Through the Portal I can see the heart of this threat and adrenaline dumps into my system as I’m reminded of Hvitserkur, another named Monster. I’m not sure why I didn’t click onto this when I saw the completion conditions for the Trial, but it’s obvious now and I feel a small spike of panic as my mind flashes back to the sight of Jon’s broken body. I grit my teeth and remind myself that I’ve had a major upgrade in power since then. Not Tenebris level power, but I’ve got a lot more options now.
Either I’ve drawn a very short straw, or these third Trials are no joke.
Sath’Threkkra, The Mindshredder Hive Queen (Level 430)
Health: ?????/?????
Mana: 9890/13520
Conditions: Crystalline Armor, Hive Link, Psionic Domination, Strength of the Many, Disruptive Swarm, Assimilation Protocol, Tendrils of Fate, more…
The Mindshredder is a towering insectoid, maybe 20 feet tall, encased in a pink hued crystalline exoskeleton that glows faintly with energy. Every surface of its body looks sharp and deadly. Dozens of eyes located mostly on the head and other strange jutting protrusions look cold and calculating, or maybe that’s just the robotic way it seems to move as it alternates between smooth motions and quick, precise movements. It’s located in some kind of a cave and based on what I can see from my minimap, it looks like the Hive Queen has a strategically advantageous position where she can see her followers doing her bidding.
Based on Sath’Threkkra’s Conditions and the fact my SMI can’t determine how much Health this thing has, my guess is that it has a shared Health pool with the rest of the Hive. I’ve seen that before, including with the Brothers in Arms Skill that Robb had; that Skill saved our bacon a lot of times, but I’ve never seen something on this scale. I take a heavy breath and glance between the Portal and the swarm of hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of drones that are attacking the walls and spires. How much damage will I have to do just to put a dent in a shared Health pool like that?
I remember way back to the Warg Matriarch I killed to get my Powerhouse Title and its bonus damage against higher Level enemies. In that case I was able to pile on the damage faster than its Health could be recovered through the link. Could the same hold true here? Or is it some kind of actual shared Health pool? There’s no way to know.
One thing’s for sure; my Exterminator Title is going to be active as hell during this Trial. So long ago that I got it killing sandflies in Milford Sound, yet I’m still reaping the benefits. I wonder briefly how many people across the Universe are watching me hesitate to attack this thing. How many humans might be watching, and if they know what’s riding on this.
I wish I had more answers. The only way to get them is to jump through a Portal. As prepared as I can be, I manifest the Portal making sure only humans can pass through it, then jump through and keep it open behind me. The minimal Mana drain is worth the potential quick exit.
As soon as I jump through I check the AMLs. I can already feel the Dungeon has higher Mana levels than the cliff I was on.
Current Ambient Mana Level (AML): 8 (+30 Gift of Gaia)
Not super high for a Dungeon and even lower on the surface of this planet. The odds aren’t stacked in my favor.
Mental influence resisted.
Psionic destruction resisted.
Mind Shatter resisted.
Neural Spear resisted.
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
This thing’s reactions are fucking quick!
I trigger Psychic Eruption just in case the Mindshredder is somehow weak to its own attacks, but even though my Skill is Evolved it only smashes head to head with the Hive Queen’’s defenses for a second before unraveling. Battle drone insects all around me in the cavern pivot as one and start hammering me with blade-like appendages on their legs and minor effects I ignore, instead I trigger Sentinel’s Fury three times, focused completely at Sath’Threkkra. I can feel the damage taking hold but then it’s defrayed out to the collective Hive. This shit is not good.
My Elemental Aegis is sparkling green, blue, and white from deflecting the attacks so I trigger Sentinel’s Fury again, but this time at the battle drones. Unlike their Queen, they implode from the damage and I’m left standing staring at my opponent. A lot of legs are skittering across cavern rock to get to us. I trigger Wraithstrike and flash toward the Mindshredder at high speed then materialize just in time to swipe my Swords across its body at full extension. The blades sweep through the body with almost no resistance and I carve it up a few times to make sure there’s no chance of recovery.
