Splush.
Victoria pulled her spear free from the ant's body, leaving it impaled in the stone floor, and swept her gaze across the corridor.
They had followed the plan precisely, and the outcome was exactly what they had anticipated. The chosen route had led them through a long, narrow passage with no alternative paths. As expected, they encountered an excessive number of ants. With no room to maneuver around them or avoid confrontation, they were forced to eliminate them one by one.
The corridor floor was carpeted with remains. Shattered chitin, severed limbs, and dark stains traced the path they had carved forward. The air was thick, heavy with the metallic stench of the creatures' blood.
As they advanced, the turns grew tighter and the slope steeper—a clear sign they were nearing their destination.
The queen's chamber could not be far.
Ryun walked a few steps behind her, wiping ant blood from his face with the back of his hand. Victoria glanced back at him, studying him more closely.
She had heard the rumors. The second prodigy of the Asyara clan. Supposedly exceptional with both blade and ether, cold and eccentric—the typical traits of someone with overwhelming talent.
The rumors fell short.
Throughout their advance, Ryun had dispatched every ant that attacked them with unsettling ease. His movements were precise, economical, devoid of wasted motion. He had not taken a single hit, not even a glancing blow, and showed no signs of fatigue.
Victoria herself had managed well, but not without cost. A few minor wounds lingered, and the cumulative strain of continuous combat was beginning to settle into her muscles.
That was when it struck her.
If she ever had to face Ryun in combat…
She would rather not.
They continued onward.
The passage narrowed further, twisting into an irregular spiral that descended steadily. The walls were polished smooth by constant traffic, carved with deep grooves and embedded fragments of chitin.
The swarms no longer appeared. Only scattered, disorganized groups remained—easily dispatched by Ryun as Victoria maintained the lead.
At last, the corridor opened.
Before them lay a broad chamber, far larger than the previous ones, yet unnervingly empty. There were no egg mounds. No workers guarding a nest. The floor was clean, almost smooth, and the ceiling rose into a natural dome, fractured by cracks from which fine dust drifted down.
Victoria stepped forward, spear lowered but ready, her eyes scanning every corner.
Something was wrong.
If this were the queen's chamber, the egg should have been here. Instead, the space was completely empty.
Ryun halted beside her, silent.
Then they felt it.
A different vibration traveled through the ground—slow, heavy, rhythmic. Not the chaotic skittering of workers. This was deliberate. Controlled.
From the depths of the chamber, a figure emerged from the shadows.
It was an ant, but unlike the others. Larger than any worker they had encountered, yet not quite massive enough to match Victoria's expectations of a queen. Its body was more streamlined, less burdened by excess mass, with a smoother exoskeleton and well-defined plates. Its antennae moved calmly, assessing them.
Victoria tightened her grip on the spear.
She scanned the creature again—its lighter frame, the absence of eggs, the way it advanced instead of remaining still. Too mobile. Too exposed. A guardian, not a ruler.
—It's not the queen—she said, more to herself than to Ryun.
The creature stepped forward, the ground answering with a dull tremor.
—The queen wouldn't leave the egg behind. This one was controlling the others up close.
Victoria raised her gaze, locking onto the monster.
—I call it a princess.
A future queen. Strong enough to defend itself, but without a nest of its own. An advance guardian… or a test.
Ryun shifted his footing, settling into a combat stance.
The ant—its body the size of a bus—lunged toward them, driving its front legs down again and again, attempting to impale them. Each strike crashed into the stone floor with dry, explosive force.
Due to its sheer size and mass, its movements were slow and predictable to fighters like Victoria and Ryun. It was powerful, but sluggish. That gave them enough time to react—and more importantly, to think.
Victoria used that brief window to assess the situation.
The ant princess fit neatly into a known category: likely a low-level Lurker, bordering on mid-tier. Not insignificant, but not something easily killed in human form.
Up to now, they had fought without transforming for a simple reason. The ants they had faced barely qualified as true Lurkers. They did not justify the cost, risk, or exposure of assuming their monstrous forms.
The environment was another factor.
The event took place within a network of narrow caves, corridors designed to restrict movement. They were unsuitable for combat in monstrous form. It was obvious the instructors had planned it that way—to force the students into disadvantage, to test control, judgment, and adaptability.
Now, however, the situation had changed.
They could transform. The chamber offered more space—but not enough. Fighting in monstrous form here would still be restrictive, awkward, and potentially dangerous.
The ant princess attacked again.
One of its front legs descended like a siege pike, the joint rigid, aimed directly at Victoria's position. The stone floor shattered on impact, cracks radiating in all directions as fragments of rock flew through the air.
