The long battle will soon turn to its end as the remaining queen stood alone against the humans who used the powers of the land to give themselves some – for them to protect themselves and survive.
Daggers in each of her hands, the ant queen stood majestically even amongst the enemies in front of her.
"Surrender now. You're all alone." Kent muttered, convincing the queen in front of her as she was being cornered by them. Kent hoped that she would say yes, so they could finally pose a treaty and be finally at peace, not just for them but for the marshland as a whole.
The queen chuckled, "I would, if you were the past queen bee."
"We don't wanna kill you." Alex added, tired but still ready to protect everyone beside him.
The queen burst out a laugh, "I think you've misunderstood. You're the ones who will die in this battlefield, not me. I would never let humans such as yourselves to win. I was born in the marshland! I have the right to take over it!" Shouted the mad ant queen where she immediately flew and attacked the others in front of her.
With her against five, the battle should always be on the side of numbers, but not this one. She successfully parried and attacked the others with her agility and strength, both in unison and in perfect coordination. Putting extensive and fatal blows to everyone who stood against her.
"How can she be this strong? She was never intimidated!" exclaimed Christian, even with his newly-acquired power he could barely withstand the attacks of the ant queen.
"Anger fuels her, giving her the ability to boost her strength." Jay said, throwing his spikes were useless against the ant queen, his eyes can barely see her.
Alex looked at everyone. They can't hold on much longer, the battle happened before the queen put everyone into exhaustion. If this continues, even with our numbers, we will still lose. Alex thought.
Alex looked at Kent who was catching her breath, but Kent wasn't alone, Jay and Gloyd, too.
I lost a lot of blood when the hive was attacked. Thankfully, I was saved by Belle which Kent told me when I met her along the way earlier. If not for Belle, I would have died. Alex flooded himself with thoughts. Alex knew his strength isn't enough to kill the ant queen too. His power to control the earth is useless against this agile and intellectual queen, giving them a hard time.
Gloyd tried to use his power as he shrieked towards the queen, but the ant queen's antennae must have redirected the waves as she seemed unaffected by it.
The intense battle continued between the students and the creature. Giving each other blows and a series of defense. Alex kept everyone safe by blocking the attacks with an earthen wall. But his ability to use the earth reached its limit where he can no longer use it.
"That's the last of it. My stamina can't keep up." Alex whispered to Kent who was beside her.
Kent nodded, "That's alright, we'll just have to fight this one head on."
The queen stopped in the air, her piercing look gazes at the lesser beings below her. Trying to prove which species is more powerful. "We, the ants can boost our strength upto fifty times our own weight, giving us extraordinary strength among the other species in the stapu lineage. I was telling you this to give you a definite answer as to why you can never win against me, even with the powers that you have acquired."
"Then why were you weak against the past queen bee?" Gloyd asked, who used this time to land himself on the ground, keeping his strength on minimum use.
The ant queen changed her expression as she reminisced the experience from past queen bee who took their lands from them. "The queen bee has the ability to manipulate the nectar at will. You must've known it…" The ant queen looked at Kent.
"–bet you can't. Even with out numbers, her giant hive is her greatest weapon. Even with our numbers, we can never infiltrate and invade as gigantic as that." The ant queen looked at the giant hive far from the distant battle who she currently fights.
Kent mixed herself with different emotions, hearing what the ant queen had just said. Alex can see that, for he knows Kent can't hide her emotions very well. She must have thought how the past queen bee controlled the hive at will and made it her strongest weapon. Kent can't even materialize other materials beside the crossbow and her lance. If the queen bee can use and manipulate the nectars at will, then that must have been the reason why she made the hive like a maze. I thought the little bees made that. Alex thought, who busied himself by his own thoughts.
"What do you mean? When I acquired her power, I thought I knew all of the things she knew when she was still alive." Kent finally answered after not speaking for a few seconds after hearing what the ant queen had said.
The ant queen continued to talk, "Then you wouldn't be this weak."
Kent paused, realizing that what the ant queen said was true. She was indeed still weak and naïve of the things that are happening inside the marshland.
"The queen bee has lived for a hundred years; she mastered her powers during her time into its peak and successfully defeated the other species like us who roamed this land, long before she arrived." The ant queen continued.
Everyone continued to listen.
"I admit that her land has the abundance compared to us. But that only happened because we were forced to eat what was left for us when she invaded our lands and extended her territory." The ant queen added, seemed piqued to pin her attention into telling everyone their story before the battle.
"Shortage led us to perform acts such as cannibalism just to survive. While the queen lived in this bountiful land full of life."
Alex looked at the queen above him and seemed felt what the queen of the ants felt. She must have done this because her kind was now getting bigger and could not rely on cannibalism anymore. Alex acknowledged the ant queen's leadership, treating her as indeed the true queen of the ants.
"Then we could have settled this in peace." Kent said, still hoping for the battle to end.
The queen ant chuckled, "Peace? Our kind lived eating our own for years and you give us something like peace? We don't long for peace now. we long for revenge and complete extinction of your kind!"
The ant queen was furious, preparing herself again to attack as she swiftly moved forward, "Now all of you, die!" the ant queen shouted.
"We're waiting for that." Christian smirked. In an instant, the ground trembled as it split open, numbers of termites appeared from it with their mouths wide open, ready to ingest the ant queen who found herself in a difficult position as it was too late to stop her unstoppable attack towards the team below her.
Christian made use of the conversation and slowly commanded the termites to set their positions inside the ground, waiting for the right moment to strike.
The queen was swallowed by one of the termites. They stopped for a moment as they saw the ant queen getting devoured by one of Christian's pets.
"Did she die?" Alex slowly said, trying to see the queen's body by moving his head.
The termite who swallowed the queen closed its mouth and stayed on the surface waiting for Christian's command.
The marshland turned silent as their battle seemed to be done. They looked around and witnessed hundreds of dead bodies gathered and lay lifeless on the abundant land of the marshes. Bloods painted the brownish wet soil with a mixture of colors, giving its horrifying view to those who wanted peace and not this bloodbath.
Alex took notice of his emotion as he felt pity towards the dead bodies around the marshland. Even with the ants' hostility towards them, he can't deny the fact that they were forced to do this, fighting for their survival that was taken from them by the past queen bee.
The wet ground got wetter as bloods came rushing on it, but Alex and the others, they were too tired to think of anything and their minds and bodies only want one thing – rest.
"The dead and the living who came to this battle only want one thing – life." Alex muttered, looking at the others who also sat on the wet soil.
Some bowed their heads and some nodded, agreeing to the fact that they also wanted to fight in order to live.
"We longed for peace. But the queen decided to still fight." Jay said, turning himself into a human once again.
"We can't blame the ant queen for not taking our request, she was too hurt." Kent replied.
Everyone thought that rest was on their hands, finally experiencing a complete victory over the battle. But the ant queen could not be defeated easily like that. Suddenly, pieces of the termite's flesh splattered as the queen emerged once again. "You really think I could be defeated like that?" she said, enveloped with a certain mucus, obviously came from the stomach.
Everyone immediately stood up, but expected it to happen as well. Jay transforswssssssssmed back into his spiky form and the others immediately separated, to avoid attacks that can execute them in an instant when they formed in a group.
The ant queen screamed, a scream of call. A call to a monster that sent everyone shiver down their spine. The ground shook as the termites below it screeched, eaten by a monster bigger and stronger than them. The ground opened and a giant ant, an enormous one, as big and high as the walls Alex built emerged from the ground with the termites in his mouth, getting eaten.
"Let me introduce you to my baby." The ant queen said.