Starting out as a Dragon Slave-Chapter 46: Rank D dungeon (part 2)

The massive door opened slowly, revealing an immense dark room with a vaulted ceiling, lit only by bluish luminescent crystals embedded in the walls. At the center of this gigantic chamber, a monstrous creature stood proudly, surrounded by a roaring horde of warrior ants.

It was the queen of the ants, immense, white, her colossal body bristling with pearly scales shimmering faintly under the strange gleam of the crystals. Her gigantic abdomen was swollen and pulsating slowly, clearly filled with gestating eggs. Its hideous head was adorned with massive mandibles that snapped violently, emitting grating, ominous sounds.

But what immediately drew the team’s attention was the huge egg placed in front of them, cracked and already slowly hatching. The queen ant was visibly exultant with excitement, repeatedly snapping her mandibles with feverish intensity.

The egg suddenly burst open, releasing a terrifying creature. A colossal ant soldier, much larger than the usual warriors, slowly unfurled, rising to his full height with a sickening crunch. Its shiny black carapace was covered with sharp spikes, its chitinous limbs blade-like, and its head possessed multiple eyes of a deep, bright red, immediately staring at the group of hunters with an unhealthy, horrifying intelligence.

The queen emitted an excruciating sound, akin to squealing laughter, as she admired her monstrous newborn:

- My child... my perfect soldier... my masterpiece...

The entire group immediately paled at this terrifying sight, clearly understanding that they were now facing an enemy of a completely different caliber. Jack slowly tightened his grip on his broad sword, his face pale but resolute:

- This thing... it’s way beyond anything we expected...

Isaac, however, coldly observed the creature with icy calm, his face closed, his eyes burning intensely with rage. Without averting his gaze from the monstrous soldier, he speaks in a cold, determined voice:

- I’m taking this newborn ant. Take care of the queen and the other soldiers.

Jack opened his mouth to protest, but seeing the icy determination in Isaac’s eyes, he simply nodded, clearly understanding that no amount of argument would change this decision.

- Very well, Isaac. But be careful, this thing is different. I’m counting on you.

Without further ado, Jack immediately launched his team against the queen and her numerous guards, leaving Isaac to face the monstrous creature alone.

The newborn ant advanced slowly towards Isaac, its massive body moving with grotesque fluidity, its chitinous, blade-like limbs scraping grimly against the rocky ground.

Its multiple red eyes never left Isaac, filled with a perverse, disquieting curiosity.

- You... you... suddenly whispered the creature, its hideous, squeaky voice clumsily trying to imitate human speech. Kill... you...

Isaac instinctively felt his stomach knot violently at this morbid spectacle, this monster crudely imitating human words with a perversity that chilled his blood.

The creature continued, moving slowly forward, grotesquely limping, its joints creaking ominously with each clumsy step:

- H... human... weak... dead...

Without warning, the ant leapt towards him with terrifying speed, brandishing its limbs as sharp as scythes. Isaac barely dodged, immediately activating his [Black Stone Skin] skill, his body immediately covered with a solid protective layer.

He immediately launched his fastest technique:

- Raijin no Kata: Shidensen!

His katana sliced deep into the ant’s thick chitin, but to his surprise, the creature took the blow without retreating, its wounds slowly closing before its eyes with grotesque regeneration.

- Weak..., squeaked the creature with an excruciating grin on its mandibles, its voice now more sure, its imitation of human words becoming progressively more fluid and ominous.

Isaac, gritting his teeth, immediately understood the extreme gravity of the situation. This monster, barely born, was already learning at a terrifying speed.

"I no longer have a choice..." he thought coldly, immediately stepping up his speed and power.

With icy determination, he immediately linked up the techniques of the Lightning Kata, his silhouette becoming almost invisible under the effect of his lightning speed. Each strike created deep gashes in the monster’s thick chitin, but each time, the creature rose to its feet, regenerating rapidly, its perverse, inhuman smile growing with each attack.

- Still... human... you’re weak..., it slowly squeaked with unbearable perversity, its red eyes now gleaming with unhealthy pleasure. Bis...

Isaac felt a growing uncontrollable rage violently inside him, brutally burning every part of his being. He immediately thought back to Akane, to Belgaroth’s merciless cruelty, to the cold, implacable rage that now completely inhabited him.

This rage now gave him additional power, his movements becoming even faster, more precise, each attack delivered with total intensity and brutality.

He no longer felt any physical pain, every wound now seeming utterly insignificant in the face of the uncontrollable anger that consumed his mind.

The newborn ant, despite its monstrous regeneration, finally began to show signs of weakness in the face of Isaac’s icy fury. His wounds, now too numerous, too deep, were gradually struggling to heal completely.

For the first time, an almost worried expression slowly appeared on the monster’s hideous features, his words now becoming less assured, more hesitant:

- Hu...hand...death...?

Isaac, cold, implacable, slowly raises his black katana, his gaze burning intensely with icy hatred:

- There’s nothing human about you. You’re a monster. And monsters like you must be exterminated.

