Kai ordered Artemis via the mana tether to throw that damn axe over to her. Thankfully, her daughter managed to be thoughtful and fast acting at the same time and threw the axe without making it rotate. No matter how much better her stats made her, Kai doubted she would have been able to catch that.
She did manage to catch the stone tool like this though and at the same moment the moth impacted the ramp a few meters away from her, making the floor quiver slightly. Kai did not like being this close to the abomination in front of her and gripped the hilt of the axe tightly.
The moth opened its mouth, presenting multiple rows of teeth and let out a high pitched screech. Large drops of spittle flew everywhere, showering Kai and Anna.
The structure of the maw was quite fascinating and hinted at it not normally being used to rip off flesh, not that she had currently time to wonder about such things.
Kai could have really done without taking a disgusting shower, but she couldn't take her time to complain and waste this opportunity. She reached back with the axe and funneled all her mana into the single enhancement spell with the goal to make the axe as fast as possible. Kai didn't worry about missing the moth in front of her. The thing was so large that she could practically hit nothing else.
The moth closed its mouth again and Kai threw the axe as hard as possible. The moment the tool left her hand time seemed to slow down, likely due to all the adrenaline that coursed through her veins. She grabbed Anna and tensed her leg muscles to jump farther away from the large insect.
A whining noise, loud enough to compete with the screech of before, assaulted the ears of everyone before the axe impacted the moth under its maw hilt first with a dull thump, followed by the noise of dried bones breaking.
The tip of the axe hilt pierced through the hide and the axe head followed its example a split second later a bit away from the hilt tip. The stone buried itself in the moth's flesh and nearly managed to rotate one more time around itself before it stopped moving.
Kai had to shield her face mid flight from bone splinters that were flying everywhere. A moment later she impacted the ground with Anna and her perception returned to normal. Her daughter seemed to have snapped out of her trance and hurriedly got up before she helped Kai do the same. Kai kept focused on the moth while they backed up further.
The animal seemed to be rather surprised at being hurt or Kai had just triggered the second boss stage accidentally, otherwise she couldn't explain its inactivity these last few seconds. Hopefully it was not the latter.
Now that Kai was out of range of the predator, all the swarm drones attacked the moth, jumping at its legs or on its body. When the first drone landed on one of the moth's legs it turned by roughly 90°, pushing most of the drones away and smashing one of them against a room wall. The 3 drones that had managed to get on top of the large beast however didn't mind and started to bite and tear at its skin.
The hell moth let out a pained screech and shook itself to get the drones off of itself. It immediately stopped however and let out a second pained scream. A few drops of deep red blood fell on white silk and the area where the axe head had impacted the moth was glistening wetly.
The movement must have made the wound worse and was surely quite painful.
The moth raised one of its back limps and smashed a drone that had been running towards it. The sounds of multiple bones breaking made Kai wince. Those poor guys had no chance against the moth.
A moment later a drone got pierced by the forelimb of the moth and the insect proceeded to just eat it then and there. It used its mandibles to cut the small Antanoid apart before smashing the meat in even small pieces in its maw.
Having seen the sharpness of the mandibles Kai was now quite grateful for having put some distance between herself and the massive thing.
The drones on the back of the beast continued their onslaught. They weren't doing a lot of damage, but even the scratches they left were enough to make the moth whine and stomp its legs agitatedly.
The situation wasn't looking too well for the insect objectively. It had only managed to kill three of the 15 drones that were trying to get on top of it and it had an internal injury that got worse every time it moved in addition to that. The comparatively narrow space of the hive was also limiting its ability to move and fight. Jumping down had been a pretty bad decision by the moth.
Kai wasn't aware of that at the moment however. She just wanted the thing to run away and never come back.
The fight continued for a minute, the drones evading the moth's attacks and trying to get on it while the thing was trying to prevent that. Another 3 drones died in these 60 seconds in turn for 4 of them to get on the back of the moth. At the same time Kai's daughters were gathering around their queen to protect her.
The moth began to slowly realize that it was in a bad position and began to move desperately. It slammed its body against the room that was to the left and the structure surprisingly didn't give in. The movement threw all drones except for two off of the moth’s back however and it screeched once again. Then it turned to the ramp.
Kai was about to sigh in relief when something white erupted from the back of the moth's tail, flying everywhere and blocking most of the view. She tried to get the stuff out of her wet fur and realized that the material looked like spider silk. The comparison didn't help her and she hurriedly began to scratch the webbing out of her fur with a shudder. She hated spider webbing.
On the second hive floor the moth screamed in pain because one of the two drones bit into its wings. The insect smashed itself against the tree trunk with a thump, ending its last problem and disappeared with a low humming sound.
Anna interrupted Kai's cleaning process by hugging her. "Are you alright mom?"
Kai had been more occupied with the webbing and was a bit surprised by the hug. She wouldn't let a moment like this where Anna wasn't the stern head maid go to waste though and hugged her daughter back. "I am fine, don't worry."
She looked around and noticed that the others had all turned towards her with admiration in their eyes, especially Artemis. Kai would have to get used to receiving such gazes, but hopefully the same didn't go for seeing her daughters covered partly in moth webbing.
