"What have you done here?" Asked The Queen. She turned to Malachite and Meryl with an intense, parental stare. She wore an elaborate black and red dress, large in shape. It had accented gold trims, with embedded rubies. On her long blonde hair sat a crown, with even more rubies that matched her blood-red eyes.
Meryl cleared his throat, "we brought travelers who we think are trustworthy, travelers who can aid us in the war!"
"You trust too easily, child," the voice of a man spoke. Everyone's attention drawn, the man stood up from the second throne. He stood 6 feet tall, with long black hair that shined with his piercing pearl eyes.
"But Father, he's right!" Meryl said as she took a step forward.
The Queen had just finished pondering, removing her index finger from her chin. "Who is the leader of this group?" she asked. Meryl and Malachite pointed to Veronica.
Veronica jolted at the point, but she quickly realized it made sense. She was the one who went through the trials, assuming the other didn't as well. It was clear they figured she was the one in charge.
"Well, you are an undead..." The Queen started as she moved to inspect Veronica further, "But, I still need to test you myself," said.
"Huh?" Veronica said. Before finishing her thought- The Queen lifted her hand, summoning forth a winged sword. In unison, the floor of the throne room began to sink, morphing into something indistinguishable. It turned red and black, void-like.
"What is going on?" Cardinal yelled out, turning back and forth to see the placements of the others before focusing his sight on The Queen.
"What did I get myself into?" Asked the Brass Knight out loud, scrambling to find footing in the floating debris.
"Hold on!" Bike yelled as he reached for Griffa, her being the closest. They managed to land on a semi-stable piece of debris, as stable as floating debris could get at least.
"Thanks," Griffa said as she dusted herself off.
Veronica had stayed steady, but then her grounding shifted immensely. "Are you kidding me?" she yelled as she started to fall. She was the furthest down from everyone else, she was sure this wouldn't go well.
"Mandragora..." a voice spoke.
"What?" Veronica said to it. She realized quickly, it was the voice from earlier.
"Vines..." It said.
Veronica remembered, she had slain the Withered Mandragora. The last couple of times she killed an enemy, she had gotten some kind of skill if it was the first of its kind.
"Wither Vine," Veronica yelled, with speed she couldn't conceptualize herself, black vines grew out of her hand and latched around a piece of debris.
"I must have skipped something," she thought to herself. She used it 3 more times, lifting herself higher until she eventually got to the level of everyone else.
The Queen smiled, "My, my, you certainly impress me," she said. Her eyes began to glow, increasing the platform she stood on in size by collecting more stone and rubble. "Now, let's see if you can surprise me!" The Queenâs dress had transformed into a more battle-ready form. It replaced its long silhouette for a shorter leotard with sharp sides, highly contrasting its previous frills. Her hair had turned lily-white in unison.
[Queen Vania of Wistgardia]
[Health: 150k]
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
"That's nice..." Veronica thought to herself sarcastically.
The first attack was sudden, Veronica narrowly missed it! "Swoosh!" Quickly, Queen Vania sent out a saucer of blood with the movement of her hand. It was a more violent and deadly version of Malachiteâs.
"These again?" Veronica yelled out loud as she dodged them.
"Again?" Cardinal asked, paired with the confusion of everyone else.
"I'll explain later," Veronica said.
"Focus, Young One," Queen Vania said, sending out a pillar of blood.
"Damn, I don't know if I want to use the same tactic that I used on Malachite..." Veronica said.
"Move!" Bike said, pulling Veronica out the way of the pillar.
"Uh, Thanks," Veronica said awkwardly.
"Brass Knight, cover us!" Griffa yelled out the order as she ran to Veronica and Bike's aid.
The Brass Knight had a look of worry on his face, but he obliged and readied his stance. "Here goes," he said as he started to glow blue for a split second, taking the next pillar head on. "Ow, that really hurts!" He said. He gritted his teeth, "I can probably block one more, but don't count on it," he said.
