The new chitin drone worked very well, it was faster and more durable, so Logan wasn’t worried about it being destroyed in their fights against the mostly ground based insectoids. They eventually came upon a few devourer defenders, which had smaller mandibles and claws, but their carapace was a lot thicker than the others, so it was much more difficult to hurt them. Defenders had a penchant for bullying their prey into a corner and trying to crush them, which only happened once to Pat, and she set off a few explosives to clear it away. The valkyrie was able to revive her, thankfully, so after the fight they were able to take a few minutes to recuperate.

Logan had gotten a few more pieces of the armor set from the warriors and defenders in the second half of the dungeon. They both had better armor than his other gear, so they went straight on. It seemed each piece of the set had different abilities, as well as a strange hidden ability each. Meghan told him that nobody knew what the hidden abilities were, since no one in either the rebellion or the Free States had found a helmet yet. It was already known that there would be a set bonus, though, since every other armor set that dropped from enemies came with abilities that synergized well with each other.

The suit and boots he wore made his helmet look strangely out of place, since it looked like he was covered in a carapace like the devourers themselves. Jones and Pat had the claws on, and Meghan had a pair of the boots, but the rest of their gear was better overall. Until they found a helmet, nobody else would be swapping out gear. Insectoid Greaves gave a powerful jump ability that had a twenty second cooldown, and in the cramped caverns, he hadn’t had a chance to try it. Insectoid Carapace had a cloak that looked like a quartet of wings sticking out of the back, and the tooltip suggested that they could be used to hover for a moment.

The group continued on, fighting through a series of battles against the warriors and defenders; they hadn’t encountered a worker after the midpoint rest stop. After another hour almost, they came into the final rest stop, the small futuristic lamp glowing with a pale blue light. Meghan and Jones looked at their wrists, digital watch faces projecting on them to show the in-game time as well as the real-time.

“Sorry folks, looks like this is where we stop for now.” Meghan said, a light sigh escaping. “I don’t know about you guys, but I have some homework to complete before bed, so I have to go.” Jones nodded at that.

“I should go, too. I’m not just studying engineering in here, and the course load is a little heavy, so I don’t have much time to spend freely.” Pat looked a little sad.

“Okay, guys, have fun being responsible college students.” The other two waved and used their menus, turning into digital noise as they logged out. “So, Logan, since we’ll respawn in here if we die, want to see what the queen is like?” She had a bit of a manic grin on her face, like the idea of fighting something so much stronger without the others’ support was going to be a fun time.

“Honestly, I have no reason to log out yet, so sure. We can check it out and see what it’s like.” He motioned for her to open the seal, which hissed and popped as the mechanism turned and the door split in half vertically, both halves sliding noisily into the walls.

—

Logan wasn’t prepared for the queen. Most of the devourers were ant-like, with segmented torsos, six limbs, and large mandibles sticking out of their faces to grab things. The queen was much larger, but also looked much more arachnid than insect. Eight legs sprouted from the main body, but she had a torso that stood vertical, like a twisted centaur. A pair of small arms were held close to her torso, the claws looking very similar to the ones Logan wore on his own hands. Her head was slightly bulbous, and her face was mostly featureless by being covered by multiple sections of chitin. Her six eyes stared at them over her mandibles, which were small and protruded out on either side of where a human chin would be. The queen was four meters tall and six meters long, and the room was sized accordingly at a twenty by forty, with an eight meter high ceiling.

A portion of the chitin on the queen’s face opened up, roughly where the mouth would be, and a shrill shriek filled the entire room, shaking dust and small pieces of stone loose. The mandibles which looked to be small started to extend out of her face, angling outward and a meter long at full extension. Logan didn’t want to be on the receiving end of those, as they had a shine to them, even in the darkened room with his specialized low-light filter active.

A blast of light shot through the darkness as Pat fired her rifle once, twice, three times striking the queen in the torso each time. Only one shot seemed to do any damage, as they could hear an audible crack as her carapace started to fracture. Logan shook his head to clear the stupor he was in and grabbed his drone off of his back, tossing it into the air. He wanted to do as much damage as possible while keeping them safe, so he had the drone set to defensive and he pulled his pistol out of its holster on his hip.

Aiming was hard when the thing you were aiming at was moving frantically around the room, and both Pat and Logan had a hard time landing shots now that everything was moving. Logan had to make sure he would hit, since his weapon had a maximum of ten shots before he had to wait for it to recharge completely. Pat had extra ammo stashed away, so she just needed cover when she was out. She also had an ability platform stuck in the small of her back which would generate a new explosive every minute or so. She kept firing and running in circles, trying to give Logan a better shot, while also keeping herself safe. Throwing a bomb before she had to reload each time gave her a bit of breathing room, but the queen was fast, and Pat was already starting to lose ground, getting pushed into a corner.

