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The start of the vault has been easy so far. We encountered a few centipedes that we took down easily, they weren‘t that strong. But the deeper we went, the stronger they were getting, it was like the first ones we fought against were only the small fries of the vault. Wouldn‘t it make sense though to have the stronger ones at the entrance? To protect their colony?

We entered once again in a room, but this time the centipedes were much larger.

„Alright, this must be either the last or the second room until we encounter the queen. Let‘s finish this fight without injuries!“ Franek called out.

The short-ranged fighters charged at the bugs, meanwhile, Ivy and Braxton fired from range. I stayed close to our melee fighters, blocking attacks with my ranged programs that can create energy shields from afar, just like what I did when I saved Nia from getting blown up when she was in that tank before. I also taunted some of the bugs so they would go after me instead.

Letya, our healer, was behind the melee fighters with her sword in hand, we needed her to stay behind us so she wouldn‘t be in danger. If she would go down, then our healing capabilities would decrease, badly. She agreed with us happily, either because she didn‘t need to fight, or because she liked healing others. She called out a few programs to support us. I didn‘t really know what it did, but it looked like the melee fighters were getting stronger.

I saw Reve slashing with his giant war ax, centipede after centipede, he cut their scales easily. His artifact armor had a barrier that protected him from their claws, how long would it last? Franek was dodging attacks and called out a program that made his sword glow, then his sword cut a bug in half. He then charged towards another one.

I noticed Nia behind us, just sitting with her back against a wall, eating a sandwich. I guess she couldn‘t really do much. She had a knife, but she would need to be really close to the bugs, and it wouldn‘t really do much against their hard scales. She could use grenades, but the room would likely collapse and trap us. So we all agreed that she would stay still while we fought.

The last centipede died with an arrow that pierced its scales. Many of the bugs laid around us. None of us took any lethal wounds.

„Good job everyone, let‘s continue through that corridor.“

Ivy pulled out a few arrows of the bugs and inspected them, then she threw away the damaged ones, and put back the good ones in her quivers. Some of us used zettra stones to charge up our artifacts.

We walked along the corridor with torches in hand, and then at the end, we found a double door.

„That must be it,“ Franek said and pulled out a key from his artifact weapon.

„Hey Franklin, can I use some grenades if the room is bigger? I really want to blow something up!“ Nia asked with anticipation.

„My name is not Franklin, it‘s Franek. If the room is bigger, then sure, but please don‘t throw them close to us.“

„Don‘t worry Captain! I know where to throw them!“

Franek sighed. „I hope you all are ready, this might get tough! Remember what I told you all when we would encounter the queen, don‘t screw up!“

I walked over to Letya. She is needed to stay close to me so I could defend her, as she is the only healer in the group.

Letya wore a pure white long cloak, white boots, and white leggings. Every single bit of clothing that she has is white, with barely any features of other colors. Even her long hair was white as the snow, and her eyes were also pure white along with her white skin. She has a few holsters around her legs that carry zettra stones, and she had a small backpack behind her. She wore gauntlets with, of course, white energy, and the zettra stones were attached to the artifact like it was needed to be used to heal. Maybe it was draining a lot of its artifact energy? She also carried a sword that she holstered around her belt.

„Hey, so we are going to stick together while we are in there.“

„I‘m fine with that, just go near the ones that need my help while you are defending me,“ she tilted her head slightly and smiled happily.

She had a really great holy aura around her, she could easily inspire us just by smiling.

For some reason when I look at her, she kind of reminds me of a religious person, she does have a golden necklace around her, and the symbol is circular-shaped with a zettra stone embedded in the middle, and it glowed with white light. This golden necklace was the only thing that was not white.

Franek unlocked a lock that was on the door with his key. He placed the key back into his sword and opened up the door.

Just as we expected, there was a giant queen centipede inside, with many other smaller ones. The cave was ginormous, a perfect place for the queen‘s nest.

We went inside and took positions. I noticed the hallway behind the queen was blocked by centipedes with their bodies. No skipping her then.

The queen was high as two Reves put together, and it was really long and curled up. The queen had bugs crawling on her back, just looking at that made me shiver. It also had legs, a lot of legs. I couldn‘t even count how many there were.

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„Alright, folks! Follow my lead and we will win this!“

We charged, and Franek ordered some of us to keep the smaller bugs at bay while we were taking care of the queen.

Most of us started using programs against the queen, but it didn‘t do that much. Reve yelled out a battle cry and swung his ax at the legs of the queen, the ax glowed orange and appeared to grow in size, then he managed to take out a few legs with only one swing.

The queen didn‘t make any noise, but she did move really quickly towards Reve. I threw myself in front of him and called out the program Expanded Shield. The queen collided and managed to drag me back, but I kept on standing.

„Nice one kid!“

„Just so you know, I am over twenty!“

We couldn‘t attack its body, the legs were in the way. So all of us attacked the legs one by one.

