Chapter 103 – Queen Ant
When they emerged from the passage they had escaped into and returned to the square, they found that the ants that had been scurrying left and right had already regained order. Wynn, Leticia and Mito carefully approached the side of the Queen Ant, taking advantage of the shadows provided by the rocks. At that moment, an ant approached them. It snapped its strong jaws and shook its antennae as it approached the rock where the three were hiding.
It found us.
It was then that Wynn gripped his sword tightly. There was a loud hissing sound and an arrow pierced the ant’s compound eye. The ant raised its upper body slightly and turned its head to look for the one who had hurt it. The arrow had been shot by one of the dwarves peering out from the tunnel. When he saw that he had succeeded in driving the ant away, he quickly turned back toward the tunnel. Following him, the ant flew past the rock where Wynn and the others were hiding at tremendous speed. It was so angry at being hurt that it paid no attention to its surroundings. It jumped straight into the tunnel.
“Phew…”
Wynn exhaled, untensing his shoulders. One by one, the dwarves who remained in the tunnel were using arrows to lure the ants blocking the path to the Queen Ant. They would draw their bows, watching the ants they were aiming at and anticipating their movements. Then they shoot arrows. It was a nerve-wracking task, as the slightest miscalculation could attract a whole group of ants. Locke and Cornelia also had to help them fight the ants in the tunnel.
It’s amazing… Wynn was impressed to see the small back of Mito, who was ahead of him.
Parallel to Wynn, other dwarves were deployed in the square in order to place explosive bombs. Those responsible for attracting the ants watched where he, Leticia and Mito were going and eliminated the danger of the approaching ants. Unlike humans, the dwarves had no armies. It was said that, if forced to fight, those who had come of age in their villages would take up arms. That is why they did not usually train in group combat. But now they worked as a team, rivaling even the most experienced of knights.
Finally, each of them arrived at the place they had planned to go. Glancing out from behind a rock, they could see the huge Queen Ant up close, whose length was impossible to measure. Perhaps in its abdomen there would be a large number of larvae? There were still many ants scurrying around the queen. The dwarves, who had finished positioning the explosives, carefully retraced their steps back to the tunnel they had come through. The black wire leading from the explosive devices was prepared with black powder that would serve as a fuse. Everything was now ready. They took a torch from the back of the tunnel. Seeing the signal, Wynn and Leticia looked at each other and nodded.
One of the dwarves hiding in the tunnel lit a black powder fuse that extended in several lines. To prevent the bedrock from collapsing, the dwarves, who knew the mine well, set off explosive charges that ignited at the same time. And a sound like a roar was heard in the background. Smoke began to fill the atmosphere. It had the smell of gunpowder and a slightly sour taste. The smell of insect repellent chemicals mixed with the explosive shells reached the nostrils of Wynn and the others.
“…!”
Maybe Mito yelled, “Come on!”. Wynn, whose ears were crazed from the explosion, didn’t hear it, but when he saw Mito’s mouth move, he jumped out from behind the rocks where he had been hiding.
When Wynn got closer and saw the Queen Ant, he noticed that it was as big as a small mountain. He wondered if the dragon that had been in this place was as big as this Queen Ant. His grip on the sword felt a little loose. The enormous size of the Queen Ant made the sword that Wynn held so reliably only look like a needle in comparison. The ants around her were startled by the explosive blast, and each one of them lifted a white ball the size of a human head in their mandibles and paced left and right. Those must have been their larvae. Some of the ants couldn’t find the eggs and wandered left and right, which might have been a hindrance to Wynn and the others, but the dwarves in the rear saw them and lured them into the tunnel. Nothing was to stand in the way of Wynn and the Queen Ant.
“C’mooon!” Mito let out a shout and slammed his halberd into the Queen Ant’s side. The muscles in Mito’s arms and legs, smaller in stature but thicker than Wynn’s, swelled as he swung his halberd with the rotation of his hips. The blow from the heavy weapon was so strong that even the giant Queen Ant could not ignore. The Queen Ant’s head seemed to jerk with the impact.
“Did it work?”
“It still looks unharmed.” Leticia responded to Wynn’s murmur.
The Queen Ant tilted its head back, waving its huge antennae, which were the height of an adult human. The fury they transmitted seemed to vibrate the air around them. The distance between them and the Queen Ant that had raised its head was several dozen paces on foot from Wynn and Leticia’s position. However, due to their enormous size, it felt as if they were right next to each other. Wynn also made his move.
