Xicackna's gaze was lost in space as she felt unphased by the horrible reality unfolding before her eyes. Hidden in the heights of the room, not far from an escape tunnel, she saw the Humans confront the Zcarbbs with distressing success.
Xyry-Yria had done her best to prepare the defense, but to no avail. It was rather reassuring to see that an adult wasn't really doing any better than her at a strategic level... No, no: that wasn't reassuring in the least! It was quite the opposite!
A shiver made her tremble all over and she stood on all legs so as not to faint. Her stomach was screaming at her to return its contents and her head was hurting, preventing her from fully concentrating on her skills.
“Observation” had suddenly risen to E rank, apparently thanks to her frequent use of the skill. This was good news, but she was still having a little trouble getting used to all the additional information she could perceive. It was all about the good news.
For the bad ones, the list went on and on. She had already used her six minutes of invisibility: while waiting to have it once again, in one hour, she could only count on her camouflage to escape enemy gaze. Fortunately, they were focused on the battle.
The D-rank monster was wreaking havoc among the soldiers, moving ever closer to the big princess. This one did not have any particularly useful skills and relied on the tactic of the tide of soldiers to eliminate this danger. Unfortunately, the other humans supported the attacker and did not allow it to be surrounded.
This damned human worker seemed even more dangerous to her view. Avoiding too much exposure to combat, it appeared here and there, turning around tense situations for its kind by its mere presence. Oh, it didn't do much: it lightly jostled one of its comrades who then avoided a fatal blow, threw a stone which distracted a soldier at the worst possible moment, all sorts of small events which had until now prevented the death of the least of the invaders.
But Xyry-Yria was not without resources. Attacking directly, quite unexpectedly, she pushed back the most powerful of the attackers and threw it violently against a wall, reducing its vitality to half. The human spat out red blood that stained its clothes and the edge of its mouth. It barely had time to cast a dirty look at the princess before disappearing under a swarming mass of soldiers.
On her side, the big princess personally threw herself into attacking the other creatures. Supported by the remaining soldiers, she had forces equivalent to them, superior even if one counted her own level. She had been injured during her contact with the D-rank hunter and some injuries were added, but she retained the advantage against F and E-rank opponents.
Suddenly, the human worker stood before Xyry-Yria, waving at her. Taken aback, the princess stopped and looked suspiciously at the weak creature, convinced that she was detecting the beginnings of an unknown plan.
Baring its teeth in what vaguely seemed to be a smile or some kind of threat, the monster gestured with its hand to one of the large stalagmites that formed one of the ornamental columns of the cave. Its other hand held a mysterious metal box which the System did not offer observation.
The ground shook as an explosion obliterated the base of the column. It collapsed and fell in one piece on the scene of the fight.
A stunned expression on her face, Xyry-Yria looked helplessly at the mass of stone that was approaching her face. Like Xicackna, she had little agility and such an attack took her by surprise.
The princess trembled in shock, receiving the column right on the sensitive part of her forehead. Despite the massive damage, she could have survived. However, the worker's only skill activated, triggering its one chance out of two to double critical damage, that is to say, that inflicted on a sensitive point, increasing the damage.
Xyry-Yria's life points dropped to 0 and she died instantly!
Dungeon « Hive of Xolona » (subsection)
Dungeon boss defeated
Princesse Xyry-Yria [Rank D]
Time remaining before dungeon collapse: 5 min
Xicackna huddled in her hiding place, trying to hold back the tears that were streaming down her face. The tears of defeat, but also of the loss of her big sister. Tears also of fear, of terror, which paralyzed her body with the poisons of indecision and despair.
In the room, the Humans were exalted, singing their victory, among the disoriented soldiers and workers who were fleeing without aim or direction.
The monsters congratulated each other and collected mana stones from the corpses of the Zcarbbs that only they could see. The worker, the one who dealt the fatal blow (even if it was through the column) had received so much XP that it was now level 5.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
In the air, a large green portal appeared, providing an escape route for the humans as the caves began to mysteriously break apart, raining down a few pebbles in the moment, stones later.
The shock of a rock twice her size crashing a short distance away shook Xicackna from her waking torpor.
She had to run away! Now: before she dies stupidly!
Even under the cover of invisibility, it would be crazy to follow Humans through their portal. Who knew what the demonic world from which they emerged looked like? How many of these abominations were swarming there, hungry for the flesh of the Zcarbbs? She would end up being discovered and killed there, far from any civilization worthy of the name.
In this case, the only solution would be to exit the subsection of the dungeon. Each time the monsters attacked them an invisible barrier rose, like the one limiting their prison, blocking access to the rest of the hive. However, now that the Humans were leaving the area, perhaps the passage would be open again?
As she headed towards the exit, she noticed that many Zcarbbs were also following this route. Some were just following her, reassured to be able to follow a superior again, but others were following another order. Projecting herself into the "hive mind", she detected the presence of "Captain Kurk". The warrior had not been able to arrive in time to confront the humans. It was now coordinating efforts to clear the passage.
