The queen let out an agonized shriek, the entire cave trembling in fear. Cracks rose across the walls, pieces of stone and dust falling off the ceiling. Unable to hold on any longer, the premature pincer eggs started to fall one by one, viscous fluid bursting out of the cracked shells.
It was loud, so loud that Evelin's hearing had gone numb a long time ago. She wanted to shield her ears, but one of her right arms was out of commission, while she was using the other to cling to the queen's body.
Not that there was much to hold onto.
Still screaming, the queen lifted two of her legs in the air. At the corner of her sight, she noticed the lance-like legs aiming at her. They moved toward her as air hissed around them.
'Slow.'
The impact she had taken a few moments ago was still there, but the queen had given her far too much time to recover.
Evelin shifted her weight, pushing herself off the queen.
By the time she touched ground, the legs clashed against each other. The clangor of steel-like shell was almost unbearable.
Evelin had paid the price for underestimating the queen. She was not going to make the same mistake twice.
By the time the queen realized her absence, Evelin was already gone.
Her objective seemed simple at first—to destroy the heart of the nest. But to do so, she'd need a tremendous amount of energy. Or rather, an equal amount of damage.
But she wasn't strong enough to endure the queen's attack. The abomination was far too domineering; even a single attack was enough to end her.
Stuck between being unable to kill the queen but also being unable to die herself, Evelin had to improvise a little.
The queen's myriad eyes searched for her with a glint of unadulterated rage. Her terrifying maw was half open, anticipating the despicable fly.
Suddenly, Evelin appeared near a cluster of eggs to her left. She was a few meters away from the queen, but it didn't matter.
The queen pulled one of her front legs and launched it toward her.
Before it could reach her, though, Evelin was gone again.
But the damage was done. The queen's piercing leg landed on the cluster of eggs, obliterating them. The pieces of shell flew in every direction. The greenish blood of the half-grown pincers stuck to her leg like glue.
The whole area inside a radius of a few meters had been levelled. It was as if a grenade had gone off, blasting away a bunch of pincers.
Evelin was already standing near another cluster of eggs.
She was leaning forward, her legs positioned to let her retreat in any direction. Caressing the eggs in front of her, Evelin spoke coldly.
"Pathetic… a mother killing her own offspring."
The next moment, three of the queen's legs shot forward.
The destruction was appalling. Her legs had stopped mid-air, yet dozens of eggs burst from the wind alone. She had tried to help Evelin instead of destroying the eggs. However, the result was still the same.
Evelin was nowhere to be seen, and dozens of her children were dead.
The queen seemed enraged, or at least it looked like that. Evelin wasn't sure if the queen even had any facial expression.
Regardless, everything was going according to her plan.
Every time the queen was about to attack, she would swiftly move through the shadows, hiding behind the countless eggs acting as her shield. By the time the strike connected, Evelin would already be far away from the site.
From a very young age, she had been taught countless skills. How a beast's mind worked, the nature of a commander-level beast, what it takes to destroy a nest—she had learned almost everything there was to study about the Surge.
The one skill that bound all her other knowledge was the ability to utilize that information when it was needed.
Her current situation was no different.
One needed an unimaginable amount of experience to stay composed in a disadvantageous fight. It became even harder to think when the opponent was completely out of one's league.
But that was where Evelin had an edge. She had been sparring against someone much stronger than the queen.
Her sister and the guildmaster of the Hope Guild. One of the four sixth-ranked challengers of humanity. And as ruthless as it sounded, her sister had never gone easy on her.
Not even once.
So from her perspective, the queen was nothing but a glorified spider.
With every unborn pincer she killed with her own limbs, the queen's wrath only grew. As much as Evelin hated to admit it, despite being empowered by Celia's core ability, she was barely able to outpace the queen.
The gap shrank with each passing moment.
She gulped down her dry throat. Her body felt as if she were on fire.
'Damn it… what now?'
Hiding behind another cluster of eggs, Evelin looked around her. There was nothing that could help her in her surroundings, except a pincer carcass and white sticky fluid.
She looked at the pincer claw covered in viscous fluid intently.
Boom!
The queen's strike landed on another cluster of eggs, wiping the area clean. At this point, the number of eggs around them had diminished greatly. If previously, there was space between the clusters. Now, there were only a few eggs in a sizable area.
Cursing under her breath, Evelin stood up. The queen noticed her in an instant.
Instead of waiting for her attack, she darted toward the next group of victims.
'Huh?'
Before she could reach her next location, Evelin fell to her knees.
It took her a moment to collect herself.
Her feet were covered in white fluid, pinning her to the ground, again. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't move her legs.
It didn't take her long to notice that there were barely any eggs around her. Most of the nearby area was crushed or covered in cracks, with fallen debris replacing the eggs.
That was when it hit her. She wasn't the one controlling the queen all this time. From the beginning, when she had entered the heart, to this very point. Evelin was simply running inside the web spun by the queen.
No… She had it backwards. She was not the predator here.
Evelin was simply the prey.
'Shi—'
She immediately turned to the queen.
In the blink of an eye, the queen's leg was right in front of her.