Victoria moved before the strike landed completely.
She didn't retreat in a straight line. Instead, she stepped inside the arc of the leg. Her body slid diagonally, so close that the shadow of the leg covered her. The spear spun between her hands as she lowered her center of gravity, letting the shaft graze the leg's surface to guide its motion instead of blocking it.
The leg fell just behind her with explosive force.
Victoria rolled once over the cracked stone, rose onto a knee, and shifted again, avoiding the second leg that fell. This time she jumped to the side, briefly placing a foot against the hard joint of the ant to redirect its trajectory. The contact was minimal, barely enough to alter its path, before it landed hard near the chamber wall.
Dust and debris filled the air.
Ryun moved simultaneously.
As Victoria moved inward, he slid outward. At the moment the first leg descended, he accelerated along its arc, crossing beneath the creature's body just as the second leg fell where he had been seconds before. His sword flashed for an instant, marking precise, superficial lines in the softer joints of the thorax before retracting.
No strike aimed to kill. They were only evaluating.
The ant princess retreated slightly, adjusting her stance. Her antennae moved faster now, recalibrating.
Victoria exhaled and straightened.
—A direct attack won't work —she said calmly—. Not like this.
Ryun nodded, eyes fixed on the creature.
They quickly devised a strategy.
The plan was simple and logical.
Ryun would weaken the creature's movements and force it to compromise its position. Victoria, in turn, would draw the ant's attention, provoking it to lean forward—not to harm it directly, but to create space and unbalance it. If Ryun managed to overextend its front legs and lower its body, Victoria would employ a clan ether technique and strike from above, aiming at the center of the head with the intention of reaching the brain. Even an instant of imbalance would be enough to intensify the offensive.
Everything would be clean, efficient, and logical.
Victoria and Ryun began moving with precision, running around the ant princess in opposite directions. Every step was calculated; their movements were fast, measured, designed to keep the creature distracted while studying its behavior.
The ant, confused by the simultaneous action of both attackers, began spinning on itself, its enormous legs kicking up dust and fragments of stone as it tried to follow them.
Dizziness soon became evident. The creature lost coordination with each spin, attempting to adjust its center of gravity while its antennae trembled, disoriented. Victoria observed every movement, measuring the precise moment. After three complete spins, she knew it was time.
—Now! —she shouted, a clear signal to Ryun.
Ryun accelerated, propelling himself toward the ant's front right leg. His sword flashed as it descended with deadly speed, cutting through the joint. The ant let out a warning buzz, beginning to chase him, its movements still clumsy and uncoordinated from the induced confusion.
Without wasting a moment, Ryun began running beneath the creature, moving side to side, changing direction unpredictably. The ant spun and leaned, trying to keep him in view, but each movement forced it to overextend, losing stability. Each pass increased the fatigue in its legs and widened the opening Victoria had been waiting for.
Ryun detected the opening and ran toward the side wall, creating the perfect space. The ant, confused, didn't notice Victoria's movement. From above, she leaped forward with her spear, channeling her clan's ether technique: Powerful Stab.
Ether Technique: Powerful Thrust
By channeling ether through the weapon and deliberately compressing it toward the tip, the user alters the distribution of force. At the critical moment of impact, the condensed ether is released forward, sharply increasing penetration, stability, and destructive power while minimizing energy loss along the blade.
The tip descended with deadly precision, aiming at the creature's skull. But the ant moved its head at the last moment—the strike didn't penetrate, only cutting part of the chitin on its face. It stepped back, assessing the aggression.
The attack didn't land as Victoria had planned. The blade only cut a deep groove into the chitin, leaving a warning mark. The princess shook, fearsome, but unharmed.
Victoria landed with precision, keeping the spear firm and ready. Ryun recovered, breathing steadily, evaluating the scene quickly. The ant princess stepped back, its front legs wobbling from the cut, and emitted a deep buzzing that resonated off the chamber walls, a war drum call.
From the shadows emerged the soldier ants, thousands of black eyes shining in the gloom, advancing with lethal synchronicity. Their jaws crunched and legs pounded the floor, kicking up dust and debris. The chamber seemed to shrink under their advance, closing off any possible escape.
Victoria and Ryun exchanged a glance, aware that the situation had changed drastically. The princess was no longer alone; now she had reinforcements. The chamber, wide but still narrow relative to the magnitude of the challenge, filled with the buzzing of hundreds of pounding legs.
The princess advanced a step, threatening, while the shadows of her soldiers spread across the floor.
It was a clear warning: they could not underestimate her, and the fight was far from over.