"Menes, I need a way to climb to the top. Xin'er goes first, you second, Lucretia is third, and I'm last," Christian announced.
"Wait, you want to face that thing by yourself? Are you crazy?"
"I'm with Lucretia on this. Only an [Elite] wizard can face such a developed Earth Armored Queen alone," Xin'er added.
"How do you know I'm not an [Elite] wizard?"
"You really don't know anything, do you?" Lucretia sneered. "You must master Arcane Magic to a certain level before being granted the title of [Elite], and you haven't even reached the age to practice Arcane Magic. So, unless you have some kind of unique racial or divine bloodline we don't know about, don't say such an ignorant thing."
Christian coughed in embarrassment. "I have no plan to face this creature alone, but I should last long enough to escape."
"This plan seems too dangerous," Xin'er commented.
"We don't have time to be arguing with each other," Christian added. "Lucretia, build an earth wall around the entrance before you climb up."
"Just do it," Christian replied, his eyes still focused on the Earth Queen. "Now move." Menes did not hesitate as he summoned a long tree root, which he controlled to attach itself to the opening in the ceiling. The Earth Queen finally reacted to their presence by projecting a sharp earth spike toward Menes. Christian reacted with a shield charm that deflected the attack.
His actions seemed to have offended the queen, so she showed him why she should not be messed with. Dozens of sharp earth spikes appeared, floating before the queen, before rushing to the group with great speed. Christian did not even have time to secretly curse as he went all out, focusing entirely on defensive measures, even using an incantation to ensure the spell potency of his charm.
"Protego Maxima," he yelled, generating a large shield to protect everyone. The team did not disappoint them as Xin'er swiftly climbed the tree root despite her fear and worry. As soon as she reached the top, she took out the dagger Christian gave her and tapped the hilt twice before releasing a cutting spell that targeted the queen. The attack did nothing but distract the queen, but it was enough to reduce the group's burden.
"Lucretia, you're on temporary defense duty," Christian ordered.
"What? I won't last a second in front of that thing."
"I'll help you," Christian replied. "Build the tallest earth wall you can muster."
Lucretia used her shield to create a five-meter earth wall, and Christian used Transfiguration to change the wall into solid metal. "Menes, this is your chance." Menes immediately started climbing up the root while the Earth Queen's earth spikes onslaught continued. The terrifying part was that these spikes still penetrated the iron wall. Luckily, the thing was solid enough to buy them a few seconds.
Christian took this opportunity to rush to the wall that Lucretia made from the entrance, and also turned it into iron. He wanted to use a denser metal, but his transfiguration was not enough to convert such a tall wall into something like titanium.
'This should buy us more time,' Christian thought. The worst situation for their group was for the other queens to break through the debris and enter this isolated area, boxing them in the middle.
"Menes, no," Lucretia suddenly yelled, making Christian turn his head. He watched in horror as a spike flew toward Menes, who was still on the tree root.
'No,' Christian roared in his mind. If his teammates die, he might lose the only chance he has at returning home. The idea that he could not see his mother, aunts, uncle, and friends again terrified him — especially when he knew his mother would probably spend the rest of her life searching for him while blaming herself.
Time slowed down for Christian as he watched the spike reach its destination. He wanted to do something, but it was too late. Even if he had a godly reaction time, he could do nothing in this situation. Luckily for him, fate was on his side; better yet, someone chose decent teammates for him, so Menes did not die.
At the last minute, Menes suddenly crossed his arms before his chest as if he was blocking a body blow; then, Christian felt an unknown power condense around him into a potent shield that easily blocked the spear. Menes did not hesitate to climb the root as fast as possible, probably fearing another attack.
"What was that?" Christian uttered, feeling the spell Menes used was powerful and beautiful. He could tell this was a different type of magic, different from the latter's usual plant spells. Sadly, he was far from Lucretia, so no one heard him or answered his question.
Christian rushed to Lucretia's side. "Change of plans. You keep the focus on defense while I prepare something." As he explained to her, he had already started using the Aguamenti Charm to summon a large quantity of water.
"I'll still help you with the defense, but it will not be my priority," Christian cut her off. So, the situation soon became strange. Xin'er was using her dagger to release cutting or flame spells on the queen while Menes summoned two flower creatures with teeth that started spewing poison bombs at the queen. Lucretia focused on creating earth constructs that Christian turned into metals while simultaneously flooding the area.
The Earth Queen ignored the group above; their attacks were akin to a child's tickles once they reached her skin. Her intelligent eyes focused on Christian, feeling he was the highest threat. Although not much of a threat, it is still one nonetheless. The queen stomped one of her many legs, shaking the surroundings slightly.
However, this was not the main effect of her actions. Earth spikes grew from the ground and were not the small ones used for precision and fast attacks. They were large, pointy, and destructive, hence why Christian's metal wall had no chance before these things.
"Watch out," Christian yelled. His training intuition took over, and he rolled away from the wall to the side. However, Lucretia was not as reactive as he; the shockwave sent her flying, and a few pieces of earth and metal debris from the crash cut her skin. Luckily, she was not the main target of the spell, and the water in the room softened her landing somewhat.
'This should be more than enough water,' Christian thought, realizing he could not wait any longer. 'This plan better works.' He cast the Accio Charm on Lucretia's clothes to summon her to him before swiftly using the Water-Controlling Charm.
With absolute command of the water he had created, Christian condensed all of it into a rotating vortex that encased the two of them. He focused intensely on levitating this vortex, flying into the hole above this cave. The queen would not let them leave so easily, so she fired more compact earth spikes. However, the water vortex would disintegrate these spikes due to the sheer velocity at which it was rotating.
The Earth Queen roared, displaying her anger; she could not let them escape so easily. She swiftly prepared another potent spell to end this farce immediately. At this point, Christian was focused on flying through the hole, and his vision was not the best, so he did not know exactly what was going on downstairs; he knew that roar was a problem, so he only wanted to reach the opening as soon as possible.
Then, Xin'er came to the rescue. The little girl remembered Christian's warning to use her dagger's three-tap setting in a desperate situation. She figured now that there was no risk of injuring her teammate, it was the best time to use it, and so she did. She released a group of Bombarda Maxima on the queen, which stalled her enough for Christian's water vortex to leave through the opening. As soon as the two landed, the hole closed on its own, indicating they passed that level of the trial.
"This was close," Christian commented as he lay on the floor, his clothes all wet from when the vortex collapsed. "I don't want ever to —" Christian stopped talking as he felt something dripping on his shirt. At first, he thought it was water, but the source was continuous, so he checked. It turned out that his nose was bleeding incessantly.
"What the…" He did not finish his sentence when the world turned black, and he passed out as his teammates yelled his name from far away.