He landed on a boulder that was rapidly sinking, and without hesitation, used two of his standard axes as stilts with the help of [Chop] as he pushed down with elongated edges. He hoped that he would be able to jump over the pool like a pole vaulter, but the fractal energy edges broke almost immediately, dashing that hope.
Instead, he kept throwing out rocks on the ground, gritting his teeth as the splashes hit his hands and face. Luckily, the distance wasn’t very long, and after a few more boulders, he was close to the edge of the acid ponds, so he leaped through the air. He sailed toward dry land as the boulders he stood on earlier quickly disintegrated.
He landed in a pile with a grunt and quickly took out a rag to wipe the acid off his blistering feet with a grimace. After smearing some healing ointment on them, he got up and looked around, a bit stumped. He couldn’t believe things turned out that well. The blisters hurt but wouldn’t leave any lasting damage, and he only lost some furniture and two axes in the escape.
As he surveyed the area, he found himself in a cave that was roughly thirty by thirty meters. There was no other hole in the roof, meaning that the others couldn’t have ended up here. Most of the room was the large pool of acid, and as Zac looked around, it almost felt like a digestive system rather than some sort of trap. Perhaps the ant workers normally filled the room they’d entered earlier with whatever a hive queen ate, and it dropped down into what was essentially its stomachs.
There, unfortunately, were no visible exits in the room, and Zac was afraid that the acid could rise at any time, judging by the markings on the walls. There was a clear line on the walls at roughly the height of his waist that indicated that the liquid at one point reached all the way there. He quickly walked to the wall and started tapping it.
After tapping for a while, he heard a hollow sound roughly at the height of his head and started to carve the cave wall using his axe. Even though the walls weren’t as hard as the exterior, he was still forced to use the Dao of Sharpness once again. He briefly wondered if a beast as large as the hive queen could feel him ripping a hole in what might just be its stomach, but he guessed that this couldn’t even be considered a wound for something this size. In just a few minutes, he carved a hole large enough to crawl through and found himself in a large tunnel.
The deserted tunnel looked completely organic, which was an unsettling change from the mostly rocky or chitinous appearance from earlier. The walls even looked like they were slowly pulsating to a heartbeat. He could only hope that the increasingly biological makeup of the wall meant he was getting closer to the core. He started walking along, ignoring the stinging pain from his burned feet, and since the tunnel was completely deserted, he dared take out an F-grade Nexus Crystal to recuperate his energy as he moved.
He was completely lost by this point and wasn’t sure whether to try to complete his quest or try to look for his teammates. Then again, he had no structured method to do either, so he chose to simply move forward and take things as they came. If he found Ogras and the others, great. If he found a core-looking room, he’d try to destroy it.
The power of the queen and her guards sounded daunting, but he’d made significant improvements since he fought the Fiend Wolf. He both had his new axe and the Seed of Sharpness, pushing his lethality to a completely new level. He also possessed another ace in the hole, he remembered, as he touched his right forearm with some anticipation.
After walking through the deserted tunnels for a bit, he came to a fork. One of the paths was pretty much the same as the one he was currently walking. The other had a surprisingly low amount of Cosmic Energy. He unhesitantly walked toward the pathway with a higher amount of energy but, after a hundred meters, stopped himself and backtracked.
Something was absorbing the Cosmic Energy in the other tunnel, and it might just be the queen. It should take huge amounts of energy to keep spewing out all these ants, even to just survive when you were this big. He couldn’t even imagine the energy requirements for a humongous hive queen if Zac’s own caloric intake had increased by a few times since he evolved. That kind of requirement should be impossible to satiate unless it was through Cosmic Energy.
He held his axe at the ready as he silently crept into the tunnel. As he moved further, the energy kept getting sparser, to the point that there almost was none left in the air. The feeling was extremely uncomfortable, almost like there was no air to breathe. It was the first time he’d felt the atmosphere to be like this since the integration, and he was surprised to see how reliant he’d become on Cosmic Energy.
Finally, he entered a huge cavern, and what he saw made him stop in place and just gawk. It felt like a scene out of a horror movie, with an uncountable number of monster pods. The whole cavern was filled to the brim with receptacles that shone with the same green light as the crystals embedded in the hive walls. They stood up on the floor, leaving only thin pathways, and were even affixed to the walls and the roof. Zac couldn’t be sure, but it felt like there were tens of thousands of pods in the cavern.
Zac quickly entered a path and inspected the closest pods. Inside was an embryonic version of one of the worker ants that made up most of the armies. After walking through the path, he quickly saw that all the pods were mostly the same; the only difference was the stage of growth of the ants. That meant that this likely was only one of many pod rooms, and the more powerful types were created somewhere else.
He thought a second about destroying the whole cave, but that would take a crazy amount of effort going by how large the place was. It wouldn’t make sense for him to completely expose himself when there likely were many more caverns just like this. His goal was to kill the queen, and if he did, most of these pods should likely die out on their own.
He stealthily made his way forward toward the other end, but a sudden movement made him freeze. It was a shadow that flickered oddly beneath a pod. Zac frowned and moved toward it, which caused the shadow to actually move away. Zac realized what was going on and started following the flickering shadow until he reached a small path hidden behind a few pods.
