Chương 13: Queenkiller

Climbing through that tiny hole felt a lot like heading into a boss battle. Evan knew whatever they would find inside that chamber, a quick retreat was out of the question. Oliver went through first, with Evan shoving from behind, and then Evan squeezed himself through. Oliver grabbed his shoulders and pulled him out. He scrambled to his feet, while the light orb floated through the hole behind them and retook its position above his shoulder. The chamber was bigger than he'd expected.

It was filled with dozens of baby Scrapmaws in different stages of development, from the juveniles they'd met outside the burrow to tiny, helpless pink babies, barely larger than his hand. He gave the orb a little push, moving it around, lighting the space from wall to wall. His breath caught in his throat when he realized the rock formation at the back of the cave wasn't a rock at all. It was the Scrapmaw queen. And it was massive.

After seeing the burrow entrance, Evan had feared the queen would be the size of a car. She wasn't. She was the size of a school bus. Her fleshy, fat body reminded him more of a grub than of a Scrapmaw. She was 80% belly, with tiny, underdeveloped limbs. The head was the only thing that made her identifiable as a Scrapmaw. She had the same sharp teeth and beady red eyes as her offspring. [Scrapmaw Queen - Rank 3] Evan gulped and grabbed the heft of his sword tighter. Don't drop it. Don't. Drop it.

Before fear could take over his mind, he charged ahead. The queen's size could be an advantage too. She didn't look very agile, so if they acted quickly, they might be able to kill her before she'd even noticed the intruders. Light orb flying behind him, he swung his sword and dragged it along the Scrapmaw queen's side. The skin burst open, and green tinted blood started seeping out. The queen screeched in pain.

It was a signal for all the other Scrapmaws in the chamber—at least those already able to walk—to attack them. Evan retreated a few steps and started hacking and slashing, activating [Star Slash] as often as the skill's cooldown allowed for extra damage. He'd never really had the chance to try this skill against the Mud Golem, since his sword shattered after one strike, but against the Scrapmaws it was fantastic.

The blade emitted a golden light whenever he activated the skill, and the magical light seemed to burn right through the monsters, allowing him to kill even the larger Scrapmaws with just a light touch of his blade. Oliver was a few feet behind him, whirling around with his sword. He tried [Ironroot] early, but the Scrapmaws wiggled out of their constraints, making that tactic useless. [Petrifying Strike] was more effective. It allowed Oliver to immobilize a monster and then stab it for an easy kill.

Most of the Scrapmaws in the breeding chamber were still small and not very strong, but the sheer number and their annoying habit of jumping up several feet in the air to sink their little teeth and claws into their flesh made for a vicious fight. Evan managed to cut two monsters in half with one strike, but three more came charging. He kicked one away before it could leap. Another came sailing through the air, straight at his face. He jerked up his arm and fended it off with his leather bracers.

The juvenile's underdeveloped teeth were too weak to cut through the sturdy material of his bracer. They killed dozens, while the Scrapmaw queen screeched and shrieked in the background as they slaughtered her young, so loud Evan had to suppress the urge to drop his sword and cover his ears. He tried to block out the mother's wailing and focused on cutting off the head of one of the larger Scrapmaws in the cave, pivoted and slashed at the legs of a smaller individual.

Oliver, the farm boy that he was, went to town on the vermin creatures. He hacked and slashed at them with impressive skill and endurance. Evan took a few steps back and let Oliver deal with the last handful of them alone, admiring his sword fighting technique. He needed to ask Oliver for lessons. Lessons that went beyond "don't drop your sword." He was allowing himself to get distracted, just for a short moment, to watch Oliver fight and maybe pick up some clues. It was a moment too long.

Just as Evan let his sword sink, something hit him like a train. He was nearly slammed against the opposite wall of the cave. It took him a moment to clear his vision and realize what it just was that had struck him. At first, he thought it was the queen's claw. The attack had come from her direction. But her claws were too short to reach him. It was her tongue. He scrambled back to his feet just in time as she opened her gaping jaws again and a fat, black, calloused tongue shot out.

That thing was at least 20 feet long. Oliver's eyes went wide, but before he could dodge, the tongue wrapped around his ankles and pulled him off his feet, dragging him right toward the queen's open jaws. Evan hastily activated [Teleport], teleporting right next to Oliver, and brought his sword down. He'd expected to cut it clean off, especially with this new, sharp sword from Agatha, but to his shock he only made a small cut, a few inches deep.

