Having made their way into the goo filled tunnel, the team was faced with a mesmerising scene.

Nicholas: wha, what is this?

Stretching out before them was a huge, seemingly endless cavern. Illuminated by a beam of light shining down from above, the massive expanse was clear to see. If one were to estimate, it would have to be at least 5 kilometres wide and just as tall. The walls sloped down to reach the centre of the chamber, making it a semi-spherical shape. standing at the connection between the tunnel and the cave, they were at the top of sloped walls.

Rob: is that?

Tony: outside?

looking up at the lights origin, they could see a hole in the roof of the cave. though it was only a couple dozen meters wide, the streams of moonlight into the dark cavern were as bright as sunlight to the people inside. looking at the open space before them, everyone was unsettled by what they saw. Covering every available surface was a thick layer of green goo, giving the room a grotesque atmosphere. Oval egg sacks the size of footballs were dotted around, like dots of pink in a sea of green. the occasional twitching of the eggs made it seem like the room itself was alive. But even this disturbing scene wasn't the centre of their attention. In the centre of this landscape, a colossal creature was wandering around. focusing on it, Gareth used his enhanced eyesight to examine the monster.

Gareth: what the hell is that thing?

Even from the distance of several thousand meters, Gareth could see the creature as clear as day. Standing at 20 feet tall and 15 feet wide, it was the size of a house. looking almost identical to the parasites, it was scuttling around on 8 pointed legs. The only thing that set it apart from a normal parasite, other than its size, was the large sack protruding from it's lower body. bending its knees, the huge parasite lowered it's huge sack to the ground. As Gareth watched, the bag like appendage began pulsating. A bulge at the top of the monsters sack started wiggling it's way to the tip, almost like it was trying to escape. Eventually reaching the end of the wriggling sack, it forced its way out of a small hole in its tip. leaking out of that hole, a pink goo interspersed with eggs fell onto the floor. Quickly hardening, the goo formed into another egg sack. Completely shocked, Gareth turned towards Solomon. Seeing the unsettled look on his face, he knew Solomon had also seen the previous scene. to the side of Solomon, Pluvia and Alice were also looking out at the creature

Gareth: is that, the?

Pluvia: yeah, it's the queen.

Before Gareth could finish asking his question, Pluvia had answered it for him. receiving nods from Alice and Solomon, they were all in agreement. though it wasn't an odd assumption to call this creature the queen, there had been no evidence for one existing in the film. Staring intently at it, Pluvia's keen intuition was telling her that it was very strong.

Solomon: there's no need to panic, it hasn't seen us yet. even if it did it's too far away to do anything.

Seeing the newbies and characters behind him becoming nervous, Solomon explained the situation to them. Being unable to see as clearly as himself, they could only make out the queens outline. even though this situation was uncomfortable for the newbies, they bared with it. But the characters being normal people didn't have the mental fortitude to shrug off their fear. With each passing second, they were becoming increasingly afraid.

Rob: calm down everyone, it's only a bigger bug. it'll only end up squashed like the last ones.

Recovering quickly, Rob tried to calm his friends down. he was surprisingly adaptable, becoming accustomed to his fear in an extremely short time

Jason: it can't be that simple. I mean, it's the queen right? surely it's special right?

Hud: Right! won't it have a royal guard or something? I mean, what if there like the bugs from starship troopers. Then won't they make a hole in our heads and eat our brains!

despite Rob's attempt, his friends were still panicking. spurred on by Huds vividly detailed rambling, they were about to lose themselves completely to fear.

Solomon: Silence! now's not the time for this. it's just a bigger version of the parasites. even if it does have special powers, what can it do to the four of us?

pointing at himself and the other G ranks, he appeared completely confident.

Nicholas: Are you sure? maybe it's hiding its power.

Jumping into the conversation, Nicholas was also sceptical.

Solomon: So what if it is. even if it's twice as strong as it seems, we can still kill it together.

looking at the distant figure of the Queen, Solomon had a confident grin on his face. Even faced with this house sized enemy, he seemed unfazed. seeing the complete confidence of Solomon, the characters calmed down slightly. though still on edge, they weren't going to run away screaming anytime soon. interjecting in Solomons conversation, Tony had a concerned look on his face.

Tony: Solomon, are you sure it's as weak as you said?

Solomon: As far as I can tell, why?

Tony: my senses are going crazy. That queen over there is insanely strong.

Looking at the reddening of Tony's face, it was clear that he was struggling to hold it together. His sensitive senses were telling him that the queen wasn't an enemy they should fight. Taking his warning very seriously, Solomon looked back over at the queen.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Solomon: we've got no other choice. there's not enough time to go around. even if we could, isn't this the perfect time to kill it. right now it's on its own. if we don't take this chance now it could bite us in the ass later.

As Solomon looked over at it, the queen suddenly stopped in place. Twitching slightly, it started acting differently. Confused by this change in behaviour, Solomon focused his attention back onto the queen. just as confused, Pluvia, Alice and Gareth were also observing the queens movements.

Alice: What's it doing?

Under everyone's gazes, the queen continued to twitch. Quickly becoming more violent, the queen seemed to be working up to something. Stamping on the ground with its pointed feet, the queen was leaving head sized potholes in the floor.

Gareth: this doesn't seem good. what should we do?

getting a foreboding feeling, Gareth felt a shiver run up his spine.

Solomon: I don't know. for now, we'll have to wait and see what it does. everyone be alert, I don't want it catching us off guard.

though it wasn't looking towards them, Solomons intuition told him they'd been discovered. as everyone watched on silently, the fear of the unknown was gnawing away at them.

