They did it.
They had done it.
After numerous ant-shaped Nightmares were slayed, including many hybrids, the Party had finally managed to reach the Sub-Boss, or better said, they had found the large underground chamber housing her presence, and the presence of the Termind Royal Guard guarding the chamber which housed the Terminids future in the form vast numbers of white eggs dotting the chamber’s floor and walls.
Only, those eggs were not the main attraction.
No, the main spectacle was the smaller white dots, meaning, the eggs attached to an elongated dark brown tube that took a large part of the chamber's center. Why did that become the main spectacle? Well. It had to do with the fact that the dark brown elongated tube-like thing generated a green but gentle glow illuminating the Birthing Chamber of the Terminid Nest.
However, that was not all because said green glow appeared to be siphoned to the white eggs attached to the dark brown tube-like thing.
It was at that very sight that Hannah recalled a simple explanation about Terminid Swarms, specifically in how they function and why they functioned the way they did.
Namely, in how Insect-based Nightmares loved exploiting any of the local Yggdrasill branches inside Gaia’s Rift. The reason had to do with all Yggdrasil branches being Dreams of the highest caliber attuned to the Life Domain, and thus thereby contained the requisite energy for Insect-based Nightmares to consume, grow, and spread in extreme manners, from root lovers to bark infesters to leaf stealers to flower munchers and fruit consumers.
Basically, any part of a Yggdrasil branch became the number one resource within any given area in which it was planted. Due to that, there existed one Duty among Mortals privy to its existence, or a Quest if one were a Spirit, to occasionally become Pest Cleaners if chosen to live near a Yggdrasil branch.
Whether she liked it or not, Hannah experienced being a Pest Cleaner on the very first day of her Awakening.
“Henry! Keep the Royal Guard occupied!” Lee Ping shouted the order. “Cain! Keep the smaller ones from reaching him! Sandy! Hannah! Protect Mira and me!” He bellowed. “Mira! Use everything you got and collapse this tunnel!” With the order conveyed, Lee Ping conjured his blue/white talisman to create a large flaming barrier to prevent the incoming collapse from affecting them.
Best of all, since a Return Token worked on a teleporting basis, the Party had no fear of shooting themselves in the foot by blocking their exit strategy. As such, the Party had no true trouble with blocking their enemies’ reinforcement from swarming them to death. However, because this very tunnel held the greatest opening, closing it required a lot of expenditure from Mira and Lee Ping, with Mira more than Lee Ping.
As such, both of their actions required a somewhat longer windup before it could be done.
That was why Sandy became the backline protecting them while Hannah sniped any approaching hip-sized ant to lessen her load.
As for what happened with the frontline, in the form of a large ginger-haired man wearing red-plated armor and a black Sanguine wearing tight black clothes and a white cape alongside a white sword? Hannah had no idea. Nor had she the time to check their state.
Still, the large clanking and thudding sounds prompted her to believe it was going ok for the moment.
Regardless, Hannah focused on shooting.
Not long later, maybe about fifteen to thirty seconds or so, though it felt much much longer than that to Hannah, the fiery shimmer above Mira finally completed whatever it was doing and launched itself at the far ceiling above them.
Not exactly above them since none of them wished for the ceiling to collapse right onto them.
Either way, as soon as it was launched, a flaming barrier encapsulated the tunnel opening to prevent the shockwave and fiery shimmer of its origin from reaching them.
BOOM THUD Thud Thud
The collapse had taken more time to happen than it had taken them to cause it, and during that brief period of time, Hannah saw Lee Ping sweat for the first time, ever, as he no doubt concentrated on his flaming barrier.
Ignoring the sight, Hannah quickly followed Sandy's example and turned around to help Henry and Cain.
Mira, on the other hand, hunched down, with her hands on her knees preventing her from dropping down on the ground. Indeed, she looked as if she was heaving for some much-needed air despite actually being a Dream Body and not actually needing any air. However, this was a result and side effect of her First Ability; Conduit. Needing an appropriate consumption of Power Points to produce what she'd just done. Only, there was more to her apparent exhaustion, more than she had shared with her Party as it dealt with her Dream and the path it laid out for her.
Better said, as a Novice Wizardess, her C-Ranked Dream remained incomplete, hence why Mira only had access to half of a Wizardess prowess. Only after passing the Second Nightmare Tribulation and generating her Second Ability; Core, would she actually become a genuine Wizardess, if of the Apprentice Rank.
