章節 19: Queen Bee

Ray got confused as he saw Yuki get inside by breaking a wall. Yuki came and stood next to Ray. As she got close, she noticed Ray shaking.

She got close to him and started rubbing her body against his leg as she said, "Master, don't panic. We can beat that thing."

Hearing Yuki's reassuring tone, Ray calmed down a little. He glanced at the giant bee entomorph and then at Yuki.

He took out two knives and channelled spirit energy in them as he said, "Thanks, Yuki. I'm okay now. Let's kill that thing and move on now."

Yuki smiled and said, "As you say, master."

Both of them started running along the wall to position themselves on two opposite sides of the queen bee. Ray got close to the bee first. He tried to slash the bee's wings off with his first strike.

The queen bee was docile until now. Suddenly she moved. She quickly went forward and dodged Ray's attack. But she couldn't stop, as the moment Ray missed, Yuki fixed her direction and jumped towards her.

The queen bee tried to dodge Yuki too, but she couldn't dodge fully, and Yuki's claws scratched her.

Ray turned around and took his stance a few feet away from the queen. Yuki too took position in a similar manner. Both of them sandwiched the queen.

The queen suddenly flies up and, before Ray could follow, flies towards him with her sting in front. Just as the queen was about to hit Ray, Ray quickly moved to a side using his spirit powers. The queen couldn't stop and hit the concrete floor at full speed. Ray lunged back at the queen and cut her wings.

The queen couldn't move away as her sting was stuck in the hard concrete floor due to the slam. Just as Ray cut her wings, Yuki jumped in and tried biting off her head. But the queen moved her head, which led to Yuki just biting off her antennas.

The queen screamed in pain. She put her feet on the ground and used it as a lever to get her sting out of the concrete. She stood up on her feet and loudly screeched.

Ray threw away the broken knives and attempted to hold a new one as he kept his eyes on the queen. But his face turned cold as his hands didn't find any knives.

Ray looked at his belt, and his fear got deeper as he found no blades there.

He looked back in front as he heard an intense screeching sound. Just when he looked forward, he saw the queen right in front of him. He tried to get away, but before he could, he got pinned down to the ground. Ray wanted to scream but he couldn't get himself to do so.

The queen tried to bite Ray's face off, but Yuki jumped in from one side and took her off of Ray.

Ray couldn't get up as he was still shocked.

Yuki and the queen started hustling with each other as both of them attacked. Yuki was getting overwhelmed as the queen was utilising all six claws of her to attack Yuki at the same time. Yuki couldn't defend against all of them. But she gathered all her strength in her back legs and waited for an opportunity. Just as she found an opening, she kicked the queen off of her and got up. The kick sent the queen flying, and she got slammed to a wall.

Yuki stood up on her feet. He had bruises and cut marks all over her body.

The queen too stood up, but she was tumbling as she was the most injured of the three.

Ray too had gathered himself by that time and had gotten up.

Just as the queen gathered herself, she lunged at Yuki. But before she could get to her, Ray suddenly jumped on her out of nowhere and pinned her in place. He had taken hold of the upper two hands of the queen and had held her in place. The queen struggled to get free but couldn't.

Ray yelled, "Yuki, it's head."

Yuki roared and ran towards them. As she got close, she jumped and bit the queen's head off cleanly.

Yuki landed behind them and spit out the queen's head. Ray too let go of its headless body and threw himself to the ground. As he sat down, he started laughing.

Yuki came closer and asked, "Why are you laughing?"

Ray replied while trying to control his laughter and said, "That... was... awesome."

Yuki got so surprised at Ray's words, she unconsciously yelled, "WHAT?"

Ray replied, this time with a little less intense laugh, "I mean, it was fun. Wasn't it?"

Yuki was getting furious. But she controlled her anger and said, "Which part of it seemed fun to you? You yourself almost died; I'm bruised all over; we're looking like hammered shit."

Ray replied, "But I didn't die; you're already healing, and who cares how we look? Do you understand, we might have created a record? We cleared a midsized nest, all by ourselves."

Yuki just noticed that she had started to heal already. But that was no justification for their carelessness.

Yuki said, "That's it. No more nest hunting. You're too reckless."

Ray looked at Yuki and said, "No. How will we train? We won today, didn't we?"

Yuki replied, her voice sounded demanding, "No, no, no. We're playing it safe until we're sure we're strong enough. That's it."

Ray sounded sulky when he said, "OK. Gotta listen to my spirit."

Yuki smiled. "That's good. Come on, let's burn the nest and move on."

Ray got up and took out a lighter and a jar of fuel. As Ray and Yuki started to spread fuel, Yuki thought, "What a battle junkie did I make a contract with?"

Ray and Yuki finished spreading the fuel and started a fire. In a few minutes, the whole nest was burnt down as they watched it from outside.