Jumping, Jake avoided both Guards trying to get him from behind, focusing his attention on the Protector in front of him. It leaped up to chase him, making Jake kick off a platform of condensed mana to clash with it again. However, this time he didn’t make it a competition of pure power.
Rather than block, he dodged in mid-air, using Eternal Hunger to stab it in the side three times. It turned to try and catch him, but Jake was faster, vaulting on top of it as he stabbed into its abdomen with both katars as he pushed mana into them. Two explosions resounded within the Protector, yet despite the obvious pain, it spun its body, throwing Jake off.
He was forced to teleport away before he could land as more Guards tried to pin him down. Teleporting three times in a row, Jake got quite a distance into the cavern and found a good spot. Whipping his body around, his bow appeared, and he started blasting, having decided to get rid of some of the guards.
Nocking an arrow, he drew the string and loosed it, quickly nocking another and releasing that too. With Steady Aim, he had ample time to aim properly, despite firing several arrows a second, each one capable of blasting back a Guard.
Each shot was methodical, and he managed to release twenty shots before the first Guard made it to him. Finding himself in the groove, he didn’t bother switching weapons. He sidestepped its charge without even looking as he kept shooting at a particular guard in the distance that was already injured.
More guards came, but their charges were simplistic and nothing more than simply throwing their bodies at Jake, mandibles first. Calling them C-grades was honestly a shame, even if they did have powerful bodies. Before even evolving, he could have killed these Guards one on one.
Now it was just one-sided. The only two in the cavern posing any sort of danger were the Queen and Protector, and even then.
Jake repeated his current tactic as he dodged everything while shooting down the termites one by one. The poison quickly took hold, and even if the Queen tried to heal them, it was far from enough. She seemed to realize this and got serious.
Energy gathered around the Queen as she used the same group buff he had seen last time. A wave of golden energy washed over all the Guards, with the Protector shining especially brightly. They all got stronger and faster, making it a bit harder to dodge them all.
Jake glanced at the Queen and tried to target her. After dodging, he rapidly fired an Arcane Powershot, but to his surprise, the Protector that was behind him suddenly appeared in front of the arrow as a shield appeared, blocking his arrow and sending it flying back.He tried again, but the same thing happened as somehow the Protector managed to teleport perfectly into the trajectory of his arrow. Even when he tried to curve the arrows and shot rapidly, the Protector teleported several times in a second to block every single arrow, displaying a level of speed far above anything shown before.
A conditional skill to protect the Queen, Jake concluded. The name Protector was not for nothing, and while there probably were ways around it, like disrupting space to make teleportation harder or limiting the movements of the Protector, none of these were things Jake could do. So he chose an easier tactic.
If the Protector wanted to protect the Queen that badly, he was all for it, as it made aiming every shot the easiest thing in the world.
After teleporting a few times and blasting a few Guards to the other side of the cavern, he bought himself enough time to charge a proper Arcane Powershot. The Queen seemed to be charging some magic of her own, but Jake felt that it wasn’t of the offensive kind, so he didn’t care much. At the same time, only one Guard was close enough to disturb him, and he had a way of handling that one without disturbing him.
Three seconds into charging, the one Guard made it to him, but rather than block, he chose to remain standing there. Yet he still responded. A shadow emerged from his body to meet the Guard, intense curse energy revolving around Eternal Hunger in its hand. It clashed with the Guard, resulting in the Eternal Shadow dispersing and the Guard being thrown to the other side of the cavern with a deep stab in its head, leaking out curse energy.
Five seconds into charging, he was forced to release the shot as more Guards approached, including the Protector itself. Jake released the arrow just as they were upon him, the blast from loosening it pushing back the Guards while the Protector disappeared in mid-air to appear in the trajectory of the Arcane Powershot.
The Protector tried to block as usual, but things did not go as expected. The barrier it conjured was broken instantly – Unblemished Arrows helping a bit there – with the shot then continuing into the head of the Isoptera Queen’s Protector. At the very last moment, it managed to angle its body a bit, making the arrow skirt off its side, making the attack miss the Queen by only a dozen or so meters.
Severed limbs fell to the ground as every single leg on the Protector’s left side had been torn off, with one of its mandibles also missing. Yet when Jake shot another arrow, it still teleported and blocked, using its body to protect the Queen from any harm.