Artemis saluted to Kai. "That was a superb throw, your majesty. It will likely cause the moth to die painfully in the next few days, very impressive!" As it goes her daughters each had their own versions to express their happiness about her wellbeing.
Tiffany and Ember shoved Artemis aside and joined the hug. Kai smiled at all of her daughters, even if they preferred to watch rather than join the hugging or were more interested in the new quite cruel hunting method they had just discovered. Maybe she should announce their victory?
Actually, that was quite a good idea. Kai tried to free her arm to lift it, but the others didn't let go of it so she just hugged them tighter and kissed each of them on the head. "We won!"
Inspired by this her other daughters hugged and kissed each other too. It wasn't quite the cheering Kai had thought she would get, but it was okay. Smelling their happiness and relief had already been enough for her.
Kai just enjoyed the moment for a while before she tried to finally free herself from her three daughters. There was still webbing in her fur, not mentioning the disgusting spit of the moth. "Alright guys, that's enough. I am well." She really was, except for feeling a bit weak now that her adrenaline rush was slowly coming to an end.
The others let go of her, though Ember looked a bit disappointed. Anna flicked the girl on her forehead. "You can hug our queen all you want later. You know she wouldn't say no." Kai would not, that was true.
Ember threw her hands in the air. "But that's not the same!"
Anna rolled her eyes and left it like that. Tiffany took some of the webbing out of her fur and dangled it in front of Ember's face. "I would also think you would be rather occupied the next few days."
The fiery furred girl looked at the fiber. "Why would I-"
She closed her mouth again and looked around the entrance of the hive and at all the webbing that was around. Then she got super excited. "Ohhh, I need all that webbing! Imagine all the things I could make out of this!"
And like that Ember ran off and began to collect the stuff. Tiffany looked at the others and sighed. "Alright, you heard her. Let's give her a hand, the space has to be tidied up anyway."
Kai watched it all with a smile. Ember was a bit like the excited little sister she had never had. She looked at Anna. "Why can't you all be as cute as Ember?"
Anna raised an eyebrow at that. "There have to be at least a few responsible people around you know."
She took Kai's hand and dragged her towards the hive entrance. "Let's get yourself washed and ready for sleep."
Kai nearly stumbled because of her exhaustion, but managed to catch herself before that. She looked at Anna puzzled. "Did you just call me irresponsible?"
Anna answered innocently. "Of course not, my lady. I would never do such a thing."
Kai squinted at her daughter. That little girl, she would remember this.
Kai ordered Artemis via the mana tether to throw that damn axe over to her. Thankfully, her daughter managed to be thoughtful and fast acting at the same time and threw the axe without making it rotate. No matter how much better her stats made her, Kai doubted she would have been able to catch that.
She did manage to catch the stone tool like this though and at the same moment the moth impacted the ramp a few meters away from her, making the floor quiver slightly. Kai did not like being this close to the abomination in front of her and gripped the hilt of the axe tightly.
The moth opened its mouth, presenting multiple rows of teeth and let out a high pitched screech. Large drops of spittle flew everywhere, showering Kai and Anna.
The structure of the maw was quite fascinating and hinted at it not normally being used to rip off flesh, not that she had currently time to wonder about such things.
Kai could have really done without taking a disgusting shower, but she couldn't take her time to complain and waste this opportunity. She reached back with the axe and funneled all her mana into the single enhancement spell with the goal to make the axe as fast as possible. Kai didn't worry about missing the moth in front of her. The thing was so large that she could practically hit nothing else.
The moth closed its mouth again and Kai threw the axe as hard as possible. The moment the tool left her hand time seemed to slow down, likely due to all the adrenaline that coursed through her veins. She grabbed Anna and tensed her leg muscles to jump farther away from the large insect.
A whining noise, loud enough to compete with the screech of before, assaulted the ears of everyone before the axe impacted the moth under its maw hilt first with a dull thump, followed by the noise of dried bones breaking.
The tip of the axe hilt pierced through the hide and the axe head followed its example a split second later a bit away from the hilt tip. The stone buried itself in the moth's flesh and nearly managed to rotate one more time around itself before it stopped moving.
Kai had to shield her face mid flight from bone splinters that were flying everywhere. A moment later she impacted the ground with Anna and her perception returned to normal. Her daughter seemed to have snapped out of her trance and hurriedly got up before she helped Kai do the same. Kai kept focused on the moth while they backed up further.
The animal seemed to be rather surprised at being hurt or Kai had just triggered the second boss stage accidentally, otherwise she couldn't explain its inactivity these last few seconds. Hopefully it was not the latter.
Now that Kai was out of range of the predator, all the swarm drones attacked the moth, jumping at its legs or on its body. When the first drone landed on one of the moth's legs it turned by roughly 90°, pushing most of the drones away and smashing one of them against a room wall. The 3 drones that had managed to get on top of the large beast however didn't mind and started to bite and tear at its skin.
