Solomon: FIRE SERPENT ART!!!

Holding his hands out in front of himself, Solomon watched a torrent of flames erupt from his hands. Using the arcane orb in his grasp as a centre, the flames condensed into the form of a lizard. Letting go of the orb, he sent the several meter long flaming lizards shooting forwards. Flying off at the speed of a rocket, it started shining brightly. Casting a red light over its surroundings, it drew a straight arc through the air. After a few seconds, the supersonic lizard had almost reached its target. A building sized insect with a jet black shell. Missing 3 of its legs and one of its arms made the deadly creature look extremely pitiful. This creature was, naturally, the Queen. Seeing the flaming lizard approaching herself, she tried desperately to move out of its way. But with the support of her missing legs, she could only flail around helplessly. Casting her gaze at the brightly shining star, she knew her end was coming. Closing her eyes, she awaited her inevitable death.

Flaming lizard: RAAAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!

Letting out a deafening roar, the lizard smashed into the Queen. Using all of it's built up momentum, it Carried her colossal body into the air. Offloading all of its momentum onto the Queen allowed the lizard to throw her several dozen meters away. So after Spiralling through the air for a few seconds, she violently smashed back down into the ground.

Queen: GREEEEE!!!

Unable to bear the pain, she screeched out in agony. But before she had any time to recover, the lizard was back upon her. Once again smashing into her body, it pushed her huge figure even further forwards. Without any energy to resist, the Queen could only let herself roll forwards with the lizards pushing. leaving a deep groove in the ground, both herself and the lizard continued moving forwards. Watching the Queen grow further away from himself and Pluvia, Solomon decided it was time to end it. Holding out his open palm, he activated his final attack.

Solomon: BREAK!!!

Clenching his open hand into a fist, Solomon watched his flaming lizard transform. Losing its shape, the fire broke apart. Then grouping back together, it formed into a small red ball. Looking at its surface, the fire seemed to have created a perfect sphere. Lacking the usual waviness of fire made it look more like a calm lake than that a raging inferno. But not long after the perfectly round ball appeared, it started shining with a blinding brightness. Shrinking to a tenth of its original size, the ball suddenly became unstable. Rippling waves appeared on its previously smooth surface, making it look like it could explode at any second. Less than a second later, that was exactly what happened. The then tiny ball exploded outwards. Using all of the energy it contained, it bathed its surroundings in red hot flames. An area of 100 meters suddenly became a burning wasteland. Even the 100 meters surrounding that weren't left unaffected. At the centre of that brightly shining wonderland, a faint white light could be seen. Though it was only in a small area. If one focused, they could find the origin of that bright white light. in the few meters around the arcane orb, where the fire was burning at its hottest, the flames had taken on an entirely different colour. The usually bright red flames had transformed into a milky white colour. Looking at them for too long would leave you feeling tired. As if the flames were reaching across the distance and burning your very soul. Feeling that, Solomon knew that those weren't ordinary flames. Under the assault of those flames, the Queen's body couldn't even slightly hold up. Her jet black shell had instantly begun melting off of her body, revealing the tender muscles underneath. As the shell turned into a goopy liquid, a pool of black goo gathered underneath the Queen's body. Continuing on, the flames began burning the blood-red muscles. Almost immediately evaporating, the muscles Quickly disappeared. The Queen's whole body almost completely disappeared in the span of a few seconds. Seeing such a devastating effect, both Solomon and Pluvia felt a chill run up their spine.

Pluvia: what the?! how much Qi did you have left?

Marvelling at the devastating effect Solomon's attack had, Pluvia was bewildered. Comparing this to his other flame serpent art, she could see a massive difference. If she judged their powers, then this one would be almost twice as strong as the last.

Solomon: uh, a little over half.

Looking at the absolute destruction before him, Solomon was amazed. Compared to his earlier attack this was on a whole other level. Even with his untrained eye, it was easy to see the difference.

Pluvia: WHAT!? Then why is it so strong?

Hearing Solomon, Pluvia was both extremely confused and impressed. Even with her huge wealth of experience, she didn't know of a way to so easily double the power of such an attack. Looking at Solomon eagerly, she waited for his answer.