As for the Queen itself, she seemed to redirect whatever energy she was gathering toward the Protector. A stream of gold went towards it, and Jake saw legs grow out in real time as it rapidly began healing from all its injuries. Annoyed, Jake considered repeating the blow he had made before but decided it would be easier if there were no annoyances to deal with. Hence why he chose to do a proper cleanup.
Raising both his hands, they began glowing green as he felt the poison within nearly all the Guards from his many previous arrows. He pushed Touch of the Malefic Viper as all around him, the festering wounds of the Guards began growing as the poison was empowered and amplified.
This seemed to truly get the attention of the Queen as she sent out another wave of golden energy, combating Jake’s poison and trying to cleanse her Guards. Unluckily for her, she was not powerful enough to fully cleanse it, and the flaring poison gave Jake time to shoot off two Powershots, each cleaving off the head of a Guard, promptly ending their lives.
The remaining ones tried to kill him. Then, something unexpected happened. Jake was about to dodge the Protector as it suddenly teleported away, appearing down on the floor of the cavern to block a Guard that had tried to attack the leg of the Queen.
Jake saw that this Guard was the one he had struck with the Eternal Shadow earlier, and he felt the heavy curse energy from it. The curse of hunger. It desperately tried to attack the Queen with its mandibles, but when the Protector stepped in, it simply switched its target and tried to eat the Protector – its instinct entirely superseded by the curse.
A welcome surprise, Jake mused as he refocused on killing Guards. One by one, they died, with the Protector finishing off the Guard down on the ground, the Queen seemingly unsure how to handle the curse.
Soon, only three living beings remained in the cavern. The Queen, the Protector, and Jake. By now, the Queen had to realize it was fucked, and he reckoned they both knew what it had to do: call the Hive King. But before that, he wanted to make sure he could face it in a proper one-on-one.
Making distance, Jake decided to fully abuse the reactive skill of the Protector. From the other side of the cavern, he began shooting arrows at the Queen, every one of them forcing the Protector to teleport back and take the blow. The Queen did try to dodge, but it was big and slow, with Jake’s curving arrows easily still finding their target.
It then tried to counterattack, but Jake easily dodged or blocked every attempt. The damage on the Protector quickly accumulated, and while the Queen tried to heal it, she faced an uphill battle. Jake finally managed to blast off a leg, slowing down the Protector, making it unable to attack again until it was healed by the Queen.
Jake took his time with the next attack. A proper Arcane Powershot to finish off the Protector only seemed right, so he nocked an arrow, took a deep breath, and began charging. Arcane power revolved around his body, making the air vibrate and causing the wall behind him to crack and crumble from the destructive energy.
Ten seconds passed, then fifteen. The Queen seemed to realize this was bad and conjured a large barrier around itself, with the Protector now fully healed and charging toward Jake. Sixteen seconds into charging, Jake released his breath and let go of the string. Partly because he felt the bow beginning to give up and partly because he deemed it powerful enough. The blast decimated the cavern wall, the arrow itself flying straight toward the Queen.
The Protector teleported as expected, appearing right behind the Queen’s barrier. Its own barrier appeared, ready to meet the arrow that thrummed with power. It tore through the cavern, distorting space in its wake and causing widespread damage. Jake felt the fear of the Queen just as it impacted the barrier, blasting straight through it and into the Protector. The termite tried valiantly to protect its Queen, but its own barrier fell as fast as its mother’s, allowing the arrow to pierce into its body. It had no time to try and angle its body this time around as the arrow penetrated through its head and out of its backside, sending legs and flesh flying everywhere as the Protector’s entire body exploded.
*You have slain [Isoptera Queen’s Protector – lvl 239] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*
The arrow did not stop but continued as it hit the Queen, pushing her back and leaving a large hole in her carapace. She screamed in desperation, summoning several more barriers to defend herself. Jake showed no mercy as he simply released another Arcane Powershot, blasting her again. And again. And again.
Every blast sent flesh and blood flying as parts of the massive ectogna’s body were blown off. The Queen kept healing, kept making barriers, and kept trying to do anything she could to survive. The cavern began to rumble as weak Isoptera Warriors began swarming in, all of them only in late D-grade. It was truly a desperate move, and Jake decided to finish it for good.
Arcane bolts appeared behind him as he took out a massive arrow from his quiver. It was naturally an Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter which he had summoned quite a bit ago but only now found a good time to use. He charged his blow while releasing a few arcane bolts to blow up E-grades getting close. After charging enough, he released the rest of the bolts towards the Queen, with the sole intent of taking down her barrier for the Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter to strike her unimpeded.