The hell moth let out a pained screech and shook itself to get the drones off of itself. It immediately stopped however and let out a second pained scream. A few drops of deep red blood fell on white silk and the area where the axe head had impacted the moth was glistening wetly.
The movement must have made the wound worse and was surely quite painful.
The moth raised one of its back limps and smashed a drone that had been running towards it. The sounds of multiple bones breaking made Kai wince. Those poor guys had no chance against the moth.
A moment later a drone got pierced by the forelimb of the moth and the insect proceeded to just eat it then and there. It used its mandibles to cut the small Antanoid apart before smashing the meat in even small pieces in its maw.
Having seen the sharpness of the mandibles Kai was now quite grateful for having put some distance between herself and the massive thing.
The drones on the back of the beast continued their onslaught. They weren't doing a lot of damage, but even the scratches they left were enough to make the moth whine and stomp its legs agitatedly.
The situation wasn't looking too well for the insect objectively. It had only managed to kill three of the 15 drones that were trying to get on top of it and it had an internal injury that got worse every time it moved in addition to that. The comparatively narrow space of the hive was also limiting its ability to move and fight. Jumping down had been a pretty bad decision by the moth.
Kai wasn't aware of that at the moment however. She just wanted the thing to run away and never come back.
The fight continued for a minute, the drones evading the moth's attacks and trying to get on it while the thing was trying to prevent that. Another 3 drones died in these 60 seconds in turn for 4 of them to get on the back of the moth. At the same time Kai's daughters were gathering around their queen to protect her.
The moth began to slowly realize that it was in a bad position and began to move desperately. It slammed its body against the room that was to the left and the structure surprisingly didn't give in. The movement threw all drones except for two off of the moth’s back however and it screeched once again. Then it turned to the ramp.
Kai was about to sigh in relief when something white erupted from the back of the moth's tail, flying everywhere and blocking most of the view. She tried to get the stuff out of her wet fur and realized that the material looked like spider silk. The comparison didn't help her and she hurriedly began to scratch the webbing out of her fur with a shudder. She hated spider webbing.
On the second hive floor the moth screamed in pain because one of the two drones bit into its wings. The insect smashed itself against the tree trunk with a thump, ending its last problem and disappeared with a low humming sound.
Anna interrupted Kai's cleaning process by hugging her. "Are you alright mom?"
Kai had been more occupied with the webbing and was a bit surprised by the hug. She wouldn't let a moment like this where Anna wasn't the stern head maid go to waste though and hugged her daughter back. "I am fine, don't worry."
She looked around and noticed that the others had all turned towards her with admiration in their eyes, especially Artemis. Kai would have to get used to receiving such gazes, but hopefully the same didn't go for seeing her daughters covered partly in moth webbing.
Artemis saluted to Kai. "That was a superb throw, your majesty. It will likely cause the moth to die painfully in the next few days, very impressive!" As it goes her daughters each had their own versions to express their happiness about her wellbeing.
Tiffany and Ember shoved Artemis aside and joined the hug. Kai smiled at all of her daughters, even if they preferred to watch rather than join the hugging or were more interested in the new quite cruel hunting method they had just discovered. Maybe she should announce their victory?
Actually, that was quite a good idea. Kai tried to free her arm to lift it, but the others didn't let go of it so she just hugged them tighter and kissed each of them on the head. "We won!"
Inspired by this her other daughters hugged and kissed each other too. It wasn't quite the cheering Kai had thought she would get, but it was okay. Smelling their happiness and relief had already been enough for her.
Kai just enjoyed the moment for a while before she tried to finally free herself from her three daughters. There was still webbing in her fur, not mentioning the disgusting spit of the moth. "Alright guys, that's enough. I am well." She really was, except for feeling a bit weak now that her adrenaline rush was slowly coming to an end.
The others let go of her, though Ember looked a bit disappointed. Anna flicked the girl on her forehead. "You can hug our queen all you want later. You know she wouldn't say no." Kai would not, that was true.
Ember threw her hands in the air. "But that's not the same!"
Anna rolled her eyes and left it like that. Tiffany took some of the webbing out of her fur and dangled it in front of Ember's face. "I would also think you would be rather occupied the next few days."
The fiery furred girl looked at the fiber. "Why would I-"
She closed her mouth again and looked around the entrance of the hive and at all the webbing that was around. Then she got super excited. "Ohhh, I need all that webbing! Imagine all the things I could make out of this!"
And like that Ember ran off and began to collect the stuff. Tiffany looked at the others and sighed. "Alright, you heard her. Let's give her a hand, the space has to be tidied up anyway."
Kai watched it all with a smile. Ember was a bit like the excited little sister she had never had. She looked at Anna. "Why can't you all be as cute as Ember?"
Anna raised an eyebrow at that. "There have to be at least a few responsible people around you know."
She took Kai's hand and dragged her towards the hive entrance. "Let's get yourself washed and ready for sleep."
Kai nearly stumbled because of her exhaustion, but managed to catch herself before that. She looked at Anna puzzled. "Did you just call me irresponsible?"
Anna answered innocently. "Of course not, my lady. I would never do such a thing."
Kai squinted at her daughter. That little girl, she would remember this.