Should I attack the abdomen?
Since the demon’s upper body was raised, his sword would not reach the Queen Ant’s head or chest. He wondered if he should strike at its abdomen, which was still on the ground. A moment later, the Queen Ant raised the abdomen and fired formic acid. Wynn quickly dodged to the left. The amount of formic acid on the ground, unmatched by other ants due to its enormous size, irritated Wynn’s eyes and nose. The formic acid was aimed at Mito, who had just struck the side of the Queen Ant, however, he too had retreated from the line of fire, and slammed his halberd as hard as he could against one of the legs of the Queen Ant. The halberd blade, wielded in the same manner as one would to cut a giant tree, struck the thick leg with such force that it broke it. Just that impact. The huge body of the Queen Ant bent over. As it lost its balance, the Queen Ant’s chest came within reach of the sword.
“Ha!” With a loud exhale, Wynn swung his sword. The impact felt like hitting a hard rock.
The Queen Ant’s carapace was corresponding to its enormous size, and seemed to be much thicker than that of the other ants. Not being enhanced by magic, Wynn’s sword only lightly scratched the Queen Ant’s chest. It regained its stance and ferociously attacked the small creatures that were trying to stab it with its blades. It raised its upper body again and shook its legs, which resembled sharp claws. If he took a well-placed blow, Wynn’s body would end up in pieces. The footholds were in poor condition, and he managed to dodge attacks by ducking and jumping backwards, but every time he did so he would trip over holes in the ground or debris and lose his footing. Then the ant’s leg thumped downward. In an instant, Wynn raised his sword overhead and used it as a shield to protect himself. The sound of two solid objects colliding was heard. Wynn felt the impact transmitted by the sword against his arms.
“Kuu…” A groan involuntarily escaped from Wynn’s mouth. He held the sword and withstood the impact with all his might.
The collision between the Queen Ant’s leg and the sword lasted only an instant, but Wynn’s whole body felt the impact as if it had been struck by a huge piece of iron. The arm holding the sword and the leg he had been stepping on were shaking and intensely numb. But he could not stay in that place forever. Straining his numb body, he ducked under the Queen Ant’s flailing claws.
Letty!? As he did so, he saw Leticia out of the corner of his eye, trying to move behind the Queen Ant.
Leticia moved up slightly from Its abdomen to Its chest and then to Its head in the blink of an eye, and delivered a slash to it. The Brave’s weapon, the “Holy Spirit Sword”, held by Leticia, easily cut the hard carapace of the Queen Ant, and yellow body fluids gushed out. However, due to the pain it was feeling, it writhed violently.
“Letty!”
Leticia’s light body shot up into the air. Normally, she would use magic to fly, but right now she couldn’t due to the fact that this square had become a Magic Void*. However, Leticia turned her body slightly in the air and rolled on one of the poor state footholds to lessen the intensity of the impact and get up. Wynn, who was following Leticia’s movements, caught a glimpse of the Queen Ant’s legs, which were moving erratically, approaching her. In an instant, Wynn bolted, threw down his sword and flew off to the side, hugging Leticia’s body. Just in the nick of time. The Queen Ant’s legs just grazed the air, wanting to grab them.
(TN: I’m going to be using Magic Void instead of Demonic Space.)
“Th-thank you, Onni-chan.”
Without replying to Leticia, who thanked him in her arms, Wynn quickly stood up and looked for his weapon. The paw that had just tried to grab Wynn and Leticia came back like a pendulum and nearly fell on them. When Wynn saw the sword he threw earlier… Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a sword that glowed with a dull glow and leapt towards it. The Queen Ant’s legs went back through the air where he had been before. Quickly picking up his sword, he stood up and prepared for It next attack.
Where’s Letty!?
Leticia took a great leap backwards, dodging the Queen Ant’s swipes. She was running to go behind it again with her sword in a low stance. She was fast. In this square, where the “body enhancement” magic could not be used and the footholds were in bad shape, Leticia was trying to get around the Queen Ant’s blind spots with moves so marvelous that they were impossible to even feel. She would try again to climb the Queen Ant’s body from behind. It was the kind of feat that only Leticia could accomplish.
