Swamped

There's two main things you can remember. The first is that desert bees aren't territorial within their species; individual bees will readily join swarms from other hives, and indeed, you've known colonies to outright combine.

The second thing is that they feel threatened when they smell blood. You suspect that's because they mostly encounter it after one of the swarm has stung something and made it angry.

Now you just need a source of blood. Preferably not your own. You'd rather not risk yourself by directly attacking the soldiers, either.

You look around, hoping to see an animal that you can wound reasonably. But you don't...

Wait. Did something just move on the next tree over?

You look a little closer, and manage to just barely make out a very brown lizard on the tree trunk. That seems like a viable target.

You just have to think about how best to wound it, preferably without being noticed. You dropped the stolen pike already, so your options are rather limited.