Rune Seeker

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Six more pairs of the Royal Brood Guards later, the party reached the end of the very long tunnel. There had been several small rooms off to the sides as they’d progressed, most of them containing more duos of ants, but not much else. From the looks of things, something had once been stored in there, but it was impossible to say what for sure.

Then again, considering the names of the ants they’d been fighting, it was probably something to do with the brood.

“What do you think we’ve got as the Boss?” Yanily asked as they put down the latest pair of ants—no challenge at all, by this point. “Momma ant?”

“The brood thing makes me think that,” Seena said. “Could be something like those Army Ants, though? More abominations.”

“Or an Infested, like the Boss of The Buried City,” Seeyela offered.

“Yanily might be on to something, actually,” Left said. “The abominations were clearly imprisoned in their area. The slick walls and tunnels prevented any chance of escape for them. The sections on both sides—the entrance and where we are now—are likely connected through other side tunnels. These brood chambers we’re passing were probably evacuated long ago in case the Army Ants escaped. The colony as a whole seems to live on, so that would suggest there is something still producing offspring.”

“What’s it called? A queen ant or something?” Hiral asked.

“I believe so,” Left said.

“You hoping to collect more insect armor?” Hiral asked her, continuing past the two new corpses and towards yet another curve in the tunnel. We’ve gone around in so many circles, I wouldn’t be surprised if we ended up back at that entrance room.

“One set is more than enough,” Seeyela said. “Besides, I think it gets more abilities when I get to C-Rank.”

“Wait, your armor levels up with you?” Yanily asked, looking scandalized.

“Yeah, doesn’t yours?” Seeyela asked back.

“Uh… I never… checked…” he said. “How did you…?”

“Guys,” Hiral said, the edge in his voice cutting them off as he peered around the corner of the tunnel. They’d found another large room, and while it wasn’t quite as crowded as the entrance chamber, there was no shortage of ants moving back and forth. And that wasn’t even taking into account the absolutely massive ant at the far side of the room.

From where Hiral hid, he could only see a small portion of what had to be a mammoth beast. The front legs were bigger than he was, with nasty-looking serrated blades on the inside of the thick carapace. Beyond them, just part of the thing’s torso was visible, easily as wide as twenty or thirty of the Royal Brood Guards lined up side-by-side. And, just behind that, it also looked like the wall was… breathing.

His long seconds staring at whatever it was did manage to bring up a name, thanks to his View ability.

(Boss) Empress of the Hill – Unknown Rank

“We’ve found our Boss,” Hiral said, continuing to watch as numerous ants passed by in front of the Empress, as if they were going normally about their work. More than that, there was also a kind of shimmer in the air, almost like heat rising from stone after sitting in the hot sun all day.

Fire abilities? Or…?

“Ant? Infested? Something else?” Seena asked from behind him.

“Huge ant, Empress of the Hill,” Hiral said. “Looks like she’s got—what did you call them?—adds in there with her.”

“So, Boss plus a bunch of little ones?” Seena asked, waiting until Hiral nodded before continuing. “Here’s the basic plan when we get in there. Yanily and I will tackle the adds, all the little ants, with our area abilities. Chain Lightning+ and my Fireballs should make pretty short work of any large groups. While we do that, Hiral and Seeyela, I want you to hit the Boss.”

“What about us?” Right asked, gesturing at himself and his twin.

“I want you two to float. Go where you’re needed. If Yan and I have the adds under control, focus on putting the Boss down as quickly as possible. If, on the other hand, the other ants are too spread out, or we’re getting overwhelmed, come bail us out. Keep in mind, as the Boss, she’s bound to have some tricks. Remember the Queen of the Swamp? She went after whoever killed most of her baby snakes. We might have something similar here.”

“Reusing dungeon mechanics would just be bad design,” Yanily said. “And lazy.”

“Doesn’t mean it won’t happen,” Seena said. “Though, I agree with you. We haven’t seen any real duplication in Boss fights, so expect the unexpected.”

“We’ve lived with Yanily most of our lives; the unexpected is just another day,” Seeyela said, and Seena nodded right along with it.

“Good, any questions?” Seena asked, and Hiral shook his head along with the others. “Great. Hiral, hit that Boss fast and hard.” Then she tapped him on the shoulder.

Hiral didn’t rush ahead immediately, which got a surprised look from the others, but instead sheathed his RHCs on his thighs. Death Knell and Stormstrike already floated beside him, but if he wanted to get the Boss’s attention, starting off with the Emperor’s Greatsword was the order of the day. Pulling the weapon off his back, he threaded solar power into it. A solid blade of energy extended from where the original crystal had broken in half. At almost one foot wide and easily over six long, with intricate script along the blade, it was an intimidating weapon.

Not to mention the fact it was S-Rank.

A quick check over his shoulder also showed the Ring of Amin Thett fully charged from killing all the ants to get to this point.

“I think I have just the thing,” he said to Seena.

“Oooooh, death beam,” Yanily said.

“Death beam,” Hiral agreed. “And, one more thing before we go.” He looked at Seena and used Shared Strength to give her a copy of Killing Spree+. “If you’re going to be taking out adds, might as well reap the rewards.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Great, but we’ve only got four minutes now,” she said. “What are you waiting for?”

