37.

The Queen moved in a blur, her blue-black chitin just an after image as she charged straight at Luke. He’s able to dodge, though stumbled, and Dan is there taking pressure off of him. The warlord relies on his strength as he severed a leg, his spear slicing where it connects to the Queen's thorax. She doesn’t scream or rage, she was a deathly silent killer. She spun, dust and mud flinging around her as she pounced after Dan.

I have to give it to Dan, the man has moved. He’s not as fluid as Luke, or as explosive as I am, but he’s trained. He rolls perfectly, dodging the blow and riposting with a clean strike that digs a furrow through chitin to release another swell of blood. Dan uses his overbuilt aggression to keep attacking, never slowing down as he rains blow after blow on the Queen’s face.

I’ve closed most of the distance, my staggered steps much slower than before. The berserking skill I had used was a massive power boost, but it seemed the fallout was just as severe. I could hardly keep my eyes open, every iota of my being begged for sleep and food. Not to be dragged forward into what was culminating into an epic boss fight. My will had won out, but by the most razor sharp of margins.

As the Queen spun to engage Luke, having managed to swat Luke with a leg, I took my chance. I summoned what was left of my stamina and surged across the ground. The distance closed immediately, and I jumped with all my might again. It had worked once, why not a second time? Frozen above the Queen, I saw the clotting wounds, the broken wing, and most importantly her eyes. She rotated her head to look at me in mid-air. Where I was powerless to change my course. I could do little as she spun around and battered me out of the air with one powerful swipe of her leg.

The second time was worse than the first time. She had more power behind this attack, more anger and hurt as she hit me. Reinforced bones broke, blood burst from my lips, and I was redirected out of the Fort. I sailed over the heads of the retreating warriors and through the shattered wall. I hit the unyielding frozen ground and bounced a few times, to end up in a boneless heap.

I lay there for a moment reconsidering my life decisions. Pain was a distant thing, something alerted me that my body was broken, but I wasn’t being consumed by it. At least, not yet. An advantage of the increased stats, or was it the fallout of my skill use? If my skill used stat points, borrowing on the future to deliver now, then maybe I wasn’t feeling everything to the full extent because my perception was used up? Fuck if I know.

I got back up. Limbs worked with a will of their own, propping me to my feet and having me walk back to the fight. The warriors streamed past me, looks of horror on their faces as they fled. The might of humanity, broken by an oversized ant. It pissed me off.

I walked back through the broken walls again, for the second time today. Earlier the courtyard had been still, the battle having laid waste to it and leaving the destroyed as a testimony. Now, it was filled with the sounds of fighting, active as the three remaining fighters danced around each other. Well, Luke and Dan danced around, the Queen was like a bull. She charged and battered, flung them this way and that. She inflicted plenty of pain as the two of them bounced around and off the ground, walls, and anything else she could throw them at. The two of them were leaving her covered in the equivalent of papercuts.

I walked closer, my steps were slow and steady. I had to be careful not to overextend myself and fall in front of all of them. I found another spear, not reinforced, on the ground. I gingerly plucked it from the ground and waited. I refused to use my mana. It would help without a doubt. So much had been forced already though. The use of my stat points still stung. I wasn’t giving up my ace in the hole unless it was life and death. I still thought we could win, the three of us.

The Queen stamped across the courtyard, trampling Dan under her many legs. She had turned her back to me. I broke into a jog and headed toward her as she seemed to delight as she danced on Dan’s body. He was curled up in the fetal position and was just taking the beating. He wasn’t as durable as I was, but he had enough constitution to take the oversized ant’s trampling.

I realized this wasn’t going to work. I was too destroyed to fight like I normally did. I didn’t have my team with me to be the hammer to my anvil. I threw the spear. I had aimed at the clotted section, where she had ripped off her egg sack and the third of her body. It was the most grievous wound she had.

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Our spears weren’t meant for throwing. They were improperly balanced and were meant to be used as stabbing instruments. It was mostly providence that let the spear slash into the scab. I was right behind it. I leapt and grabbed the impaled spear and my body weight dragged it through the scab. I got another blood shower as I landed in a crouch behind the Queen. I was going to shower for a week.

The Queen finally made a sound, a low hiss of rage as she spun and knocked me back. Her mandible broke the ground where I had just been, ripping earth apart in a spray of insectoid rage. Blood flowed out of her like a waterfall, not immediatley clotting like she had done originally. Maybe the death by a thousand cuts was working?

