[SP-F2] Long Live the Queen

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She wasn't quite sure at what to do once they dispersed, considering that they were attacking her just a few moments before. She thought back to the story that the boy was telling the crowd, "Well, I guess he was right about this after all, but..." Things didn't really add up at all, unless there had been some changes to the event. He and his group claimed to slay at least a hundred wasps before the next stage picked up so, unless he had a total of twenty members in his group including himself, then there's no way that she should have been able to continue after slaying a measly five wasps and the knights.

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Taking her invitation, she began walking towards and eventually into the hive of the Queen. It was pretty huge, just like she had expected, but it probably wasn't big enough to fit the dimensions of the Queen that the boy had described. A giant wasp that was over forty meters high and only one group had encountered it so far? Yeah, that definitely sounded like some top of the class exaggeration. She entered, expecting to be swarmed by a bunch of wasps, but it was quite the incredible sight. They were busy bees, as silly as it sounded, that were constantly working on expanding the hive.

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She made her way up a pathway, though it did bring a thought across her mind. This looks so unnatural... The pathway winded around the hive, going up a few floors, into another chamber of the hive. Wasps didn't have a reason to walk and she was certain that the wasps could fly from birth, "I guess this is a part of games. Some things just aren't meant to be realistic." Of course, if she considered the fact that she was fighting oversized wasps, walking in an oversized hive, and looking to fight a Queen wasp that was nearly eight floors tall; it was something that shouldn't have really sparked her curiosity.

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Upon approaching the entrance to the next chamber, everything went silent. The constant humming of the hive members died out and not a sound was to be heard. At least, not until a few seconds would pass and the whole hive began to tremble. She could hear the flapping of a massive pair of wings picking up speed until a roaring hum took over the entire hive. She took a gulp in fear, knowing full and well what was waiting for her in the next chamber. The Queen must be resting in that chamber... She didn't look forwards to having to fight it, but she needed to find out herself whether or not the Queen was real.

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She touched the door with her hand, expecting to have to apply a lot of force to open the massive doors. However, upon her hand making contact with the door, they began to creak open. It sounded as if they hadn't been opened in a few weeks as they slowly, but surely, created a large enough entrance for her to enter. She walked inside and as she fully entered, the doors slammed shut behind her, locking her in so that there was no escape. From the shadows emerged a large figure, though only about eight meters in actual height. You must be the Queen... It's a lot smaller than I imagined, but it's still pretty big in person.

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[7042] 9 - 11 - 5 - 6

[___] 12/13

[Wind Wasp Queen] 24/30

The Queen was massive, but it was pretty agile for its size. It was quick on the initial approach and struck Red with its stinger, but she had been prepared the moment she stepped inside the room. Rapier unsheathed, she used her own stinger-like weapon to strike back at the Queen. They traded blows, but Red had the clear advantage. She inflicted six times as much damage as the Queen inflicted on her, which was far more than she could have imagined. Wow, if the group was bragging about beating this thing, they must have just started the game. She was only level 5 and was going to have an easy time.

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[7043] 6 - 8 - 20 - 3

[___] 12/13

[Wind Wasp Queen] 19/30

The Queen reacted in a rather violent manner, considering it jolted up in retaliation and flew up, demolishing part of the top of the hive's enclosure. She stepped around the falling degree as the Queen started to zoom downwards, but she was able to avoid the narrow stinger and reach the bum of the Queen, "Come on, fight me down here!" It was a pretty unfair fight both ways. She was tearing through the field boss's health while the field boss had the ability to use the air to its advantage so there really was no middle grounds for the two to have a fair fight, which made it just a little more troublesome than Red had desired.

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[7044] 8 - 3 - 15 - 2

[___] 12/13

[Wind Wasp Queen] 14/30

It acted as if it understood what Red had commanded and hovered low to the ground. Obviously, it knew it was bigger and the Queen wasn't going to play the pitiful game of Cat and Mouse once it knew that it was the mouse. It flapped its winger a little quicker and used the increased force to close the gap, where her stinger would collide with Red's rapier, but it wouldn't damage her. She would take the rapier along the length of the stinger and twist her wrist to flick the stinger up, leaving an open space for Red to stick the rapier in, "Only three more hits Red, then this is over..."

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[7045] 10 - 6 - 17 - 8

[___] 11/13

[Wind Wasp Queen] 7/30

Instead of flying up or backwards to create a distance, which was the advantage for such a huge monster as this, the Queen slammed its stinger down so that the blunt force of the blow would be enough to succeed. Unfortunately for Red, it was right. Fortunately for Red, it was a mistake. The Queen had set herself up so that Red could grab onto the stinger and hop up while the stinger crashed on the ground after hitting her. She ran up the length of the stinger and struck the Queen in the stomach or at least what Red thought lied beneath the surface of the front of the monster.

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[7046] 10 - 5 - 2 - 5

[___] 11/13

[Wind Wasp Queen] 0/30

Taking this shining golden opportunity to her advantage, Red struck again then hopped off as the Queen began to fly up in the air. She was certain that if she held on for any longer, she would have taken some damage from the fall. Though that was of her concern no longer as the Queen began to violently shake, flying into the walls in a blind rage. After destroying some of the structural integrity of the chamber, the Queen faded out of existance. Red sheathed her rapier and plopped down on her bottom, "I can't believe it's over. That was too easy." She checked her health, "Geez... I only lost two health?"

