Upon return to the human village, Malevolence sent more scouts to explore the venomous trees and see if it was possible to get rid of them without dealing with the territorial beasts within.
They soon returned with a negative answer. Although small groups of bees could approach the poisonous forest close enough to spit fire at it, the trees in it grew close to water or directly near it. They were too wet to burn.
The only ways to destroy them were cutting them down by hand or growing usnea trees on top of them. The former would certainly alarm the tree-guarding beasts, but the latter…
The latter gave Malevolence an idea.
Since the beasts were most likely immune to venom, steel and fire were the next good weapons against them. And fire was also a great fuel for usnea trees…
Malevolence gathered with her close officers in a temporary command room and explained to them her ideas.
