Leon took a step toward the Millipede Queen, his sword at the ready. Strangely enough, the millipede queen did not move. It seemed like she had made her peace with her impending doom.
Or maybe not.
Booom!!!
The ceiling of the cavern shook as rocks broke apart from it. A flurry of rapid footsteps exploded from within the breeding chamber and seven large, car sized Ghost Millipedes burst through the entrance to the chamber. Each of the new millipedes was much larger than their queen, who was just around half their size.
Without wasting a moment, the seven new millipedes activated a skill and a red aura gathered around them. They bent their heads forward and began to charge madly in Leon’s direction. Whatever was in their way, whether ally or foe, was tossed aside, completely obliterated! Not even the Royal Ghost Millipedes were spared!
There was barely any time between their appearance and sudden charge. So little time had passed that Leon was barely able to raised his sword up before the one in front of the formation slammed into him, sending him flying across the cavern.
[-213 HP]
[+1 Durability]
A screen popped up in Leon’s eyes as he was slammed into the wall. The rocks around him cracked and fell to the ground. He pulled himself out of the indent on the wall and shook his head, a little disoriented. He pushed the damage taken from that hit to the back of his mind. It was a small amount when compared to his overall health.
The new millipedes had gathered around the injured queen, providing her with the crucial time that she needed to heal her injuries. That said, she was not healing too fast, as she was still under the effects of Leon’s Curse Eyes.
‘Nedra didn’t tell me there was a different caste. What are they?’ Leon thought to himself as he picked up his discarded sword. A new, blue corona of energy covered up its surface. Mana bubbled and boiled within Leon as he conjured multiple fireballs that floated behind him. He focused on them, pumping them full of as much mana as he could handle, which was quite a lot, until they could take no more. At that point, they were like small, red suns behind him!
As if waiting for him to prepare himself, the new millipedes launched themselves forward when he had finished preparing, spreading themselves out to surround him.
‘Not so easy!’ Leon exclaimed mentally and threw his left hand forward, sending the five red fireballs that were packed full of mana forward to meet the incoming millipedes. He manipulated their forms, turning them into bolts of fire that speared forward, tearing through the air at speeds that created howling sounds!
Bzzt!
The millipedes hurried to change their path, but all of a sudden, a buzzing sound rang around as light arcs of lightning appeared on their bodies, stunning and paralyzing them, while also dealing minimal damage to them.
Leon’s gaze flicked to Kaladin’s position for a moment. The Obsidian Skeleton Caster had his right hand, which was covered in sparks of lightning, outstretched in the direction of Leon’s battle, while his left hand conjured and controlled fireballs and hoses of flames to bathe and bombard the millipedes all around him.
He turned back to his battle just as the bolts of solid flames struck the heads of the five leading millipedes. The bolts of flame soundlessly penetrated the thick carapace of the millipedes, spearing through them until they vanished within their large bodies.
The frozen millipedes only had a moment before a massive, encompassing explosion of flames spread from within them, consuming them and their surroundings completely. The entirety of the cavern constantly shook and trembled as it was subjected to immense amounts of destruction that should have caved in any other structure. It probably only held together because of the reinforcement that it had received over the many years that it had possessed abundant amounts of Mana Crystals.
Violent, raging, red flames that resembled the bowels of death spread outward and consumed the two other millipedes that were beside those that had been the recepients of Leon’s firebolt attack. The hungry flames spread outward and upward until it reach the high ceiling of the cavern.
An entire minute passed before the flames suddenly started dying down of their own accord. It was almost as if whatever had been fueling their rampage had suddenly run out. When the flames disappeared, all that was left in its wake was the charred, charcoal corpses of the dead millipedes.
Leon was spammed by a flurry of system notifications of both deaths and other things.
[Level 21 Royal Brood Protector killed. You have gained a level!]
[Level 32 Royal Brood Protector killed. You have gained a level!]
[Level 12 Royal Brood Protector killed. You have gained a level!]
…
It turned out that the newly appeared millipedes were known as Brood Protectors. It made sense, as there was no way that weak millipedes would be put in charge of the future of the millipedes. One always had to be wary of angry mothers, and this just proved it. The Brood Protectors were basically the millipede angry mothers who had stormed out to protect their children.
The kill notifications were not the only ones that appeared, however. There was more.
[You have applied an advanced form of Magic. Your Skill, <Beginner Fire Magic>, has been upgraded to <Apprentice Fire Magic>!]
[You have used your innovation to form a spell! You have gained +10 Intelligence!]
Leon brushed aside those notifications. He could take his time to revel in them later. Now, he needed to finish this before the injured queen would pull out another ace from between her joints.
He walked over to her slowly. He could see as her carapace shook and shivered.
[The current target has entered a state of Fear. Stats will be reduced by 20%.]
Leon vaguely read the notification before pushing it to the back of his mind. He looked down. He had arrived before the downed queen. Her hind legs had already almost finished healing and she tried to pull herself away from Leon, but it was futile. Her foremost legs were trying their best to grow faster, but it was not easy in any way to regenerate the hardy and sharp carapace that covered her forelegs to turn them into the deadly weapons that they were.
A green flame lit within Leon’s skull and its green light shone through his eye sockets as he raised his glowing sword and plunged it down into the head of the millipede queen. Her maw opened with and a painful screech was forced out of it. Leon ignored it all and pulled out his sword, before slicing it across the small gap between her head and the first segment of her body.
A wet, grinding sound rang out as he forced the sword to move through her body until her head was completely cut through, and came rolling away from her body.
The Ghost Millipede Queen was… Dead!