Solomon: well, I thought I'd test something out. Ever since I learnt my raging sword skill, I've had this odd feeling. Whenever I attack, my instincts tell me to use my anger to empower my attacks. Up until now though, I had resisted trying it. But when I attacked this time, my hatred for the Queen overtook me. Unable to control myself, I Used all of my built up anger to strengthen my attack. But even then, I can't believe it had such an effect.

Staring wide-eyed at the field of flames stretching out before him, even Solomon couldn't believe his own explanation. The thought that his anger had caused this was crazy even to him, let alone Pluvia. But the proof was right before him. How could he argue with the facts?

Pluvia: Is that really it? haah, We don't have the time to discuss this now, so I'll just have to accept your explanation for the time being. But we'll definitely look into this in the future. It's been long enough, Let's go claim our reward.

Deciding to postpone her suspicions for the moment, Pluvia walked towards the Queen's "corpse". Nodding his head, Solomon followed after her. Having been a little while since they first appeared, the flames were beginning to die down. Even the mysterious white flames were quickly burning themselves out. Approaching the Queen, both Solomon and Pluvia were still very cautious. Though they could see that she was reduced to a morbid puddle by this point, they still hadn't received the notification from the system. So as they drew closer to her body, they were both very wary. After being caught up in the white flames, her body had almost completely vaporised. Other than a dark black puddle that used to be her shell, all that remained of her was a smallish hunk of meat. But upon closer inspection, that chunk of meat turned out to be the Queen's head. Surprisingly, it had retained most of its features. Other than a little bit of burnt skin, it was in good condition. But without her body and the organs inside it, the Queen's head wouldn't last for very long. As they waited for the system to confirm her death, the Queen's head began to twitch. Opening her eyes, the Queen looked up at them with her beady eyes. Seeing the looming figures of Solomon and Pluvia, she was surprisingly calm. No hatred or anger showed on her disembodied face. The only emotion she had the energy left to convey, was fear. But it wasn't a fear of them. It was a more primal type of fear. A fear that showed itself in all living things. The fear of death. It seemed that even the emotionally cold Queen couldn't shake the primal fear of death. But no matter how much she feared it, death still came for her.

guild bot: beep, hidden mission, kill the parasite Queen, has been accomplished. 1500 points and two G rank tokens awarded to awarded to Solomon and Pluvia. 500 points and a single G rank rewards awarded to Gareth, Alice, Nicholas, Tony and Sasha.

Hearing the voice of the system in their minds, Solomon and Pluvia knew that the Queen had finally died. Looking into her unfocused eyes, they could no longer see any signs of life.

Solomon; haaah, it's finally over.

Having the Queen's death officially confirmed, Solomon felt his tense nerves settle down. Not having the system's notification immediately after his attack made him think that it had failed. If that was the case, then the fight would have been over for them. though he could have used dragon's fire and fought on, Pluvia would have been out of commission. So he would be left to fight the Queen by himself. Facing that possibility, the tension in his body had skyrocketed. But now that it was over, he could let all of that tension go. Collapsing to the floor, he let the waves of fatigue overwhelm him. Having completely exhausted his Qi, as well as maintained his transformation for a long time, he felt exhausted. He knew it wouldn't be long before the last wisps of Qi left his body, forcing him to return to his human form.

Pluvia; hah.

Hearing Pluvia let out a relieved sigh, Solomon looked over at her. Her body was shaking slightly, as well as teetering back and forth unsteadily. It seemed like she was as exhausted as him. But just to be on the safe side and check she was ok, he called out to her.

Solomon: Pluvia?

She didn't react to his words, only continuing to wobble unsteadily. Just as he was about to call out again, he saw her body start shrinking back down to its usual size. At first, he thought she was just distracted by her transformation. Staying Quite, Solomon let her focus. But as he kept watching her, he realised that her shaking was getting worse. Realising that she wasn't just concentrating, Solomon became worried. But before he had the time to go over to her, her body had gone back to its human form. As her figure solidified, she finally lost her balance. With her eyes rolling back into her head, she fell face first onto the cave floor. Completely terrified by her sudden collapse, Solomon couldn't help but to scream out to her.

Solomon: PLUVIA!!!!!