Meaning, that before attaining a Core and gaining access to actual Magic, Mira had to imitate Magic through Power Point consumption and Stamina Point utilization. The first was to generate a Spell and the second was to reinforce the Spell's Ability to punch above her weight, Novice Rank in her current case, by increasing Spell Efficacy. So, while her Spells did indeed gain in Spell Damage proportional to Power Point consumption, it was Stamina that allowed her Spells to punch through a Nightmares Natural Damage Reduction, and considering the many Mature Class Terminid Warrior Ants crippled on the way to this very chamber, Mira was barely running on fumes since her Dream Body refused to operate as it should due to her Stamina no longer lubricated her Soul.
Almost as if made of lead, Mira felt her body weigh down on her with its refusal to move as efficiently as it should under normal circumstances.
Thankfully, after a few moments of recovering herself, plus the retrieval and redistribution of Focus Points back to her Flow and where it was needed, especially now that Conduit was on a momentary break, Mira managed to swallow another Potion down her gallet, or whatever her current Dream Body had in its stead.
Nonetheless, this Potion she just drank was not a Potion of Power Regen, but a Potion of Power Point Recovery, a much rarer and much more expensive Potion that directly supplied Power Points instead of simply increasing their natural regeneration. Normally, it was about ten times more expensive than a simple and common Potion of Power Regen, and for a Novice that was quite a bit of economic expenditure, especially after considering the many Potions of Power Regen already consumed so far. Still, economic expenditure failed to overcome life expenditure to… well… continue living. Hence, why she eagerly guzzled it down her throat in favor of immediate staying power as it refilled more than half of her Power Point Pool.
Moments after the flush of foreign energy settled down and truly became hers, Mira channeled a few of the recovered Power Points back into the portion of her Soul responsible for generating Stamina Points.
Indeed, not long after it was done, Mira felt like she was whole once again, only she knew it would not last for long.
Thankfully, Shards, her main Attack Spell, possessed inherent Spell Damage and Spell Penetration features at its core, hence when combined with her First Ability; Conduit, it synergized extremely to make her Spells hurt even further, at least momentarily.
With her return to action, the Party finally began getting rid of the Mature Class Terminid Royal Guards Henry had been occupying with his giant sword.
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One thing Sandy had known about herself, at least before Awakening, was that she enjoyed doing daring things all for that juice called adrenaline which made every moment Experienced through its cocktail coloring that much more special.
It was on one such adventure that she met her Guide, during a rather routine mountain climb with her friends before actually using a parachute to slide and glide back down it and into the valley it guarded.
Since she had apparently been close to it, he took note of her Near Awakened State and later on made contact with her to present her with a new path, a path that would be much more exciting and dangerous compared to what she had already had before that very disclosure.
Truly, as if branded into her mind, Sandy could still remember that one moment when his fist punched through a concrete wall. With that as the tipping point, he slowly used various gentle methods to guide her toward Awakening. In the end, after many rather gruesome battles with her Nightmare, she was presented with a choice, a choice on which paths were favorable to her and which paths she desired to trek.
In the end, after enough bait from her Guide, Sandy had come to appreciate what combat gave her, where your life depended on factors not of your own choosing, where she had to tightrope her way through scenarios where a tiny slip meant being killed. Indeed, being a Martial Artist was the second best thing that could have happened to her, with only the freedom to explore a totally brand new world before triumphing over being a genuine Martial Artist.
It was by using those same Martial Arts that Sandy swiftly sidestepped the Terminid Royal Guard’s attack before using her two swords to slice the chitin barrier protecting its valuable insides. And while her attack had failed to completely slice right down to the meat, her attacks provided enough damage to induce blue fluid loss, and for insect-based Nightmares, losing fluids was akin to a car losing its hydraulic fluid for its steering wheel.
Workable, but terribly inefficient until it eventually stopped working altogether.
Naturally, this would take a while since her cuts were rather shallow due to Natural Damage Reduction, and many more cuts would be needed to expedite this ant's loss of motor control, but for fighting somebody above her league, Sandy felt extremely thrilled at the outcome.
Indeed, Martial Arts were made to conquer fights like these, as efficiently as possible, with bigger and tougher opponents only adding to the pleasure of the eventual takedown.