Then I’ll get the Queen Ant’s attention! Wynn ran out and stabbed at Its chest again. The blows were still weak and shallow. As the Queen Ant shook its body, Wynn took a step back to get away from it and not be crushed by its massive size.
“…It’s hard.”
At that moment, the figure of Mito appeared in Wynn’s field of vision. Mito was trying to get around one of the hind Queen Ant’s legs, but apparently, he was slower than Wynn and Leticia, so he couldn’t attack as he wanted to. The Queen Ant’s leg lunged at Mito with a roar. There was no way to avoid it.
“…!”
Wynn’s eyes widened as he let out a choked scream. In his mind flashed the image of Mito grabbing the halberd, but flying off. A moment later… Mito shouted in a thick voice, or perhaps it could be called a roar, and stepped forward forcefully. He then brandished his halberd above his head as if about to shatter the earth. The Queen Ant’s legs collided with the halberd blade. With the sound the rock would make when crushed, it was the Queen Ant’s leg that went flying with the inertia of the blow. A yellowish liquid gushed out from where it had been crushed and cut. But in return, Mito also flew backwards from the impact and crashed into a rock.
The Queen Ant’s huge body, whose foreleg had been torn off, tilted. However, it did not roll on the ground, but stood upright and pounced angrily on the dwarf who had broken its foreleg. The Queen Ant’s weapons were not only its claw-sharp legs. Its jaws were so strong that they could easily tear apart a human torso. It was going to bite Mito with these, as he was still unable to move from the impact earlier. The Queen Ant’s emotions could not be read in her large, creepy compound eyes, but Wynn sensed that they reflected its rage and hatred for Mito. He began to run toward it. If It tried to bite Mito who lay motionless on the ground, the Queen Ant’s head would be within reach of his sword. It was a unique opportunity. It was then that he realized he was smiling slightly.
The strong jaws of the Queen Ant were trying to close in on Mito, who could not move. It was a desperate crisis. However, the blow he had just seen from Mito popped into the back of his mind as he took a stance ready to stab the Queen Ant and ran.
Wynn couldn’t use magic. When he had first entered the knight school, he had always been defeated in mock battles with knight cadets who used “body enhancement” magic before their fights, who pushed their swords hard. To face the magically enhanced and physically superior knight cadets, Wynn had to improve his skills in dodging and avoiding being hit by their swords. This was a basic sword technique. It was the basis of Wynn’s swordsmanship.
It’s not just about dodging, it’s about using the power of someone stronger than me against themselves.
He gripped the sword tightly. The Queen Ant was huge, but it moved at a speed not commensurate with its enormous size. However, to Wynn’s eyes, which were now focused, the Queen Ant’s movement seemed to flow slowly as it lunged toward Mito. He dodged its large jaw and thrust his sword toward the compound eye on the left side. The Queen Ant’s own thrusting force and the weight of its massive body aided the tip of the sword Wynn had thrust in, causing the sword to penetrate deep into the eye. The Queen Ant raised its head in a wide arc as it felt the pain of the sword in its eye. Even Wynn, who was not thrown backward due to his tight grip on the sword, as was to be expected from the Queen Ant’s movements, was buffeted violently through the air. But, even so, he did not let go of his sword. If he let go, he would be thrown into the air and crash into the bedrock. And then, suddenly, the Queen Ant’s body tilted to one side and fell.
Leticia, who was trying to get behind it, cut off one of the hind legs supporting the Queen Ant’s body. At the slightest sign of stopping, Wynn stepped on top of the Queen Ant’s compound eye with both feet and drew his sword with all his might. Yellow liquid splashed Wynn, but he didn’t care and ran straight at the Queen Ant’s head. Feeling intense pain, the Queen Ant jerked wildly, its jaws and antennae twitching as well. It was trying to get up.
“Boy, aim for the head joint!” Mito shouted to Wynn as he recovered from the impact.
As with the other ants, it was the only part of the body that was not protected by a hard outer carapace, and the muscle fibers were exposed. Before the Queen Ant could raise its head again, Wynn thrust his sword into the junction between the head and chest and slashed it to the side, feeling the resistance in his sword as if it were tearing fibers. Wynn’s sword was only able to cut a little more than half of the muscle fibers. But that was enough. The Queen Ant’s head fell to the ground, aided by its own weight.
