Things kicked off with Esteban throwing a hard right jab at a royal guard ant. To everyone's surprise, that thing crossed its arms as it blocked the rock pillar hitting it. Even if it blocked, the thing was still sent flying. Lucius was the person that surprised him the most. As he unsheathed his sword, he slashed forward, causing the earth and ceiling in front of his sword to split in half as if it had extended beyond its reach. The ant who charged at him was pushed back by a couple of meters, with a deep gash in its hard carapace appearing seconds later.
Karter the tank then kicked his foot down, similar to Esteban's, but his move caused three large walls to surround the two royal guard ants, preventing them from attacking the other members. As if Endless Sun couldn't get any more impressive with their teamwork, Alicia joined the fray. She had been muttering some words under her breath before the fight began, but now she seemed to have finished what she intended. Slamming her staff down on the ground, she began to send an invisible wave of energy towards the ants. As the energy reached, the ants' movements began to slow down, as if they had been hit with some sort of debuff spell. Spider web cracks began to form below their feet, indicating that it wasn't a debuff but rather that they somehow got heavier. Maybe gravity magic? Or was it really a debuff that made them heavier? He would have to ask the mage after the fight.
As for his end, Jess along with the steel sentry would fight a single royal guard ant. With their combined strength of low iron stage with her peak iron stage, they compensated for the gap in power. Vulcan rushed his two opponents for a close combat battle. To not be outdone by the others, he palmed the two ants on their chest when he appeared in front of them. Their exoskeleton armor cracked like eggshells under his palm strike. He didn't know how Esteban's first opponent was able to read his move, but his opponents weren't able to defend against his attack. Maybe this fight wasn't going to be as difficult as he thought? He would soon be eating his own words.
A loud screech reverberated throughout the chamber, causing the human fighters to flinch. Every person except Vulcan and Lucius seemed to have slowed down on their attacks, as if the queen's screech affected their movement like Alicia did with the royal guard ants. He guessed he wasn't affected due to his non-human body, but why wasn't Lucius affected? As if the man knew he was being looked at, he turned to look at Vulcan with a big grin but stopped when he noticed he was also unaffected by the queen debuff. There was definitely more to this guy than he had originally thought. But that was for later, the queen ant wasn't done.
Her body began to vibrate and a green pulse was released from her that was directed at the royal guard ants. Previous injuries they had sustained healed at speeds even Wolverine would be jealous of. In unison, all royal guard ants gave a resounding screech that mimicked a war cry. Their attacking prowess was doubled as one of them bashed Karter's shield, making it cave in slightly. Karter was shocked; earlier he was able to suppress the damn thing by himself. Now, he was the one being pushed back. On his right, Lucius was blocking and clashing his sword against his opponent's claws. It's abilities elevated to catch up to theirs.
"Everyone, keep attacking. I have a plan when the queen begins to heal them again!" called out Vulcan as he dodged a combined claw strike. They unanimously agreed with the plan; now that the queen was beginning to be a problem, they had to focus some of their attention on her. A loud bang was heard from Vulcan's side as a steel sentry was sent skipping against the hard floor, finally stopping when it crashed against a wall. It laid there on the wall not moving. It had received a heavy kick which broke most of its chest cavity. It wasn't down for the count, but Vulcan couldn't reveal his nano stim in front of others. For now, Vulcan would make it seem like they were just knocked out.
Learning from what happened, Jess's group surrounded the royal guard ant with their shields, cutting off any escape and attacking it from all sides.
Although Vulcan managed to do minor injuries to hus opponents, he wasn't getting good direct hits. Annoyed, Vulcan let one hit him to catch it off guard. The ant fell for the trap, throwing a mid kick to his waist. It connected with Vulcan, but its leg was grabbed by him. He then spun the captured ant, using it as a blunt weapon against its ant comrade. After using it properly as a weapon, he slammed it against the hard floor, sending rock and earth debris flying with every downward smash.
Seeing its children being toyed around with, the ant queen's body screeched again. But Vulcan was ready; it sent the ant flying towards the other ant he was fighting. As they were entangled from the collision, Vulcan placed his palms together like some Dragon Ball character, as he had a small inspiration from his childhood days. The front of his palms, which weren't covered in the steel armor around him, lit up, and the two energy blasts combined to form an even more powerful concentrated attack. Dust kicked up from the powerful blast and even made Vulcan sank more into the earth from the recoil. It hit the ant queen directly on the head, cauterizing one of her mandibles off its face, sending her reeling in deep pain. He traced the attack to other parts of her body as the melting laser left deep wounds on her body and even almost separated her abdomen sack from the rest of her body, but he was feeling the drain of the attack kicking in.
