Chapter 448: [Bonus chapter]Eradicating A Nightbringer Ant Colony
With all the abilities that Mira has at her disposal, it would be surprising if she didn't have anything that she could use to take care of the Nightbringer Ant Queen and her guards.
When she first came across the Nightbringer Ants, Mira had already begun coming up with a plan to take her down.
However, Mira knew that if she were to face off against a Rank 7 insect, especially a mutated insect focused on defense and intelligence, she wouldn't be able to deal with it unscathed. From her predictions, the Nightbringer Queen was at least a Low-Stage Rank 7 insect. Most likely was a Mid-Stage Rank 7 Nightbrigner Ant Queen!
As for the guards, Mira had the same assumption.
Actually, it was the guards that Mira was the most worried about. Ant Queens generally aren't that strong, even with a high cultivation. Their jobs aren't to attack, to begin with. Their jobs are to lay eggs and take care of the larva.
In this case, the Ant Queen seemed to have something similar to a hive-mind ability as well, but that's not an ability designed for attacking.
Therefore, Mira wasn't worried about the Ant Queen at all, even if it was much stronger than her. While it might still be difficult for her to break through its exoskeleton, it'll eventually fall.
However, the guards are a different story. After massacring multiple ant nests, Mira has learned that the guards are the real threat. Their entire existence is meant to protect the queen, so how could they not be strong?
Still, at the end of the day, they are just ants. Even if they are more intelligent than they are supposed to be, as long as there is no Rank 8 insect in the colony, Mira isn't too worried.
In fact, it could be said that her 'species' as a 9-tailed fox is an exceptional counter to ants. Most ants communicate using various pheromones, and before Rank 8, even if they have a bit of intelligence, most of their actions are still instinctual.
Although Mira wasn't quite sure how powerful her charm ability was, she knew that it could be her most dangerous weapon under the right circumstances.
With a plan in mind, Mira entered the room where the Queen, guards, and the eggs were.
What she saw was about what she expected.
There were 5 guards in front of the Queen. Each one is a Low-Stage Rank 7 insect. The exoskeleton around their heads and joints seemed reinforced with extra defense, making them even harder to kill. Lastly, their entire bodies were covered in tiny barbs covered with poison.
They stood about 3 meters in height and 5 meters long.
Meanwhile, the Queen sitting at the back stood about 4 meters tall and 9 meters long. She was a Mid-Stage Rank 7 insect, but surprisingly her aura wasn't nearly as dangerous as the guards in front of her.
However, a few things stood out on the ant Queen. Her antennae were much longer than a normal ant queen, and they radiated a dense amount of Qi. Also, her abdomen was bigger than it normally should be.
Mira glanced at the eggs behind the queen and understood the reason why her abdomen was so big. She was giving birth to bigger and stronger babies!
*SCREEEEEECH*
The Nightbringer Ant Queen screeched, seeing someone entering her chambers.
Hearing how angry their queen was, the guards immediately charged at Mira.
Seeing this, Mira smirked and focused on the guard closest to her.
Suddenly, her pink tail glowed, and a dense pink mist appeared around Mira.
'Go!' Mira waved her hand and sent the mist over to the nearest guard. For a moment, not just the guard Mira focused on, but the 4 other guards as well all smelt the addictive fragrance and froze.
However, the guards with no pink mist around them felt their antennae twitch and regained their senses.
They looked at Mira with even more hatred than before as they almost betrayed their queen and mother because of a scent!
With renewed vigor, they charged at Mira even more fearlessly than before.
Of course, Mira was already expecting this, but she had no intention of fighting these 4. She knew her raw strength wasn't enough to take down these guards in a short amount of time.
So, while running and dodging, she ensured her charming mist hovered around that one guard. She even forced some of the mist into its body!
Not long after, Mira could feel a slight connection to the guard and knew that she had successfully 'seduced' it.