Inside, he saw Ogras, Alea, Janos, and Herod hiding at the entrance of a tunnel. They’d obviously met a similar situation as himself earlier, as their clothes were full of burned holes. Zac couldn’t help but sneak a peek at Alea, and was rewarded with a pout and a teasing wink.
Herod was even worse off compared to the others, with his whole arm singed to the point of pieces of flesh being missing. He was completely white with beads of sweat covering his face, and he was shivering as though in shock. His eyes were alert, though, fearfully darting back and forth.
With a furrowed brow, Zac noticed that Rivea wasn’t with them, but just as he was about to ask what was going on, Ogras quickly signaled him to be quiet. The demon pointed to the walls, and for the first time, he noticed something was different about the tunnels compared to those they’d walked through earlier.
It wasn’t the usual biotic walls anymore, but it rather looked like there were a multitude of cables, or veins, running along the surface. The veins split up as they entered the large cavern, and Zac could see a thin line was attached to every pod.
Zac’s heartbeat increased as he started to realize what was going on. He took out a piece of paper and wrote “Queen?” as he pointed toward the other end of the small tunnel they hid in.
With a serious face, Ogras nodded.
107
Assault
Ogras picked out a crystal from his pouch and closed his eyes for a few seconds as he held it tightly. Next, he handed it over to Zac and indicated for him to pour some Cosmic Energy into it. As he did, he suddenly heard Ogras’ voice in his head.
“This is a communication crystal. The other end of the tunnel is a hundred meters in. We believe it’s the core room of the queen. There are four more things walking around in the room, according to Herod. The smallest of them is almost as heavy as the titans judging by the vibrations caused when it’s walking. These things seem very vigilant.
They started running around when we spoke earlier. We believe that they are the royal guards.
“Rivea is dead. We fell into a vat of acid, and she didn’t make it. We found this place through Herod, and he also sensed your footsteps approaching. Everyone apparently has a unique vibration, and he recognized yours. I was planning on heading further into the tunnel to scout it out before we found you. Stay here, and I’ll check things out.”
Zac opened his eyes and, after mulling the information over a bit, nodded his head toward Ogras, who melded into the shadows. As he waited for the demon to come back, he properly looked over his teammates. Apart from Herod, the other two looked mostly okay, though they both sported somber expressions.
Zac couldn’t help but agree the situation wasn’t ideal. When they’d made their plans before the assault, they had escape as an option. That was pretty much the only reason they’d managed to get Rivea and Herod to join, as they both were clearly unwilling to enter the belly of the beast.
They’d thought that while the structure was large, in a panicked rush where Zac and Ogras didn’t hold back, they could be out in a minute or two, even if they were forced to mow through an army of ants. They didn’t expect the inside to be this gigantic. Now that they also had fallen who knew how far down, he wasn’t even sure how to get out. Their backs really were against the wall.
Soon Ogras came back and took out another crystal. This one actually displayed a window, but different from the one he’d borrowed long ago with the information; this window was actually visible for everyone. Zac started looking at the pouch of the demon, wondering what other goodies he kept for himself in there. He already knew that the space inside should be huge since he could throw a whole fishing vessel into it without any problem.
Zac quickly refocused and studied the screen. It was a still image of a large cavern. The whole surface was riddled with tubes that emerged from various tunnels much like the one they were in. They covered the ground and the roof, leaving almost no space free. The tubes converged in the middle of the cave and were latched to a huge green crystal.
Zac had never seen a core of a monster before, but if that wasn’t it, then he’d be extremely surprised. The core was guarded by four monstrous ants, as Ogras had already explained, and they each covered a direction. Interestingly enough, they all looked somewhat different from each other.
Two of them looked like supercharged versions of the mantis and titan respectively. The titan was the closest to their tunnel and was a huge hulking thing much larger than an elephant. One of its arms was a gigantic shield, and the other looked like a large mallet. Distinctively from the normal ants, this thing actually had at least ten pairs of short legs. Perhaps only three pairs wouldn’t be able to carry its weight.
The mantis-looking ant had long serrated blades for front arms, and its long and graceful build seemed built for speed. It was nowhere as large as the hulking centipede-ant, but still larger than the normal titans.
The other two royal guards were a bit different from any ants they’d seen so far. One of them seemed barely mobile, as it almost exclusively consisted of a head. It did have a body, but it looked small and almost shriveled, and Zac didn’t understand how the small frame could keep the head floating, as the head alone was as large as the mantis guard.
The size wasn’t the only odd thing about the head, as it also had a great number of eyes. The one in its forehead was enormous, and Zac guessed that it was at least as large as himself. The other eyes were generally placed along the main eye, but some seemed to be looking in different directions. He felt it was lucky that Ogras had been the one doing recon, as this thing would probably have noticed him even if he made no sound.
The last guard was mostly hidden behind the crystal, but Zac felt that it almost looked like a spider rather than an ant. It was comprised of a large bulbous torso, with long legs sticking out from it. He couldn’t see any head, though, and had no real idea of how it looked.
