Chương 62: 61. Scorpion Queen of the Reaches

Level: 20 Cards: Magician, Emperor, Lover Special: Birther Weapon: NONE Three Major Arcana… individually they were a nuisance. Together they made for a terrifying combination. Already I had seen what she could do with the Magician. The Emperor was also bad, but it was the Lover that concerned me most of all. Unlike the name, the card was highly manipulative, inserting doubt into a person's mind. The only positive was that it couldn't be used to its full potential when facing a single person.

Normally, it was elf nobles who used it to make participants kill each other and sometimes even themselves. Taking the initiative, I performed an arc attack, sending a line of aether right into the massive insect's side. Her shell, although impressive, wasn't invulnerable, so it quickly cracked, spilling orange goo onto the floor. A blood-freezing shriek filled the chamber. The effect hit me like a tidal wave.

I was prepared for something of the sort, but even all the concentration in the world couldn't withstand an order of authority. Spell circles appeared all over the massive wound, healing it before my very eyes. No! I broke out of the psychic freeze. Just like that, one of my greatest advantages had been negated. Refusing to give up, I followed up with more thread strikes, but the moment had already passed. The queen was aware of my presence and wouldn't allow herself to be injured as easily. Fucking shit!

I cursed myself. If only I had attacked directly with Serp, this might well have been over. A giant pincer swung at me. I leaped to the side, using both my blades to block the attack. Five of Rings. Five of chains! Cards were activated, blocking the attack while strengthening by bones enough to survive the blow. In the previous run, I had seen participants crack the ground when struck by even stronger monsters.

Sadly, I didn't have the cards they had, not to mention that level fifteen wasn't particularly impressive in terms of strength. My disabled knee felt as if it had been set on fire. Restrict, I thought. Two of Chalice. There was little a minor healing spell could do, but at least the restriction had taken hold. When the queen raised her pincer for a second attack, it never came down. I glanced at the entrance. A spell circle persisted, keeping me from the rest of the group.

The only silver lining was that they kept the queen occupied enough to focus the spells and attention away from me. Die, you overgrown cockroach! I performed several more arc attacks as I ran towards the creature's back. Unfortunately, my knee kept me rather slow. Also, nothing prevented the queen from moving, despite her size. Suddenly, her tail rose. That was strange. Of all the insects in the hive, she was the only one that didn't have a stinger. The reason for that remained unclear.

Some speculated that some rare resource could be found there, though so far no one had managed to confirm the theory. I braced myself for a potential attack when I felt it—pheromones. The ground beneath me stirred. Shit! I performed a power strike at the ground directly below. A small part of my immediate surroundings calmed down. Elsewhere, a small pincer emerged. Barely the size of my head, it waved about like part of a toy as the creature it belonged to crawled out. Offsprings … It was to be expected.

This entire chamber was the place where the queen released her young until they were large enough to fend for themselves. I had never seen it before, but it was said that a queen to give birth to up to a thousand scorpions. The chamber was definitely large enough to keep at least as many hidden. Seeing scorpions the size of dogs had also emerged, I could assume that Harlequin had made sure that several batches were buried beneath my feet. Retaining my calm, I quickly drew a water circle on the chamber floor.

Water poured out. As long as I maintained the circle with my thoughts, it would continue releasing water until destroyed or completely submerged. Three other spell circles surrounded me. I pierced through one with a thrust, then leaped forward. Ice shards flew from the remaining two, flying through the spot I had been. Just a second longer and I would have been full of holes. Take me out! Serp demanded. I can take her! You always say that.

I spun around, unleashing several thread strikes, then followed up with another power thrust into the floor. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. This wasn't going to be a direct fight. The queen had every intention of keeping me at a distance with her magic, while her brood devoured me. Every scorpion, even those as small as these, had a lethal sting it could use. I could kill hundreds of them, but if only one managed to make that strike, I was done for.

Blanking my mind to the pain in my knee, I dashed forward. My blades swung wildly, attempting to form a path to the insect's belly, just as I had done against the penta-scorpion. Unfortunately, the approach didn't work. Smaller and constantly on the move, the insects filled any openings that formed, like water pouring into a valley. More spell circles formed, forcing me to move again. The only time I had faced anything similar was when I was fighting plague rats.

As large as grown dogs and covered in blight, they had the ability to infect anything they clawed or bit. For the most part, it was the sheer number of them that killed participants, running over them like a wave. Magic and psychic control were the best methods against them. In this case, I had both cards that would help me, yet neither was at the level I needed it to be.

Any pheromones I released were quickly overwhelmed by the queen's, and even after the boost, my Magician card didn't allow me to use combat circles. Performing a double spin slash I knew from my previous run, I thrust one of the blades into the floor, then summoned Serp. Slaughter! I ordered as I threw the saber at the giant scorpion. Several spell circles emerged one after another in quick succession, blocking his flight. Serp shattered the first, then slammed into the second before falling to the floor.

