Because it was already daytime, they could clearly observe the whole process of the ant queen’s emergence and its biological power of moving freely through the soil.
On both sides of the ant queen’s body was a tymbal like the one on male cicadas.
(TL: Secrets of the cicada’s sound: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130530152846.htm )
This device could produce strong ripples through ultra-high frequency vibrations. The ripples were synchronized with the resonant frequency of the earth around the ant queen, so the ant queen could easily crush the earth around it into sand. Coupled with the queen’s superior strength, of course it could travel freely under the ground.
The overall appearance of the ant queen was like a combination of an ant and a golden cicada (cicada larva). It was not as slender as an ant, but instead was as fat as a golden cicada. The two forelimbs at the front segment of the queen were deformed into powerful weapons, while the other three pairs of long legs were as slender as spider legs.
The crawling speed of the ant queen was not slow at all. When the ant queen moved, it reminded them of a rampaging tank; everything in its path would be slammed away.
The dark-coloured, alloy-steel-like shell covering its body, the knifelike, shiny claws, as well as the sharp mouthpiece that was constantly moving and making a clicking sound, all pointed to the ant queen being a powerful monster of extreme danger.
The queen reached the rock-filled area in no time at all. The hard, wind-eroded rocky surface under its feet cracked like freshly baked cheesecake, giving rise to smoke and dust. A large amount of loose pebbles shot out at high speed and made sparks when they crashed into the cliff nearby. The ant queen’s formidable strength was evident.
It also had two pairs of transparent wings on its back like other One-Horned Flying Ants. Although these two pairs of wings could not provide enough thrust to let this heavy, horrifying monster fly, they allowed the ant queen to move more quickly and more nimbly. It could often perform some maneuvers that were completely inconsistent with its heavy body.
To put it in an easier to understand analogy, it would be like an M1A2 heavy tank which weighed more than 67 tons suddenly doing a drift while it was speeding forward. It would definitely catch others off guard.
When the ant queen approached, a strong stench was transmitted over. Sheyan realised that there was a vivid wound at its rear. As the ant queen moved, some dark red intestines and other organs inside would constantly spill out of the wound. Large masses of thick, dark-green liquid would also flow out of the wound and form sticky pools on the ground.
Obviously, this was the result of the ant queen biting off its connection to the egg sack. Such a wound had already involved the internal organs, so there was no doubt that the ant queen was rapidly losing its remaining vitality from the injury. But just as the contestants breathed a sigh of relief, the four transparent wings of the queen suddenly flapped rapidly. The intense muscle exercise squeezed more body fluids and organs out of the wound, but the huge body of the queen also abruptly shifted direction and accelerated towards Aldaris at an unbelievable speed!
The attack truly caught all three of them by surprise! They did not expect the queen to be so explosive!
Aldaris, despite being alarmed, did not panic. He took a deep breath and immediately retreated a few steps. While he did so, his hands reached out and grabbed the arm of a cyborg next to him. With a sudden burst of strength, he pulled the cyborg to his front while he borrowed the reaction force to jump to the side.
Amidst a loud bang and a billowing of smoke and dust, the queen’s pair of sharp, thick deformed forelimbs penetrated deep into the body of the cyborg. The queen then parted her forelimbs, forcefully tearing the cyborg apart!
The unfortunate cyborg’s body parts and accessories scattered all over the floor. His head rolled away to the side, but it was then flattened by the ant queen’s foot. A disgusting greenish black liquid splashed all over the ground. But the other cyborgs did not show any reaction to this tragic situation at all. Aldaris’ two other cyborgs appeared unconcerned, as if being used as cannon fodder was a very normal thing.
Aldaris pathetically rolled several times on the ground before he climbed back up. A long gash had been cut open on his right arm, out of which blood flowed freely. The wound was also rapidly swelling and blackening. Aldaris had obviously been poisoned.
Although he had dodged quickly, his right arm had still been grazed by the ant queen’s mutated forelimb. The ant queen’s forelimbs resembled the mutated forelimbs of a cicada, and also looked a little like the digging forelimbs of a mole cricket. The forelimbs were definitely not just for show. They were lethal weapons, both in power and sharpness. Now, it even seemed like there was a strong venom on them.
