The adventurer’s reunion with Randor abruptly ends. They see the sprightly prince defending himself from the queen. The remaining elite insectoids block their way. The other adventurers, mercenaries and elven knights can’t break the barricade. Inside the throne room is an earthen peak at the center. Below the insectoid mound is a deep pit. The pit is full of several elite insectoid larvae, ready to immediately hatch into mature ones. The hatchlings squirm from their eggs, screeching in agony as a black liquid covers them.
The queen insectoid has an engorged body, long segmented legs, and scaly wings. Her veins pulsate rigorously as she spawns an elite insectoid egg. She drops the egg to the pit and bounces at the larvaes,
“Ayala, tell this to them. Move aside!” Corbin commands the young elf to convey his message.
“The elite insectoids won’t allow us, this is a duel between the prince and the queen.” Ayala translates the insect's warning.
“Can you ask them why the queen changed?” Nia requests Ayala.
Ayala approaches an elite insectoid commander. This time around, the commander went reasonably. After exchanging incoherent messages, she tells their story.
“After giving birth to its last heir, the queen felt extreme hunger. She no longer asks for fungi and other vegetation in the forest. One day, the elite insectoids carry the mysterious metallic cube. At first, the metallic cube gave them incredible strength to kidnap some prey. They forced feed the queen with a porcus, then a taurus, finally a kobold bandit. The screams from their prey sound harmonious for their antenna. Months later and the elite insectoids decided to gift the queen with the metallic cube. It satiated her hunger and gave birth to the stronger elite insectoids.”
“But why duel with the prince?” Milas requests Ayala share her question.
“Other than an interesting plaything, the prince strikes a deal. If he defeats the queen, they will stop the invasion. Otherwise, the prince would offer a country with bountiful amounts of flesh. Particularly living ones.”
“Randor, you fool!” Corbin howls at the prince.
“Maybe he has a reason, let’s wait and give him a chance.” Nia reasons out and tries to figure out Randor’s plan.
“I hope he’s bluffing. If the census is right, the whole continent of Arche has about 3 billion inhabitants left. Not including the beasts and the non-living.” Calma estimates how many are the surviving living beings out there.
“With that kind of hunger, she can eat a country!” Milas gets terrified with that idea. Her relatives might be in danger if Randor loses.
“Then we should observe the prince duel the queen. Their duel would determine our future.” Averill tries to trust Randor’s questionable plan.
The prince is doing fine with his dueling. He parries every thrust from the queen’s legs. The queen would try to swipe and trample Randor with her flabby abdomen. She hisses angrily every time the prince succeeds to avoid her. All a sudden, an elite insectoid from the pit grabs Randor’s ankle. He almost lost his balance and the queen wounded his right shoulder. Everyone sees Randor struggle in pain.
“That’s not fair! You said it’s a duel, not a gang up!” Milas angrily shouts. She tries to push away the elite insectoids but to no avail. The insectoid barricade prevents the elven alliance from retaliating.
“The queen wants to win by any means.” Corbin prepares to approach the barricade by the elite insectoids. Averil and Ayala agree to follow Corbin.
Calma decides to project holy barriers as platforms to reach the queen’s throne. Corbin, Averill and Ayala climb through the platforms to jump over the barricade. Nia confines the elite insectoids inside a magical barrier.
The elves and half-orc proceed to strike down the climbing elite insectoids . Corbin uses heavy swipes at a safe distance. Averill blocks the incoming attacks and counters with precise swats with her sword. Ayala uses her spear to slash and stab the elite insectoids.
While the 3 enters the earthen peak, Milas rallies the rest of the group to break the barricade. Rez snipes at the distance since explosives would collapse the throne room. With their path blocked away, the rest of the adventurers, mercenaries and elven knights wait. They trust Averill and the others to finish the queen.
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“Cover me Corbin!” Averill approaches Randor and uses her elven magcraft to heal his wound. Ayala retreats towards Averill and thrusts the rest of the elite insectoids.
“YOU’RE MINE!” Corbin taunts the queen with a raging bellow. He unleashes again his orcish rage and charges towards the queen.
The queen shrieks back against the half-orc. She furiously tries to stab Corbin with her segmented legs. But due to her massive size, Corbin can easily dodge the incoming attacks. He counters each stab by decapitating her segmented legs. The queen cries in pain so she decides to fly. She flaps her giant wings and tries to flee. Shards of sharp insectoid scales fall from the queen’s wings.
“Take cover!” Averill again uses her elven magecraft to summon tree barks from the ground. The tree barks block the sharp scales coming above.
Corbin meanwhile shrugs off the sharp scales and runs toward the fleeing queen. He never minds the scales that wound his extremities. He already tolerated more painful cuts than that.
