Although she was smaller than the real queen of the nest, this queen still made Mitch look puny.
Her head reached the same height as Mitch's hips, but her body was more than double his in length.
Still, that didn't make Mitch despair.
He walked with a confident gait, all four of his arms spread with the weapon in each pointing towards the royal ant. His thigh was once again injured, but he did not let that affect him.
Katherine might have been pacified by his words, but he knew that he was running on a time crunch. He needed to finish this quickly before the rest of the nest came.
Just as he was about to rush forward, he saw the ant rear her head and sling a blob of liquid towards him, causing his eyes to constrict.
He quickly dodged to the side, causing the orb to hit the ground. Even still, some of the liquid splashed onto Mitch. It made a slight sizzling sound, eating through his exoskeleton.
"Acid, huh? This might prove to be difficult."
Mitch still lacked a way to respond to opponents attacking from a distance. Luckily, he was fast enough to dodge the projectile that the queen had launched.
Deciding not to let the queen fire spheres of acid freely, he rushed forward.
Khiii
Another blob was fired, but Mitch lowered his body, causing it to fly over his head. He then used that lowered stance to propel himself closer to the queen.
Ding
One of his daggers clashed with the leg of the ant, producing a metallic sound. No doubt about it, this ant was stronger than the others Mitch had fought so far.
TWANG
Mitch backed off, massaging his neck while he did so. There was blood streaking down from the left side of his throat, painting a morbid picture of what his fate had almost looked like.
Not only was the queen stronger and sturdier than the other ant, but its jaw also closed faster and with more force than any ant Mitch had ever seen before.
He took a deep breath and tried calming down while sidestepping another projectile fired by the queen. Then, he jumped back into action.
His daggers kept clashing with the queen's legs, being repelled time and time again. Meanwhile, the queen continued trying to chop his head off his neck.
Mitch danced with death in an endless sequence of weaves and dodges while he made attempt after attempt at stabbing his daggers into the queen's joints. Alas, this ant was aware of his plan and shifted her body every time, causing his daggers to miss.
The back and forth continued for several rounds until a change occurred.
Clang, crack
Something broke, but it wasn't the ant's chitin. Instead, one of Mitch's mandible daggers had shattered.
The feedback he was supposed to receive from his slash never came, causing his body to not lose momentum. He tried forcefully stopping the movement, but his injured thigh started acting up, causing him to shift forward ever so slightly because of the loss of balance.
The ant queen noticed his mistake.
She closed the distance, ending up right in front of Mitch's head, and tried biting down.
Crack, crack, chick
Both parties retreated for a short distance, assessing the results of that exchange.
Mitch had lost part of his shoulder and all his weapons. But he succeeded in stalling the queen's bite just long enough to not get decapitated.
And the queen…
Khiiiii
Had lost one of her eyes.
Mitch raised three of his arms into a boxing stance, the last one refusing to move as a result of his injured shoulder.
Mitch kicked off the ground and arrived in front of the queen. His fists rained down on the ant's body. Head, legs, torso—it did not matter; the queen's exoskeleton was too thick.
At the same time, he had to be even more cautious of her mandibles, now that he lacked the range to attack from further away.
Exhaustion was mounting, and Mitch's movement was starting to turn sluggish. The queen's lack of vision was affecting it just as much.
Mitch couldn't delay the fight any more. He had to take a risk.
He wound his right arm up with an overly exaggerated movement, causing the queen to shift her body in an attempt to absorb the impact. Mitch took a step to follow the queen, him too shifting all his weight onto his right leg.
His decision surprised the queen, but she reacted almost instantly, thinking that Mitch had misstepped once more. She lunged, intending on finishing the fight once and for all.
That was the last thing it should have done.
She had forgotten that the entire right field of her vision was missing. Mitch had thrown a punch with his intact left arm, synching it with the queen's movement.
His fist hit the end of the dagger he had implanted into the queen's eye, pushing it further into her skull and into her brain.
There was no shriek, no reaction whatsoever. The queen just collapsed, her mandibles already wrapped around Mitch's thigh and drawing blood. If he had killed the ant just one moment later than he did, he would have lost it.
"That was super risky, Mitch! Do you even realize that it wouldn't have ended with your thigh? Forget about bringing the queen corpse with you out of here; you wouldn't even be able to escape from a horde of ants with only one leg."
Frustration was apparent as Katherine reprimanded him.
Although it was partially because her own survival was dependent on Mitch living, she instinctively cared for Mitch very much. She couldn't bear to see him become injured or crippled.
Hoisting the ant over his uninjured shoulder, Mitch could only mentally shrug. "There was no other option. I never fully recovered from undergoing mutation, and the last 10 minutes have been filled with fighting. I was on death's doorstep, so I might as well take a calculated risk."
Katherine knew that he was right, which frustrated her even more. She just wanted him to have consideration for his own health, that's all. Couldn't he agree with her just once?
Nevertheless, Mitch had won. He started trekking the long tunnels to the approximate location of the hill entrance he entered through, hoping that one ant queen was enough for Madeline to complete her metamorphosis.
"I never want to see another ant ever again."