ground, his large jaw clicking. “There is no use in struggling. Your kingdom will become a hunting ground for our ‘Alpha Legion’ before the sun rises in the sky today. I will cut off your queen’s head and place it at my feet, and I will scoop out the entrails of the young larvae and make them into dumplings for our larvae.”

“We... will never give in to murderers like you...!” The behero spit out bodily fluids and shouted harshly. “You bastard with a living mouth. I’ll break your head right now!” The scout opened its massive jaws and lunged at the behero's head. At that moment, the behero rolled its body into a narrow, sharp rock crevice between the oak tree trunk, rubbing its torn wings on the ground. bang-! The scout's giant head, which was trying to crush the be-hero, crashed head-on into a narrow rock gap and became stuck with a thud.

“Aaaah! You cowardly rat! Your head is stuck!” The scout struggled and screamed as he tried to pull his head out of the crevice in the rock. Now! Behero suppressed the pain and crawled into the bushes, wrapping his front legs around Ama, who was moaning with her wings broken.

"Maybe! Come to your senses! Get on my back!" “Behero… One of my wings is torn… I can’t even fly. Abandon me and go first…!” Ama cried and pushed Behero's chest. “Stop talking nonsense! We flew together, and we will return to the hive together! I will not abandon my comrades as long as I have my breath left!” Behero clenched his teeth and tied Ama tightly between his chest and stomach, then crawled out of the maze of narrow and deep crevices in the oak bark. The scout who broke through the rock behind and escaped let out a ferocious roar.

“Where are you running? Anyway, the location of your hive has been branded with my red scent! You will soon die!” The scout no longer chased the behero, but flew quickly toward the main force north of the forest, making a roar. At the entrance to the oak flight deck where the scouts left, a blood-red invasion pheromone was burning brightly. Behero desperately tried to cover up the smell of the marking by scraping up the oak resin with his chin, but the stench of chemical pheromones that had seeped deep into the tree could not be completely erased. There was no time.

In just thirty minutes, an army of slaughterers would pour down from the northern ridge. “We have to sound the alarm… we have to go back to the hive…!” The behero began his life-threatening flight toward the golden kingdom, desperately vibrating his screaming wings as if they were about to break.