Jason: fuckin do something already!

losing out to the pressure, Jason swore at the Queen. fortunately, it was too far away to hear us. hearing his words to echo away to nothingness, everyone's already anxious thoughts reached a climax. Just as the rest of the characters were about to lose it, the queen froze. no longer randomly stomping around, it was standing perfectly still. to everyone's horror, it was facing towards them. Though they couldn't make out the creature's eyes from this distance, they were sure that it was staring straight at them.

Gareth: shit! it's seen us!

Taking a startled step back, Gareth's mind briefly went blank. Though the distance between himself and the queen was huge, the terrifying power of its gaze caught him off guard. Looking at Alice beside him, he noticed that she was also startled. But looking at the unmoved Solomon and Pluvia, he felt a little embarrassed. Even feeling the oppressive power coming from the queen, both of them were still standing tall. Seeing the distance between them and him displayed so obviously, a fire was lit in his heart. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to be on equal footing with them.

Pluvia: this isn't good. Solomon, take everyone and run.

Looking at the far off form of the queen, Pluvia's expression turned solemn. Her usually calm expression had disappeared completely, leaving behind a cold and calculating face.

Solomon: no, we can't run.

Turning back to Solomon, Pluvia planned on forcing him to leave. But seeing the toothy grin on his face, she was taken aback. the confident expression on his face made her question his sanity. When the pressure from the queen had swept over Solomon, he was surprised by its strength. Though he already acknowledged the queen's strength, he had only expected it to be equal to himself. Unexpectedly, it was almost twice as strong. This unassuming queen seemed to be a lot more powerful than they first thought. Staring down this deadly opponent, Solomon's blood began to boil. Having been unable to go all out in a fight since his last upgrade, Solomon was anxious to test his new powers. Just as Pluvia recovered herself and was about to force Solomon away, the queen acted.

Queen: GREEEEEEEEEE!!!

Taking a deep breath, it let out a deafening screech. easily surpassing the sound of a jet engine, the screech instantly reached the ears of everyone. Hitting their unprepared ears, unspeakable pain forced its way into their heads.

Nicholas: AAARGGGHH!

Tony: UUUNNGGHH!

The newbies screamed with pain, falling to their knees. Staying crouched down, they tried to resist the urge to vomit. the violent ringing in their ears was like hammers, hitting them over and over. beside them, the characters had directly fainted. even the unusually resistant Rob was passed out on the floor. Resisting the earsplitting pain, Nicholas got to his feet. Still carrying the unconscious Sasha on his back, he couldn't afford to collapse. Standing unsteadily, Nicholas felt a hand grab his shoulder. He looked up to see the concerned face of Alice before him. Though he could see her lips moving, he couldn't hear her over the ringing in his ears.

Alice: Hey, are you all right!?

Looking at the pained expression on Nicholas' face, Alice was worried. Even to her, the queen's scream had dealt considerable damage. if it had hurt her, then the characters and newbies would undoubtedly be injured by it. Looking at the confused expression on his face, she thought the noise had scrambled his brains.

Gareth: he can't hear you, the noise will have left him deaf!

Coming up to Alice, Gareth explained Nicholas's condition.

Gareth: he'll be fine for now, help me check on them!

Pointing over at the collapsed bodies of the characters, Gareth's face was ugly. Being tasked with their protection, he felt very guilty seeing them injured. Then looking at the stumbling frames of Nicholas and Tony, he regretted the decision to go this way. at this moment, he wanted to help the newbies, but the characters would be far worse off than them. So with the characters as their priority, Gareth and Alice ran over to them. Still facing the queen, Solomon and Pluvia were keeping an eye on it. having reacted extremely quickly, they coated their ears with their qi to protect themselves. luckily, the queen's attack wasn't energy based. otherwise, everyone would be a lot worse off now.

Solomon: how are they?

turning around, Solomon noticed the characters collapsed on the floor. standing beside them, Alice and Gareth were checking on them. With concern flashing on his face, Solomon was worried the worst had happened.

Alice: they're fine, just knocked out.

Solomon: haah, that's good.

breathing a sigh of relief, Solomon looked back towards the queen. as he did, a new noise entered his ears.

Echo: araarAAARAAAAARAAAAAAAAAA!

This new noise seemed to be approaching them from far away, growing louder as it got closer. Listening to this approaching noise, Solomon was curious as to its origin. Listening out for the source of this noise, Solomon realised that it was coming from the tunnels around the cave. with the cave's location being an intersection of two subway lines, there was a tunnel on each side of the cavern. the noise seemed to be coming from them. luckily, whatever it was wasn't coming from the tunnel behind him. As he continued observing, Solomon saw a horde of parasites erupt out of the other tunnels. Forming into a sea of dark black, the parasites Gathered around their queen. surprisingly, there was another type of parasite among them. Standing at 6 feet tall, they were unique compared to the other parasites. instead of the usual front legs, they had two scythe-like arms, As well as a sharp, tail like limb attached to their lower back. Even though these special parasites numbered less than twenty, each one was several times stronger than an ordinary parasite. moving with the group, these new parasites also gathered around the queen. when the tide of insects had finished pouring out of the tunnels, nearly half of the open space was filled with the parasites. Solomon estimated nearly 5000 parasites had appeared from the tunnels. when this huge group had stabilised themselves, they all looked up at him. the weight on Solomons' shoulders suddenly tripled compared to before, making him sweat. The previously raging fire in his heart had dampened, becoming more like a candle than a bonfire. From the centre of the huge cavern, the queen stared up at Solomon. Almost like it was smirking at him. Seeing this, Solomon complexion turned unsightly.

Solomon: fuck me.