The bolts impacted the barrier and shattered it effortlessly, just in time for the arrow to arrive. It hit the Queen, making her screech out in pain as the energies invaded her soul, causing immense pain. The army of weak termites tried to stop Jake and even began raining from the roof of the cavern to cover him and the Queen. An endless army was before him, impeding his path to the Queen, making it impossible for him to teleport over and finish her off. Even finding a trajectory for his arrows to fly was unfeasible, making him frown in annoyance.
”Fuck off,” Jake spoke as he opened his eyes wide and used Gaze of the Apex Hunter. For a moment, all was still as the clattering stopped. Then, the termites on the cavern roof began falling, limp. They hit the ground hard, never to move again, as the ground of the cavern was entirely covered in thousands of corpses.
For a brief second, only two living beings remained within the cavern. More were entering, but Jake now had the opening he needed.
He teleported forward, releasing a blast of arcane mana to blast away all the D-grades falling towards him as he beelined for the Queen. She tried to escape down the tunnel towards the egg chamber, but Jake was far faster. He caught up and teleported above her as he released an arcane blast to send himself downwards. With an axe kick, he smashed the Queen into the ground before letting loose with both katars, stabbing away and leaving rotting wounds with every hit.
Soon, the Queen stopped struggling and collapsed, dead on the ground.
*You have slain [Isoptera Hive Queen – lvl 239 – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*
Behind him, the many D-grades also stopped what they were doing. From running at him with fervor, they became almost catatonic and just laid down on the ground while making small clattering noises. Jake already knew what they were doing.
The Queen was dead, and they were waiting for a new one to take control. That, or they would stay still till they died, something that would usually take only a few months for D-grade ectognas. Such was the life of their race.
Jake closed his eyes and released a Pulse of Perception, scanning downwards. Through the scan, he saw the endless network continue, with only a few changes. Pockets of magma were also visible here and there, as they were beginning to get pretty damn far down. He knew that the planet was far more hollow than before, but seeing how the hive just kept expanding did make Jake wonder… were the termites digging all the way to the core?
If they were, he could only see them having one goal: the Planetary Pylon.
The Prima Guardian also contesting the Pylon did not mean only it or the World Leader could claim it. In fact, what would happen if an army of powerful C-grade insects managed to defend the core long enough so that no one else could even attempt to take the planet? At some point, the protection would fall, and the Pylon ripe for the taking.
Jake could see this tactic work out very well on most other planets as the natives simply wouldn’t be able to handle it. Unluckily for these termites, they were on Earth. Even if they managed to dig far enough down, if the elites of Earth decided they wanted to get to the core after slaying the Prima Guardian, Jake seriously doubted they could do fuck-all to stop them.
Gotta report this to Miranda too once I get back, Jake thought, wanting to scout out some more of the hive first to confirm his suspicions. He was also pretty sure there were other C-grade Queens deeper down now for one simple reason: the Hive King had not appeared. If there was only one C-grade Queen and the King had just been too late, that would also be fine, but he hoped it would at least come to give him a rematch.
He would dive down further, but first, it was time to loot. First, he looted some of all the Guard’s cores, getting seven in total, which was a pretty damn good haul. Then he went to the Protector and got quite an interesting core from that.
[Isoptera Queen’s Protector Ectognacore (C-grade)] - An Ectognacore left behind by a C-grade Isoptera Queen’s Protector, containing remnants of its Records within. Can be used as an alchemical ingredient for many types of creations but is most often found in Elixirs. Contains faint Records of the Queen itself, indicating a permanent investment.
Seeing it had Records of the Queen itself was very intriguing and definitely a boon when it was time to experiment again. Moving on, he checked out the Queen itself – having saved the best for last.
[Isoptera Hive Queen Ectognacore (C-grade)] - An Ectognacore left behind by a C-grade Isoptera Hive Queen, containing remnants of its Records within. Can be used as an alchemical ingredient for many types of creations but is most often found in Elixirs. This core is especially useful when used as an ingredient to empower another ectognamorphs of a similar variant.
He looked over the description of the core and nodded, glad he had gotten one, as he knew it wasn’t a certainty. All-in-all, he had been quite lucky with the haul so far. Smiling, he opened his notifications as he knew he had gotten some outside of the kill notifications, but skimming them, his smile faded.
What does that even mean?