“NO ESCAPE!” Corbin draws back his sword and pulls out the decapitated legs. He throws the segmented legs like humongous javelins. Some of his aimed throws miss but impale the hatchlings at the pit. A successful throw hits one of the queen’s wings and shears it. The tore at the queen’s wing continues to run until the wing falls off. The queen loses altitude and begins to descend.
“Incoming!” The adventurers, mercenaries and elven knights hear a piercing squeal from the surface. A troop of goblin sappers detonate the bombs from the surface. The hive tremors and the ceiling breaks. The debris struck most of the elite insectoids and the queen.
“Now what, another tremor?” Rez mumbles.
“That’s my backup!” Randor shouts across the throne room.
Nia redirects her magical barrier to Corbin, Averill, Ayala and Randor. Calma creates improvised platforms made out of the holy barrier. The 4 narrowly escape as the ceiling and the throne room collapses. The queen falls to the pit and squashes most of the hatchlings and larvaes. As the dust clears, the queen is gravely wounded. She tries to climb back to her throne room, squiggling at the adventurers. Ayala decides to talk to the queen for the last time.
“Why would you do this?”
“The hunger… It hurts…. My children…. My future… We are doomed… We need… To spawn more…”
Hiding inside Ayala’s backpack, Gimbal and Hope wiggles towards the queen. At the queen's final moments, they communicate in their insectoid language .
“My queen, here is Hope, your last heir.” Gimbal carries Hope on his back.
“A name… We never… Had names…”
“This brave elven knight gave us freedom by naming us. We apologize for not understanding your plight. We thought you had abandoned us.”
“Thank… You…My Servant… Please… stop… The Visitors… before… it’s too late…”
The remaining elite insectoids climb using the queen’s body. They attempt to reclaim the metallic cube which is pulsating inside her thorax.
“This ends here!” Randor stabs the queen’s head with no hesitation. A swift stab from the prince’s saber finishes off the queen. Her unconscious body rolls down to the pit, crushing the rest of the elite insectoids. WIth the queen gone, the rest of the elite insectoids become tranquil and numb. They stopped moving at all like statues.
“Wait, you just ended the queen! We could at least try saving her!” Ayala shouts at Randor as he wipes his saber with a spare handkerchief.
“The metallic cube already controls her, we are too late to free the queen from its influence.” Gimbal concludes and solemnly bows at the former queen.
“But, but, she’s only under the influence of the metallic cube. She may mean no harm right at the beginning.” Ayala looks distraught from what has transpired. She still believes that the queen can be saved.
“The Visitors are behind the queen’s corruption. It’s up to us to thwart their plans.” Calma explains their situation to the young elven knight..
“I’m very sorry for letting you experience this, Ayala.” Averill tries to console the confused elf. She hugs Ayala and strokes her head. Ayala then cries like every other child. Despite being delegated as an elven knight, Ayala is still in her tender years.
“This is the reality of war. Either one side wins or falters.” Corbin comments while removing some of the impaled shards at his body. Nia approaches him and she tends his cuts.
“What was your crazy plan?” Coming out of the adventurer’s crowd, Milas confronts Randor. She plants both of her hands on his shoulders. She can’t believe the prince’s contrived plans.
“I was buying time to distract the queen. Before entering the hive, I used a magical scroll to conjure a beacon of light. The goblin sappers are searching for my beacon so that they can demolish the throne room. I believe that the queen is amassing all her resources to the throne. She was ready to leave and invade another kingdom.”
“And you want to bask yourself with all the glory if you managed to win the duel?” Rez makes a crass remark. He actually meant it half-heartedly. A part of him wants to take the victory.
“I was confident with my skills to duel her. And the rest happens.” Randor brushes off the comments.
“What if we failed to save you? You could have endangered everybody!” Milas is still mortified with Randor's plans.
“Well, luck is on our side. I did take the factor that everything will fall according to plans. The end justifies the means.”
“Please be more careful with your decisions, not everyone can understand your plan.” Nia motherly reprimands the prince for his actions.
“I'll be less rash when deciding next time, my lady.” Randor laughs off all of his companions’ worries and negative reactions.
The pit no longer shows signs of life. The insectoid queen’s body fizzles as the black liquid devours her inside out. Any nearby larvae and eggs burst like bubbles, releasing more black liquids.
“Everyone, move out! Don’t let the black liquid touch you!” Calma warns the approaching adventurers, mercenaries and elven knights. They wish to see the fallen queen. Calma uses holy barriers to temporarily deflect the overflowing black liquid.
“We better evacuate this premises and head back to Ironthorne Kingdom. Another team shall investigate the pit later.” Randor suggests everybody to retreat.