Epic of Bee

I floated forward to look at the new weapons. One of them was a bladed ring, and the other a large hammer. I walked to the center and looked at the staff, and it looked better than the last time that I had seen it. I decided that for this round, I would try the staff again in hopes that I could possibly clear this all on the first try.

[Range Class Chosen!]

[Select your first Powerup!]

The next menu popped up, but I frowned at the selection. All the choices thing that was sort of help with certain other powerups, but I had to pick one.

[Attack 1]

[Dodge 1]

[Ice Step 1]

Since I knew what the first two did, I thought that I might try out the Ice Step, and after selecting it, I tried to walk around. Blue frost spread from my feet as I walked, and I noticed that I was also slightly faster.

My Health was also at 16/16, meaning that I should Bee able to take at least three hits and still survive, but only if they weren't doing more damage. I didn't think the ones in the first ten doors would deal more damage, but it was likely that the one in the second set might if that was how it worked. It might also be just ten new rooms, or that and ten more after!

"I am going to Bee here all day if I don't get a move on it," I grumbled but prepared myself for the first room. The darting slimes!

I walked through the portal and started moving, but it was on a beach with three sides walled off with rock and a buzzing red insect near the back that was darting around. I tried to fire a bolt at it, and even with the homing function, the bug dodged it, and the bolt hit the wall.

Then the bug fired a slow-moving bolt of electricity at me, but I easily dodged it and moved to the side. I tried again to cast my spell, but the bug leaped out of the way and it hit the wall again, letting out another bolt.

I ran by the bolt at my stuck speed and ran in the path of the bug, hoping that my frost would slow it down, but it had no effect. I narrowly dodged the next one and then tried to shoot again, but the bug ran into me, surprising me and taking 6 points of my Health.

Backed up and tried to fire, but a lightning bolt hit me from behind, shocking me. The next thing I knew, the bug smashed into me again, and I was back in the starting room.

"Gah! What was that?!" I complained. Right before I died, I noticed that there were almost six times the number of bolts in the room as had been shot. I was also pretty sure I had seen one split when it hit a wall just before the bug hit me. That was going to be trouble, but seriously!

I walked back up to the weapons and looked at them all as I stewed about the bug. It was much more than I thought it would, Bee, considering it was the first monster, but that was an indicator that this might only be ten rooms like the last time I was here. Still, I had to pick something that was going to help me.

The sword might do the trick, but I was likely to get hit, and I really didn't want to lose Health because it wasn't easy to get back after. The bow might work, but I had already run into trouble with it with other enemies. I needed something with speed and range, so I looked to the new weapons. The hammer fit neither of those, but the bladed ring looked like it might.

I walked over and picked it up, and it felt comfortable. I looked down at the menu again and hummed at the selection.

[Select your first Powerup!]

[Double Ring 1]

[Poison Attack 1]

[Speed 1]

Speed would be nice, but the Double Ring looked good, so I picked that one. I would have taken the poison, but two rings had to be better than one, right? That was what I was banking on, and I threw the ring, but it broke into two, but it also bounced off two walls before returning to me. One issue was not being able to throw until I got one back, but the second always came back just as fast, so there was no way to take advantage of that.

The final thing that I tried was a charged attack, and I was surprised when it only to two seconds to charge, and then I threw my ring out, and the two of them spun around me, each doing a full circle before coming back. I tried again and tried doing it after moving, and the time stayed the same. Even if the rings weren't that strong, they were a sure thing for anything within my range.

With that in mind, I ran into the next room and burst out on the beach with the same bug. I didn't stop as it started to dart around, and I ran straight for it. The moment that it stopped to shoot, I was almost to the bug and angled to the right as it fired and stopped to charge.

The bug came at me, but my charged attack went off, and the two rings cut it to pieces, and it exploded into black particles.

I let out a sigh, and a new powerup menu came up. That had worked, but the bug had gotten awfully close to me. Even a second longer, and I would have gotten hit and interrupted.

