Checkmate (Dungeon diving, pt 6)

This nursing tunnel is fairly short, and before much longer you turn a bend and see the darkness at the end of the tunnel. As you creep forward, bit by bit, the floor of the cavern is revealed, then you spot a massive, distended, yellowed abdomen with an adult-sized mite vibrating on top of it. As you watch, a bulge passes down the length of the abdomen and a sticky egg sack the size of a beachball is pushed out to plop wetly onto the cavern floor beneath the queen. You and Brighid share a glance and a nod, and then you unleash the fire and the fury.

Seven -- no, eight, you realize; the extra Charisma points from your level and advancements in your Fire Magic Skill must have pushed you over a threshold -- tiny sparks appear in the air over your head and then immediately shoot past Brighid to explode directly against the queen's protruding abdomen. The flames wash over the male fertilizing her eggs and the egg sack itself, scorching both into lifelessness. A screeching roar sounds from deeper in the chamber, and you hear the buzzing sound of adult mites taking wing and speeding your way. "Here they come!" You call out an unnecessary warning as Brighid crouches down onto her knees in front of you and readies her glaive. You fire streams of flame over Brighid's back at the queen until the first of the meter-long flying adults enters your view. You manage to burn the first one out of the air, but then your flames die out and the rest are upon you. Fortunately, the narrowness of the nursery tunnel works to your advantage, and the adults can only come at Brighid a couple at a time, and they are much less dangerous to her than the Hive Guards were.

Brighid easily bats away the first wave of adults, slicing them to pieces with the head of her polearm and crushing them with the butt. Just as you are about ready to unleash another Barrage, however, more adults swarm into the entrance of the tunnel and something much, much bigger heaves into view, placing itself between the tunnel entrance and the queen. Brighid's light glints off of thick, black carapace and eyes which gleam with malevolent intent. It bends its massive head towards the tunnel entrance and screeches again, but you can clearly see that its body is too large to fit inside the tunnel. The fiery embers of your Burning Barrage surround your head again and you smile with grim satisfaction as you send them darting through the swarm of adults and right into the open mouth of what must be the Lord-Consort.

The creature staggers back, reeling and roaring in pain as eight miniature grenades briefly explode in its mouth and gullet. It thrashes and flails and crashes into the queen behind it, falling to the ground and writhing in agony. You dual-cast Flame Jets and direct them towards the Lord-Consort, but you do not have nearly as fine control over this spell as your Barrage and the flames mostly impact against the adult mites which are swarming around Brighid. In fact, there are so many of them flying and crawling into the tunnel that they completely clog the entrance, preventing you from seeing the queen or her hulking bodyguard at all. Several of them are actually pressed up against Brighid by their fellows, stabbing at her with their legs and biting her with their lamprey-like mouths, but her armor protects her from the worst of it and with her crouched as she is, they can't crawl under her to attack her **** unarmored parts. Fifteen seconds later, you cast Burning Barrage again and send the burning motes corkscrewing through the writhing mass of adults to explode directly in the middle, blowing half of them back out of the tunnel and crushing the others up against Brighid and the walls. One dubiously lucky individual is propelled over Brighid's back and past you, only to be incinerated by a Flame Jet.

Brighid stands up and uses her weight to shove back against the mites crawling over her, knocking them off of her, and your flames and her hooves make short work of them. Between the explosive barrage of your magic and her Fiery Aura, the other adults are starting to curl up and twitch in their **** throes. Brighid turns to look at you and laughingly announces, "I believe I will allow you the honor of defeating that monstrous brute in there. I would not want to claim all of the kills, my Lord." You just wag a finger at her and grin back, then begin firing Flame Jets and Burning Barrages into the queen's chamber. The Lord-Consort stoically blocks the entrance to the tunnel with its body, and reaches in with its clawed forelimbs in vain attempts to kill the little human which is systematically burning and exploding it to ****, but given that you have the ability to attack from outside the range of any possible counterattack, the outcome is inevitable.

The Lord-Consort suffers through an incredible amount of sustained attacks, and the queen is nearly as bulky, but eventually they both die and prompts bloom in your mind.

Congratulations! You have reached levels 18 through 21 in Fire Magic.
Congratulations! You have reached levels 2 and 3 in Leadership.

Aidan Lostlorn's party gains 22,250 experience for defeating 39 Adult Rock Mites, 1 Rock Mite Lord-Consort, and 1 Rock Mite Queen.

You have completed a Quest!

First Steps on the Path to Adventure:
Requirement: Defeat the boss of the Lair of Fetid Decay -- SUCCESS.
Optional Goals: Destroy all Rock Mite Eggs -- SUCCESS; Destroy all Rock Mite Larvae -- SUCCESS; Defeat 5 Rock Mite Hive Guards -- SUCCESS; Defeat 1 Rock Mite Lord-Consort -- SUCCESS.
Reward: 5,000 experience and 1 bonus Attribute point for all party members. +2 levels in Leadership for the party leader.
Additional Rewards: 5,000 experience and 1 bonus Attribute points for all party members, 5,000 experience and 2 bonus Attribute points for all party members, 5,000 experience and 4 increments of 25% advancement in the Skill or Skills of their choice for all party members, 10,000 experience and increased quantity and quality of Dungeon loot.

You blink rapidly. "Holy shit that is a ton of experience!" Quickly, you check your experience and sure enough...

Congratulations! You have advanced to levels 6 and 7.

As a Chosen Helltouched Human, you gain twelve Attribute points to distribute and your Willpower and Charisma increase by two. You also gain 50% advancement towards any Skills; this advancement may be spent in 25% increments. Allocate these within 72 hours or they will be randomly assigned. Honor thy Patron and follow thy heart!

Current experience: 65,475. Experience required for next level: 75,000.

"And two levels! Nearly three!"

"And that isn't all," Brighid says with a grin. "Look, over there; see that glowing orb?" She points over towards the corpse of the Rock Mite Queen and, sure enough, there is a floating orb faintly glowing with an indescribable color. "That's the Dungeon loot. Go on, go touch it and see what we get!"

You shake your head and say, "In just a second. I want to distribute my Attribute and Skill points before I forget." Quickly, you decide on an allocation: 2 in Logic, Willpower, Charisma, Toughness, and Endurance, 5 in Intuition, and 1 in Luck; you don't want to neglect your Health and Stamina completely, and you decide to put the bonus Attribute points from the quest into Intuition for Vivimancy spell power and Luck because it hasn't done you wrong so far. For the skills, you think for a minute, then just pump all 175% into Fire Magic.

Congratulations! You have reached levels 22 and 23 in Fire Magic.
Congratulations! You have reached levels 4 and 5 in Leadership. You are now a Novice in Leadership; commands you give are now 10% more likely to be obeyed.

You have earned 50 experience for reaching Novice rank in Leadership.

"Almost to Apprentice rank in Fire Magic; I know what I'm going to be practicing tomorrow! Now, for the loot..." You stride over and reach out towards the strange glowing sphere.