--------///----Eclina's POV----\--------

(Endis) " Holy shit... That's one ugly bitch. "

Disregarding the other queens guard which were actually different from the sentries they just fought, the queen was a six or so meter tall and atleast ten meter long... Thing. It looked nothing like an ant and more like a weird chrysalis but it was constantly pulsating, had ridges that oozed out the slime we had seen earlier and coated the eggs in them. There was a small mountain of eggs that had just piled up there, probably because Eclina had burned the workers responsible for moving the eggs. But the constant pulsating leading to eggs popping out, was disgusting.

It was around this point when the queens guards started to move but no one was paying them too much attention so i had to step in. My earth tail was already on so all i needed to do was to stop them from advancing so we could go back to observing the queen. So i made some earth shackled and bound the legs of the incoming queens guard and went back to observing the queen. That was when i saw that the queen didn't have an actual face... It was just six antena constantly moving around along with a massive mouth that went all the way down to half her body. It was oozing saliva like a starving dog seeing a buffet but not being able to get it. Her carapace was this weird brown and green mix that looked so out of place but also disgusting.

It looked so strange but i was still wondering how the queen managed to get to not only this size, but how the queen got as many ants as she did. So i decided to look arouund the chamber and eventually my eyes landed on massive skeletons that were piled up alongside each other. The structure looked similar so it was something i had knowledge of but i couldn't figure it out when they were all bones.

(Eclina) " ... What are those skeletons in the corner? "

That got everyones attention, which was good since it looked like they knew what the skeletons were. Now i could figure out just what those skeletons were. I could see that after they recognized them, they seemed to be somewhat conflicted. But i didn't get why.

(Mina) " Aren't those the sea reaper queens we killed? "

(Endis) " ... Oh... So we fucked up. "

They were nothing but pale white bones with not even a sliver of meat left on them. There were even the countless normal sea reaper skeletons from the ones we killed on our way to the queens. That answered our question of how all these ants managed to come about. Because of all the sea reapers and the queens that they seemed to have left behind, the queen must've had a feast that led to the whole situation we were in now.

But i was also interested in the Sea Reaper Queens themselves. I haven't really fought against or really encountered many ocean beasts so hearing what they were, i was interested in why they were here and how Reina and the rest of them managed to deal with them. From seeing their skeletons it couldn't have been that easy.

(Ava) " Umm... Why haven't the guards attacked us yet? "

That brought them out of their thoughts and i couldn't see Reina and the rest of them actually look at the guards. They noticed how the guards were different from the sentries outside of the chamber and eventually noticed their shackles. Then they put two and two together and looked at me. I could read the question on their faces without having to think too much.

(Eclina) " Should i let them go? "

(Mina) " Why were you holding them in the first place? "

(Eclina) " How are we going to look at everything if there's a fight going on? "

That got Mina as she just flinched and then looked away. Then she started to just look at the guards and then after a bit, back over to me.

(Mina) " First, could you let one free? We need to get an understanding of how different these guards are from the standard ones and the sentries. "

(Eclina) " I can do that. "

And so i did. I freed the one closest to us and it started to charge at us. Orven got infront and let the kids slither off him as he took his golem form and met the ant head on. The ant charged into his tower shield and seemed to leave a few cracks in the outer layer of earth but Orven shoved his shield upwards which gave Reina and Endis an opening which they easily took. Endis ran and jumped onto the ants back and plunged his daggers into its back while Reina ran alongside one of its joints with her Siellas out and slashed them at it with her running momentum and cut into it.

Her darkness ate into the flesh although there was a bit of resistance from the carapace, it couldn't stop her siellas from tearing into its flesh. The ant wasn't able to keep its balance with her wrecking one of its leg joints and lost its balance. When it fell over, Orven raised his tower shield up and slammed down towards the ants head. Endis shouted "Oh shit" and jumped for safety while Reina quickly retracted my Siellas and ran for safety too.

When his shield made contact, the ants head exploded into bits and almost sprayed out if not for the literal wall of stone, Orven. He took the brunt of that and shook off the ant bits. Though after that ant died, the queen let out a shriek that seemed to energize the other guards as they seemed to be bursting with energy. They started to fight against my shackles harder and even started to rush towards us even if it meant some of their carapace and even flesh came off.

Seeing that, i felt a sense of annoyance sprout inside me since other beasts have never had the chance to try to get out of my shackles. They were essentially disobeying what i wanted and started moving. I couldn't just take that without doing anything so i made more shackles and reinforced them as i sent them towards the enraged guards. I aimed not only at their legs but also their abdomens and other areas that they couldn't just brute force through. When they saw that happen, Reina and everyone else turned to me and saw that i was holding them. Mina took the chance and started giving orders.

(Mina) " Ava, fly up and watch everyone incase of support! Orven, squash as many as you can! "

With that, they started to move. Mina didn't need to order Reina and Endis since they already seemed to knew what to do. Reina and Endis split and ran in opposit directions as they went for the closest ants on our sides. With one of her siellas coated in darkness and the other in fire, she slashed at joints and other weak spots that they made while trying to free themselves and charging at us. They moved quickly since it looked like they were a bit worried about another rush and have the free themselves... Though that was never going to happen as long as my new shakles were binding them.