[Firebolt 1]

[Ice Orbs 1]

[Lightning Aura 1]

Considering what I just went through, the lightning and ice skills looked good to protect me, but I wasn't sure if the Firebolt would be useful. I really wish that they had more info, but that was almost like a staple for some of the games to just have the skill and nothing else.

I finally decided on the Firebolt and then tried to attack with my rings, but nothing happened besides my ring splitting like it should, but no fireball.

"What in tarnation is this Cockatrice shit?!" I complained, but it must only activate in battle or something.

I took some breaths and then stared at the next portal. I needed to be ready to read the play as soon as I got out there. No shooting until I saw how they attacked, but then I had to think fast. This game was really about rinse and repeat to get stronger, but I wanted to bust through this all as fast as possible.

I ran forward and burst into a big rectangle that had paths on either side. The two monsters looked like spoked wheels, just without the wheels, and they started to roll around. I watched the centers because they looked like guns, and suddenly, they turned to me and fired two huge white spikes.

They came fast, but I was moving, and they only shot in straight lines, so I dodged them easily, but as I did, a red bolt, just bigger than my fist, burst from me. Before the closest one could start moving, the Firebolt hit it, and it died to my surprise.

The other one moved fast, so I angled and threw one of my two rings at it, but it missed, and I started running again as it stopped to fire. The spike missed me, but my second Firebolt fired, and it was a direct hit, killing the wheelless spokes. I thought there would be a powerup here, but it was something new.

[<Elite Enemy Bonus]

[Power Bonus Plus>]

The paths were labeled, and I understood the elite enemy, but the Power Bonus Plus was different. This was another one of those I was going to have to try both at some point, but it wasn't that easy to just do it when I wanted to try both now!

"Ugh! let's just go hard mode right off the hop! I Otter get something good from this, or it is going to be a Cats Ass Trophy!" I complained as I turned to run at the elite enemy portal.

On the other side was a cave, but there were a big boulder and two smaller ones. The moment that I got in the room, all three squished down and then jumped into the air. I just ran, but I could feel the earth shake as they hit, but I looked back and noticed that the big one made a visible shockwave.

I kept going, and a Firebolt shot from me and took out one of the smaller boulders, but they seemed to get faster, but I kept moving and another Firebolt to the other small one. Suddenly, the big rock started to get red, and it sped up dramatically, and it was all I could do to stay out of its shockwave range. A firebolt hit it, but it felt like the boulder was gaining on me, so the next time it went into the air, I stepped aside so it wouldn't hit me, but the shockwave still would hit me.

I charged and attacked and unleashed it just before the boulder hit the ground, and I took 6 points of damage, but two attacks from my charged attack hit, and then I attacked, and a Firebolt went off. The boulder exploded into black particles, and I sank to the ground with a sigh as a different menu popped up.

[Legendary Equipment]

[Static Shield: Protection from Lightning]

[Fast Bracer: Faster basic and charge attacks]

[Burning Gloves: Add Fire damage to charged attacks and make them charge faster]

This was new, but it was a hard pick. Each of them had benefits, but I wanted to pick the right one. The Static Shield would protect against electric damage, and that would be good, but the others worked better with my strategy.

The Fast Bracer would let me charge up my attack faster, and I could use it more often, which might come in handy with certain enemies. The Burning Gloves were also good because they added fire damage to my charged attacks as well as making them more powerful.

I thought about it for a moment before picking the Burning Gloves because they worked with what I was currently doing, and they would make my attacks even more powerful. Maybe the Static Shield would have been a better pick, but this round, I was going to use fire damage.

I made the selection, and burning black and red gloves covered my hands, and then my power menu popped up.

[Fire Orbs 2]

[Firebolt 3]

[Fire Aura 2]

"Now we are cooking with Fire!" I laughed and settled on Fire Orbs, making two balls of fire start to circle around me.

I moved to the next portal and burst out into a grassy plain that was lit up by two suns. It wasn't just one of those binary star systems, but there were three other planets in the sky. I didn't have time to look at them because five pig green Pigmen came running at me.