Even with Harden Heart keeping his emotions dulled down, Jack was getting close to his limit. The terrifyingly powerful Abyss Queen had him pinned to the floor between the two vehicles. Without those two large obstructions preventing the creature from moving around his shield, he would probably already be dead. The devil crab had pierced his left hand with her sharp mouth, shearing off one of his fingers in her opening salvo. Jack was hopelessly outmatched. The silver lining was, as was becoming a habit, that Jack's skills were benefitting from the beating he was taking.

Through effort, you have raised "Harden Heart" to level 3.

Through effort, you have gained +1 to the strength attribute.

Through effort, you have raised "Endless Grit" to level 2.

Through effort, you have raised "Shield Bearer" to level 2.

System messages scrolled past his eyes as the creature pressed him into the ground. He was surprised to see everything leveling up at once—it was probably a result of fighting something far above his level. Unfortunately, it appeared that he would not live to enjoy it. As the razor-sharp proboscis inched closer to his face, Jack found himself growing angry rather than afraid. It wasn’t right; how the hell were normal human beings supposed to stand a chance against these creatures? He and Lucius had gotten incredibly lucky and used every ounce of ingenuity they could muster, and it still wasn’t enough. Jack hated unfairness the most. If he survived this, he would do his best to make sure that other humans wouldn’t have to die as unjustly as he was about to.

Just as the creature's mouth began to pierce his cheek, it suddenly lurched backward, and Jack saw the outline of a pair of legs wrap around the creature's body from behind. The legs appeared to be flashing in and out of existence, making it very difficult for Jack to maintain the image in his mind. Nevertheless, the creature's attention was no longer on Jack, allowing him to quickly crawl backward away from it.

___

Lucius felt the spikes on the creature's hard shell stabbing through his legs as he landed on its back, but he ignored the pain. Wrapping one leg around the creature's left wing and the other across its back, he lifted his spear high and stabbed down with all his might into the creature's face.

"SCREEEEEEE!" The Abyss Queen let out a horrible shriek as Lucius’ spear penetrated its left eye. It sounded more like metal tearing than any sound a living creature should make. Lucius was amazed at the power of his own strike; he still wasn't used to the incredible force his upgraded body could generate. The knife-tipped spear made a deep thunk as it struck the creature, and the Abyss Queen's entire shell reverberated from the force of the blow. Lucius reared back to strike again, but the Abyss Queen wasn't the only thing damaged by his last strike. The knife that had been hastily attached to the spear had come undone and was still inside the creature. Lucius was left holding a harmless broomstick.

There was no time to think about his next move, as the creature went into a frenzy. Lucius dropped the broomstick and clung tightly, tightening his bleeding legs around its carapace. The Abyss Queen’s first instinct was to take flight, but with Lucius’ leg tightly wrapped around her left wing, she ended up flying rapidly in a descending half-circle, slamming them both into a concrete pillar of the gas station's canopy. Fortunately, the creature had taken the brunt of the impact, leaving it momentarily stunned.

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Letting out a painful "guhh," Lucius took the opportunity to reach across his body and pull the dagger from his boot, deepening the wounds in his legs. Re-armed, Lucius immediately launched a second attack on the creature. This time, aiming for the creature's remaining eye, he slammed the knife down, burying its entire six-inch blade. The Abyss Queen attempted to reach Lucius with her pinchers, and she nearly succeeded, but Lucius nimbly leaned back out of her reach whenever she struck. He continued attacking the creature as it scuttled across the parking lot, colliding with obstacles in its attempt to dislodge him. Unfortunately, he was constantly taking damage from the creature's spiny carapace, preventing him from stacking any damage buffs from Assassinate. Even so, with such a high strength attribute, Lucius was able to do tremendous damage to the creature. The problem was that he couldn't break through its shell. He had already shredded the soft sensory organs on its face, but his knife couldn't penetrate any deeper, as it was stopped by the inside wall of the eye sockets.

Realizing he needed to change tactics, Lucius remembered the flaps on the creature's back that had opened before, exposing the soft flesh underneath. He quickly searched around the creature's shell, nearly being thrown off multiple times in his distraction. If his legs weren’t effectively nailed to the creature’s back, he would have already fallen.

After several seconds of searching across the creature's back while dodging its claws, Lucius found what he was looking for. There, on the creature's shell, was a piece of carapace with a groove in a half-circle. Lucius tried prying at the groove with his fingers, but he couldn't gain any traction. Finally, he realized he could use the knife as a lever. Jamming the blade into the groove, Lucius wrenched it back with all his might. At first, he thought the blade would break, but it held, and the piece of carapace slowly rose from the creature's back. As soon as the opening was wide enough, Lucius stuffed his fingers inside, forcing it open the rest of the way.

"AHHH!" The moment the orblike organ was exposed, Lucius' mind was blasted with a torrent of nightmarish images in rapid succession. Lifelike depictions of his own body being cut into pieces, while still alive. In one image he saw his own mutilated body clinging to life, with all his teeth pulled out so he couldn't bite, while slimy, pink, vein covered, egg sacs were forced down his throat, one after another, until his stomach was bulging, hundreds of eggs had been stuffed inside him. It wasn't just the horrifying images that made Lucius scream, being this close to the telepathic organ was actually painful, the images felt like they were being burned into his mind. His head was already throbbing from the pain after only a few moments of exposure, it was the worst headache he had ever felt.

Everything about the experience was shocking, and Lucius nearly let go of the pried open carapace to grab his own head in pain, but his better judgement stopped him before he could commit the mistake. Lucius focused his concentration, fighting through the pain, he aimed his knife at the exposed organ and attacked.

"Uhhh!" Lucius let out a deep breath of relief as his blade sunk down, the searing pain began to retreat from his mind the moment he destroyed the organ.

With his entire body wracked with pain from the struggle, Lucius mustered all the strength he could manage, and pushed his knife as deep as he could into the creature's body, until his entire arm had followed the blade in. Bubbles of blue blood began flooding out of the Abyss queen's ruined mouth, as the creature's relentless struggling began to slow down. Lucius pulled out his arm, and plunged the blade back in, this time moving his blade in a different direction, toward the undamaged parts of the creature's insides.

With one last gurgle and spatter of blood, the Abyss Queen finally collapsed to the floor.

You have defeated abyssal insectum matriarch level 21.

You have reached level 18! You have 5 attribute points available for distribution!

Through effort, you have gained +1 to the stamina attribute.

Through effort, you have gained +1 to the vitality attribute.

As a reward for defeating a powerful Abyss creature, you have been awarded 1 equipment upgrade.