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She couldn't help but think that she had either missed something, there was a significant amount of tomfoolery, or there was still more to this quest than just that. Everyone had talked the rumours up, spreaded them, and altered them. Some of them were true, but just a little overexaggerated, much like the size, location, and even the requirements for the Queen. Obviously, someone had been here a time or two and the information just got leaked, "I guess it goes to show that even people that have played games before can fall for stuff like this too, I'm not the only one this time around."

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She decided to take the spare time to explore the hive while the wind wasps still let her roam around in free reign, which probably wouldn't happen the next time that she was in here. According to the information she had been told about, quests like these where you had to defeat a field boss wasn't a one-time ordeal. Usually, they were repeatable quests and it would completely reset everything the next time you tried it. There wasn't much to see in the first or second chamber so she headed up to the third and final chamber, but what she would find was something far more frightening.

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[7047] 1 - 11 - 10 - 7

[___] 11/13

[Wind Wasp Heir] 30/30

"What in the world..." She saw a multitude of clones of the Queen Wind Wasp, all with the same features and even the same silly crown that rested upon their heads. One began to flutter its wings and charge towards Red, but she noped out of the chamber and all the way back down to the second chamber. Before she could exit the second, the Wind Wasp Heir would crush the stairs that she was climbing down and send her falling to the floor. In just a matter of seconds, this one had already inflicted more damage without a direct hit than the Queen ever did or was seemingly capable of.

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[7048] 1 - 8 - 2 - 10

[___] 8/13

[Wind Wasp Heir] 30/30

She tried her best to fight back, but the Heir kept flying around her and out of her range. The door was still closed and there was quite a distance between her and the- "Oomph!" The Heir crashed into her as she had turned her focus onto the door, knocking her back into a nearby wall. It had already brought her down to nearly half her health, this thing was extremely dangerous, "I've got to take this thing out quick..." She had absolutely no intention of staying in the event that the Heir actually brought her down to half her health, but she figured she'd have a chance since she defeated the Queen so easily.

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[7049] 5 - 11 - 16 - 3

[___] 9/13

[Wind Wasp Heir] 25/30

She charged towards it and struck it three times before it could react, landing enough damage that she would only have to strike it five more times to defeat it. However, if she got lucky, she would be able to take it down in even less amount of hits if she landed a few critical strikes. She jumped out of the way as the Queen started hovering with an expected follow up strike, "Missed me!" She thought that maybe this game had some sort of distraction mechanism in it, similar to the skill she had heard about called 'Howl' which could distract enemies if you were in more than a group of one.

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[7050] 2 - 5 - 18 - 8

[___] 8/13

[Wind Wasp Heir] 25/30

She ran towards the stairs, hoping to use it as cover while the Heir was recovering from the recent miss, but it knew far better than that. It was a shame that Red hadn't considered it though, It probably won't see me here... She peeked up from the stairs after realizing that her Battle Healing skill wasn't going to give her the field advantage here, only to see the size of the Heir's body increasing... No, wait. It's getting closer! It crashed into the stairway, crumbling away what little footing could take players to the third floor of the hive, causing a fair amount of damage to Red.

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[7051] 4 - 2 - 10 - 6

[___] 7/13

[Wind Wasp Heir] 25/30

By now, she knew that it was about time to give up and she decided to just sprint directly for the door, no more games and no more fighting. She had avoided the strikes of the Heir pretty well, but by the time she had made it just more than halfway to the door, the stinger struck her in the back. She continued running, unfaltered, until she got to the door and pressed her hand upon it. It opened just wide enough for her to proceed through, leaving the Heir to take the Queen's throne.

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She wiped her brow, not because there was a build up of stress, but because she was a little panicked about the door not letting her out. After all, she didn't yet have a crystal nor any other way of instantly escaping a situation such as this, "I really need to pick me up one once I get back to the safe zone..." She climbed down the stairs from the entrance of the second chamber to the first, where the hive members made sure to avoid crossing her path. Perhaps they already knew that she slew the Queen. Maybe this was a pretty common sight for them, though they probably expected her to die.

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Once outside, she began to think a bit more about some precautions for the next time she went on a quest. "Hmm... Maybe I should see if Luci has her shop set up yet, I think she mentioned she wanted to become an alchemist." That covered the part about the crystal, but she could also use some of her potions to heal, "Perhaps I should go visit a chef too, I've heard they have similar items that allow players to heal and such." She already had the armor and the sword, plus Tyger had her shield on the way. If she carried through, then things would go swimmingly the next time that she ventured out of the safe zone.

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After she made it back to the safe zone, she'd drop by a few of the player and NPC shops around to see what the average prices were. There were a lot of similar potions and vitamins, but nothing seemed to be within her willing price range. She would just have to save up until Luci had her own shop, perhaps she would offer a discount to a friend. Crossing her fingers, she would draft up a message that she was going to send to Luci, but then she deleted it after reading over it a few times, "I really shouldn't pry, she's probably training." With that, she made her way back to Pins and Needles to use the materials that she had just obtained.