Notifying Xicackna, it called out to her:
"Princess? You are still alive! Hurry up: the ground is collapsing!"
"Th… the floor? … Ffff… Ffff… You mean the ceiling?"
"No: the ground. Our Queen was right: this place is not our home!"
She quickly understood what the soldier meant. The exit did exist, which was reassuring, but it was surrounded by an unreal landscape. Not only was the cave collapsing, larger and larger blocks smashing to the ground, but it was collapsing into an abyssal void. Indeed, the ground itself was crumbling, the rocks falling endlessly through the starry vault beneath their feet.
With a mixture of horror and fascination, the princess watched the pieces of the dungeon drift until they were lost among the unknown stars. Strange luminous disks with jagged edges also appeared here and there, similar to the drawings of scholars supposed to represent galaxies. Such a view was impossible from home and she could not imagine how far she could be from her true home.
A violent shove jostled her and pulled her from her thoughts. As she turned in annoyance towards the one who had pushed her, she didn't even have time to check if it was a soldier or a worker: she saw it disappear under a huge rock fell from the ceiling...a rock she could have ended up under.
Looking around her, Xicackna noticed that the stampede had stopped at the same time as her: all the Zcarbbs present who were not clearing the path were watching the air and the ground, ready to sacrifice themselves to prevent her from being crushed or falling. As she looked at them, several disappeared, swallowed up by the abyss of nothingness. Kurk's voice rang out, full of urgency and a severity to which she was unaccustomed:
"Hurry up princess! The path has almost disappeared!"
It was true: with every second that passed, an ever-thinner stone gateway disappeared, taking the only chance of survival with it.
A rush of adrenaline propelled the princess forward and she ran with all her legs. Due to the growth of their abdomens, most mature princesses preferred to abandon the bipedal posture favored by younger ones. If she too had often made fun of her elders about this, Xicackna had to admit that using all her legs gave her a burst of speed that she would never have thought herself capable of.
However, she remained desperately slow compared to the others and compared to the disappearance of the track. There was suddenly no ground beneath her paws, which began to wave wildly in the void. She felt her dress squeeze her brutally as large mandibles caught her at the last minute, using her own movement to make her describe a curve in the air that ended violently on the ground... At least there was a floor.
"That’s bad…"
At her side, her savior, Kurk, contemplated the impassable chasm which had replaced the meager path. Mysteriously floating in the air, pieces of the dungeon continued to disintegrate all around them into a fantastical nightmare landscape. A short distance away, and yet so far, a large vertical block of rock, covering the horizon, indicated the presence of the rest of the dungeon, the only visible entrance of which represented the only hope of survival.
There were around thirty Zcarbbs, mostly workers, on the same rock. Only two of them had a class. If the princess had been alone, she would have counted on the collective intelligence of commoners, accustomed to carrying out various jobs, to find a solution to survive. With Kurk present, she turned to it. Their eyes met and exchanged more information than words could.
If the little princess had superior intelligence, she was far too young and inexperienced. Kurk felt the weight of its responsibilities and made the most of its experience to compensate for its low intelligence. It transmitted its order to the workers and they instantly set to work, calculating the distances, the workforce present, the priorities. They ordered the soldiers to position themselves in the places they designated and took position themselves, forming a large pyramid leaning towards the exit.
"Follow me! Quickly!"
Obeying the captain's orders, the princess climbed the pyramid of Zcarbbs. She had already heard of this technique: workers did this when they had to build a bridge, in order to establish a temporary infrastructure which would gradually be replaced by the final work. But this time there weren't enough of them.
Arriving at the end of the bridge, Xicackna saw that there was still a space five times larger than her to cross. She turned a questioning look towards Kurk.
"We’ll have to jump, "it grumbled. "There is no other solution."
"It's impossible!" the princess complained, "waving her tiny wings. I'm still unable to fly and I certainly couldn't jump that far!"
She bit the edge of her mouth nervously. So, this was where she was going to die? If at least she could have been useful to the hive... Kurk would survive: it had enough strength to jump. Probably not while carrying her: there would be too much risk of them both falling. But it was for the best: a level 17 warrior would always be better than her. Although she potentially represented a large number of future Zcarbbs, what the hive needed to survive right now was powerful fighters.
Xicackna felt a violent push and suddenly found herself in the air, diving to meet the saving opening. Panicked, she waved her hands, paws and wings by instinct before heavily encountering the earth which, fortunately, covered her reception area.
Getting up almost immediately, she glanced back. Unbalanced by the princess throw, Zcarbb's pyramid swayed dangerously. She saw at its summit the Kurk warrior beckoning to her.
"Whatever you think, "it shouted, "princesses are the most important!"
As the points of support became fewer for the base of the living construction, as the oscillation accelerated the collapse of both the bridge and the rock on which it stood, slowly the end point was reached and the whole group of Zcarbbs was thrown into the void.
Like a cry of defiance against the Dungeon, their voice resonated with a chorus chanted in unison before being caught up in the void outside:
"For Xa-tar-Lona!"