Chương 63: 62. The Killing Strike

Inches separated me from the wall of flame. Screeches filled the chamber. Never before had I suspected that scorpions were capable of such sounds. Crackling mixed with the noise of nightmares combined in one nauseating package. The stench of burned insects hit my nose like a brick. Only in the trials could a creature be so cruel as to kill its entire brood in the hopes she would destroy her attackers as well. Right now, my only hope was that she had failed.

Sponsorship offers poured in even while the flames were still raging. Half a dozen deities were eager to help me out as long as I formed a pact. I remained silent. The bastards could go fuck themselves. Did you manage? I asked. There was no answer. Serp? Yeah, I managed, the sword replied without a hint of annoyance or rebellion. They're fine. That was a relief. The wall of flames kept raging for several seconds longer. The sound of screeching gradually decreased, then stopped completely. The stench only got worse.

The flames vanished just as abruptly as they had appeared. The entire chamber was filled with the roasted remains of scorpions. Steam rose up—a result of the spell circles I had drawn. In the center, the queen remained completely untouched. A transparent layer of glowing amber covered every part of her body, serving as an additional protective shell. From here on, the usual surprise attacks wouldn't work, not to mention that by sacrificing her offspring, the queen had deprived Serp of his fuel source.

Now, he was nothing more than a very long saber; or rather, the equivalent of a strip of barbed wire passing through the chamber. I unsommned the weapon. Thinking back to my previous run, I tried to remember all the ways I knew of killing off the queen. The issue, as always, was that I had only come upon her years after joining the Grand Arcana. Even with a card per trial, by my first fight I had amassed several hundred of them, mostly fully developed.

There was no experimenting at that point: participants chose a specific card combination and stuck to it. Exchanges were made, items bought, even alliances between participants focused on anything that would boost one's performance. Currently, it could be said that effectively I had no magic. Serp was the greatest weapon at my disposal, although using him had just become exceedingly tricky. Or was it?

Returning my divine blades to my inventory, I summoned the serpent blade again and threw it directly at the back of the scorpion queen. No spell circle appeared. The saber made its way to the amber coating uninterrupted, then struck it. Cracks formed, though not nearly enough for him to reach the actual body of the monster. Nasty stuff, he said. I can break it, but I'll need more strength than that. There it was—the glimmer of hope I needed to win this.

Maybe I'd have difficulty killing the queen, but the amber spell could still be broken. All I needed to do was disable the source before the amber shell became impenetrable. Arrows ripped the air. I couldn't see them from my current position, but the Listener card let me hear and interpret every sound, creating a picture in my mind. Cathy had fired a salvo of arrows at the scorpion. All had hit their target, shattering the top layers of the amber, yet little more.

A series of other ranged attacks—possibly Eleonor's—followed. Force ripped through the air, shoving the massive creature close to a foot back, though falling short of shattering the magical coating. Another shriek followed. You have no control! I screamed in my mind, breaking its grip yet again. For several seconds, silence followed. Then, the queen started moving. It wasn't fast—even someone in my condition could easily run away—but it didn't have to be.

As long as the rest of my group were mentally paralyzed by the Emperor's effects, they remained helpless. Up to now, the seal that the scorpion had maintained had saved them the "pleasure" of going through the experience. The bad part was that without having gone through it before, it was going to take them a while to snap out of it. The first time I had been afflicted, someone else had to carry me out of the battle zone until I had finally regained consciousness.

I could still remember the sense of hopelessness that I felt amidst the cloud of confusion. I was largely accustomed to it by now, though even so, my fight with the centipede had served as a good refresher. As for the others, they had no such memories to draw from. Even with their divine pacts, it could take half a minute or more until they were in condition to get back to fighting, and by then it was going to be too late. A little help here, old man, Serp grumbled. I shifted my attention to the sword.

The amber he was sticking out of had progressively grown, creeping up the blade in an attempt to completely encase it. Regenerative armor, I thought. No wonder there hadn't been any other spell circles. The queen resorted to maintaining a single grand spell, ensuring that she would remain protected. Every second the amber around her grew. Hard on the outside, yet simultaneously soft enough to allow her to move, it prioritized cracks, quickly filling them up before spreading along the rest of her body.

Any foreign element that came into contact was certain to share the same fate. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. I unsummoned and summoned the sword. How fast? I asked. How fast what? How fast did the amber grow? I don't know, I almost heard Serp sigh. Fast, but not instant. There was another pause. Why? You thought of something stupid again, didn't you? The stupidest, I replied as I ran forward.

Another of the red curses came into effect, making my lungs feel as if there were being shredded within my body. The pain slid off my mind like a shed skin as I completely blanked my mind. Scorpion remains crunched beneath my feet. Any other time, climbing up the tail of a scorpion would hardly be seen as a sane idea. The qualities of the magical amber made it just feasible enough to be possible. It was Avon who had shown me that trick while breaching a castle wall.