Still, despite feeling that she could win over this big and ugly-looking many-limbed creature before her, Sandy bided her time and resources in occupying the creature's attention all for that moment when blue/white flames came to assist her or tiny crystalline Shards packing quite the punch.
Whichever came, Sandy would be grateful because when either came, it would provide her with an opportunity to go for the kill once again by utilizing her First Ability; Haste.
The moment such a moment truly came in the form of blue/white fire entangling the upper limbs of the mantis/ant hybrid, Sandy activated her First Ability, causing a Power Point and three Stamina Points to be used up, with two free Focus Points automatically aligning both her body and mind to such a degree that the world slowed down to her awareness, and when it did, Sandy rushed through the throng of many limbs to slice at just the right angle and at just the right strength for her swords to pierce through the weakened chitin limbs to actually sever the hydraulic mechanism the Royal Guard Ant used to move its limbs.
With their incapacitation, Sandy used the rest of her hastened world to hack a few times between the head and body segment. While she lacked the raw strength Henry possessed, her swords were more than enough to do the job at the thinner chitin near the neck.
Then, the hastened world returned back to normal.
With its return, Sandy jumped off of the falling Nightmare back to the ground. Yet, as she fell and reached the ground, her body felt heavy and clunky. Only that was nothing new to her. All it took was a moment for the imbued Focus Points to free themselves from her First Ability Slot to manually prod her Flow back to where it was needed for her to recover her bearing.
After that, those two Focus Points stood on standby, awaiting the next opportunity for her Ability to be used.
With the dead Terminid Royal Guard, Sandy quickly examined her surroundings to notice Cain, the black Sanguine, struggling on his side of the Birthing Chamber, despite being rather fast naturally. It did not surprise Sandy too much, since being of Novice Rank Shifter meant he only had his base Sanguine Stats to work with, unlike her active Ability. Still, Sandy refused to help him. Not only because she knew he would receive help just like she had, and he did in the form of a few crystalized flying Shards, but because he was a Sanguine, a being that held little fear for bodily injuries since they could heal enormous amounts of Trauma.
Depending on the kind of blood they can get their hands on. Sandy quickly recalled before focusing on the nearest opponent which was a rather disappointing regular Worker Ant that had no doubt crawled at them from some of the smaller entrances that were just too numerous to be closed.
Instead, the plan was simple.
Rush inside the Birthing Chamber, and distract the Royal Guard Ants just long enough for the Party to block the largest exit/entrance. Once that was done, the Party would help the frontline get rid of the nuisances before focusing on the Royal Guards, thus allowing Henry to forgo the Royal Guards and switch to the Terminid Queen if need be.
If not, this just meant a faster clear of the Royal Guard Ants.
Luckily, as it turned out, it was not needed because the Terminid Queen in question was occupied at the end of the Birthing Chamber doing exactly nothing as she lay down on the ground.
This was both a great and terrible thing for the Party.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Great because this gave them the chance to deal with the Royal Guard.
Terrible because, the Queen in question, undoubtedly underwent a metamorphosis to become a Prime Queen since Terminid Swarms functioned on a One Prime Queen, Three Queens, and Five Princesses System where only the Prime Queen laid eggs, with the Three Queens managing the Nest and the Five Princesses taking care of the Birthing Chambers since One Prime Queen tended to have multiple Birthing Chambers.
Considering that no other Princesses or Queens were present, applying the fact that the Emergence was still growing due to a roaming Boss, it was easy to guess that after the Shroud descended, this Birthing Chamber exhibited the only Princess within the Emergence. Moreover, due to the nature of a Shroud cutting this part of the Nest with the others, this Princess no doubt lost contact with the rest of the Nest, thus automatically being upgraded to Queen status, since there was not much difference between Queens and Princesses.
With the upgraded status, this Queen then attempted to become a Prime Queen, a Nightmare of the Fourth Stage, an Elder Nightmare which could and would give birth to new Queens and Princesses and whatever else a Nest needed.
All in all, the problem was not so much in the Queen's ability to give birth to its underlings, since that always took time, but it's ascendency to the Elder Class, where Natural Damage Reduction becomes so high that none within this current Party would manage to kill the Prime Queen, at least not without being swarmed and exhausted by the returning Swarm.
“HOW LONG DOES A QUEEN NEED TO BECOME A PRIME?” Sandy called out loudly.
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“NO IDEA!” Hannah heard the man with the female face shout back. “HOWEVER LONG IT TAKES. WE SHOULD MAKE SURE IT DOES NOT HAPPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE!”