It didn't even bleed, and it did not stop the Scrapmaw queen from dragging Oliver across the floor. Evan started hacking away blindly, aiming for the same spot again and again, and using [Star Slash] whenever he could. Finally, he was starting to make a dent. His mana pool was nearly empty, his arms were tiring, his muscles burning, but he'd caused a deep enough gash to annoy the queen. She let go of Oliver and lashed out at Evan instead.

Only a quick [Teleport] allowed him to avoid being thrown across the chamber again by a disgusting, oversized monster tongue. Oliver jumped back to his feet. They both retreated, pressing their backs against the wall of the cave, where the tongue couldn't reach them. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Not that the queen didn't try. She whipped around her tongue, but it was a few inches too short to reach them.

Oliver stared at the monster in disgust.

"I didn't expect that."

"What do we do now?" Evan asked, out of breath.

"We will never get close enough to harm her with that thing in her mouth lashing at us."

"Can't you teleport? Right on top of her? Like you did with the golem?"

"Too far. I don't have the reach," Evan said. Until he increased his speed skill, his teleport was limited to a few feet. Not enough to cross the distance. And the cooldown meant he could only use it to dodge the tongue attacks once before the queen had time to whip it out again. Oliver glanced at the chamber's exit.

"Should we… just leave?" Evan considered it briefly, but quickly shook his head. He wasn't ready to admit defeat just yet. Oliver's mention of their fight against the Mud Golem had triggered an idea.

"Do you have enough mana to use your Petrifying Strike and your Iron Root together?" Oliver checked his mana bar, then nodded.

"Barely enough, but yes. I can pull it off."

"Okay, then you take care of the tongue. Petrify it, and then once that effect fades, use your roots to bind it."

"What if she breaks through the roots? It didn't stop the golem for very long when I fought it alone."

"It doesn't need to last very long," Evan said.

"Just long enough so I can cross the chamber and get to her." Oliver took a deep breath.

"Okay. I think I can do that. Yes, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it right now, before I lose my last sliver of bravery. Ready yourself." Oliver waited for a moment when the queen retracted her tongue, then charged forward. As expected, the queen lashed out at him. The massive black tongue tore through the air. Oliver raised his sword above his head. He sliced the underside of the tongue, activated [Petrifying Strike], then dodged to the side.

The queen's tongue crashed to the ground, as if was weight down by a ton of stones. That was Evan's opportunity. He crossed the first few feet with his [Teleport] in an attempt to save time, and then he sprinted the rest of the distance as fast as his legs carried him. He reached the Queen just as she was starting to free herself from the petrifying effect of Oliver's strike, but Oliver was ready for that. He followed up with his [Iron Root] attack.

Thick roots shot out of the cavern floor and wrapped themselves around the tongue, tying it down. The queen's short limbs scrabbled across the ground as she tried to pull herself free. That was Evan's chance. He swung his sword over and over again, slashing and stabbing the monster queen's massive, pale body. Green blood came pouring out of the wounds he was causing her, but his interface showed her health bar dropping excruciating slow. He was doing damage, but not nearly enough.

With a nervous glance, he noticed that the roots Oliver had conjured were starting to retract already. He used [Petrifying Strike] again.

"Hurry up, Evan! I'm almost out of mana, I can't pull off another Ironroot." Evan considered the Queen's health bar again. With the amount of damage he was doing, he could hack at her for hours without putting her in the red. What he needed was a critical hit. The experience with the Mud Golem had taught him that monsters still possessed organs, or at least something resembling organs. He needed to hit one. An important one. Her heart was covered by about a meter of flesh, so stabbing that wasn't an option.

But maybe he could get to her brain. He tried to teleport onto her back, but quickly realized he was running low on mana too. Not enough left for another teleport. He could wait until he'd regenrated enough, but that would take longer than Oliver's [Petrifying Strike] would last. He would have to do this the hard way. Aware he was running out of time, he grabbed a handful of scrapmaw queen skin and pulled himself upwards.

Ramming one foot into her side, he tried to find purchase but slipped, dangling off her side with one hand holding on to a fistful of scaly skin. Mobilizing his last reserve of strength, he dragged himself upward in a one-armed pull-up and managed to brace his foot against her side. He landed on her back in the most ungraceful acrobatic move in the history of mankind.