Fortunately, Ramtas had rushed up at that instant with an angry boar growl and slammed its staff down at the queen. The wooden stick was glowing with a faint green light; it had obviously been enchanted with a powerful natural spell.
Moreover, Paul had also attached a large amount of metal to the head of the staff, so right now, instead of a staff, it looked more like a large mace.
The queen blocked with its forelimb, resulting in a loud clang as the metal part of the staff collided with it. Sparks flew about. Although Ramtas’ power had greatly increased after consuming the genes of the One-Horned Flying Ants, it still could not hold its own against the queen. It was forced back by more than a dozen steps until its back hit a rock wall.
But Ramtas’ attack had also caused a considerable impact to the queen, so its heavy body paused for a moment. Taking advantage of that, Sheyan ran up from the side and jumped onto the back of the ant queen. His hands grabbed tightly onto the root of the ant queen’s transparent wings.
Sheyan knew very well that the biggest threat possessed by the ant queen at the moment was the way it could abruptly raise its speed to an astonishing level, and the root of the speed burst lay in its two pairs of wings! He kept one hand grabbing the root of a wing to keep his balance, while pulling out ‘+7 West’ and holding it up high with his other hand!
The powerful liquid metal instantly flowed upwards to coat the blade of ‘+7 West’ in a shiny glaze. Sheyan huffed loudly as he thrust the saber down towards the ant queen’s back hard!
‘+7 West’ stabbed into the ant queen’s flesh along the gap between its hard outer shell. Sheyan had put so much force into the stab that even his saber-wielding arm had penetrated into the queen’s body, up until his shoulder! Sheyan twisted the saber! Dark green fluids and flesh chunks instantly splattered out.
Of course the queen could feel what was happening on its back. It immediately erupted with an amazing force, trying to throw Sheyan off. At the same time, the other two wings that could still move also shook violently.
Sheyan was almost thrown off balance. If he had not lived on ships for a long time and was used to turbulent waves, he would have been flung off. Of course, it was impossible for the ant queen to have a weakness like an unreachable spot on her back. One of her hind legs actually flipped back at an odd angle and struck Sheyan’s back.
Sheyan could no longer maintain his grip and stay on top of the ant queen, but as he was blown away, he had also violently pulled out ‘+7 West’ in a huge arc at a bizarre angle.
Before ‘+7 West’ was pulled out, Sheyan had maliciously placed it against a few targeted tendons inside the queen. Sending Sheyan flying solved a huge problem for the ant queen, but it also provided enough power for Sheyan to sever these tendons. The tendons were the main tendons responsible for the flapping of the wings, which meant that the ant queen’s wings were now crippled.
That naturally caused quite some agony for the ant queen, so its attention was now entirely on Sheyan. It dragged her heavy body forward in a charge. It instinctively tried to flap its wings to assist in its movement, but the short, deep wound on her back immediately gave a timely response. It told the ant queen with a gush of dark-green body fluid and intense pain that this was a wrong decision.
That caused the ant queen’s charge to steer off its intended path. The ant queen crashed into the cliff nearby. Paul knew that if Sheyan fell here, he would be finished too, so he immediately re-summoned his battle robot, Heracles. After recuperating for a while in an alternate dimension,the powerful robot’s injuries had visibly gotten better. More than 80% of the magic arrays on its armour had been repaired.
Hercules’ heavy warhammer struck down from the top towards the ant queen. The ant queen still wanted to move towards Sheyan, but she still raised a mutated forelimb to stab at the chest of the metallic robot in passing.
The ant queen’s forelimb scraped a long trail of sparks on the chest of the colossal metallic monster. A piercing sound accompanied the burst of metallic debris that shot out like fireworks from Heracles’ chest. But the metallic monster that did not know the meaning of fatigue or pain had also managed to smash its heavy warhammer on the ant queen’s head.
The chitin outer shell covering the ant queen’s body was admittedly extremely tough, comparable to a set of plate armours. It had a strong defence against sharp weapons. However, its defence against heavy, blunt weapons was very poor.
Heracles’ 4,500-kilogram heavy warhammer crashed hard into the ant queen. A cracking sound, like the sound of an egg shell breaking, was immediately heard. A large number of cracks appeared on the hard outer shell!