With that reply, a brief lull happened, between the Party members. However, this lull did not stop them from exercising their powers against the tide surrounding them. Though, it was an annoyance when the biggest felled obstacles refused to vanish into nothingness as the smallest ones do. This caused the Party to migrate constantly since the ant-shaped Nightmares and ant/hybrid Nightmares proved themselves expert climbers when it came to moving over their dead nest mates.
Luckily, as the combat went on, the Party slowly inched its way toward the central region of the Birthing Chamber, which the Sub-Boss occupied and utilized for its power-up.
It was a few moments later that a rough but strained voice reached Hannah’s ears.
The voice belonged to the biggest person in the group.
Craning her neck in his direction, Hannah saw the man in question defend himself against three Royal Guard Ants and their mantis-like appendages. This was not the first time Hannah had seen him do what he did, but she still could hardly believe how the man did what he did. Not only because the giant sword moved around as if it weighed but a fraction of what it implied it did, but it was also expertly done that every clunk that thunk echoing inside this extremely large chamber came as a result of Henry blocking those mantis-like appendages.
Yet, it seemed that there was still some room to spare since he actually managed to voice out a conjecture, or an opinion if one was more specific.
“THE SUMMON!” Henry called out. “USE THE GIRL’S SUMMON!”
Just as Hannah wondered how and what to reply with, Lee Ping did for her. “IT WON'T WORK. IT'S BASICALLY A SPAWN. THE DIFFERENCE IS TOO BIG!”
A moment later, another sound echoed from Henry’s direction. “HAH… BACK OFF YOU ANNOYING PRICKS… I NEED TO THINK!” In the same instance, Hannah saw the man flourish his big sword faster and stronger a few times. The action somehow knocked back every Royal Guard that attacked him. “NULL ABILITIES IGNORE DAMAGE REDUCTION!”
“YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT, BRUTE?” Lee Ping shouted angrily back before conjuring another bout of his iconic FoxFire to deal with some of the smaller ants. “I AM TELLING YOU IT WON'T WORK!”
“IT WILL IF YOU BUFF IT!” Came the reply. “APPLY YOUR STIGMA ON IT! HELP THE GIRL CHANNEL HER POWER INTO IT! USE YOUR OWN TO CONDENSE HERS AND THE SUMMONS! THEN HAVE THE SUMMON USE ITS NULL! IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE FOR LONG… ALL IT NEEDS TO DO IS DISRUPT THE QUEEN'S FLOW ONCE AND SHE WILL WAKE.”
“THAT…Could work!” Lee Ping murmured for a second. Then he glanced at Hannah, and the target in question. “FINE… WE WILL TRY!”
“STOP GRUMPING ABOUT IT” Henry added. “JUST DO IT ALREADY?”
“YES… YES…” Lee Ping voiced out and turned silent for a single moment, only for the next one to focus on Hannah who had been trying her best to shoot any ant she could and follow the conversations between her Party Members. It was not too hard since she was always beside Lee Ping. “Quick, take your Summon out.”
Naturally, having listened, Hannah had a moment to compose herself and do just that by first taking the Dreamon Ball from her skirt pocket and calling it out. “Come out, Behold!”
One jagged red lightning later and Behold was back out of its pocket, floating beside Hannah. Though, since it had not been summoned from there since it last went in, it had fallen asleep.
Thankfully, all it took was a slap on its side and a shout from Hannah to raise it to wakefulness. When it did, it looked around to see many things going on, yet it was not given much time to process when Lee Ping grabbed its head tentacle to do what his Bruiser had suggested. Only… the moment he grabbed Behold and turned its sole eye to face him, Lee Ping took notice of the silver mark around its sole eyelid.
That was when a spontaneous idea reached him.
When it did, Lee Ping dismissed the idea of providing his Stigma temporarily to the Summon because it already possessed one, and one that had to be of a higher quality than his. Thus, instead of applying his own, he simply used his Stigma to resonate with the one belonging to the Silver Tyrant, thus allowing him to apply the temporary modifier it needed to get the job done.
It took a few moments, but the second Lee Ping managed to generate a resonance, Behold cried out its iconic one line ‘Behold?’. Aside from the initial confusion due to new sensations, Behold sensed its awareness expanded to something within its existence.
Something that was enormous and grand, yet also equally distant and empty.