Logan ran in, hating being this close to the boss monster, but he knew that he had to get a clear shot. He sent his drone to protect Pat as well as it could, shooting a single shot to try to distract the queen, but otherwise just trying to be in the best position to use Einherjar’s Call if she fell. Logan pulled up next to the queen’s back legs and fired at the joint connecting the left one to the body. The shot went a little wide, but still cracked a bit of the carapace. The queen quickly spun around, shifting targets.

Claws and mandibles flew out to catch him, scraping off of his armored plates but still leaving furrows deep in the material. He was able to dodge a few strikes, but most of them found purchase somewhere on him. He blindly fired three more times into her upright torso, hoping to get her to back off before he ended up dying. He was stronger now, especially after the second leg of the dungeon, but he wasn’t geared properly for a fight like this without a full group. The queen spun again, as it looked like Pat was able to get quite a few good shots into her back. The back left leg, the one he was trying to shoot, was hanging limply, leaking ichor to the ground as the battle raged on.

It looked like they might make it through, but the queen was able to surprise them; after swiping with a claw, attempting to grab Pat by the head with her mandibles, and coming back with the other claw, she lashed out with one of her forelegs. It had been long enough that Logan’s drone had powered down and returned to him, since the fight had been going for about ten minutes by this point, he and Pat missing a lot of health and stamina from trying to dodge and weather the blows, so when the queen’s foreleg shot forward, there was nothing to stop Pat from being impaled in the heart, her arms dropping her weapon as her party icon became grey in the corner of Logan’s visor.

He had died before, in this new world of his, but he had yet to see a friend die. He couldn’t think, she was dead. Right in front of him. He fell backward, sitting on the hard smooth stone underneath him. The queen, seemingly realizing that he wasn’t a threat at the moment, took the time to open the mouth plate and start eating, using her claws and mandibles to pull the corpse into her expanding maw.

The sickening sounds he was hearing made his mind attempt to retreat even farther from the reality, but some part of him knew he was next if he didn’t do something, anything, right now!

Standing up slowly, he walked toward the queen and what was his friend. He wasn’t being brave, he couldn’t feel anything at the moment. Fear had broken his mind at the moment, and he acted, not thinking about what he was going to do. He used his second to last pistol round to blast the mandible on the right side of the queen’s face off, causing her pain and a gargled scream, but she was too preoccupied to retaliate. Her legs were busy keeping her in a lowered position, so they couldn’t be leveraged to strike him like they did with his friend. Her claws, while they could be used, were now even more important to shoving the meal she was enjoying further and further in. Not wanting to waste his last shot unless he needed to, he picked up the broken mandible, noting that a menu window popped up to tell him about it, which he minimized without thinking. He pulled his helmet off with his left hand, holding the very sharp blade with his right.

He spoke only one word, calmly, but the devourer queen could feel the room reverberate as he said, “Justice.” Logan swung the blade upward, through her neck and right arm, severing both in a single blow. He stood like that for a moment, then he took the blade and began to carve the queen into small pieces, looking for something; he wasn’t sure what yet, but he knew he needed to take something from her, just as she took his friend from him.

—

Almost an hour later, Pat respawned into the rest site outside of the queen’s chamber. She waited for twenty minutes before sending Logan a message, asking when he’d be back. It wasn’t until after she sent it that she saw that he was still green in her visor, meaning he never died, since he would have respawned after her, she knew she died first. Pat walked to the door and it slid open without unlocking, telling her that the boss was already dead. She wasn’t sure what had happened, but she wasn’t expecting the scene she walked into.

Logan stood in the middle of what was left of the queen’s corpse, chitin, gore, and ichor spread around him in a wide circle. His helmet was off, and he held a small item in his left hand, his right hand still holding the mandible blade tightly. Maybe a little too tightly, Pat noticed, as there was an occasional drop of blood falling from his hand. She moved closer to him, trying to avoid the larger piles of mess strewn around. He looked up at her approach, and she could see his mismatched eyes were bloodshot as tears flowed down his face.

“I got…” Logan’s voice hitched, “I got justice for you. I’m sorry you died, Pat.” He sobbed heavily, crouching and holding his head. “Why does this place have to be so real all the time?” He quietly asked her. She didn’t know how to answer, so she patted his back gently. She wasn’t very good with people, she was best at creating problems that other people had to clean up. After a few minutes of awkward silence, she poked the nearest piece of the corpse they were standing amidst.

The loot they got was amazing! Not only that, but they received special bonuses for being the first ones to complete this particular dungeon, so there was even more loot to look over. After she distributed the attribute points and her talents, she wanted to look over her character sheet.

Name: KnickKnackPattiWhack

Level: 17

Class: Scout

Subclass: Soldier

Species: Human

Strength: 15 Health: 500/500 Health Regen: 1.9 /sec Vitality: 19 Armor: 14 Dexterity: 14 Stamina: 360/360 Stamina Regen: 2.2 /sec Agility: 22 Endurance: 6 Intellect: 18 Psi Focus: 280/280 Psi Focus Regen: 1.0 /sec Willpower: 10 Shield: 4

Satisfied for now, she wanted to make sure Logan was okay, so she asked in a quiet, soft voice, “Hey, you ready to look through what you got? I’m here now, and everything is okay. You don’t have to worry about anything until tomorrow. We’ll all log back in and the queen should have respawned, so we can take her down properly this time.” Logan was still for a long moment, before taking a deep breath and letting it out quickly, his slight frame deflating.