I saw blaster bullets coming towards the queen, then they exploded on impact, shattering bits of the queen‘s scales. The firing kept on coming from Braxton, and I also noticed a few of Nia‘s grenades hitting the same spot of the queen‘s body, which was the middle part.

Most of the scales there were broken, the flesh was in sight. That was the weak spot.

A man with a spear dropped down on the ground, writhing in pain by a smaller centipede. Letya and I rushed towards him and took care of the bug. Letya knelt down and pressed her hand down to the wound. I was on the lookout for other bugs, I glanced down to see Letya‘s gauntlets glow with white energy. Then a moment later the man‘s wound was healed.

„There you go!“ Letya smiled.

The man thanked her and got back on his feet.

„How do your gauntlets do that?“ I asked, though I think I knew how they work.

„I don‘t really know, I think the small workers that are inside the artifact does the job.“

I really hate people calling the Nanos „workers“. It bugs me.

Franek was running towards me.

„Ethan! I need your help!“

„With what?“

He stopped and pointed towards the open wound on the queen‘s middle part of the body.

„I need you to boost me up there.“

„Ehh. . . I don‘t think. . .“ Then I remembered. The crap program that made me go fly. That wind protection thing. „Actually, yeah I could.“

The battle raged around us, and we ran closer to the open wound. I changed the Wind Protection program so it was more effective.

„If you are ready, then hop on my shield.“

„Got it!“

Franek jumped on my shield, then it reacted by making Franek fly towards the queen. Meanwhile, I was knocked back on the ground with much force, Letya helped me back on my feet.

Franek flew across the cave towards the wound, he had his sword up high and yelled out a program. Then his sword was getting longer and bigger with energy, then it was as long as the queen‘s width.

He fell down while swinging the sword and hit perfectly at the wound. The sword went through with a clean cut. The body of the queen severed in half.

Franek was falling, and it might end badly for him, I couldn‘t make it in time to try and catch him.

„Program! Feather fall!“ I heard Letya yell out.

She aimed with her hand towards Franek, and white energy started to flow towards him and make his descent slow.

The energy of artifacts are really something, they must be developed by an ancient alien race. These people couldn‘t have made this.

„Phew! Thank you! I really didn‘t plan on how I would survive that fall.“

„Sir Franek, you really should have.“

His sword‘s energy was gone, he needed to charge it back up, the power from that blow costs a lot.

The queen‘s back end writhed and quickly moved around the cave, but it was getting slower. Meanwhile, the head was still alive. The smaller centipedes started to fill up the wound that Franek made with their bodies.

The queen screeched so loudly that some of us needed to cover our ears.

Braxton started firing towards the queen‘s head, Ivy also did the same, aiming for its eyes.

The queen was getting weaker, but the fight was still raging on. Letya and I healed and protected the wounded. Reve kept on cutting away the legs, Nia blew bits by bits the scales.

Then again, I boosted up Franek when he was done charging up his artifact. With the same move he managed to cut deep near the head, but it didn‘t go all the way through.

Letya slowed his fall, and Franek started to get a zettra stone from his pack, but it looked like we didn‘t need to make the same move again.

The queen‘s legs were starting to writhe and then stopped supporting her. She fell with a last screech, the body was still twitching, but it was dead.

The centipedes around us ceased their attacks and started moving away from us. And the bugs that were blocking the hallway also moved away.

We all grouped back up.

„Well done, we should take a breather for now, and then continue after a few minutes.“

„What about the other bugs around us?“

„Don‘t worry, they shouldn‘t attack when the queen is dead. Just like in every other vault, they stop their aggression every time.“

I glanced around, the bugs were watching us. I am sure they wanted to attack, but they didn‘t. It was really strange, or maybe they didn‘t want to lose every single one of each other because they needed at least one to become the next queen? That could be a good excuse.

„We didn‘t lose a single person, well done Letya!“ Reve said, and we all cheered for her. Except for Braxton and Ivy, they were doing their own thing.

Ivy was collecting her arrows while Braxton was inspecting the scales of the dead queen. Those scales could be useful for new armor.

Letya smiled and thanked them. And people started thanking me for defending them, how nice.

We sat around and ate some food and drank some good water while chatting about the fight. Nia was the only one that didn‘t eat because she ate a sandwich earlier.

Most of us looked ready for the next fight, but how many queens do we need to fight? I have heard that there should only be one to three queens in vaults, or if you are lucky, then there could be none and you only need to excavate.

I am sure the day outside the vault has already ended, I wonder if Vincent thinks I have died. It would be funny to see his face after a week of my disappearance, either he would be shocked that I was still alive, or his face wouldn‘t change and he would only say about how long I took.

I looked towards the hallway. I really hope that there aren‘t that difficult creatures that lay down there.