The trial required that we breach a necromancer's castle and kill his court. All the walls had been covered in the nasty substance, making them impossible to breach. Avon hadn't even tried, running up like a cat rushing up a tree trunk. The amber shattered the moment it grabbed hold of his feet, making it seem as if he were climbing a ladder. In my case, I wasn't granted divine strength, but I had my Boots of Swiftness. Leaping onto the edge proved to be the most difficult part.

Even wearing the divine brace, my mobility remained limited. The moment my feet came into contact with the amber, I could feel the traction. So you're on top, Serp said in my mind. Now what? I ignored him, running onto the queen's back. As most magic spells, the amber too was created by a circle; destroy the circle and the spell will collapse as well. To prevent this, most monsters tended to instinctively place the circle well out of reach.

The underbelly or the tail were perfectly valid locations, though knowing how afraid scorpions were of attacks coming from below, I suspected it was elsewhere on the queen's body. As I looked around, I caught a glimpse of the chamber's entrance. Marcus was lying on the floor several steps in, the devourer in his hand. The rest of the group was out in the corridor, further behind. From what I could see, there was no sign of other scorpions, but that wouldn't last for long. The circle, I told myself.

I had to focus on the circle. A new sound filled the air. It wasn't shrieking. Rather, it sounded a lot more like… crying. The Lover. I could feel hesitation spread through my actions. What seemed like an easy decision moments ago now faced some reluctance. Gritting my teeth, I pushed myself to continue. Reacting to my stress, the Lung Shards curse triggered again. Ironically, it was the pain that helped me fully snap back to reality. All doubts vanished.

What used to be crying now sounded like nails scratching glass. A glint within the amber caught my attention. Quickly, I broke off the thin crust of amber forming on the sides of my boots, moving in its direction. An aether line came into view, quickly turning into a pattern. Found you. Mentally I smiled. All I had to do now was to reach it and— The queen briskly moved forward, almost causing me to fall off. At first, I thought that the creature's plan was to encase me in amber like a fly in honey.

Moments later I saw the real reason: it was heading for Marcus. Anger filled me to the brim. So, you can't kill me and you're killing everyone else instead?! I shouted, unable to voice a word. The sad truth was that she was right. If the queen killed Marcus, the rest of the trial would be all that much more difficult, not to mention the penalty the group would receive. Cathy and Eleonor were too far away to be harmed directly, but they remained out of commission. I looked at the spell circle, then at Marcus.

The hell with it! I took a bottle of water from my virtual backpack and threw it at the man. Barely waiting half a second, I swung Serp, sending an aether thread of destruction directly his way. A foot above the man's head the plastic bottle burst. Water splashed onto Marcus' face. The chances of that waking him up were one in ten at best. However, there was one factor that normal odds didn't account for—his intuition. Suddenly, I heard him stir. Before the queen could get close to him, Marcus jumped to his feet.

His movements still showed signs of confusion. The man looked up at the giant scorpion, at which point our eyes met. Attack the underbelly! I thought, hitting my stomach with the hilt of the serpent blade. There was no time to do more. Not waiting for his response, I rushed towards the area above the spell circle. The amber layer must have grown, for it seemed to be a foot thick. Eleven of Chalice! Power thrust! Backstab! I triggered all three cards and performed the strike.

The smooth orange surface cracked beneath my feet. The resistance was almost nonexistent. The blade slid all the way down to the hilt, splitting the hardened surface. A sense of euphoria filled me to the brim. Then, progress suddenly stopped. Argh, old man! Serp shouted in an outburst of anger. I'm missing an inch! An inch? I was too slow by an inch? Everyone knew that there was no such thing as fair and unfair during trials. There also was no such thing as "almost." Either one was successful, or they were dead.

By all accounts, the scorpion queen had outplayed me, denying my victory by an inch. If she had the capacity to feel, she was probably feeling rather smug about now, gloating at my defeat. Sadly for her, she had no idea what I was willing to go through in order to win. Drawing a divine blade from my inventory, I slashed my left palm, then grabbed the hilt of the saber once more. Grow! I ordered. I felt a sudden numbness as blood was drawn out of my wound and into the saber.

Using me as food, Sept cut deeper into the amber. The tip of the weapon touched the aether threat of the spell circle. Then, in the blink of an eye, the entire orange shell was gone. Got you! I held on to my weapons as I felt towards the scorpion's unprotected back. Before I could reach it, it too vanished, replaced by a cloud of black dust. You did it, didn't you, you bastard? I laughed on the inside. The group had earned another kill, only this time Marcus had claimed the bonus victory point.