She towered over me, her one good eye glared down with hatred. At least I thought it was hate, hard to tell since she was an insect.

“I tire of this. I will kill you all now.” The Queen’s declaration rang through my head like a gong. She had been toying with us, enjoying using us like playthings as she vented her anger. This was revenge for forcing her to lose her hive, lose the young she had been carrying, for hurting her. Rage. Red hot and invigorating poured through me.

I got back to my feet. The heart was willing, but the body wasn’t. I was a broken mess of shattered bone and torn ligaments. If I could feel the pain I was in, I had no doubt I would be screaming and bawling. My own blood was flowing and mixing with, well everything that I had killed and rolled around in today. I lifted my spear in defiance, staring her down as behind her, Dan rose to his feet.

The man was a mess of torn clothing and flesh. His left arm hung crookedly but he still clung to his own spear. Luke had pried himself out of the remnant of the wall and had started to jog toward the fight. We were all a mess. Three of the highest ranked warriors in the region, looking nothing more than beggars beneath the eye of a bug. It was disgraceful, it tore at my ego, ripped apart my pride. I should have been stronger. I should have been more relentless. I had yielded so often to taking the easy way.

“You’re making a mess.” Bobby said as she strolled into the ruins of the fort. I turned my head to look at her, her giant warhammer slung over a shoulder. Agatha was right behind her, looking at the bug, well, like it was a bug. Power surged around the old woman, the pressure like being in the depths of the ocean. The Queen launched herself, her wings trying desperatley to work. Her one healthy wing fluttered about, trying in vain to get her off the ground.

Agatha watched for a moment, with the same apathy as before as she lifted her hands. Red light glowed around her fingertips, heat emanated from her waves as she flicked her wrist. A bolt formed, the heat sucked out of the world in a crack as the bolt crossed the distance to the slowly gliding Queen. She might have made it to the walls, tall enough to grab the top and haul herself out. Agatha’s bolt ended that.

I watched in muted awe as the bolt boiled the Queen away. A flash of intense red tinged light flashed out, making my eyes water. As I blinked away the tears, I saw the Queen. What was left of her. The bolt had impacted right where her head met torso. Her head had disintegrated, along with much of everything around it. Anything that wasn’t, had been blasted apart with the force of a bomb.

Bits of her fell on us like a flesh rain. The old lady was already looking off into the distance, her eyes locked on what undoubtedly another level up. I got my own notice, but was too tired to pay attention to it. Bobby was walking toward me quickly, her face set in a stern look of consternation as she levered herself under my arm and supported me. She fished a healing draught from somewhere and forced it down my throat.

“You’re a mess,” she chided gently as I tried to guide her toward the long abandoned mana heart. I was going to claim this damn fort before I went into the healing coma I know I needed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Agatha hurrying over to Miguel, who still seemed rattled by the psychic attack.

“It’s been a long few days. You were supposed to stay with Sulian,” I admonished, though I had little left in the tank to put any force behind it.

“Pointless to learn magic if you and the others die. One or even two of you three dying and we could recover. All three of you. We’d be fucked.”

I agreed with her, but now they all knew at least one of us had unlocked mana. Luke would be more wary about it, but I still hadn’t used any of my abilities. The plan could still potentially work. In the meantime, we had a fort to claim. I lacked the strength to carry the mana heart, so Bobby left me to walk down myself as she hefted and carried the oversized rock. We were silent descending down the ramps and into the main hall.

We could hardly see, but there was little I wanted to see. They had made the hall in their image, webbing and paste used to form honeycombs that they lived in and on. Their were rotting fishmen corpses and others, stuck on the webbing. Cocoons were arrayed around the ceiling of the hall, and a half eaten crab lay in the center of the hall. Splinters of mana hearts were everywhere, crunching under my still bare feet. I think the Queen had been eating them. It would certainly explain her strength. She had been shrugging off attacks that could pulverize stone.

Bobby dropped the oversized rock down the furnace shaft as I watched, swaying on my feet. It took a moment, and then the alert I wanted came.

NSR-6 Occupied. Owner William Brent

Majority of Forts Occupied.

Citadel Gates Opening

Congratulations Survivors. The Citadel, last refuge of all has opened it gates.

The foul Sea King, envious of the land people, has rallied his armies though.

Kill the Sea King and claim the Citadel to be ruler of the North Sea Region.

What the actual fuck.