Hiral sighed, then turned the corner and sprinted down the hall. He didn’t have Nivian’s movement ability, but his high Dex in conjunction with using Rune of Rejection under his feet was barely slower.

Bursting out of the hallway like he was ejected, the Chord of the Primal Echo resounded in his ears while a random ant stepped in front of him, only to get cut down with a vicious chop. A blinking notification in the corner of his vision told him Killing Spree+ was starting to stack, but Hiral ignored it and charged towards the Empress.

Dynamic Quest

The heart and core of The Endless Tunnels stands before you, ready to pass judgment on your trespass.

Survive.

Now in the room, Hiral closed the quest notification as the true scope of the beast before him became terrifyingly apparent. Her torso alone had to almost a hundred and fifty feet long, topped with a head as big as a house and vicious-looking mandibles. Compared to the other ants—even the armored Brood Guards—her carapace was on a whole other level, looking unfairly thick on her six stocky limbs. Behind her, what Hiral had originally thought to be a breathing wall was, in fact, her massive egg-laying hind-section. Extending at least twice as long as her torso, it ran the width of the room, where it dropped large eggs out at the end.

Many of the other ants in the room rushed to the eggs as they popped out, gingerly grabbing them in their mandibles before rushing out another side hall. That wasn’t all the ants, though, with another dozen of the Brood Guards rushing forward at Hiral’s entrance.

Those weren’t his concern, though—Seena and Yanily would handle them—and he instead focused on two of the Empress’s six legs. While four of them looked heavy and strong, they also appeared to be mostly immobile due to the matriarch’s positioning. No, it was the front two legs that were the most threatening, aside from the crazy mandibles. Half-expecting one of the huge legs to come sweeping across, he chopped through another ant randomly walking in front of him, then prepared his Rune of Rejection to change his direction.

Except, it was the large ant’s head that moved—and barely, at that. A small nod, along with a twitch of the two long antennae, and an unavoidable cone warped the air between her and the doorway.

Vertigo and nausea washed over Hiral in a heartbeat, stealing his balance and sending him toppling to the floor. Judging by the thuds and grunts behind him, he wasn’t the only one.

What…? A new notification window blinked under Killing Spree+.

You have been afflicted with the Disoriented debuff.

Disoriented: Your senses war against each other and the natural world. Suffer -10% on all attributes, damage, and critical hit chance. Abilities have a 10% chance to fail to activate, and a 50% chance to backfire.

Duration: 2 minutes.

Oh, you’re kidding!

Pushing himself up to his knees, Hiral tossed the Emperor’s Greatsword aside—it was too long to brace himself with—and called Stormstrike over to his hand, then leaned on it. The whole world twisted and tilted, pulling on him like gravity was over to his side, and only the sword driven into the ground kept him upright at all. Two minutes… Two minutes was too long in a fight against a Boss. He needed to do something about…

The Empress’s antennae twitched again, and a wave of force slammed into Hiral, lifting him from the ground and hurling him into the back wall with enough force to knock the wind from his lungs. As far as damage went, it was hardly noticeable—his armor and High-D-Rank body absorbed the worst of the lower-level-monster attack—but as soon as his feet touched the ground, he toppled right back over.

Disoriented was the real threat, and the other party members were all on the ground beside him, utterly crippled by the debuff.

A debuff… I could… but is it worth the risk? Yes.

Taking a breath to try and steady himself, Hiral cleared his mind and focused on his party members and their debuffs. Then he used his Runes of Attraction and Absorption to take those debuffs.

Five pulses of warped air radiated out of the party members on the ground beside him, their debuffs vanishing from the Party Interface… and racing into him.

Somehow, he’d managed to beat the odds on having his runes backfire, but that didn’t stop the notification windows from appearing in front of his face.

You have been afflicted with the Disoriented debuff.

Already under the effects of Disoriented. Additional instances do not stack. Duration refreshed.

Disoriented: Your senses war against each other and the natural world. Suffer -10% on all attributes, damage, and critical hit chance. Abilities have a 10% chance to fail to activate, and a 50% chance to backfire.

Duration: 2 minutes.

Mercifully, the debuff didn’t stack with itself—how much dizzier could he get?—but that didn’t get him out of the woods yet.

His allies were already getting to their feet, quick words of thanks coming his way for what he’d done, but the speech was practically unintelligible from how badly his head was spinning. He needed to get rid of the debuff, but could he possibly beat the odds twice in a row?

Only one way to find out, and he lunged—mostly fell—forward as one of the egg-carrying ants skittered in front of him. Hands slapping onto the hard carapace, he wasn’t able to get a grip on it, but he didn’t really need to, and he activated his Rune of Rejection while concentrating on his own debuff. Bracing for the new notification window telling him it had backfired, his head instead cleared so quickly, he almost jerked in the opposite direction.

The ant he’d slapped was in even worse shape. Like its six legs all wanted to go in opposite directions, the thing shuffled to the side, then toppled over to roll right onto its back. Mandibles clacked while the legs churned in the air, twitching and seizing, and strange fluids leaked out of the small mouth.

With that ant no longer a threat—at least, not for two minutes—Hiral reached out his hand and called the Emperor’s Greatsword to him, then looked up to meet the Boss’s eyes.

If an ant could look surprised, the Empress did, and she leaned her head back and let out a shrilling keen. All at once, the dozens of other ants in the room completely stopped what they were doing, turned in the party’s direction, and charged.