Evelin didn't panic. She could neither run nor endure the strike head-on and survive to tell the tale.
So, she did what she knew best. Evelin fought back.
The claw she had picked up a second ago was in her hands. She grasped it tight enough for her knuckles to turn white. Lowering her body, she twisted her torso with every drop of her being.
The queen's leg met with the rudimentary claw.
For a moment, there was no impact.
Then came the force, a pressure so impeccable that Evelin's life flashed past her eyes. She didn't give in to the queen and pushed both her hands beyond their limits. Her legs shook incessantly, but the sticky liquid kept her nailed to the ground.
The claw held on. Time had slowed down to a crawl, making each millisecond seem like a lifetime.
Veins bulged across her arms, taut muscles showing through her torn sleeves. Her left arm, which was hardly usable, screamed with a pain so raw that it changed her perception of agony. Her right arm felt like it was going to be torn apart from her shoulder.
However, with each passing moment, it was the queen's leg that grazed past the claw. Her never-ending leg missed its target, even if just by an inch. But that was more than enough, as now all Evelin had to do was endure until the leg came to rest.
'Wha—'
The sticky fluid gave in ultimately. The next instant, Evelin was midair. She flew past dozens of eggs, bursting through them like a tactical missile.
Instinctively, she brought the claw down, attempting to slow down. But the moment it made contact with the hard ground, it shattered completely.
Falling into a big cluster of pearl-like eggs, she finally came to a stop.
The world fell silent. Thick drops of blood clung to her earlobes.
Her entire body went numb. Even now, as countless eggshells pierced her skin and translucent fluid stuck to her open wounds, infecting them, Evelin couldn't feel anything. Having taken so much damage in such a short amount of time, her system had shut down.
She didn't have the strength, nor the will to lift any of her arms. Assuming that they were still attached to her body.
Her eyes were open, but there wasn't much she could see other than the scarlet blood that trickled down her forehead.
Gulping down forcefully, she let out a laboured breath.
'Damn…it.'
She tried moving her limbs, but failed miserably. Her body wouldn't listen to her. Celia's ability was still connected to her, but with the amount of injuries she had sustained, her chances of getting healed were close to none.
She doubted that even if they were to get out of this alive, there was any possible way to heal her at all.
Suddenly, she felt something poking her head. She lifted her head… No, something else was pulling onto her head. The pressure around her skull worsened as her body was also being pulled into the air. As her feet left the ground, all the accumulated pain came back to her slowly.
The queen lifted Evelin's feeble figure, holding her head with two of her stone-hard legs.
Evelin moved her head, trying to escape from the queen's hold. However, it didn't work at all.
With what remaining strength she had, she raised her trembling hands. Her joints felt akin to being pierced by a thousand needles. She grasped the queen's legs with her frail fingers.
Regardless of how much she tried to escape from the queen's hold, her struggles bore no results.
'I… Can't… end like this.'
The queen looked at Evelin's floundering figure with her countless eyes, similar to how a beast looks at its prey. It looked as if she was enjoying it.
Her maw opened with a squelching sound. Its gooey saliva fell to the ground, rows of teeth waiting in anticipation.
Clang!
Something struck the queen on her back.
'What the hell am I thinking?!'
Celia was standing a few meters away from the queen. Her entire body was covered in pincer blood. Her armor was thrashed and broken, cuts and bruises covering her limbs. Panting heavily, she stared at the queen with a wary look.
At some point, the pincers had stopped coming to the heart, which was rather suspicious since she had heard the queen's reverberating shriek herself. The entire place was supposed to be overrun by pincers.
But after taking care of the few pincers that had found their way to the heart, no one seemed to be coming anytime soon.
Before she could notice, her ability was absorbing a vast amount of her essence. It was to the point that her essence reserve was about to dry out any moment now.
To check what had happened to Evelin, she rushed to the heart.
Unfortunately, she regretted her decision as she looked at the gigantic figure of the Queen. She wasn't facing her, yet, her heart was pounding rapidly. She wanted to throw up, but there was nothing in her stomach other than acid.
'Ho—How the hell are we supposed to beat that?'
She had hurled her sword at the queen in a desperate attempt to save her friend. But the queen still held onto Evelin, and now she had even lost her sword.
It was as good as the situation could get.
The queen simply ignored Celia. Opening her terrifying maw even further, she brought Evelin closer.
Celia widened her eyes.
Her gaze darted everywhere around her. Finally, she grabbed a rock the size of her head and threw it at the Queen.
"Take this—"
Unlike her expectations, the rock just bounced off her chitin. However, the queen stopped.
Celia looked at the titan with an appalled expression. The queen lifted one of her backward feet, hovering it over Celia's puny figure.
'Cra—'
The leg shot at her like impending death. Celia was thrown away by the wind alone. She landed a few meters away from the site of impact, several rocks and stones flying in her direction.
Dodging the ones she could, Celia increased the distance between her and the Queen.
She hated to admit it, but that attack just now was meant to kill her. The queen was just trying to swat away the fly that was interrupting her meal.
Nevertheless, it was more than enough.
Evelin parted her lips, a raspy voice escaping them.
"Y… you call yourself… the Queen…? You're no queen."
Her lungs were burned like an inferno with each breath she took. Her arms hadn't healed yet, nor had the countless other injuries marring her figure.
She couldn't care less, though.
Evelin pulled the queen's legs apart with inhumane strength. Streams of blood poured down the holes in her neck.
She glared at the Queen, her scarlet eyes filled with fury.
'Damn it… all…'
The queen tried to reinforce her grip on her. The more force she applied, Evelin pushed back even harder. Her bare fingers broke through the hard shell of her legs, crushing them thoroughly.
The queen was about to put more pressure, but Evelin let go of the legs. Before they could crush her head, she fell. The damp air caressed her burning skin as she plummeted toward the ground, her fist pulled to her waist.
A blinding light enveloped the entire cave.