Chapter 103 – Queen Ant
When they emerged from the passage they had escaped into and returned to the square, they found that the ants that had been scurrying left and right had already regained order. Wynn, Leticia and Mito carefully approached the side of the Queen Ant, taking advantage of the shadows provided by the rocks. At that moment, an ant approached them. It snapped its strong jaws and shook its antennae as it approached the rock where the three were hiding.
It found us.
It was then that Wynn gripped his sword tightly. There was a loud hissing sound and an arrow pierced the ant’s compound eye. The ant raised its upper body slightly and turned its head to look for the one who had hurt it. The arrow had been shot by one of the dwarves peering out from the tunnel. When he saw that he had succeeded in driving the ant away, he quickly turned back toward the tunnel. Following him, the ant flew past the rock where Wynn and the others were hiding at tremendous speed. It was so angry at being hurt that it paid no attention to its surroundings. It jumped straight into the tunnel.
“Phew…”
Wynn exhaled, untensing his shoulders. One by one, the dwarves who remained in the tunnel were using arrows to lure the ants blocking the path to the Queen Ant. They would draw their bows, watching the ants they were aiming at and anticipating their movements. Then they shoot arrows. It was a nerve-wracking task, as the slightest miscalculation could attract a whole group of ants. Locke and Cornelia also had to help them fight the ants in the tunnel.
It’s amazing… Wynn was impressed to see the small back of Mito, who was ahead of him.
Parallel to Wynn, other dwarves were deployed in the square in order to place explosive bombs. Those responsible for attracting the ants watched where he, Leticia and Mito were going and eliminated the danger of the approaching ants. Unlike humans, the dwarves had no armies. It was said that, if forced to fight, those who had come of age in their villages would take up arms. That is why they did not usually train in group combat. But now they worked as a team, rivaling even the most experienced of knights.
Finally, each of them arrived at the place they had planned to go. Glancing out from behind a rock, they could see the huge Queen Ant up close, whose length was impossible to measure. Perhaps in its abdomen there would be a large number of larvae? There were still many ants scurrying around the queen. The dwarves, who had finished positioning the explosives, carefully retraced their steps back to the tunnel they had come through. The black wire leading from the explosive devices was prepared with black powder that would serve as a fuse. Everything was now ready. They took a torch from the back of the tunnel. Seeing the signal, Wynn and Leticia looked at each other and nodded.
One of the dwarves hiding in the tunnel lit a black powder fuse that extended in several lines. To prevent the bedrock from collapsing, the dwarves, who knew the mine well, set off explosive charges that ignited at the same time. And a sound like a roar was heard in the background. Smoke began to fill the atmosphere. It had the smell of gunpowder and a slightly sour taste. The smell of insect repellent chemicals mixed with the explosive shells reached the nostrils of Wynn and the others.
“…!”
Maybe Mito yelled, “Come on!”. Wynn, whose ears were crazed from the explosion, didn’t hear it, but when he saw Mito’s mouth move, he jumped out from behind the rocks where he had been hiding.
When Wynn got closer and saw the Queen Ant, he noticed that it was as big as a small mountain. He wondered if the dragon that had been in this place was as big as this Queen Ant. His grip on the sword felt a little loose. The enormous size of the Queen Ant made the sword that Wynn held so reliably only look like a needle in comparison. The ants around her were startled by the explosive blast, and each one of them lifted a white ball the size of a human head in their mandibles and paced left and right. Those must have been their larvae. Some of the ants couldn’t find the eggs and wandered left and right, which might have been a hindrance to Wynn and the others, but the dwarves in the rear saw them and lured them into the tunnel. Nothing was to stand in the way of Wynn and the Queen Ant.
“C’mooon!” Mito let out a shout and slammed his halberd into the Queen Ant’s side. The muscles in Mito’s arms and legs, smaller in stature but thicker than Wynn’s, swelled as he swung his halberd with the rotation of his hips. The blow from the heavy weapon was so strong that even the giant Queen Ant could not ignore. The Queen Ant’s head seemed to jerk with the impact.
“Did it work?”
“It still looks unharmed.” Leticia responded to Wynn’s murmur.
The Queen Ant tilted its head back, waving its huge antennae, which were the height of an adult human. The fury they transmitted seemed to vibrate the air around them. The distance between them and the Queen Ant that had raised its head was several dozen paces on foot from Wynn and Leticia’s position. However, due to their enormous size, it felt as if they were right next to each other. Wynn also made his move.