After stopping the attack, the queen was still visibly moving and alive. Its body began to vibrate, to everyone's surprise, but it wasn't healing its children; it began to heal itself, only this time it was much slower as the burnt areas of the blast were taking considerably more time to heal.
"Whatever you did, great job. Let's finish them off before she's back in full shape!" called out Esteban, stomping on a guard ant down onto the ground. He wrapped its body in hardened rock to keep it in place as he lifted a rock wall behind himself from the other ant's attack. Seeing the guild master have an easier time handling his opponents better, after the ant queen began to recover. It got them counterattacking with more vigor.
The first royal guard ant to be killed was surprisingly Jess's team. In a suicide attempt, the steel sentries tackled the ant when Jess cut off one of its arms. Distracted from the loss of a limb, a steel sentry jumped from behind, discarding its weapon and shield. Grabbing it in a rear naked choke hold and using the weight of its body, the ant collapsed backward. More piled on like a football team, leaving its chest exposed. Jess took this chance to jump on top as well and began to relentlessly stab downward. It tried getting all of them off it, as it shook violently with every thrust of the sword entering its body, but it soon let out a final breath as it succumbed to its wounds. Just for good measure, she cut off its head.
Esteban was next. Once he dealt with the annoying ant that was still freely moving around, he made earth spikes come out from underneath the trapped ant and impale it from multiple parts of its body. It gurgled and twitched while its green blood dripped down from the sharp spikes. Lucius got the drop on his opponent when Alicia produced an air barrier around him. Its claws stopping inches before connecting with Lucius's face, and he took the opportunity to do a diagonal slash. With its already numerous wounds on its body, it collapsed backward. The thing wasn't dead, and it even tried getting back up slowly, but he drove his sword deep into its skull before he gave it time to recover.
Vulcan hadn't used his sword yet, so when he pulled it out after only using his fists, the ant he attacked was instantly crippled from having its legs cut off cleanly. He then took out his spear from his back and impaled the ant onto the ground. Dodging the other ants' attacks, he dropped on his knees and tackled it from the mid waist. After wondering if the wings on its back were for decoration, the thing began flying into the air. It got a few meters into the air before Vulcan crawled onto its back and ripped the things off. They soon began falling together, so Vulcan rotated its body so he could use the ant as a cushion for the fall. It was left stunned from the heavy impact; taking this moment, he grabbed hold of its mandibles and ripped them off. Like he'd done before, he stabbed the mandibles deep into its bug eyes. It had stopped moving, letting him know it was dead.
He slowly walked towards the other ant that was stuck in place. It was squirming around seeing Vulcan approach it. Taking out his sword, he cut off the rest of its limbs so it wouldn't be able to use them, he then placed his foot on its shoulder, getting a good grip of its head. With one good pull, its head came clean off, making a weird noise that kind of sounded like popping bubble wrap. He chucked the thing's head to the side when he got done inspecting its horrified facial features. At least that's what he thought it looked like in its final moments.
Soon, more and more of the other royal ants died gruesome deaths, but the one that was fighting Karter managed to fly into the air, escaping the range from the fighters. Again, Alicia used her magic to make it fall from the sky, but it resisted her attack and flew towards the queen. But before it got to the queen, the sentries that were done fighting jumped and grabbed hold of its legs since it wasn't that far in the air. More weight was added on, causing it to come down. Once they got it pinned on the ground, they pulled on each of its limbs, starting with its wings, until the head was the last thing to come off. Endless Sun's faces were a little disturbed seeing the thing's brutal end. They didn't even complain that Vulcan's team stole the kill.
Just when Esteban was done and was about to rally the rest to concentrate on the queen, she let out another piercing screech. This one was far more intense than before, sending the humans kneeling and clutching their heads. Even Lucius winced this time. Along with the mental attack, the chamber shook. Pieces of the ceiling collapsed, and the sentries used their shields to block rocks from hitting Jess and the others. Just as soon as it came, the attack and rumble stopped. With grateful nods towards the sentries, everyone regained themselves, but not before an audible tearing sound could be heard.
Where the ant queen was attached to its egg sack, it began to pull away from it as if she wanted to detach itself from the heavy weight. Green blood poured from where she was connected, and it stood up for the first time in the fight. Its massive size was even more astonishing when it was standing up. She barely had enough room with her size of 15 meters. It was the legendary 2nd phase of the boss fight.