Without further ado, he launched into the attack, determined to put a definitive end to this abject horror that was trying to grotesquely imitate humanity.

Isaac, his breath quick and his muscles tense with the tension of battle, faced the newborn monstrous ant. The creature, already wounded but still dangerous, stared at Isaac with multiple bloodshot eyes, its breathing choppy and jerky.

Suddenly, a deafening shriek echoed throughout the boss’s room, causing the rock walls to vibrate violently. Isaac, taken by surprise, immediately turned his head towards the ant queen. The latter, her gigantic body shaking with convulsive spasms, let out an excruciating, piercing scream, as if she were tearing through the air itself.

Beneath Isaac’s feet, a violent tremor struck the earth, cracks beginning to appear in the rocky ground. The hunters, led by Jack, retreated rapidly, their formation becoming unstable under the effect of the sudden earthquake.

- Look out!" shouted Jack to his team, obliged to maintain order despite the general confusion. Someone has chosen to prepare!

From time to time, hundreds of warrior ants emerged from the side tunnels, swarming frantically towards the center of the room, clearly responding to their queen’s desperate call. Isaac watched in horror as incessant waves of monstrous creatures, their black, chitinous carapaces gleaming under the dim crystal lights, massed around the queen ant.

Without warning, the queen raised her immense mandibles skywards, emitting a strange, guttural, hypnotic sound that resonated powerfully throughout the room.

At that very moment, a dark, ominous energy seemed to emanate slowly from her massive body. The air has become heavy, almost suffocating, saturated with this unhealthy, sinister energy.

In a macabre act, all the warrior ants froze occasionally, throwing excruciating fits of pain before falling brutally to the ground, dead on impact, their bodies empty of all life.

- What the hell is going on here?! cried Jack in amazement, staring in horror at the hundreds of corpses now lying around them.

Isaac immediately understood with terrifying clarity what was happening: the queen was sacrificing her own children to increase the power of her newborn masterpiece.

The queen then unleashed a wave of dark energy, powerful and oppressive, in the direction of the monstrous ant Isaac was confronting. The monster howled with pleasure and morbid ecstasy as it absorbed this macabre energy, its body convulsing violently under the effect of this terrifying infusion.

His massive body momentarily contracted, his chitinous muscles swelling atrociously, his carapace becoming even thicker, blacker, now streaked with unhealthy reddish hues. Its razor-sharp limbs grew longer, more slender, its claws now taking on a terrifyingly curved shape, capable of shredding the human chair effortlessly.

The creature, now three times more powerful, let out a squealing cry of triumph and unhealthy satisfaction, its mandibles clattering violently together in an excruciating sound:

- Hu... hand... die... slowly...

Isaac immediately felt an icy anguish abruptly invade his mind at the creature’s sudden and unexpected surge of power. Yet he gripped the hilt of his black katana tightly, brutally reminding himself why he was fighting, the image of Akane and her excruciating suffering rooted deep in his mind.

- I don’t care how powerful you are," he murmured coldly, his eyes now burning with icy, absolute determination. I’m going to slaughter you anyway.

The creature, now a grotesque, overpowered abomination, immediately leapt towards him with even more terrifying speed, every movement a true mortal threat. Isaac, reacting instinctively, narrowly dodged the deadly strike, immediately activating his [Black Stone Skin] skill to bolster his defenses.

He immediately counterattacked, his blade arcing perfectly through the air, striking violently at the monster’s thick chitin. But this time, the creature didn’t retreat even a centimeter, its wounds healing almost instantly under the effect of its now even more powerful regeneration.

The monster, now smiling cruelly, murmured slowly, with unbearable perversity:

- Weak... human... finish... slowly...

Isaac immediately felt an uncontrollable rage explode within him.

This rage, now totally unleashed, brutally intensifies his speed and precision, each of his movements becoming faster, more precise, more deadly than ever before.

He continued to strike relentlessly, brutally linking each movement of the Lightning Kata with absolute intensity. Each blow created deep wounds in the monster’s thick chitin, but each time, the creature regenerated with sickening speed, its perverse smile growing progressively wider in the face of Isaac’s obvious distress.

Despite his best efforts, Isaac gradually felt extreme fatigue brutally invade his body, his muscles slowly growing weaker under the effect of this excruciatingly intense and prolonged combat.

Jack, anxiously observing Isaac’s situation from the side of the room, desperately called out:

-Isaac! Hang in there! We’ll soon finish off the queen!

But Isaac could hear nothing more, totally absorbed in this mortal combat. His mind was now entirely consumed by the uncontrollable rage burning fiercely inside him, his thoughts entirely focused on a single objective: to definitively destroy this abject horror standing before him.

The monstrous ant advanced slowly towards him, its massive body quivering with unhealthy excitement, its sharp limbs clashing violently:

- Suffer... human... die slowly...

Isaac, clenching his teeth violently, slowly raises his black katana, his gaze now burning with icy, implacable hatred:

- I won’t die today, monster. But you... you’ll disappear forever.