BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM-Chapter 1296: The bugs (22)
"They're trying to flank us on the left side!"
Chaos unfolded. Erik kept waiting.
<Where the hell is the queen?>
The battle was escalating beyond what the clones could handle, but it still wasn't enough for the hive to not tolerate.
[The queen isn't going to come out. You need to do something…]
<Damn… I didn't want to… It's a colossal risk.>
[Do you prefer the clones dying? Or worse, the girls?]
<Shit…>
It was at that moment that Erik released a large number of wind blades. Decimating the monsters.
[Bellator thanatocoleoptera killed: mana-absorbing process starting.]
[Operarius thanatocoleoptera killed: mana-absorbing process starting.]
[Dux thanatocoleoptera killed: mana-absorbing process starting.]
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[Dux thanatocoleoptera killed: mana-absorbing process starting.]
[Operarius thanatocoleoptera killed: mana-absorbing process starting.]
[Bellator thanatocoleoptera killed: mana-absorbing process starting.]
[Operarius thanatocoleoptera killed: mana-absorbing process starting.]
[Dux thanatocoleoptera killed: mana-absorbing process starting.]
[There are movements,] the system said. [Something big.]
It looked like it worked. The queen wasn't going to come out unless she felt the hive was threatened, and since too few bugs died under the clones' and the girls' attacks, she didn't think they were an actual threat. But things were different if many bugs died at the same time. That would mean there was something big out for them, and the queen couldn't stay idle.
The swarm split open, and a colossal figure appeared.
"She is here!" Erik said. "Keep the perimeter and the swarm occupied!"
"Copy that," Mira said. "We've got your back."
The queen looked at the battlefield but didn't like what she saw.
Silently, she triggered an immediate response in the swarm.
"She is mad," Emily said. It couldn't be otherwise after seeing so many of her children slaughtered on the ground.
"Let's hope she is not too mad," Erik said, knowing he would be the one who would face her. Another volley of arrows rained down on the creatures. There were many of them at that point.
The number of bugs increased as time passed, but now that the queen was there, it looked like the entire hive came out to aid her in battle. Erik created some defense for the others. They were far from his position, but with so many bugs, they needed an elevated position to fight.
Erik stood his ground as the queen came closer. Each step she took shook the ground.
"Here you are…"
He saw the Silverline corporation's logo on the queen.
<I wonder what the hell they did to you…>
The queen stopped thirty meters from Erik. Her mandibles clacked together. She was communicating with her troops.
"Remember to focus on the swarm," Erik said. "The queen is mine."
Erik's hand glowed as he channeled mana through his body. The surrounding air shimmered because of the massive amounts of energy both he and the queen released.
She was massive and clearly powerful, but size also made her less agile. He would use that to his advantage.
<What can you tell me about her?> Erik asked to the system, keeping his eye contact with the massive bug.
—[Analysis]—
-Name: Thanatocoleoptera
Physical Description: The Queen Thanatocoleoptera is a massive bug-like thaid with a reinforced exoskeleton and horn-like protrusions. Her carapace exceeds the bellator's thickness, with weak points at limb bases and the thorax underside. Her intelligence is many times greater than that of the Duces. Her vital organs are protected by armored sacs, resistant to physical trauma but vulnerable to extreme temperatures. She controls thousands of lesser bugs through pheromones as the hive's central intelligence.
-Brain Crystal Powers: Acid Spray (B50C): Releases corrosive acid from specialized glands that can melt through organic matter and weaken structural materials. The acid becomes more potent when multiple creatures spray simultaneously.
Domination (B150A): Creates a telepathic network allowing simultaneous coordination of multiple units and enhances the intelligence of the creatures under the telepathic network.
{Attributes}
-STRENGTH: 800
-INTELLIGENCE: 350
-DEXTERITY: 650
-ENERGY: 1267
{Others}
-Power Level: 2279
-Estimated Experience per kill: 53,615,726.60
—[End]—
"Shit!"
Erik couldn't say anything else. The queen was powerful. She was hella smart and had a clear advantage over his strength attribute. However, she was weaker than him in terms of mana.
"Maybe I can work with that."
[If you keep your distance, you should be able to kill her.]
Erik nodded.
"What's the problem?" Amber asked through the radio.
"I read her status."
"Is it bad?"
"Better not talk about it," Erik said.
The queen attacked, not leaving Erik time to think further.
She charged forward like a bullet train, cutting through the air.
Erik used telekinesis to lift himself in the air and avoid her attacks; meanwhile, he shot multiple wind blades.
But most blades bounced off her armor-like shell without effect. Only a few found weak spots, cutting her and making her bleed a strange fluid onto the ground.
The queen let out a loud screech that echoed throughout the area, but the inevitable truth was that the wounds were shallow, and the queen was enraged because of the insult the blades represented, not because of the damage.
"She liked that even less than when we arrived," a clone said through the radio.
"Keep killing the other bugs," Erik said as he landed on a building, keeping himself higher than the queen.
The fighting got worse all around them.
The swarm's numbers seemed endless. The ground itself appeared to move as waves of thanatocoleoptera surged forward, their mandibles clicking in a horrifying chorus.
The air grew filled with the smell of their pheromones and that of multiple types of materials getting dissolved by the workers' acids, and the sound of thousands of chitinous legs scratching against concrete quickly became deafening.
They poured through every gap, crawled over their fallen brethren, and formed living walls that advanced toward the humans' positions.
Emily fired her rifle faster, with blue flashes of mana lighting up the area. Mira kept shooting arrows down on the enemies.
The queen stared at Erik in hatred, or so Erik assumed. She tested Erik's attack power, and it was likely she wasn't going to let him attack again. Erik would have died if it wasn't for telekinesis. Having something powered by mana that allowed him to move his body at the speed he wanted was what avoided him being dissolved by the acids the queen released.
<She's about to release something big!>
[Brace yourselves!]
The queen's thoracic sac contracted, and a yellowish green liquid came out of her mouth. Erik created a barrier. However, the acid was powerful, much more powerful than anything he had ever seen her make until that point, and burned through his barrier. He was already out of the way.
The queen charged again.
"SHIT! IT WAS A DISTRACTION!"
She was incredibly fast. Erik narrowly dodged one of her massive foreleg spikes as it stabbed where he had stood a moment before. Without all his mana, Erik would lose. Without telekinesis, he would have been dead. Erik could be there. He could've reached that point only because of the sum of all the powers he got to that point.
The courtyard became a chaotic battlefield. The smaller bugs swarmed in every direction, some falling to the coordinated attacks of Erik's companions, others charging forward in suicidal rushes. However, even if it wasn't on purpose, Erik and the queen's attacks killed many.
[Bellator thanatocoleoptera killed: mana-absorbing process starting.]
[Operarius thanatocoleoptera killed: mana-absorbing process starting.]
[Dux thanatocoleoptera killed: mana-absorbing process starting.]
[Dux thanatocoleoptera killed: mana-absorbing process starting.]
[Operarius thanatocoleoptera killed: mana-absorbing process starting.]
[Bellator thanatocoleoptera killed: mana-absorbing process starting.]
[Operarius thanatocoleoptera killed: mana-absorbing process starting.]
[Dux thanatocoleoptera killed: mana-absorbing process starting.]