Should I attack the abdomen?
Since the demon’s upper body was raised, his sword would not reach the Queen Ant’s head or chest. He wondered if he should strike at its abdomen, which was still on the ground. A moment later, the Queen Ant raised the abdomen and fired formic acid. Wynn quickly dodged to the left. The amount of formic acid on the ground, unmatched by other ants due to its enormous size, irritated Wynn’s eyes and nose. The formic acid was aimed at Mito, who had just struck the side of the Queen Ant, however, he too had retreated from the line of fire, and slammed his halberd as hard as he could against one of the legs of the Queen Ant. The halberd blade, wielded in the same manner as one would to cut a giant tree, struck the thick leg with such force that it broke it. Just that impact. The huge body of the Queen Ant bent over. As it lost its balance, the Queen Ant’s chest came within reach of the sword.
“Ha!” With a loud exhale, Wynn swung his sword. The impact felt like hitting a hard rock.
The Queen Ant’s carapace was corresponding to its enormous size, and seemed to be much thicker than that of the other ants. Not being enhanced by magic, Wynn’s sword only lightly scratched the Queen Ant’s chest. It regained its stance and ferociously attacked the small creatures that were trying to stab it with its blades. It raised its upper body again and shook its legs, which resembled sharp claws. If he took a well-placed blow, Wynn’s body would end up in pieces. The footholds were in poor condition, and he managed to dodge attacks by ducking and jumping backwards, but every time he did so he would trip over holes in the ground or debris and lose his footing. Then the ant’s leg thumped downward. In an instant, Wynn raised his sword overhead and used it as a shield to protect himself. The sound of two solid objects colliding was heard. Wynn felt the impact transmitted by the sword against his arms.
“Kuu…” A groan involuntarily escaped from Wynn’s mouth. He held the sword and withstood the impact with all his might.
The collision between the Queen Ant’s leg and the sword lasted only an instant, but Wynn’s whole body felt the impact as if it had been struck by a huge piece of iron. The arm holding the sword and the leg he had been stepping on were shaking and intensely numb. But he could not stay in that place forever. Straining his numb body, he ducked under the Queen Ant’s flailing claws.
Letty!? As he did so, he saw Leticia out of the corner of his eye, trying to move behind the Queen Ant.
Leticia moved up slightly from Its abdomen to Its chest and then to Its head in the blink of an eye, and delivered a slash to it. The Brave’s weapon, the “Holy Spirit Sword”, held by Leticia, easily cut the hard carapace of the Queen Ant, and yellow body fluids gushed out. However, due to the pain it was feeling, it writhed violently.
“Letty!”
Leticia’s light body shot up into the air. Normally, she would use magic to fly, but right now she couldn’t due to the fact that this square had become a Magic Void*. However, Leticia turned her body slightly in the air and rolled on one of the poor state footholds to lessen the intensity of the impact and get up. Wynn, who was following Leticia’s movements, caught a glimpse of the Queen Ant’s legs, which were moving erratically, approaching her. In an instant, Wynn bolted, threw down his sword and flew off to the side, hugging Leticia’s body. Just in the nick of time. The Queen Ant’s legs just grazed the air, wanting to grab them.
(TN: I’m going to be using Magic Void instead of Demonic Space.)
“Th-thank you, Onni-chan.”
Without replying to Leticia, who thanked him in her arms, Wynn quickly stood up and looked for his weapon. The paw that had just tried to grab Wynn and Leticia came back like a pendulum and nearly fell on them. When Wynn saw the sword he threw earlier… Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a sword that glowed with a dull glow and leapt towards it. The Queen Ant’s legs went back through the air where he had been before. Quickly picking up his sword, he stood up and prepared for It next attack.
Where’s Letty!?
Leticia took a great leap backwards, dodging the Queen Ant’s swipes. She was running to go behind it again with her sword in a low stance. She was fast. In this square, where the “body enhancement” magic could not be used and the footholds were in bad shape, Leticia was trying to get around the Queen Ant’s blind spots with moves so marvelous that they were impossible to even feel. She would try again to climb the Queen Ant’s body from behind. It was the kind of feat that only Leticia could accomplish.