A few seconds pass, but the notification I’m expecting for completion of the third Trial doesn’t come. What does come is a flood of insect battle drones so I decimate a few hundred of them in the surrounding area with Sentinel’s Fury and check my minimap. Not far away is another red dot indicating something seriously dangerous to me, so I rush outside and take great leaps across the rock face until I land at another cavern opening. What I find there turns my blood cold.
Sath’Threkkra, The Mindshredder Hive Queen (Level 430)
Health: ?????/?????
Mana: 10300/13520
Conditions: Crystalline Armor, Hive Link, Psionic Domination, Strength of the Many, Disruptive Swarm, Assimilation Protocol, Tendrils of Fate, more…
This fucker can transfer itself to one of its drones! To any of its drones? Only some of them? I leap and scramble back to the original cavern, which is now deserted, and leap back through my own Portal to the top of the cliff. Pissed off, I trigger Omnipresent and spend a couple of minutes trying to force the filters to show me what I need to see, to show me how the Hive Queen’s colony works. I force my will through Know Thy Enemy and push it to new heights. The Skills push back and tear at me, causing me to lose focus and lose the track I’m on.
I snarl and push again with my will, braced this time for the backlash. I’m not braced for the flood of Foresight that hits me, showing shadowy kidnappers and assassins heading for Uncle Ant, Carter’s family, Tatiana, Jeff, and more.
Seriously fucked off now, I pivot Omnipresent to find all of them. All of the fuckers that are trying to mess with me while they know I’m in the middle of the KCT, no matter where they are. Some of them aren’t even in this Galaxy, but I find them and open up Edges, then send through Sentinel’s Fury and death. The kill notifications roll in. Each and every one spikes my anger and rage. I take note of every organization, every association. The notifications will be there for me to review, but they’re burned in my brain.
When it’s done, I open my eyes and look out over the sea of insect battle drones controlled by the Mindshredder and wait for my Stamina to build back up to full.
Time to go to work.
Refusing to let my purpose be diverted, I force my Skills to give me what I need and they respond, continuing the Evolutions that they’ve been through with my SMI. A dam bursts in my mind and information floods into me through Omnipresent. I’m staggered and fall to my knees, then grasp my head with fistfuls of hair to anchor myself. I feel like I might be swept away and lose my mind.
Congratulations! Skill integration complete.
Know Thy Enemy now fully integrated with both Omnipresent and Observe.
Slowly it settles. I don’t know if it’s been seconds or hours until I check the timer in the corner of my vision and see it hasn’t been long. I trigger Omnipresent and now it blossoms with not just the red dot indicating Sath’Threkkra, but also maybe a thousand other blue dots indicating a special kind of alternate that the Hive Queen can transfer her consciousness to and force an Evolution.
I open up a thousand Edges to end it and send through wave after wave of devastating damage. I’m almost finished when the Hive Queen manages to find me. She leaps up to the flat area I’m standing in, arms raised, and charges me down followed by hundreds of her minions. Like the last time, I use Wraithstrike and brutally slice her apart. When we’re in the same room it’s a stalemate since she doesn’t seem to be able to damage me and I can’t kill her, but I’m closing down her options rapidly and she seems to know it. Without any pause or mercy I keep hammering them as fast as I can.
It’s only a matter of time, but time is critical in the KCT so I bear down and savage the colony, starting at the top. Less than an hour later there isn’t a single remnant of the colony alive and the notification I need appears. It’s been a slaughter, a genocide. My anger has long faded.
Congratulations! You have completed the third Trial of the KCT!
All victory conditions have been satisfied.
Prepare for transport in 100 UTUs.
Fuck everything.
That’s how I feel right now, and at the same time I hope I’ve won.