Straddling her back like a horse rider, he scooted forward until he sat right on her neck—or where her neck would've been if she hadn't been one large sausage of disgusting Scrapmaw flesh—lifted his sword over his head with both hands, and slammed it down with all his might. The tip pierced right through the skull and sank into her brain. The Scrapmaw screamed a high-pitched scream that threatened to burst Evan's eardrums.

She bucked like a scared horse, and he flew right off, landing on the ground with a painful thud. His sword was still stuck in the monster's skull. The queen thrashed around, stumpy limbs flailing, massive body rolling from side to side. And then she went still. Oliver pumped his fist.

"We did it! I can't believe it. We killed a queen, Evan!" Evan wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Thanks to Agatha. I don't think my old sword would've managed to get through her skull. It broke the first time I hit the mud golem. But Agatha's sword sliced through the bone like a knife through warm butter." Evan dismissed the numerous updates about killing all those baby Scrapmaws. Each had netted him a small amount of experience and even mana stones, but he wanted to see what he got from the queen.

[You have killed the Scrapmaw queen] [You have earned 39 experience points] [You have looted 119 mana stones] With a smile, he checked his inventory. Combined with what he'd earned from the juveniles, he now had 489 mana stones in his wallet. He still had no idea what he could buy with that amount, but it felt like a pretty decent number, considering he'd arrived in this world only yesterday with completely empty pockets. He checked his progress bar next, and what he saw made him grin like an idiot.

"Evan! I made it to rank 2!" [Congratulations! You reached Rank 2] [You have 1 unused skill slot] [You can allocate 4 attribute points]"Me too!" Oliver said.

"4 attribute points to spend! I'm going to put mine into Endurance, I think. I really ran out of steam by the end of this fight."

"I'm going to put some into speed," Evan said.

"I want to increase my teleport range." He accessed his attributes, but to his surprise, they were different from the last time he'd checked them.

"Hey, wait a second… this is odd."

"What?" Oliver asked.

"Uh… I think I went up one point in Strength and one point in Endurance. Is this from the fight itself?" Evan remembered he'd gained a point in Speed during the fight against the Scrapmaw soldiers, but he'd gotten a notification for that.

"No, it's from the achievement," Oliver said, still grinning from ear to ear.

"Achievement?" Evan checked his menu again and spotted a golden exclamation mark next to the [Achievements] tab. He'd missed it, distracted by the stack of Scrapmaw kill notifications and his rank 2 breakthrough. [Achievement: Queenkiller Reward: +1 Strength, +1 Endurance]"Huh, that's neat." Oliver grinned.

"I got the same boost. Hey, you did get a crystal shard too, right?"

"A what?" Evan asked, confused.

"The rat affinity shard. I looted it from the queen."

"I only got mana stones," Evan said.

"What's a crystal shard? Are they like affinity crystals?"

"Shards are small pieces of an affinity crystal," Oliver explained.

"You can't bind a shard to your soul, but it's valuable for crafting. My lighter, for example, has a fire shard, and that light orb has a light shard. We can sell it for a lot of money. Uh… do you want it? You can have it. As repayment for the skill gem and the healing potion." Evan sighed.

"Oliver, I already told you you don't need to pay me back for the gem or the potion. The shard was your reward, so you're keeping it. You contributed more with your skills than me, anyway." A smile tugged at the corner of Oliver's mouth.

"I'm not going to argue with you. Bringing this shard home might appease my father a little for running off… and for filling my skill slot with a sword skill instead of ones that would be useful for farming."

"Talking about skill slots," Evan said, "What are we going to do with ours?" Oliver lowered his gaze and bit his lip. Evan had an idea why he was hesitating. If his father got angry with him, he could excuse the use of the sword gem as an emergency, but there was little excuse to fill another slot with a non-farming skill when his life wasn't actively in danger. They'd won their fight, Oliver could just return home and leave his slot unfilled until his father could get him a nice skill gem for a farmer.

Evan wouldn't allow that to happen. He didn't know Oliver for very long, but he clearly didn't want to be a farmer. Every act that took him further away from this unwanted path was a good thing. He summoned two of his three leftover skill gems from his inventory. Another Gem of the Sword in his right hand and the Gem of the Shield in his left hand. He held both hands out to Oliver.

"Pick one."