Veronica took the opening to strategize, thoughts bouncing inside her brain, recycling and deleting themselves until she thought of something viable. "Armor Light Thing, one block left... Griffa long-ranged... Bike limited utility because of debris... hmm," she cycled through ideas as they waited for Queen Vania's next move.
"That's it!" Veronica said out loud.
"What's it?" Cardinal asked. as he dodged miniature pillars of blood himself, rolling for more stable ground.
"I need Brass to have at least 3 health potions, can you do that?" She asked, rolling out of the way of a small pillar, but nowhere near as flawlessly as Cardinal.
"Yeah," Cardinal said, throwing his potions to the Brass Knight. "Don't waste them, it's all I got," He said.
"I'll try," The Brass Knight said as he quickly caught them, but one slipped.
"Oh no!" the Brass Knight said, but before he could reach, it was already in his hand. "How?" he asked, before seeing vines that had been grown from the ground.
"Be careful!" Bike said, assuming his position again.
The Brass Knight nodded, followed by him putting the potions in his pocket.
"That too!" Veronica said to herself. "Bike, can you grow vines to connect the debris?"
"I can, but I'll need cover," He said, running away from the pillar that had combined with others and started circling him and Griffa.
"Griffa, You'll take cover with me," Veronica said, summoning a skeletal steed.
"I have no idea what you're up to this time, but I trust you," Griffa said, following along.
Queen Vania laughed, "Interesting little creatures, plotting something I see," She said as she licked her lips, stopping the downpour of pillars and waiting.
"What is she-" before Veronica could ask, a sword was sent her way- a Winged Sword.
[-1000]
"Ugh!" Veronica said, taking the damage and trying to avoid the rest of the swords.
Queen Vania smiled again, "This is getting entertaining," she said.
"Okay, Griffa, I'll cover, just shoot the damn swords out of the way or something," she said as she stood to her feet scarcely.
Griffa nodded, scaling up one of the higher debris slabs that Bike had made.
Veronica ran to Cardinal and Brass with her steed, she had to summon a new one because the first was destroyed.
She started whispering, "Okay, I need you to swap hits with me each time you're hit," she said to the Brass Knight.
"Sure thing," The Brass Knight said.
"what about me?" Cardinal said.
Veronica thought, "I want you to drop those," pointing up.
"You sure?" He asked, holding onto the steed harder so as to not be flung into the bloody abyss below them.
"Yes," Veronica said.
Cardinal sighed, "Alright," with that finished, he leaped off and headed towards one of the vine bridges Bike had grown.
"Okay, I hope this works!" Veronica said, steering the steed head on towards Queen Vania.
"Curious," Queen Vania said, sending swords towards them.
"Skrtt!" They were knocked out of the line of damage, Veronica turning to see Griffa in position with her bow at the ready.
"Good, good," she thought.
"Attack then block for me!" Veronica said to the Brass Knight.
"Okay," he nodded, "But I need some momentum,"
"Got it," Veronica said, speeding up the steed before stopping it and turning at its rear, sending the knight flying.
"Skrch!" It made a sharp sound, cutting into Queen Vania, but it didn't seem to show that much of an impact.
"A valiant effort," she said, sending out an attack in the direction of Veronica and the knight.
"Nu uh," the Brass Knight said, blocking it, leaving Veronica with an opening to send skeletons to help.
"Pests!" Queen Vania said, letting out an AOE attack of blood that quickly dismembered all of the skeletons, sending the Brass Knight back slightly, but not damaging him.
"I'm all good!" he said, extending his hand to Veronica.
"Good," she nodded, grabbing it and pulling him back onto the steed.
"I'm going to need to summon another one, I'll take the hit this time,â she said.
A pillar was headed right into them, Veronica sped up again, jumping off of the steed at the same time as the Brass Knight.
"Thud!" Veronica took damage at the same time the crash of the steed damaged Queen Vania.
[-1500]
Illuminated through the smoke of the attack, the passive of the cuirass activated.
Veronica smirked, "Now for 3 more," she said as she got up and summoned another steed to continue the assault.