Eternal Winter's Reign - Book 2 - Chapter 54 - The Hive Queen (Patreon)

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Alexander North

Bees, wasps, spiders, beetles, ants, and even damned mosquitoes move out of the hole in the cocoon at a rather rapid pace. But the vast majority of these particular frozen ones are only Tiers 1 and 2. With the occasional Tier 3.

So none are particularly hard to kill.

Especially when I fly down towards them, aggravating them with my presence alone before using Cold Burst to wipe out the lot of them in a single blow. Then I proceed to move closer to the hole, through which I see even more icy mist than before.

But now that I’m this close, I can finally sense it.

The sheer power of this frozen one.

And when I do, I find my eyes narrowing more than a little.

Because it is Tier 4. Just a bit weaker than the sapient Frozen Lord from before that let me go.

This time around though, I have an actual chance against it. Because this one is clearly not sapient judging by the screeches I hear coming from within, along with all of its actions up till now.

And if it’s not sapient, then I can strategize around it and take advantage of that fact.

Plus it’s still a bit weaker than that Frozen Lord, so there’s that too. Especially considering how much stronger I’ve gotten.

Even if it’s still stronger than I am by a fair chunk.

Around four or so points higher than most of my stats.

The creature’s screeching slowly grows louder and more frequent with every second. And at the same time, I begin to notice the mist thinning out. Making it easier for me to see through into the cocoon.

But when it becomes thin enough for me to see the source of this little hive, I find myself feeling slightly… disturbed… by the sight of the creature.

The frozen one in question looks like a hybrid of dozens of different types of bugs. And not a clean hybrid either, with random parts of various different bugs growing on random parts of itself. With its main body seemingly that of a spider mixed with an ant.

It’s covered in the hairs of a spider across its entire body, including the parts that shouldn’t have that hair. Like the wasp stinger sticking out right above its spinnerets.

Just imagining being stung with that stinger is rather disturbing in and of itself. Not just because of the fur growing on it, but because it’s the size of my forearm.

As for the creature’s face? It has eight eyes on the front of its spider-like head, except with those eight eyes being from various different bug species.

Two pitch black spider eyes, one pair of narrow compound bee eyes, one pair of wide compound mosquito eyes, and one pair of compound wasp eyes. All scattered in two groups of four on each side of the spider head.

The creature has eight legs, varying between the species of bug, along with two pairs of wings. One wasp set and one bee set.

And that’s just the more basic features of its body.

There are too many others to name.

A shiver runs down my spine at the sight of it. Not to mention the other bugs it seems to be giving birth to one after another as it focuses its screeching gaze towards me.

It doesn’t take long for it to slow down on that birthing process, though. As if it’s stopping so that it can fight.

And since that’s the case, I narrow my eyes at it and immediately begin sending one wave of Cold Energy Arcs after another at the thing. With each set of arcs barely leaving scratches in the creature while also pissing it off even more.

But it still remains in place as it slows down the birthing process even more.

It can’t move yet. But I can’t easily pierce its carapace.

With that in mind, I quickly begin to shift the focus of my attack to a single eye.

An act that immediately produces results when the spider eye in question begins to show damage on it. Mostly including green cuts and green veins spreading across it the more I hit it.

And right when its birthing process seems to be coming to an end, with its eyelid closing over its eye, I stop flying, leading to me falling straight down on it while using Cold Energy Claws to slash at the eye one last time.

Cutting through the already damaged eyelids and into the damaged eye at last. Freezing it solid before shattering it.

The frozen one lets out an ear-piercing screech of rage and pain as I immediately begin flying away. Feeling my energy having drained a bit from that one attack alone.

To my relief, the creature doesn’t begin to regenerate. Meaning this thing isn’t one of those regenerating frozen ones.

Would’ve been a huge problem if it could.

Instead, it finally stops creating more bugs – bugs that I slaughter right away with a Cold Burst before they can do anything – and begins to slowly flap its wings while turning its hate-filled gaze towards me.

Then it turns into a blur, and I feel the creature slamming into me, sending me flying through the ceiling of the cocoon and out to slam into the wall of the ravine. Sending rubble down from the wall to the ground below as I cough out a mouthful of blood.

My eyes widen in shock at how fast the creature is before I immediately fly out of between it and the wall, the creature having backed up a bit after slamming me into it. But the frozen one’s eyes follow me with ease.

Well, the remaining eyes.

I glance down at myself, feeling rather bruised all over, but without any broken bones.

Then I focus on the abomination of a creature again.

And frown at the sight of it buzzing in the air, moving so quickly that my eyes can barely keep track of it.

Huh.

An agility build by the looks of it. Not pure strength.

This’ll be difficult.