As if Behold neither possessed the energy nor the ability to utilize it at the moment. Still, the same did not apply to Lee Ping as he used his innate proficiencies with Stigma usage to calibrate The Silver Tyrants Mark for his current need, the need to store, condense, and channel Power Points, specifically at his level of quality or better if his modification worked.
The moment he was done, Lee Ping cried out. “CAIN! IGNORE THOSE AND COME HERE!”
Being naturally fast, Cain was almost instantly there, yet what he was told turned out to be another pack mule job.
It grated on his Sanguine Pride, but the Party Leader simply commanded once before rushing and taking his place in dealing with the incoming ant swarm. With no other choice, Cain acquiesced for his own good and quickly turned around before crouching down and urging Hannah, who already held Behold with one hand, to lock herself in place around his neck and his hips.
Cain's own hands steadied her further by holding on to her right above her knees, which was bare at this moment. There was nothing obtuse going on there, but for one second, Hannah sensed her thoughts going somewhere before they ceased when the world around her turned into a blur of ups and downs, with a side dish of sudden lunges left and right.
In this moment, Hannah experienced what it truly meant to be fast and agile as Cain, with his Sanguine strength and dexterity, maneuvered around everything before arriving in front of the Queen undergoing metamorphosis.
“Quick… Do it!” Cain called out.
Shaking away the vertigo of going too fast, Hannah did as instructed by Lee Ping. Namely, pouring all of her Power Points into Behold, specifically the Silver Mark around its eyelid. What occurred when she did this was an automatic conversion process of her Power Points, almost as if they condensed to become something better than they already were.
“BEHOLD!” Hannah cried out with as much authority as she could channel. Though, it was much more than she knew she had. “USE NULL ON THAT THING! STOP ITS TRANSFORMATION!”
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Even though it could not see it, since it was turned away from its Master, Behold felt its Master’s Radiance explode and compel it to do what its Master desired.
Alongside the compelling, its Master’s Radiance also delivered a very vague set of instructions, like what to do and how to do it. Both would have stumped Behold had it not already used its Null Ability once and since it did, Behold compressed its existence before channeling it right into its sole blue eye.
Regardless, when it did, the Silver Eye Mark around Behold’s sole big blue eye reared its existence to influence and alter this use of its innate Null Ability, basically by layering its own existence onto and into it.
“BEHOLD!!!” Behold cried out with the mightiest voice it could project at the large existence before its sole eye.
Truly, it was like a teeny tiny stone demanding a dragon to do as it bid.
Thankfully, the moment Null was created and employed, the Silver Eye bestowed a new sight on Behold. A sight that told so much it overwhelmed its little mind in seconds. Thankfully, as much as it overwhelmed Behold, it could not compare to that one time it grabbed onto a crystalized piece of Hope, much less when said Hope dissolved and reshaped its very existence.
As such, during those few seconds, Behold managed to do what its Master desired.
As a result, the Flow of Power within the Terminid Queen, which was unceasingly roaming and doing something significant to its existence, ceased its movements. Remarkably, it was as if somebody had grabbed it by its strings and pulled it apart, thus causing it to flow rampantly where it was not needed to basically cause untold damage.
Indeed, that was how powerful Behold’s Null Ability seemed to be, yet it was also clear that Behold could not and would not replicate this stage-crossing phenomenon any time soon, especially since it was still closer to a Nightmare than to a Dream as it had just been reborn.
No.
Time was needed for Behold to grow up, if it could grow up, at all. After all, nothing like it had existed before.
Whatever the case, when Cain felt a distinct sensation rising from the Terminid Queen, he knew it was done and rushed back to the Party. Back within the group, he placed Hannah down and returned to his position by replacing Lee Ping.
“Cain said he sensed something?” Lee Ping inquired as he looked at Behold’s eyelid as if it barely held on.
Not knowing anything about it, Hannah had no choice but to shake her head. “I don't know… What do I do now? I have no Power Points left!”
“Ugh… Here, drink this.” Lee Ping said as he picked another Potion from his Inventory all while mentally tallying the girl's debt to him for basically doing so much just for her. “As for what to do? There is not much you can do. Stay close to me. Understood?”
“Hnn!”
Not much to do, was indeed, the underlying truth for Hannah.