Clearly, the queen wasn't going to give me an easy victory, but she had already made her first serious mistake. It only took moments for the blade to be covered in scorpions. Unfortunately for them, each creature constituted living matter. Also, unlike the scorpion guards, these weren't protected. Serp doubled in length, piercing through three medium-sized insects at a time. This only energized him, setting the living weapon on a devouring spree.

Similar to my water circle, it was going to take a while before the serpent blade could clear out the entire chamber, but my chances of survival had already doubled. The magic circle blocking the entrance shattered with a loud bang, completely deafening me. Someone outside had resorted to a divine strike. Given that Eleonor had a pact with a dream deity, I could only assume that it had to be Cathy. Alas, before any of my group could join me in the chamber, another circle emerged, blocking the entrance yet again.

More shrieks filled the air. This time I didn't feel the weight of authority freezing my body. Instead, all the scorpions seemed a lot faster. I grabbed my second divine blade and drew a water circle on the floor. Careful, old man! Serp zigzagged through a dozen scorpions, skewering them by the dozen. Several were less than a foot away, ready to leap at me. Not wasting time, I swung around and followed up with another thread strike to kill off any gathered monsters at my back.

Several dozen more were sliced in half. Having no illusions that I was unable to handle the situation as things stood, I rushed towards the chamber wall. Guard my back, I ordered. What do you think I'm doing?! Serp shouted in my head. Without me, you'd have died ten times by now! Just keep it up. It won't be long now. Without a doubt, the wall was the most protected spot in the entire chamber. The shattering of the entrance seal would keep the queen occupied for at least several more seconds.

Seeing the destruction I was capable of alone, she probably assumed that she stood no chance if four more people joined in. That was rather fortunate, given that out of the four, one was utterly incompetent, two didn't have the experience for such a battle, and the fourth had a dream deity as a patron. If she had let us enter in the first place, the scorpion queen could have used the skills of her Lover card and gotten at least two of the group to fight the rest.

From there it would have been easy to win even without involving her entire brood. As I carved another circle on the wall, my thoughts went back to Sparta. If she were here, this would all have been over. She was the type of person to always be underestimated because of her speed. Everyone—participants and monsters alike—were convinced they could imagine how fast she could be. The truth was that they couldn't.

Blessed by Mercury, Sparta had the ability to move from spot to spot so fast that anyone would have thought she was teleporting. Could she have been the one to betray me? If so, I wouldn't have seen it. From what I could remember, she had been the last person I was with before waking up for the trial. It would have been elementary for her to tie me up and leave events to take their course. Why would she, though? And what was all that talk about a key? Hey! Serp's voice snapped me back to reality. Stop drifting.

I'm not drifting. In this case, it was even true. Part of me always remained focused on the fight at hand. So far, I had managed to make three circles on the wall before moving along it in the opposite direction of the entrance. What are you doing, old man?! If the queen wants to kill me so badly, she'll have to work for it. I replied. The air range once more, as another spell circle shattered. Whatever Cathy was using, it had a serious punch. Serp, attack from the side! Don't worry about me.

You're too weak to— Serp! I cut him off. It was obvious that the sword didn't like to be ordered about, nor was it particularly impressed with my current skills. Yet, the partial discipline I had instilled in him during the underwater trial had started to take hold. The ever-growing blade changed direction once more. Three groups—three attacks from different directions. Despite initially wounding her, I suspected that the scorpion queen considered me the smallest threat.

I was slow, not particularly versatile—thanks to Harlequin—and my attacks were easy to counter. Serp was a far greater annoyance. He couldn't be destroyed or harmed in any way, and the abundance of prey meant that he would keep on growing until every last insect in the chamber was dead, not to mention that in the process he left a trail of corpses behind. Any creature stupid enough to try and move over the ribbon of death would instantly be severed, causing the saber to grow even faster.

Finally, there was the rest of the group. Obviously, they had found a way to break through the boss' barrier spell circles, which meant that blocking their attacks couldn't be taken for granted. In her place, the entrance would be the focus of my attention, which gave me every opportunity to attack from behind. Three medium-sized scorpions leapt at me, their stingers twitching, eager for the kill. My usual arc-thread slash combo sliced them into pieces midair.

To be safe, I also struck the floor with a power thrust. At this point, I wasn't going to let anything sneak up on me. Without warning, a giant spell circle emerged on the floor. It was so large that I could only see the edge, stretching almost to the very walls themselves. Shit! Out of everything, I had never imagined that the queen would resort to that spell. There still was a chance that I was wrong, but it wasn't anything I could risk. Serp! Block the entrance! I shouted in my mind. Don't let the others enter!

What? Why? Do it! I pressed myself against the wall as far away from the edge of the spell circle as physically possible. Two of Chalice! I triggered my healing card. The next moment, the entire chamber was engulfed in orange flames.