While she felt bitter that she had to charm a disgusting ant, she had to admit that this ability was a bit too powerful on creatures with tiny brains and little to no self-awareness.
With a thought, she commanded it through that faint connection.
'Attack.'
The guard under Mira's control didn't hesitate to attack its comrades! The other guards and even the Queen weren't expecting this at all, so it was able to wrap its mandibles around one of the guard's head and decapitate it!
*SCREEEEEE-!!!*
As the Queen screeched in anger, Mira used this chance to take some of the attention off of her 'slave'.
With a swing of her scythe, she sent a wave of Hell Scythe Intent at a cluster of eggs, obliterating them.
She didn't stop there. She kept swinging her scythe, sending more and more waves of Hell Scythe Intent towards the eggs behind and around the Nightbringer Ant Queen!
The Queen's antenna's twitched fiercely, and she sent out commands to her guards to attack Mira immediately and not let any more eggs die.
'Sigh... what a pitiful existence. She can lay thousands, if not tens, or even hundreds of thousands of eggs, but she is willing to risk her life and the life of her guards for a few hundred at best. However, it's also for this reason that I fucking hate fighting against ants.' Mira shook her head in disdain, sensing the Ant Queen's decision.
Maybe if she were alone and unable to control one of the guards, she'd be in trouble, but since they were ordered to focus on her and defend the eggs, that left her little 'guard ant slave' free to do whatever it wanted.
Naturally, Mira wouldn't miss this chance and ordered it to go all out.
Her 'ant slave' opened its mouth and spat a ball of poison toward its fellow guard ants. Then it leaped on the ones it missed and swiftly decapitated them with its mandibles.
The one hit by the poison had a few of its legs melted and its carapace damaged, slowing it down.
Thus, after it was done killing the other two, it ran over and decapitated the poisoned guard.
Now, all that's left was the Queen, and not wanting to leave anything up to chance, Mira commanded the ant guard to quickly finish it off.
However, it seems the instincts of the ant guard were stronger than she initially thought as the ant guard hesitated to kill the Queen. So, as the Queen screeched and thrashed about trying to take control of the ant guard, Mira had already moved behind the Queen.
Then, with a jump, Mira unleashed her strongest abilities. She coated her body in Martial Intent, her scythe in Hell Scythe Intent, filled her golden tail with Qi, increased her ice affinity by 400% with her icy-blue tail, and created her Paragon Wings.
With one swift motion, all these attacks came crashing down on the Nightbringer Ant Queen's neck!
At the same time, Mira ordered her 'ant guard slave' to commit suicide, to which it exploded its tiny beast core without hesitation!
*BOOOOOOOM!*
The room shook from the explosion, but surprisingly, the ceiling didn't cave in due to the explosion.
Mira flew off the Queen after the explosion, slightly injured, but not enough that it'd prevent her from fighting.
Once the dust settled, Mira saw bits and pieces of the guard's flesh and carapace all over the room and the Ant Queen's mangled head dangling from its body.
However, despite that, the ant queen still wasn't dead, but with the insides of its head exposed, Mira just released a few needle-like hairs from her silvery-white tail and jabbed them in its brain until it died.
She then looked around and noticed that there was still a sea of Nightbringer ant eggs, so she didn't waste any time slaughtering them, completely eradicating this colony of Nightbringer.
After everything was dealt with, Mira walked around and collected anything that might be of value. Naturally, this included the Ant Queen and her guard's bodies, but Mira also wanted to see if these ants held any treasures.
How could she not? All the worker ants she fought were Peak-Stage Rank 6. For an entire colony of ants to have that amount of power birthed from a single Ant Queen with only a Mid-Stage Rank 7 cultivation was seemingly impossible in Mira's eyes. There should have been many weaker ants in this colony!
Thus, she searched all the tunnels connected to the Ant Queen's room.
Soon, Mira finally found what she was looking for, and her eyes couldn't help but light up!
***
Thank you, Nyviria, for the 15,000 coins!