Kyle decimated another ant before jumping back.
The tunnel was just wide enough to swing his hammer as long as he was in the middle of it.
However, only two ants could approach him at a time.
Ironically, the ants’ nest was the perfect battleground for Kyle.
They couldn’t surround him, while he could swing his hammer as much as he wanted.
’If I hadn’t dealt with the scouts, I would be in trouble. If even one ant appears behind me, I’m basically fucked,’ Kyle thought.
’Was that their plan? I thought they wanted to make me feel bad for killing them.’
’No, you fucks just wanted to ambush me!’
Another warrior ant fell from the ceiling.
Kyle continued his swing and swung down.
The satisfying feeling of something hard and meaty crunching beneath his hammer filled Kyle as he saw both ants getting deformed.
Whenever this happened, the tunnel was blocked, and the other ants had to push past the corpses.
"Come at me!" Kyle shouted as the Ether on his hammer turned from green to red.
"Control your Ether!" Theodor shouted.
"Huh?" Kyle uttered before noticing the Fire Ether. "Oops, sorry."
The Ether turned green again as Kyle reactivated Air Current.
Then, the next ants pushed forward.
Kyle killed them as well.
"More!" Kyle shouted. "Bring me your strongest warriors!"
"Send in the next ones!" Kyle shouted.
That was when a smaller ant pushed through the corpses.
This one also had pincers, but they were very small.
When Kyle looked at it, he sneered.
"I said strongest, not weakest!" Kyle shouted.
More of the small ants pushed through the corpses, and Kyle smashed all of them.
Fewer and fewer ants appeared, and Kyle waited.
Eventually, there were no more ants.
"How many did I kill so far?" Kyle asked.
"60 to 65," Theodor answered.
"Wait, that was 30 ants just now?" Kyle asked.
"Yes," Theodor answered.
"Huh," Kyle uttered. "Felt more like five to ten."
"Because the battlefield was advantageous for you. Go in and kill the queen."
Kyle grinned and cracked his shoulders.
"One last fight!" Kyle said as he walked forward.
He pushed past the corpses, grabbing a bite here and there.
As he looked at the tunnel filled with corpses and insect "blood", he paused for a second.
When he saw that, he only had one thought.
"This is going to be my first genocide," Kyle commented.
"And hopefully not your last," Theodor answered. "These ants are bottom feeders. There are many more powerful beasts out there."
Kyle nodded. "I know."
He climbed past the corpses until he reached the place where the first warrior ant had appeared.
There were no more ants in front of him.
Kyle walked forward with stalwart steps.
After he went past a corner, he saw a big opening.
However, he couldn’t see a lot.
A huge head with pincers was covering the entrance.
When Kyle saw that head, he took a deep breath.
"I wondered why you didn’t show up in the tunnel," he said. "Turns out you’re too fat. You don’t fit through the tunnel."
The ant queen was huge.
She was around four times bigger than a warrior ant, but her pincers were the same length, which made them rather short for her size.
Kyle stopped walking forward.
And the two pincers closed in front of him, just a couple of meters away.
"This is unfair," Kyle said with a sigh.
"I hoped for a good fight, you know?"
The pincers snapped again.
Kyle’s hammer hit the right pincer, completely decimating it.
"But how am I supposed to fight you when you can’t even reach me?!" Kyle shouted.
He took another step forward and destroyed the other pincer.
At that moment, the ant queen retreated, and Kyle could finally see the "throne room".
There were a couple more of the small ants, some white ant "statues", which were probably pupae or something, some maggots, and a bunch of white eggs.
Kyle slowly strode into the room.
Some of the small worker ants ran at him, and he just swatted them away with his hammer.
The queen was in the back of the room, looking at him.
Kyle smirked as he stepped forward.
Then, the ant queen charged forward, but she was heavy and cumbersome.
"Sit down!" Kyle shouted as he hit the side of her head with his hammer.
The head collapsed into itself, and the queen fell to the ground, her heavy weight shaking the nest.
"And that’s that," Kyle said as he put his hammer over his shoulder.
He took a deep breath, taking in the silent nest.
Well, not completely silent.
The larvae were still there, and they were making noise.
"Focus on the larvae and the eggs," Theodor said. "They are filled with Ether and should be easy to consume. Most of their Ether transforms into exoskeletons when they pupate. I presume you don’t want to eat chitin."
"Sounds good," Kyle said. "But first, I want to know what the queen tastes like."
He approached the queen and consumed some of her insect juices.
"Disgusting," he said. "She doesn’t taste any different from the others."
"What did you expect?" Theodor asked. "She’s a Peak Beast, not a Ferocious Beast."
"A bit disappointing," Kyle said.
"This is not some kind of story somebody made up in their head," Theodor said with annoyance. "This is real life, and sometimes, things are disappointing."
Kyle rolled his eyes. "Sure thing, Boss."
"Deal with the pupae first. They might hatch any time and attack."
Kyle walked over to the area with the pupae and smashed one after the other.
When he was done with that, he focused on the larvae.
He walked over and rammed his pick through the head of one of them, killing it.
By now, Kyle had gotten used to eating disgusting stuff, and he just jumped into the cold water and took a bite.
When he did that, his eyes widened.
"Holy fuck," he said.
"This tastes fucking great!"