Chapter 143: Blood and Fury

The Queen’s roar split the chamber. It wasn’t just a sound—it was a seismic wave. Dust fell from the ceiling. Cracks spidered across stone. The air itself seemed to recoil.

[The Ant Queen has leveled up]

[Ant Queen (General Beast) – Lvl 36]

Luke’s breath caught. His eyes locked on her twisted form—no longer bloodied, no longer bruised.

“She’s completely regenerated,” he muttered, voice barely audible over the chaos.

But it wasn’t just healing. He looked around—the shattered remnants of cocoons, the congealed fluids spread across the ground—and realization hit like a blow. She had spent everything. Mana, stamina, even her health pool. All to birth that army. Now, with the level-up, everything was restored. Her body, mind, and reserves—fully refilled. Reforged.

And she wasn’t holding back anymore.

“Hold her! Now!” Ricardo shouted, his hands rising in a flurry of arcane motion.

Victoria unleashed a series of fire orbs, streaking through the air.

Luke didn’t wait to see the result. He already knew.

It wouldn’t be enough.

The Queen burst forward—less a creature, more a force of nature. Her body ripped through rock and corpses alike, carving a path through the battlefield like a blade through silk. She seized a massive boulder mid-charge and hurled it with terrifying accuracy.

Angelica barely had time to shout a warning. It struck an archer square in the chest, lifting him off his feet before slamming him lifeless into a wall.

Three of Bartholomew’s soldiers tried to intercept her. They didn’t last five seconds—skewered, torn, cast aside like broken dolls.

A new rain of arrows fell from above, but the Queen didn’t flinch. Victoria summoned a lightning meteor, the blast rocking the entire cavern. But even through the haze, her silhouette emerged, advancing—unshaken.

Ricardo barely had time to raise his mana dome. It shattered under her assault. One of her limbs drove clean through his chest. His lips parted to speak, to cast, to resist. But no words came. She hurled his body like discarded cloth.

Melina screamed.

The Queen’s tail struck her mid-run, slamming her into stone. She collapsed, motionless.

The rear line broke. The archers were exposed.

Cecilia loosed another shot—desperate. It barely grazed the Queen’s armor. The tail struck again, scattering the archers like leaves in a storm. Henry and Phillip charged from opposite flanks, blades raised, but the Queen’s scream pulsed with bloodlust as she carved through them in a single pass. Their bodies crumpled.

Then she turned her gaze toward the cavern wall—and ran. She scaled the vertical surface in seconds, claws biting into stone, wings spread wide. The ceiling groaned under her weight.

Then the air darkened.

Dozens of bone spines launched from her back, arcing outward in every direction—a deadly storm without aim or pattern.

“Fall back!” Angelica’s voice cracked through the panic.

The group turned. Survivors sprinted toward the tunnel, ducking and diving as the Queen pursued from above, tracking them like a bird of prey. Allison moved first. She double-jumped into the air, pushing her body to the edge of exhaustion. Frost formed in her palms—she hurled the spell upward. Luke followed, launching himself toward the ceiling of the cave using his Spider Leap skill. Mid-air, he hurled his kukris, both glowing with dense Force Infusion.

The freezing blast struck the Queen mid-flight. The blades followed a second later—piercing into her torso.

She dropped.

But even as she fell, she twisted in midair and drove herself down with deliberate force.

She didn’t crash.

She attacked.

The impact cracked the floor beneath her feet. Luke and Allison landed nearby—but the Queen was already in motion.

Four bladed limbs moved in a blur, carving through the space between them with deadly precision.

Luke tried to parry. One blade clipped him and sent him hurtling across the chamber. He landed hard, rolled through broken stone, and came to a gasping stop. His arms flared with pain. He reached out. The kukris tore through the air, drawn back to his hands like loyal hounds.

Allison rose, blood trickling from a split above her brow. She gathered magic in her palms and fired a freezing beam toward the Queen.

It never landed.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The Queen’s tail struck first, knocking her into the rubble with enough force to dent the stone. She moved to finish her.

Luke’s voice broke the moment.

“Charlie!”