Then I’ll get the Queen Ant’s attention! Wynn ran out and stabbed at Its chest again. The blows were still weak and shallow. As the Queen Ant shook its body, Wynn took a step back to get away from it and not be crushed by its massive size.
“…It’s hard.”
At that moment, the figure of Mito appeared in Wynn’s field of vision. Mito was trying to get around one of the hind Queen Ant’s legs, but apparently, he was slower than Wynn and Leticia, so he couldn’t attack as he wanted to. The Queen Ant’s leg lunged at Mito with a roar. There was no way to avoid it.
“…!”
Wynn’s eyes widened as he let out a choked scream. In his mind flashed the image of Mito grabbing the halberd, but flying off. A moment later… Mito shouted in a thick voice, or perhaps it could be called a roar, and stepped forward forcefully. He then brandished his halberd above his head as if about to shatter the earth. The Queen Ant’s legs collided with the halberd blade. With the sound the rock would make when crushed, it was the Queen Ant’s leg that went flying with the inertia of the blow. A yellowish liquid gushed out from where it had been crushed and cut. But in return, Mito also flew backwards from the impact and crashed into a rock.
The Queen Ant’s huge body, whose foreleg had been torn off, tilted. However, it did not roll on the ground, but stood upright and pounced angrily on the dwarf who had broken its foreleg. The Queen Ant’s weapons were not only its claw-sharp legs. Its jaws were so strong that they could easily tear apart a human torso. It was going to bite Mito with these, as he was still unable to move from the impact earlier. The Queen Ant’s emotions could not be read in her large, creepy compound eyes, but Wynn sensed that they reflected its rage and hatred for Mito. He began to run toward it. If It tried to bite Mito who lay motionless on the ground, the Queen Ant’s head would be within reach of his sword. It was a unique opportunity. It was then that he realized he was smiling slightly.
The strong jaws of the Queen Ant were trying to close in on Mito, who could not move. It was a desperate crisis. However, the blow he had just seen from Mito popped into the back of his mind as he took a stance ready to stab the Queen Ant and ran.
Wynn couldn’t use magic. When he had first entered the knight school, he had always been defeated in mock battles with knight cadets who used “body enhancement” magic before their fights, who pushed their swords hard. To face the magically enhanced and physically superior knight cadets, Wynn had to improve his skills in dodging and avoiding being hit by their swords. This was a basic sword technique. It was the basis of Wynn’s swordsmanship.
It’s not just about dodging, it’s about using the power of someone stronger than me against themselves.
He gripped the sword tightly. The Queen Ant was huge, but it moved at a speed not commensurate with its enormous size. However, to Wynn’s eyes, which were now focused, the Queen Ant’s movement seemed to flow slowly as it lunged toward Mito. He dodged its large jaw and thrust his sword toward the compound eye on the left side. The Queen Ant’s own thrusting force and the weight of its massive body aided the tip of the sword Wynn had thrust in, causing the sword to penetrate deep into the eye. The Queen Ant raised its head in a wide arc as it felt the pain of the sword in its eye. Even Wynn, who was not thrown backward due to his tight grip on the sword, as was to be expected from the Queen Ant’s movements, was buffeted violently through the air. But, even so, he did not let go of his sword. If he let go, he would be thrown into the air and crash into the bedrock. And then, suddenly, the Queen Ant’s body tilted to one side and fell.
Leticia, who was trying to get behind it, cut off one of the hind legs supporting the Queen Ant’s body. At the slightest sign of stopping, Wynn stepped on top of the Queen Ant’s compound eye with both feet and drew his sword with all his might. Yellow liquid splashed Wynn, but he didn’t care and ran straight at the Queen Ant’s head. Feeling intense pain, the Queen Ant jerked wildly, its jaws and antennae twitching as well. It was trying to get up.
“Boy, aim for the head joint!” Mito shouted to Wynn as he recovered from the impact.
As with the other ants, it was the only part of the body that was not protected by a hard outer carapace, and the muscle fibers were exposed. Before the Queen Ant could raise its head again, Wynn thrust his sword into the junction between the head and chest and slashed it to the side, feeling the resistance in his sword as if it were tearing fibers. Wynn’s sword was only able to cut a little more than half of the muscle fibers. But that was enough. The Queen Ant’s head fell to the ground, aided by its own weight.