Ogras made a motion toward Zac, and with a start, he handed over the communication crystal. Ogras once again closed his eyes for a few seconds and then handed it over to Zac.
“The green crystal obviously is the core. I say we try an ambush where we destroy the crystal before the guards can react. Zac and I both blast it with the strongest strike we can instantly summon. Me from the left, and Zac from the right. We’ll bypass that huge bugger by both sides. Alea and Janos, try to delay the guards’ reaction time as much as possible. Herod, stay in the tunnels; try to sense whether reinforcements arrive.
“We stay silent until the first attack is finished, and depending on the outcome, we take it from there. Hopefully, the attack will destroy the core, and we can choose whether to kill the guards as well or flee. Each of them should net quite a bit of contribution points, so we should kill them if possible.
“We only have one shot at this. Nod if you agree and are ready; then hand the crystal to the next person,” Ogras’ voice echoed inside Zac’s head.
Zac thought it over as he looked at the still-displaying image of the core room for a few seconds. The huge tank-ant was the one closest to their tunnel. The plan meant that Zac would go to the right of it, which would place him between the tank and the large-headed one, whereas Ogras would rush in next to the sword-wielding ant. He mulled it over and felt that it was a decent proposal.
Ogras was more suited to dodging quick swings from a sword than Zac was with the help of his Dao and class. Zac himself was pretty nimble nowadays with the help of [Loamwalker], but it was nothing compared to the demon and his shadow dancing. The large head was likely some sort of mage, if he had to guess, and between his huge endurance and defensive option on his armor, he should be able to withstand at least one blast without a problem before he reached the crystal.
All four of those things looked quite dangerous, but he was already mentally prepared for a tough fight. He nodded and passed the crystal to Alea. After a while, everyone had listened to the instructions and agreed with the plan. They slowly made their way forward until they were just ten meters away from the exit into the core room.
Everyone steadied their breaths for a few seconds before Zac and Ogras nodded at each other. Ogras already held his black spear, and Zac was tightly gripping [Verun’s Bite]. Ogras started blending into the shadows as he speedily moved forward, and Zac activated his movement skill and moved toward the exit as well.
Footsteps behind them told that the others were following in tow, but Zac had no time to think about that.
The tunnel exit was two meters above the ground, and Zac immediately dropped to the floor and started rapidly moving forward. The royal guards were obviously alert, as a deep penetrating screech erupted from the large one that was the closest. The huge armored centi-ant felt even larger as Zac saw it in person, towering even higher than the Fiend Wolf.
The royal guard immediately started moving its throng of small chubby legs as it rushed toward him, as it seemed it didn’t notice Ogras in his shadows. Zac kept infusing Cosmic Energy into his feet, and luckily, his skill worked inside the hive queen as well, even though he was technically standing on a body part of a supersized insect rather than the ground. He quickly moved forward through the huge cave, and as he did, a blazing cacophony of colors and sounds erupted above him, pushing like a wave toward the guard.
It was Janos who clearly held nothing back as he pushed out a blanket of distraction. A sweet smell in the air that almost made Zac giddy was a sign that Alea had released something that added to the confusion air as well. Suddenly, a huge pressure slammed into Zac as he ran, and he almost stumbled and fell. A quick glance showed that all the numerous eyes of the gigantic head ant were glaring at him.
The pressure wasn’t physical, but rather a mental pressure. Only the stare made him feel like he was carrying a mountain, but he could also see that the eyes were starting to shine with a green luster. Luckily, the crystal was close, and he pushed an extreme amount of Cosmic Energy into his legs. He pus
hed away and shot like a cannon toward the core. From the moment he exited the tunnel until now, only a bit more than a second had passed, and the huge guards barely had time to start their attacks.
Zac charged up a five-meter edge with [Chop] and flooded the fractal edge with the Dao of Heaviness since he wanted the crystal to crack. Ideally, he’d have wanted to use both his offensive Daos, but he still couldn’t infuse both of them into a single strike yet.
The large edge slammed into the crystal with the force of a runaway train, as the growls from the teeth on his axe menacingly echoed in the cave. Ogras materialized at the other side almost at the same time, and with a furious stab, slammed the spear straight into the other side of the crystal. As he did, a beam of darkness erupted from the spear and also hit the target like a laser.
A crackling sound was heard, but Zac’s eyebrows rose when he saw that the crystal was completely undamaged. The crackling sound came from the huge tank, who had gotten two wounds on its torso as it stumbled and almost fell.
“SHIT! Life-bound protection! The core is shielded with the life-force of the guards; we need to kill at least the large fucker before we can damage it,” Ogras screamed as he quickly distanced himself from the crystal as the mantis guard was rapidly approaching.
Zac was about to do the same, but a terrifying force slammed into his back and shot him forward, straight toward the descending scythe of the mantis guard.
108
Fighting the Royals
Zac frantically lifted his axe to meet the incoming swing, and with tremendous power, the two weapons clashed. Since Zac was airborne, he had no real force behind the swing and was ruthlessly slammed into the ground, creating a small crater and ruining any tubing that covered the area.
Defiance of the Fall: A LitRPG Adventure Page 63