He stood and looked at the mandible he held in a death grip. Remembering that there was an information window that opened when he picked it up, he recalled the window to check it.

Queen’s Mandible

Rare

Blade

Damage: 40

Durability: 24/30

Special Effects

Devourer - Made to destroy almost anything, this weapon has a bonus when attacking anything structural.

[Hidden Ability]

Long, super sharp, and retractable, these things are amazing!

This was a really good weapon, but he wasn’t sure why he kept getting high damage, rare items. He looked at the item in his left hand.

Heart of the Queen

Very Rare

Consumable

Special Effects

This item is unusable by non-devourers.

[Hidden Ability]

[Alternative Use - While wearing a full set of Devourer Strain gear]

Looks important, but we can’t figure out a use for the damn thing.

He placed the mandible weapon into his inventory for now, his hand still hurting from holding the extremely sharp blade for a long period of time. He looked to Pat as he saw something in his inventory she might be interested in. “Pat, we needed helmets, right?” He asked, knowing the answer, but wanting to pique her interest. She gave a large smile back to him.

“Did you get one, too? I’m not sure why we would get two, since they seem to be the most rare of the set, but hey, I’m not going to complain about it.” He deflated slightly, but she seemed to be ecstatic that they each had one. They both pulled their new helmets out of their inventories, and immediately they noticed a difference. “Logan, yours is broken. The mandible is missing from the right side of your helmet. The eyes on yours are also yellow, I wonder why?”

The face that stared up at him from his hands was all too familiar, as he saw a larger version of it eating his friend an hour ago. He decided to check out the stats on it before he was too freaked out to think about it.

Insectoid Hive’s Mind (Devourer Variant)

Uncommon (Customized)

Helmet

Armor: 4

Durability: 23/23

Special Effects

Party members also wearing Insectoid Gear can communicate at distance

[Hidden Ability]

He slid the helmet over his head, hoping that he wouldn’t have any issues. It slid neatly down and he heard a compressive hiss as the helmet affixed itself to the suit. He looked to Pat, who was putting on her own helmet, looking like she was place the queen’s head over her own. A new notification window popped up, blocking his view.

You have completed the Insectoid Armor Set!

Set bonus active:

For one minute, you may use the cloak to fly.

This ability has a five minute cooldown.

A second window quickly followed the first, not giving him the chance to try flying before having to look at something else.

Devourer Variant Set Bonus active:

Using the mandibles in your helmet, you may attack structures.

This special attack type deals extra damage.

Three times in a row, he couldn’t see, getting annoyed that his vision was completely blocked by rapid notifications. He began to swat at the air in front of him angrily. Until he read the new prompt, which caused him to stop moving completely.

Heart of the Queen Hidden Ability:

Consume to gain access to The Devourer class

This will change your subclass to The Devourer, and is permanent.

You cannot undo this action.

You have been warned.

—

Pat waved a hand in front of Logan’s face for a few minutes before getting too bored. She didn’t know what to do while she waited for him to snap out of whatever he was looking at, so she started to throw her bombs into the back corner when they generated. The boom and shockwave was always exhilarating, but she was still happy when Logan looked over to her.

“What do you know about permanent class changes?” He finally asked. She wasn’t sure what to think of the question, since most people who had special classes tried to keep where they got them secret, but a few people went online and bragged endlessly about how special they were.

“What class did you pick up? That might help to narrow down what I know about it.” She figured fishing for more info would help, even if only to sate her curiosity. His body language gave her the impression that he didn’t want to answer her, but he did eventually.

“The Devourer. Make sense, based on what we just spend the last few hours killing, but still. It’s a change that I can’t take back if I go through with it, so I want to know more before I choose to do anything.” Pat hadn’t heard of anyone else who had the chance to become more like the aliens they had been fighting. There’s a first for everything, though, right? She wasn’t sure what would happen if he went through with it, though, and it was getting to the point where even she needed to log off.

“Maybe we should log out for tonight, and you can think it over and look up as much information as you can on the forums. I should head off anyway, and we’ll want to be ready for when the other two come back tomorrow so we can try to get them some helmets to complete their sets as well.”

Logan saw the wisdom in weighing his options. He might also want to log out and talk to his doctors, see what if anything was happening in the real world without him. “That seems smart. Let’s head back to the rest stop and log out. It’ll be good to…” He was about to say stretch, but he can’t do that anymore. Not physically.

“Hey don’t worry about it. We’re friends in the Prestige servers, so I’ll send you a message when we’re getting back into it, if you’re not already on again!” She patted his shoulder as they walked back.