Now, it was just the queen left. And i was curious about how she would be dealt with. I could tell how tough her carapace was so i was wondering what they could do to it. I watched as Reina tested it out and slashed forward with her siellas only to have them harmlessly bounce off. Even when she coated them in darkness or fire, there would only be a few scratches left behind which spoke to the defensive properties of the queen. Endis' daggers didn't make much of a difference and even Orven couldn't smash the queen fully. He could do a little damage, but it wasn't enough to kill her. At that point they had huddled around each other and started to brainstorm methods to use against the queen to try to break through her carapace.

Though they didn't seem to be going anywhere as they tossed out nonsensical ideas that even started to sound silly. Such as even having Orven try to pick her up and swing her around to throw her at a wall. The mental image of that was a little funny so i couldn't help but smile at it. Though with the rate they were coming up with bad ideas, i couldn't help but sigh. If i just let it keep going this way then we'd probably be here for longer then we would have too.

(Eclina) " Should i just deal with it? No one has any good ideas. "

(Mina) " How do you plan on dealing with it? "

(Eclina) " Like this. "

Explaining took more time then doing so i decided to show them. So i slowly closed my eyes and changed elements as i swapped my air to my darkness. Then, i started to slam my earth tail against the ground as i pulled out earth from the ground, the chamber walls and even a bit from the ceiling. I used those parts and started to fuse and refine them into the form of spears. When i got to that point, i started to compress the spears to increase their ability to impale and tear through her carapace. I continued to refine them until i was sure they were ready. Then i slowly started to infuse my darkness into the earthen spears i made.

Mr.Garris had taught me and Espiral the theory about infusing elements and answered me when i asked what the difference between coating and infusing was so i already knew that i had to do it slowly. I had to find a balance where the elements didn't clash with each other or else i would have to redo the whole thing. The first time i tried i messed it up for a month or two but Espiral didn't. It was easy for him to fuse his darkness with his lightning or his fire, and even though he's my little brother, i wasn't about to let him be ahead of me forever. So i made sure to perfect infusion to the point that it was second nature to me. And when i did, i found out how powerful infusion made my attacks.

If i used infusion on the drake i met the first time, then i could've dealt with it in a single shot. Even if it was an intelligent beast, tried to avoid or use its breath against my spears then it would still end up dead. That's why i decided to keep infusion off the table unless it was something with strong defenses or something i had to deal with seriously. And from what i already observed from the queen, her defenses were definetly top notch. I could probably deal with it with my darkness b ysending it through her eyes or her mouth, but after killing all the guards, her mouth seemed to clamp up and her eyes became shielded by something so i had to pierce her with something else.

So i decided to use my infusion and tear through her with my dark earth spear and coated it in fire. When i was done, i opened my eyes and sent them forwards. My spears shot towards the queen and burst her carapace into pieces. The fragments of her carapace flew out all around her body which was now exposed since her carapace had been blasted off. And with nothing stopping it, my darkness started to corrode the queens flesh as she started to burn and corrode into a puddle of unrecognizable puddle. I nodded at that and looked back at everyone else.

(Endis) " Wait... Didn't we agree we would just have Eclina guide us? When'd we end up letting Eclina do everything? "

Oh yeah... We did agree to that... Oh well, it's already over. Though the others didn't seem to share in my nonchalant attitude as i could see them sprout conflicted looks as they looked at each other and then to me. I didn't really know what to do with them looking at me the way that they were so i just ignored it. After a bit, they started to move and all started going towards the fragments of the queens carapace. I saw Reina test the fragment she picked up and saw she was satisfied with it.

Everyone was collecting fragments but they were going so slow and even when they had some fragments they didn't have anywhere to store them all so i just said that they could make a barrel to put them in. And they did, though i would've done it myself but i thought if i did then they would've taken another blow to their egos. But with the barrel, they sped up and dumped in the fragments until it was full then they made another and kept going until they got them all. And with that, we started to head back up.

When we left, the sun was already changed which showed we spent a few hours inside. Though i wasn't that interested in the sun, i was more interested in Espiral. I could see him laying besides the entrance asleep and looking better then when we left.Though i didn't know how much better so i started to walk over to see if there was anything wrong. He ended up waking up when i got closer but that was fine and he didn't mind when i checked up on him with my light tail. I swapped my light tail on and checked on his health and didn't see anything wrong with him.

(Espiral) " Sis? "

(Eclina) " Just making sure. "

He looked a little confused but that was fine. He didn't have any injuries and i thought i could feel that the effects of him rushing here were slowly going away. With the rate that was going, he would probably be fine after a day or two, which would then be when we left. Thinking along those lines, i was a little sad because i wanted to spend more time with everyone but we would have to leave just as soon as we arrived. Even when we were heading back to the city, i couldn't get the thought out of my mind so i wasn't really saying much, which led to a awkward kind of atmosphere. Eventually, i couldn't let it stay awkward so i had to say what was on my mind.

(Eclina) " We're going to have to leave soon... "