Luckily, she had a few shots left within her COLT, so from time to time, when an opportunity presented itself, she took a shot. After all, she needed Experience, and while she currently had no idea what D-Coins could be used for, having more sounded like a good thing.
Not that a few more or less coins changed much.
Fortunately, about five minutes later, she regenerated one Power Point thanks to the Potion's help, thus giving her the chance at scoring ten more of the hip-sized Worker Ants.
It was not long later that another shout echoed from Henry's direction. “IT WORKED… IT'S STIRRING.” His message told. “BUFFS! NOW!”
Once again hearing the word BUFF, Hannah wondered how those felt. Still, she at least saw how they appeared. Basically, Lee Ping conjured another talisman made of his FoxFire. Specifically, there were six such talismans in the air before him.
One immediately flew to his own forehead.
Three shot directly around them, toward Mira, Sandy, and Cain, while the last two went for Henry.
“WHOHOOO!!!” Henry's voice announced. “THAT'S IT… I CAN FINALLY GO ALL OUT! CALL TO ARMS!!! SWORD IN HAND!!! I AM LEAVING THE SMALL FRIES TO YOU!!!”
Immediately after, Hannah heard multiple loud clunks in front of her. At the same time, however, the Royal Guards around Henry were cut apart while the smaller visage of Henry simply crouched and jumped away and directly at the stirring Queen trying to stand up.
As if Gravity had no sway over him, Hannah watched Henry basically fly into the air for a few seconds before reaching the maximum height and finally dropping down, with a parabolic arc due to his initial momentum. After a loud THUD, more CLANGs echoed from his direction, but all Hannah saw was the giant ant queen wiggling around as it probably tried its best to smush away the annoying man around it.
While Henry did what he did, the other Party Members, sanse Hannah, enjoyed their improved Stats, Skills, and Abilities since very few things could be a Stigma User’s Buffs.
Sadly, impressive as they were, they also had a tendency to not last very long on other people. So while it was there, Sandy, and Cain, being the only other two melee users, made extremely good use of this chance to pummel as many opponents as they could. Mira and Lee Ping, on the other hand, had to be more choosy in how they utilized this Buff.
Still, Mira had it worse since the Buff would last much less on her than Lee Ping as its caster.
Regardless, one thing all of them had in common, was their desire to move closer to the true combat zone and help take down the Sub-Boss. Yet, as if to show them that their desires were unneeded, a pinging echo reached their ears.
A ringing that all of them, bar Hannah, knew meant a Quest had just been fulfilled, which should not have happened but did, and that could only mean that despite being alone Henry had somehow managed to slay the Queen of this nest despite engaging it alone.
This surprised everybody, including Henry because the fight he'd hoped for did not actually occur. No… It should have been an epic fight, and for a while it had been just that, but that deception only lasted for a few moments. Specifically, it lasted till he realized the Terminid Queen, the Sub-Boss of this growing Emergence before him, swayed around like an epileptic narcotic drunk man after too many shots during one particular outgoing night.
Truly, the more the fight went on, the more the Sub-Buss swayed and flailed around with its many limbs. Worst of all, in Henry’s mind, his attacks did entirely too much to the Sub-Boss, as if a large part of its Natural Damage Reduction simply ceased to exist.
Virtually like being a Juvenile Class Nightmare instead of one at the peak of the Mature Class.
Was disrupting its ascension that detrimental? Henry asked himself.
Yet, even though he desired it not to be so, at least the part of him that wanted to enjoy the euphoria of fighting something above his Rank, he knew this was his prime chance to take down this Sub-Boss.
In the end, after noticing the truth and one long sigh, Henry easily dodged another attempted bite of the Terminid Queen's mouth pincers. Then using his improved Strength, Agility, and Control he simply stabbed his giant sword into the right side of the Queen’s head.
With the apparent lowered Damage Reduction, his sword easily slid inside its chitin skull before he quickly swirled his giant sword around to mush its brain it gained the moment it reached First Stage and materialized its body according to the rules present in Gaia’s Rift.
Still, just that did not kill the Nightmare.
No… After his attack separated large parts of its brain, thus disrupting much of its behavior, Henry drew back his giant sword to swiftly separate the segmented head from the segmented body. And it was at that moment that the announcement reached his awareness since the main condition for the Quest's completions had been met.
As for the reward?
That one would appear the moment he reviewed the Quest Screen.
Before that happened, however, he turned away from the Terminid Queen Ant and rushed for his Party Members.