The Queen's furious cries left the wasps around her shaking in terror and almost instantly, one flew in towards her and my shot of poison was deflected.

I was disappointed it had missed. My poison was slow to form due to it being a new skill and my lack of practice.

But fortunately, there were many other injuries across the Queen's large body that I could target. And as her visceral reaction showed, my poison was particularly effective in irritating her.

So, when I saw the scary wasp getting ready to attack again, I purposely attacked the Queen from the other side. This way she would be forced to divert some of the wasps to cover, creating more openings for him.

And it proved to be an effective strategy.

Even with the aid of so many wasps, the Queen was severely injured from a combination of attacks that led to her losing three limbs, alongside the terrible wound in her abdomen where the scary wasp managed to break through her toughened shell.

With her defensive formation in tatters, the Queen went on the defensive and began to retreat.

I felt great gusts of wind where her membranous brown wings lifted her up in the air. And then, the majority of the formation of wasps around her scattered at once, all surging towards the centre, towards the lone figure of the scary wasp in a terrifying swarm.

I lost track of the scary wasp among them and the Queen was fast disappearing into the depths of the hive with a few wasps in tow to protect her.

I appraised the Queen again and as expected, she was on the verge of losing the battle and her life.

-------------------------------

LV42 Hestehoria

Specie: Dyrsyn Vespoidea

HP: 120/600 Defence: 431

MP: 139/280 Intellect: 106

SP: 98/476 Magic: 220

Attack: 459 Agility: 265

Skills:

[?????: LV:??] [?????? ???????: LV:?]

-------------------------------

Her HP had fallen drastically, however her MP was recovering fast.

I knew she couldn't be allowed to retreat and recover so I quickly moved in to pursue. She was already terribly wounded and if she died by my hand, it would be even better.

I heard a crash behind me where the scary wasp was fighting through the wasp swarm like a mad beast, using the bodies of his fellow wasps as shields in order to break out, even though he was already injured himself.

The Queen was controlling a quarter of the wasps and using the rest to delay him, while maintaining a steady retreat. And through the collapsed tunnel walls, I caught glimpses of her familiar chambers and the large chasm in the ground where she preferred to stay.

If I want to kill her, I have to cut down the number of wasps around her first.

I knew I couldn't fight her alone as yet, so I ignored all the wasps around her and focused solely on attacking the Queen's consciousness with [Coercion].

I didn't know if it would work on her but I only hoped to interfere with her orders to the wasps, even just for a moment to allow the scary wasp to break through.

I felt a searing pain between my eyes and soon blackspots appeared across my vision. My head felt fit to burst and I struggled not to pass out.

Although she was weakened, the difference in our levels made her too formidable an opponent to attack. I managed to freeze her movements for only a second before she broke free of my control, yet it felt like I'd taken a severe beating like I was the one being attacked.

Fortunately, I succeeded in what I wanted to do and I felt better for it. The short second where she was distracted by me was enough for the scary wasp to break out of the cage she had sacrificed majority of her protection to form.

Once free, he sped towards her flying form like a tornado and instantly launched his own counterattack.

The Queen tried to attack him, but he used his speed to avoid her attacks, while throwing one wind blade after the other to damage her as he went. It was like he had gotten faster - but that was impossible... unless the Queen was slower than before.

Was it my poison? Was it finally starting to be effective?

With more than half of the wasps left behind, her defence was weaker and much more spaced out than before.

The scary wasp fought through the formation around her, killing the few remaining wasps to land on her flying form. Once he achieved a stable footing, he proceeded to cut down her wings, before plunging his claws deep into her thorax, as if to peel off her shell.

The Queen's flight derailed, and she plummeted to the ground below the chasm, taking herself and the scary wasp out of sight.

I followed, curious and somewhat anxious of what would come next.

Soon, the ground of the nest gave way to a fresh earth and the scent of dew and moss. I could feel the vibrations and tremors through the ground and realized they were up ahead. I immediately activated [Mana Sense] and spotted two presences in the darkness.

However, what I found was not what I expected. The scary wasp was impaled through the leg by a spike of earth rising from the ground.

The Queen must've launched an attack with what could only be earth magic and instead of two glowing figures fighting, the battlefield was completely lit up in cyan, so much that it was almost blinding.

There were splinters of earth coming from every surface and each one contained a trace of mana that made it seem like there were more than twenty presences in the chasm.

My [Heat Sphere] was also completely ineffective - it was impossible to predict where these lifeless spikes would rise from at a moment's notice.

Suddenly, I felt more tremors through the ground and noticed the gathering of mana in specific spots on the surface, right before a spike rose up. I quickly evaded those coming out from under me and used [Dimensional Box] to swallow those coming out from the walls.

I heaved a sigh of relief... it was far too close for comfort.

I nearly got speared from the ground, while the scary wasp escaped by snapping off the spike impaled through his leg. He had taken off into the air, but his escape was not so fortunate and his wings were pierced in the next strike by spikes coming down from the roof of the chasm.

Without a doubt, down here the Queen was in her element. Although wounded, she was much stronger than before.

It was becoming much harder to see - with earth spears appearing everywhere and mana pouring through the ground from the Queen, my vision through [Mana Sense] had been compromised so I switched to [Heat Sense] to locate the Queen hiding deep inside the chasm.

She truly was like a cornered rat.

I heard a snap of an earth spear and soon the scary wasp had freed himself. And, rather than retreat, he set out for the Queen as more splinters appeared around to impale him, but this time he flew much too fast for them to pierce. And even when they got close enough, he cut through them with his wind blades.

His path through to her was just as reckless as it was destructive, but he finally reached her. Then after, all I could hear were the horrendous sounds of hardened carapace breaking, followed by screaming and the shredding of wet flesh.

As soon as he set her in his sights, it was a singular act of one sided brutality I could only describe as a massacre. From her antennae to her eyes, down to her shell, there was nowhere left untouched from his savagery.

I couldn't even interfere because an attack from him would likely end up severely injuring me. And by the time he was done, there wasn't much left that was recognisable of the former arrogant Queen who looked down on him with contempt.

I only knew she was dead when she stopped screaming, and I was left traumatised from what I had witnessed.

〚You have gained a level!〛

In my terror I didn't even read the system message. I was simply struck with fear. I wanted to back away before he realised I was there too.

How was he still so strong after the hell of a battle he'd been through?

I was afraid of making a sound that could alert him, and turn his fury onto me. I was still cloaked in shadow, but as the scary wasp emerged from the mess of a corpse that remained, I began to doubt if it was enough.

All I could imagine was the scary wasp ripping me apart in the same way as the Queen.

Fortunately, the wasps that had defended the Queen soon poured into the chasm and I used this disturbance to retreat further.

I expected them to battle the scary wasp that had killed their Queen, but on seeing her savaged remains and the triumphant wasp smeared in blood, the wasps all fell back, much to my horror.

The wasps that previously attacked him with ferocity all lost their incentive and now cowered before him like leaves, while others fled the hive in fear, without waiting for their deaths.

But, the scary wasp did not seem interested in them at all or even the Queen's corpse.

After dismembering her body, he retreated away from the crowd without addressing anyone and simply took off, disappearing from sight.