"Sky Dragon's Wave Wind!"
A small swarm of fist-sized bees was swept into a whirlwind, spinning rapidly, their wings torn and bodies sliced, unable to get up after falling to the ground.
"Open the door of Capricorn, Kaburico!"
With elegance, a goat-man wearing a tuxedo and sunglasses debuted, effortlessly punching down approaching bees, dutifully protecting Lucy.
After whipping away a bee, Lucy boasted to Rhode, "How's that, Mr. Rhode? This is Kaburico, he used to be my mom's Star Spirit, strong, right?"
"Yes, very strong indeed." Rhode examined Kaburico; previously, he was an adversary.
Judging by his attack on the bees, he seems adept at combat types. So, Rhode continued:
"However, given the current situation, it's better to summon the Sagittarius and Scorpio, even Aries would do."
Kaburico looked at Rhode with admiration and said warmly, "Miss Lucy, although I can confidently protect you, currently, it's wise to heed Mr. Rhode's advice."
"Maybe Mr. Rhode has the potential to be an excellent Star Spirit Mage."
This was quite tactful, but Lucy understood the implication, retorting, "I only wanted to seize this chance to properly introduce you!"
Kaburico skillfully executed a flashy whip kick, sending a bee flying and colliding with two more.
He courteously adjusted his sunglasses, praising, "I see, a truly gentle reason."
Rhode was more dismissive: "Yes, yes, so stop slacking off, summon someone more efficient, Wendy will be exhausted at this rate."
Lucy pouted, sent Kaburico back, and re-summoned Sajidarius and Scorpio.
When Sagittarius and Scorpio appeared, the bee-clearing efficiency surged.
Sagittarius' beautiful rapid-fire arrows flew almost as fast as a machine gun, impressively accurate. Truly arrow without fail, often hitting two targets with one shot.
Scorpio released a sandstorm from its tail, sweeping away large areas, more efficient than Wendy.
Rhode didn't just stand around watching; providing glow effects to both, he stood watching with Carla.
His outputs were naturally supplemented by the cute little bugs helping out.
Despite having some difficulty with flying targets, they could jump and even stack, sufficient for dealing with low-altitude targets.
The downside was the ground-to-air combat losses; maybe five or six were needed to take down a single bee.
"It's my first time thinking you don't have enough bugs." Carla pressed closely against Rhode's leg, not daring to unfold her wings.
"Indeed, if we keep fighting like this, it'll never end." Rhode gazed at the swarm of bees, somewhat admiring the two mages of the Illusory Butterfly Wings for breaking through.
Yet, perhaps they didn't delve so deeply.
At first entry into the mountains, they didn't see so many bees.
Though they encountered many Daylily flowers along the way, Rhode's Void Divination revealed them as just ordinary flowers.
But upon entering the depths, bees suddenly swarmed everywhere.
Rhode finally realized that the bees' disguise could evade the "Breaking Stealth" feature of Void Divination.
Did the bees master advanced Transformation Magic?
Rhode could only arrive at this temporary conclusion.
He sent the River Crab and Shadow Wolf out to search the mountains, looking for any possible mastermind or hive.
The poor River Crab was still getting stung by bees, but with tougher shells and faster speed, they were unharmed.
The Shadow Wolves quietly infiltrated, unnoticed by the bees.
As dusk approached, still no findings from the River Crab and Shadow Wolves, while the sky's bee swarm seemed unimpaired, Rhode suddenly felt this task was exceptionally challenging.
The fifty-thousand reward felt like a blood loss.
A frustrated Rhode summoned the Hex Dragon Soul, tilted his head back, and spewed out silver-blue Dragon Breath.
This exaggerated lightning torrent engulfed most of the bees above, then dispersed, transforming into countless Lightning Chains, crackling around.
The sky lit up with streaks of blue lightning, resembling a thunderstorm, clearing the skies between two mountains, sunlight seemingly brighter.
With pressure swiftly relieved for Wendy and Lucy, enemies seemed to dwindle to a minor cluster below.
Just as the two were about to marvel at Rhode's magic, Carla suddenly pointed afar, "They're coming again!"
Dense swarms of tiny black dots flew among the mountains, making one shudder.
"How can there be so many!" If not for Rhode's presence, Lucy felt she'd immediately pull Wendy to escape.
Just as the new battle began, all bees suddenly vanished.
Wendy's whirlwind missed its target, Lucy's River of Stars crashed onto rocks.
Scorpio's sandstorm stripped a pine tree, Sajidarius' Seven Arrows shot toward a mountain peak.
The Void Worms were bewildered, many fell back after a jump, some nearly broke their teeth biting air instead of bees.
They jumped in anxiety, instinctively wanting to chew something, yet were halted by the "hiss" of three Void Nest Insects.
Rhode didn't immediately grasp the situation.
The two Star Spirits casually greeted and returned to the Star Spirit Realm, Wendy and Lucy collapsed exhausted back-to-back.
Wendy queried in doubt, "Is it over?"
Lucy complained, "I'm dead tired!"
"It shouldn't be so simple." Rhode confirmed the views of two River Crabs; the bees surrounding them also vanished.
"Mr. Rhode! Miss Wendy!"
A strong Semus lugged Loka, gasping, "Please save Loka!"
The Void Worms cleared a path, Semus approached, cautiously placing Loka down, "He was bitten by a snake, please save him!"
Seeing Loka's pale face and black-purple lips, Wendy immediately attempted to get up but was stopped by Rhode's hand on her head.
Rhode cast Healing of the Ocean on Loka, further adding the Crown of Insight and Crown of Embers.
Loka's complexion greatly improved, but this was forced recovery; the 'negative status' of the toxin remained.
Rhode said, "He'll be fine for now, Wendy should regain some magic power first."
"Okay." Wendy shot Loka a few worried glances, curling her legs to recover.
Rhode asked Semus, "First, explain what happened. Why did the bees disappear upon your arrival, was it something you did?"
Semus urgently recounted the Apple trees, snakes, Three-headed Snake, Three-headed Dog events.
Rhode felt familiarity, Lucy seemed contemplative.