Reaching the deepest part of the cave, Evelin stopped in her steps.
'That's…'
This part of the cave was carved with precision, making it vastly bigger than the tunnel she had used to get here. Countless eggs covered in white, sticky fluid spanned across the sphere, even on the ceiling, shrouded in darkness.
The sunlight was already scarce as it was, but being inside the cave, she could barely see anything. The pearly white eggs were easier to perceive. The rest of the cave, though, felt like a death trap to her.
Letting out the breath she had been holding, she surveyed the area.
"The Queen… is she hiding somewhere?"
As if answering her, something moved behind her.
Her body moved before she could react, her knees buckling to jump further ahead.
Yet, when she jumped, she didn't move even an inch. Precisely, she couldn't move at all. She felt something sticky holding her feet down, nailing them to the ground. She tried to remove her feet forcefully, but no amount of strength was enough to help her.
Lowering her head, she noticed the same milky fluid pinning her that was the entire cave around her.
'When—'
Crack.
The sound came before the pain. Flying across the vast land filled with eggs, she crashed into a wall.
A web of cracks covered the wall as Evelin met it with immense momentum. Her limp body fell as gravel and dust scattered aimlessly. Her rolling body came to a rest near a cluster of eggs.
For a moment, Evelin was simply unconscious. Her scarlet eyes were unfocused, not a single thought in her head.
Then came the pain.
"Glurgh…"
The metallic taste of blood brought her back. Spitting the blood that was itching against her throat, she tried pushing herself off the ground. She couldn't really push herself, so she tried pulling the eggs beside her. Leaning against the sticky egg, she drew a shaky breath.
It didn't take her too long to understand that she had almost died. The ringing in her ears felt like her head was about to explode. She lowered her head. The throbbing pain in her abdomen was blinding. Her shirt was torn by whatever had hit her, the skin scratched, and the muscle inside torn. The wound had already swelled, and even touching it felt like a bad idea.
Her left hand was barely functioning. When she was midair, Evelin had twisted herself subtly to cover her head with her left arm. Thankfully, there were no injuries to her head, which meant she could still fight.
Her arm, on the other hand…
She looked at her broken arm, a glint of desperation in her eyes. Her arm looked like it was mangled during the impact. Although she didn't feel any pain, she knew that her arm was useless to her now.
Clenching her right fist, she pulled onto the egg harder. Swaying heavily, she finally got back on her feet.
Her eyes took some time to focus again, but looking around, she realized just how far she had been thrown. She could faintly see the distant sunlight entering the cave through an opening.
And in front of that opening, something was blocking the light.
It was the Queen.
Her sheer size was incomparable to that of a normal pincer. Even though she was dozens of meters away from her, the queen towered above her like a tyrant. Unlike a pincer, she had a myriad eyes lodged in her carapace, hidden behind a dark violet screen. Just looking at them made her head spin, the pain in her guts growing dominant.
But there was something completely wrong with the queen.
'What the—'
Where Evelin was expecting to see gigantic claws, there was nothing but the traces of them. The joints connecting the claws to her carapace were healed shut, as if someone, something had ripped them off.
But that didn't cheer her even a single bit.
The queen's body was supported by eight dark legs, keeping her in the air. The ground below the razor-sharp legs was cracked and splintered.
'... Why didn't she kill me?'
Instead of being glad about the missing claws, Evelin had a different question occupying her mind.
Having sustained an injury head-on, she knew that the Queen could've simply killed her on the spot if she wanted to. She just had to bring one of those jagged legs down on her head, crushing her completely.
Yet, she just kicked her in the stomach, as if swatting a fly buzzing around her.
Evelin grit her slack jaw, veins popping on her neck.
She was enraged. She was beyond enraged. The pain constantly reminded her of her mistake, of underestimating the Queen. She had thought the queen would just be waiting for her to arrive, that she'd only defend while Evelin launched a flurry of attacks.
But she was wrong. The queen simply thought of her as a nuisance. Even now, she was giving Evelin the time to gather herself. She simply stood there, staring at her with her countless eyes. A muddy liquid dripped out of her closed maw, turning white as it hit the ground.
One step after another, she pushed her flailing body across the distance between them.
The damp air was suffocating, but it was enough. A strange, warm feeling enveloped her entire body. Evelin was shaken for a moment, but she soon realized what it was.
Instead of fighting against it, she focused on her body.
Suddenly, a sharp pain erupted in her mangled arm, making her groan. But as she was dragging her body forward, she noticed the change. Her arm was healing, even if at a very slow pace. The throbbing pain in her abdomen was still blinding, but the wound itself was healing gradually.
Evelin exhaled through her teeth.
'This… good.'
At this rate, her arm getting back in the game seemed possible.
But it was still not enough to beat the queen. All she could do was to find the right moment to destroy the heart. To do so, she had to stay alive until she could store that much energy. To destroy an area of this scale, she needed to accumulate a ton of damage.
However, she had taken one life-threatening blow just now. The only reason she was still standing was that she had been in a worse condition. Any other person would have crumbled like paper with that strike alone.
But she had more tolerance than most.
The question now was—would she survive even after taking all that damage?
'It doesn't matter.'
Subtly bending her knees, she launched herself toward the queen.
Her lungs burned with every leap, the queen's gaze weighing on her. But that wasn't enough to stop her.
Noticing her defiant presence, the queen lifted one of her front legs. As if stepping on an ant, she brought her titanic leg down on Evelin's miniature figure. Despite her gigantic size, her speed was unbelievably fast.
Evelin kept on moving forward, completely ignoring the queen's strike.
The ground cracked under her piercing leg, the rock underneath cracking like glass. Instead of stopping, the leg went even further, lodging itself inside the hard ground.
She lifted the leg—Evelin was nowhere to be seen. Her countless eyes flickered furiously, scanning the entire cave in frenzy.
Suddenly, she appeared in one of her eyes. But she wasn't as small as before, though.
Hardening her right arm, Evelin aimed her straightened fingers toward the eye.
Her lips curled faintly. The membrane ruptured, and translucent fluid burst out of the hole made by Evelin's arm.
Screech!
The entire cave trembled under the queen's shriek.